21/08/2012 BBC News at Ten

George Osborne's deficit-cutting plan under more pressure after a

big jump in borrowing. The Government was �600 million in the

red in July, much more than expected. There is time for things

to improve, particularly if the economic recovery picks up pace

again. But as things stand, things are not looking good and the trend

could get worse. The Treasury has lost out on business taxes, and is

having to pay more in benefits. We will be asking what the

chancellor's options are now. Also tonight: Manchester police are

on the hunt for these two men after a teenage boy was raped in a

shopping centre. After it starring role at London

2012, plans to take the NHS global - top hospitals could open up

branches abroad. How a little-known Republican's

comments on rape have said the US election campaign on fire. That is

despite his apology. He used the wrong words in the wrong way, and

for that I apologise. There was medal success in Beijing.

Can Ellie Simmonds and Britain's Paralympians do even better in

London? In Sportsday on the BBC News

Channel, Scottish champions' the Celtic they con Helsingborg in

Sweden, chasing qualification for the group stages of the Champions

Good evening. There is further pressure on the Chancellor George

Osborne tonight, after new figures show a surprise increase in

government borrowing this July. There was a deficit of �600 million

at a time of year when business taxes usually produce a surplus.

Critics, including Labour, say it is further evidence that the

government's economic policy is not working, but ministers say there

deficit-cutting plan is credible. The government's Perce is usually

bulging in July, with tax receipts flooding in, but this time

unexpectedly, �600 million was run up on the borrowing statement.

Ministers said it was disappointing, but there were special factors and

there will be no change in policy. There is a story behind these

figures, but the main son is that it is important to deal with our

debts and stick to the plan that has got Britain credibility

internationally. His Russian to oil and gas output hit tax payments by

North Sea producers, which was the reason for a slide in overall

corporation tax receipts, down more than 19% in the year to July. The

government said changes to the timing of the tax credit payouts

was one factor in a 6.2% increase in benefit spending over the same

period. But Labour said the Chancellor could not explain it

away. This was a major blow to his budget plans, hoping for a return

to growth and lower borrowing, he delivered neither. These are

serious figures, suggesting that the central goal of George Osborne

to reduce the deficit has not just not happened, it is going the wrong

way. He is adding to the deficit. His borrowing figures are going

higher. He has driven us back into recession. The government had a

temporary boost from the transfer of Royal Mail pension assets in

April, and that has put a gloss on the borrowing numbers. So what is

the underlying story? If you strip out special factors like the Royal

Mail Pension Scheme, it does not make happy reading for civil

servants and ministers inside the Treasury. Total government

borrowing between April and July came to �45 billion, higher than

the �36 billion borrowed over the same period last year. It may be

hard to hit the forecast of �120 billion for the full year from the

budget watchdog, the OBR. Last year's total of �125 billion was

slightly better than expected. The recession has dented tax revenues

and made life harder for the Treasury, so will things get better

for the Chancellor as he prepares for his next big financial

statement in the autumn? It is early days yet and we are only four

months into the financial year, so there is time for things to improve,

particularly if the economic recovery picks up pace. But as

things stand, things are not looking good and the trend could

get worse. In there is a bounce- back in growth, the tax receipts

should come flowing in again. If not, the Chancellor could be facing

even bigger numbers on his boring statement to pay the bills.

He Hugh Pym is with me now. Where does this leave the central

argument about cutting the deficit or going for growth? There are one-

off factors, and it has to be said that there are other tax receipts

other than corporation tax which have been going up. But the fact

that the government had to borrow for the first third of the

financial year, more than the same time last year, does give

ammunition to Labour, who are saying, how can it be right to

pursue a deficit reduction plan, curbing spending and so on, where

the outcome is a deeper recession? There has to be a change of course.

I do not detect any sign of that at the Treasury. One source said to me

that the left are demanding spending increases, and the right

want more radical spending cuts. They will stick to what they see as

a middle way. But the Chancellor could do with not many more months

like this on the back foot, certainly as the party conference

season approaches with the debate on where growth comes from about to

intensify. Police in Manchester have released

CCTV images have two men they're trying to track down in connection

with the rape of a 14-year-old boy in a city-centre department store.

