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Wine retailer Oddbins is set to go into administration after failing to reach a deal with its creditors.
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Almost all of the UK’s radio broadcasters have joined forces to launch a system for listening to stations over the internet.
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The US will put no “boots on the ground” in Libya, the US defence secretary reaffirms, after revelations President Obama authorised covert CIA aid to rebels.
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Moussa Koussa is quitting Col Gaddafi’s regime, UK officials say Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa has been questioned by officials after arriving in the UK unexpectedly late on Wednesday.
He flew in from Tunisia. The UK Foreign Office said he was “no longer willing” to work for Colonel Gaddafi.
However a Libyan spokesman denied that Mr Moussa had defected and said he was on a diplomatic mission.
His arrival in the UK comes as Libyan rebels retreat from former strongholds along the eastern coast.
They are in full retreat from Brega, having lost the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad.
In the west, the rebel-held town of Misrata is still reportedly coming under attack from pro-Gaddafi troops, reports say.
A British Foreign Office spokesperson said Mr Koussa – who is in his early 60s – had arrived at Farnborough airport, west of London, on Wednesday evening.
“He has told us that he is resigning his post. We are discussing this with him and we will release further details in due course.
“Moussa Koussa is one of the most senior figures in Gaddafi’s government and his role was to represent the regime internationally – something that he is no longer willing to do.
“We encourage those around Gaddafi to abandon him and embrace a better future for Libya that allows political transition and real reform that meets the aspirations of the Libyan people.”
The Foreign Office in London called on other members of the Libyan government to abandon Col Gaddafi.
UK intelligence officials hope that his deep knowledge of the Libyan regime will help bring about its early end, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Humphrey Hawksley.
Mr Koussa arrived in London on what is believed to have been a British military plane, our correspondent adds.
A senior US administration official, speaking to AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, said: “This is a very significant defection and an indication that people around Gaddafi think the writing’s on the wall.”
Earlier, British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that five Libyan diplomats were being expelled from the country.
In terms of the defection of Moussa Koussa, the view of many Libyans is that Col Gaddafi operates a one-man-band dictatorship, and the defection of a minister – while certainly not good news – is survivable for Gaddafi.
After all, this revolution is led by another defecting minister, Mustafa Mohammed Abdul Jalil, and Col Gaddafi seems pretty much to have shrugged off his defection.
What Col Gaddafi really relies on is an inner core of people who are led by his sons and other members of his family and clan. It is their loyalty that is really crucial.
He told MPs that the five, who include the military attache, “could pose a threat” to Britain’s security.
The BBC’s Ben Brown, in the eastern coastal town of Ajdabiya, says the rebels simply cannot compete with the discipline and firepower of Col Gaddafi’s forces.
He says the current situation is a dramatic about-turn for the rebels who, over the weekend, had seized a string of towns along the coast and seemed to be making good progress with the help of coalition air strikes.
Most reports suggested the rebels had fled back to Ajdabiya, and some witnesses said civilians had begun to flee further east towards the rebel-held city of Benghazi.
Maj Gen Suleiman Mahmoud, the second-in-command for the rebels, told the BBC that rebels forces needed time, patience and help to organise themselves.
“Our problem [is] we need help – communication, radios, we need weapons,” he said, adding that the rebels had a strategy but fighters did not always obey orders.
He also said allied liaison officers were working with the rebels to organise raids.
Human Rights Watch has accused Col Gaddafi’s forces of laying both anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines during the current conflict after a discovery of what it said were dozens of mines on the eastern outskirts of Ajdabiya.
France and the US say they are sending envoys to Benghazi to meet the interim administration.
And an international conference on Libya in London has agreed to set up a contact group involving Arab governments to co-ordinate help for a post-Gaddafi Libya.
The US and Britain have suggested the UN resolution authorising international action in Libya could also permit the supply of weapons.
This message was reinforced by British Prime Minister David Cameron in parliament on Wednesday.
“UN [Security Council Resolution] 1973 allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas, and our view is this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances,” he said. “We do not rule it out, but we have not taken the decision to do so.”
Meanwhile, US media reports say President Barack Obama has authorised covert support for the Libyan rebels. The CIA and White House have both declined to comment on the reports.
Several thousand people have been killed and thousands wounded since the uprising against Col Gaddafi’s rule began more than six weeks ago.
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Colonel Gaddafi’s forces have continued to clash with rebels along the Libyan coastline, managing to push the opposition further back towards Ajdabiya.
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The Royal Marines canoed by night during the secret World War II mission Operation Frankton A memorial to the Royal Marines who canoed almost 100 miles behind enemy lines to blow up ships in a daring World War II raid has been unveiled in France. But what did the secret mission entail, and why was it so important?
For 10 marines in December 1942, their secret mission was so daring and dramatic they were hailed as the Cockleshell Heroes and in 1955, immortalised in film.
