The first ever television election debate has been taking place between the leaders of Britain's three main political parties. The Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his rivals, the Conservative leader David Cameron and the leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg, took questions from an invited studio audience. Ian Watson reports.
With the polls pointing to the possibility of a hung parliament, the party leaders wanted to avoid slip-ups and none of them committed obvious gaffes They addressed each other in first name terms but after 15 minutes the interruption's begun. The prime minister clearly decided that the best form of defence was attack, delivering his first drive when he told David Cameron that it wasn't question time but answer time over police funding. The Conservative leader was far less confrontational, but consistently reminded voters that Labour had 13 years to implement better policies but it failed to do so.
In one of his most direct references to the widening Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, Pope Benedict has said Christians need to do penance for sins. During a private mass inside the Vatican, the Pope said the Church had come under attack from the world. and needed to recognize its mistakes. Hundreds of people in North America and Europe have accused priests of child abuse.
World News from the BBC
There has been a bomb explosion in the Afghan city of Kandahar. Initial reports said at least six people were killed and that some of them were foreign workers. Several other people were wounded. The Foreign Office in London said it was investigating unconfirmed reports that British citizens were among the casualties.