September 14, 2010, 1:35 pm
![Image]( "Union protests court closures plan")
Unions will stage protests against the planned closure of courts and the threat of cuts in transport spending which they warn could hit bus services.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will stage a demonstration outside the Ministry of Justice in London on the last day of the Government's consultation over the planned closure of more than 150 courts in England and Wales.
Officials warned that the closures would "devastate" access to local justice.
Kevin Greenway of the PCS said: "Many committed and experienced staff who understand the justice system could lose their jobs if these courts close.
"Local communities will lose a vital public service and access to justice for thousands of people will be denied. We want to highlight the consequences courts closures and other cuts will have."
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "At the TUC conference this week we have shown that there is an alternative to the Government's cuts in public spending that are being driven by ideology, not necessity."
The protest will include a grim reaper figure who will sound the "death knell" for the justice system.
Meanwhile, hundreds of bus workers from Unite will lobby City Hall in London warning of threats to the capital's transport system because of the Government's spending cuts.
Unite said the current tendering system for contracts was putting a "huge squeeze" on bus workers' terms and conditions, warning of looming disputes over pay.
↧
↧
September 14, 2010, 2:32 pm
![Image]( "Cuts 'risk' to military operations")
The Government's planned spending cuts for defence are so deep they could jeopardise the Armed Forces' ability to maintain current military operations, MPs have warned.
The Commons Defence Committee said the strategic defence and security review (SDSR) - which will determine where the spending axe will fall - was being pushed through so quickly that mistakes were bound to be made.
It expressed concern that the review could be dominated by short-term security issues and threats at the expense of the medium to long-term defence needs of the country.
At the same time, the committee warned the prospect that the Ministry of Defence could have to shoulder the full costs of updating Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent could have "very significant" consequences for future defence spending.
The SDSR is being carried out alongside the Government's overall comprehensive spending review (CSR), which is due to report next month.
While the committee acknowledged the need for ministers to move swiftly to tackle the deficit, it warned that the MoD was having to do "too much too quickly".
"The rapidity with which the SDSR process is being undertaken is quite startling," it said. "A process which was not tried and tested is being expected to deliver radical outcomes within a highly concentrated time-frame. We conclude that mistakes will be made and some of them may be serious.
"We can understand that there is an urgency to the SDSR process, both in terms of alignment with a CSR intended seriously to address the deficit, and in terms of the pressing need for a defence review a decade since the last was undertaken.
"However, the department could end up with only short-term priorities, misaligned resources, a barely reformed acquisition process and a structure short of manpower to deliver good performance and improperly configured for its tasks."
While the MoD's budget has received some protection, the committee said that it was still facing cuts of between 10% and 20%, in contrast to spending on health and overseas aid which has been ring-fenced. "The capacity of the country even to sustain current in-use capabilities and therefore current operations could well be put at risk by the proposed cuts of between 10% and 20%," it said.
↧
September 14, 2010, 2:32 pm
![Image]( "Hague makes human rights commitment")
Foreign Secretary William Hague is to declare his commitment to the protection of human rights around the world, insisting it is not in Britain's interests to pursue "a foreign policy without a conscience".
Mr Hague will use the third in a series of linked speeches on foreign policy to announce that he is setting up a new group - including aid agencies and independent experts - to advise ministers on human rights issues.
He will also say that the Foreign Office is reissuing guidance to its staff on the need to report any incidents of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that they encounter in the course of their work.
"There will be no downgrading of human rights under this Government and no resiling from our commitments to aid and development. Indeed I intend to improve and strengthen our human rights work," he is expected to say.
"It is not in our character as a nation to have a foreign policy without a conscience, and neither is it in our interests.
"We cannot achieve long-term security and prosperity unless we uphold our values. Where human rights abuses go unchecked our security suffers. And our international influence will bleed away unless we maintain our international standing and cultural influence."
His comments carry echoes of former foreign secretary Robin Cook's declaration at the start of the last Labour government that it would pursue a foreign policy with an "ethical dimension".
Mr Hague will also confirm that the Foreign Office will continue the previous government's practice of publishing an annual human rights report - although it will no longer be a glossy document but a simple parliamentary paper.
Shadow foreign secretary David Miliband welcomed the confirmation that the report would be retained, but accused Mr Hague of diverting resources away from human rights issues and frontline diplomatic services.
"William Hague has cut programmes on human rights and democracy by £560,000 this financial year, while the Government has watered down Labour's policy for a universal standard for arms sales," he said.
↧
September 14, 2010, 2:32 pm
![Image]( "Call for caution over spending cuts")
The Government has been urged to approach spending cuts like a middle-distance runner rather than a sprinter, making sure that most public sector job cuts take effect after 2013.
Ministers should limit public sector job losses to no more than 125,000 - roughly one in five of the total in the pipeline - between now and the end of the 2012/13 financial year, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said.
Chief economic adviser John Philpott said: "Whatever the latest figures show, the majority of forward-looking indicators suggest that the UK jobs situation is about to take another turn for the worse."
He continued: "It's difficult to judge how serious any dip in demand for labour might be, but one wouldn't necessarily choose this moment to start cutting public sector employment.
"However, given the Government's clear commitment to cuts to eliminate the deficit in this Parliament, it's imperative that those cuts are implemented in a way that minimises adverse effects on the Government's wider objectives for growth, jobs, welfare-to-work initiatives and public service reform."
The CIPD said it still believed that private sector job creation would not offset the impact of public sector job cuts before 2013.
"In view of this, we urge ministers to limit public sector job cuts in the fiscal years 2010/11 to 2012/13 to no more than 125,000. Ideally, the majority of subsequent job cuts would also fall closer to 2015/16 than 2013/14," said Dr Philpott.
"A more aggressive approach to public sector job cuts would push unemployment close to three million and be especially harmful to those regions of the UK least well placed to enjoy an early and significant improvement in private sector employment."
The report was published ahead of new unemployment figures.
↧
September 14, 2010, 2:32 pm
![Image]( "Ovaries 'can work after menopause'")
Women who go through early menopause and cannot have children have been offered new hope after scientists found a way of apparently getting ovaries working again.
The study could pave the way for women to one day have their own babies even though they have gone through the menopause at an early age.
Premature ovarian failure affects 1% of women under the age of 40, with one in 1,000 (0.1%) going through it under the age of 30.
The normal age for menopause is the subject of debate but experts consider early menopause to be before the age of 45.
Possible reasons include chromosome abnormalities, such as a women with Down's syndrome; enzyme deficiencies, where enzymes damage eggs and prevent the production of the hormone oestrogen; and auto-immune diseases, where the body effectively turns on itself.
Scientists at the World Congress of Fertility and Sterility in Munich said their latest work in rats could offer hope for the future.
A team from Cairo University in Egypt used stem cells to restore ovarian function in a group of 60 female rats.
