The Guardian Teacher Network this week has resources for pupils on healthy lifestyles, including the effects – both good and bad – of Olympics 2012

The focus of World Health Day this year on 7 April is that good health from an early age can help us to lead long and productive lives. It is an ideal opportunity to remind pupils of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and of the damage that can be caused by harmful activities, such as smoking.

Wash your hands is an assembly by the British Red Cross that focuses on one of the most basic and effective methods of maintaining good health – hand-washing. Suitable for use with primary or secondary pupils, the kit features a script for a short and lively presentation that aims to raise awareness of the need for good personal hygiene. It also makes the point that, in some parts of the world, hand-washing can be a matter of life and death. The pack is supported by a chart that illustrates the hand-washing technique recommended by the NHS.

In stark contrast, Filth and Fever in Victorian England is a history resource from The British Library that highlights the impact of poor sanitation and healthcare on life expectancy rates in the first half of the 19th century. Pupils can explore a range of sources, from cartoons published in Punch magazine to statistical data gathered by the very first health inspectors, to investigate why three in 20 babies died before their first birthday in the early 1900s.

Back to the present day, and Olympics 2012: Health looks at some of the health risks associated with the Games . Suitable for secondary pupils, the resource features group activities that explore how disease spreads when mass gatherings of people take place and the demands they place on medical services. Pupils are also encouraged to investigate what they can do to preserve their own health and wellbeing and how the Olympics might prompt people to question their inactive lifestyles.

Keeping healthy –Diet is a resource for primary pupils that focuses on the importance of a balanced diet. Students use information about different foods, including those that are rich in fats, oils, sugars and starch, to create a healthy menu for a day. An accompanying resource, Keeping healthy – Exercise, encourages pupils to think about the factors that affect our pulse rate and make predictions about the changes in our bodies that take place after exercise.

For secondary pupils, Fit and healthy uses animations and graphs to illustrate how our breathing and heartbeat change with exercise. It also investigates the effect of drinking alcohol on reaction rates. This is explored further in Factors affecting performance, which is for 14- to 16-year-olds and looks at the effects of smoking, alcohol and socially unacceptable drugs on health and performance.

The Guardian Teacher Network has more than 100,000 pages of lesson plans and interactive materials. To see and share for yourself go to teachers.guardian.co.uk. There are also hundreds of jobs on the site; for a free trial of your first advert, go to schoolsjobs.guardian.co.uk.

Former Ukrainian PM will be treated for suspected herniated disc as government appears to bow to western pressure

The former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko will be allowed to leave prison to be treated for a back condition in hospital, prosecutors say, as the government appeared to bow to western pressure.

The 51-year-old opposition leader is serving a seven-year sentence after being convicted in October of abusing her office while negotiating a natural gas supply contract with Russia in 2009.

The case has strained Ukraine's ties with the west, which condemned it as politically motivated. Tymoshenko has accused the president, Viktor Yanukovych, her longtime rival, of jailing her to bar her from politics.

German doctors who examined her last month concluded that she suffered from intense pain and needed urgent treatment in a specialised clinic. Tymoshenko's family said she suffered from a herniated disc.

The health ministry said Tymoshenko would be treated at the central clinical hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv, where she is imprisoned.

General Belgrano and Atlantic Conveyor | James Connolly | High Pay Commission | Justin Bowden

• Speaking of the Falklands war, an article said: "The [UK] task force's entire helicopter lift went down with the SS Atlantic Conveyor. This explained the controversial sinking of the Argentinian cruiser, Belgrano" (How an eccentric war turned around Thatcher's fortunes, 2 April, page 6, turned from page 1). The order was actually the other way round. The ARA General Belgrano was torpedoed by a British submarine on 2 May 1982, with the loss of more than 300 lives; the Atlantic Conveyor was hit in an Argentine air attack on 25 May 1982 and sank on 28 May, with the loss of a dozen lives. (Between those two events, various British ships were sunk or hit, including HMS Sheffield, HMS Ardent, HMS Argonaut, HMS Antrim, HMS Antelope and HMS Coventry.)

• James Connolly was described as "the Irish unionist and nationalist". That should have been trade unionist (John Arden obituary, 31 March, page 54).

• We referred to the High Pay Commission. The commission is no more. A thinktank aims to continue its work; it is called the High Pay Centre, and published a report on executive pay which our article covered (Bosses accused of inflating one another's pay, 2 April, page 27).

• New owners of Southern Cross dispute union £150m compensation claim was changed to correct Justine Bowden to Justin Bowden (of the GMB).

Internet discount company admits latest results should have included $22.6m more in quarterly losses

Groupon, the internet company that offers discount vouchers on everything from fish pedicures and cheese-tasting to botox and pole-dancing classes, has been forced to issue a retrospective profit warning after it failed to anticipate how many disgruntled customers would demand a refund.

The four-year-old company, until recently widely described as the next internet darling, admitted its latest results should have included $22.6m (£14.1m) more of quarterly losses than the $42.7m it reported in February.

The company, which was last year told to cut its reported revenue in half after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) questioned its accounting practices, was forced to warn investors that there is still a "material weakness" in its financial reporting.

Groupon, which made its 31-year-old founder, Andrew Mason, a multimillionaire when it floated on New York's Nasdaq exchange last year, admitted it "did not maintain financial close process and procedures that were adequately designed, documented and executed to support the accurate and timely reporting of our financial results". The company also made a "number of manual post-close adjustments" to its financial results after they were filed with the regulator.

Restatements of a company's results soon after flotation are rare because the securities commission requires a great deal of disclosure and fact-checking before an initial public offering. "It's extremely unusual, as companies generally go through very thorough audits before filing and so should have their policies and procedures fairly well ironed out," said Lise Buyer, principal at Class V Group, which advises startups on public offerings.

Ken Sena, an analyst at Evercore Partners, said the restatement was particularly worrying for a company that had already posted weaker figures than expected. "The long-term model is very strong, but in the nearer term we are less enthusiastic," he said.

The shares, which floated at $20, dropped 7% in after-hours trading after Groupon's admission on Friday night. They were changing hands for $16.30 on Monday, valuing the company at $11.7bn.

Although Jason Child, Groupon's finance director, said the company "remains confident in the fundamentals of our business", its securities commission filing warned investors that it would be forced to "divert a significant amount of money" that it had earmarked for expansion into paying the increased refunds.

The company, which has yet to turn a profit, said its fourth-quarter losses were greater than it first estimated because it failed to account for the number of people who would demand a refund.

The news comes just weeks after an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation on this side of the Atlantic found Groupon guilty of widespread breaches of consumer protection laws. Groupon was referred to the OFT after the Advertising Standards Authority found the company had broken UK advertising regulations more than 50 times in less than a year.

Roy Blanga, Groupon's UK joint managing director, admitted that the "young company in a completely new industry" had sometimes "not been able to put all the checks and balances in place".

The company, whose Twitter account is often deluged by disgruntled customers, said the cost of refunds had increased recently because it had begun to offer more expensive products, for which buyers are more likely to demand a refund if something goes wrong.

Its much-trumpeted "Groupon promise" vows that "if the experience using your Groupon ever lets you down, we'll make it right or return your purchase."".

British consumers spent £292.5m on discount voucher websites in the second half of last year, according to the first ever European Daily Deals Summit in London last month.

