![Kercher family will head to Perugia]()
The family of murdered British student Meredith Kercher are expected to return this weekend to the Italian city where she died, their lawyer has said.
The University of Leeds student was on a year abroad in Perugia when she was killed after what prosecutors said was a bungled sex game forced on her by housemate Amanda Knox and others.
American Knox, 24, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, were jailed for the murder in 2009 but have appealed against their convictions and are soon to learn whether they will be released.
The Kerchers, who have visited the Umbrian hilltop city a few times already to watch the judicial proceedings take place, will fly in on Saturday for the result of the appeal, Francesco Maresca said.
The verdict is expected to be delivered either on Saturday or early next week. This comes after a final courtroom showdown this week, with lawyers for all parties ramping up the rhetoric in their bids for victory.
On Monday, Knox was labelled a lying, sex-loving she-devil by lawyer Carlo Pacelli, who represents a man she falsely accused of the murder, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba.
Echoing the vivid language he used at the end of the original trial, Mr Pacelli asked the court: "Who is Amanda Knox? Is she the mild-looking, fresh-faced person you see here, or the one devoted to lust, drugs and alcohol that emerges from the court documents?"
He said a double soul existed in the University of Washington student, who maintains that police pressure led her to accuse barman Mr Lumumba.
Sollecito's lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, hit back on Tuesday by insisting that Knox was in fact a loving young woman rather like the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit. She was not the "femme fatale" her accusers describe her as, Ms Bongiorno said, but was instead as faithful as the Who Framed Roger Rabbit character.
The body of Miss Kercher, 21, was found in her bedroom on November 2, 2007. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25 for the murder, but both have protested their innocence. A third person, small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast, was also jailed. His 30-year sentence was cut to 16 years on appeal.
A jury at the inquest of cornered killer Raoul Moat, who blasted himself in the head with a sawn-off shotgun, has returned a unanimous verdict of suicide.
Police fired shotgun Tasers as he prepared to kill himself in Rothbury, Northumberland, in July last year, but the round had no effect on him, the three-week inquest at Newcastle Crown Court heard.
The 37-year-old ex-doorman was surrounded by police marksmen and negotiators tried for six hours to get him to surrender but he was determined not to go back to prison.
The inquest heard that the aim was to incapacitate him, allowing officers to make an arrest, but that in all likelihood there was little or no electrical discharge needed to lock up his muscles.
Moat was on the run after shooting his ex-girlfriend Sam Stobbart, executing her new boyfriend Chris Brown, and then blinding Pc David Rathband after he declared war on police.
Officers were offered and accepted X12 Taser shotguns which were only licensed for testing in the UK. It was the first time firearms officers had seen the weapons.
The shotguns were used because they fired XREP cartridges over a longer range than conventional handheld Tasers.
Two were fired - one round hit his forearm, the other missed - and moments later he put a bullet through his brain.
Remarkably, he still had a pulse when he arrived at Newcastle General Hospital some 30 miles away, despite the unsurvivable brain injury.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has cleared officers involved in Moat's death of any wrongdoing.
A 16-year-old girl left in a coma after an attack more than four months ago has died.
Julie Sheriff had been fighting for life since May after being hit in the head during an attack in Battersea, south-west London.
A 15-year-old girl appeared at Balham Youth Court in May accused of assault in relation to the attack.
Detective Chief Inspector Nick Scola, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "Our thoughts are with Julie's family at this difficult time."
The girl, from Hackney, east London, had been visiting friends when she was attacked in the street.
After her death on Wednesday last week, a post-mortem examination on Friday gave cause of death as head injuries with associated complications.
The case has been passed to Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command squad in Sutton.
Mr Scola, who is leading the investigation, said: "We know from CCTV that some of the witnesses have not yet come forward and since the tragic death of this young woman, we urge them to do so.
"We would like to appeal to the public to think back to the time of this assault and speak to police as soon as possible.
"Julie was visiting friends in the Battersea area at the time. If you know anything about what happened on May 7 I urge you to contact the incident room."
Hopes that world leaders are moving closer to a plan to save the euro have helped London's leading share index make its biggest percentage gain of the year.
