07/09/2012 BBC News at Ten

The shooting of the British family in France, the police give the

first details of their kfrltions with the -- conversations with the

four-year-old who survived. She is under police guard.

TRANSLATION: She talked about the fear and the terror. She explained

from the beginning of the attack she was between her mother and the

other woman and she rushed under her mother's skirt.

The child's murder father, police investigate a possible dispute with

his brother and he denies it. More emerged about the murders

including how many shots were fired. Back in Afghanistan, Prince Harry

starts another tour of duty as a helicopter gunner.

A tough message from President Obama as he makes his pitch for re-

election. As thousands of teachers vote to

strike, is there more mass industrial action to come? How the

polarize cap is melting at its fastest rate for over 30 years.

Scientists are stunned by how much ice melt this summer. A change so

dramatic it could be affecting our weather.

And England head in the right direction as they open their World

I will bring you up-to-date on the World Cup qualifiers.

Plus a new world record for the 110 Good evening.

Detectives investigating the murder of a British family while on

holiday in France have revealed details of their conversations with

the four-year-old girl who survived. She has spoken of her terror as her

father, mother and a woman believed to be her grandmother were killed.

Her seven-year-old sister is still too badly injured to be interviewed.

Among many lines of investigation, one possibility is there may have

been a family feud, but the father's brother has denied that to

the police. Our correspondent, Jon Kay, has the latest from the scene

This is the remote country lane where the al-Hilli family was

murdered. Now open to traffic again. Hard to believe that a quiet drive

here could end in such brutality. Aerial pictures show police

examining the BMW after the shooting. The vehicle stuck in the

corner of a lay-by, bullet holes in the windows. The car might have

gone now, but some of the evidence remains, shards of glass, skid

marks into the bank. We now know that at least 25 bullets were fired

into the car and everyone of the victims shot in the head and all

that with a four-year-old girl hiding beneath her mother. She has

started talking to the police. TRANSLATION: She talked about the

fear and the terror. She explained from the beginning of the attack

she was already between her mother and the other woman and she rushed

under her mother's skirt. So what happened to Saad al-Hilli and his

wife and mother-in-law is a mystery. The police don't know if they were

victims of an assassination or whether they were ambushed. Mr Al-

Hilli's brother spoke to police and denied reports of a family feud

over money Pem. TRANSLATION: brother first turned up at a police

station in the UK yesterday when he heard about the deaths and then he

went in again today when he heard the media reports. He said he

didn't have any conflict with his brother.

The British cyclist who found the victims here has told officers that

he saw a green 4x4 close to the scene. The police are also

following up sightings of other vehicles.

Sylvia, lives close to where the family was shot. She was at the

local shops at the time of the murders. Driving home, she saw a

young man speeding around this bend away from the the crime scene.

TRANSLATION: He had dark brown hair and was wearing a black polo shirt.

He looked agitated, was driving far too fast as if he was being chased.

As we're leaving Sylvia's house, the police arrived to speak to her

about what she has seen. They have asked us not to film them, but we

know she is one of many local people whose testimonies are being

taken as the police follow up any possible sighting that could help

them in this complex case. The victims bodies are at this mortuary

for more forensic tests. And the family's two little girls in

hospital under police guard. Tonight, they were supposed to be

going home from holiday with their As we've heard, police have been

looking at a possible family feud as just one of many lines of

inquiry. French police will be interviewing Saad al-Hilli's

brother as part of their wider investigation. Our correspondent,

Among those bringing flowers to the family home in Claygate today,

mothers who have children in the same same class as Zainab al-Hilli.

One of a number of lines of inquiry being pursued by French police is

an alleged dispute over inheritance. It is believed the house originally

belong to Saad al-Hilli's parents passing to him in his mother's will.

It is thought his brother lived there until 2009. In 2010 he was

replaced as company secretary at Saad al-Hilli's business. It is

reported there was a dispute between the brothers over a house

in Spain owned by their father. It is reported that the family have

property interests in France, Switzerland's and Baghdad. Saad al-

Hilli's accountant, who looked after his company's books, says he

was not aware of any financial issues between the brothers.