The rats were divided into four groups during the experiment, with the first not given any treatment and acting as a control.
Rats in all the other groups were treated with a chemical to stop their ovaries working, with those in the second group then given injections containing stem cells.
Group three was injected with a saline solution to act as a control, and the group four rats had ovarian failure but received no treatment, also enabling them to act as a control.
↧
↧
September 14, 2010, 2:32 pm
![Image]( "Five held over gem dealer robberies")
Five people have been arrested in connection with a series of high value robberies on gem dealers across the country.
Detectives believe the raids in London, the Midlands and Scotland, have netted the gang responsible millions of pounds in the past year.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's London Crime Squad held four men and a woman, aged in their 30s and believed to be of South American origin, following an operation in Leicester City Centre.
The gang is believed to have targeted victims from overseas, who were in the UK for business and had travelled between London and the Midlands.
Victims were subjected to violence on many occasions and in some cases threatened with a knife, police said.
A large number of the stolen items were taken out of the country and have been traced to the United States.
The five people are being held at a police station in the Midlands on suspicion of conspiracy to rob.
Detective Sergeant Paul Rodgers, of the MPS London Crime Squad, said: "They were an extremely close knit, organised group who had been operating as a surveillance team and spotters in order to select their victims and commit the offence.
"These arrests were as a result of a complex and challenging operation."
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:13 am
![Image]( "British jobs market 'on the turn'")
Experts have warned that the UK jobs market is "on the turn" after official figures showed a lower-than-expected drop in unemployment.
The paltry decline in the number of jobless - down 8,000 in the three months to July to 2.47 million - overshadowed a record surge in employment.
A surprise increase in the closely-watched Jobseeker's Allowance claimant count also reinforced fears of a relapse in the jobs recovery.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed 2,300 more people joined the dole queue last month, taking the total to 1.47 million - the first increase since January.
Economists said the figures cast doubts over whether the private sector was strong enough to compensate for the 600,000 jobs expected to go over the next five years under the Government's imminent spending review.
Andrew Goodwin, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said: "The August rise in the claimant count, while small, was the first increase for seven months and provides further evidence that the labour market is on the turn.
"This is particularly concerning given that this comes before the public spending cuts have really got under way."
While the ONS figures show the largest rise in employment since records began in the three months to July, much of this rise was accounted for by students taking on part-time work rather than those on benefits finding jobs.
The ONS said the number of employed workers soared by 286,000 to 29.2 million, although this had little impact on the level of unemployment. The rate of unemployment stayed static at 7.8%.
Those in part-time work increased by 166,000 quarter-on-quarter to 7.9 million in the three months to July suggesting many are still struggling to secure full-time work.
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:13 am
![Image]( "End of independent RAF 'a mistake'")
A Battle of Britain pilot has warned that it would be a "dreadful mistake" to get rid of an independent Royal Air Force.
The Government's planned spending cuts for defence have led some to call for the RAF to be disbanded and subsumed into the Army and the Navy.
But Hurricane pilot Squadron Leader Tony Pickering, who was shot down during the Battle of Britain, said: "I think it would be a dreadful mistake. This is done for financial reasons.
"They should keep a nucleus of the Royal Air Force which would enable us to maintain our position as a sovereign country with a Commonwealth, something we should all be proud of."
Asked if disbanding the RAF would be a threat to the country's security, the 90-year-old, from Rugby in Warwickshire, said: "I think it would. We should still have an independent Royal Air Force, definitely."
Mr Pickering started his career in the RAF volunteer reserves, flying during the Battle of Britain as a Sergeant Pilot and ending his career as a Squadron Leader.
He said he felt sorry for today's Armed Forces fighting in Afghanistan.
He said: "I feel sorry for them out there. I don't think they are as well equipped as we were. They're probably getting as good equipment as the country can allow them at the moment. But we were well equipped."
Mr Pickering paid tribute to Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, who commanded the squadrons that defended London and the South East in the summer of 1940.
A bronze statue to Sir Keith was being unveiled in London's Waterloo Place to mark Battle Of Britain Day.
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:21 am
![Image]( "Hayward defends BP's safety record")
Embattled BP boss Tony Hayward has defended the firm's safety record in the North Sea, insisting recent criticisms had not exposed "any fundamental weakness".
Mr Hayward spoke out as he was grilled by a committee of MPs investigating the implications of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill for offshore drilling in the UK.
In his first UK appearance since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, he said the disaster had been personally "devastating" because he had made safety the firm's top priority.
But he was forced to explain why inspections on BP's North Sea installations found some did not comply with guidelines over regular training for operators on how to respond to an incident.
Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) inspectors also found the firm had not conducted oil spill exercises properly at some of its offshore sites.
The Energy and Climate Change Committee is looking at whether the UK regime is fit for purpose and the risks of drilling off the coast of Scotland, amid fears a spill could occur in UK waters.
Mr Hayward told the MPs: "I do not believe that the issues that were reported this morning point to any fundamental weakness in our North Sea operations.
"We have a very strong track record in the North Sea. It is better than the industry average. We have seen major improvements in the course of the last two years.
"BP spills, which are a good indicator of safety performance in terms of integrity of plant, have fallen by 20% over the last two years and we now lead the industry in terms of that particular metric in the North Sea."
DECC had publicly said that "nothing that they identified compromised the overall integrity of the installation or its pollution response provision," he said.
↧
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:21 am
![Image]( "Woolas denies breaching poll rules")
Ex-Labour immigration minister Phil Woolas has told a court it would have been "political suicide" to break electoral law to help secure his seat.
He denied that he and his campaign team ever thought of breaching the rules in a bid to retain Oldham East and Saddleworth in this year's general election.
Appearing before a specially convened election court, Mr Woolas is accused of stirring up tensions in a racially sensitive area to change the vote in his favour.
He eventually won the seat by 103 votes from his Liberal Democrat opponent Elwyn Watkins, who is hoping to overturn the result and force a re-run.
Mr Watkins claims Mr Woolas made a "shocking" decision to "make the white folk angry" by depicting an alleged campaign by extremist Muslims to overthrow Mr Woolas and present the Lib Dem candidate as in league with them.
The MP said the militant threat in the run-up to the election was genuine and he stood up against it with the strong support of mainstream Muslims.
He said he was approached by a large number of Asians in the community, supporters and non-supporters, who had reported trouble arising from leaflet drops outside a mosque by extremists.
"There was a fear of violence, there were reports of scuffles, there was an attack on a Labour candidate," he said. "My strategy was to mobilise mainstream Muslims and the white community against the extremists and to do that I had to highlight it to the white community."
His counsel Gavin Millar QC asked whether an email from his election agent which questioned whether they "could get away" with focusing on Muslim extremists in one of his election leaflets was a legal reference.
Mr Woolas replied: "The idea that I set out to break the law never came into our minds. It would be political suicide, as well as wrong."
