More generally, the list reflects the shifting patterns of the global economy. India, the hot new star of Asian growth, now boasts 23 billionaires with a total worth of $99bn, more than the combined $67bn estimated wealth of their 27 counterparts in Japan. David Sainsbury, of the supermarket group, slipped to 486th place, with a fortune of $1.6bn (£921m). They were followed once again by the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish, whose vast property holdings in central London gave him a net worth of $6.1bn (£3.5bn). Another pair of press barons, the Barclay brothers, feature in 245th place with a net worth of $2.8bn (£1.6bn), the same as Sir Richard Branson. Once again, the richest Britons were Philip and Cristina Green, owners of the BhS high street chain, with a net worth of $7bn (£4bn), putting them in 74th place overall. 746 with an estimated fortune of exactly $1bn (£576m at present exchange rates), other newcomers are the property investors David and Simon Reuben, with combined wealth of $3.7bn (£2.1bn).

Mr Dyson is tied with J K Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, and Richard Desmond, owner of the Express Group newspapers. Britain’s billionaire contingent is a mixture of old and new faces Apart from Mr Dyson, who slips in at No. Europe has 196 billionaires, worth a combined $802trn, up $128bn on 2005 Germany has 55, more than any country apart from the US. 7, Canada’s Kenneth Thompson and family at No 9, and Li Ka-shing, from Hong Kong, at No 10. Members of this exclusive club hail from 49 countries, but as usual the US dominates, with 371 billionaires – almost half the total. The list was headed, as it has been for the past 12 years, by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, worth $50bn, who has widened his lead over his eternal rival, the Omaha-based investor Warren Buffett Mr Buffett’s wealth actually dropped, from $44bn to $42bn Moving into the top 10 are Bernard Arnault of France at No.

A security van belonging to the company targeted in Britain’s biggest robbery has been raided, provoking fears that the firm is falling victim to copycat attacks. Hundreds of thousands of pounds were stolen when robbers rammed the van with a tractor in Warrington, Cheshire, on Wednesday evening. Men wearing balaclavas used a lorry to trap the van at a junction before smashing a tractor into the rear. The raiders attacked the van with crowbars and set light to it before fleeing with the cash. The Securitas drivers were unhurt and were interviewed by police yesterday.
The raid happened a fortnight after an armed gang stole £53m cash from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent. This has been a protracted and difficult period for all persons involved and was initially borne out of the tragic racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and the attack on Duwayne Brooks.”The terms of this settlement include a written letter of apology and financial compensation, which was authorised by the Metropolitan Police Authority.”A force spokeswoman confirmed that the figure was £100,000..

Duwayne Brooks was present when his 18-year-old friend was stabbed in April 1993 in Eltham, south east London, and he telephoned for an ambulance.
However, he claimed that he was later treated as a criminal by the police, and went on to suffer from severe post traumatic stress disorder.In a statement today, Scotland Yard said: “The Metropolitan Police Service can confirm that it has reached a settlement regarding civil actions brought by Duwayne Brooks against the Metropolitan Police Service.”The claimant has agreed to discontinue a claim against a number of named individuals.”The claims against the Commissioner have been settled. If, as looks certain, peers refuse to give way, it will be sent back to MPs on Thursday, with the prospect of “parliamentary ping-pong” continuing between the two chambers.. Scotland Yard has agreed to pay the surviving victim of the racist attack on Stephen Lawrence compensation of £100,000 following complaints he made about his treatment by the force, it emerged today. They insisted the measure amounted to “compulsion by stealth” and broke Labour’s manifesto promise that the scheme would initially be voluntary.After the Commons vote on Monday, the Bill will return to the Lords on Wednesday.

