![Questions mount over Fox 'adviser']()
Defence Secretary Liam Fox's political career is hanging in the balance as questions mount over his close friend Adam Werritty's financial affairs.
As top Whitehall officials investigated relations between the two men, the focus of the controversy was beginning to centre on who funded Mr Werritty's frequent globetrotting alongside Dr Fox.
According to The Times, Mr Werritty's three known consultancies have earned him little more than £20,000 in four years.
Dr Fox apologised to the House of Commons on Monday for "blurring" the lines between ministerial work and his personal life after a report found he met a close friend a total of 40 times at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and on overseas trips.
David Cameron said the interim report by MoD permanent secretary Ursula Brennan made clear that Dr Fox had made "serious mistakes" in his links with Mr Werritty and that procedures within his department needed tightening up. And the Prime Minister ordered the Government's top civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, to join Ms Brennan in completing her inquiry.
According to a list of meetings released by the MoD, Dr Fox and Mr Werritty met during visits to Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tampa, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Israel, Washington and Sri Lanka. They also met in Tampa, Florida, for a meeting with General John Allen, the commander-designate of the Isaf mission in Afghanistan.
Labour said it was "beyond doubt" that the Defence Secretary had breached the ministerial code of conduct by attending a meeting in a Dubai hotel with representatives of defence company Cellcrypt arranged by Mr Werritty, the best man at his wedding who styled himself an adviser to Dr Fox.
The Defence Secretary told MPs: "Mr Werritty was never present at regular departmental meetings, during private meetings we did not discuss either commercial or defence matters, he had no access to classified documents, nor was he briefed on classified matters."
A source close to the Defence Secretary said Dr Fox had personally received assurances from his friend and former flatmate that he had never benefited financially from their association. But Dr Fox acknowledged he should have been more careful about their contacts, telling MPs: "It was a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my loyalties to a friend. I am sorry for this, I have apologised to the Prime Minister, to the public and, at the first opportunity available, to the House."
The Defence Secretary told MPs that, to avoid any "appearance of potential wrongdoing", Mr Werritty will no longer pay private visits to the MoD, attend international conferences where Dr Fox is present or mix socially abroad with him when he is on official business.
David Cameron has appealed for the public to "shop" illegal immigrants as he pledged to reclaim Britain's borders.
He also insisted the citizenship test for legal incomers would be rewritten to include questions on British history and signalled a fresh crackdown on forced and bogus marriages.
And in future, individuals applying to come to the UK for family reasons will have to show that they can speak English and have the financial means to support themselves as well as genuine family links in Britain.
Family migration made up almost a fifth of non-European Union (EU) immigration last year, with 50,000 visas issued, he told an audience at the Institute for Government in central London.
But a survey suggested that more than 70% of UK-based family sponsors had an income of less than £20,000 after tax, creating "an obvious risk" that they may become dependent on welfare.
Mr Cameron said the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) would consider whether the minimum level of financial support should be higher and whether a "bond" from migrants could be demanded in some cases.
There will be closer checks on claimed relationships between spouses to weed out sham marriages for immigration reasons, including cases where couples divorce immediately after obtaining permission to stay and then make fresh applications relating to different partners.
He added that he wanted the coalition to "go further and be even tougher" on immigration.
"For our part in government, we are creating a new National Crime Agency with a dedicated border policing command which will have responsibility for safeguarding the security of our border," he said. "But I want everyone in the country to help, including by reporting suspected illegal immigrants to our Border Agency through the Crimestoppers phone line or through the Border Agency website.
"Together we will reclaim our borders and send illegal immigrants home."
Phone maker BlackBerry is investigating a problem which has affected users in Britain, elsewhere in Europe, across the Middle East and in Africa.
Blackberry developer Research in Motion gave few further details, but phone companies whose customers use the smartphones said that internet access and BlackBerry's popular messenger service appeared to be affected.
T-Mobile UK said in messages posted online that there was an "issue with sending and receiving via the BlackBerry Messenger service as well as using BlackBerry internet services".
It said that it and Research in Motion was looking into the matter.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has apologised to the House of Commons for "blurring" the lines between ministerial work and his personal life after a report found he met a close friend a total of 40 times at the Ministry of Defence and on overseas trips.
