Thompson gives the girls at her old school an English lesson

She has ingratiated herself with the nation's youth through her role as the somewhat unhinged Professor Sybil Trelawney in the Harry Potter films, but now actress Emma Thompson has had something of a swipe at the Muggle population of her own alma mater.

"I went to give a talk at my old school and the girls were all doing 'likes' and 'innits?' and 'it aint's', which drives me insane," she told the Radio Times. "I told them, 'Don't do it because it makes you sound stupid and you're not stupid.' There is the necessity to have two languages – one you use with your mates and the other that you need in any official capacity. Or you're going to sound like a knob."

Her comments may come as a surprise to the well-to-do parents of pupils at the Camden School for Girls, a comprehensive in North London long known as "the Left's finishing school" with a list of glittering alumni. Sarah Brown attended, as did her former business partner Julia Hobsbawm, the daughter of the historian Eric Hobsbawm. Arabella Weir, Fiona Millar the journalist and education campaigner and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell are also former pupils.

At a charity function for parents last year, the former poet laureate Andrew Motion and Tony Blair's pollster Lord Gould became involved in a bidding war for tickets to Garsington Opera, which had been donated by the conductor Steuart Bedford (Gould eventually won, paying £550).

Ms Thompson's comments about the necessity of speaking two different types of English are not without foundation. According to a recent study, half of teenagers are unable to tell the difference between standard English grammar and colloquial language, prompting concern that the use of social networking websites and the prevalence of mobile phone text messaging is undermining children's literacy skills.

In a study by Cambridge Assessment, one of the country's largest examination boards, fewer than six in 10 pupils correctly identified "off of", "she was stood" and "this man showed us" as ungrammatical. The study surveyed more than 2,000 teenagers in 26 English secondary schools.

Ian McNeilly, from the National Association for the Teaching of English, said: "For a lot of people their daily use of English is in new media, where non-standard grammatical constructions are more acceptable. That's inevitably going to lead to an increased lack of awareness of more standard constructions."

It is easy to see why the English language is currently at the forefront of Ms Thompson's mind - she is currently writing a new version of the classic musical My Fair Lady, in which a poor flower girl is transformed into a high society lady by a phonetics professor, Henry Higgins.

British actress Carey Mulligan will take the role of Eliza Doolittle – played by Audrey Hepburn in 1964 – but she will doubtless suffer none of the linguistic afflictions of the Camden schoolgirls. She learned English at the International School in Dusseldorf, Germany, before relocating to the prestigious, independent Woldingham School in Surrey.

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Liz Murray: 'My parents were desperate drug addicts. I'm a Harvard graduate'

A woman who overcame tremendous odds to go from "homeless to Harvard" has turned her life story into an American bestseller.

Liz Murray, 29, rose from some of New York's meanest streets to graduate from the Ivy League and has become an international speaker. But some of her earliest memories are of her parents spending their welfare payments on cocaine and heroin when she and her sister were starving: "We ate ice cubes because it felt like eating. We split a tube of toothpaste between us for dinner."

When she became homeless at 16, as well as stealing food she would shoplift self-help books and study for exams in a friend's hallway. Now Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard, has burst on to the New York Times bestseller list. Hailed as a "white-knuckle account of survival", it is to be published in Britain in January.

Born in the Bronx, Liz watched her parents mainlining coke all day. "Both my parents were hippies. By the time the early 1980s came around and I'd been born, their disco dancing thing had become a drug habit," she recalls.

She talks frequently about how much she loved them and how much they loved her, how they were highly intelligent but rendered hopeless at parenting by their drug dependence and consequent poverty. She remembers her mother stealing her birthday money, selling the television, and even the Thanksgiving turkey a church had given them, to scrape together money to score a hit of coke. Liz would turn up to school lice-ridden and was bullied for being smelly and scruffy and eventually dropped out.

Her mother's mantra was "one day life is going to be better", then she would spend all day throwing up and being nursed by her daughter or slumped in withdrawal, arms tracked with needle marks. When Liz was 15 her mother revealed that she was HIV-positive and had Aids. She died not long after and was buried in a donated wooden box.

When Liz's father failed to pay the rent on their flat and moved to a homeless shelter, Liz was out on the streets. Her sister got a place on a friend's sofa, but Liz slept on the city's 24-hour underground trains or on park benches.

At first she saw herself as a rebel and a victim, but then she had an epiphany. "Like my mother, I was always saying, 'I'll fix my life one day.' It became clear when I saw her die without fulfilling her dreams that my time was now or maybe never," she says.