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:45 am
![Image]( "King says banking bailout 'unfair'")
Bank of England governor Mervyn King has described the huge banking bailout as "unfair" and appeared to sympathise with calls for multibillion-pound tax evasion to be tackled when he spoke to union activists.
Mr King told the TUC gathering in Manchester that he understood the strength of feeling over the size of bankers' bonuses, and said "radical reform" of the UK's financial system is needed.
The 62-year-old faced minor protests from some banner-waving delegates and a walkout by the Rail Maritime and Transport union delegation, who retreated to their exhibition stand to watch children's TV.
He was also told bluntly that bankers were "greedy" and that he had failed in his job.
As he waited to speak, delegates called for a high pay commission to investigate the "out of control" wages of executives and other high earners.
The Communication Workers Union said a commission should examine the difference between the highest and lowest pay in leading companies.
General secretary Billy Hayes said: "The blatant double standards in pay for those at the top of companies compared to those at bottom is outrageous and leads to dissatisfaction and a divided society of haves and have-nots."
During his 20-minute speech, only the second by a Bank of England governor to the TUC, Mr King warned that the Government risked plunging the UK back into crisis if it did not reduce Britain's record deficit.
Amid union fury over next month's planned public sector spending cuts, the central bank boss said "vague promises would not have been enough".
Mr King said he believed it was vital the Government set out a clear plan for reducing the deficit and warned that the UK could otherwise have suffered the kind of woes seen in Greece.
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:45 am
![Image]( "May rejects police cuts' warnings")
Home Secretary Theresa May has rejected a warning from senior police officers that the Government's spending cuts will leave forces unable to cope with rising social and industrial tensions.
The British public "don't simply resort to violent unrest in the face of challenging economic circumstances" and it is "ridiculous" to suggest that savings could not be made in the police service, she said.
Mrs May took to the stage at the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales conference in Cheshire after Chief Supt Derek Barnett urged her to protect the service from the worst of the cuts to ensure it is kept "sufficiently resilient" to be able to respond properly to "widespread disorder" on the streets.
It comes after the Police Federation predicted it would be "Christmas for criminals" if 25% budget cuts go ahead, leading to the loss of up to 40,000 officers and making it "inevitable" that crime would rise.
But Mrs May dismissed the concerns as "pure speculation", saying: "Lower budgets do not automatically have to mean lower police numbers.
"The front line should be the last place you should look to make savings, not the first."
And she added that more officers will not lead to less crime if their time is spent on the "pointless tasks of form-filling and chasing targets".
"As any experienced senior police officer will confirm, the effectiveness of a police force depends not primarily on the absolute number of police officers in the force but the way those officers are used," she said.
"The key to success is good management and leadership."
The Government wants to be the first in more than a decade to free officers to cut crime, giving them the space needed to do their jobs, she said, and ministers would cut red tape and slash bureaucracy in a bid to hand back power to the professionals and the people.
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:45 am
![Image]( "Duncan Smith denies agreeing cuts")
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith denied that he had signed up to £4 billion of spending cuts to the welfare budget.
Mr Duncan Smith acknowledged that he would have to find savings in the Government's forthcoming spending review but said he was still in negotiations with the Treasury.
Giving evidence to the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, he disclosed that Chancellor George Osborne was demanding proof that his planned reforms to the welfare system - to make it easier to get claimants back into jobs - would work.
Mr Duncan Smith insisted that he did not recognise press reports over the summer that his officials had been involved in bitter clashes with the Treasury.
He also dismissed reports last week that he was facing a further £4 billion cut in welfare spending - on top of the £11 billion announced in the Budget - after Mr Osborne signalled fresh curbs on benefits.
"We haven't reached any conclusions about this at all. As regards figures like £4 billion, I simply don't recognise that figure at all," he said.
"I have made no commitment to savings in the spending round because that is a matter of discussion between myself, the Treasury and Downing Street generally."
He insisted that reform of the system was essential if the Government was to achieve long-term saving to the welfare budget as past attempts to cut benefits had simply seen payments "balloon" back up.
"We have to make savings, that is clear. My view is that we will better make savings by reforming the system. That is part of the whole area of discussions that we have," he said.
He said that Mr Osborne was insisting on seeing evidence that his proposals would work before he would agree the plan.
↧
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:45 am
![Image]( "UK holidaymakers hurt on Greek boat")
British holidaymakers on a day trip to the Greek island of Kos were injured when a catamaran crashed twice as it approached the port.
Twenty-five people were taken to hospital with injuries including broken bones and cuts from shattered windows. Five of them were seriously injured, but none were thought to be in a life-threatening condition.
Most of the 209 tourists on the boat, travelling from the Turkish resort of Didim to Kos, were British.
The Aegean Cat, run by a Turkish firm, is thought to have suffered a technical problem that caused it to hit the dock. Those onboard described horrific scenes.
Phil Simonetti, whose wife Dawn is thought to have broken her nose in the collision, told Altinkum Voices, an English-language Turkish newspaper: "There was so much blood everywhere it was like a battlefield. People suffered broken bones and whiplash injuries as they were thrown about as the boat slammed into the wharf."
Efstathios Petalas, head of security at the port in Kos, said a colleague saw the accident unfold.
He said: "During the approach to the harbour, one of my guards saw that the course was not correct. After a while, the catamaran hit the dock twice. Finally, it was able to safely approach the dock from the side."
A Thomson and First Choice spokeswoman said: "Thomson and First Choice can confirm that nine of our customers were involved in a minor incident (on Wednesday) when the ferry boat on which they were travelling crashed into a port wall.
"The ferry was transporting our customers, as well as other passengers, from Altinkum in Turkey to Kos, on a day trip. Following the accident, two of our customers were treated for minor injuries before being accommodated at one of our hotels in Kos until their return transfer back to Turkey."
The Greek Ministry of Mercantile Marine said the port authority in Kos was investigating the incident, which happened at 11.12am local time.
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:45 am
![Image]( "Baby P chief Shoesmith defends role")
Sharon Shoesmith has launched a vehement defence of her role in the Baby P scandal, saying some of the nationwide fury was "absurd".
The sacked social services chief refused to say she made any personal mistakes surrounding the toddler's death - despite accepting there were "errors of judgment" among staff.
Ms Shoesmith, who was dismissed from her £130,000-a-year post at Haringey Council after a damning report by Ofsted inspectors, told an MPs' inquiry into child safety that politicians had been "reckless".
Giving evidence, Ms Shoesmith, 57, the first expert called by the Education Committee as it examines current issues in safeguarding children, added: "The whole sector is now motivated by fear of failure and not the conditions of success."
In her opening comments at Portcullis House, Westminster, she said: "There never was a doubt about how sorry I was, and everyone else at Haringey was, about the murder of Peter Connelly. Absolutely, no doubt at all.
