18-year-old fast bowler Mohammad Amir gets minimum five-year ban but Salman Butt's international career is effectively over Cricket's credibility suffered a severe blow last night after three Test players from Pakistan were found guilty of corruption by an independent tribunal. The career of Pakistan's 26-year-old-captain, Salman Butt, appears to be finished after he received a 10-year ban from the sport. Mohammad Asif was handed a seven-year ban that will keep him out until he is 35. The third player, Mohammad Amir, can realistically harbour hopes that he will one day return to the sport. The 18-year-old fast bowler's youth appears to have favoured him when he received the minimum tariff for the offence: a five-year ban. Even so, his legal team announced yesterday that he will appeal against the suspension. The International Cricket Council (ICC), the world governing body, confirmed that it had imposed the suspensions after charges under its anti-corruption code were p...

The Day of Departure has passed, but anti-government protesters say they will stay until they get their freedoms back Hosni Mubarak's presidential portrait still hangs in the grey concrete government office block that overshadows Tahrir Square. Demonstrators still pack the streets below, even though the largest protest of the past fortnight on Friday declared the Day of Departure on which Mubarak would finally be driven from power failed to see him toppled. But even as the thousands who fill Tahrir Square each day take on board that it might yet be a long haul to finally ridding themselves of a hated system, they are steeled by an ever more certain sense of victory after a week in which they have warded off the regime's bloody efforts to break their demands for freedom, and heard their ruler finally talk about quitting. With that has come ever greater determination among the protesters to see the showdown through to the end. Tahrir Square was an unusual mixing of Egyptian so...

Prime minister is accused of handing PR coup to the far right Jack Straw calls David Cameron's comments 'ill-judged' David Cameron was accused of playing into the hands of rightwing extremists today as he delivered a controversial speech on the failings of multiculturalism within hours of one of the biggest anti-Islam rallies ever staged in Britain. Muslim and anti-fascist groups questioned the prime minister's judgment and sensitivity to the issues, saying he had handed a propaganda coup to the hard-right English Defence League as 3,000 of its supporters marched through Luton chanting anti-Islamic slogans. Some of crowd were jubilant, saying that Cameron "had come round to our way of thinking". Paul Bradburn, 35, from Stockport, said Cameron was "coming out against extremism". He added: "The timing of his speech is quite weird as it comes on the day of one of the biggest EDL demos we've ever seen. If he wants to start sticking up for us,...

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg taunted over pre-election description of alternative vote as a 'miserable little compromise' Campaigners against electoral reform are to distribute six million leaflets taunting Nick Clegg for describing the proposed alternative vote (AV) system as a "miserable little compromise" before the last general election. The No to AV campaign, whose push to maintain the " first past the post " system is backed by David Cameron, believes that Clegg's assessment of AV last April fatally undermines his case for adopting the method as it shows that even he is unenthusiastic. The leaflet campaign is part of a push by the cross-party "no" camp to associate AV in the public mind with the Liberal Democrat leader and his party, whose popularity has plummeted since the pre-election upsurge of "Cleggmania". The "no" campaign includes veteran Labour veterans and street-fighters such as John Prescott, Margaret ...

About 3,000 far-right activists in Luton for biggest demonstration in the group's history Thousands of far-right activists from the English Defence League descended on Luton yesterday for the biggest demonstration in the organisation's 20-month history. Coachloads of supporters from the group's UK-wide "divisions" arrived from 10am and were joined by far right and Islamophobic groups from across Europe . The EDL and police had predicted a turnout of between 5,000 and 7,000, but as the marchers arrived in St George's Square in the town centre just after 1pm, it appeared that no more than 3,000 had turned out. Despite the smaller numbers there were minor scuffles at the train station as anti-racist protesters tried to prevent EDL supporters getting off trains. More than 2,000 police officers from forces across the south of England escorted the EDL march from the station into the centre of Luton. Some fireworks and bottles were thrown, shops and businesses in the...

