Helicopter Rotor Blade Kills Pennsylvania Pilot

A helicopter pilot has been killed after he walked into the aircraft's spinning rotor while giving rides at Bloomsburg Fair in Pennsylvania.

Carl Enlow, 69, died after being hit by a blade on Friday night at the US state's largest fair.   

The helicopter was refuelling when Mr Enlow went to speak to another pilot, according to fair superintendent Bill Barratt.

Mr Enlow's hat blew off his head and when he reached for it he was struck by the rotor, he said.

"That just goes to prove that anything can happen," Mr Barratt told Pennsylvania's PA Homepage.

The fair is the largest in the state Credit: PA Homepage, Pennsylvania

"It puts a little bit of sorrow on the last day."

The Birdsboro man had 50 years experience flying and was previously a pilot in the military.

The Bloomsburg Fair is reportedly giving the profits from the helicopter rides to Mr Enlow's widow.

"The fair board is going to do whatever we can to help her with whatever she needs," Mr Barratt said.

Montour County Coroner Scott Lynn said the death was under investigation. 

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Osborne: Battle To Rebuild Economy Not Over

George Osborne has warned the battle to rebuild the UK economy is not over and that the Tories must be allowed to finish the task.

The Chancellor accused Labour of making up policy "on the back of a fag packet" as he addressed the Conservative Party Conference.

He warned of disaster if Ed Miliband was to win power, suggesting his eye-catching energy price freeze plan would stunt growth and cost jobs.

Countering accusations of complacency, Mr Osborne insisted there was "no feeling of a task completed or a victory won" because there was far more to do to restore Britain to prosperity.

It was "not even close to being over and we are going to finish what he started," he declared, insisting his policies were a "serious plan for a grown-up country".

During his speech, he is also unveiling tough new rules to make the long-term unemployed earn their benefits by doing full-time unpaid community work from next year.

George Osborne at a vehicle manufacturers on Monday

From April, people still without work after two years on the coalition's Work Programme will face three options if they want to remain on the dole.

They will have to do community work such as litter picking, visit a job centre every day or take part in compulsory training to tackle problems like illiteracy.

Those who break the rules of the new Help to Work scheme, for example by failing to turn up without a good reason, could lose their benefit for four weeks.

A second offence would see them lose it for three months.

Ahead of his address, Mr Osborne insisted on Sky News that the policy was not a return to the Conservative "nasty party" of old - describing the move as "compassionate".

"This is not about punishment, this is about help," he stressed, but also said: "What we are saying is there is no option of doing nothing any more.

"We are saying we are going to help you into work but we are going to ask for something in return. I think it is a very compassionate approach to people who previous governments just ignored."

Amid concern that job centres will be overstretched, he added that they would have extra money to police the scheme.

The Chancellor's speech came as TNT announced it was creating 1,000 new jobs by expanding its postal delivery service.

Potentially, around 200,000 long-term Jobseeker's Allowance claimants could be eligible for the new coalition initiative.

But ministers believe the numbers on it will be significantly lower, as many of those working covertly will decide it is no longer worth trying to claim benefits and drop out.

The scheme, devised by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, will cost around £300m - with the money likely to be found from departmental underspends.

Sky's chief political correspondent Jon Craig described the new conditions as "a tough crackdown".

Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves, said: "It's taken three wasted years of rising long-term unemployment and a failed Work Programme to come up with this new scheme.

"But this policy is not as ambitious as Labour's compulsory jobs guarantee, which would ensure there is a paid job for every young person out of work for over 12 months and every adult unemployed for more than two years."

During his speech later, Mr Osborne is not expected to unveil specific action on living standards, despite pressure to respond to Labour leader Ed Miliband's energy price freeze pledge last week.

Instead, the Chancellor will stress the need to stick with the coalition's economic plans, warning that the UK still has not fully recovered from the credit crunch.

He told Sky: "Our economic plan is helping Britain turn a corner. We have dealt with the problems we inherited, we have still got a long way to go ...

"By contrast the Labour party got us into this mess and all I hear from them is that they want more borrowing and more spending. A set of gimmicky announcements isn't going to cover up the fact that they don't have a credible economic policy."

Critics claimed the Government scheme would treat the unemployed more harshly than criminals and was just a "rehash" of plans that had already failed.

