L/Cpl James Ashworth Awarded Victoria Cross

A soldier killed protecting his comrades in Afghanistan is to be awarded the Victoria Cross - the UK's top bravery medal, according to Sky Sources.

Lance Corporal James Ashworth's courage was hailed as "beyond words" by friends who served with him until his death last June.

The 23-year-old died in a grenade attack during a fierce battle with the Taliban in Helmand's Nahr-e Saraj district.

He was on foot patrol and battling his way through compounds against enemy fighters when he was fatally wounded.

It is expected that the rare VC award to the soldier from Kettering, Northamptonshire, will be officially announced later this month.

The VC has been awarded 10 times to British soldiers since World War Two and only once for bravery in Afghanistan.

At the time of L/Cpl Ashworth's death, his family said: "We are devastated by the loss of our son, brother, uncle and boyfriend. He meant the world to everyone and has left an irreplaceable hole in our hearts."

The cross was first bestowed during the Crimean War

His father Duane was also a Grenadier Guard, while his younger brother Coran is also a soldier.

He also left behind his mother Kerryann, sisters Lauren and Paige, brother Karl and four-year-old niece Darcy, as well as his girlfriend, Emily.

His company commander, Captain Mike Dobbin, praised the soldier's actions.

He said: "Lance Corporal Ashworth was killed while fighting his way through compounds, leading his fire team from the front, whilst trying to protect his men and he showed extraordinary courage to close on a determined enemy.

"His professionalism under pressure and ability to remain calm in what was a chaotic situation is testament to his character."

Johnson Beharry is the last living recipient of a medal

Guardsman Jordan Loftus also paid tribute to his friend's bravery.

He said: "Selfless, brave, courageous ... words like these don't come close to what Ash demonstrated that day. He will be missed by all as a commander, but most of all a good mate."

L/Cpl Ashworth's Commanding Officer in the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, Lieutenant Colonel James Bowder said: "Lance Corporal Ashworth was an outstanding soldier whose loss has moved us all. A real self-starter, he excelled in everything that he undertook.

"Fit, strong and brilliant at his job, he set the bar very high. Indeed, such was his calmness under pressure, his charisma, and his selflessness that he made an exemplary junior leader."

The previous recipient of the VC in Afghanistan was 29-year-old Corporal Bryan Budd of 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, who died when he single-handedly stormed a Taliban position in Sangin in 2006.

The last living recipient was L/Cpl Johnson Beharry of 1st Battalion the Prince of Wales's Royal Regiment, who twice saved the lives of colleagues under enemy fire in Iraq in 2004.

The medal is the British military's highest bravery award and was first bestowed on troops during the Crimean War in 1854-55.

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David Cameron To Give Tory Conference Speech

David Cameron will promise to foster "aspiration" and give school sport a £150m cash boost when he addresses the Conservative party's spring conference after a bruising couple of weeks.

Following the disastrous Eastleigh by-election, which saw the Tories beaten into third by UKIP, and just days before a Budget, the Prime Minister's speech is being viewed as a key test of his leadership.

Mr Cameron will tell activists his approach chimes with the Tory values of highly-popular figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill as he attempts to calm restive activists.

"The global race is not just about GDP," he will say.

"It's about saying to the mum who's worried about her children's future, we are building a country where there is a future, so your kids won't have to get on a plane to get on in life, they can make it right here in Britain.

"It's what this party's always been about - aspiration."

In a swipe at Labour opposition to tough benefit cuts being rolled out as part of the deficit reduction, he will paint them as "patronising people, patting them on the head and putting a benefit cheque in their hands".

Instead the Government was "giving people the tools to succeed".

Mr Cameron - who has come under fire from backbenchers over his "posh, male and white" inner circle - will acknowledge the "leg-ups" he enjoyed in life.

"I know the leg-ups I got in life. A loving family, wonderful parents, a great school and university.

"We want people to climb up through their own efforts, yes, but in order to climb up they need the ladder to be there in the first place, the family that nurtures them, the school that inspires them, the opportunities there for them.

