A plan for a "smaller" BBC will see the corporation lose thousands of jobs, sell off offices and show more repeats.
The proposals include "a small reduction" in new programmes on BBC One, which will be replaced by repeats, fewer chat shows and panel shows on BBC Two, and digital channels BBC Three and Four will become feeder channels for BBC One and Two respectively.
Around 2,000 jobs are expected to go by 2016 and around 1,000 more staff will move to the new BBC base at Media City in Salford.
There will be "a phased but full exit for the BBC's public services from their current home in West London" including its White City offices. The plan is expected to lead to savings of £670 million a year by 2016/17.
Director General Mark Thompson said: "It's a plan for a smaller BBC, but a BBC which uses its resources more effectively."
The BBC HD channel will be closed and replaced with an HD version of BBC Two and all new daytime shows will be moved to BBC One with more repeats on Two. There will also be less original programming on radio, with cuts to comedy on Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live and fewer lunchtime concerts on Radio 3.
The report states that BBC bosses considered "the possibility of shutting one or more services entirely" but rejected the idea on value-for-money grounds: "The decision to share Formula One motor-racing rights with BSkyB, for example, will save the BBC more cash between now and the end of the Charter than we would have saved by shutting one of the smaller TV channels."
The corporation is holding a series of meetings with its staff across the UK to reveal details of its Delivering Quality First initiative, but has already come under attack from unions.
Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of the technicians' union Bectu, said the programme should have been called Destroying Quality First. Mr Morrissey accused Mr Thompson of doing the Government's "dirty work" by making such big cuts in spending and jobs, accusing the corporation of "salami slicing".
The National Union of Journalists condemned the spending and job cuts, saying they had come on top of many years of other cutbacks across news and programme-making. The union said more than 7,000 jobs had been lost at the BBC since 2004, adding that the situation "isn't sustainable".
A plan for a "smaller" BBC will see the corporation lose thousands of jobs, sell off offices and show more repeats.
The proposals include "a small reduction" in new programmes on BBC One, which will be replaced by repeats, fewer chat shows and panel shows on BBC Two, and digital channels BBC Three and Four will become feeder channels for BBC One and Two respectively.
Around 2,000 jobs are expected to go by 2016 and around 1,000 more staff will move to the new BBC base at Media City in Salford.
There will be "a phased but full exit for the BBC's public services from their current home in West London" including its White City offices. The plan is expected to lead to savings of £670 million a year by 2016/17.
Director General Mark Thompson said: "It's a plan for a smaller BBC, but a BBC which uses its resources more effectively."
The BBC HD channel will be closed and replaced with an HD version of BBC Two and all new daytime shows will be moved to BBC One with more repeats on Two. There will also be less original programming on radio, with cuts to comedy on Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live and fewer lunchtime concerts on Radio 3.
The report states that BBC bosses considered "the possibility of shutting one or more services entirely" but rejected the idea on value-for-money grounds: "The decision to share Formula One motor-racing rights with BSkyB, for example, will save the BBC more cash between now and the end of the Charter than we would have saved by shutting one of the smaller TV channels."
The corporation is holding a series of meetings with its staff across the UK to reveal details of its Delivering Quality First initiative, but has already come under attack from unions.
Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of the technicians' union Bectu, said the programme should have been called Destroying Quality First. Mr Morrissey accused Mr Thompson of doing the Government's "dirty work" by making such big cuts in spending and jobs, accusing the corporation of "salami slicing".
The National Union of Journalists condemned the spending and job cuts, saying they had come on top of many years of other cutbacks across news and programme-making. The union said more than 7,000 jobs had been lost at the BBC since 2004, adding that the situation "isn't sustainable".
Wayne Rooney's father has been bailed pending further inquiries after being arrested over an alleged football betting scam.
Wayne Rooney Snr, 48, was held when police swooped at his home in West Derby, Liverpool, early on Thursday.
Eight other people, including the Manchester United star's uncle, Richie, 54, and Liverpool-born Motherwell midfielder Steve Jennings, 26, were also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud.
