Carrie Gracie has returned to the BBC News Channel this morning after having treatment for cancer.

Carrie, who left the corporation last September, joined the BBC World Service in 1987 as a production trainee and served as Beijing reporter from 1991 until 1995.

She returned to the Beijing bureau in 1997 before returning to the UK in 1999, initially as a presenter on BBC World Service before becoming a presenter on the BBC News Channel.

“It’s good to be back and fantastic to see my friends and colleagues,” she said.

Her co-presenter Simon McCoy led the messages of support, saying: “A strong, brave, and inspirational woman. My friend and colleague Carrie Gracie.”

BBC Reporter Alison Moss said: “Great to see the McCoy/Gracie team back together. Welcome back Carrie!”

Dharshini David tweeted: “@SimonMccoy Wonderful to see Carrie Gracie back & your double act reunited . She looks great!”

And her boss, Kevin Bakhurst, added: “Fabulous to have Carrie back.”

Vanessa Cuddeford presented her last programme with Ian Axton tonight before she goes on maternity leave this Friday.

Ian will host The West Country Tonight on location tomorrow and Friday, while Vanessa will present from the studio, so tonight was the last time the pair will share the sofa together before the presenter has her baby.

Vanessa, who is nine-months pregnant, started her journalism career with the BBC in Wales. She spent two years working in radio and television news before leaving the BBC for ITV Westcountry in Plymouth where she worked as a reporter, producer and presenter on Westcountry Live.

London and national news beckoned in the form of ITN and GMTV where she worked as a correspondent.

She then returned to the West Country to take up the lead presenting job alongside Ian Axton on The West Country Tonight.

The heir to the throne, Prince Charles presented a special weather forecast during a visit to BBC Scotland’s headquarters today.

BBC Reporting Scotland presenter Sally Magnusson handed over to Prince Charles at the end of the lunchtime bulletin.

The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay, as they are known in Scotland, met staff during the tour to celebrate 60 years of BBC Scotland television.

Shortly after the Prince’s weather bulletin, his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall had her turn at forecasting.

The Prince’s forecast will be repeated on tonight’s evening bulletin at 6:30pm.

And for all you pres geeks out there (like me) here’s the BBC weather graphics on Sky News!

Sky News launched a new look to its Business coverage today.

Sam Washington presented the first bulletin with the new graphics at 9:45am this morning.

ITV have announced that Lorraine Kelly and Aled Jones will be the new presenters of its breakfast show, Daybreak.

Lorraine, who already presents her successful weekday morning show on the channel, will be joined by broadcaster and presenter Aled Jones on the breakfast sofa as Daybreak’s main presenters.

“I’m really looking forward to this challenge and to working with Aled who is a warm, funny and a thoroughly decent bloke and is already a good friend,” said Lorraine Kelly.

Aled Jones added: “I am so thrilled to be joining ITV for their breakfast show.

“I am thoroughly looking forward to sharing the sofa every morning with such a consummate professional as Lorraine Kelly. We’ve known each other for a very long time and have always had a lot of fun together.

“We hope that the viewers enjoy being part of our breakfast family.”

The pair will take up their new roles later this year..

Local elections will take place across England, Scotland and Wales today.

The elections will be held in 131 English local authorities, all 32 Scottish local authorities and 21 of the 22 Welsh councils, alongside three mayoral elections including the London mayoralty and the London Assembly.

Referendums will also be held in 11 English cities to determine whether or not to introduce directly elected mayors.

David Dimbleby will host the BBC’s election night coverage as results come in from around the country.

Jeremy Vine and Emily Maitlis will analyse the results. The BBC’s political editor, Nick Robinson, will assess the impact these elections will have in the years ahead.

And the BBC’s regional political teams are at the most exciting counts, and present a full assessment of the situation in their own part of the country at 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30am.

The main programme begins at 11:30pm – 4am on BBC One and the BBC News Channel.

David will return on Friday afternoon with 3 separate programmes – 12pm-1pm, 2pm-3pm and 5-6pm on BBC Two – as results continue to pour in from around the country including the results of the London Mayoral election.

Over on Sky News, Adam Boulton will host Sky’s main results programme from 12am – 4am. Adam will be joined in the studio by guests including; Harriet Harman, Eric Pickles and David Laws.

Martin Stanford will be number crunching the results as they come in and there will be expert analysis from Sky News elections’ analyst Professor Michael Thrasher. Sky News will also have correspondents taking the temperature across the country.

Sky News will continue with results coverage throughout Friday, including coverage of the results of the London Mayoral election..

Sky News is now available in the United States and Canada via the largest aggregator of live television news online, Livestation.

Viewers in the U.S. and Canada will have access to Sky News’ international feed by subscribing to Livestation for $2.99 a month.

“This is a great step forward for us,” said John Ryley, the head of Sky News.

“Recently Sky News has increased its global reach to 103 million homes around the world and I am delighted that we are now available in both the United States and Canada as well.

“The US news agenda is one that we feature heavily on Sky News and I’m thrilled that our world-class international news coverage can now be enjoyed by our viewers there.”

Sky News regularly report on major U.S. stories including in depth coverage of the 2012 Presidential Election. The channel has a bureau in Washington DC which includes correspondents Greg Milam and Dominic Waghorn and White House analyst, Jon-Christopher Bua, as well as correspondent Hannah Thomas-Peter in New York.

Adam Boulton spent the first 100 days of Barack Obama’s Presidency reporting from the U.S. and Kay Burley recently interviewed Hillary Clinton in Washington on International Women’s Day.

Lippe Oosterhof, Livestation CEO added: “Livestation is thrilled to launch Sky News in North America; feedback from our user base shows that there is a strong demand for quality live TV news in the US and Canada and Sky News certainly falls into that category.

“Today, live streaming offers a credible alternative to traditional closed distribution such as cable and satellite and this deal demonstrates that even premium content can launch online first.”

Sky News content can also regularly be seen on U.S. channels CBS and Fox News.