Groupon, by far the biggest player in the market, sending its daily email to 143 million people, refused to state how many of its customers have demanded a refund. But the company said it had trebled the number of staff at its British call centres in London and Liverpool. It's not just customers who complain. Numerous small business have hit the headlines after a Groupon deal has gone "viral" and they've been left unable to cope.

Rachel Brown, who has been baking cupcakes for 25 years, said deciding to offer her company's cakes on Groupon was "the worst ever business decision I have made" after she was deluged with orders for 102,000 cupcakes compared to her usual production run of about 100 a month. After calling in extra staff she lost £2.50 on each order.

Herman Leung, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial in San Francisco, said the company is "growing so fast that it sounds like they don't have the proper financial controls to deal with the growth".

In its filing with the SEC, Groupon conceded that its accounting issues "could adversely affect us, our reputation or investors perceptions of us". "It also may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers."

The company already has a difficult relationship with investors and Wall Street analysts, who have described the company as behaving like an "overgrown toddler" and accused it of running a Ponzi scheme".

Groupon said the accounting change did not affect its previously reported cash flow or its previous profit forecast.

Bari defender tells investigators he was offered €50,000 to lose, as latest scandal threatens to throw Italian football into disarray

At the climax of his football team's fiercely contested clash against local rivals Lecce last year, defender Andrea Masiello committed what appeared to be a ghastly error, poking a cross into his own goal instead of hoofing it clear.

Masiello, 27, collapsed dejectedly on the grass after his own-goal sealed a 2-0 defeat for Bari, which was already facing relegation from Italy's Serie A.

But the player has now admitted to investigators that he was offered at least €50,000 (£41,600) to turn the ball into the net to ensure Bari lost and help secure Lecce's survival in Serie A.

Magistrates who arrested Masiello and placed eight of his former Bari team-mates under investigation are now studying the team's final games of last season. They suspect matches thrown by the side from Puglia, in southern Italy, may have determined which teams went down and which qualified for Europe.

The investigation is the latest twist in a rumbling match-fixing scandal which threatens to throw Italian football into disarray.

The Bari players, wrote judge Giovanni Abbattista, "were more or less 'on the market', and not in the footballing sense of the term". Treated as idols by fans, they were no more than mercenaries, he said.

Despite its reputation for attractive football, Bari could not compete with Serie A's big guns last year and players reportedly feared the club would not pay their wages as it slipped into the relegation zone.

Magistrates have suggested management at Bari and Lecce were privy to the fixing of their match, but Bari's sporting director, Guido Angelozzi, denied any role.

Investigators suspect players of being approached to throw other games by a mysterious Balkan group of gamblers known as The Gypsies, which is suspected of paying off players from a number of Italian sides.

Last June, the Italian government established a match-fixing taskforce as the former Atalanta captain and Italy midfielder Cristiano Doni was banned for three and a half years for match fixing in Serie B, the former Lazio and Italy player Giuseppe Signori was banned for five years and 15 other players were banned for between one and five years.

Masiello's arrest moves the scandal out of Serie B and places it firmly in Serie A. In an interview last month with Italy's La Repubblica, Macedonian Hristiyan Ilievski, the alleged head of The Gypsies, claimed he had approached Bari players when he heard the team was destined for relegation.

Masiello, he said, "seemed to have clear ideas about what he wanted and what he had to do".

Ilievski claimed that in Bari the local mafia was already involved in match fixing. Bari players have claimed they were under pressure from the heads of "ultra" groups of supporters to throw games at the end of the season to assist betting scams.

The Italian football federation, which is recovering from a previous match-influencing scandal which led to relegation for the top side, Juventus, called the arrests "sensational developments" and said it would take swift action against any players who were found guilty.

The presidential elections are shaping up to be a crucial test for the direction of Egypt and of the Arab spring

Egypt's turbulent post-revolution landscape is experiencing new tremors after the Muslim Brotherhood – the world's oldest Islamist movement – decided to field its own candidate in presidential elections that are shaping up to be a crucial test for the direction of the Arab spring and for the region's largest country.

Khairat al-Shater, a senior financier for the organisation Egyptians know simply as the Ikhwan, has been catapulted into the limelight by the surprise move, seen by some as a panicky response to manoeuvring by the generals who ousted Hosni Mubarak last year but who still rule the country. Rumours that Mubarak's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, is about to declare his candidacy have fuelled expectations of a dramatic fight.

Given Egypt's size and importance, the presidential race in May and June could be a defining event with far wider resonance than last October's Tunisian election, which saw a stunning victory for once-banned Islamists.

Until Saturday the Brotherhood – also long banned, if quietly tolerated – had said it would not field its own candidate. Its restraint was meant to avoid scaring opponents and assuming too much responsibility. It tried but failed to find an independent candidate to assuage worries it wanted to monopolise power.

The Brotherhood already dominates parliament and the assembly writing Egypt's new constitution. If it captured the presidency as well, wrote Marc Lynch in Foreign Policy, "it would stand alone in the face of the military and would bear full responsibility for whatever happened in Egypt's economy, politics and society".

The liberal Free Egyptian party quickly and predictably accused it of seeking to emulate Mubarak and establish a single-party dictatorship. But opinion is divided about its motives. Some Egyptians argue that the shift was caused by the Brotherhood's sharply deteriorating relations with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), which has rejected demands to dismiss the underperforming civilian cabinet it appointed last year.

Others suspect Shater's candidacy is a cover-up for what the commentator Noha El-Hennawy called a more "strategic pact" between the military and the Brotherhood. But it is possible that the Brotherhood simply wants to defeat the popular candidate of the ultra-conservative religious Salafi camp, Hazem Abu Ismail, whose strident views especially worry Coptic Christians. A third Islamist, Abdel Moneim Aboul Futouh, a renegade former Brotherhood member, is also running.

Issandr Amrani, who blogs as the Arabist, favours a more simple explanation: "The MB went ahead with this decision because it sees itself as on the brink of actually wielding power for the first time in its history," he argued.

Speculation is rife that the generals may decide to back Suleiman or some other Mubarak-era figure for the top job. The frontrunning secular nationalist candidate is Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League chief.

Shater, 61, a millionaire engineer turned businessman, is a conservative who spent years in prison under Mubarak and has no experience of campaigning in a free political system – one reason for opposition to him from younger, reform-minded members of the Brotherhood. Another is the damage caused to the Brotherhood's credibility by such a major U-turn. Even Shater's children were said to be unhappy with the news.

In another development that illustrates Egypt's febrile political atmosphere, the Coptic church announced it was withdrawing from the "pointless" constitutional assembly. Disgruntled liberal representatives have already pulled out.

Nominations for the presidency need to be submitted by next week, so there is little time left for more bombshells. But one likely outcome must be a three-way split of the Islamist vote. "This is a disaster because the Brotherhood has fallen into a trap set for it by the military," argued one analyst, Said Shehata.

It is a measure of the changes wrought by the Arab spring that the western governments that supported Mubarak until the end appear – publicly, at least – unfazed by the new dominance of Islamists in Egyptian politics. But foreigners, like Egyptians, know that Islamists come in different shapes and sizes. When Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, was asked about Shater's candidacy, she answered carefully: "We hope that the Egyptian people get what they protested for in Tahrir Square, and that's complete open pluralistic democracy that respects the rights of every Egyptian."

Yevgeny Urlashov wins 70% of vote in Yaroslavl, easily defeating the candidate of Vladimir Putin's party

An anti-corruption campaigner has won a landslide victory in a city mayoral election in Russia, dealing a blow to the pro-Kremlin party and energising the opposition.

