15/03/2012 BBC News at Ten

Eit I Tonight at Ten: More setbacks for the NATO-led mission in

Afghanistan. The Taliban has suspended all talks with the

Americans on finding a way ahead. And western forces have been told

by the Afghan government to pull back to their bases. Britain says

that this does not change the exit strategy.

We have to be clear that there is a plan in Afghanistan, to hand over

to a capable Afghan army, police and government at the end of 2014.

We will do that without a political settlement, or with a political

settlement. That is up to the Taliban.

We have the latest from Kabul on the response. Also tonight: In

Switzerland, the families of children killed in Tuesday's coach

accident have been visiting the scene. A review of placing in

England and Wales, recommends radical change, including filetness

tests. 23 years after the Hillsborough

football disaster, secret documents show that one police officer blame

drunken Liverpool fans. It is nonsense. The same old story

that the Liverpool fans were drunk and ticketless. I was neither.

There were thousands and thousands of Liverpool fans there.

COMMENTATOR: Manchester United are out of Europe... Manchester United

are out of the Europa League to athletica Bilbao.

And why Matilda is waltzing away with all of the 234078 nations for

the owe lifaway awards. And a record-breaking day at the

chelt knack festival as Big Bucks take his fourth World Hurdle. His

16th win in a row -- Big Bucks. Good evening. The military mission

in Afghanistan, led led by NATO has suffered more sbs today. The

Taliban announced it was suspended talks with the American on try to

find a way forward, Hamid Karzai called on western forces to pull

back to their bases after an American soldier killed 16

civilians at the weekend, but David Cameron has told our Political

Editor, Nick Robinson, that this will not lead to a change of

strategy. It all began here, almost 7,000 miles from Afghanistan. A

place where once Twin Towers stood, now a memorial, to the 2,983 who

died on a single day. David and Samantha Cameron remember

9/11, she was in New York, he in London.

For hours, he had no idea whether she was safe.

Katherine Wolf was not. Her death and many others remembered today,

triggered a war a decade old and not yet over.

Do you understand how some people seeing you here may say that so

much has been sacrificed for so little? Of course. Britain losing

over 400 of our soldiers. It is worth remembering why we are there,

this is the right place to remember it. Nearly 3,000 people, including

68 67 British nationals died here on 9/11. That terrorism was coming

straight out of Afghanistan, Pakistan, that area of the world.

But in Afghanistan, today, another setback for hopes of a political

solution. The Taliban announced that they were no longer prepared

to talk with the United States. The reason, they claimed, not the

burning of the coshan, nor the slaughter of 16 civilians by an

American soldier, but conditions, they said, were put down by

American negotiators. The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, adding to

the pressure, telling the US Defense Secretary, to pull all

international troops back to their bases. Does it depress you now that

the talks between the United States and the Taliban e -- seem to be at

an end? We have to be clear to have a plan in Afghanistan, to hand

Dover a capable Afghan army, police and government at the end of 2014.

We do that with or without a political cementment.

Afghanistan has been the substance that has lain beneath the White

House splendour. Last night, the Obamas hosted a state dinner,

attended by the special relationships, the great and the

good. They dined on bias bias bias, they drank on the prays of one

leader for another. -- praise.

In good times and in bad, he is just the kind of partner you want

at your side. I trust him. He says what he does, and he does what he

says. I've seen his character. There are three things about Barack

that really stand out for me, strength, moral authority and

wisdom. He has pressed the re-set button on the moral authority of

the entire free world. A conSerb tiv praising Obama's

strength, in a country where con sefbtis derive their weakness. It

was their predecessors that began the war that started here it is be

fitting that David Cameron ends his trip to the United States here.

This gaping awe-inspiring black hole, all that is left of one of

the two Twin Towers. A reminder of the roots of the war which the

Prime Minister and the President are still struggling to end.

