European Extremely Large Telescope given go-ahead

The E-ELT would take advantage of the very arid conditions in Chile's Atacama desert

Construction of world's biggest optical telescope has been approved.

The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will have a primary mirror some 40m in diameter, and will be built on top of a mountain in Chile.

Member states of the European Southern Observatory (Eso) organisation declared their support for the project on Monday at a meeting in Garching, Germany.

They have not yet, however, put all of the 1bn euros (£0.8bn) of financing in place.

That may be possible by December, at the organisation's next council meeting.

By then, Brazil should also have become the 15th full member of Eso, further spreading the E-ELT's cost and making it more affordable for all nations.

The telescope should be ready for use by about 2022, and will be one of the key astronomical facilities of 21st Century, complementing other huge observatories that will view the sky at different wavelengths of light.

Voting positions

The E-ELT will detect objects in the visible and near-infrared. Its 39.3m main mirror will be more than four times the width of today's best optical telescopes (antennas for radio telescopes are still very much bigger).

Its sensitivity and resolution should make it possible to image directly rocky planets beyond our Solar System.

The observatory should also be able to provide major insights into the nature of black holes, galaxy formation, the mysterious "dark matter" that pervades the Universe, and the even more mysterious "dark energy" which appears to be pushing the cosmos apart at an accelerating rate.

At the Garching meeting, six nations (Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland) were in a position to declare their full support to proceed with the project; four nations (Belgium, Finland, Italy, and the United Kingdom) declared their support pending approval from their governments; and the remaining four (Denmark, France, Portugal, Spain) said they continued to work towards full approval.

The commitments from two-thirds of the members are sufficient at this stage to permit Eso to proceed with the project.

Prof Isobel Hook is the UK E-ELT project scientist from the University of Oxford. She said Monday's decision was hugely exciting.

"We've all been working towards this moment for a long time, and this decision means we're now just a few years away from using this telescope," she told BBC News.

"The E-ELT's great size will give us much sharper images, provided we can correct for atmospheric turbulence [which makes stars twinkle], and that will be part of the telescope's design. The E-ELT will also have a much larger collecting area than any telescope we have now. That combination of sharpness and collecting area is what will make it so powerful."

Eso member states took the historic decision at their council meeting in Garching, Germany

The telescope will be sited on Cerro Armazones, a mountain that is just 20km from Cerro Paranal where Eso currently operates its Very Large Telescope (VLT) facility - a suite of interconnected optical telescopes that includes four units with primary mirrors measuring 8.2m.

Like Paranal, Armazones will enjoy near-perfect observing conditions - at least 320 nights a year when the sky is cloudless.

The famous aridity found in Chile's Atacama desert means the amount of water vapour in the skies above the observatory will be very limited, reducing further the perturbation starlight experiences as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere.

One of the first tasks will be to remove the top of the mountain to make a flat base for the telescope and its housing, which will be the size of a football stadium.

Even before that work is undertaken, a road will need to be constructed on the slopes of Cerro Armazones to get heavy earth-moving equipment on site.

The funding for the road and some design work on the E-ELT's Number Four mirror was approved at last December's council meeting.

Europe at the front

Eso's principles require 90% of the funding to be in place before spending goes beyond the initial civil works.

The total cost of the venture is currently projected to be 1,083 million euros (at 2012 prices).

Prof Gerry Gilmore at Cambridge University played a key role in the early definition phases of the E-ELT, bringing together various competing ideas into a single project.

He told the BBC: "We all know the grand questions we want to ask - 'What is time? What is existence? What is reality? Is there life out there?'. And we know that we need technology to answer those questions. So, to see this technology being brought together in the E-ELT, with European leadership, is simply wonderful."

Colorado wildfire not contained and 'moving fast'

A fast-moving wildfire near Fort Collins in the US state of Colorado has scorched nearly 37,000 acres (14,973 hectares) of land, officials say.

The fire has not been contained and sheriff's officials described conditions as "concerning".

Hundreds of residents have been evacuated and 18 structures have been burned or damaged in the blaze.

Meanwhile, a wildfire in New Mexico has covered 25,600 acres and damaged or destroyed up to 35 structures.

In Colorado, more than 400 firefighters are on the scene, Nick Christensen, executive officer of the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, told reporters.

Five heavy air tankers, helicopters and military aircraft are now combating the fire, he added.

