How one man, struck by the plight of firms unable to get loans in his home town, came up with a unique solution

It is, if you like, a story of Dave and Goliath - one man's attempt to take on the giant high-street banks he says are helping destroy towns such as Burnley in Lancashire. And, so far, Dave Fishwick is winning.

Dave is a self-made millionaire, the owner of a company that manufactures and sells minibuses, so it is fair to say he has no problems getting credit on his own behalf. But when banks started refusing to lend money to his customers, Dave knew he had a problem, too. Local firms could no longer buy his vehicles.

'The lending dried up almost overnight,' he says. 'It was killing their businesses and damaging mine.'

So he took the most practical approach possible - and decided to go into the credit business himself.

The Bank of Dave was born. Today, hundreds of businessmen and women hold accounts at his modest town-centre shop, marking a return to the sort of old-fashioned, face-to-face banking that the big operators have mostly chosen to leave behind.

'The banks were turning down committed people who needed investment,' he says. 'They were destroying this town. You mention Burnley down South and people just think of the riots in 2001.

'That's nonsense. Burnley's going through a tough time, like most of the country. But there's a lot of decent, hard-working people in this town and they're the people I wanted to help.'

The video shows an Israeli soldier aim and fire his weapon at a Palestinian man's legs.

Hundreds evacuated from terminal at JFK airport in NYC after metal detector malfunction.

Hundreds of air passengers and staff were evacuated from a terminal at New York City's Kennedy Airport after a metal detector malfunctioned at one of the security checkpoints.

The Transportation Security Administration says it closed Kennedy's Terminal 7 for about two hours Saturday morning after discovering the equipment problem and realizing that people had been let through without being properly screened.

Procedures call for the entire terminal to be emptied and the passengers re-checked whenever that happens.

Some travelers have posted photographs on Twitter showing the terminal lobby jammed with people waiting to get back in.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says the screening checkpoints were reopened to passengers by 11:45 a.m.

The terminal is used by British Airways, United, and other airlines.

India has sped up efforts to ensure insurance cover for tankers that bring in crude-oil from Iran, about a week before the onset of European Union sanctions against Iran.

India is facing logistical challenges in importing oil from Iran as the EU sanctions, which come into effect on July 1, are affecting its ability to get insurance for ships carrying Iranian crude.

Indian Oil Secretary G.C. Chaturvedi said Friday that the oil ministry has asked the shipping ministry to allow refiners to import crude from Iran on Iranian ships.

The current system for importing oil favors Indian shippers as part of the federal government's policy to support the local shipping industry. Allowing Iranian ships to bring crude to India would free refiners from the responsibility of arranging insurance for the tankers.

"The ministry of shipping is considering our proposal," Mr. Chaturvedi told reporters.

He said the oil ministry has also asked the finance ministry to press state-owned reinsurer General Insurance Corp. to provide insurance cover to Indian ships carrying crude from Iran. The oil ministry is also working to get sovereign guarantees for Indian vessels, he added.

"We are providing for the contingency. We are taking all steps to ensure supplies are not hit," Mr. Chaturvedi said.

Asian countries that import oil from Iran, such as India, Japan and South Korea, have been working to find a way around EU sanctions. Earlier this month, Japan passed a bill that would enable the government to back insurance plans for tankers carrying Iranian crude-oil to the country.

"We are receiving supplies from Iran," said Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy. "We are adopting all possible legitimate means," he said, adding that India has "decided not to discuss these things too loudly and too frequently."

Iran's President Ahmadinejad arrived in Caracas on the last leg of his tri-nation tour of Latin American, which also took him to Bolivia and Brazil.

Upon arrival in Caracas on Saturday morning, the Iranian president was welcomed by senior Venezuelan officials.

Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez are due to meet later today to discuss bilateral ties and international issues.

President Ahmadinejad left Tehran for Latin America on Monday night. After visiting his Bolivian counterpart Eva Morales in La Paz, Ahmadinejad left the Bolivian capital La Paz for the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro to attend the Rio+20 Summit.

He had stopped in Bolivia en route to Brazil and was welcomed by Morales at the El Alto airport on Tuesday.

Delegates from around the world will descend on Rio de Janeiro this week for 'Rio+20' summit, a major United Nations meeting on the environment. The event will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first 'Earth Summit'.