She had nowhere to live and had not attended school regularly for years, but at 17 pledged to become a "straight A" student and complete her high school education in just two years.

She did a year's work a term and went to night classes. A teacher saw her gumption and mentored her. When he took his top 10 students to Harvard, she stood outside the university and instead of feeling intimidated she admired its architecture – and decided it was within her reach. Then she heard that the New York Times gave scholarships.

She graduated last summer. Oprah Winfrey gave her a chutzpah award and she met Bill Clinton. She has talked at events alongside Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama. She talks to teenagers about resisting the temptations of drugs and gangs. She also urges them not to use childhood hardship as an excuse not to take opportunities.

Her father died in 2006, also of Aids. His saving grace was that he encouraged her to read – and stole books from libraries to give her a love of literature.

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Songs of praise as the diggers and cement mixers start up again

Women raised their arms aloft as they swayed to pan pipe music in the setting sun, Christian pilgrims from Finland sang and banged on their tambourines, while supporters released thousands of blue and white balloons, the colours of Israel's flag, into the sky.

This was a celebratory rally to mark the end of Israel's 10-month construction freeze in the Jewish settlement of Revava in the West Bank amid an atmosphere of jubilation and festivity.

As politicians prepared to take the stage, a spokesman for a right-wing legislator said the request for "restraint" from the settlers from the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, would be "respectfully declined".

Instead the leaders made a symbolic start on their vow to resume the building of 2,000 homes as soon as the freeze expired at midnight last night. They laid the cement foundation for a new kindergarten in the adjacent Kiryat Netafim.

"Tonight, we place this miserable decision back into the dustbin of history," Danny Danon, a Likud parliamentarian, told the crowd.

Around 2,000 people, many of them from Mr Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, packed into a sandy clearing ringed by caravans and newly built homes. A banner above the makeshift stage said: "We salute the pioneers of Judaea and Samaria".

"We want to build, God gave us this land," said Razalia, a Russian immigrant in her sixties who moved to Israel 20 years ago. "What's so awful about what we're doing here?"

Among the most enthusiastic supporters were Christian evangelicals, many of whom had travelled from as far afield as the United States and China, and who waved banners reading: "We love Israel".

"We knew this was happening today, and we wanted to stand in support for all of Israel and God's land," said Paulette, a Christian who made the trip from Canada. "We love the Israelites, we love God's way."

When asked if she supported a land for the Palestinians, she admitted she was "not familiar" with the politics.

Many settlers are deeply sceptical that Washington, which is driving renewed peace negotiations, can broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinians to deliver a two- state solution.

For some, a Palestinian state presents an existential threat to the State of Israel. "It's just not possible to reach an agreement. They don't want us here," said Mark, an elderly immigrant from Russia.

Bryna, an Israeli living in the large settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, just outside of Jerusalem, said, "The so-called West Bank is very strategic. If the Arabs controlled it, they could kill us from here."

Some 300,000 Israelis live in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, all of them illegal under international law. While many are lured by tax breaks and cheap housing, a core of settlers believes that they are reclaiming the land promised to them by God.

The settlements have expanded rapidly since the early 1970s and have emerged as an early stumbling block in the newly revived peace talks.

The Palestinians argue that Israel cannot negotiate in good faith as long as it builds on land that it may one day have to give up to make way for an independent Palestinian state.

Settlers remain unmoved, although underneath yesterday's festivity, there was an undercurrent of concern that Mr Netanyahu could yet break with his right-wing electorate and cave in to US demands to make concessions for peace. "We're still worried, we know what happened before," said Gidon Ariel, a member of the Likud Central Committee, referring to Israel's disengagement from Gaza five years ago. "We're not so easily convinced that it can't happen again."

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Far-right gains throw Swedish government into turmoil

Sweden faced political turmoil last night following shock general election gains by the country's main far-right party which appeared to have denied the governing centre-right coalition an overall majority.

The virulently anti-immigration Sweden Democrats won their first seats to Sweden's parliament with 20 of the 349 contested in Sunday's general election.

The Sweden Democrats' rise prompted spontaneous protests in Stockholm and other major cities in Sweden. Many said they were dismayed by such a result in a country which had always prided itself on tolerance.

Sweden's governing centre-right four-party Alliance for Sweden fell short of a majority after polling 172 seats, but the Prime Minister, Frederik Reinfeldt, who leads the alliance, ruled out any co-operation with the Sweden Democrats.

