Four battle to be The Apprentice

17 July 2011 Last updated at 03:49 GMT Margaret Mountford returns to grill the finalists Four finalists are set to battle it out to be crowned winner of the seventh season of BBC One's The Apprentice.

Jim Eastwood, Susan Ma, Helen Milligan and Tom Pellereau are all competing to hear the words "You're hired" by judge Lord Sugar.

The winner will receive a ?250,000 investment from the Amstrad boss to start or expand their own business.

The final will also see the return of advisor Margaret Mountford who grills the finalists on their business plans.

Lord Sugar's right-hand woman was replaced by football boss Karen Brady after Mountford left the show in 2009 to pursue academic studies.

Of the contestants, skincare entrepreneur Ma has faced Lord Sugar three times in the boardroom as has inventor Pellereau.

Milligan, an executive assistant to a CEO, has been called back to the boardroom just the once, while Eastwood, a sales and marketing manager from Northern Ireland, has made two boardroom appearances.

Business heavyweights Claude Littner, Mike Soutar and Matthew Riley will also grill the finalists before the final showdown with Lord Sugar.

The Apprentice final is on BBC One at 2100 BST and for the following seven days on the iPlayer.

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Mitchell urges Africa aid action

16 July 2011 Last updated at 13:05 GMT Andrew Mitchell: "Britain is putting its shoulder to the wheel... to stop this becoming a catastrophe"

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has urged the global community to help people in drought-hit east Africa to avoid a "catastrophe".

It comes as the UK pledged ?52.25m in emergency aid to help millions of people affected by the disaster.

Mr Mitchell, who is visiting Kenya, said the money would be used there, as well as in Somalia and Ethiopia.

The World Food Programme estimates 10 million people are affected by the worst drought in over half a century.

And the United Nation's Children's Fund believes about two million young people are malnourished.

The international development secretary said the situation was "getting worse" and urged the international community to do more.

Continue reading the main story Martin Plaut Africa analyst, BBC News

Providing aid inside Somalia is now a major priority. The UN's refugee agency estimates that nearly one-and-a-half million Somalis have been forced from their homes and are internally displaced by the drought.

Until very recently, helping them had been very difficult indeed. The Islamic militants of al-Shabaab, who control most of the south and the centre of the country, have only recently lifted their ban on outside aid agencies operating in their areas.

Children's fund Unicef has airlifted food to Baidoa, north-west of the capital, for the first time in years. The Red Cross is opening 10 new feeding centres in the Afgoye corridor, near the capital. And medical charity MSF is providing nutrition to children at a spontaneously formed camp of about 5,000 people at Jilib, on the Juba river.

It shows that aid can now get through to areas controlled by Islamists that were, until very recently, out of bounds to the aid agencies.

Mr Mitchell is currently visiting the Dadaab camp in Kenya, which is overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the parched landscape in the region where Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya meet.

He estimates that there are about 400,000 people in the camp.

He said: "We need everyone who can help from across the world now to make sure they focus on this developing crisis here to stop it becoming a catastrophe. There is an emergency developing of profound proportions.

"Britain, as always, has shown huge generosity and is in a leadership position to try and resolve this crisis. We need others to do so too. We need the whole of the international community now to bend every sinew to help these poor people here who are in a desperate condition."

Mr Mitchell said the situation is particularly devastating in Somalia, where families already have to cope with living in one of the most insecure countries in the world.

"More than 3,000 people every day are fleeing over the borders to Ethiopia and Kenya, many of them arriving with starving children," he said.

"The international community must do more to help not only refugees but also those victims of the drought who remain in Somalia."

Mr Mitchell also paid tribute to British charities and the public who had donated, saying they had "put their shoulder to the wheel" to try to help the victims.

These sentiments were echoed by Oxfam, which welcomed the government's additional funds and urged other rich countries to be equally generous.

It said: "There is at least a $700m (?434m) black hole in the aid effort which needs to be filled to save lives and avoid a humanitarian crisis becoming a full blown disaster."

The UK's ?52.25m aid package comes after a joint charity appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) saw more than ?13m raised in a week.

The cash is in addition to the ?38m food aid package announced on 3 July to feed 1.3m people for three months.

The Department for International Development (DFID) said the money would help:

500,000 people in Somalia, including treatment for nearly 70,000 acutely malnourished childrenMore than 130,000 people in the Dadaab camps to help provide them with clean drinking water and health care100,000 people in Dolo Ado refugee camps in Ethiopia to provide them with shelter and clean drinking water as well as targeted treatment of starving children300,000 Kenyans, including special rations to prevent malnutrition in children under the age of five and breastfeeding mothers.

A spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, Ron Redmond told the BBC the Dadaab camp is holding four times the number of people it was designed for and is unable to cope with the volume of people arriving each day.

