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NHS boss Nicholson to retire

NHS boss Sir David Nicholson to retire next year

The Head of the NHS in England, Sir David Nicholson, has said he will retire early next year.

Sir David oversaw one of the service's worst ever scandals in Mid-Staffordshire, where he admitted to personal failings - but at the time he resisted calls to resign.One MP said today, she was 'sickened' that he will now be able to leave on his own terms.

Political Correspondent Libby Wiener reports:

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New Primark Dhaka aid offer

Primark to offer short term aid to all Dhaka victims

High street retailer Primark has announced it will provide short term financial assistance to victims of the Dhaka garment factory collapse. In a statement it announced the following measures:

  • Short-term financial aid will be made available to all workers/ or their families and dependents in the building, for a period of six weeks. They hope to start making the payments within seven days
  • A long-term financial compensation package for employees working in their supplier factory is being worked "as fast as possible"
  • The food aid programme currently supporting 1,000 families a week will continue

A company spokesman said:

The company was the first brand to acknowledge that its suppliers were housed in the Rana Plaza complex. The company was the first brand to commit to paying compensation to workers and their dependents. And the company was the first UK brand to sign up to the Accord on building and fire safety.

The company is now extending help to workers who made clothing for its competitors. And the company is working as fast as possible to devise a scheme to provide long-term, secure assistance to workers in its supplier factory.

Pictures: Queues for aid parcels in Dhaka after factory tragedy

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Callous conman fleeced string of women out of £170k

A "callous"conman who fleeced more than £170,000 out of a string of women he met through a website for "sugar daddies" has been jailed for seven years.

Callous Jonathan Price, 41, posed as a super-wealthy businessman, telling his victims he was an ex-SAS man, a friend of the late, exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and he had a home in Sandbanks, one of the most exclusive addresses in the country.

Jonathan Price has been jailed for seven years after admitting 14 counts of fraud and one count of theft. Credit: Police Handout

He turned their lives upside down and even married one victim, with whom he has had a child.

With "extraordinary callousness" the Walter Mitty figure pretended he was dying and invented a friend who would email progress reports to one victim to throw her off the scent, the prosecution said.

After convincing them he had millions in offshore accounts, he managed to borrow many thousands from his victims and their ageing parents by claiming he had cash flow problems and that he would repay them once the issues were resolved.

But penniless career criminal Price would vanish after claiming to be terminally ill with a brain tumour and move in with another woman.

He met women online by using a "sugar daddies" site which aimed to match beautiful women with wealthy men, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Price pleaded guilty to 14 frauds and one count of theft, and it was said he would plan his next con while in jail for his last.

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