BBC THE HEADLINES AT 1800 ON FRIDAY 15TH OF FEBRUARY , 2008

BBC News at six o'clock. This is Neil Sleat. Good evening.

The coroner at the inquest on an army captain killed in Aghanistan has
made a scathing attack on the government -- saying the soldiers hadn't
been defeated by their enemy, but by a lack of basic equipment.

The Competition Commission says there should be a new code of practice
to protect suppliers to the big supermarkets -- and an ombudsman to handle
disputes.

The cost of funding final salary pension schemes may have to rise
sharply -- because companies are under-estimating how long workers are
live after they retire.

Millions of airline passengers have been told they can claim
compensation from BA and Virgin.

And: pleased to meet you -- how a hand-shake saved a stranger's life.

A coroner has made a strong attack on the Ministry of Defence -- saying
it was unforgivable and inexcusable to send soldiers to fight in
Afghanistan without basic equipment. An inquest in Oxford has heard how
Captain James Philippson died when his colleagues were totally outgunned
by Taleban fighters in June 2006. Colleagues from his regiment had
complained repeatedly about a shortage of night vision kits and weaponry.
Captain Phillipson's father said he held the MOD responsible for his son's
death. The Armed Forces Minister, Bob Ainsworth, has admitted there were
equipment shortages at the time, but he's insisted changes have been made
since then. From Oxford, Jack Izzard reports:

IZZARD: Captain Philippson was killed in a Taliban ambush in June 2006.
He was part of a rescue party sent to help a British patrol trapped in
hostile territory. Even though it was dark, he had been sent out without
night vision goggles. Unable to see the enemy, he was shot in the head and
died instantly. The Taliban were armed with rocket propelled grenades. The
British soldiers lacked basic weaponry like machine guns. Captain
Philippson's father Anthony said his son never stood a chance.

PHILIPPSON ACT: Very simply outgunned by a bunch of terrorists and that
was solely due to the fact that the Ministry of Defence has set this
particular base and the soldiers there are without the proper equipment
they should have had.

IZZARD: Andrew Walker, the coroner at today's hearing, said the
decision to send soldiers into battle without the correct equipment was
"unforgivable" and "inexcusable." The inquest heard how Captain
Philippson's unit had asked repeatedly for more weapons, but were sent
only a handful. Recording a narrative verdict of unlawful death, Mr Walker
criticised the Ministry of Defence, accusing it of a "breach of trust
between the soldiers and those who govern them." Interviewed on the PM
programme, the Armed Forces minister Bob Ainsworth, conceded there was a
shortage of equipment at the time:

AINSWORTH ACT: Our own board of inquiry found that was one of the
reasons but also there was a lack standard operating procedures and
tactical errors too. This was in the summer of 2006, when we just had
deployed to Helmand. All of the recommendations of the board of inquiry
have been implemented.

IZZARD: This wasn't the only inquest to call into question the MoD's
operations today. A coroner in Wiltshire demanded a review of government's
spending on the armed forces, after hearing that two soldiers killed by a
bomb in Iraq did not have the use of an armoured vehicle that might have
saved them.

America's top soldier, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Admiral Mike Mullen, has said he does not accept that NATO's mission in
Afghanistan is in trouble. In a BBC interview, the Admiral acknowledged
that it would take time for Afghanistan to be pacified -- but he said the
US and her allies had to remain committed to the fight. From Washington,
our north America editor, Justin Webb, reports:

WEBB: Admiral Mullen does not suggest that all is well in Afghanistan
-- in fact at one stage of our interview, he acknowledged that some parts
of the country were heading in a strongly negative direction. The complete
picture, he said, is mixed. So is there strategic stalemate, a phrase used
recently by the respected US military think-tank, the Atlantic Council -
No, says America's top soldier, Afghanistan can still be pacified. It
would take a long time but losing was not an option or a possibility. The
United States would remain committed and the NATO allies should as well.
Admiral Mullen is just back from Pakistan, where he held what he said were
successful talks on the safety of the country's nuclear arsenal in the
event of further turmoil caused by Islamic extremists:

MULLEN ACT: I'm convinced that they're in safe hands and in good
control, and that the safeguards that the Pakistanis have put in place are
more than adequate to control them.

