THE HEADLINES AT 0800 ON MONDAY 30TH JULY

It's eight o'clock on Monday the thirtieth of July. The headlines:

Gordon Brown is to hold formal talks with President Bush for the first time since becoming prime minister.

A parliamentary committee has dismissed calls for an increase in the time terrorist suspects can be held without charge.

Oxfam says Iraq is suffering a humanitarian crisis -- with eight million people needing emergency aid.

And thousands of homes in Gloucestershire should get their mains water back today -- but it won't be fit to drink.

GORDON BROWN

Gordon Brown has arrived in the United States for his first transatlantic summit as prime minister. He was flown from Washington by helicopter to the presidential retreat at Camp David, to be greeted by George Bush, who then took the wheel of a golf buggy to drive his guest to a private dinner. Later today, the two men will be joined for formal talks by the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, and the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. Our Political Editor, Nick Robinson, is travelling with the Prime Minister:

ROBINSON: The suits, the ties worn by Gordon Brown and George Bush said that this would be a different first summit than the one which kicked off a close friendship and a long political headache for Tony Blair. Both men know that this get-together will be studied as much for body language and mood music as diplomatic outcomes. Both, however, are likely to want something to show for it beyond warm words about the special relationship, a shared history and shared values. Privately, both men will want to know how far the other is thinking and planning for withdrawal of their troops from Iraq but there is unlikely to be much they can say publicly about that today beyond pledging not to cut and run. Instead, both men are likely to want to highlight their approach to another war - that in Darfur. Gordon Brown hopes to secure American backing for a new United Nations resolution to be passed this week. It would not only mandate the sending of a nineteen-thousand strong force to the war-torn region but promise long-term political and economic support for the reconstruction of it. That and a renewed push for a deal on world trade would allow both men to call this summit what they want to call it - a success.

TERROR

A Parliamentary committee has rejected fresh calls for an increase in the amount of time terrorist suspects can be questioned by police. The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has said there's evidence that the current 28 day limit doesn't give police enough time to investigate complicated terror cases. Gordon Brown announced plans to consult on the issue when he unveiled his anti-terrorism strategy last week. Here's our Home Affairs Correspondent, Rory Maclean:

MACLEAN: The joint committee on Human Rights concludes that there is not a clear case for increasing the detention powers beyond twenty-eight days. This is despite the home office producing a document highlighting the complexity of recent terrorism cases and pointing to an investigation where charges only followed on the twenty-seventh day of detention. However, the government accepts that so far no suspect who has been released would have been charged if they'd been held beyond twenty-eight days. The Human Rights Committee also wanted to know whether people were being held longer on weak evidence in case something stronger turned up and at what stage the evidence used to charge suspects was discovered during the detention period. The committee also criticised the powers of house arrest under terrorism control orders as very far removed from anything like a fair procedure.

HUMAN RIGHTS

The chairman of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Labour MP Andrew Dismore, said that it would take strong evidence in individual cases to convince him that more than twenty eight days detention was acceptable:

DISMORE ACT: There isn't actually any evidence to suggest that twenty-eight days is being inadequate and indeed the police aren't asking for any longer at the moment and when the Prime Minister announced the proposals, last week, even he was saying that there're maybe circumstances where detention could be necessary beyond twenty eight days - very cautious and I think what we are seeing is a sort of an anticipatory approach rather than actually looking of what's happened. We're not saying that we can't have pre-charge detention what we're saying there needs to be evidence based for any extension beyond that and of course we need to have proper judicial supervision which don't have at the moment.
 
INDIA

An Indian doctor who was detained in Australia, accused of links to the failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, has arrived at Bangalore airport in southern India on his way home. Mohammed Haneef said he felt he had been victimised by the Australian authorities and he was glad his honour had now been restored.

IRAQ

The charity, Oxfam, says nearly a third of the population of Iraq is in need of emergency aid. The agency says the Iraqi government is failing to provide basic essentials such as water, sanitation and shelter and -- in many cases -- the situation has worsened since the American-led invasion of 2003. From Baghdad, here's Nicholas Witchell:

WITCHELL: This report makes alarming reading. It suggests that seventy percent of Iraqis are without adequate water supplies compared to fifty percent prior to the invasion and nearly thirty percent of children are malnourished, again a sharp increase on the situation four years ago. Overall Oxfam says the continuing violence in Iraq is overshadowing a humanitarian crisis with eight million Iraqis, nearly one in three of the population in need of emergency aid. Oxfam says that despite the difficulties caused by the security situation, the Iraqi government and other governments should be doing more to meet the basic needs of the population in terms of water, sanitation, food and shelter. The report also reveals the scale of the country's refugee problem. More than two million people have been displaced inside Iraq, a further two million have become refugees in Syria and Jordan.

EQUITY

A group of MPs is urging the Bank of England to look at the impact of private equity firms on the economy. The Treasury Select Committee raises questions about the large sums they tend to borrow to take over other companies. It also calls for a closer examination of the tax breaks they enjoy - but stops short of making concrete recommendations. The Labour MP, John McFall - who chairs the committee - told us about his concerns:

MCFALL ACT: There are profound questions on the issue of taxation, for example taper relief and carried interest. There is a memorandum of understanding signed between the industry and the government in 1987 and then updated in 2003, I've called that a memorandum of incomprehensibility. I want the government to explain that.

The chairman of the British Venture Capital Association, Wol Kolade, said the amount of debt taken on by private equity firms shouldn't be a cause for alarm:

KOLADE ACT: The levels of debt have increased, that's clear. Having said that, though, the people who run private equity firms have been involved in these types of deals for many many years, and have been through many many cycles, so this is not a new thing for them. Debt is only one component of the transaction. The central view of private equity is to try and improve companies through improving their profits, their sales growth and driving valuable growth that way.

FLOODS

More than 65-thousand homes in Gloucestershire are expected to have their mains water supply restored today - although it won't be fit to drink. About 130-thousand households have been without running water since a major treatment works was flooded more than a week ago. Bob Walker reports from the village of Dumbleton:

WALKER: About three-thousand homes, many of them in villages to the east of Tewkesbury, had their supplies restored yesterday. Running water should return to an extra sixty-five-thousand homes by the end of the day, although people in parts of Gloucester and Cheltenham may have to wait a little longer. Engineers managed to restart the Mythe treatment works near Tewkesbury yesterday. Now, they have to recharge fifty-four miles of major trunk water mains and twelve-hundred miles of water pipes. People are being warned not to drink tap water because the pipes were submerged beneath flood waters and may have been contaminated. Instead, they will have to continue to collect drinking water from bowsers on streets throughout Gloucestershire or use bottled water supplied by the army and the emergency services.

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

The reported payment of five-figure bonuses to senior executives at the Environment Agency has come in for further criticism. The Agency has described the sums as "modest" and said they reflected success across a range of objectives. But one of its former chief executives, Ed Gallagher, told TODAY that after the recent flooding he would probably repay the money if he was still in charge.

TORIES

The Conservatives are calling for radical reform of special needs education. The Party's policy commission will say the job of evaluating children's needs should be taken away from local education authorities and given to independent assessors. The report will also say that including children with special needs in mainstream schools has "dramatically failed" many people.

HURRICANES

Scientists say the number of hurricanes over the Atlantic Ocean has doubled in the past century. A study published by the Royal Society says part of the cause is warmer sea temperatures resulting from climate change. Matt McGrath has the details:

MCGRATH: Scientific analyses in recent years suggest hurricane numbers have increased since the mid-nineteen-eighties. This new study though looks at the frequency of these storms from 1900 to the present and it says about twice as many form each year now compared to one-hundred years ago. Some researchers say hurricanes are cyclical and that an increase in their number is just a reflection of that natural pattern. But the authors of this study say it's not just nature - they say the frequency has risen across the century rather than rising and falling with the natural cycle. Instead the authors say that man-made climate change, which has increased the temperature of the sea surface, is the major factor behind the increase in numbers.

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It's eight o'clock on Friday 27th July.

A study suggests anyone who uses cannabis is more likely to have a psychotic illness.
Anti-terror police in Australia have dropped charges against a doctor arrested after the car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
Heathrow Airport -- hoping to stop a demonstration by environmental activists -- is seeking an injunction that could cover millions of people.

CANNABIS
Researchers say people who have used cannabis are, on average, forty per cent more likely to develop a psychotic illness than those who've never used the drug. The authors of a report, in the Lancet medical journal, say there's now sufficient evidence to warn young people that cannabis could increase their risk of developing conditions such as schizophrenia. Here's our health correspondent, Jane Dreaper:
DREAPER: This review of existing data found what the researchers said was a consistent association between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions. They report an increased risk of up to two-hundred per cent for people who use cannabis most frequently. The authors say the risk to any individual of getting schizophrenia remains low overall -- but because cannabis use is so common, they estimate it could be a factor in fourteen percent of psychotic problems among young adults in the UK. An accompanying comment article in the Lancet says this equates to around eight-hundred cases of schizophrenia a year. A leading psychiatrist described the findings as competent and conservative -- but this is a contentious area, with one professor remarking that the paper wasn't consistent with the fact that the incidence of schizophrenia hadn't changed in the past thirty years.
 
CANNABIS ACT
Glyn Lewis -- the professor of psychiatric epidemiology at Bristol University -- carried out the review. He told TODAY although his research doesn't PROVE that cannabis can cause psychotic conditions -- it does suggest a strong link:
LEWIS ACT: We can't really be certain whether cannabis causes psychotic still but we think that the weight of evidence is now sufficient that at least we should be warning people that it may be that cannabis does these serious illnesses.
 
AUSTRALIA
The authorities in Australia have dropped terrorism charges against an Indian doctor who was arrested in connection with last month's bomb attacks in London and Glasgow. Dr Mohamed Haneef, who's twenty-seven, had been accused of recklessly supporting terrorism. From Sydney, Nick Bryant reports:
BRYANT: Prosecutors had originally argued that a SIM card, allegedly provided by Dr Mohammed Haneef, was found in a burning jeep rammed into Glasgow airport - it was their central piece of evidence against him. But as soon as it emerged that the SIM card was in fact discovered in Liverpool, the case began to collapse. On Wednesday, Australia's chief prosecutor announced a review of the case. He decided, after looking at the evidence, that the charge of recklessly providing resources to a terrorist organisation should be dropped. But the twenty-seven-year-old Indian Doctor will remain in dention under Australia's immigration laws. Before the charge was dropped, the country's immigration minister had decided to cancel his visa, claiming he'd failed what's called the character test.
 
SHARES
The London stock exchange is just beginning trading -- following the biggest one day fall for five years yesterday. The decline was triggered by a squeeze on credit, as our business correspondent, Greg Wood, reports:
WOOD: In the past twenty-four hours, world stock markets have taken their biggest hits since the start of the Iraq War. And it's all about credits or the lack of it. Much of the rise in share-prices this year has been driven by the takeover boom, as private equity buyers have bid up the values of the companies they're targeting. But most of those deals are paid for with borrowed money and the lenders; the banks have laid off a large proportion of those loans by selling them on to other investors rather like a bookmaker laying off bets. But not anymore. Rising interest rates have made it more difficult to borrow and investors bruised by losses in the United States mortgage market have lost their appetite for buying risky loans from the banks. Without the credit to pay for the big takeover deals, share prices fall.
 
CITY FIGURES
In its opening minutes the one hundred share index is down 53 point at 6,197
 
TEACHERS
The BBC has uncovered evidence of cheating by teachers to improve their pupils' exam results. It's being blamed on the pressure of constant testing, and the importance attached to league tables. Teachers say there's little incentive to expose the corruption, because better results are welcomed by everybody. The research was carried out for the Julian Worricker show on Radio Five Live on Sunday morning.

DIABETES
Scientists are warning that two drugs -- commonly used to treat Type Two Diabetes -- double the risk of heart failure among diabetics who are young and otherwise healthy. The drugs -- Avandia and Actos -- are taken by one hundred and thirty thousand people. Ray Furlong has been looking at the research, carried out at the University of East Anglia:
FURLONG: These findings are based on an analysis of more than seventy-eight-thousand patients and estimate that two percent of patients taking Avandia and Actos over a twenty-six month period will need to be admitted to hospital due to heart failure. The medicines are approved for use in the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. It said it would await further guidance from the European Medicines Agency which is expecting to publish further research into the drugs in October. It the US, the food and drug administration is also examining Avendia's heart risks.

NASA
It's alleged that some NASA astronauts have been allowed to fly on space missions while drunk -- despite warnings that they'd posed a safety risk. A report in an aviation industry magazine says that a panel of NASA doctors has cited at least two instances of astronauts flying while intoxicated. In a separate development, the American space agency revealed that a computer, due to be fitted to the international space station, was sabotaged.
 
HEATHROW
The owner of Heathrow Airport, BAA, is seeking an injunction to thwart a demonstration by environmental activists. Protesters say the terms of the injunction could be so wide as to include millions of people belonging to such organisations as Friends of the Earth and the RSPB. Here's our Transport Correspondent, Tom Symonds:
SYMONDS: BAA will go to court next week to ask for an injunction banning organisations which campaign against the environmental effects of flying from going near the airport. These include the pressure groups Airport Watch, Plane Stupid, and the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise. The week long camp for climate action is due to take place next month. But the three groups say the injunction would also prevent their supporters from using the airport or its rail and road links. Airport Watch, for example, is a coalition of groups including the National Trust, the RSPB and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England of which the Queen is patron. The campaigners say its corporate bullying -- and the injunction could affect millions of members of these organisations. BAA insists it's simply trying to ensure the safe and smooth running of Heathrow at one of its busiest periods.
 
DE VILLEPIN
The former French Prime Minister, Dominic de Villepin, is due to appear before two judges today about the Clearstream affair, an alleged attempt to smear Nicolas Sarkozy, before he became President. He's expected to be placed under formal investigation, the first step to criminal charges. During the Clearstream affair, Mr Sarkozy's name was wrongly linked to an illegal bank account in Luxembourg.
 
FLOODS
The Prince of Wales is to visit victims of the flooding in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. He'll also meet emergency teams and volunteers struggling to clear up after the deluge. Bob Walker reports:
WALKER: Following his visit to flood-damaged areas of Northern England, Prince Charles is expected to meet emergency workers and people whose homes and businesses had been damaged in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. Severn Trent Water says it managed to restore supplies to around ten thousand homes in the Tewkesbury area by diverting water from a treatment works at Strensham. But the pipes may have been contaminated by flood water and people are being warned not to drink that tap water or use it for cooking. Tankers have working through out the night to refill the nine-hundred water bowsers on the streets through out the region. Tributes have paid to a father and son who died when they used a generator to pump water from Tewkesbury Rugby Club. It's thought Bram and Chris Lane may have been overcome by fumes. Bram Lane who was sixty-four was described as club stalwart and a community lynchpin.
 
NICK LEESON
Nick Leeson, the former trader who caused the collapse of Barings Bank, has a new job. He's been appointed as chief executive of Galway United Football Club, languishing near the bottom of the Irish Premier League. Diarmaid Fleming reports from Dublin:
FLEMING: Nick Leeson is no stranger to the boardroom at Galway United where he has been general manager for the past two years. Any problems he might have had explaining a gap in his career on his CV have been overcome by his performance at the club, which said he was a "wonderful addition" to the management in a statement announcing his appointment as chief executive. Leeson was sentenced to six and a half years jail in Singapore, after he racked up huge losses in illegal trading in the Far East in the mid-1990s, causing his employer Barings Bank which numbered the Queen among its clients to collapse in 1995. While once he tried to shore up multi-billion pound deals, his main priority now will be trying to help Galway United, currently third from bottom in Ireland's premier league, avoid relegation.

It's eight o'clock on Thursday, the 29th of March.

Tehran says it will give British diplomats access to the fifteen Royal Navy personnel seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Tony Blair is to confirm the break up of the Home Office -- and the creation of a new Ministry of Justice.

A parliamentary committee has delivered a scathing verdict on Margaret Beckett's handling of payments to farmers when she was Environment Secretary.

IRAN
Iran says it will let British diplomats visit the fifteen sailors and marines captured in the Gulf. But Tehran is insisting that the crisis cannot be resolved until Britain admits that the sailors had strayed into Iranian territorial waters. That's something Britain has explicitly denied. Senior Iranian officials refused to be drawn on when they might release the only woman among the captives -- saying it would happen "as soon as possible." Here's our diplomatic correspondent, Bridget Kendall:

KENDALL: Speaking to reporters at the Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, the Iranian foreign minister said Iran was prepared to offer British officials access to the prisoners and was also exploring the possible release of the only female detainee, Fay Turney. But he also warned that the standoff could only be resolved if Britain admitted the servicemen and woman had been in Iranian waters when arrested, even if by mistake. In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said Britain awaited further details on possible consular access; no official offer had yet been made. But so far, there's little sign of Britain giving ground on its claim the sailors were abducted from Iraqi waters. Most bilateral contacts with Iran are being put on hold and diplomats say Britain is now exploring how far it can persuade other allies in Europe and at the United Nations to rally round.

IRAN 2
A British businessman been speaking about his experience at the hands of Iranian interrogators. Rupert Wise was taken prisoner sixteen months ago. Here's our security correspondent, Frank Gardner:

GARDNER: Rupert Wise never planned to visit Iran, but in late 2005 he, his wife and an Australian yachtsman were seized by Iranian coastguards after sailing from Dubai to the disputed gulf island of Abu Musa. They were taken to the Iranian mainland, held for two weeks, and questioned repeatedly by a succession of interrogators who suspected them of spying. The first thing the did, said Mr Wise, was to separate the couple and quiz them separately to see if their stories matched. The Western captives were filmed extensively, denied consular access for days and told to sign documents which they could not understand. There was no physical abuse, but when one team appeared to have finished with them they would be replaced by another from a different ministry.

HOME OFFICE
Britain is to have -- for the first time -- a Ministry of Justice. The government is to confirm that -- in response to a string of crises at the Home Office and a review of counter terrorism capabilities -- the department will be divided in two. The changes will see the Home Secretary losing control of the sentencing and treatment of offenders. Here's our Home Affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw:

SHAW: This is one of the biggest reorganisations in White Hall in recent years, it is being driven by the Home Secretary John Reid, who described his department as 'dysfunctional' in the wake of the foreign prisoner crisis. As the reforms take effect over the coming weeks, Mr Reid will be able to focus on policing, security and terrorism. His slimed-down department will absorb counter terrorism strategy from the Cabinet Office. He'll also keep overall control over the immigration and nationality directorate which is set to become an executive agency. The Lord Chancellor Lord Faulkner will take on probation, prisons and sentencing, as well as retaining responsibility for the court system and constitutional affairs. It's understood that his department will be know as the 'Ministry of Justice'.

HOME OFFICE 2
The reforms have won the backing of the Liberal Democrats -- but the Conservatives' home affairs spokesman, Damian Green, says the Home Office will suffer:

GREEN ACT: Separating it out is likely to make things worse rather than better, so I think this is just the Government looking for a way of appearing of being active rather than getting to grips with the real problems that have affected the Home Office for years.

FARMS
The committee of MPs that monitors the work of the Department for the Environment has condemned the way that a new system of payments to farmers was introduced. Its report says the Minister at the time -- Margaret Beckett -- and her senior officials should have been held to account. The committee describes what happened as a fiasco and a catastrophe which may cost the taxpayer half a billion pounds. Its Conservative chairman, Michael Jack, told us that the department had failed to heed the warnings that were given:

JACK ACT: If Mrs Beckett had still being in post, we would I'm sure have been calling for her resignation, but instead we point out that perhaps there is a need to re-examine the Ministerial code, to define more sharply when people take responsibility because fundamentally this report is one about accountability in government. On something like this where the bill could be half a billion pounds between the farming industry and the tax payer, and nobody actually takes responsibility there is something wrong.

Mrs Beckett has said she hasn't yet seen a copy of the report. She says she took her decisions in good faith and on the basis of the advice she was given at the time.

TURKEY
One person has been killed and ten injured in an explosion in the kitchen of a five-star hotel hotel in southern Turkey. It's not yet clear what caused the blast at the hotel in the resort of Belek, near Antalya on the Mediterranean coast. A number of foreign tourists are said to be among those hurt.

CASINO
The Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell has admitted that the government has "no plan B" after proposals for a Manchester super-casino and more than a dozen smaller gambling complexes were rejected by the House of Lords. Ministers say it will be several weeks before they can begin trying to sort out the disarray. Our political correspondent, Mark Sandars reports on the aftermath of last night's humiliating defeat:

SAUNDERS: It was double or nothing for the government, it had to win in both houses of parliament. It did secure a majority in the Commons, fighting off a rebellion of Labour MPs but the government lost by just three votes in the Lords. Its plans for super casino in Manchester and sixteen smaller casinos across the UK are in tatters. The government's opponents say that it tried to push the measures through Parliament without them being examined thoroughly. Ministers say they'll now reflect on last nights vote and try to salvage what they can from their policy. The could compromise by beefing-up parliamentary scrutiny of where any super casino could be built, and allow MPs and Peers a separate vote on the sixteen other casinos, but they'll be no new proposals until after the May elections.

CASINO ACT
One of the Labour peers who voted against the government was Lady Kennedy. She told this programme there was no evidence of a public clamour for super-casinos -- and explained why she was opposed to the idea:

KENNEDY ACT: Super casinos - we know wherever they are in the world - are a magnet for crime. And I saw one recently in Melbourne, I saw them recently in New Mexico, and we're really talking about drugs, drink, prostritution. I mean Melbourne, just seeing the young women hanging around the outer rim of the super casinos was just horrible. And it doesn't regenerate an area. In fact it's dragged usually areas down.

SMOKING
A survey by the BBC of workingmen's clubs suggests many of them fear the forthcoming ban on smoking in public places could put them out of business. The clubs claim they're particularly vulnerable because so many of their customers smoke. The ban starts in Wales on Monday -- Northern Ireland follows suit at the end of next month and England introduces it in July. Luke Walton reports:

WALTON: More than five hundred working men's clubs responded to the survey. Around eighty percent expect the smoking ban to reduce takings, while twenty percent fear it will shut them down altogether. Club officials worry that their regular customers will stay at home instead. Though the government argues that in Scotland, where the ban already in place, licensees haven't been as badly hit as predicted. The survey also asked clubs about opening membership to women, a move that's been resisted by some. That too may be changing. Three quarters of clubs say they want women to be allowed to hold national membership cards for the first time.

RELIGION
The leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales -- Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor -- has hit out at changes in the law which -- he said -- were preventing Christian organisations from serving the public. In a lecture last night, he said new regulations applied to schools and adoption agencies were in conflict with the moral sense of Christians:

O'CONNER ACT: I am not claiming that there is an attempt to supress in our country the basic freedom of religious belief. But freedom of religion is much more than the freedom to worship: it is the freedom to act according to that belief in the service of others.

THAI
A Swiss man has been jailed for ten years in Thailand, for spray-painting graffiti over posters of the country's King. It's the first time a foreigner has been sent to prison for breaking the country's strict laws forbidding criticism of the Royal Family. From Bangkok, our correspondent, Jonathan Head, reports:

HEAD: Ten years in jail for defacing a few posters: that must seem like draconian punishment to fifty-seven-year-old Oliver Jufer, who pleaded guilty to committing the offences last December. But the judge was about as lenient as he could be. He gave Mr Jufer four years for each of the five counts of lese-majeste, close to the minimum and he then halved the sentence. Such is the sensitivity of the issue, it's receiving little attention in the Thai media. Most Thais feel a deep reverence for their monarch. But they also fear discussing the institution because of the severe penalties for criticising members of the royal family.

GORILLAS
The Duke of Edinburgh will officially open a new five million pound home for the gorillas at London Zoo today. The bars and the cages have gone, and in their place is an enclosure resembling an African rainforest -- separated from visitors by a moat and sheets of glass.

It's eight o'clock on Wednesday the 28th of March.

Two new surveys have found more evidence that people in England and Wales are struggling to find NHS dentists.
The American Senate has defied President Bush - by voting for troops to be pulled out of Iraq by this time next year.
The government is facing strong opposition in the Commons and the Lords to its plan for seventeen new casinos.

DENTISTRY SURVEYS
Two separate surveys have painted a bleak picture of dentistry on the NHS, a year after a new contract for dentists was introduced. The reforms changed the way dentists were assessed and paid, but both patients and practitioners are complaining that the system still doesn't work. Citizens Advice has carried out an online survey, which suggests many people are simply going without treatment. The charity's Social Policy Officer, Liz Phelps, explained the findings:

PHELPS ACT: People are making huge changes still to find a dentist, some cases one hundred and twenty round trip. Other people are being pushed into private dentistry when they really can't afford it. And in our survey of over four thousand people who were looking for dentists two thirds of them ended up going without. It depends very much on where you live. In some parts of the country you can be spoilt for choice for example in Hartlepool and Hornchurch -- but in other parts of the country, there is just nothing.

BDA SURVEY
The British Dental Association has carried out its own survey, which suggests that the vast majority of dentists don't think the contract has achieved its aims. From a sample of nearly four hundred practices, eighty-five percent didn't think patient access had been improved, and ninety-seven percent didn't feel they had been taken off a "treadmill" of work. The BDA'S chief executive Peter Ward told us that government targets and misplaced funding had caused the problems:

WARD ACT: The Primary Care Trusts, although they've been allocated money to buy more dentistry, are in a position where their own shortage of funds has prevented them using those moneys to buy dentistry. Instead they're being forced to use the money to fill gaps in their own funding. So consequently, although dentists want to treat patients, patients need care-- the primary care trusts have money. We're in the ridiculous situation where dentists are having to say 'well, actually that's it -- we can't do any more this year because there's no more money forthcoming from the primary care trust'.

SENATE VOTE
Senators in the United States have defied President Bush, and voted for a target date of next March for pulling US combat troops out of Iraq. Republicans tried in vain last night to remove the Democrats' withdrawal timetable from a bill to channel billions in extra funding for the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House said Mr Bush was "disappointed" by the outcome, and was ready to use his powers of veto to strike down the measure. Reporting from Washington, our correspondent, James Coomerasamy:

COOMARASAMY:This was an important and somewhat surprising victory for the Democrats in the latest Congressional skirmish over the war in Iraq. Two last-minute defections ensured they defeated a Republican attempt to amend a huge military spending bill, setting next March as a goal for US combat troops to leave Iraq. Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York cautioned his party not to get carried away.

SCHUMER ACT: This is not one battle. It's a long-term campaign to persuade the president, to pressure the president to change course.

COOMARASAMY: But the battle lines are drawn and President Bush has made it clear he will veto any bill that places conditions on his military commanders. So for White House loyalists such as Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, his colleagues have picked a wrong and dangerous fight:

GRAHAM ACT: Whatever mistakes the Bush team have made -- and there are many -- the Congress is about to make the greatest mistake of all -- and that is to tell the enemy what they have to do to get us out of Iraq on their terms, not ours.

COOMARASAMY:.and while the building Congressional defiance of the White House at a time of war may add to the pressure on President Bush, it's also likely to reinforce his determination.

IRAQ
Dozens of people are reported to have been shot dead in a town in northwestern Iraq. Gunmen are said to have stormed a Sunni district in Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border, killing up to fifty people, in an apparent reprisal for bomb attacks in a Shi'ite area. The victims are all understood to have been shot in the head.

SUPER CASINO VOTE
Government plans for a super casino in Machester and sixteen smaller casinos across Britain will face strong opposition in Parliament today. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats say they will join Labour rebels and vote against the proposals. From Westminster, Sean Curran reports:

CURRAN: More than a hundred MPs have signed a Commons motion expressing regret at Blackpool's failure and calling for a Government re-think. Both the Commons and the Lords will now be given the chance to accept or reject all seventeen casinos but they will not be able to change the proposals. This has frustrated supporters of Blackpool's bid who had hoped the Government would offer two votes. One on the super casino decision and the other on the 16 smaller casinos. The Government also faces a revolt in the Lords, where the Church of England bishops who have argued that the new casinos will increase addiction to gambling. In spite of this, Government sources say they expect the orders approving the casinos to be passed by both Houses of Parliament.

CASINO PROTEST
The protest motion on casinos was tabled by Joan Humble, the Labour MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood. Speaking on this programme, she refused to be drawn on the possible scale of any rebellion:

HUMBLE ACT: It's always difficult to estimate how much of that concern will translate into either a vote against, or abstention. But the government should be aware that what we want is an opportunity for Blackpool's bid to be properly considered. We want fairness in this.