The Sweden Democrats ran a campaign calling for drastic reductions in Swedish immigration under the slogan "Keep Sweden Swedish". Its politicians argue that Third World immigrants in Sweden are mainly responsible for crime. The party wants total assimilation of foreigners rather than integration, which it sees as a halfway measure.

Jimmie Akesson, the party's youthful leader, said the Sweden Democrats would use their surprise gains to make themselves heard, as they had not been invited to attend official pre-election debates. "We have in many ways been treated as anything but a political party in this election," he said.

The Sweden Democrats have discarded an earlier image as a far right skinhead-style political organisation under Mr Akesson's leadership and presented themselves as respectable, suit-wearing, middle-class Swedes for their election campaign.

"We are not racists, we just want to enable immigrants to become Swedes through assimilation. Integration does not work," Mr Akesson insisted in interviews after his party's result became known.

Immigrants make up 14 per cent of Sweden's 9.4 million population.

Mr Reinfeldt said he would not rule out working together with Sweden's Greens and Social Democrats who form the main opposition block in parliament.

The deputy leader of the Greens, Maria Wetterstrand, appeared to rule out the idea of co-operation with Mr Reinfeldt's alliance. She said his plans to extend the use of nuclear power in Sweden through construction of several new atomic power stations directly contradicted her own party's aims and political convictions.

She said her alliance with the Social Democrats, which won 157 seats, remained intact.

Mona Sahlin, the leader of the Social Democrats, conceded defeat and admitted that her party had not been able to win back the confidence of voters. Her party is credited with setting up the country's generous welfare state system over the past 65 years.

"The Alliance is the biggest majority group. It is now up to Mr Reinfeldt to find out how to rule Sweden without letting the Sweden Democrats win political influence," she insisted.

One Swedish Muslim woman, interviewed in Stockholm, admitted she was shocked at the result. "I am very unhappy with the result. Times ahead do not look good for Muslims," she said.

Susanne Lindeskog, from the southern city of Malmo, which has a large immigrant population, said: "It is frightening that 8 per cent of Swedes have voted for a party with racist roots. I am ashamed to be Swedish," she added.

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El Salvador calls for showdown with gangs to stem rising murder rate

El Salvador's president Mauricio Funes has ratified a law banning ultraviolent mara youth gangs, criminal organisations and the "social extermination" groups that claim to combat them, in a bid to stem a spiralling murder rate.

Funes signed the law on the eve of his visit to Mexico earlier this month, during which he appealed to his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón, to support central America in its battle against organised crime.

Threats against public transport by the maras, in retaliation for a stiff new sentence regime, shut down travel for as much as three days in some places, with commuters offered army transport and police escorts.

The new rules double the maximum prison sentence for minors of 16 or 17 years, from seven to 15 years.

Although Funes is El Salvador's first socialist leader in three decades, he has no qualms about calling in the troops to enforce law and order, much as in Mexico. But public opinion is divided on the issue.

The powerful Catholic church supports the new law. But Antonio Rodriguez, a Spanish priest and head of a programme to prevent juvenile violence, who claims to be defending social outcasts and not the maras themselves, criticised the government's "authoritarian" attitude.

The maras account for some 30,000 youths in El Salvador, out of a population of 6 million. Last year the authorities registered 4,365 murders, an average of 12 a day. Many are blamed on the maras.

The maras are increasingly linked with drug trafficking and organised crime, not only in El Salvador but also in Honduras and Guatemala. This month Álvaro Colom, Guatemala's Social Democrat president, raised the possibility of all three countries jointly passing legislation to combat the maras.

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Ingrid Betancourt husband seeks half her fortune

The estranged second husband of Ingrid Betancourt, the Colombian politician held hostage in the jungle for six years, filed court papers seeking half her fortune a day before the publication of a memoir about her ordeal.

The lawyer for Juan Carlos Lecompte said that he filed a motion on Monday at a Bogotá court seeking to freeze all of Betancourt's assets – in Colombia and abroad.

Lawyer Heli Abel Torrado said the assets include an apartment in Paris, a home in Wyoming and royalties from her memoir. The book, Even Silence Has An End, went on sale internationally yesterday.

Neither Betancourt nor her lawyer could be reached for comment. Lecompte said his wife, 48, filed for divorce several months after the Colombian government rescued her in July 2008.

Her memoir has reportedly already raised the ire of one of her former fellow captives, Clara Rojas, who decried as "infamy" Betancourt's suggestion in the book that Rojas asked their leftist rebel captives for permission to get pregnant.

Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian national, was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, in February 2002 while campaigning for president.

Betancourt has two grownup children from her first marriage and divides her time between Paris and New York.

She alienated many Colombians in July when they learned she had decided to seek more than $6m (£3.8m) in damages from the state. Betancourt later withdrew the petition for damages.

Some prominent Colombians accused her of being reckless for heading by road into the conflict zone where she was kidnapped. Betancourt contends the government bears responsibility because it denied her helicopter transport, stripped her of armed protection and did not insist she not attempt the journey.

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Prejudice and evictions widespread in Europe not just France, activists warn

Civil rights campaigners have accused governments across Europe – not just France – of adopting explicitly anti-immigrant and anti-Roma policies to win popular support and gain electoral success.

The criticisms follows the rift between Nicolas Sarzkozy and fellow EU leaders over his determination to demolish Roma camps and deport their residents. At an EU summit in Brussels Sarkozy was isolated, except for the backing of the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

The French leader claimed he had the support of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, but German officials denied his assertion that Berlin planned to clear camps.

Amid accusations that France is breaking EU law, campaigners said that anti-Roma sentiment predated the economic crisis but had escalated in the past two years.

"It has been more tempting in the economic crisis for politicians to scapegoat people," said Robert Kushen, the executive director of the European Roma Rights centre in Budapest, "but if you take a deeper look extremist figures have been targeting Roma before 2008."

Although it is France in the headlines, Kushen points to a surge in anti-Roma attacks in eastern Europe. Acts of violence in Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic have included firebombing, shooting, stabbing and beating. Eight people have died and dozens have serious injuries. Many attacks have targeted families and children.

"These countries have seen a strengthening of extremist and openly racist groups, which spread hate speech and organise anti-Romani marches through the very same villages where people are being attacked or killed," said the ERRC.

Meanwhile France, which has expelled more than 8,000 Roma this year, is not alone in turning back Roma. In July Denmark summarily sent 23 Roma back to Romania, Sweden expelled 50 and Germany paid more than 100 Roma to return to Romania in June 2009. Amid public outcries about public security, Finland has also threatened expulsions.

Italy has had a tough line for a decade so it was no surprise this week when Berlusconi described France's expulsions as perfectly legal. For the past decade Roma and Sinti communities in Italy have been regularly subjected to forced evictions and the pace has quickened since 2007.

Evictions are often carried out at short notice and without prior consultation. Residents are not informed about alternatives to eviction and are not offered adequate accommodation. The majority are forced to find shelter in unauthorised areas where they may be evicted once again.

Berlusconi built on resentment against Roma in his 2008 election campaign. Only 12 days after he formed his government the European commission warned ministers not to take "extreme measures" against Roma.

Berlusconi's government proposed fingerprinting Roma and their children but partially backed down after heavy criticism, saying the policy would at first apply to those living in Italy who could not provide identification, before being extended to all residents with identity cards.

Only Spain emerges with any credit in its treatment of Roma.

"Spain hasn't made much of an issue politically of the Roma and has been on the whole fairly tolerant," said John Dalhuisen, an Amnesty International expert on discrimination in Europe. "There has been no evictions and no destruction of camps."

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Sixth arrest in Pope 'terror plot' probe

A sixth man was being questioned tonight by counter-terrorism detectives investigating a plot to attack the Pope.

Scotland Yard said the suspect, aged 29, was held by officers at a home in north London shortly before 2pm.

A spokesman said he was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Tonight, police were searching eight homes in north and east London and two business premises in central London, including a street-cleaning depot.

Five street cleaners were arrested at gunpoint as armed officers swooped on their base as they prepared to start their shift shortly before 6am.

They work for Veolia Environmental Services, a contractor which employs 650 on-street staff to keep the streets of Westminster clean.

Searches of the depot and their homes in north and east London did not reveal any weapons or suspicious materials.

But senior detectives said they were compelled to act after a tip-off about suspicious activity late last night.

The security alert led to a review of the huge police operation surrounding the visit of Benedict XVI, but his itinerary went ahead as planned.

His spokesman said the Pope was informed of the arrests but remained "totally calm" and will continue to enjoy his trip.

The police operation began shortly before 6am at Veolia's Chiltern Street depot, in Marylebone, where staff are responsible for cleaning surrounding streets.

The five suspects, aged 26, 27, 36, 40 and 50, were held on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000.

It is understood all five are of North African origin, including several from Algeria.

