THE HEADLINES AT 0800 ON TUESDAY 5TH DECEMBER

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It's eight o'clock on Tuesday the 5th of December.

Out-of-hours GPs and walk-in centres are being proposed to smooth the way for closure of some accident and emergency units.

The military has seized power in Fiji.

England's cricketers are on the brink of defeat in the second Test.

NHS

Tony Blair will today urge health managers and doctors to help make the case for the re-organisation of local NHS services in England. He's expected to say the positive arguments for change have been drowned out by concerns over closures and finances. The government says lives will be saved if services are concentrated in big regional centres; but critics say lives will be lost if accident and emergency treatment is downgraded and not locally available. Here's our Health Correspondent, Adam Brimelow:

BRIMELOW: The government's coming under growing pressure over plans to overhaul emergency services, which lie at the heart of a big re-organisation of hospitals. Critics say it's driven by the need to tackle deficits. Today, two leading clinicians who act as advisers to the government -- Sir George Alberti and Professor Roger Boyle -- will present the case for reform, arguing for a range of urgent care services, including out-of-hours GPs, walk-in-centres and a bigger role for paramedics, alongside big regional A&E centres. Last week, the Conservatives questioned the evidence for these changes. They said that at least twenty-nine A&E departments were under threat. But the left-leaning think-tank, the IPPR, says campaigns to save local emergency services could lead to hundreds of preventable deaths -- by denying people access to lifesaving specialist care.

FIJI 1

There's been a military coup in Fiji in the South Pacific. The head of the army, Frank Bainimarama, went on television to say he had taken control of the government. The army has set up roadblocks in the capital, Suva, and is disarming police and government bodyguards. As armed troops arrived at the home of the prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, he spoke live on the BBC World Service:

QARASE: There are soldiers at the gate negotiating their way to come in, and the information is that they want to take me out to an island location. We are unarmed. They are armed. So I suppose if they want to, they can come in any time. I will not resign. If they want to carry out an illegal act, you know, that is their choice.

FIJI 2

New Zealand has said defence ties with Fiji are being severed, and officers and their families from that country would be banned. Australia is taking similar action. The prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, watched the military commander's television statement -- and told Today what she thought of it:

CLARK: We've just seen the most extraordinary broadcast by the military commander, assuming executive control himself, appointing himself the president, sacking the prime minister and government, appointing an interim government. He called on people in Fiji who are thinking of conducting illegal activity not to do it, which was the supreme irony, given that he had just ripped up the country's constitution and thrown it out the window of his barracks.

FIJI 3

This is the fourth coup in Fiji in two decades, and follows weeks of tension between the prime minister and the army chief. Our correspondent, Phil Mercer, is in Suva, where he's been watching events unfold:

MERCER: Commodore Bainimarama has assumed the powers of Fiji's president to sack the government. He said he was invoking a doctrine of necessity, because the country was headed for destruction under the former prime minister, Laisenia Qarase. The Commodore told a news conference that the Qarase government was tainted by bribery and corruption, and had no intention of solving Fiji's political crisis. For months, the army has been in dispute with Mr Qarase over his plans to grant amnesties to those behind a nationalist uprising six years ago. The military believes the coup plotters were treated far too leniently.

TRIDENT

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has questioned the need, legality, and morality of updating the Trident nuclear deterrent. Tony Blair told MPs yesterday it would be "unwise and dangerous" to give up what he called the "ultimate insurance". But Dr Williams has spoken of the grave ethical issues raised by indiscriminate weapons of terrifying power. Baptist, Methodist, and United Reformed Church leaders have also warned that updating Trident will set back efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation.

GATES

The man chosen by President Bush to take over as US defence secretary from Donald Rumsfeld appears before a Senate committee today. Robert Gates is expected to be confirmed in office by Senators. He's also expected to signal changes in policy -- as Justin Webb reports from Washington:

WEBB: Mr Gates supported President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, and he opposes a quick exit for US troops - a move he thinks would have dangerous consequences for many years to come. However, Mr Gates is expected to make it clear in his first public comments since his nomination that he thinks big mistakes have been made. He may also suggest a new openness to dialogue with America's enemies in the Middle East. In the past, he's criticised the administration for not talking to Iran. Mr Gates did not seek the defence job -- he's been in semi-retirement at a university in Texas -- so he's widely believed to have been given assurances that in return for coming to Washington, he is going to be allowed to get his way to make a difference. His answers today might shed further light on the changes in Iraq policy being planned in Washington.