Unbeknown to them when they signed up for “hazardous service”, their job was to the attack enemy German ships moored at the port of Bordeaux in occupied France from their canoes.
Only two men survived to tell the tale, but its significance reportedly led Winston Churchill to say he believed the raid could have shortened the war by six months.
“It was one of the worst years in World War II, Great Britain’s fortunes were at a low ebb,” said Royal Marines historian Maj Mark Bentinck.
“One thing that Britain realised was happening though, was the Germans had a fleet of about 25 ships that were shipping essential materials – such as oils and natural rubber – that they needed for the war effort, back from the Far East.
“They were also shipping hi-tech things like fuses for shells, ball bearings from Europe to the Far East.
“We realised if we could intercept and sink the ships that would greatly help us and damage them,” he said.
UK forces could have bombed the ships, but that would have led to a significant amount of collateral damage to the city of Bordeaux. Catching the vessels at sea would have been difficult, so the best place to target them had been in port, Maj Bentinck said.
Veteran Norman Colley, injured before the raid, says it was a “suicide mission”
Maj Bentinck said it was a Royal Marine, Maj Herbert “Blondie” Hasler, who came up with the idea of using canoes to paddle up the river and plant limpet mines on the ships.
After about four months of training around Portsmouth, the plan – named Operation Frankton – came to fruition.
At the end of November 1942, 12 Royal Marines set off from Portsmouth on Royal Navy submarine HMS Tuna.
On 7 December, 10 marines were launched near the mouth of Gironde river in five two-man canoes.
Trouble struck when they reached the rapids at the mouth of the river and two canoes were lost. Two men drowned and the other two were captured and executed.
Shortly afterwards, another canoe was wrecked at sea. The men made it to shore but were also later captured and killed.
Only two crews made it almost the 100 miles to the port – canoeing solely by night and resting by day – to plant mines on the enemy ships. Five were badly damaged in the raid.
The four marines returned down the river, destroyed their canoes and made their way 100 miles on foot through German-occupied France to rendezvous with the French Resistance in Ruffec.
Two men – Maj Hasler and Cpl Bill Sparks – made it, but Marine Bill Mills and Cpl Albert Laver, who won posthumous Mentions in Despatches for their part in the mission, were caught by the French police who handed them over to the Germans. They were later executed.
Maj Herbert “Blondie” Hasler and Cpl Bill Sparks (right) were the only two survivors Maj Bentinck said, despite the loss of life, the project was seen as a success.
“First of all it was a great morale raiser, in a war not going our way. Secondly, it was a great irritation to the Germans, who would have had an enormous manpower bill in terms of defending other ships.”
He said those involved in the raid were regarded as “inspirational”.
“It was a risky operation. And in terms of endurance, the water was freezing, it was winter, there was little room in the canoes, and every night they had to drag them half a mile through mud to catch the tide. These were hardy people,” he said.
But he said the British memorial unveiled in the Pointe de Grave – on the headland at the mouth of the River Gironde close to where the marines were delivered by submarine – was as much for the people of Aquitaine, France, as a dedication to the Cockleshell Heroes.
Retired marine Maj Malcolm Cavan, who came up with the idea of the memorial, said he wanted to recognise the part played by French civilians, who had also risked their lives to help and shelter the marines during the raid.
“I became conscious of the huge amount the French had done to reawaken the French consciousness to Cockleshell. They had quietly erected plaques in relevant places – where marines were captured, compromised and executed. What stood out in my mind was the absence of any British memorial in France.
“I thought it was right to focus on the French courage and sacrifice – we wanted a memorial that recognised the French as well as the Royal Navy.
“These were ordinary young people caught up in World War II, who rose to the challenge. There was a huge amount of audacity and courage.
“They were prepared to take it on, and some of them paid for it with their lives,” he said.
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The children’s mother was seriously injured in the fire The deaths of three children in a house fire in Bridlington were accidental, a coroner has ruled.
Maddie Hudson, three, William Beale, nine, and Anthony Fothergill, five, died in the fire on 11 November.
Their mother, Samantha Hudson, should not have been resuscitated as she now has “no quality of life”, grandmother Susan Hudson told the inquest.
Hull Coroner’s Court heard the likely cause of the fire was a discarded cigarette.
Samantha was last seen by her brother Mark, who had been babysitting for her, and after she returned home at about 2300 GMT he left her sat on the floor smoking and drinking, the court heard.
Humberside Fire and Rescue Service said it was in the spot that the fire started, and they believe it was caused by a cigarette that had accidentally fallen onto a pile of children’s clothes.
Police had said there was nothing to indicate the fire was started deliberately.
The court heard that when she heard the smoke alarm, Samantha took all the children as far away from the flames as possible.
