Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father had notified Nigeria's security agencies of his son's behaviour
The family of the plane bomb suspect said today that they had contacted international security services to raise concerns that he had been radicalised by Islamic extremists.
The family of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been charged with attempting to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day, said they became concerned after he disappeared about two months ago and cut off contact.
In a statement, the family said: "The disappearance and cessation of communication which got his mother and father concerned … are completely out of character and a very recent development."
Abdulmutallab's father, Umaru Mutallab, a former Nigerian government minister who recently retired as chairman of the First Bank group, "reported the matter to Nigerian security agencies about two months ago and to some foreign security agencies about a month and a half ago", the statement said.
The family added: "It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day."
The statement did not say where Abdulmutallab, 23, had been, although it emerged yesterday that he had dropped out of a postgraduate business course in Dubai, telling his family he had gone to Yemen to study Islam. It was then that he cut off contact with them, his family said.
Abdulmutallab was charged in the US with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam with almost 300 people on board.
Scotland Yard and MI5 want to establish how he was radicalised and by whom, and whether he had accomplices in the UK or the Arabian peninsula. He has told US officials that he met al-Qaida operatives in Yemen who gave him the explosive device and taught him how to use it.
Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic are continuing to check his background, with the Dutch military police investigating the possibility that he had an accomplice.
Britain's home secretary, Alan Johnson, said he suspected Abdulmutallab may not have been working alone. "We don't know yet whether it was a single-handed plot or [there were] other people behind it – I suspect it's the latter rather than the former," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Johnson also confirmed that Abdulmutallab had been placed on a UK watch list after being refused a student visa for a bogus course.
"If you are on our watch list then you do not come into this country," said Johnson. "You can come through this country if you are in transit to another country but you cannot come into this country."
He said the issues being studied by police and security services included: "What happened when he was in this country, was he radicalised in this country, was there any association with whoever may have been behind this plot?"
Suspected al-Qaida activists in Yemen referred in a video recorded on 21 December to "a bomb to hit the enemies of God." It was not known if this was a general warning, or indicated a clear Yemeni link.
A US couple on Flight 253 said they saw a tall, well-dressed man aged about 50 with Abdulmutallab at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport before he boarded the plane.
Kurt and Lori Haskell claimed the man spoke for Abdulmutallab and attempted to get him aboard the flight without a passport, the Reuters news agency reported.
A Dutch military police spokesman said: "At this moment we have no information on whether there was another guy. We are checking all clues and information we get."
The spokesman added that the military police and the Dutch counter-terrorism agency NCTb were reviewing CCTV recordings to check out the accomplice story. Scotland Yard detectives continued to search the former University College London (UCL) student's luxury flat in a central London mansion block.
Security sources said the police and MI5 were diverting extra staff and resources to the investigation in order to establish the significance of the "London link".
Barack Obama has ordered a fresh review of US security, including airport screening, after it emerged that the American authorities had been warned about Abdulmutallab's extremist views by Mutallab.
Obama's spokesman said the president was seeking answers to why Abdulmutallab was placed on the least urgent of three US terror watch lists, rather than a higher category which would have prevented the Nigerian national flying.
In Britain passengers waiting to fly to America were hit by delays of up to three and a half hours at the weekend owing to extra security checks, with people being frisked and having hand luggage searched. Some passengers reported having Christmas presents unwrapped, while others travelling to the US have reportedly also seen bans on the use of electronic equipment, including laptops and MP3 players and, in some cases, in-flight entertainment has also been disrupted. People flying to the US were advised to arrive early and carry just one piece of hand luggage.
The US homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, said that while Abdulmutallab was on a general watch list, there had not been sufficient information to move him to a much shorter list of those barred from flying. "The issue [is], was there enough information to move him to the more specific list which would require additional examination, or indeed being on no-fly status?" she said.
"You need information that is specific and credible if you're going to bar someone from air travel. He was on a general list of over half a million people but there was not the kind of credible information that would move him up that list. Now one of the things we'll be doing is looking at those watch list procedures."
Napolitano added that there was no indication that he was "part of anything larger" in terms of impending attacks.
Abdulmutallab was charged in hospital with attempting to destroy the aircraft during its final approach to Detroit airport. The former student, who studied mechanical engineering at UCL between 2005 and 2008, was also charged with placing a destructive device on the plane.
Whitehall officials said he did not come to MI5's attention during his three years studying in London.
One of his former teachers spoke of his shock, saying the suspect's nickname was once "The Pope", and the university spoke of its "sadness".
Malcolm Grant, a provost at the university, said: "UCL is deeply saddened by these events. This is a university founded on equality and religious tolerance, and strongly committed today to respect for human rights. We are co-operating fully with the authorities in their further investigations."
The heightened state of security was underlined last night when the crew of another Amsterdam to Detroit plane, with the same flight number, reported an emergency incident after an "unruly" Nigerian man raised concerns by spending an unusually long time in the aircraft's bathroom. He was detained by the FBI after the plane landed but turned out to have a "legitimate illness", officials from the department of homeland security said.
More details emerged yesterday about the apparent radicalisation of Abdulmutallab, a young man born into privilege in the Muslim-dominated north of Nigeria. He attended an elite British-curriculum boarding school in Lomé, the capital of Togo.
A former teacher of his recalled the then-teenager expressing sympathy for the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
However, a friend from that time, James Ticknell, told the Guardian that, while Abdulmutallab had been a devout Muslim, he was not in the least militant. "He was very decent and gentle, in fact a pacifist. His views on religion were very mainstream. When I realised the man on the plane was him, I felt disbelief," said Ticknell.
The Nigerian civil aviation authority said last night that Abdulmutallab bought his return ticket from Lagos to Detroit via Amsterdam at a KLM office in Ghana's capital, Accra, on 16 December, with a planned return of 8 January. He paid the £1,775 fare in cash. Before the flight departed on Thursday, he checked in as normal, taking only a carry-on bag.
Security at Lagos had been found adequate by US authorities. Under EU rules, Abdulmutallab would have been checked again as a transfer passenger at Amsterdam. Dutch officials say these checks took place and were "well performed".
