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Pregnant women should 'avoid all alcohol'
Women should avoid all alcohol during pregnancy, according to Daybreak's medical editor Dr Hilary Jones.
He said women drinking during pregnancy, particularly in the early stages, would hurt their unborn child and should follow the advice from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and have "none at all".
There is no safe limit but even small amounts of alcohol can affect the baby," Dr Hilary said.
"The baby after all, starts off as a few grams in weight, a woman might weigh six, seven, eight stone - that is a lot of weight to what she is drinking,
"But the baby is getting all the alcohol that a woman is consuming, through a placenta and a baby's developing liver has not got the ability to detoxify the alcohol."
Middle class women drink 'the most during pregnancy'
Middle class women are more likely than women from other classes to drink more than the recommended limits during pregnancy, researchers said.
They called for health officials to revise their guidance on drinking in pregnancy after their study showed that even those adhering to the suggested limits are more likely to have problems with their babies than those who do not drink at all.
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Beckham's nerves before Only Fools and Horses appearance
David Beckham has described how he struggled to sleep the night before making his Only Fools And Horses debut because he was so nervous
Read the full storyNew Zealand faces flag change vote
New Zealand prime minister John Key has announced plans for a referendum on whether to change the national flag.
He said he wants a nationwide vote in the next three years.
The nation's current flag depicts the Southern Cross star constellation in red and includes Britain's Union Flag of Great Britain in the top left corner.
Mr Key has said he favours a silver fern set against a black background, but opponents say that would associate the flag too much with sports teams, which often use it, and is too reminiscent of a pirate ensign.
Carney faces tough questions on forex rate-fixing
Bank of England governor Mark Carney will today face a grilling by MPs over claims that some of its officials knew about the alleged practice of foreign exchange rate-fixing.
Mr Carney is due to appear before the Treasury Select Committee just days after the Bank suspended an employee over compliance concerns following an internal probe.
North Korea 'circumventing' UN sanctions
North Korea has developed sophisticated countermeasures to circumvent UN sanctions, including the suspected use of its embassies to facilitate the illegal trade in weapons, according to a United Nations report.
North Korean embassies in Cuba and Singapore were suspected by the eight member UN panel of experts of facilitating the country's banned arms trade, including a shipment of fighter jets and missile parts that were seized in Panama last July.
The report also pointed to the use of more developed financial countermeasures used to mask the purchase of both banned and permitted goods.
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International Space Station crew return to earth
A capsule carrying a US-Russian crew back to Earth after nearly six months on the International Space Station has landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Nasa said that the Soyuz capsule carrying American Mike Hopkins and Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy touched down as scheduled, south east of the town of Dzhezkazgan. They spent 166 days in orbit on the space station.
Warning over children's salt consumption
More than a third of children's salt consumption is from breads and cereals, researchers have found.
Analysis of young people's diets found that they eat an "unhealthy amount of salt on a daily basis". 36% of this salt comes from cereal and bread-based products, according to the new research.
The study, published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, found that many children are exceeding the recommended intake of salt on a daily basis.
Search area 'extended beyond flightpath of missing jet
Malaysia Airlines have confirmed via social media that the search area for missing flight MH370 has been extended beyond the flight path.
[#MASalert] As we enter into Day 4, the aircraft is yet to be found. SAR teams now expanded scope beyond flight path http://t.co/xGT1P7SsHM
In a statement, Malaysia Airlines said:
"The search and rescue teams have expanded the scope beyond the flight path. The focus now is on the West Peninsular of Malaysia at the Straits of Malacca.
The authorities are looking at a possibility of an attempt made by MH370 to turn back to Subang. All angles are being looked at. We are not ruling out any possibilities."
Councils are 'tackling the biggest cuts in living memory'
Local authorities are "tackling the biggest cuts in living memory" and urged the Government to give them the full amount of funding needed to provide adequate council tax support for vulnerable residents.
Chair of the Local Government Association's Finance Panel, Sharon Taylor hit out at Government cuts after the Public Accounts Committee published a scathing report into measures taken by local authorities in the wake of cuts.
– Sharon TaylorThe shortfall between the money councils receive to fund council tax support and the money we would need to protect those on low incomes is getting bigger and is likely to reach £1 billion by 2016.
At the same time, councils are tackling the biggest cuts in living memory and cannot afford to make up the difference.
The Public Accounts Committee's call for Government to review the scheme echoes concerns raised by councils.
Government should consider giving local authorities the full amount of funding needed to provide council tax support.