Yevgeny Urlashov won 70% of Sunday's vote in Yaroslavl, a city of about 590,000, easily defeating the acting mayor, who was the candidate of Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

Urlashov's victory reflects growing public irritation with official corruption and social inequality. It gives new hope to Russia's opposition, which has struggled to maintain momentum after Putin won a third presidential term last month.

Opposition leaders have urged their supporters to focus on local elections, and Urlashov's victory is likely to bolster that strategy.

"People of Yaroslavl have grown tired of corruption and nepotism. They want changes," Urlashov said on Monday on Ekho Moskvy radio.

He has promised to fight graft by introducing tight public control over the city government's spending, and to cut red tape.

The government proposal to remove financial support for students aged 24 and above and replace it with loans threatens tens of thousands of adult learners, says Gordon Marsden

Over the last 18 months, attention has focused on the widespread outrage over the government's tripling of tuition fees in higher education. But equally controversial proposals have been looming on the horizon for the further education sector. They've been largely under the radar, but they could derail learning opportunities for tens of thousands of adults across England.

The government announced in its 2010 spending review that it would scrap all the financial support it currently gives to students aged 24 and above studying A-level equivalent courses, and replace it with a system of loans based along HE lines for the academic year 2013-14 onwards.

Currently, the government provides students with grants for about 50% of the cost of these courses. Colleges charge the remaining sum in fees.

As a result of the reforms, colleges are likely to at least double their fees. Students will pay these fees in the first instance through loans. When students complete their courses and start to earn £21,000 or more, they will pay back the loans.

The coalition has no real evidence to suggest that the majority of people will feel either able or willing to take on such loans and plenty to suggest they will not, especially given the gloomy economic climate.

People who have had bad experiences of education often have to be supported and incentivised towards adult learning. The fashionable phrase in government circles for this sort of thinking is "nudge theory",but it is possible to nudge people away from things as well as towards them, especially when they are looking at having to take out loans of up to £4,000 a year.

Although it announced the FE loans policy in October 2010, only now has the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) begun its market research, despite ministers wanting to have the changes signed off and ready to present to parliament before this summer for introduction in early 2013. Even their initial projections and modelling are based on a frank assumption that at least 20% of existing adult learners on such courses will fall by the wayside as a result of these changes.

So far, there has been little attempt to assess whether the Student Loans Company – which is supposed to take on the administration of this scheme – has the capacity to handle FE loans.

The government has underestimated the difference between the relative homogeneity of HE provision in terms of start dates, duration and course fees, and the multitude of options across FE.

The current plans also fail to ensure science and maths courses in FE are afforded the same protection as their HE counterparts. If we are looking to improve the science and maths skills base in higher education, surely protecting provision at FE colleges for those who may have missed out should also be of vital importance.

The coalition seems determined to introduce fees for access-to-HE courses, which are designed for those who missed out on university the first time. This looks set to hit women hardest as 70% of students enrolled in access courses in 2009-10 were female.

At a time when colleges already face a 25% funding cut in their resource grant from BIS, what is the likely impact on their viability if the number of adult learners starts to drop rapidly following the introduction of loans? At the very least we may see the number and range of courses available in FE colleges cut sharply, which in turn could lead to reductions in staffing levels.

What's more, all this follows on from the pressure the government has already piled on the FE sector with changes last year to funding for English for speakers of other languages (Esol) and the removal of the fee remission for students on inactive benefits. Isn't there something bizarre about expecting individual apprentices over 24, rather than their employers, to take on loan responsibilities when they are already taking a salary cut because of their training status?

FE colleges and other providers play a crucial role in supporting social mobility and aiding people's job and career prospects. The government should revise and revisit its "Big Bang" gamble on FE loans, which threatens to jeopardise learners and providers alike.

• Gordon Marsden is Labour's shadow minister for further education and skills

Alstom 'greatly satisfied' after SNCF deal to buy 40 Euroduplex trains worth €1.2bn defuses French procurement row

The French engineering group Alstom has signalled an end to its bitter three-year dispute with Eurostar over a high-speed train contract it failed to land, announcing on Monday that it will call off legal proceedings after SNCF separately agreed to buy 40 of its Euroduplex trains.

The procurement row started in 2009 when the SNCF-controlled Eurostar awarded a €600m (£540m) train manufacturing contract to German rival Siemens. It developed into a hot political issue in France, one with clear parallels to the British controversy when Bombardier was denied the prize of building Thameslink's trains. The 10 new high-speed trains were the first to be built for the French state firm by a manufacturer other than Alstom.

The matter reportedly escalated to presidential level in France with Nicolas Sarkozy raising concerns with Angela Merkel. Meanwhile Alstom challenged the Siemens deal in the London courts. A first action was dismissed in October 2010, but until now a fresh high court challenge remained pending, with Alstom claiming Eurostar had acted unfairly in the contract bidding processes.

SNCF apparently soothed Alstom's ire as it took up the option on a 2007 contract to purchase an extra 40 high-speed double-decker trains on top of 55 under construction, potentially worth an €1.2bn. The Euroduplex trains will be used on the French, German, Swiss and Luxembourg railways at speeds nudging 200mph.

Alstom said the contract will help protect the jobs of 1,500 people at La Rochelle and nine other plants, mostly in France, and a further 6,000 working for French suppliers.

Chief executive Patrick Kron said he was "greatly satisfied" and would be calling off the high court action.

Damascus says 10 April deadline is agreed, but US envoy to the UN Susan Rice warns 'proof is in actions not words'

Syria has told the international envoy Kofi Annan its military will withdraw troops and heavy weapons from populated areas by 10 April, the US ambassador to the United Nations has said.

Susan Rice said Annan, the Arab League ambassador, had received a letter from Syria's foreign minister on Sunday with the 10 April pledge.

Annan had urged the Syrian government to start the withdrawal immediately and to move no further into populated areas, she said, and "that commitment was provided".

However, opposition groups said the Syrian government had sent troops, backed by tanks, into rebellious areas, hunting down activists and torching and bulldozing houses. Fierce clashes were said to be going on in the centre of Homs, and troops reportedly also moved into the southern town of Dael in search of activists.

Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'fari, said earlier the 10 April deadline was set "by common accord" between Annan and the Syrian government. He reiterated his government's complete support for Annan's six-point plan to end the year-long Syrian crisis.

But Rice, the current security council president, expressed scepticism about Syria's commitment, saying Damascus had made and broken promises over many months.

"We have seen commitments to end the violence followed by massive intensifications of violence," Rice said. "So the United States, for one, would look at these commitments and say, yet again, the proof is the actions, not in the words."

She added: "Past experience would lead us to be sceptical and to worry that over the next several days, rather than a diminution of the violence, we might yet again see an escalation of the violence. We certainly hope that is not so. We hope the Syrian authorities will implement the commitments they made without condition or codicils."

Annan's plan to end Syria's crisis calls for an immediate withdrawal of troops and heavy military equipment from populated areas, followed by an overall ceasefire, first by government forces and then by opposition fighters to pave the way for talks by all Syrian parties on a political solution.

It includes an immediate, daily two-hour halt to fighting so humanitarian aid can reach suffering civilians, and unhindered access for humanitarian groups and the media.

Rice stressed that the Syrian agreement was limited to the pullout of troops and equipment from cities and towns. She said Annan was expecting details from the Syrian government "very shortly" on the other aspects of the plan.

