&cat=7&pid=15794&cache=true">
&cat=19&pid=15794&cache=true " alt="Cancer ‘should remain a priority’" class="alignleft" />
Cancer services should continue to be a priority despite an expected squeeze on public spending, say cancer charities. Wales Cancer Alliance representatives will call on the assembly government to ensure services are not jeopardised. Public services in Wales are facing cuts that will cause “considerable pain”, according to a recent report from the auditor general for Wales. The assembly government said it regarded health, including cancer care, as an “essential public service”. Cath Lindley, chair of the alliance and general manager for Macmillan Cancer Support in Wales, said the “scale of the challenge” facing the assembly government to ensure everyone affected by cancer in Wales was offered the best treatment and support is “enormous”. “This is why we are taking the opportunity to call on government to ensure that cancer services are not neglected or put in jeopardy by the inevitable and very real spending squeeze facing our public services,” she said. The call, which will be made at the Wales Cancer Conference in Cardiff, comes as a new poll commissioned by Macmillan Cancer Support suggests 66% of people in Wales believe cancer ought to be one of the illnesses or diseases given the highest priority by the assembly government. Gillian Body, the auditor general for Wales, has said the NHS, councils and the police may need to cut staff hours and encourage part-time working to deal with budget cuts. She said services must work in “radically different ways” to face up to cuts of some
April 14, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=15793&cache=true " alt="Cancer ‘should remain a priority’" class="alignleft" />
Cancer services should continue to be a priority despite an expected squeeze on public spending, say cancer charities. Wales Cancer Alliance representatives will call on the assembly government to ensure services are not jeopardised. Public services in Wales are facing cuts that will cause “considerable pain”, according to a recent report from the auditor general for Wales. The assembly government said it regarded health, including cancer care, as an “essential public service”. Cath Lindley, chair of the alliance and general manager for Macmillan Cancer Support in Wales, said the “scale of the challenge” facing the assembly government to ensure everyone affected by cancer in Wales was offered the best treatment and support is “enormous”. “This is why we are taking the opportunity to call on government to ensure that cancer services are not neglected or put in jeopardy by the inevitable and very real spending squeeze facing our public services,” she said. The call, which will be made at the Wales Cancer Conference in Cardiff, comes as a new poll commissioned by Macmillan Cancer Support suggests 66% of people in Wales believe cancer ought to be one of the illnesses or diseases given the highest priority by the assembly government. Gillian Body, the auditor general for Wales, has said the NHS, councils and the police may need to cut staff hours and encourage part-time working to deal with budget cuts. She said services must work in “radically different ways” to face up to cuts of some
April 14, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=15453&cache=true " alt="Iran urges UN inquiry into wars" class="alignleft" />
Iran’s president has urged the UN to launch an investigation into the aims of Western military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The office of Secretary General Ban ki-Moon said that it was studying the letter from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but had no comment. Mr Ahmadinejad asked the UN to set up a fact-finding team. Tensions are growing over Iran’s nuclear programme, and its rising anger at Washington’s nuclear policy. The fact-finding team requested by Iran’s president would investigate the intentions and results of Western military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said that, so far, the invasions had only victimised people in the region, and he declared that US and Nato methods of fighting terrorism had failed. ‘State terrorism’ It was not immediately clear what had prompted the letter but it comes amidst rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West fears has military aims. That is something Tehran denies and it is pushing back as the US tries to build momentum for tightening UN sanctions. Recently, Iran displayed new technology for enriching uranium. It is also preparing its own nuclear disarmament conference to counter the one hosted by Washington this week. And on Monday Iran’s UN ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, told a panel here in New York that Washington’s new nuclear weapons policy was state terrorism. US President Barack Obama made clear last week that Iran and North Korea were excluded from new limits on America’s use of atomic weapons. Iranian lawmakers responded furiously to what they saw as a threat of nuclear attack. Iran insists its own nuclear programme is for generating energy, not for building weapons. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 13, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=15346&cache=true " alt="Labour pledge on NHS reforms" class="alignleft" />