David Cameron said the interim report by MoD permanent secretary Ursula Brennan made clear that Dr Fox had made "serious mistakes" in his links with Adam Werritty and that procedures within his department need tightening up.
The Prime Minister ordered the Government's top civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, to join Ms Brennan in completing her inquiry.
Labour said it is "beyond doubt" that the Defence Secretary had breached the ministerial code of conduct by attending a meeting in a Dubai hotel with representatives of defence company Cellcrypt arranged by Mr Werritty, the best man at his wedding who styled himself an adviser to Dr Fox.
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said Dr Fox had "driven a coach and horses through the rules" and called on the Prime Minister to refer the case to the independent adviser on ministers' interests, Sir Philip Mawer.
But Dr Fox received strong support from the Conservative backbenches as he made his apology to the Commons, while Downing Street said the Defence Secretary "absolutely" retained Mr Cameron's full confidence.
The 22 visits at the MoD and 18 meetings on the margins of trips abroad detailed in the report far exceeded the contacts with Mr Werritty previously confirmed by Dr Fox. Meetings overseas occurred during family holidays and in the margins of international conferences.
Mr Werritty was with the Defence Secretary when he met the president of Sri Lanka on a personal basis in London last year and joined Dr Fox when he visited the country in July.
But the Defence Secretary told MPs: "Mr Werritty was never present at regular departmental meetings, during private meetings we did not discuss either commercial or defence matters, he had no access to classified documents, nor was he briefed on classified matters." He went on: "It was a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my loyalties to a friend. I am sorry for this, I have apologised to the Prime Minister, to the public and, at the first opportunity available, to the House."
A source close to the Defence Secretary said Dr Fox had personally received assurances from his friend and former flatmate that he had never benefited financially from their association.
Offering to pay for the funerals of organ donors might help boost the number of life-saving transplant operations, an influential ethical body has said.
The health service should consider starting a pilot scheme to gauge public opinion about possibly meeting funeral expenses for those who sign the organ donor register, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics said.
Under the proposed scheme, payment would only be offered if someone who has signed the register dies in circumstances where their organs could be donated to others.
The independent body said there are 8,000 people in the UK on the waiting list for an organ transplant waiting an average of three years for a suitable donor to become available.
Three people die every day while waiting for an organ, the council said, and paying for funerals of donors could be an ethical way of encouraging more people to sign the register.
The proposal forms part of a series of recommendations in a report by the council following an 18-month inquiry into the ethics of encouraging people to donate in a range of areas from major organs to eggs, sperm, blood, tissue and whole bodies.
Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, who headed the inquiry, said: "Government initiatives to improve the health of the population are crucial to reducing the number of people in need of organs in the UK, but we must also take reasonable steps towards increasing the number of potential donors.
"The possibility of sparing relatives the financial burden of a funeral might encourage more people to register as donors. Paying for the funerals of organ donors would be ethically justified - no harm can come to the donor, and it would be a form of recognition from society. We think a pilot scheme to test the public response to the idea is worth trying, alongside other schemes."
The report said it opposed a "hard" opt out approach to organ donation in which organs were automatically taken unless a person had objected in their lifetime.
But it said it backed a "mandated" or "prompted" choice system where people are encouraged to make a choice about organ donation during their lifetime - provided they had an opportunity to make objections clear too.
A woman was stabbed to death and another injured when a third woman allegedly ran amok with a stolen butcher's knife on a busy shopping street.
The two victims, both adults, were attacked as stores opened for business on Monday morning in Bexleyheath, south-east London.
The woman who died has been named in reports as law firm accounts manager Sally Hodkin. Police have not officially named the victim, who was said to have worked at law firm Cunningham Blake. A voice message on the firm's answering machine said it was closed due to a bereavement.
The suspected attacker later walked into a tile shop with blood on one hand, telling the manager to call the police because she had "hurt somebody".
Sources said the attacker bought a blade from a nearby Asda store before she attacked a 23-year-old woman waiting at a nearby bus stop, slashing her hand.
She then fled the scene, going next into the British Meat Market store, some 150 metres away, where she threatened the manager and made off with another knife, which she used to kill her second victim, 59.
The dead woman is understood to have been on her way to work when she was stabbed in the neck. She is believed to have lived locally and was pronounced dead minutes later, at 8.41am.
