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ChildLine receives hundreds of calls every year about sex abuse by women, the NSPCC says after the leader of a paedophile ring involving women was jailed.

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The governments want to speed up the time it takes to evict tenants engaging in serious anti-social behaviour.

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Why men who say they dreamt up Facebook want a bigger pay-out

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Ex-Formula 1 motorsport boss Max Mosley is to go to the European court in a bid to strengthen privacy laws protecting celebrities and public figures.

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Ivory Coast’s ambassador to the UN says a unity government could be possible if Laurent Gbagbo drops his claim to the presidency.

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Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says announcement by Basque separatist group Eta of a permanent ceasefire does not go far enough.

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Veteran Cuban anti-communist militant and former CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles has gone on trial in the US on immigration charges.

Mr Posada Carriles, 82, is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba over two deadly bomb attacks and plots to kill the former Cuban president, Fidel Castro

US authorities have refused to extradite him to Cuba or Venezuela, saying he might be tortured there.

Cuba and Venezuela have accused the US of harbouring a convicted terrorist.

Mr Posada Carriles is on trial in El Paso, Texas, on charges of entering the US illegally in 2005.

He said he sneaked across the border from Mexico into Texas, but prosecutors say he actually arrived in Miami, Florida, by boat using a fake passport.

He is also accused of lying to immigration officials about his alleged role in bomb attacks in Cuba.

Jury selection for the trial has begun, but most of the evidence in the trial is sealed.

The left-wing governments of Cuba and Venezuela say Mr Posada Carriles should be facing far more serious charges, and have accused the US of protecting him because of his CIA past.

The Cuban-born Venezuelan citizen spent decades trying to overthrow the communist government in Cuba, and is seen as a hero by some anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the US.

He is accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner in which 73 people were killed.

He was jailed in Venezuela over the bombing, but escaped from prison in 1985.

He was then jailed in Panama in 2000 for plotting the assassination of his arch-enemy, the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, but was pardoned and released four years later.

The Cuban authorities say he was also behind the bombing of a Havana hotel, in 1997, that killed an Italian tourist.

Mr Posada Carriles has always denied involvement in the airline bombing and the alleged plot against Castro in Panama, but admits fighting for “freedom” in Cuba.

Declassified US documents show that he worked for the CIA between 1965 and 1976.

He is also said to have worked for the intelligence agencies of Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina and Chile, and to have supported Contra rebels in Nicaragua, during his long campaign against left-wing influence in Latin America.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Mr Posada Carriles acknowledged that times had changed, and he could no longer rely on protection from the US government.

“The people who worked with me in the government are not the same as the ones there today,” he said.

“It was other times. For those there today, I am a bad guy.”

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People who recover from swine flu may be left with an extraordinary natural ability to fight off flu viruses, findings suggests.

In beating a bout of H1N1 the body makes antibodies that can kill many other flu strains, a study in the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows.

Doctors hope to harness this power to make a universal flu vaccine that would protect against any type of influenza.

Ultimately this could replace the “best guess” flu vaccines currently used.

Such a vaccine is the “holy grail” for flu researchers. Many scientists are already testing different prototypes to put an end to the yearly race to predict coming flu strains and quickly mass produce a new vaccine each flu season.

Dr Patrick Wilson who led the latest research said the H1N1 swine flu virus that reached pandemic levels infecting an estimated 60 million people last year, had provided a unique opportunity for researchers.

“It demonstrates how to make a single vaccine that could potentially provide immunity to all influenza.

“The surprise was that such a very different influenza strain, as opposed to the most common strains, could lead us to something so widely applicable.”

In the nine patients they studied who had caught swine flu during the pandemic, they found the infection had triggered the production of a wide range of antibodies that are only very rarely seen after seasonal flu infections or flu vaccination.

Five antibodies isolated by the team could fight all the seasonal H1N1 flu strains from the last decade, the devastating “Spanish flu” strain from 1918 which killed up to 50m people, plus a potentially deadly bird flu H5N1 strain.

The researchers believe the “extraordinarily” powerful antibodies were created as the body learned how to fight the new infection with swine flu using its old memory of how to fight off other flu viruses.

Next they plan to examine the immune response of people who were vaccinated against last year’s swine flu but did not get sick to see if they too have the same super immunity to flu.

Dr Sarah Gilbert is a expert in viruses at Oxford University and has been testing her own prototype universal flu vaccine.

She said: “Many scientists are working to develop a vaccine that would protect against the many strains of flu virus.

“This work gives us more confidence that it will be possible to generate a universal flu vaccine.”

