![Image]( "Paedophile ring smashed by police")
Police have smashed a paedophile ring which repeatedly subjected two young girls to sickening sexual abuse for nearly three years, it can now be reported.
The gang leader, convicted paedophile John Barrett, had groomed the two girls with cigarettes and then passed them on to other men to be abused.
Officers broke the ring when they arrested Barrett in December 2007 and a complex investigation, called Operation Lakeland, began to identify the other men involved.
Details of the investigation can be disclosed for the first time after reporting restrictions were lifted following the conviction at Truro Crown Court of kitchen fitter James Machin, 54, another member of the gang. The father of two was found guilty of 10 sexual offences, including rape, against the two girls over a three-year period. He will be sentenced on Monday.
Barrett, 49, and John Wrey, 55, were both convicted of a string of sexual offences against young girls in 2008. Barrett, a builder from Camborne, Cornwall, was jailed for 14 years and Wrey, from Hayle, Cornwall, was given a five-and-a-half year sentence.
Other men arrested as part of the Operation Lakeland inquiry - Derek Shepherd, 63, Alan Wills, 46, and Mark Cox, 43 - also received prison sentences.
During Machin's trial, prosecutor Jonathan Barnes said Machin had taken the girls to an empty holiday cottage to repeatedly abuse them.
Mr Barnes said: "This case is not about what John Barrett did in abusing these girls in an abominable way. He not only sexually abused these girls, he made both girls available to be abused by other paedophiles. The Crown's case against the defendant is that he was one of the other paedophiles involved."
The court heard that when the abuse started one of the girls was aged five and the other aged seven.
Machin, of North Parade, Falmouth, Cornwall, denied a total of 10 charges, alleged to have been committed between January 1 2005 and June 3 2009 but was convicted by the jury. They were one count of conspiracy to commit sexual offences against two girls under 13, three counts of rape, five counts of making indecent photographs and one count of possession of indecent photographs.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has said he was "tempted" to join student protesters on the streets this week but was "doing something else".
Mr Miliband said that although he did not condone violence, the demonstrations were fuelled by "justified" anger about tuition fee rises.
And he indicated that he was open in future to talking to those protesting on the streets, with marches and other protests set to continue.
There were 35 arrests and seven injuries to police officers on Wednesday as initially peaceful marches again flared into violence.
Labour MP David Winnick was criticised for describing the protests as "marvellous".
Mr Miliband said it was "an extraordinary indication of the way this Government is going about its business that you already have such anger about the decision on tuition fees. It is indication both of the fact that the decision is wrong, but also of the high-handed nature of this Government in its decision-making. That's why young people are so angry."
Asked about the most recent protests, he said: "What I am not in favour of is, obviously, violent demonstrations. I applaud young people who peacefully demonstrate.
"I said I was going to go and talk to them at some point. I was tempted to go out and talk to them," he told BBC Radio 4's Today. Asked why he had not, he explained: "I think I was doing something else at the time, actually."
Mr Miliband did not rule out doing so in future, saying: "We'll see what happens. I think that peaceful demonstrations are part of our society and, of course, as the Labour leader, I am willing to go and talk to people who are part of those demonstrations. It is an indication of what is happening to this country because I think people have a sense of anger and a lot of the anger is quite justified."
He repeated his commitment to a graduate tax to fund higher education, not fee rises, saying: "I think it is a fairer way of paying for higher education because it says the amount you pay is related to the ability to pay."
Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone suffered a head injury after muggers attacked him and escaped with jewellery worth £200,000.
The 80-year-old F1 supremo was robbed outside the headquarters of his business empire Formula One Holdings in Knightsbridge, central London, Scotland Yard said.
Billionaire Mr Ecclestone was reportedly punched and kicked by four men who were lying in wait as he arrived at the HQ with his Brazilian girlfriend Fabiana Flosi.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Police were called at about 10.30pm on Wednesday, November 24, to reports of a man and a woman robbed on Princes Gate.
"The man was taken to a west London hospital for treatment to a minor head injury and was subsequently discharged. There were no reports of any other injuries.
"Officers from Westminster robbery squad are investigating. There have been no arrests and inquiries continue.