The teenager was attacked in June. The police have gone public today

after waiting for the results of forensic tests. This is one of the

busiest shopping streets in Manchester City centre. On

Saturdays, it is packed full of young people. It was in a store

here one afternoon earlier this summer that a 14-year-old boy was

raped. These are the men that detectives want to question about

the sexual assault. Their pictures were captured on CCTV cameras. The

teenager had been approached by two men when he went to the toilets

inside the Arndale Centre. There, they threatened him, grabbed his

arms and forced him to accompany them across the road to the

Debenhams department store. Inside, in an upstairs toilet, he was raped.

The to stomach-turning, a 14-year- old being treated in that way in a

busy city centre. They should feel safe and be enjoying life. That ups

the ante in terms of finding these two males who were responsible and

bringing them to custody. attack happened on June 2nd, and

there has been criticism of the police for not releasing details of

the rape until now, two and a half months later. That is particularly

true because this is an area where you will find many children and

teenagers. But detectives say they have been working on this case

throughout that time and that they have been waiting for the results

of forensic tests. But detectives accept that they need the public's

help to find whoever raped the 14- year-old. The boy has been

receiving help, but is said to be absolutely devastated by what

happened. Top-performing NHS hospitals in

England are being encouraged to open private healthcare facilities

abroad. Ministers say the profits generated by these overseas clinics

will be fed back into the NHS here, but critics have said the move

could erode the public service ethos on which the NHS was built.

The NHS leads the world in some medical research and treatment. At

the opening of the Olympics, it got star billing. Stardust the

Government hopes to sprinkle over hospital business plans,

encouraging some to market their expertise abroad. Moorfields Eye

Hospital set up a clinic in Dubai five years ago. The staff are local,

but trained by the NHS Trust. The start-up costs came out of money

earned from private patients in the UK. The profits from the clinic in

Dubai come back to the main Moorfields Eye Hospital. They will

go towards building a new NHS hospital in the UK. But not many

NHS trusts have the highly specialised skills and

international recognition needed to make money abroad. It is

competitive. You can't expect to walk into a foreign country, set up

shop for an start to make large profits instantly. More fields

wants to expand in Dubai. It is part of a tough global market, up

against big US companies. So how lucrative has it been so far? The

Dubai Kinnock made less than �0.3 million profit last year, a tiny

contribution to the NHS Trust's �150 million turnover. To reduce

risks, most NHS hospitals looking abroad will not set up business

alone. Commonly, you will see them joining partners who have

commercial expertise and money to contribute to the projects.

Specialised training, research, technology - they are all seen as

potential exports for the NHS. In England, hospitals will not be

allowed to earn more from private work. Some campaigners fear that

this could have a knock-on impact. There are a lot of hospitals in

real financial problems which will see this as a solution. As a result,

they will chase profits abroad at a cost to the patients at home.

only a few English hospitals like Great Ormond Street are world

famous. The last Labour government encouraged some to earn money

abroad to reinvest in the UK. Now the coalition wants to do the same.

But it is not likely to make much impact on the bigger financial

pressures facing the NHS. The pathologist who carried out the

first post-mortem examination on Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper seller

who died during the G20 protests in London three years ago, has been

declared unfit to practise. A medical tribunal found that Dr

Freddy Patel had been dishonest that had brought the profession

into disrepute. The owners of the South African

mine where police shot dead 34 striking workers last week has

withdrawn its threat to sack staff who do not return to work. Church

leaders have opened negotiations between the company and the unions

in an attempt end the bitter dispute over pay. A week of

national mourning has also been declared.

It is neck-and-neck in the race for the White House, but the American

politician who has been grabbing the headlines is a little-known

Republican running for a seat in the Senate. Todd Akin has faced

condemnation from all sides after saying women who are raped have

biological defences against getting pregnant. And the last half-hour,

the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has called

for Mr Regan to stand aside. Our correspondent reports.