Home Secretary Theresa May will also give a speech later today

"Great Conservatives down the generations have put those ladders in place. When Churchill invented the labour exchanges that helped people into work.

"When Macmillan built new homes. When Thatcher fired up enterprise so people could start their own businesses. That's what we're doing in the Conservative Party right now."

Mr Cameron will say the £150m a year cash injection for school sport will help bolster coaching for pupils in England.

A primary school with 250 pupils would receive £9,250 per year - this is around two days a week of a primary teacher or a coach's time, he will say.

At the conference today, Home Secretary Theresa May - who last week fuelled leadership ambition speculation with a speech which ranged far beyond her policy brief - will also give a speech.

She is reported to have been the target of Education Secretary Michael Gove's private warning to Tory Cabinet ministers earlier this week not to undermine David Cameron's position as PM.

But her speech is expected to be restricted to home affairs issues.

London Mayor Boris Johnson on Friday told Conservative Cabinet ministers accused of positioning themselves for the post-Cameron leadership to "put a sock in it and back the Prime Minister".

Mr Johnson, regarded as front-runner in the succession race if he can find a seat in Parliament, said speculation over a challenge to Mr Cameron's leadership was "complete nonsense".

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MP Arrested After House Of Commons 'Bar Fight'

The MP Eric Joyce has been arrested after an alleged fight in a bar at the House of Commons, Sky sources say.

The independent Member of Parliament for Falkirk was held after the incident at the Sports and Social Club bar.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Police were called shortly before 10.30pm this evening to reports of a disturbance at a bar within the House of Commons.

"Officers attended and a man aged in his 50s was arrested in connection with this incident.

"He remains in custody and inquiries continue."

Joyce resigned from the Labour Party after butting Tory rivals Stuart Andrew and Ben Maney in a previous incident in a Commons bar last February.

On that occasion the 52-year-old also punched Tory councillor Luke Mackenzie and Labour whip Phillip Wilson and insulted police officers.

After leaving Mr Andrew with a bloodied nose, Joyce told police: "He deserved it."

Joyce, who accepted he was "hammered" on red wine during the brawl, launched into a frenzied attack after shouting that the Strangers' Bar "was full of ******* Tories".

The former soldier walked away from Westminster Magistrates Court with a fine and pub banning order after admitting four counts of common assault.

He was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £1,400 to victims after he entered early guilty pleas.

Joyce was also given a 12-month community order - banning him from entering pubs and licensed premises for three months - and imposed with a curfew order from Friday to Sunday.

After the hearing, Joyce admitted he was lucky to avoid jail and said he was "deeply apologetic".

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School Places: Call For 250,000 Extra Spaces

By Gamal Fahnbulleh, Sky News reporter

More than 250,000 extra school places will be needed by next year to meet a continuing surge in demand, the spending watchdog has warned.

The rise in the number of children born in England between 2001 and 2011 was the largest 10-year increase since the 1950s.

This has led to an increase in demand for primary school places.

The Department for Education has increased the funding it provides to local authorities with a net increase of almost 81,500 primary school places in the last two years. More than £5bn has been invested into new school places since 2010.

It is expected more school places will be needed beyond next year

However, there are still indications of a real shortage, the National Audit Office has found.

In May last year just over 20% of schools were full or over capacity despite the more than 80,000 extra places created between 2010 and 2012.

In the next two years 240,000 of the new places needed are in primary schools - 37% in London.

Julian Wood, Study Director at the National Audit Office said: "I think it's important to say that of the 256,000 (places) there has been a year's further work that hasn't been reflected in these numbers.

"The level of funding has increased to something like that which was originally expected to be needed and local authorities are working hard to deliver these places.

"Nonetheless, we think there's an awful lot more that needs to be done to help that money work as efficiently as it can if those 256,000 places are to be delivered."

The report authors say it's important the right amount of money gets to the areas that need it most to prevent part of a younger generation missing out on the first few crucial years of education.

Lindsey Barrett, manager of the Busy Bees nursery in Ealing, London, told Sky News: "Parents are worried that perhaps they are not going to get a school in their local area, or their first choice.