Joanna Long, from the Boycott Workfare campaign, said: "It's bad news for people who will be forced to work at far below the minimum wage - and it's terrible news for the people whose jobs they will be replacing.

"This is about cutting the safety net for unemployed people, and handing something for nothing to charities, companies and councils which should be paying wages and taxes."

Graeme Cooke, from the Institute for Public Policy Research, added that the measures would probably only affect one in 20 people on the dole and warned it needed careful planning.

"The key issue is how such schemes are designed. If they give people real experience of work and the practical employability habits that go with it, they can help people be more attractive to prospective employers," he said.

"But if it is pitched as a punishment where people do menial tasks, it risks acting as a signal to employers that these are people not to employ."

But Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, welcomed the move, insisting it was unfair to have people on benefits "for years on end". 

"There is plenty of international evidence from countries such as Australia, Canada and the US that this type of scheme is not only fairer on those footing the welfare bill, but also gets people back into work," he said.

:: The Chancellor's speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester is being broadcast live on Sky News.

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Knox And Sollecito Absent From Kercher Retrial

By Tom Kington in Florence

The retrial of Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has begun in Italy, but neither defendant has been in court.

American student Knox, 26, has repeatedly said she will not return to Florence from Seattle, nor is she compelled to do so by law.

Her former boyfriend Sollecito, a 29-year-old Italian IT graduate, is following proceedings from the Caribbean, where he is on holiday, said his father.

"I will be informing Raffaele of what happens on the phone after the hearing," said Francesco Sollecito.

He added he would be attending every hearing in the appeal trial, which is expected to last until Christmas.

Sollecito's father denied suggestions in the media that his son was dipping into a fund he had set up for contributions to his legal expenses.

"The holiday was provided by a supporter," he said. "We have raised $25,000 (£15,000) and haven't touched it."

Amanda Knox and Rafael Sollecito during the investigation

Knox's decision to not be present in court was criticised by Patrick Lumumba, the former barman who Knox initially accused of taking part in the murder of Miss Kercher in Perugia.

"Knox is afraid - she knows she has responsibility for the death of poor Meredith," he said in court.

Lumumba said he had just graduated in International Communications at Perugia's University for Foreigners, the university attended by Knox during her stay in Perugia.

As the hearing got under way in Florence, the presiding judge turned down a request from Knox's lawyers to exclude Lumumba as a civil plaintiff from the trial.

Francesco Maresca, a lawyer representing the Kercher family, handed the judge a letter from the family, explaining their absence from the session on health grounds.

Amanda Knox cries after hearing she has been acquitted

The new trial is being held at a modern appeal court building on the fringes of Florence, a stark contrast to Perugia's medieval court building where hearings have previously been held.

In 2009, Knox and Sollecito were convicted of killing 21-year-old Ms Kercher two years earlier in the student flat the two women shared in Perugia.

A third man, Rudy Guede, was convicted over the murder and is serving a 16-year jail term. A court found that Guede had not acted alone.

The latest trial is expected to re-examine forensic evidence to determine whether Knox and Sollecito helped kill Ms Kercher.

An appeals court acquitted the two suspects in 2011, citing weaknesses in DNA evidence.

The pair, who at that point had spent four years behind bars, were released, and the American flew back home.

But in March this year, Italy's supreme court overturned the acquittal, citing what it said were "shortcomings, contradictions and inconsistencies" in the appeal court's verdict, and ordered a retrial.

A new appeal verdict will now be reached, possibly by Christmas, before the case returns to the supreme court.

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Police Chief: 'Make Class A Drugs Legal'

Durham's chief constable has called for class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine to be legalised.

Mike Barton has claimed the war on drugs has failed and decriminalisation is the best way to strip power away from criminal gangs.

Writing in The Observer, the national intelligence leader for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) also suggested the NHS should supply class A drugs to addicts.

Mr Barton said drugs should be controlled

"Not all crime gangs raise income through selling drugs, but most of them do in my experience," Mr Barton said.

"So offering an alternative route of supply to users cuts off the gang's income stream.

"If an addict were able to access drugs via the NHS or some similar organisation, then they would not have to go out and buy illegal drugs.

"Drugs should be controlled. They should not, of course, be freely available.

"I think addiction to anything - drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc - is not a good thing, but outright prohibition hands revenue streams to villains."