Merseyside Police said the arrests were the culmination of a joint operation with the Gambling Commission into "suspicious betting activity" in relation to a match between Scottish sides Motherwell and Hearts on December 14 last year.
Richie Rooney, who was detained at his home in Norris Green, Liverpool, has also now been bailed pending further inquiries, as has a 22-year-old from Kirkdale, and a 26-year-old from Croxteth.
Jennings, who was arrested at his Glasgow home and brought to a Merseyside police station for questioning, remains in custody along with a 29-year-old from Bootle, a 31-year-old from Litherland, a 68-year-old from Fazakerley, and a 36-year-old from Kirkby.
During the game, Jennings was shown a red card in the 83rd minute of his side's 2-1 defeat. The midfielder had been booked earlier in the match for fouling Kevin Kyle.
The Gambling Commission, an independent body which was formed under the 2005 Gambling Act, began the probe shortly afterwards when some members of the Association of British Bookmakers publicly raised concerns about betting patterns on the game.
In a statement, Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan said the arrests follow "extensive inquiries" into alleged betting irregularities at the match. He added: "It is important to stress that the evidence gathered throughout this thorough period of investigation has involved only one Scottish match. The Scottish FA will make no further comment at this stage."
Motherwell FC said: "Motherwell Football Club can confirm that the Scottish Football Association (SFA) made the club aware that one of our players was taken to a Merseyside police station in connection with an ongoing investigation. Any further statement would be wholly inappropriate and the club can and will only do so when properly appraised of the next steps in the process by the relevant authorities."
Kenneth Clarke has stopped short of apologising as speculation over his future in the Cabinet continued to grow after he attacked Home Secretary Theresa May's use of "laughable and childlike" examples to criticise the Human Rights Act.
But the Justice Secretary admitted he does "rather regret the colourful language" he used to publicly question Mrs May's claim that an illegal immigrant escaped being deported because he had a pet cat.
The spat dominated much of the Conservative Party conference this week and shows no signs of abating, despite Mr Clarke's insistence that he considered the issue "closed".
Dismissing as "old news" his own comments made during the conference in Manchester earlier this week, Mr Clarke said: "I consider this issue closed. The Prime Minister has made the position clear, and I fully support it."
He told the Nottingham Post newspaper: "It's not only the judges that all get furious when the Home Secretary makes a parody of a court judgment, our commission who are helping us form our view on this are not going to be entertained by laughable, childlike examples being given."
But Mrs May, who held a pink mug featuring a grey cat as she met youngsters in London, remained firm, saying she did not regret referring to the cat in her speech.
She said: "I don't regret using the case of the cat. It was a decision made by an immigration judge.
"But it was one case among many, and I cited others in my speech, which show the importance of this Government doing something about the immigration rules to ensure that we're able to deport foreign criminals who we don't believe should be here."
She added: "I used an example where an immigration judge had, as part of his decision that somebody could not be deported, cited the fact that the individual had bought a cat with their partner as a sign of the quality of their family life. I cited other cases as well, underlining this was a very important issue, which is our ability to deport foreign criminals."
A cricket agent boasted that seven players in Pakistan's national side were fixing matches for him in a hugely lucrative betting scam, a court has heard.
Mazhar Majeed, 36, spoke of the advantages of "grooming" younger cricketers to work with him as they would be "around for years", Southwark Crown Court was told.
Prosecutors alleged that he also discussed deliberately losing a Test match against England last summer for a million dollars and plotted to fix games at last year's Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.
Majeed allegedly conspired with Pakistan's former Test captain, Salman Butt, 26, and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, 19, to rig parts of a game during Pakistan's tour of England last year after being paid £150,000 by an undercover journalist.
In discussions with the reporter about illegal match-fixing, the agent named "his" players as Butt, Asif, Amir, fellow fast bowler Wahab Riaz, wicket keeper Kamran Akmal, and batsmen Umar Akmal and Imran Farhat, the court heard.
