Seven British tourists were among 19 people who have died in a plane crash in Nepal.

The British victims were identified by local travel company Sherpa Adventures as Raymond Eagle, 58, Christopher Davey, 51, Vincent Kelly, 50, Darren Kelly, 45, Timothy Oakes, 57, Stephen Holding, 60, and Benjamin Ogden, 27.

The group, which arrived in Nepal on Wednesday and was due to begin trekking later on Friday, was travelling with Hampshire-based travel company Explore Worldwide.

Managing director Ashley Toft said: "We are devastated by this news. Our thoughts are very much with the families of those affected, both in the UK and in Nepal."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said the families of the victims have all been informed.

Mr Toft said the plane belonged to Nepal's domestic airline Sita Air, which is approved by airline authorities, adding: "The weather was good. The plane was departing for Lukla and our passengers were heading for Everest Base Camp at the start of their trek. We have no more information at present."

The twin-engine propeller Dornier plane crashed shortly after take-off at about 6.15am local time near Nepal's capital, Kathmandu. Five Chinese people and three passengers and four crew members from the Himalayan country were also killed, with reports suggesting the accident was caused by a bird strike.

The British ambassador to Nepal, John Tucknott, told Sky News: "Regretfully all those on board perished. Our thoughts at the moment are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives."

Published: 28 September 2012

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Officers have become unclear about what it is they are supposed to be doing on the streets, inspectors have said.

Some 90,000 officers and staff have their "own individual version of what they think they are there to do and the effect they are meant to have", Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) warned.

Their training focuses on reducing risk rather than creating crime fighters with only one module out of 190 focusing on crime prevention and no evidence that this knowledge is being applied on the ground, the report said.

Forces use different mission statements, different to the nationally agreed statement, which "served only to confuse officers and staff and undermined the legitimacy of both force's leadership and the role of officers in preventing crime".

The core mission of policing is "lost as it is interpreted and reinterpreted in different areas and at different organisational levels", the Taking Time for Crime report added.

Officers of all ranks were committed to dealing effectively with whatever situation arose and "were masterful at 'getting by'", but "this was despite the infrastructure rather than because of it", the report added.

Calling for the police to return to a preventive, as opposed to reactive, approach, the study of six forces found training for officers "focused more on how to use powers legally, than how to use them to be more effective crime-fighters".

Uniformed officers received little training after the first two years, but whenever there was a need to reduce risk to the officer or force, such as in health and safety, technical training was provided, the report said, although the study of six police areas found "no one force had all the elements necessary for efficient and proactive crime prevention".

Published: 27 September 2012

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Radical cleric Abu Hamza and four other terror suspects could be put on a plane to the United States within days after Europe's human rights judges rejected their bid for an appeal.

A panel of five judges threw out their request to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, clearing the way for extradition.

Hamza and the others, who have racked up a multi-million pound bill in detention and legal costs, could be handed over to US authorities and put on a plane within days.

But putting in place the practical arrangements for extradition is likely to take up to three weeks, it is understood.

The ruling amounts to the first green light for US top security prisons and the right of European governments to approve US extradition requests for high-risk suspects.

Hamza, who was jailed for seven years for soliciting to murder and inciting racial hatred, has been fighting extradition since 2004.

Computer expert Babar Ahmad, who was also subject to the ruling, has been held in a UK prison without trial for eight years after being accused of raising funds for terrorism.

The Home Office said Hamza and Ahmad, with Seyla Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled Al-Fawwaz, would be "handed over to the US authorities as quickly as possible".

Published: 24 September 2012

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Downing Street has resisted calls for an inquiry into Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell, after the Cabinet minister apologised publicly to police officers for subjecting them to a tirade of verbal abuse in Downing Street.

David Cameron's official spokesman said the Prime Minister believes that Mr Mitchell had done the right thing in apologising, and thinks a line should now be drawn under the affair.

But a senior Police Federation representative said Mr Mitchell was effectively accusing the officers involved of lying and called on Mr Cameron to hold an investigation.

Labour too called for an inquiry, while Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it was right that Mr Mitchell should explain "fully and in detail" what happened during the altercation after officers refused to allow him to cycle through the main gates of Downing Street.

The Sun, which broke the original story, reported that it had now seen a police report of the incident, prepared for senior officers, which indicated that Mr Mitchell called the officers "plebs" as well as swearing repeatedly at them.

The report was said to be backed up by at least two officers making the same verbatim note of the exchange in their pocket books but in his first appearance before the cameras since news of his outburst broke last week, Mr Mitchell insisted that reports of his comments were inaccurate.

Asked whether he had used the politically explosive word "plebs", he said: "I want to make it absolutely clear that I did not use the words that have been attributed to me."

Published: 24 September 2012

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Britain and Canada will establish joint diplomatic missions and share embassy offices abroad, Foreign Secretary William Hague is set to announce.

Mr Hague will reveal more details of the plans when he meets his Canadian counterpart, John Baird, in Ottawa later, a Foreign Office spokesman said.

The proposals involve "co-locating" embassies and sharing consular services in countries where one of the nations does not have an embassy, the spokesman said.

Mr Hague and Mr Baird will sign an agreement and hold a press conference later on Monday to explain more about the plans.