One of the key issues is trying to unite the many different opposition factions under a single umbrella. Rice said Annan's deputy, Nasser al-Kidwa, had had "constructive exchanges with the opposition to urge them to cease their operations within 48 hours of a complete cessation of government hostilities".

The author has some questions for the education secretary

Exciting news: it seems as if you've become my neighbour. Not where you've chosen to live, I hasten to add, but because I see you're taking over a school near where I live in Haringey, north London. You've noticed that scarcely anyone round here thinks this is a good idea – not the council, the head, the staff or the governors. Apparently, you think that this doesn't matter. I find this curious, because your party has often claimed that it is in favour of local people deciding things and, after all, the strong presence of parents and local people in school governance was something your party helped to bring about. Anyway, you've read the small print – that's your job, after all – and you're pretty sure you can invite yourself to be our neighbour. After all, if you don't like what the people choose, a minister like you can choose other people. This will bring the school directly under your control. Excuse me if I might conjure up an image here of you in your office at the Department for Education, sitting with the files of hundreds of schools. You open up the one marked, let's say, Number One Academy. You run your eyes over the test scores. It looks as if Rasheda in year 6 hasn't "levelled up". What?! You get on the phone. "Hello headteacher, what's with Rasheda? Ah, she's had a bad eye. Well, it's not really good enough, you know. She has got another eye, hasn't she?..." Quite a lot of files, I think.

All I can think is that you taking over all these schools is going to make you one seriously busy bloke. And it's not as if you haven't got anything else to do. Sitting on your desk is the Ofsted report on improving English, imaginatively entitled Moving English Forward. How delightful to see people charged with the study of English adopting that phrase of the moment, "moving forward". Mind you, being a writer, I've tried conjuring up the exact sense of the metaphor of "moving English", and, I'll admit, I'm struggling. I'm seeing pictures in my head of you and Sir Michael Wilshaw on a parade ground, calling out to a mass of English teachers, "Forward!"

Apologies for mentioning Sir Michael. You must have seen his recent appearance on the BBC's Newsnight with Dr Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, discussing Moving English Forward. Well, I say "discussing", but Emily Maitlis explained to viewers that Sir Michael wouldn't actually discuss. He made a statement. Dr Bousted made hers. Then, Sir Michael made his. I believe Sir Michael is a public servant, and Dr Bousted represents many employees overseen by Sir Michael. Shouldn't he have been willing to discuss? And, as Dr Bousted pointed out, some of what Sir Michael was saying seemed to contradict what was in Moving English Forward. Perhaps you've been on to him to sharpen up his act.

And so to Moving English Forward itself. One key complaint the inspectors have is that too many schools are preparing too soon and too much for the Sats and exams. How odd! Why would that be, you must wonder? English schoolchildren and students are among the most tested in the world, Ofsted inspectors run round the country chivvying schools to do better in the tests and exams, headteachers are fantastically worried that their results might "dip" – and we know what might happen then. Yes, you might rush in and take it over! So headteachers ask teachers to spend more time doing mock exams. Drill, skill and kill, they call it. In the light of all that, I'm expecting a strong statement from you very soon, urging heads to liberate the curriculum, telling them that you're going to abolish those silly Sats anyway, so let's get on with some real education.

And talking of real education, imagine my delight on seeing that the Ofsted inspectors are recommending that schools should have policies on "reading for pleasure". As it happens, I suggested this very thing, face-to-face with Ed Balls when he was sitting right where you're sitting now, and I remember telling him that your party would go for that one. So, in short, I'm expecting a clear statement from you any day now to the effect that all schools must develop policies that will help children to read, read and read. I see that I and the other children's laureates are down to have a chat with your schools minister on this very matter, so perhaps I'll see you then. Whatever we come up with, though, must be with the co-operation and input of teachers and parents, don't you think? Otherwise we're back to that rule by diktat stuff, taking over schools and telling them to do what you tell them to do. Oh, wait a minute …

• Michael Rosen's letters appear monthly

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner calls British sovereignty a relic, but leading intellectuals criticise 'retrograde nationalism'

Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has lambasted Britain for refusing to discuss her country's long-standing claim to the Falkland Islands, calling British control of the territory "a leftover story from the 19th century."

Some 5,000 Argentinians braved freezing temperatures for an all-night vigil awaiting Fernández's speech in Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city, to mark Monday's 30th anniversary of the country's failed invasion of the islands.

According to the Argentinian constitution, Ushuaia is the capital of a vast South Atlantic territory that includes Las Malvinas – the Falklands.

"I am a Malvinist president," Fernández said. "It is an injustice that a colonialist enclave still exists a few hundred kilometres from our shores in the 21st century. It is absurd to pretend dominion 8,000 miles overseas." Fernández delivered her address before a large metal sculpture hollowed out in the shape of the islands, representing Argentina's claim on what it considers its absent territory.

The Falklands have been under continuous British rule since 1833, except for the invasion by the generals of Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship, which lasted for two months from 2 April 1982. The president also said her government has requested the Red Cross test for DNA the remains of still unidentified Argentinian and British soldiers buried on the islands. "Each one of them deserves a headstone with his name on it," she said.

Commemorations of what is officially known in Argentina as Veterans' Day were held at military bases and city squares all over the country, and leftist groups took part in a march on the British embassy in Buenos Aires. In the Atlantic city of Mar del Plata, lyric tenor Darío Volonté, a survivor of the Belgrano, the cruiser on which 323 Argentinian sailors died after it was torpedoed by a British submarine, led a large crowd in the national anthem.

Argentina had tempered its claim following the calamitous 1982 invasion. But the mood changed a few months ago when Fernández made the islands a central theme of her self-termed "national and populist" government, declaring herself against the "de-Malvinisation" of Argentinian politics since the war.

"The battle against 19th century colonialism has to be resolved with 21st-century tools," foreign minister Héctor Timerman said on the 6-7-8 television programme on Monday. "For the first time since the war we have managed to put the Malvinas issue on the international agenda."

Argentina has found some unexpected allies in the showbusiness world, including the American actor Sean Penn and the British singer Morrissey, who called for sovereignty negotiations with Britain while on tour in Argentina.

But not everyone in Argentina agrees with the commemoration of the invasion's anniversary. "On the one hand, the dictatorship is condemned, but on the other the war is remembered and justified in a way that implies accepting it as a positive event in our history," a group of leading intellectuals said in a statement last week.

Local luminaries, from Argentina's top investigative journalist, Jorge Lanata, to important thinkers such as Beatriz Sarlo, also questioned the official events. They said the national holiday seems to condone "the painful tragedy provoked in 1982 by an unscrupulous dictatorship and exalted today by a retrograde nationalism".

Residents tell of fear and dwindling food and water supplies as Tuareg fighters capture towns including Timbuktu

Fears are growing for residents in northern Mali as separatist rebel fighters tighten their grip on key strategic towns, imposing strict Islamic rule.

Tuareg rebels, who have made massive advances in the region since a military coup toppled the country's civilian government, have now captured all the key towns in northern Mali, including Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao.

Residents spoke of their mounting distress, with women afraid to leave their homes and key food and water supplies dwindling.

"There is no army, no soldiers, no police. There is no one here to protect us," a source in Gao said. "We do not have enough to eat and our water is running out. The rebels will allow the women out to fetch water but other than that they have been told to stay in their homes."

"We are waiting for the army, or for international help. We are appealing for help or we will not survive."

