Birmingham murders: family pay tribute to 'sweetest, kindest' couple

Avtar Kolar and his sister Michelle Kirwan make their emotional appeal at the press conference. Photograph: David Jones/PA

The family of a couple who were battered to death in their home paid tribute to "the sweetest, kindest people" as they appealed for the public's help to find the killers.

In an emotional press conference, the children of Avtar Kolar, 62, and his wife, Carole, 58, said the light had been switched off in their lives with the murder of the couple.

The Kolars were found on Wednesday morning by one of their sons, Jason, a detective serving in the West Midlands gang and organised crime unit.

Sixty detectives are investigating the double murder. It is understood they are taking seriously suggestions that the killing could be linked to the police officer's work, but at this stage there is no direct evidence of a connection.

Tributes were left outside the couple's home in Handsworth Wood on Thursday as officers worked behind a police tent covering the entrance to the detached house.

Two of the couple's four children – Michelle Kirwan and another son, also called Avtar – said the light had been "switched out" in their lives.

Kirwan, 39, said: "My mum and dad were the sweetest, kindest people that I have ever met and would do anything for anyone.

"They were the beautiful parents of myself, Jason, Taz and Marie, and the precious nana and grandad of eight grandchildren, who adored them with all their hearts."

She struggled with her emotions as she told how the family would meet at "Nanny's" every Friday night, where her mother played bingo and card games with the children.

"It was noisy and chaotic but we would never miss a week," she said.

Her mother worked at her grandchildren's school at a before- and after-school club where she was known as Nanny Cal.

"She was like the Pied Piper with the children and they adored her," said Kirwan.

"They would follow her around everywhere and Thursdays was Nanny's special day, where she would bring in sweets for all the children as a reward for being her stars."

The couple, who had been married for 40 years, had eight grandchildren.

Avtar Kolar – whose own son was born just a week ago – said the whole family was struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.

"Not only has whoever did this taken two lives, but they have taken away a mother, father, grandad, grandma, brother and sister," he said.

"The hardest thing anyone could ever do is to tell their children that they will never see Nanny and Grandad again. My baby is one week old and I just don't know where to start."

He begged for help in finding his parents' killers, adding: "We are now reaching out to anybody out there who could please, please help.

"No matter how little or however much they can.

"Somebody out there knows who did this, so please I beg of you help us catch the person or people who has taken these two most special people away from us."

West Midlands police have vowed to work around the clock to find the couple's killers.

Detective Superintendent Richard Baker, who is leading the inquiry, said the incident had had a devastating effect on the family.

He said forensic examinations of the scene were continuing.

Baker said detectives were following a number of lines of inquiry after receiving numerous phone calls in connection with the double murder.

"We are still investigating the circumstances surrounding this attack; however, this is a very complex investigation and we are continuing to keep an open mind."

The results of a postmortem are due on Friday which police said would reveal the nature of the husband and wife's death and what weapon, if any, was used.

The couple last spoke to their daughters on the phone at 7.15pm on Tuesday, when they had a conversation about babysitting. The family became worried when they could not reach their parents on Wednesday morning and Jason called around at 8am using his own key and discovered his parents' bodies.

At the couple's home on Thursday florists delivered flowers all day. One card on a bouquet of red roses read: "Nanny and grandad, we love you to the moon and back, our life will never be complete again, we adore you, love you forever. Your grandchildren."

Another bunch of flowers at the scene came from friends expressing their disbelief and outrage at the killings.

The card read: "To Carole and Tari, how could anyone do such a thing to such a lovely and wonderful couple. We are heartbroken, love you loads and miss you loads. Why?"

A high water mark: artists moor holiday houseboat on London roof

A Room for London is a project by Living Architecture and Artangel in association with the Southbank Centre. Photograph: Charles Hosea

There are just a few things missing to complete the scene. Savage dogs, rusting engines from white vans plundered for parts, seagulls squabbling over landfill, scuffed barges laden with gravel and a backdrop peppered with indifferent high-rise housing. Add a slight scent of sewage and the 27-tonne Le Roi des Belges (King of the Belgians) might be berthed on some wind scythed stretch of the Thames Estuary far east of Tower Bridge.