To find an end, with honour. Well, now, for the latest in Kabul,

the response and how they see what has happened today, let's talk to

Quintin Sommerville who joins us now. How do you see the impact on

the exit strategy pursued by the West? Well, two key parts of that

strategy, you know they lie in ruins. The plan was to fight the

Taliban on the battlefield and bring them to the negotiating table.

They refused to come, because they did not want to speak to Hamid

Karzai. They see him as illegitimate, they see him as an

American stooge and they refuse to talk with him. The Western

diplomats here say that the Taliban will never negotiate with Hamid

Karzai, for as long as he is in the presidential palace, there cannot

be anything approaching peace talks. The second part was that this was a

counterinsurgency, the foreign troops living among the Afghan

people, fighting for them and protecting for them. Hamid Karzai

has made it clear that foreign troops are no longer welcome.

Thank you very much. Now, the authorities in Switzerland

say that eight Belgium children who survived the coach accident in the

Fernch Alps are being flown home tonight. News came after a day in

which many of the parents of the 22 children who have died, visited the

crash site. The last year of primary school,

and photos of the annual ski trip to the Fernch Alps. Incensible that

such a fun holiday could this way. The village here has been welcoming

the group for 13 years. In the same hotel in which they stayed, another

party was boarding a coach today, the same company, a similar age.

The local mountain guide here, saw the children on that last fateful

day of their holiday. TRANSLATION: They were clattering

through the village, returning from the slopes. In a small village like

this one, every child feels like one of your own.

The coach crashed at the end of the winding mountain road, on the first

stretch of motorway and in the first tunnel. It has been a brutal

24 hours for the parents. They left their hotel today for the grim task

of identifying the bodies. And then, the crash site where

their children had died. We too were taken through the

tunnel to the spot where the coach had ploughed head on into a

concrete pillar. There were the flowers laid by the families and on

the wall the tributes. TRANSLATION: We have identified 19

of the 28 victims, says the police manman here, but we are still

trying to identify the remaining nine.

The cause of the accident is still unknown. The investigation is

focused on the postmortem of the driver and what is left of the

vehicle. In this hanger, the crash

investigators are working through the wreckage to find out why the

bus swerved as it did. At the moment, there are more questions

than answers. There was no liquid on the road, no

ice, no other vehicle involved. The bus was new. Was it the driver who

suffered a catastrophic heart attack? Or was it just plain and

simple, driver-error? One theory that is emerging is that the driver

may have been handling a DVD at the time. If true it will only

intensify the grief. There was lots of that tonight at the service of

remembrance here in Sierra Leone, the church was packed.

-- in sore sore. The church was packed. In the congregation, the

policemen, the first toy arrive at the scene. The children prayed, the

parents held them closer and they cried.

An official report has called for radical changes to the way that

police in England and Wales are recuted, promoted and paid. The

changes are to include higher educational requirements to join

the force, lower starting salaries and Ann newel fitness test for all

officers. Some have welcome the plans. The main policing union,

called it a deliberate and sustained attack We have this

report. They call it, the job, but today's

reforms are based on the idea that modern police officers should

consider themselves less as blue colour workers and more as educated

professionals driven by performance-related pay and

stricter fitness regimes. At the start of this new police career,

the salaries will be lower. Currently �23,500, the Windsor

reforms would see them cut to nds19,000. After all, forces are

not short of applicants. Working their way up the pay scales

will depend on performance, not on times served. The type of recruits

will change. A job with currently no entry requirement, will require

higher educational standards. 80 graduates a year will be fast-

tracked to higher ranks, inspector and above, without having to pound

the beat as a PC. It is a complex environment. It

requires the most intellectually able people to have the qualities

which are as important as courage, self-control, the ability to assess

situations and dealing with people. Dealing with people means chasing

them, sometimes. The report concludes that not all officers are

as fit as they could be, so there has been fitness tests prescribed.

Anyone failing three times, feys a pay cut. Dismissal is an option.

Officers on the frontline are having a tough time, the summer

riots, the cuts and now the prospect of sweeping reform.

