• Fugitive tycoon returns to UK after 17 years• Q&A;: Asil Nadir trial• How Polly Peck collapsed• Profile: Asil NadirAsil Nadir, the fugitive business tycoon, has failed in his bid for a speedy trial after a judge said he must wait until October 2011 before he can contest charges of fraud resulting from the collapse of his Polly Peck empire.Nadir, 69, also failed in his bid to limit his curfew and avoid electronic tagging while he stays in London waiting for the trial.The judge at a hearing at the Old Bailey said Nadir must be treated like any other defendant in a serious criminal trial and be home by midnight and monitored to prevent him leaving before 6am.Nadir looked relaxed in the dock at the Old Bailey after he arrived in a convoy of Mercedes and Jaguar cars outside the...

Butt, Asif and Amir interviewed by Metropolitan police for second time over allegations of bowling no-balls at Lord'sThe three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of an alleged betting scam were today being questioned by police.It is the second time Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been interviewed by the Metropolitan police since the allegations surfaced that the three had agreed to bowl no-balls in specific overs of last week's fourth Test at Lord's in return for money.They were initially questioned last weekend when the News of the World broke the story and had their mobile phones seized by the police.The trio were yesterday suspended by the International Cricket Council, pending a tribunal, despite the ICC having indicated that they would not take any action before the...

Disciplinary panel suspends pathologist, who carried out first post-mortem examination on Ian Tomlinson, for three monthsThe pathologist who carried out the first postmortem examination on newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson, who died at the G20 protests, was today suspended from the medical register for three months.A General Medical Council disciplinary panel previously ruled that Dr Freddy Patel acted in a way that amounted to misconduct in two earlier postmortem examinations, meaning his fitness to practise was impaired.The panel also ruled that Patel had displayed deficient professional performance in a third examination.He has already been suspended from the Home Office register of forensic pathologists after questions were asked about the autopsy carried out on the body of 47-year-old...

Mark Thompson photographed with memo revealing Andy Coulson's 'concern' that BBC gives context to cuts coverageThe BBC has been forced to defend its impartiality after Mark Thompson, the director general, was photographed yesterday going into a meeting in Downing Street to discuss a season of TV and radio programmes about the government's spending cuts.Thompson was photographed carrying an internal email from Helen Boaden, the BBC News director, saying that she had had lunch with Andy Coulson, the coalition government's director of communications, at which he had expressed concern "that we give context to our Spending Review Season".Boaden's email went on to provide Thompson with briefing notes on the season – which begins next week across BBC TV, radio and online services – for his...

The survey, which includes businesses from hairdressers to banks, showed the service sector growing at the slowest pace since April 2009Growth in Britain's service industry has slowed sharply as employers have scaled back hiring in the face of the gloomy economic outlook and looming public spending cuts.A key survey of the sector, which includes businesses from hairdressers to banks and makes up two-thirds of the economy, showed it growing at the slowest pace since April 2009 and revived talk of a double dip recesssion. "Should the surveys continue to weaken in the next few months, the threat of a renewed contraction [in GDP] in the fourth quarter and beyond would become very real indeed," said Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics.Alan Clarke at BNP Paribas concurred, saying the report...

Home Office to announce review of arrangements with US and EU after rows over McKinnon and Ubani casesThe Home Office is to announce a review of extradition arrangements, including those with the US and EU countries following high-profile rows over the way they are operating.The main impetus has been the row with Washington over the Gary McKinnon affair, in which the 43-year-old has been accused of hacking into US computer systems.But the review will also look at the operation of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW). Serious questions have been raised about its working after a dispute between British and German police and prosecutors over a criminal investigation into the accidental killing of a 70-year-old patient in the UK by the Nigerian-born German doctor Daniel Ubani.The Home Office...

Former deputy prime minister says police refused to tell him whether his phone was hacked by News of the World journalistsJohn Prescott today called for a judicial review of the conduct of the Metropolitan police force in relation to the allegations of phone hacking against the News of the World.The former deputy prime minister was speaking after the paper confirmed it had suspended a journalist while it investigates new allegations of the unlawful interception of voicemail.The police have come under pressure after the New York Times quoted unnamed detectives alleging they had cut short their investigation because of their close relationship with the News of the World.Prescott said the police had repeatedly refused to tell him whether his phone was hacked by News of the World journalists...

