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Quango chief steps down after bankruptcy revealed
A businessman appointed by David Cameron to head a multibillion-pound quango has been forced to step down after it was disclosed that he was bankrupt.
A Government spokesman said Tony Caplin - a former Conservative Party chief operating officer - had resigned as chairman of the Public Works Loans Board (PWLB) which is responsible for £60 billion of loans in infrastructure projects.
The Mail on Sunday reported that Number 10 had been forced to act after an investigation it carried out revealed he had been made bankrupt in 2012.
A Government spokesman said: "He should have declared he was bankrupt. This has been pointed out to him and as a result he has resigned."
Senior Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Commons Public Accounts Committee, told The Mail on Sunday: "This raises serious questions which should be investigated."
Death toll from South Korea sunken ferry 'rises to 46'
NBC News Chief Global Correspondent Bill Neely, who is in South Korea, wrote on Twitter:
Divers recover 10 more bodies from inside sunken S. Korean ferry #Sewol say maritime police; death toll now 46. At least 255 still missing.
More than 100 relatives of missing children on S Korean ferry #Sewol have begun a long march to capital Seoul to protest at rescue effort
Children's relatives set off in dark from port in S. whr they waited for bodies & will walk mr than 200 miles. Police & ambulances with them
Read: South Korea ferry salvage operation 'could take months'
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Archbishop to highlight suffering from conflicts
The Archbishop of Canterbury will use his Easter sermon to highlight the hardship of people suffering from conflict around the world and in Britain.
Speaking later today from Canterbury Cathedral, Archbishop Justin Welby will say: "In Syria mothers cry for their children and husbands. In the Ukraine neighbours cry because the future is precarious and dangerous. In Rwanda tears are still shed each day as the horror of genocide is remembered.
"In this country, even as the economy improves there is weeping in broken families, in people ashamed to seek help from food banks, or frightened by debt. Asylum seekers weep with loneliness and missing far away families. Mary continues to weep across the world", he will say.
Delivering only his second Easter message since becoming head of the Church of England, the Most Rev Justin Welby will also praise the resilience of persecuted Christian minorities around the globe.
Trojan Horse: Six schools 'to face special measures'
Six schools implicated in the so-called "Trojan Horse" plot by extremists to "Islamise" secular state education are set to be placed in “special measures” by Ofsted, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
According to the newspaper, the six will be rated “inadequate” by the schools inspectorate after a series of snap inspections over the past few weeks.
Ofsted will reportedly also take action at a further nine schools in the city.
Only one of the 17 schools inspected by Ofsted so far in connection with the alleged plotis said to have received a clean bill of health, although one report is yet to be completed.
Teachers have 'less professional privacy than lab rats'
Teachers should not be subjected to the stress and pressure of being watched constantly, the NASUWT's general secretary said, after a new survey claimed that schools were using CCTV to monitor staff. Chris Keates said:
Teachers are already wrestling with excessive monitoring, masquerading as classroom observation, carried out by senior management and a host of other people regularly visiting their classrooms.
Now, in some schools, they are being subjected to permanent surveillance through CCTV cameras. Lab rats have more professional privacy.
Two fifths of teachers say CCTV 'used to judge staff'
Around one in 12 schools say they have CCTV in their classrooms, according to a NASUWT survey, which claimed that CCTV camera were being used to spy on teachers. Out of the 7,500 members questioned:
- Two thirds (66%) say the cameras were introduced for pupil safety.
- A further 58% say CCTV was brought in for the safety of staff.
- Under a third (31%) said that the cameras are there to monitor pupil behaviour, with 15% saying that they are designed to help teachers' professional development.
- Almost nine in ten (89%) said that they cannot switch the cameras off, with a similar proportion (87%) saying that the CCTV was constantly recording.
- Around 17% said that they see the CCTV as there just to spy on teachers, with 31% arguing it is an invasion of their professional privacy.
- Over half of teachers (55%) claim the recordings are monitored by their school leaders.
- Two fifths (41%) saying the footage has been used to make judgments about staff.
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NASUWT: Schools 'using CCTV to spy on teachers'
Schools are using CCTV cameras designed to keep pupils safe to spy on teachers, it has been claimed.
Teachers are being subjected to "permanent surveillance", with school leaders monitoring the footage and using it to make judgments about the performance of their staff, according to the NASUWT teaching union.
In many cases, teachers say they cannot turn off the cameras in their classroom, which are constantly recording lessons, a poll conducted by the union found.
The survey comes as delegates attending the NASUWT's annual conference in Birmingham debate a resolution warning that monitoring of teachers is becoming excessive.
Car 'overheats' forcing family to flee from lion's den
Helen Clements and her children Charlie and George told ITV News that her car had "overheated", causing the family to abandon the vehicle at a lion enclosure at Longleat Safari Park.
Ms Clements said: "What we thought we better do is, because what you are supposed to do is sound your horn, so we did. But my son George thought he better get out the car, so he opened the door, and got out the car. And I just said "George don't get out of the car"".
Korea ferry relatives 'offer DNA swabs' to identify dead
Some relatives of the more than 200 children missing in a sunken South Korean ferry offered DNA swabs to help identify the dead as the rescue turned into a mission to recover the vessel and the bodies of those on board, according to Reuters.
Some 500 relatives of the 270 people listed as missing watched a murky underwater video shot after divers reported they had seen three bodies through the windows.
Relatives have criticised what they say is the slow response of the government and contradictory information given out by authorities in the early stages of the rescue mission.