"The items stolen are believed to be a quantity of jewellery."
A 24-hour strike by thousands of London Underground workers is to go ahead from Sunday evening after hopes of a peace deal over job losses collapsed.
The Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said their members will walk out at 6.30pm on Sunday, threatening travel chaos for commuters and other passengers.
It will be the fourth 24-hour stoppage in recent weeks in a worsening row over 800 job losses in ticket offices.
Talks at the conciliation service Acas ended on Thursday night without a breakthrough and union leaders said they had effectively broken down, ending any hopes of a last minute deal.
London's mayor and Transport for London (TfL) set out a range of transport measures that will supplement Tube services to help people travel around the capital, including 100 extra buses and capacity for around 10,000 more journeys on the River Thames.
London Underground (LU) said it ran 40% of its normal services during the strike on November 3, rising to 50% for large parts of the day, carrying around half its normal passenger numbers.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow accused the company of "intransigence" after the union offered to suspend industrial action if management agreed to review the job cuts and their impact on stations.
He said there were fresh delays on the Circle and District lines this morning, adding: "The unprecedented and continuing chaos on the Tube has hit services again as the combined impact of maintenance cuts and failing infrastructure is rammed home.
"This daily crisis will only get worse unless there is an immediate halt to the cuts programme and urgent top-level talks with the unions to map a way forward from this chaos."
TfL said it "condemned" the leaderships of the TSSA and RMT, saying they had "scuppered" productive talks and walked away from an offer of a further six weeks to review its staffing plans.
North Korea has warned that US-South Korean plans for military drills put the peninsula on the brink of war, and appeared to launch its own artillery practice within earshot of an island it showered with a deadly barrage this week.
The fresh artillery blasts came just after the top US commander in South Korea, General Walter Sharp, toured the country's Yeonpyeong Island in a show of solidarity with Seoul and to survey damage from Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed four people.
An official at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said about 20 blasts were heard on Yeonpyeong coming from North Korea's mainland some seven miles to the north, and that nothing landed on South Korean territory.
Tensions have soared between the Koreas since the North's strike on Tuesday destroyed large parts of the island, killing two civilians as well as two marines in a major escalation of their sporadic skirmishes along the sea border.
The heightened animosity between the Koreas is taking place as the North undergoes a delicate transition of power from leader Kim Jong Il to his young, inexperienced son Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and is expected to eventually succeed his ailing father.
As Washington and Seoul pressed China to use its influence on Pyongyang to ease tensions amid concerns of all-out war, the US prepared to send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to South Korean waters for joint military drills starting on Sunday. The North, which sees the drills as a major military provocation, unleashed its anger over the planned exercises in a dispatch earlier on Friday.
"The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war," the report in the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.
The regime does not recognise the maritime border drawn by the UN in 1953, and considers the waters around Yeonpyeong Island its territory. General Sharp called Tuesday's attack on Yeonpyeong a clear violation of an armistice signed in 1953 at the end of the three-year Korean War.
Washington keeps more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect the ally from aggression - a legacy of the Korean War that is a sore point for North Korea, which cites the US presence as the main reason behind its need for nuclear weapons.
On Thursday, South Korea President Lee Myung-bak ordered reinforcements for the 4,000 troops on Yeonpyeong and four other Yellow Sea islands, as well as top-level weaponry and upgraded rules of engagement. He also sacked Defence Minister Kim Tae-young amid intense criticism over lapses in the country's response to the attack.
Turkey tycoon Bernard Matthews has died at the age of 80, his firm said.
The farmer and businessman - best known for his "bootiful" catchphrase - made a multi-million pound fortune through his vast poultry company and is widely credited with bringing cheap turkey meat to the masses.
In a statement on his company's website, chief executive Noel Bartram said: "It is with a great deal of personal sadness that I confirm Bernard Matthews passed away on the afternoon of the 25th November.
"I have personally known Bernard Matthews for well over 30 years, and on behalf of myself and my fellow colleagues, I wish to express our great sorrow and extend our thoughts and sympathies to the family."
The Bernard Matthews empire began with a humble £2.50p investment in 1950 with 12 turkey eggs and an incubator in the heart of Norfolk. It grew into the biggest turkey processor in Europe.
