THE HEADLINES AT 0800 ON MONDAY18TH DECEMBER

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.