Malaria Vaccine 'Could Be Widespread By 2015'

By Thomas Moore, Health and Science Correspondent

The world's first malaria vaccine could be in widespread use within two years following "significant" results from an ongoing clinical trial.

Researchers reported at a malaria conference in Durban, South Africa, that the jab continues to protect a substantial proportion of babies and young children 18 months after vaccination.

The mosquito-borne disease kills around 660,000 people every year, most of them children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which makes the vaccine, said it would apply for a licence from the European Medicines Agency next year.

If the vaccine - code-named RTS,S - is confirmed to be safe and effective, the World Health Organisation has indicated that it will support use of the vaccine as soon as 2015.

A South Sudanese man with his daughter, who is being treated for malaria

GSK has vowed to sell the vaccine at cost price plus 5%, which it said would fund further research into tropical diseases.

The new results are from a study of 15,000 babies and children in seven African countries.

They show the vaccine is far from perfect, but still offers significant protection.

Eighteen months after a three-dose vaccination programme, young children were 46% less likely to suffer clinical malaria.

For every 1,000 children vaccinated, 21 cases of severe malaria were prevented, according to the results.

The vaccine was less effective in babies. Infants who had the jabs when they were just a few weeks old were 27% less likely to suffer from malaria.

Scientists will now investigate whether a booster dose can increase protection in the longer term.

Halidou Tinto, one of the study's principal investigators, said the vaccine had "the potential to have a significant public health impact".

"Many millions of malaria cases fill the wards of our hospitals," Dr Tinto said.

"Progress is being made with bed nets and other measures, but we need more tools to battle this terrible disease."

British pharmaceutical company GSK makes the vaccine

GSK chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said: "While we have seen some decline in vaccine efficacy over time, the sheer number of children affected by malaria means that the number of cases of the disease the vaccine can help prevent is impressive.

"These data support our decision to submit a regulatory application for the vaccine candidate which, if successful, would bring us a step closer to having an additional tool to fight this deadly disease."

The development of the jab has been jointly funded by GSK and Bill and Melinda Gates through the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative.

Professor Eleanor Riley from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said if the vaccine is cheap enough it has huge potential.

"It would be great if the vaccine had 80-90% efficacy," she told Sky News.

"But it has taken us 15 years to get this far with this vaccine.

"The question is: can we wait another 15 years before we roll out a vaccine that is going to save lives?"

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Help To Buy Scheme Could Secure 180,000 Loans

Banks are expecting a flood of interest as the latest phase of the Government's Help to Buy scheme is launched.

The move will help homebuyers obtain mortgages worth up to 95% of property values.

And in the latest phase of the controversial scheme 15% of a property's value will be guaranteed by taxpayers, in return for a fee from the lender.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Help to Buy is going to make the dream of home ownership a reality for many who would otherwise have been shut out."

Chancellor George Osborne said: "Too many people are still being denied the dream of owning their own home, which is why we have brought forward the launch of this scheme, so as of today borrowers can start applying for a mortgage with a 5% deposit."

Virgin Money is among the lenders taking part

The new scheme means homebuyers will only have to find as little as 5% on homes worth up to £600,000. Depending on the size of the deposit, the Government will then guarantee up to 15% of the property value in return for a fee from the lender.

Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland and its subsidiary NatWest immediately set out mortgage deals under the scheme and announced that 740 of its branches would extend opening hours for two weeks to cope with expected demand.

Halifax and Bank of Scotland, owned by the state-backed Lloyds Banking Group, will start offering loans under the scheme on Friday, but the Lloyds brand itself is not taking part.

The Treasury also announced that Virgin Money had signed up, while the start-up Aldermore Bank has also said it will join.

Both will take part from January and Aldermore is exploring whether the date can be brought forward.

A Treasury spokesman said the lenders involved so far represented more than 30% of the mortgage market and that more lenders were expected to indicate participation in the coming months.

The scheme had initially not been expected to start until the new year but has been brought forward by three months.

It will offer £12bn in mortgage guarantees over three years and some estimates suggest 180,000 loans could be taken out under the initiative.