The EDL have descended on Luton today for their biggest demonstration to date

About 3,000 far-right activists in Luton for biggest demonstration in the group's history Thousands of far-right activists from the English Defence League have descended on Luton today for the biggest demonstration in the organisation's 20-month history. Coachloads of supporters from the group's UK-wide "divisions" arrived from 10am and were joined by far right and Islamophobic groups from across Europe . The EDL and police had predicted a turnout of between 5,000 and 7,000 but as the marchers arrived in St George's Square in the centre of the town just after 1pm, it appeared that no more than 3,000 had turned out. Despite the smaller numbers there were minor scuffles at the train station as anti-racist protesters tried to prevent EDL supporters getting off trains. More than 2,000 police officers from forces across the south of England escorted the EDL march from the station into the centre of Luton. Some fireworks and bottles were thrown. Shops and businesses...

Reluctance by UK firms to check source of imported wood contributing to devastating deforestation around the world, finds WWF report British firms are still selling wood products that come from questionable sources in parts of the world where illegal logging is having a devastating effect, a new study has revealed. The report found that wood used in kitchen worktops, doors and decking, on sale in the UK, comes from parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Congo Basin where illegal felling is putting animals, plants and people under threat. Numerous species, including the orangutan, are under direct threat of extinction because of the black market trade in timber. The "What Wood You Choose?" study suggested British businesses aren't checking their sources and in some cases are even misleading the public that the wood they are selling has ethical credentials where none exist. New EU timber laws are due to come into force next year, but this WWF-funded study shows few retailers ...

LONDON: A Chinese internet spy ring has penetrated Britain's government computer networks with malicious software, the Guardian reported. British foreign secretary William Hague told a security conference in Munich that his office repelled an attack last month by "a hostile state intelligence agency". Although Hague did not name the country behind the attacks, intelligence sources familiar with the incidents made it clear he was referring to China, the daily said. In his speech Hague talked about concern within the government about increasing threat posed by cyber espionage to steal the country's defence, diplomatic and commercial secrets. "It is a new development. The UK is prepared to admit the attacks were state-backed," said Alexander Neill, head of the Asia programme at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank. The foreign secretary said the attack came in the form of an email sent to three of his staff "which claimed to be about a ...

Author's search for fly-fishing book becomes DJ's hunt for trance mix in search company's update of classic 1980s ad Almost 30 years after lovable gent JR Hartley and his hunt for a book about fly fishing captured the hearts of the nation, the Yellow Pages publisher is to give the famous TV ad a digital-era remake featuring a retired DJ hunting for an old dance record. The original campaign first aired in 1983 featuring actor Norman Lumsden as the fictitious author JR Hartley, who visits a succession of bookshops in a fruitless search of his own book on fly fishing, which is out of print. However, with the help of his daughter and Yellow Pages he traces a copy over the phone and modestly reveals his identity as the author. So many viewers became hooked on JR Hartley that the ad became the subject of spoofs and two books were published under his pseudonym. Yellow Pages has now transformed into Yell and its paper-based directories business is becoming a thing of the past as...

Society loves Gypsies for their romance but loathes them if they come closer. We need a new attitude to the Traveller community Rats in Downing Street? After the rodents showed up on TV news film scuttling around the doors of No 10, David Cameron's people mumbled about getting a cat but a few days later called in the rat-catcher . Queen Victoria would not have hesitated: at the first hint of rats she would have a flunky despatched to fetch the rat-catcher pronto. One of her favourites was Matthias Cooper , a Gypsy and he did not let her down. Summoned one day to Windsor Castle, the Queen's main residence, he caught 50 rats and excitedly spread them on the expensive carpet. Edward, Prince of Wales, gave Cooper half a sovereign a large sum at the time for his work. Or perhaps it was to prevent further carpet damage. "Matty", as he was known, was part of a group of Romanies camped near Claremont House in Esher, Surrey, where Victoria lived as a princess. She came t...

Soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment was serving in Nad-e Ali district A British soldier died in an "operational accident" in Afghanistan yesterday, the Ministry of Defence said. The soldier, from 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, was serving in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand. The MoD said the accident was being investigated, but it is understood the solder died in hospital. Next of kin have been informed. Lieutenant Colonel David Eastman, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "It is my sad duty to report the loss of a soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment. "The soldier was operating in the Nad-e Ali District of central Helmand province when he died as a result of an operational accident, which is currently under investigation. "He has forfeited his life for the greater good, bringing hope to a people struggling to live their daily lives in peace his place in our thoughts is assured. "Our heartfelt condolences are w...

