Hour writer admits 'anachronisms'

22 August 2011 Last updated at 11:45 GMT Morgan's six-part drama is set in a BBC newsroom during the 1950s The writer of The Hour has admitted some of the words and phrases used in the BBC drama would not have been said in the period in which it is set.

In an email to The Independent, Abi Morgan said she "holds [her] hands up" to any historical errors in the script.

"But I am a dramatist," she continued. "I elaborate. I imagine."

The writer was responding to criticism from the newspaper that phrases like "bottled out" and "note to self" would not have been said in 1956.

"When a line of dialogue jars and is seen as an anachronism, one holds one's hands up," Morgan wrote.

"But more because it has taken the audience out of the drama," she went on. "The Hour is escapism and for that moment the escapism hasn't worked."

Writing in the newspaper, columnist David Lister said "anachronisms in speech, dress and social manners" in the show had been "distracting and surprising".

Despite these, however, Lister said the drama - which comes to end this Tuesday on BBC Two - was still "the best thing currently on TV".

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Woman admits £25,000 benefits con

22 August 2011 Last updated at 16:53 GMT Annunziatina Attanasio had been claiming the highest rate for both mobility and care for five years.

A Cardiff woman has admitted claiming £25,000 worth of benefits after pretending to be severely disabled.

Annunziatina Attanasio, 51, claimed the highest rate of mobility and care for five years before she was caught.

She was filmed walking normally, as well as going down a water slide.

She claimed an amount which, says the Department for Work and Pensions, is meant for "people who are barely able to walk and need round-the-clock care". She will be sentenced on 16 September.

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Buffett admits 'mistake' on Sokol

30 April 2011 Last updated at 22:26 GMT Mr Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway's about 80 subsidiaries with 21 other employees US billionaire investor Warren Buffett has faced uncomfortable questions from shareholders in his company about the resignation of a top executive.

David Sokol had violated Berkshire Hathaway's insider-trading rules, he told the meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.

Mr Sokol traded shares worth $10m (£5.9m) in Lubrizol before convincing Mr Buffett to mount a $9bn takeover.

Mr Buffett admitted he had "made a big mistake" by not pressing Mr Sokol when he mentioned the investment in passing.

Berkshire Hathaway earlier said its first quarter profits had dropped more than half - a fall of more than $2bn - partly because of insurance losses associated with the natural disasters in Japan and New Zealand.

The annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway is usually a celebration of the company's investment successes, but the Sokol affair made the atmosphere less pleasant this year, correspondents say.

'Straight as an arrow'

Mr Sokol, who ran an energy utility for the company, had been widely tipped to succeed Mr Buffett, 80, as chief executive before his resignation last month, when it emerged he had bought Lubrizol shares in January.

"He violated our insider-trading rules and he violated the principles I lay out every two years to our managers," Mr Buffett said.

Mr Buffett has previously revealed that Mr Sokol made a "passing remark" about a personal investment in Lubrizol.

Mr Sokol's lawyer has disputed Berkshire Hathaway's findings

But Berkshire Hathaway's audit committee said in a report that Mr Buffett was unaware of when Mr Sokol's shares were purchased or that he was working with Citigroup bankers on the takeover.

"I made a big mistake by not saying: 'Well, when did you buy it?'" he admitted.

Lubrizol jumped 28% on the New York Stock Exchange on 14 March when Mr Buffett announced a deal to buy the company.

Mr Sokol's lawyer said on Wednesday that his client had no reason to believe Mr Buffett would want to buy Lubrizol at the time he bought stock, and that he had been studying the company months before Lubrizol was mentioned during a meeting with Citigroup investment bankers in December.

"He would not, and did not, trade improperly, nor did he violate any fair reading of the Berkshire Hathaway policies," a statement said.

Mr Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway's more than 70 subsidiaries, which employ more than 250,000 people, with the help of his 87-year-old vice-chairman, Charles Munger, and 20 others at the firm's headquarters.

Mr Buffett also told shareholders that he was not sure it had been warranted to assume Sokol was his most likely successor.

"Certainly the candidate that I think is the leading candidate now, I would lay a lot of money on the fact that he is as straight as an arrow," he said.

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Father 'admits he killed' twins

11 February 2011 Last updated at 14:50 GMT Matthias Schepp was said to be distraught by his separation from his wife The father of missing twin girls from Switzerland wrote a letter saying that he had killed his daughters before he killed himself, Swiss police say.

Police say the letter was dated 3 February, the day Matthias Schepp threw himself under a train in Italy.

He and the six-year-old girls were last seen on a ferry from mainland France to Corsica on 31 January but there has been no trace of the girls since.

Schepp failed to return them to his estranged wife at the end of January.

The girls' mother, Irina Lucidi, reported Alessia and Livia missing on 30 January, sparking a major international manhunt.

'Split personality'

"The last envelope dated February 3 contained a letter in which the father said he killed the two girls, saying he was in Cerignola [southern Italy] where he was about to kill himself," police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said.

"I can confirm that in his letter he also said that they did not suffer and were resting in peace."

Swiss police said that Schepp sent eight letters from Bari, Italy, to his wife in Switzerland, the first seven containing a total of 4,400 euros (£3,700; $6,000).

The 43-year-old father had been looking after the girls for the weekend, but failed to return them to their home in St Sulpice, Switzerland, as planned.

Continue reading the main story Friday 28 January: Schepp picks up his daughters to spend the weekend with them in their home village, St Sulpice, where both he and his estranged wife have homesSunday 30 January at 1300 (1200 GMT): The girls are last seen with Schepp in St SulpiceSunday 30 January at 1804 (1704 GMT): Schepp crosses the border into FranceMonday 31 January: Schepp sends a despairing postcard to his wife from Marseille; he and the girls take an evening ferry to Propriano, Corsica Tuesday 1 February: Schepp disembarks in Propriano, with or without the girls; he later leaves Corsica for Naples in ItalyThursday 3 February: Schepp throws himself under a train at Cerignola, in the south Italian region of Puglia He picked up the girls on 28 January, before travelling to France and Italy. He was found dead in Cerignola, in the region of Puglia.

He was spotted with the girls on an overnight ferry from Marseille to the island of Corsica, arriving on 1 February. It is not known if he had the girls with him when he arrived.

Police have said Schepp was on his own when he sailed to the port city of Toulon in France the same day.

"In all likelihood they are in Corsica," said Mr Sauterel.

Swiss police have already revealed that Schepp had trawled websites on ferry schedules, suicide, guns and poison before taking the girls.

"We are dealing with someone who was extremely meticulous and who planned a certain number of things, including his trip to Corsica," Mr Sauterel said on Thursday.

Police in Corsica said they were searching various spots on the island where the family had vacationed before the parents split.

Swiss media carried a statement from Schepp's family saying he must have suffered a breakdown.

Ms Lucidi's family have said Schepp had a split personality, AFP news agency reported.

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