The fire is moving rapidly at a pace of 1mph (1.6km/h) and homes have been damaged in the neighbourhoods of Rist Canyon, Stove Prairie, Paradise Park, Poudre Canyon and Poudre Park, he added.

One person has been reported missing and is still unaccounted for, Mr Christensen said, adding that authorities were investigating the person's whereabouts.

The wildfires have generated dense smoke, which has spread as far as Nebraska, Texas and western Kansas, the Associated Press reported.

Officials in New Mexico also confirmed that hundreds of residents had been evacuated from the town of Ruidoso and have said the nearby town of Capitan could also face evacuation.

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez deployed 100 National Guard troops on both Saturday and Sunday to help with the evacuation effort.

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Barack Obama congratulates Republican rival Romney

President Barack Obama has called Mitt Romney, his challenger in November's election, to congratulate him on winning the Republican nomination.

The rival campaigns exchanged well wishes, a day after Mr Romney's easy victory in the Texas primary.

But his appearance alongside Donald Trump, who has been reviving long-discredited doubts about Mr Obama's US citizenship, stirred controversy.

Mr Romney is the first Mormon candidate to contest a presidential election.

'Brief and cordial'

On Tuesday, he amassed the majority of 1,144 delegates which is needed to be anointed as the Republican nominee at the party convention in Tampa, Florida in late August.

Continue reading the main story

• Romney team misspells 'America'

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said on Wednesday that the president had called Mr Romney to congratulate him on securing the Republican nomination.

"President Obama said that he looked forward to an important and healthy debate about America's future, and wished Governor Romney and his family well throughout the upcoming campaign," said Mr LaBolt.

A Romney campaign spokesman said that the call had been "brief and cordial".

"Governor Romney thanked the president for his congratulations and wished him and his family well," the official said.

Mr Romney, who has been the presumptive nominee for several weeks as his rivals withdrew, said in a statement on Tuesday that he was "honoured" and "humbled" to have wrapped up the Republican race.

As the Texas primary results came in, the former Massachusetts governor was attending a Las Vegas fundraiser with reality television personality Mr Trump, whose popularity among conservative Republicans prompted him to briefly flirt with a presidential run himself this year.

Although Mr Trump did not mention the "birther" conspiracy theory at Tuesday evening's event, he told CNBC hours earlier: "A lot of people are questioning [Mr Obama's Hawaiian] birth certificate. They're questioning the authenticity of his birth certificate."

Romney poll boost

Mr Romney has not repudiated Mr Trump's comments, though his aides have said the GOP nominee believes the president was born in the US.

Continue reading the main story

Delegate totals

07501500

• Mitt Romney
• Rick Santorum
• Newt Gingrich
• Ron Paul

• 1480
• 267
• 138
• 137

See detail of all states won

A candidate needs 1,144 delegates to win

The swing voters who are expected to hold the key to victory in November's presidential election are likely to look askance at Mr Trump's rhetoric, correspondents say.

With opinion polls suggesting an extremely close race between Mr Romney and the Democratic president, the Republican candidate is holding a major fundraising event every day this week in the state of California.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Wednesday suggested that Mr Romney's appeal is rising, with 41% of respondents saying they had a positive impression of him, while 52% said the same of Mr Obama.

An earlier poll showed Mr Obama had a 52% rating against 35% for Mr Romney.

The Obama and Romney campaigns are expected to raise huge sums - perhaps as much as $1bn (£643m) each - in what may be the most lavish spending ever in a US presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, a spelling error embarrassed the Romney campaign as it released a photographic app that said "A Better Amercia".

The "With Mitt" application allows users to show their support by personalising a photo with an overlaid Romney slogan, but the typographic howler went viral on social networking websites.

As Mr Romney achieved his delegate majority, the Democratic National Committee released a video titled Mitt Romney: Little to Like.

The video highlights the Republican candidate's association with Mr Trump and also suggests that Mr Romney favours the wealthy.

This is Mr Romney's second bid for the White House, after he ran unsuccessfully in 2008.

His father, George Romney, a former Michigan governor, also ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 1968.

Political pundits are now speculating who Mr Romney will pick as his vice-presidential running mate.

ICC staff 'moved to Libya jail'

Ajami al-Ateri heads the Zintan brigade, which is holding Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Four people from an International Criminal Court (ICC) delegation to Libya have been moved to jail, a militia brigade chief has told the BBC.