He has told colleagues he is prepared to keep MPs and peers sitting late into next week in an effort to force the legislation on to the statute book.A Home Office source said: “We have had clear Commons majorities on the principle of the Bill. If the Lords refuse to give way, the question will become which House has precedence.”Peers voted to remove provisions in the Bill that would require all people applying for a passport to enter their details on the proposed national identity register. The Government was defeated by a margin of 61 in the Lords on Monday on a central element of the ID card scheme, an increase on the majority of 44 two months ago.Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, has decided to overturn the defeat next Monday in the Commons, setting the scene for a tug-of-war between the two Houses. They warn that further parliamentary wrangling could delay plans to issue the first ID cards in 2008-09.
The issue will come to a head the day after Tony Blair’s showdown with backbench dissidents over plans to set up a new generation of independent “trust schools”.

Mr Murphy was not among the people arrested.Police said they had removed 12 vehicles and seized £200,000 cash, in sterling and euros. They also found more than 20,000 cigarettes and a substantial amount of fuel.The attention being devoted to Mr Murphy is in marked contrast to the pattern of most of his long republican career, since he used to attract surprisingly little harassment from police in Northern Ireland or in the Republic.He has never been convicted of any offence, though years ago he suffered a legal blow when he humiliatingly lost a libel case against a newspaper which had accused him of IRA involvement. The exercise, one of the largest of its kind staged, is part of an intensive investigation into a local farmer Thomas “Slab” Murphy. He is regarded by the authorities as a key figure in charge of IRA finances.
Gardai in the Republic arrested two men and a woman believed to be in their 50s and 60s during the operation which involved up to 400 security personnel. Police on both sides of the Irish border have stepped up their pursuit of IRA money and assets with a large-scale search and seizure operation centred on the South Armagh area. Keeler was found guilty on unrelated perjury charges and sentenced to nine months in prison.. After his claim that there had been “no impropriety whatever”, Profumo finally admitted that he had lied to the Government about the affair and tendered his resignation in a letter to the Prime Minister.

A month later, Macmillan resigned, his ill-health exacerbated by the scandal. Ward was prosecuted for living on immoral earnings and committed suicide. His brief affair with Keeler began after he was introduced to her by osteopath Stephen Ward at Lord Astor’s Cliveden country estate in Berkshire in July 1961. Rumours about the affair became public in 1963, as did the revelation that Keeler had also had a relationship with Ivanov. He entered the Commons in 1940 aged 25, becoming the youngest MP in the House. Macmillan made him Secretary of State for War in July 1960 with a brief to boost Army recruitment following the end of conscription.

They are part of a growing trend of couples who aspire to set up a business together. “It’s that whole ‘walk away from civvy street, from the nine-to-five commuting’ thing”, says Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses. “Luckily, we can’t get enough of each other, because running a business is a full-on, massive amount of work, and we spend almost every hour of the day and night together as a result.

In her view, only truly compatible couples should contemplate such a venture. Suzy Thomas, mother of a three-year-old boy and one-year-old twins, runs Wicked Tickles, selling bedroom “accoutrements” online, with husband Greg She agrees wholeheartedly. Going into business with your partner is like having a baby – it will either cement the relationship, or finish it off.” That’s the warning that Sherridan Hughes, a psychologist with Career Analysts, gives to couples she sees that are looking for advice on starting up a business. Or you can get in your car and visit your clients for private lessons.As a freelance personal trainer, you can earn between £30 and £100 an hour. If you work as an instructor in a gym, salaries start at £13,000 to £16,000 per year, plus commission – although that depends on the gym and your level of experience..

You can work in a gym, teaching classes and giving personal training sessions. People are never satisfied with their bodies – often you have to tell them not to be too harsh on themselves.How’s the salary and career progression?Once you are qualified and registered as a fitness instructor or personal trainer with the Register of Exercise Professionals, you can start to build up a client base. Clients expect you to motivate them, and to work as hard as they do. You need to be a good listener who’s able to counsel people like a friend, giving them advice on nutrition and lifestyle as well as exercise. It’s more than just telling people to do push-ups – you need to explain why the exercise works, and be flexible in how you convey that message. People may understand better if you physically show them how to do something, instead of just telling them. You need to be able to spot and correct any muscle imbalances, to improve their technique.What sort of skills should a good personal trainer have?Personality counts for a lot.

