Disney buys firm behind Star Wars

30 October 2012 Last updated at 20:01 ET

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George Lucas signs away his Star Wars empire to Disney's Robert Iger

Disney is buying Lucasfilm, the company behind the Star Wars films, from its chairman and founder George Lucas for $4.05bn (£2.5bn).

Mr Lucas said: "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of film-makers."

In a statement announcing the purchase, Disney said it planned to release a new Star Wars film, episode seven, in 2015.

That will be followed by episodes eight and nine and then one new movie every two or three years, the company said.

The last Star Wars film was 2005's Revenge of the Sith, and Disney said it believed there was "substantial pent-up demand".

Disney will pay about half in cash and half in stock, issuing 40 million Disney shares in the transaction.

The deal follows Disney's acquisitions of Pixar studios for $7.4bn in 2006 and Marvel comics for $4.2bn in 2009.

"Our valuation of Lucasfilm is roughly comparable to the value we placed on Marvel when we announced that acquisition in 2009," Disney said, adding that the valuation was almost entirely driven by the Star Wars franchise.

Transition

George Lucas launched Lucasfilm in 1971 and the first Star Wars film was released in 1977.

Continue reading the main story

The news that Disney is going to reboot Star Wars was a lot more exciting to fans than just 'there's gonna be another Star Wars'"

End Quote Josh Dickey Variety magazine

"For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," Mr Lucas said.

"I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime."

Mr Lucas will continue as a creative consultant.

Kathleen Kennedy, currently co-chairman of Lucasfilm, will become president of the firm and will be the executive producer on the new Star Wars films.

When the later Star Wars films were released in the 1990s and 2000s, although they did well at the box office, they were generally not well-received by fans.

But Josh Dickey, film editor at Variety magazine in LA, said that Disney was a "great fit" to update Star Wars.

"They're so good at branding and brands. They're so good at working with existing intellectual property and making it resonate with fans and marketing it very well," he told BBC World Service radio.

"They're not as good at creating original content, except for their Pixar division.

"I think if you bring together the minds from Pixar [and] the minds from Disney, the news that Disney is going to reboot Star Wars was a lot more exciting to fans than just 'there's gonna be another Star Wars'."

Surprise

Lucasfilm is also the production company behind the Indiana Jones franchise, and fantasy films Willow and Labyrinth.

Michael Corty, analyst at Morning Star, said Disney's deal was clearly part of a pattern in buying new franchises.

"Pixar was the first big one, then Marvel, and now this one here," he said.

"Because Lucas is private, I would assume most investors would be surprised."

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Bananas could be future staple

30 October 2012 Last updated at 20:35 ET By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC World Service

Climate change could lead to bananas becoming a critical food source for millions of people, a new report says.

Researchers from the CGIAR agricultural partnership say the fruit might replace potatoes in some developing countries.

Cassava and the little known cowpea plant could play increasingly important roles in agriculture as temperatures rise.

People will have to adapt to new and varied menus as traditional crops struggle say the authors.

Continue reading the main story

When the farmers see the problems they are having with production, they really are willing to shift"

End Quote Bruce Campbell CCAFS

Responding to a request from the United Nations' committee on world food security, a group of experts in the field looked at the projected effects of climate change on 22 of the world's most important agricultural commodities.

Blooming bananas

They predict that the world's three biggest crops in terms of calories provided - maize, rice and wheat - will decrease in many developing countries.

They suggest that the potato, which grows best in cooler climates, could also suffer as temperatures increase and weather becomes more volatile.

The authors argue that these changes "could provide an opening for cultivating certain varieties of bananas" at higher altitudes, even in those places that currently grow potatoes.

Dr Philip Thornton is one of those behind the report. He told BBC News that while bananas also have limiting factors, they may be a good substitute for potatoes in certain locations

"It's not necessarily a silver bullet but there may be places where as temperatures increase, bananas might be one option that small holders could start to look at."

The report describes wheat as the world's most important plant derived protein and calories source.

