Robert McCartney murder arrest

31 October 2012 Last updated at 04:41 ET

A 53-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Robert McCartney in 2005.

He has been taken to Antrim police station for questioning.

Mr McCartney, 33, a father of two from the Short Strand in Belfast, was stabbed to death outside Magennis's bar in Belfast on 30 January.

The murder had major repercussions for Sinn Féin which was involved in delicate political negotiations aimed at securing its support for the police.

Within hours of Mr McCartney's death, it was claimed that IRA members had been involved after a fight - a claim rejected by Sinn Féin.

Robert McCartney's family accused republicans of covering up what happened, and threatening witnesses. His sisters accused Sinn Féin and the IRA of obstructing efforts to bring their brother's killers to justice.

They mounted a high-profile campaign that took them from the streets of the working class nationalist Short Strand to the White House, and even to Sinn Féin's ard fheis in Dublin.

The IRA expelled three members over the murder and Sinn Féin subsequently suspended seven of its members.

In 2008, Terence Davison, 51, was acquitted of Mr McCartney's murder and two other men were cleared of charges connected to the killing.

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Savile 'took girls to hospital'

31 October 2012 Last updated at 05:46 ET

Jimmy Savile was regularly handed a key to a Leeds hospital building when he arrived with teenage girls, an ex-porter there has told the BBC.

Terry Pratt said Savile would arrive at Leeds General Infirmary in the early hours, take the girls to the nurses' accommodation and leave before dawn.

Leeds General Infirmary said there were no records of complaints against Savile during the time he was working there.

Police are probing claims the late TV star abused about 300 young people.

The hospital also said it continued to be "shocked by each new allegation" and was helping police with their investigation.

Savile, a TV presenter and DJ who rose to fame in the 60s, was well known at Leeds General Infirmary over many years as a volunteer and fundraiser.

In other developments:

• Savile may be posthumously stripped of the freedom of the borough of Scarborough, which he was awarded in 2005. He was buried in the North Yorkshire seaside town and had a second home there
• Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told ITV's The Agenda that "heads will need to roll" at the BBC if it is discovered that abuse was ignored
• Ex-staff at Duncroft Approved School in Surrey - where Savile is alleged to have carried out abuse in the 70s - were not questioned by police during their 2007 inquiry into Savile

Mr Pratt said he became suspicious when Savile began arriving in the middle of the night in the late 1980s with teenage girls who seemed "star-struck" and were "not very streetwise".

He said Savile would visit several times a month, with different girls, asking for the key to the accommodation block. He would arrive at about 01:00 or 02:00, spend a few hours there and drop the key back about 05:00, Mr Pratt added.

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Terry Pratt said many of the teenage girls with Savile seemed "star-struck"

"He would go up and see the lad on the desk [and he would say] 'Here's the key, Jim, make sure I get it back.' He'd take the key and... would walk out and the two women would follow him towards the nurses' home," he told the BBC.

Earlier this month, a former Broadmoor Hospital patient claimed that Savile had keys to that hospital and was given his own room during the 1970s. He also alleged that he was abused by the entertainer.

The Department of Health is investigating and has appointed a former barrister to oversee its probes at Broadmoor, along with Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary.

The investigation comes amid growing allegations that Savile sexually abused children at all three of the hospitals which he had raised funds for.

'Heads will roll'

Earlier this week it emerged that Savile was banned from any involvement with the BBC's Children in Need charity.

Continue reading the main story

• Operation Yewtree: Scotland Yard criminal investigation into sexual abuse claims
• BBC investigation into management failures over the dropping of Savile Newsnight report
• BBC investigation into culture and practices during Savile's career and current policies
• BBC investigation into handling of past sexual harassment claims
• Department of Health investigation into Savile's appointment to Broadmoor "taskforce" and his activities at Broadmoor, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary
• Director of Public Prosecutions review into decisions not to prosecute Savile in 2009

Sir Roger Jones, a former chairman of the charity and governor for BBC Wales, said he had heard rumours from London staff, and the charity decided not to allow Savile "anywhere near" it.

The Metropolitan Police are following 400 lines of inquiry as part of the investigation into claims Savile abused 300 children and young people over a period of six decades.

Savile, who presented Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It and was a former Radio 1 DJ, died last October aged 84.

A BBC inquiry into the culture and practices at the corporation in the era of alleged sexual abuse by Savile began on Monday.

The corporation is also looking at the decision-making process that saw a Newsnight investigation into Savile's activities shelved.

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Barclays in new regulatory probes

31 October 2012 Last updated at 06:28 ET

UK bank Barclays has announced that it is the subject of two new regulatory probes, soon after a series of scandals that have dented its reputation.

US authorities are looking at whether the way that Barclays won business complied with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The bank disclosed the probes as it reported a pre-tax statutory loss of £47m for the third quarter, down from a £2.4bn profit last year.

Shares in the bank fell 4%.

The loss includes charges to cover the payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal.

"The spectre of more damage to the bank's reputation in the form of further regulatory probes is weighing heavily on the shares in early trade," said Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown.

"Barclays' outlook statement is also cautious, whilst the previously announced extra PPI provision has dented the overall performance. On the upside, the bank has seen a reduction in impairments and costs, has further bolstered its capital position and has reduced its exposure to the weak peripheral European markets."

Scandals

The US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into how Barclays won its business, while the second probe is by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has been investigating Barclays power trading in the western US with respect to the period from late 2006 through 2008.

"Barclays intends to vigorously defend this matter," the bank said.

Barclays' adjusted profits, not including additional charges, were £1.7bn, up from £1.3bn for the quarter last year.

Continue reading the main story

The bank said it needed to set aside a further £700m for PPI claims, on top of £1bn in 2011 and £300m in the first quarter of this year that it anticipated.

Chief executive Antony Jenkins said the results show "good momentum in our businesses despite the difficulties we faced through this period".

Mr Jenkins took over at a difficult time for the banking group, which has seen its reputation severely dented. In June, Barclays was fined £290m by UK and US regulators for attempting to manipulate Libor, an interbank lending rate which affects mortgages and loans.

The scandal saw previous boss Bob Diamond and chairman Marcus Agius depart the bank.

And in August, the Serious Fraud Office started an investigation into payments between Barclays' bank and Qatar Holding in 2008 when the bank was raising money in the Middle East during the banking crisis.

The entire financial services industry has come under scrutiny since the financial crisis in 2008.

The industry's reputation has been battered further by the mis-selling of PPI, and the mis-selling of specialist insurance - called interest rate swaps - to small businesses.

Barclays has set aside provisions of £450m for interest-rate hedging products, it said.

It had already said it would take a £1.01bn charge related to revaluing the cost of its debt on its balance sheet.

In the third quarter, Barclays said its staff costs fell 9% to almost £2bn, including an increase in deferred charges for bonuses in previous years to £942m.

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Martian soil sample 'like Hawaii'

31 October 2012 Last updated at 07:10 ET

Nasa's Curiosity rover has found soil on Mars to be similar to Hawaii's after sifting and scanning its first sample on the Red Planet.

The robot's CheMin instrument shook out fine particles of soil and fired X-rays at them to determine their composition.

These sandy samples should give clues about Mars' recent geological history.

As had been theorised, much of the sample is made of weathered "basaltic" materials of volcanic origin, like that seen on the islands of Hawaii.

The sample seems to contain dust carried from afar by Mars' global-scale storms, as well as coarser sand of more local provenance.

The £2.6bn mission put Curiosity on the floor of Gale Crater, a huge depression on Mars' equator, on 6 August.

It has since trundled more than 480m (1,590ft) to the east toward a spot called Glenelg, a place that satellite images indicate is an interesting junction between three different geological terrains.

But it has been paused by the Curiosity team at a region dubbed "Rocknest" to get its first taste of Martian soil.

This first analysis served to "cleanse the palate" of the rover's sample collection systems, which may have brought contaminants from Earth that would skew its chemical view of the Red Planet.

But with that out of the way, Curiosity accomplished another first: the first-ever use of a technique called X-ray diffraction on another planet.

X-ray diffraction is a well-established approach on Earth, in which X-rays are shot into samples that are made up of crystalline materials.

The precise ways in which the X-rays bounce off the crystals gives clear information as to their chemical makeup, and good hints as to their structure.

The CheMin experiment first sieves down a soil sample, separating out the components smaller than 150 micrometres - about the width of two human hairs.

It then gives this sifted soil a shake while firing X-rays at it, examining just how they propagate.

The team says the sample contains "significant amounts" of the minerals feldspar, olivine and pyroxene.

"So far, the materials Curiosity has analysed are consistent with our initial ideas of the deposits in Gale Crater, recording a transition through time from a wet to dry environment," said David Bish, co-investigator on the CheMin experiment.