I design an exercise programme tailored for them, taking injuries and special conditions into account. Sometimes people come in with an unrealistic image of what they want to look like. I try to meet them halfway, educating them so that they become more confident and aware of how amazing and capable the body is – not just its shape.Is there any advice you’d give someone with their eye on your job?You need to be properly qualified, with a diploma in first aid Being experienced and fit is not enough Clients expect you to have theoretical knowledge. Clients come in with their own fitness objectives for a consultation. Exercise is so important; it makes people feel good about themselves and releases happy hormones.

All these are within reach of the intrepid gap-year traveller willing to risk the odd bout of culture shock (and tummy trouble).
“I chose India because it was a challenge, and very different to the world I’m used to,” says Lizzie Russell, 22, who has been working in a school for underprivileged children in Calcutta. Modern India is the world’s largest democracy and has its second-largest population and seventh-largest area, enveloping myriad landscapes, from the mountain lakes of Srinagar to the Himalayan peaks; from the beaches of Goa to the banks of the Ganges; from the sprawling slums of Mumbai to the deserts of Rajasthan. To his dismay, the only condition from which he suffered on the subcontinent was constipation Always expect the unexpected from India. He’d developed a bit of a paunch with all that comfort eating at A-level time, and heard that India was the best place to lose weight with a quick spell of aggressive diarrhoea. However, there is rigour in his restlessness for which the reward is insight.

Beautifully translated, the meditations on place and time in Nomad’s Hotel achieve a potent state of non-completion.. A friend travelled to India on his gap year. Nooteboom dislikes people who feel “at home exclusively in the present”. He has deve-loped a prose cleansed of living, speaking people, and can overindulge his “musings”. His take on Aran becomes a paean to the devoted writer of a definitive portrait of the place. The key is his embrace of a state of “non-being”, which opens him to the otherness of a place: mostly, its past. He enters Venice with foreboding, “like a bird” from “one watery city to another”, but leaves it distinctly renewed.

Here his “friends” are statues, zoo animals and empty churches. Yet for all the melancholic mapping by religious and literary memorials, Nooteboom’s grip on a place remains inimitable. In Europe – Munich, Zurich, Venice and the Aran islands – familiarity breeds historical riddles: “everything is charged with meaning” Europe is always a solitary place for Nooteboom. In Africa, he knows he will not return and can only sketch, but this testimony is exceptionally acute. These light-footed accounts are very much of their time, but mostly resist the kind of Occidental conceit that allows him once to identify a minaret with a “clenched fist” He marvels at Iran’s ancientness and finds much else homely. For Nooteboom, the past is the new frontier, his obsessive attraction to it “a form of sickness, surely?”.
Born in 1933, Nooteboom was 40 when he ventured up river in Gambia and Mali, to Marrakech and to the heart of Iran. He begins by drawing on Arabian philosophy for theses on “voyaging” as a “pilgrimage” not towards God, but “mystery”.

This began when a number of us patched together the outline for the first Gates Scholars Council. The council is in its fourth year now, and seems to be the heart of the Gates Community.” SMcC. Academically, I loved the strong collaborative atmosphere, the open attitude and free exchange of ideas. A real highlight was having my first scientific publication in a peer-reviewed journal, which I managed to squeak out within the first year, with the help of my supervisors.The Gates side of life was a unique, memorable experience. The scholars were incredibly bright, had amazing amounts of energy, and came from a wide variety of backgrounds. But, after acclimatising, the rest of my time counts among of the best years of my life. At Cambridge his research was in molecular biochemistry, focusing on immune systems.

He’s now back in the US, working as a policy adviser at the US Department of Health and Human Services, concentrating on the international dimension of bird ‘flu.”In the first three months at Cambridge, I had a bad combination of culture-shock and home-sickness. “And they’ve been brought up in a different culture: corporate identity, cheerleading, overtly competitive. That can have awful side effects, and they don’t always get it right. It doesn’t do any harm to remind people of that.”Andrew Robertson: ‘The scholars were incredibly bright – and had amazing amounts of energy’Andrew Robertson, 28, was a Gates Scholar at Cambridge between 2001 and 2005, having done a first degree, and Master’s, at the University of California, San Diego.