Many will see themselves losing tens of thousands of pounds because

of the first report and then this one. The police officers need it

live. They have certain commitments, they thought they would get certain

amounts of pay, that has been slashed.

Police chiefs wanted Windsor to go further, but Britain's top

policeman made it clear, that he supports the broad thrust of the

reforms. When the money is tight, and we

have to develop our talent and adapt to a new world. These are the

things that we have to in the least consider. It will take a lot of

talking and consensus-building, but I'm sure that we can use the ideas

to develop the police in the future. One thread has been that the police

have had it too easy for too long. One proposal, that they lose the

protection that they currently enjoy from being made redundant,

but the band that stops them going on strike, that is staying.

New evidence suggests that a further 7,000 women in the UK, many

have been given sub-standard breast implants, made by PIP. Around

47,000 women are now believed to have been given the implants. They

are filled with non-medical medical grade silicone. They are known to

be caused to rupture. 20 years after the Hillsborough

investigation, the BBC has seen documents that shows that the

police blame the situation on drunken fans.

An official inquiry found that the disaster, which claimed the lives

of 96 people was caused by poor crowd control by South Yorkshire

It is almost exactly 23 years since the late up a cup semi-final turned

to disaster. Fans had gone to watch Liverpool play Nottingham Forest. -

- since the FA Cup semi-final. The crash happened after an exit gate

was opened on the orders of South Yorkshire Police and fans surged in.

The Taylor inquiry blamed a lack of police control. The then Prime

Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who toured the ground the next day,

seems to have been told another story. Radio 4's World at One

programme has seen leaked government documents. In one letter,

advisers told Mrs Thatcher about comments made by the then Chief

Constable of Merseyside Police, Sir Kenneth Oxford. He is said to have

believed that a key factor in causing the disaster was the fact

that large numbers of Liverpool fans had turned up without tickets.

This was getting lost sight of in attempts to blame the police, the

Today, Merseyside Police said it was inappropriate to comment on the

contents of the letter. Peter Carney survive the crush at

Hillsborough and was upset to hear the police remarks within the

government papers. It is absolute nonsense, it is the same old story,

that Liverpool fans on that day were drunk and ticketless. I was

neither. Thousands of Liverpool supporters were not. The 96 people

who died are commemorated here at Anfield. Are their relatives and

others have long campaigned for full disclosure of all information.

In 2009, the Hillsborough independent panel was created.

Today's leaked government documents form just some of thousands of

papers that the panel is currently examining. Today, a spokesman said

that its work was complex and difficult, and they are expecting

to report back in the autumn. Nicholas was 27 when he died at

Hillsborough. His mother, Pat, is content to wait for the panel to

analyse all the documents, in the hope that the whole story will then

emerge. It is like a knife going into your heart and turning all the

time. Because it has been such a long time for us. Every so often,

these reports, or information comes out. And it is not the whole truth.

At Hillsborough, the dead are still remembered. 23 years after

Britain's worst ever sporting disaster, many say that the truth

Coming up. It is two for sporting on the night! It is a bad night for

Manchester City. A joint Manchester United in being knocked out of the

More than 8,000 people have died in the Syrian uprising in the past

year, during the latest estimates - - according to the latest estimate

from the United Nations. One of the victims killed was a 13-year-old

boy who was picked up by security forces. His family say he was

tortured to death. Our special correspondent has been speaking to

his relatives and the report contains some distressing images.

It is today a city of funerals, as the regime steps up the campaign

against its enemies. Burnt buildings mark the terrain of

battle. Yet it was here a year ago that the Syrian people overcame

their fear. In Deraa, the first large demonstration against the

Assad regime. At this mosque, the focal point of the demonstrations,

the cars of the secret police were chased away. Omar, he has asked us

to protect his identity, was there. You have that feeling, if you will

ask anyone, they will tell you, that time, we got a kind of freedom.

