THE HEADLINES AT 0800 ON MONDAY 27TH NOVEMBER

[LEMBEDL|mms://wm-002.cafe24.com/mydisc/bbc/morning_news-061127.mp3|280|65|N|M]

It's eight o'clock on Monday the 27th of November. The headlines:

Network Rail has made its first profit -- seven-hundred-and-fifty-million pounds over six months.

Tony Blair has expressed his "deep sorrow" for Britain's role in the slave trade -- but some campaigners want a formal apology.

And England's cricket captain says his team will bounce back after their first Ashes Test defeat.

RAIL 1

Network Rail -- which owns Britain's railway system -- has made a profit for the first time in its short history. Its financial results for the six months to September show a profit of seven-hundred-and-forty-seven-million pounds, which will be spent on improving the railways. The company -- which acquired the beleaguered firm, Railtrack, four years ago -- claims that nine out of ten trains are now running on time. This report from our Transport Correspondent, Tom Symonds:

SYMONDS: Network Rail is an unusual type of company -- with no shareholders, its profits must be spent on the railways. And much of its money comes directly from the government. It's made a profit now because it's started receiving delayed payments from the government under a previous agreement with ministers. But Network Rail has also managed to cut more than a billion pounds of its costs - which will help its finances. The company's chairman, Ian McAllister, said improved train safety and punctuality had turned Britain's railways into a success story, but new and greater challenges lay ahead -- with more passengers, Network Rail had to find ways of easing overcrowding and boosting the capacity of the rail system.

RAIL 2

And the chairman of Network Rail, Ian McAllister, told us how he intended to do that:

MCALLISTER: By removing pinch-points within the network, so we can run more trains on the same mileage of track. There are areas, for example, during the days of British Rail, when they were lowering costs - quite rightly so - to deal with lower passenger numbers; and, for example, certain dual lines were reduced to single lines. And it's a question of putting the dual lines back. That will increase capacity and reduce journey times.

CEASEFIRE

The new ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza appears to be holding, after an inauspicious start. Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said he'd show "restraint and patience", after militants fired rockets into Israel, just hours after the truce came into effect early yesterday. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has ordered his security forces to prevent further attacks. From Jerusalem, Jon Leyne:

LEYNE: After a shaky start in which a number of rockets were fired on Israel, the ceasefire has now taken hold. The militant group, Islamic Jihad, which originally said it was not part of the deal, has committed itself to the ceasefire. And members of the Israeli cabinet are vying with each other to claim credit. There's still Israeli military activity in the West Bank -- overnight two Palestinians were killed -- but the political and diplomatic discussions are moving ahead in earnest. The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, is considering making his first trip out of Gaza since being elected to push ahead negotiations on forming a government of national unity. But senior figures in the Israeli army are deeply sceptical. They warn that the pause is just giving Palestinian militants more time to rearm and regroup.

IRAQ

The defence secretary, Des Browne, will say today that the handover of Iraqi territory now under British control to local forces from next year will not mean a withdrawal. In a speech in London, he'll say British troops will still provide support for the Iraqi army and police, and protect supply routes. But he'll also make clear that he's determined that British personnel should not stay in Iraq any longer than necessary.

APOLOGY

Tony Blair has expressed his "deep sorrow" about Britain's role in the slave trade -- nearly two-hundred years after the legislation that led to its abolition in the British Empire. His statement is published in New Nation -- a newspaper serving black communities. The prime minister describes the slave trade as "shameful" and condemns its existence. But he's angered some activists by failing to issue a formal apology.

CLIMATE

The bosses of some of Europe's top businesses are expected to urge the president of the European Commission, Manuel Barroso, to impose tougher targets on greenhouse gas emissions. At a meeting in London later today, they'll tell him to stop member states reneging on commitments they have made under the Kyoto Protocol. It's the precursor to a vital climate meeting on Wednesday, as our Environment Analyst, Roger Harrabin reports:

HARRABIN: Member states are supposed to be setting stricter pollution limits on firms, but most aren't doing that. The EU's environment commissioner forecasts that unless the commission takes a big stick to the member states, industrial emissions will actually grow by fifteen per cent. Today in London, bosses of several leading European firms will tell Mr Barroso to impose strict long-term targets on business pollution to keep Europe in the lead on climate. But other energy-intensive firms are warning that tough targets could drive them out of the EU. Without a sharp kick from commission at Wednesday's meeting, the EU's carbon trading scheme could collapse. The world's faltering efforts to tackle the greenhouse effect would probably collapse with it.

