News round-up: Health warnings on drinks; BBC broadcaster.

BBC broadcaster ‘admits’ killing his terminally-ill partner

Police are to investigate claims made by a BBC broadcaster that he killed a former partner who was terminally ill.

Ray Gosling told the East Midlands Inside Out programme broadcast last night that he had agreed to smother his lover, who was living with Aids, if his suffering became too intense.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Drinks companies could be forced to put health warnings on alcohol

Drinks companies may be forced to put health warnings on alcohol after it was revealed today that the industry is widely shunning a voluntary code on labelling.

Just 15% of drinks carry the five messages agreed under a protocol between the industry and the government three years ago, which said most labels would comply by 2008, according a report by the Department of Health.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Men ‘risking health by avoiding small condoms’

A study on 436 men found 45% had used ill fitting condoms in the previous three months with a female partner.

These men were more than twice as likely to report the condom breaking or slipping and contributing to difficulty in reaching orgasm for both sexes.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Teacher held over ‘flings with three girls’.

A TEACHER arrested on suspicion of having flings with THREE young girls was charged with 21 offences last night.

Gym master Chris Drake, 28, was due to appear in court today to face a string of allegations including sexual activity with a child.

Read more on this story in The Sun

Unions warn against pay freezes

Freezing workers’ pay will reduce consumer demand and could threaten the UK’s “fragile” recovery from recession, union leaders warned today.

The TUC said reports of widespread wage freezes, falling pay in private firms and soaring public sector earnings had been “greatly exaggerated”.  

Read more on this story in The Independent

Tories hope public sector co-ops will pay dividends

Teachers, health workers and Jobcentre staff could set themselves up as co-operatives in a Conservative plan to transform the public sector.

David Cameron said public servants could become their own boss, pocketing cash if they could cut costs without lowering the quality of services.

Read more on this story in The Times

Government should pay for social care, LGA says

The full cost of providing free personal care at home should be met by the government, not councils, the Local Government Association said on Monday.

The call came as the LGA renewed its assault on the government’s plan to provide free care to those most in need, again attacking the government’s costings, and calling for a delay in the implementation date if ministers insist on going ahead.

Read more on this story in the Financial Times

Immigration pushes councils to limit

Cash-strapped English towns at the centre of the past decade’s immigration boom say they are struggling to cope as a continued influx belies ministerial claims that numbers have peaked.

Council leaders in Slough, Peterborough and Boston – authorities that have seen some of the highest levels of immigration – challenged government claims that people from eastern Europe stayed only for a short time before returning home.

Read more on this story in the Financial Times

Women to retire on £234 a week as pensions gap grows

Women who retire this year will have an average pension of £234 a week – less than two-thirds that of their male counterparts, a survey found.

The research suggests that retirement incomes for women are falling faster than those of men as the squeeze on pensions begins to bite.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail

Rape? It’s the fault of the victims, say 50% of women

Half of women think that rape victims are to blame for their attack, a study has shown.

More than one in ten said that dancing provocatively, flirting or wearing revealing clothing made them partly responsible.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail

Ministers uneasy with criticism of health care, says Baroness Young

The task of ensuring decent standards in hospitals is being undermined by ministerial sensitivity to criticism, England’s former health regulator has warned.

Baroness Young of Old Scone said that her brand of “rugged independence” had collided with the Department of Health’s desire for someone “much more emollient” to scrutinise the NHS and social care system.

Read more on this story in The Times

Arrest over toddler death

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a three-year-old girl was found dead at a house.

The toddler’s body was found by cops at a property in Birmingham on Saturday afternoon.

Read more on this story in The Sun

NHS hospitals ignore patient safety orders

Hospitals were accused tonight of putting patients’ lives at unnecessary risk after research revealed they were failing to comply with NHS orders designed to prevent deaths from mistakes involving drugs, surgery or equipment.

Information released by the ­Department of Health after a freedom of information request showed that hospitals were not complying with safety alerts issued by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA).

Read more on this story in The Guardian

 

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