Aviation security experts said that scanners designed to pick up explosives rather than metal exist but are not in widespread use.
The transport secretary, Lord Adonis, said last night that he wanted to thank air passengers for their patience. "I am sure they will understand the extra precautions are being taken for their own protection," he added.
Abdulmutallab is being treated in a US hospital for serious burns to his leg. He is due to make his first formal court appearance in Michigan this afternoon local time.
• Second day of clashes between authorities and reformists
• At least nine dead, including the nephew of opposition leader
Clashes between the Iranian authorities and the reformist movement continued today following yesterday's crackdown which that left at least nine dead, including the nephew of the main opposition leader.
Police fired teargas on crowds mourning Ali Mousavi, a nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, and arrested a further seven reformist activists, including Ali Riza Beheshti, the opposition leader's closest aide, and Ebrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister, according to Iranian opposition websites.
"A group of Mousavi supporters have gathered in front of Ibn-e-Sina hospital where his nephew's body was kept ... Police fired teargas to disperse them," the Norooz website reported.
The latest crackdown comes after reformist demonstrators were killed during anti-government rallies marking Ashura, one of the holiest days in the Shia calendar. The unrest was one of the bloodiest confrontations between the government forces and pro-reform protesters since the disputed presidential election in June. The brutal tactics of the police and security forces were condemned by another opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi.
Karroubi posted a statement on an opposition website asking how the government could spill the blood of its people on the sacred day of Ashura. He said even the former government of the last shah respected the holy day.
"What has really happened that spilled the blood of people on the day of Ashura and gets a group of savage individuals confronting people?" he asked the Rah-e-Sabz website. The shah, who was overthrown in 1979, was widely hated, and comparing a rival to him is a serious, though common, insult in Iranian politics.
Opposition websites reported at least seven arrests today. The Parlemannews site said three of Moussavi's top aides were arrested. Security forces also stormed a foundation run by Mohammad Khatami, a reformist former president, and arrested two people, a foundation official said.
Yazdi and the human rights activist Emad Baghi were also arrested, according to the Rah-e-Sabz. Yazdi, who served as foreign minister after the 1979 Islamic revolution, is now leader of the banned but tolerated Freedom Movement of Iran. The arrests could not be independently confirmed.
Early reports put the death toll from yesterday's riots at five, but the state-controlled Press TV website reported that the number of dead had risen to eight while another report put the number of dead as high as 15. The real figure is likely to be much higher as the authorities have previously seized the bodies of protesters and hidden them. People have also taken the injured home rather than to hospital, which could also conceal the true extent of the casualties.
Some accounts of Sunday's violence in Tehran were vivid and detailed, but they could not be independently confirmed owing to government restrictions on the media. Police said dozens of officers had been injured and more than 300 protesters arrested.
Many demonstrators seemed not to have anticipated such harsh tactics by the authorities, despite police warnings of tougher action against any protests.
It was Iran's worst outbreak of violence since June's election, which the opposition claims that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole through mass fraud. But yesterday's events differed from previous clashes in a way that seemed to herald further turmoil.
By using lethal force on a day meant to honour one of Shia Islam's holiest figures, Imam Hossein – seen as a martyr in the fight against oppression – the regime may have undermined its claim to uphold Iran's religious traditions. The violent response of the protesters to the security forces was also unprecedented and suggested that many are becoming fearless in the face of state repression. While many demonstrators in the post-election protests covered their faces, footage from videos shown yesterday on YouTube showed most people with their faces exposed.
Amateur video footage purportedly from the centre of Tehran showed an enraged crowd carrying away one casualty, chanting, "I'll kill, I'll kill the one who killed my brother." In several locations, demonstrators confronted security forces, throwing stones and setting their motorcycles, cars and vans ablaze, according to video footage and pro-reform websites.
Protesters tried to cut off roads with burning barricades. One police officer was photographed with blood streaming down his face after he was set upon by the crowd.
There were unconfirmed reports that four people died in protests in Tabriz in north-west Iran, the Rah-e-Sabz website said. Clashes were also reported in several other cities, including Isfahan, Shiraz, Arak, Mashhad, Babol and Najafabad.
The US national security council spokesman, Mike Hammer, yesterday denounced Tehran's "unjust suppression of civilians".
Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, which currently holds the presidency of the EU, expressed concern about the "increased repression" in Iran.
"A regime secure in its own legitimacy has no reason to fear individuals' rights to express their opinions freely and peacefully," he wrote on his blog yesterday.
Akmal Shaikh, who supporters say has bipolar disorder, due to be executed tomorrow for drug smuggling
British man condemned to die in China tomorrow morning has been told of his fate, campaigners confirmedtoday .
Akmal Shaikh, 53, who supporters say has a mental illness, is due to be executed at 10.30am local time for smuggling 4kg (8.8lb) of heroin, but was unaware of his death sentence until today.
Sally Rowen, legal director of the campaign group Reprieve, said Shaikh, who is in a secure hospital, had been told this morning. "The Chinese authorities had always said they would tell him 24 hours ahead," she said.
The family have filed a last-minute petition for a stay of execution and an application for special pardon to the supreme court, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, and the standing committee of the People's National Congress, Rowen said, adding that there was still hope of a reprieve. She said: "Reprieves have been granted when people were literally on the way to their execution. Until we actually hear the reports that he has been executed, we are still hopeful that he won't."
Campaigners say Shaikh has bipolar disorder. There were two likely methods of execution, lethal injection or a single bullet, but as the former minicab operator from north London was being held in a hospital the former was more likely, she said.
Rowen confirmed that Shaikh's family had visited him for about an hour and a half and delivered written messages from other family members. "The whole family is finding it very stressful, and have become ill as a result," she said. "Tonight is going to be horrendous for them."
His daughter Leilla Horsnell said she was not optimistic that the petition would succeed, telling the BBC: "I'd like to be hopeful, but time just seems to be running out."
The Chinese have kept her father's fate from him until 24 hours before the scheduled execution on "humanitarian grounds". Horsnell said she thought this was a good thing "because I don't even think he would understand because we don't know how much his mental state has deteriorated."