Paying tribute to the man behind the controversial Turkey Twizzler, Mr Bartram said: "Rarely has any business been as synonymous with the hard work and values of one man. It was Bernard Matthews who grew and developed this company through his entrepreneurial spirit, and clear focus."
He added: "He is the man who effectively put turkey on the plates of everyday working families and in so doing became one of the largest employers in rural East Anglia and a major supporter of the local farming community."
Matthews, the son of a mechanic, from Brooke in Norfolk, left school at 16 and went on to become a household name.
"In latter years he devoted himself to a host of charitable causes, often in an unsung manner", Mr Bartram said.
These included the independent Caister Lifeboat and the Nelson Museum in Great Yarmouth - a nod to his home county and love of the sea.
British intelligence officers have been blamed for bringing an impostor to take part in peace talks with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, under the mistaken impression that he was a high-level Taliban commander.
Mr Karzai's chief of staff Mohammad Umer Daudzai told the Washington Post that an Afghan at the meeting realised that the man was not who he claimed to be, and he was later uncovered as a shopkeeper from the Pakistani town of Quetta.
Mr Daudzai said that Britain and other European countries "are in haste" to promote a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan so their troops can be withdrawn, and said that foreigners were getting too "excited" about potential breakthroughs.
"This shows that this process should be Afghan-led and fully Afghanised," said Mr Daudzai.
"The last lesson we draw from this: International partners should not get excited so quickly with those kind of things. Afghans know this business, how to handle it. We handle it with care, we handle it with a result-based approach, with very less damage to all the other processes."
Meanwhile, The Times claimed that MI6 paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to the man in order to keep the talks on track.
The paper quoted an unnamed Afghan Government official as saying that "naive" British intelligence agents believed the man's claim to be a minister from the former Taliban regime who was in a position to negotiate on behalf of the fundamentalist movement.
Both Downing Street and the Foreign Office declined to comment on the reports, saying that they would not discuss "operational" matters relating to intelligence.
According to The Times, MI6 agents in Pakistan believed they had made a breakthrough after making contact with a man claiming to be Mullah Mansour, second only to Mullah Omar in the Taliban leadership. A meeting with Mr Karzai in Kabul was arranged in July or August, attended by British officials.
Mr Daudzai said that it was at this meeting that an Afghan recognised the fake Mansour was not who he claimed to be. Afghan intelligence later established he was no more than a shopkeeper, he said. The Times quoted an Afghan government official as saying: "British intelligence was naive and there was wishful thinking on our part."
A gunman has been jailed for a minimum of 37 years and given three life sentences for shooting two brothers in the head in front of their publican father.
One son died while the other made a "miraculous" recovery despite still having three bullets in his head.
Saturday Hassan launched his attack after being thrown out of the family's Newton Arms pub in Croydon, south London, during a party to celebrate the New Year.
He returned with a gun and shot brothers Darren and Junior Deslandes, who were helping father Wintworth, 58, in "10 seconds of devastation", the Old Bailey heard.
Hassan, 30, of Sydenham, south London, was found guilty on Thursday of murder and attempted murder on January 1, and a firearms charge, on majority verdicts. He was cleared of a further charge of attempting to murder the brothers' father.
Judge David Paget told Hassan he devastated the Deslandes family, physically, mentally and financially, when he fired eight bullets at the two men. He said Hassan produced the semi-automatic pistol from his waistband and opened fire on the brothers as they tried to disarm him for the safety of people in the pub. "It was brave and right of them to do so," said the judge.
The brothers were shot in front of their mother, father and younger brother. Three bullets were still lodged in Junior's head because it was too dangerous to remove them. He would be affected all his life and may never work again.
Builder Hassan had been a man of good character but was attracted by the gangster lifestyle, driving a BMW 4x4 car and having a gun. Judge Paget said: "That car and that gun are the trappings of a gangster. You have no convictions but you appear to be someone who admires that style of life."
Hassan fired three bullets into housing officer Darren, 34, killing him with one which went into his brain. Junior, a 26-year-old estate agent, was shot at five times, with one of the .32 bullets remaining in his skull and two embedded near his jaw after passing through his shoulder.