In the weeks since its arrival on Mars, the rover has already put its ChemCam and APXS instruments to work examining larger rocks, including a never-before-seen specimen reported earlier in October.

"The ancient rocks, such as the conglomerates, suggest flowing water, while the minerals in the younger soil are consistent with limited interaction with water," said Dr Bish.

The next step was to deliver soil samples into another ground-breaking experiment within the rover – Sam, or the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument.

Sam will look for the presence of organic, or carbon-containing, molecules that should give hints about the prospects for life on the Red Planet both now and in the distant past.

• (A) Curiosity will trundle around its landing site looking for interesting rock features to study. Its top speed is about 4cm/s
• (B) This mission has 17 cameras. They will identify particular targets, and a laser will zap those rocks to probe their chemistry
• (C) If the signal is significant, Curiosity will swing over instruments on its arm for close-up investigation. These include a microscope
• (D) Samples drilled from rock, or scooped from the soil, can be delivered to two hi-tech analysis labs inside the rover body
• (E) The results are sent to Earth through antennas on the rover deck. Return commands tell the rover where it should drive next

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Eastern US gets back on its feet

31 October 2012 Last updated at 07:15 ET

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Jody Herrington, New Jersey charity worker: "There are rollercoasters in the water"

Businesses and services in the north-eastern US are expected to start re-opening on Wednesday after two days of closure forced by storm Sandy.

Some airports, government buildings, schools and the New York Stock Exchange are due to return to business.

But many homes still have no power and the New York subway will remain shut. More than 40 people are dead.

President Barack Obama, who has suspended his election campaign, is due to visit affected areas in New Jersey.

The cost of clearing up after storm Sandy has been estimated at $30-40bn (£18-24bn).

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said: "We have not seen damage like this in a generation."

Flight backlog

Continue reading the main story

At the Scene

Having removed himself from the election campaign to concentrate on the storm, President Obama will now see at first hand just how destructive Hurricane Sandy has been. He'll travel to Atlantic City where the Republican governor, Chris Christie - normally a fierce critic - will show him scenes of widespread destruction along the Jersey Shore. They'll meet some of those who have lost homes, as well as the emergency teams who have been working around the clock since the weekend.

Across several states, tens of thousands of people spent a second night in school gymnasiums, community centres and hotel rooms, with or without electricity. In a converted detention centre in Teterboro, across the Hudson River from upper Manhattan, I found evacuees receiving food and a bed for the night, but anxious about their flooded homes. In the nearby communities of Little Ferry and Moonachie, the streets were dark, deserted and, in some places, still under water.

The storm is still causing severe disruption after moving inland from the coast. It is forecast to weaken as it turns north into Canada, but to continue dumping heavy snow and rainfall.

At least 22 people were killed in New York City alone.

JFK and Newark Liberty - two of the New York area's three main airports - were scheduled to open for a limited service on Wednesday, but severe delays were expected after the cancellation of more than 18,000 flights across the affected area.

The New York Stock Exchange says it will also re-open after two days' closure, as will the Nasdaq exchange. The last time the stock exchange shut down for two days because of the weather was in 1888.

New York's subway system sustained the worst damage in its 108-year history, said Joseph Lhota, head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).

Subway tunnels were flooded and electrical equipment will have to be cleaned before the network can re-open.

Continue reading the main story

Impact on US, in figures

• 40+ people killed
• 8 million left without power
• 139 mph - highest gust of wind - Mt Washington, New Hampshire
• 12.55 in (31.88cm) rainfall, Easton, Maryland
• 13.88 feet (4.23m) storm surge, Lower Manhattan
• 7,000 reports of trees down in NY City
• 29 hospitals lost power in New Jersey

Sources: New York Times, AP

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was "no timeline" for when the subway would restart, but he hoped buses could begin running again on Wednesday.

Trams and ferries were resuming services, but most of New York's bridges remain closed.

Across the north-east, at least eight million homes and businesses are without power because of the storm, says the US Department of Energy.

Hospital blackout

Sandy brought a record storm surge of almost 14ft (4.2m) to central Manhattan, well above the previous record of 10ft during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.

Maryland appeared to have the worst of the rain and snow - with falls of 12.5 in (32cm) and 28 in respectively.

Continue reading the main story

The greatest storms on Earth

• A tropical storm is classified as a hurricane when wind speeds reach 74 mph (115km/h)
• A hurricane can expend as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs over its lifecycle
• The hurricane's spiral is due to the Coriolis Effect, which is generated by the Earth's rotation

President Obama was due to tour disaster areas in New Jersey on Wednesday with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Mr Christie, a Republican and staunch supporter of Mr Romney, went out of his way to praise the Democratic president for his handling of the storm.

"I spoke to the president three times yesterday," Mr Christie told CNN. "He's been incredibly supportive and helpful to our state and not once did he bring up the election... If he's not bringing it up, I'm certainly not going to bring it up."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney resumed low-key campaigning on Tuesday, converting a rally into a storm relief event in the swing state of Ohio.

In other developments:

• US federal agencies in Washington DC will re-open on Wednesday
• Fire destroyed about 50 homes in the New York City borough of Queens
• More than 200 patients were evacuated from New York University's Tisch Hospital after power went out and a backup generator failed
• Three nuclear reactors have been closed due to electrical supply and cooling system problems; a fourth was put on alert because of rising water.

In all, storm Sandy has claimed well over 100 lives, after killing nearly 70 people as it hit the Caribbean.

Impoverished Haiti is facing severe food shortages after 70% of crops were destroyed by the storm, officials said.

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Heseltine issues growth challenge

31 October 2012 Last updated at 07:49 ET

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Lord Heseltine: "In a sense it's a criticism of Whitehall"

Lord Heseltine, the former Conservative party deputy prime minister, has challenged the government to take bolder action to stimulate the economy.

In a new report, commissioned by Downing Street, he says that people think the UK "does not have a strategy for growth and wealth creation".

He wants the funds used to support industry to be distributed locally, rather than through central government.

Labour said his message was "a damning indictment" of the government.

His review makes 89 recommendations to help industry. One of its key aims is to move £49bn from central government to the regions to help local leaders and businesses.

The aim, he said, was to devolve power from Whitehall and re-invigorate the big cities that had fuelled the growth and wealth that the country had enjoyed in past decades.

Chancellor George Osborne said he would "study it [the report] very carefully".

Lord Heseltine, head of the Department of Trade and Industry in the 1980s, said the government should allocate growth funds through the new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) that are being established in England.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This is a war cry from the man whose golden locks and virtuoso performances earned him the nickname Tarzan"

End Quote

In 2010, the government invited local business and civic leaders to come forward with proposals for establishing LEPs that reflected natural economic geographies.

Lord Heseltine believes these bodies could be key to stimulating regional growth, but said that, at the moment, LEPs did not currently have "the authority or resource to transform their locality in the way our economy needs".

LEPs' powers should be enhanced, giving them responsibilities for growth and long-term strategies, and also get involved in social provision, he said.

"Once a LEP has been allocated funds, it should be free to implement its strategy, accountable to its local community but free from central government diktat," Lord Heseltine said.

Local business and political leaders are best placed to invest the money, he says in his report, No Stone Unturned.

'Inertia'

At the national level, however, the government should show greater leadership in promoting major infrastructure projects. A national growth council should be created, chaired by the prime minister and with a cross-government focus.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

I have told it as I see it, but I have told it in a way that is very supportive of the government"

End Quote Lord Heseltine

"Central government must retain control of important, large scale infrastructure projects. This includes our motorway network, national rail network and airports, as well as our energy networks," Lord Heseltine said.

In all these sectors, there must be greater investment and a clearer strategy of what the UK needs. He cited the delay and "inertia" over building extra airport capacity in the south east.

Ahead of the next general election, Lord Heseltine wants the political parties to make manifesto promises on how they will tackle the problem. But he argues that preparatory work on the various solutions - "which are known and have been widely debated" - could start now, short of actually awarding construction contracts.

Lord Heseltine backs the chancellor's wish that UK pension funds get involved to provide funding for infrastructure spending. With pension funds' return on investments in equities at historically low levels, for example, ways could be found to provide a better yield from infrastructure spending.

He said: "There is a well of money looking for a better return than currently available in the market or only available in higher yielding equities with attendant risk.

"In view of the exceptionally low yields currently available, there is a one off opportunity now to match the needs of pension funds with the urgent need to boost investment in the UK's key infrastructure."

'Pulsing'

When in office Lord Heseltine was well known for promoting intervention to back business and the regeneration of urban areas.

The report is presented in a highly individual style, fronted by a cartoon of Lord Heseltine shining a torch under a rock, with the caption "In search of growth".

He calls it "one man's vision", and says "there is opportunity on a grand scale".