The four were detained on Thursday and will be held for 45 days pending investigation, Ajami al-Ateri said.

One of the delegation, lawyer Melinda Taylor, is accused of trying to pass documents to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.

Saif al-Islam, son of deposed leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, has been held by the Zintan brigade since November.

The four had been moved to jail under orders from the attorney general's office and the defence ministry, Mr Ateri said.

He also told the BBC that protests would be held in Zintan calling for the delegation to be prosecuted.

The Libyan foreign ministry confirmed the 45-day detention period but said that the four were still being in a guest-house, the BBC's Rana Jawad reports from Tripoli.

Secret code

The Australian authorities say they are seeking consular access to Ms Taylor, an Australian citizen, as well as clarification on the circumstances of her detention.

"We are calling on the Libyan government to expedite the end of Ms Taylor's detention," Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters.

Another ICC team arrived in Libya on Sunday to try to secure the delegation's release. Libyan officials say they are holding meetings with the team in Tripoli today and are hoping to visit the detainees in Zintan by tomorrow.

"I call on the Libyan authorities to immediately take all necessary measures to ensure their safety and security and to liberate them," ICC President Song Sang-hyun said.

Both the ICC and Libya want to put Saif al-Islam Gaddafi on trial for crimes under the former regime

Members of the brigade holding Saif al-Islam say the ICC team were carrying documents including a letter from a former confidante of his who is now in Egypt.

The letter contained drawings and symbols, a "code" that would only be understood by the sender and by Saif al-Islam himself, Ahmed al-Jehani, Libya's envoy to the ICC, told AFP news agency.

Saif al-Islam, who was captured last November by militiamen as he tried to flee the country, has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity.

Libya's interim government has so far refused to hand him over for trial in the Netherlands - the seat of the ICC. Libya has insisted he should be tried by a Libyan court.

The stalemate appears to be getting more complicated by the minute for The Hague, our correspondent says.

Public opinion in Libya has been very critical of the ICC and this latest incident involving their staff, she adds.

French election: Socialists and allies win first round

The BBC's Christian Fraser: Mr Hollande is consolidating his grip on power

French President Francois Hollande's Socialists and their allies look set to emerge with a majority after first round voting in parliamentary elections, final results show.

Left-wing and green parties won more than 46% of the vote compared with 34% for the centre-right UMP party, interior ministry figures showed.

The outcome of the polls is expected to determine the extent and pace of reform under the newly elected French leader.

Run-offs are to be held next week.

The turnout nationwide was a modest 57%.

France's 46 million eligible voters have been picking representatives for 577 seats in the National Assembly.

After the first round, 36 seats out of 577 have been declared, according to figures published by the French interior ministry.

TNS Sofres, Ipsos and OpinonWay pollsters agreed the Socialists and their Green allies might win as few as 283 seats or potentially as many as 347. However, potential allies in the anti-capitalist Left Front would take 13-20 seats and ensure a majority.

Pacts

The Socialists have concluded electoral pacts with the smaller Europe Ecology, The Greens and the Radical Left Party.

Another potential coalition partner is the more radical Left Front, which brings together the Communist Party and the Left Party, and has fielded candidates in nearly all constituencies.

The Left Front, led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, won 6.9% of the vote.

Correspondents say the parties hope left-wing voters will unite around a single local candidate; and that afterwards the parties will be able to combine to form a majority in parliament.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Christian FraserBBC News, Paris

When you look at the left bloc as a whole, they have more support than the right, they will have a majority in the new parliament and that will ensure that Mr Hollande can force through the ambitious tax and spend policies that he has set out.

There is certainly a downturn in support for the conservative UMP. It is a symbolic win for the left, they hold the Senate, key regional administrations and now also the lower assembly so he has considerable power to push through these reforms.

It is a win for Mr Hollande, but not perhaps as big a win - symbolically - as he might have wanted. He is only neck and neck with the UMP - and will need the support of allies on the left and, perhaps, even the support of the Left Front, the far-left party.

They are eurosceptic and anti-globalisation and could cause problems for him, particularly when it comes to spending cuts that he will have to enact if he is to meet the promises he set out to Brussels and to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

• France's drift to the left

On the right, the UMP - the party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy - has concluded an electoral agreement with its centrist Radical Party and New Centre allies.

But the far-right National Front has ruled out any pact with the UMP.