She added: "We do know in one of the appeals he insisted on giving his own statements and he couldn't even speak properly, and what he was saying wasn't making much sense.
"And so I don't think him being told would mean anything ... if anything, it might make it worse if he was aware of what was happening."
His cousins Soohail and Nasir Shaikh, from London, flew from Beijing to Urumqi in north-west China yesterday. They joined two British embassy officials to deliver pleas for clemency to China's president and courts.
In his petition, Soohail says: "We plead for his life, asking that a full mental health evaluation be conducted to assess the impact of his mental illness, and that recognition be made that he is not as culpable as those who might, under Chinese law, be eligible for the death penalty."
Akbar Shaikh, Akmal's brother, also says in a letter from the family to Hu: "We plead for mercy and clemency. We are not asking for special treatment for Akmal because he is British, but simply as a family who are devastated at the possibility of losing our son, our brother, our father, our cousin."
Father-of-three Shaikh was arrested in Urumqi in September 2007 and charged with drug smuggling. After being convicted he lost a final appeal last week, but campaigners claim his mental illness has not been taken into account.
A vigil to raise awareness of his plight will take place in London today outside the Chinese embassy in central London.
The event is being organised by a group formed on Facebook called Stop The Execution Of Akmal Shaikh, which has more than 1,800 members.
A spokeswoman, Maya Farr, said: "Akmal's case has struck a chord with many people. We are appealing respectfully to the Chinese government to show mercy to Akmal, and spare his life.
"At the very least we believe there should be a stay of execution so that there can be a full assessment of his medical condition."
The group will deliver a letter to Chinese ambassador to the UK, Fu Ying, which reads: "We take the issue of drugs smuggling very seriously, but we believe there is considerable evidence that Akmal is mentally ill, and genuinely did not know that the suitcase he was duped into carrying contained drugs."
Clive Stafford Smith, the director of Reprieve, said: "I have been in constant contact with Akmal's family, and they are simply praying for a reprieve, fearing for the health of his mother, who is very frail."
If the sentence is carried out, it would be the first time an EU national has been executed in China for 50 years.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We have made representations at the highest possible levels. The prime minister wrote to the Chinese government on 21 December and the foreign secretary has also written.
"We have made our position to the Chinese authorities quite clear. The prime minister, ministers and other officials have been and remain closely engaged."
Rowen said the Foreign Office could "not have done more" over the Christmas period to help save Shaikh's life and had been working very closely with the organisation. "I applaud everything that they have done, and urge them to continue to push," she said.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said Shaikh was found with more than 4kg of heroin, which he said was enough to kill 26,800 people. He said that, according to Chinese law, being caught with 50g of heroin was enough for the death penalty to be applied.
"Even in the UK, he would be punished severely for his crime," the spokesman said. "Drug trafficking is a grave crime worldwide. China has the bitter memory of drug problems in history, and is still facing severe situations at this moment, which undermines the social stability. The general public has a deep-seated hatred toward it."
He added that British concerns "have been duly noted".
MDF, the Bipolar Organisation, said it had written to the Chinese ambassador to add its voice to pleas for clemency.
"Only too often, we hear stories of how the behaviour of people when very unwell with bipolar gets them into terrible difficulties," said Robert Westhead, a spokesman for the charity.
"This is sometimes just with friends, family or employers, but sometimes it's with the criminal justice system too. When manic – or 'high' – people often completely lose touch with reality, sometimes experiencing delusions of grandeur and fantastical beliefs about their own abilities. This leads them to do extraordinary things they would never contemplate when well."
Palestinian Islamist movement celebrates 22nd birthday amid drop in rocket attacks and prisoner negotiations but vowing never to recognise Israel
When Hamas held its annual anniversary celebrations in the centre of Gaza City it looked like a defiant and celebratory show. There was a male choir in camouflage fatigues singing on the stage, a sea of green flags in the crowd and wave after wave of self-congratulatory chanting: "Far and wide, Hamas is shaking the ground."
A year after Israel's devastating three-week war in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls the strip is still very much in charge and unbowed.
"No one imagined that after such a crucial war against our people and our resistance that anyone could plan such a proud anniversary as this," Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader and former prime minister, told the crowd.
His defiant rhetoric celebrated the movement's 22nd year, pledged never to recognise Israel and claimed the whole of historic Palestine for the Palestinians. "Palestine from the sea to the river, we won't surrender it," he told the crowd.
But his words barely captured the reality of Gaza today. Israel launched its war a year ago, saying it was compelled to act to halt militant rocket fire from Gaza. After three weeks, 1,387 Palestinians were dead, most of them civilians, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem, although Israel disputes those figures.
Thirteen Israelis were killed. Thousands more Palestinians were left homeless and hundreds of factories were destroyed. Israel has kept up its economic blockade, which has prevented imports of reconstruction materials. Earlier this month the UN Relief and Works Agency, the main aid agency in Gaza, presented a family with a new home. It was built from mud bricks.
For Hamas, the war itself has brought other changes. Despite Haniyeh's constant talk of resistance, the number of rockets fired out of Gaza has fallen dramatically this year. Hamas has announced that nearly all factions have agreed to halt the rockets and one Israeli paper reported this month that rocket fire from Gaza was down 90% compared to last year. Haniyeh himself hinted at this new stance in his anniversary speech. "The resistance is strong and hitting everywhere, but we are more wise and more managed," he said.
Mustapha Sawaf, a former editor of a Hamas newspaper, said this was simply a decision made "in the national interest". Others put it differently.
"When Hamas entered the Palestinian legislative elections their slogan was a mix of resistance and politics. It has completely failed," said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at al-Azhar University in Gaza. "Hamas knows resistance is going to cost them their regime in the Gaza strip."
As Hamas has moderated its militancy so it has faced internal challenges from hardliners in Gaza demanding the movement take a tougher stance and institute a more rigidly Islamic code. Hamas has tried to reimpose control, often earning the rebukes of fellow Gazans.
