People who think they are at risk of HIV are being urged to get tested.

The call comes at the start of the first European HIV Testing Week, which begins today.

New figures show that 757 city residents are living with HIV, up from 706 last year.

Jenny Hand, chief executive of Leicestershire Aids Support Services (LASS), said: "The big message we need to get out is that people need to know their status.

"Getting a test is the one thing they can do right now to help stop the spread of HIV."

LASS is working with Public Health England to extend the number of testing opportunities over the next week.

One of the aims is increase the uptake of testing in the different African communities in Leicester.

Ms Hand said: "The figures are only an indication of how many people are affected by HIV.

"We always knew that we would see an increase in numbers before a decrease as more people find out their HIV status.

"Hopefully, the increase in numbers in the city are due to this.

"I think they could reach 1,000 before they start to go down."

Modern drug treatments drive down the level of virus in the body, often to an undetectable level.

This means someone with HIV who has tested positive and is on treatment is far less likely to pass on the virus than who someone who does not yet know they have it.

Ms Hand said: "We hope the national week will help to really convince people they should know their status.

"The test is a finger prick for blood and the results take 60 seconds.

"HIV is now considered a long-term condition and not a terminal illness.

"The biggest issue is still around stigma and discrimination."

Mike Sandys, Leicestershire County Council's acting director of public health, said: "This is a good initiative. We need to encourage people to test because, in the vast majority of cases, HIV is passed on by someone who doesn't yet know they have the virus.

"So if everyone is tested, we could start to see new infections fall among our communities."

Dr Fu-Meng Khaw, centre director for Public Health England in the East Midlands, said: "People who are unaware of their infection are likely to be those most at risk of transmitting HIV to others.

"Earlier diagnosis will help reduce new HIV infections across the UK."

The number of Leicestershire people with HIV has dropped slightly from 253 to 251.

Rapid HIV testing will be available at LASS, in Regent Road, Leicester, tomorrow from 9.30am to 11am as well as during the week from 9.30am to 4pm.

Students at the University of Leicester and De Montfort University can get tested on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

Testing will also be available at Club Oxygen, Wharf Street, Leicester, from 4pm to 8pm, Wednesday to Friday.

For more information, visit: www.lass.org.uk

Stars are gigantic "factories" which build every known element in the universe and throw them out into the cosmos to create other stars and planets when they explode.

Understanding more about exploding stars, or supernovas, tells scientists about how everything in the universe was created.

Prof O'Brien said: "Stars process chemical elements by fusion reactions inside them. The Sun, for example is processing hydrogen into helium and converting some of its mass into energy while that happens.

"Believe it or not, the Sun loses four million tonnes of mass every second – but it's so massive it can do that for 10 billion years without a large change in mass.

"Massive stars can process even heavier elements. Not only do they make heavy elements such as carbon, oxygen and iron, but also, because they blow up at the end of their lives, they eject a lot of material into space.

"That material then ends up in the next generation of stars and planets. So, for example, all of the iron inside the Earth came from the death of previous generations of stars."

Campaigners staged another noisy protest outside Leicester Town Hall last night to object to proposed cuts to supervised play schemes.

About 200 demonstrators, including many youngsters, banging drums and bearing placards and banners gathered to express their concerns about a move to rethink the way 10 city play schemes are funded.

The city council spends about £900,000 a year funding the schemes – which are run by independent community groups – but wants to put their contracts out for re-tendering.

The campaigners fear the move will lead to financial cuts that will ultimately lead to the closure of the venues, which include eight council-owned adventure playgrounds.

This is despite the authority's insistence they will stay open.

Last night's protest, which included numerous children aged from five to 16, was aimed at city councillors meeting inside the Town Hall.

It followed a demonstration on Monday during which campaigners pushed their way up to the doors as councillors attempted to enter.

Last night, the council placed railings in Town Hall Square to keep protesters back, although the sound of beating drums and chants of "No more cuts" were audible inside.

The play schemes affected are adventure playgrounds at Braunstone, Goldhill, Highfields, Mowmacre, New Parks, St Andrew's, Woodgate and Northfields, Belgrave Playhouse and What Cabin, in St Matthew's.

Charlene Westley, whose 10-year-old son, Cameron, attends the Mowmacre play project, said: "I'm not sure people believe the council when they say none of the projects will close.

"That's why we came out, to make it clear how upset we are. These schemes have been running for years. The staff are trusted by children and parents and they provide a safe environment for our kids."

Kev Sherriff, chairman of the Leicester Playfair group, which represents the schemes, said: "We are concerned that the council has appointed a consultant to drive this through but haven't asked us what we think of the change.

