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An advertising campaign for baby milk has been banned for claiming the product helps child brain development.

The advert for Hipp Organic said the follow-on milk contained essential Omega 3 fatty acids for healthy brain and nervous system development.

But the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled it was misleading and the claims cannot be used again.

Defending the advert, the company said the nutrients named are necessary for healthy mental development in toddlers.

Hipp Organic maintains the claim in the magazine advert related solely to the role of the dietary essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) in normal and healthy development of the brain and nervous system, and was not about mental performance.

The ASA said the advert implied a specific health benefit from the use of the product.

The advert for Hipp Organic was headlined “We’ve learnt from the breast” and said the follow-on milk contained essential Omega 3 fatty acids for healthy brain and nervous system development, adding: “All this ensures organic goodness to complement Mother Nature’s good work. Trust your natural instincts.”

The ASA said that information submitted to them by Hipp Organic “was not sufficiently robust to support the product’s claims in relation to healthy brain and nervous system development”.

“We therefore concluded that the ad was misleading,” said the ASA.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Drinking one or two units of alcohol a week during pregnancy does not raise the risk of developmental problems in the child, a study has suggested.

Official advice remains that women abstain completely during pregnancy.

A study of more than 11,000 five-year-olds published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found no evidence of harm.

There were more behavioural and emotional problems among the children of heavy-drinking women.

When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, it passes through the placenta and reaches the baby, which is less well-equipped to break it down.

Researchers have strongly linked heavy drinking to an increased risk of lifelong damage.

However, the evidence about the risks to lighter drinkers has been far less clear.

The study, led by University College London but involving three other UK universities, is the second by this group examining large numbers of children looking for signs that brain development had been affected.

The first had found no evidence of problems at age three, but the latest study extended the checks until school age to make sure nothing had emerged later.

The same result appeared, with no extra risk of behavioural and emotional issues compared with children whose mothers had abstained during pregnancy.

In fact, the children born to light drinkers appeared slightly less likely to suffer behavioural problems, and scored higher on cognitive tests, compared with women who stopped during pregnancy.

Dr Yvonne Kelly, from UCL, said : “There’s now a growing body of robust evidence that there is no increase in developmental difficulties associated with light drinking during pregnancy.”

She said that women could make “better decisions” with this information.

However, a spokesman for the Department of Health said that its advice would remain unchanged to avoid confusion among pregnant women.

“After assessing the available evidence, we cannot say with confidence that drinking during pregnancy is safe and will not harm your baby..

“Therefore, as a precautionary measure, our advice to pregnant women and women trying to conceive is to avoid alcohol.”

Additional advice from the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence urges women to avoid alcohol, particularly in the first three months of pregnancy.

This advice was backed by Chris Sorek, the chief executive of alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware.

He said: “Despite these findings, it is important to remember that ‘light drinking’ can mean different things to different people.

“There is a risk that if pregnant women take this research as a green light to drink a small amount, they could become complacent, drink more than they think they are and inadvertently cause harm to their unborn child.

“Excessive drinking during pregnancy can carry serious consequences and lifelong damage to children and should be avoided.”

But Dr Tony Falconer, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said that while the “safest choice” was abstinence, the current evidence suggested that drinking one or two units, once or twice a week was acceptable.

“The key public health message, whether or not a woman is pregnant, is that light drinking is fine, but heavy and binge drinking should be avoided.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

An airport cleaner who helped catch a notorious egg smuggler is to be given an award later.

John Struczynski became suspicious of Jeffrey Lendrum, 48, and found discarded egg boxes at Birmingham Airport in May.

Lendrum was arrested and found in possession of 14 peregrine falcon eggs. He was jailed for 30 months in August.

Mr Struczynski will be presented with a limited edition bird print by the environment minister and the RSPB.

Lendrum, of York Close, Towcester, Northamptonshire, was arrested by counter-terrorism officers as he waited to board a flight to Dubai.

He was caught with the rare eggs, valued at £70,000 on the black market, strapped to his body.

Lendrum, who had previous convictions in Zimbabwe and Canada for stealing rare eggs, had asked to use a shower room in the VIP Emirates Lounge.

But Mr Struczynski spotted him dashing in and out the cubicle. He became suspicious when he noticed the cubicle was still dry.

He checked bins in the room nearby where he discovered two discarded egg boxes, which contained a single red-coloured egg.

The cleaner contacted counter-terrorism officers who searched Lendrum.

The former member of the Rhodesian SAS had wrapped the eggs, which had been stolen from a nest in south Wales, in socks before taping them to his chest to keep them warm.

Andy McWilliam, investigations officer for the National Wildlife Crime Unit, said: “Jeffrey Lendrum was operating at the highest global level of wildlife crime. This is a significant catch.”

At first Lendrum claimed they were chicken eggs he had bought at Waitrose before trying to fool police by saying he used them to treat his bad back.