The FTSE 100 Index rose 4%, or 204.7 points to 5294.1 - its biggest rise since May 2010 - after German chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to do whatever she could to help Greece regain investors' confidence.
Greece's finance minister also said the debt-stricken nation would receive the next round of bailout loans in time to avoid a default next month.
This helped ease some of the nervousness in markets across the world, which have seen heightened volatility in recent days amid fears a Greek default would cause chaos by bringing down the euro.
It has been reported that a rescue plan is being hatched to increase the size of the European bailout fund to help shore up banks and allow Greece to default on about half of its debts.
The Dax in Frankfurt and the CAC 40 in Paris both made gains of more than 5%. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 2% at the time the London market closed.
The pound was up against most currencies despite CBI retail figures showing the sector had its worst month in September since May 2010. Sterling was at 1.15 against the euro and at 1.57 against the dollar.
With fears of a default diminishing, higher metal prices boosted mining shares as investors' appetite for risk returned.
Financial stocks also benefited from the improved market sentiment, with Barclays up 12.5p at 168.5p and taxpayer backed Royal Bank of Scotland up 1.4p at 25p.
Defence group BAE Systems improved 4.8p to 276.4p as it confirmed plans to cut nearly 3,000 jobs at sites across the country, mainly in its military aircraft division.
Criminals who entice children into their cars without lying or using force are escaping kidnap charges due to a loophole in the law, the Government's advisers on legal reform have claimed.
Offenders can be prosecuted under child abduction laws, which carry a maximum of seven years in jail, but would escape kidnap charges, which carry a maximum life sentence.
Lord Justice Munby, chairman of the Law Commission, said: "The common understanding of kidnap doesn't square with the law as it is at present."
The specific requirement of the use of force or fraud to constitute a kidnapping should be removed to help protect children and vulnerable people, the advisers said.
Explaining the "serious problems" with the law as it stands, Professor David Ormerod, the law commissioner leading the consultation, said: "In practical terms, a young child or vulnerable adult who accompanies an offender without having been forced or defrauded into doing so won't necessarily have been kidnapped."
He added there was also an ambiguity over whether there could be "a prosecution for kidnap if an offender uses fraud to get someone to accompany him but he doesn't actually detain them until the end of the journey, which runs counter to what most people would think of as kidnapping".
In its consultation paper, the commission said: "The commission's proposals would close this loophole. A lack of consent by the victim should be enough even if no force of fraud was used by the abductor."
Under the current law, there is no equivalent offence of child abduction when the victim is a vulnerable adult, so unless force or fraud was used, prosecutors have to spend time "scrabbling around" for other offences, such as those against the person. Charges of false imprisonment could also be brought, but only if a loss of liberty could be proven.
Prof Ormerod added: "Our aim is to clarify the definition and boundaries of kidnapping and to ensure that these forms of wrongdoing can be prosecuted with confidence."
The commission is also considering whether some minor cases of kidnapping should be able to be heard by magistrates, rather than only in the crown court. The three-month consultation ends on December 27.
Superstar Michael Jackson was killed by the actions of his personal physician, who used a dangerous anaesthetic without adequate safeguards and botched recovery efforts when he found the singer unconscious, a court has been told.
Bur defence lawyers countered that Jackson caused his own death by taking the drug propofol after his doctor left the room in a desperate attempt to overcome his chronic inability to sleep.
Nothing Dr Conrad Murray could have done would have saved the King of Pop, defence lawyer Ed Chernoff told the Los Angeles jury, because Jackson was desperate to regain his fame and needed rest to prepare for a series of crucial comeback concerts.
The competing versions of Jackson's death and Murray's role in it were laid out in opening statements at the physician's involuntary manslaughter trial.
Speaking for more than an hour, prosecutor David Walgren relied heavily on photos and audio recordings to make his case that Murray was an inept and reckless caretaker of Jackson.
He showed a photo of a lifeless Jackson on a hospital stretcher, and played a recording of Jackson speaking to Murray while the prosecutor said he was under the influence of an unknown substance roughly six weeks before his death.
The singer's speech was heavily slurred but recognisable as the international superstar. He spoke of his hopes for the upcoming concerts.
"We have to be phenomenal," Jackson is heard telling Murray. "When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, 'I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I've never seen nothing like this. Go. It's amazing. He's the greatest entertainer in the world."