Under Mr Barton's direction, Durham Constabulary launched Operation Sledgehammer, a sustained campaign  to "get in the faces" of organised crime gangs.

He has previously claimed to seek inspiration in the way notorious Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone was finally brought down not for bootlegging, but tax evasion.

Mr Barton, who has served for nearly 34 years, said he had witnessed a worsening drug addiction problem since prohibition began in 1971 with the Misuse of Drugs Act.

He argued that pushers had made billions from adulterated drugs, transforming them into local folk heroes for young people.

"Decriminalising their commodity will immediately cut off their income stream and destroy their power," he said.

"Making drugs legal would tackle the supply chain much more effectively and much more economically than we can currently manage."

Mr Barton has highlighted the way Capone (pictured) was brought down

Mr Barton said that offering drugs therapeutically through the NHS and similar organisations would avoid the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among needle users.

But he underlined that he was in favour of their use in a controlled environment, rather than a "free for all".

"I am saying that people who encourage others to take drugs by selling them are criminals, and their actions should be tackled," he said.

"But addicts, on the other hand, need to be treated, cared for and encouraged to break the cycle of addiction. They do not need to be criminalised."

ACPO's national policing lead on drug-related crime Chief Constable Andy Bliss said: "Clearly, a senior colleague like Mike Barton is entitled to his views and he has added his contribution to the national debate, but it would be ACPO's position that these are matters for parliament to decide.

"We need in particular to be very thoughtful about setting clear boundaries, especially for young people, in relation to drugs, their misuse and criminal activity surrounding them."

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'Up To 50 Students Killed' At Nigeria College

As many as 50 people have been killed after suspected Islamist militants fired on students as they slept at a college in northeast Nigeria.

The gunmen reportedly stormed a dormitory and set fire to classrooms in the assault which happened about 1am local time in the town of Gujba in Yobe state.

Nigeria's military is blaming gunmen from the Boko Haram insurgent group for the atrocity at the College of Agriculture.

College provost Molima Idi Mato said security forces were still recovering bodies so he could not give an exact number of dead but said up to 50 had been killed.

He also said about 1,000 students had fled the scene.

A source told the Reuters news agency that 26 bodies had been brought to hospital.

The college is about 25 miles from the scene of similar school attacks around Damaturu town.

Northeast Nigeria is in a military state of emergency following an Islamic uprising by Boko Haram militants who have killed hundreds of civilians in their quest for an Islamic state.

Members of Boko Haram pictured in February

Yobe has seen a series of brutal attacks targeting students in recent months, all blamed on the group.

The worst occurred in July in the town of Mamudo, where Islamists threw explosives and sprayed gunfire into dormitories, killing at least 42 people, mostly students.

The name Boko Haram means 'Western education is forbidden' and the group has repeatedly attacked schools, universities and colleges during its four-year insurgency.

The military has described the spate of recent attacks as a sign of desperation by the Islamists, claiming they only have the capacity to hit soft targets.

An offensive launched against Boko Haram in mid-May has decimated the group and scattered their fighters across remote parts of the northeast, the defence ministry has said. 

Boko Haram has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north, but the group is believed to be made up of different factions with varying aims. 

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Cameron Launches State-Backed Mortgages Plan

David Cameron says 95% government-backed mortgages to help people get on to the property ladder will start within days.

The scheme was due to start in January but hours before the Conservative Party Conference opened, the Prime Minister revealed that NatWest, RBS and Halifax had all agreed to provide the new deals. 

It is widely being seen as a response to Ed Miliband's Labour conference crowd-pleasing announcement that the party would freeze energy prices for two years as conference season has shaped up as a "battle over the consumer".

Mr Cameron arrives in Manchester ahead of the Conservative Party Conference

Speaking on Sunday morning, Mr Cameron said that it was ridiculous that people could afford mortgage repayments, but not the deposit to get the loan in the first place. 

The Prime Minister said that only those with well-off parents could manage to get on the housing ladder, telling BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "I'm not going to stand by while people's aspirations are trashed."

He denied that the move would create a housing bubble and said that they had taken advice from the Bank of England and empowered it to stop a bubble being created.

The mortgage guarantees will allow buyers to acquire a newly built home or an existing property worth up to £600,000 with a deposit of only 5%.

The second stage of the Help to Buy scheme aims to boost mortgage availability by reducing the risk for lenders because the Government takes on the risk of default when it guarantees a proportion of a loan.

