The veteran film-maker is conferred the All-Time Legend gong at the annual awards voted by regional journalists across the UK

What's the point of sharing your name with an awards ceremony if you can't share in the spoils yourself? To the illustrious Oscar Hammerstein II – who won an Oscar for best song back in 1965 – can now be added the name of Sir Richard Attenborough. The venerated actor and film-maker today took the prestigious All-Time Legend award at the fourth annual Richard Attenborough film awards.

Voted for by regional journalists across the UK, the winners were announced at a lunchtime ceremony in London. The Pixar animation Up was named best film, while Avatar creator James Cameron took the award for best direction. The acting honours went to Sam Rockwell (for Moon) and Carey Mulligan (An Education).

Lord Attenborough, now 89, came to fame as an actor in the 1940s. He began producing films in the 1950s and directing them in the 60s. He has won two Oscars, four Baftas and three Golden Globes, and now has a Richard Attenborough for the mantelpiece too. "I offer my warmest congratulations to this admirable set of winners," Attenborough said in a statement. "And I am honoured to be amongst them."

BBC prepared own studio for Euro 2008 football in Austria and Switzerland as host's facilities didn't overlook 'key buildings'

The BBC spent £250,000 on a purpose-built studio at the Euro 2008 football championships in Austria and Switzerland because it did not like the view from the facilities provided by the host broadcaster, it was revealed today.

A National Audit Office report into the corporation's spending on major sporting and music events said the studio provided at the International Broadcasting Centre in Vienna for Euro 2008 was deemed by the BBC not to have an "editorially suitable camera shot of key buildings".

The BBC's coverage of the tournament was anchored by Gary Lineker from a local studio in the Austrian capital, built and operated at a cost of an extra £250,000, the report said. The total cost of the BBC's coverage of Euro 2008, to which it sent 142 staff, was £8.68m, 1% under budget.

Another £160,000 was spent on a purpose-built studio for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, which it said was "editorially necessary", today's report revealed.

"For Euro 2008, the BBC was allocated space and facilities in the International Broadcasting Centre, some four miles from the centre of Vienna and without, in the BBC's opinion, an editorially suitable camera shot of key buildings," said the NAO report.

"The BBC therefore paid an additional £250,000 for the construction and operation of its local studio in Vienna, with a backdrop of the city skyline. For Beijing, the construction and operation of the BBC's own studio, which it considered editorially necessary, was approximately £160,000."

The corporation spent a total of £357m on major sporting and music events in the year to the end of March 2009.

Some £246m was spent on buying the rights to the events – which included the Beijing Olympics, the Wimbledon tennis championships, Euro 2008 and the Glastonbury music festival – and £111m on the live production and broadcast of coverage across TV, radio and online.

The NAO said the cost of talent, including presenters and commentators, can be a "significant element" of the corporation's coverage expenditure, "particularly those covered by BBC Sport". Talent accounted for either 2% or 3% of music events, and between 6% and 20% of sporting events.

But the BBC Trust requested the NAO not reveal total talent costs for each event, which it said could "constitute disclosure of talent fees for individuals which would be in breach of the data protection act".

The report focused on six big events – the Beijing Olympics, Euro 2008, Wimbledon, Glastonbury 2008, the BBC Proms and BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend music festival in Maidstone, Kent.

"For the events we reviewed the BBC did not compare the proportions spent on the cost of talent with the added value of using those presenters," said the NAO.

"The added value was particularly important given the BBC had exclusive free-to-air coverage for two of the three sporting events. There was no inter-event comparison even though the proportions varied markedly.

"While such comparisons clearly have to take into account the editorial ambition for the programme, a systematic analysis of the added value from high proportionate talent costs could help the BBC make best use of its resources."

The BBC spent £15.57m on its coverage of the Beijing Olympics, including £13.7m for TV, radio and interactive, plus another £2.5m for talent, staff and online coverage. The NAO report said the total cost of the coverage had not previously been published because spending was split between different budgets by the corporation.

"The total budget of £16.2m was not brought together anywhere," said the NAO report. The total cost of covering the 2008 games was 4% below its planned budget.

The BBC spent £4.22m on Wimbledon, less than 1% under budget. The 2008 BBC Proms, which cost £3.71m, were also marginally under budget, but Glastonbury was 1% over budget, at £1.74m, and Radio 1's Big Weekend, which was 5% over budget, at £888,000.

A total of 491 staff were sent to cover the Beijing Olympics, 358 staff covered Wimbledon, 277 for Glastonbury, 271 for Radio 1's Big Weekend and 145 for the Proms.

The report said 84% of the BBC's outside broadcast expenditure was with SIS. The company bought BBC Resources' outside broadcast operation in March 2008 for an estimated £20m.

"The BBC's five-year contract with SIS guarantees it a minimum amount of business across the BBC, not just Audio & Music and BBC Sport," said the report.

"While the BBC is not obliged to use SISLive, and can therefore competitively tender the work, it will incur a financial penalty if the minimum expenditure threshold across the BBC is not met. This was agreed as part of the sale of BBC Resources, and may diminish the advantages that can accrue from competitive tendering.

"The BBC's rationale for placing a high volume of provision with one provider was that it secured what the BBC believed to be a competitive price on the disposal of this part of BBC Resources."

The report said the corporation had "almost no formal cost-benefit consideration of different coverage options" when it drew up provisional budgets for big sporting events.

It said budgets were based on the cost of covering previous events – "rolled forward versions of previous budgets" – but there was a "more comprehensive budget-building process for the four-yearly Olympics and Euro football finals".

"The BBC made only limited use of the potential for using internal benchmarking of costs to improve efficiency," it said.