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

He will have his work cut out in convincing ministers of this new approach"

End Quote Brendan Barber TUC

He said that throughout the regions there was excellence in industry, commerce and academia, which should be extended and that cities were "pulsing with energy" that should be unleashed.

He backed the government's economic strategy, and said it was taking the right path to recovery. But later, in an interview with the BBC, Lord Heseltine said there was "an urgency" about stimulating growth. "Across the world there are emerging economies that want our jobs and our wealth," he said.

He wanted to "unleash the power of our big cities", like Birmingham, Newcastle, and Manchester, which had generated the growth of past decades. "London has acquired too much power", he told Radio 4's Today programme. "We need to mobilise the skills of provincial England. I want to shove power out of Whitehall, into the provinces."

Lord Heseltine admitted his ideas would go down like a "lead balloon" in parts of Whitehall because he was suggesting government departments should lose some of their power.

Asked whether his conclusions might be at odds with thinking in the Treasury, Lord Heseltine said: "I do not work for the Treasury, I work for George Osborne. And George has been behind this initiative."

He added: "I have got baggage, they know my views. There are bound to be things where they say, 'oh my god, here he goes again'. I have told it as I see it, but I have told it in a way that is very supportive of the government."

'Challenge received wisdom'

Mr Osborne said the report provided food for thought.

"I wanted Lord Heseltine to do what he does best: challenge received wisdom and give us ideas on how to bring government and industry together. He has done exactly that," he said.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said he would also be considering the report and would respond in the coming months.

Shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, said aspects of Lord Heseltine's report chimed with Labour's own industrial policy.

"Labour has led calls for an active government approach to support business and underpin regional growth - it is good to see Lord Heseltine echoing this in his report. We will examine his proposals and consider which ones we can take forward," he said.

"We hope that ministers will take Lord Heseltine's proposals seriously."

Business backing

The Institute of Directors (IoD) business group reacted positively to the broad thrust of the report's proposals.

"We welcome the idea of encouraging more devolution to the local level, and ensuring business has the opportunity to make heard its priorities on local issues," IoD director general Simon Walker said.

"Business leaders and the various business organisations have long experience of co-operating to encourage a positive business environment in the UK, and we are committed to continuing that work."

Meanwhile the TUC also backed the report but warned that it needs to be embraced across government in order to make a difference.

"The TUC shares Lord Heseltine's vision of collaboration between the public and private sectors, with unions and employers working together to promote growth," said general secretary Brendan Barber.

"But he will have his work cut out in convincing ministers of this new approach, who are going to have to change their attitude towards civil servants, public bodies and unions if they want this strategy to succeed."

Lord Heseltine will formally launch his report later on Wednesday at an event in Birmingham.

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PM questions: Cameron v Miliband

31 October 2012 Last updated at 08:12 ET

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Coverage of Prime Minister's Questions on the BBC's Daily Politics

David Cameron and Ed Miliband have clashed over EU budget talks at the start of their weekly Commons showdown.

Mr Miliband, who is joining forces with Tory rebels later in a bid to defeat the PM on the issue, was accused of opportunism by Mr Cameron.

He hit back, accusing Mr Cameron of being weak and likened him to former Conservative John Major.

Mr Cameron wants the EU budget frozen but he is under pressure from Labour and dozens of Tory MPs to demand a cut.

Prime Minister's Questions comes amid a number of coalition tensions - including a row at the Department of Energy and Climate Change over onshore wind farms.

Conservative energy minister John Hayes has been slapped down by his Lib Dem boss Ed Davey after suggesting there would be no further expansion of onshore wind farms.

A source close to Mr Davey said Mr Hayes, a longstanding opponent of onshore wind farms, had "totally over-egged things" and did not make the final decisions.

Labour's Caroline Flint has accused the coalition of being in a "shambles" over its energy policy.

But Mr Miliband may be tempted instead to seize on a report by Lord Heseltine, in which he says that people think the UK "does not have a strategy for growth and wealth creation," to put pressure on the prime minister at question time.

The Conservative former deputy prime recommends ending a century of centralisation and moving growth funds nearer to industry in his report into boosting UK growth.

Labour say his message is "a damning indictment" of the government.

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UK's first 4G service launches

29 October 2012 Last updated at 20:11 ET

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Rory Cellan-Jones speed tests the new 4G service in Manchester

The UK's first major fourth generation (4G) mobile service has gone live in 11 cities.

London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow and Southampton will have access to network EE's 4G from Tuesday morning.

Other mobile networks will not be able to offer 4G until next year.

Critics have questioned the service's affordability - particularly with regard to data usage allowance.

Belfast, Derby, Glasgow, Hull, Newcastle and Nottingham will be active by Christmas, the company said.

Network EE, formerly known as Everything, Everywhere and which owns Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, has promised speeds of between 8 to 12Mbps - up to five times faster than third generation mobile technology, known as 3G.

The extra speed and capacity allows for high-quality streaming of audio, video and other content while on the move.

The company said as well as giving customers faster internet, 4G would also be of big benefit to businesses.

All-you-can-eat world

However, such benefits come at a cost - the entry tariff of £36 per month includes 500MB of data, beyond which an add-on cost must be paid if the user wishes to carry on using the internet on their mobile.

Continue reading the main story

EE was always going to have a difficult role to play being the first mover"

End Quote Matthew Howett Ovum

An hour of streaming a programme using, for example, the BBC iPlayer mobile app, can use up to 225MB - almost half the entry level tariff's data allowance limit.

The add-on costs for extra data begins at £3 for 50MB, and extends to £20 for 4GB.

The company's top tariff for standard customers will cost £56 per month, and has a data allowance of 8GB.

EE boss Olaf Swantee has said that the pricing is based on "months of consumer research" and that the tariffs have been priced at "the sweet spot".

But Matthew Howett, a regulation analyst at Ovum, said EE has a challenge in convincing consumers their 4G is good value for money.

"It's fair to say that EE has attracted a fair degree of criticism not so much for the price of the 4G tariffs, but rather on the amount of data bundled at each level," he said.

"EE was always going to have a difficult role to play being the first mover.

"However, its peers may be grateful for attempting to move away from an all-you-can-eat world for data to an attempt to monetise it.

"Too quickly data became commoditised for operators once smartphones and other connected devices proliferated."

User poaching

A successful 4G launch is seen as critical for EE if it is to poach customers from other networks.

EE was granted its headstart in the 4G market last month when it was given permission to run the next-generation service using its existing bandwidth.

Its competitors are unable to offer 4G until the conclusion of a spectrum auction scheduled for early next year.

The auction will determine how newly available signal spectrum will be offered to the other networks.

The process had been continually delayed by a combination of factors, from a change of government to threats of legal action from operators.

On 2 October, O2 and Vodafone agreed not to take legal action against EE, and instead settled for assurances that the process of launching their own 4G services would be sped up.

But since EE's 4G announcement, rival networks have sought to undermine the firm's offering.

In a statement on its website, Vodafone underlined what it saw as a weakness in EE's 4G - indoor coverage.

"Indoor coverage matters," the company wrote.

"That's why we've made a commitment to provide 98% indoor coverage.

"The reason we can do this is because we intend to use 800MHz frequency. Without getting too technical, this means your signal travels further into your home than any 4G signal that's available now, all things being equal."

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Breast screening harm highlighted

30 October 2012 Last updated at 02:43 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

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Christine Davidson: ''I went for screening because I thought if I had cancer it was better to discover early''

Women invited for breast cancer screening in the UK are to be given more information about the potential harms of being tested.

An independent review was set up to settle a fierce debate about whether the measure did more harm than good.

It showed that for every life saved, three women had treatment for a cancer which would never have been fatal.

The information will be included on leaflets to give women an "informed choice", the government said.

Cancer charities said women should still take up the offer of screening.

Controversy

Screening has been a fixture in diagnosing breast cancer for more than two decades. Women aged between 50 and 70 are invited to have a mammogram every three years. It helps doctors catch cancer early so treatment can be given when it is more likely to save lives.

Continue reading the main story

Screening in numbers

• More than two million women are screened each year in the UK
• Women between 50 and 70 are screened every three years.
• 48,000 women are diagnosed each year.
• One in eight women will develop breast cancer at some point in their lives.
• More than 11,000 women die from breast cancer each year

However, the national cancer director Prof Sir Mike Richards said it had become "an area of high controversy".

The debate centres around the concept of "overdiagnosis", that is screening which correctly identifies a tumour, but one which would never have caused harm. It leads to women who would have lived full and healthy lives having treatments - such as surgery, hormone therapy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy - which have considerable side-effects.

There is no way of knowing which tumours will be deadly and which could have been left alone.

The review, published in the Lancet medical journal, showed that screening saved 1,307 lives every year in the UK, but led to 3,971 women having unnecessary treatment. From the point of view of a single patient they have a 1% chance of being overdiagnosed if they go for screening.