"We know there need to be cuts and that they affect all parts of the council budget. We are not immune, but we haven't had a say in this."

After Monday's protest, city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said there should be a "period of reflection" on the issue, but said: "The schemes have had substantial support from the council for many years but our financial situation has changed.

"We need to look at all elements of our spending. We do want to find a solution that keeps supervised play in the city."

Under the proposed changes, supervised play sessions in December and January would be scrapped.

Each scheme would provide 15 hours of play sessions a week. However, the projects say they currently provide up to 20 hours a week.

Under current arrangements, the schemes are paid to maintain the play venues, but if the changes went ahead the maintenance would be done by council parks staff instead.

Last night, assistant mayor for young people councillor Vi Dempster said she was going to put the re-tendering process on hold for three months.

She said: "We want to have a proper dialogue with the groups. I can make an assurance there is absolutely no intention to close any of these schemes."

Leicester's hospitals are having to recruit more than 300 extra nurses from overseas because of a severe shortage in this country.

Nearly 100 have already been recruited from Spain and Portugal and will begin work in the new year, while more are being taken on from Ireland, Italy and Greece.

The Royal College of Nursing said the situation reflected a nationwide problem with a lack of training places.

The hospitals – Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield and the General – want to increase staff numbers to 5,000 permanent nurses and health care assistants. It follows a review of staffing numbers and the quality of care given to patients, and will lead to more nurses and staff on the wards.

Normally, there is a turnover of about 35 nurses a month as people leave and are transferred. This is mostly covered by recruitment within the UK.

However, the additional nurses required as a result of the review means the hospitals have had to go overseas.

A spokesman for the Royal College of Nursing said a cut in the number of training places over the past three years was forcing overseas recruitment.

He said: "There are about 10 applicants for every student place, so it is not as if people do not want to be nurses.

"This is not a problem just in Leicester, but nationwide.

"More and more nurses are reaching retirement and not enough newly-qualified nurses are coming through."

Nearly £6 million is earmarked to put more nurses on the wards.

Carole Ribbins, director of nursing at Leicester's hospitals, said: "We reviewed the ratio of nurses to beds on every ward and found we needed about 400 additional staff."

The levels of nurses the three hospitals have set include having 6.6 nurses to cover an intensive care bed over a 24-hour period; on a specialist ward – such as elderly care – the figure is between 1.4 to 1.6 nurses per bed; and on a general ward, such as orthopaedics, it is 1.1 to 1.3 nurses.

Ms Ribbins said taking on more staff would be better for patients and less expensive, as agency staff have to be paid at a higher rate.

A spokesman for Leicester's hospitals said efforts to recruit in Britain only cover staff turnover, rather than boosting numbers.

Geoffrey Smith, of the Leicester Mercury Patients' Panel, said: "I welcome this initiative to increase the number of nurses and to establish the numbers needed for each ward. It will ensure our hospitals are seen to be acting to provide best quality of care."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Overseas nurses make a very valuable contribution to NHS patient care but should only ever work in the NHS if they have proven their competence and language skills.

"Staffing numbers fluctuate monthly, but overall there are over 4,400 more clinical staff in the NHS since May 2010, while the number of admin staff, managers and senior managers has fallen by nearly 22,900."

A former civilian police employee was caught after secretly downloading child pornography at home, a court heard.

Justin McNeill (33) was also an army reserve officer dealing with cadets since 1999 and working for the charity, Action For Blind People, when he was arrested.

He had formerly worked for Leicestershire Police and the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Leicester Crown Court was told earlier this week that he accessed indecent images, and video clips of youngsters being sexually abused, which were found on two laptops and a memory stick.

His barrister, Tim Pole, told Judge Michael Pert QC: "All he's worked for has gone, he's lost a great deal."

McNeill, formerly of Heyworth Road, Rowley Fields, Leicester, has also split up with his long-term partner since his offending came to light.

He has now moved to Northern Ireland to live with his parents, in County Down.

He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of possessing indecent images of youngster, mainly of girls aged between six and 14-years.

McNeill was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with a requirement to attend a sex offender group work programme.

The offences related to indecent pictures and video clips, comprising of 185 images at level one, 60 images at level two, 86 images at level three, 103 images at level four and five images in the most serious category, level five.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Pert QC said a video in the most serious category from McNeill's laptop showed and adult having sex with "a tiny child who was whimpering in pain." He said: "People should be under no illusion about the sort of material we are dealing with."

He said he was taking a merciful course in society's best interests so McNeill could undergo an intensive course to protect the public.

Alan Murphy, prosecuting, said on January 25 this year, a warrant was executed at his Leicester home and computer equipment seized.