Majeed, of Croydon, south London, allegedly said there was a "little question mark" about Farhat, telling the journalist: "We don't give him the whole picture."
The prosecution claimed that Butt agreed to bat a "maiden over" - where no runs are scored - during the crucial final day of the Oval Test on August 21 last year, which was a chance for Pakistan to win their first match of the series.
Majeed discussed the arrangement with the cricketer by phone while agreeing a deal with News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was posing as a rich Indian businessman who had paid £10,000 to fix part of the match, the court heard.
When the reporter pointed out that the cricketer sounded asleep during the phone call, the agent allegedly replied: "Believe me, he's done this many times."
In the event Butt did not play the maiden over as planned after he ended up batting earlier than expected and facing a new ball, which travels much more quickly, meaning he could not help scoring a run, the court heard.
The Bank of England has unleashed £75 billion of emergency support after admitting "tensions in the world economy" threatened the UK's recovery.
Its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to boost the Bank's quantitative easing (QE) programme - effectively printing more cash - from £200 billion to £275 billion and hold interest rates at 0.5%.
The move, dubbed QE2, is the first change to QE since November 2009 and is the clearest signal yet that the Bank thinks Britain is on the brink of a double-dip recession.
Business leaders welcomed the announcement after figures revealed Britain suffered a deeper recession and is recovering more slowly than first thought.
However, the decision raised fears of a surge in the already-high rate of inflation, which would erode savings and pension funds.
Elsewhere, the European Central Bank offered new emergency loans to banks to help steady a eurozone financial system shaken by the region's deepening debt crisis.
Alan Clarke, UK economist at Scotia Capital, said: "Once again the BoE has made use of its secret weapon - shock and awe. Pretty much everyone expected QE to restart at some point - but it was only a minority view that it would start this soon, or in excess of £50 billion."
A report by the Bank into the effect of QE on the economy previously found the stimulus measure provided a "significant" benefit to growth and helped GDP increase by around 1.5. This was equivalent to dropping interest rates by between 1.5.
The MPC said its members made the decision to boost QE over the next four months because the slack in the UK economy will likely be "greater and more persistent than previously expected".
The Bank said the pace of growth in the UK's main export markets had slowed while the eurozone debt crisis and its impact on financial markets were dragging on Britain's recovery.
A woman has been jailed for 18 months for sinking her husband's yacht on Valentine's Day.
Mandy Fleming had gone to the Double Dragon in Brighton Marina for "menage-a-trios" with her then lover David Brown and his wife Nemone, the Old Bailey heard.
But she "lost it" after seeing her estranged husband Adam had bought a new television and other items for the boat whilst saying he did not have any money.
She drilled three holes in the hull and turned on cooker gas taps which turned the £75,000 vessel into "an explosive bomb".
Fleming of Sheerness, Kent, pleaded guilty to endangering life by causing criminal damage in 2004, when she appeared in court last month.
Old Bailey Judge Richard Hone told her: "You were a manipulative, angry and troubled individual."
Fleming wept as she was told she would have to serve half the sentence, less the two-and-a-half months she had initially spent in custody.
The court was told that turning on a light would have been enough to blow up the boat. A marina official had gone aboard to pump out water and four people had been staying on vessels nearby.
Mark Gadsden, prosecuting, said that after seeing the new electrical equipment and some bills for work which had been done on the yacht, Fleming rang Mr Fleming and berated him for spending money on the vessel.
"She returned to the shore and equipped herself with a drill which she took on to the boat and drilled three holes. Between them, they were sufficient to cause the boat to sink."
Apple fans are united in sadness as they celebrate the life of Steve Jobs - who is widely acknowledged as revolutionising the world of technology and media.
The pioneering former chief executive - who gave the world the revolutionary iPhone and iPad devices - died surrounded by his family after battling pancreatic cancer.
