Rolf Harris In Court On Child Sex Charges

Rolf Harris has appeared briefly in court charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four counts of making indecent images of a child.

The 83-year-old entertainer arrived at Westminster Magistrates' Court with his wife Alwen at his side.

Wearing a dark suit, striped shirt and patterned tie, he said nothing to reporters as he walked into the building flanked by security guards.

He left court around 30 minutes later, surrounded by a throng of reporters and photographers as he climbed into a waiting car.

Harris, 83, said nothing as he walked into court

Harris is accused of assaulting two alleged victims, who were aged 14 and 15 at the time, between 1980 and 1986.

The charges of making indecent images of a child date back to last year.

During the hearing, Sonia Woodley QC, defending, said Harris had indicated he would plead not guilty.

The Australian-born artist, musician and TV presenter was questioned under caution last November by officers working on Operation Yewtree, the investigation into abuse claims against Jimmy Savile.

He was arrested in March and charged in August.

The allegations against him have no connection to Savile.

Harris, who has lived in Bray, Berkshire, for more than 50 years, has been in the public eye for decades.

He fronted the popular TV programme Animal Hospital and had several musical hits, many of which featured his famous wobble board.

He painted a portrait of the Queen in 2005 and performed at her Diamond Jubilee concert last year.

His next court appearance will be at Southwark Crown Court on October 7.

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Cumbria School Bus Crash: Children Injured

A school bus driver has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving after a crash with a lorry left around 20 people injured.

The two vehicles collided on the A685 in the village of Lowgill, near Kendal, at around 8.30am.

A spokesman for the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust said 10 people, including six children with minor injuries, had been taken to hospital.

Three adults - one with a head injury, another with a rib injury and a third with neck pain - were taken to the Royal Lancaster Hospital, where the youngsters are also being treated.

Another patient was airlifted to the Royal Preston Hospital with head, arm and neck injuries that are not life-threatening.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said local schools had been informed of the crash.

"Parents are advised to contact their (child's) school if they have any concerns," he added.

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Labour Wants Bank Levy Hike To Fund Childcare

Working parents with children aged three and four would receive 25 hours of free childcare a week under new Labour plans.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has pledged pledge to increase the hours covered by state funding from 15 to 25, where a single parent or both parents work.

The move, in his keynote speech to the Labour party conference in Brighton, comes after another proposal to extend childcare at primary schools from 8am to 6pm.

Under Labour's plans, which it suggests would be funded through an increase in the bank levy, the 15-hour early years entitlement would also remain universal.

Ed Balls and Rachel Reeves at a nursery on Monday

Mr Balls also attempted to underline the party's "iron discipline" on spending amid claims there is a £27bn black hole in its plans.

As he and Ed Miliband struggle to restore public trust in Labour on the economy, he told delegates the party has to be "straight" with the country about the action needed.

He has written to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to ask for an audit of its spending commitments but the watchdog cannot go ahead under its current remit.

Ed Balls playing football on Sunday

Mr Balls now wants parties to unite and push for change so that the body is able to scrutinise the opposition as well as Government, claiming it is about "rebuilding trust".

Tory Sajid Javid, who has released Treasury analysis suggesting Labour promises would require more than £1,000 in extra borrowing per household in 2015, called the move a "stunt".

The Treasury minister said: "Ed Balls knows this is not allowed under the Budget Responsibility Act and the OBR's Charter, so this is just a stunt to try and distract attention from the fact that Labour have been found out for making unfunded commitments that would just mean more borrowing and more debt.

"Nothing has changed - it's the same old Labour. Ed Balls and Ed Miliband still want more spending, more borrowing and more debt - exactly how they got us into a mess in the first place."

OBR chairman Robert Chote also warned there would be "practical issues" if its remit was altered, with questions about resources and access to the right data.

However, some have suggested asking the OBR to assess the credibility of Labour policies would simply be an extension of what already takes place.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said there was an "established process" allowing ministers to ask Treasury officials to cost opposition ideas.

This was used by Mr Javid to examine Labour's policies and led him to make the claim about a £27.5bn black hole of unfunded plans.

The tool has been used by all sides - Labour asked for 38 Tory policies to be costed before the last election, including moves on inheritance tax and stamp duty.

The idea has been put forward by Mr Balls in apparent recognition that Labour still has much to do win back the public's trust on the economy.

Its conference is focused on the cost of living as it seeks to argue that the recovery is not translating into any change for struggling British families.

Mr Balls claimed the Government's bank levy has raised £1.6bn less than the coalition promised and that institutions paid £2.7bn less in overall tax in 2011 compared to 2010.

