Baby born with 'foot in brain'

Sam Esquibel is recovering from surgery

US surgeons operating on a brain tumour in a baby boy found a tiny foot inside his head.

Doctors operated on three-day old Sam Esquibel after finding what looked like a microscopic tumour on an MRI scan.

But while removing the growth, they also found a nearly perfect foot and the partial formation of another foot, a hand and a thigh.

The growth may have been a case of "foetus in foetu" in which a twin begins to form within its sibling.

However, the team at Memorial Hospital for Children in Colorado Springs said such cases very rarely occur in the brain.

You'd never know if he didn't have a scar there Tiffnie Esquibel

It may also have been a type of congenital brain tumour.

But such growths are usually less complex than a foot or hand, the doctors added.

Unique

Dr Paul Grabb, a paediatric neurosurgeon, said Sam was otherwise healthy when he underwent the procedure in October.

"It looked like the breech delivery of a baby, coming out of the brain," he said.

"To find a perfectly formed structure (like this) is extremely unique, unusual, borderline unheard of."

Sam's parents, Tiffnie and Manuel Esquibel, say their son is at home now but faces monthly blood tests to check for signs of cancer or regrowth, along with physical therapy to improve the use of his neck.

But they say he has mostly recovered from the operation.

"You'd never know if he didn't have a scar there," his mother said.

Mr Dominic Thompson, a consultant paediatric neurosurgeon at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, said there were probably less than 100 recorded cases of foetus in foetu in the medical literature.

He said another possibility was that the tumour was of a type called a teratoma, which can include tissue such as muscle and fat, and more rarely bone and teeth.

However, he said the available details from the US case suggested that foetus in foetu was the most likely explanation, as the tissue was so exceptionally well formed.

Trevor Lawson, of the charity Brain Tumour UK, said: "Even with modern imaging techniques, surgeons can't be entirely sure of what they'll find when they go into the skull.

"Even so, this is an exceptionally rare event.

"It's good to know that baby Sam is recovering well. Brain tumours now kill more children than any other solid cancer and it's essential that more research is undertaken to identify what causes them.

"Where appropriate consent is gained, rare events like these can sometimes provide invaluable genetic material that gives an insight into the origins of these traumatic tumours."

People 'still willing to torture'

Subjects were apparently given electric shocks

Decades after a notorious experiment, scientists have found test subjects are still willing to inflict pain on others - if told to by an authority figure.

US researchers repeated the famous "Milgram test", with volunteers told to deliver electrical shocks to another volunteer - played by an actor.

Even after faked screams of pain, 70% were prepared to increase the voltage, the American Psychology study found.

Both may help explain why apparently ordinary people can commit atrocities.

It's not that these people are simply not good people any more - there is a massive social influence going on. Dr Abigal San clinical psychologist

Yale University professor Stanley Milgram's work, published in 1963, recruited volunteers to help carry out a medical experiment, with none aware that they were actually the subject of the test.

A "scientist" instructed them to deliver a shock every time the actor answered a question wrongly.

When the pretend 150-volt shock was delivered, the actor could be heard screaming in pain, and yet, when asked to, more than eight out of ten volunteers were prepared to give further shocks, even when the "voltage" was gradually increased threefold.

Some volunteers even carried on giving 450-volt shocks even when there was no further response from the actor, suggesting he was either unconscious or dead.

Similar format

Dr Jerry Burger, of Santa Clara University, used a similar format, although he did not allow the volunteers to carry on beyond 150 volts after they had shown their willingness to do so, suggesting that the distress caused to the original volunteers had been too great.

Again, however, the vast majority of the 29 men and 41 women taking part were willing to push the button knowing it would cause pain to another human.

Even when another actor entered the room and questioned what was happening, most were still prepared to continue.

He told Reuters: "What we found is validation of the same argument - if you put people in certain situations, they will act in surprising and maybe often even disturbing ways."

He said that it was not that there was "something wrong" with the volunteers, but that when placed under pressure, people will often do "unsettling" things.

Even though it was difficult to translate laboratory work to the real world, he said, it might partly explain why, in times of conflict, people could take part in genocide.

Complex task

Dr Abigail San, a chartered clinical psychologist, has recently replicated the experiment for a soon-to-be-aired BBC documentary - all the way up to the 450-volt mark, again finding a similar outcome to Professor Milgram.

"It's not that these people are simply not good people any more - there is a massive social influence going on."

She said that the volunteers were being asked to carry out a complex task in aid of scientific research, and became entirely focused on it, with "little room" left for considering the plight of the person receiving the shock.

"They tend to identify massively with the 'experimenter', and become very engaged and distracted by the research.

"There's no opportunity for them to say 'What's my moral stand on this?'"

Government confirms Jaguar talks

Lord Mandelson: We do not have open cheque book

The government has held talks with Jaguar Land Rover over the possibility of state aid for the carmaker, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has confirmed.

He said no decision had yet been made, and there was not "an open chequebook".

Jaguar Land Rover was bought by India's Tata in June for £1.7bn ($2.6bn). Since then output has been trimmed at its three main UK manufacturing sites.