"To construct a narrative which told the public that Peter Connelly died because Haringey was uniquely weak, sack everyone from the director to the social worker and all would be well was, quite frankly, absurd. The honest story will be told eventually.
"So I must start by telling you that if you believe the narrative put to the public by some members of the press and some politicians, then we begin on different pages.
"For children, the impact has been far-reaching. Since 2008 the number coming into care has increased 30%... The number we have subject to a child protection plan has doubled... Yet this wider net seems to have had little impact on the number of children who die."
Before she appeared, her invitation by MPs was condemned as "an insult" to the toddler by Labour MP Gloria De Piero.
The 17-month-old endured horrendous injuries at the hands of his mother Tracey Connelly, her lover Steven Barker and their lodger, Barker's brother Jason Owen. A series of reviews identified missed opportunities when officials could have saved him.
↧
September 15, 2010, 7:45 am
![Image]( "Pope aide says UK is 'third world'")
A cardinal due to travel to the UK with the Pope has pulled out just days after claiming Britain was like a "third world country".
German-born Cardinal Walter Kasper, 77, was to make the trip as part of the Pope's entourage.
Vatican officials have reportedly attributed the change of plans to ill health.
But the news followed an interview the Cardinal gave to German magazine Focus in which he commented on the Godlessness of a section of English society, claiming Britain was facing an "aggressive new atheism" and that "Christians were at a disadvantage".
Asked about the protests expected to greet the Pope's visit, he remarked on Britain's multi-cultural inhabitants, telling the magazine that someone landing at Heathrow may think they were in a "third world country" as there was such a variety of faces there.
Among the groups planning to protest against the Papal visit are the survivors of abuse by Catholic priests.
Speaking as the final preparations were made for the four-day trip, a group of victims renewed their calls for the Pope to hand over all information on the scandal.
They demanded that Pope Benedict XVI "make amends" for their suffering by going further than offering an apology.
Peter Saunders, survivor and chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: "We need the Pope to say, 'I will hand over all the information I have about abusing priests wherever they are in the world. I will hand it over to the authorities of the countries where these people are being protected'."
The Pope is widely expected to meet child abuse victims during his four-day visit.
↧
September 15, 2010, 4:44 pm
![Image]( "Report slams cosmetic surgery firms")
Patients are being put at risk by cosmetic surgery firms, with a failure to monitor them proving a "recipe for disaster", according to a damning report.
Fewer than half of sites performing operations have a fully equipped operating theatre and far too many firms will just "have a go" at procedures.
The report, from the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD), said the regulation of the cosmetic surgery industry "remains poor".
It found training in cosmetic surgery is available at just 16% of sites, with the rest failing to provide any training.
Almost one in five (18%) units have no policy on what to do if patients needed readmitting in an emergency following their operation, with the "default position" being the NHS will pick up the tab and provide care.
The report also found many units do not carry out enough procedures on their "menu" to ensure their surgeons retain expertise, despite the fact "experience and competence run hand in hand".
It said: "With the exception of breast augmentation, the majority of centres performed fewer than 20 of the offered procedures per year."
Experts also revealed that 32% of firms do not offer a "cooling off" period as laid down in rules from the General Medical Council on obtaining proper consent, while 22% do not have a member of resuscitation staff on duty at all times.
There was also evidence of companies flouting rules on advertising and promotions, with the existence of a voluntary code of conduct being "insufficient to regulate unscrupulous advertising that could take advantage of the vulnerable patient."
Just 64 out of more than 350 sites said they referred patients to the Government's independent information on cosmetic surgery and only 35% of sites carried out routine psychological assessments before patients went ahead with surgery.
↧
↧
September 15, 2010, 4:44 pm
![Image]( "MoD under fire over new RAF fleet")
An influential committee of MPs has lambasted the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for "astonishing" failures in procuring the RAF's new £10.5 billion fleet of tanker and transport aircraft.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the department signed up to the biggest Public Finance Initiative (PFI) contract for the key kit even though it had no idea whether the deal was good value for money.
The taxpayer also faces paying out hundreds of millions of pounds more because the aircraft do not have sufficient protection to fly on operations in Afghanistan.
The criticism came in the PAC's report into the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) project.
The MPs condemned the fact that it took nine years of negotiation before the complex 27-year contract with AirTanker Ltd was sealed in 2008, and pointed out that no other country used PFI to procure defence equipment.
The refuelling and transport aircraft, which are meant to replace the RAF's ageing Tristar and VC10 fleet, are now due to start coming into service next October - five and a half years behind schedule.
They also questioned why the MoD had rejected advice from its own project team in 2004 that the deal should be abandoned because of "significant concerns" over the company's bid.
Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said using PFI for the FSTA had been "inappropriate" and it was "no excuse" that such arrangements were favoured across government at the time.
"PFI may be suited to projects like building schools or hospitals where there is a clear specification," the Labour MP for Barking said. "Defence programmes are by their nature different - activities and demands are far less predictable and much more susceptible to change.
"It is simply astonishing that it took until 2006 for the Department to recognise that the new aircraft should be able to fly into high threat environments like Afghanistan. Four years later, it has still not decided whether to fit the necessary protective equipment to the aircraft which is essential if they are to be used in Afghanistan."
↧
September 15, 2010, 4:44 pm
![Image]( "Aspirin offers bowel cancer hope")
A low daily dose of aspirin could ward off bowel cancer, experts have said.
Even people not at high risk of the disease could benefit from the painkiller, with the positive effects mounting up over time.
Researchers writing in the journal Gut studied almost 2,800 people with bowel cancer and nearly 3,000 healthy people.
Their intake of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin or ibuprofen, was taken into account.
Overall, 16% of people with bowel cancer were taking a low dose of aspirin compared with 18% of those in the healthy group.
People also responded to questions about their diet and lifestyle, which are known to have a big impact on the risk of bowel cancer.
The results showed that those who took a daily low dose of 75mg of aspirin had a lower chance of developing the disease.
Taking 75mg of aspirin every day for between one and three years led to a 19% reduction in risk.
For people taking the drug daily for three to five years, there was a 24% reduced risk, rising to 31% for those taking the drug for five to 10 years.
Doubling the dose did not lead to any extra benefit, suggesting "the lowest dose of aspirin is effective", and benefits were apparent even at one year, the experts said.
↧
September 15, 2010, 4:44 pm
![Image]( "Trident replacement may be deferred")
The £20 billion replacement of the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent could be put off until after 2015, it has been reported.
The BBC said ministers were considering delaying the planned 2014 date in a bid to reduce short-term costs and head off a pre-general election political row.
The Ministry of Defence said no decisions had yet been taken on the future of the submarine-based missile system - which is the subject of a value-for-money review.
It has been formally excluded from the ongoing strategic defence and security review (SDSR) but the Treasury has made clear the under-pressure Ministry of Defence budget will have to pay for it.
