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Gale-force winds set to cause travel chaos across UK
Parts of the UK have been warned today to brace themselves for 90mph winds and the most serious tidal surge for 30 years threatening to flood the east coast of England.
Read: Main road in Leeds to be closed due to 75mph winds
Commuters could face delays as gale-force winds batter Scotland and northern and eastern England, forecasters said.
There could be "significant coastal flooding" in some areas due to high sea levels and huge tidal surges, The Environment Agency said.
Disruption is also expected on a number of rail routes, including East Coast trains between York and Edinburgh and Glasgow Central, TransPennine Express trains, CrossCountry, Virgin Train and Northern Rail routes, as well as Grand Central trains between Sunderland and York.
Areas most at risk of flooding include the North Sea coast from Northumberland down to the Thames Estuary and Kent.
Only 26% think coalition understand small businesses
Chancellor George Osborne is expected to cap increases to business rates in his Autumn Statement today and only a quarter of the public think the coalition understands the concerns of small business owners and entrepreneurs, an ITV Index poll by Comres shows.
Only 26% of Britons said the government understood small business owners, while 66% thought the coalition understood banks and big businesses.
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Britons 'support Osborne prioritising tax cuts'
The British public generally supports the Chancellor prioritising tax cuts, an ITV Index poll by Comres shows.
- Two in five (43%) agree with the Chancellor prioritising tax cuts, while 31% disagree.
- However, Britons are wary of 'unfunded' tax cuts with 43% saying that George Osborne should not announce cuts if it means the Government's finances would be in a worse state.
'Rich will benefit more than poor' from Tory govt
The rich will benefit more than the poor from the growing economy if the Conservatives win the next General Election in 2015, an ITV Index poll by Comres shows.
Three in five Britons (58%) said they expected the rich to benefit more, while just one in five (20%) disagree.
Poll: Public split on whether UK economy is improving
The British public is split about whether the economy is getting better, an ITV Index poll by Comres shows.
- Over the past three months 34% believe the UK economy has got better while 34% said it had got worse.
- However, two in five (44%) said their personal financial situation has got worse in the past three months, compared to just 15% who said it got better.
Poll: Osborne enjoying high economic trust from public
Chancellor George Osborne has risen to his highest rating on economic trust for two and a half years as he prepares to deliver the Autumn Statement, an ITV Index poll by Comres shows.
Read: State pension age to rise for the young
More people (28%) said they trust him to see the country through its economic situation than at any time since June 2011, with the question being asked every month since the coalition came into power in 2010.
Osborne is more trusted than Labour leader Ed Miliband (25%), shadow chancellor Ed Balls (18%) and deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (14%) but falls short of David Cameron (33%), according to the poll.
The poll, however, found that 39% of people did not agree with the statement that Osborne has turned out to be a competent Chancellor compared with 29% who thought he had.
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Police question man over unarmed officer shooting
A man accused of shooting an unarmed officer during a routine neighbourhood call is being questioned by police.
The 33-year-old officer is believed to have been blasted with a shotgun as she and a male colleague called at a house in the Hyde Park area of Leeds shortly after 4am yesterday.
She received serious injuries to her head, neck and right hand and is in a stable condition in a Leeds hospital.
Following a six-hour manhunt suspect James Leslie, 37, was arrested near a primary school about a mile from the scene of the shooting.
Survival rates for cancer in the UK and Europe
According to the Eurocare-5 study on five year survival rates across Europe found:
- Breast cancer - in the UK and Ireland 79.2% survived, 84.7% in northern Europe and a European average of 81.8%.
- Prostate cancer - UK and Ireland, 80.6%, Northern Europe, 85%, and the European average, 83.4%.
- Stomach cancer - 17.2% in the UK and Ireland. European average of 25.1%.
- Rectal cancer - UK, 53.7%; European average 55.8%.
- Lung cancer - UK, 9%; European average 13%.
- Kidney cancer - UK, 47.6%; European average 60.6%.
- The worst survival rates were seen in Eastern European countries, though the gap between east and west was closing, according to the study authors.
UK survival rates for cancer 'below European average'
The UK is lagging behind Europe in survival rates for nine out of the 10 most common cancers, a major study has shown.
The Eurocare-5 study painted a disappointing picture for the five year survival rate for stomach, colon, rectal, lung, melanoma skin, breast, ovarian, prostate, kidney cancers and the blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the UK.
Despite improvements in diagnosis and treatment beginning as far back as the 1990s, data from more than nine million adult patients revealed survival was lower than the average of more than 20 European countries.
These included countries which had previously fallen behind the Iron Curtain and had exceptionally poor health care, like Bulgaria.
Amnesty calls on N Korea to close 'gruesome' camps
Amnesty International has called on North Korea to acknowledge and close political prison camps.
The camps are a gruesome and powerful tool at the heart of a vast network of repression.
People are sent to the political prison camps without charge, let alone a trial, many of them simply for knowing someone who has fallen out of favour.
– Amnesty International’s North Korea Researcher Rajiv NarayanConditions are dire. Torture is rampant, there are reports that women are raped, and we know that public execution is common place. Many of the prisoners die of malnutrition and overwork in dangerous conditions.
We are calling on the North Korean authorities to acknowledge the existence of the camps, close them, and grant unhindered access to independent human rights monitors like Amnesty International.
Read: US detainee in North Korea 'apologises for war crimes'
