22/03/2012 BBC News at Ten

They entered through the front blowing off the door and using

specialist fibre optic cameras picked their way through the

apartment trying to locate Merah, until they reached the ball coby.

Suddenly he appeared, armed with a colt 45 handgun and opening fire.

Two policemen were injured. Merah advanced from the bathroom

and jump from one of these ground floor windows, wearing a bullet-

proof vest and still firing wildly. Outside was a marksman who shot him

dead. Merah finished it exactly as Three soldiers from a Parachute

Regiment and a school, three children and a roob yie. The police

said that he confessioned in the negotiations that his regret was

not to kill more. He filmed the attacks, revelling in a appalling

way in which he executed each victim.

TRANSLATION: He said he had been radicalised in prison and had begun

reading the Koran. He was violent with other prisoners and had

attempted suicide. He had also travelled to

Afghanistan, alone, later immersed himself in Salafist extremist

websites and burgled houses to raise the money to buy an arsenal

of weapons found in the boot of his car.

Today, Nicolas Sarkozy told the nation that an inquiry is under way

to find the gunman's accomplices. Every person that goes on websites

to glorify terrorism will be punished by law. For a President

facing a re-election, this is a successful conclusion. Throughout

the week, he's been centre stage, overseeing the biggest manhunt that

France has known, but questions have been asked by his own Foreign

Minister. How did the domestic intelligence agencies loose track

of such a violent criminal, when had travelled to Afghanistan and on

their radar as a dangerous fundamentalist.

It is always difficult to keep track of a lone wolf, but there

were signs that told the security services that this man was a danger.

He had been in and out of prison throughout his young life. Even in

court two weeks ago on a drying offence. So significant was the

list, that he had been placed, it was reported on the American no-fly

list. To be on that list you must be assessed as a man capable of

committing a terrorist report. You mentioned, Christian, the

presidential election on its way, how will this impact on the course

of that election itself? Well, Marie Le Pen has been speaking, she

is the leader of the far right. She has long campaigned on limiting

immigration and the threat of Islamic terrorism. So there has

been a certain amount of, "I told you so." Today. That is significant

as Nicolas Sarkozy, in the polls that matter for the second round of

the presidential ballot in six weeks' time is trailing his

socialist challenger, Francois Hollande. He needs to win back the

disillusioned voters who swayed from his party. To do that he must

look strong on law and order. It really matters here on these issues.

So I think that you will see the hot button issues, immigration,

race, religion, identity, come to the foreof his campaign and he will

use this incident to explain to the nation why that debate has to be

had. Thank you very much.

Ministers have defended the controversial changes to

pensioners' tax allowances contained in yesterday's Budget.

Labour said that the changes were an outrage, but ministers insist

they are trying to simplify the system. That pensioners will not be

worse off in cash terms. Leading apblis, including International

Institute for Strategic Studies say that pensioners have been sheltered

from tax and benefit changes in recent years. We have more details.

A day on from the Chancellor, parading the Budget Box and it is

generating headlines he had not expected. With accusations on a

granny tax and a raid on pensioners. That was the issue that David

Cameron had to deal with. He was trying to promote the

business friendly side of the Budget as he visited the

GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical plant in Cumbria, the company

confirming a new investment and 1,000 new jobs. What we are doing

for British pensioners is delivering the biggest increase in

April, �5 .3 a week to help pensioners across the country. At

the same time, the Budget has delivered a tax cut for 24 million

working people. But Labour's leader, unsurprisingly, was focusing on the

losers in the Budget, the taxpayer- paying pensioners.

The Chancellor was not open and honest about it yesterday. I think

that they will have to think again about the attack on Britain's

pensioners. Pensioners will lose out as the

allowance that they can receive tax free will not keep up with

inflation. Frozen at �10,500 for 65 to 70-year-old-year-olds. Those

reaching 65 will have a lower allowance, their loss will be �285.

Keith Smith is one of those pensioners whose allowance will be

frozen. He could be up to �100 worse off next year than he would

have been if the Chancellor had not announced a change. He is not happy.

I felt that was a direct hit to me. To me as a pensioner it was a

direct hit and to millions of others. Maybe they may not be like

me, that have supported a Conservative party all their life,

but I have. Some argue that pensioners have

done well compared to other households. The state pension going

up in line with inflation more than 5% and benefits like the winter

fuel allowance and the free bus pass have not been touched as part

of the Government's deficit plan. We think that pensioners will loose

about a quarter of 1% of their income. Some will be hit harder,

but it is worth saying that up until now pensioners have been

protected from the various tax and benefit changes enacted by this

Government. That is the view that pensioners

don't have much to complain about, but it will not seem like that at a

time when low interest rates have hit their savings. The winners

don't make nearly so much noise as the losers.

A soldier who lost his life yesterday in an explosion in

Afghanistan has been named at Captain Rupert Bowers.