Murray is accused of giving Jackson a lethal dose of propofol in the bedroom of the singer's rented mansion, but Mr Chernoff said Jackson gave himself the fatal dose.
He claimed the singer swallowed several pills of the sedative lorazepam on the morning of his death and that was enough to put six people to sleep. He also said Jackson self-ingested propofol, and it killed him instantly.
Dating site fraud is vastly under-reported and may have claimed more than 200,000 victims in the UK, research suggests.
The "online romance scams" typically involve criminals setting up fake identities using stolen photos of attractive individuals, often models or Army officers.
A relationship is struck up with the victim who at a certain point is asked for financial help.
Some of those targeted have been duped out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, but frequently the crimes remain unreported and hidden.
Action Fraud, the reporting and advice centre run by the National Fraud Authority, identified 592 victims of the scams between 2010-11. Of these, 203 lost sums of more than £5,000.
But a new study by researchers at the universities of Leicester and Westminster suggests the problem is far bigger.
More than 2,000 people were questioned about dating site fraud by internet pollsters YouGov.
From the results, the scientists estimated that in excess of 200,000 Britons have been conned by romance scammers. The findings also suggest that more than a million people personally know a victim of the crime.
University of Leicester psychologist Professor Monica Whitty said: "Our data suggests that the numbers of British victims of this relatively new crime is much higher than reported incidents would suggest. It also confirms law enforcement suspicions that this is an under-reported crime, and thus more serious than first thought.
"This is a concern not solely because people are losing large sums of money to these criminals, but also because of the psychological impact experienced by victims of this crime."
ITV has admitted that a documentary about the IRA mistakenly used a scene from a video game and claimed it was a real IRA attack.
Monday night's Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA discussed how deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi sent weapons to the IRA in the mid-1980s.
The documentary lifted footage from the internet that shows a clip from a military simulation game called Arma II, but described it incorrectly as footage of a 1988 IRA attack on a British Army helicopter.
An ITV spokesman said: "The events featured in Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA were genuine but it would appear that during the editing process the correct clip of the 1988 incident was not selected and other footage was mistakenly included in the film by producers. This was an unfortunate case of human error for which we apologise."
A miner has been killed as a second tragedy in a fortnight hit the industry.
The man died after being trapped by a fallen roof in the Kellingley Colliery, North Yorkshire, UK Coal said.
A second miner who was trapped by his leg was brought out alive.
The incident came on the eve of the funeral of the first of four men who died earlier this month following the flooding of the Gleision Colliery in Cilybebyll, Pontardawe.
Police said the man who died was in his 40s and from North Yorkshire.
The injured man, also in his 40s and from West Yorkshire, was taken to Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, with minor injuries.
A police spokeswoman said: "Yorkshire Ambulance Service's Hazardous Area Response team, who are trained and equipped to work underground, were deployed to the incident, supported by mine rescue specialists. At around 7.30pm, two miners were brought to the surface by North Yorkshire Ambulance Service and the mine rescue team.
"One man in his 40s and from the West Yorkshire area was taken to Pinderfields hospital with minor injuries. Sadly, the other miner, a man in his 40s from North Yorkshire, was pronounced dead at the scene.
"A joint investigation into the incident will be carried out by specialist mine inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive and North Yorkshire Police."
The UK Coal colliery, near Knottingley, is the largest remaining deep mine in Yorkshire. Its two main shafts are almost 800 metres deep. Only one of them is used by miners, the other is used to transport coal. It supplies local power stations and produces some household coal.
Former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck is taking News International to an employment tribunal, claiming he was unfairly dismissed for whistleblowing.
Thurlbeck was arrested in April on suspicion of conspiring to intercept voicemail messages while working at the now-defunct tabloid.
A source confirmed that the 50-year-old reporter was sacked earlier this month and has launched a claim against Rupert Murdoch's firm.
A News International spokeswoman said: "News International will vigorously contest the case."
A preliminary hearing will take place at the East London Tribunal Service centre on Friday, in which Thurlbeck is expected to claim he was a whistleblower, the source said.