The independent review panel was led by Prof Michael Marmot, from University College London. He said screening had "contributed to reducing deaths" but also "resulted in some overdiagnosis".

He said it was "vital" women were told about the potential harms and benefits before going for a mammogram.

Prof Richards said: "My view is that the screening programme should happen, we should invite women to be screened and give women the information to make their own choice."

He said the leaflets on breast cancer screening sent to women would be updated in the "next few months" to "give the facts in a clear, unbiased way".

Current advice does not highlight the scale of the risk.

To screen?

Cancer charities have unanimously argued that women should still choose to be screened.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis: Debate over?

The national cancer director described the findings as the "best data" available on the issue. However, this is unlikely to be the final word on breast cancer screening.

One of the lead voices questioning screening, Prof Peter Gotzsche from the University of Copenhagen, has told the BBC he has "serious reservations" about the findings.

His previous research suggested 10 women were treated unnecessarily for every life saved and questioned whether screening had any overall benefit.

He said "the estimate of the balance [of benefit vs harm] is still too positive" in this study.

He criticised the independent panel for using old data and ignoring more recent studies showing no benefit of screening.

He will be publishing a response in a medical journal soon.

A joint statement by Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Campaign and Breast Cancer Care said: "We encourage all women to attend their screening appointments."

It said the review provided "much-needed clarity" that screening saves lives, but women must be given "clear and balanced information" to highlight the harms.

Cancer Research UK, which commissioned the review alongside the Department of Health, said that "on balance" it thought that women should go ahead with screening.

Its chief executive Dr Harpal Kumar said: "Because we can't yet tell which cancers are harmful and which are not, we cannot predict what will happen in an individual woman's case.

"Research is advancing at pace and we hope that in the future there will be a number of new techniques that we can use alongside the screening programme to make it more sophisticated and reduce the numbers of women having unnecessary treatment."

Richard Winder, the deputy director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes, said: "This was a robust review and we appreciate the rigour and efforts of the panel in conducting it.

"We are pleased that the panel concluded the NHS Breast Cancer Screening Programme confers significant benefit and should continue.

"Where they have made recommendations, we will work with all partners to take these forward."

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Met plan to sell Scotland Yard

30 October 2012 Last updated at 06:06 ET

The Metropolitan Police is planning to sell off its headquarters to help save £500m over the next two and half years.

New Scotland Yard in Victoria, central London, would be put up for sale under proposals designed to deliver savings and boost frontline policing.

Police stations across London would also be under threat, with five already approved for sale, as the force seeks to dispose of a third of its estate.

The plans were revealed to the deputy mayor for police and crime on Tuesday.

The Met has been tasked by the mayor's office with making savings of half-a-billion pounds by 2015.

Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey told the deputy mayor for policing and crime, Stephen Greenhalgh, that if significant savings were to be made then a third of the Met's property estate needed to be disposed of.

Currently, it has about 700 buildings including police stations, patrol bases and traffic garages.

Sharing services

"We need buildings that are fit for a modern police service," said Mr Mackey.

"New Scotland Yard costs £11m a year to run and we now need to invest over £50m into it."

He said: "It is a 60s building, so the infrastructure and support services that are in the building, I think, from the heating and ventilation through to the IT provision, is from the 60s.

"Despite the money we've spent on it over the years, it is an asset that we could use differently and better invest the money in policing."

Under the plans the force HQ would move to a nearby, smaller building in Whitehall.

Mr Mackey said a final decision would not be made until November when the proposals would be submitted to the Mayor's Office for Police and Crime (MOPAC) as part of budget savings.

As part of the savings plan, police stations in Richmond, Willesden Green, Highbury Vale, Walthamstow and south Norwood have been approved for sale.

Continue reading the main story

Guy Smith BBC London's Home Affairs Correspondent

---

It seems nothing is safe from being sold off in the name of making huge "savings" - half a billion pounds before 2015.

Iconic buildings, police stations and front counters are all at risk of the chop. It's all part of a radical strategy to axe a third of the Met's large property estate, much of which pre-dates the Second World War and is now not fit-for-purpose.

Instead of investing in bricks and mortar, the Met is talking about increasing "public access points" to replace front counters at police stations. This means neighbourhood officers being highly-visible in places like supermarkets, shopping centres or council buildings.

Borough commanders are also in the firing line. We won't know how many will go until next month when the budget is presented. But the aim is to reduce managers/supervisors and increase the number of constables by 1,000 to a total 25,000.

It all goes towards helping London's mayor keep his election pledge to maintain overall police officer numbers at around 32,000. Meanwhile, a significant amount of the family silver will go.

But Mr Mackey reassured reporters at an earlier news conference: "We will have at least one station in each borough providing access to the public 24/7."

There are also plans to close "underused" front counters.

The deputy commissioner said 65 out of 136 front counters across London have one visitor an hour and on average there were 48 crimes reported at front counters across the whole of London between 11pm and 7am.

In their place, the deputy commissioner said he aimed to establish more opportunities for safer neighbourhood teams to be in popular locations such as shopping centres and supermarkets.

"We are working with local authorities to share public access points," he said.

The Met is also looking at saving money by cutting the number of borough commanders - currently there is one for each of the 32 council areas.

One idea is to share services and senior managers across some boroughs, with perhaps a superintendent instead being the officer responsible for leading policing.

London's mayor Boris Johnson made an election promise earlier this year to keep police officer numbers to about 32,000.

Mr Mackey proposed that reducing the number of supervisors and senior ranking officers would allow the Met to invest in more police constables on the beat.

"Core policing will still be delivered locally with more officers in neighbourhood policing," said Mr Mackey. "But no decisions have been made on any of these proposals."

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Hitachi buys UK nuclear project

30 October 2012 Last updated at 06:44 ET

The UK's nuclear expansion plans have been boosted after Japan's Hitachi signed a £700m deal giving it rights to build a new generation of power plants.

Hitachi is to buy Horizon Nuclear Power, which was intending to build reactors on existing sites at Wylfa, Anglesey, and Oldbury, near Bristol.

Hitachi is buying Horizon from Germany's E.On and RWE, which are withdrawing from the UK nuclear market.

Prime Minister David Cameron said it was a major step for the UK.

"This is a decades-long, multi-billion pound vote of confidence in the UK, that will contribute vital new infrastructure to power our economy.

"It will support up to 12,000 jobs during construction and thousands more permanent highly skilled roles once the new power plants are operational, as well as stimulating exciting new industrial investments in the UK's nuclear supply chain. I warmly welcome Hitachi as a major new player in the UK energy sector," he said.

UK engineering companies Babcock International and Rolls-Royce have signed preliminary contracts to join the Hitachi deal, which the Japanese company said should be completed by the end of November.

There will then be regulatory issues to clear, but once Hitachi's reactor design is approved by the necessary authorities the company intends to build 6 gigawatts of nuclear capacity, with the first plant generating power in the first half of the next decade.

Up to 6,000 jobs are expected to be created during construction at each site, thousands more in the supply chain, and a further 1,000 permanent jobs at both locations once operational.

Dependency

The Horizon venture, based at Brockworth, Gloucester, currently employs about 90 people and was set up in 2009 as part of the drive to meet the UK's carbon reduction goals and secure energy demand as old power plants are decommissioned.

But RWE and E.On put the business up for sale in March after Germany's move to abandon nuclear power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster.

A consortium made up of EDF and British Gas-owner Centrica has maintained its interest but the two companies have still to decide whether to build two reactors at Hinckley Point, Somerset.

Companies involved in the nuclear industry have expressed caution over entering the UK market. Because of the huge capital costs, stretched over many years, companies want some certainty over how much they might be paid for the electricity generated by their plants.

Last week, the chief executive of EDF, Vincent de Rivaz, told MPs that his company needed safeguards from the government that the finances of future nuclear deals would be "fair".

Delays over decision-making and financing have led to doubts that new power capacity will come on stream before existing plants go offline. A so-called "energy gap" is likely to lead to rising prices and a greater dependency on gas imports.

Earlier this month, the energy regulator Ofgem warned that the UK risks running out of energy generating capacity in the winter of 2015-16. Its report predicted that the amount of spare capacity could fall from 14% now to only 4% in three years.

However, the government said that its forthcoming Energy Bill would ensure that there was secure supply.

With so many uncertainties still to be resolved, investment in the UK nuclear sector was still a "leap of faith", said George Borovas, head of nuclear projects at global law firm Pillsbury. So, he said, Hitachi's decision was a "significant... vote of confidence in the UK nuclear programme".

'Milestone'

Hitachi's proposed facilities will use its advanced boiling water technology, which is already used in four reactors in Japan. Mr Borovas said this technology was a "proven success", adding: "This should be very helpful with respect to its licensing in the UK and also opens up the possibility of significant export credit agency and commercial financing from Japan."