Lenders can start offering the mortgages from today, and they will be guaranteed by the Government from January 2014.

An earlier phase of the scheme, offering 20% loans on new-build properties, has already helped more than 15,000 people buy a new home since it was launched six months ago.

Help to Buy is controversial because critics fear it could fuel further rises in a housing market where prices are already going up.

But the Treasury said that while house price inflation stands at 3.3%, it is only 0.8% when the property hotspots of London and the South East are removed.

The latest report on the market from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) suggested prices were likely to surge further ahead in London and the South East because the supply of homes was lagging behind burgeoning demand.

It measured home sales at a four-year high last month but remaining historically low.

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Tory Reshuffle Expected After Ministers Quit

Two Government ministers have resigned ahead of a Tory reshuffle by David Cameron, expected later today.

Number 10 has confirmed Deputy Chief Whip John Randall and Cabinet Office Minister Chloe Smith have quit.

The departures increase the scope for Mr Cameron to bring in new faces to his top team, which is tipped to feature more women.

They follow Simon Burns' resignation as Transport Minister, who has stood down to launch a bid to become a Commons Deputy Speaker.

The shake-up is expected to focus on the lower ranks of Government, with the most senior Tory Cabinet ministers staying put.

Mr Randall, Tory MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, said he had indicated at the end of last year he wished to step aside.

The 58-year-old was embroiled in the "Plebgate" row last year, threatening to resign if Andrew Mitchell refused to quit.

In his resignation letter, he said it had been "a great privilege and honour" to serve for 13 years in the Whips' Office in opposition and Government.

"I have nothing but the deepest admiration for you as a person, leader and Prime Minister. I will never forget the kind note that you wrote to me when my mother died last year," he said.

Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to make changes to his top team

"You can be assured that I will do whatever I can for you personally as well as for the party, the Government and of course the country."

The Prime Minister said he "could not have wished for a more loyal, discreet, patient, trustworthy and committed colleague" and that he "had rather hoped this day would never come".

"You have been a rock, not just in the Whips Office since 2000 where you have served with great distinction as Assistant and then Deputy Chief Whip, but for the whole Parliamentary Party," he added.

"Your wit and humour are well known across the Party, but so too is your compassion; your dedication to the Party and to Parliament; and your steadfast reliability in good times and bad."

Ms Smith, MP for Norwich North, was only elected to the Commons in 2009 at the age of just 27 but was quickly promoted to the ministerial ranks.

As economic secretary, she endured a toe-curling interview with Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight when she struggled to explain a fuel duty freeze.

In her letter to the Prime Minister, she said: "I have been privileged to serve my country and my party under your leadership.

"However, for the remainder of the Parliament I want to be able to spend more time serving my constituents."

Sky Political Correspondent Anushka Asthana said: "David Cameron has talked before about wanting to have a third of his cabinet female and so far he only has four Cabinet secretaries are women.

"What he will want to do today is move women up the ranks ready to go into Cabinet. Today they are focusing on middle-minister rankings. I expect we will see people like Liz Truss, perhaps Esther McVey and others start to move up.

"We are also likely to see northern and working-class MPs moving up. People are calling this a flat-cap reshuffle."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband are also expeced to reshuffle their respective ministerial teams today.

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Murder Witness Sues Met Police Over Reward

By Jason Farrell, Sky News Correspondent

A key witness in a high-profile murder case has told Sky News that he is suing the Metropolitan Police for not paying out on a reward offer.

The man who gave evidence in the trial over the shooting of unarmed police officer PC Patrick Dunne also said he lives in fear, after his identity was mistakenly released.

Speaking in a secret location the witness who we will call "John" (not his real name) told Sky News: "The police had told me that my name would never be released and that police were working in a unit of eight and not even other people in the police would know what they were doing.

"And going into the court case, my name was then given out. I then spoke to the police and said 'what the hell, my name's been given out'. And I was told 'oh we're sorry that shouldn't have happened'."

The killer, Gary Nelson, was convicted in 2006 for the shootings in 1993 of PC Dunne and a security guard William Danso. Nelson was described at the time as the most dangerous man in London.