Although Hamas will not recognise Israel, it is deep into indirect negotiations over a prisoner swap that would see an Israeli soldier captured three and a half years ago freed in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. At the same time, while Haniyeh said Hamas would never recognise Israel he also repeated a previous call for a Palestinian state in the occupied territories alone.
In Israel, meanwhile, there is a sense that the war was their success, but that another round of conflict is inevitable. Yoav Galant, the general in charge of Israel's southern command, noted recently how the rocket fire has dropped off. "I can say that this has been the quietest year for the south in the past decade," he was reported as saying. "It can last for months or years, but ultimately it is going to be broken."
For Israeli analysts the diplomatic fallout for Israel that followed the war, including accusations against both sides of war crimes by Judge Richard Goldstone's UN report, is manageable and has not affected Israel's most important international relationship, with the US. Still, many Israelis are frustrated that their military was singled out for criticism, even as civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan are dying at the hands of western armies. Others worry that Israel's strategy towards Gaza is still unclear and undetermined.
"What will happen is that we will muddle through as usual," said Shlomo Brom, a retired general and an analyst at the Institute for National Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. "Eventually it is going to explode. Nobody will do anything, but when there will be a crisis we will deal with the crisis."
For those living in Gaza today, the strip is already in crisis as a result of Israel's siege. Hamas has allowed a tunnel smuggling economy under the Egyptian border to develop, skimming a profit off for itself and preventing outright economic collapse.
But it has brought de-development: most of the strip's factories are still empty and unused, the population is increasingly aid dependent and there are barely any long-term development projects. Nearly $5bn(£3.13bn) was pledged by the world for the Palestinians after the Gaza war. On the ground here there is little evidence of it.
"We are moving backwards. Now we depend completely on what we receive from Egypt," said Amjad Shawa, a Palestinian aid agency co-ordinator. He talks about the hidden traumatic cost of the blockade and the sense of powerlessness many Gazans now feel.
At the same time he fears the growing detachment from the West Bank and the disintegration of the Palestinian national movement. "The issue for Gazans is not only humanitarian," he said. "It's not that we need food only. Gazans are looking for their freedom."
Film director under house arrest and facing extradition to US 'overwhelmed' by worldwide messages of sympathy
Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning film director under house arrest on charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl, has expressed his gratitude to his supporters in an open letter to the French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy.
In his first public comments on the case since he was placed in detention in September, the director said he had been "overwhelmed" by the messages of sympathy he had received from "across the world. I would like every one of them to know how heartening it is, when one is locked up in a cell, to hear this murmur of human voices and of solidarity in the morning post," he wrote in the letter. "In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope, and they continue to be so in my current situation."
The 76-year-old, who jumped US bail in 1978 after admitting having sex with a minor, was finally re-arrested at the request of US authorities in September. Instead of picking up the lifetime achievement award he had been promised at a Swiss film festival, he found himself behind bars in Winterthur, near Zurich.
Earlier this month he was released on bail and has been spending the Christmas season with his family at his Alpine chalet in the ski resort of Gstaad. Authorities have indicated that a decision on his extradition to the US will be made in the new year.
In France, where Polanski spent much of his time as a fugitive, the arrest of such a luminary sparked horror among the artistic elite. A French petition demanding his immediate release was signed by hundreds of industry figures including Martin Scorsese and David Lynch.
While others have back-pedalled on their initial support in the face of mounting public revulsion, Levy, the Left Bank philosopher, has been one of the "genius director's" most vocal defenders.
"I have not moved one iota," he told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview on Saturday. "This arrest was a disgrace. This detention was, and still is, a disgrace. This climate of popular justice and lynching … is still a disgrace."
In his letter, the Franco-Polish director thanked Levy for having "supported [him] from the very first day". He asked for his message to be put up on the internet as a means of thanking all the "unknown friends" who, he said, had sent him words of comfort during his arrest.
Keep up to speed with all the action this bank holiday Monday and email mikey.stafford@gmail.com. To view all the live scores across Britain click here
2.48pm: Interesting defence picked by Ancelotti. Paolo Ferreira gets a rare start at right back and summer signing Yuri Zhirkov comes in at right back as Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic get relegated to the bench. Zoltan Gera gets the nod to partner the in-form Bobby Zamora in the Fulham attack. Does Ancelotti's decision show a lack of respect for Hodgson's side? Damien Duff and Clint Dempsey are no slouches on the flanks. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Fulham could get a result here.
2.46pm: Chelsea: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, Zhirkov, Mikel, Ballack, Lampard, Joe Cole, Drogba, Kalou. Subs: Hilario, Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Sturridge, Alex, Belletti, Kakuta.
Fulham: Schwarzer, Pantsil, Hughes, Smalling, Konchesky, Duff, Murphy, Baird, Dempsey, Gera, Zamora. Subs: Zuberbuhler, Andrew Johnson, Nevland, Riise, Etuhu, Greening, Kallio.
Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands)
Blackburn: Robinson, Chimbonda, Samba, Nelsen, Givet, Hoilett, Andrews, Nzonzi, Pedersen, Roberts, McCarthy. Subs: Brown, Jacobsen, Diouf, Olsson, Kalinic, Di Santo, Salgado.
Sunderland: Fulop, Bardsley, Nosworthy, Da Silva, McCartney, Henderson, Meyler, Cana, Murphy, Campbell, Bent. Subs: Carson, Zenden, Healy, Reed, Anderson, Noble, Liddle.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)
Stoke: Sorensen, Huth, Shawcross, Abdoulaye Faye, Higginbotham, Lawrence, Delap, Whitehead, Etherington, Beattie, Sanli. Subs: Simonsen, Cort, Fuller, Sidibe, Pugh, Amdy Faye, Collins.
Birmingham: Hart, Carr, Roger Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Bowyer, McFadden, Jerome, Benitez. Subs: Maik Taylor, Phillips, Fahey, McSheffrey, Damien Johnson, Carsley, Vignal.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)
Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Heitinga, Neill, Baines, Bilyaletdinov, Osman, Fellaini, Pienaar, Cahill, Yakubu. Subs: Nash, Vaughan, Neville, Coleman, Duffy, Agard, Baxter.