On Wednesday an influential committee of MPs warned that that decision would have "very significant" consequences for future defence spending.
The coalition agreement between the Tories and Lib Dems committed the Government to renewing Trident, but agreed that it should be scrutinised to ensure it offered value for money.
The deal allows the Lib Dems - who went into the general election opposing a like-for-like replacement of the missile system - to "continue to make the case for alternatives".
An MoD spokesman said: "The Government remains committed to maintaining the UK's minimum and credible submarine-based nuclear deterrent, based on the Trident missile system.
"Within the framework of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, a review is ongoing to ensure that the renewal of the deterrent provides value for money.
"It will consider the programme timetable, numbers of submarines, missiles, missile tubes and warheads, infrastructure and other support costs, and the industrial supply chain. Once the review has concluded, ministers will discuss and agree the optimum balance of capability and cost."
↧
Unions will stage protests against the planned closure of courts and the threat of cuts in transport spending which they warn could hit bus services.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will stage a demonstration outside the Ministry of Justice in London on the last day of the Government's consultation over the planned closure of more than 150 courts in England and Wales.
Officials warned that the closures would "devastate" access to local justice.
Kevin Greenway of the PCS said: "Many committed and experienced staff who understand the justice system could lose their jobs if these courts close.
"Local communities will lose a vital public service and access to justice for thousands of people will be denied. We want to highlight the consequences courts closures and other cuts will have."
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "At the TUC conference this week we have shown that there is an alternative to the Government's cuts in public spending that are being driven by ideology, not necessity."
The protest will include a grim reaper figure who will sound the "death knell" for the justice system.
Meanwhile, hundreds of bus workers from Unite will lobby City Hall in London warning of threats to the capital's transport system because of the Government's spending cuts.
Unite said the current tendering system for contracts was putting a "huge squeeze" on bus workers' terms and conditions, warning of looming disputes over pay.
The Government's planned spending cuts for defence are so deep they could jeopardise the Armed Forces' ability to maintain current military operations, MPs have warned.
The Commons Defence Committee said the strategic defence and security review (SDSR) - which will determine where the spending axe will fall - was being pushed through so quickly that mistakes were bound to be made.
It expressed concern that the review could be dominated by short-term security issues and threats at the expense of the medium to long-term defence needs of the country.
At the same time, the committee warned the prospect that the Ministry of Defence could have to shoulder the full costs of updating Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent could have "very significant" consequences for future defence spending.
The SDSR is being carried out alongside the Government's overall comprehensive spending review (CSR), which is due to report next month.
While the committee acknowledged the need for ministers to move swiftly to tackle the deficit, it warned that the MoD was having to do "too much too quickly".
"The rapidity with which the SDSR process is being undertaken is quite startling," it said. "A process which was not tried and tested is being expected to deliver radical outcomes within a highly concentrated time-frame. We conclude that mistakes will be made and some of them may be serious.
"We can understand that there is an urgency to the SDSR process, both in terms of alignment with a CSR intended seriously to address the deficit, and in terms of the pressing need for a defence review a decade since the last was undertaken.
"However, the department could end up with only short-term priorities, misaligned resources, a barely reformed acquisition process and a structure short of manpower to deliver good performance and improperly configured for its tasks."
While the MoD's budget has received some protection, the committee said that it was still facing cuts of between 10% and 20%, in contrast to spending on health and overseas aid which has been ring-fenced. "The capacity of the country even to sustain current in-use capabilities and therefore current operations could well be put at risk by the proposed cuts of between 10% and 20%," it said.
Foreign Secretary William Hague is to declare his commitment to the protection of human rights around the world, insisting it is not in Britain's interests to pursue "a foreign policy without a conscience".
Mr Hague will use the third in a series of linked speeches on foreign policy to announce that he is setting up a new group - including aid agencies and independent experts - to advise ministers on human rights issues.
He will also say that the Foreign Office is reissuing guidance to its staff on the need to report any incidents of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that they encounter in the course of their work.
"There will be no downgrading of human rights under this Government and no resiling from our commitments to aid and development. Indeed I intend to improve and strengthen our human rights work," he is expected to say.
"It is not in our character as a nation to have a foreign policy without a conscience, and neither is it in our interests.
"We cannot achieve long-term security and prosperity unless we uphold our values. Where human rights abuses go unchecked our security suffers. And our international influence will bleed away unless we maintain our international standing and cultural influence."
His comments carry echoes of former foreign secretary Robin Cook's declaration at the start of the last Labour government that it would pursue a foreign policy with an "ethical dimension".
Mr Hague will also confirm that the Foreign Office will continue the previous government's practice of publishing an annual human rights report - although it will no longer be a glossy document but a simple parliamentary paper.
Shadow foreign secretary David Miliband welcomed the confirmation that the report would be retained, but accused Mr Hague of diverting resources away from human rights issues and frontline diplomatic services.
"William Hague has cut programmes on human rights and democracy by £560,000 this financial year, while the Government has watered down Labour's policy for a universal standard for arms sales," he said.
The Government has been urged to approach spending cuts like a middle-distance runner rather than a sprinter, making sure that most public sector job cuts take effect after 2013.
Ministers should limit public sector job losses to no more than 125,000 - roughly one in five of the total in the pipeline - between now and the end of the 2012/13 financial year, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said.
Chief economic adviser John Philpott said: "Whatever the latest figures show, the majority of forward-looking indicators suggest that the UK jobs situation is about to take another turn for the worse."
He continued: "It's difficult to judge how serious any dip in demand for labour might be, but one wouldn't necessarily choose this moment to start cutting public sector employment.
"However, given the Government's clear commitment to cuts to eliminate the deficit in this Parliament, it's imperative that those cuts are implemented in a way that minimises adverse effects on the Government's wider objectives for growth, jobs, welfare-to-work initiatives and public service reform."
The CIPD said it still believed that private sector job creation would not offset the impact of public sector job cuts before 2013.
"In view of this, we urge ministers to limit public sector job cuts in the fiscal years 2010/11 to 2012/13 to no more than 125,000. Ideally, the majority of subsequent job cuts would also fall closer to 2015/16 than 2013/14," said Dr Philpott.
"A more aggressive approach to public sector job cuts would push unemployment close to three million and be especially harmful to those regions of the UK least well placed to enjoy an early and significant improvement in private sector employment."
The report was published ahead of new unemployment figures.
Women who go through early menopause and cannot have children have been offered new hope after scientists found a way of apparently getting ovaries working again.
The study could pave the way for women to one day have their own babies even though they have gone through the menopause at an early age.
Premature ovarian failure affects 1% of women under the age of 40, with one in 1,000 (0.1%) going through it under the age of 30.
The normal age for menopause is the subject of debate but experts consider early menopause to be before the age of 45.