Ahead of the meeting, Mr Hague said: "As the Prime Minister said when addressing the Canadian parliament last year: 'We are two nations, but under one Queen and united by one set of values'.

Published: 24 September 2012

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Nick Clegg's latest bid to draw a line under the damaging tuition fee row has been thrown into doubt after a video lampooning his apology swept the internet.

One of the Liberal Democrat leader's most senior colleagues, Vince Cable, also risked undermining him by claiming to have been "sceptical" about the manifesto pledge to oppose fee hikes.

Mr Clegg expressed regret over the promise for the first time as the party braced for a potentially difficult conference in Brighton.

In a two-and-a-half minute film he admitted that many voters were "angry and disappointed" at the coalition's subsequent move to treble the maximum annual fee to £9,000.

He said it was a mistake, adding: "It was a pledge made with the best of intentions - but we shouldn't have made a promise we weren't absolutely sure we could deliver."

Business Secretary Mr Cable endorsed the apology and insisted he also took responsibility for the "collective" decision, but told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "I was sceptical about the pledge but we agreed collectively to do it and I take my share of the responsibility."

Mr Cable said Danny Alexander, now Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was also among those who privately warned the policy was unaffordable.

In a bizarre turn of events, Mr Clegg has also given permission for a video making fun of his apology to be released as a single on iTunes.

Published: 20 September 2012

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Masked raiders have made off with a £500,000 haul of luxury watches in a "brazen robbery" in front of stunned city centre shoppers.

The robbers struck at Selfridges in Manchester while the store was open and busy.

They walked into the premises in Exchange Square wearing high visibility jackets and trousers shortly after 7.20pm on Wednesday.

Police said the trio then smashed display cabinets with an axe and crowbars and stole 100 watches.

They escaped in a black Mercedes Benz driven by a fourth offender. The car was found abandoned in Robert Street, Strangeways, a short time later.

Watches including Audemars Piguet, Jaeger Lecoultre, Hublot and Cartier were stolen.

Detective Constable Adam Cronshaw said: "This was a brazen robbery while the store was open and busy with members of the public. It was clearly well planned and executed. These men were in and out in less than 80 seconds and were very particular about the watches they selected.

Published: 20 September 2012

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The Government is reportedly considering linking hikes in benefit payments to average pay rather than inflation.

The automatic uprating could be axed and welfare payments frozen for two years, with any increases then linked to average pay, according to BBC Newsnight.

A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokeswoman said any changes to how benefits hikes are calculated will be looked at by the Government later this year.

The claims come as Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith insisted shifting to monthly benefit payments would help the poorest as he dismissed claims the move will push low-income families into debt.

He told MPs the new Universal Credit had been designed for the majority but would also help longer-term claimants by weaning them off fortnightly payments before they return to work.

The Tory minister also defended moves to encourage claimants who have limited internet skills to apply online, arguing it would be a "very good opportunity to get these people back into the 21st century".

MPs on the Work and Pensions committee were also told that waiters, hairdressers and any other worker that receives tips will have to declare them if they claim the new benefit. "Tips are counted as income," welfare reform minister Lord Freud said.

Under the Universal Credit there will be one single monthly benefit payment - rather than weekly or fortnightly as at present - and social tenants will have to pay landlords themselves.

Published: 18 September 2012

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Vince Cable has dismissed criticism over text messages he exchanged with opposition leader Ed Miliband.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell warned the Business Secretary that such communication could undermine the coalition by aggravating already disgruntled Tory backbenchers.

But Mr Cable told ITV1's Daybreak: "In politics you have to have a reasonably adult way of dealing with people. I very, very occasionally talk to Ed Miliband and sometimes his people, and indeed people across the spectrum."

When asked if he was annoyed that the Labour leader had made their communication public, he replied: "It doesn't matter. There's nothing to be embarrassed about for him or for me. I talk to people across the political spectrum.

"I think that is what politics involves, being grown up, not being tribal. I don't feel remotely embarrassed about it."

In an interview with The House magazine, Sir Menzies said: "The success of this coalition depends upon everyone who participates in it being a full subscriber, and I don't think, we were using the expression pick and mix a little while ago, I don't think it helps a partnership to suggest that you may already be looking for another partner.

"If you were a Tory backbencher hearing of these things, especially one who's disaffected, who wishes there was an unrestricted Tory government, what would you make of it? Would you be encouraged to be yet more loyal to the front bench or would you say well, that's a kind of, maybe, not a green light but an amber light. Proceed with caution. An amber light to people like myself to say well, if so and so looks as if he's talking to the other lot why are we are bothering with this lot?"

Mr Cable's aides dismissed the criticism of the text exchanges between the Business Secretary and the Labour leader.

Published: 14 September 2012

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Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott is hitting the road to launch his bid to become the country's highest profile police and crime commissioner.

He will unveil his election minibus which he will use to tour Humberside ahead of the November elections.

It has been designed as a "mobile consultation surgery" where people can speak to the Labour candidate about policing and crime issues.

He wants to focus on police cuts and is pledging to protect frontline posts.

He said he wanted a "Plan B" as an alternative to losing police officer numbers in Humberside and asked the public's help in drafting his manifesto.

"If elected, I'll make sure the public are heard and protected from these frontline cuts," he said.

Published: 13 September 2012

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