WEBB: You say they're in good control. Are they in entirely Pakistani
control? Does the US have any kind of oversight, any capacity to keep on
them?

MULLEN ACT: They are entirely in Pakistani control, and I'm comfortable
with that.

WEBB: I asked the Admiral what conversations he had had in Pakistan
about the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is thought to be hiding in
the tribal areas on the Afghan border. His name did not come up he said, a
sign, perhaps, of how many responsibilities and concerns the American
military now has -- in addition to what was the central effort to find bin
Laden.

The competition commission has published its latest proposals in the
long-running investigation into the power of the big supermarkets. It
wants to appoint an independent ombudsman and introduce a stronger code of
practice for the big grocery stores. Other proposals include the creation
of a "competition test" for planning decisions involving new super-stores.
Here's our business correspondent, Nils Blythe:

BLYTHE: This inquiry began in May 2006, and is fourth time in eight
years that the supermarket business has put under the microscope by
official regulators. But the final recommendations are unlikely to satisfy
those who wanted to see the power of the big supermarkets groups reduced.
The commission already said that overall it thinks the consumers are
getting a good deal. Now it has come up detailed proposals on how the
market might be made to work a bit better. These include the suggestion
that local competition issues should be taken into account in making
planning decisions to make it harder for one supermarket group to dominate
in a particular town. And it wants to appoint an independent ombudsman to
oversee the relationships between suppliers and supermarkets - It's an
idea which Stephen Robertson, of British retail consortium which includes
the major supermarkets, thinks will be an expensive waste of time:

ROBERTSON ACT: I suspect what we've got here is an expensive addition
of an ombudsman who once again won't be used. In speaking delightedly to
suppliers have failed to find any complaints.

BLYTHE: The commission also wants to see an end to the restrictive
covenants which supermarkets often place on land they sell, which prevents
it being developed by a rival. But there are to no forced sell offs of
land or stores. And james Lowman of the Association of Convenience Stores
describes the report as timid:

LOWMAN ACT: I'm referring to a point here what it's more the retailer
who's not going to be able to compete. We think when you've got over three
quarters of the market in hands of only four players, you lose some of
that choice, you lose diversity, and ultimately they main big supermarkets
are largely the same, they have a very similar offer.

BLYTHE: The Competition Commission had talked discussed recommending
changes to planning laws which could have added to the overall number of
supermarkets in Britain, but in these latest proposals the commission has
backed away from the idea.

Our business editor, Robert Peston, considers the likely effects of the
Commission's latest report:

PESTON: The Competition Commission's proposals will be seen by some as
tinkering. And many will view them as reinforcing a status quo in which
Tesco has twice the market share of its nearest rivals. But that should
not be a great surprise. Why? Well last autumn, the Commission said it
thought the food retailing market was serving consumers pretty well and
doing little demonstrable harm to suppliers. Food companies and farmers
will probably be most pleased with today's recommendations, especially the
proposed inclusion of lots more retailers in the code that protects
suppliers from bullying. They'll also like the idea of being able to take
their woes to an independent ombudsman. Now, there could be marginally
improved opportunities for Asda, Sainsbury and Morrison to set up big
stores near a Tesco - if the Commission gets its way on changes to
planning processes and on the removal of anti-competitive clauses in land
contracts. But none of this represents a wholesale reform of the way that
food is sold to us -- nor will it pose even the faintest threat to Tesco's
position as the number one British supermarket group.

Longer life expectancy could result in an increase in the costs of
final salary schemes. The Pensions Regulator is worried that many pension
schemes underestimate how long people actually live. Ian Pollock, of our
business staff, explains:

POLLOCK: Life expectancy has increased dramatically in the past couple
of decades. Sixty-five-year-old men can now expect to live until
eighty-two, four more years than twenty years ago. While
sixty-five-year-old women can expect to live until eighty-nine, two more
years than before. But the Pensions Regulator has noticed that many
pension schemes are using assumptions it thinks are very out of date. Its
proposal will be that all schemes should use significantly more prudent
estimates of how long their members are, on average, likely to live. This
might add a couple of years to many schemes' current estimate of
longevity. That would, in turn, add six to eight per cent extra to the
value of the assets they need to generate the cash to pay the pensions.
Those schemes that have lagged behind even more may find an even bigger
jump in the cost of funding their pension promises. Under the regulator's
plan, any schemes that fail to update their assumptions can expect close
scrutiny. For employers, all this raises the possibility that they might
soon be asked to pay even higher levels of contributions, a burden which
might prompt more to close their schemes to new members, or even existing
ones.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are bracing themselves for
compensation claims from passengers which could run into tens of millions
of pounds. The airlines had already admitted price fixing, and now they
have agreed to pay out to customers as part of a legal settlement in the
United States. Some passengers will be able to claim up to 11 pounds fifty
for each flight they took. More details from our Transport Correspondent,
Tom Symonds:

SYMONDS: The price fixing took place between August 2004 and March
2006. Virgin and British Airways executives secretly called each other to
discuss the level of fuel surcharge they would add to ticket prices.
Virgin blew the whistle on the collusion and British Airways was fined
more than two-hundred-seventy million pounds. Now an American law firm,
threatening a joint legal action on behalf of millions of passengers, has
forced the airlines to agree a compensation settlement. Anyone travelling
long haul on British Airways during the price fixing period can claim up
to eleven pounds fifty per flight, and on Virgin, ten pounds per flight --
the amount dependent on the level of the surcharge at the time. The lawyer
representing passengers, Rob Murray from the firm Cohen Millstein, said
setting up a claims process could take some months:

MURRAY ACT: We can't say exactly at the moment precisely what people
have to do because it still has to be approved by the US court. But it's
not going to be a complicated process, I think it going to be something
that will take two or three minutes, you'll be able to do it online or by
dialling a freephone number.

SYMONDS: The payments could cost the two airlines a hundred million
pounds in total. British Airways still has executives facing possible
criminal charges from the Office of Fair Trading. Virgin said as far as it
was concerned that was the end of the saga -- like BA, it's apologised for
unfairly overcharging millions of passengers.

The number of people killed in another campus shooting in the United
States, is now said to stand at five. The man who opened fire in a lecture
hall of the University of Northern Illinois yesterday, has been named as
Steven Kazmierczak, a 27 year-old former student. He turned the gun on
himself. Police don't yet know his motive for the killings, which was the
fourth shooting at a US educational centre this week. Matthew Price
reports from Illinois:

PRICE: Another town, another campus, another classroom. This time it
was the frozen snow covered pathways of Northern Illinois University,
where a gunman walked along carrying his weapons in a guitar case, passed
students and teachers and into a geology lecture.One of the students who
was attending that lecture was Desiree Smith:

SMITH ACT: I was sitting there. We had ten minutes left of class,
taking notes. All of a sudden I just see this man out of the corner of my
eye. He just seemed to appear. He was dressed all in black, he had a black
ski cap on and then I saw him shoot. He aimed at our professor and I did
see our professor shot in the arm.

PRICE: Then she and the other students saw him turn towards them and
start firing again. A few hideous seconds of shooting, of screams, of fear
that they will never forget, and then the killer killed himself. Later the
police searched the gunman's home. He was a graduate of this university
and was described as having been an outstanding student. The campus police
chief, Donald Grady, gave this first indication of what might have helped
lead to the shooting:

GRADY ACT: We have talked to people that are close to him and
apparently he had been taking medication. He had stopped taking those
medications and he had become somewhat erratic in the last couple of
weeks.

PRICE: Around fifteen people are being treated for injuries including
the teacher. The university has been closed for the day and once again a
community in the United States is trying to figure out how and more
importantly why.

The jury in the trial of a man accused of murdering five women who'd
been working as prostitutes in Ipswich has been told by the defence that
there is a reasonable possibility that someone else was responsible for
their deaths. Steve Wright, who's 49, denies murdering the women between
October and December 2006. From Ipswich Crown Court, Ben Geogheghan
reports:

GEOGHEGAN: Timothy Langdale QC spent much of his speech challenging the
idea that Steve Wright was the last person to see each of the women alive.
He said while some fibres found on the bodies linked them to the
defendant, there were hundreds of other samples which hadn't been properly
examined and which could have been transferred after the women had been in
contact with Mr Wright. He reminded the jury about evidence to do with Tom
Stephens who was arrested in December 2006 and then released as part of
police inquiries. Mr Langdale described him as a man with a history of
hostility and threats to women he didn't like. In their closing speech,
the prosecution said Steve Wright was someone who couldn't restrain
himself and embarked on a campaign of murder. Today, his defence said he
was an ordinary man who'd worked hard and was in a stable relationship.
Apart from two minor offences, Mr Langdale said, Steve Wright had led a
blameless life.