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said: "Hitachi bring with them decades of expertise, and are responsible for building some of the most advanced nuclear reactors on time and on budget, so I welcome their commitment to helping build a low-carbon, secure-energy future for the UK."

Unions also welcomed Hitachi's move, with Mike Clancy, general secretary designate of Prospect, saying: "The Horizon venture is an important milestone in securing future low-carbon energy generation capacity within the UK and its importance to local and national economies cannot be overstated.

"While Hitachi's advanced boiling water reactor design has yet to undergo the UK's generic design assessment approval process, it is a proven technology and therefore any construction in the UK will benefit from lessons learned from its construction in Japan."

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Two soldiers dead in Afghanistan

30 October 2012 Last updated at 07:38 ET

Two Nato soldiers have been shot dead in Afghanistan by a man wearing a local police uniform, the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) says.

It is not known where the pair, killed in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, were from.

But Isaf - Nato's security mission in Afghanistan - said they were investigating the incident.

Some 56 Isaf personnel have been killed so far this year by Afghans wearing police or army uniforms.

It comes as Nato prepares to withdraw most combat troops by the end of 2014.

A spokesman for Isaf told AFP news agency: "An individual wearing an Afghan National Police uniform turned his weapon against Isaf forces in southern Afghanistan, killing two soldiers."

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Mother admits killing children

30 October 2012 Last updated at 07:49 ET

A mother who suffered post-natal depression has admitted killing her two children.

Felicia Boots, 35, killed Lily Boots, aged 14 months, and her 10-week-old brother Mason at their home in Wandsworth, south-west London, in May.

Her manslaughter plea on the grounds of diminished responsibility was accepted by the prosecution at the Old Bailey, and murder charges were dropped.

She was ordered to be detained at a psychiatric hospital.

A preliminary inquest hearing found the two children had been suffocated.

Her husband Jeff found the children lying side by side on the floor of a walk-in wardrobe when he arrived home on 9 May.

'Good mum'

A note to the court from Boots was read by her counsel Kate Bex.

It read: "May 9, 2012 is a day I will be eternally sorry for. It should never have happened.

"It troubles me more than anyone will ever know. Part of me will always be missing.

"I am a good person. I am a good mum and I never meant any of this to happen.

"I am truly sorry."

'Indescribably sad'

The court heard Boots had been detained at a psychiatric unit since the deaths and the prosecution's decision followed consideration of doctors' reports.

The judge, Mr Justice Fulford, said the case was indescribably sad and what she did was a result of psychological forces beyond her control.

Edward Brown QC, prosecuting, told the court: "This plainly is a tragic case."

He said the Crown had closely examined the medical evidence and spoken to Boots' husband, who was in court.

Mr Brown added: "The authors of the reports are clear and agreed in their conclusions as to Boots' condition as at 9 May and the reasons for her actions on that day."

The couple had moved to the UK in the past few years from Canada.

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New York major disaster declared

30 October 2012 Last updated at 07:53 ET

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BBC's Ben Thompson, in New York: ''All night there were sparks and flashes of light as the power systems went down''

US President Barack Obama has declared a "major disaster" in New York state after storm Sandy smashed into the US East Coast, causing flooding and cutting power to millions.

A record 4m (13ft) tidal surge sent seawater cascading into large parts of New York City's subway system.

Across the city, a power sub-station exploded, a hospital was evacuated and fire destroyed 50 homes.

At least 15 people are reported dead across several US states.

In northern New Jersey, a rescue operation is reported to be under way after a levee broke and flooded the town of Moonachie.

Bergen County chief of staff Jeanne Baratta told CNN: "Moonachie has been devastated. Every street has got four or five feet of water on it."

An estimated 50 million people could be affected by the storm, with up to a million ordered to evacuate homes.

Sandy, now downgraded from a hurricane but described as a "super-storm", is churning north heading for Canada.

Over the past week Sandy has killed more than 80 people as it carved a path of destruction through the Caribbean.

'Devastating'

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night"

End Quote New York City transport director Joseph Lhota

The storm made landfall close to Atlantic City in New Jersey at about 20:00 local time (midnight GMT), with winds of more than 80mph (129km/h).

It collided with cold weather fronts from the west and north to create what some forecasters have dubbed a "Frankenstorm".

Much of Atlantic City was under water and 30,000 residents were evacuated.

In New York City, parts of Lower Manhattan were quickly inundated as the Hudson and East rivers overflowed. Seawater poured into road tunnels and the subway system. Images showed cars being swept along streets by the torrent.

"The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night," city transport director Joseph Lhota said early on Tuesday.

City officials had earlier ordered some 375,000 residents out of Lower Manhattan and other areas under threat.

"Lower Manhattan is being covered by seawater," Howard Glaser, director of operations for the New York state government, was quoted as saying. "I am not exaggerating. Seawater is rushing into the Battery Tunnel."

Battery Tunnel links Manhattan with Long Island.

The city's Consolidated Edison utility provider said an explosion at a sub-station, probably caused by flooding or flying debris, blacked out much of Lower Manhattan.

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Matthew Trowbridge and Susan Burke Mangano filmed flooding in Ocean City, New Jersey

The company said about 500,000 homes in Manhattan were without power.

As dawn broke, residents emerged to see the havoc wreaked by the storm.

In other developments:

• Fire has destroyed about 50 homes in the New York City borough of Queens.
• More than 200 patients were evacuated from New York University's Tisch Hospital after power went out and a backup generator failed.
• America's oldest nuclear power plant, Oyster Creek in New Jersey, was put on alert due to rising water, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
• The New York Stock Exchange will stay shut on Tuesday - the first time it has closed for two consecutive days due to weather since 1888.
• A crew member from a replica of HMS Bounty has died and the captain is missing after the ship sank in mountainous seas off North Carolina on Monday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the storm surge was higher than the highest forecast, but he expected waters to start receding.

Continue reading the main story

SANDY HITS EAST COAST

• At least 13 people dead, including one in Canada
• 1m ordered to leave their homes
• 50m people estimated to be affected, with 5m left without power
• 800-mile (1,290 km) stretch of the US affected
• 10,000 flights reported grounded globally on Monday and Tuesday
• Manhattan hit by record storm surge of 13.7ft (4.15m) on Tuesday morning

Elsewhere in the city, the storm left a construction crane bent double next to a skyscraper and caused the facade of a four-storey building to collapse.

At 05:00 EDT (09:00 GMT) the National Hurricane Center placed the centre of Sandy about 90 miles (145km) west of Philadelphia with maximum sustained winds of 65mph (105km/h) with higher gusts.

Officials reported at least 15 deaths in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut - several caused by falling trees. A Canadian woman was also reported killed by flying debris in Toronto.

Forecasters have said Sandy could linger over as many as 12 states for 24-36 hours.

Earlier, President Obama declared emergencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Early on Tuesday he declared a major disaster in New York and Long Island, making federal funding available to those areas.

In Washington DC, federal government offices are closed until Wednesday.

Public transport was suspended in the US capital, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston.

Amtrak has suspended passenger train services across the north-east, while nearly 14,000 flights were cancelled, according to Flightaware.com.

Up to 3ft (91cm) of snow is expected to fall on the Appalachian mountains in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.

The disaster estimating firm Eqecat has forecast that Sandy could cause economic losses to the US of between $10bn and $20bn (£6.2bn-£12.4bn).

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High Street taskforce begins work

29 October 2012 Last updated at 04:55 ET By Emma Simpson Business correspondent, BBC News

Senior figures from across the banking, retail and property sectors have signed up to a new industry-wide group, the Distressed Retail Property Taskforce.

They are joining forces to find ways to rejuvenate failing town centres.

The taskforce may be one of the most significant developments since Mary Portas's much-talked-about review of the High Street.

Its first priority will be to find out how big the problem of retail property indebtedness is across the UK.

The group met for the first time last week, and on Monday announced who had signed up to the body.

Members include the British Council of Shopping Centres, the British Property Federation and the Local Government Association. Lloyds Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland are also represented, along with the Booksellers Association.

Stalemate

Empty, dilapidated shops are a familiar scene across many of Britain's struggling town centres.

Continue reading the main story

We have too many shops, the wrong size and under-invested"

End Quote Mark Williams Taskforce chairman

Whole swathes of retail - from shopping centres to run-down or shuttered-up shops - are worth far less than they used to be, with landlords unable or unwilling to invest, yet loath to sell and write off their debts.

Many landlords are also slow to cut the rents they demand in order to attract new tenants, because they have to earn a minimum rental income to keep up with their debt payments.

Often, the properties are no longer worth enough to repay those landlords' debts.