IRAN
The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, has cut short a visit to Turkey - so she can make a statement in the Commons this afternoon about the continued detention of 15 Royal Navy personnel in Iran. The government is preparing to release evidence - including photographs - in support of its assertion that the sailors and marines were in Iraqi waters when they were captured. Here's our diplomatic correspondent, Bridget Kendall:

KENDALL: Margaret Beckett said she decided to return to London after her phone call to the Iranian foreign minister yesterday made no progress. She demanded the swift and safe return of the captives and for Iran to give British diplomats immediate access to them. Yesterday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said that contact would be granted once the initial investigation was over. But it's not clear when that might be and Teheran hasn't even confirmed where it's holding them. What today's Commons statement might contain isn't yet clear. But officials say Tony Blair's warning that the crisis could soon move to a 'different phase' means going public with data and argument currently being presented in private --- in other words, releasing coordinates and possibly photos to back up British claims the captives were seized in Iraqi, not Iranian waters.

PHILIPPINES
Two gunmen are holding more than thirty young children and two teachers hostage on a bus in the Philippines. Reports say the men seized control of the bus in the capital, Manila, in a protest about the lack of education for poor children.

XMAS CLUBS
A new scheme to protect the customers of Christmas savings clubs is to be announced today. Last year, a hundred thousand people lost money they had set aside for Christmas when Farepak collapsed. Our business correspondent, Nils Blythe, has more details:

BLYTHE: Savers lost an estimated forty million pounds in the collapse of the Farepak Christmas Club. The money intended to provide hampers or vouchers for club members at Christmas was used for other purposes within the company which owned Farepak. Today the Government will unveil a plan for Christmas savings clubs to try to ensure that in future money is ring-fenced for savers. It has the backing of Park group - the biggest remaining Christmas club operator. Former savers at Farepak are likely to get back three or four pence for every pound lost from the administrators later this year. The official investigation into what went on at Farepak and its parent company could last into next year.

VISAS
The government is to raise the minimum age at which people from outside the European Union will be allowed to enter Britain to get married. It'll go up from eighteen to twenty-one, Gillian Hargreaves reports:

HARGREAVES: About fifteen thousand British people marry foreign nationals from outside the European Union, each year. The largest number of visa requests come form the Indian subcontinent. By raising the age limit to twenty one it'll mean that about three thousand people a year, will be prevented from coming to the UK. The government also intends to introduce confidential interviews for people entering the country to make sure they haven't been forced into marriage.The move is part of a package of measures to strengthen Britain's borders. There'll be an overhaul of all visa categories -- and fingerprints will be taken when a visa to Britain is issued.

GUM ADVERT
An advertising campaign by Cadbury for a type of chewing gum has been criticised by the advertising watchdog for playing on Caribbean stereotypes. The Advertising Standards Authority received five hundred and nineteen complaints about the commercials for Trident Gum. Our media correspondent, Torin Douglas reports:

DOUGLAS: Two TV commercials and one for cinemas showed a black man speaking in rhyme with a strong Caribbean accent and shouting the catch line 'mastercation for the nation'. Other commercials showed a white man also speaking in Caribbean accents. More the five hundred viewers complained that the commercials showed offensive stereotypes and ridiculed black or Caribbean people. Cadbury said the ads were meant to show a 'tongue in cheek revolution', and used dubbed poetry -- part of Caribbean culture -- to spread the word. It had consulted the African Caribbean community, and the scripts had been cleared by the broadcaster's watchdog. But the Advertising Standards Authority said the stereotype had unintentionally caused deep offence to a significant minority of viewers.

It's eight o'clock on Tuesday the 27th of March.

Tony Blair is launching a review of crime policy, which recommends tougher community sentences, special units for mentally ill prisoners, and a shake-up of the police.

A report on bullying in schools says some of them are excluding the victims rather than the bullies.

An Australian man who's spent five years at Guantanamo Bay has pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism - and will be sent home to serve his sentence.

CRIME
Tougher community sentences and new units for prisoners with mental illness are among the government's latest ideas for combating crime, to be published today. Tony Blair will also announce a greater emphasis on rehabilitating offenders, and a review of the police service in England and Wales. The proposals are all set out in a policy document on security, crime and justice. Our home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw, reports:

SHAW: Tony Blair's latest policy paper touches on a number of familiar themes: early intervention to prevent criminality; targeting the most prolific offenders and drug users; tougher community punishments. The review of policing will identify ways to cut red tape, make the police more accessible to the public, and give forces greater say over their budgets. Within police circles, however, there's puzzlement about why a shake-up is needed, at a time when the Home Office is conducting its own review of police powers, and forces are busy setting up neighbourhood policing teams. One of the more radical ideas in the policy document is for special units to house mentally-ill prisoners, where drug treatment would be available.

BULLYING
MPs on the Commons education select committee say some schools are excluding the victims of bullying to keep them from harm -- rather than excluding the bullies. They've urged the government to issue fresh guidance on bullying to schools in England -- and say pupils should have a say in the way bullies are punished. The committee chairman -- the Labour MP Barry Sheerman -- told us that headteachers should not shy away from taking action:

SHEERMAN: Some people make excuses -- it's too easy for heads and schools to say 'oh that bully, he's outside the school. It happens round the corner, it happens outside the school gate' and if you've got a culture in the school that says no bullying inside the school or outside the school -- anything that affects the students life in the school, whether its externally stimulated, is intolerable.

WOOLMER
The policeman leading the investigation into the murder of Bob Woolmer in Jamaica says there are as yet no suspects in the case. Officers are examining the Pakistan coach's laptop computer, and will carry out DNA tests on all guests at the hotel where he died. From Kingston, here's Andy Gallacher:

GALLACHER: Rumours and speculation have surrounded this case from the start and as the days go on things aren't getting any better. At the latest news conference here in Kingston, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mark Shields, said that the stories appearing both here and in the UK are distressing to Bob Woolmer's family.

SHEILDS ACT: The British Press are totally wrong on this occasion, with all due respect, they should wait for announcements from us, because I think we know if there are any suspects. There are many potential suspects in this investigation and even more potential witnesses and we're nowhere near the stage at the moment to start naming names in terms of suspects.

GALLACHER: The Deputy Commissioner also said that his officers may now travel to other parts of the Caribbean to talk to officials and players. The Jamaican police are also still looking at security camera footage from the Pegasus Hotel where Bob Woolmer was killed more than a week ago.

IRAN
The family of the only woman among a group of British service personnel being held captive by Iran have issued a statement saying they are going through a "very distressing time". Faye Turney, who's twenty-six, is one of fifteen sailors and marines being detained and interrogated in Tehran. The British government has said it's doing "everything possible" to secure their release.

HICKS
An Australian man who's spent the past five years in detention at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay has pleaded guilty to charges of supporting terrorism. David Hicks, who's a Muslim convert, was accused of training at an al-Qaeda camp before volunteering to fight alongside the Taleban. He'll serve his sentence in Australia. Nick Bryant reports from Sydney:

BRYANT: After refusing to enter a plea during his first appearance before the military commission, David Hicks and his legal team changed strategy just hours later, seemingly in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence. His US military defence lawyer had long argued that the thirty-one year old could never receive a fair trial at Guantanamo Bay and that depression and despair might lead him to seek a plea bargain. So, in a hastily arranged second hearing, he answered 'yes, Sir' when asked if he was admitting his guilt. The detainee, dubbed the Australian Taleban, will be sentenced later in the week and then return home to serve his sentence. His cause has been taken up by thousands of his fellow countrymen who have complained that the former kangaroo skinner has been subject to a kangaroo court.

JOHNSTON
There have been more calls for the release of the BBC correspondent, Alan Johnston, who is missing - presumed kidnapped - in Gaza. An international journalists' organisation based in Paris has joined BBC staff and Palestinian journalists who have made appeals on his behalf.

MINISTERIAL CODE
The Conservative leadership is being urged to accept a new ministerial code of conduct -- to make a future Tory government more accountable and transparent. The party's Democracy Task Force -- headed by the former chancellor Kenneth Clarke -- will tell the Conservative leader David Cameron that he should agree to a binding code of conduct. Mr Clarke told this programme that Tony Blair's style of government had lost the trust of voters.

CLARKE: We're having a proper Cabinet again, we're having a proper roles for Secretaries of State and getting rid of the present situation where one person,really, has taken most power into his own hands which he exercises an informal sofa government style using a huge of number of political advisors and his entourage around him in Number 10. His only rival has been Number 11, where a rather smaller and more disciplined group imposed the power of the Treasury, using their power over the money, as far as they can and other ministers as well.

ULSTER
Emergency legislation will be rushed through parliament today, which should allow Northern Ireland to be governed, once again, from Stormont. Now that Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists have agreed to work together in a power-sharing administration, all the main parties at Westminster have promised to back a Bill to prevent the Assembly being dissolved.

CHILD KILLER
An official investigation into the case of a convicted child killer and sex offender who befriended children after his release from prison has concluded that the public were put at risk because he wasn't properly monitored. The BBC programme, Panorama, filmed Frank Parker's behaviour while he was living at a hostel where he was supposed to be under supervision. The chief inspector of probation, Andrew Bridges, said Parker should not have been freed, and he should have been sent back to prison earlier:

BRIDGES ACT: We saw an example of a particularly difficult kind of offender for a hostel to manage and we found that he had been poorly managed over a long period of time. His release put the public in a position of avoidable risk, and he should have been recalled earlier than he was.

BABIES
Researchers say the number of British babies born underweight is on the rise, and is among the worst in the European Union. The left of centre policy group, the Fabian Society, says the number of children born weighing less than five and a half pounds is a "scar on the national conscience". More details from our health correspondent, Adam Brimelow:

BRIMELOW: Every year in Britain more than fifty thousand babies are born at a low birth weight -- less than five and a half pounds. That's getting on for eight per cent of the total, and it's going up. The Fabian Society says this is a moral outrage. Low birthweight babies, it says, have an increased chance of disabilities, brain damage, behavioural problems and chronic illnesses like diabetes and lung disease. It says one of the main reason Britain compares so badly with other European countries is the high teenage pregnancy rate. It says younger mothers -- many from deprived backgrounds -- are more likely to have a low birthweight baby. It calls on the government to make this a national health priority, with better access to antenatal care for women most at risk, and one-to-one nursing for babies in intensive care. The government will issue its formal response tomorrow at a Downing Street seminar hosted by the treasury minister Ed Balls -- who's chair of the Fabian Society, and a long-time confidant of the chancellor.

BURMA
Burma's military rulers have been showing off their new capital for the first time to the outside world. Nay Pyi Taw, or the Abode of Kings, is about three-hundred miles north of the former capital, Rangoon. Our correspondent, Jonathan Head, was among the foreign journalists invited to the new city to watch the Armed Forces Day Parade:

HEAD: The rutted and overcrowded roads of Burma suddenly give way to smooth eight-lane motorways as you approach the new capital. Naypyitaw is being built on a vast and extravagant scale in hundreds of square kilometres of tropical scrubland. All government employees were forced to uproot from Rangoon and move here a year-and-a-half ago. New pastel coloured apartment blocks are being developed for them. There is reliable electricity and water. But they complain that the city lacks shops and restaurants. Many have refused to bring their families. The military has built itself a fortress-like complex to the east. This is where Burma's reclusive leader, General Tan Shwe, now lives. Secure in its remote new capital, the military still shows no signs of loosening its grip on Burma.

SLAVERY
A national service of commemoration is being held this afternoon at Westminster Abbey, to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade. It'll be attended by the Queen, senior politicians and religious leaders. During the service, there will be a minute's silence, broken by the sound of elephant tusk horns - which were used in West Africa to warn of impending raids by slave traders.

It's eight o'clock on Monday the fifth of March.

There are warnings of job losses, because of a demand that councils should implement an equal pay structure for men and women.

A teenaged girl who was swept into a swollen river on Dartmoor has died in hospital.

999 calls to ambulance services have risen by a quarter in some areas.

PAY

Fewer than half the local authorities in England and Wales will meet this month's deadline to implement an equal pay structure for men and women. The information comes from the Local Government Association. The pay structure is expected to add about 4 percent to council wage bills -- and cost the authorities more than three billion pounds in back-pay. Unions fear that it will lead to thousands of job losses and mean higher council taxes. Phil Mackie reports:

MACKIE: The need to implement equal pay has left town halls across England and Wales facing a financial time bomb. For years jobs traditionally done by women have been the lowest paid, among them school dinner ladies, classroom assistants and cleaners. They should have been earning the same as men doing similar unskilled or semi-skilled jobs. Tina Kelly is a deputy cook at a Primary school in Birmingham.

KELLY ACT: We've all been angry about it because we've been just left at the bottom. You know it doesn't matter, they're only women, they'll be alright. As long as the men are okay and bringing home the wage.' It's 2007 now we're all equal.

MACKIE: She says she'll go to court to make sure she gets the money she's owed. Similar legal actions around the country mean Councils face potentially crippling bills for back pay, and will have to pay significantly higher wage bills in the future.

PAY ACT

The Labour MP Chris Mullin has raised the matter in Parliament. He told us his own local authority in Sunderland was facing severe problems because of what he described as "compensation culture gone mad." The authority, he said, had agreed a compensation package, but lawyers were now bringing further cases:

MULLIN ACT: Having paid out fifteen millions pounds, their agreements are being unpicked.These lawyers are suing both the council and the unions and the pit is potentially bottomless. It could cost up to fifty million in Sunderland alone and it will undoubtedly lead in due course, if it's followed to its logical conclusion, to the collapse of some local services and many people losing their jobs.

DARTMOOR

A teenaged girl who was swept into a swollen river during a hike on Dartmoor has died. She was with a party of school children. From the area, Sarah Ransome has just sent this report:

RANSOME: The fourteen year old was one of hundreds of teenagers out on the moor yesterday training for the annual Ten Tors Expedition, a two day survival challenge for young people. Her friends used a mobile to raise the alarm after she fell into the swollen waters of a brook near Watern Tor in the middle of Dartmoor. A major search and rescue operation got underway as torrential rain and high winds swept across the west country, and the missing girl was found within twenty minutes. The teenager was airlifted to hospital in Plymouth with serious injuries but she later died. A police investigation is now underway into the circumstances surrounding her death and a coroner has been informed.

CORNWALL

Earlier yesterday, a man and a woman died after they were washed off a harbour wall at Mullion Cove in Cornwall.

AMBULANCES

Figures obtained by BBC News suggest there's been a large rise in the number of emergency calls to the ambulance service. The increase of about a fifth in some areas is said to be placing increasing stress on paramedics. The official figures will be published in April. Michael Buchanan reports.

BUCHANAN: The number of people dialling 999 to request an ambulance has almost doubled in the past decade, with calls last year up six percent. But figures obtained by the BBC suggest that increase will be even larger this year. The Scottish Ambulance Service is reporting a twelve percent year-on-year increase, while in the West Midlands and the North East the rise could be as high as twenty percent. The reasons for the increase are unclear, though changes to GPs out of hours cover is one possible cause says Ray Carrick from the Ambulance Service Union

CARRICK ACT: There are people thinking that in the night time perhaps there is no GP facility available, which is not true. There are GP facilities available in the night time. Or perhaps people are not fully aware of that facility is available and therefore they feel that the only option they've got is to ring 999.

BUCHANAN: The union estimates that demands leading to record levels of stress among paramedics.

SCIENCE

Heads of the bodies that fund British science have told BBC News they'll have to cut the amount they provide for young scientists and cutting edge research --because of a sudden withdrawal of 100 million pounds in funding. Their comments follow an announcement by the Department of Trade and Industry that it's reduced science spending for one year. It blames the collapse of the Rover car company and the unexpected increase in the cost of covering British Energy's nuclear liabilities. More details from our science correspondent, Pallab Ghosh:

GHOSH: No one in government likes having their funds cut, but three heads of the research councils affected and the President of the Royal Society say their comments are prompted by more than sour grapes. They've told BBC News that they're concerned about what they regard as an alarming shift in financial policy. For the first time the DTI has used money that's been specifically protected and earmarked for investment in science to pay for departmental failures. Although this may seem like an arcane administrative point, these research council heads say that this breach in principle damages the government's credibility among leading science-based industries. These will think twice, they say, about investing in the UK if the Chancellor's promised science spending is raided every time there's a short term crisis.

CHINA

The Chinese parliament has been hearing a report on the government's plans from the prime minister, Wen Jiabao. He addressed nearly three-thousand delegates to the National People's Congress. The congress is a symbolic organisation that meets once a year to endorse the policies of the ruling Communist Party. From Beijing, Daniel Griffiths:

GRIFFITHS: In a speech that lasted more than two hours, Wen Jiabao laid out the government's plans for the year ahead. He told delegates that China should do more to reduce the growing gap between rich and poor, between wealthy cities and the under-developed countryside. He promised action to help protect the environment, which has suffered in the rush for economic growth. These issues go to the heart of this administration's pledge to build what it calls a harmonious society, focusing more on sustainable development than rapid economic progress at any cost. It's an ambitious wish list, and China's politicians have made similar promises in the past without much success.

BAILIFFS

Groups which try to help people in debt are concerned by proposals to increase the legal powers that bailiffs have. It's being suggested that bailiffs should be given a right, in certain circumstances, forcibly to enter people's homes. Peter Tutton of Citizens Advice told us there were already problems with intimidation, bad practice and over-charging -- and vulnerable people needed to be given better safeguards to protect them:

TUTTON ACT: The thing that concerns us is that say if someone is in genuinely financial difficulties, has fallen behind or something, or perhaps something like council tax or a parking fine or something like that as well, you can find very quickly you may have a bailiff coming to you, knocking on you door or worse than that going through your door to take goods. People are trying to pay something; they are trying to pay something they can afford towards their debt. So what we are worried about is bailiffs who will refuse to negotiate, who will come back again with this power.

STAMP DUTY

Research by the Halifax says that nearly a fifth of all homebuyers are paying stamp duty at the higher rates of 3 per cent and above, due to house price inflation. It wants the government to increase thresholds. The Treasury said five out of six homebuyers paid stamp duty at 1 per cent -- or none at all.

SNOW

Ski resorts on the lower slopes of the alps are being warned that they risk going out of business unless they adapt to climate change. The report -- by some of Switzerland's most famous resorts -- is the first attempt by the Alpine skiing industry to begin planning for the effects of global warming. Climatologists predict there will be much less snow in future -- and that rising temperatures will lead to rising snow lines. Imogen Foulkes reports from Berne.

FOULKES: The report published today tells lower lying resorts diversify or go to the wall. Popular Swiss destinations like Gstaad and Wengen just won't have enough snow in the future to live off skiing. So alpine resorts must do something different and try to attract tourists all year around. The report does offer a note of optimism. In the wake of Europe's heatwave in 2003, the Alps saw an increase in visitors as tourists decided a beach in Greece or Spain would be simply too hot. So, as the planet heats up, alpine resorts are hoping to offer cool mountain air to summer tourists.

WOOLDRIDGE

One of the most highly regarded sports journalists of his generation, Ian Wooldridge, has died. He was seventy five. He worked at the Daily Mail for nearly half a century covering every major sporting event including ten Olympic Games. Ian Wooldridge won numerous accolades for his writing and was made an OBE for his services to journalism.

PILOT

A blind man is preparing to fly from Britain to Australia in aid of charity. He's relying on the latest technology to let him know exactly where he is. Stephen Evans has more:

EVANS: Miles Hilton Barber is fifty-eight, blind and a qualified pilot of a microlight aircraft. He's flying across Europe and then onto Syria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Australia in five hundred mile hops. He's got a sighted pilot sitting behind in case things go wrong, but the blind man will do the flying helped by technology which lets his navigating sensors and other machinery talk to him. On top of that, Mr Hilton Barber will punch in the coordinates of the airfields into his computer on the way.

It's eight o'clock on Tuesday the 2nd of January.

Police are trying to establish whether a dog that mauled a five-year-old girl to death had a history of violent behaviour.

Train fares are going up -- in some cases, by more than twice the rate of inflation.

President Bush is preparing to send more American forces to Iraq.

DOG 1

Police and council officials in Merseyside will meet today to establish whether a dog which mauled a five-year-old girl to death had a history of violent behaviour. Ellie Lawrenson was staying at her grandmother's home in St Helens when she was attacked. Her grandmother, Jackie Simpson, was seriously injured. The dog was destroyed. Our correspondent, Mark Simpson, has sent this report:

SIMPSON: Five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson was killed by a family pet in the early hours of New Year's morning. The dog, a pit bull-type terrior, belonged to her uncle. Police say they're still trying to establish the exact breed of the dog. They're also checking whether it was being kept in line with current legislation. It emerged last night that the local council had warned the dog's owner about the animal's behaviour last year, after it reportedly attacked another dog. This morning, police will continue their examination of the house where Ellie Lawrenson died. At the same time, the local council faces the question of whether anything more could have been done to prevent her death.

DOG 2

Ballymena Council in Northern Ireland has declared an amnesty this month, during which the owners of pit bull terriers can hand in their dogs without fear of prosecution. Pit bull terriers are outlawed in Northern Ireland, whereas, in England, magistrates can allow an owner to keep a dog if it's not thought to be a danger to the public. The idea of an amnesty arose after a pit bull terrier attacked a family in November. The Ballymena Council dog warden, Nigel Devine, told us that any dog was capable of biting - but pit bulls were unpredictable - and tenacious:

DEVINE: These dogs were specifically bred for fighting. They've a strong pain threshold. Once they go into a frenzy of a fight, they will not stop. You know, they proved in Belfast there, in 2006, where the police actually shot one of these dogs six times - the police officer said when they hit the dog with a fifth bullet, the dog still kept coming at them. So therefore that just shows they've a high pain threshold.

TRAINS 1

Rail travellers will have have to pay more for their journeys from this morning, as train companies impose above-inflation increases in fares. The firms say the price rises will pay for improvements to the network. Passenger groups say they'll force people off the railways. Ben Ando reports:

ANDO: If you can book well ahead, travel off-peak or hold a season ticket, then rail travel can still offer a good deal. Regulated fares like these are controlled by the government, and increases limited to one per cent above inflation. But fares for open tickets which can be bought just before travel, and offer flexible return options, are set by the train operators. Fares on, for example, Heathrow or Gatwick Express trains are going up by seven-point-three per cent, and by an average of six-point-six per cent on Virgin West Coast trains between London Euston, Manchester and Glasgow. The Department for Transport says fares are a commercial decision for the operators, though passenger groups claim price is being used as a tool to reduce overcrowding.

TRAINS 2

Speaking on the Today programme, the shadow transport minister, Chris Grayling, said the fare rises were a deliberate attempt to reduce overcrowding:

GRAYLING: Well, the government originally in its ten-year plan set out a whole range of different projects - including longer trains, longer platforms, upgrades to main lines - to tackle the capacity problems on our railways, to encourage people to leave their cars at home. None of that's now happening, and so the only thing that they can do is to push up fares, to collude with the train companies to do that, and - as a result - reduce overcrowding.

IRAQ 1

The BBC has learned that President Bush intends to reveal a new strategy for Iraq within days. It's understood Mr Bush will outline a plan to send more US troops to the country. They will be told to focus on bringing greater security, rather than training Iraqi forces. The president has returned from his ranch in Texas to Washington to attend the funeral of former president, Gerald Ford. From Washington, our correspondent, Justin Webb, reports:

WEBB: This will be a solemn day in which President Ford will be the focus of national attention - but not for long. The BBC has been told by a senior administration source that the speech setting out changes in President Bush's Iraq policy is likely to come in the middle of next week. Its central theme will be sacrifice. The speech, we're told, involves increasing troop numbers. The exact mission of the extra troops in Iraq is still under discussion, according to officials, but it's likely to focus on providing security rather than training Iraqi forces. The proposal, if it comes, will be highly controversial. Already, one senior Republican senator has called it 'Alice in Wonderland'.

IRAQ 2

Statistics compiled by the Iraqi government suggest that more civilians were killed during December than in any other month since the invasion in 2003. The Interior Ministry says almost two-thousand people died in what it describes as terrorist violence. That brought the total for the year to more than twelve-thousand. This report is from Peter Greste in Baghdad:

GRESTE: Compiling accurate statistics is always difficult amid the chaos of Iraq, but the unofficial figures from Iraq's Interior Ministry still make chilling reading. Last January, almost five-hundred-and-fifty civilians died violently here. By December, that number more than trebled to just under two-thousand. That makes December the bloodiest month of the bloodiest year of the conflict so far. But the figures almost certainly understate the extent of the bloodshed. They don't include people who died later from their wounds, for example, or those who died from illnesses that could have been treated if the overstretched medical system was functioning properly. And other agencies, like the UN and the website, Iraq Body Count, both suggest the numbers are far higher.

BLAIR

There's only passing reference to the violence in Iraq -- and Afghanistan -- in Tony Blair's tenth, and final, New Year message as prime minister. He says that there are still huge challenges ahead for the government in education and the health service. Here's our Political Correspondent, Gary O'Donoghue:

O'DONOGHUE: While New Year political messages often concentrate on domestic matters, it's striking that there's just one sentence in more than one-thousand words in this one which refers to the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Blair praises the British soldiers stationed in those countries, and says that it's important to "see through" the battles in both places, as part of the fight against global terrorism. But in his description of politics at home, he says the government has made real progress on public services, crime and the economy, though he warns his party against complacency, saying there are still huge challenges ahead in both health and education. And perhaps in a sign of the arguments to come, he says that Labour can only continue to dominate the battle of ideas if it remains "New Labour". The Conservatives have dismissed Mr Blair's words - saying that the prime minister wasn't living on the same planet as the rest of us.

CBI

The president of the CBI has said 2007 could be a year of uncertainty for British business. In a statement marking his first day in the post, Martin Broughton said it would be a year of political change, involving the transition to a new prime minister, and attempts by a reinvigorated Conservative Party to carve out new political territory.

NHS

Ministers are being urged to write off the debts of the health service in England. The right-of-centre think-tank, Reform, says that despite record investment, the NHS is in a weaker position because of a failure to balance the books. The answer, it says, is to wipe the financial slate clean, and start afresh. More details from our Health Correspondent, Adam Brimelow:

BRIMELOW: Reform says 2007 will be a make or break year for the NHS in England. It says the basic problem in 2006 was a failure to control costs. This, it warns, could undermine the government's reforms, with a risk that the extra billions going into health could be squandered. So, to allow a fresh start, it suggests scrapping deficits, while insisting that trusts stay in surplus or balance. And it calls for radical action to make services more efficient. The government says there's no question of deficits being wiped out. It says the NHS will be in overall balance by the end of the financial year, and it insists that its reforms are already delivering more efficient and convenient services.

PLANE

Rescuers have found ninety bodies in the wreckage of a passenger plane, which crashed in mountains on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Twelve survivors are reported to have been found in a nearby village.

CIVIL

Britain's biggest civil service union is balloting more than a quarter of a million of its members on strike action in a dispute over job losses and privatisation. The PCS union says a walk-out -- on January the 31st -- would show the public how important civil servants are.

OPRAH

The American chat show host, Oprah Winfrey, is in South Africa to open a school she's built in a town near Johannesburg. She's spent twenty-million pounds setting up the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for girls from deprived backgrounds.

ASHES

Cricket: England won the toss and decided to bat first in the fifth and final Ashes Test. The visitors need to avoid defeat to stop Australia claiming the first Ashes whitewash since the 1920s. Reporting live from Sydney Cricket Ground, here's Peter Baxter:

BAXTER: A wet start and a dark finish truncated the day by ten overs, and, in between, honours were just about even - with England 234 for 4 at the close of play. But just after lunch, at 58 for 2, they were in a bit of danger. Then Bell and Pietersen put together a fine stand of 108 for the third wicket. It was the wiley old McGrath who broke that partnership up with wickets in successive overs - Pietersen caught at mid-wicket for 41, and then Bell inexplicably bowled through the gate for 71. McGrath had deserved those wickets; Lee had had Strauss for 29; and Clark, after lunch, had had Cook bowled off an inside edge for 20. With the McGrath wickets, England were looking wobbly again, but Flintoff came out positively. He even hit Clark for a straight 6. He's 42 at the close, with sound support from Collingwood, who's 25.

It's eight o'clock on Thursday the 28th of December.

Six men have died in a helicopter crash off the Lancashire coast -- a seventh is missing.

A British soldier has been killed and three others wounded in southern Afghanistan.

