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28/03/2015

Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.

2 hours

Last on

Sat 28 Mar 2015 07:00

Today's running order

0710
Italy's highest court has overturned the convictions of Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for killing the British student, Meredith Kercher. They were first found guilty of murder in 2009, acquitted on appeal, then convicted again at a retrial.Β  Miss Knox issued a statement saying she was tremendously relieved. But Meredith Kercher's mother said she was shocked. David Willis is our correspondent in Seattle.

0712
David Cameron will today promise that a future Conservative government will ensure hospital services are available seven days a week by 2020.Β  The announcement at the Tories' spring conference in Manchester builds on plans already announced by the NHS. Labour say no-one will believe the Conservatives' promises. Caroline Walker is our political correspondent and Dr Mark Porter is Council Chair for British Medical Association Council Chair.

0717
Every year in the House of Commons, Private Members Bills allow an MP to propose a new law. Β Our Parliamentary Correspondent Mark D'Arcy's been meeting the MPs involved in challenging the bills.

0722
Tens of millions of Nigerians are due to vote later today in presidential elections.Β  There are fourteen candidates but the biggest challenge to the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan comes from the former military ruler, Muhammadu Buhari.Β  The vote was delayed by six weeks because of the jihadist insurgency in the north east of the country.Β  With a close contest expected there is a great deal of anxiety over the possibility of election violence and world leaders including Barrack Obama and David Cameron have been calling on Nigeria's politicians to ensure the vote is transparent and peaceful.Β  ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Correspondent Nkem Ifejika is at an ex polling station in Nyanya, Abuja where two bombs went off last April killing 88 people.

0733
Coalition failures over border controls have led to a major drop in the number of illegal immigrants being deported and fewer illegal drugs being seized, Labour will claim today. Yvette Cooper will also accuse the government of letting "dodgy" firms get away with exploiting illegal workers and undercutting local wages. The Shadow ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Secretary will claim the Tories have failed to tackle illegal immigration because they were too focused on trying, but failing, to meet Prime Minister David Cameron's pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. Yvette Cooper joins us live.

0740
The co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings airliner into the French Alps hid details of an illness, German prosecutors said yesterday. Torn-up sick notes were found in the homes of Andreas Lubitz including one issued for the day of the crash. The Barcelona-Duesseldorf plane crashed on Tuesday, killing 150 people. Data from the plane's voice recorder suggest Mr Lubitz purposely started a descent as the pilot was locked out of the cockpit. There are reports that he suffered from depression – but the prosecutors have not disclosed what the sick notes were for. What duty do pilots, their employers and their doctors have to disclose and investigate physical and mental health problems? Has the reaction to news of the pilot's depression revealed a stigma around the issue? Naeema Chaudry, is a partner and employment and discrimination law expert at Eversheds and Lisa Rodrigues, until recently the chief exec of the Sussex mental health trust and is now a mental health campaigner.

0751
Italy's highest court has overturned the convictions of Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend for killing the British student, Meredith Kercher. Tom Wright, is a close family friend of Amanda Knox and her family. His daughter and Amanda grew up together.

0810
David Cameron will today promise that a future Conservative government will ensure hospital services are available seven days a week by 2020.Β  The announcement at the Tories' spring conference in Manchester builds on plans already announced by the NHS. Labour say no-one will believe the Conservatives' promises. Jeremy Hunt is Secretary of State for Health.

0815
The co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings airliner into the French Alps hid details of an illness, German prosecutors said yesterday. Torn-up sick notes were found in the homes of Andreas Lubitz including one for the day of the crash, which killed 150 passengers and crew. The illness was not named, amid reports Mr Lubitz had mental health problems. John Puthenpurackal is a reporter for the German newspaper Bild who interviewed Andreas Lubitz’s ex-girlfriend yesterday.

0819
James Corden has completed his first week as TV anchor of US chat show The Late, Late Show – which is aired on CBS. There were reports that Corden, who’s most famous over here for writing and starring in Gavin and Stacey, had been asked to β€œtone down” his accent and use of British slang, but they were rubbished by his production team. James Corden joins us live.

0830
The co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings airliner into the French Alps hid details of an illness, German prosecutors said yesterday. Torn-up sick notes were found in the homes of Andreas Lubitz including one for the day of the crash, which killed 150 passengers and crew. The illness was not named, amid reports Mr Lubitz had mental health problems. The Today Programme’s Tom Bateman reports and James Phillips, director International Affairs at the German Airline Pilots Association, joins us live.

0849
Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend have had their convictions for killing the British student, Meredith Kercher, overturned by Italy's highest court. They were first found guilty of murder in 2009, acquitted on appeal, then convicted again at a retrial.Β  Andrea Vogt is director of a ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Storyville documentary about the case.

0850
The exhibition Defining Beauty opened at the British Museum this week. It explores the importance of the body in ancient Greek art, from bronze sculptures of nude athletes, to the mythological centaurs and Lapiths depicted in the Parthenon Marbles. The Greek philosopher Protagoras famously said that β€œMan is measure of all things”, but why were the ancient Greeks so preoccupied with the human form? And how far do Greek ideals of beauty continue to pervade modern culture? Natalie Haynes, author of The Ancient Guide to Modern Life and Mary Beard, Professor of classics at Cambridge University, join us to discuss.

All subject to change.

Broadcast

  • Sat 28 Mar 2015 07:00