Governor Mitt Romney! The fanfare is building, he is running neck-

and-neck with the president. The last thing Mitt Romney needed was a

distraction like this, a little- known Republican Congressman

explaining his strict opposition to abortion, specifically when the

pregnancy is the result of rape. understand from doctors that that

is really rare. If it is a legitimate rape, the female body as

ways to shut that whole thing down. Firestorm. The reaction has been

fast and furious. Americans have long been divided on the rights and

wrongs of abortion, but today we found universal disdain for the

wave the Congressmen expressed his views. It was very insensitive and

arrogant. Clearly, he was not thinking about the women. He is a

moron. Once again, a race for the White House is being driven by the

motive, divisive issue of abortion. And a president who was under fire

up under the economy has sensed an opportunity to tie his opponent to

the controversial congressmen. tis a scary time to be a woman.

Mitt Romney is so out of touch. months, Obama ads like this have

painted Romany and the Republicans as anti-women on healthcare and

family planning. So when Congressman Todd Akin spoke out,

the president wasted no time. views expressed were offensive.

Wait is rape. And Mitt Romney quickly disowned his Republican

colleagues. He is comments about rape were deeply offensive. And I

cannot defend what he said all him. A like most American Conservatives,

Mitt Romney opposes abortion, but says it should be permitted in

cases of rape. And what of Todd Akin? He has apologised, but spent

a day resisting calls, including from Mitt Romney, to drop out of

his Senate race. The mistake I made was in the words I said, not in the

heart I hold. If we in Florida, they are setting the stage for next

week's Republican convention. candidate, it should be a crowning

Coming up on tonight's programme - are the days of the page-turner

numbered? We explore what the next chapter for the novel holds.

The mother of a four-year-old boy who disappeared after slipping off

a jetty in Somerset has been speaking of her desperate attempts

to save him. Dylan Cecil fell into the water at Burnham on Sea on

Sunday. Search and rescue teams have failed to find any trace of

him. Jon Brain reports. A portrait of a happy family, Dylan Cecil with

his parents, celebrating his 4th birthday. Today, a very different

picture. The little boy has gone and the pain is unbearable. At the

jetty where he fell into the sea, his mother relived the agonising

moment he disappeared on the water. He was literally not even one metre

away from me, and he was jumping and he slipped. I watched him fault

in, I jumped in straight after him - what more could I do? I knew as

soon as I jumped in I wasn't getting him back. I could feel him

being pulled under. I don't know what my son went through, I really

don't. The official search operation was called off yesterday,

and despite the efforts of dozens of search and rescue workers, his

body has not been recovered. His parents are hoping people who live

in Burnham-on-Sea and those on holiday will continue to help.

don't want anybody to stop looking, I want everybody to keep their eyes

open. Even if they have an inkling they see something, phone the

police. I don't know. disappearance has deeply moved many

people who have been lining the seafront with tributes. His family

say their kind nurses helping them The bodies of three soldiers killed

in action in Afghanistan in the last two weeks have been brought

back to Britain. Families, friends and members of the public paid

their respects in Carterton as the cortege passed by. The soldiers who

died were Guardsman Jamie Shadrake of the Reconnaissance Platoon, 1st

Battalion Grenadier Guards, Lieutenant Andrew Robert Chesterman

of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, and Lance Corporal Matthew Smith of the

Corps of Royal Engineers. Tributes have been paid to the

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, who has died. David Cameron

said he lifted millions out of poverty, but in recent years there

have been mounting concerns about his human rights record.

For many, he was the face of a new Africa. Meles Zenawi delivered

record growth in Ethiopia, shunning dependence on emergency aid. He

became the darling in the West. rebels began pushing in through the

suburbs... In 1991 when Meles Zenawi seized power, Ethiopia was

close to collapse. He and his rebel guerrillas swept into the capital

and suddenly the 36 year-old had the task of rebuilding a country

broken in civil war, vulnerable to famines. He promised a New

Democracy and into -- implemented a radical approach to tackling

poverty, favouring long-term development over emergency aid.