In a wide-ranging interview ahead of the conference Mr Cameron also said:

:: He was sorry he did not win the 2010 election and made it clear he was looking for a straight Conservative victory in 2014

:: The high-speed rail HS2 project would stay on its £42.6bn budget

:: That Britain could pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights, which has prevented the UK deporting foreign criminals 

:: He would never back a mansion tax, marking a clear coalition red line

:: Televised leaders debates should take place before campaigning for the 2015 election begins.

Mr Cameron also spoke about Mr Miliband's energy bill freeze proposals saying: "I want to lower prices not just for 20 months but for 20 years."

George Osborne tweeting the hashtag #forhardworkingpeople

He said that he wanted to look at "all those markets" and make sure they were "working for hard-working people".

Sky News Political Correspondent Anushka Asthana said bringing forward the mortgage plan and the announcement, on Saturday, of tax breaks for married couples was an attempt to give Conservatives something to "take to the doorsteps".

She said: "This is also about Mr Cameron looking outwards and thinking about the public and trying to come back on some of the ideas that Labour and the Liberal Democrats have put forward over the past few weeks.

"People are calling this the battle over the consumer. At the Lib Dems we have free school meals and then Ed Miliband promises to freeze energy prices. The Tories have tried to rubbish that idea but at the same time they are clearly worried."

The Chancellor, George Osborne, tweeted the news that RBS, NatWest and Halifax had all signed up to the mortgage scheme using the Conservative buzzwords hashtag #forhardworkingpeople.

A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times put Labour on an 11 point lead on 42%, with the Conservatives at 31%, UKIP on 13% and the Liberal Democrats trailing on 9%.

The 95% mortgage scheme has previously attracted widespread concern, with some claiming it may lead to more problems than it solves.

Mr Balls says the Government focus should be on affordable homes

Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable warned the scheme "could inflate the market" and said he feared there was a "danger of getting into another housing bubble".

Former Bank of England governor Lord King said the scheme is "too close for comfort" to a general scheme to guarantee mortgages.

Speaking on Sunday, Labour's shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "If David Cameron is serious about helping first-time buyers he should be bringing forward investment to build more affordable homes. Rising demand for housing must be matched with rising supply, but under this government house-building is at its lowest level since the 1920s."

The first stage of Help to Buy was launched in April and offers loans to give people the chance to buy a new-build home with a deposit of just 5%. The scheme has been credited with spurring a surge in home sales and driving up prices.

:: Watch Conservative Party conference coverage on Sky News from 2pm

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Marriage Tax Breaks For Four Million Couples

David Cameron says four million couples will benefit from the Government's new £1,000 marriage tax allowance.

Ahead of the start of the Conservative Party conference, the Prime Minister said the scheme - starting in April 2015 - will be worth up to £200 a year for married couples, including 15,000 in civil partnerships.

They will receive the benefit at the end of the tax year in 2016.

It will work by letting people transfer £1,000 of their personal tax allowance to their spouse or civil partner - an increase on the £750 allowance promised in the Tory manifesto, which would have seen couples gain £150.

The new allowance, which is not available to couples which include a higher rate taxpayer, is aimed at couples where one partner has not used all of their personal allowance or does not work at all.

Labour's shadow chief secretary to the treasury, Rachel Reeves, said that the marriage tax break would not even help two-thirds of married couples and said he was out of touch if he "thinks people will get married for £3.85 a week".

She said: "And even for the minority who might benefit, it will be far outweighed by what David Cameron's Government has already taken away in higher VAT and cuts to child benefit and tax credits. In most cases, the extra payment will be paid to men, even though it is women who have disproportionately lost out so far."

The PM says 'nothing would be possible' without his wife Samantha

The announcement comes after a trade-off that allowed the Liberal Democrats to announce free school meals for all children under eight earlier this month.

The proposal, which Downing Street said shows the Government values commitment by recognising marriage and civil partnerships in the tax system, makes good on promises Mr Cameron made when he was running for leadership of the party in 2005.

In an article in today's edition of The Daily Mail, he said: "I believe in marriage. Alongside the birth of my children, my wedding was the happiest day of my life.

"Since then, Samantha and I have been a team. Nothing I've done since - becoming a Member of Parliament, leader of my party or Prime Minister - would have been possible without her."

