LONDON: Around one million Britons are in jobs offering no guaranteed minimum work or pay, far more than the 250,000 estimated by the country’s statistics agency, an industry survey showed on Monday.

Zero-hours contracts have come in for growing criticism from trade unions and the opposition Labour Party because people who sign up to them are offered very little security while often being expected to work at short notice.

Britain’s Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, the main professional body for human resources, said that based on a survey of more than 1,000 employers, it estimated that 3-4 percent of British workers were on zero-hours contracts, equivalent to roughly one million people.

Almost unheard of in the rest of Europe and the United States, the rapid growth of this type of work helps explain how Britain’s barely growing economy has been able to provide jobs for a record number of people.

Last week the Office for National Statistics revised up its estimate of the number of zero-hours workers to 250,000 from 200,000, but said there may be more as its surveys failed to ask many shift workers if they were employed on a zero-hours basis.

“Our research suggests they are being used more commonly than the ONS figures would imply. However, the assumption that all zero-hours contracts are ‘bad’ and the suggestion from some quarters that they should be banned should be questioned,” said Peter Cheese, the CIPD’s chief executive.

Based on a sample of 148 zero-hours workers in a forthcoming CIPD survey, the body said just over half reported that the jobs always provided sufficient work for a basic standard of living, while almost a third said this was not always the case.

The Home Affairs Committee, which scrutinises the government’s domestic policy, said the “state-of-the-art espionage response team” would encourage companies, banks and institutions to report hacking attempts to uncover the full extent of online crime and halt its rise.

“We are very concerned that there appears to be a ‘black hole’ where low-level e-crime is committed with impunity,” the report said.

The government has said it will consolidate cyber crime policing into a new unified structure as part of a shakeup of the country’s policing structure, but the report said this did not go far enough.

Other government efforts to rein in Internet crime include a partnership with the defence industry and telecoms companies, announced earlier this month, which aims to safeguard the country’s defence supply chain against cyber attacks.

Prime Minister David Cameron last week also tightened up online pornography laws and demanded that Internet firms block access to child abuse images.

The committee said these efforts did not go far enough, however, and said the government was still too complacent when it came to cyber crime, ranging from identity fraud and data theft to the spreading of illegal images and extremist material.

Last week, five men were charged in the United States in connection with the largest cyber crime case in U.S. history. Major multi-national corporations such as Visa and French retailer Carrefour were among the victims.

“We are not winning the war on online criminal activity,” said opposition MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the bipartisan committee, which heard evidence from police, industry bodies and security experts over the course of a 10-month investigation.

“You can steal more on the Internet than you can by robbing a bank and online criminals in 25 countries have chosen the UK as their number one target.”

The committee expressed concern that Britain was isolating itself by deciding to opt out of many EU-wide justice measures, but also criticised individual EU members for not doing enough to stop attacks.

“We are deeply concerned that EU partner countries are not doing enough to prevent cyber attacks from criminals within their countries on the UK,” the report said.

LONDON: Prince William, his wife Kate and their new son are spending their first night together after it was announced that Britain has a new future king.

Cheering crowds rushed towards the gates of Buckingham Palace as it was announced that the Duchess of Cambridge had produced a healthy male heir weighing 8lbs 6oz (3.8 kilos).

The as-yet unnamed baby is third in line to the throne and in the direct line of succession after the Queen’s eldest son and heir Prince Charles, and then his eldest son William.

“We could not be happier,” William, the son of Charles and the late Princess Diana, said in a brief statement on Monday.

US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle led international tributes to the “joyous occasion”, while Canada was the first to hail the birth among the 15 overseas realms to which the baby will be heir.

Kate Middleton, 31, spent ten hours in labour after she and William arrived around dawn at London’s St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington.

“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4:24pm (0124 Tuesday AEST),” Kensington Palace said in a statement just over four hours after she gave birth.

“The baby weighs 8lbs 6oz. The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth.”

It was in the same hospital wing that Princess Diana gave birth to William in 1982.

Royal aides later placed a formal bulletin on a gold easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace which said that both Kate and her son were “doing well”.

Royal doctor Marcus Setchell added: “Wonderful baby. Beautiful baby”.

The Queen, 87, said she was “delighted” while Prince Charles said he was overjoyed.

British landmarks including the London Eye and BT Tower were lit in red white and blue to celebrate the baby’s birth while cannon fire will ring out across the capital on Tuesday.

Newspapers splashed the arrival over their front pages, with many saying simply: “It’s a boy”.

The arrival of a royal baby and a new generation for the British monarchy had been hotly anticipated ever since the couple married in 2011 after a decade-long romance.

The popular couple have been widely credited with revitalising “The Firm”, as the British royals are known, following decades of scandal and the death of Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997.

The palace said the boy’s name would be revealed later, but he will be known as Prince of Cambridge.

Bookmakers say the favourites are George and James, traditional names for a future monarch.