Detective Superintendent Keith Niven, of the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said there is no information to suggest the victims were known to each other or to the suspect.
Shops were forced to close their doors as detectives and forensic officers investigated the attacks, and part of the road was cordoned off.
The suspect, aged 32 and believed to be from London but not from the borough of Bexley, remains in custody. It is understood she was assessed for mental health problems following her arrest.
Four leading internet service providers are to offer parents the option of blocking adult content when they subscribe, it has been reported.
BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin will require new customers to specify if they want to view explicit sites, the Daily Mail said.
Subscribers who do not opt in will not be able to view online pornography, the paper added.
The move is expected to be announced on Tuesday by Prime Minister David Cameron as part of a campaign to tackle the sexualisation of childhood.
A new website, called Parentport, is being launched where parents can complain about television programmes, advertisements, products or services which they believe are unsuitable for children.
Ed Richards, chief executive of watchdog Ofcom, told the paper: "Seven UK media regulators have come together to develop a single website with a single aim - to help protect children from inappropriate material."
The latest moves follow a report by Mothers' Union chief executive Reg Bailey, which warned that children's lives were being ruined by internet porn, adult TV and advertising material and suggestive clothing for youngsters.
Mr Cameron said he welcomed recommendations to make it easier for parents to block "adult and age-restricted material" across all media.
Nick Pickles, director of privacy and civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: "We should tread very carefully when developing state-sanctioned censorship of the internet.
"Let alone the quagmire of deciding what should be censored, it is a dangerous path to go down to expect technology to replace parental oversight and responsibility. A free and open internet is the basis of Britain's economic future - for the Government to actively intervene on non-legal grounds sets a precedent that could cause irreparable harm to free speech."
A woman accused of stabbing a grandmother to death with a butcher's knife has not attended court because of mental health problems.
Unemployed Nicola Edgington, 31, is charged with killing law firm accounts manager Sally Hodkin, 59, in a busy shopping street in Bexleyheath, south east London, on Monday.
Edgington, of Ambedkar House, Flavell Mews, Greenwich, south east London, is also charged with the attempted murder of a 23-year-old woman who was injured as she waited at a bus stop.
Greenwich Magistrates' Court was told Edgington was unfit to be taken into the courtroom to face charges.
A security guard summoned to describe Edgington's condition said the woman was "agitated".
"At the moment she is in a cell with three officers but I am a bit reluctant to bring her up with everyone around.
"She seems to be very agitated with people in the cells, she's getting very agitated and uppity."
Mrs Hodkin, who has not been officially named by police, is understood to have been on her way to work at law firm Cunningham Blake when she was apparently stabbed in the neck.
She is believed to have lived locally and was pronounced dead at 8.41am.
Edgington, who was represented by her solicitor Callum Haddow, was told her case will be heard next at the Old Bailey on Thursday when a bail application is due to take place. A plea and case management hearing was scheduled for January 17.
Most of the UK's top companies listed on the Stock Exchange use tax havens, according to new research.
ActionAid said that 98 of the FTSE 100 companies have declared tax haven companies.
The charity is calling on the Government to crack down on tax havens, saying they "can't afford to turn a blind eye".
Chris Jordan, tax justice expert at ActionAid, said: "ActionAid's research showing the use of tax havens by Britain's biggest companies raises serious questions they need to answer.
"Tax havens have a damaging impact on the UK exchequer, the stability of the international financial system, and vitally on the ability of developing countries to raise tax revenues which would lift them out of poverty and make them less dependent on aid."
ActionAid said there were 1,649 tax haven companies declared between the UK's "big four" banks. The only two companies not to use tax havens were Fresnillo and Hargreaves Lansdown, ActionAid said.
Mr Jordan added: "When multinationals use tax havens to avoid paying their fair share, ordinary people in both poor and rich countries are left to pick up the bill.
"Spending on doctors, nurses and other essential services gets cut for those who need it most.
"Tax havens might provide the lure of financial secrecy and low tax rates for big companies, but at a time when all countries are desperate for revenues, the UK Government can't afford to turn a blind eye."
A bid to block the Government's controversial health reforms has been launched in the House of Lords.
As peers began a marathon debate on the changes, spread over two days, Labour's Lord Rea urged them to refuse the Health and Social Care Bill a second reading.