Fans gathered outside the 56-year-old's home in California's Silicon Valley to pay their respects and lay floral tributes to a technology wizard who enjoyed a popularity equal to that of many rock stars.
Across the world the great and the good issued statements celebrating his life and applauding his achievements.
Bill Gates, founder of rival company Microsoft but also a friend of Mr Jobs, said he would miss him "immensely".
"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come," he added.
US President Barack Obama also applauded Mr Jobs, saying: "Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
"He transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world. The world has lost a visionary."
No longer able to handle the job because of his illness, the frail-looking father of four surrendered his chief executive post in August and was replaced by Tim Cook.
In an email circulated to staff, Mr Cook said: "Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve's death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honour his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much."
Shadow business secretary John Denham and shadow health secretary John Healey are to step down from the shadow cabinet.
Mr Denham and Mr Healey are reported to have resigned ahead of an expected reshuffle on Friday by Labour leader Ed Miliband.
Mr Miliband will for the first time have a complete free hand in picking his top team following a rule change which means the shadow cabinet is no longer elected by Labour MPs.
He is expected to use the opportunity to bring in some fresh blood - although senior figures like Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper and Douglas Alexander are expected to retain their current roles.
A Labour spokesman said: "We do not comment on reshuffle speculation."
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has ordered an investigation into continuing claims surrounding the role of a controversial friend and adviser.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that Dr Fox had asked his most senior official, Permanent Secretary Ursula Brennan, to look into what he describes as "baseless allegations" concerning Adam Werritty.
In recent days Dr Fox has been accused of putting national security at risk by allowing Mr Werritty - a former flatmate who was best man at his wedding - access to the MoD, even though he is not employed by the government.
The Guardian reported that Mr Werritty had joined the Defence Secretary on an official visit to Sri Lanka, despite Dr Fox having previously said that Mr Werritty did not travel with him on official visits overseas.
In a statement, Dr Fox said: "A number of baseless accusations have been made in recent days.
"For the sake of clarity I have asked my Permanent Secretary to establish whether there has been any breach of national security or the Ministerial Code. She will report back in due course."
Mr Werritty has been a controversial figure in Whitehall. Despite having no official role he is reported to hand out business cards with a portcullis logo describing himself as "adviser to Rt Hon Liam Fox MP".
Labour MPs have questioned his access to the MoD after it was disclosed in parliamentary answers that he had visited Dr Fox there 14 times in the space of just 16 months.
The latest claims concern his presence during an official visit by Dr Fox to give a lecture in Sri Lanka in July.
The Guardian has published a photograph of Dr Fox arriving for the lecture which, the paper said, showed Mr Werritty in the background. The MoD confirmed that Mr Werritty was present for the event although it said that he was not part of the official party.
Afghanistan could again become a haven for terrorists like al Qaida after international forces have pulled out in three years' time, the head of the British armed forces has acknowledged.
General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, insisted that stabilising the country in time for the planned final handover to Afghan security forces in 2014 is "do-able".
On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the international military intervention in Afghanistan, he told ITV News that the coalition had plans to ensure the country did not revert to an enclave for al Qaida.
But pressed if it could again become a safe haven for terrorists, he replied: "Well it could... but if our plan is successfully implemented, and I've every reason to think they will be and we're talking another three-and-a-half years or over three years, then there's no reason to think it will deteriorate into that sort of place that your worst imagination is getting at."
It is expected the Americans will retain a relatively small counter-terrorism force in Afghanistan after 2014, although UK ministers have insisted that there will be no British troops engaged in major combat operations.
Gen Richards said that ensuring they left a stable Afghanistan was essential to Britain's own long-term national security.
"I think we've got to be clear that we're not talking about creating a Switzerland in that part of the world," he said.
"We're talking about a country that can look after itself. The reason it's important to us is because a stable Afghanistan is vital to our own long-term security. I think it is do-able."
Despite the achievements of coalition forces fighting the Taliban, he acknowledged they had been losing "the battle of perceptions" among the public at home who questioned the need for continuing military intervention "We have lost to a degree the battle of perceptions here," he said.