News of the talks with the UK government came after Tata said it was to sponsor Ferrari's Grand Prix team.

Tata, which bought Jaguar Land Rover from Ford, said it was not commenting on talks with the government.

Neither Tata or Ferrari have revealed the cost of their sponsorship deal.

Jaguar Land Rover chief executive David Smith said he agreed with the opinion of trade body Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders that the industry's "situation in the UK is a national emergency requiring urgent action".

'Analysing carefully'

Jaguar Land Rover, which employs about 15,000 in the UK, said last month that it faces "unprecedented trading conditions" as global sales for the whole of the car industry have fallen sharply since the summer.

The car sector - car manufacturing - is a centre of real excellence and competitive strength in our country Lord Mandelson The bail-out dilemma Read your comments

It also announced last month that it was cutting 850 agency jobs.

"We are analysing very carefully what is going on in the [car] sector, and we will make good judgments in good time if it is appropriate for the government to take any action or if it is possible for us to do so," said Lord Mandelson.

"I have had discussions with the owners and management of Jaguar Land Rover in particular, because they argue that they are under particular strain."

Yet Mr Mandelson added that "people should not assume that we are as a government in the business of bailing out any company that has a problem during this coming very tough period".

He said he would not be "bounced" into any decision, and that the owner of Jaguar Land Rover - Tata - had first and primary responsibility for the carmaker's financial requirements.

'Iconic brands'

Shadow Business Secretary Alan Duncan said the government needs to be ready to step in and help sectors survive the slump.

"What companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan need is credit help, not unconditional bailouts, to prevent those companies which are viable in the long-term going to the wall in the short-term," he said.

"This means government guarantees to underwrite loans made by banks on commercial terms to businesses."

Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 for £1.6bn, and Land Rover in 2000 for £1.8bn. The combined cost of £3.4bn was double what it sold them for.

Tata chairman Ratan Tata said in June that Jaguar and Land Rover were "two iconic British brands with worldwide growth prospects".

However, that was before the crisis in the global financial sector and subsequent sharp global economic slowdown.

Tata has also since reported falling sales at its main car business in India.

No 'disorderly' US car collapse

Chrysler factories will not resume production before 19 January

President Bush will not allow a "disorderly collapse" of the US car industry, the White House has said.

Spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president was nearing a conclusion on how to provide the carmakers with financial assistance.

She said a disorderly collapse of the Big Three was "not an option", though she ruled out any bail-out on Thursday.

A $14bn (£9.4bn) rescue failed in the Senate last week, raising fears of job cuts and a possible industry collapse.

In a statement to reporters, Ms Perino said: "We're nearing a conclusion, we're narrowing options, I just don't have anything for you today."

The Big Three US carmakers are waiting for the US government to find a way to help the struggling car industry.

Factory shutdowns

President Bush 'a difficult time for a free market person'

All car firms have announced production cuts as the economic slowdown has slashed car sales.

Chrysler is to halt production at all 30 of its factories for one month.

In announcing its plant closures, Chrysler also left open the possibility that the factories would be closed for more than a month.

Employees would not return to work any sooner than Monday 19 January, it said.

GM has suspended major work on its $370m engine factory in Michigan, where it plans to build a new small car engine which is key to its efforts to reinvent itself as a maker of fuel-efficient and all-electric cars.

The new plant is scheduled to build a turbocharged 1.4-litre engine for the Chevrolet Cruze small car and another version of the engine to provide backup power to its electric car, the Chevrolet Volt.

GM is suspending work on an engine plant for its Volt electric car

Last week, GM said it was shutting down 30% of its North American production.

Also on Wednesday, Ford announced it was to extend the normal two-week Christmas shut-down at 10 of its North American plants for an extra week.

Meanwhile, GM has denied reports it had restarted merger negotiations with Chrysler - following the suspension of their talks earlier this year.

Earlier this year, both Chrysler and General Motors held talks on a possible merger.

Chrysler workers react to the plants closures

However, GM spokesman Tony Cervone denied that talks had re-opened.

"We have had no talks with them since we announced during our third quarter earnings call that the talks had been suspended," he said.

Chrysler, Ford and GM have repeatedly warned that millions of jobs could be lost if the government does not agree to a package of loans to support the industry.

While 46,000 Chrysler employees will be directly affected by the plants closure, many more Americans whose jobs depend on the big car makers will be watching with great concern, says the BBC's North America editor, Justin Webb.

The Bush administration has said it will act to prevent a disorderly collapse of the car industry, and loans to keep the big three companies in business could be arranged within days, our correspondent adds.

The White House warned on Tuesday that the carmakers would have to make "concessions" to secure the bail-out.

Bush unveils $17.4bn car bail-out

Bush: 'Bankruptcy would not be responsible'

The US government will provide $17.4bn (£11.6bn) in loans to troubled carmakers GM, Chrysler and Ford.

President George W Bush said allowing the US car industry to fail would not be "a responsible course of action".

Carmakers will get $13.4bn in short-term financing from the $700bn Wall Street bail-out, and another $4bn will be provided later.

The government set a deadline of 31 March for the firms to become viable, officials said.

