THE HEADLINES AT 0800 ON TUESDAY 2ND JANUARY

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It's eight o'clock on Tuesday the 2nd of January.

Police are trying to establish whether a dog that mauled a five-year-old girl to death had a history of violent behaviour.

Train fares are going up -- in some cases, by more than twice the rate of inflation.

President Bush is preparing to send more American forces to Iraq.

DOG 1

Police and council officials in Merseyside will meet today to establish whether a dog which mauled a five-year-old girl to death had a history of violent behaviour. Ellie Lawrenson was staying at her grandmother's home in St Helens when she was attacked. Her grandmother, Jackie Simpson, was seriously injured. The dog was destroyed. Our correspondent, Mark Simpson, has sent this report:

SIMPSON: Five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson was killed by a family pet in the early hours of New Year's morning. The dog, a pit bull-type terrior, belonged to her uncle. Police say they're still trying to establish the exact breed of the dog. They're also checking whether it was being kept in line with current legislation. It emerged last night that the local council had warned the dog's owner about the animal's behaviour last year, after it reportedly attacked another dog. This morning, police will continue their examination of the house where Ellie Lawrenson died. At the same time, the local council faces the question of whether anything more could have been done to prevent her death.

DOG 2

Ballymena Council in Northern Ireland has declared an amnesty this month, during which the owners of pit bull terriers can hand in their dogs without fear of prosecution. Pit bull terriers are outlawed in Northern Ireland, whereas, in England, magistrates can allow an owner to keep a dog if it's not thought to be a danger to the public. The idea of an amnesty arose after a pit bull terrier attacked a family in November. The Ballymena Council dog warden, Nigel Devine, told us that any dog was capable of biting - but pit bulls were unpredictable - and tenacious:

DEVINE: These dogs were specifically bred for fighting. They've a strong pain threshold. Once they go into a frenzy of a fight, they will not stop. You know, they proved in Belfast there, in 2006, where the police actually shot one of these dogs six times - the police officer said when they hit the dog with a fifth bullet, the dog still kept coming at them. So therefore that just shows they've a high pain threshold.

TRAINS 1

Rail travellers will have have to pay more for their journeys from this morning, as train companies impose above-inflation increases in fares. The firms say the price rises will pay for improvements to the network. Passenger groups say they'll force people off the railways. Ben Ando reports:

ANDO: If you can book well ahead, travel off-peak or hold a season ticket, then rail travel can still offer a good deal. Regulated fares like these are controlled by the government, and increases limited to one per cent above inflation. But fares for open tickets which can be bought just before travel, and offer flexible return options, are set by the train operators. Fares on, for example, Heathrow or Gatwick Express trains are going up by seven-point-three per cent, and by an average of six-point-six per cent on Virgin West Coast trains between London Euston, Manchester and Glasgow. The Department for Transport says fares are a commercial decision for the operators, though passenger groups claim price is being used as a tool to reduce overcrowding.

TRAINS 2

Speaking on the Today programme, the shadow transport minister, Chris Grayling, said the fare rises were a deliberate attempt to reduce overcrowding:

GRAYLING: Well, the government originally in its ten-year plan set out a whole range of different projects - including longer trains, longer platforms, upgrades to main lines - to tackle the capacity problems on our railways, to encourage people to leave their cars at home. None of that's now happening, and so the only thing that they can do is to push up fares, to collude with the train companies to do that, and - as a result - reduce overcrowding.

IRAQ 1

The BBC has learned that President Bush intends to reveal a new strategy for Iraq within days. It's understood Mr Bush will outline a plan to send more US troops to the country. They will be told to focus on bringing greater security, rather than training Iraqi forces. The president has returned from his ranch in Texas to Washington to attend the funeral of former president, Gerald Ford. From Washington, our correspondent, Justin Webb, reports:

WEBB: This will be a solemn day in which President Ford will be the focus of national attention - but not for long. The BBC has been told by a senior administration source that the speech setting out changes in President Bush's Iraq policy is likely to come in the middle of next week. Its central theme will be sacrifice. The speech, we're told, involves increasing troop numbers. The exact mission of the extra troops in Iraq is still under discussion, according to officials, but it's likely to focus on providing security rather than training Iraqi forces. The proposal, if it comes, will be highly controversial. Already, one senior Republican senator has called it 'Alice in Wonderland'.