"If the British public are reminded of why we're there, which is about our own rather selfish national security, and a need to prevent what we see still being done in other parts of the world - Somalia, Yemen and other places. If that became a safe haven for those sorts of things to be planned and executed again then I'm not so certain they would think that."
Dangerous drivers who cause serious injuries on the road could be jailed for up to five years under new plans, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has said.
The introduction of a new offence of "causing serious injury by dangerous driving" would more than double the current maximum sentence of two years for dangerous drivers whose victims are seriously injured but not killed.
Campaigners welcomed the proposals, saying that, with 1,850 deaths on the roads in Britain last year alone, the move would "help to provide justice to families whose lives have been ripped apart by dangerous drivers".
Mr Clarke said: "We have listened to the victims of dangerous drivers, their families, MPs, judges and road safety groups and their experiences have directly informed these changes.
"Making our roads safer is a priority - five people died on our roads each day last year, so we need to do everything we can to further improve safety."
Ellen Booth, senior campaigns officer of the road safety charity Brake, said: "This new offence finally means that serious injury is recognised within the title of the offence, and this recognition is vitally important to victims and their families.
"It also means that dangerous drivers who inflict serious injuries can expect to see higher sentences to better reflect the terrible trauma and injuries they have caused."
Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA, said the changes, which will be part of the Government's Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, "should make sentences more proportionate to the devastation dangerous driving causes and should also deter people from driving badly".
Road Safety Minister Mike Penning added that while the vast majority of motorists were safe and responsible, "the wilfully reckless minority who put lives in danger must face serious penalties".
An additional 80,000 low income families are to be eligible for help with meeting the costs of childcare under plans announced by the Government.
Rules limiting childcare support to parents working a minimum of 16 hours a week are to be scrapped from 2013 when the new universal credit is introduced.
Ministers said the payments - costing £300 million-a-year - should make it easier for parents from an estimated 80,000 households find work.
However Labour warned the move would do nothing to help thousands of families struggling to make ends meet as a result of the cuts to childcare support in last year's comprehensive spending review.
The announcement was made jointly by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.
It comes at a time when David Cameron and the Conservative half of the coalition have been under fire over their attitudes towards women.
Mr Duncan Smith said that the change would help parents to work the hours that suit their families.
"We are determined to help more parents take their first steps into work, but under the current minimum hours rule parents are trapped in state dependency without the childcare support they badly need - providing yet another barrier to work," he said.
Mr Clegg said: "We all know how difficult it is sometimes to juggle family and work but this is really good news, especially for lone parents and mums up and down the country. I want to ensure that this coalition Government is there for families of all shapes and sizes and help them with the difficult daily juggling act between family and work."
However shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said that parents are already being forced out of work as a result of the Government's decision to cut childcare support from 80. "This announcement is frankly smoke and mirrors. It won't mean a penny more help for parents already struggling on childcare tax credits," he said.
A 27-fold increase in the number of narrative verdicts issued by coroners may be masking the effects of the current economic crisis on suicide rates, doctors have warned.
Professor David Gunnell, of the University of Bristol, said there is a "new and growing problem with the accuracy of national data".
Changes are urgently needed to ensure the future reliability of statistics and figures for the years "when narrative verdicts proliferated should be treated with caution", he said.
More than 3,000 narrative verdicts were recorded by coroners in 2009, compared with just 111 in 2001, figures showed.
While narrative verdicts can give more details about a death and help identify inadequacies in systems and procedures, they replace the short-form verdict of suicide, making it harder to classify some deaths as suicide and leading to some being recorded as accidents instead.
He called for all narrative verdicts to be accompanied by a short-form verdict in future, making it easier for officials to classify the deaths.
Suicide accounted for 4,648 deaths in England and Wales in 2009, figures showed, but the figures may be underestimating the scale of the problem, he said.