"The question now is how to excite consumers to buy cars from January to March. We're all sitting on millions of dollars of unmoving cars," said Raymond Ciccolo, a GM dealer.

These loans were desperately needed before the end of December because the situation for the automakers is so critical Dennis Virag, Automotive Consulting Group

"The American people want the auto companies to succeed and so do I," said President Bush.

He said that if the carmakers collapsed, the US economy would be sent into a deeper and longer recession.

However, Mr Bush said that US carmakers must make hard decisions as the industry needs to be reformed.

The restructuring would require "meaningful concessions from all involved in the auto industry", he added.

'Critical situation'

Officials said that General Motors and Chrysler were expected to take up the loan offer immediately.

Ford, the third of the "Big Three" carmakers, is seen as a company that does not need the money at this stage.

An attempt to secure an extra $14bn (£9.4bn) of funding for the carmakers failed in the Senate last week, raising fears of job cuts and a possible industry collapse.

All car firms have announced production cuts as the economic slowdown has slashed car sales.

Chrysler, Ford and GM have repeatedly warned that millions of jobs could be lost if the government does not agree to a package of loans to support the industry.

"These loans were desperately needed before the end of December because the situation for the automakers is so critical," said Dennis Virag at Automotive Consulting Group.

Obama picks Nobel man for Energy

Mr Chu won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1997

Barack Obama has named physics Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu as his energy secretary and tasked him with finding alternatives to fossil fuels.

The US president-elect said the new administration's priorities were to end US dependence on foreign oil and fight climate change.

Naming his environment team, he said US energy dependence had grown even as global resources were disappearing.

Mr Obama has pledged to make big changes in environmental policies.

After eight years, he said, the US could not accept more broken promises when the new administration took over on 20 January.

Despite the current economic crisis, the president-elect has vowed to make the environment a priority with an ambitious promise of creating 2.5m new jobs, says the BBC's Andy Gallacher in Washington.

Boundless opportunities

Announcing his environment team at a press conference on Monday, Mr Obama vowed to "move beyond our oil addiction and create a new hybrid economy".

All of us know the problems that are rooted in our addiction to foreign oil Barack Obama Profile: Steven Chu Obama's government team so far

"All of us know the problems that are rooted in our addiction to foreign oil," he said. "It constrains our economy, shifts wealth to hostile regimes and leaves us dependent on unstable regions."

He said these "urgent dangers" were only eclipsed by the long-term threat of climate change.

"Unless we act, [climate change] will lead to drought and famine abroad, devastating weather patterns and terrible storms on our shores and the disappearance of our coastline," said Mr Obama.

He added that there were boundless opportunities to create new jobs in the environmental industry.

Trapping atoms

The energy secretary-elect is an energy specialist and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Ms Jackson would be the EPA's first African-American administrator

Dr Chu is a leader in the field of combating climate change using scientific methods.

He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize for physics for his work on cooling and trapping atoms using laser light.

Announcing his environment team nominations, Mr Obama named Lisa Jackson, currently the chief of staff for New Jersey's governor, as head of the environment protection agency (EPA).

Ms Jackson, who also worked for the EPA under Mr Clinton in the 1990s, would be the agency's first African-American administrator.

Mr Obama said Carol Browner, the former head of the EPA under Bill Clinton, would co-ordinate White House policy on energy and climate change.

He also named Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, as head of the White House council on environmental quality.

Obama named 'Person of the Year'

Time said Mr Obama had captured the imagination of people around the world

Time magazine has given its annual Person of the Year award to US President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr Obama was awarded the title "for having the confidence to sketch an ambitious future in a gloomy hour," said the US-based magazine.

It said he showed "the competence that makes Americans hopeful he might pull it off".

Recent winners have included Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the American soldier and the online public.

Time told readers it was "unlikely that you were surprised to see Mr Obama's face on the cover".

HAVE YOUR SAY

I hope Time named Obama because he inspired thousands to take back responsibility in deciding who will run America

Shelia Bumgarner, USA

Send us your comments

"He has come to dominate the public sphere so completely that it beggars belief to recall that half the people in America had never heard of him two years ago.

"He hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order."

Mr Obama has featured on the magazine's cover 15 times in the past two years.

Advertisement

Barack Obama addresses supporters after winning the presidential election

"We would have had to have had some pretty compelling reasons to not chose President-elect Barack Obama," Michael Elliot, Time's international editor, told CNN.

"His is an extraordinary story which has captured the imagination of people from Jakarta to Dublin to Iowa to New Hampshire.

"There is a degree of excitement surrounding Barack Obama which we tried to capture in our choice," Mr Elliot said.

Controversial

Time began selecting a "Man of the Year" in 1927 and has selected a man, woman or group every year since. In one year it chose the computer for the title.

TIME'S 'PERSON OF THE YEAR' Time says its award recognises 'the most powerful individuals and forces shaping the world' Many US presidents have been named Person of the Year, including George W Bush and Bill Clinton Controversially, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Ayatollah Khomeini have also been given the title In 2006, the magazine gave the award to everyone who had used or created online content that year

In 1999, the title was changed to "Person of the Year" to be more inclusive.