Edward Brown QC, prosecuting, said two others brushed past his head leaving scars. He had missed death by a fraction when he moved his head, and despite still receiving treatment he came to court to help convict his brother's killer.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has declined to rule out Liberal Democrat ministers abstaining in the crucial parliamentary vote on university tuition fees.
Mr Clegg said the Lib Dems are "looking at this as a party", and pointed to provisions of the coalition agreement with Conservatives allowing the party's MPs to abstain on the issue.
His comments came as Labour leader Ed Miliband said he was "tempted" to join student protesters on the streets in demonstrations against the proposed rise in fees earlier this week.
Mr Miliband said that although he did not condone violence, the demonstrations were fuelled by "justified" anger about changes which will see maximum fees treble to £9,000 a year.
Much of the student anger has been directed at Liberal Democrats because of the party's election pledge to scrap fees, and deputy leader Simon Hughes's London office was targeted for a sit-in on Thursday.
Mr Clegg himself said earlier this week that he "massively regrets" being in a position where he cannot deliver on his election promise.
Newspaper reports suggest that he and Business Secretary Vince Cable may be preparing to abstain in the vote - due before Christmas - in order to take some of the sting out of the issue for their party.
Asked about the possibility of abstentions during a visit in Sheffield, Mr Clegg told the BBC: "We are looking at this as a party.
"In the coalition agreement we were very, very clear that for Liberal Democrat MPs, if they didn't like the details of the policy, they were able to abstain."
But he said that more Lib Dems were becoming "comfortable" with the policy as they studied the details of the proposals.
Police have smashed a paedophile ring which repeatedly subjected two young girls to sickening sexual abuse for nearly three years, it can now be reported.
The gang leader, convicted paedophile John Barrett, had groomed the two girls with cigarettes and then passed them on to other men to be abused.
Officers broke the ring when they arrested Barrett in December 2007 and a complex investigation, called Operation Lakeland, began to identify the other men involved.
Details of the investigation can be disclosed for the first time after reporting restrictions were lifted following the conviction at Truro Crown Court of kitchen fitter James Machin, 54, another member of the gang. The father of two was found guilty of 10 sexual offences, including rape, against the two girls over a three-year period. He will be sentenced on Monday.
Barrett, 49, and John Wrey, 55, were both convicted of a string of sexual offences against young girls in 2008. Barrett, a builder from Camborne, Cornwall, was jailed for 14 years and Wrey, from Hayle, Cornwall, was given a five-and-a-half year sentence.
Other men arrested as part of the Operation Lakeland inquiry - Derek Shepherd, 63, Alan Wills, 46, and Mark Cox, 43 - also received prison sentences.
During Machin's trial, prosecutor Jonathan Barnes said Machin had taken the girls to an empty holiday cottage to repeatedly abuse them.
Mr Barnes said: "This case is not about what John Barrett did in abusing these girls in an abominable way. He not only sexually abused these girls, he made both girls available to be abused by other paedophiles. The Crown's case against the defendant is that he was one of the other paedophiles involved."
The court heard that when the abuse started one of the girls was aged five and the other aged seven.
Machin, of North Parade, Falmouth, Cornwall, denied a total of 10 charges, alleged to have been committed between January 1 2005 and June 3 2009 but was convicted by the jury. They were one count of conspiracy to commit sexual offences against two girls under 13, three counts of rape, five counts of making indecent photographs and one count of possession of indecent photographs.
A farmer who sparked a probe into the sale of meat from the offspring of cloned animals has criticised Government advisers for taking so long to rule the produce was safe to eat.
Steven Innes, who bought two bulls born to a cloned cow and allowed meat from one of them to enter the food chain, said it was difficult to see how there could be a difference in the taste of meat or milk from the offspring of cloned livestock.
His comments come after a Government advisory committee said produce from cattle bred from cloned cows was safe to consume.
Mr Innes, whose farm in Auldearn near Inverness is one of the biggest dairy farms in the area, said: "Where they are now with research on this is where they should have been back in August. It's already happening across the world."
He also highlighted difficulties in labelling products from such animals. "I don't know how it would be possible to label all food of that kind, given imports into the country," he added. "Those would also have to be labelled."