The 24-year-old from the 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment,

was working with an Afghan security patrol when he was struck by the

blast from an improvised explosive device. Captain Rupert Bowers had

become a father for the first time a few weeks ago.

New evidence has emerged about allegations of fraud at the jobs

and training agency A4e. The evidence is contained in a report

seen by the BBC's Newsnight. The company, being investigated by the

Department for Work and Pensions has denied that there were wide

spread problems within the organisation. Newsnight's Economics

Editor, pail Mason has the story for us.

There is hot news here... Emma Harrison's company, A4e, paid to

help the jobless back to work. It has Government contracts worth �170

million a year, now it is facing big questions.

When you worked in the hotel how long were you there for? The A4e

staff were supposed to get people into jobs lasting up to 13 weeks

and then employers supposed to sign a form confirming that the job was

real. Now, the BBC has seen evidence of fraud and irregularity

N 2009, A4e audited the work of its top 20 recruiters, those best at

placing people into jobs. What they found was disturbing. In offices

all over the country, A4e staff were claiming for jobs that did not

exist. Jobs not suitable to claim the payment and fabricating the

paperwork to back it up. In Edinburgh, a client walked out of a

job after two hours, complaining of sore feet, but A4e claimed the

payment. In Bridlington a cafe other than said he had never met a

man that A4e claimed for and he wanted to know why A4e kept asking

him to sign blank forms. The auditors said that 4% of the

claims put in by A4e's best recruiters were potentially

fraudulent. Another 12% were risky. They could only be sure that A4e

were entitled to the money that they claimed in 70% of the cases.

This is what the Deputy Prime Minister told the Parliament last

week. We have launched our own audit of

the existing contracts. If there is evidence of abuse of course, we end

all contracts with A4e. Critics will say that the report

appears to provide evidence of this: It warns of a potential,

systematic failure to mitigate the risk of fraud and irregularity.

The Department for Work and Pensions said that they had

received assurances that the audit had in the uncovered major issues.

The company pointed out: Our document was a draft, that the fine

audit determined that five claims were irregular and lated to one

former employee. A4e reclaimed the value of that in full.

The crisis at A4e has claimed the job of its former boss, Emma

Harrison. Today it was reported that a fifth person at the company

has been arrested on suspicion of You can see that full report on

Newsnight on BBC Two just after this programme. In Florida, a

teenager has gone on trial accused of murdering two British tourists.

James Cooper and James Kouzaris, in their mid-20s, were shot dead last

April in Sarasota. Shawn Tyson, who was 16 at the turn, has been

charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree murder. James

Kouzaris and James Cooper, university friends, murdered during

a Florida holiday. This is their alleged killer. Shawn Tyson was 16

at the time of the murders. Prosecutors say he bragged about

the crime and ordered a friend to hide his gun. Today, almost one

year on, the 17-year-old went on trial as an adult. Shawn Tyson is

responsible for the deaths of James Cooper and James Kouzaris. I'm

going to ask you to return a verdict of guilty. It was a Friday

night last April. Security cameras showed the two Britons out drinking

until the early hours. Instead of taking a taxi back to their holiday

apartment, they wandered through one of the poorer neighbourhoods in

Sarasota. Witnesses saw three men watching them. Just before 3am, a

The prosecution claims this was an attempted robbery, that the two

Britons were shot when they said they had no cash. But both were

carrying money, in wallets which were found on them at the scene.

The defence told the jury no-one had seen the shootings, no murder

weapon had been found and that the prosecution was relying on evidence

from convicted criminals, who had been offered incentives to

incriminate Shawn Tyson. You're going to hear about the deals, the

benefits of these witnesses, what they got from this case. The two

Britons had taken these final photos on their night out. In court,

the jury was shown images of their bodies, just hours later. The

defendant should learn his fate within a week. Coming up tonight -

as Stella McCartney launches the new Olympics kit, we report on the

commercial pressures being faced by the athletes. It is a once-in-a-

lifetime opportunity, as a British athlete, you have to make the most

of these situations, and make sure that you put yourself in a great

position going into the Games. rape seed company BP has been given

permission to drill a deep-water well off Shetland. The company says

it has been working with government authorities and insists it has

learned lessons from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

David Shukman explains. The waters off Shetland are the frontier in

the search for new oil. But operating in the deep ocean is a

tough proposition. Last year, the oil industry rehearsed how it would

cope with a spill. They are facing an uphill struggle to convince

people that drilling in the wild Atlantic would be safe. The

explosion on Deepwater Horizon two years ago shattered BP's claims to

be reliable. The oil gushed free for nearly three months. But the

authorities now believe lessons have been learned. This is a matter

of some considerable celebration today. We are delighted in the

Scottish Government that BP is going ahead with this very

important project. BP got the go- ahead after the authorities checked

its plans for this exploration well, about 80 miles north west of

Shetland. It will go down about as deep as in the Gulf of Mexico, 1290

metres. It will then pushed down into the rock. BP would not give an

interview tonight, but it says improved safety measures, including

this one, will make a huge difference, but not everyone is

convinced. The spectacular cliffs of Shetland are home to Europe's

largest colonies of seabirds. The currents would probably sweep any

leakage this way. And accidents do happen, like in Shetland in 1993.