"Being a parent myself I am completely in empathy with those parents because it is a very big decision that is being made - it's their child's future education.

"Parents worry that if it is a school perhaps out of their area, or perhaps if any of the numbers increase in classrooms - that is looking at the education and the quality that they will be receiving.

"Sometimes parents might try and move out of the area, obviously do a lot of research into the local school they hope they are going to get there, that they are going to get one of their first choices, but it doesn't always happen.

"As a parent you always want the best education you can get for your child."

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Pope Francis: Profile Of New Catholic Leader

Francis is the first ever pope from the Americas, an austere Jesuit intellectual who modernised Argentina's conservative Roman Catholic Church.

Known until Wednesday as Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis is respected as a humble man who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed.

In the past, the 76-year-old pontiff often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that ring Argentina's capital.

He accused fellow church leaders of hypocrisy, and forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.

"Jesus teaches us another way. Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit," the then-Cardinal Bergoglio told Argentina's priests last year.

His legacy as a cardinal includes his efforts to repair the reputation of a church that lost many followers by failing to openly challenge Argentina's murderous 1976-83 dictatorship.

He also worked to recover the church's traditional political influence in society, but his outspoken criticism of President Cristina Kirchner could not stop her from imposing socially liberal measures, from gay marriage and adoption to free contraceptives.

The new pope on the streets of Buenos Aires earlier this month

He came close to becoming pope in 2005, reportedly gaining the second-highest total in several rounds of voting before bowing out in the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.

Initially trained as a chemist, Bergoglio taught literature, psychology, philosophy and theology before taking over as Buenos Aires archbishop in 1998.

He became cardinal in 2001, when the economy was collapsing, and won respect for blaming unrestrained capitalism for impoverishing millions of Argentines.

Sergio Rubin, Bergoglio's authorised biographer, said the new pope felt most comfortable taking a very low profile, and his personal style was the antithesis of Vatican splendour.

"It's a very curious thing. When bishops meet, he always wants to sit in the back rows. This sense of humility is very well seen in Rome," Mr Rubin said before the 2013 conclave to choose Benedict's successor.

Bergoglio has stood out for his austerity. Even after he became Argentina's top church official in 2001, he never lived in the ornate church mansion where Pope John Paul II stayed when visiting the country.

For years, he took public transportation around the city.

Bergoglio almost never granted media interviews, limiting himself to speeches from the pulpit, and was reluctant to contradict his critics, even when he knew their allegations against him were false, said Mr Rubin.

That attitude was burnished as human rights activists tried to force him to answer uncomfortable questions about what church officials knew and did about the dictatorship's abuses after the 1976 coup.

Bergoglio talks with a man as he rides the subway in Buenos Aires

Many Argentines remain angry over the church's acknowledged failure to openly confront a regime that was kidnapping and killing thousands of people as it sought to eliminate "subversive elements" in society.

It's one reason why more than two-thirds of Argentines describe themselves as Catholic, but fewer than 10% regularly attend mass.

Under Bergoglio's leadership, Argentina's bishops issued a collective apology in October 2012 for the church's failures to protect its flock. But the statement blamed the era's violence in roughly equal measure on both the junta and its enemies.

"Bergoglio has been very critical of human rights violations during the dictatorship, but he has always also criticised the leftist guerrillas; he doesn't forget that side," Mr Rubin said.

The bishops also said "we exhort those who have information about the location of stolen babies, or who know where bodies were secretly buried, that they realise they are morally obligated to inform the pertinent authorities".

But that statement came far too late for some activists, who accused Bergoglio of being more concerned about the church's image than about aiding the many human rights investigations.

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Pope Francis To Meet Benedict At Papal Retreat

Pope Francis is expected to visit his predecessor Benedict XVI at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, as the pontiff begins his first full day as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

The 76-year-old, who has become the first Jesuit pope and the first pope to be named Francis, will visit Benedict at the retreat south of Rome, according to prominent US cardinal Timothy Dolan.

Speaking at the North American College, the US seminary in Rome, Cardinal Dolan said Pope Francis told his fellow cardinals on Wednesday that "tomorrow morning, I'm going to visit Benedict".