The government of Somalia says Islamic fighters have withdrawn from the capital, Mogadishu.

England have lost the fourth Ashes Test -- inside three days.

HELICOPTER 1

The bodies of six men have been recovered from the sea off Lancashire after a helicopter came down in Morecambe Bay. The aircraft, which was carrying five passengers and two crew members, had been travelling from Blackpool Airport to a gas platform. Search teams are still looking for the missing person. From Blackpool, here's Steve Blears:

BLEARS: It's emerged the flight delivering a new shift of gas rig workers was in sight of the platform when it came down in Morcambe Bay, around twenty-five miles off the coast. Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, from Lancashire Police, says staff waiting for a return flight home raised the alert:

GRADWELL: There was a very quick response - rescue response - 'cause people were on the drilling platform, waiting to be picked up, and they actually saw the helicopter ditch in the sea, and they managed to warn the emergency services, who responded to it. The witnesses are being brought to Blackpool Airport, so they can be spoken to, to see if we can piece together - with the civil aviation authorities and the other agencies - what's gone on.

BLEARS: As two RAF helicopters and two lifeboats headed to the scene, a rescue boat was launched from the rig. Today, efforts will continue to salvage wreckage from the water. Gas rig workers who witnessed the accident have already been flown back to help air accident investigators. They'll try and piece together how a routine flight - in apparently calm and clear conditions - ended in disaster.

HELICOPTER 2

Michael Mulford from the RAF's rescue centre at Kinloss told the Today programme that the chances of finding the seventh person alive were diminishing:

MULFORD: In the rescue business, really never say never, but you have to temper that with being quite realistic about someone's chances of survival. As each hour goes by, clearly the fears grow for the safety of anyone still in the water.

AFGHANISTAN

A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan. Three other soldiers were wounded in the blast, which happened in Helmand province in the south of the country. Anu Anand reports from the Afghan capital, Kabul:

ANAND: A statement released by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force said an explosion took place Wednesday in southern Helmand province, where more than five-thousand British troops are currently stationed. The explosion killed one British soldier and seriously injured another. Two others escaped with minor injuries. The soldier who suffered serious injuries is said to be in a stable condition. According to the statement, the explosion happened south of a town called Garmsir. Its cause is as yet unknown, as there were no Taleban forces in the area.

SOMALIA 1

The interim government in Somalia says the Islamic militias which have been in control of the capital, Mogadishu, have abandoned their positions. Government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, are now poised to enter the city. Here's our Africa Correspondent, Peter Biles:

BILES: Ethiopia's military intervention in support of Somalia's weak transitional government appears to have been decisive. According to reports from Mogadishu, the rival forces of the Union of Islamic Courts have been dispersing and leaving the city. It's thought that many are heading south to their last remaining stronghold: the port city of Kismayo. Earlier, the Union of Islamic Courts said they would hand power to the people of Mogadishu. In effect, that has left a power vacuum and raised fears of a resurgence of the clan warfare that has ruined Somalia over the last sixteen years. Less than twenty-four hours ago, the Ethiopian troops were advancing rapidly towards the Somali capital in an effort to defeat the Islamist militias. It's possible the Ethiopians could enter the city within hours. But they may face a hostile reaction from the local population, who are traditionally opposed to any Ethiopian meddling in Somalia.

SOMALIA 2

Abdi Rashid A Sed is special emissary for President Yusuf of the transitional Somali government. He told the Today programme the Islamic militias had started a war they couldn't win:

A SED: That was their mistake, and, eventually, they have collapsing. Nobody defeat them, but they disintegrated; and we are planning an orderly takeover of the Somali capital.

BLAIR

Downing Street has revealed that Tony Blair is paying to stay in the mansion in Florida where he's on holiday with his family. The house, in Miami, belongs to the Bee Gees' singer, Robin Gibb. Mr Blair has been criticised in the past for using the holiday homes of rich friends without paying for them. Here's our Political Correspondent, Robin Brant:

BRANT: There aren't many people who think that Tony Blair shouldn't be allowed a holiday once in a while, but there have been constant questions about whether he and his family pay their way - or do they get a freebie from people who may want to influence the prime minister's decisions? This time, Downing Street says the Blairs are "making a payment" for the use of the waterside mansion in Florida. The spokesman wouldn't say how much was being paid, or to whom exactly, but they added that there is a a private commercial arrangement between the Blairs and Robin Gibb. In the past, the prime minister is thought to have made a donation to charity in lieu of paying the singer, Sir Cliff Richard, for the use of his Caribbean holiday home.

BLEARS

It's emerged that the Labour Party chairman, Hazel Blears, has taken part in a demonstration against plans to close a maternity unit in her constituency. Ms Blears -- who's a Cabinet minister -- joined a protest outside Hope Hospital in Salford, in Greater Manchester. Her spokesman said she believed closing the unit would be the wrong thing to do.

PAY

The leader of the TUC, Brendan Barber, has called for a national debate about the level of executive pay -- claiming that it's risen seventeen times faster than the average wage in the past six years. Mr Barber said the divide between higher and average earners was causing serious concerns about relations in the workplace. Our Labour Affairs Correspondent, Stephen Cape, reports:

CAPE: Mr Barber says it's now time to ask if the pay of directors is having a divisive effect on society and the economy. The TUC leader, in a forthright message, complains that, over the years, "plump felines became fat cats, and now they are dangerously obese". According to the TUC, in the last six years the package for executives has gone up by a hundred-and-five per cent more than the cost of living. In contrast, average wages have risen by up to six per cent over inflation. In a similar tone, Mr Barber is also critical of huge bonuses and pensions pots for directors in the UK's top hundred companies. At the same time, he says, they're happy to cut the benefits of their own staff.

STATINS

The government says the NHS in England could save eighty-five-million pounds a year if doctors prescribed cheaper statin drugs. Ministers say some health trusts are spending much less than others on the medication, which lowers cholesterol and helps prevent heart disease. Here's our Health Correspondent, Adam Brimelow:

BRIMELOW: Statins are a vital part of the government's campaign against heart disease. The amount prescribed has gone up by a hundred-and-fifty per cent in the past five years. The annual cost to the health service in England has risen to six-hundred-million pounds. Ministers say the NHS could get a better deal if more doctors opted for cheaper, but equally effective statins. They say this is already starting to happen, saving money which can go back into care. The British Medical Association says the first duty for a doctor is to prescribe appropriately for each individual patient -- and that won't always be the cheaper statin.

POLAR BEARS

The United States government has announced plans to list polar bears as an endangered species, because their icy habitat is melting. Environmentalists say the move could force the Bush administration to take stronger action against global warming. Owen Clegg reports:

CLEGG: It's estimated there are no more than twenty-five-thousand polar bears living in the wild, and this number could decline drastically as the Arctic ice floes upon which the bears survive melt away. Now, without admitting the cause of this melt, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the bear's status. Environmentalists, like David Doniger, believe that by invoking the protections of the Endangered Species Act, the US government may eventually be forced to cut back on its emissions of greenhouse gases:

DONIGER: It is a big deal today to have the Bush administration recognise that global warming is threatening the existence of the polar bear. Now it's up to the administration to do something to stop the global warming that's threatening the polar bear.

CLEGG: The United States is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has refused to make the link with global warming, but the plight of the polar bear may force that position to change.

HAJ

The annual hajj pilgrimage is getting under way in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca. More than twenty-three-thousand British people are among the estimated three-million Muslims from around the world taking part.

CRICKET

Cricket: England have lost the fourth Ashes Test against Australia. They're now four-nil down, with one match left to play. Our correspondent, Peter Baxter, reports from the Melbourne Cricket Ground:

BAXTER: While not as shocking as the last day in Adelaide, this England defeat is as devastating in its completeness. They've been dismissed for 159 and 161, with today only Strauss with 31; Cook, 20; Flintoff, 25; and Read, 26 not out, getting to 20. Lee took another 4 wickets; Clark, 3; and Warne, another 2. Australia's innings had lasted only another hour this morning, all out for 419. It left England 260 runs behind, and the procession started in the third over after lunch; Cook, Bell and Pietersen before tea, when the score was 90 for 4. Pietersen's promotion to number 4 saw him bowled by Clark for 1. Strauss's departure in the first over after tea paved the way for the three-day finish; and, two-and-a-quarter hours after tea, Australia were celebrating a victory by an innings and 99 runs.

It's eight o'clock on Friday the Twenty-Second of December.

An Ipswich man has been charged with the murders of five women in Suffolk.

Fog is causing continuing disruption for air travellers.

The American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has said the war in Iraq is worth what she called the investment in money and lives.

The Queen's Christmas broadcast will have the theme of the contributions different generations can make to society.

IPSWICH LONG

A man from Ipswich will appear before magistrates this morning charged with murdering five women who had worked as prostitutes. Stephen Wright -- who is forty-eight -- was arrested on Tuesday. A second man, detained the previous day, has been freed on bail while inquiries continue. John Andrew reports from Suffolk police headquarters:

ANDREW: The dramatic news that a man had been charged with all five murders came at a joint news conference last night held by the police and crown prosecution service. Forty-eight-year-old, Steven Wright, are former fork-life truckdriver, who lives near the centre of Ipswich was arrested four days ago. Senior prosecutor Michael Crimp, said the CPD had carefully examined and assessed the evidence before deciding to charge at the earliest possible opportunity.

CRIMP: This evening we have made the decision that there is sufficient evidence and authorised that Steven Wright, born on the twenty-fourth of April 1958, of London Road, Ipswich should be charged with the murder of Tanya Nichol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell.

ANDREW: Steven Wright, will appear before Ipswich magistrates this morning. Another suspect, thirty-seven-year-old supermarket worker Tom Stephens was released on police bail. The naked bodies of the five women were found over a ten day period in locations outside Ipswich. Anneli Alderton had been strangled and Paula Clennell died from compression to the neck. No clear cause of death was found in the three other victims.

FOG

People hoping to fly to destinations in the UK and around the world face another day of frustration because of continuing thick fog. British Airways has already cancelled all its domestic flights in and out of Heathrow today. Flights which do operate will be subject to delays. Virgin trains have laid on more cross-country services to help passengers planning to make long journeys. Fog is expected to cause more disruption at other airports around the UK, including at Gatwick and Glasgow. Ben Ando reports from Heathrow:

ANDO: Fog-bound again BAA say, forty-thousand passengers of the two-hundred thousand that use Heathrow normally at this time of year are likely to face disruption as three-hundred and fifty short and medium-haul flights are cancelled. Those arriving at Heathrow's terminal four, once again finding themselves directed to temporary marques set up in the set-down area, used to prevent the main building from becoming over-crowded. But with more fog forecast, more disruption is expected and passengers are advised to check with their airlines before setting out.

FOG REACT

The operators of Heathrow, BAA, say they are trying to make things more comfortable for those who have been delayed. But Simon Baugh -- from BAA -- told us that the disruption showed up the limitations which result from the design of the airport:

BAUGH: We are doing the best we can but unfortunately because of the fundamental capacity constraints at Heathrow, until this dense fog lifts there is a limit to what we can do to get extra flight through the airport. On a good day at Heathrow we are operating at about ninety-eight percent of available runway capacity. I don't believe there is any airport in the world that is processing one-thousand-three-hundred flights a day on two runways in dense fog.

IRAG RICE

The U-S Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has said the war in Iraq is "worth the investment" in money and lives. Ms Rice said a lot had been sacrificed for Iraq, but success there would change the entire Middle East. She was speaking soon after four Marines were charged with murdering civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year. Our Washington Correspondent, Justin Webb, has more details:

WEBB: The events in Haditha form the basis now of the biggest US criminal case involving civilian deaths since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Lawyers for the marines accused of murder will strongly defend their clients actions. But the trials are likely to add to a sense of national gloom over Iraq. In recent months, many of those advising the White House, including Tony Blair and the Iraq Study Group, have suggested that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the real key to peace in the whole region. In her interview with the Associated Press, Condoleezza Rice made it plain that she still holds to the view that Iraq should be seen as the centrepiece of US-Middle East policy. She acknowledged that a lot had been sacrificed for Iraq, a lot had been invested in Iraq. But she said this is a country that is worth the investment because once it emerges as a stabilising factor, you will have a very different kind of Middle East.

IRAQ AL QAEDA

A group of Sunni tribal chiefs who have joined forces to try to defeat al Qaeda in Iraq say they have caught more than a hundred terrorists in the past few months. The Salvation of Anbar Council, which was set up in September in the infamous Sunni Triangle, says the terrorist network is to blame for the instability and violent chaos in the country. It claims to have reduced the numbers of weapons and foreign fighters arriving from Syria and Saudi Arabia. But the head of the council, Sheikh Faisal al Goud, told this programme there are still thousands of al Qaeda fighters in al Anbar province alone.

GOUD: There are some of them who are arriving from neighbouring Arab countries, some of them are from Afghanistan and some of them are from non-neighbouring far away Arab states in co-operation with those they have convinced from this province. The problem of Al Qaeda is a big one, in my estimation it represents now more that thirty or forty percent of the Iraqi problem.

DEMJANJUK

A United States immigration review board has dismissed an appeal against deportation by John Demjanjuk - who has been accused of having been a Nazi concentration camp guard in Poland. Demjanjuk is eighty-five and comes from Ukraine. He could now be sent there or possibly to Germany or Poland.

QUEEN

Buckingham Palace has revealed details of part of the Queen's Christmas broadcast - which will be made available as a podcast for the first time this year. The speech was recorded at Southwark Cathedral in London and focuses on the relationship between different generations. Our royal correspondent, Nicolas Witchell, explains:

WITCHELL: In the year of her eightieth birthday the Queen has chosen as the theme of her christmas broadcast the contribution that different generations can make. To each other and to society in general. In the speech she reflects on how all faiths encourage dialogue between people of different generations.

THE QUEEN: The wisdom and experience of the great religions point to the need to nurture and guide the young and to encourage respect for the elderly.

WITCHELL: Unusually, The Queen has this year chosen to record a second Christmas message. A radio broadcast aimed specifically at the armed services. After twelve months during which British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered more than sixty deaths, The Queen is expected to pay particular tribute to the courage and dedication of those who serve in the army, navy and airforce. The message to the armed services will be broadcast on Christmas Eve.

VCJD

An international team of researchers say they have found a way to filter blood to remove the infection that causes the human form of mad cow disease. Writing in the medical journal, The Lancet, the scientists say the technique has been shown to work in animal experiments. It's thought the system -- which is due to undergo safety trials next year -- would cost a hundred-million-pounds to introduce. Here's our Science Correspondent, Pallab Ghosh.

GOSH: The predicted mass epidemic of the human form of mad cow disease known as VCJD has as yet failed to materialise. There have been just one-hundred-and-sixty-four cases in the UK and just three arising as a result of blood transfusion. But a senior medical research council scientist has recently warned against complacency. Professor John Collinge has consistently said, that thousands of us could be carrying the infection and eventually could fail victim to VCJD in ten or twenty years time. It is for this reason that scientists have been trying for more than a decade to find a way of filtering it out of blood using transfusions. That would stop more of us becoming carriers. The initial study on hamsters looks promising, the blood transfusion service expect to begin trials of the filter with three-hundred volunteers early in the new year.

CHINA

Eight Chinese Christians are standing trial accused of inciting violent resistance to the law after they protested about the destruction of a newly-built church. If they're convicted the eight, seven men and a woman will be jailed for three years. Our Beijing Correspondent, James Reynolds, reports:

REYNOLDS: The eight Christians are going on trial in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China. They are accused of instigating violence and interfering with the law. The charges against them relate to what happened in the village of Che Lu Wan in July this year. A group of local Christians had been trying to get permission from the local authorities to build a new church. But they got tired of all the delays involved. So they decided to go ahead anyway, without official approval. Hundreds began construction work. Then, a few days later, riot police were sent in to demolish the church. There were violent clashes between the two sides. In theory, all churches here have to be registered and sanctioned by the state. But millions of Chinese Christians worship in unofficial or underground churches.

FRANCE

French judges, investigating a suspected smear campaign, have questioned the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, for seventeen hours. The investigators say Mr De Villepin had been approached as a witness, not as a suspect, in what became known in France as the Clearstream affair. The smear, set out in anonymous letters, consisted of false allegations that his political rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, and other politicians had secret bank accounts.

It's eight o'clock on Thursday the twenty first of December. The news headlines:

European ministers have agreed new fishing quotas the government says Britain has got a good deal but Scottish fishermen aren't convinced.

Fog is causing continuing disruption to holiday flights.

More details have emerged about the British soldier on spying charges.

FISH

EU ministers have reached agreement on the level of next year's fishing catches. Cod quotas have been reduced, but there are increases in the number of prawns, haddock, hake and monkfish that can be caught. The fisheries minister, Ben Bradshaw, called it a good deal for Britain. From Brussels, Emma Jane Kirby reports:

KIRBY: The agreement reached in Brussels today has been described as a "fair deal" by UK ministers, but inevitably will disappoint British fishermen, who had hoped to see no reduction on the amount of fish they are allowed to catch or the number of days they are allowed to spend at sea. After hours of haggling EU officials agreed to reduce the amount of cod caught in the north sea by fourteen percent and to reduce the number of day boats are allowed to go fishing by between seven and ten percent depending on the size of their nets. Britain's other most popular fish prawn, mackerel, haddock and monkfish all received increases in their quotas. Scientists argued that, many species are in urgent need of protection after years of overfishing and have been lobbying for a total ban on cod-fishing in the North Sea.

FISH MINISTER

But the fishing industry is disappointed. Bertie Armstrong of the Scottish Fishing Federation said the deal was not in the interest of his members who would have preferred a more gradual approach to reducing cod quotas. But speaking on this programme, the Fisheries Minister, Ben Bradshaw, insisted it was the best possible deal in the face of scientific arguments:

BRADSHAW: Fishermen as usual wouldn't have liked to see any cuts in cod at all, but I think given the very dire scientific advice and the still very poor state of the stock, we had to take some action on cod. I think to do nothing would have been irresponsible and unrealistic, but I think it was a more moderate cut than many had feared, but I think enough to build on the small cod recovery we are seeing.

FOG HORROR

As the Christmas holiday gets underway, thick fog has brought cancellations and delays at airports around the UK, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Worst affected is Heathrow, where air traffic controllers have significantly reduced the number of flights that can land and take-off. As a result, British Airways has cancelled all domestic flights today, as well as a large number of European services. More than three hundred flights from Heathrow were cancelled yesterday, and many passengers spent the night at the airport -- including these Americans:

AMERICAN1: All of us have been in this line for hours wondering exactly what we are supposed to be doing, I feel very frustrated. I am not from this country and so I specifically don't know what to do or where to go.

AMERICAN2: Everyone is really angry, everyone is lying around and trying to get comfortable and it is pretty much just bare. There are no true answers nobody knows what they are going to do.

Long-haul services are running, but face lengthy delays. Bob Sinkinson has the latest from Heathrow:

SINKINSON: The cancellation of flight has brought misery and frustration to pre-christmas travellers, many of whom were stranded at Heathrow overnight. They camped out as best they could and kept warm by blankets that were handed out. Tens of thousands are due to pass through Heathrow today, but the message is don't turn up and seek alternative travel arrangements. British Airways has cancelled all it domestic flights from Heathrow and BMI has also been affected with twenty of its flights grounded by the fog. Elsewhere seventeen flights have been cancelled and four at Cardiff. At Coventry airport there are no flight because of the flight with passengers being transferred to Birmingham. THose planning air travel today are being advised to get in touch with their carrier before embarking on their journey.

UK FERTILITY

BBC News has learned that the UK's fertility regulator has given permission for stem cell researchers to recruit egg donors who aren't already having medical treatment. A leading scientist has criticised the decision by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority because a public consultation was in progress. Our health correspondent, Jane Dreaper, explains:

DREAPER: Human egg donation is a controversial area -- scientists need a lot of eggs for stem cell research, but the process involves potential health risks for women. The HFEA has already given a team in Newcastle a temporary licence to offer discounted IVF treatment if patients donate eggs for research. Now it's emerged that the team was last month granted the UK's first licence to begin recruiting female donors who are not already having medical treatment. A leading scientist, Dr Stephen Minger, from King's College London, said it was improper for the licence to have been awarded while the HFEA was still running a public consultation on the issue, and he was flabbergasted. The Authority said it was obliged to consider research applications as they came in, and the licence could be reviewed if the consultation resulted in a new policy which didn't favour this type of egg donation.

ENEMY

Further details have emerged about a man who's appeared before magistrates in London, accused of divulging secret information which would be "useful to the enemy". Daniel James, who's forty-four, was charged under the Official Secrets Act. The judge said there was a risk that national security would be prejudiced if further details were made public. Mr James was remanded in custody. The defence editor of The Times, Michael Evans, told us a picture had begun to emerge about the man and what he might have done:

EVANS: First of all a soldier turned out to be a corporal and that the alleged offence took place in Afghanistan. He is a Pashto speaker, which means that he speaks the main language in Afghanistan and his role in Afghanistan was to be the interpreter of Lieutenant General David Richards who is the British commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan. I am informed that the allegations concerning this particular soldier relate to Iran.

SUFFOLK

Police in Suffolk investigating the murders of five women will today resume questioning two men held on suspicion of carrying out the killings. This morning, they were given a further twenty-four hours to question the first man they arrested, Tom Stephens -- and yesterday evening were given more time to hold the second man, Steve Wright. From Ipswich, Stephen Chittenden:

CHITTENDEN: Earlier this morning Suffolk police announced that magistrates had granted detectives an extra twenty-four hours to question Tom Stephens a thirty-seven-year-old supermarket worker and former special constable. His home and Trimley Saint Martin remained cordoned off last night as scenes of crime officers searched the house. Detectives have until tomorrow morning to decide whether to charge or release Mr Stephens. There was a similar scene in central Ipswich at the home of forty-eight-year-old Steve Wright the second man arrested on suspicion of committing the five murders, he can be held until Saturday. Meanwhile, police have opened a road and moved back the cordon at Levington where Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls bodies were found on Tuesday.

IRAQ CHANGES

The American military is to announce charges against a group of marines accused of killing Iraqi civilians. More than twenty people -- including some children -- died in Haditha in November 2005. Earlier this year, President Bush promised that any US Marine found guilty of shooting civilians in Iraq would be punished. From Washington, here's Justin Webb:

WEBB: Defence lawyers say the men from Kilo company, in America's first marine division were engaged in a furious battle in Haditha after a bomb exploded. the lawyers accept that innocent civilians may have died during the chaos but they deny premeditated killing, but that is not how many Iraq's see it. Local people said the marines shot people in their homes, after one of their comrades was killed in the explosion. It is known that five unarmed men were shot dead in a car when they approached the scene in a taxi and others including women and children died in three houses over the next few hours. The Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al Maliki has called the deaths at Haditha a terrible crime. It does seem certain that charges are going to be filed today. The big question is whether those charges will include murder.

IRAQ ATTACKS

A suicide bomber has attacked a police recruitment centre in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killing at least ten people and injuring many more. The bomber walked up to a group of volunteers waiting at the centre and detonated a belt of explosives that he was wearing.

BANK

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has called for reform of international institutions such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. In a speech in Melbourne in Australia, he's warned they might wither on the vine if a relevant role isn't found. Here's our Economics Editor, Evan Davis:

DAVIS: In an unusually hard-hitting speech for a central bank governor, Mervyn King vent some of the frustration he evidently feels sitting through endless international gatherings, that he appears to think fail to achieve much. Focussing on the International Monetary Fund he says, the frenetic activity of international meetings and the flattering illusions of streams of communiqu?do not add up to coherent policy-making, "impressive offices are not a test of succcess". He supports the existence of most of the institution but argues for more tightly defined roles with less duplication between them. But the one institution he implies should be abolished is the G-Seven group of seven big industrial economies. Its in ability to deal with major economic issues has become more and more evident her argues.

TURKMENISTAN

The President of the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, has died. He's reported to have suffered a heart attack. He was famous for issuing eccentric decrees, such as banning recorded music at public events, and renaming the months of the year and days of the week after Turkmen heroes and members of his family. He was last seen in public two weeks ago when he opened an amusement park named after himself.

It's eight o'clock on Wednesday December the twentieth.

The headlines:

Tony Blair says the world must wake up to the threat posed by Iran.

Opposition politicians have expressed concern over reports that a man wanted for questioning about the murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky has fled the country by wearing a veil.

The European Commission is planning to put a price on greenhouse gases produced by planes.

BLAIR

Tony Blair has called on moderate Muslim states to form a new alliance against Iran and challenge its influence. In a speech to business leaders in Dubai this morning, the Prime Minister identified Tehran as the main stumbling block to peace in the region. He said the international community needed the "open and clear backing" of moderate countries to "pin-back" Iran. Our Political Correspondent, James Landale, is travelling with the Prime Minister and has sent this report:

LANDALE: On the last day of his tour of the Middle East, Tony Blair said that Iran was a strategic threat to the whole region. It was trying, he said, to undermine democratic governments in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Therefore, the international community must empower what he called moderate and modernising Muslim governments to form alliances so they could pin back Iran across the region.

BLAIR: We must recognise the strategic challenge the government of Iran poses. Not its people, possibly not all of its ruling elements, but those presently in charge of its policy.

LANDALE: He said this was part of a monumental global struggle between democracy and extremism and he urged the world to wake up to the threat. It was not too late, he said, but it was urgent.

IRAQ

The Iraqi vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, has said Mr Blair was "brainwashed" by President Bush over setting a timetable for withdrawing American-led forces from Iraq. In a speech in New York, he said that when he'd met Mr Blair in Baghdad a few months ago, he believed he'd secured his support for a date. The prime minister, he went on, had promised to raise the issue with Mr Bush in Washington a few days later. But Mr Hashemi said Mr Blair's position changed after his meeting with Mr Bush:

HASHEMI: In was observing the joint press conference that he made with President Bush after his visit and I saw himself talking about something quite different, which gave me an impression that he raised the subject with President Bush and eventually he just changed his mind.

IPSWICH

Police investigating the murders of five women in Suffolk are continuing their questioning of two men. Last night a magistrate gave detectives another thirty -six hours to hold one of the men -- Tom Stevens. Later today inquests will open into the deaths of four of the victims, who were all prostitutes. From Ipswich, Our Correspondent, John Andrew:

ANDREW: This will be the third say that police have questioned Tom Stephens, a supermarket worker and former special constable, who knew all the five victims. If magistrates give police another extension they can hold him until Friday before charging or releasing him. The second suspect, truckdriver Steve Wright, was arrested yesterday in his flat on the edge of the town's red light district. Police and forensic teams have been examining his home and a blue Mondeo car towed away from outside. Today, will also see inquests opened and adjourned on four of the murdered women, Tanya Nichol, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell. An inquest on the fifth Gemma Adams was opened last week.

SEARCH

Police searching for a man wanted for questioning about the murder of Police Constable Sharon Beshenivsky are considering the theory that he could have fled the country dressed as a Muslim woman and wearing a veil. The man is Mustaf Jamma -- the older brother of Yusuf Jamma, who was found guilty of PC Beshenivsky's murder this week. It's understood that police think it's only one of a number of ways that he might have left the country, probably for his native Somalia. The Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, said the idea that under any circumstances people could be let through passport control wearing a veil was barely credible. Speaking on this programme, the Liberal Democrats' Home Affairs spokesman, Nick Clegg, expressed surprise that existing powers were not used by airport staff and said urgent clarification was needed:

CLEGG: It beggars belief, I just don't think anybody including, I should think, any sound thinking members of our Muslim communities -- would think that it's right that there isn't a visual facial check when someone presents their passport when leaving the country in one of our airports. Of course what is so dispiriting about this is that we learn -- if the newspaper reports are true -- that there are powers under the Immigration Act 1971 for immigration officials to demand a visual facial check, but they're clearly not done."

EMISSIONS 1

The European Commission is expected to announce that it wants airlines and airports to buy permits for the greenhouse gas emissions they produce. It proposes to extend a European Union emissions trading scheme to cover aviation for the first time. But environmentalists say this will have little effect. Here's our Transport Correspondent, Tom Symonds.

SYMONDS: Aviation produces less than five percent of Europe's current carbon emissions, but it is expected to rise sharply as flight numbers increase. The European commissions answer is emissions trading, airlines must have a permit for each tonne of carbon they produce, some they will get for free some they will have to buy. The idea is that polluting will have a price and airlines will try to avoid paying it by investing in newer and more efficient aircraft and engines which produce less carbon. The commission wants the scheme to cover all flights from Europe to anywhere in the world, but the US is opposing the plan and a compromise is likely under which on flight in Europe would be covered. Either way environmentalist say, only a wider range of taxes on air travel will make a real difference to climate change.