Today's EDL march in Luton has put the interests of a few extremists above the wishes of the majority Several thousand supporters of the English Defence League are marching in Luton today in protest against Islam. What began as a street movement to oppose Islamic fundamentalism has broadened its target to the religion itself. A few hundred metres away, Unite Against Fascism has arranged a counter-demonstration and, separately, a group of local Muslims will be meeting in a park to act as a buttress between the EDL and their neighbourhood. The town centre will be in lockdown, with most roads closed and 2,000 police on duty. For most local people, of all races and religions, today is viewed with dread and fear. Tensions have been building over the last week, and there is a real fear of disorder on the streets. For the EDL, the march is being billed as coming "back where it began". The group was formed in the town in the summer of 2009 as a response to a handful of Islamic ...

PM says those who don't hold 'British' values will be shunned by government David Cameron will today signal a sea-change in the government fight against home-grown terrorism, saying the state must confront, and not consort with, the non-violent Muslim groups that are ambiguous about British values such as equality between sexes, democracy and integration. To belong in Britain is to believe in these values, he will say. Claiming the previous government had been the victim of fear and muddled thinking by backing a state-sponsored form of multiculturalism, the prime minister will state that his government "will no longer fund or share platforms with organisations that, while non-violent, are certainly in some cases part of the problem". In a major speech to a security conference in Munich, he will demand: "We need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism." He will say that "some organisations that se...

footballer Nicola Jennings

Andrew Lansley's market-inspired methods make Labour's reforms seem like tinkering The NHS in England was changing even before Andrew Lansley caught everyone unawares last summer with the radicalism of his reform white paper. It was in mid-2009, under the Labour government, that NHS chief executive David Nicholson first told the service that rising costs, growing demand and the end of a series of huge year-on-year budget increases meant it would have to make 15bn-20bn of efficiency savings in the three years starting in April this year. That is the main reason why so many hospitals are now shrinking their workforce, so far through natural wastage. It also explains why so many primary care trusts (PCTs) have started restricting, or planning to restrict, what they offer patients. Cuts to IVF and homeopathy make news. But the growing number of PCTs postponing or abandoning elective surgery on tonsils, varicose veins, hip and knee replacements will affect far more patients, and r...

RCN doubts reforms will achieve aims of putting patients at the centre of care and driving up standards The Royal College of Nursing doubts the reforms will achieve their aims of putting patients at the centre, reducing inefficiency and driving up standards. Forcing through such big changes at a time when hospitals are shedding staff, demand is rising and the NHS has to save 20bn by 2015 is highly unwise, says Dr Peter Carter, the RCN's chief executive and general secretary. Nurses are opposed to "unjustified" plans to abolish the private income cap, the amount NHS foundation trust hospitals can earn from private patients. They fear state-funded hospitals will be tempted to put those patients ahead of NHS ones. About half of hospitals are foundation trusts; all will be by 2014. The bill does not enshrine patients' supposedly central place in the new NHS. "There is no requirement for the NHS Commissioning Board, [GP] commissioning consortiums or HealthWatch Englan...

Deputy PM says shedding debt is key to prosperity as Ed Miliband attacks 'sell-out of the next generation' Nick Clegg has defended the government against charges made by business leaders and opposition politicians that the government has no plans for growth, but admitted ministers had no magic lever. Faced by charges that the government programme is simply a plan to cut the deficit, he said unwinding the toxic legacy of debt was a vital precondition of a growth plan. But the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, claimed in a rival speech that catastrophic spending cuts were one reason prosperity was no longer going to be passed from one generation to the next. He set out a vision of the British promise a homegrown version of the American dream which he claimed was being broken because a new generation was being stripped of the right to jobs, higher education, apprenticeships, child trust funds and the security of a welfare state. "Selling out the next generation is the ultimate sh...

Shares in parent company HMV rise as speculation mounts about intentions of entrepreneur turned novelist Tim Waterstone The entrepreneur turned novelist Tim Waterstone was today considering making a sixth bid in 12 years for the eponymous bookshop he founded in 1982. Shares in Waterstone's owner, the struggling entertainment group HMV, shot up by 9% today as speculation mounted that it would put the bookseller up for sale and that its founder was plotting a bid with Alexander Mamut, a Russian billionaire with a 6.1% stake in HMV. "I just can't comment at this stage. Sorry to be obtuse," Waterstone said when asked if he was considering a bid with Mamut, who owns Evroset, a Russian mobile phone retailer. Waterstone, who last month said he was still interested in the bookshop, previously invested with Mamut in Bookberry, a now bankrupt Russian bookstore chain. HMV declined to comment, but sources said the group, whose high street music business has been hit by online riv...