Burnley: Jensen, Mears, Duff, Bikey, Jordan, Alexander, Eagles, Elliott, McDonald, Steven Fletcher, Nugent. Subs: Penny, Kalvenes, Gudjonsson, Edgar, Blake, Thompson, Guerrero.
Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire)
A promise I'll have some team news for you all very soon.
Preamble Well here we are, the fourth day of Christmas and our true love has given to us four 3pm Premier League kick-offs, three points for Tottenham (barring West Ham managing some late endeavour), two London derbies and one truly uninspiring Championship fixture list.
Staring at the still sustaining turkey carcass that is the festive fixture list I declare the west London derby at Stamford Bridge to be the pick of today's fare. Can Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea stave off crisis mode by securing their first win in THREE games or will Fulham claim their third big four scalp of the season, following home victories over Liverpool and Manchester United?
The two met at Craven Cottage back in August, when goals from Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka were enough for Chelsea to slap down their less glamorous neighbours. But Roy Hodgson's side have gradually improved this season and now stand ninth in the table, just behind Champions League contenders Birmingham City and relegation fodder Liverpool.
Elsewhere Big Sam Allardyce may or may not watch from the stands as his Blackburn Rovers side host Sunderland at Ewood Park. Just two points separate this pair in mid table, which will probably be of more concern to Steve Bruce more than his counterpart. American sugar daddy Ellis Short has pumped millions into the Mackems but this season has not quite worked out quite as planned.
Since their 2-0 Merseyside defeat Everton have gone on a run of four straight Premier League draws, that is almost guaranteed to end at Goodison Park today as they welcome Owen Coyle's Burnley – officially the worst travellers since the crew of the Marie Celeste. One point from nine away fixtures would hint at relegation for the grand old Lancashire club, if their form at Turf Moor were not so impressive.
The final Premier League kick off we will be keeping an eye on in this festive clockwatch is Stoke versus Birmingham. Should Alex McLeish's men escape the Britannia cauldron with something it will be an 11th Premier League game unbeaten. Read that again. Birmingham are on the verge of going 11 games unbeaten. I, for one, am delighted. I don't particularly like the way they play but I have a lot of time for their manager. One of football's genuinely nice men.
Now, after that seasonal goodwill I'll hit you with the Football League highlights, of which there are few. Doncaster v Leicester gets this Fox's vote, but others may be more interested in Ipswich's visit to QPR or Bristol City hosting Watford. But, to be honest, none of the matches really jump out at you. Huddersfield versus MK Dons will be one I keep an eye on in League One. But if any of you are sitting at home, desperately seeking words about any particular fixture let me know. It is Christmas after all, and I didn't get any of you anything.
And look in on Paolo Bandini's minute-by-minute report of Tottenham v West Ham United here.
• Analysts claim market needs a broader base of home buyers
• Scarcity of supply offset by strained household incomes
Rising unemployment, strained household incomes and a fragile economic backdrop are likely to push house prices lower in the coming year, according to the property research group Hometrack's latest housing market outlook.
The group predicts UK house prices will fall by 1% in 2010 following what it reports as "no growth" in prices over 2009. Hometrack sees a scarcity of supply being offset by a murky economic outlook.
"While economic growth is expected to pick up in 2010, rising unemployment and slow growth in household incomes is set to act as a drag on demand," says the group's director of research Richard Donnell.
"The new year will also see a growing focus on the election and further speculation over possible changes to fiscal policies and government spending. On the basis of the economic outlook and market evidence we believe it is unlikely that the improved market conditions of 2009 will be replicated in the new year."
The picture will, of course, vary around the country. Hometrack predicts equity-rich households that do not depend on getting big mortgages to buy homes could continue to put upward pressure on prices in localised markets in 2010, after pushing up prices in southern England in particular this year.
"Yet a sustainable and broad-based recovery in the housing market needs a broader base of buyers," says Donnell.
Over the last year, estate agents across the country registered a 41% increase in demand, while in London that figure reached 70%, Hometrack said. In contrast, the volume of homes for sale across the country grew by just 7%.
"Those regions with the greatest increase in demand also registered the strongest growth in pricing, namely London, the south-east and south-west. These regions also saw the greatest supply shortages. In contrast Wales, the east Midlands and the north-east saw below average levels of demand and pricing levels have remained weaker," said Donnell.
Hometrack's latest monthly house price report shows December prices were down 1.9% on a year ago, albeit a slower rate of annual decline than November's 2.9% fall. The survey showed the usual seasonal slowdown with the first monthly decline in buyer demand since January as the number of new buyers registering with agents fell 2.2%.
Hometrack said results from December's survey of estate agents and surveyors in England and Wales continued to highlight evidence of "pricing resistance". Namely, the average time on the market for properties had been falling this year, but the decline abated in the last three months to hit 8.3 weeks in December – while the proportion of the asking price achieved has plateaued at about 93%.
Hometrack's forecast contrasts with the 2010 house price outlook from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) thinktank. Its central prediction is that house price growth will moderate, with prices at the end of the year being between 2-4% higher than today.
"Over the longer term, the weak recovery will continue to hold growth back, but we still expect house prices to be around 15% higher at the end of 2012 than they are today," says CEBR's managing economist, Ben Read.
Explaining the predictions, he added: "Mortgage lending will continue to improve slowly but steadily as banks continue to rebuild their balance sheets. In addition, we expect the price of mortgages to remain relatively low as the monetary policy committee (MPC) keeps interest rates on hold at 0.5%, unless the precarious public finances lead to a sterling crisis which forces the MPC's hand."
He also pointed to the effect of housing remaining in short supply, especially following the blow to the housebuilding sector from the credit crunch.
"As long as housebuilding does not keep up with household formation, the supply side imbalance will continue to act as a driving force for house price growth. The dramatic collapse in housebuilding in the last two years will feed through into prices over the next five years," he said.
The forecast follows figures last week showing a sharp rise in the number of home loans approved. The British Bankers' Association (BBA) said November mortgage approvals more than doubled on a year earlier. The comparison reflected a particularly weak market in 2008, the BBA said, rather than a much stronger market now. But it added that the number of approvals had risen gradually throughout most of 2009 and was now slightly higher than two years ago.