An email apparently intended for Thurlbeck, the so-called "For Neville" message, seemed to contradict News International's stance that hacking was the fault of a single rogue reporter, former royal correspondent Clive Goodman, who was paying private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to carry it out.
The document contained a transcript of hacked private information about Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor.
Meanwhile, Thurlbeck, along with two other News of the World hacking suspects, have had their bail extended until next year. Ian Edmondson, 42, James Weatherup, 55, and Thurlbeck, all senior journalists at the now-defunct tabloid, were understood to have separately visited police stations. A Scotland Yard spokesman said three men questioned in April "all attended police stations and have been further bailed to dates in March 2012 pending further inquiries".
They were among the first of 16 arrests in the fresh investigation into illegal activities at the tabloid. They join former NoW executive Stuart Kuttner in being bailed until March. Kuttner, 71, who resigned as the newspaper's managing editor in July 2009, is among 16 suspects arrested since Scotland Yard's Operation Weeting was launched.
Detectives have arrested a series of high-profile figures, including former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson.
Slow and slurred, Michael Jackson's words echoed through a Los Angeles court at the start of the trial of the doctor accused of killing him.
The tape was played after prosecutors showed a photo of the dead King of Pop on a hospital trolley, as a worldwide audience watched on TV and Jackson's family looked on from inside the Los Angeles court,
In the recording, a drugged Jackson said: "We have to be phenomenal. When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, 'I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I've never seen nothing like this. Go. It's amazing. He's the greatest entertainer in the world'."
Prosecutors played the audio for the first time during opening statements as they portrayed Dr Conrad Murray, 58, as an incompetent physician who used a dangerous anaesthetic without adequate safeguards and whose neglect left the 50-year-old superstar abandoned as he lay dying.
Defence lawyers countered that Jackson caused his own death in June 2009 by taking a drug dose, including propofol, after Murray left the room.
Nothing the cardiologist could have done would have saved Jackson, defence lawyer Ed Chernoff told jurors, because Jackson was desperate to regain his fame and needed rest to prepare for a series of crucial comeback concerts.
A number of Jackson's family members were in the court, including his father Joseph, mother Katherine, sisters LaToya and Janet, and brothers Jermaine, Randy and Tito. LaToya Jackson carried a sunflower, her brother's favourite flower.
The family's most emotional moment came when the prosecutor played a video excerpt from Jackson's This Is It London rehearsal in which he sang Earth Song, a plea for better treatment of the environment. Prosecutor David Walgren noted it was Jackson's last performance.
Murray, who arrived at court holding hands with his mother, denies involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he could face up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical licence.
The case continues.
A High Court judge is due to rule on whether a brain-damaged, minimally-conscious woman should be allowed to die.
It is thought to be the first time that a judge has been asked to rule on whether life-supporting treatment should be withdrawn from a person who is not in a persistent vegetative state but is minimally conscious.
Mr Justice Baker - who heard legal argument during a Court of Protection hearing in London in July - has described the case as unique and says it raises "very important issues of principle".
Relatives want life-supporting treatment withdrawn and say the woman, who turned 52 earlier this month, would not want to live "a life dependent on others".
But a lawyer appointed by the High Court to represent the woman opposes the relatives' application for nutrition to be withdrawn - arguing that the woman is "otherwise clinically stable".
The local health authority responsible for commissioning care also opposes the relatives' application and says the woman's life is "not without positive elements".
Mr Justice Baker heard that the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and was referred to as M in court, suffered profound brain damage in early 2003 after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis.
She was in a coma for several weeks and had been thought to be in a persistent vegetative state. Doctors later concluded that she was in a minimally conscious state - a state just above a persistent vegetative state.
The court heard evidence from M's sister, B, and partner S. B broke down as she described M's "awful existence".
Law firm Irwin Mitchell prepared the case on relatives' behalf. A barrister told the judge that legal representatives had acted "pro bono" because there was "no money available" to fund proceedings.
Renationalising the railways could save the taxpayer £1.2 billion a year, according to a union-commissioned study.
The report - for Aslef, the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association and Unite - said savings could be achieved through cheaper borrowing costs, removing shareholders' dividends and reducing fragmentation.
The study, by the Transport for Quality of Life think tank, said £300 million alone could be saved by taking train operating companies into public ownership.