• Fugitive tycoon returns to UK after 17 years• Q&A;: Asil Nadir trial• Profile: Asil NadirFugitive tycoon Asil Nadir will appear in court today for the first time since fleeing Britain 17 years ago, during which a provisional trial date may be fixed and his bail renewed during a brief hearing at the Old Bailey.Nadir was given bail in his absence on 30 July on condition he returns to the UK and attends court today.Old Bailey judge Mr Justice Bean said he hoped it would end the "legal limbo" which existed since Nadir fled Britain for Northern Cyprus.He also quashed an arrest warrant for him and imposed 10 conditions on bail, including Nadir, 69, being electronically tagged.Nadir was facing 66 counts of theft involving £34m fraud allegations in May 1993 when he flew from Britain to...

The very possibility of bisexuality can sometimes run into the same disbelief that Queen Victoria is said to have shown towards lesbianismIt has to be said that something is awry when rumours about a politician's sexuality leave him feeling forced to publicise the miscarriages his wife has suffered. Quite what that something is, however, is harder to pinpoint than it would have been in the past. William Hague made his extraordinary statement on Wednesday despite serving in a government alongside openly gay ministers. Homosexuality is not the bar to office that it once was, and yet gay politicians face a distinctive pressure to declare themselves as such.While suggestions that the foreign secretary is anything other than straight are no more than gossip, in a truly tolerant society there...

UK research identifying loss of key protein in mice eggs is seen as a breakthrough that may help prevent birth defectsScientists have made a breakthrough in understanding why older women become less fertile, suffer a miscarriage or have a baby with Down's syndrome.The discovery could ultimately lead to treatments that would increase the chances of a successful pregnancy for growing numbers of would-be mothers in their late 30s and early 40s.Researchers led by Dr Mary Herbert, an expert in reproductive biology at Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and Health, have identified why some older women produce abnormal eggs, according to findings published in the journal Current Biology.It has been known for a long time that would-be mothers who are nearing the end of their fertility are...

• Calls for judicial inquiry after reporter is suspended• Latest phone hacking allegation dates from earlier this year• Four targets poised to sue police over failure to warn themThe government tonight came under pressure to set up a judicial inquiry into the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World after the paper confirmed that it has suspended a journalist while it investigates new allegations of the unlawful interception of voicemail.The prime minister's media adviser, Andy Coulson, has denied a report in the New York Times which claimed he freely discussed the use of unlawful news-gathering techniques when he was editing the paper and "actively encouraged" a named reporter to engage in illegal interception of voicemail messages. Coulson has always denied knowing of any...

Lord Sacks accuses astrophysicist of logical fallacy in book excluding possibility of supernatural creationThe chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, hit back at Stephen Hawking after the astrophysicist said God did not create the universe.In his new book, The Grand Design, published next week, Hawking concludes that science excludes the possibility of a deity and that it is unnecessary to "invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going".But his finding were described by Sacks as an "elementary fallacy" of logic.Writing in the Times, the chief rabbi said: "There is a difference between science and religion. Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. The Bible simply isn't interested in how the universe came into being."Sacks also said the mutual hostility...

Senior Whitehall figures concerned that Tory party employees have been given civil service rolesThe coalition has quietly appointed a string of party employees to civil service roles – including one aide to the foreign secretary, William Hague – in a move that has raised concerns among senior Whitehall figures, the Guardian has learned.Hague today said he felt forced to give yesterday's unprecedented personal statement about his marriage to "put the record straight" after intense speculation about his relationship with a special adviser in a row that has cast light on the propriety of political appointments.Separately, several Conservative party and MP employees have been given civil service roles in the Cabinet Office, Department for Education, Foreign Office and Downing Street,...