"We have so many people arriving, in fact about 1,500 a day, that we now have 60,000 people living on the outskirts of the camp... because there is simply no more room inside."

The money will help drought-hit areas of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya

During his visit to Kenya, Mr Mitchell is meeting the head of the DEC, Brendan Gormley, and Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children.

Mr Gormley said the need to "scale up" the response to the disaster was urgent, adding that he was pleased that the government had announced more funding.

He said: "Combined with the extraordinary generosity of the UK public to the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal, we can truly say that the UK is playing a leading role in responding to this disaster.

"There is still, however, a great deal more to be done before we can say we have safeguarded the lives of the 10 million people at risk."

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Call to cut back Murdoch empire

17 July 2011 Last updated at 03:11 GMT Ed Miliband said current media ownership rules were "outdated" Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for new media ownership rules to limit the "dangerous" concentration of power in Rupert Murdoch's hands.

Mr Murdoch had an "unhealthy" market share that led to "abuses of power", Mr Miliband told the Observer.

It comes as Mr Murdoch's company, News International, placed a second round of adverts in national newspapers saying how it will address wrongdoing.

Its newspaper, the News of the World, shut amid phone hacking allegations.

With that closure, The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and 39% of digital broadcaster BSkyB remain in the News Corporation stable.

Calling for new ownership rules, Mr Miliband said: "I think that we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20% of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News.

"I think it's unhealthy because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation. If you want to minimise the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous."

He told the Observer that current media ownership rules were outdated, describing them as "analogue rules for a digital age" that do not take into account the advent of mass digital and satellite broadcasting.

'Backfired terribly'

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police has disputed reports that a journalist arrested over the phone-hacking scandal had arranged a stay at a luxury health resort for its commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson.

Sir Paul Stephenson denied he accepted hospitality from a former News of the World journalist

Scotland Yard made the statement in response to newspaper reports that former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis was a PR consultant for Champneys health spa when Sir Paul stayed there earlier this year after an operation.

"The accommodation and meals were arranged and provided by Stephen Purdew, MD of Champneys, who is a personal family friend who has no connection with, or links to, his [Sir Paul's] professional life," the Met said.

Mr Purdew said he was "outraged" at the suggestions that the stay had anything to do with Mr Wallis.

'Rebuild trust'

The advert placed by News International in national newspapers on Sunday describes how the company is "putting right what's gone wrong".

It says it has set up an independent management and standards committee to see how the company can prevent similar instances happening again.

It has also asked law firm Olswang to carry out an investigation and a former High Court judge is overseeing the compensation scheme for hacking victims.

News International still owns three national newspapers after the News of the World was closed

So far, celebrities including actress Sienna Miller and football pundit Andy Gray have accepted damages from the compensation fund, believed to be worth ?20m.

The advert says: "It may take time for us to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our readers, colleagues and partners."

The Liberal Democrats have written to media regulator Ofcom calling for it to investigate whether the owners of the BSkyB licence are "fit and proper" following the allegations around News Corp.

Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes, media spokesman Don Foster and party president Tim Farron asked the watchdog to investigate in light of "the manifest public concern about News International's activities, the close integration of News International with its parent company News Corporation, (and) News Corp's effective control of BSkyB".

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said: "We received this letter early on Friday evening. We will be considering our response next week."

She added that the regulator was continuing to gather information and has already written "to a number of relevant authorities and can confirm that follow-up meetings will now be taking place."

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UK student's body found in Brazil

16 July 2011 Last updated at 14:41 GMT The body of a Coventry University student who went missing in the Amazon jungle has been recovered in Brazil, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

Olakunle Teniola, aged 20, disappeared after jumping into a lake with a friend in Manaus on Tuesday.

His friend emerged from the water but Mr Teniola did not. His body was recovered on Friday.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said it was providing consular assistance to the family.

A university spokeswoman said Mr Teniola had been in his second year of a BA degree in youth work and had been in Brazil doing missionary work unrelated to his course.

"He comes from a very religious family, I understand he was a very committed Christian," she said.

His tutor, Brian Goredema-Braid, said Mr Teniola had been a popular student.

"He was very committed to his subject," he said.

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Royal honeymooners' 'erotic' souvenir

The recently married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were presented with an unusual souvenir by the Seychelles government after their honeymoon to the country - a rare and mysterious coconut famed for its erotic shape.

The forest groans, squeaks and rattles.

Even a light breeze causes the giant fronds of the coco-de-mer trees to rub against one another with a sound like the creaking rigging of an old wooden schooner.

Underfoot there is the loud crunching of huge dead leaves.

Here in the Vallee de Mai, on Praslin, the Seychelles' second largest island, the dominant plant is the coco-de-mer palm tree.

I have visited the Vallee de Mai many times in the past 20 years, but each time I go I learn something new.