A survey of 2,000 people as part of the research found that 71% believed privatised train companies were more concerned with making profits than providing affordable fares and a decent service for passengers. Only 19% believed that the railways should remain in private hands.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the findings countered recommendations in the recent McNulty review of the railway industry, which are being studied by the Government.
He said: "This research nails the lie of the McNulty review that the answer to the inefficiencies and over-charging on Britain's railways is more cuts, more rip-off opportunities for big business and higher fares.
"The solution is simple - stop the greed, fragmentation and profiteering of privatisation, and we can save more than a billion pounds that could be invested back into the system. If Labour fail to grasp the popularity and economic common sense of renationalising the railways, they will be throwing away the political opportunity of a lifetime."
Aslef general secretary Keith Norman said: "Last week, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond warned that the railways were becoming a rich man's toy. To prevent that disaster he needs to control the industry, and that can only be done by ending the anarchic free-for-all that's emerged from the discredited private franchise system."
TSSA assistant general secretary Manuel Cortes said: "We can no longer continue to tinker at the edges. Privatisation has failed passengers, workers, business and the economy. We now need to open our minds to bold new alternatives that serve the interests of passengers and taxpayers rather than the god of profit."
A Department for Transport spokesman said: "We welcome the RMT's recognition that the cost of rail needs to be reduced, however, the case for renationalisation was examined as part of Sir Roy McNulty's independent study into the cost effectiveness of the railways. He concluded that the time, effort and cost of renationalisation means this is not the right way forward."
A major review of policing headed by former Scotland Yard chief Lord Stevens is to be set up by Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper is set to announce.
The independent inquiry, which Ms Cooper expects to take a strongly reforming approach, will shape Labour's policies on the future of the police.
Lord Stevens, who retired from the Metropolitan Police in 2005, will be joined by Kathleen O'Toole, an ex-commissioner of Boston Police, and former Gloucestershire chief constable Tim Brain.
The review - which Labour sources stress will be at arms-length from the party - is intended to bypass the Government's refusal to hold a Royal Commission on police reform.
Ms Cooper will announce the move in her keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, when she will also invoke Tony Blair's famous "tough on the causes of crime" refrain.
She will accuse the Tories of "chaos and confusion" on police reform. "Now is the time for a serious vision for the future of policing - a Royal Commission or heavyweight independent review. The government has refused to do so. So we will," she will say. "We are setting up an independent review to look at the crime challenges of the 21st century and how policing needs to adapt and respond.
"Building on the best of British and international policing. Including experts from here and abroad. Vigorous and challenging on the changes needed. Working with the police not trying to undermine them."
Ms Cooper will claim that the cost of introducing elected police commissioners could save the jobs of 2,000 constables and fund anti-gang initiatives.
She reckons the bill for elected chiefs will be £100 million, although ministers dispute that figure. "Next year, in Olympic year, the government will spend over £100m electing politicians on £120,000 to become crime chiefs," she will say.
"But this is the year when the eyes of the world are upon us. Our great opportunity. But we cannot have a repeat of this summer's shameful violence and disorder. So the government should rethink. Stop the elections next year and use the money to stop crime instead."
Nearly 30% of drivers send text messages while at the wheel, according to a new survey.
A total of 8% text-and-drive at least once a week, the poll by road safety charity Brake and insurance company Direct Line found.
The findings, based on responses from 841 drivers, follow a recent Ofcom report which warned of increased levels of smartphone addiction in the UK by users who are unable to go long without checking their phone.
The volume of mobile data transferred over the UK's mobile networks increased 40-fold between 2007 and 2010.
Brake and Direct Line said other research had shown that texting at the wheel can make drivers 23 times more likely to cause a crash and that using a phone to email or surf the web also causes serious distractions.
Studies in the US have shown that incidents of death by distracted driving had increased, with researchers putting it down to increases in drivers using smartphone technology.
Brake campaigns director Julie Townsend said: "People who text, use the web or social networking when driving are taking enormous risks with their own and other people's lives. This kind of irresponsible behaviour is illegal and it kills, so there should be no excuses.
"We are concerned that the increasing uptake of this technology could lead to more crashes and casualties caused by distracted drivers, as is happening in the US.