EMISSIONS 2

The Green MEP, Caroline Lucas, told us the scheme would make little difference to the demand for air travel -- and needed to be more far-reaching:

LUCAS: Aviation isn't only responsible for carbon dioxide, it's responsible for other gaseous emissions -- nitrogen oxides and condensations trails -- which are between two and four times more damaging to the environment than the CO2 alone. And one of the concerns we've got about the emissions trading scheme is that if it only covers the carbon dioxide effects of aviation, then essentially these other impacts will be allowed to continue unchecked."

BUNGS

The findings of a major inquiry into claims of corruption in football are due to be published this afternoon. It's been carried out by Lord Stevens, who used to head the Metropolitan Police, and a team from his company, Quest. They examined whether more than three-hundred-and-sixty transfer deals in the Premiership were conducted according to the rules. The report's likely to be critical of the way the Football Association has enforced its own regulations. Here's our Sports News Correspondent, Gordon Farquhar:

FARQUAR: Against a background of persistent allegations of wrongdoing and claims of a culture of back-handers within the game, the Premier League asked Lord Stevens to examine all transfers involving its clubs over a two year period to January of this year. Quest produced an interim report in October, and asked for more time to look into thirty-nine transfers involving eight clubs. Lord Steven's final report is expected to raise serious concerns about some of those remaining deals, but will only name names if there's sufficient evidence to bring charges. He'll also make recommendations as to how football could do better. The Football Association, who regulate transfers and the activities of agents, are bracing themselves for criticism, but will argue they've now made changes that'll make their policing of the game more effective.

MENTAL HEALTH

Inspectors say private providers of mental healthcare are failing to meet a relatively high number of standards. The assessment comes from the Healthcare Commission which is launching a website with details of how independent hospitals in England are performing. Here's our Health Correspondent, Jane Dreaper.

DREAPER: The new Healthcare Commission website will enable patients to check independent hospitals, private mental health services, and treatment centres carrying out procedures such as hip operations. It contains information about more than four-hundred establishments. Most of the general hospitals are meeting many of the standards -- but inspectors say there's room for improvement, even among the bigger hospital groups, on areas such as record keeping and infection control. The picture is worse among independent units for mentally ill people. Most of these patients are having their care paid for by the NHS. One-in-five of the providers failed to ensure their premises were safe and appropriate. The Healthcare Commission plans to expand the website to include clinics carrying out abortions and businesses performing cosmetic laser procedures.

SHOPPING

Latest figures on High Street retailing show a sharp drop compared with this time last year. Higher energy bills and a rise in interest rates are thought to have played a part -- but the increase in shopping online is likely to be a significant factor, as our Business Reporter, Nick Cosgrove, explains:

COSGRAVE: The number of people going into the shops in the week to last Sunday fell by nine-percent, compared with the same period last year. That's according to, FootFall, the biggest customer counting organisation the UK. The figures sound like bad news and probably reflect some belt-tightening, but it's not all 'doom and gloom' down at the shops. The FootFall figures don't include internet shopping, certain to be higher this year than last. They also don't take into account the amount we are spending on non-food items in supermarkets. The likes of Tesco and ASDA have made huge strides recently in selling us items like clothing and DVDs alongside our groceries. What's more there is still a full weekend of Christmas shopping left, all the evidence shows a growing trend of consumers especially male ones tending to leave buying gifts to very last minute.

LIMPETS

A study suggests that limpets, barnacles and other sea creatures are moving along coastlines and seabeds at a surprising rate, as they try to avoid rising sea temperatures caused by global warming. Researchers at the Environment Agency have found the purple acorn barnacle, for example, has extended its range almost a hundred miles since the mid-eighties, from the Isle of Wight to Kent.

It's eight o'clock on Tuesday the 19th of December.

A leading foreign policy think-tank says Tony Blair has had no significant influence on the Bush Administration and the Iraq war as a terrible mistake.

Police have been given more time to question a man in connection with the murder of five women near Ipswich.

The Bishop of Southwark says he can't remember how he was injured after a party in London -- but he said it would be "entirely out of character" if he'd been drunk.

The animator, Joe Barbera -- who helped create Tom & Jerry and The Flintstones -- has died.

CHATHAM

A report on Tony Blair's foreign policy says he's paying the price for putting too much store on his relationship with President Bush. The study -- by the foreign affairs think tank, Chatham House - says Mr Blair has not had any significant influence on the White House, despite Britain's military, political and financial sacrifices. The war in Iraq is condemned as a terrible mistake which will shape his legacy for years to come. The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, dismissed the findings as "plain wrong." Here's our World Affairs Correspondent, Mike Wooldridge:

WOOLDRIDGE: The outgoing director of Chatham House Victor Bulmer-Thomas assesses ten years of foreign policy under Tony Blair. And his report says, the prime minister has learned the hard way, that loyalty in international politics counts for very little and his successor will have to forge closer relations with the European Union and accept a distancing of Britain from the US. The report argues that the post nine-eleven decision to invade Iraq was terrible mistake and that the current debacle, as it puts it, has undermined British influence internationally. It is "unforgivable" the report says that Mr Blair saw the consquences of Taliban resurgents in Afganistan too late. The foreign secretaries response, "threadbare, insubstantial and just plain wrong". Government officials say the idea that Britain has no influence with the US is laughable. The report does give credit in pushing climate change up the international agenda.

SUFFOLK

Police have been given more time to question a man arrested in Suffolk in connection with the murders of five prostitutes. Tom Stephens -- a former special constable -- was arrested at his home yesterday morning. This report from Stephen Chittenden:

CHITTENDEN: Tom Stephens was arrested at his home in the village of Trimley St Martin more than twenty four hours ago. It's understood that officers began to question the thirty-seven-year-old supermarket worker in the afternoon. In order to continue holding Mr Stephens, detectives have been granted an extension of twelve hours by a police superintendent. Further extensions can be granted by magistrates, up to a maximum of ninety-six hours, which gives police a deadline of Friday morning to charge or release him. A police cordon now blocks Jubilee Close, where Mr Stephens lives in a two-storey house on a modern estate. Scenes of crime officers wearing white overalls have been removing items sealed in brown evidence bags. The huge investigation into the murders continues with police still piecing together the final movements of the five women.

BISHOP

The Bishop of Southwark, Dr Tom Butler, has said it would be entirely "out of character" if he was drunk on the night that he told police he'd been mugged close to his home in South London. The bishop said he'd suffered a head injury and had lost personal items after a reception at the Irish embassy. But on this programme, he challenged eyewitness reports that he'd been seen in the back of a car throwing toys around:

BUTLER: There are elements in that story that I find extremely difficult. How I could have broken into a locked car and set off the alarm? Sometimes the reports say it is the Bishop of Southwark; sometimes they say it was the Bishop of Woolwich. I certainly, around that car, got a very bad head wound on the back of my head.

The Bishop said he was very careful with alcohol.that he still couldn't remember what happened. and was currently having medical tests:

BUTLER: Normally, at a reception I will have a glass or two of wine and I enjoy talking with people. As I say, I have been doing this for over twenty years I am very careful.

DOMESTIC

The government will announce new measures today to help victims of domestic violence. What's known as the "Sanctuary scheme" will provide money to create so-called "safe rooms" -- secure spaces for women within their own homes, from where they can call the police. The rooms will be equipped with alarms, reinforced doors and security cameras -- providing the abusive partner is no longer living at the property. The minister for women and equality, Meg Munn, told us that safe-rooms were important because abusive partners could not always be prosecuted:

MUNN: Taking somebody to court is enormously important but, women get very frightened, they perhaps have been threatened. It may well be that there is insufficient evidence at some point for somebody to be taken to court, they may actually be in prison but be due to be released it could be all sorts of situations. This will work for some women but, not for all women. It has been tested in some areas and ninety per cent of women are satisfied with that.

FUNDING

A group of MPs is to call for a cap on the spending of political parties during election campaigns. It's understood the proposal will be among a series of reforms put forward by the Constitutional Affairs Committee in response to the the cash for honours affair. Here's our Political Correspondent, Laura Kuennsberg:

KUENSSBERG: MPs will offer some solutions to the problems caused by the toxic mix of money and politics. Despite being from different parties, after lively discussions, they have been able to agree. The BBC understands that as part of a wide set of measures the committee will recommend capping the amount that can be spent on elections and suggests limits on donations that are given. More state funding could be made available if the other restrictions were accepted. The labour party have already been angered by the idea of limiting donations it would endanger their funding from the unions. But the MPs finding will be seized on by those who say the culture of big donations from any source has to change.

GAZA

More fighting has broken out in Gaza between militias of the rival Palestinian groups -- Hamas and Fatah. The heaviest exchanges of gunfire were around the main hospital in Gaza City. One person was killed -- and at least eight others were wounded. A truce is supposed to be in place. Our correspondent, Nick Thorpe, witnessed the attack from a hotel next to the hospital:

THORPE: Heavy shooting broke out at the Al Shifa Hospital at around five-thirty local time. The target appears to be have been a Hamas position inside the hospital. A Hamas spokesman accused what he said were intelligence officers from President Abbas' Fatah party, of launching the attack. The Hamas spokesman confirmed that, one member of the executive force, a uniformed Hamas militia established six months ago and under the control of the interior minister was killed and several injured. Al Shifa Hospital has come under attack before but, observers say, this was the most serious incident.

FISH

EU ministers are meeting in Brussels to set new restrictions on the amount of fish which European trawler crews are allowed to catch. The Commission is considering recommending further cuts to cod-fishing in the North Sea. Some scientists insist there should be a complete ban on fishing cod around Britain.

BIRD FLU

Veterinary officials in north-east France are investigating whether the deaths of four thousand chickens on a farm on Saturday were caused by bird flu. The results of tests on the dead poultry are expected later this morning. From Paris, Caroline Wyatt:

WYATT: The French agriculture ministry says the farm is being sealed off as a precaution until it's is clear exactly what the birds died of. The farmer says his flock appeared healthy on Saturday morning, but that, by the evening, four-thousand chickens were dead. Tests are being carried out samples taken from the dead birds. The French authority said that bird flu can't be ruled out, although they are keeping an open mind about the cause. The samples are being analysed at France's main testing laboratory in Ploufrangon and are expected to be announced later this morning. France is Western Europe biggest poultry producer and farmers fear their Christmas sale could be badly affected.

LIB DEMS

The Liberal Democrats are setting out plans for sweeping changes to the benefits system. In a speech today, the party's leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, will accuse the accuse the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, of creating a dependency culture through an obsession with means testing.

POLES

Police are investigating a widespread fraud, targeting migrants from Poland -- who respond to adverts offering jobs and accommodation in England. When they arrive, they hand over hundreds of pounds to fraudsters, who then disappear -- often leaving them stranded on the streets. The scam first came to light at Slough, in Berkshire -- where police and council chiefs say it's putting pressure on their resources.

BARBERA

The animator, Joe Barbera -- who helped create some of the world's most famous cartoon characters -- has died in the United States, aged ninety-five. He and his long-time partner, Bill Hanna, who died five years ago, were behind a series of favourites ranging from Tom and Jerry to the space-age Jetsons. David Willis reports from Arizona:

WILLIS: Whilst rival animator Walt Disney captured the big screen, Joe Barbera and his partner Bill Hanna cornered the television cartoon market. They teamed up whilst working at MGM in the nineteen-thirties and went on to create such legendary animated characters as Yogi Bear, Scoobie Doo, Huckleberry Hound and of course The Flintstones. Joe Barbera's first cartoon with Bill Hanna was Puss Gets the Boot a short film featuring a feuding cat and mouse team which earned them a nomination for an Academy Award. MGM allowed them to continue experimenting until eventually Tom and Jerry were born. When MGM closed its animation department in the mid-nineteen-fifties, Hanna and Barbera which was later bought by Turner Broadcasting for its Cartoon Network.

It's eight o'clock on Monday the 18th of December.

Tony Blair -- on his visit to the Middle East -- is to give his backing to the call for fresh Palestinian elections.

England's cricketers have lost the Ashes¹ -- Australia won the third Test by 206 runs².

Ministers are pressing ahead with plans to transfer the medical records of patients in England to a new computer system.

The government says a hardcore of long-term unemployed people must do more to find work.

MIDDLE EAST

Tony Blair is in Israel on the latest stage of his tour of the Middle East -- designed to help bring peace to the region. Later today, he'll hold separate talks with the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Mr Blair has been joined by his Middle East envoy, Lord Levy. His visit comes amid escalating tensions between rival Palestinian factions -- after the call, by President Abbas, for early elections. Our Political Correspondent, James Landale, is travelling with the prime minister:

LANDALE: After spending several days meeting allies and visiting troops, Tony Blair today reaches the crux of his Middle East tour. Separate talks with the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. His aim, above all, is to show support for Mr Abbas in his decision to call talks in the Palestinian territories. That has prompted a renewed out-break of factional fighting between supporters of Fatah and Hamas. But Mr Blair believes the move is exactly what needed to break the deadlock. Today, he will ask Mr Abbas what Britain and the rest of the international community can do to bolster his position, so expect talk of more money, aid and support. But his officials say it will be a day of looking at options, not hoping for a breakthrough.

FACTIONS

Despite efforts to bring an end to the violence between rival Palestinian groups, fighting in Gaza's streets continued late into the night. Yesterday, some smaller factions made an attempt to mediate between supporters of the governing Palestinian movement, Hamas, and the Fatah party of President Abbas -- after heavy clashes between the two groups.

LOANS

Downing Street and the Metropolitan Police have refused to comment on allegations that Number Ten is being investigated for trying to hamper the inquiry into the "cash for honours" affair. The claims have been made by the Times newspaper, which alleges that some documents and emails have not been handed to the police, or have "disappeared". A Downing Street spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation.

CRICKET

England's cricketers have lost the Ashes. Australia won the third test in Perth by 206 runs -- and now have an unassailable three-nil match lead. England were all out for 350 - having been set a target of 557. The captain, Andrew Flintoff, scored his first half-century of the series -- but the last five wickets fell for only 14 runs, with the bowling of Shane Warne again taking its toll. Flintoff admitted Australia had proved too good:

FLINTOFF ACT: Australia played well over the three test matches. We have had a good crack at it. You know this test match going in brought them out for 2-40 thought we had a chance, we need to make a big score first-up. And they didn't allow us to, so full credit, they play some good cricket. And we have still got two to play. Playing for pride, and that's one thing out team have got a lot of pride, so we will be coming back strong, enjoy our Christmas, and then Boxing Day we start again.

England had held the Ashes for only fifteen months. Our Cricket Correspondent, Jonathan Agnew, considers the implications of their defeat:

AGNEW: In picking over England's performance in this series in particular their thoroughly inadequate preparation for such a tough assignment we mustn't lose sight of the outstanding Australian team, that has been driven so ruthlessly to win the Ashes back again. Although, older than in 2005, this is a better team with Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke and Stuart Clark, strengthening the areas that were exposed by Michael Vaughan's men, albeit as it turns out briefly. The position of the coach, Duncan Fletcher is now very much in the spotlight. He is responsible for the preparation timetable, and with Andrew Flintoff made selectorial decisions that backfired badly. If, as is possible, England are whitewashed 5-0 for only the second time in Ashes history, his may be viewed as untenable.

HEALTH

The government is pressing ahead with plans to transfer information from patients' medical records on to the new NHS computer system. Ministers say it will help locate vital information quickly, in an emergency. But critics, including the British Medical Association, argue that doing this without a patient's explicit consent could harm the doctor-patient relationship. Current plans allow an individual to opt out of the system, only if they can prove it would cause them substantial mental distress. Michael Summers is a trustee of the health watchdog, the Patients' Association. He told this programme that patients should have some control over their personal information:

SUMMERS: What we feel really is that provided that proper information about current treatments, where you are allergic to penicillin or on Warfarin or something of this kind. If that, and your current medical condition, was online, I don't think patients would object. But I think patients really need to given the opportunity to say to their - be able to say to their doctor, I consent to
you providing such-and-such piece of information to the national database, but no more.

MRSA

The Health Protection Agency says a hospital patient and a health care worker have died from a strain of MRSA infection which has never previously caused deaths in hospitals. The bug, which attacks white blood cells -- leaving the sufferer unable to fight off infection -- was identified at an unnamed hospital in the West Midlands.

WORK

The work and pensions secretary, John Hutton, is to announce a major review of the benefits system, in a bid to tackle the problem of the long-term unemployed. It's being proposed that benefits could be withdrawn from people who refuse to look for work. Interviewed on this programme, Mr Hutton called for a wide-ranging review:

HUTTON ACT: If it is possible for migrants from Eastern Europe to come to Britain and find jobs without any difficulty at all, we have got to ask ourselves some fairly basic questions about how well our welfare system is working, and how efficiently out labour market is working. We should be prepared to have an open mind and make sure that the system is not being manipulated and used at the expense of ordinary taxpayers who do play by the rules.

MURDERS

Police in Suffolk, investigating the murders of five prostitutes near Ipswich, say members of the public have provided them with a huge amount of information. They hope the thousands of calls they've received will help them build up an accurate picture of the last movements of the women.

CHURCH

Two of the oldest Anglican congregations in the United States have voted to break away from the Episcopal Church because of its decision to consecrate a gay man, Gene Robinson, as a bishop. The parishes of Truro and Falls in Virginia have decided instead to answer to an archbishop in Nigeria, known for his outspoken views against homosexuality. Jane Little reports:

LITTLE: The Bishop of Virginia said that he was "saddened by the loss of two congregations that date from colonial times and once counted George Washington among their number". In voting to sever ties with their diocese and to forge an allegiance with the church in Nigeria, these parishes have dealt a blow to heal divisions sown in the global Anglican communion by the election of a gay bishop three years ago. Truro and Falls church will join a rival US structure under the authority of Archbishop Peter Akinola, who backed the penalising of gay activity in Nigeria. This decision could spur more congregations into leaving national body and will add further pressure on the Archbishop of Canterbury, struggling to prevent a global break-up. The churches have also voted to fight to retain their valuable property, opening the door to further conflict and years of litigation.

MAGISTRATES

A union is claiming that magistrates' courts across England and Wales will be disrupted during the Christmas period because of a work to rule over pay. The Public and Commercial Services Union is angry because staff have been offered a cost of living rise below the level of inflation. Stephen Cape reports:

CAPE: The civil service union claims that ushers and security staff will refuse to work outside their normal weekday hours. This will hit busy emergency magistrate court sittings on the two Saturdays over the festive season and the bank holidays. The Public and Commercial Services Union warned, that cases could be cancelled because of the action. The union said, that many staff had been offered a cost of living rise of less than two per cent. The industrial action will be indefinite, and other courts across England and Wales will be affected to a lesser extent. In a statement, the Department for Constitutional Affairs said that robust contingency plans will be in place to deal with any disruption, and taking industrial action helped no-one.

DVD

Another battle between rival electronic formats is beginning in Britain -- and experts say it will be as ferocious as the contest twenty-five years ago, when the VHS system overcame Betamax for domination of video players. Today, the Toshiba company is launching its next generation of High Definition DVD players. But they'll compete directly with a rival system -- pioneered by Sony --- which is already on sale. This report by Sumant Bhatia:

BHATIA: Both Toshiba's HD DVD and Sony's Blu-ray technologies promise significantly better picture quality than today's DVDs. But the discs they play are different from each other and can't be used on both new systems. Sony claims that most major film studios and electronics companies will offer its format, including Apple, but their archrival Microsoft is backing HD DVD. Many firms are also hedging their bets by manufacturing both types of machine, or even devices that can play both types of disc. Overall, it's unclear which format will win. Sony's new computer games console, for instance offers a Blu-ray DVD drive. And to complicate matters, another more advanced technology is on the horizon. Holographic Versatile Discs will hold around eighty times more data the both formats.

WIND FARMS

Two wind farms -- the largest of their kind in the world -- are to get the government go ahead today. The developments -- in the Thames Estuary -- will provide electricity to a million homes.

It's eight o'clock on Friday the 15th of December.

The Liberal Democrats say it's scandalous that the fraud investigation into BAE Systems is being dropped.

British Gas is to cut its prices - and sack hundreds of staff.

Police investigating five murders in Suffolk have been handing out rape alarms to women.

BAE

Opposition MPs have criticised the announcement that the Serious Fraud Office is to wind up its inquiry into an arms deal between BAE Systems and the Saudi government. The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, announced the decision yesterday, after officers spent two years looking into corruption allegations. He said it wasn't taken for commercial reasons, but the end of the inquiry has been welcomed by union leaders who were concerned that new defence contracts with Saudi Arabia were under threat. From Westminster, Laura Kuenssberg reports:

KUENSSBERG: "Scandalous interference" - the Liberal Democrats' description of the government's involvement into the Serious Fraud Office's decision to wind up its inquiry into BAE Systems. The SFO has, for more than two years, been looking into claims that bribes were allegedly paid to officials from Saudi Arabia in the enormous Al Yamamah arms deal secured by the British firm in the 1980s. Conservative former minister, Peter Bottomley, questioned the timing of the statement announcing the decision by Lord Goldsmith, the government's top law officer, yesterday evening. Ministers say the investigation has been wound up for the sake of national security and diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia - not for commercial reasons. But just ten days ago, defence and manufacturing firms wrote to the Cabinet warning they could miss out on billions of pounds of orders if the SFO didn't make up its mind whether to bring prosecutions.

BLAIR

A senior Labour backbencher has said he can see little public benefit in Scotland Yard continuing its investigation into alleged abuses of the honours system. Police officers spent two hours questioning Tony Blair at Downing Street yesterday; the prime minister was asked about notes of conversations between Labour's chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, and a businessman who loaned one-million pounds to the party. Speaking on this programme, Tony Wright, who's the chairman of the Public Administration Committee, suggested that the investigation had served its purpose as a beneficial shock to the political system:

WRIGHT: I think the benefit from it has now been obtained. We know that we have to attend to the second chamber; we know we have to attend to party funding. These are both on the agenda. And I have always been doubtful about the possibility of bringing effective legal action - if that is the intention.

CENTRICA

Centrica - which owns British Gas - has said it will cut its gas and electricity prices in the spring. The company has also announced that it's shedding thirteen-hundred jobs. More details from Dominic Laurie of our business staff:

LAURIE: The job losses come from across the company - back office, corporate and its gas services divisions. The reputation of British Gas has been dragged through the mud in recent months. Surveys have shown it's more expensive and worse at customer service than its rivals. And this has come at a price: it says it's lost nine-hundred-and-seventy-eight-thousand customers since the start of the year - significantly more than recent estimates. Some good news for the company, though: its residential business has returned to profit recently. But now that wholesale gas prices have begun falling, it says it's been able to reduce household bills for both gas and electricity in spring next year. That's much earlier than had been expected.

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BANKS
An investigation by BBC News has concluded that many banks and building societies are passing on interest rate rises in full to borrowers -- but not to savers. The survey conducted with the company, Moneyfacts, also shows that they're putting up their mortgage rates faster than their savings rates. Angela Knight is chief executive of the British Bankers' Association. She told us that the banks are under no requirement to reflect base rates:

KNIGHT: If they weren't offering something out there that people wanted, then people wouldn't be using it. Have a look at the OXERA report, which compared exactly these issues with ten other countries. From that report - that in the UK, not only do we more or less come out best in every category, but, what's more, we're the only country where we make it as transparent as possible to borrowers and savers.

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IPSWICH
Police investigating the murders of five prostitutes in Suffolk have been trying to reassure women in the area concerned about their safety. They're handing out rape alarms and leaflets on how to stay safe. They'll give further details of their inquiry today. Michael Buchanan reports from Ipswich:

BUCHANAN: The investigation into the five deaths is growing bigger by the day. Almost three-hundred officers from nine different forces are now working the case, alongside the Suffolk Constabulary. Police are expected to reveal today how the fifth woman was murdered - as well as her identity. The expectation is that the body removed yesterday from a field near the village of Levington is that of missing prostitute, Annette Nicholls. Officers are also going through several items of clothing discovered over the past two days, as well as mobile phone data and CCTV images in their hunt for evidence. Police took the opportunity of a busy night's shopping on Thursday to hand out leaflets on personal safety, as well as rape alarms, to women in Ipswich - a very public attempt to try and reassure a jittery town.

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MI5
The head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, has announced she's stepping down, after more than four years in the job. Dame Eliza, who is fifty-eight, said she decided when she would retire last year, before the terrorist attacks in London. The home secretary, John Reid, said the nation owed her a tremendous debt of gratitude.

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GNER
The government is to re-open the bidding to run the London to Edinburgh train service -- because the current owner of the franchise, GNER, has run into financial problems. Ministers have announced a deal which will continue to allow GNER to operate under a temporary contract until the franchise competition is decided. Here's our Transport Correspondent, Tom Symonds:

SYMONDS: The government has asked GNER to surrender its franchise after weeks of talks. The company has suffered from lower passenger numbers than expected since the London bombings, and is unable to continue with its current franchise, which involves paying hundreds of millions of pounds to the government. As a result, a new competition to run the London to Edinburgh service will begin, with a new contract to be signed within eighteen months. It's not clear yet whether GNER and its parent company, Sea Containers, will bid for the contract, though a spokesman for GNER suggested it was likely.

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JENKINS
The natural family of the murdered Sussex schoolgirl, Billie-Jo Jenkins, have told BBC News they want the law changed -- so they can bring a civil action against her foster father. After serving six years for murder, Sion Jenkins was freed on appeal, then acquitted after two re-trials. Billie-Jo's relatives say the current six-year limit on bringing civil proceedings prevents them from taking legal action.

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EUROPE
European Union leaders will end their summit meeting in Brussels, with a declaration that any countries wanting to join the EU will have to meet exacting standards. A communique has been drawn up during the night - as our correspondent, Tim Franks, reports:

FRANKS: The leaders of the EU are making tougher noises about the expansion of the union. Whatever the creaks and groans inside the club, there are still plenty of countries in the long, slow queue to join. A new draft of the final communique, worked on overnight, does not add new criteria for aspiring members, but it does issue stern warnings that the countries waiting to come in must come up to scratch, and that the EU itself should still be able to function effectively with these new member states inside the rope. That language is a little more sceptical than the British government - long a champion of EU enlargement - would like to see. But on one point British officials say progress has been made. They say the latest draft of the final communique waters down a call for the removal of the national veto over issues of security and migration - a call that had earlier been made in the proposed EU constitution.

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WILLIAM
Prince William will be commissioned as an army officer later today. Several senior members of the royal family, including the Queen, will attend his passing out parade at the royal military academy at Sandhurst. The ceremony comes the day after Lord concluded that his mother, Diana, died in a tragic accident. Our Royal Correspondent, Peter Hunt, has this report:

HUNT: This is another significant step for William - a king in waiting, and a future head of the armed services. The twenty-four-year-old prince is following in his younger brother's footsteps, and joining the Household Cavalry's Blues and Royals - there, he'll train to be a troop leader in charge of soldiers carrying out reconnaissance work using armoured fighting vehicles. In the coming years, mindful of the destiny he'll one day fulfil, there are also plans for him to spend time with the navy and the airforce to learn more about constitutional matters, and to undertake public engagements. This morning, his grandparents, father and stepmother will be at the ceremony. His girlfriend, Kate Middleton, is also expected to be there.

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CRICKET
Cricket: England's batsmen have put in a disappointing performance on the second day of the third Ashes Test in Perth, but their bowlers have made an early breakthrough at the start of Australia's second innings. Peter Baxter has the latest from the WACA ground:

BAXTER: Yes, though a last wicket partnership of 40 at least kept that deficit on the first innings down to 29, after a disappointing day with Pietersen, the top scorer - he made 70, eventually playing his shots when the players round him tended to get out rather too quickly. Strauss, 42 - the second-highest scorer - he might have been a bit unlucky to be given out. Harmison, then, 23, and Panesar, 16 not out with the two who put on the runs for that last wicket. Stuart Clark taking 3 wickets, 2 apiece, for Lee, McGrath and Simons. So a deficit of 29 on first innings, but it looked a lot better when Langer was bowled by Hoggard - the first ball of the first ball of the second innings for a duck. Hayden and Ponting, however, have taken Australia on to 32 for 1. That lead, then, is 61.