“Some of them (the US students) tried to use the Gates scholarship to make a name for themselves, appointing themselves as spokesmen and so on, and that was quite annoying,” she says. She’s also critical of the way in which a lunch visit by Bill Gates was handled.”He was put on a table surrounded by fellow American students, so he would feel comfortable, presumably, which seemed a lost opportunity for him as much as for anyone else.”Although these reminiscences are a few years old, Johnson does not deny that he has to guard against the American Gates scholars becoming too influential.”The Americans constitute a very large minority,” he explains. She thought the preponderance of American scholars made it difficult for the others to feel part of the community. But not every scholar leaves with an entirely positive view of this side of the Cambridge experience.Nushin Arbabzadah, who was born in Afghanistan, but educated in Germany, did an MPhil in Middle Eastern history between 2001 and 2003. “We get about 80 or 90 scholars and other interested people along to the lectures, which gives us a profile around Cambridge.”The councils organise an annual orientation camping trip for new arrivals every autumn, something that appears to have solidified the esprit de corps further. He’s responsible for organising lectures by visiting speakers.

He sees the council’s work as important for the coherence of Gates scholars during their time at Cambridge and beyond. “We play a large role in making sure that the trust, the scholars and the student body grow into something wider than just a Cambridge phenomenon,” he explains.Another council member, John Prendergast, is an engineer from Ireland, working on the influence of wind on flexible structures. A key attraction is the chance to exploit the variety of contacts offered by the university community, but efforts are also made to engender a Gates family feel.They have their own common room in a central university building and there’s a scholars’ council that organises communal events and represents individual views to the trust and the university authorities.Chairing the council is Michael Motto, from the US, who’s nearing the end of a criminology PhD, in which he’s looking at policing diversity, and focusing on the London and New York forces. However, Johnson is confident that, in time, the quality of scholars will shine through.”I know of some of our scientists who are very highly thought of, and am also aware of a former scholar who is doing some great things in the medical research field in a tropical country,” he says.At any one time, there are around 250 Gates scholars spread around the Cambridge departments and colleges.

On the one side, there was a feeling of exaltation, a sense that we all stood together. He later became general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, a position he held for nine years. “I was still at school but I used to run between the men delivering messages for the local strike authority, so it felt like I was striking too I still remember it vividly. I wanted to stand up and fight for the possibility of women to have their own lives.” Jack Jones aged 92, from Camberwell Jack Jones was 13 years old when his brothers and father went on strike. “The strike did affect me – it affects your attitude towards all of life I was very influenced by what I saw.

She started washing and cleaning for anyone and everyone because it was all we could do A woman on her own had nothing Without a man behind them they barely existed. A lot of the men spent their spare time in the workman’s hall in the library. They spent their time reading books, learning about the Marxist philosophy “My mother was a widow. My mother, who had struggled incredibly hard, was utterly humiliated by having to give these details. I also remember people having to walk miles to try to find work …