Stephen Lennon says police have urged him to leave his home before English Defence League's anti-Islamist protest in Luton The founder of the English Defence League claims he has been warned that his life is in danger if he leads a protest in Luton. Stephen Lennon, 28, said senior police officers were urging him to leave his home town ahead of the anticipated arrival of thousands of EDL supporters . The militant anti-Islamist campaigner said he was under police protection. He claimed Bedfordshire police had issued him with an "Osman warning", which are given by the police to advise individuals that they are at serious risk of being killed by someone who appears to have the capability to make good their threat. Lennon, who routinely wears a bulletproof vest, said the warning followed a text message threatening to kill his children. He said a written warning given to him by police states the Islamic community are "agitated" by tomorrow's EDL demonstration. The...

Jonathan Freedland has Riazat Butt and Jon Henley in the studio for another instalment of the Week in review . The panel begin by discussing the 10 days of violence in Egypt that's left the country on the brink. How will the revolution taking place before our very eyes affect the region and a watching world? Middle East editor Ian Black shares his thoughts. Also in the podcast, we talk lies, damn lies, and botched statistics. David Schneider gives his take on the much-vaunted police crime map, which crashed shortly after its launch. Plus, with hundreds of millions spent in the final days of English football's transfer window we wonder whether the pampered millionaires of the Premier League will remain forever insulated from the economic chill. Finally, the Guardian's resident HBO expert Steve Busfield gives us the skinny on Boardwalk Empire as we try to tackle the question tormenting Guardianistas everywhere: It could be the greatest TV channel of all time, but is i...

While it may not be illegal to dial-and-ride, you can be prosecuted for careless and inconsiderate cycling If my phone rings while I'm cycling, normally I won't answer. I'm basically concerned for my safety I'm not sure I could co-ordinate riding along and digging my phone out of my pocket at the same time. Unfortunately some callers seem to have an uncanny knack of knowing when I'm on my bike, and will keep phoning until I stop. I think the record so far is five calls before I finally gave up and pulled over. If you see someone riding along with a Vampire Weekend ringtone playing on repeat that's me. People disagree on whether talking on your mobile while cycling is a good idea. Jon Snow, the face of Channel 4 news and president of the national cyclists' organisation the CTC, has said he thinks dial-and-riding should be banned . In the opposing camp is the London mayor, Boris Johnson, who has written in support of cyclists' freedom to make phone call...

Designer Amy Westcott hits back over reported complaints by sisters behind Rodarte label about how little credit they had received for outfits Baftas night looms, but as attention inevitably focuses on how many prizes the King's Speech will win next weekend, a ruckus in the world of fashion threatens to distract film fans' attention from Britain's answer to the Oscars. A row is escalating over the costumes worn in Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky's brilliantly over-the top ballet psychodrama, which has been nominated for five Oscars and 12 Baftas. As the British Academy of Film and Television Arts readies itself for its awards night in London, its nomination last month for Black Swan's costume designer Amy Westcott has been soured by an extraordinary row over the proper credit rights on the film with Laura and Kate Mulleavy, the duo behind the cult, grungey fashion label Rodarte. The fashion world was excited when it was revealed that the Mulleavy sisters had designed c...

Web producer reveals where the costs come from in work for Information Commissioner's Office In an office in London, a web designer uses a larger version of a web logo to create a "favicon" a 32-by-32 pixel version that will be visible in the address bar of a browser when people visit the Information Commissioner's Office website. Though the creation process is quite simple, confirming that it has been done correctly is not: what's been generated has to be created against a set of "functional specifications" laid out in the contract for the job colours, sizes, a long array of confirmations quite separate from the task of making the actual item. That bumps up the time taken to between two and three "billable hours" for the designer, who works at Reading Room based in Soho one of the UK's biggest web agencies, with turnover of 12m and 170 staff whose time is charged at 600 per eight-hour day, significantly lower than many in the business. ...