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It's eight o'clock on Thursday the 14th of December.

Lord Stevens publishes his report today on the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales.

A post mortem examination is to be carried out on the body of the fifth young woman to be found dead near Ipswich.

The trade and industry secretary is to set out plans that could bring the closure of thousands of Post Offices.

And Monty Panesar has been taking wickets - on a good day for England's cricketers in Perth.

DIANA

The findings of a three-year investigation into the death of Princess Diana will be published today. The princess and Dodi Fayed died when their car crashed in a tunnel in Paris in 1997. Ten detectives - led by the former Metropolitan Police commissioner, Lord Stevens - have been examining what happened. An inquest into the deaths will resume in January. Our Royal Correspondent, Peter Hunt, reports:

HUNT: It's been a complex, expensive inquiry with one key aim: to establish beyond doubt whether an iconic princess died in a tragic car accident, or was murdered. The detectives spoke to four-hundred people, including Prince Charles and the heads of MI5 and MI6. The fruit of their labours is an eight-hundred-and-fifty-page report. Lord Stevens briefed Diana's sons, William and Harry, on its contents yesterday. The young princes are said to be shocked and upset by what they were told about the behaviour of the paparazzi on that fateful night. The first copies of the report will be delivered later this morning to Mohammed Al Fayed and to one of the princess's sisters. The Stevens inquiry is expected to have concluded that Diana and Dodi died because their chauffeur was driving too fast. It's understood tests on blood taken from the car have shown she wasn't pregnant, and Trevor Rhys Jones, who survived the crash, was saved by an air-bag.

IPSWICH

Police investigating the deaths of five young women found naked on the outskirts of Ipswich say they urgently need to find the clothes that the victims had been wearing. They haven't yet established whether a jacket, pulled from the River Orwell, and a handbag found in the town are significant. The second body discovered near the village of Levington is expected to be moved today. Our correspondent, Stephen Chittenden, is in Ipswich:

CHITTENDEN: The woods near Levington on the outskirts of Ipswich remained sealed off overnight, guarded by dozens of police wearing yellow jackets. At the roadside, a tent covers the remaining body, surrounded by floodlights on metal stands. Police are expected to remove the victim this morning, and take her for a post mortem examination at Ipswich hospital. Detectives say they've been overwhelmed by the public response to their investigation, receiving over two-thousand calls a day. Last night, they examined clothing found in the River Orwell, and a handbag recovered on Norwich Road, in the town centre. Another line, widely reported today, is that of the chubby man in a blue BMW. Friends of Anneli Alderton say they saw him picking her up in an Ipswich car park. But, officially, detectives won't confirm which lines of inquiry they're pursuing.

DARLING

As many as three-thousand post offices could close, under plans to be outlined later today. The trade and industry secretary, Alastair Darling, will tell MPs how many branches are expected to close, and the amount of subsidy that the government will provide in future. Mr Darling told us why he believed action had to be taken:

DARLING: The problem we've got is that if you look in the last two years alone, the post office is serving four-million less customers than it was. Its losses have gone from two-million pounds a week last year, to four-million pounds a week this year. Now, we need to deal with that, but we do need to make sure we've got a national network, because we recognise the importance of the post office to people the length and breadth of the country.

PRISONERS

The government will today begin a consultation process to decide whether to give prisoners the right to vote. The move follows a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, and could mean, for the first time in British history, that convicts would become part of the electorate. Our Political Correspondent, Norman Smith reports.

SMITH: Ministers could scarcely be less enthusiastic about the idea of giving prisoners the vote, aware that such a move is likely to be unpopular and politically awkward. However, following a ruling by the European Court on Human Rights, which found that a blanket ban on prisoners having the vote was a breach of their human rights, ministers believe they have no option but to seek to change the law. It's pointed out that Britain has never not complied with a European court ruling. However, the hope is that, following consultation, legislation can be framed which would only give the vote to prisoners serving short sentences of perhaps between three and six months. Whether that would satisfy the European court is another matter, particularly since almost every other Western European country already gives many prisoners the right to vote.

SOLDIERS

An inquiry into allegations by thousands of Kenyan women that they'd been raped by British soldiers has concluded there's insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution. The two-year investigation by the British Royal Military Police found widespread tampering with of evidence, negative DNA tests and inconclusive information. The women's only option is to now is to make a claim in a civil court.

EURO

The size and shape of the European Union will be at the top of the agenda when the twenty-five leaders of the EU gather in Brussels today. Arguments are likely over plans to drop the veto on justice and home affairs to help the battle against terrorism. From Brussels, here's our Europe Editor, Mark Mardell:

MARDELL: The European Commission has argued strongly that the fight against crime and terrorism needs far closer cooperation between countries, and that this could be best achieved by governments dropping their right to veto ideas they don't like; instead, they could be outvoted. Those who oppose increasing EU power don't like the idea anyway, but find it all the more offensive because it was part of the constitution rejected in the French and Dutch referendums. It seemed that it had been thrown out by home affairs ministers in the autumn, but now it's back. The Finns, who are in the chair at the moment, are very keen, and they'll be asking the twenty-five prime ministers and presidents to sign up to a statement saying the ideas in the constitution about the veto are the best way forward. Tony Blair, along with the Dutch and the Germans, will be fighting to get this dropped. If it isn't, those who warn parts of the constitution will be introduced by the back door will feel vindicated.

WEATHER

2006 is on course to be the warmest year on record in the United Kingdom. Figures show that the average temperature for the year is the highest for more than three-hundred years. Dr Vicky Pope, from the Met Office, says we can expect to see more high temperatures in future:

POPE: Clearly there's a lot of variation from one year to the next, so we can't say what's going to happen next summer -- although we will be looking at predictions for the next year or so. But what we can say is that this type of event is likely to occur more often in the future; as temperatures warm up generally, we will expect to see more and more of these records broken.

LANGUAGE

It's being recommended that foreign language lessons should become a standard part of teaching in primary schools. Lord Dearing was asked by the government to review the decline in language learning in schools in England. Here's our Education Correspondent, Mike Baker:

BAKER: Teachers and employers have been shocked by the sharp fall in language teaching since the government removed languages from the compulsory curriculum after the age of fourteen. Only half of all pupils now take a foreign language at GCSE, down from three-quarters just a few years ago. However, Lord Dearing's review has concluded that a return to forcing all fourteen to sixteen-year-olds to study languages is not the answer. Instead, it'll say it's better to start young, and will suggest that foreign languages should become a 'standard part' of the primary curriculum. But the review will suggest ministers could take powers to force secondary schools to ensure a minimum proportion of fourteen to sixteen-year-olds study a language. Currently, some schools have no language teaching at all after fourteen.

GALLERIES

Forty-three per cent of the population visited a museum or gallery at least once over the last year, according to a new report. The study, commissioned by the National Museum Directors' Conference and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council also suggests they make a contribution of one-and-a-half-billion pounds a year to the economy. But, as our Arts Correspondent, Rebecca Jones, reports, it also warns those achievements risk being undermined if government funding is cut:

JONES: These look like golden days for the UK's musuems and galleries. Thanks to the abolition of admission charges, more people are visiting them than ever before. There are forty-two-million visits every year - which is greater than the number of people who go to football matches. But Mark Jones, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, says continued success can't be taken for granted:

JONES: Museums have done really, but if they're going to go on doing well, they do need sustained investment. Without it, Britain's museums will not compare as favourably in the future as they do today.

JONES: But the government has already warned it may have other spending priorities in the future, so museums and galleries know they may have to look for funding elsewhere if they're to continue to thrive.

CRICKET

Cricket: England have been making inroads into Australia's batting line-up in the third Ashes Test in Perth. Monty Panesar, who was absent from the first two Tests, made an immediate impact. Joining us from the Waca is Peter Baxter:

BAXTER: Yes, Monty Panesar's taken four of the seven Australian wickets that have fallen. We're forty minutes after tea now on this opening day. It was Hoggard who made the first breakthrough. He's taken the one wicket - that of Hayden in the morning session; England capturing three wickets before lunch. Steve Harmison has taken a couple of wickets, and his first also in that morning session was that of Ricky Ponting - lbw for two. Huge celebrations from Harmison - it's only his second wicket of the series. He's taken another one since then. He got Clarke caught-and-bowled for thirty-seven. Panesar took his just before lunch, with his seventh ball in Ashes cricket, when he bowled Justin Langer for thirty-seven. Since then, he's also had Symonds, who was trying to attack him for twenty-six; Gilchrist for a duck; and Warne for twenty-five. And now Australia have reached two-hundred-and-twenty-seven for seven.

It's eight o'clock on Wednesday the 13th of December:

Police hunting a serial killer are hoping for important new information when a pathologist examines the bodies of two women found yesterday.

A new report has cast doubt on the ability of the armed forces to continue operating at present levels.

President Bush has unexpectedly delayed the announcement of his new policy on Iraq.

The NHS has been told it must pay for stomach surgery for severely overweight children.

IPSWICH

The bodies of two women found near the village of Levington in Suffolk yesterday afternoon will be examined this morning by a Home Office pathologist. Detectives strongly suspect they are the fourth and fifth victims of the serial killer who's been attacking prostitutes who work in the red light district of Ipswich. Despite police warnings to stay off the streets, some prostitutes in the town say they'll continue to work because they need the money for drugs and for Christmas. Trudi Barber reports from Ipswich:

BARBER: Police have cordoned off half a mile of thick undergrowth near Felixstowe. Forensic experts have set up special tents around the two naked bodies to protect the evidence overnight. They'll resume their tests at first light. The Home Office pathologist is on his way from London to carry out the post mortem examinations to establish how the two women died, and to formally identify them. The officers fear the bodies found close to each other at Levington are those of the missing prostitutes - Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls. The red light district was almost deserted last night. Dee is a prostitute there. She says they'll have to continue working, despite police advice to stay off the streets:

DEE: Sometimes they don't have no choice in the matter. It's dangerous; we all know it's dangerous; and it's Christmas, and people need money to live.

BARBER: The police say hundreds of people and other local prostitutes have given them vital information. Detectives hope this, plus DNA or other evidence from the five crime scenes, will help track down whoever is responsible.

ARMY

The Defence Select Committee at Westminster has warned that the armed forces won't be able to maintain their current level of commitments because of problems in recruiting and retaining servicemen and women. The MPs have also complained of shortages of important equipment - particularly helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence has insisted that commanders believe they have the manpower they need to cope. But the shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, told us the situation was untenable:

FOX: The government has made a major mismatch between the planning for the size of the armed forces, and the levels of commitment. For example: the army now has fallen below a hundred-thousand in strength for the first time since about 1850. The government needs to make sure that either the army is brought up to strength, or that they reduce their commitments overseas.

BAGHDAD

A car bomb has exploded close to a mosque in a Shi'ite area of Baghdad. Reports say ten people have been killed and twenty-five wounded.

SNOW

The White House has been explaining why President Bush has delayed his announcement of a new American strategy for Iraq until early next year. The plan had been expected before Christmas - following the report of the Iraq Study Group, which recommended major changes to US policy. The president's spokesman, Tony Snow, said the delay didn't mean any last-minute revisions to the plan:

SNOW: This is not 'not knowing what he wants to do'. This is out of an absolute determination to do this right, making sure that he is absolutely convinced that the pieces have been put together, he's gotten the best advice, he's gotten the best facts.

GAZA

Gunmen have shot dead a judge, who was also a member of Hamas, outside a courthouse in the southern Gaza Strip. The attack comes two days after the fatal shooting of three children in Gaza City - which set off a new round of clashes between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement.

CSA

Parents who won't pay child maintenance could have their passports and driving licences confiscated without a court hearing under new powers being announced today. The measures will be outlined by the government when it sets out its plans for the new body that'll replace the Child Support Agency. This report by our Social Affairs Correspondent, Alison Holt.

HOLT: With a backlog of a quarter-of-a-million cases, and owed three-point-five-billion pounds in unpaid maintenance, the failings of the Child Support Agency are well-documented. Today the government will publish a White Paper which it hopes will represent a fresh start. The CSA will be replaced by a slimline agency which will deal with the most difficult cases; most couples will be encouraged to make their own financial arrangements for their children. The new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Agency will have tougher powers. It's expected it'll be able to confiscate passports and driving licences from errant parents without going to court. And the government is considering whether a parent who doesn't pay should have money taken directly from their earnings much earlier; at the moment, they have to exhaust all other avenues first.

TERROR

The government is looking at the idea of setting up a Department of Counter-Terrorism, with a Cabinet minister responsible for national security. The suggestion is included in a wide-ranging review of the way Britain tackles terrorism. The home secretary, John Reid, told MPs yesterday that a "seamless" strategy was needed.

NICE

New guidelines are being issued to the NHS that will pave the way for obese children to have stomach surgery to reduce their appetites. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence, or NICE, describes the problem of obesity as an "epidemic" which threatens the health of the nation. Our Health Correspondent, Jane Dreaper, reports:

DREAPER: The experts behind these guidelines believe obesity is more harmful to health than smoking, heavy drinking or poverty -- because of its strong links to heart disease and diabetes. NICE accepts that offering procedures such as fitting a gastric band to children is controversial, but the guidelines say medication or surgery could be cost-effective as a last resort in extreme cases. It's thought only a handful of children would come into this bracket each year. NICE also wants town planners and employers to provide better facilities for walkers and cyclists. It's recommended that children take an hour of moderate activity each day. The Royal College of GPs said the NHS had been too conservative in tackling weight problems. Public health experts claimed the guidelines would be little more than aspirational unless they were given specific finance.

NHS

A damning report on financial mismanagement in the health service in England has been published by MPs. The Health Select Committee concludes that although the NHS may be back in surplus by the end of the financial year, services have suffered in the push to make savings. The Labour chairman of the committee, Kevin Barron, told us that it had found compelling evidence that a minority of trusts had made basic errors:

BARRON: There are too many examples of poor financial information, inadequate monitoring, and an absence of financial control. And some of these trusts that have budgets that run into hundreds of millions of pounds did not have financial officers on the board. Now, there's no company in the UK that would run a system like that.

ENRON

The former chief executive of the collapsed American energy company, Enron, has been ordered to begin his twenty-four-year prison sentence immediately. Jeffrey Skilling had requested that he remain free during his appeal - but a federal judge has decided not to grant him bail. Skilling's sentence is the harshest handed out to any former Enron executive.

KALAHARI

One of the world's oldest peoples, the bushmen of the Kalahari, will hear shortly whether they've won their landmark legal case against eviction from their ancestral lands. The bushmen claim the Botswana government acted unlawfully when it drove them from their traditional hunting grounds in the central Kalahari game reserve in 2002. The verdict is due to be handed down by the High Court in the town of Lobatse. From there, our correspondent, Orla Guerin:

GUERIN: The bushmen argue this case is about their right to decide how and when they join the modern world. After their eviction from the Kalahari, they were moved to functional but bleak settlements. Here, they have clinics and schools, along with food and water. The government argues they're better off. It says they don't belong in the Kalahari anymore, because their lifestyle has changed, and their presence interferes with conservation. The government denies the bushmen were driven out to make way for diamond mining, though it has allowed prospecting activity inside the reserve. In the settlement of Kaldwane this week, bushmen complained about having to rely on government handouts, instead of hunting and gathering. They told us their communities were dying.

RED KITES

A new study has found the red kite -- which has already been saved once from the brink of extinction in the UK -- is now facing a new threat: the kindness of its human admirers. Conservationists say well-meaning people are feeding the birds of prey in their gardens with potentially harmful scraps of food. Our Environment Correspondent, Sarah Mukherjee, reports:

MUKHERJEE: The red kite has become a familiar feature of the countryside around the Chilterns. Once native to Britain, they were shot and poisoned almost to extinction. But in the late 1980s, a reintroduction programme took off, and we now have one of the most healthy breeding populations in the world. But such is the public affection for red kites, scientists as the Zoological Society of London say members of the public who leave kitchen scraps out in the garden in the hope of attracting the birds are in fact inhibiting their natural scavenging behaviour, and are therefore putting further increase of the species at risk. Other ornithologists say if the birds find easy pickings in people's gardens, they will not move to new areas, and the so far successful spread of the red kites could be halted. x of stories...

It's eight o'clock on Monday the 11th of December.

Police are now investigating the deaths of three prostitutes whose bodies have been found over the past nine days.

The Conservatives have published a report blaming family breakdown for many of Britain's social problems.

The NHS in England is to be ordered to make a financial surplus by 2008.

General Pinochet has been denied a state funeral by the government of Chile - although he will be buried with military honours.

PROSTITUTES

A major murder inquiry is under way in Suffolk, where three prostitutes have been found dead over the past nine days. Police believe the two women whose bodies were discovered first were murdered by the same killer, or killers. They're trying to find out if there's a link with the death of the third woman, who was in her twenties. Jannat Jalil reports:

JALIL: The dead woman was found in woodland by a member of the public at the village of Nacton, near Ipswich, just a few miles from where the naked bodies of twenty-five-year-old Gemma Adams and nineteen-year-old Tania Nicol were discovered within a week of each other in a stream. Suffolk Police have cordoned off the area, while officers search for more clues. They say it's too early to know whether this latest death is connected to the two others, but they've already linked the killings of Gemma Adams and Tanya Nichol, saying there are striking similarities in their cases. Further tests need to be carried out to establish how they died, after initial post mortem examinations proved inconclusive. The body of a fourth woman has also been found in a river in Lincolnshire this weekend. While no connection has been established to the deaths in Ipswich, police aren't ruling this out - although they say the only link appears to be the fact that the dead woman was also found in water.

TORIES

The Conservatives will warn today that the breakdown of the traditional family lies at the heart of many of Britain's most pressing problems. A report from a policy group on social justice, led by the party's former leader, Iain Duncan Smith, will also sound the alarm about a growing underclass in British society. Here's our Political Correspondent, Norman Smith:

SMITH: The core of Mr Duncan Smith's report is that social breakdown is largely driven by family breakdown. It's stated that children who come from broken homes are much more likely to fail at school, become involved in drugs, debt and criminality, and that seventy-five per cent of young offenders come from broken homes. What adds edge to Mr Duncan Smith's report, however, is his suggestion that the break-up of families is linked to the collapse of marriage - half of co-habiting couples, he argues, split up before a child is five, whereas the comparable figure for married couples is one in twelve. Speaking on this programme, Mr Duncan Smith said politicians could not ignore the issue:

DUNCAN SMITH: We have to look at why kids from broken homes are failing so badly at education, what the culture is that's causing these levels of breakdown, and why so many parents don't recognise that stability for their kids - two parents - is necessary if they want to give their kids a life chance. What can we do to help them find that better way forward?

SMITH: Labour have attacked the report as a return to John Major's "Back to Basics" policy, but it's been enthusiastically welcomed by David Cameron, who said it was important to support marriage. One option he's understood to be considering is a transferable tax allowance for married couples with children under five.

YOUNG PEOPLE

The Conservatives have seized on official figures which show that almost one-and-a-quarter-million people aged between fifteen and twenty-four are neither in education, work, or on a training scheme. The shadow education secretary, David Willetts, said the statistics were evidence of an "extraordinary failure" of government policy.

NHS

The National Health Service in England will be told today that it must clear its deficit, and make a surplus within two years. Ministers are publishing a new plan for the NHS which will also set targets for reducing infections within hospitals. The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, told the Today programme that some trusts were so deep in debt that they couldn't possibly reach a surplus. But she said other hospitals could, by cutting costs:

HEWITT: Already we've got hospitals - some hospitals - doing seventy-five or even eighty per cent of their operations on a day case basis. It is much better for patients, but other hospitals are lagging behind, and, as they catch up, it means they do need fewer beds and, in some cases, fewer staff, so they're using the resources more effectively; they're looking after the patients better; they're also freeing up money that can then be used to improve other services.

PINOCHET

There's been rioting on the streets of the Chilean capital, Santiago, after the death of the former military dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. The Chilean government has said he'll be buried tomorrow with military honours, but won't receive a state funeral. Steve Kingstone sent this report from Santiago:

SOUND: CROWD CHANTING

KINGSTONE: Supporters and opponents of Augusto Pinochet were on the streets of Santiago long into the night. The former gathered first at the hospital where he died, and later at the military academy, where a funeral service and cremation will take place tomorrow. Meanwhile, in the city centre, thousands of anti-Pinochet demonstrators celebrated news of his death with champagne and confetti, but the party mood soured as a minority of the crowd lit fires and scuffled with the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon. The Chilean government has issued an appeal for peace. A spokesman said Mr Pinochet would be honoured as a former head of the army, but not as a former head of state. Nor will there be an official period of mourning. This country's president, Michelle Bachelet, who was herself jailed and later exiled during the Pinochet regime, will not attend the funeral. Instead, the government will be represented by Chile's defence minister.

IRAQ

A roadside bomb in Baghdad has killed three American soldiers and wounded two others. The explosion happened late last night as the soldiers were conducting a combat patrol in the north of the city.

GAZA

Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City have shot dead three young children of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer - raising fears of a new bout of factional violence. The officer is a supporter of the Fatah movement, and ten years ago took part in a crackdown on Hamas - which now dominates the Palestinian government.

IRAN

A two-day international conference has begun in Iran to discuss whether the Nazi Holocaust really happened. Germany has condemned the event as shocking, while the United States has called it disgraceful. Our Teheran Correspondent, Frances Harrison, reports:

HARRISON: This conference is the brainchild of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who's become the hero of Holocaust deniers around the world. He's repeatedly called the holocaust a myth that's been used to justify the oppression of the Palestinians. He's even suggested Israelis be resettled in Alaska. Manouchehr Mohammadi, of the Iranian foreign ministry, explained the aim of the conference:

SOUND: MOHAMMADI SPEAKING

TRANSLATION VOICEOVER: The first question to be posed is: did the Holocaust actually happen or not? If it did, what was the scale of it? The allegation that six-million Jews were killed -- is it true or not?

HARRISON: Iran knows this conference is going to cause outrage abroad, but it says it wants to test the limits of the West's commitment to freedom of speech by questioning the Holocaust. The conference is Iran's answer to the cartoons published in Europe that insulted the Prophet Mohammed. And it's an attempt to argue that the very basis for the creation of Israel is a lie.

RED TAPE

Tony Blair will set out plans today to cut the red tape facing business by up to twenty-five per cent. The Cabinet Office says the changes will save around two-billion pounds.

BRITONS

New research suggests that almost one in ten British citizens is living abroad. The study has found that at least five-and-a-half-million Britons are living overseas, and that the number is likely to grow. Dominic Casciani has more details:

CASCIANI: This project is the first attempt to put a figure on the number of ex-pat Britons. The Institute for Public Policy Research says that while there's been a fierce debate over immigration, up until now it hasn't been widely understood how many British people are leaving the country. Its research found Australia and Spain are the the most popular destinations, with two-million ex-pats between them. Growing economic opportunities in Asian countries like India and China are also attracting tens of thousands of Britons. But the report also warns that ex-pats don't always enjoy their life overseas. It says some Britons struggle to integrate, because they don't learn the language - meaning they find it hard to make friends. Other Britons say they want to come home - but can't get back on the property ladder in the UK.

BUNCEFIELD

A series of events will take place in Hertfordshire today, to commemorate the first anniversary of the massive explosion at the Buncefield oil depot. People whose homes were damaged by the blast say they're deeply disappointed that the depot's owners haven't settled claims for compensation more quickly. The company, Hertfordshire Oil and Storage, says it's dealt with each claim sensitively. Our Environment Correspondent, Sarah Mukherjee, reports:

MUKHERJEE: Those investigating the Buncefield explosion say in the early hours of the morning of the blast, a gauge - measuring petrol which was filling one of the storage tanks - stuck. The cold, still frosty night allowed a vapour cloud of petrol to form, and it's thought a spark from machinery caused the explosion. The final report from the Heath and Safety Executive is expected next year, and many insurance and compensation claims remain unresolved - it's believed Hertfordshire Oil and Storage is dealing with more than three-thousand claims totalling more than six-hundred-million pounds. Many victims say while they never cease to be thankful for the fact that nobody lost their lives, the psychological scars will remain for many years to come, and they feel the lack of a body count, as one put it, has allowed them to become the forgotten victims of the explosion.

VOLES

The Environment Agency has called for water voles to be given full legal protection to prevent them from becoming extinct. A new study suggests their numbers have fallen by ninety-five per cent over the past two decades - mainly because they're hunted by mink.

It's eight o'clock on Friday the 8th of December.

There's a new warning about the danger of blood transfusions contaminated with the human form of mad cow disease.

Police say some stretch-limousine firms are involved with organised crime.

The government is being urged to cancel a deal to buy American fighter-planes unless the US agrees to share sensitive technical information.

CJD 1

A study of twenty-four people who received blood transfusions contaminated with the human form of mad cow disease has concluded that they run a substantial risk of developing the disease. The assessment, by Professor John Collinge, was based on a study of three people who acquired variant CJD in the same way. His findings are published today in the medical journal, The Lancet. This report from Sarah Nelson:

NELSON: Professor John Collinge has been studying three people who developed new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after being given blood which contained the infectious prions that are thought to cause it. Of those given the infected blood, twenty-four others are still well, but said to be at substantial risk. Prions are far more likely to be transmitted through infusions of infected blood than by eating infected beef, but, currently, there's no way of testing blood for contamination. Professor Collinge believes some people can be silently infected with vCJD for up to fifty years before showing symptoms, and as there's still no cure, he says a national tonsil screening study currently under way must report soon, as it represents the best chance of discovering how widespread the disease is, and who should be stopped from giving blood.

CJD 2

Professor John Collinge told us that he was concerned a new outbreak of vCJD could happen because blood donors could not be tested for the disease:

COLLINGE: We know about these particular incidences, because individuals went on to develop variant CJD, and then it was possible for the blood service to look back and see where that blood actually went, and identify the recipients of that blood. But of course people who are silently incubating variant CJD at the moment may be blood donors, and there's no way of knowing where that blood is going.

BUSH

The joint chairmen of the Iraq Study Group -- whose findings were published on Wednesday -- have urged the Bush administration to follow all their recommendations. But one key senator has described the report as "a programme for defeat", and President Bush's public comments on the document are being taken as a sign that he may reject the main proposals. Here's our Washington Correspondent, Justin Webb:

WEBB: Only hours after the publication of the study group report, and Tony Blair's endorsement of its findings as a strong way forward, its principal authors find that they have a fight on their hands. James Baker, the former US Secretary of State, told a Senate committee that the seventy-nine recommendations were not "a fruit salad" to be picked at by the administration. But President Bush signalled an intention to do exactly that. At his news conference with Tony Blair, he praised some aspects of the report, but appeared to rule out two key proposals: the phasing out of the US combat role in Iraq, and direct talks with Iran and Syria. The man who's likely to be the Republicans' presidential candidate in 2008, Senator John McCain, went further. He said the study group's findings were dispiriting; they had come up with a recipe for defeat.

BLAIR

Tony Blair has now flown back to Britain. Before leaving Washington, he was interviewed on ABC television, and took the opportunity to cast doubt on any suggestion of an early withdrawal of troops:

BLAIR: I think we've got to plan to succeed, and I think that if we start saying to the people that we're fighting in Iraq that we're ready to get out, irrespective of the success of the mission, I think that would be very serious.

LIMOS 1

More than twenty police forces are involved in an investigation into the growing business in stretch-limousines. One of the officers leading the operation said he was worried about the safety of the vehicles -- many had been imported to the UK because they were considered too dangerous for the US. Caroline Cheetham has been out with officers from the Greater Manchester force:

CHEETHAM: For the past month, police from more than twenty forces across the country have been targeting limousines in the first operation of its kind. Officers suspected many of the cars were unsafe and that some were using false number plates, but they didn't expect to uncover organised crime, including drug dealing and money laundering. Chief Superintendent Garen Anwell, has been surprised by the results:

ANWELL: We have uncovered some links into organised crime. There are a huge number of investigations going to be falling out of the work that's currently being undertaken.

CHEETHAM: Police also found drivers with serious criminal convictions. They say, with teenagers the most likely passengers in limousines, this is a worrying discovery.

LIMOS 2

The transport department said the government recognised that there was concern about stretch-limousines, and had been bringing together all relevant parties to work on ways of tightening and enforcing the law.