The illusion, conjured on a grey and blustery January morning is not so very whimsical. Le Roi des Belges just happens to be moored on top of the brutalist Queen Elizabeth Hall between the Royal Festival Hall and the National Theatre. This, though, is no weather beaten Thames trader; it is, rather, an artwork – houseboat, too, which the public can stay in. It was designed by architect David Kohn and artist Fiona Banner, with Artangel for Living Architecture, an organisation set up by the philosopher Alain de Botton to build innovative holiday homes around the shores of Britain.

The shock, having ridden a slow and brutally utilitarian lift up through a jagged concrete interstice between the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Hayward Gallery, is to find the houseboat anchored to the vast concrete roof of the 1960s concert hall, a terrain as bleak, and as compelling, as any found downriver from Tower Bridge.

Artist and architect say they were inspired by Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, set on the Thames and the River Congo, and by Conrad's tales of how he steamed up the Congo in a boat of the same name in 1889. But, where Conrad experienced the all but unspeakable horror of the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State by King Alphonso II, what you see spread out before you as you board the artworld Roi des Belges, also known as A Room for London, is the most compelling, and gloriously wide-angled, panorama of central London, framed by the Palace of Westminster on the port side and St Paul's to starboard.

"The idea is that where once ships sailed out from imperial London to the rest of the world, today the world has come willingly to London," explained de Botton. "The boat is here to provoke, stimulate and adjust how people feel about London."

Two people can stay here for a single night during the course of this year. Snuggled into their cabin – complete with neat galley, dining a pair of room, bunks that can be slid together, a shower with a view of the dome of St Paul's and a library. Those stowing their jib aboard this happily unexpected houseboat, are offered shelves stacked with books on London, peerless views and the strangest sense of being marooned alone in the heart, not of darkness, but of a neon, fluorescent and sodium-lit city and with the sound of Thames water lapping the South Bank shore overlain with the noise of night buses and emergency service sirens.

A Room for London is a year-long arts venue. A programme of visiting writers includes Swedish author and cultural historian Sven Lindqvist and novelist Jeanette Winterson. Among the musicians staying on board will be Andrew Bird, the Chicago multi-instrumentalist, German composer Heiner Goebbels and Laurie Anderson. Video and installation artist, Jeremy Deller, and Talking Heads' David Byrne will also be part of the crew. Somewhere between July and December you might want to book yourself on board, too, before, Le Roi des Belges is lifted off the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and packed off to her next port of cultural call.

Le Roi des Belges is the sixth of the adventurous new rental houses commissioned by Living Architecture. These include the Balancing Barn on the Suffolk coast between Aldeburgh and Walberswick by Dutch architects, MVRDV, the Shingle House on the extreme south-easterly point of England at Dungeness, by the Glaswegian team NORD Architecture, and the Dune House on the fringe of Thorpeness,Suffolk, by Norway's Jarmund/Vigsnaes architects. All are moored by the sea, yet none is as literal in form as the shipshape Roi des Belges.

UK recession warning boosts hopes that Bank will pump cash into economy

The Bank of England decided against quantitative easing at its latest meeting but economists predict QE of as much as £50bn will be introduced next month. Photograph: David Levenson/Alamy

Fresh warnings that the UK started going into recession in the final quarter of last year have increased expectation that the Bank of England is poised to pump more electronic cash into the economy as soon as next month.

A leading thinktank, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR), estimated that UK economic growth halved last year and ground to a virtual halt in the final quarter of 2011. Its estimate for growth of just 0.1% over October to December followed news that industrial production declined for a second successive month and by more than expected in November.

Output from industry – which includes energy and mining, as well as manufacturing – fell 0.6% in November, to a level 3% lower than a year earlier.

The drop deals another blow to the government's hope that the industrial sector can pick up the slack from a shrinking public sector and faltering consumer spending. Economists said the numbers reinforced expectations that Britain's economy would have stalled or even shrunk in the fourth quarter.

Against that backdrop, the Bank of England is widely expected to step in soon, with billions more in electronic cash under its quantitative easing (QE) programme, although it chose to stay its hand at the end of its latest meeting on Thursday. Interest rates were also kept on hold at 0.5%.

