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David Cameron is preparing for his first cabinet meeting as prime minister as he puts the finishing touches to his historic coalition government.

The Tory leader will announce a string of junior government posts, which will include further Lib Dem appointments.

He began the business of government on Wednesday evening with a first meeting of the new National Security Council.

It followed a press conference in the No 10 garden with deputy prime minister and coalition partner Nick Clegg.

The two men joked together as they set out what they wanted to achieve with their unprecedented power sharing arrangement – which Mr Cameron said could mark a "seismic shift" in British politics.

In addition to Mr Clegg, four other Lib Dems will be sitting around the cabinet table when the ministers gather at 0900 BST.

They are Vince Cable, who is business secretary; Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws; Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne; and Scottish Secretary Danny Alexander.

ID cards

There are expected to be 20 Liberal Democrat ministers at all levels across many departments, meaning nearly half of the parliamentary party will be members of the government.

The majority of cabinet ministers carry on with the briefs they held in opposition but there was a return to frontline politics for former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who becomes work and pensions secretary.

Theresa May was a surprise appointment as home secretary and she has already spoken of the challenges ahead as she tries to square the conflicting priorities of the coalition partners and deliver their jointly agreed programme.

She told BBC News: "We will be scrapping ID cards but also introducing an annual cap on the number of migrants coming into the UK from outside the European union."

She said there was a "process to be gone through" to decide the annual limit. The coalition government was committed to introducing elected police commissioners and cutting police paperwork to "give the police more time on the streets," she added.

On the DNA database, she said: "We are absolutely clear we need to make some changes in relation to the DNA database. For example one of the first things we will do is to ensure that all the people who have actually been convicted of a crime and are not present on it are actually on the DNA database.

"The last government did not do that. It focused on retaining the DNA data of people who were innocent. Let’s actually make sure that those who have been found guilty are actually on that database."

National Security

One junior government post was revealed on Wednesday evening, when Dame Pauline Neville-Jones took her seat as security minister at the first meeting of the National Security Council.

The body, made up of senior ministers, military chiefs and the heads of the security services, discussed the military situation in Afghanistan.

It was also briefed on the UK’s wider strategic and security position.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne and Foreign Secretary William Hague were among those who attended the Downing Street meeting.

The council was set up on Wednesday to co-ordinate the efforts of government departments and agencies to safeguard UK security.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The prime minister this evening chaired the first meeting of the newly established National Security Council.

"The prime minister began the meeting by paying a full tribute to the UK’s armed forces and expressed his personal admiration and gratitude for their dedication and sacrifice.

"He then received briefings on the political and military situation in Afghanistan, including from his new National Security Adviser, Sir Peter Ricketts, and from the Chief of the Defence Staff [Sir Jock Stirrup]. The prime minister was then updated on the wider UK security situation."

The Labour Party has meanwhile started the process of choosing a new leader after the resignation of Gordon Brown, who stood down as prime minster on Tuesday when it became clear that the Lib Dems had decided to join the Tories in a coalition.

Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband became the first potential candidate to announce plans to stand, saying he hoped others would follow suit. He has the backing of heavyweight figures including former home secretary Alan Johnson and acting Labour leader Harriet Harman, both of whom have ruled themselves out of the running.

Backbench Labour MP John Cruddas, who came third in Labour’s 2007 deputy leadership contest, has also said he is thinking about standing.

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A serious fire at the top of a transmitter mast in Oxfordshire leaves about 400,000 people without television reception.

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A Thai general linked to anti-government rallies has been shot hours after a deadline for protesters to clear their Bangkok camp expired.

Khattiya Sawasdipol, better known as Seh Daeng (Commander Red), was seriously injured, according to an aide quoted by AP news agency.

The military had said it would start surrounding the protest camp at 1800 (1100 GMT) and advised people to leave.

Gunfire and an explosion were heard and there were reports of casualties.

It was not clear where the firing was coming from.

Earlier, a BBC reporter saw trucks unloading heavily-armed soldiers several blocks from the encampment.

Shops and businesses near the encampment were urged to close before the deadline and transport was suspended.

The protesters – who have been occupying parts of Bangkok for more than two months – want Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.

The BBC’s Rachel Harvey in Bangkok says a column of about 200 soldiers had been seen moving towards the camp.

Street lights have been switched off in the camp, plunging it into darkness, but protesters continue to defiantly blast out music, our correspondent says.

Are you in or close to the protest camp in Bangkok? What is the situation in the area? Are you worried there’ll be more violence? Send us your comments Click here to add comments..

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An eight-year-old girl who said she was raped by two 10-year-old boys has used a virtual reality video to show jurors where the alleged offences happened.

As the video was played to the Old Bailey, she gave instructions for where the camera should go.

The girl was allegedly raped in a field near her home in west London in October 2009.

The boys, now aged 10 and 11, each deny two charges of rape and two charges of attempted rape of a child under 13.

The two boys cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Giving evidence via videolink from another room of the court, the girl told a police operator to point to a bush, a lift in a block of flats, a stairwell and two bin sheds.

It was at the second shed behind another building that she pointed out a gap in the fence, leading to a field.

The boys allegedly took the girl to these places looking for secluded spots to assault her.

The trial continues.

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Samantha Cameron announces she is stepping down from her full time role as creative director of luxury stationers Smythson.

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Michael Gove has set out the priorities for education, saying they mark a new era.

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The London 2012 Olympic Games will not be protected from budget cuts under the new government, according to the new Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Mr Hunt told the BBC’s Newsnight: "Olympic money is not protected.

"None of the Department for Culture Media and Sport’s budgets are protected."

Labour’s former Olympic’s minister Tessa Jowell said the government should be "very careful" about destabilising the Olympic budget.

Mr Hunt said if the required cuts were spread evenly between all government departments, his would have to find £66m of savings.

He added: "We are looking at all of them [Department for Culture Media and Sport budgets] and saying, can we save this money without affecting core services?"

But Ms Jowell said: ”The Tories should be very careful about destabilising the Olympic budget.

"The Olympic budget has a substantial contingency, which has enabled the project so far to be delivered on budget and on time.

"Reducing the available contingency could well lead to short term savings, but greater costs in the long term.”

The Olympic Delivery Authority would not comment.

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