PLANES

A committee of MPs says Britain should refuse to sign a contract to buy American fighter-planes unless the US agrees to share sensitive technical information. It's one of the world's most expensive military projects, but the Defence Select Committee says Britain should be prepared to look elsewhere. This report from our Political Correspondent, Carole Walker:

WALKER: The F35 Joint Strike Fighter is due to take its maiden test flight next week. Britain is due to take up to one-hundred-and-fifty of the aircraft at a total cost of more than seven-billion pounds. But the chairman of the Defence Select Committee, James Arbuthnot, says the government should refuse to go ahead with the deal unless it gets access to sensitive computer codes and other technical information from the United States:

ARBUTHNOT: We believe that the crunch point is now. The memorandum of understanding needs to be signed at the end of this year, or the government needs to tell the United States that we will not be buying the Joint Strike Fighter.

WALKER: It was thought the problem had been solved six months ago when President Bush and Tony Blair declared that Britain should get all the information it needs. But the government has yet to get agreement on the details.

MISBAH

The Supreme Court in Pakistan has this morning agreed to hear an appeal by the father of the twelve-year-old British girl, Misbah Rana, who's at the centre of an international custody battle. Last week, a judge ruled that she should be sent back to her mother in the Western Isles. The appeal will be heard next month; Misbah -- who's said she wants to stay in Pakistan -- will remain there in the meantime.

MONSARTO

The BBC has been shown private letters which show that one of the UK's leading cancer researchers was acting as a consultant for the chemical industry. Sir Richard Doll, who died last year, was paid about seven-hundred-and-fifty pounds a day to advise the multi-national chemical company, Monsanto. More details from Angus Stickler:

STICKLER: Sir Richard Doll was a scientist of international renown. He exposed the link between cancer and smoking in the 1950s, and was knighted in recognition of his work. But it's now emerged that Sir Richard was paid to act as a consultant to the multi-national chemical company, Monsanto, in the 1980s. At the time, Sir Richard was looking at and advising on two controversial chemicals which had been produced or used by Monsanto. Vinyl chloride, used to make PVC, and Agent Orange, the herbicide used in the Vietnam War. It's now well-documented by the United Nations International Agency for Research on Cancer that both chemicals are dangerous carcinogens. In a statement, Monsanto confirmed that Sir Richard has acted as a consultant, but could not verify what for.

TORNADO

Residents of more than twenty houses in north-west London have spent the night in emergency accommodation, because their homes were badly damaged by yesterday's tornado. Four streets remain closed.

TESCO

Three of Britain's biggest clothes retailers -- Tesco, Asda and Primark -- have been accused of profiting at the expense of workers in Bangladesh who make their garments. The pressure group, War on Want, says that clothes for the three chains are being made in sweat-shops --- where some people are paid as little as five-pence an hour. Our correspondent in Dhaka, Roland Buerk, has visited a factory to see conditions for himself.

SOUND: FACTORY NOISE

BUERK: The report from War on Want is perhaps an uncomfortable reminder for British shoppers of what lies behind cheap, high street fashion. War on Want says it spoke to sixty workers from six unnamed factories making clothes for Tesco, Asda and Primark. The pressure group claimed the workers said they were forced to do long hours of unpaid overtime. A senior figure in Bangladesh's garment industry has criticised the big Western retailers for squeezing suppliers too hard. Anasil Haq, who employs seven-thousand people in his factories, said they were forcing down prices:

HAQ: There are a lot many rooms for the stores to pay a little bit more, ethically. They should not really negotiate so hard.

BUERK: In statements, the British companies said they carry out regular inspections to maintain standards.

EBOLA

Scientists say the ebola virus -- one of the most deadly known to man, and which has killed hundreds of people in Africa -- has wiped out more than five-thousand gorillas. The scientists say that such a sharp decline in numbers could lead to gorillas becoming extinct.

PARTIES

Business leaders have issued some timely guidance on how to behave at office parties. They say careers can be enhanced and valuable contacts made -- but, as our Labour Affairs Correspondent, Stephen Cape, reports, there's also a warning:

CAPE: According to the Forum of Private Business, the wrong behaviour at the Christmas party can limit a career, but the right schmoozing - without being regarded as a creep - can help a person move up the corporate ladder. The business organisation has produced ten festive tips for success. Experts schmoozers should arrive early at the party, making a point of speaking to the boss and thanking the host. Be entertaining, self-confident and remain highly visible. Don't hide behind the kitchen door, or dance drunkenly on tables.

It's eight o'clock on Thursday 7th December.

The former head of the army has attacked his political masters and the Ministry of Defence's culture of targets.

Tony Blair is in Washington to talk about Iraq -- and will soon head to the Middle East.

The effectiveness of knife amnesties has been questioned, with figures showing crime returning to its normal level soon after an amnesty ends.

JACKSON 1

The head of the army - until he retired this summer -- General Sir Mike Jackson, has launched a fierce attack on how the Ministry of Defence runs the armed services. Delivering the Richard Dimbleby lecture on BBC One last night, Sir Mike attacked what he called a culture of commercial best practice which didn't meet the needs of soldiers. Our Defence Correspondent, Paul Wood, reports:

WOOD: Sir Mike believes the government has broken the two-way contract with members of the armed forces. "It is our soldiers who pay the cost in blood", he said: "The nation must therefore pay the cost in treasure". Soldiers and their families must be properly valued. He also attacked what he called the MoD's culture of targets and performance indicators:

JACKSON: There is a failure, even an unwillingness, to understand the fundamental nature of the ethos of soldiering. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of that ethos, the "can-do", the "us-us" approach, rather than "me-me". We can hack it.

WOOD: In a brief statement, the Ministry of Defence said Sir Mike's long service entitled him to his opinions; but, said an MoD spokesman, our priority is to support the troops on the front-line.

JACKSON 2

The shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, told Today the target culture attacked by Sir Mike was indicative of the way the government does business; it measures not what is necessary, but what is measurable. Dr Fox said the government hadn't provided the money to match the scale of its military deployments:

FOX: You can't do those things which the government said they were going to do if, at the same time, you increase your commitments abroad, but you don't increase the budget to match. We're being asked to do more and more on the front-line, with less than we had before. Now, if you're going to increase your commitments like that, you can't reduce the size of the GDP spend you have in defence. It doesn't work.

WASHINGTON

Tony Blair and George Bush hold talks this afternoon at the White House, a day after a high-powered cross-party group delivered a damning verdict on the prospects that existing policies might be successful in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group, which included the former Secretary of State, James Baker, described the situation in Iraq as "grave and deteriorating". Tony Blair is expected to announce he'll visit the Middle East again soon in order to accelerate the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

AFGHAN

An opinion poll in Afghanistan suggests optimism about the country's future has fallen significantly in the past year, but a majority of Afghans overall still believe the country is heading in the right direction. The poll was carried out for the World Service of the BBC and ABC News in the United States. More than a thousand adults across Afghanistan were questioned. Here's our World Affairs Correspondent, Nick Childs:

CHILDS: Events of the last year - including the upsurge in violence, and worries about a resurgent Taleban - have clearly taken their toll on public confidence in Afghanistan. There's been a twenty-two per cent drop in the number of Afghans overall who think the country is heading in the right direction, and yet they are still a majority - fifty-five per cent. A similar proportion still thinks security is better than under the Taleban. But the picture is dramatically gloomier in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, the scene of intense fighting between Nato and Taleban forces. Now, only four out of ten people there think things are heading in the right direction, barely half the figure of a year ago.

ASBO

An investigation into Anti-Social Behaviour Orders has discovered many are not effective. The National Audit Office looked at more than two-hundred Asbos -- and found the majority were being breached. The watchdog says a cheaper option -- a letter from police -- is often more successful.

KNIFES

Figures obtained by BBC News cast doubt on the effectiveness of knife amnesties. An analysis by the Metropolitan Police shows that knife-related crime returned to its usual level shortly after the end of an amnesty earlier in the year. Michael Buchanan reports:

BUCHANAN: More than ninety-thousand knives were handed into police forces this summer during a five-week nationwide campaign, and the amnesty was declared a success by ministers. But an analysis of concurrent but longer eight-week amnesty by the Metropolitan Police between May and July appears to question the effectiveness of the operation. In the months leading up the amnesty, Scotland Yard says there were almost thirty-five knife-related offences daily in London, and for most of the amnesty period, that figure remained the same. Towards the end of the operation, and for several weeks thereafter, there was a small reduction in offences, but, by mid-August, the numbers had returned to their previous level. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police say they always recognised that a knife amnesty on its own was of limited effectiveness in tackling knife crime, and that it needed to be used in conjunction with other initiatives.

CARBON

Housebuilders will today start planning for what the chancellor, Gordon Brown, has told them should be a carbon-free future. In one of the most surprising announcements in yesterday's pre-Budget report, Mr Brown said that "within ten years, every new home will be a zero-carbon home". He's offering a carrot -- exempting such properties from stamp duty. Our Business Correspondent, Nils Blythe, has been finding out more:

BLYTHE: According to a Treasury spokesman, what Gordon brown meant by a zero-carbon home is one that doesn't make an overall contribution to global warming; and that can be achieved by having solar panels or wind turbines that produce electricity. Of course, there will always be weather which means that the household will need to buy in power from the national grid. So to be zero-carbon, over the course of a year the house will have to sell more electricity to the grid on good days than it buys back. Experts say the technology for this does already exist, but only a handful of houses yet have it. House builders were surprised by the chancellor's announcement, and describe moving all new building to this standard as 'a challenge'.

SCHOOLS

Primary school performance tables for England show that the government missed its target in maths and English for eleven-year-olds this year. However, the tables do show an improvement in the results for maths and science from last year. Results in English remained the same.

ACEH

Oxfam says twenty-five-thousand families sent to emergency accommodation after the 2004 tsunami are unable to move out because of a lack of land rights. The charity says the absence of clear ownership, in the Indonesian province of Aceh, is holding up efforts to re-house families made homeless in the disaster. From Aceh, Lucy Williamson sent this report:

WILLIAMSON: According to the new research, land rights lie at the core of why twenty-five-thousand families are still living in emergency accommodation two years after the tsunami. Some remain homeless because the disaster destroyed their land or the paperwork which proved it belonged to them. But the majority had no paperwork at all, and relied on natural markers such as streams to demarcate their property - markers which were swept away. Others now in temporary accommodation were living in rented houses before the tsunami, or as squatters, building homes on land that didn't legally belong to them. Few aid agencies want to build on disputed land, and sorting out ownership rights in communities decimated by the disaster will take time.

NURSE

A nurse has been set free after a gunman held her hostage for more than an hour at Birmingham City Hospital. The man -- a patient -- had been demanding drugs. Police say an arrest has been made; the nurse is recovering from her ordeal.

ELDERLY

The leaders of forty-five local authorities have written an open letter warning they are facing an ever-growing crisis in care for the elderly. Writing in The Guardian, they say they are dealing with an increasing number of elderly people -- and funding has not kept pace with demand. More from our Social Affairs Correspondent, Alison Holt:

HOLT: The letter is signed by council leaders from authorities which serve both cities and rural areas across England. All say it's increasingly difficult to meet the demands for care for the elderly. The services they provide range from meals on wheels to home helps to residential and dementia care. The letter says ever-growing numbers of elderly people with complex needs, combined with a government grant that has failed to match money spent on other key areas, means services for the elderly are teetering on the brink. It concludes the present situation is unsustainable. But the Department of Health says funding for adult care services has increased, and that investment means many more people are getting the intensive support they need to continue to live at home.

LITVINENKO

The body of the former Russian agent, Alexander Litvenenko, is due to be buried today in a private ceremony in London. Detectives investigating his death have said they are treating it as murder.

MUSIC

More than four-thousand recording artists have signed an advertisement in this morning's Financial Times. The group -- including Eric Clapton and Dame Kiri te Kanawa -- are demanding what they describe as 'fair play' over copyright payments. Yesterday, a government report rejected the idea of extending copyright from fifty to ninety-five years. Here's our Media Correspondent, Torin Douglas:

DOUGLAS: This is a last-ditch attempt by thousands of musicians to win a battle they seem to have lost. The advertisement includes household names such as Katie Melua and U2 and those of little-known session singers and orchestral players. They're seeking parity with the United States, where the copyright period is ninety-five years, and claim that performers at all levels would benefit, not just superstars. But Andrew Gowers, the former Financial Times editor, who led the review, said most recordings don't last anything like fifty years, and a change would put up costs, while giving little public benefit.

It's eight o'clock on Wednesday 6th December.

More money for schools and higher green taxes are likely to feature in the chancellor's pre-Budget report.

A leak in Washington says the Iraq Study Group stops short of recommending a timetable for military withdrawal -- but does say that American troops should switch from combat to support roles.

Channel Four is putting its programmes for sale on the internet.

BUDGET

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, is expected to announced a multi-billion-pound spending programme for schools in England, when he delivers his tenth pre-Budget report at lunchtime. He's likely to say the economy has been growing more quickly than he anticipated -- and to announce plans for new environmental taxes. Here's our Economics Editor, Evan Davis:

DAVIS: Things are going pretty well for the chancellor as he delivers what must be his last pre-Budget report. As usual, he can crow a bit about how fast the economy is growing; and, on top of that, this time round he can at last say government borrowing is more or less where he thought it would be - in contrast to the last eight Budgets and pre-Budgets, where he's had to admit borrowing has been higher than expected. With that relatively benign backdrop, the chancellor could comfortably cancel today's statement, and leave all his big decisions to the real Budget next year. But he won't. He'll use his speech to highlight his commitment to education and skills. In his last Budget, he announced a big investment programme in school buildings, and he'll say more about that today. And we've been promised a pre-Budget with a green tinge. Watch for higher air passenger duty and fuel tax.

IRAQ

An advisory panel set up by President Bush to look at American policy in Iraq is recommending significant changes. Details of the cross-party panel's report have been leaked ahead of its publication today. It says the US must not make open-ended commitments to keep large numbers of troops in Iraq -- and the Baghdad government should accelerate the process of resuming responsibility for the country's security. From Washington, here's our correspondent, James Westhead:

WESTHEAD: Excerpts of the hundred-and-forty-two-page report obtained by a US TV network confirm what many expected. The Iraq Study Group makes seventy-nine recommendations it says could give Iraq an opportunity for a better future. It calls for a new diplomatic offensive by the Bush administration to help build stability, warning it can't succeed in the Middle East unless it deals with other issues like the Israeli-Arab conflict. It's also expected to recommend direct talks with Iran and Syria, something President Bush has resisted. On the military front, the report says the primary mission of US troops must change - from combat into supporting the Iraqi army. It warns while the Iraqi government will need help for some time to come, the US must not make open-ended commitments to keeping large numbers of troops there. It's expected to recommend a phased withdrawal instead.

ITV

The cable operator, ntl, has abandoned its attempt to buy ITV. A four-point-seven-billion pound bid was rejected last month. Sky has since bought eighteen per cent of ITV, and ntl has told the stock market it won't be making a fresh offer.

PAEDOPHILE

An inquiry in Brighton into how a registered sex offender was able to repeatedly rape a young girl has concluded that the attacks could have been prevented. Kevin Hazelwood had been under probation and police supervision. He was jailed indefinitely for the assaults. They began after his release from a prison term for downloading indecent images of children. Here's our Home Affairs Correspondent, Danny Shaw:

SHAW: Kevin Hazelwood raped the girl over a three-and-a-half year period, after befriending her mother and winning her trust. The report said procedures designed to supervise Hazelwood "failed" to protect the girl, who was five when the abuse started. The inquiry identified a "gap" in the system between monitoring a sex offender's behaviour and looking after the welfare of individual children within their immediate family. In Hazelwood's case, the agencies didn't assess properly the risk he posed to those among his extended family, friends and the wider community. The report points out, however, that Hazelwood was a "devious and manipulative" man who managed to convince the victim's parents that, in spite of his criminal record, he was not a risk.

BETHLEHEM

The head of the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales are joining forces to support the people of Bethlehem who they say are suffering severe hardships because of Israeli security measures. Dr Rowan Williams and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor will lead a pre-Christmas pilgrimage to the town to show solidarity with the Christian communities there.

RWANDA

A furious row between France and Rwanda over responsibility for the 1994 genocide is overshadowing a visit to Britain by the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. In an interview for the Today programme, Mr Kagame repeats his accusation that French forces were directly involved in the genocide. Our Diplomatic Correspondent, James Robbins, reports:

ROBBINS: In April 1994, Rwanda's then president was killed when his plane was blown out of the sky. The event triggered a genocide, many say long-planned by his Hutu supporters. Between eight-hundred-thousand and a million people were massacred. Last month, a French judge investigating the deaths of the French air crew accused today's Rwandan president, Kagame, of involvement in the attack on the plane. Mr Kagame has told this programme he had nothing to do with the destruction of the plane; instead, he accuses French soldiers of joining in the genocide:

KAGAME: French soldiers manned road blocks and were identifying the people by their ethnic groups and if there were people who were found to be Tutsis, they would be put aside for harassment or for imprisonment or even torture - later on leading to their deaths.

ROBBINS: Yesterday, President Kagame met Tony Blair. Today, he has meetings at the Foreign Office -- all aimed, says a spokesman, at reconciling the people of Rwanda.

And you can hear the full interview with President Kagame just after eight-thirty.

FIJI

Fiji's new military rulers have appointed a caretaker prime minister a day after seizing power. The country's police chief has been sacked for refusing to take orders. From Suva, Phil Mercer reports:

MERCER: Fiji's caretaker prime minister is a military doctor with no political experience. Jona Baravilalala Senilagakali will head an interim government when it's eventually formed. The army seems to have run into problems recruiting members of the new administration. In a remarkable statement, the military commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, said anyone who was interested in joining the interim government should apply for a position. Fiji's armed forces have continued to tighten their grip on the country. A day after the elected leadership was thrown out of office, a state of emergency has been declared. The ousted prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, has been flown out of Suva to his village on a remote island.

TSUNAMI

The burial has been taking place in Thailand of the last unidentified victims of the tsunami which struck south-east Asia almost two years ago. One-hundred-and-twenty-five bodies are being interred at a cemetery specially built for the victims. Our correspondent, Jonathan Head, was at the ceremony, in the town of Kowlak, and sent this report:

HEAD: This was a very simple ceremony, starting with prayers by members of the Buddhist, Christian and Muslim communities. No-one knows what faith these last one-hundred-and-twenty-five victims followed, although it's thought most are probably illegal Burmese workers whose families have been unable to come to Thailand. The ceremony took place at the centre in Kowlak, where, at one time, forensic scientists from more than thirty countries worked to identify the thousands of bodies left behind by the tsunami. Today, the centre is quiet. The foreign police have left, and the Thai authorities have begun burying the few hundred victims for whom they have no information.

BIOMETRIC

The most advanced passenger screening equipment in the world has gone on trial at Heathrow Airport. Some passengers are being given the option of bypassing long queues if they're prepared to have their fingerprints, face and eyes biometrically scanned.

RETIRE

The High Court is to hear a challenge against new age discrimination laws, which could force the government to scrap the mandatory retirement age of sixty-five. The challenge has been brought by the organisation Heyday -- backed by Age Concern -- representing people who've retired, or are planning for their retirements. Here's our Labour Affairs Correspondent, Stephen Cape:

CAPE: The government brought in the legislation to outlaw age discrimination last October. But it'll be argued in the High Court that the regulation fails to protect people over sixty-five who still want to work. At that age, employers can insist that a person must retire. The organisation, Heyday, which represents older people, believes that the law contravenes the European Equal Treatment Directive by not giving pensioners the right to choose. The government maintains that it has fully and properly implemented the rules. It has already promised to review the mandatory retirement age in five years.

C4

Channel Four is selling its programmes on the internet from today. Viewers can catch up with most of its schedule for up to thirty days after transmission, or choose programmes from the archives. Charges begin at ninety-nine-pence a time. Here's our Media Correspondent, Torin Douglas:

DOUGLAS: More and more viewers are watching video on-line, and media groups are racing to meet the demand. This week, BT launched a broadband TV service, and today Channel Four is claiming a world first for a major broadcaster in offering all its home-grown programmes to viewers on demand. Its service is available on cable and personal computers, onto which viewers can download all its programmes made in this country and a few imported shows, such as Desperate Housewives. It will cost ninety-nine-pence or one-ninety-nine per programme, but early next year the channel will offer monthly subscriptions. Downloading still takes a while - up to one-and-half times the length of the programme - but Channel Four believes that, in time, this will change the way we watch television.

It's eight o'clock on Tuesday the 5th of December.

Out-of-hours GPs and walk-in centres are being proposed to smooth the way for closure of some accident and emergency units.

The military has seized power in Fiji.

England's cricketers are on the brink of defeat in the second Test.

NHS

Tony Blair will today urge health managers and doctors to help make the case for the re-organisation of local NHS services in England. He's expected to say the positive arguments for change have been drowned out by concerns over closures and finances. The government says lives will be saved if services are concentrated in big regional centres; but critics say lives will be lost if accident and emergency treatment is downgraded and not locally available. Here's our Health Correspondent, Adam Brimelow:

BRIMELOW: The government's coming under growing pressure over plans to overhaul emergency services, which lie at the heart of a big re-organisation of hospitals. Critics say it's driven by the need to tackle deficits. Today, two leading clinicians who act as advisers to the government -- Sir George Alberti and Professor Roger Boyle -- will present the case for reform, arguing for a range of urgent care services, including out-of-hours GPs, walk-in-centres and a bigger role for paramedics, alongside big regional A&E centres. Last week, the Conservatives questioned the evidence for these changes. They said that at least twenty-nine A&E departments were under threat. But the left-leaning think-tank, the IPPR, says campaigns to save local emergency services could lead to hundreds of preventable deaths -- by denying people access to lifesaving specialist care.

FIJI 1

There's been a military coup in Fiji in the South Pacific. The head of the army, Frank Bainimarama, went on television to say he had taken control of the government. The army has set up roadblocks in the capital, Suva, and is disarming police and government bodyguards. As armed troops arrived at the home of the prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, he spoke live on the BBC World Service:

QARASE: There are soldiers at the gate negotiating their way to come in, and the information is that they want to take me out to an island location. We are unarmed. They are armed. So I suppose if they want to, they can come in any time. I will not resign. If they want to carry out an illegal act, you know, that is their choice.

FIJI 2

New Zealand has said defence ties with Fiji are being severed, and officers and their families from that country would be banned. Australia is taking similar action. The prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, watched the military commander's television statement -- and told Today what she thought of it:

CLARK: We've just seen the most extraordinary broadcast by the military commander, assuming executive control himself, appointing himself the president, sacking the prime minister and government, appointing an interim government. He called on people in Fiji who are thinking of conducting illegal activity not to do it, which was the supreme irony, given that he had just ripped up the country's constitution and thrown it out the window of his barracks.

FIJI 3

This is the fourth coup in Fiji in two decades, and follows weeks of tension between the prime minister and the army chief. Our correspondent, Phil Mercer, is in Suva, where he's been watching events unfold:

MERCER: Commodore Bainimarama has assumed the powers of Fiji's president to sack the government. He said he was invoking a doctrine of necessity, because the country was headed for destruction under the former prime minister, Laisenia Qarase. The Commodore told a news conference that the Qarase government was tainted by bribery and corruption, and had no intention of solving Fiji's political crisis. For months, the army has been in dispute with Mr Qarase over his plans to grant amnesties to those behind a nationalist uprising six years ago. The military believes the coup plotters were treated far too leniently.

TRIDENT

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has questioned the need, legality, and morality of updating the Trident nuclear deterrent. Tony Blair told MPs yesterday it would be "unwise and dangerous" to give up what he called the "ultimate insurance". But Dr Williams has spoken of the grave ethical issues raised by indiscriminate weapons of terrifying power. Baptist, Methodist, and United Reformed Church leaders have also warned that updating Trident will set back efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation.

GATES

The man chosen by President Bush to take over as US defence secretary from Donald Rumsfeld appears before a Senate committee today. Robert Gates is expected to be confirmed in office by Senators. He's also expected to signal changes in policy -- as Justin Webb reports from Washington:

WEBB: Mr Gates supported President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, and he opposes a quick exit for US troops - a move he thinks would have dangerous consequences for many years to come. However, Mr Gates is expected to make it clear in his first public comments since his nomination that he thinks big mistakes have been made. He may also suggest a new openness to dialogue with America's enemies in the Middle East. In the past, he's criticised the administration for not talking to Iran. Mr Gates did not seek the defence job -- he's been in semi-retirement at a university in Texas -- so he's widely believed to have been given assurances that in return for coming to Washington, he is going to be allowed to get his way to make a difference. His answers today might shed further light on the changes in Iraq policy being planned in Washington.

IRAQ

Gunmen have opened fire on a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslims in northern Baghdad this morning. At least fourteen people were killed. And in the south of the city, car bombs exploded near a petrol station, killing about fifteen people.

DUTCH

The Dutch government has been heavily criticised for awarding medals to some of the soldiers whose withdrawal from Srebrenica -- during the Bosnian War -- led to the massacre of eight-thousand Muslims. The Bosnian president has lodged an official protest with the Dutch ambassador, while survivors' groups have staged demonstrations. Colonel Bob Stewart - who commanded British troops inn Bosnia - told the Today programme he was surprised by the decision to honour the Dutch troops:

STEWART: They allowed the people to be separated - men and boys from women and children; and in fact - in one case, as I recall - helped do this. And then those men and boys were taken away and they were massacred - massacred in a most disgusting way, and then buried in huge pits.

MOSCOW

British investigators -- now in Moscow as part of the investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko -- are to check the British embassy for traces of radiation. They're also hoping to interview several potential witnesses, including those who met the former Russian agent in London on the day he was allegedly poisoned.

TORIES

The shadow education secretary, David Willetts, says pupils should study a wider range of subjects at school. He's suggesting making more pupils study modern languages, individual science subjects and history. These are still policy ideas rather than commitments by the Conservatives, as our Political Correspondent, Terry Stiastny, reports:

STIASTNY: It's the structure of the education system that has recently been the most contentious political issue - how schools should be organised and run. But the Conservatives say they want to concentrate on the subjects pupils learn and the standards they achieve. In a presentation today, the shadow education secretary, David Willetts, will suggest that the Conservatives should allow pupils to study a broader range of subjects for longer. He argues that there's a strong case for pupils being obliged to study modern languages until the age of sixteen, and that more pupils should be able to study individual science subjects, such as physics or chemistry, rather than combined science courses. He also says that although it was the last Conservative government which got rid of the requirement to study history until sixteen, that should also be looked at again.

PLANNING

A report out this morning will call for a radical shake-up of the planning laws in England. The review -- led by the economist, Kate Barker -- is expected to recommend an easing of regulations governing new buildings -- including improvements to existing homes. It's also likely to call for changes in the way land is protected from development -- pointing out that more than half the land in England is designated in some way.

DECORATIONS

New research suggests an increasing number of employers are banning Christmas decorations in case non-Christian faiths are offended. A survey of more than two-thousand employers revealed that seventy-four per cent feared repercussions from hanging tinsel and putting up trees. Here's our Labour Affairs Correspondent, Stephen Cape:

CAPE: An increasing number of local authorities have already banned traditional decorations and Christmas trees from the high street, and according to the survey, employers feel they have little option but to follow, because of the threat of litigation. The law firm, Peninsula, which carried out the research said that, in the last two months, it had received four-thousand calls about religious and racial discrimination. Of the employers questioned in the survey, seventy-four per cent admitted they would ban tinsel from the office, but many also felt that the festive bauble portrayed the wrong image and could even have an impact on productivity.

CRICKET

Cricket: England have had a dismal final day at the second Ashes Test in Adelaide. Peter Baxter is at the ground and joins us now:

BAXTER: Australia are 8 runs away from sealing this match, and taking a 2-nil lead in this Ashes series. They have pulled off a remarkable turnaround today; England starting the game, really just the day, needing just to bat for a couple of sessions, and make sure that the game could not be lost. But they collapsed in those two sessions. Warne rendered them utterly strokeless. He took 4 wickets as well. There was a disastrous run-out that started the collapse, and England, all-out for 129, left Australia only 168 needed to win. They have lost 4 wickets along the way, but Michael Hussey has led them home. He's 54-not out, and they are 160 for 4.

It's eight o'clock on Monday, the 4th of December.

The prime minister will confirm that Britain's nuclear defences will be replaced, but there are expected to be cuts in the number of warheads and submarines.

Investigators are trying to find the cause of an explosion and blaze at a fireworks factory, that killed two fire-fighters.