The election saw a surge in support for Marine Le Pen's National Front, which won almost 14% of votes - way beyond the 4% it achieved in the last parliamentary election of 2007.

However, under France's first-past-the-post system, that would give the party only three parliamentary seats at best and possibly none at all.

The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Paris, says it is hard to predict accurately what the final tallies will be before next week's decisive round of voting. In many constituencies, there will be a three way run-off.

But with the Senate already under the control of the Socialists, it appears that Mr Hollande will also have a majority in the lower house - even if only with the support of allies - which would give him unprecedented power to force through his reform programme.

Mr Hollande's government is due to present a revised budget plan to parliament next month.

The result of the parliamentary election will determine the pace of reform and how radical it becomes, our correspondent says.

"It's a good result tonight... but we have to remain mobilised for the second round," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, an influential Socialist, was quoted by news agency AP as saying.

It was a big night for Ms Le Pen on a personal level, our correspondent says.

The firebrand leader of the hard left Mr Melenchon had challenged Ms Le Pen for the seat in the northern town of Henin Beaumont. In the end, he finished third and last night withdrew from the second round race.

"It is normal to be disappointed but we must not be defeated," Mr Melenchon said as he bowed out.

The far right has not held any seats in parliament since the 1980s. The electoral system may yet deny them a seat - but, adds our correspondent, the National Front is now by some margin the third biggest party in French politics.

How trouble in the eurozone affects you

Economic instability in the eurozone has affected the lives of millions of people on the continent. As uncertainty continues, and the wounds threaten to get deeper for the single currency, the pain will be felt in the UK too.

How will that affect you? What does it mean for your chances of getting a job, a mortgage or a decent pension?

Experts are agreed that there is a degree of guesswork over the ultimate outcome. Yet experience and existing regulations provide both concern and comfort for UK residents.