This time I am accompanied by Dr Christopher Kaiser-Bunbury, an ecologist who studies the networks of life supported by the palms.

"There's nowhere on earth like the Vallee de Mai," he enthused, as we stepped through the thick dry leaf litter.

"All this dead matter prevents any other plants taking root and competing with the cocos-de-mer.

"Look how the giant leaves blot out the sky above. They starve all the other plants of light too. It's almost like they have a strategy."

The Vallee de Mai is probably the most visited tourist spot in the Seychelles.

People flock here to see the coco-de-mer, partly because it is the biggest seed in the world - a true botanical curiosity - and partly because it is, well, best described as a rude shape.

Aphrodisiac

On the tree, the coconut is a giant green orb, but inside, with the outer husk removed, it closely resembles a female human bottom.

The male trees grow enormous catkins with hundreds of yellow flowers

Not surprisingly, coco-de-mer nuts sell for high prices and you need an export permit to take them out of the Seychelles.

The erotic connotations of the coco-de-mer are obvious whether or not you are a royal honeymooner.

In China, the meat of the nut is taken as an aphrodisiac.

And as if the nut's rotund charms were not enough, the trees themselves are clearly male and female.

While the female trees bear the nuts - which grow for about seven years before they fall - the male trees grow enormous catkins, giant phallus shaped tubes studded with hundreds of delicate yellow flowers that give off a musky odour.

In Seychelles creole, the fruit is called "coco fesse" which crudely translates as "bum nut".

For Chris Kaiser-Bunbury, the charms of the coco-de-mer go well beyond schoolboy humour.

"What the tourists often don't appreciate," he says as we stand surrounded by the towering palms, "is how many other unique species live here, supported by these amazing trees".

He shows me giant white slugs crawling along the smooth stems of the leaves, fat brown coco-de-mer snails that sit on the tree trunks, and high up in the palm crowns, he spots several bright green geckos that feed off the tree's nectar and flowers.

And then, so well camouflaged that I struggle to identify it as an animal at all, we spot a giant bronze gecko found only on the male trees.

Several of these creatures, including a breed of fruit fly that lives on the rotting husks of the coco-de-mer, are found nowhere else in the world but here in the Vallee de Mai.

Air of mystery

The coco-de-mer remains mysterious.

Female coco-de-mer trees bear the largest seed in the plant kingdom

No-one knows whether the palms are pollinated by the wind, or by an insect or even indeed by a gecko.

Their lifespan is unknown, some say 500 years, or more.

And why are they found nowhere else on earth?

The granitic islands of Seychelles are known for their lush green slopes.

But the Vallee de Mai is a dry forest, and the leaf litter formed by the dead coco-de-mer leaves is a tinder box.

The Seychelles Islands Foundation which looks after the Vallee has cut a series of fire-breaks along the hillsides.

Part of the reason it is so dry is that the palms have evolved their giant leaves to capture as much as 98% of any rain that falls.

The leaves funnel the water straight down towards the base of the palm, ensuring that no other plants benefit.

"Most plants try to disperse their seeds away from the 'parent'," Chris Kaiser-Bunbury told me.

"But it seems that coco-de-mer nuts tend to germinate naturally very close to the mother tree.

"That's because she's found an ideal spot for growing, and the offspring will have a higher survival rate if they don't stray too far."

And indeed, with the nuts weighing 50lb (23kg) or more, there is no way for the wind or animals to disperse them anyway.

A Seychelles legend says that during a full moon the coco-de-mer trees walk around the forest in order to mate.

That is how they produce their erotically shaped "love nuts".

Standing under the dense, green canopy, with the lilting cry of the black parrot echoing through the trees, it does seem like a place where stranger things have happened.

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Two men killed in farm slurry pit

16 July 2011 Last updated at 10:04 GMT Firefighters were called to the farm at Stapleford Tawney just after 1700 BST on Friday Two men have died after becoming trapped in a slurry pit in Essex.

Firefighters were called to Albyns Lane in Stapleford Tawney, near Ongar, just after 1700 BST on Friday.

An Essex Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: "Two men have died at the slurry pit and a further two men have have been injured and placed in the care of the ambulance service."

He said the fire service was working with police and the Health and Safety Executive to establish what happened.

Firefighters drained 120,000 litres (31,700 gallons) of slurry on to a field as part of the rescue operations.

Crews from Ongar, Loughton, Harlow and Brentwood attended the scene.

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PM's Murdoch press links defended

16 July 2011 Last updated at 17:54 GMT Rupert Murdoch's printed apology promises further steps "to make amends for the damage caused". Foreign Secretary William Hague has defended David Cameron, saying he was "not embarrassed" by the extent of the PM's dealings with News International.