• Former deputy PM attacks US envoy's stance at talks
• Negotiator at Kyoto rejects Obama's view of 1997 deal
John Prescott has defended China's role in the climate change summit, saying the blame for its flawed outcome must lie with the United States and Barack Obama.
The former deputy prime minister helped negotiate the Kyoto protocol in 1997, and was in Copenhagen acting as an informal bridge between the Chinese delegation and others.
As a frequent visitor to China, who knows many of its officials personally, Prescott fears privately that the Chinese will walk away from the talks if they continue to be singled out for blame.
In a letter to the Guardian, Prescott criticises the US climate change special envoy, Todd Stern, who "said at Copenhagen emissions weren't about 'morality or politics', they were 'just maths', with China projected to emit 60% more CO2 than the US by 2030".
In his letter Prescott claims that Stern's arguments "ignored the more transparent measure of pollution per capita, which shows the US emits 20 tonnes per person every year, compared to China's six tonnes, whilst America's GDP per person is almost eight times greater than the Chinese". He also attacks President Barack Obama for suggesting there had been a period of "two decades of talking and no action. That might have been true in America, which refused to sign up to Kyoto, but not in the case of China or Europe, who followed a lot of that protocol's policies. Indeed Obama's offer of a 17% cut is wholly dependent on Congressional approval and will still be less than Kyoto targets." Prescott is climate change convenor for the Council of Europe, with the role of exploring how to keep the talks on the road.
China itself defended its "crucial role" in saving the Copenhagen conference from failure, according to the state media's first blow-by-blow rebuttal of European claims that China wrecked a climate deal.
In a florid account of prime minister Wen Jiabao's 60 hours in Copenhagen, the Xinhua news agency said the premier staved off the "unrealistic and unfair demands" of Britain, Germany and Japan.
There is no direct criticism of the US, but Obama is described as "awkward" in the presence of the Chinese premier.
According to the lengthy defence of China's actions, European nations repeatedly tried to impose secret drafts, unscheduled meetings and a hidden agenda on China and other developing nations.
The article, likely to have been approved at the highest level of government, notes that Wen walked out of a state dinner after hearing that an unscheduled meeting of leaders was being arranged soon afterwards to discuss a new draft text.
"It was really absurd that the country who called for the meeting never informed China," the report says. "Premier Wen concluded that this was no small matter.
"Since the start of the conference, there had been cases where individual or small group of countries put forward new texts in disregard of the principle of openness and transparency, arousing strong complaints from other participants."
Such accusations infuriate senior European negotiators, who claim China was fully informed ahead of Copenhagen of the plan for a new document, though it never agreed to the content.
Xinhua avoids mention of how and why China killed attempts to impose 2050 targets for reducing emissions. Beijing has consistently rejected such long-term goals, which it sees as a threat to itseconomic growth.It also fails to address claims that China torpedoed the inclusion of a 1.5C maximum global temperature rise, requested by small island states and African nations. Instead, it says, Wen showed sincerity by accepting a rise of no more than 2C by 2050.
Many artists have proportioned work in shapes that facilitate scanning of images to brain, says professor
From Leonardo da Vinci to Le Corbusier, the golden ratio is believed to have guided artists and architects over the centuries.
Leonardo is thought to have used the golden ratio, a geometric proportion regarded as the key to creating aesthetically pleasing art, when painting the Mona Lisa. The Dutch painter Mondrian used it in his abstract compositions, as did Salvador Dali in his masterpiece The Sacrament of the Last Supper.
Now a US academic believes he has discovered the reason why it pleases the eye. According to Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, the human eye is capable of interpreting an image featuring the golden ratio faster than any other.
Bejan argues that an animal's world – whether you are a human being in an art gallery or an antelope on the savannah – is orientated on the horizontal. For the antelope scanning the horizon, danger primarily comes from the sides or from behind, not from below or above, so the scope of its vision evolved accordingly. As vision developed, he argues, animals got "smarter" and safer by seeing better and moving faster as a result.
"It is well known that the eyes take in information more efficiently when they scan side to side, as opposed to up and down. When you look at what so many people have been drawing and building, you see these proportions everywhere."
Many artists since the Renaissance have proportioned their work in accordance with the golden ratio or "divine proportion", particularly in the form of the golden rectangle, which has informed Leonardo's work. It describes a rectangle with a length roughly one and a half times its width.
Works most usually associated with it are the Mona Lisa and the Parthenon in Athens, although Swiss architect Le Corbusier relied on it for his Modulor system for the scale of architectural proportion and Dali explicitly used it in The Sacrament of the Last Supper. The Parthenon's facade is said to be circumscribed by golden rectangles, though some scholars argue that this is a coincidence.
According to Bejan, these arguments are academic. Whether intentional or not, the ratio represents the best proportions to transfer to the brain. "This is the best flowing configuration for images from plane to brain and it manifests itself frequently in human-made shapes that give the impression they were 'designed' according to the golden ratio," said Bejan.
"We really want to get on, we don't want to get headaches while we are scanning and recording and understanding things," he said. "Shapes that resemble the golden ratio facilitate the scanning of images and their transmission through vision organs to the brain. Animals are wired to feel better and better when they are helped and so they feel pleasure when they find food or shelter or a mate. When we see the proportions in the golden ratio, we are helped. We feel pleasure and we call it beauty."
Bejan, an award-winning engineer who developed a new law of physics governing the design of matter as it moves through air and water in 1996, believes this "constructal law" governs systems that evolve in time, from cars in traffic to blood in the circulation, to how vision develops.
Vision and cognition evolved together, he said. "Cognition is the name of the constructal evolution of the brain's architecture, every minute and every moment," Bejan said. "This is the phenomenon of thinking, knowing, and then thinking again more efficiently. Getting smarter is the constructal law in action."
Earlier this year, in a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Bejan demonstrated how this law was behind his theory of how elite athletes had got taller, bigger and thus faster in the past 100 years. His latest application of constructal law to explain the golden ratio is published online in the International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics.