The former GP took the unusual step of tabling the amendment because he claimed ministers had failed the coalition's pledge to stop "top-down" reorganisations of the NHS.
Lord Rea told a packed chamber the reforms were not either a manifesto commitment or in the coalition agreement.
"Instead of having a Bill that was in a manifesto, we have a Bill that was expressly ruled out by David Cameron and subsequently in the coalition agreement," he said.
But health minister Earl Howe defended the changes, insisting they would "liberate the NHS" and improve patient care in England. He denied they amounted to "top-down reorganisation", saying the reverse was true with innovation being "unleashed from the bottom-up" with clear lines of accountability.
Lord Rea's call came after more than 60 leading medical professionals called on ministers to scrap or substantially rewrite highly controversial NHS reforms.
On Sunday thousands of protesters against the changes, aimed at giving clinicians control of commissioning budgets and increasing competition, converged on Parliament, blocking Westminster Bridge for two hours.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has already been forced to amend the proposals after putting them on hold in the teeth of widespread opposition from health professionals earlier this year.
Around 100 peers have indicated they want to speak in the debate, which the Government has extended until Wednesday when the key votes will be taken.
The coalition Government's tax and benefit policies will leave almost a quarter of Britain's children in poverty by the end of this decade, according to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
Median incomes are expected to fall by 7% over the period 2009-12 - the largest three-year fall for 35 years - driving absolute poverty up by about 600,000 children and 800,000 working-age adults, according to the respected economic think-tank.
The introduction of Universal Credit from 2013 will lift around 450,000 children and 600,000 working-age adults out of relative poverty - defined as living in a household on less than 60% of average income - by 2020/21, said the IFS. But its positive impact will be far outweighed by the combined impact of other tax and benefit changes, including the switch from RPI indexation to the less generous CPI inflation measure.
The report, which uses official economic forecasts and takes into account all announced tax and benefit policies, suggests that 2020 will see relative child poverty at its highest since 1999/2000 and absolute child poverty its highest since 2001/02.
The IFS forecasts that 3.3 million children (24.4%) will be in relative poverty and 3.1 million (23.1%) in absolute poverty by 2020, up from 2.5 million (19.2%) in relative poverty and 2.8 million (21.1%) in absolute poverty now.
If correct, this would mean the Government missing by a wide margin the legally-binding targets set down in the Child Poverty Act, which was passed by the former Labour administration with cross-party support in 2010 and stated that no more than 5 in relative poverty by the end of the decade.
James Browne, one of the authors of the report, said: "Even if there were an immense increase in the resources made available, it is hard to see how child poverty could fall by enough to hit this supposedly legally-binding target in just nine years".
Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: "This devastating report leaves the Government's child poverty and social mobility strategies in jeopardy. The Government must accept that you cannot fight poverty or improve life chances by making the poor poorer.
"Ministers seem to be in denial that, under current policies, their legacy threatens to be the worst poverty record of any government for a generation."
But a Government spokesman said the IFS had not fully taken into account the impact of behavioural changes expected to result from welfare changes and reforms to the education system.
MPs who wrongly claimed taxpayer-funded expenses for websites featuring party political logos were let off partly because of a watchdog's lax monitoring.
Details of 21 investigations into alleged abuses of taxpayer-funded expenses have been published after a climbdown by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa).
All but one of the cases, which numbered former Cabinet minister Alan Johnson among those investigated, involved illegitimate claims for public cash for websites.
Ipsa's compliance officer ruled that they should be spared paying back the cash because the breaches were relatively minor and the watchdog was "in part at fault". Officials should have spotted the infringements and blocked the payments in the first place, Martyn Taylor said, ruling that MPs who had already coughed up should get their cheques back.
Ipsa is also consulting on changes to the rules over when MPs under investigation should be named - including removing the discretion given to the compliance officer over individual cases.
Existing guidelines suggest politicians should be identified when a formal investigation is launched, but no details had been released since Ipsa took over running the system 17 months ago. The then-compliance officer Luke March said in July that naming MPs could be "unfair" and suggested there should be no publicity at all if they were cleared.
Within days of making the comments - which raised the prospect that the new regime could be less transparent than the old discredited one - Mr March resigned. Mr Taylor, previously head of governance at the watchdog, has been filling in until a permanent replacement is recruited.