Mr Cameron has met its top executives 26 times in the 15 months since he became prime minister, it emerged.

Mr Hague defended the PM's decision to entertain Andy Coulson after the latter quit as an aide over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

In press ads, Rupert Murdoch apologises for "serious wrongdoing" by the paper.

The Mail on Sunday said on Saturday that its former news editor Sebastian Hamilton and ex-investigations editor Dennis Rice had been told by Scotland Yard that their phones may have been hacked by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

Mulcaire was jailed in 2007, along with former New of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, after admitting intercepting voicemail messages on royal aides' phones.

A list of engagements released by Downing Street shows that Rebekah Brooks, who quit as News International chief executive on Friday, had been entertained at the prime minister's official residence Chequers in June and August last year.

News International chairman James Murdoch also attended Chequers in November.

There were further social meetings between Mr Cameron, and James Murdoch and Mrs Brooks, last December.

Mr Coulson stayed at Chequers in March this year, two months after he quit as Downing Street director of communications following fresh allegations of phone hacking under his editorship at the News of the World.

"In inviting Andy Coulson back, the prime minister has invited someone back to thank him for his work - he's worked for him for several years - that is a normal, human thing to do," Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I think it shows a positive side to his character."

Mr Coulson was arrested last week as part of the police inquiry into phone hacking.

Regarding Mr Cameron's meetings with various News International executives, Mr Hague said: "I don't think that would be very different from previous prime ministers.

"Personally I'm not embarrassed by it in any way - but there is something wrong here in this country and it must be put right. It's been acknowledged by the prime minister and I think that's the right attitude to take."

Continue reading the main story

It sort of fuels the perception - certainly the accusation from Labour - that the prime minister was too close to News International”

End Quote Norman Smith BBC Radio 4 chief political correspondent The 26 meetings or events involving News International figures compares with: nine involving Telegraph Media Group figures; four meetings involving Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday; four meetings involving the Evening Standard.

BBC Radio 4 chief political correspondent Norman Smith said: "It's pointed out that News International is a formidable player in the British media market and therefore it's perhaps understandable that the prime minister should devote so much time to them.

"Similarly, when you look at the list, many of the meetings were for things like charity receptions or award ceremonies. They were sort of informal gatherings rather than serious, across-the-table discussions with senior executives at News International.

"Nevertheless, it sort of fuels the perception - certainly the accusation from Labour - that the prime minister was too close to News International."

The prime minister's relationship with Mr Coulson was "the one thing that could profoundly damage Mr Cameron from all these hacking allegations," our correspondent added.

"Still Mr Cameron seems unwilling to disown Andy Coulson, repeatedly stressing the good work he did in Downing Street and in no sense cutting him loose."

'Lack of judgement'

Labour's Lord Prescott accused Mr Cameron of being "very much wrapped into the Murdoch operations".

Shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis said the disclosure of the list of engagements offered "yet more evidence of an extraordinary lack of judgement by David Cameron".

The apology letter appeared in several Murdoch papers and other titles

"He hosted Andy Coulson at Chequers after, in the prime minister's own words, Mr Coulson's second chance hadn't worked out.

"David Cameron may think that this is a good day to bury bad news but he now has an increasing number of serious questions to answer."

Rupert Murdoch has taken out full-page advertisements in several newspapers on Saturday, using the space to say: "We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred."

The printed apology expresses regret for not acting faster "to sort things out".

"I realise that simply apologising is not enough. Our business was founded on the idea that a free and open press should be a positive force in society. We need to live up to this.

"In the coming days, as we take further concrete steps to resolve these issues and make amends for the damage they have caused, you will hear more from us," says the statement, signed "sincerely, Rupert Murdoch".

MPs' questions

Rupert and James Murdoch and Mrs Brooks are due to appear in front of the Commons media select committee on Tuesday to answer MPs' questions on the hacking scandal.

Mrs Brooks was editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003, during which time the phone belonging to murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was tampered with.

As well as her resignation, senior News Corporation executive Les Hinton quit on Friday.

Mrs Brooks has been replaced by Tom Mockridge, who was in charge of News Corporation's Italian broadcasting arm.

In a resignation statement, Mrs Brooks said she felt a "deep responsibility for the people we have hurt".

Mr Cameron said through a spokesman that her resignation was "the right decision".

Mr Hinton, chief executive of the media group's Dow Jones, said in a statement that he was "ignorant of what apparently happened" but felt it was proper to resign.

The most senior executive to leave the conglomerate, Mr Hinton was previously head of News International from 1995 to 2007 and has worked with Rupert Murdoch for more than five decades.

On Friday, Rupert Murdoch apologised to Milly Dowler's family at a meeting in London.

The family's solicitor Mark Lewis said the newspaper boss looked very shaken up and upset during the talks, which were arranged at short notice.

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