John responded with information following a BBC Crimewatch appeal in 2001 which had offered a £100,000 reward, but he claims he only received £20,000.

He said: "We got told a year later that there's no money left in the pot. That was the answer. No letter, nothing and now I've taken legal action because of this."

Murder victims: PC Patrick Dunne (L) and William Danso

A Met spokesman confirmed that the force had "received a claim" earlier this year and had no further comment at this stage.

John's claim comes as police launch a new national witness protection service. It will create a national specialist Protected Persons Service to replace schemes run by local forces.

It is hoped it will encourage more witnesses to come forward. Last year, just over one in four of collapsed prosecutions were as a result of witness or victim reticence to give evidence.

In 2009/10, 18% of witnesses who attended court to give evidence reported that they or their family felt intimidated at some point and 40% reported concerns about coming into contact with the defendant and their supporters.

Lawyer Simon McKay, an expert in witness protection, said: "I think the key thing in handling all of these cases is that once one recognises that someone falls within the category of someone who needs to be protected is to be as honest and transparent with that individual as you can be.

Killer Gary Nelson was convicted over the shootings

"Confidence is key here, expectations are key here and the failings of the police forces that have handled these sorts of cases in the past have always let the people down in relation to those two areas."

Victims' minister Helen Grant told Sky News witness protection needed improving.

She said: "It was patchy and inconsistent across the country, and this new system will have national quality standards.

"There will be much, much better co-ordination of service, more consistency, more accountability, and very importantly too, it will create more confidence in the criminal justice system to encourage witnesses, victims, informants, other vulnerable people to come forward."

John decided he could not go through with the commitment of witness protection, as it would mean cutting ties with some family members.

This is a dilemma many struggle with. The alternative is to live in fear of repercussions. Police have improved security at his home, but John said he will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.

Despite helping to convict a dangerous killer, John said he "regrets" giving evidence.

He told Sky News: "I'm not getting a driving licence, I will not give my name to the DVLA. I don't hold a bank account. The council don't know who lives in the property.

"It's not just me, my wife as well, if she's been left in the house and she hears something outside, she worries straight away.

"You would normally think 'oh maybe that's a fox, maybe that's a dog'. We don't. We think that's somebody, maybe, coming to get us."

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Al Shabaab: US Forces Abort Somalia Terror Raid

US special forces have aborted a mission to capture an al Shabaab leader in Somalia linked to the Nairobi shopping mall massacre after they came under heavy attack.

A Navy SEAL team staged a pre-dawn raid on a house in the southern town of Barawa after swimming ashore before the al Qaeda-linked militants rose for morning prayers.

Reinforcements arrived at the house and SEAL Team Six, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, encountered fiercer resistance than expected, a senior US military source told The Associated Press.

After a 15 to 20-minute firefight, the unit leader decided to abort the mission and they swam away, the source said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Bali for an economic summit, spoke about the US operation in north Africa, and said terrorists "can run but they can't hide".

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that US military personnel had been involved in a counter-terrorism operation against a known al Shabaab terrorist in Somalia, but did not provide details.

One of the gunmen in the Kenyan shopping centre attack

He said there were no US casualties in the raid.

Within hours of the attack, the US Army's Delta Force carried out a raid in Libya, and captured an al Qaeda leader wanted for the 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 220 people.

The aborted Somalia operation came 20 years after the famous "Black Hawk Down" battle in Mogadishu, in which a mission to capture Somali warlords went wrong when militia forces shot down two US helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers.

Residents in Barawe, a seaside town some 150 miles south of Mogadishu, said locals woke up to the sound of heavy gunfire.

The SEAL team battled their way inside a two-storey beachside house, where al Shabaab fighters lived, before being driven back.

A US official said the mission in Barawe was aimed at capturing a "high-value target" while trying to avoid civilian casualties.

Al Shabaab leader Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, claimed responsibility for last month's siege in the Nairobi mall that killed at least 67 people.

He was the target of Saturday's raid, according to a Somali intelligence official.

A Barawe resident called Mohamed Bile said militants closed down the town in the hours after the raid, and were carrying out house-to-house searches to find evidence that a spy had tipped off the US.