Environmental campaigners are warning of the possible dangers

tonight. The water is cold, the weather is extremely unpredictable,

particularly in the winter. It would be even more difficult if an

accident happened in cold water. the Gulf of Mexico, BP made a

massive effort to clean up, but it still faces claims. One leading

British expert believes BP will be especially careful off Shetland.

The eyes of the world will be on them as they resume their deep

water activity. I think they will go the extra mile to make sure that

not only are there plans robust, but their management systems, which

failed in the US Ks, are robust. is a precious coastline, but

there's huge demand for oil and for jobs. The first drilling will start

within the next few days. The man who's known as the M25 rapist has

been convicted of an eighth rape, which took place almost 25 years

ago. Antoni Imiela is already serving a life sentence for a

series of rapes and assaults on women and girls along the route of

the him to wave -- M25 motorway, a decade ago. Coroners in Lhasa and

police have ruled that Whitney Houston died by drowning, and that

heart disease and cocaine use were contributing factors. Today's

announcement ends weeks of speculation. An inquiry into

political corruption in the Irish Republic has found that the former

Prime Minister Bertie Ahern failed to tell the truth about large

payments he received in the early 1990s. Tribunal judges stopped

short of finding him guilty of corruption, but the findings will

be referred to the police. At home and abroad, Bertie Ahern was seen

as a great Irish statesman, but his political career is ending on a

sour note. An inquiry into political corruption in Dublin

political corruption in Dublin today heavily criticised him. The

tribunal examined the equivalent of more than �100,000, which he gained

in the early 1990s, when he was Finance Minister. He said it came

from loans from friends, savings he had made and winning bets on the

horses. But the tribunal found... But the report stopped short of

accusing him of corruption, and in a statement tonight, he defended

a statement tonight, he defended himself and repeated what he said

four years ago. I made the best decisions I could

in the circumstances in which I found myself. I know in my heart of

hearts that I have done no wrong and wrong there's a one.

tonight, the government has called in the police to investigate the

findings of the report. 11 politicians were found to have been

involved in corruption. It sets out corrupt practices among a number of

politicians, practices which are certainly not in my book. Bertie

Ahern was a key player in the Northern Ireland peace process. He

was invited to address both Houses of Parliament at Westminster. But

the controversy over his finances forced him to step down early as

Prime Minister, and it seems his secrecy was his undoing. One of his

colleagues famously said that he knew about 24% of Bertie Ahern's

Personality, which was 23% more than anybody else. It might have

been an exaggeration but there was an element of truth in it.

repercussions of the report are now starting to be felt. It used to be

that every where Bertie Ahern went in Ireland, he was applauded. He

was seen as the man who brought peace to the north and prosperity

to the self. He was treated as a hero, but tonight, it is clear

those days are well and truly over. The official kit for the Olympic

and Paralympic teams has been unveiled in a show at the Tower of

London. The design is by Stella McCartney. Some people have

criticised the outfits. David Bond spoke to athletes at the event, and

he reports on some of the commercial pressures which athletes

are now under. It was more London fashion week than the Olympics. The

new kit was unveiled under the watchful eye of its famous designer.

Even for her, it was a big challenge, come up with a kit for

900 athletes of different shapes and sizes, from 46 different

Olympic and Paralympic sports. After the show, she told me why she

wanted to put her label on Team GB. I am really excited about the Games,

you can really feel it now, living in this city, I was born and bred

here, I work here every day, you can really feel it on the streets.

After presenting the kit like that, you just get the energy. But not

everyone was excited about her take on the union flag, with different

shades of blue replacing red. So, was she trying to make a fashion

statement? When you look at it, you read it as the flag. It is very

recognisable style. I have represented all of the different

parts of Great Britain within it. Visually there is a lot of red, but

I have just used it in a different way. Most Olympic athletes do not

get the chance to taste this kind of glitz and glamour very often.

But the danger is that in spending too much time at events like this,

they will jeopardise the chances of delivering gold medals in the

summer. Jessica Ennis is perhaps the hottest Olympic property right

now. She has lucrative deals with eight different sponsors. They all

make demands on her time, with 40 days of commercial work scheduled

for this year. But she could make more than �1 billion if she can win

gold in London. It is a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity, as a British

athlete, you have to make the most of the situation, to make sure that

you put yourself in a great position going into the Games.

First and foremost, you're an athlete, and it is about performing

and training to the best of your ability, and that comes first.

Cycling has created some of our biggest stars. The man behind it

says it is just reward for the hard work. Mr and Mrs Mediocre do not

have this chance. It is credit to them that they have the opportunity,

but then I think it needs to be carefully managed, from a

performance first perspective. the game's getting closer, today's

launch showed how the hype and expectation is growing for