Ministry of Justice says wide-ranging review will look at the issue of libel tourism, and whether British courts are being exploited
The lord chancellor, Jack Straw, is to order a comprehensive review of Britain's much-criticised libel laws, the Ministry of Justice revealed today.
Straw has previously promised to act against libel tourism, fearing Britain's restrictive libel laws are being exploited by plaintiffs with few real links to the UK.
But the justice ministry said the review, to be conducted by academics, lawyers and newspaper editors, will go much further. The formal terms of reference will be to "consider whether the law of libel, including the law relating to libel tourism, in England and Wales needs reform, and if so to make recommendations as to solutions".
The review will look at whether a specialist libel tribunal should be established to resolve defamation cases out of court. The issue of whether academics and scientists can defend their remarks on the basis of fair comment or in the public interest will also be examined. The wide terms of reference will also allow the working party to look into whether the burden of proof should be shifted from defendant to plaintiff, as is the case in countries such as the US.
Other issues for examination include whether large and medium-sized corporations would have to prove malicious falsehood for a libel claim to succeed. It may also look at the implications of the internet for libel.The only issue that will be excluded are the costs of defamation proceedings because they are already the subject of a separate justice ministry consultation led by the court of appeal judge Lord Justice Jackson.
Despite the scale of the review, Straw said he hopes the working party will report by mid-March in time for any reforms to be implemented before the general election. It is not clear whether large-scale reforms could be implemented by secondary legislation, as Straw suggested at the weekend.
Straw has referred to his plan for a working party previously, but his latest remarks suggests he is willing to go further and faster than previously thought. The timescale suggests Straw is determined to leave office with a reputation as a reforming secretary of state.
Straw is likely to set out the details of the working party formally after a report on privacy and press freedom from the Commons culture committee due next month. The working party will also address issues raised in a joint report prepared in November by Index on Censorship and English PEN, a charity that supports persecuted writers. John Kampfner, chief executive of Index, warned at the time that if the government did not reform the laws "we're at risk of becoming a global pariah".
The new panel will also look at considering the case for capping the level of damages that courts can award. The Index/PEN joint report recommended a libel damages cap of £10,000. The inquiry originally looked as if it would be confined to the important issue of libel tourism, but it seems officials believed it would not be possible to restrict the inquiry in this way.
It is likely to recommend that libel cases can only be brought if the overseas litigant has no close connection with England. There have been repeated claims that wealthy businessmen, medical companies and even suspected terrorists have been using the English courts to suppress stories that would have been printed in other countries. The issue has been exercising US newspapers, the culture committee and the UK judiciary.
Straw, speaking to the culture committee last spring, did not seem overly concerned by the issue of libel tourism, but since then there has been growing evidence that lawyers are seeking out cases to bring to trial in the UK. The New York Times and the Washington Post have said they may be forced to stop selling copies in the UK because of the risk of being sued.
In one case, a wealthy Saudi businessman successfully sued a US academic whose book on funding terrorism sold 23 copies in Britain over the internet. He was awarded £130,000 damages and costs by London courts. In another case, a British consultant cardiologist, Dr Peter Wilmshurst, is being sued by an American company, NMT Medical, for questioning the effectiveness of a new heart implant device. Wilmshurst raised his criticism at an American conference and his comments were posted on a US website for three says, but he is being pursued at the high court because a number of cardiologists read the article in Britain.
Many of the 78% who fail in their plans are focusing on downside of not achieving goals, research finds
It's part of the new year ritual – an annual attempt to start afresh and turn over a new leaf. But making resolutions is a near pointless exercise, psychologists say. We break them, become dispirited in the process and finally more despondent than we were before.
Less than a quarter of those asked for a university study had managed to stick to their resolutions. Of those who failed, many had followed the spurious advice of self-help gurus – which almost guarantees disaster, apparently.
Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, who led the analysis, said he and his team had asked 700 people about their strategies for achieving new year resolutions. Their goals ranged from losing weight or giving up smoking to gaining a qualification or starting a better relationship.
Of the 78% who failed, many had focused on the downside of not achieving the goals; they had suppressed their cravings, fantasised about being successful, and adopted a role model or relied on willpower alone.
"Many of these ideas are frequently recommended by self-help experts but our results suggest that they simply don't work," Wiseman said. "If you are trying to lose weight, it's not enough to stick a picture of a model on your fridge or fantasise about being slimmer."
On the other hand, people who kept their resolutions tended to have broken their goal into smaller steps and rewarded themselves when they achieved one of these. They also told their friends about their goals, focused on the benefits of success and kept a diary of their progress.
People who planned a series of smaller goals had an average success rate of 35%, while those who followed all five of the above strategies had a 50% chance of success, the study found.
"Many of the most successful techniques involve making a plan and helping yourself stick to it," Wiseman said.
Making new year resolutions at the last minute can backfire, he warned, because such decisions tend to be less genuinely motivated. "If you do it on the spur of the moment, it probably doesn't mean that much to you and you won't give it your all. Failing to achieve your ambitions is often psychologically harmful because it can rob people of a sense of self control."
Other strategies that helped people to achieve their goals included making only one resolution at a time and treating occasional lapses in the plan as just temporary setbacks.
David Cameron has made a direct appeal to Liberal Democrat supporters to recognise differences between their parties are now "a lot less than in the past".
His remarks, made in his new year message, have the twin purpose of appealing to Liberal Democrats to vote tactically against Labour, and even to hint he is willing to work with Nick Clegg's party in the event of a hung parliament.
Cameron is due to come out with a blitz of new policies from 4 January in a bid to solidify his poll lead, and make sure he builds momentum for a May election. Privately shadow cabinet members believe the election will still be on May 6, rather than in March. They believe Labour's election timing will be heavily influenced by news of whether Britain is coming out of recession.The Tories are expecting the fourth quarter GDP figures, due to be published on 26 January, to show Britain coming out of recession, as the chancellor Alistair Darling has promised.