Gordon Brown has confirmed that every NHS hospital in England will become a foundation trust by 2015. Launching the party’s election manifesto at a Birmingham hospital, he re-affirmed pledges to give patients legally-binding rights on treatment and waiting times. More GP surgeries will be open from 8am to 8pm and there will be extra health services on the high street. The current manifesto pledges apply only to England. The manifesto says all NHS hospitals in England will become foundation trusts, with institutions already holding this status able to take over the management of less successful organisations. GP services It also sets out commitments to more personal healthcare, and greater access to GPs at weekends and evenings. In each area of England, a GP led health centre is either already open or opening soon to provide care from 8am to 8pm seven days a week. Labour also plans to work with charities to give cancer patients end-of-life care in their own homes, if they wish. Everyone with a long-term condition will have the right to a care plan and an individual budget. However, patients who fail to turn up for pre-booked appointments will lose the right for fast-track treatment, the manifesto says. The general election manifesto confirms announcements already made that people suspected of having cancer will be referred to a specialist within two weeks, and get their test results within one week. The promise of faster test results, which was announced at the last Labour party conference, will take until 2017 to be fully available to all patients in England. A legal right for patients in England to receive hospital treatment within 18 weeks from referral by their GP came into force at the beginning of April. The target for urgent suspected cancer cases to be seen by a specialist within two weeks also became a legal right at the same time. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 12, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=14109&cache=true " alt="Dissident China lawyer ‘gives up’" class="alignleft" />
Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has reappeared in Beijing, saying he is giving up his campaigning so he can reunite with his family. Mr Gao spoke at a news conference more than a year after he was arrested and disappeared, sparking international concern. He had previously been charged with subversion by Beijing. Mr Gao said he knew his decision would disappoint many, but that he wanted to have “relative control” over his life. “I don’t have the capacity to persevere… You know the main basis for choosing to give up is for the sake of family feelings,” he told the Associated Press news agency. “I hope I can reunite with them. My children need me by their side growing up,” he said in the interview, at a Beijing tea house near his flat, AP said. Looking visibly thinner than before his disappearance, Mr Gao, 44, said he had been through cruel experiences but wanted to put the past behind him. It is still unclear if Mr Gao has been freed or if he is still under police surveillance or even detention, says the BBC’s Damian Grammaticas in Beijing. His wife and two children, who have been harassed and persecuted by Chinese authorities, fled China last year and are now in New York, our correspondent adds. Family ties After first vanishing in January 2009, he briefly reappeared at his family’s home in Shaanxi province the following month – accompanied by people believed to be security officials. The AP said he appeared tearful at times when the subject turned to his family and he described seeing their shoes when he returned to his Beijing flat for the first time on Tuesday. “I completely lost control of my emotions, because to me these are the three dearest people in the world and now, we’re like a kite with a broken string,” he told AP. Mr Gao ran into trouble when he started to defend some of China’s most disadvantaged groups, such as supporters of the banned spiritual movement, Falun Gong. His law practice was closed down in 2005. The government said one problem was that the lawyer had failed to tell officials of a change of address. The following year he was given a suspended prison sentence for “inciting subversion”. Mr Gao implied that he had struck a compromise with Chinese authorities, giving up political activism in order to be in contact with his family, AP notes. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 7, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=13556&cache=true " alt="Woods targets fifth Masters win" class="alignleft" />
Tiger Woods said he was “blown away” by the reception he received from the crowds at Augusta after playing his first public golf since November. About 500 spectators watched the 34-year-old take part in the first official practice session for the Masters on Monday. “What a great day. Coming into today I didn’t know what to expect with regard to my reception,” Woods said. “The galleries couldn’t have been nicer. It blew me away, it really did.” The world number one was quizzed at a news conference for the first time since crashing his car into a fire hydrant outside his Florida home on 27 November. The incident sparked a series of revelations about Woods’ private life and led the American to admit he had “had affairs and cheated”. Woods will make his comeback at Augusta following a five month lay-off from competition. More to follow. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
April 5, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=13261&cache=true " alt="Funding choices ‘hard’, says Balls" class="alignleft" />
