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Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce accuses Arsene Wenger of trying to use the media to influence referees and make Arsenal players untouchable.

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A new free-to-air, web-connected TV service combining Freeview digital channels with on-demand content such as iPlayer will launch in the UK in 2011.

YouView – formerly known as Project Canvas – is a partnership between BT, BBC ITV, BT, Five, Ch 4 and TalkTalk.

Users will access the service via a set-top box, which will go on sale next year.

YouView’s chief executive, Richard Halton, claimed it would “change the way we watch TV for ever”.

The set-top boxes will be sold either on a stand-alone basis, or as part of a package provided by internet service providers.

However, both the price and set-top box manufacturer has yet to be decided.

A spokesperson for YouView told BBC News that the door was open for firms to bid for the set-top box contract.

The principle behind YouView is that it should make it easier for viewers to catch up with programmes from the BBC iPlayer, ITV.com and 4OD on their TV set, rather than on a laptop, desktop, or smartphone.

The service will enable viewers to watch programmes up to seven days after broadcast, along with the ability to search programmes by type, such as films, sport and documentaries.

Mr Halton said the service “combines the best TV with on demand services and internet content”.

“I am delighted to be leading the team who will make it a reality.”

However, the project has come in from criticism from several quarters.

Sky’s director of corporate affairs, Graham McWilliam, has called it “nothing short of BBC mission creep” while Virgin Media lodged a complaint with media regulator Ofcom in August saying it was anti-competitive and could destroy the online TV market.

An earlier scheme, Project Kangaroo, was blocked by the Competition Commission at the start of 2010.

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Labour must end its obsession with courting favourable coverage from newspapers, leadership contender Ed Balls has said.

Mr Balls told the BBC that it was “absolutely essential” the next leader no longer “fudges” and “kowtows” to newspapers like the Daily Mail.

The desire to appease certain newspapers had contributed to Labour’s election defeat, he suggested.

He is one of five candidates standing, with the result due on 25 September.

Mr Balls, regarded to be trailing behind frontrunners David Miliband and Ed Miliband in the contest, said that in recent years Labour had acted as if keeping certain newspapers on side was more important than being clear about what it stood for.

“I felt he [Gordon Brown] trimmed and fudged his message to try and keep the Daily Mail happy in a way which meant that people did not know where we stood. I told him that many times,” the shadow education secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today.

“In the end, if you fudge your message and kowtow in one direction, to the extent that the Labour voter does not know where you stand, you pay a price.”

As well as the Miliband brothers, Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham are standing in the contest.

All five candidates are taking part in a special edition of the BBC’s Question Time later on Thursday.

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The Queen has paid tribute to the Vatican in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

She made the comments as she welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to Edinburgh on the first day of his four-day state visit to the UK.

The Queen said the UK deeply appreciated “the involvement of the Holy See in the dramatic improvement in the situation in Northern Ireland”.

The Pope said he wanted to hold out the hand of friendship to all the peoples of the United Kingdom.

The pontiff met the Queen and other dignitaries including the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and the first ministers of Scotland and Wales, at Holyrood House.

National anthems were sung outside, before an exchange of gifts in the palace’s state rooms.

Large crowds waving Scottish flags greeted the Pope as he was driven through the centre of Edinburgh to the traditional accompaniment of pipe bands.

He is due to travel to Glasgow for an open-air Mass later on Thursday.

The visit is the first to the UK by a Pontiff since John Paul II in 1982.

Some ticketed events during the four-day trip have not sold out and protests are planned over Vatican policies on birth control, gay rights and abortion.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, said the visit was eagerly anticipated.

“The Catholic tradition in this country is one of actually very profound loyalty to the person of the Holy Father,” he said.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said it will be “a very special four days, not just for our six million Catholics, but for many people of faith right across Britain”.

But the Pope’s visit is controversial among campaigners who say they were sexually abused by Catholic priests as children.

They have accused Church authorities of a culture of secrecy and of not taking strong enough steps against abusive priests.

In Edinburgh, Presbyterians, secularists, and other groups are planning to protest, but police have said they do not expect large-scale demonstrations.

A 60-strong delegation from the Free Presbyterian Church, including its founder Ian Paisley, now Lord Bannside, are to hold a “peaceful protest” in Edinburgh to show their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit.

In Camden, a traditionally Irish area in London, members of the Irish Women Survivors Support Network in the UK, will hold a silent, candlelit vigil in memory of those who suffered and died in Irish institutions run by religious orders.

“As women, what we have decided to do is to mark the Pope’s arrival in our own way,” said the group’s chair, Sally Mulready.

“That won’t be to go up to Westminster.

“We are going to have a silent vigil to remember the men and women in those institutions who didn’t make it, who died young and who died without ever reconciling with the Church, with the religious orders in particular who inflicted so much barbarity and cruelty and abuse on them.”

On Thursday evening, the Pope will hold an open-air Mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow – billed as the largest organised event during the visit.

Several hundred people from Northern Ireland are expected to attend the Mass.

It will be preceded by performances from an 800-strong choir, Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle, and Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus.

The Catholic Church in Scotland had hoped to attract up to 100,000 to the event, but later reduced the capacity to 65,000 after a slow take-up of tickets.

Ticket allocations were reduced for the Pope’s open-air Mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.

A similar mass given by Pope John Paul II 28 years ago attracted some 300,000 followers.

The Pope will fly to London on Thursday night and spend the next two days meeting religious and political leaders, Catholic groups and holding prayers and mass.

On Friday, the Popemobile will parade from Lambeth Bridge to Millbank, and on Saturday, along Horse Guards Road, The Mall and on to Hyde Park.

The Association of Chief Police Officers has estimated the cost of policing the trip at £1.5m.

Lord Patten, the prime minister’s representative for the visit, has said the total cost of the Pope’s stay to the taxpayer will be between £10m and £12m.

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Standards at children’s social services at Haringey Council have improved, a snap Ofsted inspection has found.

The north London department had been heavily criticised following the death of baby Peter Connelly in 2007.

The unannounced inspection found morale amongst both management and staff was good, although there were still areas for development.

The report is to form part of a more comprehensive annual review later in the year.

The Ofsted report following the inspection on 16 September concludes cases involving vulnerable children are being rigorously screened, and timely decisions taken following prompt investigations.

The inspectors say managers have a strong commitment to good quality social work, and the pressure on social workers is being closely monitored.

Haringey like, many councils, is putting more children on protection plans, a trend linked to the failings revealed by the Baby Peter case.

But there are still areas for development, including a need to demonstrate that plans for child safety have been fully implemented when cases are closed.

Peter was found dead in his cot at the age of 17 months in August 2007, after months of abuse.

He had been seen by health and social services professionals 60 times in the eight months before he died.

His mother, her partner and a lodger were all jailed for causing or allowing his death.

Sharon Shoesmith, the head of children’s services at Haringey at the time, was sacked as a result of the death.

The Education Secretary at the time, Ed Balls, had ordered her removal in December 2008 after receiving a damning report from Ofsted on child protection in Haringey.

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