A huge security and public order operation swung into action yesterday as the Pope touched down in Britain.

Thousands of officers are involved in the operation from forces including the Met, Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders, West Midlands and British Transport Police.

The cost of policing the Pope's visit to Britain will exceed £1.5 million and is being coordinated by South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes.

Senior officers said there was no information ahead of the visit to suggest any "specific group" wanted to attack the Pope.

But they warned people not to underestimate the "passion and the fervour" the visit would bring.

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Spanish artist's dying crickets glued to wall spark cruelty claims

The thousand chirruping crickets went on sale as food for pet iguanas, but the Spanish artist Ismael Alabado decided they would look better glued to a wall, dying a slow death for the sake of art.

Some visitors to his exhibition, held in Cáceres, western Spain, were nonplussed, but others were outraged. One visitor went off to find some insecticide and returned to put the crickets out of their misery.

Now police are investigating whether to prosecute for animal cruelty, as Alabado claims curtailment to his artistic freedom.

The insecticide sprayer told Hoy newspaper: "I was appalled when I saw hundreds of crickets glued to the wall, moving their legs without being able to free themselves. I complained to the organisers and said that if they couldn't do anything, then I would. I went home, grabbed the insecticide and sprayed them. I don't understand such cruelty. Is that really art?"

Alabado insists it is. "I want spectators to understand that just as the crickets are stuck, so they are stuck by their own social rules and to the world, without realising that everything is drawing to an end. This woman has acted like a Taliban, restricting creative and cultural freedom. Some people were upset, but only those who do not have an open mind."

Organisers said the fly spray failed to kill most of the crickets, but within four days the rest had died of starvation.

"They can't suffer because they have no nervous system," the 34-year-old artist said. "It's like cutting a plant."

Alabado could be fined up to €15,000. "Cruelty to animals cannot be justified … be it for art or for science," said Javier Alonso de la Torre, cultural promotion head in the regional government.

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Le Monde accuses Nicolas Sarkozy of ordering 'spying' on reporters

France's most respected newspaper has accused Nicolas Sarkozy of ordering the counterintelligence services to spy on one of its reporters.

Quoting a law enacted during Sarkozy's presidency, Le Monde said it was suing for breach of confidentiality of sources linked to one of the most embarrassing scandals to hit the government.

The paper claimed that the DCRI, the equivalent of Britain's MI5 domestic secret service, had broken the law by investigating the source of leaks related to claims of tax evasion and illegal party funding by the L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. "The law is absolutely clear. 'The confidentiality of journalists' sources is protected in the exercise of their mission to inform the public'," wrote Le Monde in its editorial.

It pointed out that this clause, strengthening a law dating back to 1881, was introduced by Sarkozy in January.

Since July, the president and his government have faced embarrassing allegations about donations by Bettencourt, France's richest woman, to Sarkozy's ruling right-of-centre UMP party.

In July, Le Monde published an article, including extracts from a police interview of a witness in the affair that had thrown suspicion on the government minister Eric Woerth, who is also the UMP's chief fundraiser. Woerth was accused of a conflict of interests, as his wife Florence worked for Bettencourt. He was also alleged to have accepted party donations from the billionaire while she was hiding part of her fortune in Swiss bank accounts.

He has denied any wrongdoing and the allegations are being investigated.

The Le Monde interview, based on leaked police interviews with the heiress's financial adviser, Patrice de Maistre, in which he claimed Woerth had encouraged him to employ his wife, was said to have "particularly irritated the Elysée".

Accusations against Woerth, the labour minister, came at a crucial time, as he is the driving force behind the president's bitterly contested raising of the pension age.

The Elysée is said to have ordered the DCRI to find the leaks source by obtaining details of calls made by people it suspected. It linked a Le Monde journalist to a justice ministry adviser who was subsequently demoted and sent to French Guyana.

Sylvie Kauffmann, Le Monde's editor, cited police and intelligence sources for the paper's claims against the Elysée. Le Monde announced it was suing "an unnamed person or persons" after Bernard Squarcini, director of the DCRI, told a French news magazine that his agency had looked into the source of the leaked police interviews in the affair. The Elysée "totally denies" the allegations. In a statement to Agence France Presse it said "the presidency of the Republic confirms it did not give any instruction whatsoever to any agency whatsoever". It is not the first time the Elysée has been accused of misusing the intelligence service for political or personal reasons. Earlier this year Sarkozy ordered the country's spies to look into the sources of rumours that he and his wife, Carla Bruni, were having affairs.

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