The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, says life for Iraqis now is worse than when Saddam Hussein was in power.

It's been a frustrating day for England's bowlers at the Ashes Test in Adelaide.

TRIDENT

Tony Blair will confirm today that he wants to maintain Britain's strategic nuclear deterrent. He's expected to recommend to Parliament that a new generation of nuclear-powered submarines be built to carry Trident missiles. But it's thought the plans -- set out in the government's White Paper -- will also leave open the option of cutting the submarine fleet from four to three, and reducing the stockpile of nuclear warheads. Here's our Defence Correspondent, Paul Wood:

WOOD: Whatever the finer points of the government's announcement later today, we know that Britain will still be a member of the nuclear club, and the missiles will be carried by submarines. Defence officials familiar with the White Paper say putting the warheads on planes or even a land-based weapons system has been considered and rejected - and it probably won't be a case of extending, at least by much, the existing vanguard submarines, which start going out of service around 2022. The most likely decision will be for new vessels to be commissioned. These new submarines would carry the existing Trident missiles and warheads, but would be capable of taking any successor missile. In order for Britain to meet its international treaty obligations on disarmament, the total number of warheads may well be cut, and perhaps, too, the number of submarines could be reduced from four to three. But officials discount reports that the new generation of submarines will be built abroad. They say the capacity to do this exists in Britain.

FIREWORKS

An investigation has begun into an explosion and blaze at a fireworks warehouse near Lewes in East Sussex, in which two firefighters died. Twelve people were injured in the fire, which has now been brought under control. The Chief Fire Officer for East Sussex, Des Pritchard, told the Today programme it had been a difficult night for his crews:

PRITCHARD: There are still three people still in hospital - two fire-fighters and one member of the public. Currently, there is a two-hundred-metre exclusion zone around the site. We believe there may be a set of cylinders involved in fire, and we need to keep those cylinders cool for twenty-four hours.

KOFI

The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has said the situation in Iraq is now "worse than civil war". In a BBC interview, Mr Annan -- who will soon step down after ten years in office -- said the war hadn't improved the situation for Iraqis; in fact, he suggested that life was better for them under Saddam Hussein. Lyse Doucet spoke to Mr Annan in New York:

DOUCET: Kofi Annan called the US-led invasion of Iraq one of the most difficult times during his decade in office. Over the past few months, he's warned of a country sliding towards civil war. Now, he told the BBC, it was worse than that. Was it, I asked him, a mistake? What did he make of some Iraqis' anxiety that life was now worse than under Saddam Hussein?

ANNAN: I think they are right. If I were an average Iraqi, I would make the same comparison - that they had a dictator, who was brutal, but they had their streets; they could go out; their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother of father worrying: "Am I going to see my child again?"

DOUCET: Clearly still pained by a war he didn't believe in - and wishes he could have stopped - Mr Annan said Iraq needed the help of its neighbours and the international community.

PSYCHIATRIC

The author of a report, which examined killings committed by psychiatric patients released into the community, has called for more attention to be paid to the warning signs. The five-year study found that most of the patients who went on to kill had been in contact with health services the week before -- and although there were warning signs, they weren't judged to be sufficiently serious to cause alarm. The national clinical director for mental health, Professor Louis Appleby, told us staff should always bear past patterns of behaviour in mind:

APPLEBY: One of the reasons that staff are fooled is that they are sometimes very affected by how a person appears on the day, so if a patient seems reasonably well on a particular day, they can make the assumption that they're going to be OK for the next few weeks or longer. And they make a judgement that risk might be low, even though, if you look at the whole history of a person, there are clearly reasons to be concerned about them at all times.

PINOCHET

Doctors treating the former Chilean leader, Augusto Pinochet, say he remains in a serious, but stable condition in Santiago, after suffering a heart attack. General Pinochet -- who's ninety-one -- had surgery yesterday, but doctors have ruled out a second operation, describing it as too risky. Daniel Schweimler reports from Santiago:

SOUND: CROWD CHANTING

SCHWEIMLER: Several hundred supporters of the former president of Chile, Augusto Pinochet, gathered outside the military hospital where he's being treated. Many were waving Chilean flags or carrying posters of the man who governed Chile for seventeen years after coming to power in a bloody coup in 1973. Motorists hooted their horns in support as they went past - a large police presence controlling the Pinochet supporters, the traffic and the journalists outside the hospital. There's no sign of the many thousands who opposed Augusto Pinochet, or the families of the three-thousand or so people killed or disappeared under his military government. The former president was taken to hospital early on Sunday morning after suffering a heart attack. Staff operated to widen a blood vessel, and, at one stage, he was so serious, a Catholic priest was called to give him the last rites.

VENEZUELA

Hugo Chavez has won another six-year term as Venezuela's president. Mr Chavez -- an outspoken critic of America -- said the result was a defeat for the "devils" who wanted to dominate the world.

WELSH

Plaid Cymru has accused army recruiters of deliberately targeting schools in deprived areas of Wales, where other jobs are scarce, to try to replace increasing number of soldiers leaving the armed forces. The Ministry of Defence has rejected the claims, insisting that visits to schools are made by invitation only. But Leanne Wood, who speaks for Plaid Cymru on social justice, told us army recruitment in schools should be banned:

WOOD: The army is haemorrhaging soldiers. Fourteen-thousand left last year, according to the MoD's own figures, and the situation in Iraq is obviously responsible for that, because Iraq makes a career in the army look pretty unattractive. So to me it looks as if, in order to counteract this problem, the army are pinning their hopes on attracting people with few opportunities, few avenues out of poverty, and you could say that that's a form of exploitation.

CRICKET

Cricket: after a difficult day in the field, England have finished day four of the second Ashes Test in Adelaide on 59 for one. That's a lead of 97. With the latest details from the ground now, we're joined by Peter Baxter:

BAXTER: Another hard day for bowlers produced two star performances, both persistent and patient. Matthew Hoggard, for England, took another three wickets to finish with 7 for 109, and Michael Clarke, for Australia, made his third Test 100. The seventh wickets stand of 118 between Clark and Warne probably took Australia to safety. Both were victims of Hoggard - Clarke for 124, and Warne for 43. They came together when Giles had cut short of the revival of fortunes of Adam Gilchrist, just getting into his stride when he held out for 64. Hoggard bowled 42 overs for his 7 wickets - a splendid display. It left England 19 overs to face in the evening, and at the end of the day, they lead by 97, for the loss of Cook for 9. They're 59 for 1.

COPPER

The number of thefts of copper cable from railways across Britain has doubled in the past year, at a cost to the industry of three-million pounds. The North East is the area worst-affected - in one stretch of line, thousands of metres of cabling were ripped out, causing huge travel delays. Similar thefts have cost the electricity industry five-million pounds. Here's our Business Reporter, John Moylan:

MOYLAN: Gangs have been ripping out cables that power signalling systems and points. They then strip out the copper to sell on as scrap. Network Rail says the incidents don't put passengers' safety at risk, but they cause severe delays and need immediate repair - that's left the industry with a three-million pound bill in the past twelve months. A spate of break-ins at sub-stations have cost the electricity industry five-million pounds this year. They've also been associated with two deaths and several serious injuries.

BT

BT is launching its first television service this morning. BT Vision will face stiff competition from other providers, such as BSkyB and the cable television companies. This morning, BT has announced a deal to offer Premiership football. More details from our Business Correspondent, Rory-Cellan Jones:

CELLAN-JONES: BT has wanted to get into television for years, and now the internet is making that possible. BT Vision will allow viewers to download programmes via a broadband phone line, with customers paying for what they use, rather than facing a mandatory subscription. In entering a crowded field where viewers can choose between satellite, cable and free-to-air channels, BT needs to offer something different. Like others before, it's hoping football will be the key. This morning, it's unveiled a deal with the Irish sports channel, Setanta, which means it can offer forty-six live Premiership games, and two-hundred-and-forty recorded matches, from next season.

PREMIER

The firm which owns Hovis and Mr Kipling cakes has backed a takeover by Premier Foods, which owns Branston Pickle and Angel Delight. Premier is offering one-point-two-billion pounds for RHM, whose other brands include Paxo and Bisto.

It's eight o'clock on Friday the first of December.

Drivers could have to pay to use Britain's roads -- if the government acts on a new report looking into ways of reducing congestion and pollution.

Ministers are allowing trials of genetically-modified potatoes in Cambridgeshire and Derbyshire.

The Conservatives are warning that twenty-nine A&E departments could be closed as a result of government reforms.

And England's batsmen have recovered from an early scare on the first day of the second Ashes Test.

ROADS

A report commissioned by the Treasury says charging for driving on Britain's roads will be essential for cutting congestion and funding better public transport. The former chief executive of British Airways, Sir Rod Eddington, argues that the overall impact of road charges could benefit the economy by twenty-eight-billion pounds a year. As well as advocating improvements to the road and rail network, he also backs an expansion of several airports. Our Business Editor, Robert Peston, has seen the report:

PESTON: Rod Eddington advice to the government on how to improve transport in the UK is very much the work of a businessman. This former BA chief executive's approach is to ask what kind of returns are generated by different kinds of transport investments. He says, for example, that unless we tackle congestion, it will cost an extra twenty-two-billion pounds in wasted time for all of us by 2025, so he advocates charging at up to eighty pence per kilometre each time we use a busy road - what's called "road pricing". He identifies three investment priorities: he wants spending to be directed at congested and growing city areas; on links between important urban centres; and on important international gateways, such as airports. He also says that, in transport, small improvements to existing road and rail generate by far the biggest returns. Oh - and he's a fan of charging users of cars, planes and trains for their relative emissions of carbon, or their relative contributions to climate change. Or, to put it another way, Eddington implies that we've all got to pay more to get around, though he thinks the eventual benefits will far outweigh the costs.

RADIATION

A post mortem examination will be carried out today on the body of the former Russian agent, Alexander Litvinenko, who was contaminated by a large dose of the radioactive isotope, polonium-210. Three pathologists wearing protective clothing will try to establish when he was poisoned and how the substance entered his system. Three British Airways planes were grounded because traces of radioactivity were found on board -- although one has now been cleared to return to service. Professor Nick Priest, of Middlesex University - who's worked with polonium-210 - told us there was very little risk to the public:

PRIEST: I don't think it's reasonable or right to be scared. If you've got a thousand-million units of radioactivity in a vial, and you open that vial and you pour it onto food, or something like this, it's inevitable that some radioactivity will transfer to surfaces around, and you can go back and you can detect it later. It doesn't necessarily mean that there's any hazard associated with it.

GM POTATO

The government has decided to allow the planting of genetically modified potatoes at two sites in Cambridgeshire and Derbyshire. The trial will allow scientists to study the yield and environmental impact of the plants. They have been modified to include a gene from a wild species of potato which should make them resistant to blight. Our Rural Affairs Correspondent, Tom Heap, reports:

HEAP: This will be the first GM crop to be planted outside the lab for the last three years in the UK. Similar scientific tests are already under way in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, but the company, BASF, wants to be sure their GM potato variety is resistant to blight under the growing conditions in this country. The potatoes will not enter the human or animal food chain. Potato blight triggered the Irish famine of the mid-nineteenth century, and still costs the industry seventy-million pounds in fungicidal sprays and lost crop. Some environmental groups are worried about GM contamination in the soil. The British Potato Council are also against the planting, fearing the damage to consumer confidence could outweigh savings in production costs.

PAEDOPHILES

The Home Office is asking for views on the introduction of compulsory lie detector tests for sex offenders, after the success of a pilot scheme in England. Three-hundred-and-fifty offenders took part -- with most of them disclosing information which helped probation staff improve the monitoring of their behaviour in the community. Ministers are also considering whether or not to tell the public about the location of bail hostels in their area where paedophiles are staying.

A&E

The Conservatives are claiming that twenty-nine accident and emergency departments across England could close if the government goes ahead with planned changes. The shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, says the policy is being driven by the need to save money. The government insists its plans will bring A&E services up-to-date and improve patient safety. Here's our Health Correspondent, Adam Brimelow:

BRIMELOW: The re-organisation of hospitals across England is gathering pace, provoking huge petitions and protests. These have often centred on proposed changes to accident and emergency services. The government wants these concentrated in big regional centres, offering specialised round-the-clock care, leaving local hospitals, walk-in centres and paramedics to deal with more straightforward cases. In his letter to the NHS chief executive, Andrew Lansley questions the evidence for this -- warning that what is specialised care today will be routine in years to come. The Conservatives have compiled a list of hospitals where they say A&E services are under threat. They say seven out of ten trusts proposing downgrades were in deficit last year, and they conclude that the process is being financially driven.

AIDS

The former US president, Bill Clinton, has said he believes that India has become the epicentre of the global epidemic of Aids and HIV -- and he describes the challenges the country is facing as "breathtaking". Almost six-million Indians are HIV positive -- the highest number of infections in any nation. Our correspondent, Damian Grammaticas, reports from the Indian capital, Delhi:

GRAMMATICAS: In terms of sheer numbers, India is now facing the most severe HIV/Aids burden of any country. The United Nations believes five-point-seven-million Indians are HIV-positive. The country's surpassed even South Africa for numbers living with the virus. Speaking to the BBC on World Aids Day, the former US president, Bill Clinton, said India is the new epicentre of global infection. But Mr Clinton said that if India really works at HIV/Aids prevention, it still has time to limit its impact:

CLINTON: I think they can be ahead of it in a couple of years, if they really work at it. But because when you got a billion people, and they are as disparate as the Indians are - disparate languages, different living conditions, different income and education levels - the education challenge, and the challenge to overcome the stigma of discrimination is just breathtaking.

GRAMMATICAS: India's problem is that HIV is already spreading out from high-risk groups like prostitutes. Migrant workers, who travel from remote villages looking for work in the cities, are spreading the virus to every corner of the country.

TYPHOON

At least a hundred-and-forty people have been killed in landslides caused by a typhoon in the Philippines. Mud and rocks buried seven villages close to Mount Mayon -- an active volcano two-hundred miles south of the capital, Manila. Rescue officials say power and communications in the area have been cut, and the number of casualties is likely to rise.

CHRISTMAS

Local councils are being warned against minimising the religious significance of Christmas, because it could lead to a backlash against Muslims. The advice comes in a letter written by the Christian-Muslim Forum -- a group set up by Tony Blair and the Archbishop of Canterbury earlier this year. It says secularising Christmas -- by using names such as "winterval" -- foists on Muslims an agenda they do not hold. The Bishop of Bolton, the Right Reverend David Gillett -- who heads the forum -- told us there was need to encourage a proper understanding of the issue:

GILLETT: I just heard only yesterday that a big commercial concern has asked its staff, for instance, not to wish people a "Merry Christmas", but simply "Season's Greetings", because it may offend people. I mean, I think when you talk to people of other religious communities, that's not what they're asking for at all, and they feel the backlash comes to them for perhaps a misunderstanding of what multiculturalism's all about. Perhaps also, of course, it's some of the secularist agenda that's invading this argument as well.

CRICKET

England's cricketers have made a solid start to the second Ashes Test against Australia. After winning the toss -- and choosing to bat -- England lost two wickets before lunch. But they've played solidly since then -- as Peter Baxter reports now from the Adelaide Oval:

BAXTER: Yes, England haven't dominated the day, but they probably had the better of it, at 266 for 3, thanks to two century partnerships which both featured Paul Collingwood, who is 98-not out at the close of play. Those stands followed a disappointing morning session for England, which saw both openers out to Stuart Clark, with 45 runs on the board; Strauss for 14, and Cook for 27. But Bell and Collingwood steered the innings successfully and patiently through the afternoon. A quarter of an hour after tea, though, Bell hooked at Lee, who took the skied catch, and after a stand of 113, Bell was out for 60. Pietersen joined Collingwood, and has enjoyed punishing Warne, hitting him for one long 6. He's 60-not out, but all England's hopes will be that Collingwood can get those two runs to his 100 in the morning, when England resume at 266 for 3.

SMOKING BAN

The ban on smoking in enclosed public places in England will come into force on July the 1st next year. It'll cover pubs, restaurants, private clubs, offices and factories. England will be the last part of the United Kingdom to bring in a ban; similar legislation is already in place in Scotland, and will start in Northern Ireland and Wales next April.

MOBILES

A survey suggests more than a third of motorists still use a hand held mobile phone while driving -- even though the practice was banned three years ago. The road safety charity, BRAKE, says many drivers flout the law because they believe there's little chance they'll be caught.

It's eight o'clock on Thursday the 30th of November.

British Airways is getting in touch with more than thirty-thousand passengers after traces of radiation were found on two of its planes.

Tony Blair wants to double the number of city academy schools -- and make big changes to A-levels¹.

President Bush has warned that any partition of Iraq would lead to more communal violence.

Gordon Brown and his wife, Sarah, have said they're optimistic medical advances will help their younger son -- who has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

RADIATION

Two British Airways planes are undergoing further detailed examination after radioactive traces were found on board by scientists investigating the death of the former Russian agent, Alexander Litvinenko. A third BA plane -- currently in Moscow -- will be flown back to Britain for tests. Scotland Yard hasn't said why it became interested in the planes -- which were used on flights to the Russian capital and other European cities over a five-week period. But detectives are known to be tracing the movements of those who associated with Mr Litvinenko. Our Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera, reports:

CORERA: According to British Airways, the three planes were involved in nearly fifty flights between London and Moscow during the affected period - more than to any other destination. The first flight was on October the 25th - a full week before Mr Litvinenko's poisoning. It is possible that the traces come from the individuals who met Mr Litvinenko on November the 1st, the day he fell ill, and who then travelled back to Moscow. If they were found to come from any time before he became ill, or from the travel of other individuals, it could be highly significant for the investigation. Up to thirty-three-thousand people flew on the three planes over the period, but BA and public health officials say the risk to the travelling public is low. The home secretary is expected to make a statement in the Commons later today.

SCHOOLS

There is to be a big expansion of the number of secondary schools in England which are independent of local authorities and which receive funding from the private sector. In a speech in Birmingham later, Tony Blair will say he is doubling the target for the number of city academies; more trust schools will also be established. And there are to be significant changes to exams, including A-levels -- as our Education Correspondent, Mike Baker, reports:

BAKER: Ten years since telling the Labour Party conference that his priorities in government would be "education, education, education" , Mr Blair is keen to embed his school reforms as a key legacy of his premiership. Until now, the government had planned two-hundred city academies by the end of the decade. Now Mr Blair wants to open four-hundred of the independent, business and charity-sponsored schools. He also wants to ensure the new trust schools, also run with external partners, will be in the pipeline before he leaves Downing Street. He'll say he expects to have one-hundred schools working towards trust status by the Spring. He'll announce a number of new trust partners, including big organisations like Unilever and the Co-operative Group. In a further surprise move, I understand Mr Blair is likely to announce reforms to A-levels, to ensure they offer a greater challenge to the brightest students, and he's expected to surprise schools by announcing funding to encourage the take-up of the post-sixteen exam, the International Baccalaureate, in the state sector.

BUSH

President Bush has been meeting the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki in the Jordanian capital, Amman -- to discuss the escalating violence in Iraq. At a news conference within the past few minutes, Mr Bush praised Mr Maliki as a strong leader, and said America would support him in his mission to maintain a stable and democratic Iraq. President Bush told journalists that America's goal in the country was to support Iraq's bid for peace -- and he said Mr Maliki agreed how that could best be achieved:

BUSH: We agreed on the importance of speeding up the training of Iraqi security forces. Our goal is to ensure that the prime minister has more capable forces under his control, so his government can fight the terrorists and the death squads, and provide security and stability in his country.

BROWN

The chancellor, Gordon Brown, has been receiving messages of support after announcing that his four-month-old son has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Mr Brown and his wife, Sarah, were told in the summer that Fraser might have the inherited condition. They say they're optimistic that advances in medicine will keep him healthy. Ed Owen is a board member of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and a former government adviser. His four-year-old daughter has the disease. He told us new treatments were raising life expectancy:

OWEN: I think that babies and young children at the moment, as with my daughter, can hopefully expect to live perhaps into their forties and beyond. And what is extremely optimistic is the very good news that's coming from the research into finding a cure, which is a gene therapy cure, which I think people are very optimistic could bring results in the next few years.

SCIENCE

Scientists are being urged to become more involved in public debates about their research -- or risk "sleepwalking into a future shaped by extremists". The warning is being made by the president of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal, Lord Rees. He will be speaking at a ceremony to mark the presentation of the society's most prestigious award - the Copley Medal - to Professor Stephen Hawking. Lord Rees told us he wanted colleagues to play a more active role in discussions on issues such as climate change, nuclear power and stem cell research:

REES: The scientists should make clear exactly what the benefits are, exactly what's involved in the experiments, and they should engage with the public. And, indeed, I think, in the UK, we have a good record, because we have a good system of regulation for stem cells, because the scientists engaged with parliamentarians and journalists early on, and that led to a regulation system which is frankly a good deal better than they have in the United States. That's a model, I think, of how we should conduct these other debates.

You can hear an interview with Stephen Hawking after this bulletin.

HARMONDSWORTH

A hundred-and-fifty illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers are being released on bail, because of yesterday's disturbance at the Harmondsworth detention centre near Heathrow Airport. The Home Office says the trouble -- which affected all four wings -- has now been contained. A statement on what happened is due to be made later. Here's our Home Affairs Correspondent, Danny Shaw:

SHAW: The disturbance at Harmondsworth, which holds about five-hundred immigration detainees, was the last thing the Home Office needed. There's simply not enough room in other removal centres or prisons to accommodate all those who've been displaced. Releasing failed asylum seekers and over-stayers on strict bail conditions was the only option, though officials say no foreign prisoners will be let out. The disruption at Harmondsworth triggered Operation Tornado, in which prison officers from elsewhere were bussed in to restore order. But that has added to the strains on the prison system at a time when there are more than eighty-thousand inmates, with some being held in police cells.

FIRE

Firefighters were called to another immigration detention centre in south Yorkshire last night. They spent two-and-a-half hours tackling the fire at Lindholme, near Doncaster. A Home Office spokeswoman said there had been no loss of accommodation.

RAIDS

Hundreds of police officers have raided homes across London as part of an operation targeting domestic abuse and racist and homophobic offences. A number of men have been arrested. Scotland Yard said the aim was "to put the fear back on to offenders" -- and encourage victims to come forward.

LENDING

Doorstep lending companies which charge high rates of interest are to face tough new rules from the Competition Commission. After a two-year inquiry, the commission has concluded that firms must do more to make the cost of loans clear -- but it's decided against putting a cap on the rates of interest which can be charged. Our Business Correspondent, Nils Blythe, reports:

BLYTHE: Doorstep lenders specialise in making small loans, usually to low income customers. The rates of interest are very high, and had been cause for the Competition Commission to put a cap on the interest charged. The commission has decided not to, partly for fear that too many restrictions would drive the regulated lenders out of business, and leave the field open to unregulated loan sharks. But the commission has finally concluded that there must be very clear information for customers, and the lenders must share credit reference information to try and make the industry more competitive. One company, Provident Financial, currently has over half the market. Most of the measures will be in force within a year.

RESTAURANTS

A report says children's menus at some of Britain's best-known high street restaurants are not meeting the minimum nutritional standards expected in school dinners. The research -- commissioned by the Soil Association -- analysed the contents of meals in ten national restaurant chains, and discovered unacceptably high levels of fat, sugar and salt.

SOUTH UIST

The islanders of South Uist will take control of their land today in what is the biggest community buy-out in Scotland to date. They've succeeded in raising four-and-a-half-million pounds to purchase more than ninety-thousand acres in the Western Isles. It's the latest in a string of such projects in the Highlands and Islands -- as our Scotland Correspondent, Colin Blane, reports:

BLANE: For more than forty years, the South Uist estate has been owned by a sporting syndicate. But, from today, the land will belong to the people who live on it. The islanders took their appeal for funds to Scots in London and expatriates abroad. The largest donations came from the Lottery Fund and public bodies. It's the latest in series of buy-outs in recent years. Estates in Gigha, Knoydart, Eigg, Assynt and North Harris have all been taken into community ownership. In total, three-quarters-of-a-million acres - an area larger than Northern Ireland - are already in the hands of local people, or are heading that way. Sparsely-populated communities see the buy-outs as a chance for economic revival.

It's eight o'clock on Wednesday the 29th of November.

The father of a lawyer killed during a street robbery has called for urgent action to stop young people committing such crimes out of boredom or for fun.

More NATO troops serving in Afghanistan are to be freed for front-line duty -- but not in the numbers wanted by Tony Blair.

A BBC survey suggests a majority of people favour limits on Muslim women wearing veils in public.

Fidel Castro has missed the start of his re-scheduled 80th birthday celebrations because of ill-health.

CRIME

The father of a lawyer, stabbed to death by two teenage robbers in a London street, has said more must be done to prevent youngsters from committing such crimes out of boredom or bravado. Speaking on the Today programme, John ap Rhys Price -- whose son, Tom, was murdered in January -- said his family was setting up a charity to find ways of channelling the energy of young people "wandering the street". A new study suggests many muggings are carried out for fun as much as for money -- as Ben Ando reports:

ANDO: The number of street robberies is rising, and they're becoming more violent. To find out why, researchers from Glamorgan University interviewed a hundred-and-twenty offenders, and discovered that some became addicted to the buzz of a robbery, while others saw robbery as a form of street justice. These findings come the day after two teenagers were jailed for stabbing lawyer, Tom ap Rhys Pryce, to death in London for his travel card and mobile phone. His father, John, says the attackers' energy needs channelling:

AP RHYS PRYCE: Lots of people do things for a buzz, for kicks, for adrenalin. But it doesn't have to be violent, does it? I mean, playing sport will give you a good feeling. We have to try and divert that desire for excitement into a different direction.

ANDO: This research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, says many of the motives are tied into street culture, and those responsible are not motivated by financial gain, but because they enjoy it.

NATO

NATO leaders are to announce changes in the rules which prevent some troops based in Afghanistan from being used in combat. The exemptions -- called "national caveats" -- have been a source of frustration for Britain and the United States. Last night -- before the start of their summit in the Latvian capital, Riga -- Tony Blair made an impassioned plea for more help in defeating the Taleban -- a bid which wasn't entirely unsuccessful. Our Defence Correspondent, Paul Wood, is travelling with the prime minister, and sent this report:

WOOD: Mr Blair has been given a measure of the flexibility he's demanding from those other NATO countries in Afghanistan. But that doesn't mean Germany, France, Italy or Spain are about to redeploy their forces to those southern provinces where the war against the Taleban is actually being waged. Instead, the French are no longer insisted on working only in Kabul, while the Germans are making similar sorts of noises. In other words, there's limited movement from the two nations with the most to contribute. The Dutch and the Romanians have lifted all the caveats which would stop them being deployed in combat, while other nations have lifted any caveat which would have a harmful operational impact, along with pledges of small numbers of extra troops from Bulgaria, Spain and Macedonia. All this does represent progress, both from Mr Blair and the NATO high command, but it is hardly the forceful demonstration of political will they were looking for to send a message to the Taleban that this is fight they cannot win.

LITVINENKO

Police investigating the death of the former Russian security agent, Alexander Litvinenko, are continuing to examine two new sites in the West End of London. They are the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, in Piccadilly, and an office building in Grosvenor Street, in Mayfair. So far, no trace of polonium-210 -- the radioactive substance thought to have killed Mr Litvinenko -- has been found at either location. Eight people are being tested to see if they have been contaminated. Speaking on the Today programme, the chief executive of the Health Protection Agency, Pat Troop, said the point of checking the buildings was to reassure the public:

TROOP: You always get background levels of polonium, but we're not finding anything which is going to cause a public health worry. Therefore, what we're doing is making sure that people can go into those buildings. If we had worries, we would ask the areas to be sealed. But we are trying to make sure that everybody is confident that they can go into those parts of those buildings.

POPE

Pope Benedict will travel to Istanbul later for what was intended to be the centrepiece of his visit to Turkey -- a meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians. But he'll begin the second day of his trip by saying mass at shrine visited by thousands of Christians and Muslims every year. Our correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, reports from Ephesus, on the Aegean Coast:

RAINSFORD: Pope Benedict is coming to Ephesus to visit a shrine to the Virgin Mary, a small stone house in the hills where the mother of Jesus is said to have spent her last years. The Pope will say an open-air mass at the sanctuary to a specially-invited congregation of Catholics, shifting the focus of this trip to Turkey away from controversy over his attitude to Islam. From here, Benedict XVI will travel to Istanbul, where he'll be the guest of the Ecumenical Orthodox patriarch, spiritual leader to around two-hundred-and-fifty-million Orthodox Christians worldwide. The Pope is hoping to take steps towards healing the ancient rift between the two churches. That was the original priority for this visit before the Pope's comments on Islam and violence sparked outrage across the Muslim world.