It said the six sporting events featured were all "largely within final budgets". But it added: "The BBC has recognised that the absence of a formal documented control framework or a formal planning procedure may have exposed the BBC to unnecessary risks."

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Conservative leader apologises again for previously supporting section 28 and says that teaching about equality is an important way of combating homophobic bullying

David Cameron has said that teaching children about equality for gay people and the importance of civil partnerships should be "embedded" in Britain's schooling.

In another sign of his departure from the Tory past, Cameron again apologised for supporting section 28 and said that teaching about equality was an important way of combating homophobic bullying.

The Conservative leader, who voted for the retention of section 28 as recently as 2003, made his comments at a Cameron Direct event in answer to a question from the gay rights campaign group Stonewall.

The group asked Cameron whether he agreed with the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, that children should be taught that homosexuality is "normal and harmless".

Cameron said: "We do need good sex and relationship education. That education should teach people about equality and the sort of country we are – that we treat people the same whether they are straight or gay, or black or white or a man or a woman. It is important that ethos is embedded in our schooling.

"In the past the Conservative party made a mistake with section 28. That is something we have apologised for. We got that wrong. The only thing I thought where Nick Clegg was potentially getting it wrong is, I don't think the style and content of sex and relationship education should be dictated from on high in Whitehall and Westminster. There is a danger with that.

"But should we teach children about relationships? Yes, we should. Should we teach them about consent? Yes, we should. Should we teach them about the importance of equality, whether you are heterosexual or homosexual? Yes, we should. Should we teach them about civil partnerships being the way of same sex couples showing commitment just as married couples show commitment? Yes, we should.

"All of those things can help us to create a fairer country and also help us deal with homophobic bullying. There is no doubt that it is a problem and it can be dealt with."

Cameron's remarks came after Clegg made his call for children to be taught that homosexuality is normal and for faith schools to be required to introduce anti-homophobic bullying policies.

"In an interview with Attitude magazine, the Lib Dem leader pointed out that in 2003 Cameron had voted against the repeal of section 28 which banned the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools in 1988.

"I don't really know what he believes in," Clegg said. "I don't know what his convictions are and the reason is because they keep changing – and they seem to change for convenience."

Britain's changing attitude to homosexuality was highlighted this week in a study by the National Centre for Social Research which found that 36% of respondents thought sexual relations between two adults of the same sex were "always or mostly" wrong. This is down from 63% in 1983.

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Human rights group says women seeking information about terminations are told they will often cause irreparable damage

The Irish government came under increasing pressure to overhaul its ban on abortion today, after it was accused of exposing women to "grossly misleading" information about the procedure.

According to Human Rights Watch, Irish legislation – under which women who have an abortion in Ireland face a life sentence in prison if prosecuted – is putting women's health at risk and exposing them to deliberate misinformation from rogue pro-life agencies.

Women have been told they may become infertile, require a hysterectomy or possibly need a colostomy bag after an abortion by agencies that target women seeking advice about unwanted pregnancies, says the report.

It comes as Ireland waits for a landmark ruling from the European court of human rights on the case of three women who accuse the government of putting their health at risk by forcing them to travel abroad for terminations.

"Women in need of abortion services should, as a matter of international law and human decency, be able to count on support from their government as they face a difficult situation," said Marianne Mollmann, the women's rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "But in Ireland they are actively stonewalled, stigmatised, and written out."

According to the report, the government limits information about legal abortion services and has failed to crack down on false claims from "rogue" agencies masquerading as unwanted pregnancy support groups.

One 29-year-old woman was shown a video of ultrasound images and pictures of mothers by an agency called "British Alternatives".

"[The woman] put a model of a small foetus in my hand ... told me to name my baby, asked me how I would feel if I killed the baby," she said.

Another woman described being harassed over the phone by a pro-life agency for weeks: "They would ask 'Is your baby still alive? Have you killed it yet?'."

The Irish government recently launched a campaign urging women who feel that have been given false information about abortions to inform the authorities, but this assumes that women have access to the correct information, said Mollmann.

"This is abdicating their responsibility and putting it on the shoulders of already distressed women. The government needs to take decisive action to shut down and prosecute these rogue agencies," she said.

It is currently illegal to have an abortion in Ireland under any circumstances, unless the life of the pregnant woman is at risk, although women have the legal right to terminate their pregnancy abroad.

According to UK Department of Health figures, 4,600 women who had abortions in the UK in 2008 gave Irish addresses, but the real number of Irish women having terminations is likely to be significantly higher, said Mollmann.

"This law does not stop women getting abortions but it does prevent them getting one in a timely manner, which increases the risk involved," she said.

The difficult economic situation in Ireland is making it increasingly difficult for some women to meet the cost of an abortion, estimated by HRW at between €800 and €1000 (£690 and £862) for the procedure and travel costs, said Niall Behan, CEO of the Irish Family Planning Association.

"We are increasingly seeing women who can't travel being forced to look at other options that are not safe. There is evidence to suggest that women are having illegal abortions, not on a huge scale, but on any scale is unacceptable," he said.

The Pro-Life Campaign in Ireland has previously accused the IFPA of creating unnecessary fears about women's health and argues that Ireland without abortion is the safest country in the world in which to be pregnant.

In the case currently before the European court , three women, known as A, B and C, are arguing their right to privacy and family life have been violated.

One of the women who had a termination became pregnant while undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer and feared for her health and that of her child. Another is a former alcoholic and drug addict whose four children were in care. She feared her pregnancy would prevent her getting her children back, and borrowed cash from a money lender to finance the termination. A judgment is expected in the autumn.