The BBC's Andy Gallacher in Washington says receiving the accolade is usually considered an honour.

But is has also been awarded to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin in the past, for less honourable reasons.

Four runners-up for this year's title were also announced, as well as 17 "people who mattered".

The runners-up were US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, French and current EU President Nicholas Sarkozy, Republican vice-presidential candidate and Alaskan governor Sarah Palin and Zhang Yimou, creative director of August's Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing.

Among the "people who mattered" were released Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, the former CEO of the collapsed bank Lehman Brothers and Tina Fey, the actress who impersonated Mrs Palin during the US election campaign.

Madoff under curfew on $10m bail

Mr Madoff did not respond to reporters' questions

Bernard Madoff, the hedge fund boss accused of a $50bn (£32bn) fraud, has put up $10m bail and in effect been placed under house arrest.

Mr Madoff turned up at New York's federal court to sign some papers but did not answer reporters' questions.

He signed over his New York flat and his homes in Long Island and Palm Beach, Florida to make up the bail.

He will also be fitted with an electronic tag and will have to seek permission to leave his flat.

In addition to surrendering his own passport, Mr Madoff has also agreed to hand in that of his wife Ruth.

The bail conditions were tightened after Mr Madoff failed to find the required four people to co-sign his bail agreement.

If the correct documents are supplied, Mr Madoff will not have to make another court appearance until 12 January.

Attorney withdraws

Also on Wednesday, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey removed himself from the investigation.

It was announced by the Justice Department, which declined to discuss the reasons for the decision.

Mr Mukasey's son, Marc, has said that he represents a senior official at Mr Madoff's firm, Frank DiPascali.

"I represent Mr DiPascali, for the record, we are trying to sift through the facts like everybody else," he said.

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission - the top US financial regulator - has said there was no evidence that the staff had acted wrongly in failing to pursue suggestions that Mr Madoff was engaged in fraudulent activity.

"I want to emphasize that there is no evidence that anyone is aware of at this point that any personnel did anything wrong," Christopher Cox said.

'Veil of secrecy'

Meanwhile, Harvey Pitt, a former SEC chairman said it would not be enough to impose greater regulation on hedge funds for its own sake.

"What is really critical is that the veil of secrecy that covers a lot of these hedge funds be removed," he told the BBC's World Tonight programme.

He added that there has to be, "an effort to understand what effect they are having in the marketplace, what their conduct and activities are like, and whether they raise significant issues for the regulators".

In response to questions about how regulators should realise when fraud is happening, he said it is not always as obvious as it seems with hindsight.

"People intent on defrauding others have a very high likelihood that they won't get caught for a fairly long period of time," Mr Pitt said.

Obama plans Guantanamo deadline

Obama was speaking to Time having been named its Person of the Year

Barack Obama has said he aims to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and put a clear end to torture in the US within two years of becoming president.

The president-elect told Time magazine he aims to restore the balance between US security needs and the Constitution.

Outgoing Vice-president Dick Cheney has said he does not see how the Guantanamo facility can be responsibly closed until the "war on terror" was over.

He also justified using water-boarding on some detainees during interrogation.

He said the technique, which simulates drowning, was an appropriate means of getting information out of suspects such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 11 September attacks on the US.

'Clear end to torture'

US President-elect Obama was speaking to Time having been named its Person of the Year for having what the magazine called "the confidence to sketch an ambitious future in a gloomy hour".

Asked how voters would know whether his administration was succeeding in two years, Mr Obama listed a series of benchmarks his team had set during his presidential campaign.

"On foreign policy, have we closed down Guantanamo in a responsible way, put a clear end to torture and restored a balance between the demands of our security and our constitution?" he said.

It is clear President-elect Obama wants to drastically change US foreign policy, reports the BBC's Andy Gallacher from Washington, but critics say closing the military prison will be no easy task.

There are some 250 men still being held at the facility, some of whom have expressed concerns about being persecuted if they are returned to their home countries, our correspondent says.

Mr Obama listed among his other priorities:

• Withdrawing US troops from Iraq


• Strengthening the US position in Afghanistan - militarily, diplomatically and in terms of development


• Reinvigorating international institutions to deal with transnational threats such as climate change

'Pretty good team'

Speaking to ABC News a month before the Bush administration leaves office, Mr Cheney defended the use of waterboarding and opposed the closure of the military facility on Cuba.

The outgoing vice-president praised Mr Obama's national security team

Asked when the US could responsibly close the Guantanamo centre, Mr Cheney said: "I think that that would come with the end of the war on terror".

He was referring to the war launched by President George W Bush after the 9/11 attacks, but added that no-one knew when its end would be.

The outgoing vice-president also praised Mr Obama's national security nominations, calling them "a pretty good team".

Earlier this month, Mr Obama picked his former White House rival Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and retired General James Jones as national security adviser, while saying he would retain Robert Gates as defence secretary.

Madoff relied on 'irrational euphoria'

If I had a dollar for every news story in which the golden rule of investment has been dusted off and repeated over the last five days, I would be able to pay back Bernie Madoff's investors myself.

Mr Madoff recruited several clients at the Palm Beach Country Club

If something sounds too good to be true, I keep reading, that must be because it is too good to be true.

