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An ideology "at odds with traditional British values" has taken hold at the schools inspectorate Ofsted, a group of leading educationalists and Muslim leaders have warned. Led by Sir Tim Brighouse, a former chief education officer in Birmingham, the 20 experts – unhappy at the way Ofsted has conducted inspections into schools allegedly infiltrated by conservative Muslims – say in a letter to the Guardian that it is at risk of compromising political independence by producing "tarnished reports". Their intervention comes days before Ofsted publishes results of an inspection of 21 schools ordered by education secretary, Michael Gove, after claims conservative Muslims were trying to infiltrate the governing bodies of Birmingham schools in a plot dubbed Operation Trojan Horse. On Tuesday, further evidence also emerged of abrupt shifts in Ofsted's inspection results, with a leaked inspection report showing that a second secondary school in the city that h...

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss a suit by a former Managing Director of the defunct Oceanic Bank Plc, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, seeking to regain the assets she forfeited upon her conviction in 2010. Ibru had filed the suit urging the court to stop the Attorney-General of the Federation and AMCON from further taking any steps towards implementing the terms of the plea bargain and settlement agreement leading to her conviction. Other plaintiffs in the suit are Sidochem Industries Ltd., Edgar Sido and Dr. Francis Sido. Ibru, acting on behalf of herself and Ibru Group, along with the three other defendants, is seeking an order of court mandating parties to return to status quo prior to November 12, 2013. The plaintiffs alleged that AMOCN had on the said November 12, 2013, mischievously obtained an ex parte order from the court without disclosing material facts in the plea bargain agreement. Justice Ahmed Mohammed...

The majority of private sector landlords in the United Kingdom are planning to increase their rents in the next 12 months, according to a new study. Overall 90 per cent are planning a rent rise, according to the survey by The Online Letting Agents. Some 51 per cent plan to raise their rent by three per cent, 33 per cent plan by five per cent and six per cent by 10 per cent. According to Propertywire.com, the research also reveals that the majority of landlords are very optimistic about property prices, believing that they will continue to rise this year. During the next 12 months, over a third of landlords predict that property prices will rise by between six per cent and 10 per cent in their area, whilst the majority, 65 per cent, are more cautious, predicting price rises of up to five per cent Director of the Online Letting Agents, Eleanor Carroll, said while the latest buy to let index from LSL Property Services showed that the average rent had risen by only £5 in the last ...

The average property value in England and Wales increased by 1.5% from March to April and annually prices are up 6.7%, according to the latest data from the Land Registry. This takes the average house price in England and Wales to £172,069, compared with a peak of £181,572 in November 2007. London experienced the highest annual increase in average property value with a movement of 17% while the North East experienced the only annual price fall of 2.9%. London also saw the greatest monthly price rise with values up 4.2% and again it was the North East with the only monthly price fall, with prices down 1.9%. The data also shows that the number of property transactions has increased over the last year. From November 2012 to February 2013 there was an average of 52,331 sales per month. In the same months a year later, the figure was 72,080. The figures back up evidence that 2014 has seen one of the busiest starts to the year for the real estate market, according to Pet...

The chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, is to censure half a dozen schools in Birmingham for failing to prepare pupils "for life in modern Britain", when Ofsted publishes the results of its investigations into the Trojan Horse affair, in which it was alleged there was an Islamist plot to subvert schools in the city. The tranche of reports on 21 state schools, which could be published as early as this week, say there was scant evidence of religious extremism on a daily basis in classrooms, with most criticism reserved for school management and cases of overbearing behaviour by school governors. Ofsted's inspectors appear to have been unable to find much evidence of claims of homophobia or gender discrimination, which have been alleged by anonymous former teachers at some of the schools. Six schools, including three operated by the Park View Academy Trust – Park View academy, Golden Hillock secondary and Nansen primary schools – are expected to be ...

Senior Fifa figures are for the first time seriously considering the ramifications of ordering a rerun of the vote for the right to stage the 2022 World Cup, in the aftermath of new corruption allegations against the hosts, Qatar. While awaiting the results of a semi-independent inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 bidding races, senior football figures heading for the 2014 tournament in Brazil are understood to be considering their response if the report recommends a new vote in light of new claims based on hundreds of millions of leaked emails and documents. The Qatari organising committee for the 2022 World Cup is to meet Fifa investigator Michael Garcia on Monday in Oman, the BBC reports. In Britain, there was a renewed outpouring of concern from politicians and former football executives after the Sunday Times alleged that Mohamed bin Hammam, a Qatari former Fifa executive committee member, paid $5m (£3m) in cash, gifts and legal fees to senior football officials to help bu...

• BPE says all old PHCN workers have been paid • Declares protesting electricity workers as ghost employees • N7b paid to labour as union dues from workers’ entitlements A COMBINATION of labour and political issues may make the nation’s refineries not to be privatised until  after the general elections of 2015, according to  an investigation by The Guardian.    The Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) says labour has confirmed that it wants the refineries privatised, but with shares properly allocated to workers, a condition the government has accepted.   The Director General of the BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki told The Guardian, however, that the same labour had failed to put its house in order, necessitating divergent positions from some of its members across the nation.   He said: “Everybody accepts, including labour, that there is need to privatise.  It is now the issue of what strategy we need to privatise. Labour is saying, we ...