And that means the landlords and the banks that lent them the money to buy their properties in the first place, find themselves in the same boat together.

Both face the same dilemma - whether to invest in the property in the hope of selling it at a higher price in the future, or instead to throw in the towel and sell off the property even if this means a big loss for both the landlord and its lender.

In many cases, however, landlords and their banks have simply ducked this hard choice, and are instead trying to struggle on with idle or dilapidated retail space.

The challenge for the Distressed Retail Property Taskforce is how to break the stalemate.

It is the first time an industry-wide body has been formed to look at indebted properties, and several big banks are also taking part.

Its first task is to find out the true scale of the problem.

The Distressed Retail Property Taskforce will spend around six months gathering hard evidence on the true scale of the problem and the towns worst affected.

Life support

The big challenge is to try to come up with some solutions, according to Mark Williams, the chairman of the new body.

"The taskforce recognises that our High Streets are going through a structural recalibration, rather than an economic cycle from which we will emerge over time," he said.

And tough choices, he says, will have to be made:

"We have too many shops, the wrong size and under-invested. So the change in town centres that is required is significant and will require public and private sectors coming together to find ways of financing these changes.

"What we're talking about are essentially infrastructure projects that can future-proof our towns for the next 50 to 60 years," he said.

Last week, the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, made clear that the issue of over-indebted businesses is exercising his mind of too:

"I am not sure that advanced economies in general will find it easy to get out of their current predicament without creditors acknowledging further likely losses, a significant writing down of asset values and recapitalisation of their financial systems."

The problem for the banks is that turning off the life support machine on distressed property could cause too many losses for their balance sheets to bear.

The taskforce has the challenge of trying to come up with a workable, long-term solution.

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Fresh fears for care home victims

29 October 2012 Last updated at 06:59 ET By Alison Holt Social Affairs Correspondent, BBC News

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The abuse at Winterbourne View was uncovered by secret filming by the BBC

Many patients who were poorly treated at a private hospital which closed down after a BBC Panorama investigation have had new fears raised over their safety.

Last week six support workers were jailed for abusing vulnerable patients at Winterbourne View, near Bristol.

NHS figures show safeguarding alerts have been issued for at least 19 of its 51 former patients since they were moved to other care homes.

The government said there was "no excuse" for their mistreatment.

Of the patients that have been issued with safeguarding alerts, at least one has been assaulted and one criminal inquiry is under way.

However, not all of the alerts mean that someone was harmed.

Campaigners told Panorama they feared vulnerable adults were being warehoused in a system that was not offering them the support they need.

Shivering and shaking

Using an undercover reporter in the spring of 2011, Panorama secretly filmed support workers slapping patients, pinning them under chairs and giving them cold punishment showers at Winterbourne View.

Last week at Bristol Crown Court, 11 people were sentenced for the ill-treatment and neglect of patients at the hospital.

Six were jailed, including ringleader Wayne Rogers, 32, who admitted nine counts of ill-treating patients, and was jailed for two years.

Simone Blake, then just 18, faced some of the most disturbing abuse at Winterbourne View, including being drenched in water and left shivering and shaking on the freezing ground outside.

Simone was moved to an NHS hospital - Postern House in Wiltshire - as soon as the abuse allegations were revealed.

Postern House was just 40 minutes' drive from Simone's parents, allowing them to visit her several times a week.

In June of this year her parents received a letter from Ridgeway Partnership, the health trust that runs Postern House, telling them she was the subject of a safeguarding alert and that four members of staff had been suspended.

Her mother, Lorna Blake, said: "We were not told what they had done wrong... even though this is not the same as Winterbourne View, she has still gone through a wrong - whether it is a wrong restraint or whatever, it is still wrong."

Continue reading the main story

Panorama: Find out more

• Alison Holt presents Panorama: The Hospital that Stopped Caring
• BBC One, Monday, 29 October at 20:30 GMT

Ridgeway Partnership, which runs Postern House, accepts the family should have been told more about the investigation. Wiltshire council says it has no reason to doubt that Postern House provides good care. Both Wiltshire Council and Ridgeway Partnership say the incident can't be compared to Winterbourne View.

Simone has now been moved to another hospital 200 miles away; her fourth in two years. The eight-hour round trip is too long a journey for her parents to make.

"We can't see her and we used to visit three times a week... it's not very nice to not see your child," Mrs Blake said.

Research for the "Count me in" survey in 2010, which falls under the auspices of the Care Quality Commission, found that in England and Wales one in 20 patients with learning disabilities in hospital said they had been assaulted at least 10 times in the previous three months.

'Dumping ground'

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

What allowed Winterbourne View and places like it to flourish was that [they] were used ... as a dumping ground by public bodies who had not planned ahead"

End Quote Mark Goldring Mencap Chief Executive

In a statement, care and support minister Norman Lamb said the Panorama programme "continues to highlight inappropriate and poor quality care".

"There is no excuse for this," he said.

Mr Lamb said a review set up by the Department of Health "has found clear evidence that there are far too many people in specialist inpatient learning disability services... and many are staying there for too long".

He went on: "People often end up in these facilities due to crises which are preventable or could be managed if people are given the right support in their homes or in community settings."

Mr Lamb also underlined that a final report on Winterbourne View would be published "shortly", along with an agreement setting out the responsibilities of carers and the government.

The chief executive of the learning disabilities charity Mencap, Mark Goldring, said cases like Simone's highlight a system that has resorted to warehousing difficult patients with challenging behaviour.

"What allowed Winterbourne View and places like it to flourish was that those places were effectively being used... as a dumping ground by public bodies who had not planned ahead."

National guidance on people with learning disabilities calls for them to be cared for in their communities, but the Department of Health (DoH) has estimated in England 1,500 people with challenging behaviour are currently in hospitals.

Margaret Flynn examined what went wrong at Winterbourne View in the most exhaustive report, the Serious Case Review.

She said that needs to change: "If nothing else results from the scandal of Winterbourne View Hospital I very much hope that it is scrutiny of a practice that moves people around as though they are pawns. We can and should be doing something so much better."

Panorama: The Hospital that Stopped Caring, BBC One, Monday 29 October at 20:30 GMT and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.

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Two-tier road tax plan considered

29 October 2012 Last updated at 07:23 ET

A two-tier Vehicle Excise Duty, with a lower rate for those avoiding motorways and other main routes, is among options being considered by the government.

The plans would not necessarily mean those using motorways pay more than at present, a Treasury source said.

The government is currently looking at a number of different ways that roads could be owned and paid for.

The plan has yet to be considered by the prime minister, who had called for "innovative approaches" on the issue.

In March, David Cameron launched the review by saying there was a need for an "urgent" increase in private investment to improve England's road network.

Fresh ideas were needed, he said, to finance road improvements at a time of tight government finances and set the Treasury and Department for Transport to work on a feasibility study.

Under the two-tier plan, part of a driver's Vehicle Excise Duty payments would go to private companies managing and investing in the road network.

Falling revenue

Cameras using number plate recognition technology would be used to catch motorway users who had not paid the higher rate.

Reforms to the duty - often referred to as road tax - follow concerns that increased fuel efficiency could lead to a fall in revenue from it as motorists switch to more environmentally-friendly cars which qualify for lower rates.

Forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility show that while tax receipts for Vehicle Excise Duty are expected to remain broadly flat at about £6bn a year over the next five years, they could fall as a percentage of GDP from 0.4% in 2010-11 to 0.1% by 2029-30.

Under the current system, cars fall into 13 payment bands depending on their level of carbon emissions, with more polluting vehicles taxed more heavily.

The duty is paid annually, but a higher rate is payable in the first 12 months of the vehicle's registration.

Cars with the lowest levels of carbon emissions, such as hybrid cars registered in or after March 2001, are exempt from paying the duty.

European regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions from new cars and improvements in technology are expected to lead to a higher proportion of cars qualifying for the lower bands of VED in the future.

The Daily Mail reported that other options being considered by the government include changes to the duty's payment bands or making the tax a one-off up-front charge on new vehicles, instead of charging annually.

However, linking how much motorists pay with how far they drive on motorways, or their use at peak times, has been ruled out, the newspaper said.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "The department and Treasury are currently carrying out a feasibility study to review new ownership and financing models for the strategic road network.

"This is looking at how best we can secure investment in the network to increase capacity and boost economic growth.

"The government has made clear it will not implement tolls on existing road capacity and has no plans to replace existing motoring taxes with pay-as-you-go road charging."

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Penguin joint venture deal agreed

29 October 2012 Last updated at 07:24 ET

Publisher Pearson says it has agreed a deal with German media group Bertelsmann to combine their Penguin and Random House businesses.

Under the terms of the deal, the two businesses will be run in a joint venture called Penguin Random House.

Bertelsmann will own 53% of the joint venture, while Pearson will own 47%.