You are listening to the six o'clock news on BBC Radio Four. The main
news so far:

The Ministry of Defence has been criticised by a coroner for sending
soldiers to fight in Afghanistan without basic equipment.

The Competition Commission says supermarkets should be subject to a new
planning test to prevent them gaining a stranglehold in one area.

Still to come: the ultimate cycling tour ends in a new world record;
and a top tip for a long life -- a glass of olive oil a day.

A restaurant owner has been describing how his life was saved by a
single handshake with a doctor he had never met before. Mark Gurrieri was
introduced to Dr Chris Britt as the GP arrived at his restaurant in London
in December, and the chance encounter had extraordinary results. As James
Cook reports, Dr Britt noticed an unusual spongy feeling in the hands he
shook, a symptom of a very rare brain tumour:

CLIP: It was just a handshake, just another handshake.

COOK: But it wasn't just another handshake. It was the greeting that
would save Mark Gurrieri's life. The man pressing his flesh was Dr Chris
Britt and he knew straight away that Mark was ill:

BRITT ACT:I was struck by his enormous hands that were very doughy,
very fleshly. I mean very unusually large hands that he had, which is a
sign of acromegaly. As a GP you may never see a case during your career.

COOK: Acromegaly is caused by a tumour which forces the pituitary gland
to produce extra growth hormone. If undiagnosed, it can lead to severe
disfigurement and eventually death. Mark went to his own GP where the
diagnosis was confirmed. He's now had successful surgery to remove the
tumour and plans to keep in touch with the man who saved his life:

BRITT ACT: Definitely. We'll keep in touch.

GURRIERI: Oh I think so yeah, I think if Chris will have me I'll go to
his GP, move to his practice if he'll have me.

SFX: LAUGHTER

COOK: Whatever happens Mark says he'll always be grateful for what he
calls his own golden handshake.

Gordon Brown has set out plans to give extra benefits to members of
poor families who agree to return to work and sign up to skills training
courses. The proposals are based on a radical system that's used in the
United States which has been called a "contract out of poverty". In New
York, some families are paid a thousand pounds a year, or more, for up to
three years. In a speech at the Welsh Labour Party conference in
Llandudno, the prime minister said that, although people from
disadvantaged backgrounds faced difficulties, they must take up the
opportunities available to them:

BROWN ACT: Because in the coming decades, the number of the world's
skilled jobs will double - creating the greatest opportunities for
whichever country rises to the education and skills challenge. And I want
that country to be Britain. Unlocking not just some of the talent of
British people, but all of the talent of our people.

The Conservatives have been outlining plans to end stealth -- or hidden
-- taxes, and establish an Office of Tax Simplification. In a speech to
the think tank, Policy Exchange, the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne,
said there had to be a fundamental review of Britain's tax system -- which
he called too complex and unpredictable. He's appointed the former Tory
Chancellor, Lord Howe, to examine Conservative taxation policies. Although
Mr Osborne didn't pledge to lower rates, he said corporation tax was too
high and hinted he would bring down the headline rate of 28 per cent. He
told the World at One that his plans would help business:

OSBORNE ACT: Well it's an attempt to avoid the catastrophic u-turns
we've seen in the last couple of weeks over Capital Gains Tax and also
non-domicile taxation from Alistair Darling. So, I want to put tax-making
onto a longer term footing whereby the government has to publish a long
time in advance technical changes to the tax law of this country and then
the external experts, accountants, businesses that are going to be
affected, individuals, have their chance to put in their input.

In the City, the 100 index of leading shares closed down 92 points at
5,788.

On the currency markets, the pound was down four fifths of a cent
against the dollar at one dollar 96-point-2 cents, whilst against the Euro
it was down a whole cent, at 1 euro 33-point-6 cents -- making one euro
worth 74-point-9 pence.

In New York a short time ago, the Dow Jones average was down 93 points
at 12, 283.