IRAQ 2

Statistics compiled by the Iraqi government suggest that more civilians were killed during December than in any other month since the invasion in 2003. The Interior Ministry says almost two-thousand people died in what it describes as terrorist violence. That brought the total for the year to more than twelve-thousand. This report is from Peter Greste in Baghdad:

GRESTE: Compiling accurate statistics is always difficult amid the chaos of Iraq, but the unofficial figures from Iraq's Interior Ministry still make chilling reading. Last January, almost five-hundred-and-fifty civilians died violently here. By December, that number more than trebled to just under two-thousand. That makes December the bloodiest month of the bloodiest year of the conflict so far. But the figures almost certainly understate the extent of the bloodshed. They don't include people who died later from their wounds, for example, or those who died from illnesses that could have been treated if the overstretched medical system was functioning properly. And other agencies, like the UN and the website, Iraq Body Count, both suggest the numbers are far higher.

BLAIR

There's only passing reference to the violence in Iraq -- and Afghanistan -- in Tony Blair's tenth, and final, New Year message as prime minister. He says that there are still huge challenges ahead for the government in education and the health service. Here's our Political Correspondent, Gary O'Donoghue:

O'DONOGHUE: While New Year political messages often concentrate on domestic matters, it's striking that there's just one sentence in more than one-thousand words in this one which refers to the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Blair praises the British soldiers stationed in those countries, and says that it's important to "see through" the battles in both places, as part of the fight against global terrorism. But in his description of politics at home, he says the government has made real progress on public services, crime and the economy, though he warns his party against complacency, saying there are still huge challenges ahead in both health and education. And perhaps in a sign of the arguments to come, he says that Labour can only continue to dominate the battle of ideas if it remains "New Labour". The Conservatives have dismissed Mr Blair's words - saying that the prime minister wasn't living on the same planet as the rest of us.

CBI

The president of the CBI has said 2007 could be a year of uncertainty for British business. In a statement marking his first day in the post, Martin Broughton said it would be a year of political change, involving the transition to a new prime minister, and attempts by a reinvigorated Conservative Party to carve out new political territory.

NHS

Ministers are being urged to write off the debts of the health service in England. The right-of-centre think-tank, Reform, says that despite record investment, the NHS is in a weaker position because of a failure to balance the books. The answer, it says, is to wipe the financial slate clean, and start afresh. More details from our Health Correspondent, Adam Brimelow:

BRIMELOW: Reform says 2007 will be a make or break year for the NHS in England. It says the basic problem in 2006 was a failure to control costs. This, it warns, could undermine the government's reforms, with a risk that the extra billions going into health could be squandered. So, to allow a fresh start, it suggests scrapping deficits, while insisting that trusts stay in surplus or balance. And it calls for radical action to make services more efficient. The government says there's no question of deficits being wiped out. It says the NHS will be in overall balance by the end of the financial year, and it insists that its reforms are already delivering more efficient and convenient services.

PLANE

Rescuers have found ninety bodies in the wreckage of a passenger plane, which crashed in mountains on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Twelve survivors are reported to have been found in a nearby village.

CIVIL

Britain's biggest civil service union is balloting more than a quarter of a million of its members on strike action in a dispute over job losses and privatisation. The PCS union says a walk-out -- on January the 31st -- would show the public how important civil servants are.

OPRAH

The American chat show host, Oprah Winfrey, is in South Africa to open a school she's built in a town near Johannesburg. She's spent twenty-million pounds setting up the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for girls from deprived backgrounds.

ASHES

Cricket: England won the toss and decided to bat first in the fifth and final Ashes Test. The visitors need to avoid defeat to stop Australia claiming the first Ashes whitewash since the 1920s. Reporting live from Sydney Cricket Ground, here's Peter Baxter:

BAXTER: A wet start and a dark finish truncated the day by ten overs, and, in between, honours were just about even - with England 234 for 4 at the close of play. But just after lunch, at 58 for 2, they were in a bit of danger. Then Bell and Pietersen put together a fine stand of 108 for the third wicket. It was the wiley old McGrath who broke that partnership up with wickets in successive overs - Pietersen caught at mid-wicket for 41, and then Bell inexplicably bowled through the gate for 71. McGrath had deserved those wickets; Lee had had Strauss for 29; and Clark, after lunch, had had Cook bowled off an inside edge for 20. With the McGrath wickets, England were looking wobbly again, but Flintoff came out positively. He even hit Clark for a straight 6. He's 42 at the close, with sound support from Collingwood, who's 25.