TURKEY

Turkey is facing the partial suspension of talks paving the way for it to join the European Union. BBC News has learned that the European Commission is likely to call for negotiations on some issues to be halted -- for the time being -- because of Turkey's continuing refusal to recognise Cyprus.

VEIL

A survey commissioned by the BBC suggests a majority of British people favour a ban on Muslim women wearing the veil in some public places. More than a thousand adults took part in the poll, carried out this month by ICM. Sixty-one per cent said they would approve a ban in airports; more than half said the the veil shouldn't be worn in schools or courts. But there was less support for a total ban -- as Nasreen Suleaman reports:

SULEAMAN: The wearing of the veil has come under intense scrutiny since the leader of the Commons, Jack Straw, called it a "visible sign of separation". However, the BBC survey found that only thirty-three per cent would support legislation that banned Muslim women from wearing the veil in all public places. Fifty-six per cent say they disapproved of such a law. There's anecdotal evidence that more Muslim women have chosen to wear the face covering since Mr Straw's comment. Nadeem Sidique sells the veil at his shop in Blackburn:

SIDIQUE: Slightly, the sale of the veil has increased. I normally used to sell one or two in a week, but now, most probably, I'm selling every day one or two.

SULEAMAN: The issue of the veil is set to continue. A ruling is expected soon on whether or not anyone who wears it should be allowed into a courtroom. But, at present, it's unlikely the government will prohibit it. They say that it's a matter for the employers, not politicians.

SHELTER

The charity, Shelter, says one-in-seven children is growing up homeless -- or are living in bad housing. According to its research -- which is based on government figures -- this amounts to one-point-six-million children across Britain. Shelter calls the situation a "scandal". It wants the government to make a promise to expand social housing by an extra twenty-thousand homes a year. Graeme Brown, from Shelter, told us far fewer such homes were being built now than in 1966 -- when the charity was founded:

BROWN: In that year, we built a hundred-and-forty-thousand council houses; today, we're actually building eighteen-thousand. So there's a chronic problem with supply. That, combined with spiralling house inflation - and I think we've had a hundred per cent house inflation over the last nine years alone - means that there simply aren't enough homes to go around.

FAREPAK

The deadline to make donations to a fund set up to help customers of the collapsed Christmas savings club, Farepak, expires today. So far, it's raised five-point-eight-million pounds -- which will be paid out before Christmas.

OXFORD

Radical plans to change the way Oxford University is run have been rejected by academics. Under the proposals, the governing council would be split into an academic board and a financial board -- with the latter, for the the first time, recruiting half its members from outside the university. Academics -- gathered in what's known as the "parliament of the dons" -- voted by seven-hundred-and-thirty to four-hundred-and-fifty-six against the plans. There may now be a postal ballot of every member of the ruling body next month.

CASTRO

The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, has issued a statement saying that ill health prevented him from attending the start of five days of events marking his 80th birthday. The president hasn't been seen in public since July -- when he handed his main powers temporarily to his brother, Raul. His birthday celebrations were due to be held in August -- but were postponed. Our correspondent, Stephen Gibbs, reports from Havana:

GIBBS: The statement signed by Fidel Castro was read out to hundreds of his admirers who'd gathered to hear a concert in Havana's Karl Marx Theatre. The Cuban leader offered his regrets that he was unable to attend. He wrote that his doctors felt that he was not ready for such a challenging engagement. It's now unclear whether Mr Castro will appear at any of the events that are being held here in his honour over the coming days. Since he was taken ill last July, he's only been seen in officially-sanctioned photographs and videos. The most recent showed him both speaking and walking, but clearly weak and gaunt. President Castro's health is officially a state secret in Cuba. While senior ministers have repeatedly said that he is recuperating well from a gastric illness, almost no further details have been revealed.

It's eight o'clock on Tuesday the 28th of November. The headlines:

The BBC has expressed its disappointment at the resignation of its chairman, Michael Grade, who's joining ITV -- Mr Grade said it was an opportunity he couldn't resist.

Police investigating the death of Alexander Litvinenko have found evidence of radioactive poison at the offices of an exiled Russian billionaire.

And Alan Freeman -- the DJ who entertained generations of pop pickers -- has died.

GRADE 1

The BBC has expressed surprise and disappointment at the sudden departure of its chairman, Michael Grade, for its main rival, ITV. He's to become the commercial broadcaster's executive chairman. In a statement this morning, Mr Grade said it had been a tough decision to leave the BBC, but the appointment was an opportunity he couldn't resist. Mr Grade, who's been BBC chairman for two-and-a-half years, has been steering the corporation through its complex negotiations with the government for its next licence fee settlement -- arguing for an increase above the rate of inflation. Here's our Media Correspondent, Torin Douglas:

DOUGLAS: The news was confirmed by ITV to the Stock Exchange this morning and by the BBC governors, who said they were disappointed. The timing is bad for the BBC, which is still negotiating the next licence fee. Michael Grade was also due to take over as chairman of the new BBC Trust, which will replace its board of governors on January the 1st. Instead, he'll be running its biggest rival. The BBC director-general, Mark Thompson, said many would find Mr Grade's decision "surprising", but the BBC was sorry to see him go and wished him the best for the future. He released a letter from Mr Grade, who said it had been a "huge personal decision" to leave the BBC. He had been faced with the choice of getting back into programming or 'governing' the BBC from a distance.

GRADE 2

Jeff Randall, who broke the story of Mr Grade's appointment in The Daily Telegraph, told us the offer from ITV seemed too good to resist. He quoted from an ITV news release confirming the appointment:

RANDALL: Michael Grade's salary, it says, will be eight-hundred-and-twenty-five-thousand pounds per annum, but he will also have a bonus, share awards, pension provisions - the total package is worth clearly much more than a million pounds a year. Here at the BBC, Michael was earning something like a hundred-and-forty-thousand pounds.

POISONING

Scotland Yard detectives are now carrying out tests at five locations across London, where traces have been found of the radioactive poison that killed the former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko. Two more sites were detected yesterday, among them the offices of the exiled Russian billionaire, Boris Berezovsky. Ben Ando reports:

ANDO: Polonium-210, the radioactive isotope that appears to have cause the mysterious death of Alexander Litvinenko at a hospital in London last week, has now been found not just at the sushi restaurant where he'd lunched three weeks earlier, but also at the offices of his friend, the Russian oil oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, and at the premises of Erinys, a private security firm. All of the locations are within half a mile of each other in central London. It's not yet clear how the radioactivity got there, though Mr Litvinenko had visited Erinys recently, and reportedly went to Mr Berezovsky's offices on the day he fell ill. Three people have been tested for radiation sickness by the Health Protection Agency. Forty hospital staff are being monitored.

POPE

A major security operation is being mounted in the Turkish capital, Ankara, for the start of a four-day visit by the Pope. There've already been protests against the visit, most of them by Muslim groups angered by his speech two months ago in which he used quotes linking Islam to violence. Our Europe Editor, Mark Mardell, reports:

MARDELL: The Turkish government says the security for the Pope's trip will be higher than that surrounding President Bush's visit two years ago. Fifteen-thousand police have been assigned to guard him, and their anxiety is understandable. The Pope infuriated many in this mainly Muslim country when he quoted the remarks of a Byzantine emperor that Mohammed had brought only evil and inhumanity to this world. The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose party has Islamic roots, had said he hadn't got time to see the Pope because he had to go to a NATO summit, but he's now finally agreed to a brief meeting as they cross paths at Ankara airport. With talks about Turkey joining the European Union on a knife-edge, there is extreme sensitivity here about the attitude of the Christian West towards their country, and the Pope's visit may be a focus for those concerns.

COUNCIL TAX

Local authorities in England have been warned by ministers to keep council tax rises to below five per cent next year. Later today, the government will announce details of its annual grant settlement -- but the Local Government Association believes many councils won't get enough to cover the rising cost of services.

ABORTION

There are calls for a change in the law to make it easier for British women to have abortions. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service says it should no longer take two doctors to agree for the procedure to go ahead. It's carried out research suggesting nearly sixty per cent of British adults support so-called "abortion on demand". The chief executive of the BPAS is Anne Furedi:

FUREDI: It seems to me that, particularly in early pregnancy, abortion is an acceptable back-up to a woman's birth control, and I think that, whereas most of us feel that abortion is an unpleasant thing for a woman to have to go through, we think that it should be available for those women who need it.

SCHOOL TRIPS

Ministers are announcing a series of measures aimed at encouraging teachers in England to organise more school trips. More than eight-million pupils go on trips annually, but a series of accidents have made some teachers and parents wary about them -- in the past nine years, twenty-five children have died on school trips, and five teachers have been found guilty of gross negligence. But on the Today programme, the schools minister, Jim Knight, told us children should take advantage of the trips:

KNIGHT: Obviously, you know, if a teacher is being grossly negligent inside the school or outside, then they're going to be liable. But given the millions and millions of trips that go on every year from our schools - ninety per cent of children access those trips - then I don't think it's a massive problem.

MENTAL HEALTH

The government will begin its third attempt to introduce new mental health legislation today. Critics, including psychiatrists and social workers, will protest against the plans in Westminster, arguing that people may be detained too easily or treated in the community without their consent. From Westminster, here's our Political Correspondent, Laura Kuenssberg:

KUENSSBERG: People with personality disorders can only be detained if they'd respond to psychiatric treatment. But prompted by the 1998 conviction of Michael Stone for the murder of Lin and Megan Russell, the government have been trying, with little success, to change that. Its third attempt to introduce new laws starts today. Peers will debate ministers' plans to make it easier for people with personality disorders to be detained, and to introduce compulsory treatment in the community. But a lobby of psychiatrists, psychologists and others will demonstrate against the plans in Westminster.

WATER

A coalition of environmental groups, which includes anglers, the National Trust and the RSPB , is warning that the Britain's water system is in crisis. In a report, they say the amount of water being drawn from lakes and rivers for domestic use, along with pollution and soil erosion, are having a catastrophic effect on wildlife. Our Environment Correspondent ,Sarah Mukherjee, reports:

MUKHERJEE: It's estimated that four-million people enjoy angling as a hobby. Until now, angling groups have been reluctant to get involved in environmental campaigning. But today, they're at the forefront of this new report, which is highly critical of current water management. They give several examples. In the south-west, lakes supplied by the River Tamar have been covered in toxic algal blooms caused by agricultural pollution; millions of tonnes of raw sewage are discharged every year by Victorian drainpipes into the River Thames; and the River Mimram in Hertfordshire has dried up, because so much water is being taken from it to supply homes and businesses. Today's report says domestic water use should be cut by twenty per cent, and fines for water pollution hugely increased.

LOW MOTIVATION

A survey carried out in six countries suggests Britain's workforce is one of the least enthusiastic in the Western world. According to the sixteen-thousand people who took part in the research, it's those at the lowest levels within companies who are the least motivated. Here's our Labour Affairs Correspondent, Stephen Cape:

CAPE: According to the findings, senior managers are to blame for failing to motivate their workforce, and the survey found that this reflected on staff. Less than a third of those questioned in the UK were happy with their working conditions. This compared to just under half surveyed in Norway, and thirty-eight per cent in the United States and Australia. The least satisfied were junior managers and below. The study concluded that staff retention rates remain high in businesses where the workforce is satisfied.

PRINCE CHARLES

The Prince of Wales has arrived in Sierra Leone at the start of a four-day visit to West Africa. He's there to see how the country is returning to normal after the eleven-year civil war which ended in 2002. Among his engagements, he'll be meeting British troops training the Sierra Leone forces.

FREEMAN

The radio presenter, Alan Freeman, has died at the age of seventy-nine. He'd broadcast for forty years on the BBC and commercial stations, and was best-known for his chart show, Pick of the Pops. His fellow presenter on Radio Two, Bob Harris, said that in his day, Freeman had revolutionised British radio:

HARRIS: Really, the generation that I associate Alan with is that generation that emerged on the light programme. By comparison with the pace of the network at that time, Fluff came in like a sort of Exocet missile. He just brought in such energy with him, and just sounded very different from pretty much everything else around him. It was slick and fast and smooth and sort of wisecracking. That was a sort of precursor of what was then just about to happen with the pirates.

It's eight o'clock on Monday the 27th of November. The headlines:

Network Rail has made its first profit -- seven-hundred-and-fifty-million pounds over six months.

Tony Blair has expressed his "deep sorrow" for Britain's role in the slave trade -- but some campaigners want a formal apology.

And England's cricket captain says his team will bounce back after their first Ashes Test defeat.

RAIL 1

Network Rail -- which owns Britain's railway system -- has made a profit for the first time in its short history. Its financial results for the six months to September show a profit of seven-hundred-and-forty-seven-million pounds, which will be spent on improving the railways. The company -- which acquired the beleaguered firm, Railtrack, four years ago -- claims that nine out of ten trains are now running on time. This report from our Transport Correspondent, Tom Symonds:

SYMONDS: Network Rail is an unusual type of company -- with no shareholders, its profits must be spent on the railways. And much of its money comes directly from the government. It's made a profit now because it's started receiving delayed payments from the government under a previous agreement with ministers. But Network Rail has also managed to cut more than a billion pounds of its costs - which will help its finances. The company's chairman, Ian McAllister, said improved train safety and punctuality had turned Britain's railways into a success story, but new and greater challenges lay ahead -- with more passengers, Network Rail had to find ways of easing overcrowding and boosting the capacity of the rail system.

RAIL 2

And the chairman of Network Rail, Ian McAllister, told us how he intended to do that:

MCALLISTER: By removing pinch-points within the network, so we can run more trains on the same mileage of track. There are areas, for example, during the days of British Rail, when they were lowering costs - quite rightly so - to deal with lower passenger numbers; and, for example, certain dual lines were reduced to single lines. And it's a question of putting the dual lines back. That will increase capacity and reduce journey times.

CEASEFIRE

The new ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza appears to be holding, after an inauspicious start. Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said he'd show "restraint and patience", after militants fired rockets into Israel, just hours after the truce came into effect early yesterday. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has ordered his security forces to prevent further attacks. From Jerusalem, Jon Leyne:

LEYNE: After a shaky start in which a number of rockets were fired on Israel, the ceasefire has now taken hold. The militant group, Islamic Jihad, which originally said it was not part of the deal, has committed itself to the ceasefire. And members of the Israeli cabinet are vying with each other to claim credit. There's still Israeli military activity in the West Bank -- overnight two Palestinians were killed -- but the political and diplomatic discussions are moving ahead in earnest. The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, is considering making his first trip out of Gaza since being elected to push ahead negotiations on forming a government of national unity. But senior figures in the Israeli army are deeply sceptical. They warn that the pause is just giving Palestinian militants more time to rearm and regroup.

IRAQ

The defence secretary, Des Browne, will say today that the handover of Iraqi territory now under British control to local forces from next year will not mean a withdrawal. In a speech in London, he'll say British troops will still provide support for the Iraqi army and police, and protect supply routes. But he'll also make clear that he's determined that British personnel should not stay in Iraq any longer than necessary.

APOLOGY

Tony Blair has expressed his "deep sorrow" about Britain's role in the slave trade -- nearly two-hundred years after the legislation that led to its abolition in the British Empire. His statement is published in New Nation -- a newspaper serving black communities. The prime minister describes the slave trade as "shameful" and condemns its existence. But he's angered some activists by failing to issue a formal apology.

CLIMATE

The bosses of some of Europe's top businesses are expected to urge the president of the European Commission, Manuel Barroso, to impose tougher targets on greenhouse gas emissions. At a meeting in London later today, they'll tell him to stop member states reneging on commitments they have made under the Kyoto Protocol. It's the precursor to a vital climate meeting on Wednesday, as our Environment Analyst, Roger Harrabin reports:

HARRABIN: Member states are supposed to be setting stricter pollution limits on firms, but most aren't doing that. The EU's environment commissioner forecasts that unless the commission takes a big stick to the member states, industrial emissions will actually grow by fifteen per cent. Today in London, bosses of several leading European firms will tell Mr Barroso to impose strict long-term targets on business pollution to keep Europe in the lead on climate. But other energy-intensive firms are warning that tough targets could drive them out of the EU. Without a sharp kick from commission at Wednesday's meeting, the EU's carbon trading scheme could collapse. The world's faltering efforts to tackle the greenhouse effect would probably collapse with it.

CBI

The CBI begins its annual conference today, with a warning that foreign companies are being put off from investing in Britain because of high taxes on businesses. The employers' organisation is urging the government to follow other countries in reducing business taxes. Our Business Correspondent, Nils Blythe, reports:

BLYTHE: The CBI believes that, in the last five years, Britain has become a less attractive place for international businesses. The argument is that other countries have been cutting business taxes to attract new investment - so Ireland, for example, now levies corporation tax at twelve-and-a-half per cent, compared with Britain's thirty per cent. And a CBI survey of eighty-seven senior figures at major companies found two-thirds dissatisfied with the government's approach to international competitiveness. The CBI will make its case to leading politicians at its two-day conference starting in London this morning.

MAYOR

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has turned down an invitation to take part in a conference organised by the Commission for Racial Equality. Mr Livingstone's accused the commission's chairman, Trevor Phillips, of trying to grab alarmist headlines, rather than developing meaningful discussion. Mr Phillips told the Today programme that the conference was not a political rally but a professional working event. He said he was sad Mr Livingstone wasn't coming, and said there wasn't a feud - because that had to be two sided, and he didn't know what the mayor has an issue with.

SHOOTING

Demonstrations have been taking place in New York, in protest at the fatal shooting of an young, unarmed black man by police -- on the morning of his wedding. Sean Bell, who was twenty-three, was due to marry the mother of his two children on Saturday. Police opened fire as he left a strip club in the borough of Queens at the end of his stag night, killing Mr Bell and wounding two of his friends. Jeremy Cooke reports from New York:

COOKE: The exact details of what happened outside the Kalua Club are not clear, but the New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, has confirmed that his officers fired some fifty rounds into a car being driven by twenty-three-year-old Sean Bell, who had just left the club at the end of his stag night. Mr Bell, who was supposed to have been married later on Saturday, died at the scene. The two friends with him were hit several times. Commissioner Kelly says his officers believed that one of the men in the car may have had a gun, but no weapons were recovered. He accepted that it was unclear why the shooting had started or whether his detectives had identified themselves as police officers. Amid mounting protests from New York's black community, a major investigation is under way.

HOSPITAL

A new NHS computer system is launched today which will help doctors find hospital cots for critically-ill babies. Until now, NHS staff have had to ring round individual hospitals to find places. Our Health Correspondent, Jane Hughes, has the details:

HUGHES: Over seventeen-thousand babies a year in England need neonatal care, and most are treated locally. But when hospitals don't have cots available, doctors can spend hours ringing around trying to find free places in other parts of the country. According to campaigners, that puts babies' lives at risk. This system is designed to show immediately where neonatal cots are available. The Department of Health says that'll mean babies can be transferred as quickly and smoothly as possible. But the charity, Bliss, says while the new system is good news, too many babies will still be treated too far from home.

INTERNET

A new survey has found that a growing number of people are turning off their televisions and watching videos or programmes on the internet. The survey of people's viewing habits has been commissioned by the BBC News website. Our Media Correspondent, Torin Douglas, reports:

DOUGLAS: Whether it's video-sharing sites such as YouTube, or programmes on-demand from iTunes or broadcasters such as Channel Four and the BBC, more people in Britain are watching online. The BBC News survey, among a thousand people by phone, and another thousand via the internet, suggests one in ten of us now watches online or on a mobile at least once a week. That number seems set to grow as broadband improves the picture quality and more videos are made available - though two-thirds of those asked did not expect to watch online within the next year.

CRICKET

Cricket: England have lost the first Ashes Test against the Australians by 277 runs. Kevin Pietersen -- who began the day on 92 -- was out fourth ball. The England captain, Andrew Flintoff, said his team would be prepared for the second match in the series, which begins in Adelaide on Friday:

FLINTOFF: The mood's fine, you know. It's a strong side, there's a lot of characters in that dressing room. Just because we got beaten in one Test, you know, the series isn't over. We're one-nil down, a position that some of us have been in before, and we've bounced back from that on numerous occasions, and we'll be looking to do that again.

It's eight o'clock on Friday the 24th of November.

The former Russian agent being treated in London for suspected poisoning died last night.

Doctors say that offering the breast cancer drug, Herceptin, on the NHS may mean other cancer patients losing out.

A yachtsman whose boat capsized a thousand miles from land has been rescued.

RUSSIAN 1

The Russian dissident at the centre of a suspected plot to poison him, has died in hospital in London. Alexander Litvinenko's death was announced late last night -- with doctors still not clear about the cause of his illness. Here's our Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera:

CORERA: In a statement, University College Hospital said that Alexander Litvinenko died at 9.21 on Thursday evening. A spokesman for the hospital, Jim Down, said he was seriously ill when he'd been admitted the previous Friday, and the hospital team had done everything possible to save his life:

DOWN: Every avenue was explored to establish the cause of his condition, and the matter is now an ongoing investigation being dealt with by detectives from New Scotland Yard. Because of this, we will not be commenting any further.

CORERA: The Metropolitan Police said that it was now investigating an unexplained death, and that inquiries were continuing. The former Russian intelligence officer - a critic of the current Russian government - fell ill on November the 1st, after a series of meetings in central London. Police had previously indicated that they believed he had been poisoned. Speculation that thallium or radioactive thallium may have been involved have been discounted, and on Thursday, doctors said they had not been able to determine the exact cause of his illness.

RUSSIAN 2

A senior Russian politician said this morning that accusations the Russian security services had poisoned Mr Litvinenko were completely unfounded. The head of the Russian Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, said they didn't do these sort of things. The intelligence analyst, Glenmore Trenear Harvey -- who was a friend of Mr Litvinenko -- told us that President Putin and the Russian authorities would not have considered him to be any more than a "pest":

HARVEY: I cannot conceive, quite frankly, that Putin or the Soviet services would target someone like this. The threat of disturbing bilateral relationships between Russia and the United Kingdom would be far too great - it would be out of balance for the supposed benefits from his death.

RUSSIAN 3

Alexander Litvinenko was a former agent in the Russian secret service, the FSB. He fled his country in 2000 after falling out with his masters, and was granted political asylum in Britain. During his years in exile here, he became an outspoken critic of President Putin. Our correspondent, Allan Little, examines the cause of his dispute with the Russian authorities:

LITTLE: Alexander Litvinenko came to Britain seeking refuge from his former colleagues and bosses in the FSB. He broke ranks with them in the late Nineties, claiming they'd ordered him to murder the tycoon, Boris Berezovsky. He was then briefly jailed on what he claimed were trumped-up charges of corruption. When a Russian court ordered him released, he sought and was granted asylum here. From London, he continued his campaign to expose what he believed were serious human rights abuses in Russia. In 2002, he published a book accusing the FBS of planting the bombs that destroyed several Russian apartment blocks in 1999; hundreds died. Russia blamed Chechen separatists, and enjoyed huge public support for its subsequent war to retake control of the breakaway southern republic of Chechnya. He'd been investigating the death of the Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in Moscow earlier this year. On the day he fell ill, Alexander Litvinenko had had lunch with an Italian contact with whom he discussed the danger he believed himself to be in.

AFGHAN

There are fresh claims that British troops in Afghanistan are facing shortages. A Royal Marine sergeant in Helmand province has complained that his men don't have enough of certain types of ammunition and specialist equipment, and are using inappropriate vehicles. Senior officers insist that there are enough to do the job. Our correspondent, Peter Grant, is with the Marines in Helmand:

GRANT: The claims are made by Sergeant Stephen Brown. He commands the small Royal Marines unit which used to include Marine Gary Wright. He was killed last month by a suicide bomber whilst on patrol in a Land Rover, and a sergeant with him was injured. Sergeant Brown says a heavier vehicle might have prevented those injuries. He says his men don't have enough thermal imaging sights, which register body heat and which would show a bomber's explosives against his body. And he says they are short of grenades launched from rifles. But Colonel Andy Price says there are enough grenades available, and heavy vehicles are inappropriate to patrols in narrow streets in built-up areas. He agrees there is a shortage of thermal sights in Sergeant Brown's area, but not in others, and says more have been requested. He says there is enough equipment to do the job, but also says that if they had more, the troops could do more.

CAMERON

David Cameron is taking another step away from the Conservatives' policies of the past. He'll confirm this morning that the party has shifted its position on tackling poverty. He'll argue that it isn't absolute, but relative, with the poorest struggling to keep up as the rest of society prospers. And Mr Cameron will say that the Conservatives will take action to tackle it.

HERCEPTIN

A team of cancer specialists have issued a stark warning about the knock-on effects of the decision by the NHS to offer the breast cancer drug, Herceptin, to women in the early stages of the disease. In an article in the British Medical Journal, they say the cost of the treatment means other cancer patients may lose out. On the Today programme, Dr Tom Roques, who's the Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said the NHS was getting no extra funding for the drug:

ROQUES: What I see, as an oncologist practising every day, is that our budgets in our department are going down, and we're having to make some difficult decisions about which patients we can treat realistically. And our concern is that the media pressure, the pressure from individual patients and from the drug industry is telling us what we should and shouldn't be giving to patients, rather than an informed, reasoned debate.

BLAIR

The prime minister is to argue that independence for Scotland would put at risk prosperity and jobs. Tony Blair's comments -- in a speech to the Scottish Labour Party conference in Oban -- follow a series of polls suggesting the Scottish National Party is edging ahead of Labour.

LABOUR

The Labour Party has defended the policy of obliging councillors to pay a levy to local Labour groups -- after a former council leader in Sunderland quit the party in protest. Bryn Sidaway has said he believes a request from Labour that he should pay it a percentage of his allowances as a councillor is unlawful. He's refused to pay. In response, Labour said the levy had been approved by the last party conference. It said local branches collected it for the benefit of the whole group, so it would be wrong for some councillors not to contribute.

YACHT

A British yachtsman was rescued this morning after his boat capsized during the round-the-world race. Alex Thomson was stranded for twenty-four hours after his yacht overturned about a thousand miles south-east of the Cape of Good Hope. Another British competitor, Mike Golding, turned back to pick him up. Alex Thomson spoke by satellite link shortly before the rescue:

THOMSON: This is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. This boat has been my life for the last three years, and it really doesn't feel right to be leaving her behind.

DRINKING

The new licensing laws which let some pubs and clubs in England and Wales serve drinks for twenty-four hours are a year old. Research has suggested that fears that late-night drinking could cause a big increase in anti-social behaviour may have been unfounded. Tim Muffett reports:

MUFFETT: According to a YouGov poll, the impact of new licensing laws hasn't been as bad as many predicted. It says eighty-five per cent of pub-goers felt the changes had made no difference to the number of occasions they went out, or the times at which they did so. Some police forces, though, have noticed a change. Northamptonshire Police say the new laws are putting a strain on resources, as officers now have to work later. Brighton and Hove Police say less serious crimes in public places have gone up by more than thirty-six per cent. Serious violent crime there has dropped, though, and generally they say they welcome the new laws. Licensing minister, Shaun Woodward, has said it's early days, but that there are encouraging signs the overall effect has been positive.

MATERNITY

A survey has found that many businesses are concerned about extra administration and costs involved in new legal rights for working parents. Nearly fifteen-hundred firms were questioned for the study. Here's our Labour Affairs Correspondent, Stephen Cape:

CAPE: The legislation will, from next April, extend maternity and adoption pay from six to nine months, give carers the right to request flexible working, and fathers could get up to twenty-six weeks additional paternity leave. But the survey found that only around one-in-ten employers think that the new rights will benefit their organisations. Smaller firms could have greater problems. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which carried out the research, said that employers recognise the importance of work-life balance, but there was scepticism about some of the provisions outlined in the legislation.

ASHES

Cricket: with three days of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane left to play, it looks like a draw is the best England can hope for. They finished the second day on 53 for three, having seen Australia declare their first innings on 602 for nine. The Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, made 196. Glenn McGrath took the wickets of both England's openers - Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook - in successive deliveries when the score was on 28. At the close, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen were the not-out batsmen.