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) launched an investigation in August after it emerged one of Mr Innes's bulls had been slaughtered and its meat sold in the UK. The FSA found meat from three animals reached the shelves without being authorised under the Novel Food Regulations.
Under European law, foodstuffs - including milk - produced from cloned animals must pass a safety evaluation and get approval before they are marketed.
On Thursday, the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) found no difference between produce from cloned animals or their offspring, and those bred normally.
Responding to the findings, Andrew Wadge, chief scientist at the Food Standards Agency, said: "In considering this hypothetical application, the ACNFP has confirmed that meat and milk from cloned cattle and their offspring shows no substantial difference to conventionally produced meat and milk and therefore is unlikely to present a food safety risk."
Dairy UK welcomed the announcement and said the FSA had been "sensible" in its approach. A Dairy UK statement said: "The FSA's announcement confirms once again that there is no risk from consuming milk and meat from the progeny of cloned animals. What it also does is takes the UK towards a common position with the rest of Europe, which will provide clarity for farmers, food manufacturers and consumers."
The Government has been briefed by US authorities about the expected release of sensitive diplomatic files on whistleblower website WikiLeaks, Downing Street has confirmed.
Reports suggest that the files could include hundreds of cables relating to UK interests and might include revelations about secret intelligence sources and practices.
Washington is braced for the release within days of thousands of documents on the website, which has previously published secret details of allied military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"These revelations are harmful to the US and our interests," said US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley. "They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world."
Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman declined to discuss the nature of any confidential communications which may have been obtained by WikiLeaks. He said: "Obviously, the Government has been briefed by US officials, by the US ambassador, as to the likely content of these leaks. I don't want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked."
It is thought that the documents may include reports from officials in Washington and diplomatic posts around the world about issues on which the UK and US have collaborated closely, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Washington could be embarrassed by the publication of candid and forthright assessments of foreign governments made by its officials.
WikiLeaks has not been specific about the timing of any release, which is widely expected to happen this weekend, and Mr Crowley warned that publication could erode trust in the US as a diplomatic partner.
He added: "When this confidence is betrayed and ends up on the front pages of newspapers or lead stories on television or radio, it has an impact," he said.
The State Department "has known all along" that WikiLeaks possesses classified documents, but it was not possible to predict exactly what information would be made public and what impact it would make, he said.
A married couple have been convicted of a string of physical assaults against vulnerable youngsters at a children's home in the 1970s and 1980s.
Morag and Anthony Jordan, both 62, from Kirriemuir, Angus, were both found guilty of eight separate counts relating to abuse at the Haut de la Garenne home in Jersey.
But after more than eight hours' deliberation, a jury at the Royal Court of Jersey acquitted Mrs Jordan of a further 28 counts and Mr Jordan of four.
Both defendants remained silent as the verdicts were read but a former resident who gave evidence during the trial was led from the public gallery in tears.
Mr and Mrs Jordan, who had been arrested following a multimillion-pound police probe into suspected abuse at Haut de la Garenne, were bailed to return before the court for sentencing on January 6.
During the two-week trial, Mr and Mrs Jordan were accused of inflicting "casual and routine violence" while working as houseparents at the children's home. Prosecutors said they acted like "intimidating bullies" and had carried out "frequent and callous" assaults on vulnerable residents.
Morag Jordan, originally from Dundee, was employed by the care home as a housemother between 1970 and 1984. The counts she was convicted of relate to assaults on four children who stayed at the home.
One had her face pushed into urine-soaked sheets after she had wet the bed and the woman, now in her 40s, told the court of her humiliation. "She used to pull my face into the sheets and let the other children know what I had done, called me 'pissybed' and 'pissypants'," she said.
Her husband, originally from South Wales, was found guilty of common assault against two children. Mr Jordan's convictions relate to hitting former residents with a metal spoon, a knife or with his hand.
Giving evidence, a former resident recalled being hit with such force that he fell off his chair. It happened when he refused to eat a meal that had originally been served to him the previous day.
Severe weather warnings for almost all of the UK have been issued for Saturday, with heavy snow and widespread icy roads forecast.
Warnings of sub-zero temperatures overnight came as the big chill brought parts of the country to a standstill after the earliest widespread snow for 17 years.
