[Keith]

That would make a huge difference - even more so if those summaries could be different for UK/World, even if that means pre-recorded on one outlet.   It's surprising how much info you can get out of a 3-5 minute radio bulletin or even 1 minute Newsbeat bulletin.  Indeed arguably more so as they focus on the key point rather than stretching a story out to 10 minutes with vox pops etc.

From my memory of watching BBC World News in January whilst in France I seem to recall the back-half hours were roughly...
News sting > 30 second summary of the main headlines > Ident/caption introducing (pre-recorded) programme > Weather bulletin.

As far as I can from comparing www.bbc.co.uk  and www.bbc.co.uk  since the merger these back-half hour programmes have almost all gone from the weekday (UK) daytime schedule. Exceptions being at 10.30am for HARDtalk when the UK is watching Nicky Campbell, and 5.30pm for Focus on Africa when UK has more 'Verified Live'.

Arguably if they reinstated a few more back-half hour programmes during weekday daytimes for non-UK viewers then it would enable a more UK focused half hours chunks.

Also, it might help if the 'Around the UK' filler was replaced with something similar to the English nations roundup we got on Breakfast during the local strikes.  There was a surprising amount of regional headlines fitted into just a few minutes.  Whilst the filler gap is much shorter quite a few UK headlines could still be included. It could also be pre-recorded and only updated every two/three hours using a separate presenter from a locked off camera.  I'm not a huge fan of the 'single random UK feature' that currently appears.