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The deputy prime minister says data collected will enable the government to see if policies are working The government is to introduce an annual "report card" to assess whether it is improving people's life chances, drawing together seven indicators starting with babies' body weight and going all the way through life to success in adulthood to see whether it is breaking the link between social class and achievement. Nick Clegg will publish the social mobility strategy, which will include the new quantitative measures for people's performance at different stages in their life, on Tuesday. The new sets of numbers will give governments an indicator of whether a given policy decision is working or not, and monitored by an independent adviser, the former Labour minister Alan Milburn would see the government come under pressure to discard those policies having adverse effects. The deputy prime minister said the indicators would be acted on if they appeared to be highl...

Alleged terrorist says he was taken to Uganda and interrogated by MI5 An alleged terrorist says he has been interrogated by British intelligence officers after being severely mistreated at a notorious prison in Uganda, in what appears to be the first major challenge to the coalition government's renunciation of the use of torture. Omar Awadh Omar, a Kenyan businessman, has been charged with involvement in the planning of suicide bomb attacks in Kampala last July in which 76 people died and more than 70 were injured. Awadh was abducted in Nairobi two months after the attacks and illegally rendered to Uganda to be interrogated and charged. Since then, according to his lawyers and relatives, he has been repeatedly beaten, threatened with a firearm and with further rendition to Guantnamo by Ugandan officials, before being questioned by American officials. They say that on at least one occasion he was also questioned by men who identified themselves as MI5 officers. Awadh's case has...

The deputy prime minister says data collected will enable the government to see if policies are working The government is to introduce an annual "report card" to assess whether it is improving people's life chances, drawing together seven indicators starting with babies' body weight and going all the way through life to success in adulthood to see whether it is breaking the link between social class and achievement. Nick Clegg will publish the social mobility strategy, which will include the new quantitative measures for people's performance at different stages in their life, on Tuesday. The new sets of numbers will give governments an indicator of whether a given policy decision is working or not, and monitored by an independent adviser, the former Labour minister Alan Milburn would see the government come under pressure to discard those policies having adverse effects. The deputy prime minister said the indicators would be acted on if they appeared to be highl...

Observers predict further trouble after Friday prayers as Assad's TV broadcast, which detailed no reforms, angers the nation Syrians reacted with anger and disappointment after their president, Bashar al-Assad, failed to deliver any decisive reforms in his first public appearance since the street uprising that has threatened his regime. In homes and cafes around Damascus Assad was castigated for a speech which seemed tailored to send a message of strength to protesters demanding an overhaul of the Baathist old guard which has ruled Syria for 40 years. However, demonstrators had demanded much more and are unlikely to be appeased by Assad's main message that foreign conspirators were largely responsible for the unprecedented scenes across the country during the past fortnight. "This is what happened in Egypt and Tunisia on repeat," said one young pro-change Syrian. "Excuses and arrogance." Assad has the reputation of being a crowd-pleaser and many had anticip...

Embattled Italian PM also offers tax breaks to island's residents as critics accuse him of using diversionary tactics Facing fierce criticism over his handling of a wave of north Africans landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa, Silvio Berlusconi has put on a vintage display of showmanship, claiming he would empty the island of immigrants within 60 hours, nominate locals for a Nobel peace prize and buy a holiday home there. So far this year 18,000 north African migrants have sailed to the island, which has only 5,000 native inhabitants. During a lightning visit to Lampedusa, which is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland, Berlusconi told cheering locals that six chartered ferries were arriving to pick up the remaining 6,000 migrants, mainly young Tunisian men, who have made the sea crossing since the collapse of the Tunisian government in January and the suspension of coastal patrols. The migrants will join other north Africans who have already been transferred to centres a...

THE wealth gap between the least developed and other countries has widened in recent decades and will go on doing so unless their basic weaknesses are tackled, according to a report for the United Nations. "The 'least developed' condition has tended to generate less development," even though most of the countries concerned had some economic growth, the report said. A total of 48 nations, more than two-thirds of them in Africa, are classified by the United Nations as Least Developed Countries - a rating based on several criteria, including per capita gross national income of less than US$905. The 9-member panel who compiled the report was headed by former Malian President Alpha Oumar Konare and former World Bank President James Wolfensohn. It studied the impact of an action program on LDCs launched at a UN conference in Brussels in 2001 for the ensuing decade. Its recommendations are to be considered at a conference in Istanbul in May, which will adopt a new program fo...

Government tank and artillery fire forces opposition fighters to abandon ground won since Nato air strikes began Troops loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, have retaken Brega, forcing rebel fighters into a chaotic retreat under a barrage of tank and artillery fire to the town of Ajdabiya. With Gaddafi's forces advancing on Ajdabiya, rebels are fleeing back to the position they held before Nato air strikes began, on Saturday. Nato planes continued to bombard the regime troops, but their outgunned opponents were forced back from positions taken earlier in the week, when they advanced to within 60 miles of Sirte, Gaddafi's home city. Meanwhile, as debate within the anti-Gaddafi international coalition over the legality of arming the rebellion continued, the foreign secretary, William Hague, said it would be possible to supply weapons under certain circumstances. Earlier, David Cameron told the Commons no decision had been made but he "would not necessarily rule out t...