There was certainly good community spirit in south Wales – people supported one another. “What I particularly remember are the long queues of people waiting to be means-tested by the parish relief officer The worst thing about the strike was the means-testing It was dreadfully difficult to get any money at all .. [people] were forced to divulge all personal details “It was pretty awful for people in this area. People got food on credit because they couldn’t afford to pay No one could. Miners continued to resist but many were literally starved back to work By November most had given up.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, also called last week for the release on bail of the detainees.The Ethiopian ambassador to London, Berhanu Kebede, yesterday denied the trial called into question Ethiopia’s commitment to human rights “These trials … will be a crucial test of the independence and impartiality of the Ethiopian judiciary,” said the director of Amnesty International’s Africa programme, Kolawole Olaniyan. Critics of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government say that the poll was rigged.
The defendants, described by Amnesty International as “prisoners of conscience who have not used or advocated violence,” were charged with treason, inciting violence and attempting to commit genocide in December, after at least 80 people were killed in post-election violence between protesters and security forces.The election and ensuing crackdown tarnished the reputation of Mr Meles, a former close ally of Tony Blair, prompting donors, including Britain and the European Union, to halt direct budgetary aid to the sub-Saharan African country.The prosecutor, Shimeles Kemal, said yesterday: “We will present audio, video, documents and human witnesses to prove that leaders of the opposition, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and some journalists were guilty of treason and attempted genocide against supporters of the government.”Human rights watchdogs have criticised the trial, with Amnesty International urging the Ethiopian government to free the defendants, including CUD chairman Hailu Shawel and the human rights campaigner Mesfin Wolde Mariam who, the organisation said, were on hunger strike.”This… Dozens of Ethiopian opposition leaders accused of plotting to overthrow the government appeared in court charged with treason and attempted genocide in a trial condemned by human rights groups as “absurd.”

Dressed in sombre black clothing with their hands clapped over their mouths in protest at the charges, 111 opposition leaders, independent journalists and civil rights activists were accused of conspiring with Eritrean-backed rebels to spark violent clashes in the aftermath of last year’s elections.

Government has only recently returned from KenyaHaitiMassive human rights abuse and popular unrest followed a US-backed regime changePakistanTensions between secular government and popular Islamist pressureAfghanistanTaliban insurgency on rise again and government hemmed in at KabulList compiled by the US magazine Foreign Policy. The attackers were described as belonging to the Janjaweed Arab militia that the Sudanese government is accused of using against Darfur civilians in response to the rebellion.The fact that the Sudanese government is believed to be backing the Chadian insurgents only complicates the situation.”There’s a risk that if D?’s regime collapses, then the refugee camps will not be protected,” Olivier Bercault of Human Rights Watch said.More than 200,000 refugees are sheltering in camps inside Chad, having already fled Darfur after attacks by the Janjaweed.The top 10 failed statesSudanChaos in western region of Darfur has undermined the peace dividend from the end of the north/south civil warDemocratic Republic of CongoMillions have been displaced by a bloody internal conflict that has lasted for decadesIvory CoastProtracted civil war has shattered country and government has only now met after two-year hiatusIraqIn political deadlock and on the verge of civil war after US-led invasion toppled Saddam HusseinZimbabweFacing starvation and in economic freefall under the regime of Robert MugabeChadDestabilised by Darfur fightingSomaliaStill in near anarchy under warlords. “Chad should evidently be higher on the international list because … the crises in Darfur and Chad have converged to a point where it would be impossible to settle one without addressing the other.”Albissaty Saleh Allazam, a spokesman for the FUC rebel group, said: “I can tell you that there will certainly be another action, even more striking.”The UN refugee agency said four Chadians were killed and five wounded on Monday near a refugee camp by a group of 150 armed men. would cease,” Mr Chaiban said in an interview.The fighting in Darfur has destabilised neighbouring Chad, where President Idriss D? is almost certain to extend his 16-year rule as the country heads to the polls today.Chad’s main opposition parties are boycotting the poll, which leaves Mr D?, who changed the constitution so he could stand for a third term, facing four candidates that are either officials in his government or lead parties allied to him.It is only three weeks since a rebel attack on the capital and analysts have warned that the President’s playing down of the insurgency could see Chad slide into a civil war.Chadian rebels, who have vowed to oust Mr D?, forced their way inside the gates of the capital N’djamena before being repelled by government forces.”It spells civil war,” said Suliman Baldo, Africa programme director at the International Crisis Group think-tank.