Eurozone turmoil and you
	What could happen	What is being said
Homes and mortgages
	More upheaval in the eurozone would mean banks were likely to take a more cautious approach to lending money, in part because they would not have as much to hand out. That could mean even tougher conditions for first-time buyers, who will again require a large deposit to secure a mortgage - perhaps about 20% of the value of the home they want to buy. Some may not want to buy anyway at a time when their jobs could be at risk. Fewer first-time buyers mean more tenants - andrising rents.	The Council of Mortgage Lenders says more eurozone uncertainty is "not a particularly comforting backdrop" for the UK's housing and mortgage markets. More bad eurozone news could affect mortgage costs, availability and activity.
	Choosy lenders will continue to make home loan offers only to those whom they trust totally to make repayments, which spells difficulty for the self-employed or those who have missed payments on loans or credit cards in the past or who are not on the voters' register. These mortgages may also go up.	Andrew Montlake, of mortgage broker Coreco, says a eurozone storm has been brewing for some time, so banks and building societies are preparing for it. A Greek exit from the single currency would be less of shock than the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the subsequent banking crisis. That means the knock-on effects on householders in the UK will be less pronounced, he says.
	Investors from Greece and Italy have already shown interest in buying homes in the UK because they think that it is a safe haven for their money. These sales have made the London market operate on a different level from the rest of the country, withprices going up in the capital but falling - sometimes sharply - elsewhere.	Prices rose by 5.1% in London in the year to the end of April, Land Registry figures show. That compares with a fall of 1% across the whole of England and Wales.
Safety of savings
	Trouble in the eurozone means trouble for the banks. But whatever happens, there is protection for savers who have deposits in those which are regulated in the UK. The first £85,000, even if that bank, building society or credit union goes bust. For a joint account, the protection doubles to £170,000. This is overseen by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). It is funded by the industry, but the government already stands behind it. People can call the FSCS or visit the Financial Services Authority website to check whether their bank is regulated in the UK.	"If savers have more than £85,000 in a bank account, then they should think very carefully aboutspreading their money across a number of banks and building societies," says Mark Neale, chief executive of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
	Some European banks, such as Santander, have UK subsidiaries. They are covered by the UK compensation scheme. However, other European banks are covered by compensation schemes in their own countries. In the eurozone, this offers deposit protection of100,000 euros. However, this would not protect the overall value of savers' money in a country that exits the euro and devalues its currency.	Faced with a "slow and silent run on banks in Italy, Spain and Greece", there has been an acceleration in attempts to create a eurozone-wide deposit protection scheme, says the BBC's Business editor Robert Peston.
	When Icelandic banks failed in 2008, the UK government stepped in to protect UK savers with Icelandic bank accounts, but there is no explicit promise to do this again if another country's banks fail.
	The interest paid by banks to savers has been at record low levels. Any further eurozone trouble means those rates would rise later rather than sooner.
Pensions
	As with housing, pensions would be affected by the UK being seen as a safe haven amid eurozone turmoil. Pension funds are big investors in UK government bonds. If the cost of buying them rises, and the return on holding them falls, pension funds would not be in such a healthy position. That might mean more businesses closing their final-salary pensions - the most generous workplace pension schemes - to new or existing staff.	Joanne Segars, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, says a flight to safety by investors to UK government bonds is likely to push private-sector final-salary pension schemesfurther into the red.
	People who have been putting money away into a personal pension use those savings to buy anannuity - an annual retirement income for the rest of their lives - when they retire. Insurance companies invest this money into government bonds. So, when they sell these annuities, the income pensioners will be able to buy is likely to be lower than before the eurozone crisis.	Those with 20 years or more to wait until retirement should not panic, says Malcolm McLean, a consultant for Barnett Waddingham. Those who are about to buy an annuity should seek advice on when to buy, which type of annuity to choose, and how to shop around.
Outlook for jobs
	The eurozone is the UK's biggest trading partner. Official statistics show that nearly 47% of UK exports went to the eurozone in 2011, while nearly 43% of UK imports came from the eurozone. A long-term spiral of decline in the economies of Europe would mean less demand for UK good and services, and that could mean job cuts, especially in manufacturing. Governments have been pushing for a growth agenda, but eurozone uncertainty leads to a lack of confidence among businesses. That means a pause in new investment and new jobs, most notably for younger workers.	"The honest answer is that no-one really knows how bad it would get. We have never been in this position before," says Ian Brinkley, director of the Work Foundation think tank. "The one thing that is certain is that a worsening crisis across the eurozone would be bad for jobs in the UK."
	A euro-wide banking crisis would squeeze the amount of credit available to firms to expand and create new job opportunities. Small businesses could be hardest hit. If the eurozone survives the crisis, austerity measures are still likely to affect employment, especially in the public sector. If the single currency falls apart, this would be many times worse.	When recent unemployment figures were published, Employment Minister Chris Grayling said that the UK faced "significant international uncertainty" that could affect jobs.
Investments
	Investors are often faced with confusing jargon. For some, the value of their pension is their only exposure to the success or failure of investments. Others have money put into a stocks-and-shares Isa, or invest directly in the stock market. Investments in shares have been volatile as a result of eurozone troubles, which can be seen in the performance of the FTSE index of 100 leading shares. However, taking a more conservative approach by investing in bonds has been expensive. Forecasting what happens to the value of investments if the eurozone crisis escalates is extremely difficult.	Investments can always go down as well as up, sotiming is the key to making a profit. Anna Sofat, of financial services company Addidi, says splitting money into different investment pots and taking a long-term view may be the safest approach for investors amid volatility in the markets.
Holidays in Europe
	UK holidaymakers are finding that their pound is buying more euros than at any time in the past three years. Worries about the eurozone have weakened Europe's single currency. Meanwhile, the pound is recovering value that it lost in a market rout during the 2008 financial crisis. Pensioners from the UK who live in Europe during the winter will see increased spending power in their UK pension, which is paid in sterling.	A number of currency experts have predicted that the pound may continue strengthening against the euro, meaning UK travellers' holiday money could go even further this summer.
	The question has been asked for many months whether Greece will leave the euro. Elections and negotiations will provide the answer relatively soon. However, a return to a drachma would create many more questions, not least because there is simplyno mechanism set up for a country to leave the euro. About 5% of the 36 million holidays taken by the British abroad are to Greece and its islands. If Greece adopted the drachma again, it is likely thatvisitors on holiday will see their money go much further because the process of leaving the currency will almost certainly involve a simultaneous devaluation of the new currency against the pound.	For Greece to leave the euro would be a huge administrative task, so "it is highly unlikely holidaymakers will be left stranded in Greece with unusable euros," says James Hickman, managing director of currency firm Caxton FX.
	Holiday-home owners in Greece will see the value of this property fall if it leaves the single currency. If they rented it out and charged in euros, it would be more expensive than other holiday homes and they might struggle to find tenants. But if they charged in drachmas, they might find this earns them very little once converted back to sterling or euros.