In its consultation document, Ipsa said that keeping the names of MPs under investigation secret until it concludes would "respect the need for transparency and prevent speculation".
While the arguments were "finely balanced", revealing politicians' identities at the launch of a full inquiry risked them being "accused of wrongful expense claims before a full and fair investigation is completed", it said.
A spokesman said procedures had been tightened to prevent a repeat of the website breaches.
Joanna Yeates suffered a slow and painful death as her next-door neighbour strangled her with his bare hands, a court has heard.
Vincent Tabak was said to have used his height and build to overpower the 25-year-old's 5ft 4in frame. She fought for her life for some time as Tabak pinned her to the floor by her wrists, Nigel Lickley QC, for the Crown, told Bristol Crown Court.
"There was a violent struggle by Miss Yeates to survive," he said. "He might have let go but he did not. He knew that Miss Yeates was in pain but struggling to breathe."
The jury has heard that tests showed her body had 43 separate injuries. Tabak, 33, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder.
The court heard that blood stains on a wall where Miss Yeates's body was found suggested Tabak had tried lift her over the wall into a neighbouring quarry. Having failed to do that, Tabak attempted to cover her body with leaves and packed them around her body.
Toxicology tests on Miss Yeates's body were consistent with her having drunk between one-and-a-half and two-and-a-half pints of cider.
Blood alcohol tests revealed a level of 67mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal drink-drive limit is 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood.
Scientists were also able to confirm that she had not eaten the Tesco Finest pizza she bought on the night of her death. Miss Yeates's last meal was the cheesy chips she ate with her boyfriend at lunchtime on December 17.
The court heard that Tabak first confessed to killing her during a conversation with a Salvation Army chaplain while he was in custody. He had previously disputed police evidence on a string of occasions after his arrest in January, and told officers that he had not known who Miss Yeates was.
But while in prison, he was said to have told the chaplain he was "sorry". Mr Lickley said: "Vincent Tabak went on to say that he was going to plead guilty."
The Olympic Stadium deal with West Ham United and Newham Council has collapsed, sports minister Hugh Robertson has confirmed.
Legal challenges by Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient, plus an anonymous complaint to the European Commission, have led to fears that court action could drag on for years while the stadium remains empty.
The stadium will now remain in public ownership and be leased out to an anchor tenant following a new tender process by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC). West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady confirmed the club will bid again to become a tenant at the stadium.
Mr Robertson said: "The key point is the action we have taken today is about removing the uncertainty. The process had become bogged down in legal paralysis.
"Particularly relevant has been the anonymous complaint to the EC over 'state aid' and the OPLC received a letter from Newham Council yesterday saying because of the uncertainty they no longer wanted to proceed. That was the straw that broke the camel's back and we thought it better to stop it dead in its tracks now."
Some £35 million already earmarked under the Olympic Budget will be used to transform the stadium after the Games. Prospective tenants will then be asked to bid for the stadium, with the running track remaining in place.
Mr Robertson added: "This is not a white elephant stadium where no one wants it. We have had two big clubs fighting tooth and nail to get it. The new process will be more like how Manchester City took over the Commonwealth Games stadium, which is regarded as a leading example of how to do it."
The tenants would pay an annual rent to the OPLC, which should prove to be less costly for the likes of West Ham.
The move will also remove uncertainty over the stadium ahead of London's bid for the 2017 world athletics championships, although that was not a major consideration in the decision to abandon the current deal.
Andrew Boff, Olympic spokesman for the Conservative group on the London Assembly, said: "This catastrophe is entirely down to Sebastian Coe's insistence that the stadium should retain an athletics track after the Olympics. That criterion reduced the number of bidders for the site and prevented any serious sustainable regeneration plans, with the exception of that by Spurs, coming forward."
Ministers are facing demands from more than 60 leading medical professionals to scrap or substantially rewrite highly controversial NHS reforms.
Supported by a string of celebrities including fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood and comedian Russell Brand, they warned that the British public still did not support the plans.
Their intervention came in a letter to The Independent timed to coincide with the return of the Health and Social Care Bill to Parliament, to be considered by the House of Lords.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, who was forced to amend the proposals earlier this year in the teeth of widespread opposition from health professionals, is facing an attempt by peers to block or delay the Bill.