It is good advice as far as it goes and it raises the question of why so many wealthy, sophisticated savers were apparently conned into believing that Mr Madoff had come up with an investment strategy that allowed him to pay handsome returns even when the stock market was falling.

I asked a very senior regulator about this, a man who has been involved in formulating public policy for many years, and he said the answer was depressingly simple.

People are prone to believe what they want to believe, he said, and in rising markets a kind of irrational euphoria takes hold in which we are not inclined to ask difficult questions.

Human psychology

The point about Bernie Madoff was not so much what he was selling, it was how he sold it.

On offer was a fairly standard hedge fund arrangement in which the Madoff firm bought stock in a company and then hedged against the risk by striking contracts to both buy and sell shares in the company at agreed dates in the future.

In the jargon of Wall Street that is a "collar". It is perfectly legal, but it requires endless resources of luck, judgement, money and timing.

What made Mr Madoff unusual was the manner in which he recruited his investors.

For that he relied on a powerful but elementary piece of human psychology: the more someone tells you that you cannot have something, the more you want it.

The reason we are easy to fool in the end, is because we are so good at fooling ourselves

Membership of the Madoff fund was very strictly by invitation only - merely being rich was not enough in itself.

Clients were recruited through the social networks of which Mr Madoff and his wife were themselves members - many were Jewish New Yorkers who spent part of the year in Florida.

Others came across the charming, wealthy, discreet giant of Wall Street at the golf club or the yachting marina.

The very respectability of the clientele helped with further recruitment.

Madoff customers were directors of charities and managers of investment funds as well as wealthy business people and pensioners.

They were mainly, in other words, people who should have known better and they fell for one of the oldest illusions in the book: that there is an inside track in the world of investment.

Mr Madoff fed that illusion, and offered himself as the man who could offer you access to that magic, secret circle.

Too respectable

The giant bailout of the American financial system earlier this year introduced the concept of the bank that is "too big to fail", in other words, is of such importance to the world's financial system that governments decide that propping it up with public money is better than allowing it to suffer the consequences of its own greed or incompetence.

In his own way, Mr Madoff was something similar - an investment adviser who was too respectable to scrutinise.

As former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, Mr Madoff was a huge figure on Wall Street - his thoughtful analysis of how modern regulatory systems made cheating virtually impossible has been one of the most-viewed clips on YouTube in the last few days.

The regulatory authorities, now that they have finally woken up, are now assessing how much of Mr Madoff's clients' money has actually been lost and how much if any might be recovered.

Mr Madoff kept his hedge fund business separate from the rest of his firm

The particular nature of the alleged fraud means, however, that existing clients seem to have been paid out of money taken from new customers as they joined the scheme. That probably means that if Mr Madoff owes you money at the moment, the chances are that you will not be getting back.

It is not clear how many people working for Mr Madoff knew what he was really up to with the funds collected from wealthy investors.

It has been widely reported that he operated this side of his business on a separate floor of the Manhattan skyscraper where his main company was based and it is even possible that he did not tell anyone else what was really going on until he explained it to his sons last week.

The court proceedings that grow out of all of this are likely to be complex and highly technical, but a friend of mine who works in the banking sector says the best way of understanding Mr Madoff is to compare him to the kind of racing tipsters who advertise their services in the back of sporting newspapers.

They too offer inside knowledge in return for a fee and should be asked the same question that more people should have asked Mr Madoff - if this scheme for making money is really so good, why sell it at all?

Why not simply use the technique to make money yourself?

I asked the regulator if the world would learn a lesson from the Madoff case and, depressingly, he was doubtful that it would.

These kind of schemes are only possible in a rising market and the next time the market is rising strongly - as it surely will one day - that old feeling of irrational euphoria will take over.

The reason we are easy to fool in the end, is because we are so good at fooling ourselves.

UK troops to leave Iraq 'by July'

Mr Brown is paying his fourth visit to Iraq as PM

Gordon Brown and Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki say UK forces will have "completed their tasks" and leave the country by the end of July next year.

The two leaders' joint statement came as they held talks in Baghdad.

They also said the partnership between the two countries would continue. It is Mr Brown's fourth trip to Iraq as PM.

The visit by Mr Brown, who is travelling with Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup, was not announced in advance.

'New era'

At a press conference, Mr Brown said: "We have agreed today that the mission will end no later than the 31 May next year.

"Our troops will be coming home within the next two months (after that)."

He went on: "The biggest reduction will be at the end part of the period we are talking about."

Mr Maliki confirmed that the agreement included a provision for the Iraqi government to request an extension of the British military presence.

However, both leaders indicated that it was not expected to be used.

There are currently about 4,100 UK troops serving in Basra, southern Iraq.

In their joint statement, Mr Brown and Mr Maliki said: "The role played by the UK combat forces is drawing to a close.

"These forces will have completed their tasks in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq."

They added: "The partnership between the two countries will continue to take on new dimensions and will be strengthened through cooperation in all areas due to the prominent position of the UK within the EU and the United Nations Security Council.

"This relationship of cooperation and friendship between Iraq and the UK is entering a new era and will yield continuing cooperation that will last for many years to come."