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List includes In the Name of the Father, Pharmacy, as well as the spin and spot paintingsFrom formaldehyde-immersed sharks to diamond-encrusted skulls, Damien Hirst has become used to taking flak from traditionalists.Less than welcome have been the accusations of plagiarism, the latest of which were detailed today with claims that no fewer than 15 works produced over the years by the self-styled enfant terrible have been allegedly "inspired" by others.While Hirst has previously faced accusations that works including his diamond skull came from the imagination of other artists, the new allegations include his "crucified sheep", medicine cabinets, spin paintings, spot paintings, installation of a ball on an air-jet, his anatomical figure and his cancer cell images.Charles Thomson, the...

Reports that two countries are to combine forces denied as defence secretaries meet to discuss closer military co-operationBritish and French officials engaged in high-level defence talks have denied reports the two countries are considering sharing aircraft carriers, but are paving the way for unprecedented military co-operation, according to sources on both sides of the Channel.Speaking on the eve of talks in Paris between the defence secretary, Liam Fox, and his French counterpart, Hervé Morin, officials said plans were being drawn up in an attempt to save money but maintain capabilities."We're in a phase where we must absolutely synchronise our budget cuts so that, in the end, there's no loss in our military capacities," a senior French diplomat told Agence France Presse news agency...

Labour leadership contender says he wants to lead 'a government not a gang'Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband today sought to distance himself from the party feuding reignited by Tony Blair's new book, declaring that he wanted to lead "a government not a gang".As ballot papers went out to eligible voters, Miliband sent an email to all party members in which he said he was "sick and tired" of seeing the leadership race characterised in terms of a choice between rejecting or retaining New Labour.Instead, the shadow foreign secretary pledged to "change the way we do politics" and said he was "ready to lead".Miliband dispatched the email to members after the publication yesterday of Blair's autobiography, which charted the former PM's deteriorating relationship with Brown.Urging members...

Industrial action on London Underground to start on 6 September in protest against plans to cut 800 jobsTalks aimed at averting a series of strikes by London Underground workers from next week have broken down and the industrial action will go ahead as planned, union leaders said today.The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said LU had failed to remove the threat of cuts to safety and safe staffing levels that would have allowed "meaningful discussions" to take place.Thousands of Tube staff are due to launch the walkouts from next Monday evening, 6 September, in protest against plans to cut 800 jobs, threatening travel chaos in the capital.The RMT accused LU management of "sabotaging" talks today at the conciliation service Acas with officials from the union, and the Transport...

Gang conned elderly victims out of a total of £200,000Members of a gang that conned a 94-year-old woman out of almost £70,000 for building work worth just £250 were jailed today.The woman was one of 11 elderly victims swindled out of £200,000 for building work by David Evans, his sons and two accomplices. Two other victims were each charged £40,000 for work that should have cost just a few hundred pounds.Over five years the gang targeted vulnerable elderly people in Gloucestershire and convinced them that their homes needed maintenance work.The victims - aged between 81 and 94 - were often "confused" and were persuaded to hand over vast cheques for the "shoddy and vastly overpriced" work, Bristol crown court heard.Evans, 57, sons Buddy, 22, and Shannon, 21, and their friends Patrick...

Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who have been dropped from tour, face top officials over betting allegationsThe Pakistani high commissioner said today he believed the three players under investigation for spot-fixing were innocent, after talking to them in London about the allegations.Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who will take no further part in the tour of England, had been summoned to explain themselves to commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan, and the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Ijaz Butt.After the meeting, Hasan read out a statement saying the men maintained their innocence but had requested their own removal from the remaining matches because of the "mental torture" they had faced.In response to a question, he said: "I believe in their...

Remains of Muslim teenager Shafilea Ahmed found in 2004 after she had refused arranged marriage and swallowed bleachThe parents of a Muslim teenager thought to be the victim of an "honour" killing were today arrested on suspicion of her murder.Workmen discovered the decomposed remains of 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed, from Warrington, Cheshire, in the river Kent, Cumbria, in February 2004. She had disappeared from her home in Great Sankey five months earlier.It emerged that she had refused an arranged marriage, and, during a visit to Pakistan to meet a prospective suitor, had swallowed bleach and required regular hospital treatment for her injuries.Today, officers from Cheshire police arrested Shafilea's father, Iftikhar Ahmed, 50, and her mother, Farzana, 47, at their home. They were taken...