Possible reasons include chromosome abnormalities, such as a women with Down's syndrome; enzyme deficiencies, where enzymes damage eggs and prevent the production of the hormone oestrogen; and auto-immune diseases, where the body effectively turns on itself.
Scientists at the World Congress of Fertility and Sterility in Munich said their latest work in rats could offer hope for the future.
A team from Cairo University in Egypt used stem cells to restore ovarian function in a group of 60 female rats.
The rats were divided into four groups during the experiment, with the first not given any treatment and acting as a control.
Rats in all the other groups were treated with a chemical to stop their ovaries working, with those in the second group then given injections containing stem cells.
Group three was injected with a saline solution to act as a control, and the group four rats had ovarian failure but received no treatment, also enabling them to act as a control.
Five people have been arrested in connection with a series of high value robberies on gem dealers across the country.
Detectives believe the raids in London, the Midlands and Scotland, have netted the gang responsible millions of pounds in the past year.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's London Crime Squad held four men and a woman, aged in their 30s and believed to be of South American origin, following an operation in Leicester City Centre.
The gang is believed to have targeted victims from overseas, who were in the UK for business and had travelled between London and the Midlands.
Victims were subjected to violence on many occasions and in some cases threatened with a knife, police said.
A large number of the stolen items were taken out of the country and have been traced to the United States.
The five people are being held at a police station in the Midlands on suspicion of conspiracy to rob.
Detective Sergeant Paul Rodgers, of the MPS London Crime Squad, said: "They were an extremely close knit, organised group who had been operating as a surveillance team and spotters in order to select their victims and commit the offence.
"These arrests were as a result of a complex and challenging operation."
Experts have warned that the UK jobs market is "on the turn" after official figures showed a lower-than-expected drop in unemployment.
The paltry decline in the number of jobless - down 8,000 in the three months to July to 2.47 million - overshadowed a record surge in employment.
A surprise increase in the closely-watched Jobseeker's Allowance claimant count also reinforced fears of a relapse in the jobs recovery.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed 2,300 more people joined the dole queue last month, taking the total to 1.47 million - the first increase since January.
Economists said the figures cast doubts over whether the private sector was strong enough to compensate for the 600,000 jobs expected to go over the next five years under the Government's imminent spending review.
Andrew Goodwin, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said: "The August rise in the claimant count, while small, was the first increase for seven months and provides further evidence that the labour market is on the turn.
"This is particularly concerning given that this comes before the public spending cuts have really got under way."
While the ONS figures show the largest rise in employment since records began in the three months to July, much of this rise was accounted for by students taking on part-time work rather than those on benefits finding jobs.
The ONS said the number of employed workers soared by 286,000 to 29.2 million, although this had little impact on the level of unemployment. The rate of unemployment stayed static at 7.8%.
Those in part-time work increased by 166,000 quarter-on-quarter to 7.9 million in the three months to July suggesting many are still struggling to secure full-time work.
A Battle of Britain pilot has warned that it would be a "dreadful mistake" to get rid of an independent Royal Air Force.
The Government's planned spending cuts for defence have led some to call for the RAF to be disbanded and subsumed into the Army and the Navy.
But Hurricane pilot Squadron Leader Tony Pickering, who was shot down during the Battle of Britain, said: "I think it would be a dreadful mistake. This is done for financial reasons.
"They should keep a nucleus of the Royal Air Force which would enable us to maintain our position as a sovereign country with a Commonwealth, something we should all be proud of."
Asked if disbanding the RAF would be a threat to the country's security, the 90-year-old, from Rugby in Warwickshire, said: "I think it would. We should still have an independent Royal Air Force, definitely."
Mr Pickering started his career in the RAF volunteer reserves, flying during the Battle of Britain as a Sergeant Pilot and ending his career as a Squadron Leader.
He said he felt sorry for today's Armed Forces fighting in Afghanistan.
He said: "I feel sorry for them out there. I don't think they are as well equipped as we were. They're probably getting as good equipment as the country can allow them at the moment. But we were well equipped."
Mr Pickering paid tribute to Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, who commanded the squadrons that defended London and the South East in the summer of 1940.
A bronze statue to Sir Keith was being unveiled in London's Waterloo Place to mark Battle Of Britain Day.
Embattled BP boss Tony Hayward has defended the firm's safety record in the North Sea, insisting recent criticisms had not exposed "any fundamental weakness".
Mr Hayward spoke out as he was grilled by a committee of MPs investigating the implications of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill for offshore drilling in the UK.
In his first UK appearance since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, he said the disaster had been personally "devastating" because he had made safety the firm's top priority.
But he was forced to explain why inspections on BP's North Sea installations found some did not comply with guidelines over regular training for operators on how to respond to an incident.
Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) inspectors also found the firm had not conducted oil spill exercises properly at some of its offshore sites.
The Energy and Climate Change Committee is looking at whether the UK regime is fit for purpose and the risks of drilling off the coast of Scotland, amid fears a spill could occur in UK waters.
Mr Hayward told the MPs: "I do not believe that the issues that were reported this morning point to any fundamental weakness in our North Sea operations.
"We have a very strong track record in the North Sea. It is better than the industry average. We have seen major improvements in the course of the last two years.
"BP spills, which are a good indicator of safety performance in terms of integrity of plant, have fallen by 20% over the last two years and we now lead the industry in terms of that particular metric in the North Sea."
DECC had publicly said that "nothing that they identified compromised the overall integrity of the installation or its pollution response provision," he said.
Ex-Labour immigration minister Phil Woolas has told a court it would have been "political suicide" to break electoral law to help secure his seat.
He denied that he and his campaign team ever thought of breaching the rules in a bid to retain Oldham East and Saddleworth in this year's general election.
Appearing before a specially convened election court, Mr Woolas is accused of stirring up tensions in a racially sensitive area to change the vote in his favour.
He eventually won the seat by 103 votes from his Liberal Democrat opponent Elwyn Watkins, who is hoping to overturn the result and force a re-run.
Mr Watkins claims Mr Woolas made a "shocking" decision to "make the white folk angry" by depicting an alleged campaign by extremist Muslims to overthrow Mr Woolas and present the Lib Dem candidate as in league with them.
The MP said the militant threat in the run-up to the election was genuine and he stood up against it with the strong support of mainstream Muslims.
He said he was approached by a large number of Asians in the community, supporters and non-supporters, who had reported trouble arising from leaflet drops outside a mosque by extremists.
"There was a fear of violence, there were reports of scuffles, there was an attack on a Labour candidate," he said. "My strategy was to mobilise mainstream Muslims and the white community against the extremists and to do that I had to highlight it to the white community."
His counsel Gavin Millar QC asked whether an email from his election agent which questioned whether they "could get away" with focusing on Muslim extremists in one of his election leaflets was a legal reference.
Mr Woolas replied: "The idea that I set out to break the law never came into our minds. It would be political suicide, as well as wrong."