Estimates by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that if all deaths from hanging and poisoning which were given narrative verdicts by coroners and coded as accidents by the ONS were suicides, the 2009 suicide rate would have been underestimated by up to 6%.
An ONS spokesman said: "ONS is confident that the overall picture of current suicide trends shown by National Statistics is reliable, but the variation in practice by different coroners means that local figures could be less reliable.
"We are working with coroners, and others concerned, to resolve these issues."
A broad catch-all discretion enabling police to keep the DNA of innocent people indefinitely for reasons of national security should be scrapped, MPs and peers have said.
Ministers have failed to provide a justification of why this power is necessary and proportionate, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said.
Its report on the Protection of Freedoms Bill, which is due to go through its remaining stages in the Commons next week, said the proposals regarding the retention of DNA should be reconsidered.
Home Secretary Theresa May has said the plans to curb the state's right to intrude in private lives would see almost one million innocent people have their names removed from the national DNA database.
Under the Government's plans only adults convicted or cautioned will have their DNA stored indefinitely, while those charged but later cleared will see their profile stored for up to five years. But the committee warned this would create "a significant risk of incompatibility with the right to a private life" and called for further evidence to prove it was justifiable.
The Bill would also "create a broad 'catch-all' discretion for the police to authorise the retention of material indefinitely for reasons of national security", the committee warned.
"We are concerned that the minister has not provided a justification of why this power is necessary and proportionate, particularly in light of specific measures targeted towards retention in relation to counter-terrorism and immigration," the report said.
"Without further justification or additional safeguards, these measures should be removed from the Bill."
A Home Office spokesman said: "National security is the first duty of any government. Where DNA needs to be retained on national security grounds it will have to be approved by the independent Biometric Commissioner, which will provide a strong safeguard.
"The last government kept the DNA of innocent people, but didn't even bother taking it from prisoners. We're going to take samples from the guilty and get rid of them when people have done nothing wrong."
Family and friends will come together to pay a final farewell to a miner killed in a colliery disaster.
David Powell, 50, lost his life in an underground accident at Gleision colliery, near Pontardawe, South Wales.
Three other colleagues were killed when water engulfed the tunnel the men were working in last month, claiming four lives.
Philip Hill, 44, Garry Jenkins, 39, and Charles Breslin, 62, died when disaster struck on September 15.
Funeral services which attracted hundreds of mourners in each case have already taken place for the three men.
A service for Mr Powell will be held today at St David's Church, in Ystalyfera, in the Swansea Valley.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has ordered an investigation into continuing claims surrounding the role of a controversial friend and adviser.
Dr Fox has asked his most senior official, permanent secretary Ursula Brennan, to look into what he describes as "wild allegations" concerning Adam Werritty.
In recent days Dr Fox has been accused of putting national security at risk by allowing Mr Werritty - a former flatmate who was best man at his wedding - access to the Ministry of Defence, even though he is not employed by the Government.
It has been reported Mr Werritty joined the Defence Secretary on an official visit to Sri Lanka, despite Dr Fox having previously said Mr Werritty did not travel with him on official visits overseas.
The Defence Secretary said he did attend a "private event" with his friend on the island nation after a picture of the pair was published in the Guardian.
He told BBC News: "It was organised by Adam Werritty and Mrs (Suganthie Wijayasuriya) Kadirgamar, who's the widow of the assassinated Tamil former foreign secretary of Sri Lanka.
"I've asked the permanent secretary to look into any of these wild allegations, and I'm very happy to stand by that investigation."
Mr Werritty has been a controversial figure in Whitehall. Despite having no official role he is reported to hand out business cards with a portcullis logo describing himself as "adviser to Rt Hon Liam Fox MP".
Mr Fox said: "I understand those cards are no longer used. I have made it very clear to him that it's unacceptable to carry a card saying that he is a personal adviser."
An MoD spokesman said: "Mr Werritty's meetings with the Secretary of State at the MoD have concerned entirely private matters, not to discuss MoD business. At no time has he had access to any classified MoD documents or information."
