Fugitive tycoon back in the UK
Fugitive tycoon Asil Nadir has flown back to the UK after nearly two decades evading British justice.The Onurair plane in which he was travelling touched down at Luton Airport on Thursday afternoon. The businessman is on £250,000 bail ahead of the September 3 hearing at the Old Bailey. He was due to be fitted with an electronic tag as part of the court-imposed conditions. The 69-year-old is facing 66 counts of theft involving £34 million fraud allegations in May 1993. He fled Britain to northern Cyprus, which has no extradition treaty with the UK. Mr Nadir had not technically surrendered to his bail at a previous court appearance, so a subsequent arrest warrant was not valid.(ITN)
Two heads 'may be better than one'
David Cameron and Nick Clegg may take heart from a new study showing two heads really can be better than one. ut another finding might make the Tory and Lib Dem coalition leaders pause for thought. Solving problems together only works when both partners are equally competent and freely discuss their disagreements, the research authors said. British and Danish scientists got their heads together to look at what happens when two people pool information to carry out a judgment task. Pairs of volunteers in a laboratory were asked to detect a weak smudge on a computer screen. If they disagreed about when the signal occurred, they talked together until a joint decision was reached. The first results showed that joint decisions were more accurate than those made by the better-performing individual alone. In this case, two heads were definitely better than one. Two further tests confirmed that success depended critically on partners being able to talk the problem over. But a fourth experiment showed that coalitions can be disastrous when partners are mismatched. In this case, one of the volunteers was made to appear incompetent by being shown a "noisy" image in which the signal was much harder to see. This was not known to the other partner, who continued to trust the first volunteer's judgment. Joint decisions were then worse than the decision of the better-performing partner. In other words, the pair would have been better off if the opinion of the "incompetent" partner had been ignored. Professor Chris Frith, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, one of the researchers whose findings appear in the journal Science, said: "When two people working together can discuss their disagreements, two heads can be better than one. But, when one person is working with flawed information - or perhaps is less able at their job - then this can have a very negative effect on the outcome.(press association)
Jack McConnell to quit parliament
Former first minister Jack McConnell has announced he will leave the Scottish Parliament at the next election.The Motherwell and Wishaw MSP - now known as Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale - said the decision marks the beginning of "part two" as he looks forward to "new challenges". The ex-Labour leader is the longest-serving first minister since devolution in 1999 and helped bring about the smoking ban during his term in office. In a statement, he said: "I will be forever grateful to the many people locally and nationally who have helped me in the causes I have promoted and the decisions I have made. "Together we have made Scotland, and the constituency, better than they were on my election in 1999. "I have been an elected representative for most of the last 30 years and it is time to move on. "I have been involved in national Scottish politics, including the creation of the Scottish Parliament and serving in Government, for most of those 30 years, and it is time for others to take Scotland forward now." Mr McConnell, an MSP since 1999, led the Labour-Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive from 2001 to 2007. Previous ministerial duties included finance, education, Europe and external affairs. He was instrumental in forging links between Scotland and Malawi, in Africa, and became the Prime Minister's special representative for peace-building in 2008.(press association)
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Fugitive tycoon Asil Nadir has flown back to the UK after nearly two decades evading British justice.The Onurair plane in which he was travelling touched down at Luton Airport on Thursday afternoon. The businessman is on £250,000 bail ahead of the September 3 hearing at the Old Bailey. He was due to be fitted with an electronic tag as part of the court-imposed conditions. The 69-year-old is facing 66 counts of theft involving £34 million fraud allegations in May 1993. He fled Britain to northern Cyprus, which has no extradition treaty with the UK. Mr Nadir had not technically surrendered to his bail at a previous court appearance, so a subsequent arrest warrant was not valid.(ITN)
Two heads 'may be better than one'
David Cameron and Nick Clegg may take heart from a new study showing two heads really can be better than one. ut another finding might make the Tory and Lib Dem coalition leaders pause for thought. Solving problems together only works when both partners are equally competent and freely discuss their disagreements, the research authors said. British and Danish scientists got their heads together to look at what happens when two people pool information to carry out a judgment task. Pairs of volunteers in a laboratory were asked to detect a weak smudge on a computer screen. If they disagreed about when the signal occurred, they talked together until a joint decision was reached. The first results showed that joint decisions were more accurate than those made by the better-performing individual alone. In this case, two heads were definitely better than one. Two further tests confirmed that success depended critically on partners being able to talk the problem over. But a fourth experiment showed that coalitions can be disastrous when partners are mismatched. In this case, one of the volunteers was made to appear incompetent by being shown a "noisy" image in which the signal was much harder to see. This was not known to the other partner, who continued to trust the first volunteer's judgment. Joint decisions were then worse than the decision of the better-performing partner. In other words, the pair would have been better off if the opinion of the "incompetent" partner had been ignored. Professor Chris Frith, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, one of the researchers whose findings appear in the journal Science, said: "When two people working together can discuss their disagreements, two heads can be better than one. But, when one person is working with flawed information - or perhaps is less able at their job - then this can have a very negative effect on the outcome.(press association)
Jack McConnell to quit parliament
Former first minister Jack McConnell has announced he will leave the Scottish Parliament at the next election.The Motherwell and Wishaw MSP - now known as Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale - said the decision marks the beginning of "part two" as he looks forward to "new challenges". The ex-Labour leader is the longest-serving first minister since devolution in 1999 and helped bring about the smoking ban during his term in office. In a statement, he said: "I will be forever grateful to the many people locally and nationally who have helped me in the causes I have promoted and the decisions I have made. "Together we have made Scotland, and the constituency, better than they were on my election in 1999. "I have been an elected representative for most of the last 30 years and it is time to move on. "I have been involved in national Scottish politics, including the creation of the Scottish Parliament and serving in Government, for most of those 30 years, and it is time for others to take Scotland forward now." Mr McConnell, an MSP since 1999, led the Labour-Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive from 2001 to 2007. Previous ministerial duties included finance, education, Europe and external affairs. He was instrumental in forging links between Scotland and Malawi, in Africa, and became the Prime Minister's special representative for peace-building in 2008.(press association)
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