The two firms said last week that they were discussing a deal. A report at the weekend also said News Corporation was planning a bid for Penguin.

The Sunday Times reported that News Corp - which owns publisher HarperCollins - was prepared to make a "substantial cash offer" for Penguin, expected to be about £1bn.

'Enhanced opportunities'

The tie-up between Penguin and Random House marks the first deal between the world's big six publishers. The others are Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster. It would bring together the publishers of the Fifty Shades series and Jamie Oliver's cookbooks.

When news of the talks emerged last week, industry observers said that such deals were inevitable as firms sought to adapt to the changing publishing landscape. They are being hit hard by the proliferation of ebooks and the closure of some traditional High Street book retailers.

Continue reading the main story

In the UK the market share will be around 27%, so they may have to divest themselves of some non-core interests"

End Quote Philip Jones Bookseller magazine

The rapid take-up of ebooks means publishers are trying to bolster their negotiating strength, most notably with Amazon.

Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino, who is leaving the firm at the end of the year, said: "Penguin is a successful, highly-respected and much-loved part of Pearson. This combination with Random House... will greatly enhance its fortunes and its opportunities.

"Together, the two publishers will be able to share a large part of their costs, to invest more for their author and reader constituencies and to be more adventurous in trying new models in this exciting, fast-moving world of digital books and digital readers."

John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin, will be chairman of the merged group, with Random House boss Markus Dohle becoming chief executive.

Based on recent results, combining the two firms will create a business with annual revenues of about £2.5bn and about one-quarter of both the UK and US book markets.

In 2011, Random House's revenues were 1.7bn euros (£1.5bn) with an operating profit of 185m euros. Meanwhile, Penguin recorded revenues of £1bn and a £111m operating profit.

London-based Penguin employs 5,500 people across the world, with almost 1,000 in the UK, and last year accounted for about 11% of the UK market. Random House has 5,300 global staff and accounted for almost 15% of the UK market last year.

Competition questions

Given the size of the combined group, the competition authorities may look closely at the tie-up, analysts said.

"In the UK the market share will be around 27%, so they may have to divest themselves of some non-core interests," said Philip Jones from the Bookseller magazine.

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Theresa Wise, independent media consultant: "You don't get as much money back for an electronic copy of a book sold as you would from a physical book"

However, he said given the dominance of Amazon in digital books, such a move would be contentious.

"Amazon has 90% of the ebook market - if [the competition authorities] allowed that to happen, how can they block a merger that gives Penguin Random House 27%?"

The joint venture is subject to regulatory approval, but the two firms hope the deal will be completed in the second half of 2013.

Analysts suggest it could be the first of many deals between publishers.

"We have already seen a bit of consolidation, for example [French group] Lagardere buying [UK publishers] Orion and Octopus, but it is likely to accelerate as publishers need all the buying power they can get," said media analyst Theresa Wise.

"Amazon is so big that [at the moment] they don't have much power."

In a trading update, also released on Monday, Pearson said overall sales had increased by 5% in the first nine months of the year, with "good growth" at the Financial Times Group and at its International Education division.

However, operating profits were down by 5%, largely due to the sale of FTSE boosting revenue in the same period a year earlier.

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BBC governor's Savile suspicions

29 October 2012 Last updated at 07:59 ET

A former BBC governor for Wales says he had suspicions about Jimmy Savile more than a decade ago.

Sir Roger Jones, who was also UK chairman of Children in Need, says he heard of rumours about Savile from Children in Need staff based in London.

He said he did not bring it to the attention of management because he did not have evidence Savile had abused children while employed by the BBC.

Police believe Savile may have abused as many as 300 people over 40 years.

Sir Roger's comments come on the day the investigation into the BBC's child protection and whistle-blowing policies begins.

He was a member of the board of governors between 1997 and 2002, and said he would have stepped down from his Children in Need role if Savile had become involved with the charity.

Continue reading the main story

We knew that the biggest thing to guard against was the paedophiles"

End Quote Sir Roger Jones Former BBC governor and chair of Children in Need

"I think we all recognised he was a pretty creepy sort of character," he said.

"When I was with Children in Need we took the decision that we didn't want him anywhere near the charity and we just stepped up our child protection policies which again would have put him at risk if he tried anything.

"So the way that we dealt with it was by stepping up our child protection policies."

But he said he was unable to take the matter any further.

"If you're going to go on the attack and make claims against him then you'd need evidence, hard evidence that simply wasn't there," he said.

"But if you're protecting yourself you can do that without evidence."

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Children in Need is the BBC's UK corporate charity, providing grants to projects in the UK which focus on young people who are disadvantaged, with fund-raising around an annual appeal.

Sir Roger said Children in Need needed to be particularly wary of paedophiles because of the consequences it would have had for the BBC.

'Protect the kids'

"We knew that the biggest thing to guard against was the paedophiles," he said.

"They were just like flies around the honey pot. Not just in the fundraising but also in the distribution of funds.

"I mean if we had given money to a paedophile group, the sky would have fallen in on the BBC. So we were very very careful, we were on red alert."

He said he did not regret how he had dealt with the Savile rumours because "things were properly covered, there were no incidents".

"We did everything we possibly could to protect the kids. That was what I felt to be important, that was my responsibility," he said.

But the former governor was critical of the way the BBC had responded to the furore surrounding Savile.

"I find the seeds of misfortune are deeply planted in the separation of the governors to the trust," he said.

"I base this on [BBC director general] George Entwistle reporting on the conversation with [BBC director of news] Helen Boaden who told him that Newsnight were conducting an investigation. He didn't ask the question 'why?'

"I find that extraordinary. It wouldn't have happened in my day because the guy would have been at a governors' meeting and he would have been asked by people like me 'why?'"

Sir Roger, a former chairman of the Welsh Development Agency, is currently pro chancellor and chair of council at Swansea University.

A BBC Trust spokesperson said: "The Trust shares the horror felt by the wider public about the appalling allegations of child abuse at the BBC and we are determined to get to the bottom of what happened."

Children in Need said it was looking into the comments made by Sir Roger.

"Child protection is of paramount importance to the charity and is implicit in everything that we do," said a spokesperson.

Police have launched a criminal investigation into Savile, a TV presenter and DJ, who died last year aged 84.

Allegations of sexual abuse have continued to mount since claims were first made public in an ITV documentary at the beginning of October.

Former pop star Gary Glitter has also been arrested and bailed on suspicion of sex offences by police investigating Savile abuse claims.

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Sandy closes in on US East Coast

29 October 2012 Last updated at 08:00 ET

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US implements hurricane shutdown

Hurricane Sandy is closing in on highly populated areas of the US east coast threatening storm surges and devastating flooding.

In New York City, thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes and evacuation shelters have been set up in 76 schools.

Public transport has been halted and the New York Stock Exchange closed.

Forecasters fear Sandy will become a super-storm when it collides with cold weather fronts from the west and north.

Sandy has already killed 60 people after sweeping through the Caribbean in the past week.

Campaigning for the US presidential election has also been disrupted, eight days ahead of election day.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This gives Barack Obama a chance to appear above politics and to look presidential - but any failure would be magnified, and problems tend to get blamed on the president"

End Quote

At 08:00 EDT (12:00 GMT), Sandy was churning about 310 miles (505km) south-east of New York City, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Forecasters said its maximum sustained winds were 85mph (140km/h) with higher gusts.

Hurricane force winds extended for 175 miles (280km) and tropical storm force winds for 485 miles (780km), the NHC added.

The vast hurricane, about 520 miles (835km) across, is moving slowly north-west and could linger over as many as 12 states for 24-36 hours, bringing up to 25cm of rain, 60cm of snow, extreme storm surges and power cuts.

The US Coast Guard said more than a dozen people on board a replica of HMS Bounty - built for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty - had abandoned ship off North Carolina in the face of the hurricane.

They had taken to two life-rafts and rescue aircraft were on their way to them, officials said.

The eye of the storm is expected to barrel across the coast of mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, the NHC said.

As it will hit the US East Coast just before Halloween, it is being dubbed a "Frankenstorm".

With emergencies declared in several east-coast states, many workers were staying at home on Monday.

New York City's subway, bus and train services were suspended from Sunday evening, and schools are shut.

Taxi driver Peter Franklin told the BBC that the city was "shut down".

"I feel like I am living in a science fiction movie," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland to Connecticut were ordered to leave low-lying coastal areas.

They included about 375,000 in lower Manhattan and other areas of New York City and another 30,000 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

President Barack Obama declared emergencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

He pulled out of a planned event with former President Bill Clinton on Monday and headed back to the White House to monitor emergency operations.

Visiting the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) in Washington on Sunday, he vowed the government would "respond big and respond fast" after Sandy had passed.