AU officials said yesterday there may be another two-day extension.Ted Chaiban, who heads Sudan operations for Unicef, said that attacks were escalating in several areas in Darfur. Mr Chaiban said the factions were probably expecting a treaty and were jockeying to hold the most territory before a ceasefire was declared.”It is important that the agreement be signed so that this kind of jockeying … The scale of the crisis put Sudan ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the previous poll topper, Somalia, as well as Iraq.The Darfur peace talks, taking place in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, have dragged on for two years, with mediators expressing frustration at the warring parties’ unwillingness to compromise or to respect a ceasefire.The African Union had set a deadline on Sunday, but extended the talks by 48 hours when the rebels rejected an AU draft agreement. As the sun sets and the tourists order another round of drinks, the party is still going on But it may not be for much longer.. The humanitarian crisis in Darfur, which is now spilling over into neighbouring Chad, has pushed Sudan to the top of the Global Index of Failed States.

The report – compiled by the American magazine Foreign Policy and the think- tank Fund for Peace – was published as diplomats from Britain and the US flew to Africa to push for a peace settlement in Darfur.
African nations made up six of the top 10 failed states in the study and the regional impact of the Darfur crisis was reflected in Chad’s presence at number six.The US trade representative, Robert B Zoellick, and Britain’s International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, made unexpected arrivals at the talks in Nigeria in an attempt to pressure rebels and the Sudanese government into striking a deal before a midnight deadline last night.The failed states index ranked nations by giving them a score based on criteria such as the massive movement of refugees and internally displaced peoples, widespread violation of human rights and intervention of other states.The three-year internal conflict in Darfur has led to the deaths of at least 180,000 people and the displacement of more than two million. I guess there is another option, for the international community to find some way to put pressure.” With the violence intensifying by the day, the future looks bleak for paradise. The repercussions of the violence in the east are already being felt along the beach resorts of the south and west. “The only option the government has is to strike the LTTE at its roots, and that means war. Col Karuna, which is the nom de guerre for Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, is formerly the Tigers’ most senior field commander and represents a real threat to Tiger security.In a full-scale war, the Tigers may well believe they can win back the major towns they once controlled, Jaffna and Batticaloa.”The present situation can’t continue,” says Dr Perera.

But six months after the election, Respect still owed £52,241, about one sixth of the total amount – £320,716 – that it spent on the election. The law says political parties have to settle election bills within 42 days, as a precaution against running up debts they cannot pay. George Galloway’s Respect party broke electoral law by leaving a trail of debts equivalent to more than £2,000 for each candidate it fielded in last year’s general election. We had absolutely nothing,” he said.Sarah Chapman, whose brother Sgt Bob O’Connor died on the Hercules, said she first heard of the foam at the publication of an inquiry report last December. She said:”I was absolutely devastated.I tried to ask questions at the time, but I was railroaded off It was like ‘Go away, girl’.”.

“We are really going back almost to the Second World War here. all aircraft should be fitted with fire suppressants in fuel tanks”.Mr Gilbert described how he and his colleagues were reduced to putting coils of chain under their aircraft seats to protect them from small-arms fire and depended on sightings of ground fire as the only means of security. A former RAF pilot, Nigel Gilbert, said yesterday: “Last week, we placed the defence ministers on notice of corporate manslaughter [if] they lose more lives on a Hercules aircraft due to lack of protective equipment.”It has emerged that an internal RAF document endorsed the pilots’ plea from Iraq According to one passage: “… The aircraft had not been fitted with explosive-suppressant foam devices which the pilots had asked for two years after it was hit by fire from the ground on 30 January 2005.
Hercules aircraft now being sent to Afghanistan have also not been fitted with the safety equipment.

The shooting down of a Hercules plane with the loss of 10 lives – the biggest single number of British casualties during the Iraq war – may have been prevented if the Government had agreed to an urgent appeal for safety equipment from RAF pilots, it was claimed yesterday. It will also be told that lack of faith in politics and disillusion with the political system are now so endemic that it cannot be left to politicians to solve themselves .Since the inquiry first reported, the “cash for honours” scandal has sent two of its key recommendations – a mainly elected House of Lords and more state political funding – higher up the Government’s agenda.But commission members want the Government to adopt all the report’s central planks, including an end to the first-past-the-post system, rather adopting a “pick and mix” approach.. It shows an appreciation of one of the biggest issues facing Britain – the parlous state of our democracy. It is a pity that the Labour Party, the party of government, is not able to put forward a senior figure to reflect on why people feel politicians are not listening to them. I am sure delegates will draw their own conclusions.”The Liberal Democrats’ long-standing interest in democratic reform will also be highlighted by speeches from Simon Hughes, the party’s president, and Chris Huhne, the environment spokesman.