Bank of England governor Mervyn King has described the huge banking bailout as "unfair" and appeared to sympathise with calls for multibillion-pound tax evasion to be tackled when he spoke to union activists.
Mr King told the TUC gathering in Manchester that he understood the strength of feeling over the size of bankers' bonuses, and said "radical reform" of the UK's financial system is needed.
The 62-year-old faced minor protests from some banner-waving delegates and a walkout by the Rail Maritime and Transport union delegation, who retreated to their exhibition stand to watch children's TV.
He was also told bluntly that bankers were "greedy" and that he had failed in his job.
As he waited to speak, delegates called for a high pay commission to investigate the "out of control" wages of executives and other high earners.
The Communication Workers Union said a commission should examine the difference between the highest and lowest pay in leading companies.
General secretary Billy Hayes said: "The blatant double standards in pay for those at the top of companies compared to those at bottom is outrageous and leads to dissatisfaction and a divided society of haves and have-nots."
During his 20-minute speech, only the second by a Bank of England governor to the TUC, Mr King warned that the Government risked plunging the UK back into crisis if it did not reduce Britain's record deficit.
Amid union fury over next month's planned public sector spending cuts, the central bank boss said "vague promises would not have been enough".
Mr King said he believed it was vital the Government set out a clear plan for reducing the deficit and warned that the UK could otherwise have suffered the kind of woes seen in Greece.
Home Secretary Theresa May has rejected a warning from senior police officers that the Government's spending cuts will leave forces unable to cope with rising social and industrial tensions.
The British public "don't simply resort to violent unrest in the face of challenging economic circumstances" and it is "ridiculous" to suggest that savings could not be made in the police service, she said.
Mrs May took to the stage at the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales conference in Cheshire after Chief Supt Derek Barnett urged her to protect the service from the worst of the cuts to ensure it is kept "sufficiently resilient" to be able to respond properly to "widespread disorder" on the streets.
It comes after the Police Federation predicted it would be "Christmas for criminals" if 25% budget cuts go ahead, leading to the loss of up to 40,000 officers and making it "inevitable" that crime would rise.
But Mrs May dismissed the concerns as "pure speculation", saying: "Lower budgets do not automatically have to mean lower police numbers.
"The front line should be the last place you should look to make savings, not the first."
And she added that more officers will not lead to less crime if their time is spent on the "pointless tasks of form-filling and chasing targets".
"As any experienced senior police officer will confirm, the effectiveness of a police force depends not primarily on the absolute number of police officers in the force but the way those officers are used," she said.
"The key to success is good management and leadership."
The Government wants to be the first in more than a decade to free officers to cut crime, giving them the space needed to do their jobs, she said, and ministers would cut red tape and slash bureaucracy in a bid to hand back power to the professionals and the people.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith denied that he had signed up to £4 billion of spending cuts to the welfare budget.
Mr Duncan Smith acknowledged that he would have to find savings in the Government's forthcoming spending review but said he was still in negotiations with the Treasury.
Giving evidence to the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, he disclosed that Chancellor George Osborne was demanding proof that his planned reforms to the welfare system - to make it easier to get claimants back into jobs - would work.
Mr Duncan Smith insisted that he did not recognise press reports over the summer that his officials had been involved in bitter clashes with the Treasury.
He also dismissed reports last week that he was facing a further £4 billion cut in welfare spending - on top of the £11 billion announced in the Budget - after Mr Osborne signalled fresh curbs on benefits.
"We haven't reached any conclusions about this at all. As regards figures like £4 billion, I simply don't recognise that figure at all," he said.
"I have made no commitment to savings in the spending round because that is a matter of discussion between myself, the Treasury and Downing Street generally."
He insisted that reform of the system was essential if the Government was to achieve long-term saving to the welfare budget as past attempts to cut benefits had simply seen payments "balloon" back up.
"We have to make savings, that is clear. My view is that we will better make savings by reforming the system. That is part of the whole area of discussions that we have," he said.
He said that Mr Osborne was insisting on seeing evidence that his proposals would work before he would agree the plan.
British holidaymakers on a day trip to the Greek island of Kos were injured when a catamaran crashed twice as it approached the port.
Twenty-five people were taken to hospital with injuries including broken bones and cuts from shattered windows. Five of them were seriously injured, but none were thought to be in a life-threatening condition.
Most of the 209 tourists on the boat, travelling from the Turkish resort of Didim to Kos, were British.
The Aegean Cat, run by a Turkish firm, is thought to have suffered a technical problem that caused it to hit the dock. Those onboard described horrific scenes.
Phil Simonetti, whose wife Dawn is thought to have broken her nose in the collision, told Altinkum Voices, an English-language Turkish newspaper: "There was so much blood everywhere it was like a battlefield. People suffered broken bones and whiplash injuries as they were thrown about as the boat slammed into the wharf."
Efstathios Petalas, head of security at the port in Kos, said a colleague saw the accident unfold.
He said: "During the approach to the harbour, one of my guards saw that the course was not correct. After a while, the catamaran hit the dock twice. Finally, it was able to safely approach the dock from the side."
A Thomson and First Choice spokeswoman said: "Thomson and First Choice can confirm that nine of our customers were involved in a minor incident (on Wednesday) when the ferry boat on which they were travelling crashed into a port wall.
"The ferry was transporting our customers, as well as other passengers, from Altinkum in Turkey to Kos, on a day trip. Following the accident, two of our customers were treated for minor injuries before being accommodated at one of our hotels in Kos until their return transfer back to Turkey."
The Greek Ministry of Mercantile Marine said the port authority in Kos was investigating the incident, which happened at 11.12am local time.
Sharon Shoesmith has launched a vehement defence of her role in the Baby P scandal, saying some of the nationwide fury was "absurd".
The sacked social services chief refused to say she made any personal mistakes surrounding the toddler's death - despite accepting there were "errors of judgment" among staff.
Ms Shoesmith, who was dismissed from her £130,000-a-year post at Haringey Council after a damning report by Ofsted inspectors, told an MPs' inquiry into child safety that politicians had been "reckless".
Giving evidence, Ms Shoesmith, 57, the first expert called by the Education Committee as it examines current issues in safeguarding children, added: "The whole sector is now motivated by fear of failure and not the conditions of success."
In her opening comments at Portcullis House, Westminster, she said: "There never was a doubt about how sorry I was, and everyone else at Haringey was, about the murder of Peter Connelly. Absolutely, no doubt at all.
"To construct a narrative which told the public that Peter Connelly died because Haringey was uniquely weak, sack everyone from the director to the social worker and all would be well was, quite frankly, absurd. The honest story will be told eventually.
"So I must start by telling you that if you believe the narrative put to the public by some members of the press and some politicians, then we begin on different pages.