need long-term development but it is emergency aid that attracts the

assistance of the international community. He was one of the most

well-known friends of the West in Africa, but domestically he was not

as appreciated. He was seen as an authoritarian leader. In 2005, when

his four yet another election, it was badly stained by the brutal

treatment of those who disputed his victory. Nearly 200 people died in

the government crackdown on demonstrations. Faced with his less

attractive aspects, Western leaders broadly chose to lock away because

the Ethiopian leader's oxide qualities still looked bigger than

the downside. In a deeply troubled region, the Horn of Africa, his

Ethiopia represented stability. He was a sworn enemy of the Islamists

of Somalia. Meles Zenawi sent troops into Somalia and cemented

his reputation as frontline fighter against Al-Shabaab. His wider

legacy is often Ethiopia transformed with educational

standards rising fast alongside a decade of record economic growth.

Tonight, as his body arrived home in Ethiopia from Belgium where he

died, there is great uncertainty - is Ethiopia at risk of weak

leadership precisely because Meles Zenawi was twenty-one years in

power? In just over a week the Paralympic

Games will begin and hopes are high that Paralympians were -- will

surpass their medal haul from Beijing four years ago. Some of

Great Britain's swimmers have been putting in some last minute

training and our sports correspondent Andy Swiss has been

with them. It is a stage where sporting dreams are made, the

birthplace for global stars and four British heroes. Who will be

the face of this year's Paralympics? Four years ago it was

Ellie Simmonds. At just 13, a double gold medallist. Now at 17,

she is training in Manchester, hoping to turn home advantage into

yet more glory. The eye am looking forward to going out on the

poolside and hearing the massive crowd supporting us. It is a bit

scary knowing that these people are watching as well, but I think it

will be a good thing. The pressure on Britain's Paralympians has never

been greater - in Beijing they won 102 medals, but in London they are

expecting even more. Their target is to go at least one better, 103

medals with the swimmers expected to deliver a minimum of 40. The

athletics team have a target of 17 medals, with the cyclists expecting

15. It is an ambitious goal. It is a tough target but we have been

second in the medals table in the last Olympic Games. We don't want

to be complacent. 10 sport including the visually-impaired

footballers are to training camp in Bath. Nearly �150 million has been

spent on the team's perforations. Karen Butler has never had a better

shot at gold. In the previous Olympic -- Paralympics,... The

funding will make a big difference. This is the target. It is up to

British Paralympians to consume more golden moments.

-- to conjure more golden moments. Earlier this month Fifty Shades Of

Grey became the best-selling book in British history. Its publishers

claim the erotic novel has sold over five million copies - that's

even more than the Highway Code. Although it might seem that sales

are thriving, writers have gathered at the Edinburgh International Book

Festival to discuss their concerns about the future of the novel. Our

Arts Editor Will Gompertz reports. Books everywhere, and plenty of

time to think. The traditional reading experience. And then there

is this more contemporary approach. The warhorse being turned into an

interactive immersing journey where the written word is just one

element of the storytelling. This sort of technological and

banishment is proving popular, but does it mark the end of the novel

as we have known it? Writers from around the world have gathered at

the Edinburgh International Festival to discuss the future of

the novel, to debate whether the book has grown stale and is

therefore no longer the best way to tell stories. The Booker prize-

winning novelist was among the delegates, and he is optimistic

about his craft. It will bend and shape itself to whatever form there

is that accommodates its extensiveness. There will be a

lingering love, an abiding marriage with the book. It has, in its own

way, become deeply ingrained in the human psyche. The sales of novels

have been increasing over the last decade. The drop in 2011 was

contributed largely to unpublished electric box. Except for best-

selling authors, it is becoming increasingly difficult as retailers

take fewer risks. Then there is the issue of Reader's becoming for this,

most dramatically illustrated by the extraordinary success of Fifty

Shades Of Grey. What happens when the reader becomes a writer is that

you end up with an industry based on what sounds like already. We are

not generating any new content and that is what we needed novelists to

do in the first place. The air was general agreement here that the

novel does have a future but nobody knew what it would be and who would

be part of it. I guess that is another story.

That's it from us. Newsnight's getting underway on BBC Two with an