"At a time when resources are tight and families are under pressure that cannot be right," he told delegates.

"So I can announce today the next Labour government will increase the bank levy rate to raise an extra £800m a year.

"And we will use the money, for families where all parents are in work, to increase free childcare places for three and four- years-olds from 15 hours to 25 hours a week.

"For the first time, parents will be able to work part-time without having to worry about the cost of childcare."

The shadow chancellor admitted that Labour will face some "tough choices" if it regains power in 2015, and will not be able to reverse all of the Government's measures.

He said growth and jobs "cannot magic the whole deficit away at a stroke" and that the coalition's spending totals for 2015/16 would have to be Labour's "starting point".

"Any changes to the current spending plans for that year will be fully funded and set out in advance in our manifesto," he promised.

"There will be no more borrowing for day-to-day spending. And we will set out tough fiscal rules - to balance the current budget and get the national debt on a downward path."

He added: "We won't be able to reverse all the spending cuts and tax rises the Tories have pushed through. And we will have to govern with less money around. The next Labour government will have to make cuts, too."

Ahead of the speech, he dismissed the Conservative claim about a billion-pound funding gap in his tax and spending plans.

"There are no uncosted spending commitments," he insisted on ITV's Daybreak. "There will be no more day-to-day borrowing from Labour in 2015."

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Esme Smith Found Safe After 11-Day Search

Missing 14-year-old Esme Smith, from Surrey has been found safe in north London, say police.

The schoolgirl disappeared 11 days ago.

She was last seen by friends after school in her home town of Farnham on Thursday, September 12. She told them she was going to Woking 16 miles away and then on to a party.

But instead the teenager, described as "extrovert, vivacious, (and) normal", changed out of her school uniform and caught a train from Aldershot just after 4pm and arrived at London Waterloo about an hour later.

The secondary school pupil was pictured on CCTV as she walked down steps near Charing Cross station in London at about 5.30pm that day.

Esme's safe return is thought to be as a direct result of media appeals

A police spokesman said: "A call was made to Surrey Police by the Metropolitan Police around 9.40am today to say that the 14-year-old, who went missing on September 12, was at a north London police station.

"Her safe return is thought to be as a direct result of the media appeals, and the media and public are thanked for their assistance."

Her father Mark Smith, who works at Nato's Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger, Norway, said the family had been "worried sick" by her disappearance.

More than 4,000 people had "liked" a Facebook page called Find Esme Smith, dedicated to raising awareness of her disappearance and her sister Sian released a video appeal asking her to return.

In it, Sian said: "We just want her back. I think she's maybe met somebody out there or planned to meet somebody. We just don't know at the moment, and that's the worrying thing. She's not in trouble. We just want her back. We are incredibly worried."

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Pelka 'Failings' Boss Quits Top Children's Job

A children's services boss criticised for failings by his former council over murdered schoolboy Daniel Pelka has stepped down from his new post.

Tower Hamlets Council said Colin Green had decided to withdraw from the role of chairman of the Local Safeguarding Children Board "with immediate effect".

Mr Green took up the post at the London borough council after retiring from his role as director of children's services at Coventry City Council last month.

His departure followed revelations about failings by his department over the four-year-old's death.

A serious case review found key opportunities were missed to intervene in his case by the city's children's services team, health professionals, school staff, police and other child protection agencies.

Luczak and Krezolek were jailed for a minimum of 30 years

Geoffrey Robinson, Labour MP for the area of Coventry where Daniel and his family lived, had condemned Mr Green's move to the Tower Hamlets position, claiming it was "an affront to public opinion".

"Like myself, I am sure the whole of Coventry will be stunned to learn that Colin Green, former director of children's services at Coventry City Council, has gone off to become chair of the safeguarding children board at Tower Hamlets," he said.

"This is a clear example of senior civil servants operating their own network for the benefit of themselves, at the expense of front-line staff who have faced the real challenges on a daily basis.

"The appointment is an affront to public opinion and confirms that I was right to call for a wholly independent inquiry. These boards are not truly independent."

A spokesman for Tower Hamlets Council said: "The new chair of Tower Hamlets Local Safeguarding Children Board, Colin Green, has decided to withdraw from the post with immediate effect."

The London borough council said Mr Green had been appointed by a multi-agency panel in June with all such decisions "based on the merits of each applicant".

Daniel died of a head injury in March 2012, after a systematic campaign of emotional and physical abuse by his mother Magdelena Luczak and stepfather, former soldier Mariusz Krezolek, both originally from Poland.