Tough choices on whether to protect school funding in England will be at the heart of the general election, says Children’s Secretary Ed Balls. In a speech to a teachers’ conference, Mr Balls will say his Tory opponents must decide whether they want to fund schools or “pay for tax cuts”. Mr Balls accuses the Tories of playing “Santa Claus” with funding promises. The Conservatives have promised extra cash for poorer pupils and funds to allow parents to set up schools. With the election campaign drawing closer, Mr Balls is set to deliver a strong attack on the credibility of the school funding plans of his political opponents. ‘Big choice’ His speech to the NASUWT teachers’ conference will also acknowledge that whoever is next in office, there will be “tougher times ahead”. Mr Balls will tell teachers in Birmingham that voters face a “big choice” on how schools should be supported when public spending is being reduced. “Do we keep funding per pupil rising despite tougher times or do we cut school budgets and see class sizes rise to pay for tax cuts?” he will ask. Mr Balls will claim that the Conservatives will need to cut school funding to pay for other promises, such as the freezing of national insurance. “The Tories are being completely dishonest with the British people,” Mr Balls will tell the conference. “The shadow schools secretary Michael Gove is like Santa Claus. He’s going round the country promising any group of parents who want a new school, even where there are already surplus places, that they can have one whatever the cost. “But he isn’t telling parents that the only way he can pay for this is by cutting the budgets of all the other schools in the area.” “And now, Michael Gove also has to find billions of pounds from the schools budget to pay for George Osborne’s national insurance freeze. But he won’t explain where the cuts would fall.” Spending pressures Mr Balls will set out his own party’s promises to protect pupil funding, provide one-to-one catch-up lessons and to guarantee a sixth form or training place for school leavers. But he will also warn that schools will no longer be able to expect the increase in per pupil funding that they have had in recent years. The Department for Children, Schools and Families is already set to lose
April 5, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=12159&cache=true " alt="Reunited Libertines pledge to stay together for summer festivals" class="alignleft" />
The Libertines have played together for the first time since they split in 2004 and pledged not to break up before their summer festival dates. Frontmen Peter Doherty and Carl Barat were joined at a media conference at a pub in north London by bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell. Doherty said: “Looking back on it, we did produce things we are so proud of and we want to get back to that.” The band is due to play the Reading and Leeds festivals at the end of August. The press conference took place in a packed bar with the four band members sitting on bar stools. Doherty made light of many of the questions, particularly about his past drug problems. Asked how hard it had been for them to get back together, Doherty looked at Barat and quipped: “He never answers his phone.” On the reported fee in excess of
March 31, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=8476&cache=true " alt="Mandelson denies tax rise plans" class="alignleft" />
Lord Mandelson has denied Labour is planning further tax rises after the election while insisting all options must remain open to cut the deficit. He told a business conference tax rises “should that be further necessary” would be considered in spending review next year, if Labour wins the election. But he stressed later that did not mean Labour had “other tax plans” in addition to those already announced. The Tories said Labour was in “chaos” before Wednesday’s pre-election Budget. Chancellor Alistair Darling announced a raft of tax rises in November’s pre-Budget report including a further 0.5p rise in national insurance contributions from April 2011 – in addition to the 0.5p rise already announced – and a one-off 50% tax on bankers’ bonuses. In addition, the increase in income tax to 50% for those earning more than
March 19, 2010 | Posted in
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&cat=19&pid=7678&cache=true " alt="Mystery of Chinese lawyer deepens" class="alignleft" />
By Michael Bristow BBC News, Beijing The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng continues following comments from China’s foreign minister. Yang Jiechi said the well-known lawyer had been sentenced after being charged with subverting state power. But it was not immediately clear whether that referred to an old charge, or a new one brought against Mr Gao. There has been growing international concern about the activist, who disappeared more than a year ago. Mr Yang was speaking at a news conference in Beijing, held with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is currently visiting China. No clarification Mr Yang said: “Gao Zhisheng has been sentenced on the charge of subverting state power.” The Chinese foreign minister denied a suggestion that Mr Gao had been tortured, saying that his rights had been protected. ” We are willing to have human rights dialogue with the UK and other countries on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs ” Yang Jiechi Chinese Foreign Minister Where is lawyer Gao Zhisheng He said he hoped foreigners would respect China’s judicial system. “We are willing to have human rights dialogue with the UK and other countries on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,” Mr Yang added. Mr Miliband said that he had raised the lawyer’s case with the Chinese government. Mr Gao was given a three-year prison sentence – suspended for five years – for inciting subversion in 2006, but Mr Yang’s comment did not make it clear if new charges had since been brought. After Mr Yang spoke, the foreign ministry declined to clarify the comments. Rare case Mr Gao went missing at the beginning of last year. He was believed to be in police custody, but no-one knows for sure. His case is unusual because there has been little official word on what has happened to him – apart from several contradictory comments from Chinese officials. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said earlier this year that Mr Gao was “where he should be”. Last month, China’s embassy in Washington told a US-based human rights group, the Dui Hua Foundation, said Mr Gao was working in Urumqi, a city in the far west of the country. The foreign minister’s comments look set to deepen the speculation surrounding Gao Zhisheng.
March 16, 2010 | Posted in
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