THE HEADLINES AT 0800 ON WEDNESDAY 29TH NOVEMBER

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It's eight o'clock on Wednesday the 29th of November.

The father of a lawyer killed during a street robbery has called for urgent action to stop young people committing such crimes out of boredom or for fun.

More NATO troops serving in Afghanistan are to be freed for front-line duty -- but not in the numbers wanted by Tony Blair.

A BBC survey suggests a majority of people favour limits on Muslim women wearing veils in public.

Fidel Castro has missed the start of his re-scheduled 80th birthday celebrations because of ill-health.

CRIME

The father of a lawyer, stabbed to death by two teenage robbers in a London street, has said more must be done to prevent youngsters from committing such crimes out of boredom or bravado. Speaking on the Today programme, John ap Rhys Price -- whose son, Tom, was murdered in January -- said his family was setting up a charity to find ways of channelling the energy of young people "wandering the street". A new study suggests many muggings are carried out for fun as much as for money -- as Ben Ando reports:

ANDO: The number of street robberies is rising, and they're becoming more violent. To find out why, researchers from Glamorgan University interviewed a hundred-and-twenty offenders, and discovered that some became addicted to the buzz of a robbery, while others saw robbery as a form of street justice. These findings come the day after two teenagers were jailed for stabbing lawyer, Tom ap Rhys Pryce, to death in London for his travel card and mobile phone. His father, John, says the attackers' energy needs channelling:

AP RHYS PRYCE: Lots of people do things for a buzz, for kicks, for adrenalin. But it doesn't have to be violent, does it? I mean, playing sport will give you a good feeling. We have to try and divert that desire for excitement into a different direction.

ANDO: This research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, says many of the motives are tied into street culture, and those responsible are not motivated by financial gain, but because they enjoy it.

NATO

NATO leaders are to announce changes in the rules which prevent some troops based in Afghanistan from being used in combat. The exemptions -- called "national caveats" -- have been a source of frustration for Britain and the United States. Last night -- before the start of their summit in the Latvian capital, Riga -- Tony Blair made an impassioned plea for more help in defeating the Taleban -- a bid which wasn't entirely unsuccessful. Our Defence Correspondent, Paul Wood, is travelling with the prime minister, and sent this report:

WOOD: Mr Blair has been given a measure of the flexibility he's demanding from those other NATO countries in Afghanistan. But that doesn't mean Germany, France, Italy or Spain are about to redeploy their forces to those southern provinces where the war against the Taleban is actually being waged. Instead, the French are no longer insisted on working only in Kabul, while the Germans are making similar sorts of noises. In other words, there's limited movement from the two nations with the most to contribute. The Dutch and the Romanians have lifted all the caveats which would stop them being deployed in combat, while other nations have lifted any caveat which would have a harmful operational impact, along with pledges of small numbers of extra troops from Bulgaria, Spain and Macedonia. All this does represent progress, both from Mr Blair and the NATO high command, but it is hardly the forceful demonstration of political will they were looking for to send a message to the Taleban that this is fight they cannot win.

LITVINENKO

Police investigating the death of the former Russian security agent, Alexander Litvinenko, are continuing to examine two new sites in the West End of London. They are the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, in Piccadilly, and an office building in Grosvenor Street, in Mayfair. So far, no trace of polonium-210 -- the radioactive substance thought to have killed Mr Litvinenko -- has been found at either location. Eight people are being tested to see if they have been contaminated. Speaking on the Today programme, the chief executive of the Health Protection Agency, Pat Troop, said the point of checking the buildings was to reassure the public:

TROOP: You always get background levels of polonium, but we're not finding anything which is going to cause a public health worry. Therefore, what we're doing is making sure that people can go into those buildings. If we had worries, we would ask the areas to be sealed. But we are trying to make sure that everybody is confident that they can go into those parts of those buildings.

