THE HEADLINES AT 0800 ON FRIDAY 22ND DECEMBER

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It's eight o'clock on Friday the Twenty-Second of December.

An Ipswich man has been charged with the murders of five women in Suffolk.

Fog is causing continuing disruption for air travellers.

The American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has said the war in Iraq is worth what she called the investment in money and lives.

The Queen's Christmas broadcast will have the theme of the contributions different generations can make to society.

IPSWICH LONG

A man from Ipswich will appear before magistrates this morning charged with murdering five women who had worked as prostitutes. Stephen Wright -- who is forty-eight -- was arrested on Tuesday. A second man, detained the previous day, has been freed on bail while inquiries continue. John Andrew reports from Suffolk police headquarters:

ANDREW: The dramatic news that a man had been charged with all five murders came at a joint news conference last night held by the police and crown prosecution service. Forty-eight-year-old, Steven Wright, are former fork-life truckdriver, who lives near the centre of Ipswich was arrested four days ago. Senior prosecutor Michael Crimp, said the CPD had carefully examined and assessed the evidence before deciding to charge at the earliest possible opportunity.

CRIMP: This evening we have made the decision that there is sufficient evidence and authorised that Steven Wright, born on the twenty-fourth of April 1958, of London Road, Ipswich should be charged with the murder of Tanya Nichol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell.

ANDREW: Steven Wright, will appear before Ipswich magistrates this morning. Another suspect, thirty-seven-year-old supermarket worker Tom Stephens was released on police bail. The naked bodies of the five women were found over a ten day period in locations outside Ipswich. Anneli Alderton had been strangled and Paula Clennell died from compression to the neck. No clear cause of death was found in the three other victims.

FOG

People hoping to fly to destinations in the UK and around the world face another day of frustration because of continuing thick fog. British Airways has already cancelled all its domestic flights in and out of Heathrow today. Flights which do operate will be subject to delays. Virgin trains have laid on more cross-country services to help passengers planning to make long journeys. Fog is expected to cause more disruption at other airports around the UK, including at Gatwick and Glasgow. Ben Ando reports from Heathrow:

ANDO: Fog-bound again BAA say, forty-thousand passengers of the two-hundred thousand that use Heathrow normally at this time of year are likely to face disruption as three-hundred and fifty short and medium-haul flights are cancelled. Those arriving at Heathrow's terminal four, once again finding themselves directed to temporary marques set up in the set-down area, used to prevent the main building from becoming over-crowded. But with more fog forecast, more disruption is expected and passengers are advised to check with their airlines before setting out.

FOG REACT

The operators of Heathrow, BAA, say they are trying to make things more comfortable for those who have been delayed. But Simon Baugh -- from BAA -- told us that the disruption showed up the limitations which result from the design of the airport:

BAUGH: We are doing the best we can but unfortunately because of the fundamental capacity constraints at Heathrow, until this dense fog lifts there is a limit to what we can do to get extra flight through the airport. On a good day at Heathrow we are operating at about ninety-eight percent of available runway capacity. I don't believe there is any airport in the world that is processing one-thousand-three-hundred flights a day on two runways in dense fog.

IRAG RICE

The U-S Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has said the war in Iraq is "worth the investment" in money and lives. Ms Rice said a lot had been sacrificed for Iraq, but success there would change the entire Middle East. She was speaking soon after four Marines were charged with murdering civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year. Our Washington Correspondent, Justin Webb, has more details:

WEBB: The events in Haditha form the basis now of the biggest US criminal case involving civilian deaths since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Lawyers for the marines accused of murder will strongly defend their clients actions. But the trials are likely to add to a sense of national gloom over Iraq. In recent months, many of those advising the White House, including Tony Blair and the Iraq Study Group, have suggested that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the real key to peace in the whole region. In her interview with the Associated Press, Condoleezza Rice made it plain that she still holds to the view that Iraq should be seen as the centrepiece of US-Middle East policy. She acknowledged that a lot had been sacrificed for Iraq, a lot had been invested in Iraq. But she said this is a country that is worth the investment because once it emerges as a stabilising factor, you will have a very different kind of Middle East.

