THE HEADLINES AT 0800 ON WEDNESDAY 13TH DECEMBER

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...