But freedom's ecstasy was short. On the same day, the regime hit back.

These sisters witnessed its brutality. TRANSLATION: One injured

protester fell to the ground. He tried to escape by crawling to

safety. But they apprehended him, and beat him up severely with

batons. I was watching all of this from my window.

The girl's father filmed the But when I saw the level of

shooting and killing that we witnessed with our own eyes, we

decided to go out and protest against the killing and the

detention of children. The mosque became a place of refuge. A

makeshift clinic for the injured. Then, on the night of 23rd March,

the mosque itself was stormed. Above the gunfire, the cleric's

Over the next month, the crackdown intensified. By 25th April, Deraa

was under siege. People from outlying villages March to try to

reach the city. 13-year-old hands are joined them -- marched to try

to reach the city. The march was attacked and the 13-year-old boy

was winded and arrested. -- was wounded. TRANSLATION: He was shot

in the lake and tried to hide behind an olive tree. The security

forces fountain, arrested him and began slapping him on the neck.

Then they put him in a car. A month later, his body was returned to his

family. His uncle was present. I looked at his body, which was

inches away from me, this small body that was subjected to extreme

horrific treatment, and hardly anything left intact, I felt pain

and taking in every cell. He was subjected to the most horrific

torture, they even cut off his he is. The government denies he was

tortured but the child became the icon of Syria's revolution. He is

among hundreds of dead children. Many others are intention --

detention. Those fateful days in Deraa established a pattern that

would spread across Syria, of people no longer afraid,

challenging a government that would resort to ever more ruthless

methods to stay in power. The image is of a city locked into permanent

Argentina says it will take legal action against companies involved

in oil exploration in the Falklands. The Foreign Minister said that oil

development in the waters was illegal.

The UK Government said it supported the rights of the islanders to

develop their oil resources. Plaid Cymru has elected a new

leader. She is lee Leeanne Wood. Plaid Cymru was in Government with

Labour until the national assembly elections last year.

None of us get everything right first time. I don't and I won't as

leader, but one thing we have always got right and always will is

that this party, our chief driver, will be the people in this land

that we love. Leannean Wood.

Football and it has been a bad night for both of the Manchester

clubs. Manchester United lost 5-3. City went out on the away goals

rules. Olly Foster watched the action.

How about this for a party trick? Get it wrong and need a new short.

Bilbao put the tie out of Manchester United's reach. Bilbao

fluffed easier chances than that. Perhaps this defender was getting

bored at the other end because most of the action was at the Manchester

United goalmouth. Wayne Rooney did sign off with

something special, but beaten home and away over the two legs,

Manchester United returned chaseant after their European travels.

Manchester City will have heard that result by the time they kicked

off at home, but Sporting Lisbon wiped the smile off their faces.

Sporting scored another by half- time and it didn't appear a

Sporting contest for City. They got three goals.

One last throw of the of the dice saw the City keeper go for broke,

but City, like Manchester United, will put their blinkers on for the

final stretch in the Premier League and that could be a nailbiting

Ma Matilda the musical leads the race at the Olivier nominations.

This is my second visit to Matilda. It is an astonishing show.

Have you come far? From Lancashire. Why this one? I don't know. My

friend told me about it and when I heard, I was like, "I will go and

see it now.". Matilda popped up in the nominations for this year's

Oliviers in every category. For Matilda the musical at

Cambridge. Ten nominations. Well, it is an

amazing feeling to be part of something like this. It has been

right from the beginning. The question is why? For Paul Kay

it is all about freedom. I pitched my character somewhere between

Kenneth Connor and Enoch Powell. Maybe kicking the West End up a bit.

This is a Royal Shakespeare Company production and this path to

Broadway is becoming a well worn one.

War Horse brings in �13 million a year. The route is being followed

by another of its products, One Man Two Governors.

The commercial theatre doesn't have a bedrock of funding from which to

develop work and one of the problems of commercial theatre is

when they make money, they don't reinvest it into the work.