"There is a growing risk that the recession started in the fourth quarter of last year rather than in the first quarter of this year," said Philip Shaw, economist at Investec. "Overall, £50bn more QE next month seems to us to be virtually 'baked in the cake'."

The Office for National Statistics also revised down its estimate for industrial output in October to show a 1% decline compared with a 0.7% fall previously. Within the sector, manufacturers trimmed output by 0.2% in November but the continued decline, after a 0.9% fall in October, underlined the fragility of the sector that the government hoped would lead Britain's recovery. It releases its first estimate of fourth-quarter GDP on 25 January.

Samuel Tombs, at Capital Economics, said the latest data suggested the industrial sector was heading straight back into recession.

"These falls mean that overall production is now 3.5% below its recent peak set at the start of 2011 and some 12.5% below its pre-recession level," he said.

"What's more, even if we generously assume production holds steady in December, the industrial sector will still knock 0.2% or so off overall GDP growth in the fourth quarter, despite its small size,."

NIESR said its estimate for virtually no expansion at the end of 2011 meant growth for the year as a whole was just 1%, down from 2.1% in 2010.

Labour's shadow Treasury minister, Chris Leslie, seized on NIESR's estimates as a warning shot to the government.

"Our recovery was choked off well before the recent eurozone crisis, but if the government refuses to take urgent action to get our economy moving again, then I fear this stagnant growth is set to continue into 2012," he said.

"This is bad news for families, businesses and for the deficit too," he added, referring to how much more the government will have to borrow with high unemployment and sluggish growth.

Preparation 'haytch': Justine Greening gives high-speed train a Dickensian feel

Stop HS2 campaigners react as they watch the transport secretary, Justine Greening, give the project the go-ahead. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Charles Dickens's birthday is next month, and let's hope the Commons remembers him properly. He worked for Hansard, and was the greatest of all parliamentary sketchwriters. For me to say I am following in his footsteps would be like Ernie Wise claiming to be in the playwriting tradition of Shakespeare.

I noticed on Tuesday that Justine Greening, the new transport secretary, always referred to the high-speed train, HS2, as "haytch" instead of "aitch" S2. At transport questions, she called it "high speed two" throughout – the result, I suspect, of a word from an embarrassed civil servant. But "haytch" has a good Dickensian feel to it. My mind drifted to the riverside at Putney, Ms Greening's seat, where, clothed in rags and covered in tar and sand, she is mending fishermen's nets. The young hero, Arthur Atkins, has asked her how he might get to Birmingham.

"Haar, tis passage to Brumminum you want, young Harthur Hatkins!" she cackles. "Ye'll need to catch that ketch a-bound for Waterloo! Then tekk the 'orse-drawn Northern line as far as Heuston station, harr, and ye'll be thar in 10 minutes, quick as a knife through dripping, my lovely ..."

I snapped out of the reverie and reflected that most politicians do not actually listen to what they are saying. Well, they do: they have the equivalent of the "seven-second loop" used in radio phone-ins to give the host time to cut out the obscene or libellous. In the same way they can filter out anything that might offend the party whips or their own constituents. But they're not listening to what's left. Take Labour's Barry Sheerman, who wanted more low-cost road engineering schemes which, he said, reduce accidents and so save lives: "They are the best investment and offer the best bang for the buck."

Hmmm. Shortly afterwards we had the Tories' James Grey, who was complaining about the closure of railway booking offices "right across the piste". We are in the Austrian Alps, and a skier is charging down a black run. Suddenly, there in his way is a little hut in which a man in a peaked cap is muttering about a return ticket to Kyle of Lochalsh while a dozen frustrated commuters queue, fuming, right across the piste.

Best of all is when they are so desperate to get it right that they get it wrong. For example, Lynne Featherstone, the Lib Dem junior minister for women, announced that "a diet is for life, not just for Christmas", which, since Christmas is the time we all stop dieting, is the opposite of the truth. Moments later she was asked about breastfeeding, and the fact that British mothers do less than other Europeans. "I don't want people who can't breastfeed to feel badly about not being able to breastfeed," she said.

