28/09/2013 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. A tax benefit for married couples which was promised

by the Conservatives at the last election is due to take effect in

April 2015. The benefit is expected be worth up to £200 a year - and

will apply to four million couples. Labour and the Liberal Democrats

have criticised the proposal; but the Lib Dems say they'll accept it

under the coalition agreement. This report from Ross Hawkins.

Couples made tie the knot for richer or poorer, but David Cameron has

long said that he wants to make them better off. Today he explained when

and how. Marriage is a great institution and builds a strong

society so I think it is right to back marriage properly in the income

tax system. Most other industrialised countries do it and I

am proud to be delivering on a promise I made in the manifesto. How

will it work? The Tories say 4 million couples who pay the basic

rate of tax will benefit from 2016, saving £200 on their tax bill. One

spouse earning less than £20,000 will transfer their tax allowance to

their partners. It will all cost around £700 million a year. The

Conservatives insist that it will not change the personal decisions

people make about their own lives or bribe people into getting married.

Nick Clegg has described the idea as patronising but while his party will

not support the policy, they intend for the Tories to spend the money at

their conference. Labour point out the tax break will not save any

money for two thirds of married couples. Campaigners, including this

Labour member, are explaining who will miss out. It will discriminate

against single parents, cohabiting parents, widows and others. It is a

signal and it is a signal that will cost a lot of money. This will come

as happy news for many conservatives.

Police investigating a fire in Leicester, which killed a woman and

her three children, have charged four more people, including a

16-year-old, with murder. Shehnila Taufiq, her daughter, Zainab, and

sons, Bilal and Jamil, died in the fire at their home two weeks ago. A

16-year-old and three men are due at Leicester Magistrates' Court later

today. An eighteen-year-old man has already been charged with murder.

The Prime Minister of Greece already been charged with murder.

ruled out snap elections following the arrest of the leader of the

far-right Golden Dawn party on charges of forming a criminal

organisation. Three other MPs belonging to the neo-fascist party

were detained along with party activists. The arrests come after

the killing of a left-wing activist and rapper by an alleged Golden Dawn

member ten days ago. It is the first time since 1974 that sitting members

of the Greek Parliament have been arrested. A scheme that allows

cancer patients to access expensive but potentially life-saving drugs,

is to continue for another two years. The Cancer Drugs Fund, worth

£200 million a year, offers patients medicines which have not been

introduced across the NHS. It was due to expire next year. Our health

correspondent Branwen Jeffreys has the details.

A busy mum of three children, Lisa is also a cancer patient. She had

surgery to remove cancer in her bowel but it had also spread

surgery to remove cancer in her liver so she was put on a drug paid

for out of the Cancer Drugs Fund, and is now instead of 11 tumours,

she has just two. It means she can go on having other treatment. It was

huge. I had gone from thinking I was going to have cancer for ever to

thinking that maybe there is some hope that I might eat it. One drug

took me from 11 tumours to two tumours. -- beat it. The Cancer

Drugs Fund pays for medicines that would otherwise be proving to be too

expensive. Around 34,000 patients have had drugs funded. £450 million

has been put into it since 2010 but have had drugs funded. £450 million

only 320 million has been spent. It enables an increased response rate

and some patients who respond particularly well, it has allowed

them to have other surgery. It has made a big difference. Cancer

research charities has said that Cancer Drugs Fund has enabled people

to get faster access to new drugs but it is too soon to say what

difference that will make to survival rates in England. Labour

says the government has let cancer patients down, reorganised services

and stepping back on measures that might help cancer patients. The

Conservatives vice-chairman for business has been arrested for an

historic allegation of rape. He is a multimillionaire owner of the

Crombie clothing chain. The head of Kenya's National Intelligence

Service will be questioned by lawmakers on Monday amid growing

public concern that the country was inadequately prepared for an attack.

It comes amid reports that the Kenyan government was warned by

Israel of a high risk of an attack before the siege at a Nairobi mall

last week. Andrew Harding reports from Nairobi.

New footage from the attack he in Nairobi. This was filmed by the

Kenyan Red Cross as they struggled to help civilians caught up in the

bloodshed at the shopping mall. Today there were claims that the

Kenyan authorities overlooked warnings about the attack. It is not

clear how specific the warnings were. A third of the shopping mall

lies in ruins. Rubble is being cleared away but there is no news

lies in ruins. Rubble is being about dozens of civilians that are

missing. This man helped save many people, including this young girl.

We got that little girl out and we told her to run. She started

running. I thought that was very brave of the little girl, just

running towards strangers holding guns. I thought that was brave, I

thought she was brave. Outside, comfort for the survivors of an

ordeal that remains shrouded on the street. Exactly one week after the

killings started there is still confusion and uncertainty. The

government in Kenya insists that their security and intelligence

forces did their best they could in chaotic circumstances but many

people are starting to question that. A remote area of south-west

Pakistan has been hit by a second earthquake just days after an

earthquake left hundreds of people dead. It has killed at least four

people and left hundreds other under rubble. Efforts to help people after

the first earthquake have struggled