"It is vital that the Government acts now to prevent an upsurge in distracted driving and it's vital that drivers listen to these warnings and make a pledge to never use their phone when driving."
Ed Miliband insisted that Labour would remain "firmly in the middle ground of politics" under his leadership after a speech in which he promised to take on predatory practices in business.
In his keynote speech to Labour's annual conference in Liverpool, the party leader pledged to rein in excessive pay at the top of industry, break up cartels and demand responsibility from the banks. He was loudly cheered by some parts of his audience as he told them: "I'm not Tony Blair."
Business groups raised concerns over Mr Miliband's declaration that a future Labour government would treat "good" and "bad" companies differently to encourage responsible behaviour.
Former Labour trade minister and CBI chief Lord Jones described the speech as "divisive and a kick in the teeth" for business. But Mr Miliband insisted he was not "anti-business".
Asked if he had made a lurch to the left, he told ITV1's Daybreak: "Absolutely not. We are going to be firmly in the middle ground of politics, but the middle ground is changing. The idea that we should have responsibility in the top of our society ... it is not a left-wing idea to say that there should be responsibility there.
"It is absolutely in the middle ground. It is absolutely about the values of the British people, which say everybody should show responsibility. Equally, I talked very frankly in the speech about how we need to change the benefit system. There are too many people taking something for nothing."
Asked about the jeering which greeted Mr Blair's name, Mr Miliband told BBC1's Breakfast: "It's not a jeer I share."
But he made clear he wanted to escape from the shadow of the prime ministers of the New Labour era.
"Both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were great men who did great things, but I was saying something very clear," he told Daybreak. "The Blair/Brown era is over for Labour. I am new, I am in charge and I am going to do things my own way. What was right for 15 years ago isn't right for now.
"I don't think people are that interested in looking back at Labour's past. I think they want to know what are Labour's solutions for the future. That's what I'm starting to do this week and will do so more in the coming months and years."
An over-the-counter painkiller used by millions can significantly increase the risk of a heart attack or a stroke, research has found.
Patients using diclofenac were found to be 40% more at risk than those who were not using the drug, a study published in Plos Medicine found.
Diclofenac was the most commonly prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) in Britain last year, with six million prescriptions written for it. The drug is also available to buy over the counter.
In 2010, almost 17 million prescriptions were filled out for NSAIDs, which are used for pain relief and their anti-inflammatory effects in conditions including arthritis, back pain, gout, headache, and the aches and fever associated with flu.
Researchers from the Hull York Medical School and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Canada made the observation about the drug after they analysed 51 international studies into the impact of a range of NSAIDs on more than 2.7 million patients.
Lead researcher Dr Patricia McGettigan said: "NSAIDs provide pain relief for millions of patients with chronic inflammatory disorders. The cardiovascular risk is well described but often overlooked.
"In choosing which one of the many available NSAIDs to use, patients and doctors would benefit from knowledge of the balance between benefit and harm for individual NSAIDs. For example, diclofenac, the NSAID most commonly prescribed in England in 2010, was associated with an increase in cardiovascular risk of 40%, compared with non-use.
"At high doses, the increase in risk was almost doubled. An alternative, naproxen, prescribed only half as often, was not associated with increased risk at any dose. For the first time, we have enough data to make direct comparisons between NSAIDs to determine which are most risky and which are relatively safe."
Dr McGettigan said that patients should discuss the risk with their doctors, adding: "In terms of reliving pain, these drugs work and for some people they are the only things that work. It is about weighing up the pain relief against the risk."
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) warned patients not to stop taking their medicines but to consult their doctor if they are concerned.
A brain-damaged, minimally-conscious woman should not be allowed to die, a High Court judge has ruled.
The case is thought to be the first time that a judge has been asked to rule on whether life-supporting treatment should be withdrawn from a person who is not in a persistent vegetative state but is minimally conscious.
Mr Justice Baker, who heard legal argument during a Court of Protection hearing in London in July, described the case as unique and said it raised "very important issues of principle".
Relatives wanted life-supporting treatment withdrawn and said the woman, who turned 52 earlier this month, would not want to live "a life dependent on others". But a lawyer appointed by the High Court to represent the woman opposed the relatives' application for nutrition to be withdrawn - arguing that she is "otherwise clinically stable".