Amnesty International said it had received reports of gunfire in the streets, looting and attacks on the hospital in Gao. "A woman was forced to give birth in the street in Gao as the hospital was being looted by armed men. Another patient died as medical care was withdrawn," a spokesperson for the human rights group said.

Pleas for outside intervention in northern Mali come amid political chaos in the capital, Bamako. Coup leaders who toppled the elected government of the president, Amadou Toumani Touré, enacted a new constitution for the country but have now repealed it in the face of growing international pressure.

The economic commission of west African states (Ecowas) has announced it will impose crippling sanctions on Mali after a deadline for setting a timetable for civilian rule was missed. The junta – now known as the National Committee for the Recovery of Democracy (CNRDR) – has not yet given its reaction to the move, but has made repeated calls for outside assistance to help defeat the Tuareg insurgency.

The CNRDR came to power last month claiming that dissatisfaction with the government's handling of the security crisis in northern Mali was its most significant motive for seizing power. "The situation in the north of Mali accounts for 70% of the reason why we have acted," the coup leader, Captain Amadou Sanogo, told journalists, adding that broader complaints with the government were also factors.

The response to the coup from the international community has been complex. Despite the announcement of sanctions, supported by some foreign powers, there has also been sympathy for the junta.

A senior security official from the US department of state said she had some sympathy with the coup leaders following the inability of the civilian government to contain the security crisis in northern Mali.

"Certainly part of the dissatisfaction of the military was that they were under-resourced to deal with this threat in the north," said Eunice Reddick, director of the office of west African affairs. "We can certainly understand their predicament. And we understand that to deal with this threat, the military needs to be as strong as possible."

Ecowas has said it will push for talks with rebels, who have fought for decades to create an independent state of "Azawad" in the resource-rich Sahara.

Their efforts are likely to intensify after the seizure of Timbuktu – a Unesco world heritage site – on Sunday. Although the Tuareg rebels include a number of factions – ranging from the secularist National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad to Ansar Dine, the Tuareg Islamist faction – there are fears that groups linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have a role in the latest advances.

AQIM has long been active around Timbuktu, kidnapping three foreigners and killing a fourth in an attack last November.

"The rebels in Gao are Islamists," the Guardian's source said. "But no one knows who is really in charge – we are afraid to even leave the house except for essentials and we don't know when those will run out completely."

Local fears were exacerbated by reports of an exodus of foreigners from the country. A source said – in a report that cannot be independently verified – that Tuareg rebels in northern strongholds were rounding up foreigners and taking them to the airport.

The French government has advised its estimated 5,000 citizens in Mali to leave the country.

Both defenders of the 'ivory tower' and market modernisers believe higher education should be more 'private', says Peter Scott, but we must defend public institutions at all costs

An unholy alliance is slowly forming between traditionalist defenders of the university as an "ivory tower" and market-obsessed modernisers determined to transform higher education into a consumer good. Both have come to the – mistaken – conclusion that the idea of the public university must be abandoned. For very different reasons, of course.

The traditionalists despair of ever seeing an arms-length state generously funding autonomous universities again.

Alarmed by the toxic mix of privatisation and nationalisation promised by the government's current reforms, they nevertheless see a chink of light in higher fees.

Why not go the whole way, forgo residual state support and escape the tightening regulatory net by charging even higher fees, their impact softened, of course, by generous scholarships for the poor but bright?

So the idea that some universities should "go private" is slowly but steadily gaining ground.

Some have reached this conclusion with relish. It is high time that the Mephistophelian bargain between universities and the state, struck in naively happier times, was torn up.

Others have reached a similar conclusion with agonising regret. If the essential character and freedoms of the university are to be preserved, it would be better to have privatisation on our terms than theirs, they argue.

For market-mad modernisers, it is all much simpler. To root out what remains of the universities' monopoly, it is time to flood higher education with private providers, the more red-in-tooth-and-claw the better.

A new higher education-lite is needed sans academic freedom, sans critical inquiry, sans liberal education, sans research and scholarship, sans everything. These new private providers will focus instead on customer satisfaction, market accountability and value for money – like banks and supermarkets.

So for traditionalists, higher education needs to be more "private" to resist the market. For modernisers, higher education needs to be more "private" because the market is the measure of all things. No matter. Either way the public university is finished.

On the contrary, the public university is like democracy – a flawed institution perhaps, but so much better than all the alternatives. The reason is that higher education is a public good – not (just) in the technical economists' sense that large public benefits accrue that cannot be allocated to individual beneficiaries, but in terms of more fundamental social and cultural values.

There are three compelling reasons for keeping higher education public. The first is the witness of history. Universities have played a central role in the construction of national identities.

Scottish universities have contributed at least as much to the identity of Scotland as its on-off parliament or established Presbyterian Church.

Exactly the same can be said about the great land-grant universities in the US, or German universities in the 19th century, or universities across Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. All distilled some essence of their nations, for good or ill.

More practically, the state has stepped in to make good the deficiencies of tuition fee, industrial and philanthropic funding. The greatly extended systems of higher education and research we possess today simply would not exist without public patronage. The University of Buckingham may be a counter-example, but it is a tiny one, with 2,000 students – the size of a small faculty in a standard university.

The second reason is that science can only flourish in an open environment. If research findings are corralled by proprietary restrictions or commercial constraints, they cannot be properly tested. Of course, great philanthropic foundations support open research. But private interests do not, and cannot. State funding, for all the clutter of politically generated "themes" and "priorities", is the best guarantee of open science.

The final reason is that universities act upon that most sensitive of all interfaces, between academic excellence and democratic rights. Fair access and widening participation are not, as some in the Russell Group seem to believe, irritating impositions by leftwing politicians; nor are they acts of noblesse oblige charity.

Instead these movements, sadly in full retreat from their Blair–Brown climax, help to reconcile the competing claims of elitism and entitlement. And they can only do so within the context of the public university rooted in the needs and aspirations of the "common wealth", that older and more resonant word for the state.

In one sense, the public university is safe. Oxford and Cambridge are not about to forgo their public funding for research or science and engineering subjects – now or ever. Nor is the system about to be swamped by private providers. The most enthusiastic privatisers still want public money, but by the back door.

But, in another sense, the public university is threatened because its legitimacy is questioned, whether thoughtlessly or purposively. It needs, and deserves, to be defended.

• Peter Scott is professor of higher education studies at the Institute of Education

The elections in May across Britain will see Labour, Lib Dems and Tories under pressure to improve their current standing

On 3 May, all three parties will be under pressure to elicit from voters a response that will be seen to outperform their present unpromising standing.

The Conservatives badly need to steady nerves after their spate of unforced errors, Labour is recovering from its dreadful defeat in Bradford, and the Liberal Democrats will be fearful of another battering of the kind they got in last year's local elections.

At stake is voting for a third of the council seats in each of the 36 English metropolitan districts; a third of seats in 16 unitary authorities (plus two, Hartlepool and Swindon where all seats are voting, due to boundary changes); and various proportions of the seats in 74 shire districts (63 by thirds, seven for half the seats, and four all-out).

In Wales, 21 out of 22 unitary authorities vote (elections have been temporarily suspended in Anglesey). All 32 Scottish authorities also face elections. Within London, the mayoral contest is a re-run of 2008, Boris Johnson versus Ken Livingstone. The 25-member assembly is also up for election. There will be the first-ever polls for directly-elected mayors in Liverpool and Salford. Ten other major cities, including Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle Bristol, Sheffield and, fascinatingly, Bradford will hold referenda on whether or not to introduce mayors. Doncaster will vote on whether or not to keep their directly-elected mayoral system.