CBI

The CBI begins its annual conference today, with a warning that foreign companies are being put off from investing in Britain because of high taxes on businesses. The employers' organisation is urging the government to follow other countries in reducing business taxes. Our Business Correspondent, Nils Blythe, reports:

BLYTHE: The CBI believes that, in the last five years, Britain has become a less attractive place for international businesses. The argument is that other countries have been cutting business taxes to attract new investment - so Ireland, for example, now levies corporation tax at twelve-and-a-half per cent, compared with Britain's thirty per cent. And a CBI survey of eighty-seven senior figures at major companies found two-thirds dissatisfied with the government's approach to international competitiveness. The CBI will make its case to leading politicians at its two-day conference starting in London this morning.

MAYOR

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has turned down an invitation to take part in a conference organised by the Commission for Racial Equality. Mr Livingstone's accused the commission's chairman, Trevor Phillips, of trying to grab alarmist headlines, rather than developing meaningful discussion. Mr Phillips told the Today programme that the conference was not a political rally but a professional working event. He said he was sad Mr Livingstone wasn't coming, and said there wasn't a feud - because that had to be two sided, and he didn't know what the mayor has an issue with.

SHOOTING

Demonstrations have been taking place in New York, in protest at the fatal shooting of an young, unarmed black man by police -- on the morning of his wedding. Sean Bell, who was twenty-three, was due to marry the mother of his two children on Saturday. Police opened fire as he left a strip club in the borough of Queens at the end of his stag night, killing Mr Bell and wounding two of his friends. Jeremy Cooke reports from New York:

COOKE: The exact details of what happened outside the Kalua Club are not clear, but the New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, has confirmed that his officers fired some fifty rounds into a car being driven by twenty-three-year-old Sean Bell, who had just left the club at the end of his stag night. Mr Bell, who was supposed to have been married later on Saturday, died at the scene. The two friends with him were hit several times. Commissioner Kelly says his officers believed that one of the men in the car may have had a gun, but no weapons were recovered. He accepted that it was unclear why the shooting had started or whether his detectives had identified themselves as police officers. Amid mounting protests from New York's black community, a major investigation is under way.

HOSPITAL

A new NHS computer system is launched today which will help doctors find hospital cots for critically-ill babies. Until now, NHS staff have had to ring round individual hospitals to find places. Our Health Correspondent, Jane Hughes, has the details:

HUGHES: Over seventeen-thousand babies a year in England need neonatal care, and most are treated locally. But when hospitals don't have cots available, doctors can spend hours ringing around trying to find free places in other parts of the country. According to campaigners, that puts babies' lives at risk. This system is designed to show immediately where neonatal cots are available. The Department of Health says that'll mean babies can be transferred as quickly and smoothly as possible. But the charity, Bliss, says while the new system is good news, too many babies will still be treated too far from home.

INTERNET

A new survey has found that a growing number of people are turning off their televisions and watching videos or programmes on the internet. The survey of people's viewing habits has been commissioned by the BBC News website. Our Media Correspondent, Torin Douglas, reports:

DOUGLAS: Whether it's video-sharing sites such as YouTube, or programmes on-demand from iTunes or broadcasters such as Channel Four and the BBC, more people in Britain are watching online. The BBC News survey, among a thousand people by phone, and another thousand via the internet, suggests one in ten of us now watches online or on a mobile at least once a week. That number seems set to grow as broadband improves the picture quality and more videos are made available - though two-thirds of those asked did not expect to watch online within the next year.

CRICKET

Cricket: England have lost the first Ashes Test against the Australians by 277 runs. Kevin Pietersen -- who began the day on 92 -- was out fourth ball. The England captain, Andrew Flintoff, said his team would be prepared for the second match in the series, which begins in Adelaide on Friday:

FLINTOFF: The mood's fine, you know. It's a strong side, there's a lot of characters in that dressing room. Just because we got beaten in one Test, you know, the series isn't over. We're one-nil down, a position that some of us have been in before, and we've bounced back from that on numerous occasions, and we'll be looking to do that again.