Authorities warned that high tides triggered by a full moon could create storm surges of up 11ft (3m), sending seawater surging through parts of lower Manhattan.

The United Nations headquarters in New York also shut down.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg described it as "a serious and dangerous storm."

Addressing those who had been advised to leave, he said: "If you don't evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you."

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie echoed his words, saying: "Don't be stupid. Get out."

Amtrak has suspended passenger train services across the north-east and air travel has been badly hit, with some 6,800 flights cancelled.

The Statue of Liberty was reopened on Sunday after a year of renovation, but only a group of army cadets got a tour before it was shut again until at least Wednesday.

Some 200 National Guardsmen will patrol Manhattan and 300 more will be deployed in Long Island.

Path of Hurricane Sandy

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Five million 'below living wage'

29 October 2012 Last updated at 08:14 ET

One in five workers in the UK is paid less than required for a basic standard of living, a report has said.

The proportion is much higher among waiters and bar staff, at up to 90% of workers, the research for accountants KPMG suggested.

It said that nearly five million people failed to command the living wage - a pay packet that enabled a basic standard of living.

The rate stands at £8.30 an hour in London and £7.20 in the rest of the UK.

This rate is voluntary, unlike the National Minimum Wage - the amount that employers must pay by law, which is set at £6.19 an hour for those aged 21 and over.

"Times are difficult for many people, but of course those on the lowest pay are suffering the most," said Marianne Fallon, head of corporate affairs at KPMG, which has itself signed up to pay the living wage.

"Paying a living wage makes a huge difference to the individuals and their families and yet does not actually cost an employer much more.

"Tackling in-work poverty is also vital if we are to enable more people to improve their life prospects and increase social mobility in this country."

'Tough choices'

The report suggested that Northern Ireland had the highest proportion of people earning below the living wage, at 24% of workers, followed by Wales at 23%.

Continue reading the main story

Mark Constantine, co-founder of cosmetics chain Lush, said he was encouraged to pay the living wage by staff at a Christmas party.

"I basically got cornered," he said. "Staff explained the situation to me."

He said that the advantage was that staff did not feel they needed to take on other jobs.

"They are not exhausted, and not worried about paying their rent."

He said that there were affordability issues for employers. Lush has introduced the living wage for staff in London and is "working towards" paying it in the rest of the UK.

The lowest levels were in London and the South East of England, both at 16%, it said. In terms of total numbers, London, the North West of England and the South East of England had the most.

When looking at sectors of employers, some 90% of bar staff and 85% of waiters and waitresses failed to get as much as the living wage.

Some 780,000 sales and retail assistants were not paid to living wage level, the highest total of any group of employees, the report suggested.

Frances O'Grady, the incoming general secretary of the TUC, said: "It is shocking that in this day and age, one in five workers is still earning less than is needed to maintain a decent standard of living.

"The living wage is not a luxury, and means that low-paid workers do not have to make tough choices over whether they can afford the everyday things that most of us take for granted, such as their fuel bill or a winter coat for their children.

"Many more employers could afford to adopt the living wage, and we hope that many more decide to pay it in the coming months. Now more than ever is the time for employers to put an end to poverty pay."

But Mike Cherry, policy chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "Every employer would want to be as reasonable as they possibly can, but in the current economic climate it is not going to be possible for those sectors that have traditionally been unable to pay the national minimum wage."

He said rent and rates were becoming more expensive, and so were energy costs, so the living wage was an aspiration but not affordable for some employers.

He added that the market would determine what was affordable.

A separate report by the CBI said that employers have needed to take a cautious approach to employment and pay given the economic climate, and this is set to continue.

The group said that there would be pay restraint over the next six months, but this was designed to protect employment.

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Concerns over care home ratings

27 October 2012 Last updated at 20:28 ET By Hannah Barnes Reporter, 5 live Investigates

Care homes with five-star ratings are receiving premium fees despite not meeting essential standards set out by the care regulator.

Local authorities pay higher fees to care homes awarded top ratings.

But critics say this is a "cheque book system" open to any home prepared to pay for a rating.

The Care Quality Commission advises people to visit homes and check their most recent CQC inspection report before making a decision on care.

Care regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) stopped issuing its own star ratings in 2010 and now some homes pay independent ratings companies and consultants to assess them instead.

Gwenda Dunn was surprised to find that her aunt's care home had been awarded five stars by such a company.

"This is not a complaint against the home - it's a complaint as to how the home could be given five stars when it patently was not," she told the BBC's 5 live Investigates.

5 star failures

Mrs Dunn says her aunt's room was often cold and calls from her aunt for a commode during the night were sometimes ignored by staff.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

People who aren't in the know would take it as face value, not recognising the reality"

End Quote Gwenda Dunn Niece of care home resident

Also, her aunt was frequently disturbed by another patient with dementia who often entered her room uninvited.

"I was there when the inspection was done. I spoke to the inspector and raised a fair amount of issues and then we found out within a week that the home had got five stars again," says Mrs Dunn.

"People who aren't in the know would take it as face value, not recognising the reality."

Continue reading the main story

Find out more

Listen to the full report on 5 live Investigates on BBC 5 live on Sunday, 28 October at 21:00 GMT or download the programme podcast.

The home was rated by David Allen, an independent consultant who trades under Prestige Quality Ratings (PQR).

Mr Allen says the issues raised with him lacked substance and were misplaced. He also says other people at the home spoke very highly of the care provided and he saw no reason to downgrade the home.

PQR is one of three independent ratings companies recognised by Sefton Council. The others are RDB Star Rating Limited and Assured Care.

With the top five-star rating attached, families might believe a home is providing an outstanding level of care.

But the BBC has found that out of 80 homes given a four or five-star rating in the Sefton area, 14 are failing to meet one or more of the essential standards set out by the CQC.

This includes standards of staffing, standards of treating people with respect and standards of caring for people safely and protecting them from harm.

All of the homes had been rated by either RDB Star Rating, Assured Care or PQR.

The CQC is taking action against two of the highly-rated homes, demanding immediate improvements be made - although it is not known which company provided their rating.

All three ratings companies have defended their awards system.

"I always take account of what the CQC have to say… but the CQC doesn't have to be right every time," says Frank Watts of Assured Care.

David Allen of PQR insists that his company's ratings are "accurate reflections of the quality of the care provided at care homes at the time of the assessment".

RDB Star Rating told the BBC its assessments were "comprehensive and reliable".

Higher fees for homes

Sefton Council pays a quality premium to homes given a high rating by the companies - a residential or nursing home with five stars receives an additional £40 per week on top of the basic fee paid for each person in its care.

A spokesman for Sefton Council said: "All the companies providing quality ratings use assessment criteria linked to outcomes in care home provision.

"We work closely with the CQC to ensure quality standards are closely monitored. If either party feel standards have reduced, through their own monitoring activity or inspections, we will decline or even suspend a particular rating and work with CQC in relation to this."

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

We maintain it is the responsibility of CQC as the regulator to assess the quality of care home"

End Quote Nadra Ahmed National Care Association

Sefton council is not the only one to pay a quality premium to homes awarded a four or five-star rating.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council says that since it introduced the RDB rating scheme in 2001, standards of care homes across the borough have improved.

But the BBC has learned that a quarter of its highly rated homes are failing to meet all the essential standards set out by the CQC.

"The council does feel that a new quality assessment tool would help to continue the drive to improve the quality of provision and therefore the RDB scheme will cease to be used at the end of this financial year," a council spokesperson said.

While the old Care Quality Commission rating system did have problems, critics say it was at least a system which was nationally recognised, independent, and easy for the public to understand.

"We maintain it is the responsibility of CQC as the regulator to assess the quality of care homes," says Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association which represents care homes.

"When the star rating system was scrapped by the CQC they consulted on the introduction of a system whereby assessments would be carried out by organisations independent of the CQC, which would be selected through a tendering process.

"The process was voluntary, so providers would pay to be assessed. The National Care Association felt strongly that this would be a cheque book rating system which enabled those who could afford it, to purchase a rating."

Bupa, the UK's second-largest care home group, is also critical of the CQC for abolishing its rating system:

"We would like to see them [star ratings] back so people can identify excellent care homes," said a company spokesperson.

"Other organisations, such as local councils and independent companies, are creating their own systems - but this could be confusing because there is no consistency."

The CQC warns people not to rely on ratings from outside companies when choosing a home.

"We do not endorse any external ratings systems," CQC operations director Amanda Sherlock told the BBC.

"We would recommend people look at a range of information including our website to get the latest reports into care homes, nursing homes, hospitals and other care providers."

Listen to the full report on 5 live Investigates on Sunday, 28 October at 21:00 GMT on BBC 5 live.

Listen again via the 5 live website or by downloading the 5 live Investigates podcast.

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