The Unite union reckons that since 2009, Royal Bank of Scotland's strategic review has seen the loss of 21,500 jobsRBS is axing 3,500 of its UK staff in a cost-cutting move which union leaders have attacked as a "horror story".The cuts, which include back office roles being axed as a result of the sale of 318 branches to Santander, comes after the state-controlled bank announced £1.1bn profits last month."The news that Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut another 3,500 staff from across the UK is a horror story," said Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer. "It will be a specially bitter pill for staff to swallow as RBS has decided to move some of the jobs abroad to the far east, India and America."Just three weeks ago staff were boosted to hear of the £1.1bn half-year profit yet today...

No 10 says Hague enjoys PM's full support as foreign secretary says he wanted to 'put the record straight' about his sexualityDavid Cameron declared his "100% support" for William Hague today, as the foreign secretary said he had decided to speak out about his private life because he could no longer put up with allegations about his sexuality.Hague also received the backing of his local constituency party chair after issuing a statement yesterday in which he denied having had an "improper" relationship with his special adviser, Christopher Myers, who resigned as a result of the "pressure" put on his family due to the "untrue and malicious allegations" circulating on the internet.At a press conference this morning with the German foreign minster, Guido Westerwelle, Hague refused to be...

Friends are believed to have helped Douglas Sinclair, 76, who had multiple system atrophy, travel to Switzerland to dieTwo people have been arrested on suspicion of encouraging or assisting the suicide of a 76-year-old disabled man who travelled to Switzerland to die.Retired engineer Douglas Sinclair, who had multiple system atrophy, a degenerative neurological condition, travelled to an assisted dying clinic in Zurich where he died about five weeks ago.He had been living in a care home in Jarrow, south Tyneside, since December last year, and feared his condition was deteriorating to a stage where he would no longer be able to attend the Dignitas clinic, his lawyer said today.Those arrested are understood to be close friends, one is a former neighbour. Sinclair has an adopted daughter and...

Severe weather forces campaigners to give up their perilous position on British-owned rig off the coast of Greenland• Greenpeace 'shuts down' Arctic oil rigFour Greenpeace activists who halted drilling by a British-owned oil exploration rig off Greenland have been arrested after they abandoned their occupation because of severe weather.Greenlandic police arrested the four after high winds buffeted the Stena Don drilling rig overnight, forcing them to abandon mountaineering-style platforms they had suspended by ropes underneath the platform less than 48 hours earlier.Morten Nielsen, deputy head of Greenland police, said the four men were rescued between 8pm and midnight local time last night using baskets and ropes lowered from the Stena Don's deck after severe winds and waves up to 6m...

David and Ed Miliband distance themselves from former PM's statement of support for coalition's deficit strategyCandidates for the Labour leadership moved tonight to limit the impact of politically explosive remarks in Tony Blair's memoirs in which he backed the economic strategy of the Conservative-led coalition government.Blair shook the party with his backing of David Cameron and George Osborne's economic strategy to cut the financial deficit. Blair also backed the government's decision to raise VAT, which Gordon Brown vehemently warned against throughout the election campaign."If governments don't tackle deficits, the bill is footed by taxpayers, who fear that big deficits mean big taxes, both of which reduce confidence, investment and purchasing power," Blair wrote, in sharp...

New Labour dogma pervades Tony Blair's biography. Bringing it into the leadership race is a depressing mistakeNearly over now, then – so let us count the cliches used to decry the Labour leadership contest. "Interminable," claims the Daily Telegraph. "The least inspiring contest ever," says a columnist in the Independent. "A bunch of clueless clodhoppers," reckons the characteristically emollient Mail. Now, the hysterically received Blair memoirs add another commonplace to the noise: that beneath the alleged tedium lurks grave danger – and if it isn't careful, Labour will stray from the New Labour path, and lurch into irrelevance.I dutifully bought my copy of A Journey today, and eventually reached the postscript, in which Blair sets out his vision of the future. What awaited was a...