But according to this research, wheat will face a difficult future in the developing world where higher prices for cotton, maize and soybeans have pushed wheat to marginal land, making it more vulnerable to stresses induced by climate change.

One substitute, especially in South Asia, could be cassava which can tolerate a range of climate stresses.

But how easy will it be to get people to adjust to new crops and new diets?

Bruce Campbell is program director of the climate change, agriculture and food security research group (CCAFS) which co-ordinates work among leading institutions around the world. He told BBC News that the types of changes that will happen in the future have already happened in the past.

"Two decades ago there was almost no rice consumption in certain areas of Africa, now there is. People have changed because of the pricing, it's easier to get, it's easier to cook. I think those sort of shifts do occur and I think they will in future."

Protein under pressure

One of the big concerns among researchers is how to tackle the need for protein in the diet. Soybeans are one of the most common sources but are very susceptible to temperature changes.

The scientists say that the cowpea, which is known in sub-Saharan Africa as the "poor man's meat" is drought tolerant and prefers warmer weather and could be a reasonable alternative to soya. The vines of the cowpea can also be used as a feed for livestock.

In some countries, including Nigeria and Niger, farmers have already moved away from cotton production to growing cowpeas.

There are also likely to be developments animal protein sources says the report including a shift from to smaller livestock.

This is an example of something that's happening already," says Bruce Campbell. "There's been quite a shift from cattle keeping to goat keeping in southern Africa in face of droughts - when the farmers see the problems they are having with production, they really are willing to shift.

"Change is really possible. It's not just a crazy notion."

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Cameron faces Tory EU rebellion

31 October 2012 Last updated at 01:28 ET

David Cameron is facing a rebellion in the House of Commons over his policy on the European Union's long-term budget.

The prime minister has told his European counterparts the budget should be frozen in real terms.

But dozens of Tory MPs have signed an amendment backing a cut, and Labour also say it should be reduced.

MPs are due to debate the EU's 2014-2020 budget proposals in what is being seen as a test of Mr Cameron's authority on Europe.

Downing Street said the final budget deal had to be "acceptable" to the UK.

Negotiations over the EU's next long-term budget, called the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), are taking shape amid calls from the UK and other nations for restraint at a time when many countries are pushing through unpopular domestic austerity measures.

'Inappropriate'

The European Commission has proposed a £826bn (1.025 trillion euros) budget ceiling for the period up to 2020, equivalent to 1.03% of EU gross national income (GNI). That is a 5% rise compared with the 2007-2013 budget.

Agreement must be reached by all member states and the European Parliament on a new deal.

Mr Cameron has said any above-inflation increase in the budget would be inappropriate at a time when member nations are having to make tough spending decisions at home.

He has said he would be prepared to veto any unacceptable proposal - budget decisions require the agreement of all 27 member states.

But some Conservative MPs want the UK to go further and demand a reduction in real-terms spending in future negotiations, starting at next month's EU council meeting.

The Tory rebels said they believed 40 to 60 of their colleagues would back the amendment.

MPs who have already signed the rebel amendment include Zac Goldsmith, Bill Cash, John Redwood and Bernard Jenkin.

But, writing for the Conservativehome website, fellow Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom said the amendment was "wrong for Britain" as it did not focus on where money would actually be spent on a year-by-year basis.

"It won't produce the reform that British voters are looking for, and it could ironically result in higher cost to Britain's taxpayers, while damaging our scope for negotiations on the direction of expenditure," she said.

Budget 'increases'

Labour have indicated they could back Conservative rebels on Wednesday and vote for a budget cut, increasing the pressure on the government's Commons majority.

In 2011, the UK's net contribution to the EU budget was 7.25bn euros (£5.85bn; $9.4bn), after the UK's rebate of 3.56bn euros from the EU, according to data from the European Commission.

Spending on agriculture and support for Europe's poorer regions - known as cohesion funds - account for about 80% of total proposed EU spending between 2014 and 2020.