The pair were jailed for a minimum of 30 years each.

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Food Price Rises 'A Source Of Stress'

Rocketing food prices are a "source of stress" for four in 10 UK consumers, while a third say they are struggling to feed themselves or their family.

Almost eight in 10 shoppers (78%) are worried about the increasing cost of food, with almost half (45%) spending a larger proportion of their available income at the supermarket compared to a year ago, the survey of 2,028 consumers for Which? found.

Food prices have risen over and above general inflation by 12.6% over the past six years, according to the Office of National Statistics, while incomes have stagnated.

The poll found 60% are worried about how they will manage their future spending on groceries if prices continue to rise.

A separate survey by the consumer watchdog found one million more households are feeling financial pressure compared to a year ago, leaving 9.5 million households struggling to cope with the cost of living.

It found 40% are likely to cut back spending on food in the next few months.

Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director, said: "While people seem to have accepted their grocery bill going up, stagnating incomes and rocketing food prices are causing stress and worry and leaving people wondering how they are going to cope.

"Supermarkets need to make it much easier for consumers to spot the best deal by ensuring pricing is simple and making special offers genuinely good value for money.

"Politicians need to put consumers at the heart of their economic policies to tackle the rising cost of living and to support growth and prosperity."

Dan Crossley, executive director of the Food Ethics Council charity, added: "As the global food system becomes more deeply trapped in the strangleholds of resource constraint, climate change and population growth, rising food prices are an almost inevitable fact of life.

"Food businesses and government need to start planning now for that future by taking urgent action to tackle the issue of food affordability, including the introduction of measures such as a living wage.

"They also need to develop robust policies that make healthy food affordable, rather than peddling 'cheap' food that is costing us dear in terms of our health and our environment."

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A&E Departments Failing To Hit NHS Targets

The number of NHS Foundation trusts in England failing to see A&E patients within four hours has doubled in the last year, according to new figures.

A quarterly report by regulator Monitor found 31 trusts missed the waiting times target in April-June compared with 13 over the same period in 2012.

The report said: "We are concerned about waiting times in A&E which normally improve in the spring and early summer, but which this year remained challenging for 31 foundation trusts which failed the four-hour target in the quarter ended June 30, 2013.

"This compares to 13 in the same period last year.

"Long waits in A&E may result in patients experiencing unsatisfactory care and the persistence of problems means that it is essential for trusts to plan appropriately and have the right funding in place if the challenges of next winter are to be dealt with effectively."

The report also said the number of foundation trusts running a financial deficit increased from 36 in the first quarter of 2012/13 to 48 for the equivalent period this year.

The overall deficit was £74m, although the regulator stressed that figure was mostly due to a small number of "particularly financially troubled trusts".

Long waits could result in 'usatisfactory care', the report says

During the first quarter of 2013/14, trusts generated £57m less in cost savings than originally planned.

Jason Dorsett, Monitor's financial risk and reporting director, said: "Our analysis of returns from foundation trusts shows that patients are still waiting too long at A&Es in a number of foundation trusts.

"Increased demand means more than ever that trusts need better and earlier planning to make sure they deal with these problems.

"The increased demand has also prevented trusts from delivering their planned financial savings.

"We expect to see trusts planning now for how the increased demand will impact on their finances, so that they are not storing up trouble for the future."

Responding to the figures, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "A&E is the barometer of the whole of health and care.

"It is telling us that there are severe storms ahead for the NHS this winter unless the Government urgently faces up to problems with front-line staffing and in social care.

"Close to one million people have waited longer than four hours to be seen at A&E in the last 12 months - the worst year in decade.

"The Government has brought the NHS to the brink and cannot continue to ignore the warnings that are mounting by the day.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said A&Es saw 95% of patients within their targets since the end of April - as they were before last winter.

She said: "This is testament to the hard work of staff working throughout the health and care system.

"But we know that more work needs to be done to make sure that patients have access to the urgent and emergency services that they need.

"That's why we are investing £500m over the next two years to help ensure A&E departments are prepared for winter."

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Labour: UK Apprentice For Each Foreign Worker

By Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent

Ed Miliband has launched a Labour fightback after a difficult summer - with policy pledges on the economy and immigration.

The party leader announced plans to increase fines for employers who fail to pay the minimum wage and force bosses to train an apprentice if they hire a foreign worker.

The moves come on the opening day of Labour's conference in Brighton, at which the party will attempt to spell out a series of policies which appeal to voters.

Mr Miliband addresses the crowd in Brighton

The conference begins with the party's high command reeling over the damaging revelations of plots, smears and feuds in the memoirs of Gordon Brown's spin doctor Damian McBride.