BBC defence correspondent Paul Adams said the withdrawal of UK troops was expected to start in the spring and that 200 to 300 military advisers were likely to remain in place to help the Iraqi government.

How I long for a proper Christmas

Hi hope you are all well.



I am lucky enough to be in a profession whereby I can honestly say there are not many aspects of the job that I do not enjoy. However, I have to confess that one of the things that I am looking forward to when I hang up my boots is a "proper" family Christmas.

Don't get me wrong, I am fully aware that the Christmas schedule is a key one in the football calendar and ultimately helps to pay for the presents that are being opened by the kids, so I am not looking for pity or being ungrateful.

However I can't help but fire some envious glances at other members of the family who are tucking into their Christmas dinner while I am picking at my pasta dish!

It's fair to say that a typical Christmas for a footballer is quite different from that experienced by people in most other walks of life. When I discussed this recently with some of the other Notts County players, one or two of them told me that they had been training at their clubs on every Christmas Day!

My experiences have been more of a mixed bag. Some years I have been in on Christmas Day, and others I have just been given a heart rate monitor and told to go for a run. Thank goodness for the invention of the heart rate monitor! Saying that you do get some very strange looks from people on a Christmas Day walk. You instantly know that they are thinking: "Who is this crazy bloke going for a run on Christmas Day?"



On one particular Christmas Day during my time at Coventry City, we had to train at about four in the afternoon and then travel to London in preparation for a Boxing Day game at West Ham. That in itself was bad enough but on arrival at the hotel, it transpired that I was in a room on my own, meaning that I did not even have a room-mate with whom I could whinge about the situation!




Players are not the only ones who like the odd moan about the busy Christmas schedule. Managers often complain about playing too many games in such a short space of time and from time to time there is talk of a mid-season break. As supporters it would be interesting to get your views on the subject.



One player who struck me as being more determined than most not to lose the sense of Christmas spirit was Michael Proctor, a former team-mate of mine at Hartlepool. As a Rotherham player living in Sunderland, he was none too pleased about having to make the journey for a Christmas Day training session at the Yorkshire club. However, he deserved full marks for making the most of it - he drove to Rotherham with Christmas songs blaring out from his CD player and wearing a Christmas hat from a cracker.



The Christmas Day schedule in professional football is one that I have been part of for as long as I can remember. My dad was in training every Christmas Day and obviously as a little kid, I was gutted. Now I am the one who is a father and it is not a nice feeling to know that my little lad will be feeling the same this Christmas.




Will power is the key for any footballer over the festive period. There is no end of sweet or biscuit selection boxes which can tempt you, and from a personal point of view, I have got immense respect for anyone who can turn down a Ferrero Rocher! Seriously though, as a player you have to try to prepare properly because you are playing a lot of games over a short period of time and a full Christmas dinner the night before a game is not really the way to go about things.



On a completely different subject, I have to make a public apology to our goalkeeper, Kevin Pilkington - a player who recently discovered, to his cost, how absent minded I can be in the mornings.



In ensuring that we are not late for training, the Notts County lads who have to travel the longest distances tend to arrive at the ground early. On the premise that we could all do with a caffeine boost before training, we have organised a tea-making rota.

It was my turn the other day and I thought things were going great, but that was before Kevin, the first to take a sip, suddenly spits his tea out. It was difficult to understand what he was saying in the tirade that followed but I did get the message eventually, I had put salt in the bowl rather than sugar!




I am not a practical joker so I can honestly say it was a genuine error. But I do appreciate that I did not do much to dispel the myth that all footballers are stupid!

Blackburn want quick appointment

Blackburn hope to appoint a new manager by Saturday but say they will not be rushed into making a decision on who will replace Paul Ince.

Ince was sacked on Tuesday and chairman John Williams has already started the search for a new boss, with ex-Rovers boss Graeme Souness the favourite.

"We will endeavour to have a new manager in place for Saturday's game with Stoke City," said Williams.

"But there are no guarantees and we must ensure that we get the right man."

Ince was sacked after only six months in charge of Rovers, having joined the club in June.

After a winning start under his tenure, Rovers have won only three of their 17 Premier League matches this season, with the club slipping into the relegation places following a run of 11 straight matches without a victory.

606: DEBATE I think it will be Souness with Tugay as his assistant redroseuponmychest

Souness, former Bolton and Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce, and ex-Charlton and West Ham boss Alan Curbishley have been linked to the job.

Midfielder Tugay is also in the running for a coaching role at Ewood Park.

Alan Murray, who assisted Souness at both Blackburn (2000-04) and Newcastle (2004-06), feels that the former Liverpool midfielder would be an ideal contender to replace Ince.

"I know he has been looking to get back into the Premiership for some time now and for whatever reason it has not happened," Murray told BBC Sport.

"He has a good relationship with the chairman and he is ideal for the job.

"His pedigree is proven and has been very successful at Blackburn before.

"He won the Carling Cup, qualified for Europe twice and can handle the big personalities in the squad. I can't see anyone better for the job."

Williams confirmed that day-to-day training would now be carried out by Ince's backroom staff of Archie Knox, Ray Mathias and Karl Robinson.