London and the South East, the South West, East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber and the north east of England were all alerted to widespread icy roads until 11am on Saturday by the Met Office. The North East, Yorkshire and Humber, East Midlands and the South West were also braced for heavy snow.
Wales and Northern Ireland were warned to expect icy roads while Scotland was also forecast heavy and drifting snow as more flurries were on the way.
Even low-lying parts of the UK saw freezing temperatures on Friday, the Met Office said. Cottesmore near Oakham in Rutland saw the mercury drop to minus 3.1C while Woodford in Greater Manchester recorded temperatures as low as minus 2.6C. Temperatures in Leek in Staffordshire were among the coldest at minus 2.5C.
Dozens of schools were closed and many roads were impassable. A plane from Lanzarote with 196 passengers on board overshot its landing at Newcastle airport. No-one was injured in the incident.
Though Scotland and the north east of England once again bore the brunt of the bad weather - with dumps of up to 30cm recorded in the Highlands and North Yorkshire - snow was also drifting across Wales and the South West.
Forecasters said the cold snap was set to tighten its grip, blanketing swathes of the country in white by the middle of next week. Some 25cm is expected to fall over higher ground on Saturday.
Aisling Creevey, of MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "It's definitely staying cold and going into next week, we could see a lot more snow. There is a low pressure system across the country and if it moves the way it is looking to at the moment, it's going to be very windy, very snowy and really bitter."
The unusual weather has been caused by high pressure over Greenland and low pressure in the Baltics, forcing cold winds from the north east across Europe.
The killer of headmaster Philip Lawrence has been bailed by detectives investigating a street mugging.
Learco Chindamo, 30, was arrested on suspicion of mugging a young man after he used a cash machine in Camden, north London.
Detectives said they suspect a gang of people may have been threatening people who used the machine in the early hours.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said three men and a woman were suspected of mugging the victim, aged in his twenties, near a branch of Sainsbury's in Belmont Street at the junction with Chalk Farm Road on Saturday November 13 at 3.40am.
Chindamo, who walked free from jail in July, 15 years after knifing the teacher to death in Maida Vale, west London, has been recalled to prison on licence.
Father-of-four Mr Lawrence, 48, was knifed and fatally wounded after going to help a pupil who was being attacked by a gang.
Among the attackers was Chindamo, then 15, who went on to brag about the killing hours later. He was convicted of the murder in October 1996, jailed indefinitely and ordered to serve a minimum of 12 years.
The headmaster's widow, Frances Lawrence, has complained that the authorities did not tell her where Chindamo was living and that his rights seemed to be put above hers.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said David Cameron was "very concerned" about Mrs Lawrence's distress over his recall to prison. but he said the law gave the Ministry of Justice no choice but to withhold details of Chindamo's address.
He said: "It is not a question of giving more rights to criminals than to victims. It is an issue about compliance with the law. Providing further information would very likely have been unlawful and clearly the department can't do something that breaks the law."
Britain's energy giants are to be investigated by the industry watchdog after it emerged that recent price hikes have seen suppliers' profit margins soar by 38%.
Ofgem announced the probe after discovering average margins on a standard dual-fuel tariff had risen to £90, compared with £65 in September.
The latest inquiry comes after three of the "big six" providers - British Gas, Scottish & Southern and Scottish Power - hit households with bill hikes.
Ofgem said it would look at the "facts behind the numbers" as companies claimed rising prices in the wholesale market - where suppliers buy their energy - left them with no choice but to lift bills.
The probe into provider accounts has been welcomed across the board from 10 Downing Street to consumer campaigners, while energy suppliers claimed they had "nothing to hide".
The inquiry is the latest in a line of investigations by the watchdog, which most recently included a probe into claims npower, Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern Energy and EDF Energy were failing to comply with new obligations to prevent mis-selling.
Announcing the review, Ofgem's chief executive Alistair Buchanan said: "The energy retail market can only be fully effective if consumers have confidence that the market is transparent and easy to take part in. So we will go beyond our usual quarterly reports on prices and do a comprehensive review of the retail market and our recent reforms from the consumers' perspective.