Two cousins, who are 15 and 20-years-old and from the Bridgend area,
have died after hanging themselves. There's no evidence to suggest their
deaths are directly connected to any other similar incidents in the area.
A coroner has said he doesn't believe there were any links between the
suicides of fourteen young people from the town and county of Bridgend in
just over a year. Mark Hutchings reports:

HUTCHINGS: The latest sudden deaths are of two cousins,
fifteen-year-old, Nathaniel Pritchard, and twenty-year-old, Kelly
Stephenson. Nathaniel was discovered hanging at his home in the Cefn Glas
area of Bridgend on Wednesday night. He was taken to hospital but died
earlier today. It emerged that Kelly, who lived nearby, had been on
holiday in Folkestone in Kent. She'd been told about Nathaniel before
confirmation of his death. She was then found dead in a bathroom. South
Wales Police commenting on Nathaniel's case say there is nothing to
suggest it's linked to any other sudden deaths in the town. Expert groups
say anyone particularly affected by the news should contact organisations
such as the Samaritans.

The Mayor of London's adviser on equality and policing, Lee Jasper, has
been suspended. Mr Jasper has been at the centre of a row about alleged
funding irregularities involving community projects. His suspension was
announced after he asked the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, to refer the
allegations to the police so an investigation could be carried out. Mr
Jasper has strenuously denied any wrong doing and vowed to clear his name.

The former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has said that a deal
between the two sides in Kenya's political crisis is very close, but that
no agreement has yet been reached on forming a power-sharing government.
Mr Annan has been mediating between supporters of President Mwai Kibaki,
and of his rival, Raila Odinga, who claims that December's Presidential
election was stolen from him. More than one thousand people have died, and
hundreds of thousand have been driven from their homes, in weeks of
violence sparked by the dispute. From Nairobi, our east Africa
correspondent Karen Allen reports:

ALLEN: Kofi Annan urged all sides to build on the momentum of the
negotiations and talked up the areas of common ground. Both parties have
agreed to to an independent review of the election results made up of
Kenyans and non-Kenyans, which is expected to start sitting from next
month. Constitutional reform has also been agreed but the main area of
contention is over the issue of power sharing. Mr Annan has proposed a
grand coalition to avoid what he called "gridlock" in government. He
warned that one party alone could not end Kenya's current crisis and said
that it would not simply be a question sharing out political positions and
ministries, but facing the fundamental root causes of conflict in Kenya:

ANNAN ACT: The issues are complex, reaching a compromise is difficult.
But let me assure that there is a real momentum, the momentum is with us.
We are at the water's edge and the last difficult and frightening step -
as difficult as it is - will be taken. I am confident that in the interest
of Kenya and its people, the parties will show the wisdom, flexibility and
leadership and foresight to conclude this agreement.

ALLEN: The issue of shared power is the only outstanding area of
disagreement and both sides will be under pressure to give some ground.
Kofi Annan has requested meetings with both President Mwai Kibaki and
opposition leader Raila Odinga on Monday, when the US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice is also expected in Nairobi to lend her support to the
mediation efforts.

Nomination papers have been submitted for next month's elections in
Zimbabwe - which will see a three-way contest for the presidency. Robert
Mugabe is being challenged by the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,
and the former finance minister, Simba Makoni, who's standing as an
independent candidate. Mr Makoni was formally expelled from the ruling
ZANU PF party earlier this week. Our Southern Africa Correspondent, Peter
Biles, reports:

BILES: Robert Mugabe, who turns eighty-four next week, could be
re-elected for yet another term, in spite of the economic crisis that's
destroyed his country. It's now almost certain that the vote in the
presidential contest will be split. Mr Mugabe is facing a challenge from
his long-time adversary, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic
Change; and perhaps, more significantly, from one of his former allies,
Simba Makoni. He left the government six-years ago, but until recently,
had remained a senior member of the ruling party and its politburo.
However, Mr Makoni has broken ranks with ZANU PF. His support is as yet
untested. But he now has the backing of another key opposition figure,
Arthur Mutambara, who leads a breakaway faction of the divided MDC.
They've forged an alliance, with Mr Mutambara having agreed to endorse Mr
Makoni's bid for the presidency. It remains to be seen whether Mr Makoni
can also attract supporters from within ZANU PF, the party from which he's
now been expelled.