"Our coaching staff and all of the players fully understand the importance of this weekend's game," added Williams.

"Our supporters can rest assured that we will do everything in our power to get the team climbing the Premier League table as soon as possible."

Assistant manager Mathias admitted Ince departure is a "massive disappointment" but insisted that it would be business as usual in training this week as the club prepares for Saturday's game.

"It's a massive disappointment. Everyone's feeling it, you can see it in the players' eyes, it's a great loss. But knowing the gaffer he'll bounce back," said Mathias.

I wouldn't say it's a big job - we're 17 games in so there's a long way to go yet Blackburn assistant Ray Mathias

"We have just got to carry on with the players and make sure they are prepared for Saturday's game.

"As a team, myself, Archie and Karl will all be in charge. We will work together on it and discuss things as time goes on.

"We have to go day to day. The players will worked hard and we will be training every day of the week, so it will be no different to what we usually do.

"I wouldn't say it's a big job. We're 17 games in so there's a long way to go yet and the players are focused and looking to go out and maybe do it for the gaffer on Saturday.

"It is a small amount of games for any person to be judged on.

And Mathias also revealed that none of the backroom staff had any idea on who would be replacing Ince. "The chairman will be bringing someone in - we don't know who," he said.

"He assured us he hadn't spoken to anyone at this time, so we have to go by what he says."

Investors reel from Madoff shock

Investors reel from Madoff shock
The building that houses Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities, New York, US, 15 December 2008
US authorities have ordered the liquidation of Mr Madoff's firm

The list of investors and banks hit by an alleged $50bn (£33bn) fraud by US trader Bernard Madoff is growing.

Leading Spanish, British and Japanese banks say they could be facing losses of billions of dollars.

US authorities have ordered the liquidation of the trader's brokerage firm, Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities of New York.

Some have now questioned why the US Securities and Exchange Commission did not detect the alleged fraud earlier.

Regulatory concerns

Mr Madoff, who was arrested on Thursday, has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.


WHAT IS A PONZI SCHEME?
A fraudulent investment scheme paying investors from money paid in by other investors rather than real profits
Named after Charles Ponzi who notoriously used the technique in the United States in the 1920s
Differs from pyramid selling in that individuals all tend to invest with the same person

Madoff millions vanish

He ran a fund that paid annual interest of about 10% but prosecutors say it was, in effect, similar to a pyramid scheme, with money from new investors paying off old ones.

Some analysts are wondering why the SEC, the US financial watchdog, did not spot problems earlier.

Steven Bell of GLC fund managers said: "Apparently people reported these concerns to the SEC, they highlighted them. It's almost like someone saying 'my next-door neighbour's a burglar, go and have a check' and they didn't, apparently."

Jon Moulton, of Alchemy Partners, said: "It would appear as early as 1999 a man... was writing to the SEC telling them that 'Madoff Securities is the world's largest Ponzi scheme', so the SEC did remarkably well to avoid spotting it."

He said Mr Madoff had registered with the SEC two years ago, but that "it would appear they have never even visited his premises".

Shares fall

Banks and financial institutions across the world had investments with Bernard Madoff, but not all have yet confirmed what their potential losses might be.


MAJOR POTENTIAL LOSSES

Clients of Santander, Spain - $3.1bn
HSBC, UK - $1bn
Natixis, France - $605m
Royal Bank of Scotland, UK - $601m
BNP Paribas, France - $460m
BBVA, Spain - $400m
Man Group, UK - $360m
Reichmuth & Co, Switzerland - $325m
Nomura, Japan - $303m

Among the potential losers is Spain's largest bank, Santander, which owns the UK High Street banks Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.

The bank had a direct exposure of 17m euros ($23m; £15m), but clients of its Optimal fund management unit have another 2.3bn euros invested in the firm run by Bernard Madoff.

Japanese financial giant Nomura said it could lose up to $303m.

Britain's HSBC said it had investments of about $1bn that could be affected.

Royal Bank of Scotland said it could potentially lose about £400m if all its investments had to be written off.

The French bank, Natixis, a subsidiary of Caisse d'Epargne and Banque Populaire, said it could potentially lose up to 450m euros.

One of the world's biggest investment groups, Man, said it had invested about $360m through its RMF institutional fund of funds business, representing 0.5% of its total funds.

Banking shares fell around the world on Monday, with Royal Bank of Scotland dropping 3.7%, HSBC losing 1.2% and US banks making up the top four losers on New York's Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Some of the biggest private losers seem to have been members of the Palm Beach country club, where many of Mr Madoff's wealthy clients were recruited.

Charities suffer

However, the collapse of Mr Madoff's firm is also having an impact far beyond the world of the wealthy private investors - many charities have been hit.


FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME

More from Today programme

"It's devastating to people and communities and lives," said Deborah Coltin, of the Robert I Lappin charitable foundation in Massachusetts. It sponsors Jewish educational programmes, but is now being forced to close because of the collapse.

The New York-based JEHT foundation, said it was freezing all its grants and would shut by the end of January. The group is funded by one couple, Jeanne and Kenneth Levy-Church, whose personal investments were managed by Mr Madoff.