William, also 31 has been on annual leave and will take two weeks paternity leave from his job as a Royal Air Force search and rescue pilot.

The birth came later than widely expected, adding to the sense of anticipation – as well as the frustrations of hundreds of members of the international media who waited outside the hospital for three weeks.

Prince Charles said that he and his second wife Camilla were “overjoyed at the arrival of my first grandchild”.

“It is an incredibly special moment for William and Catherine and we are so thrilled for them on the birth of their baby boy,” the 64-year-old heir to the throne said in a statement.

“Grandparenthood is a unique moment in anyone’s life, as countless kind people have told me in recent months, so I am enormously proud and happy to be a grandfather for the first time and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing the baby in the near future.”

The fact that it is a boy averted the need to rush through new succession laws across the 16 Commonwealth realms, which would mean that a royal princess could no longer be overtaken by any future younger brothers.

Royal fanatics gathered in London could not hide their excitement.

The new arrival is Queen Elizabeth’s third great-grandchild.

LAGOS, Nigeria: A British national has been kidnapped near Lagos international airport, in Nigeria’s commercial capital, the British Consulate-General reported Friday.

Diplomats are working with Nigerian authorities on the kidnapping, which took place earlier this week, said consulate spokesman Wale Adebayo.

The person was kidnapped shortly after leaving the international terminal, said a British statement.

Adebayo would not say what day it occurred or give any other information, citing the “sensitive nature” of the issue.

Kidnappings for ransom are relatively common in oil-rich Nigeria — both of foreigners and wealthy Nigerians.

The 3-year-old son of a state legislator and four Chinese nationals in two different states all have been reported kidnapped this month.

Some cases are not reported because of fears for the safety of the hostages.

Most are released unharmed after ransoms have been paid, though people have been injured and killed if they resist.

Risk analysts Drum Cussac have reported “a noticeable upsurge” in the number of kidnappings in the southwest of Nigeria including Lagos. “Foreign nationals were targeted in the affluent Lagos areas of Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Epe-Lekki, sparking speculation that organized criminal gangs have renewed their focus on the city’s upscale districts given their relatively permissive security environments,” the consultancy said.

The latest piracy statistics from the London-based International Maritime Bureau also reported an increase in kidnappings of the crew of hijacked ships off the coast of Nigeria and the rest of the Gulf of Guinea.

London: Way back in the mists of time, when schoolkids were expected to learn seemingly endless lists of facts off by heart, they chanted a poem to remember the names of England’s kings and queens.

“Willie, Willie, Harry, Ste,” it began. “Harry, Dick, John, Harry three / One, two, three Neds, Richard two / Harrys four, five, six, then who?” It then ended with the most recent monarchs: “Edward seven, George and Ted / George the sixth, now Liz instead.”

Of course, it’s not done that way any more, but if it were, which name would make it into the next verse? We know that “Charles” and “William” will follow “Liz,” but which name will follow theirs?

As the due date for William and Catherine’s eagerly-awaited baby nears, speculation is growing as to what they’ll call the newest addition to the royal family. Will they pick a name that has already featured in that schoolroom poem?

“William and Kate are very much a couple of the 21st century but I think they will stick to traditional names, in keeping with the past,”Kate’s biographer Claudia Joseph told CNN.

Currently sitting at the top of the list for a girl is Alexandra, with bookmakers offering odds of 7/2 or 4/1 in favor of the new baby being named after the wife of King Edward VII, Queen Elizabeth II’s grandmother.

It will produce draft regulations later this year and the procedure could be offered within two years.

Experts say three-person IVF could eliminate debilitating and potentially fatal mitochondrial diseases that are passed on from mother to child.

Opponents say it is unethical and could set the UK on a “slippery slope”.

They also argue that affected couples could adopt or use egg donors instead.

Mitochondria are the tiny, biological “power stations” that give the body energy. They are passed from a mother, through the egg, to her child.

Defective mitochondria affect one in every 6,500 babies. This can leave them starved of energy, resulting in muscle weakness, blindness, heart failure and death in the most extreme cases.

Research suggests that using mitochondria from a donor egg can prevent the diseases.

It is envisaged that up to 10 couples a year would benefit from the treatment.

However, it would result in babies having DNA from two parents and a tiny amount from a third donor as the mitochondria themselves have their own DNA.

LONDON — The Guardian newspaper says the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ repeatedly hacked into foreign diplomats’ phones and emails when the U.K. hosted international conferences, even going so far as to set up a bugged Internet café in an effort to get an edge in high-stakes negotiations.

The report – the latest in a series of revelations which have ignited a worldwide debate over the scope of Western intelligence gathering – came just hours before Britain was due to open the G-8 summit Monday, a meeting of the seven biggest economies plus Russia, in Northern Ireland. The allegation that the United Kingdom has previously used its position as host to spy on its allies and other attendees could make for awkward conversation as the delegates arrive for talks.