Avon and Somerset police question 39-year-old man over disappearance of Melanie Hall 14 years agoA man is being questioned today over the suspected murder of a young woman who disappeared after an evening out at a nightclub in Bath 14 years ago.Avon and Somerset police said the 39-year-old man was held on suspicion of the murder of Melanie Hall, whose remains were found at the side of the M5 last October by a workman clearing vegetation.The man, from Wiltshire, was arrested at 4pm yesterday after he went voluntarily to a police station, a spokesman said.Hall, who was 25, went missing after a night out at Cadillacs nightclub on 9 June 1996. In July this year a 38-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of her murder and disappearance, and was later released on bail.Detective Chief Inspector...

Teachers' expectations may reinforce gender gap in school performanceGirls think they are cleverer, more successful and harder working than boys from as young as four, a study has found.Boys come round to this view by the age of seven or eight and assume that girls will outperform them at school and behave better in lessons, research from the University of Kent shows.The study – Gender Expectations and Stereotype Threat – will be presented to the British Educational Research Association's conference tomorrow.The paper argues that teachers have lower expectations of boys than of girls and this belief fulfils itself throughout primary and secondary school.Girls' performance at school may be boosted by what they perceive to be their teachers' belief that they will achieve higher results...

World exclusive: As he publishes memoir, ex-PM urges party not to shift to the left• 'I've got something to say' – exclusive Tony Blair interview• Blair on Brown: 'Emotional intelligence: zero'• I didn't see Iraq nightmare coming, says BlairTony Blair came to the view that Gordon Brown would be a disaster as prime minister and that Labour could not win the 2010 general election, he reveals in his long awaited memoirs."It was never going to work," Blair writes of Brown's three years in No 10, arguing that the former chancellor had "zero emotional intelligence" and fatally abandoned the New Labour formula.Blair's memoir contains a passionate defence of the war in Iraq and of New Labour's public service and welfare reform plans, which the former prime minister believes his successor...

When one journalist decided to be honest about cultural difficulties in his Sussex hometown, he didn't expect to be called a racistIt started in the way of so many journalistic projects; a lunch between a writer and an editor. With the election of President Obama, we seem finally to have reached the post-racial stage, the editor remarked ironically to David James Smith. Not quite in Lewes where I live, he told her. Why don't you write about it, she said. Light touch paper. Stand well back.Smith was ready for flak, he tells me. Every member of his family knew that things might get rambunctious. A family of dual heritage (he's white English, his wife Petal is black and they have four children) writing about the cultural and racial difficulties they encountered in provincial Sussex, having...

Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif claim allegations are part of a conspiracy against themScotland Yard detectives conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of a conspiracy to fix an international cricket match are to reinterview three Pakistan players this week, the Guardian has learned.The news comes as Customs officers said Mazhar Majeed, the agent at the centre of the match-fixing allegations which erupted on Sunday, had already been under investigation by UK authorities as part of a money laundering inquiry.The Pakistani players, who were first questioned at their London hotel on Saturday evening, told Pakistani cricket officials they are innocent of the allegations and are ready to face an investigation. Pakistan's captain, Salman Butt, and opening bowlers...

'Soap opera' moves on to talk of close-run contest to be settled by second or third preferencesDavid Miliband enters the home stretch of the Labour leadership race claiming the support of more than half the shadow cabinet amid speculation that the contest will be so close it could be decided by second and third preferences.All candidates were attempting to move the contest away from the "soap opera" of sibling rivalry and the politics of old versus new Labour after interventions from senior party figures.Ballot papers will be sent to Labour party members with up to 80% expected to return them within the week. The result will be announced on the eve of the Labour party conference on 25 September.The shadow foreign secretary, bookies' favourite, made a peace offering to his brother Ed...

The Milibands' fight has highlighted their flaws but left many in the party asking: why can't we have the best of both?You wait a lifetime for a Miliband, then two come along at once. Not my joke but one cracked by Miliband the younger, sympathising with the plight in which he and his brother have landed the Labour tribe, inflicting on them a dilemma that comes to a head this week as ballot papers drop through millions of letterboxes, demanding that Labour members and affiliated trade unionists finally make their choice.Behind the quip is a recognition that if just one of them were in this contest, it would have been easy: current form suggests either one, David or Ed, would have left his rivals for dust. Instead, by fighting each other, they have turned this into a nailbiter, a contest...