Samantha Hudson, pictured with her daughter Maddie, is seriously ill But that was to a second-floor bedroom where all the windows were locked and there was no key, so the group were trapped.
Earlier, paramedic Simon Leeson told the court that he was the first on the scene and decided to work on the 27-year-old mother as she was showing signs of life.
Susan Hudson asked him: “How long was she starved of oxygen?
“She will never be Samantha again. It just seems to me Samantha should never have been brought back.”
The children’s 27-year-old mother spent months in hospital before being moved to a rehabilitation centre near Goole, where she continues to receive treatment.
She was unable to attend the funeral of her children.
Coroner Geoffrey Saul recorded a verdict of accidental death for all three children.
A Humberside fire service spokesman said: “This was a tragic event with the most dreadful consequences.
“Samantha Hudson was incredibly brave when she put her own life in danger to try to save her children in what must have been a terrifying situation.”
The service said careless disposal of cigarettes is the single biggest cause of house fires.
The spokesman added: “In 2010 there were ten deaths in house fires in the Humberside area, all of which were caused by carelessly discarded smoking materials.”
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Education Minister Leighton Andrews approves plans to close the sixth forms at four secondary schools in Merthyr Tydfil despite campaigns to keep them.
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The Portuguese governments admits it overshot its 2010 budget deficit target, sending its cost of borrowing to yet new highs.
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Ministers are aiming to cut the prison population by 3,000 over four years Birmingham and Featherstone Prisons are to be run by G4S and Doncaster Prison by Serco, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has told MPs.
Mr Clarke said that Her Majesty’s Prison Service had been selected to run Buckley Hall Prison after the competition between public and private bidders that was launched in 2009.
Birmingham is the first existing public sector prison to be privatised.
It holds 1400 inmates and has 752 staff.
BBC Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw says prison staff were being told the result of the tender at noon on Thursday.
He said the Prison Officer’s Association has a mandate from its members to take industrial action if any prisons are contracted out to the private sector.
Mr Clarke also said Wellingborough Prison had been withdrawn from the competition.
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Austrian judo medallist Claudia Heill, who won silver at the Athens Olympics, dies after falling from a sixth floor window in Vienna.
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Edward Stobart (r) sold the firm to his brother in 2004 Haulage magnate Edward Stobart, who built up the Eddie Stobart lorry empire and ran it for more than 30 years, has died at the age of 56.
He suffered what were described as “heart problems” on Wednesday and died this morning in hospital in Coventry.
He took the business started by his father Eddie and built it into the best known haulage company in the UK.
Mr Stobart sold the firm to his brother William and business partner Andrew Tinkler in 2004.
He took the business from a local firm delivering fertiliser to a company with more than 1,000 trucks.
The firm now has its own fan club with more than 25,000 members.
The Stobart Group said in a statement: “Our thoughts are with Edward’s wife Mandy, his children and family at this difficult time.”
Editors’ Picks All Comments (32) 
such a sad loss and so suddena sad day for all Eddie stobbarts friends colleguesand customers.He was a true Buisnessman in every way.
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Oxford and Cambridge universities failed to boost the proportion of students coming from state schools in the last full academic year, statistics show.
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Environmental group Greenpeace has been monitoring levels of radioactivity at the village of Iitate UN nuclear monitors have advised Japan to consider expanding the evacuation zone around the stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
An exclusion zone with a radius of 20km (12 miles) is currently in place but the UN says safe radiation limits have been exceeded 40km away.
Meanwhile, radioactive iodine levels in seawater near the plant reached a new record – 4,385 times the legal limit.
It was the highest reading since the quake which hit the plant on 11 March.
Radiation may be leaking from the damaged plant continuously, the country’s nuclear and industrial safety agency (Nisa) said.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), announced on Wednesday that the four stricken reactors would be decommissioned.
A massive tsunami which resulted from the quake is now known to have claimed at least 11,417 lives, with 16,273 people still reported missing by police, three weeks on.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog (International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA) found safe radiation limits had been exceeded at the village of Iitate, 40km north-west of the nuclear plant.
“The highest values were found in a relatively small area in the north-west from the Fukushima power plant and the first assessment indicates that one of the IAEA operational criteria for evacuation is exceeded in Iitate village,” senior IAEA official Denis Flory said.
Japan’s top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, said on Thursday that the IAEA had advised the government to “carefully assess the situation on the basis of this report”.
“I don’t think that this is something of a nature which immediately requires such action,” he told reporters.
“But the fact that the level of radiation is high in the soil is inevitably pointing to the possibility that the accumulation over the long term may affect human health.
“Therefore, we will continue monitoring the level of radiation with heightened vigilance and we intend to take action if necessary.”
The US and UK earlier advised their citizens in Japan to keep at least 80km from the plant.
The US is to send a 140-member radiation control team to assist Japanese authorities at the plant, Kyodo News agency quoted Japan’s military chief, General Ryoichi Oriki, as saying.