MEPs want spending levels for those major budget items to be at least maintained at the 2007-2013 level but also want "significant increases" in budgets for competitiveness, small business, sustainable infrastructure and research and innovation.

EU leaders will hold a budget summit on 22 and 23 November. If no agreement is reached by the end of next year, the 2013 budget will be rolled into 2014 with a 2% rise to account for inflation.

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Eastern US gets back on its feet

31 October 2012 Last updated at 04:23 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 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.

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.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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Heseltine issues growth challenge

31 October 2012 Last updated at 04:55 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 UK had experienced in past decades.

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

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

Lord Heseltine, a former head of the Department of Trade and Industry in the 1980s, said the Government should allocate growth funds to new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) over the next few years.

He said LEPs' responsibilities should include wealth creation as well as focus on social provision.

The current climate was "the worst economic crisis of modern times", he said, arguing that local business and political leaders are best placed to invest the money.

The main points of the report, called No Stone Unturned: In pursuit of growth, include:

• creating a national growth council, chaired by the Prime Minister, with a cross-government focus on driving growth
• a major devolution of funding
• making a smaller and more skilled government machine
• enhancing the standing of Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) to bring together private and public sectors
• more government leadership for major infrastructure projects
• a role for employers in education

'Pulsing'

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

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

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".

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. London did not make the UK. London has acquired too much power. Cities like Manchester and Birmingham made the UK. We need to mobilise the skills of provincial England," he told Radio 4's Today programme. "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'

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

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

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Lord Heseltine: "It is a shift and in a sense it is a criticism of Whitehall"

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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Barclays in new regulatory probes

31 October 2012 Last updated at 05:01 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.

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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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.

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"
• Director of Public Prosecutions review into decisions not to prosecute Savile in 2009

'Heads will roll'

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

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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UK's first 4G service launches

29 October 2012 Last updated at 20:11 ET

The UK's first 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.

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Rory Cellan-Jones tests out 4G at the EE announcement in September

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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Royal Mail to create 1,000 jobs

29 October 2012 Last updated at 20:14 ET

Royal Mail is to create 1,000 jobs in the UK over the next four years as part of a £75m investment programme for its parcels business.

A new parcel processing centre will open in Chorley in autumn 2013.

Two new depots will open in Cornwall and Hampshire while nine existing depots will be expanded or moved to larger sites over the next four years.

But the Communication Workers Union said Royal Mail's workforce would not increase, due to job losses elsewhere.

Royal Mail has cut about 65,000 jobs since 2002 as it attempts to modernise.

'Profitable growth'

The latest move is part of Royal Mail's strategy to expand its parcels business in the UK and overseas.

In the last financial year, it accounted for 48% of total revenues, excluding the Post Office.

The UK express parcels market is currently worth £5.8bn a year or 1.1 billion items.

"Our strategy is to convert the rise in parcel volumes into profitable growth. That means becoming a much more customer-focused company being run on commercial lines and investing in new, vital technology," said Moya Greene, Royal Mail chief executive.

Employment Minister Mark Hoban said: "It is great news that 1,000 new jobs will be created across the country as a result of this investment. We've now got a record number of people in employment and these jobs will provide welcome opportunities for people who are looking for work."

Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "In truth, this project has already been several months in the making and CWU is involved in talks about how and where these jobs will be created, including the possibility of people transferring from other parts of the group where jobs are being lost.

"These jobs will go some way to easing the impact of jobs lost elsewhere in the company as huge changes are brought in to address the altering profile of mail. Working with the CWU, Royal Mail - unlike many private mail companies - has created good quality, and secure jobs with decent pay, terms and conditions."

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Police election ballot 'shambles'

29 October 2012 Last updated at 22:48 ET

Preparations for next month's police and crime elections in Wales have been called a "shambles" after it emerged an estimated £350,000 worth of ballots papers are likely to be shredded.

Peers approved plans to print bilingual ballots in both Welsh and English on Monday, 48 hours before a deadline for sending out postal ballots in Wales.

Ballots written only in English will now have to be thrown away.