“The diplomatic fallout from this could be considerable,” said British academic Richard J. Aldrich, whose book “GCHQ” charts the agency’s history.

GCHQ declined to comment on the report.

The Guardian cites more than half a dozen internal government documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as the basis for its reporting on GCHQ’s intelligence operations, which it says involved, among other things, hacking into the South African foreign ministry’s computer network and targeting the Turkish delegation at the 2009 G-20 summit in London.

The source material – whose authenticity could not immediately be determined – appears to be a mixed bag. The Guardian describes one as “a PowerPoint slide,” another as “a briefing paper” and others simply as “documents.”

Some of the leaked material was posted to the Guardian’s website with heavy redactions. A spokesman for the newspaper said that the redactions were made at the newspaper’s initiative, but declined to elaborate.

LONDON (Reuters) – Pitching tougher rules on tax evasion to the G8 is a precarious undertaking for Prime Minister David Cameron. Britain’s own tax havens are world leaders.

Britain’s list of exotic Overseas Territories reads like an accountant’s dream menu for a cash-rich Russian oligarch with something to hide, while British lawyers lead the field as gatekeepers for elaborate global mazes of offshore trusts.

Global tax evasion could be costing more than $3 trillion (1.90 trillion pounds) a year according to researchers from Tax Justice Network while as much as $32 trillion – twice the size of U.S. gross domestic product – could be hidden by individuals in tax havens.

“British tax havens are world leaders in providing a particular type of secrecy,” said John Christensen, an economist who directs the Tax Justice Network and who began investigating offshore havens in 1978.

From the families of Asian government officials to the new rich of the former Soviet Union, court cases and data leaks have shown many wealthy individuals favour Britain’s modern day treasure islands as the place to park their millions.

Tax authorities scouring a huge batch of leaked data said last month that the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands were among those housing shell companies and trusts to hide wealth.

Once buccaneer havens, many of the sleepy former British colonies now live off a blend of beach tourism and exotic finance that activists say leaves both locals and distant taxpayers short-changed.

LONDON: The Queen will go back to the scene of her coronation on Tuesday to mark a reign that has weathered six decades of social transformation and the end of her country’s global empire.

Millions of Britons gathered round brand new black-and-white television sets to watch her get crowned in Westminster Abbey in June 1953.

Sixty years on, the cameras will be back to film her joining around 2,000 guests, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, for the official anniversary celebrations in the historic church.

The event sees her edging towards Queen Victoria’s record as Britain’s longest-serving monarch. Victoria died in 1901 after more than 63 years and seven months on the throne.

Elizabeth was crowned while Winston Churchill – the prime minister who saw Britain through the Second World War – was back in office.

Hers was the 38th coronation to take place at the Abbey, a tradition launched in 1066 by William the Conqueror, the first Norman King of England.

In a sign that the toll of official engagements may be bearing down on the 87-year-old monarch, the Queen was accompanied by her son and likely successor, Charles, during May’s opening of parliament where she read the government’s legislative programme.

Her health was also in the spotlight earlier in the year when she succumbed to a bout of gastroenteritis and cancelled a number of engagements.

LONDON: British counter-terrorism police on Saturday arrested three people suspected of involvement in the killing of a soldier hacked to death in a London street by two men shouting Islamist slogans.

The killing of the soldier in what the government said appeared to be a terrorist attack has led to angry protests against radical Islam and fears of a possible anti-Muslim backlash.

Michael Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under armed guard in hospital after being shot and arrested by police on suspicion of murder on Wednesday.

The three men arrested on Saturday are suspected of conspiracy to murder. London police said two of them were hit by electric Taser guns, but neither needed hospital treatment.

Eight people have now been arrested in connection with the murder on Wednesday of 25-year-old Lee Rigby, who served in Afghanistan. No one has been charged.

Witnesses said Adebolajo and Adebowale used a car to run down Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks in southeast London and then attacked him with a meat cleaver and knives, before being shot by police.

The pair told bystanders they were acting in revenge for British wars in Muslim countries.

French police were investigating whether the stabbing of a soldier patrolling a business district west of Paris on Saturday was a copycat crime. The soldier was injured and his attacker fled.

French President Francois Hollande said the exact circumstances of the stabbing were still unclear, although police were “exploring all options”.

Police in the city of Newcastle, northeast England, said up to 2,000 people took part in a demonstration organized by the far-right English Defence League on Saturday. Demonstrators shouted “RIP Lee Rigby” and “Whose streets? Our streets?”

Hundreds of people attended a rival protest by an anti-fascist group in the city. Police said both events passed off without major incident.

There have been questions over the role of the British security services in the months leading up to Rigby’s killing after uncorroborated allegations intelligence officers tried to recruit one of the men suspected of killing the soldier.

A man identified by the BBC as Abu Nusaybah told its flagship news program “Newsnight” on Friday that Adebolajo was approached six months ago to see if he would work for them as an informant. He said Adebolajo had refused.