Artist Catherine Anyango tells how her richly-detailed drawings reflect the dense style of Joseph Conrad's savage colonial storyIn the 108 years since it was published, Joseph Conrad's colonial fable Heart of Darkness has infected TS Eliot, been excoriated for racism by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and transplanted to Vietnam by Francis Ford Coppola.Now the book has been reinterpreted as a graphic novel in whose monochrome pages Conrad's exploration of power, greed and madness plays out as disturbingly as ever.Catherine Anyango, whose drawings are peppered with David Zane Mairowitz's adaptation of the text, had her doubts about tackling the Polish-born novelist's most famous work.Those reservations had more to do with the original medium than the enduring controversy over Conrad's views...

After inquiries into four cases, GMC disciplinary panel rules on Dr Freddy Patel, who carried out an autopsy on Ian TomlinsonThe Home Office pathologist criticised for his autopsy on the body of the newspaper seller who died at the G20 protests in London was found guilty of misconduct and "deficient professional performance" today.Dr Freddy Patel's fitness to practise is impaired, a disciplinary panel of the General Medical Council ruled. He is now likely to face an application that he should be struck off or suspended from the medical register.Patel's examination of the newspaper vendor, Ian Tomlinson, when he said Tomlinson had died of a heart attack, was later contradicted after a second examination and his role has become pivotal to the controversy surrounding the case.The GMC panel's...

Memmon al-Maliki has not been seen since being placed in care of UK military medics in 2003The British government has ordered an urgent inquiry into the disappearance of an injured Iraqi child who has not been seen since being placed in the care of UK military medics in 2003.In one of the most bewildering episodes of the Iraq occupation, Memmon Salam al-Maliki, an 11-year-old boy, disappeared within days of being taken to a British base after he was wounded while playing with unexploded munitions. Although his injuries appeared not to be life-threatening, his family have not seen him since.The British authorities told Memmon's father that they had sent his son to an American military hospital in Kuwait for further treatment, but have been unable to tell him its location, or provide...

Denis MacShane appeals to Lib Dems, as coalition invokes its right not to sign upDavid Cameron and Nick Clegg stand accused of sending the "wrong signal" to pimps and human traffickers across the world after the coalition decided against endorsing an EU directive designed to co-ordinate European efforts to combat the trade in sex slaves.As new figures show that fewer traffickers are being jailed than at any time in the last five years, Labour called for a government rethink on the directive, appealing to the pro-European Liberal Democrats to explain to their coalition partners the benefits of EU action.Denis MacShane, Labour's former Europe minister, launched the appeal after the government decided not to sign up to the directive. The document includes a common definition of the crime of...

Acceptance of inequality rests on assumptions that 'free markets' make us all richer in the end. Growth figures tell it differentlyAs Nick Clegg fends off accusations of selling out and Labour leadership candidates set out their stall, debates about inequality show no sign of going away. But the moral arguments are rarely extended far enough, and virtually no politician challenges a basic, erroneous premise that inequality is a price worth paying for a more efficient market system that enriches us all.The simplistic, free-market view of the Thatcher-Major era said equality of opportunity is all we need for a fair society. If no one had their market participation blocked, the result, however unfair it may look to some, should be accepted as fair. Today many people, both on the left and the...

Fossil of balaur bondoc in Romania shows how the dinosaur would have terrorised other animalsThere's no evidence of wings or fire-breathing capability. But the powerfully built, meat-eating predator that terrorised Romania some 80m years ago is close to the mythological dragon.Fossils found near the city of Sebes in central Romania have revealed a dinosaur with scythe-like claws for ripping apart prey which scientists have named balaur bondoc – "stocky dragon" in ancient Romanian.Related to the velociraptor, which was brought to terrifying life in the film Jurassic Park, the dinosaur roamed the area when it was an island during the late Cretaceous period. At just 2.1 metres (7ft) long, it might have made a disappointing opponent for St George but would have preyed on small animals.A...