Labour said thousands of pounds had been spent on "creating waste paper".

But ministers said it was not unprecedented for similar legislative orders to be approved shortly before elections and the same had happened in the run-up to the 2010 general election.

Voters will go to the polls across England and Wales on 15 November to elect police and crime commissioners to replace existing appointed police authorities.

Ministers said they were committed to ensuring "full parity" between English and Welsh languages on ballot papers in Wales.

But Labour and Plaid Cymru said it was ridiculous that the matter had come to Parliament for approval so late in the day and that ministers had initially intended to seek their approval in May.

"With the passing of this order, allowing the use of bilingual ballot papers, the English ballot papers already printed will be thrown away - £350,000 spent on creating waste paper," said Labour peer Lord Touhig.

Lib Dem peer Lord Roberts said it was "a shambolic way" to undertake any sort of election. "The ballot papers are supposed to be going out within the next 48 hours," he said. "It is beyond my comprehension."

For the government, Lord Taylor said the cost of the ballot papers would be met from the £75m budget for the elections.

Earlier, at a meeting of the Third Delegated Legislation Committee, policing minister Damian Green said that 2.3 million English language only ballot papers would be "dealt with securely".

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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

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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Swiss bank UBS cuts 10,000 jobs

30 October 2012 Last updated at 03:18 ET

Swiss bank UBS has announced it is cutting 10,000 jobs worldwide as it slims down its investment banking activities.

The jobs will go over the next three years, and amount to 16% of its current workforce of 64,000.

UBS lost 39bn Swiss francs (£26bn; $42bn) during the financial crisis and had to be bailed out by the Swiss authorities.

The cuts are aimed at saving 3.4bn Swiss francs.

UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti said: "This decision has been a difficult one, particularly in a business such as ours that is all about its people.

"Some reductions will result from natural attrition and we will take whatever measures we can to mitigate the overall effect."

Risk averse

Zurich-based UBS will focus on its private bank and a smaller investment bank, ditching much of the riskier trading business which was responsible for the bulk of its losses.

In a joint letter to shareholders, chairman Axel Weber and chief executive Mr Ermotti said: "We will no longer operate to any significant extent in businesses where risk-adjusted returns cannot meet their cost of capital."

UBS announced its restructuring plans as it reported its results for the third quarter of the year.

The bank reported a net loss of 2.17bn Swiss francs for the July to September period, compared with a profit of 1.02bn Swiss francs a year earlier. The loss was mainly due to an impairment charge of 3.1bn Swiss francs that UBS is taking to cover the cost of the changes to its investment bank.

UBS was one of the banks hardest hit during the global financial crisis.

Then last year, it lost a further 2bn Swiss francs allegedly due to the activities of Kweku Adoboli.

This prompted the-then chief executive Oswald Gruebel to resign. Mr Adoboli is currently on trial for fraud and false accounting. He denies the charges.

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Hitachi buys UK nuclear project

30 October 2012 Last updated at 05:08 ET

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

Hitachi is to buy Horizon Nuclear Power, which intends 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.

Hitachi intends to build 6 gigawatts of nuclear capacity, with the first plant becoming operational 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.

The Horizon venture, based at Brockworth, Gloucester, currently employs around 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.

Dependency

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 off offline. A so-called 'energy gap' would likely 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.

'Milestone'

Hitachi proposed reactors will use its advanced boiling water technology, which is already in used in four reactors in 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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Storm Sandy batters US East Coast

30 October 2012 Last updated at 05:15 ET

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The BBC's Ben Thompson: New York plunged into darkness as flooding hits power sources

"Super-storm" Sandy has swept into the US East Coast with hurricane-force winds, bringing flooding, cutting power and claiming at least 13 lives.

Sandy caused a record surge of seawater in New York City, flooding subway and road tunnels and plunging much of Lower Manhattan into darkness.

An estimated 50 million people could be affected, with up to one million ordered to evacuate homes.

At least five million people across several states are without electricity.

The full extent of the damage may not be known until daybreak.