The local health authority responsible for commissioning her care also opposed the relatives' application and said the woman's life was "not without positive elements".
Mr Justice Baker heard that the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and was referred to as M in court, suffered profound brain damage in early 2003 after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis.
She was in a coma for several weeks and had been thought to be in a persistent vegetative state. Doctors later concluded that she was in a minimally-conscious state - just above a persistent vegetative state.
The judge said M had "some positive experiences" and there was a "reasonable prospect" that those experiences could be extended.
Yogi Amin, a partner with law firm Irwin Mitchell, speaking on behalf of M's family, said: "All parties agree that M's family have demonstrated their love and devotion for her throughout this case, and that they brought this application to court in what they perceive to be her best interests."
He added: "This is a very important judgment. The law has been clarified and, going forward, in all such cases of patients who are in a minimally conscious state, the High Court does now have the power to decide on whether it is in that patient's best interests for treatment to continue, or whether the patient should be allowed to die naturally, with dignity."
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has visited a pit where a miner died in a roof collapse and said everyone's thoughts were with the man's family.
An ashen-faced Ms Cooper talked to management and unions at Kellingley Colliery, near Knottingley, North Yorkshire, on her way to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Her visit came as a full-scale investigation got under way to establish how the man died.
Ms Cooper, who is MP for Normanton, Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, said: "All the people I've talked to this morning - the management and the unions and the workforce - everybody's just really shocked by what's happened but also thinking about the families involved. All of our thoughts must be with them this morning.
"I think there's a sense of shock still at the moment and obviously the investigation's really important, that's started already.
"It's really important we get detailed and full answers. But I think the thing that's uppermost in people's minds is just feeling for the family, thinking about the miner who's died and I think all our thought are with them."
A major rescue operation was put in place on Tuesday night after two miners were trapped 800 metres underground. One man was brought up injured and union officials said he was out of hospital and "doing okay".
The dead man has not yet been named. It is the second tragedy to hit the coal industry in a fortnight following the deaths of four men in a flooded colliery in South Wales.
Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty, said the events had been a "massive tragedy" for the community. He told BBC Radio 4: "There are further investigations going under way today. There was a trip underground by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) and the managing director of UK Coal last night, and I'm told that there's no obvious cause as yet for why the roof fell in."
UK Coal communications director Andrew Mackintosh said investigators were in the pit overnight and a full-scale inquiry was under way.
The family of murdered British student Meredith Kercher are expected to return this weekend to the Italian city where she died, their lawyer has said.
The University of Leeds student was on a year abroad in Perugia when she was killed after what prosecutors said was a bungled sex game forced on her by housemate Amanda Knox and others.
American Knox, 24, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, were jailed for the murder in 2009 but have appealed against their convictions and are soon to learn whether they will be released.
The Kerchers, who have visited the Umbrian hilltop city a few times already to watch the judicial proceedings take place, will fly in on Saturday for the result of the appeal, Francesco Maresca said.
The verdict is expected to be delivered either on Saturday or early next week. This comes after a final courtroom showdown this week, with lawyers for all parties ramping up the rhetoric in their bids for victory.
On Monday, Knox was labelled a lying, sex-loving she-devil by lawyer Carlo Pacelli, who represents a man she falsely accused of the murder, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba.
Echoing the vivid language he used at the end of the original trial, Mr Pacelli asked the court: "Who is Amanda Knox? Is she the mild-looking, fresh-faced person you see here, or the one devoted to lust, drugs and alcohol that emerges from the court documents?"
He said a double soul existed in the University of Washington student, who maintains that police pressure led her to accuse barman Mr Lumumba.
Sollecito's lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, hit back on Tuesday by insisting that Knox was in fact a loving young woman rather like the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit. She was not the "femme fatale" her accusers describe her as, Ms Bongiorno said, but was instead as faithful as the Who Framed Roger Rabbit character.
The body of Miss Kercher, 21, was found in her bedroom on November 2, 2007. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25 for the murder, but both have protested their innocence. A third person, small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast, was also jailed. His 30-year sentence was cut to 16 years on appeal.