I wanted to lean over and yell: "I can't breastfeed, and I don't feel badly at all! I was delighted I didn't have to get up at 3am to feed our children!" It would have done no good. Ms Featherstone was determined not to be gender-specific in anything she said, and risk being a female chauvinist pig. So the remark sailed right through her seven-second loop.

Man arrested on suspicion of murdering Oxford University professor

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the discovery of an Oxford University professor's body.

Steven Rawlings, 50, a tutorial fellow in physics at St Peter's College, was found dead at a bungalow in Laurel Drive in the village of Southmoor, Oxfordshire, on Wednesday night.

Thames Valley police said a 49-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and remains in custody.

Police were called to the property at 11.22pm on Wednesday following a report of a man being injured in an incident. Officers and paramedics attended but Rawlings was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detective Superintendent Rob Mason, from the major crime unit, said the investigation was still in its early stages, with a postmortem due to take place on Thursday night.

He added that officers were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident. "It does appear that no one else was present at the address."

Mason said: "I would like to extend our condolences to the man's family and friends at this very difficult time.

"The formal identification has taken place, we can confirm the identity of the man as Professor Steven Rawlings, aged 50, of St Peter's College, Oxford.

"The family has requested that the media please respect their privacy at this very difficult time.

"We are liaising closely with Oxford University and it is apparent that he was well respected and liked within the college and colleagues and students have been devastated by the news."

Mark Damazer, master of St Peter's College, said in a statement: "We regret to report the death in Oxford on 11 January 2012 of Professor Steve Rawlings, official fellow and tutor in physics.

"He was a much liked and admired tutor and colleague within the college and will be greatly missed. We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife, Linda."

The vice-chancellor of Oxford University, Professor Andrew Hamilton, said in a statement: "The entire university community has been profoundly saddened and shocked by the tragic and untimely death of Professor Steve Rawlings.

"Our thoughts are with his family and friends."

Rawlings was one of the lead scientists in the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project – the largest radio telescope system in the world.

He did his undergraduate and doctoral studies at Cambridge University, where he also undertook post-doctoral research before moving to Oxford University. He was head of the sub-department of astrophysics between 2006 and 2010.

MPs' expenses: Margaret Moran 'not fit to stand trial', court told

 

File picture of former MP Margaret Moran in court over expense charges in September. Photograph: Rex Features

Margaret Moran, the former Labour MP accused of falsely claiming £80,000 in expenses, may not face trial after a court heard legal proceedings were a "threat to her life, not just to her liberty".

A Southwark crown court judge heard that three psychiatric experts all agree the ex-Luton South MP, who faces 21 charges, was unfit to plead.

Mr Justice Saunders will make a decision on whether the 56-year-old should be tried after hearing evidence from doctors. Jim Sturman QC, for Moran, urged a swift decision, saying: "These proceedings are a continual threat to her life, not just to her liberty, and the experts agree that she is unfit to plead."

He said he would ask the attorney general to apply for a "nolle", a rarely used power to allow the case to discontinue on exceptional grounds.

Describing Moran's mental state, Sturman referred to press reports of her previous appearance at Westminster magistrates court, describing her as a "broken woman" who was "sobbing uncontrollably" in the dock.

He had met Moran just once, he said. "She cried uncontrollably throughout the whole conference, so much so that I had to leave so she could be assured I was defending her, not prosecuting."

Louis Mably, prosecuting, said the experts were agreed "as things stand" that Moran, who did not attend Thursday's brief hearing, was unfit to plead.

If the court determines she is fit to plead, a trial of issue is set for 18 April. But Sturman said there was "no realistic prospect" of her condition improving by then.

Moran, who stood down at the last general election, faces 15 charges of false accounting and six of using a false instrument in relation to parliamentary expense claims totalling around £80,000 between November 2004 and August 2008.

It is alleged that she "flipped" her designated second home, claiming for properties in London, Luton and Southampton, and that she dishonestly claimed £22,500 to repair dry rot at the latter. She is also accused of falsely claiming for boiler repairs and work on her conservatory.

She is the last of five MPs and two peers to face criminal proceedings over the expenses scandal and was only charged in September, after the investigation was held up over claims of her ill health.

Saunders said he wanted the fitness to plead proceedings to be as "open as possible" as the case had attracted considerable public interest, and he wanted the full facts to be heard.