The visit is significant because Benedict's resignation has raised concerns about potential power conflicts emerging from the peculiar situation of having a reigning pope and a retired one alive at the same time.

Huge crowds welcomed the announcement of Pope Francis

Francis has already spoken by phone with Benedict, who has been living at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo since the end of his papacy.

Known until Wednesday as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Argentine Pope Francis became a cardinal in 2001.

He has spent nearly his entire career in Argentina, and becomes the first ever pope from Latin America.

He is respected in the church as a humble man who has denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio becomes the first Jesuit pope

Pope Francis is said to have finished second when Benedict was elected in 2005.

During this week's papal conclave, he was chosen on just the fifth ballot to replace the first pontiff to resign in 600 years.

Francis' election has pleased Latin Americans, who number 40% of the world's Catholics but have long been underrepresented in the church leadership.

Francis is sure to bring the church closer to the poverty-wracked region, while also introducing the world to a very different type of pope, whose first words to the faithful were a simple, "Brothers and sisters, good evening".

He asked for prayers for himself, and for Benedict, whose stunning resignation paved the way for his election.

"I want you to bless me," Francis said in his first appearance from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica, asking the faithful to bow their heads in silent prayer.

He also delivered a blessing to "all men and women of good will", before calling for "brotherhood" in the church.

A roar emanated from the crowds outside the Vatican in St Peter's Square on Wednesday as the white smoke indicated the new pontiff had obtained the required two-thirds majority in the voting by 115 cardinals.

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Danny Nightingale: SAS Sniper Awaits Ruling

By David Bowden, Senior Correspondent

An SAS sniper jailed for having an illegal weapon and ammunition he claimed to have "forgotten about" is due to learn whether his conviction will be quashed.

Sergeant Danny Nightingale, who has spent 11 years in the Special Forces and served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, was sentenced to 18 months in military custody after pleading guilty to illegally keeping a pistol.

He had been given the weapon as a present by Iraqi forces he had been training, but had no recollection of owning it after suffering a brain injury.

His sentence was cut to 12 months and suspended by the appeal court last November after a campaign by his wife Sally which gathered huge public support for a man described by the appeal court judge as an "exemplary soldier".

Sergeant Nightingale pleaded guilty to the original offence in a military hearing because he says the judge there told him he would get a lesser punishment.

He and his legal team wrongly believed this meant he would receive a non-custodial sentence.

Since his release the highly trained elite soldier has been at home in Cheshire, unable to re-join his regiment whilst awaiting the outcome of his appeal.

Sergeant Nightingale and his wife, Sally, upon his release

"It's very frustrating wanting to do something (but having) no routine," he said.

"And yes, being paid to do not what I'm supposed to do.

"You're trained up to do stuff, and you want to do stuff. You can't stand the futility of not doing it. To be told 'that's it, go and do nothing, you can't do anything'. That's hard."

The situation has meant he has spent a lot of time with his two young daughters, Mara, five, and Alys, two.

"I've probably had more time with my family in the last 18 months than regiment (SAS) guys will have in seven years," he said.

Nightingale is desperate to get back to work and said: "I still love it. It was the proudest day of my life when I passed (the notoriously tough SAS selection course)."

Mrs Nightingale is more circumspect about the possibility of her husband rejoining the SAS as a frontline soldier after his brain injury, which she believes still affects him.

For the time being though, her main concern is winning the court appeal.

"I feel quite nervous, our life is in their hands," she said - while adding that the lawyers are "quite confident" about their chances of success.

Mrs Nightingale feels her husband has been made a scapegoat by the Army and wants to know why, but acknowledges she will probably never get the answers to the questions she wants.

If he does win his appeal and returns to work then it will be more upheaval for his young girls according to Sally

"At some point in the near future he will be going back to work," she said.

"So they've got to get used to that again because they have had dad to take them to school, to pick them up from school, do clubs with them, take them swimming," she said.

"You know, he does all those extra bits while I'm working and doing other things. So they've had a really good time with dad."

All that will stop if the appeal is successful.

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