IRAQ

Gunmen have opened fire on a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslims in northern Baghdad this morning. At least fourteen people were killed. And in the south of the city, car bombs exploded near a petrol station, killing about fifteen people.

DUTCH

The Dutch government has been heavily criticised for awarding medals to some of the soldiers whose withdrawal from Srebrenica -- during the Bosnian War -- led to the massacre of eight-thousand Muslims. The Bosnian president has lodged an official protest with the Dutch ambassador, while survivors' groups have staged demonstrations. Colonel Bob Stewart - who commanded British troops inn Bosnia - told the Today programme he was surprised by the decision to honour the Dutch troops:

STEWART: They allowed the people to be separated - men and boys from women and children; and in fact - in one case, as I recall - helped do this. And then those men and boys were taken away and they were massacred - massacred in a most disgusting way, and then buried in huge pits.

MOSCOW

British investigators -- now in Moscow as part of the investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko -- are to check the British embassy for traces of radiation. They're also hoping to interview several potential witnesses, including those who met the former Russian agent in London on the day he was allegedly poisoned.

TORIES

The shadow education secretary, David Willetts, says pupils should study a wider range of subjects at school. He's suggesting making more pupils study modern languages, individual science subjects and history. These are still policy ideas rather than commitments by the Conservatives, as our Political Correspondent, Terry Stiastny, reports:

STIASTNY: It's the structure of the education system that has recently been the most contentious political issue - how schools should be organised and run. But the Conservatives say they want to concentrate on the subjects pupils learn and the standards they achieve. In a presentation today, the shadow education secretary, David Willetts, will suggest that the Conservatives should allow pupils to study a broader range of subjects for longer. He argues that there's a strong case for pupils being obliged to study modern languages until the age of sixteen, and that more pupils should be able to study individual science subjects, such as physics or chemistry, rather than combined science courses. He also says that although it was the last Conservative government which got rid of the requirement to study history until sixteen, that should also be looked at again.

PLANNING

A report out this morning will call for a radical shake-up of the planning laws in England. The review -- led by the economist, Kate Barker -- is expected to recommend an easing of regulations governing new buildings -- including improvements to existing homes. It's also likely to call for changes in the way land is protected from development -- pointing out that more than half the land in England is designated in some way.

DECORATIONS

New research suggests an increasing number of employers are banning Christmas decorations in case non-Christian faiths are offended. A survey of more than two-thousand employers revealed that seventy-four per cent feared repercussions from hanging tinsel and putting up trees. Here's our Labour Affairs Correspondent, Stephen Cape:

CAPE: An increasing number of local authorities have already banned traditional decorations and Christmas trees from the high street, and according to the survey, employers feel they have little option but to follow, because of the threat of litigation. The law firm, Peninsula, which carried out the research said that, in the last two months, it had received four-thousand calls about religious and racial discrimination. Of the employers questioned in the survey, seventy-four per cent admitted they would ban tinsel from the office, but many also felt that the festive bauble portrayed the wrong image and could even have an impact on productivity.

CRICKET

Cricket: England have had a dismal final day at the second Ashes Test in Adelaide. Peter Baxter is at the ground and joins us now:

BAXTER: Australia are 8 runs away from sealing this match, and taking a 2-nil lead in this Ashes series. They have pulled off a remarkable turnaround today; England starting the game, really just the day, needing just to bat for a couple of sessions, and make sure that the game could not be lost. But they collapsed in those two sessions. Warne rendered them utterly strokeless. He took 4 wickets as well. There was a disastrous run-out that started the collapse, and England, all-out for 129, left Australia only 168 needed to win. They have lost 4 wickets along the way, but Michael Hussey has led them home. He's 54-not out, and they are 160 for 4.