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

Public transport has been halted in several eastern US cities, and thousands of flights have been grounded.

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

In other developments:

• More than 200 patients were evacuated from New York University's Tisch Hospital after its power went out and a backup generator failed.
• Fire has destroyed about 50 homes in the New York City borough of Queens.
• 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.

Both President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney cancelled campaign appearances little more than a week before the presidential election.

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

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

'Lower Manhattan covered'

Sandy threatens an 800-mile (1,290-km) swathe of the US, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes in the Mid-West.

It lost its hurricane status late on Monday as it neared the coast and collided with winter weather systems, but was still packing hurricane-strength winds.

Continue reading the main story

The greatest storms on Earth

• A tropical storm is classified as a hurricane when wind speeds reach 74mph
• 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

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.

In New York, some 375,000 residents were ordered out of Lower Manhattan and other areas, as the Hudson and East rivers began overflowing.

A record storm surge of 13.7ft (4.15m) swept into Lower Manhattan, flooding seven major subway tunnels.

"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 Tuesday.

"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 some 500,000 homes in Manhattan were without power.

There were reports of an explosion at a Con Edison power station on the east side of Manhattan.

Vice president John Miksad said it was caused by flooding or flying debris, and he added it could take a week to restore power completely.

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

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Nasa released time-lapse animation of the hurricane from Space - courtesy Nasa GOES Project

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

The UN headquarters in New York is also to stay closed.

Officials reported at least 12 deaths in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut - several due to fallen trees. AP news agency put the death toll at 16.

In addition to the US deaths, a Canadian woman was reported killed by flying debris in Toronto.

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

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

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).

Path of Hurricane Sandy

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Five million 'below Living Wage'

28 October 2012 Last updated at 20:22 ET

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

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

It claimed 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%.

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."

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Child benefit letters to go out

29 October 2012 Last updated at 00:10 ET

One million households will receive letters from the UK tax authority this week about losing child benefit.

Households where at least one person earns more than £50,000 will have the benefit effectively reduced or stopped.

Officials say it means as many as 500,000 parents may have to complete self-assessment tax forms. A flood of calls for advice is expected.

Ministers say the changes, which take effect on 7 January, are needed so the better-off help deficit reduction.

Letters will be sent to people who earn more than £50,000 who live at an address where child benefit is received to explain how their family is likely to be affected.

Child benefit currently stands at £20.30 a week for the first child and £13.40 for each child after that.

Under the new approach, families where one parent earns between £50,000 and £60,000 will have their benefit reduced on a sliding scale.

The change will cost families with three children and at least one parent earning more than £60,000 about £2,450 a year - the equivalent of a £4,000 pay cut.

Continue reading the main story

Child benefit 'households'

• Married couples living together
• Civil partners living together
• A man and a woman who are not married to each other but who live together
• A man living with a man or a woman living with a woman who are living together as if they were civil partners.

And it will produce anomalies, such as in the case of two-earner households where both parents earn £49,000.

They will keep all their benefit, while others who have one parent on £60,000 and the other staying at home will lose all of theirs.

Hundreds of thousands of parents will have to complete a self-assessment tax form.

Accountants say they expect calls from people confused by the change, or looking to avoid losing benefit by legal means, for example, making additional pension contributions.

Continue reading the main story

Child benefit facts

• Child benefit is a tax-free payment that is aimed at helping parents cope with the cost of bringing up children
• One parent can claim £20.30 a week for an eldest or only child and £13.40 a week for each of their other children
• The payments apply to all children aged under 16 and in some cases until they are 20 years old
• The system is administered by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which pays out to nearly 7.9 million families, with 13.7 million children

Meanwhile, senior Conservatives have released poll results that suggest 82% of the public support plans to cut child benefit for high-earning families, while 13% oppose it.

Populus surveyed 2,066 British adults between 24 and 26 October.

A Treasury spokesman, responding to the poll, said: "In a period when the government is having to reduce welfare spending, it is very difficult to justify continuing to pay for the child benefit of the wealthiest 15% of families in society.