It also follows a summer in which senior party figures were accused of being invisible and a gradual shrinking of Labour's opinion poll lead over the Conservatives.

Senior Labour figures claim the new policy announcements signal a new approach on the economy and a new approach on immigration.

In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Mr Miliband said the Labour Party was "changing under my leadership" and had "learned lessons from the past".

He said: "I want a high wage British economy, not a low wage brutish economy. We've got plans to make that happen, to drive up skills.

"So we are going to say to any firm that wants to bring in a foreign worker that they also have to train up someone who is a local worker, training up the next generation.

"We think that can create up to 125,000 new apprenticeships over the course of five years and that is a massive boost for skills for our young people."

Mr Miliband said the tenfold increase in fines for the minimum wage would "stop the exploitation which undercuts workers that are already here".

Senior party figures spoke out on Sunday morning to back up Mr Miliband's pledges.

Labour's shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna told Sky News the proposal aimed to deal with the reason why large companies employed people from abroad.

He said: "(Large companies) say that there are skills gaps and we do not have enough people with the skills they need. What we are saying is that if they are bringing people in (from abroad), they also ensure that we are skilling people (with) the provision of training apprenticeships."

Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, sought to explain how the policy would work, adding: "Already, if people want to bring in what's called the tier two worker from abroad, they have to meet certain conditions.

"We don't think its good for the long term health of our economy for companies to be reliant on bringing in skilled workers always from abroad and not supporting investment in skills and training we need to have at home."

Mr McBride (far left) with Gordon Brown

On Sunday morning, Ed Miliband told the BBC's Andrew Marr he urged Gordon Brown to sack Damian McBride over concerns the spin doctor was briefing against senior Labour colleagues.

Mr McBride's memoirs are being serialised in the Daily Mail.

On voting intentions Labour's lead over the Tories is barely changed, at eight points: Con 28% (0), Lab 36% (-1), UKIP 17% (-2), LD 10% (+2) and Others 9% (+1).

But Mr Miliband's ratings are poor, with 52% saying that he doesn't have the qualities to be an effective prime minister.

However, more people say they and their families would be better off if Labour won the election (30%) than if the Conservatives did (22%).

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Woman Charged With Murdering Young Son

A woman has appeared in court charged with the murder of her young son.

Michelle Owens, 27, did not speak during a brief appearance at Lisburn Magistrates' Court.

Her three-year-old son Brendan was found dead in the town, around 10 miles southwest of Belfast, on July 4.

His body was discovered at a house in Trinity Terrace, close to the city centre.

A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said a post-mortem examination had been carried out to determine how the youngster died.

His mother, who was dressed in blue trousers and a sweater and flanked by prison officers as she appeared in court, was remanded in custody to reappear via video link next month.

A 51-year-old man arrested in connection with the boy's death has been released on bail pending further inquiries.

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Prison Smoking Ban 'Could Be Very Risky'

Inmates could soon be banned from smoking inside prisons in England and Wales, the Ministry of Justice has said.

A pilot scheme which will monitor how prisoners react to the move is being planned by the Government but sites have not yet been chosen.

A spokesman for the MoJ said: "We are considering banning smoking across the prison estate and as part of this are looking at possible sites as early adopters."

The pilot scheme is expected to launch in the South West in the spring of next year and if successful the ban would be rolled out across all prisons within 12 months, The Times has reported.

But there are fears the ban could cause disruption in prisons, with around 80% of inmates in England and Wales believed to smoke, according to the NHS.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said it would be "very risky" to implement a blanket ban with no extra support for prisoners.

"You're putting extra pressure on a system that's already under pressure," she said.

Prisons in the pilot scheme have not been identified

Ms Lyon says many prisoners use smoking to help "survive" their sentence. 

She says cuts to staffing and resources are already putting added strain on the prison system, and causing "increasing unrest" amongst inmates.

She does not oppose the proposed ban, but said alternate activities to smoking must be offered.

"If the substitute for smoking were more time with staff, more time outside of your cell, more purposeful activity, more skills training that would be a very different picture," she said.

Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, told The Times that introducing the ban would be difficult.

"There is no pretending otherwise," he said.

"It could cause disturbances but they have done it successfully in Canada and in young offender institutions in England and Wales."

He added: "We welcome this move. It is our policy to have smoke-free prisons for our members.

"We will work with the ministry to make sure it works effectively."

Mr Gillan said that without a smoking ban the Prison Service risked legal action from a non-smoker claiming to suffer from the effects of passive smoking.

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