"We will also carry out a detailed investigation of the newly available retail accounts and the facts behind these numbers. Greater transparency in the market is good for consumers, investors and for the energy industry as a whole."
Ofgem said it aimed to finish its investigation by March next year.
The regulator warned in a recent report that rising wholesale prices, boosted by increased demand and the impact of soaring crude oil costs, could be passed on to the consumer.
Hostage Rachel Chandler contemplated suicide as she and her husband were held captive by Somali pirates, the now-freed woman has said.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the 56-year-old woman from Kent said she was tormented by her guards, who would claim her husband Paul had been killed or had left her.
At her lowest, she thought of ending her own life, but knew she had to stay strong for her family.
The couple were freed earlier this month after more than a year in captivity during which they were beaten by their captors.
They were snatched during a round-the-world sailing trip, when their 38-foot yacht, the Lynn Rival, was stormed by armed men. A ransom, reportedly paid by a mixture of private investors and the Somali government, secured their release and ended the 388-day ordeal.
Now back in the UK, the couple have spoken of their captivity.
At first they were kept together, but they were later separated by their captors. Guards would mockingly say to Mrs Chandler: "Where's Paul? Paul no here. Paul gone."
This loneliness compounded her misery, she told the Daily Mail.
Mrs Chandler said: "I did think: 'The only option I have is suicide'. "I thought about dying and about not fearing death because that gave me the strength to face it. I went down there, but then I pulled myself back up."
She added: "When I thought of Paul and my family, I knew I could never kill myself. I could never do that to them. I had to stay strong. But I knew it would be easy to slit my wrists. I had a razor blade."
Family and friends of Damilola Taylor are gathering to remember his legacy exactly a decade since his death.
The 10-year-old moved to Britain from Nigeria a few months before he was jabbed in the thigh with a broken beer bottle by a gang of youths as he walked home from the local library after school.
The youngster, who fell foul of bullying brothers Ricky Preddie, 23, and Danny, 22, was found bleeding to death in a stairwell near his home in Peckham, south London, where local workmen tried to save his life. The pair were convicted of manslaughter and jailed for eight years in October 2006.
His father Richard Taylor, relatives and friends, will attend the second annual Spirit of London Awards developed with the Damilola Taylor Trust to honour the achievements of young people in the capital. London Mayor Boris Johnson will also be present at the event at the Indigo O2 in Greenwich to hand out an award.
Gary Trowsdale, of the Trust, said: "Damilola's legacy is enshrined in these awards. We are honouring the type of person he was turning into."
Mr Taylor earlier spoke of the difficulties in coming to terms with his son's killing, but said progress is being made. He said: "I'm really impressed with all the good things that have started coming up as a result of what happened to my son."
Joined by the youngster's close friend Grace Adegboydga, he told the BBC: "There's a lot that has been put in place since his sudden death. We have, over the past 10 years, been working with young people, we've done a lot of work with youths and I'm so glad that today we have smiles on our faces."
Miss Adegboydga, who believes she was the last person to see Damilola alive, said the events of November 2000 were "still fresh in my memory". She said: "Although it is 10 years, I do feel as if it was yesterday that he was taken away. I used to feel that I could (have been) able to help him at that particular time although I wasn't there. I still think that there was something I could have done but there really wasn't."
Mr Taylor added: "Dami's ambition was to go to university and study. What Dami can't achieve, if I see people like Grace achieve, it pleases my heart."
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "The whole nation mourned the tragic loss of Damilola and it is astonishing to think that 10 years have passed since the shocking murder of this bright, young child. His father Richard Taylor has worked tirelessly to help tackle youth crime and steer troubled kids away from violence. I'm at the Spirit of London Awards today to honour the kind of young person Damilola was turning into- full of ambition with a promising future and to reiterate my personal commitment as Mayor to work alongside good men like Richard in their vital and selfless task."
The majority of Britons are failing to change their saving and spending habits, despite three-quarters claiming to be worried about their finances, a survey has shown.
Around 76% of people said they were worried about the economy and their financial position, with the same proportion saying they felt less secure about their income in future.
But despite this, 68% admitted they had not changed any of their financial habits, according to high street bank HSBC.