In interview, McNeill openly confessed saying he downloaded the material after becoming "curious" and had viewed such images for about two years.

He has since voluntarily attended the Lucy Faithful Course in an effort to rehabilitate himself, the court was told.

McNeill, who has no previous convictions and was a civilian worker for Leicestershire Police, was placed on a 10-year sexual offences prevention order.

Leicester Tigers forward Ed Slater held a watching brief during the opening exchanges of the LV= Cup.

He liked what he saw, too, and although he is sidelined for today's Aviva Premiership clash with London Irish due to a wrist injury, Slater believes Tigers can continue where they left off in the victory against Worcester Warriors eight days ago.

"We went into the LV games off the back of two bad results and bad performances by our standards," said Slater.

"We are under no illusions that we have to win the games against Irish and Gloucester that are coming up.

"But the guys have put their hands up during the LV weekends and, hopefully, they will get the chance to continue that form.

"You cannot fault the commitment, effort and attitude they have shown in the last two weeks. It was pleasing to beat a strong Worcester side, and to come back from behind showed real character in front of a big crowd.

"It has been a massive learning curve for some of the boys and they have put their hands up for selection this week."

Slater added that Tigers' returning England contingent will be champing at the bit ahead of the encounter with Irish.

Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Tom Youngs, Ben Youngs and Toby Flood are all back to bolster Tigers' ranks after their stints with England.

"It is always good to have the England players back," said Slater, who sustained his injury early in the defeat by Harlequins a fortnight ago.

"They haven't played as much rugby during the autumn internationals as they would have liked. But in a selfish way that is good for us. They will be more hungry and ready to prove a point. They will be a big boost for us over the next two, three or four weeks."

Irish, who are currently sitting just one place off the foot of the Premiership table, have been reinforced themselves in recent weeks following the signing of Australian international James O'Connor, whose elusive running is one obvious threat to Tigers' ambitions this weekend.

"I think he can improve the confidence of their squad," said Slater. "If you operate with world-class players around, it pulls you up a level.

"When O'Connor arrived, he made a big impact and that will rub off on the other players.

"I think Irish have improved from last season.

"They look to have a good, tight squad who work extremely hard, so it isn't going to be easy."

A doctor has been struck off the medical register after falsifying 18 of his clinical training assessments.

Dr Eric Brew was working as a trainee in acute medicine at Leicester Royal Infirmary when he made up the entries in June 2011, although the assessments related to his employment at Kettering General Hospital.

A panel at the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester heard that his actions over a 10-day period took place against a backdrop of technical difficulties in accessing his e-portfolio used as part of a training programme.

The panel heard the matters came to light at Dr Brew's annual review of competency progression (ARCP).

Dr Jonathan Barratt, head of school for the East Midlands (South) Postgraduate School of Medicine, was reviewing the e-portfolio and noticed anomalies in assessments purporting to have been completed by six consultants at Kettering General Hospital.

David Flinter, chairman of the MPTS panel, said: "You (Dr Brew) admitted giving a false account to the ARCP panel by stating the named assessors had been involved in the completion of those entries.

"You have admitted that you told that panel that you took a week off work in order to visit Kettering hospital to complete the work-based assessments with the consultants in question.

"You later admitted that this was not true, and that you had completed the records yourself."

The panel heard that Dr Brew admitted he had falsified some of his e-portfolio entries.

It was told grades he awarded himself were "above" or "well above" expectation for the stage of training and an over-estimation of his competence in some areas compared with actual assessments.

Dr Brew told the hearing he did not intend to deceive and that the entries were based on actual assessments that he had undergone, but which had not been documented at the time due to the technical difficulties with the e-portfolio.

He added that he was in a state of panic at the prospect of receiving an unsatisfactory result due to the number of assessments he needed to complete and not having enough time.

Panel chairman Mr Flinter said: "The e-portfolio provides an independent review of a trainee's progress, as assessed by experienced senior colleagues. The effect of any false records within the e-portfolio is to give a potentially misleading impression of a doctor's progress.

"In order for the assessment and review process to be successful, it must be robust and accurate.

"The panel considers that you, as a doctor who has trained in the UK since at least 2004, are well aware of the importance of maintaining proper and independently verifiable training records.

"The panel considers that your misconduct has undermined the training system which is at the very heart of ensuring patient safety and high standards within the profession. You acted dishonestly and, despite your later admission of culpability, your initial response was to attempt to cover it up.

"This is a particularly serious departure from the standards set out in good medical practice, and one which the panel considers to be fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.

"The panel has concluded that these matters are of such seriousness that it is necessary to erase your name from the medical register."