He said that the new measures would apply "if you're gay or straight - and in a civil partnership or a marriage. This summer I was proud to make Equal Marriage the law. Love is love, commitment is commitment".

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Leicester House Fire Murders: Four In Court

By David Crabtree, Midlands Correspondent

Four people, including a 16-year-old boy, have appeared in court charged with murdering a mother and her three teenage children in a house fire.

In the early hours of Friday, September 13, a blaze engulfed the Taufiq family home in the Spinney Hills area of Leicester.

The bodies of the mother Shehnila, 47, her daughter Zainab, 19, and sons Bilal, 17, and Jamil, 15, were all discovered in upstairs bedrooms.

Dr Muhammad Taufiq said he would "deeply miss" his wife and children

The children's father, Muhammad Taufiq al Sattar, was not home at the time. The neurosurgeon was working in Ireland.

In a hearing lasting less than three minutes at Leicester Magistrates' Court, the four accused confirmed their names and addresses and indicated they did understand the nature of the charges against them.

Jackson Powell, 19, Nathaniel Mullings, 19, Shaun Carter, 24 and the 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were remanded in custody.

They are due to appear before Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday, October 1, with a further preliminary hearing fixed for October 12.

Another man, Kemo Porter, 18, was charged on September 19 with four counts of murder. He will appear at Leicester Crown court at a later date.  

Mr Taufiq al Sattar has said he would "deeply miss" his "beautiful" wife, daughter and two teenage sons.

The family are originally from Pakistan, but had a home in Ireland for at least 15 years before the children moved to the UK with their mother around five years ago for an Islamic education.

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Syria Chemical Weapons: UN Resolution Passed

A "historic" resolution to destroy Syria's chemical weapons has been passed unanimously by the United Nations Security Council.

All 15 members of the council voted in favour of the resolution, which was widely seen as a compromise between the US and Syria's key ally, Russia.

The vote after two weeks of intense negotiations marks a major breakthrough following two and a half years of paralysis that has gripped the council since the Syrian uprising began.

More than 100,000 Syrians have been killed during that time while millions have been displaced.

Russia's Sergei Lavrov votes in favour of the resolution

Russia and China previously vetoed three Western-backed resolutions pressuring President Bashar Assad's regime to end the violence.

Speaking immediately after the vote, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council: "Today's historic resolution is the first hopeful news on Syria in a long time."

Foreign Secretary William Hague described the development as "ground-breaking".

"The failure of the council to tackle the crimes committed on a daily basis has resulted in a culture of impunity in which a brutal regime believed it could get away with murdering its own men, women and children," he said.

UN chemical weapons experts carried out inspections in Syria

"So it is vital that the council now builds on the consensus we have reached today to make progress today towards a sustainable resolution of the crisis.

"With renewed purpose and resolve, we need to achieve a political transition."

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the "strong, enforceable, precedent-setting" resolution showed diplomacy can be so powerful "that it can peacefully defuse the worst weapons of war."

He said the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile would begin in November and be completed by the middle of next year.

Volunteers in Aleppo at a class on how to respond to a chemical attack

For the first time, the council endorsed the roadmap for a political transition in Syria adopted by key nations in June 2012 and called for an international conference to be convened "as soon as possible" to implement it.

Mr Ban said the target date for a new peace conference in Geneva was mid-November.

The resolution calls for consequences if Syria fails to comply, but those will depend on the council passing another resolution in the event of non-compliance.

That will give Assad ally Russia the means to stop any punishment from being imposed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that the resolution does not automatically impose sanctions on Syria.

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Woolwich Suspects Deny Lee Rigby Murder

Two men have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby earlier this year.

Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale appeared at Old Bailey via videolink before their trial.

Drummer Rigby, a father of one, was stabbed as he returned to the Woolwich barracks in southeast London on May 22.

The soldier's widow Rebecca Rigby watched in tears as Adebolajo, 28, and Adebowale, 22, each denied attempting to murder a police officer on the day of Drummer Rigby's death.

They also denied conspiracy to murder on or before that day.

Adebolajo, from Romford in Essex, has asked to be known as Mujaahid Abu Hamza in court, while Adebowale, from Greenwich, southeast London, has asked to be called Ismail Ibn Abdullah.

They were remanded in custody to face trial at the Old Bailey on November 19.

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