IRAQ AL QAEDA

A group of Sunni tribal chiefs who have joined forces to try to defeat al Qaeda in Iraq say they have caught more than a hundred terrorists in the past few months. The Salvation of Anbar Council, which was set up in September in the infamous Sunni Triangle, says the terrorist network is to blame for the instability and violent chaos in the country. It claims to have reduced the numbers of weapons and foreign fighters arriving from Syria and Saudi Arabia. But the head of the council, Sheikh Faisal al Goud, told this programme there are still thousands of al Qaeda fighters in al Anbar province alone.

GOUD: There are some of them who are arriving from neighbouring Arab countries, some of them are from Afghanistan and some of them are from non-neighbouring far away Arab states in co-operation with those they have convinced from this province. The problem of Al Qaeda is a big one, in my estimation it represents now more that thirty or forty percent of the Iraqi problem.

DEMJANJUK

A United States immigration review board has dismissed an appeal against deportation by John Demjanjuk - who has been accused of having been a Nazi concentration camp guard in Poland. Demjanjuk is eighty-five and comes from Ukraine. He could now be sent there or possibly to Germany or Poland.

QUEEN

Buckingham Palace has revealed details of part of the Queen's Christmas broadcast - which will be made available as a podcast for the first time this year. The speech was recorded at Southwark Cathedral in London and focuses on the relationship between different generations. Our royal correspondent, Nicolas Witchell, explains:

WITCHELL: In the year of her eightieth birthday the Queen has chosen as the theme of her christmas broadcast the contribution that different generations can make. To each other and to society in general. In the speech she reflects on how all faiths encourage dialogue between people of different generations.

THE QUEEN: The wisdom and experience of the great religions point to the need to nurture and guide the young and to encourage respect for the elderly.

WITCHELL: Unusually, The Queen has this year chosen to record a second Christmas message. A radio broadcast aimed specifically at the armed services. After twelve months during which British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered more than sixty deaths, The Queen is expected to pay particular tribute to the courage and dedication of those who serve in the army, navy and airforce. The message to the armed services will be broadcast on Christmas Eve.

VCJD

An international team of researchers say they have found a way to filter blood to remove the infection that causes the human form of mad cow disease. Writing in the medical journal, The Lancet, the scientists say the technique has been shown to work in animal experiments. It's thought the system -- which is due to undergo safety trials next year -- would cost a hundred-million-pounds to introduce. Here's our Science Correspondent, Pallab Ghosh.

GOSH: The predicted mass epidemic of the human form of mad cow disease known as VCJD has as yet failed to materialise. There have been just one-hundred-and-sixty-four cases in the UK and just three arising as a result of blood transfusion. But a senior medical research council scientist has recently warned against complacency. Professor John Collinge has consistently said, that thousands of us could be carrying the infection and eventually could fail victim to VCJD in ten or twenty years time. It is for this reason that scientists have been trying for more than a decade to find a way of filtering it out of blood using transfusions. That would stop more of us becoming carriers. The initial study on hamsters looks promising, the blood transfusion service expect to begin trials of the filter with three-hundred volunteers early in the new year.

CHINA

Eight Chinese Christians are standing trial accused of inciting violent resistance to the law after they protested about the destruction of a newly-built church. If they're convicted the eight, seven men and a woman will be jailed for three years. Our Beijing Correspondent, James Reynolds, reports:

REYNOLDS: The eight Christians are going on trial in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China. They are accused of instigating violence and interfering with the law. The charges against them relate to what happened in the village of Che Lu Wan in July this year. A group of local Christians had been trying to get permission from the local authorities to build a new church. But they got tired of all the delays involved. So they decided to go ahead anyway, without official approval. Hundreds began construction work. Then, a few days later, riot police were sent in to demolish the church. There were violent clashes between the two sides. In theory, all churches here have to be registered and sanctioned by the state. But millions of Chinese Christians worship in unofficial or underground churches.

FRANCE

French judges, investigating a suspected smear campaign, have questioned the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, for seventeen hours. The investigators say Mr De Villepin had been approached as a witness, not as a suspect, in what became known in France as the Clearstream affair. The smear, set out in anonymous letters, consisted of false allegations that his political rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, and other politicians had secret bank accounts.