One in five people said they were now saving less than before the recession struck, with just 14% saving more, while 67% said their savings habits had not changed.
At the same time, only 19% said they had cut back on their spending, while 15% said they were actually spending more than previously. Around two-thirds said their spending patterns were the same as before the economic downturn.
There is a similar picture in terms of borrowing, with 69% saying their borrowing habits had remained the same, despite the credit crunch and rising unemployment, although 26% of people said they were now less inclined to borrow, with just 5% more inclined to take on debt.
Richard Brown, head of savings at HSBC, said: "With nearly eight in 10 Britons worried and insecure regarding the current economic turmoil, you would expect them to be spending and borrowing less and saving more.
"However, our research shows that only a minority have actually altered their financial habits. This suggests people either have their heads in the sand and do not realise the need to change, or that they have simply decided to stoically ride out the recession by refusing to alter their ways."
People in the North West were the least likely to have changed their savings patterns as a result of the economic downturn, with 73% saying they had not changed the amount they set aside, while those in Yorkshire were the least likely to have altered their spending, also at 73%.
Around 79% of people living in the East Midlands said their attitude to borrowing money had not changed as a result of the recession, followed by 75% of people in Yorkshire. Opinion Matters questioned 1,113 people between October 27 and November 1.
Ed Miliband is to launch a comprehensive overhaul of Labour's policies as he vows to learn the lessons of the party's general election defeat in May.
Addressing the party's National Policy Forum in Gillingham, Mr Miliband will again seek to distance himself from the legacy of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, saying that in its final years New Labour had "lost its way".
He will announce the formation of a series of working groups, chaired by shadow cabinet ministers, intended to lay the ground for a new policy programme to take Labour into the next general election.
He will issue an appeal to universities, think-tanks, charities and other independent institutions to come forward with ideas that the party can incorporate into its reform agenda.
The process is intended to provide the building blocks for Labour's general election platform - feeding into a report to next year's annual party conference, with a second follow-up report to the 2012 conference. Together they will form the basis of detailed policy-making leading up to the final general election manifesto.
In his speech, Mr Miliband will re-emphasise the need for the party to re-connect with the "squeezed middle" of families on low and middle incomes who, he argues, it lost touch with in the years leading up to the last election.
Shadow Welsh secretary Peter Hain, who chairs the National Policy Forum, said the changes needed were on a scale comparable to those made by Mr Blair when he became leader in 1994 - "at least of that magnitude".
"Labour is now in a position - with the Liberal Democrats having abandoned the progressive territory in British politics - to refound ourselves, to get back to the values of social justice and greater equality, freedom and democracy that have inspired our movement and successive Labour Party majorities over the generations," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Former prime minister Sir John Major has said the Conservative-Liberal coalition should be prepared to continue beyond the next election.
Sir John, speaking at Cambridge University, said he hoped a way could be found to "prolong co-operation" if necessary.
He said Labour's 13 years in power had not been "serious government" but were a time when "everyone was made to feel better while being fleeced".
"Many Tories and Liberals are hostile - or, at least, agnostic - to the coalition," said Sir John, during a lecture at Churchill College, Cambridge. "I approve of it. In present circumstances, it has many attractions: not least that two parties are more likely to enjoy a tolerant electorate for policies that are painful."
He added: "It will be hard pounding but its programme is essential to national wellbeing and so, if uncompleted, I hope some way can be found to prolong co-operation beyond this parliament."
Sir John said Labour had a huge majority when it ousted his Conservative government in 1997 and could have done "anything".
"But, after 18 years out of office, they were determined not to return to opposition," he added. "The public were told what focus groups said they wished to hear. Good news was announced and re-announced. Bad news was buried. And the electorate was bribed with its own money. Emerging problems were ignored and are still with us.
"The general effect was a giant Ponzi scheme, in which everyone was made to feel better whilst being fleeced. In its own way, it was genius. But it was not serious government - and those emerging problems are now worse."
Sir John gave the lecture after his personal papers were placed in an archive at Churchill College.
University officials said the Major papers would be lodged alongside those of Sir Winston Churchill, Conservative Prime Minister during the Second World War. The personal papers of former Conservative Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher and former Labour leader Lord Kinnock are also lodged at the college