POPE

Pope Benedict will travel to Istanbul later for what was intended to be the centrepiece of his visit to Turkey -- a meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians. But he'll begin the second day of his trip by saying mass at shrine visited by thousands of Christians and Muslims every year. Our correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, reports from Ephesus, on the Aegean Coast:

RAINSFORD: Pope Benedict is coming to Ephesus to visit a shrine to the Virgin Mary, a small stone house in the hills where the mother of Jesus is said to have spent her last years. The Pope will say an open-air mass at the sanctuary to a specially-invited congregation of Catholics, shifting the focus of this trip to Turkey away from controversy over his attitude to Islam. From here, Benedict XVI will travel to Istanbul, where he'll be the guest of the Ecumenical Orthodox patriarch, spiritual leader to around two-hundred-and-fifty-million Orthodox Christians worldwide. The Pope is hoping to take steps towards healing the ancient rift between the two churches. That was the original priority for this visit before the Pope's comments on Islam and violence sparked outrage across the Muslim world.

TURKEY

Turkey is facing the partial suspension of talks paving the way for it to join the European Union. BBC News has learned that the European Commission is likely to call for negotiations on some issues to be halted -- for the time being -- because of Turkey's continuing refusal to recognise Cyprus.

VEIL

A survey commissioned by the BBC suggests a majority of British people favour a ban on Muslim women wearing the veil in some public places. More than a thousand adults took part in the poll, carried out this month by ICM. Sixty-one per cent said they would approve a ban in airports; more than half said the the veil shouldn't be worn in schools or courts. But there was less support for a total ban -- as Nasreen Suleaman reports:

SULEAMAN: The wearing of the veil has come under intense scrutiny since the leader of the Commons, Jack Straw, called it a "visible sign of separation". However, the BBC survey found that only thirty-three per cent would support legislation that banned Muslim women from wearing the veil in all public places. Fifty-six per cent say they disapproved of such a law. There's anecdotal evidence that more Muslim women have chosen to wear the face covering since Mr Straw's comment. Nadeem Sidique sells the veil at his shop in Blackburn:

SIDIQUE: Slightly, the sale of the veil has increased. I normally used to sell one or two in a week, but now, most probably, I'm selling every day one or two.

SULEAMAN: The issue of the veil is set to continue. A ruling is expected soon on whether or not anyone who wears it should be allowed into a courtroom. But, at present, it's unlikely the government will prohibit it. They say that it's a matter for the employers, not politicians.

SHELTER

The charity, Shelter, says one-in-seven children is growing up homeless -- or are living in bad housing. According to its research -- which is based on government figures -- this amounts to one-point-six-million children across Britain. Shelter calls the situation a "scandal". It wants the government to make a promise to expand social housing by an extra twenty-thousand homes a year. Graeme Brown, from Shelter, told us far fewer such homes were being built now than in 1966 -- when the charity was founded:

BROWN: In that year, we built a hundred-and-forty-thousand council houses; today, we're actually building eighteen-thousand. So there's a chronic problem with supply. That, combined with spiralling house inflation - and I think we've had a hundred per cent house inflation over the last nine years alone - means that there simply aren't enough homes to go around.

FAREPAK

The deadline to make donations to a fund set up to help customers of the collapsed Christmas savings club, Farepak, expires today. So far, it's raised five-point-eight-million pounds -- which will be paid out before Christmas.

OXFORD

Radical plans to change the way Oxford University is run have been rejected by academics. Under the proposals, the governing council would be split into an academic board and a financial board -- with the latter, for the the first time, recruiting half its members from outside the university. Academics -- gathered in what's known as the "parliament of the dons" -- voted by seven-hundred-and-thirty to four-hundred-and-fifty-six against the plans. There may now be a postal ballot of every member of the ruling body next month.

CASTRO

The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, has issued a statement saying that ill health prevented him from attending the start of five days of events marking his 80th birthday. The president hasn't been seen in public since July -- when he handed his main powers temporarily to his brother, Raul. His birthday celebrations were due to be held in August -- but were postponed. Our correspondent, Stephen Gibbs, reports from Havana:

GIBBS: The statement signed by Fidel Castro was read out to hundreds of his admirers who'd gathered to hear a concert in Havana's Karl Marx Theatre. The Cuban leader offered his regrets that he was unable to attend. He wrote that his doctors felt that he was not ready for such a challenging engagement. It's now unclear whether Mr Castro will appear at any of the events that are being held here in his honour over the coming days. Since he was taken ill last July, he's only been seen in officially-sanctioned photographs and videos. The most recent showed him both speaking and walking, but clearly weak and gaunt. President Castro's health is officially a state secret in Cuba. While senior ministers have repeatedly said that he is recuperating well from a gastric illness, almost no further details have been revealed.