The new radioactive iodine levels in seawater near the plant – 4,385 times the legal limit – were reported by Nisa.
On Wednesday, radioactive iodine was estimated to be 3,355 times the legal limit, while previously the figure had been put at 1,850 times the legal limit.
Radioactive iodine was blamed for the high incidence of thyroid cancer among children exposed to fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
Nisa’s director-general, Hidehiko Nishiyama, told reporters the new levels did not present a health risk because nearby residents had already been evacuated.
Officials point out that no fishing is allowed in the area. Because the radiation should disperse as it is carried away by the tides, they do not think there will be a serious threat to marine life.
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Gen Mangou’s troops have been pushed back in an major offensive by pro-Ouattara forces this week Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo’s army chief has sought refuge at the home of South Africa’s ambassador in Abidjan, South Africa’s foreign ministry says.
Phillippe Mangou was accompanied by his wife and children, a statement said.
The news came as forces loyal to the UN-recognised president, Alassane Ouattara, were reported to be on the outskirts of the main city of Abidjan.
Mr Gbagbo continues to cling to power in Abidjan, despite the UN saying he lost November’s poll.
In a televised address, Mr Ouattara has called on government soldiers to join his forces.
Fighters loyal to Mr Ouattara began their advance south from their northern bases on Monday, capturing the capital, Yamoussoukro, and the key port of San Pedro on Wednesday.
The BBC’s John James in Yamoussoukro says almost the only area President Gbagbo still controls is Abidjan – 240km (150 miles) to the south of the capital.
Mr Gbagbo’s home town of Gagnoa has also fallen.
Since the crisis began in December, one million people have fled the violence – mostly from Abidjan – and at least 473 people have been killed, according to the UN.
The fall of San Pedro is a major blow for Laurent Gbagbo’s chances of staying in power.
It is the port that exports much of the country’s principal crop, cocoa beans, and it opens up an important supply route to the sea.
Abidjan itself remains tense. There are some civilian barricades around the presidential palace. Businesses remain closed as people wait for pro-Ouattara forces.
They are expected to descend on the city in the coming hours from the north, north-west and north-east. President Gbagbo looks increasingly isolated and surrounded.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations said Gen Mangou arrived at their ambassador’s official residence in Abidjan with his family on Wednesday night.
“The South African government is in consultation with the relevant parties in the Ivory Coast, Economic Community of West African States, the African Union and the United Nations regarding this matter,” the statement said.
According to the AFP news agency, Gen Mangou fled a day after state television read out a statement from him urging Mr Gbagbo’s supporters to enlist in the army if they are “willing to die for their country”.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Mr Gbagbo’s circle, adding to economic measures already taken by the EU and African groups.
The UN resolution, drafted by France and Nigeria, imposes a travel ban and assets freeze on Mr Gbagbo, his wife Simone and three of his closest associates.
Residents on the outskirts of Abidjan report heavy fighting around the entry to the city on Thursday morning.
Our correspondent says there are several reports that the main prison has been broken into and the prisoners set free.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch says it has evidence that migrants from other West African countries are being targeted by pro-Gbagbo forces because they are seen as being sympathetic to Mr Ouattara.
473 killed, one million fled since disputed election9,000 UN peacekeepers monitor 2003 ceasefireWorld’s largest cocoa producerOnce haven of peace and prosperity in West AfricaAlassane Ouattara recognised as president-electInternational sanctions imposed to force Laurent Gbagbo to goIs all-out war inevitable?
The US-based rights group has documented the massacre of at least 37 foreign workers in a small village in the west, after forces loyal to Mr Ouattara passed through on their advance south.
“As they were killing people, they accused us of being rebels… They said other things in English that I couldn’t understand,” a 34-year-old man from Burkina Faso told the group’s researchers.
“I saw 25 people killed with my own eyes. They killed women, with children, with men.”
There are approximately five million expatriate workers in Ivory Coast from neighbouring countries, who came to work on cocoa farms and tropical fruit plantations in what used to be the region’s economic powerhouse.
West Africans are also being targeted in Abidjan, some at checkpoints, others house-to-house, Human Rights Watch says.
One witness in Abidjan described an incident on Wednesday:
“At noon, the militiamen stopped a pick-up truck and asked the driver and his apprentice for their ID papers. The driver was told to go ahead, but they pulled the apprentice out of the passenger seat and fired four times at him. His body is still in the street.
“This is their way of targeting foreigners… they judge your background from your ID papers.”
Armed men supporting Mr Ouattara had also been killing pro-Gbagbo fighters and supporters, the Human Rights Watch statement said.
The pro-Ouattara forces have controlled the north of the country since a 2002 civil war.
Pro-Gbagbo troops have lost every battle against them since last November’s election, our reporter says.
The election was intended to reunify the country.
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