"The unprecedented scale of the deficit has meant that the government has had to make tough choices to reduce public spending; but we have always been clear that those with the broadest shoulders should carry the greatest burden."

The spokesman added that 85% of all families with children would be unaffected by the changes and would continue to receive child benefit in full.

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Fresh fears for care home victims

29 October 2012 Last updated at 04:11 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 "lessons must be learnt from Winterbourne View".

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 forty 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 that 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

Care and support minister Norman Lamb said: "Lessons must be learnt from Winterbourne View and any abuse must be investigated and perpetrators punished."

Mr Lamb said the government wanted to reinforce "to local areas that they must take responsibility and eradicate mistreatment of any kind".

"I have been clear that those who lead organisations where people suffer abuse or neglect should be held accountable.

"In most cases people do not need to be in long stay institutions and we want the role of these organisations to be looked at closely."

He added: "We will very soon be publishing our final recommendations for what more can be done to prevent abuse and to protect those in vulnerable situations."

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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Penguin joint venture deal agreed

29 October 2012 Last updated at 04:22 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.

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.

The rapid take-up of ebooks means publishers are now attempting 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."

Based on recent results, combining the two firms will create a business with annual revenues of about £2.5bn.

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.

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

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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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BBC probe into Savile era culture

29 October 2012 Last updated at 05:12 ET

An inquiry is to begin into the culture and practices at the BBC in the era of alleged sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile.

Former appeal court judge Dame Janet Smith will also consider whether the BBC child protection and whistle-blowing policies are fit for purpose.

Police are investigating allegations TV star Savile sexually abused some 300 young people over a 40-year period.

As part of the police inquiry, ex-pop star Gary Glitter has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of sex offences.

Glitter, 68, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was arrested at home and questioned at a London police station on Sunday before being released on bail until mid-December.

The former glam rock star is the first person to be arrested in connection with the Metropolitan Police's Savile abuse investigation.

Separately, former BBC governor for Wales Sir Roger Jones has said he had suspicions about Savile more than a decade ago.

Sir Roger, who is also a former UK chairman of Children in Need, said he heard of rumours about Savile from staff working for the charity in London.

Child protection

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

"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."

But Sir Roger 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.

Scotland Yard says it is following about 400 lines of inquiry as part of the investigation into claims that Savile, who died last year aged 84, abused hundreds of young girls and some boys.

The BBC also set up inquiries in the wake of the scandal.

Dame Janet previously led the Shipman Inquiry, which examined the activities of serial killer GP Dr Harold Shipman.

She will gather evidence from people who have made allegations about being sexually abused by Savile on BBC premises or while on location for the corporation, and from those who claim they raised concerns either formally or informally about his activities.

She will also look at "the extent to which BBC personnel were or ought to have been aware of unlawful and/or inappropriate conduct by Jimmy Savile on BBC premises or on location for the BBC".

'Reflected glory'

In a separate inquiry former Sky News head Nick Pollard is already examining whether there were BBC management failings over a Newsnight investigation into Savile abuse claims that was shelved last year.

Continue reading the main story

Whether they were young teenage girls or old age pensioners, people always wanted to talk to him"

End Quote Roger Foster Jimmy Savile's nephew

Another review will examine sexual harassment policies at the BBC.

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

Savile's nephew Roger Foster has told the BBC that he did not believe the allegations at first, but as so many have surfaced he is now "convinced that the vast majority of them are true".

He said he could not understand how his uncle, who did so much charity work, "could have such a dark side to him".

In a Radio 5 live interview, Mr Foster explained why he had never had any suspicions about his uncle's private life.

"Whether they were young teenage girls or old-age pensioners, people always wanted to talk to him - so I never had any reason at all to doubt that there was anything other than the fact that people just wanted a little bit of that reflected glory because they were chatting to this famous person."

Mr Foster said he did not believe his uncle had "hoodwinked" his friends and colleagues - he had instead kept his public and his private life separate.