Other victims include film director Stephen Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation charity.

Mark Mulholland, a lawyer representing some of those who invested in the scheme, warned that the fraud could be bigger than the Enron scandal of 2001.

"We think the impact on the financial community is ultimately going to be bigger than Enron. This is staggering, it's extraordinary, it's breathtaking what has happened here," he said.

High returns promised

US prosecutors say Mr Madoff, a former head of the Nasdaq stock market, masterminded a fraud of massive proportions through his hedge fund and investment advisory business.


The collapse of Madoff is likely to accelerate the disappearance of hedge funds
Robert Peston
Read Robert Peston's blog
Send us your comments

Mr Madoff is alleged to have used money from new investors to pay off existing investors in the fund.

A federal judge has appointed a receiver to oversee Mr Madoff firm's assets and customer accounts, while the 70-year-old banker was released on $10m bail.

Mr Madoff founded Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities in 1960, but also ran a separate hedge fund business.

According to the US Attorney's criminal complaint filed in court, Mr Madoff told at least three employees on Wednesday that the hedge fund business - which served up to 25 clients and had $17.1bn under management - was a fraud and had been insolvent for years.

He said he was "finished", that he had "absolutely nothing" and "it's all just one big lie", and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme", the complaint said.

If found guilty, US prosecutors say he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m.

Money Talk

Tax relief magic for pension savers

Money Talk By Tom McPhail Hargreaves Lansdown

If the question is, 'Why save in a pension?' then the answer is, because of the tax relief.

Most of us need to put money aside for our retirement.

And there are a variety of ways we can do that: buy residential property, invest in an Isa, stash cash under a mattress and so on.

But the reason that a pension is a fundamental part of the solution for most people is because of the tax breaks the government gives you when you invest in one.

Here, then, is a brief explanation of how it works.

Tax rates

The amount of tax relief you get depends broadly on what rate of income tax you pay.

This actually means that your return on your investment is 28.2%

The one exception to this is non-taxpayers, such as children, who can invest up to £3,600 a year and benefit from basic rate tax relief on their investment, even though they don't pay tax.

Pension contributions are paid net of basic rate tax (currently 22%).

In practice, this means that if you want to make an investment of, say, £100 in your pension, then you actually pay in £78 - which is £100 less the £22 tax relief.

Your pension company then claims the tax relief from the government and adds the £22 to your pension, giving a gross contribution of £100; this happens automatically.

Confusingly, this actually means that your return on your investment is 28.2%, because you have received a £22 gain (the tax relief) for an initial outlay of £78.

Higher rates

For higher rate taxpayers, there is the additional benefit of being able to claim back from the government the difference between the basic rate of 22% and the higher tax rate of 40% - another 18%.

The higher rate relief is calculated on the gross contribution.

So in the above example, the additional relief would be £18.

Nominally therefore, the tax relief is 40%, but because of the way it is calculated, an initial outlay of £78 produces total tax relief of £40 - which is a return of 51%.

You need to claim this higher rate relief from HMRC, either by writing to them or by claiming it on your tax return.

New pension scheme

The government plans to introduce a new pension scheme in 2012, currently called Personal Accounts, for anyone not already in a pension.

From 6 April 2008.... we will all receive a little less tax relief on our pension contributions

The same tax relief system outlined above will apply to contributions made to Personal Accounts when they are up and running.

Now because this is perhaps not quite complicated enough, the system of tax relief works differently for many employer-sponsored company pensions, such as final salary schemes.

Here, your pension contributions are deducted from your income before your tax liability is calculated every month.

So for example, if you earn £1,000 this month, and you are paying £100 into your company pension, then you will only have to pay tax on £900 of your income.

This achieves the same outcome in terms of benefit you enjoy - it just gets there by a different route.

Incentive to save?

Interestingly, the system is weighted heavily in favour of higher rate taxpayers.

Over half of the relief given on individuals' contributions to their pensions goes to higher rate taxpayers, even though they are outnumbered four- or five-to-one by basic rate taxpayers, in terms of numbers of people contributing to a pension.

There are two schools of thought on this issue.

One is that tax relief is granted to incentivise deferred consumption, and in order for the system to work, it has to be granted at the same rate of tax as an individual pays on his or her income.

Otherwise it might be more rational to spend the money now, rather than saving it for later.

So the system should be allowed to continue as it is.

The alternative view of this issue is that the government has limited resources, and so it makes sense to target the tax relief at the people that it most needs to encourage to save for retirement, and that means low to middle-income earners.

So the tax relief system should be redesigned to be weighted more in favour of basic rate taxpayers.

In any event, we will all lose out from 6 April 2008, because on that date the basic rate of income tax will drop from 22% to 20%, and that means that we will all receive a little less tax relief on our pension contributions.

So if you are thinking of investing for your retirement, and particularly if it is a lump sum, then it makes sense to do it before the end of the tax year.

The opinions expressed are those of the author and are not held by the BBC unless specifically stated. The material is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other form of advice. You should not rely on this information to make (or refrain from making) any decisions. Always obtain independent, professional advice for your own particular situation.