"We woke up to find al Shabaab fighters had sealed off the area and their hospital is also inaccessible," he told The Associated Press by phone. "The town is in a tense mood."

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Al Qaeda: US Captures Wanted Libyan Leader

US forces have captured an al Qaeda leader in Libya linked to the 1998 American Embassy bombings in east Africa and wanted by the FBI for more than a decade.

A Pentagon spokesman identified the suspect as Nazih Abdul-Hamed al Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al Libi, who has been on America's most wanted terrorists list since it was introduced after the September 11 attacks.

His capture represents a significant blow to what remains of the core al Qaeda organisation, once led by Osama bin Laden.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Bali for an economic summit, spoke about the Libya operation and Saturday's aborted raid to capture an al Shabaab leader in Somalia, and said terrorists "can run but they can't hide".

"We hope that this makes clear that the USA will never stop in the effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror," he said.

Family members said gunmen in a three-car convoy seized al Libi outside his home in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Al Libi is believed to have returned to Libya during the 2011 civil war that led to the toppling and killing of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

His brother Nabih said the 49-year-old was parking outside his house early on Saturday after dawn prayers, when three vehicles encircled his vehicle. The gunmen smashed his car window and seized his weapon before grabbing him and fleeing.

The US embassy in Nairobi was attacked in 1998

Al Libi's wife saw the kidnapping from her window and described the abductors as foreign-looking armed "commandos", he said.

US officials said there were no American casualties in the operation.

Al Libi, who had a $5m (£3.1m) FBI bounty on his head, was charged by a US federal court for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, that killed more than 250 people.

He is believed to be an al Qaeda computer specialist, and studied electronic and nuclear engineering at Tripoli University, and was anti-Gaddafi.

He is believed to have spent time in Sudan, where bin Laden was based in the early 1990s.

After bin Laden was forced to leave Sudan, al Libi turned up in Britain in 1995 where he was granted political asylum under unclear circumstances and lived in Manchester.

He was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in 1999, but was released because of lack of evidence and later fled the UK.

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Help To Buy: Doubts Over Success Of Scheme

By Poppy Trowbridge, Business and Economics Correspondent

The second phase of the government mortgage guarantee scheme Help to Buy is due to launch next week, three months earlier than expected - but experts are sceptical the initiative will help buyers.

Lack of capacity in the housing market and claims by banks which say they are not ready because they haven't received essential information from the Government threaten to leave many would-be buyers empty-handed.

Exclusive research by Sky News shows interest from potential buyers has skyrocketed since the Government surprised the market.

Property website Rightmove says clicks on its Help to Buy pages numbered 14,807 on Saturday, the day before last Sunday's surprise announcement.

When David Cameron revealed, on the eve of the Conservative Party conference, that the launch date had been brought forward from January - clicks, measuring potential buyer interest, spiked to 59,571.

Now, almost a week later, they remain far above average at 23,660.

But there is concern that pent-up demand cannot be met by existing market services.

Sky News has learned that the two taxpayer backed banks, Lloyds Banking Group and RBS, are not able to guarantee a launch date. Sky News understands both are waiting for further details from the Government.

Barclays has issued a statement saying it, too, is undecided.

"Whilst we cannot take a decision over participation in the new scheme before the terms are set, we are encouraged by the tone of the discussions so far," the bank said.

Estate agents are also worried that capacity to deal with a surge in interest is lacking.

Robert Ellice, of Clarke Hillyer, told Sky News: "At the moment we've got big delays in the whole process anyway, mortgages are still taking a long time to be offered and taking a long time to be verified on values."

Does that mean hopeful homebuyers will have to wait for Westminster to work out the finer details before others can catch up?

Mortgage manager Ray Boulger said: "The first details of mortgage rates under this scheme we are expecting on Tuesday from Halifax, but they are likely to be the only lender offering these mortgages for probably some weeks.

"From a buyer's perspective the good news is there will be 95% mortgages available from the biggest lender in the country, the bad news is there will be no competition."

He added: "But it is a start, you have got to start somewhere."

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