The letter insists that "both medical professionals and the British public - despite a protracted listening exercise by the Government - still do not support existing plans for the NHS".
"It is perfectly clear - as the Prime Minister is acutely aware - that the British public does not support the privatisation of the NHS, and it is a matter of fact that no-one ever voted for it; and so this current bill has no democratic mandate whatsoever," it goes on.
It says that the NHS is too important and valuable to be "transformed forever in this unpopular, undemocratic way". "We the undersigned call for the suspension of, or significant amendment of the bill in order that it can be supported by a majority of the medical profession and the British public as a whole, who pay for, support and service our great NHS."
Other public figures to have signed the letter include actors Julie Christie and David Morrissey and novelist Will Self. Signatories from the medical world include Professor Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives and an array of consultants from hospitals across the country.
A survey of 1,890 psychiatrists found only one in 10 believes the Health and Social Care Bill will lead to better patient care. The poll, for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, also revealed that 84% believe the College should call for the Bill to be withdrawn.
Some 93% were not reassured by the Government's response to the recent "listening exercise" and 85% believe the current reforms will not deliver cost-effective care.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox's political career is hanging in the balance as questions mount over his close friend Adam Werritty's financial affairs.
As top Whitehall officials investigated relations between the two men, the focus of the controversy was beginning to centre on who funded Mr Werritty's frequent globetrotting alongside Dr Fox.
According to The Times, Mr Werritty's three known consultancies have earned him little more than £20,000 in four years.
Dr Fox apologised to the House of Commons on Monday for "blurring" the lines between ministerial work and his personal life after a report found he met a close friend a total of 40 times at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and on overseas trips.
David Cameron said the interim report by MoD permanent secretary Ursula Brennan made clear that Dr Fox had made "serious mistakes" in his links with Mr Werritty and that procedures within his department needed tightening up. And the Prime Minister ordered the Government's top civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, to join Ms Brennan in completing her inquiry.
According to a list of meetings released by the MoD, Dr Fox and Mr Werritty met during visits to Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tampa, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Israel, Washington and Sri Lanka. They also met in Tampa, Florida, for a meeting with General John Allen, the commander-designate of the Isaf mission in Afghanistan.
Labour said it was "beyond doubt" that the Defence Secretary had breached the ministerial code of conduct by attending a meeting in a Dubai hotel with representatives of defence company Cellcrypt arranged by Mr Werritty, the best man at his wedding who styled himself an adviser to Dr Fox.
The Defence Secretary told MPs: "Mr Werritty was never present at regular departmental meetings, during private meetings we did not discuss either commercial or defence matters, he had no access to classified documents, nor was he briefed on classified matters."
A source close to the Defence Secretary said Dr Fox had personally received assurances from his friend and former flatmate that he had never benefited financially from their association. But Dr Fox acknowledged he should have been more careful about their contacts, telling MPs: "It was a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my loyalties to a friend. I am sorry for this, I have apologised to the Prime Minister, to the public and, at the first opportunity available, to the House."
The Defence Secretary told MPs that, to avoid any "appearance of potential wrongdoing", Mr Werritty will no longer pay private visits to the MoD, attend international conferences where Dr Fox is present or mix socially abroad with him when he is on official business.
Scotland Yard failed to get enough officers in place quickly enough as the force got its tactics wrong in tackling this summer's riots, Britain's new top police officer has said.
Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said people saw the violence and looting on the streets on the Saturday and thought they could get away with it too.
Mr Hogan-Howe's criticism of the Yard's tactics before he took over two weeks ago came as he added he wanted to make the police more visible on the streets.
The Metropolitan Police was on the back foot during August's riots as it had neither the intelligence on what would happen next or the numbers of officers on the streets to cope, he said.
Asked if the Met's tactics were wrong, while those used in his former force - Merseyside where many extra officers were immediately put on the streets - were right, Mr Hogan-Howe said: "I'm not disagreeing with that.
"I don't think anything I've said today is inconsistent with that. But the great benefit, of course, that they had was that they had 24 hours' notice."
Giving evidence to MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, Mr Hogan-Howe said the force needed to review its intelligence, resources and tactics in the wake of the riots.
"The three of those, we're now reviewing whether or not we could have done those better," he said. "I'm sure we can do those better in the future."