A number of voting systems will be used. Councils in England and Wales use first-past-the-post, while in Scottish local polls the single transferable vote has operated since 2007. For the London Assembly, the "additional member" form of PR is used. The London, Liverpool and Salford mayoral contests use the "supplementary vote" system.

In England, this round of council seats was last contested in 2008, when Labour was desperately unpopular; the national equivalent vote share as expressed in the local vote came out at Con: 43, Lab: 24, Lib Dem: 23. Recent polls imply that on 3 May we shall see a swing from the 2008 vote of 14% from Conservative to Labour, which should produce a major set of gains in seats and councils for Ed Miliband. Birmingham, run by a Tory-Lib Dem administration, is likely to fall to Labour and provide a totemic result. Plymouth could move directly from the Tories to Labour.

Other contests, such Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle and Cambridge will allow tests of Labour's strength against the Lib Dems. Elsewhere, including Stockport, Eastleigh, Three Rivers and Cheltenham, the balance between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats can be analysed.

In Scotland, Labour will have to fight to hold Glasgow. Inevitably, Scotland's local elections will seen as a test of the relative strength of the SNP and Labour, and, to some extent, of any evidence about voting intentions in the forthcoming independence referendum. In Cardiff, the Liberal Democrat-Plaid Cymru coalition is under pressure, though it is almost certain no party will end up in overall control. The Conservatives will be hoping to maintain their reasonably good showing of recent years across the country.

There will be a second round of local elections on 15 November, when polling takes place for 41 police and crime commissioners in all parts of England and Wales outside London. On the same day, any cities which on 3 May vote to introduce mayors will hold their inaugural mayoral elections.

Democracy is, however haltingly, changing. Two rounds of local elections in 2012 will tell us how both the major parties and engagement (as measured by turnout) are affected. A mayoral contest in Bradford would arouse nationwide interest. For lovers of elections, 2012 will be a bumper year.

Tony Travers is director of the Greater London group at the London School of Economics

Charity buys Kettering Textiles, which runs its clothing banks, after investigation showed bosses earned £10m in three years

The Salvation Army is paying nearly £11m to buy the controversial company which holds the long-term contract to collect clothes from its recycling banks.

The charity is the largest clothing recycling operation in Britain, and with 4,500 clothing banks, many in supermarket car parks, it should have cashed in handsomely in recent years as the price of second-hand garments soared. But while returns have improved, a Guardian investigation last year into Kettering Textiles – the Salvation Army's collection contractor – revealed that millions of pounds had been paid out in directors' salaries.

For the three years to March 2010 Kettering's highest paid-director received an average salary, bonus and pension contribution of just over £1m each year – a considerable sum for a business with a turnover of less than £24m. In total, Kettering directors earned almost £10m over the three-year period, while the charity received £16.3m.

The contractor group – controlled and operated by Nigel Hanger, a race-horse-owning textile trader – is being acquired by the Salvation Army's trading arm in a highly unorthodox move for the charity sector. "We believe this is the first deal of its kind in the charitable sector with a charity acquiring a commercial operator," the Salvation Army said in a statement.

The deal will provide another multimillion-pound windfall for Hanger. Depending on future earnings, Kettering could be worth up to £10.75m. According to the company's latest annual return, 78% of its shares are owned by Hanger, the rest by fellow director Luigi Orsi.

The Salvation Army said: "The contract was due to be renegotiated in four years but by buying Kettering Textiles, [the charity] gains Kettering Textile's employees, know-how and customer base now, and ensures [it has] 100% of profits after just three years."

Hanger, who is 57, said: "As I approach retirement age, I have made no secret of my desire to step back from running the business." He said the deal was in the best interests of his firm's employees, customers and suppliers.

As well as making a lucrative living from running the clothes recycling business for the Salvation Army, until January Hanger also sat on the board of the charity's trading arm, which awarded the contract to Kettering.

Kettering bosses, including Hanger, will continue to operate the clothes recycling collection. Lieutenant Colonel Ivor Telfer, chairman of the charity's trading arm, refused to say how much they would be paid, only that it would be "in line" with salaries in the trading group. The best paid director of the Salvation Army Trading Company last year received £136,078.

It is not known how much Hanger and his fellow directors have earned from Kettering since the Guardian's investigation. The company has not produced accounts beyond March 2010.

In its latest annual accounts the Salvation Army Trading Company said: "In January 2011 a national newspaper published a sensationalist article regarding [this company] and its textile collection contractor. Following this coverage both the Charities Commission and the Fundraising Standards Board gave [the Salvation Army] an entirely clean report, both in terms of its operational relationship with Kettering and its governance of that relationship."

The two regulatory bodies did not find a breach of their rules other than a failure to state clearly on bins and bags the nature of the profit split, which sees a third of recycling earnings going to Kettering.

The Charities Commission said: "On the basis of the information the charity has provided, it would appear that any conflicts of interest which could arise from Mr Hangar's [sic] directorship of Salvation Army Trading Company have been properly identified and managed appropriately."

Under commission rules charities are obliged to seek the best value they can from contractors. However, the charity said there was no requirement on the Salvation Army to put tenders out for the recycling business, which has been outsourced to Kettering for 21 years.

Prime minister honours islanders, Britons and Argentinians who died in war, and reaffirms self-determination principle

A single flame, which will burn for 74 days in remembrance of British service personnel killed in the Falklands, was lit on Monday as the prime minister, David Cameron, reaffirmed Britain's determination to uphold the islanders' rights to determine their own future.

Three decades after Argentinian troops seized Port Stanley, the capital of the south Atlantic islands, Falklands veterans and widows of those killed gathered at a service of remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

Margaret Allen, just 23 and newly married when she lost her husband, able seaman Iain Boldy, 20, lit the flame which will burn for as long as the conflict lasted as part of commemorations in Britain, Argentina and the Falklands.

In a gesture of reconciliation, Cameron issued a statement saying it was a day to remember the 255 armed forces personnel and the 649 Argentinians who died, along with three islanders, in the short but bloody conflict. "Today is a day for commemoration and reflection: a day to remember all those who lost their lives in the conflict – the members of our armed forces, as well as the Argentinian personnel who died," he said.

Saluting the heroism of the South Atlantic Taskforce, he added: "Britain remains staunchly committed to upholding the right of the Falkland Islanders, and of the Falkland Islanders alone, to determine their own future. That was the fundamental principle that was at stake 30 years ago: and that is the principle which we solemnly reaffirm today."

In Britain, Sara Jones, widow of Lieutenant-Colonel "H" Jones, commanding officer of 2 Para, killed during the battle of Goose Green and awarded the Victoria Cross, joined veterans and families of those who fell. Before the service, she said "the islanders have always been fiercely British and want to stay that way. I would like to believe that we would, if we could, do it again" if Argentina launched a fresh invasion.

A small group of Argentinian war veterans spent the day in the islands and held a quiet ceremony at the cemetery where hundreds of Argentinian soldiers are buried. Juan Carlos Lujan, one of the veterans, told the Associated Press: "To return to this little piece of land, which for me is a little bit of my country … is so pleasing. To be among the people that were once our enemies, that which we can now live together with, it's just really proof that we human beings are not like animals."

The commemorations took place as it was confirmed HMS Dauntless, one of the Royal Navy's newest and most powerful destroyers, will set sail from Portsmouth to the Falkland Islands on Wednesday, a day before the 30th anniversary of the taskforce's departure.