However, at Warwick Crown Court in August, he admitted attempting to smuggle rare bird eggs out of Britain.

After the eggs were seized by police, 11 of them were successfully hatched and the highly-protected chicks released back into the wild.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon said: “Tackling the persecution of birds of prey is a wildlife crime priority across the whole of the UK and strong legislation is in place to protect and conserve our wildlife.

“I am grateful to Mr Struczynski for his quick thinking which helped to bring a peregrine falcon egg smuggler to justice.”

Mr Struczynski will be presented with a framed limited edition print of an avocet and thanked by RSPB conservation director Mark Avery and police at a ceremony in Birmingham.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The number of job vacancies grew last month, but at the slowest rate in almost a year, a survey of recruitment firms has suggested.

The findings of the latest survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) suggest a continued weakening in the UK jobs market.

The number of people appointed to permanent jobs in September also grew by its slowest pace in 12 months.

That has affected pay, with wage inflation at a 10-month low.

Kevin Green, the REC’s chief executive, warned that the figures indicated the jobs market could be heading for its own “double dip”.

“[The report] shows that the jobs market is starting to flatline and may herald a ‘double dip’ in employment,” he said.

“While there is growth, these figures are the worst we have seen for a year.

“The government must do everything possible to avert the threat of increasing unemployment.”

Accountants KPMG, who commissioned the survey alongside the REC, said the figures also showed a contrast in fortunes for the private and public sectors.

There is continued strong demand for engineering, construction and executive staff, reflecting a recovery in the private sector, the accountants said.

But there had been sharp falls in demand for public sector staff, reflecting widespread hiring freezes or even redundancy programmes.

Bernard Brown, head of business services at KPMG, said the sharp decline in demand for healthcare workers seen in September had come “as a direct result of government cut backs and efforts to reform the NHS”.

He added that it may “be a sign of things to come”.

According to the latest official unemployment figures, the jobless rate currently stands at 7.8%, with 2.47 million people out of work.

Although the number of unemployed people has fallen in recent months, there is concern that the government’s planned cuts to public services could see that figure rise again.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa extends emergency rule until the end of the week following last Thursday’s police revolt.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Card fraud losses in the first six months of the year were at their lowest level for 10 years, at just £187m, the banking industry says.

Online banking fraud was 36% lower than in the first half of last year, at £25m, said the UK Cards Association.

Phone banking fraud was up 9% to £6m, but cheque fraud losses fell 13% to £14m.

The half-year figures follow the 28% drop in card fraud reported for the whole of 2009.

That was the biggest annual drop since current statistics were first published in 1999.

“These figures are testament to the importance that the UK’s card companies place on driving down card fraud losses and reducing any inconvenience to customers,” said Melanie Johnson of the UK Cards Association.

The booming use of plastic cards, along with the growth of telephone and internet banking in the past decade, has offered a field day to fraudsters.

In the 11 years from 1999 to 2009, the UK banking industry and retailers lost £4.7bn to plastic card fraud.

For the time being, though, the various security measures promoted by the industry in recent years have been having some effect.

As well as using chip-and-pin numbers on cards here and abroad, banks are increasingly using online verification software when people use plastic cards to shop online.

The UK Cards Association said fraud on cards abroad had halved in the past two years.

“One of the factors causing this is the fraud detection systems used by the banks and card companies, which monitor for unusual spending – meaning that potential fraud is stopped before it happens,” it said.

“The increasing rollout of chip-and-pin in more and more countries around the world also makes it harder for criminals to commit counterfeit card fraud.”

The various types of card fraud, such as card numbers being used for phone, internet or mail order fraud, or the use of fake cards, still dwarf online and phone banking fraud, and still produce huge losses for the banks and retailers.

Those card losses reached a peak in 2008 of £610m, but have been falling since then.

Reported phishing attacks, where people are sent fraudulent emails in an attempt to fool them into revealing their bank account details, are still rising, with more than 31,000 cases reported in the first half of 2010.

Cheque fraud has been falling, partly due to the rapid drop in their use.

Many retailers have stopped accepting them and cheque guarantee cards, first introduced in 1969, will stop being used at the end of June 2011.

“The overwhelming majority of attempted cheque fraud gets stopped before the cheque is paid,” the UK Cards Association said.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

American businessman Tim Leiweke may not be a name that is familiar to most UK sports fans.

But he is the man who took David Beckham to the US to play football for LA Galaxy, and he has helped transform London’s Millennium Dome into the critically acclaimed O2 sport and music arena.

And just last week the firm he works for, AEG, announced it wanted to take over London’s Olympic Stadium, post-2012, in conjunction with Tottenham Hotspur.

Positive influence

As chief executive of AEG, Mr Leiweke is at the head of a firm that owns sports franchises such as ice hockey team the Los Angeles Kings.

It also owns venues such as the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Beijing Olympic Basketball Arena, and major stadiums in other cities such as Sydney, Hamburg, Stockholm and Berlin.