Lealman, Florida -- A former middle school principal who was busted in 2007 for crack cocaine use was taken into custody for going on a crime spree that left two people dead, and eight more injured.


The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said they had Anthony Giancola, 45, in custody earlier in the day Friday, but announced shortly after 8:30 p.m. that they officially arrested him.

He has been arrested on two counts of First Degree Murder and two counts of Attempted Murder for the stabbings that took place around 10:30 a.m.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says Giancola is responsible for a total of four crime scenes, all targeted in 30 minutes.

"This is the worst of the worst, and does appear to be random," says Gualtieri. Investigators say Giancola appears to have been high on drugs and possibly alcohol at the time.

Philadelphia - A monsignor who oversaw hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was found guilty on Friday of one count of endangering the welfare of a child, making him the first senior U.S. Roman Catholic Church official to be convicted for covering up child sex abuse.

The jury acquitted Monsignor William Lynn on two other counts - conspiracy and another charge of child endangerment -after 10 weeks of testimony in a trial that raised questions about personal responsibility and institutional constraints within the church hierarchy.

Removing his black clerical jacket but leaving on his collar, a stoic Lynn, 61, was led out of the courtroom and into custody by deputy sheriffs as his family members wept.

"Every juror there wanted to do justice. ... We wanted to do what was right," jury foreman Isa Logan, 35, a bank customer service representative, told reporters outside the courtroom.

Sentencing for Lynn, who faces up to seven years in prison, was set for August 13 by Judge M. Teresa Sarmina.

"This is a monumental victory for the named and un-named victims," said Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams. "This was about evil men who did evil things to children."

While the district attorney's office argued that Lynn should immediately be jailed, the judge said she would consider house arrest if the defense asked for it.

The jury deliberated 13 days before reaching the mixed decision in the trial of Lynn, who, prosecutors charged, covered up child sex abuse allegations, often by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.

Lawyers for Lynn said they planned to appeal the case.

"He's really upset," said one of his attorneys, Jeff Lindy. "He's upset, he's crushed. He didn't want anything other than to help kids, he's crushed about this."

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania - A jury on Friday found former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky guilty on 45 of 48 counts in his child sex abuse trial after some 21 hours of deliberation.

Sandusky, who faces potentially hundreds of years in prison, was escorted immediately out of the courthouse in handcuffs and taken into an awaiting sheriff's cruiser.

A large crowd gathered outside the Centre County Courthouse in central Pennsylvania to learn news of the decision, and cheered loudly as the news was released.

Sandusky stood and faced the foreman as the verdict was read. Sandusky, wearing a brown sports court, tucked his hands into the pockets of his gray pants and appeared expressionless.

His wife, Dottie, sitting behind him, showed no emotion.

"They're devastated," defense attorney Joe Amendola said of Sandusky's relatives, "but they've been devastated ever since these charges came to light."

Amendola said he was examining the grounds for an appeal.

Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Children's Commissioner, said abuse was taking place in "leafy rural areas" as well as inner cities, and involved organised gangs as well as lone paedophiles using computers.

Although the focus has been on men of Pakistani origin abusing vulnerable white girls, she said that people of all races and backgrounds are seeing others in their community as providing "easy access" for exploitation.

Some youths are using the latest mobile phone technology to invite their friends to join in the raping of girls, or filming the assaults in a form of blackmail, while adults are masquerading as teenagers to befriend young people on Facebook.

Boys are trying to copy what they see in online pornography and parents are powerless to stop them accessing it because such images can be easily viewed on mobile phones as well as home PCs, Mrs Berelowitz said in stark testimony to the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Asked by MPs how many victims she estimated there were, she replied: "We're talking about thousands. We are talking about a big problem.

Children are being groomed for sex on a huge scale across Britain but police have only uncovered "the tip of the iceberg", a Government minister has said.

Tim Loughton, the children's minister, said there is a "real problem in this country" with exploitation of children.

The MP spoke out after a series of recent cases in which men have been jailed for grooming young girls for sex.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Loughton said he has long though the grooming of children for sex is "much bigger problem than it may appear now on the radar".

"We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg now," he said. "For too long it was something of a taboo issue in this country, little spoken about, little appreciated, little acknowledged or dealt with.