"For children, the impact has been far-reaching. Since 2008 the number coming into care has increased 30%... The number we have subject to a child protection plan has doubled... Yet this wider net seems to have had little impact on the number of children who die."
Before she appeared, her invitation by MPs was condemned as "an insult" to the toddler by Labour MP Gloria De Piero.
The 17-month-old endured horrendous injuries at the hands of his mother Tracey Connelly, her lover Steven Barker and their lodger, Barker's brother Jason Owen. A series of reviews identified missed opportunities when officials could have saved him.
A cardinal due to travel to the UK with the Pope has pulled out just days after claiming Britain was like a "third world country".
German-born Cardinal Walter Kasper, 77, was to make the trip as part of the Pope's entourage.
Vatican officials have reportedly attributed the change of plans to ill health.
But the news followed an interview the Cardinal gave to German magazine Focus in which he commented on the Godlessness of a section of English society, claiming Britain was facing an "aggressive new atheism" and that "Christians were at a disadvantage".
Asked about the protests expected to greet the Pope's visit, he remarked on Britain's multi-cultural inhabitants, telling the magazine that someone landing at Heathrow may think they were in a "third world country" as there was such a variety of faces there.
Among the groups planning to protest against the Papal visit are the survivors of abuse by Catholic priests.
Speaking as the final preparations were made for the four-day trip, a group of victims renewed their calls for the Pope to hand over all information on the scandal.
They demanded that Pope Benedict XVI "make amends" for their suffering by going further than offering an apology.
Peter Saunders, survivor and chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: "We need the Pope to say, 'I will hand over all the information I have about abusing priests wherever they are in the world. I will hand it over to the authorities of the countries where these people are being protected'."
The Pope is widely expected to meet child abuse victims during his four-day visit.
Patients are being put at risk by cosmetic surgery firms, with a failure to monitor them proving a "recipe for disaster", according to a damning report.
Fewer than half of sites performing operations have a fully equipped operating theatre and far too many firms will just "have a go" at procedures.
The report, from the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD), said the regulation of the cosmetic surgery industry "remains poor".
It found training in cosmetic surgery is available at just 16% of sites, with the rest failing to provide any training.
Almost one in five (18%) units have no policy on what to do if patients needed readmitting in an emergency following their operation, with the "default position" being the NHS will pick up the tab and provide care.
The report also found many units do not carry out enough procedures on their "menu" to ensure their surgeons retain expertise, despite the fact "experience and competence run hand in hand".
It said: "With the exception of breast augmentation, the majority of centres performed fewer than 20 of the offered procedures per year."
Experts also revealed that 32% of firms do not offer a "cooling off" period as laid down in rules from the General Medical Council on obtaining proper consent, while 22% do not have a member of resuscitation staff on duty at all times.
There was also evidence of companies flouting rules on advertising and promotions, with the existence of a voluntary code of conduct being "insufficient to regulate unscrupulous advertising that could take advantage of the vulnerable patient."
Just 64 out of more than 350 sites said they referred patients to the Government's independent information on cosmetic surgery and only 35% of sites carried out routine psychological assessments before patients went ahead with surgery.
An influential committee of MPs has lambasted the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for "astonishing" failures in procuring the RAF's new £10.5 billion fleet of tanker and transport aircraft.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the department signed up to the biggest Public Finance Initiative (PFI) contract for the key kit even though it had no idea whether the deal was good value for money.
The taxpayer also faces paying out hundreds of millions of pounds more because the aircraft do not have sufficient protection to fly on operations in Afghanistan.
The criticism came in the PAC's report into the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) project.
The MPs condemned the fact that it took nine years of negotiation before the complex 27-year contract with AirTanker Ltd was sealed in 2008, and pointed out that no other country used PFI to procure defence equipment.
The refuelling and transport aircraft, which are meant to replace the RAF's ageing Tristar and VC10 fleet, are now due to start coming into service next October - five and a half years behind schedule.
They also questioned why the MoD had rejected advice from its own project team in 2004 that the deal should be abandoned because of "significant concerns" over the company's bid.
Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said using PFI for the FSTA had been "inappropriate" and it was "no excuse" that such arrangements were favoured across government at the time.
"PFI may be suited to projects like building schools or hospitals where there is a clear specification," the Labour MP for Barking said. "Defence programmes are by their nature different - activities and demands are far less predictable and much more susceptible to change.
"It is simply astonishing that it took until 2006 for the Department to recognise that the new aircraft should be able to fly into high threat environments like Afghanistan. Four years later, it has still not decided whether to fit the necessary protective equipment to the aircraft which is essential if they are to be used in Afghanistan."
A low daily dose of aspirin could ward off bowel cancer, experts have said.
Even people not at high risk of the disease could benefit from the painkiller, with the positive effects mounting up over time.
Researchers writing in the journal Gut studied almost 2,800 people with bowel cancer and nearly 3,000 healthy people.
Their intake of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin or ibuprofen, was taken into account.
Overall, 16% of people with bowel cancer were taking a low dose of aspirin compared with 18% of those in the healthy group.
People also responded to questions about their diet and lifestyle, which are known to have a big impact on the risk of bowel cancer.
The results showed that those who took a daily low dose of 75mg of aspirin had a lower chance of developing the disease.
Taking 75mg of aspirin every day for between one and three years led to a 19% reduction in risk.
For people taking the drug daily for three to five years, there was a 24% reduced risk, rising to 31% for those taking the drug for five to 10 years.
Doubling the dose did not lead to any extra benefit, suggesting "the lowest dose of aspirin is effective", and benefits were apparent even at one year, the experts said.
The £20 billion replacement of the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent could be put off until after 2015, it has been reported.
The BBC said ministers were considering delaying the planned 2014 date in a bid to reduce short-term costs and head off a pre-general election political row.
The Ministry of Defence said no decisions had yet been taken on the future of the submarine-based missile system - which is the subject of a value-for-money review.
It has been formally excluded from the ongoing strategic defence and security review (SDSR) but the Treasury has made clear the under-pressure Ministry of Defence budget will have to pay for it.
On Wednesday an influential committee of MPs warned that that decision would have "very significant" consequences for future defence spending.
The coalition agreement between the Tories and Lib Dems committed the Government to renewing Trident, but agreed that it should be scrutinised to ensure it offered value for money.
The deal allows the Lib Dems - who went into the general election opposing a like-for-like replacement of the missile system - to "continue to make the case for alternatives".
An MoD spokesman said: "The Government remains committed to maintaining the UK's minimum and credible submarine-based nuclear deterrent, based on the Trident missile system.
"Within the framework of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, a review is ongoing to ensure that the renewal of the deterrent provides value for money.
"It will consider the programme timetable, numbers of submarines, missiles, missile tubes and warheads, infrastructure and other support costs, and the industrial supply chain. Once the review has concluded, ministers will discuss and agree the optimum balance of capability and cost."
