Cancer rates to rise by one-fifith by 2020
The annual number of new diagnoses of cancer in Europe will rise by 20 per cent by 2020, experts have said. They called for urgent action from governments to tackle the increase.
The report, Responding to the Challenge of Cancer in Europe, suggested that Europe’s growing and ageing population will result in increased incidence of cancer. In Britain, it was predicted that the number of people with cancer will rise from 1.3 million now, to 3 million in 2020.
Cancer Partners UK, one of the authors of the report, found marked differences in care across Europe leading to inequalities in survival. Studies suggest that Britain has some of the lowest survival rates of countries with similar health spending.
Bloody Sunday costs
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The cost of the inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry in 1972 was put at £181.2 million. Shaun Woodward, Northern Ireland Secretary, said the final report is being compiled but is not “imminent”. The Saville inquiry was set up in 1998 over the deaths of 14 people shot by paratroopers during a march.
Singer questioned
Amy Winehouse has been questioned in connection with a video which allegedly showed her smoking crack cocaine. A Scotland Yard spokesman said that a 24-year-old woman was interviewed under caution by officers from Tower Hamlets over an allegation of unlawful possession of a controlled drug.
Teacher escapes ban
A teacher whose jail sentence for firing an air pistol close to teenagers outside her home was replaced with a conditional discharge was guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct”, the General Teaching Council said, but it did not ban Linda Walker, 50, from Greater Manchester, from teaching again.
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Gambling officer
A staff sergeant was jailed for 21 months after losing £70,000 gambling the Army’s cash. William Jamison, 42, was an accountant for the Royal Anglian Regiment’s 2nd Battalion. The money was for social purposes. He bet £600,000 over three years. He admitted theft at Gloucester Crown Court.
Light into darkness
The Church of England is asking people to go without one light bulb for the 40 days of Lent. In an attempt to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint it is also asking people to avoid using plastic bags, eat local food, leave the car at home, not use the dishwasher for a day and to fit draft excluders in their homes.
People-smuggler has all his assets seized
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A people-smuggler who lured young girls to London for exploitation in the sex trade has been stripped of his property empire and cash fortune. Mr Justice Tugendhat ruled in the High Court that all of Gheorghe Virtosu’s wealth – including five properties and hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash – was the proceeds of crime and could be seized by the Assets Recovery Agency. Virtosu, 31, who was born in Moldova but acquired British nationality in 2003, declared only £10,000 in legitimate earnings between his arrival in Britain in 1992 and his arrest in March 2004. He was given leave to appeal.
Driver ‘will kill again’
A judge gave a warning that a serial drink-driver will kill again, and criticised the Government’s sentencing guidelines that meant he was powerless to ban him for life. Judge Alan Goldsack, QC, the Recorder of Sheffield, jailed Tony Stevenson, 45, for 23 months but said he would probably only serve half that sentence. Stevenson has 42 motoring convictions including ten for drink-driving.
Advert broke rules
A poster claiming that gay people wanted to abolish the family broke advertising rules and risked being inflammatory, a watchdog said. The advert, from the Christian Congress for Traditional Values, was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled. It showed a man, woman, boy and girl alongside the statement: “Gay aim: abolish the family.”
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Sex with patient
A locum doctor who had sex with a female patient on a consulting room couch committed a “flagrant breach of trust”. Michael Moore, 62, had sex with the woman after examining her chest while working as a locum at the Lower Broughton Medical Centre in Salford, Greater Manchester, in March 2006. He has been struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council.
Doctors cleared
Doctors have been cleared of responsibility for the death of a pregnant woman who died with her unborn son after her chronic bowel condition was misdiagnosed as morning sickness. Alan Crickmore, the Gloucestershire Coroner, said that the delay of a fortnight in discovering Crohn’s disease in Melanie Gough, 24, played no part in her death. He recorded a verdict of accidental death.
5,000 texts a second
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Nearly 5,000 text messages are sent every second in Britain, an industry report said. Mobile phone users sent more than six billion texts during December, a record for a single month. About 290 million were sent on New Year’s Eve. Picture messages are growing in popularity, with 57.6 million sent in December. A quarter of users used the internet from their phones, the Mobile Data Association said.