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has been trying to reassure
the minority Serb population there that it will not face discrimination
when the province declares independence from Serbia. Speaking to
journalists in Pristina, Mr Thaci refused to be drawn on the exact date of
the declaration. But our correspondent in Pristina says there's a festive
mood in the city, prompting a growing expectation that an announcement
will be made this weekend.

The Football Association has spoken out for the first time about the
proposal to stage an extra Premier League game overseas, saying it has
serious reservations about the plan. Yesterday, the president of the world
governing body, FIFA, said it would never happen while he was in charge,
calling it an abuse of the game. The FA now says it does not want to
damage its bid to host the 2018 World Cup. More from our sports
correspondent, Adam Parsons:

PARSONS: When the Premier League first announced their proposals to
play abroad they expected some unhappiness from English fans - but they
didn't anticipate the storm of criticism that has come from around the
world. First, associations in Asia and America voiced their discontent
about staging games, then the sport's global governing body, FIFA,
expressed its own opposition. But finally today, came a savage and a
probably terminal blow to the idea -- with the Football Association saying
it has serious reservations about the proposals. In an unusually
forthright statement, the FA says it has to consider the wider
implications of backing such a plan -- a clear indication that it believes
that league's idea were tainted and even damage its own campaigning to
stage 2018 World Cup in England. With so little support, the Premier
League's plan is now all but dead in the water, having withered as quickly
and publicly as it first emerged.

About one in ten petrol stations in the Chinese capital, Beijing, are
to be closed in the next few months, to try to improve the city's air
quality before the Olympic Games in August. The President of the
International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, has said some events could
be postponed if athletes are put in danger by the air pollution.

A Scottish man has broken the world record for cycling around the
globe. 195 days and six hours after he left Paris, Mark Beaumont, who's
25, returned to the French capital this afternoon -- crossing the
finishing line at the Arc de Triomphe and smashing the world record by 81
days. He had to endure floods, road rage, and bad driving, he was knocked
off his bike in the United States when a motorist drove through a red
light. But Mark Beaumont, who's originally from Bridge of Cally near
Blairgowrie in Perthshire, had only seven punctured. He says the journey
was incredible -- but he's relieved it's over:

BEAUMONT ACT: There are twenty countries and eighteen thousand four
hundred miles behind me and I have not been able to stop for over half a
year now, so I can't wait to sleep for a fortnight. You know, I've been
almost entirely on my own for six and a half months, you got to pick
yourself up of the lowest and enjoy the highs and not be able to share
them with anyone. So it's going to be great to come back and share my
stories and it's just been an amazing tour.

The authorities in Israel believe their country may well be the home of
the world's oldest living person. Mariam Amash, a Bedouin with 250
great-grandchildren, says she's 120 years old. Katya Adler in Jerusalem
has been looking at her claim:

CLIP: Happy Birthday

ADLER: Mariam Amash's great and great-great grandchildren sing her
happy birthday, after she was discovered, by chance, as possibly the
oldest person in the world. She says she was born a-hundred-and-twenty
years ago. She told Israel's Interior Ministry as much when she recently
asked for a new identity card.

AMASH ACT:

TRANSLATION VOICEOVER: Yes, i am the world's oldest person, she says.
But I'm fine, praised be to God. I eat, I drink I take showers - I hope to
keep going for another ten years!

ADLER: Israeli officials point out that Mariam Amash, a Bedouin, was
born during the Ottoman period, when the population registry was
notoriously inaccurate. So she could be younger than she thinks - or even
older. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest living person
is a-hundred-and-fourteen and from the United States. But Mariam Amash's
family insists she's much older. The secret to her good health? Plenty of
sleep, regular exercise and, and she says drinking at least one glass of
olive oil a day.

Cricket: England beat New Zealand by six wickets in their third one-day
match in Auckland. Their captain, Paul Collingwood, hit an unbeaten 70 and
shared a third wicket stand of 107 with Ian Bell, as the tourists reached
their target of 229, with three overs to spare. New Zealand now lead the
five match series two-one.

The headlines again:

A coroner at the inquest of an army captain killed in Afghanistan has
said it was unforgivable and inexcusable for the Ministry of Defence to
send soldiers to fight without basic equipment.

The Competition Commission is calling for an Ombudsman to enforce a
stronger code of practice involving the big four supermarkets.

The airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, are bracing
themselves for compensation claims running into millions of pounds, after
they admitted price fixing.

** BBC News **