Argentina has complained to the UN of the UK's "militarisation" of the south Atlantic following news of the six-month deployment of Dauntless, which the Ministry of Defence has said is on routine mission taking over patrols from the frigate HMS Montrose.

The runup to this anniversary has been fraught with tensions between London and Buenos Aires, with the Argentine government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, reasserting its claim to the archipelago.

Threats to boycott British cargo, turn away British-flagged cruises, sue British investors and banks, and block offshore oil development have imbued islanders with a sense of unease.

"Thirty years and now we find it again, we are worried we are going to go through it all again, another invasion. We do not, we do not want to see this again," islander Mary Lou Agman said as several hundred of the islands' 3,000 residents turned out for a commemorative march by the small Falkland Islands Defence Force.

The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, rejected claims Britain would be unable to defend the islands against a fresh Argentinian assault. "We have the assets, the people, the equipment in place to do so. We will defend them robustly," he said, adding that there was "not the slightest intelligence to suggest that there is any credible military threat to the Falklands".

Vice-admiral Sir Tim McClement, who was responsible for co-ordinating a turning point in the war – the torpedo attack which sank Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano, with the loss of 323 lives – said he had no regrets.

He told the Portsmouth News: "There is no doubt in my mind that sinking the Belgrano was absolutely the right thing to do, firstly for the survival in case the pincer movement worked against our carriers and, secondly, it demonstrated intent to the Argentinians."

Britain has controlled the Falklands since 1833, but Argentina claims it inherited rights to "Las Malvinas" from Spain.

Paul Curran tells David Batty that his plans to double 'research-excellent' staff and halve the number who 'only' teach are necessary in an increasingly competitive international market

Up to a quarter of City University's lecturers and tutors could be replaced over the next four years, despite the institution's strong reputation for business and the professions.

In an email to staff in October, Professor Paul Curran, the vice-chancellor, revealed the results of an internal audit that classified academics by the amount and the quality of research they undertake. They were either "research excellent"; "research active" or "educational". The ambition was clear: the number of staff classified as research excellent should double to 50% by 2016, while the number "only" engaged in teaching students should halve to 25%.

Curran insists the reforms are necessary to make City a more attractive place to study in an increasingly competitive international higher education market. Undergraduate applications for this autumn – when the new £9,000 a year fees come in – are down 22% on last year.

"City is ranked as the 55th university in the world," Curran says. "Our mission statement is to be in the top 2%. We have a core of City staff who are engaged in research that is world leading. The aspiration is to be the only university in London committed to business and the professions and academic excellence."

However, City's branch of the University and College Union (UCU), the lecturers' trade union, claims the strategy will lead to staff being forced out of their jobs – to the detriment of students. In an email to staff, Keith Simpson and John Saunders, City's UCU president and secretary, warned that the 2016 deadline to change the academic profile would mean compulsory redundancies and a likely 200 academic posts lost. "Our impression … is about half of these will only leave very reluctantly," they wrote.

Sally Hunt, UCU's general secretary, says Curran's "crude performance ranking is not in the interests of students and should have no place in higher education". "I cannot believe that City University is looking to typecast staff and research in this way. University work is a collegiate exercise and every member of staff, be they a professor, lecturer or librarian, deserves to be valued properly."

This is not the first time Curran has clashed with UCU. In his previous job as vice-chancellor of Bournemouth University, he attracted the union's ire over a similar drive to recruit and train more staff who could combine research, work and teaching in their specialist subject, rather than just teach.

His critics see him as ruthlessly pursuing a personal agenda, while his supporters regard him as a pragmatist who recognises the harsh realities of the economic circumstances universities now face.

Across England, universities have announced redundancies and the closure and restructuring of courses in a bid to weather the drop in government funding, according to UCU. Salford University last week announced a sixth round of job cuts in less than a year, putting at risk 150 teaching and research posts. Roehampton University is cutting courses in counselling, psychotherapy, business and computing, with 36 fixed-term teaching staff at risk of redundancy.

Curran is wary of comparisons between Bournemouth and City. "We were in a very different position in Bournemouth and the waters got terribly muddied because we changed the academic contract and that got us into trouble with the union nationally," Curran says. "Was it a good idea to have contractual change and institutional change at the same time? Probably not. But we didn't have any option. The big challenge was to get from the bottom quantile [of the university league tables] to the middle in anticipation of tuition fees being introduced in 1998. Bournemouth had to do it."

When Curran took over at Bournemouth in 2005, it was ranked 76th in the Guardian's University Guide. When he left in 2010, it had risen to 32nd place.

Curran is convinced that City must distinguish itself from comparable London universities, such as Goldsmiths, part of the University of London, which has a higher research rating. "If you look at the universities we have a lot in common with, they tend to have about half of their staff engaged in three- or four-star research and a quarter in the other two categories," he says.

Curran does not dispute UCU's prediction that a quarter of existing staff will leave, but claims the five-year timetable for the reforms means they won't be told to go. Teaching-only staff will be given the chance to improve their research record by taking up a PhD, he says. The university is recruiting more than 100 research-excellent academic staff.

Curran's reforms were approved by the university's governing body last week. "If you wanted my gut feeling it would be a turnover of staff that might approach 20% or 25% over five years," he says. "We're talking about change over a period of five years. Voluntary severance started last month. My feeling is that by the time we have the strategic plan in place we won't be losing staff."

Curran says the emphasis on growing City's research profile will not adversely affect staff in professional subjects who tend to produce fewer research papers. "Law and journalism will still have predominantly educational academics. We have people in law who write the sentencing guidelines for judges. There's not much in the way of research [that they're doing], but we need them."

The goal is to have on average 50% of staff ranked research excellent across all departments. Some departments, such as journalism and law, will have considerably fewer than this, while others will have far more. "The challenge for us is to be in that position without undermining our strength in business and the professions," he says.

Curran admits that part of the impetus for his reforms is that in 2013 the research of the nation's academics is assessed and graded by expert panels. Given the cuts to university teaching, quality-related research funding has become far more important to universities, he says.

"It's a significant amount of funding per head for producing research at three- or four-star level – £35,000 per head for three-star research and over £100,000 in subjects such as engineering for four-star research. We hope research grants and contracts will be about £10m this year. That's money in, money out – it pays for research assistants and research fellows, but it also feeds back to support quality-related research funding."

Recruitment will be focused on subjects where City has – or has the potential to have – a strong reputation. These include business and international politics, Curran says.

So where might there be reductions in staff? "Health is a big challenge. NHS London has reduced the amount of money they're putting into training contracts for nurses, so the school has reduced its size. We went from 200 to 150. We made that change by working closely with staff and the unions, and we ended up with two compulsory redundancies over three months."

Could the reforms lead to departmental closures? "You wouldn't manage a university like that because you have a duty of care to the students. You have to try to recruit more strongly, have more research-focused staff, offer voluntary redundancy, look into course mergers – though we've no plans for mergers at this stage."

While Curran appears mindful that his record at Bournemouth has coloured perceptions of his agenda at City, it is clear he is unlikely to be deterred from his path. Come 2016, he can be certain that the outcome of his strategy will be subject to close scrutiny – and his critics are likely to be as unrelenting as he is.

• Former Wales centre faces uncertain future in rugby
• Airline Flybe ban Henson for six months

Gavin Henson faces an uncertain future after his sacking by Cardiff Blues on Monday for drunken antics on a flight from Glasgow left him looking for his fourth club in little more than a year.