Labour will only opt for a March election, shadow cabinet members believe, if it fears the first quarter figures for 2010, due to come out on 23 April, will show economic growth slipping back.
The Cameron team recognise that their leader has to use the first two months of next year to address the negatives that seem to be holding some voters back.
In his message, Cameron denied the Conservatives were the party of the rich. He said: "Let's be honest that whether you're Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat, you're motivated by pretty much the same progressive aims: a country that is safer, fairer, greener and where opportunity is more equal. It's how to achieve these aims that we disagree about and indeed between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats there is a lot less disagreement than there used to be."
Cameron also highlighted his character, one of the issues on which he has a commanding lead over Brown. Elections, he said, were not just about policy, but also "about character, attitude and approach. It's about how political leaders actually behave, the example they set and the lead they give. It's about doing as well as talking."
He also acknowledged that the election would take place at a time of unprecedented disillusionment with politics. He wrote: "Let's make it a good clean fight. Most people in the country will be contemplating the prospect of months of electioneering with emotions somewhere on a scale between indifference and dread."
Appealing to those turned off by politics, he said the distrust of politicians went beyond anger at MPs' expenses. He said there was also distaste for "politicians who think they have the answer to everything and just can't bear to leave people alone to get on with their lives".
Met Office says it expects significant snow across Wales and the Midlands this week, and a chilly New Year's Eve
After a bitterly chilly Christmas for much of the UK, a new cold snap is set to arrive in time for 2010. The Met Office said it was expecting significant snow across Wales and the Midlands.
"The worst weather will arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday with between 5-10cm of snow in Wales. We have got a cold front pushing up from the south that will turn to snow quite quickly," said forecaster Chris Bulmer.
"Temperatures will be around freezing, but milder in the south. To the far north of England it will be colder [with] wintry showers. It will also be quite windy."
New Year's Eve is expected to be cold. The far south would have rain, sleet and snow, with temperatures around freezing overnight, Bulmer said. New Year's Day will also be chilly, with London temperatures not expected to rise above 4C.
The forecast follows a spell of snow and ice that brought chaos to the UK's transport network for more than a week.
Today, Scotland remained worst affected by the wintry weather. On the Isle of Lewis, a coastguard rescue helicopter was sent to Loch Barvas after a man fell through ice as he played with his son. He managed to get out of the water before the helicopter arrived. Police said he "should have known better".
Glasgow airport suspended operations on the runway yesterday from 11.30am to 1pm to allow for snow clearing operations to take place.
On Merseyside, a council said a number of gritting bins had been stolen and advised drivers to delay journeys until later this week.
Two men died on the M6 in Lancashire on Christmas night when their car overturned after skidding on ice and colliding with a tree. A third man suffered serious injuries.
The device, likely to be called the iSlate, has no keyboard and allows users to watch TV shows and read online magazines
Apple is expected to start the new year with the launch of its latest gadget: a tablet computer that will allow users to surf the web, watch TV shows and read the next generation in online magazines and newspapers.
Speculation is rife that the Californian technology group will unveil the device, which has no keyboard and resembles a large iPhone, at an event on 26 January in San Francisco. Some technology bloggers have already christened the touchscreen device the iSlate after it emerged that Apple has registered the iSlate.com internet domain name.
Apple has used the month of January to launch revolutionary products before, in part as a way of diverting attention from its rivals presenting their latest inventions at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which Apple does not attend, and that takes place the same month. In January 2008 Apple unveiled its ultra-slim MacBook Air computer, and the previous year saw Steve Jobs, chief executive, announce the first version of the iPhone.
Apple has previously investigated the possibility of producing a tablet computer but shelved the idea at the last minute, and there are already tablets available in the market from rival PC manufacturers. France's Archos, which pioneered digital music players but saw its market lead stolen by Apple, has already created an internet tablet based on Google's Android software. Microsoft's latest tablet prototype, codenamed Courier according to rumours, involves two 7in multi-screens side by side in the form of a booklet.
But the explosion of legitimate digital content services, the rise of downloadable applications – fuelled by the iPhone – and the widespread availability of wireless broadband has created a market for a tablet PC that is more of a multimedia device than merely a "keyboardless" computer. It would essentially be a cross between the iPhone, Apple's TV service and an iPod.
Apple refuses to comment on speculation about new products, but there is talk that it is working on two versions of the iSlate, one with a 10in screen and a smaller version with a 7in screen. Users would be able to download applications produced by third-party developers onto the device just as they can for the iPhone.
There are also a number of content deals in the works that would make the iSlate a valuable platform for media groups. Apple is rumoured to be trying to cement a deal with American TV companies including Disney and CBS that would see top shows appear regularly on the device.
Several American publishers, meanwhile, have got together to create an iTunes for magazines. Condé Nast, owner of Vogue and Vanity Fair, has teamed up with Cosmopolitan owner Hearst, Meredith, News Corp and Time to set up an open magazine platform that will allow readers to buy and browse titles on so-called e-readers. The iSlate would be a perfect device for the next generation of digital publications, not least because it will be in full colour, unlike the current generation of electronic books such as the Amazon Kindle.
In a recent note on Apple, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimated that there is "a 75% likelihood that Apple will have an event in January and a 50% chance that it will be held to launch the Apple Tablet … if Apple announced the Tablet in January, it would likely ship later in the March quarter."
Speculation about the arrival of the latest Apple creation helped shares in the company close Christmas week at a new record high of just over $209 (£131), making Jobs' stake worth more than $1.1bn. The shares have gained almost 150% this year as the iPhone, and its success in persuading users to download applications from the iTunes store, has cemented Apple's position as the world's leading consumer electronics brand.
The company has rented a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco later next month. It is the same venue that the company used in September for Jobs to make his first public appearance since his recovery from illness, when he launched a new range of iPods.
Good for hibernating caterpillars, but bad for male frogs – National Trust expert Matthew Oates explains how the weather this year has affected British wildlife
Photographs by The National Trust and agencies
The alternative Christmas message from legendary drag queen Bette Bourne and playwright Mark Ravenhill
From monster comebacks to career meltdowns, guardian.co.uk/music looks back at the last 12 months in music
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