Other speakers include representatives from think-tanks, pressure groups and academics. Both Mr Cameron and Sir Menzies will answer questions from the audience.The conference will be told by members of the Power Commission that large-scale reforms of party funding, the voting system, the House of Lords, and the control of power by the Government are now urgent. He is keen to boost the powers of Parliament, a key theme of the Power report, to restore trust and credibility in what he calls a “new politics”.Ferdinand Mount, vice-chairman of the Power Commission, has joined a Tory policy review group on democracy, chaired by the former cabinet minister Kenneth Clarke, which will draw up reform proposals next year.Other speakers at the conference include Douglas Alexander, the minister for Europe; Harriet Harman, the Constitutional Affairs minister; and the Labour MP Ed Miliband – all close allies of Gordon Brown, who welcomed the Power report and may bring in some of its recommendations to bolster the role of Parliament if he becomes Prime Minister.Organisers are disappointed that Mr Brown and Tony Blair have turned down invitations to address the conference.Pam Giddy, the inquiry’s director, said: “We are delighted that David Cameron and Ming Campbell are willing to come along and speak at the Power conference. More than 600 people have already applied for tickets for the all-day event at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre at Westminster.Mr Cameron’s decision to address the conference is a sign that the Tory leader takes constitutional reform seriously. David Cameron and Sir Menzies Campbell will address a conference staged by the Power Commission, which issued a landmark report in February calling for urgent reforms to prevent “meltdown” – including the introduction of proportional representation at general elections as demanded by The Independent’s Campaign for Democracy.
The inquiry, chaired by the Labour peer and QC Helena Kennedy, is holding a follow-up “Power to the People” conference on Saturday to discuss its next moves.

Without it, our young people are not ready to face the challenges of the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century.” The survey, carried out in December 2005, also found fewer than three in 10 think it is important to know the locations of countries in the news; only 14 per cent believe another language is a necessary skill; 47 per cent could not find India on a map and 75 per cent could not locate Israel. “I think this is born out of a sense that [people believe] ‘I can be isolated here – culturally and geographically. I don’t need to think too much about what’s happening in the rest of the world’.” He added: “Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from our world. It shows the knowledge is pretty appalling,” said John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society, which commissioned the survey.

When asked to point on a map to a location that avoids hurricane strikes – ie, the north-west of the US – around a third pointed in the wrong direction “It’s not good … Despite the chaos caused by Hurricane Katrina, which killed hundreds of people and cost billions of dollars when it struck the Gulf Coast last August, one-third of those questioned were not able to find Louisiana on a map of the US. Indeed, more than 40 per cent cannot locate Pakistan in Asia But it is not just overseas knowledge that is lacking The survey shows that domestic geography is also poor. Two-thirds do not know that the October 2005 earthquake that killed 70,000 people struck in Pakistan. But the survey suggests that such an attitude- both culturally and in terms of interest in overseas travel – is having a woeful impact on Americans’ ability to learn about the wider world.
The survey shows that, despite having invaded Iraq three years ago, six out of 10 Americans aged 18 to 24 cannot locate the country.

Traditionally, the US has bowed to the idea of isolationism, hoping that geography in the form of vast oceans can help act as a protection from other nations. A new survey shows young Americans have what can only be described as shoddy geography skills, with six out of 10 unable to locate Iraq on a map and almost half incapable of pointing to the state of Mississippi. Within weeks he was arrested in the Canary Islands.In Brussels, officials said talks with Serbia could be resumed as soon as Mladic was in The Hague, or when Belgrade convinces Ms Del Ponte it is co-operating fully.. The US may be the world’s only true superpower but global domination does not equal global knowledge.