But she said it would take many years for a product to go through the necessary tests and trials.

“It will take at least five years before anything like this could be widely available.”

The number of deaths this winter from flu verified by the Health Protection Agency currently is 50, with 45 of these due to swine flu.

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Action is needed to help people who suffer long-term pain, the Patients Association says.

The survey of more than 4,400 people found while many had suffered chronic problems, too few were given the help or support to deal with it.

The report called on the government to improve access to services and training of staff.

Chronic pain is pain lasting more than 12 weeks. About eight million people are thought to suffer at any one time.

But the report, funded by Napp, a drugs firm which specialises in pain control, said there was just one pain specialist for every 32,000 sufferers.

In total, more than a third of people surveyed had suffered chronic pain at some point, including everyone from those who have back pain to people recovering from surgery.

Of those who answered questions about their treatment when they had pain a third were unsure how to use prescribed medication and half were not aware of potential side effects.

Only 23% had been referred to a pain specialist, with many having to rely on GPs.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said the findings were “shocking”.

“With a lack of robust information, patients must rely on GPs and healthcare professionals who are often not equipped to deal with the specific problems that chronic pain can present.

“We need better information for patients to be able to make informed choices and complete decisions about their care.”

Anne Begg, chair of the all-party parliamentary chronic pain group, added: “Patients need to have the confidence to go to their doctor and talk about their pain without fear of being treated as a nuisance.

“They need employers to recognise that chronic pain is a seriously debilitating condition and healthcare professionals need a clear pain pathway in the NHS to follow.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman said the government was looking to carry out a thorough audit of pain services.

“Despite examples of good practice, we recognise there is unacceptable variation in the care people receive.”

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Language lessons are “weak” in too many secondary schools in England, Ofsted has said.

Pupils were not given enough chances to use the language they were learning in class, often because teachers were not prepared to do so, it added.

In some schools, reading was not taught beyond exercises in course books or previous exam papers.

But primary schools were found to be doing well in developing the teaching of modern languages.

Reporting on developments in language teaching since 2008, Ofsted drew on evidence of visits to 92 primary schools, 90 secondary schools and one special school.

Since languages were made non-statutory in 2004, the proportion of students taking language GCSEs has fallen from 61% in 2005 to 44% in 2010.

But the previous government had required all primary schools to offer languages to older pupils (Key Stage 2) by 2010.

Inspectors said progress towards providing this entitlement was good and that achievement was good or outstanding in six out of 10 primary schools visited.

They also said pupils’ enjoyment of language learning in primaries was “clear”.

“They were usually very enthusiastic, looked forward to lessons, understood why it was important to learn another language and were developing a good awareness of other cultures,” the report said.

However, Ofsted added: “Secondary schools were not always building effectively on the progress made by children at primary schools.”

It recommended that secondary schools think urgently how they could best build on the advances in primary school language teaching and learning.

Although inspectors found progress was good or outstanding in more than half of the 470 lessons observed, they said there “weaknesses” in too many lessons – particularly in speaking, listening and reading.

They also highlighted the lack of opportunities for students to use the languages they were learning.

The report said: “Too often, students were not taught how to respond to everyday requests and thus routine work in the target language and opportunities to use it spontaneously were too few.”

Inspectors also criticised the way reading was taught in some schools.

They said that in these schools: “Reading was not taught beyond exercises in course books or previous examination papers and teachers made insufficient use of the wealth of authentic material that is available to develop students’ speaking, listening, writing, knowledge about language, language learning strategies and intercultural awareness.”

Nonetheless, most secondary students were found to have positive attitudes to learning languages despite low take-up at GCSE.

But inspectors warned that GCSE teaching focused on achieving good exam results and that this did not always prepare pupils for study at a more advanced level.

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said young people could gain tremendously from learning an additional language.

“However, too many students are failing to reach their potential, and do not choose to undertake more advanced study beyond 16, because of the way they are taught languages in many secondary schools.”

A Department for Education spokesman said it would be encouraging more secondary pupils to take modern foreign language GCSEs through its introduction of the English Baccalaureate.

This is not a new qualification in itself, but a way of measuring how many pupils in a school pass GCSEs in a science, language and history or geography, as well as English and maths.

Ministers have said they will give it prominence in school performance league tables.

The spokesman added: “Ofsted has cited good progress in the teaching of languages in primary schools which is something the government wants to promote further so that pupils start secondary education with a good grounding in a modern foreign language.”

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The Organisation of American States will reportedly recommend that the governing party candidate in Haiti’s presidential election should be dropped from the run-off vote.