"It is obviously a matter which has considerable press interest. It seems to me that the more information the public have about why the decision was made the better," said Saunders.

He has asked to question in person at least one of the doctors who had examined Moran for the purposes of psychiatric reports to the court. She is said to have been assessed by three psychiatrists, for the defence and the prosecution, over a period of two years.

Following note from Muslim Quran online Blog

The first lesson to be learned by all Muslims is the importance of the Reading Quran Online. All Muslim should learn holy Quran online  is the Book of Allah All mighty. Every word which the quran reciter recites or he read quran is the word of Allah it is mentioned in Quran in Arabic that it is the guidance which has come from Allah. That is why we as Muslim say it is the Holy Book. We should  learn quran and focus on quran teaching thought by the quran tutor to the students and the tutor should arrange the kids quran lessons in such an easy manner so they can understand it easily and make there quran recitation online as beautiful as he could and teach them that the words of Koran were sent by Allah to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) through the angel Jibraeel. And further more elaborate wile reading quran with teaching them the quran tafseer and the tajweed quran with its rules let then do quran memorization in the proper manner We as Muslim should respect the teachings of Quran and in every other manner when we are reading it or when we listen to Quran  wake up Muslims and spread the word of Islam to

End of the note by quran education

Tory MP gets green light to sue Mail on Sunday

ory MP Dominic Raab worked as chief of staff to David Davis between 2006 and 2008. Photograph: Sutton-Hibbert / Rex Features

A Tory MP has been given the green light to sue the Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers for libel over allegations he bullied a female colleague.

Dominic Raab is suing the publisher over a Mail on Sunday article published on 30 January that alleged he bullied the colleague, referred to in court as "E", while he worked as chief of staff to David Davis between 2006 and 2008.

The article, headlined "Payout for woman who claimed workplace bullying under Raab", also claimed that the woman was paid £20,000 in "hush money" to keep the accusations of bullying and sexual discrimination a secret. Raab, who is also bound by the confidentiality agreement, denies the allegations.

The high court on Thursday refused to grant permission to Associated Newspapers' request for the action to be struck out, meaning Raab can sue the publisher for libel next year.

Raab claims the Mail on Sunday article alleged his behaviour was "so bad that it caused her, an extremely intelligent and accomplished young woman who had worked her way up from humble beginnings, to become traumatised, to feel worthless and to leave a job which she had otherwise enjoyed". He claims that the article inferred the woman was paid £20,000 in "hush money to keep [his] appalling behaviour secret".

The court heard how the woman entered into a confidentiality agreement with Davis and Raab in August 2007, prohibiting her from speaking publicly about the claims.

Associated Newspapers said the woman was willing to back up its claims if she was released from the confidentiality agreement or if the publisher could see a witness statement by her. However, Tugendhat refused to order that the witness statement should be released.

The judgment said there was no evidence the woman had been "gagged", as counsel for Associated Newspapers claimed, and noted she expressed a wish "not to have to talk about the subject".

"I accept that [Associated Newspapers] is not in terms seeking disclosure of documents, but to interview a witness. But the distinction is a narrow one, and may disappear if (as seems likely) 'E' has documents that are relevant to which she needs to refer," said Tugendhat in the written judgment.

"The application by the defendant that this libel action be struck out or stayed is dismissed."

Raab is expected to bring his claims to a libel trial in 2012.

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Following note from Learning Quran online Blog

 

Learn holy Quran online which it self states in it that only those who are learn quran and pure should touch the holy text: This is indeed a Quran in Arabic in a book well-guarded, which none shall touch but those who are clean (56:77-79).  One should make formal ablutions before handling or Quran reading and this the quran tutor should tell in his quran teaching when quran for kids lessons are going on. After intercourse or menstrual bleeding one should not touch the holy Quran or do quran recitation and also not do quran memorization until after bathing non-Muslim should not handle the sacred text, but may listen to Quran online or read quran translation or exegesis. With all these things in mind when one is not reading or reciting holy Quran it should be closed and stored in nice and clean place, it should never be placed on floor or in a bathroom and Muslim should focus on reading quran the tajweed quran and its rules with a proper institute.

End of the note by holy Quran reciter