He added: "We need to review our tactics to make sure we are far more flexible than we appeared on those three days. It does seem to me that on the Saturday there was a riot, people were angry, and there was a response against the police and that led to serious disorder.
"Then the press carried that, those images, and on the Sunday and Monday people believed they could get away with it and continued to do it. We have to respond very rigorously at the beginning to stop it getting out of control."
A couple who scooped over £101 million in the EuroMillions draw had only played twice before.
It really was third time lucky for Dave Dawes, 47, a shift supervisor for Premier Foods, and Angela Dawes, 43, a volunteer for the British Heart Foundation, when they hit the jackpot last Friday.
The couple, from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, also became the third biggest lottery winners in the UK.
Mr Dawes described how they discovered their win.
He said: "We were watching TV and the EuroMillions draw show came on so we kept watching, not thinking we would win anything.
"We got our tickets out and watched in shock as, one by one, the numbers came up on the line I'd chosen.
"We couldn't believe it! It was too late to call Camelot so I kept the ticket on me all night until the morning but we didn't sleep a wink."
The couple, who have been together for four years, were planning to get married abroad next year so the windfall means they can now enjoy the wedding of their dreams - and a new engagement ring for Angela.
Mr Dawes is an avid Chelsea fan, having been a steward at the club in the past, so a season ticket is also on the shopping list. He said: "I'm not worried about getting a box - I want to stand with the real fans and watch my team play."
The winning line was a selection of randomly chosen numbers bought from WH Smith in Market Place in Wisbech. The winning EuroMillions numbers on Friday 7 were 18, 26, 34, 38, 42 and the Lucky Star numbers were 5 and 8.
The UK could exhaust its oil and gas reserves in just 17 years if production continues at its current rate, according to new figures.
Oil & Gas UK's 2011 economic report revealed there could be as little as 14 billion barrels of oil and gas left off the UK continental shelf.
Around 810 million barrels were extracted last year, 2.2 million barrels a day, meaning reserves could hypothetically be exhausted in 17 years.
The most optimistic estimate puts reserves at 24 billion barrels, which would last around 30 years at the present rate of production. However, the report states that these reserves would require "radical" new technical and commercial innovations to extract.
Production was down 6.5% last year compared with 2009, and could slow to around half a million barrels a day by 2021.
Oil & Gas UK chief executive Malcolm Webb said the industry has the potential to continue to provide jobs, tax revenues and support for the balance of trade and energy supplies for several decades to come.
He added: "We believe that up to 24 billion boe (barrels of oil and gas equivalent) remain to be produced here. The forecasts prepared at the start of 2011 showed that investment to develop these was set to increase dramatically to £8 billion this year and be sustained at that rate for the next five years. Our calculations show that if the investment planned then were realised, over 40% of our primary energy demand (or 60% of oil and gas demand) could still be satisfied from these resources in 2020."
Some 40 billion barrels of oil have already been extracted from UK waters, amounting to between 62 of the UK's total reserves based on the current estimates.
However, SNP Westminster energy spokesman Mike Weir said there is still as much oil left off UK shores as has already been extracted.
Mr Weir said: "The oil and gas industry continues to be a vital part of our economy and clearly there continues to be a long-term future for the industry, with as much oil left around our shores as has already been extracted. Unfortunately, the present UK Government has seen fit to damage the prospects of the present industry by sudden tax changes and the future industry by its watering down of attempts to create a greener economy."
British forces have freed an Italian cargo ship that was attacked by pirates off Somalia.
The Montecristo was carrying 23 crew members - seven Italians, six Ukrainians and 10 Indians - when it was attacked on Monday.
All of them are now safe and free, the Italian defence ministry said.
The operation was carried out by two navy ships - one British and one American as part of Nato's Ocean Shield anti-piracy force. The 11 pirates on board were arrested after they surrendered, the ministry said.
Britain's Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Royal Navy "was involved in a compliant boarding" - in which the pirates indicated they would surrender and sailors boarded the vessel to take them into custody.
"The danger of piracy has increased," said Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa.
Pirates flourish off largely lawless Somalia by attacking passing ships, taking hostages and demanding ransoms to free them and the vessels.
The ship's owner, D'Alessio Group, said that the attack had occurred 620 miles off Somalia as the crew was hauling scrap iron to Vietnam on a journey that had begun on September 20 in Liverpool.