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UK’s manufacturers enjoy export boom, but service sector weaker

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An undercover officer who infiltrated a group of green activists apologised to them for his “betrayal” months before they were due to go on trial.

In taped conversation obtained by BBC Newsnight, Pc Mark Kennedy told an activist he was “sorry” and “wanted to make amends”.

The trial of six activists, accused of conspiring to shut down a power station, collapsed on Monday.

Mr Kennedy had offered to give evidence on the campaigners’ behalf.

Nottinghamshire Police has asked the Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate the circumstances leading to the collapse of the case.

The six environmental activists were accused of conspiring to shut down the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottingham.

In the taped phone conversation, which was made in November, Mr Kennedy admitted he had been in the police, but said he was not now.

He said: “I hate myself so much I betrayed so many people.

“I owe it to a lot of good people to do something right for a change… I’m really sorry.

“If I can help in any way then I’d like to.”

He also suggested there were other undercover policemen involved in the protest movement.

“I’m not the only one – not by a long shot,” he said.

Mr Kennedy had been intimately involved in the green movement since 2000.

He told the campaigners’ defence team he would be prepared to help them, and the prosecution then offered no evidence before the trial was due to get under way.

Speaking outside Nottingham Crown Court after the collapse of his clients’ trial, solicitor Mike Schwarz said police need to answer “serious questions” about Mr Kennedy’s actions and efforts to charge the activists were a “serious attack on peaceful, accountable protest”.

He said: “My clients were not guilty. They did not agree to join in any plan to occupy the power station. The evidence of Pc Kennedy presumably confirmed this.

“Yet that evidence, had it been kept secret, could have led to a miscarriage of justice.”

A CPS spokeswoman said that “previously unavailable information that significantly undermined the prosecution’s case” had come to light on 5 January.

She said: “In light of this information, the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the case and decided there was no longer sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.”

The Met Police are refusing to comment officially on Mr Kennedy and would not say whether or not he is still a police officer.

Twenty protesters were sentenced to a mixture of community orders and conditional discharges last week, after being convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe.

Mr Schwarz said the case raised “key questions” over the cost of deploying the undercover officer and whether it was reasonable to incur “hundreds of thousands of pounds”.

He added: “One expects there to be undercover police on serious operations to investigate serious crime. This was quite the opposite.

“This is civil disobedience which has a long history in this country and should be protected.”

Mr Schwarz had earlier said he had “no doubt that our attempts to get disclosure about Kennedy’s role has led to the collapse of the trial”.

He added: “It is no coincidence that just 48 hours after we told the CPS our clients could not receive a fair trial unless they disclosed material about Kennedy, they halted the prosecution.”

Danny Chivers, who was one of the six defendants in the failed case, said Mr Kennedy was not just an observer, but an agent provocateur.

“We’re not talking about someone sitting at the back of the meeting taking notes – he was in the thick of it.”

Mr Kennedy lived a double life as Mark Kennedy of the Metropolitan Police and as Mark Stone, green activist, based in Nottingham.

He was known within the green campaign as Mark “Flash” Stone, having earned the nickname because he always seemed to have more money than the other activists.

But in October 2010, Mr Kennedy was confronted by some of the activists after they found documents which revealed his true identity.

He admitted he had been a Met Police officer and had infiltrated their organisations, before then disappearing.

Speaking about the Ratcliffe-on-Soar protest, Mr Chivers said: “Mark Stone was involved in organising this for months – they could have stopped it at the start.”

Instead, Mr Chivers said the police officer helped recruit as many people as possible.

He also drove a reconnaissance party to the power station in his van and then hired a truck for the main protest, Mr Chivers added.

The activists’ plan was to try to shut down the coal-fired power station for a few days as a protest against global warming.

But in April 2009, when 114 people had gathered for a meeting at the Iona School in Nottingham, hundreds of police swooped on the building and arrested them all for “conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass”.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar was one of many actions in Britain and across Europe which Mr Kennedy was involved in, including the protests against the G8 summit at Gleneagles in 2005 which helped give birth to the Climate Camp movement.

When confronted, Mr Kennedy told the activists he left the police after the Nottingham arrests in 2009.

It is unclear whether this is true, or where he is now.

David Winnick, a Labour member of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, has called for Home Secretary Theresa May to make a statement to MPs on the case, saying his concern was “the manner in which it has been alleged that Kennedy acted almost as an agent provocateur”.

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UK retail sales fell last month as snow and job security fears hit consumer spending, says the British Retail Consortium.

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UK economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to an estimate from the British Chambers of Commerce.

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