BBC chief tested

Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, will set an example by becoming one of the first to sit the corporation’s emergency course in truth and honesty. Every staff member will complete an “interactive module” covering editing decisions and pressured situations.

Doctor forced birth of baby, GMC hears

A baby suffered severe brain injury after a maternity doctor continued trying to force the birth with forceps for too long, a General Medical Council disciplinary panel has been told.

Dr Hatem el-Hetw, an Egyptian citizen, is accused of failing to review properly the labour of a mother at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, in 2004, failing to perform a Caesarean section early enough and “unnecessarily” trying to pull out the child using forceps. The baby was finally delivered by Caesarean section, but had severe brain injury. Dr el-Hetw, appearing before a GMC fitness-to-practise panel in Manchester, denied inadequate, irresponsible, inappropriate and substandard care. The hearing is expected to conclude next week.

Shambo’s fate sealed

An attempt to save Shambo the sacred bull from slaughter has failed. Hindu monks at the Skanda Vale community in Llanpumsaint, West Wales, were praying that a new test for bovine tuberculosis would prove negative. The test throws up one false-positive result in 1,000. But the Welsh Assembly refused to grant a second test.

Rugby tour death

A British student taking part in a three-week school rugby tour of Argentina was killed when he was hit by a car driven by a police officer. James Painton, 18, from King’s School, Macclesfield, had left a bar in Gonnet, about 30 miles (48km) from Buenos Aires, to take a picture after celebrating with friends. A man of 30 has been arrested.

PC conviction upheld

A policeman who drove at up to 159mph while honing his driving skills has resumed his career. PC Mark Milton’s conviction for dangerous driving was upheld by a district judge in Ludlow, Shropshire, after the High Court directed him to reconsider a guilty verdict last summer. His sentence, an absolute discharge, was also upheld.

British force in Iraq will remain at 5,000

Britain will need to have 5,000 troops in Iraq even after security for the last province in the south is handed to the Iraqis, a minister admitted yesterday (Michael Evans writes).

Bob Ainsworth, the Armed Forces Minister, told MPs on the Commons Defence Committee that the minimum British force capable of overseeing the Iraqi Army and police in Basra province was about 5,000.

The size of the British military presence is being reduced from 5,500 to 5,000 by November when the last Basra base is handed over to the Iraqis. There had been expectations that the 5,000 force would be further reduced sometime next year.

Mr Ainsworth, who has just returned from a visit to Basra, told the MPs that security conditions would be reviewed.

Air travel complaints

The air travellers’ watchdog received 12,046 complaints last year, a rise of 22 per cent on the previous year. Cancellations were the cause of 40 per cent of the complaints. The Air Transport Users Council said that some operators were reneging on their legal responsibilities to customers whose flights had been cancelled.

NHS bug struggle

Hospitals are being thwarted in fighting superbug infections by government targets, a Healthcare Commission report suggests. Almost half of NHS trusts felt unable to reconcile managing infections with the target for people to be seen by accident and emergency departments within four hours.

Arms export concern

Arms export licences were approved last year for 19 of the 20 nations identified as “countries of concern” in a human rights report produced by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. About 15,000 sniper rifles were among the exports, the official annual report published yesterday revealed.

Criminal relations

The records of 160,000 Britons transported to Australian penal colonies in the 18th and 19th centuries have been published online at www.ancestry.co.uk. More than two million Britons (one in 30) are estimated to be related to the criminals, most of whom had committed theft, in some cases of less than a shilling.

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