02/04/2014 BBC Oxford News

Good evening. In the first study of its kind, thousands of pregnant

women's health and lifestyld are to be monitored in Oxford ` before and

after having a baby. Researchers hope to develop a better

understanding of depression, diabetes and weight gain. Stuart

Tinworth reports. Nadia back at home with

two`month`old Evan. She was one of the first to sign up to this

pioneering research project. The scheme eventually hopes to recruit

thousands of young women like her, following their journey before and

after becoming pregnant. Getting pregnant is a bit overwhelmhng, the

idea. I always assumed that there is a lot more knowledge, or evdryone is

more well`informed than thex actually are in certain things. So I

was a bit surprised that nothing like this has been done before. So

that was the reason. It was just really fascinating and will be

really useful for future generations. The study will look at

women's health. Those taking part will have their blood presstre

taken, blood tests and a he`rt scan. But they'll also be asked to

complete a detailed and confidential survey into their lifestyle. It s

all to help understand how `nd why their health is affected in later

life ` especially after havhng children. It's never really been

done before, other than looking at nutrition of women before

pregnancy. We hope that one of the things that this research whll help

us identify are the risk factors for women that may lead to a colplicated

pregnancy or long`term complications for them. Hopefully by identifying

them, we'll be able to go on and look at early interventions and

treatments. This entire study is a joint collaboration between

Oxfordshire University and the John Radcliffe Hospital and alre`dy,

about 100 women have signed up. Now the teams here want another 200

women to take part and this time, they're looking for women intending

to get pregnant within the next year. If the pilot's successful the

scheme will expand, taking on 1 ,000 women across the country. The aim `

to build the biggest ever hdalth picture around pregnancy.

A police officer is to stand trial accused of assaulting a hotdl night

porter in Swindon. Swindon Magistrates' Court has heard how

Avon Somerset PC Gary Tester, seen here in the red jumper, was arrested

at a Premier Inn in January, following a disturbance abott noise.

He's pleaded not guilty to `ssault by beating and is due back hn court

in August. A detainee has been sentencdd to

more than two years in prison for starting a fire at Campsfield House

Immigration Centre near Oxford. Farid Pardiaz had pleaded gtilty to

arson. Two people were taken to hospital and more than half the

detainees were temporarily loved to other centres following the fire in

October. An Oxfordshire woman says she feels

lucky to be alive after a lhghtning bolt hit her house. It blew out a

window and melted plugs and sockets. Elisabeth Whitaker was at home with

her husband in Watlington when the storm happened last Friday. She s

been showing us the damage. As you can see, this is the glass

that was shattered by the lightning. And then the major

damage... Was inside the garage All the electric points are dead. And

the roof is in this state, so everything's got to be repl`ced It

was very frightening. In a way, I'm glad we are all alive. Not telling a

different story. But you can come inside the house and see thd rest of

the disaster. After the big bang, I came into this room, the sitting

room. And I saw bits of debris, of this type, all over the carpet. And

here, it was the beginning of a little fire. Because the carpet is

scorched here and you can sde, as well, it's all black. This was

melted. It was like a bomb. I thought it was, like, the T`liban.

I'm a rational person but you become irrational on those sort of

occasions. And, yeah, it was very scary.

In the next six years its thought that Chinese tourists will spend

more than a billion pounds hn Britain. Now a number of attractions

in our region are adapting to encourage more Chinese visitors In

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire several tourist hot spots are

already leading the way. Seeing Oxfordshire from an oriental

perspective. Chinese tourisl is worth around ?300 million to the

UK. Now places like Blenheil Palace are trying to make themselvds even

more welcoming to eastern vhsitors. We have Mandarin`speaking gtides in

the palace, so that we can communicate properly to our Chinese

visitors and give them a grdat experience. We have leaflets and

communications and websites in Chinese and in Mandarin, so that

they can, again, be communicated to in the right way. We have UnionPay

facilities that we've installed in the shop, just generally to ensure

that when they come to Blenheim they get a fantastic experidnce

Blenheim, along with Bicestdr Village, a hotel in Woodstock, and

Waddesdon Manor in Buckingh`mshire, have signed up to a

Government`backed scheme called the Great China Welcome Charter. It

means the venues will be helped to market to Chinese tourists. It's one

of the main emerging markets coming into the UK. It's doubled in the

last five years. Visit Engl`nd are getting behind it, Government are

getting behind it, and lookhng to grow it to 382,000 visitors by 016.

It's a market we want to be involved in and make sure we get a phece of

that action here in Oxfordshire On a gloriously sunny day like today,

it's easy to see why more than 700,000 visitors come to Bldnheim

each year. Last year, more than 3,000 of those were from Chhna. Now

that Blenheim has signed up to this special charter, they're hoping to

increase that number. If thdy do, it won't just be good for the palace

but for all of the local economy, too.

A 300,000`year`old tusk belonging to an extinct species of eleph`nt has

been found by a team led by an Oxford University professor. The

tusk was found in the desert in Saudi Arabia. Scientists sax it s

remarkably preserved. It's on land that would have once been a lake.

That's it from us for now. We're back in BBC Breakfast tomorrow

morning, but for now goodnight. And with the weather, here's Aldxis

Green. Good evening. A lot of cloud tonight

but there will be a few bre`ks and it should stay mainly dry. So we

may, where we have the breaks in the cloud cover, have a few mist and fog

patches forming in the usual prone spots. A very mild night to come

with temperatures only fallhng to around ten Celsius. We start the day

tomorrow on a dry note. There is the risk of a shower, and showers are

more likely for western are`s during the morning time and through the

afternoon. But where we do have the sunshine, expect temperaturds to

rise nicely to a high of 16 or 7 Celsius. The winds are fairly light.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, still a a lot of cloud, a lot

of low cloud in places, but there will be some bright and sunny

spells. Do stay tuned because coming up

be dry. The air pollution has been hitting the headlines today. For

more information on that, here is my colleague.

Good evening. Very hazy skies in London today and many other towns

and cities across the UK. On Thursday there is the chance of some

pretty high pollution in the south-east and East Anglia but by

the time we get towards the end of the week, we will see clearer

Atlantique air coming in and we should get rid of the Saharan dust

which has been making services grubby in the last few days. You can

see the pattern across the Atlantic. We also have a weather

front. The beginning of that change is affecting many western areas of

the UK. This particular cloud across the North Sea, you can see there is

a general drift here towards Scotland and the North Sea coasts.

It has been cold and cloudy and I think that cloud will drift further

southwards and westwards through the course of the night.