The 30-year old, who departed Saracens at the start of last year and joined Toulon on a short-term contract which was not renewed after he served a suspension for sparking a fight with team-mates in a bar, had his contract with the Blues ripped up following an investigation into his behaviour by the club.

Henson had issued an unreserved apology in which he admitted drinking after the Blues' RaboDirect Pro 12 defeat in Glasgow on Friday night and continuing to do so on the flight to Cardiff the following morning. He finished by saying he hoped to remain with the Blues, but his six months with the region, who have a Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster in Dublin this Saturday, ended after a two-hour management meeting.

He was also banned from using the airline concerned, Flybe, for six months over conduct that prompted complaints from passengers. The company stressed it had a zero tolerance to unruly behaviour on its aircraft. "The safety of our passengers and staff is our No1 priority," it said.

The Blues' chief executive, Richard Holland, said the region had a duty to their supporters and sponsors to protect their good name. Henson's contract was due to end next month and he was looking for an extension, although the financial difficulties facing regional rugby in Wales made it questionable whether the Blues would retain a six-figure contract player who had not established himself in the first team – he started six matches after making his debut in December – and who had a history of injuries.

"I am not sure where Gavin goes from here," said Jonathan Davies, the former Wales captain. "I am a big fan of his because he brings something different to the game, but he is not a 21-year old any more and he has not shown a great appetite for the game when he has played. He does not drink a lot but when he does so he loses a lot of control. He has said that rugby is the most important thing in his life but that does not seem to be the case."

Henson did not comment on his sacking. He was in Wales's Six Nations squad and had a chance of going on the summer tour to Australia but his international career would appear to be over after 33 caps and, after leaving the Aviva Premiership, Top 14 and Pro 12 on a low in the past 14 months, he will have to convince potential future employers that he is committed to rugby.

One of Henson's former clubs, Saracens, are continuing discussions with the Rugby Football Union over the release of their head coach Andy Farrell from his contract to join Stuart Lancaster's England management team. Both sides are looking for a quick resolution to the talks.

The England scrum-half Ben Youngs has been banned for a week after being cited for foul play during Leicester's victory at London Irish last month. He is free again to play on Thursday having been suspended internally by the Tigers last week, missing the match against Worcester.

The Worcester outside-half Andy Goode was sent off in that match for a dangerous charge on Tom Croft but a disciplinary panel on Monday did not ban him, ruling the sending off was sufficient. A citing against the Harlequins' flanker Maurie Fa'asavalu for a dangerous charge on the Bath outside-half Tom Heathcote was dismissed.

Argentina's sabre-rattling – coinciding with 30th anniversary of invasion of islands – comes despite lack of success by UK oil exploration companies

Argentina's latest sabre-rattling over oil exploration in the Falklands is puzzling given the latest financial results from the island's key prospectors. Desire Petroleum and Borders & Southern Petroleum, two of five London-listed exploration businesses with interests in the archipelago, announced annual pre-tax losses of $42.5m (£26.5m) and $1.74m on Monday.

Those figures are typical of explorers struggling to strike oil and there are two others in a similar situation. Argos Resources and Falkland Oil and Gas are long on promise but short on producing barrels of the black stuff. Politicians in Buenos Aires, nonetheless, believe they are seeking to profit from territory that is rightfully theirs, no matter how fleeting the prospects of genuine success. The Argentinian government's anger is heightened by the fact that one outfit, Rockhopper Exploration, has discovered significant oil reserves in the Sea Lion field to the north of the islands and has been seeking a partner to invest in the $2bn project.

The most recent in a flurry of aggressive statements from Argentina, seemingly timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the country's invasion of the Falklands, emerged this weekend. Argentina's embassy in London has sent a two-page letter to up to 15 banks, thought to include Royal Bank of Scotland and Goldman Sachs, raising the threat of civil and criminal action if they continue working with the five London-listed companies.

Casting a wide net, the diplomats targeted banks that advise the companies as well as City firms that provide stockbroking services or write research notes about the five, a list that includes Panmure Gordon and Oriel Securities.

Wielding a mixture of legal and diplomatic brawn, the letter warned the institutions to "bear in mind … the sovereignty dispute and … the consequences of any unlawful hydrocarbon exploration activities in the Argentine continenal shelf in proximity to the Malvinas [Falkland] islands".

The letter added: "It should also be borne in mind that … participation in those activities will cause companies directly or indirectly involved in them to be subject to such administrative, civil and criminal actions as may be provided for in the Argentine laws governing such activities."

The five explorers declined to comment, with one industry source admitting that none of them wants to be "dragged into the political realm".

However, while there is confidence that the Argentinian government's legal threats will not damage the five players, another industry source said an attempt at co-operation between the UK and Argentina would at least remove the distraction of a prolonged territorial tussle and the knock-on effect on exploration.

"The industry would probably like it if people sat down and discussed a zone of co-operation where efforts are shared, such as between Australia and Timor where spoils are shared," said the source.

Such an arrangement has the potential to compensate Argentina if a deal on sovereignty remains out of the question. According to Edison Investment Research, reportedly a recipient of the embassy letter, the islands could generate $180bn (£115bn) in royalties and tax from oil.

Rockhopper Exploration

Estimates of the amount of oil around the Falklands range from 8.3bn barrels to 60bn, but Aim-listed Rockhopper is the only business to have come close to realising that promise. It has found recoverable reserves of between 400m and 500m barrels of oil at its Sea Lion field in the north Falklands basin and said this year that eight companies are interested in a joint venture on the project. The announcement has stoked takeover speculation around the company, which hopes to start producing oil in 2016. Analysts have said that a "farm-out", where a partner is delegated extraction duties, is the most likely outcome.

Desire Petroleum

Desire endured a dire end to 2010 when it reported that two promising wells were dry. The run on its shares occurred after Desire was forced to backtrack on "highly encouraging" results of initial drilling that turned out to be the opposite. It has farmed out a well to Rockhopper, close to the Sea Lion field, which has led to a discovery of oil and gas. Despite that success, it is not drilling at present.

Argos Resources

Another company that has struggled to find oil but is optimistic after recently completing a 3D survey of its field near Sea Lion, a patch of territory that covers more than 1,100 sq km in the north Falklands basin. Echoing some of its peers in the area, its corporate statements are studded with hopeful statements such as "excellent new data" and "highly encouraging" survey results. According to one estimate, there could be 2.1bn barrels of oil in its fields. But, as yet, they have been elusive.

Borders & Southern Petroleum

The company has two exploratory wells in 2km and 1.7km of water in the south Falkland basin. The promising fields are called Darwin and Stebbing – a crew member on the HMS Beagle that carried Charles Darwin on his ground-breaking voyage. Borders & Southern was founded by Harry Dobson, a mining entrepreneur who once held a 6.7% stake in Manchester United and made £30m from his investment. He is still awaiting a successful outcome from his latest business foray.

Falkland Oil and Gas

The biggest potential player on the archipelago, Falkland Oil and Gas has the highest number of production licences in the region. Its sites to the south and east of the Falklands have significant potential, with the Loligo field harbouring an estimated 4.7bn barrels. But the company must wait until Borders & Southern finishes with its exploratory rig before it can start work. Sharing a rig makes sense, according to industry sources, because exploration is such a costly business. This is particularly when there is a chance that the wells may come up empty – a fate that cost Desire's shareholders millions of pounds. It can cost $1m a day to run an exploratory well in deep water.