"I don't think he hoodwinked them because hoodwinking suggests that you've gone and done it deliberately and with some kind of ulterior motive in mind.

"I really don't think that's the right word, but his private life he kept to himself."

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US states begin storm shutdown

29 October 2012 Last updated at 05:16 ET

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US implements hurricane shutdown

Barack Obama has warned Americans to take Hurricane Sandy seriously as authorities started shutting down the eastern seaboard ahead of its arrival.

Several states have declared emergencies, with tens of millions of people affected as schools are closed and transport services suspended.

Experts fear Sandy may become a super-storm when it makes landfall later.

Some election rallies have been called off, with Mr Obama warning affected citizens to take precautions.

International travel has been badly affected. Air France, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic grounded Monday's transatlantic flights to and from East Coast cities, including New York, Baltimore, Newark, Washington DC, Boston and Philadelphia.

Sandy has already killed 60 people as it swept through the Caribbean during the past week.

At 05:00 EDT (09:00 GMT), the storm was swirling about 385 miles (615km) south-east of New York City, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Worryingly, forecasters said its maximum sustained winds had increased to 85mph (140km/h) from 75mph recorded hours earlier.

Hurricane Sandy, dubbed "Frankenstorm", is expected to bring a "life-threatening" surge flood to the mid-Atlantic coast, including Long Island Sound and New York Harbour.

The winds are expected to strengthen when Sandy makes landfall anywhere between Virginia and southern New England on Monday.

It is expected to collide with a wintry storm from the west and a cold front from the north.

Sandy is some 520 miles (835km) across. It is also very slow, moving north-east at just 15mph, 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.

States of emergency have been declared in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington DC and parts of North Carolina.

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

The two presidential election contenders have modified their campaign engagements, with Mitt Romney pulling out of an event in Virginia and Mr Obama cancelling rallies in Virginia and Colorado.

The president has pulled out of a Monday event in Ohio - considered a key swing state - in order to return to Washington to monitor the storm - although he is still set to attend a rally with former President Bill Clinton in Florida earlier in the day.

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

Liberty delayed

Amtrak has started suspending passenger train services across the north-eastern US and air travel has been badly hit, with some 6,800 flights cancelled.

New York City's subway, bus and train services were suspended from 19:00 (23:00 GMT) on Sunday, and schools will be shut on Monday.

With predicted storm surges of up to 11ft, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered 375,000 people in the city's vulnerable low-lying areas to leave their homes.

Evacuation shelters have been set up at 76 public schools.

"If you don't evacuate you're not just putting your own life in danger, you are also endangering lives of our first responders who would have to rescue you," he said.

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BBC Weather: Hurricane Sandy forecast

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.

The New York Stock Exchange will be fully closed on Monday, its operator said, and possibly on Tuesday as well.

It had earlier said electronic transactions would be possible but on Sunday announced it was closing fully because "the dangerous conditions developing as a result of Hurricane Sandy will make it extremely difficult to ensure the safety of our people and communities".

Similar precautions were taken last year as Hurricane Irene approached the East Coast. It killed more than 40 people from North Carolina to Maine and caused an estimated $10bn (£6bn) worth of damage.

'Get out'

Fema has warned that the threat extends well inland, and has issued safety tips on how to cope with the hurricane.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Romney's enforced absence from the Atlantic coast has been turned by his team to his best advantage"

End Quote

Blustery winds were already being felt in New York on Sunday night and the anxiety felt on the streets indicated that residents were taking city orders seriously and with haste, says the BBC's Matt Danzico in Manhattan.

In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie confirmed a swathe of mandatory evacuations, told civil servants to stay at home on Monday and said the casinos in Atlantic City had closed.

"The weather will turn ugly [on Monday] and we want everyone off the roads," he said.

"Don't be stupid. Get out. Don't try to be a hero and act as if nothing is going on here."

New Jersey authorities expect very significant flooding, with three increasingly high tides on Monday, possibly creating surges of 13-14ft - the worst since 1903, authorities said.

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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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