. I don't know of any dispute between him and his brother. I

don't know the brother. I know his name because he was at one time the

secretary of the company, but then he was, he was replaced by his wife.

His brother has spoken to British police denying that he was in

conflict with his family and this is just one of many areas of

investigation. A senior former Scotland Yard detective outlined

some of the lines of inquiry that maybe considered.

. They will be looking into the background and the business

background of the victims to find out if if there is anything there

in relation to really spoiled business deals, deals which may

have upset other people from the Middle East, who knows, but that's

the kind of line they will be looking at.

They will be working with British police in that investigation.

Police remain outside the house, but there have been no signs of

detectives working inside and Surrey Police have given few

details of their involvement in this investigation, except to say

that they are continuing to assist the French authorities.

As part of that process, there will be four detectives from France

working alongside colleagues in Britain. The last of those is

Prince Harry is beginning his second tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The prince, who is known in the Army as Captain Wales, will spend

four months as a gunner on an Apache attack helicopter serving in

Helmand province. He arrived in Camp Bastion last night as Quentin

Back in uniform and back in Afghanistan. Prince Harry is now

fully qualified to fly this Apache in combat. He will have his finger

on the trigger of one of the world's most deadly attack

helicopters and in a matter of days, helicopter Commander Wales will be

flying missions against the Taliban. Working together with his

colleagues, he will be in a difficult and demanding job and I

ask that he be left to get on with his duties and allowed to focus on

delivering support to the coalition foreign troops on the ground.

. In training, Prince Harry came top of his class. The armoured

Apache carries a range of weapons including a powerful machine gun.

Britain has never lost one of these aircraft in combat.

When he was last here in 2008, his deployment was kept secret, but it

was kept short when news of his tour leaked, he returned home early

disappointed. The Prince arrives in Afghanistan at a time of growing

attacks by Afghan security forces on foreign troops. This was the

aftermath of an attack elsewhere in Helmand in July when an Afghan

policeman killed three British soldiers who were advising his unit.

Prince Harry won't have any direct contact with Afghan forces, the

international mission says it is working on the the problem. We have

made clear to our Afghan partners that they have a responsibility to

deal with this, by making sure their recruitment processes are

right. That they are checking on their soldiers and their officers

know the troops they are working with and can spots signs of

instability. The Prince's arrival in Afghanistan

is a reminder of his more dutiful side, but it hasn't been arranged

to distract from his misadventures in a Las Vegas hotel room, behind

it lies something more, the Prince's intention to resume his

combat career and complete for the first time a full tour of duty.

The Prince will be based here for four months. His missions won't be

without danger, but this is where he says he feels most comfortable,

serving alongside his his squadron The Ministry of Defence has

announce that a soldier has died from injuries sustained in

Afghanistan. He was from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and had

been wounded in Helmand Province last month. He died at the Queen

Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Barack Obama has accepted his

party's presidential nomination telling the Democrat Conference

that American voters face their clearest choice for a generation.

He said voters in November face a stark choice. He would create jobs

and put the US economy on a stronger footing while his

Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, would cut welfare. But

disappointing new employment figures have been seized on by his

opponents, as our North America Editor, Mark Mardell reports. He

came on to chance a four more years and that's what it is about,

whether this man who once embodied the dreams of millions, deserves to

stay as president of the United States. Thank you.

He said he shared the pain and frustration of those who lost their

jobs and homes, but he had never been more hopeful of America

because of its people. This election, he said, would be the

clearest choice in a generation. It will be a choice between two

different paths for America. A choice between two different

visions for the future. This was not the inspirational

rhetoric of four years ago, instead a workmanlike president president

urged Americans to continue with him on a hard path to a better

place. He derided his opponent's plans as the same old failed

policies of the past. Have a surplus, try a tax cut?

Deficit too high? Try another. Feel the cold coming on? Take two tax

cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in the morning!

He mocked Mitt Romney's lack of foreign policy experience from

calling Russia's America's main enemy and his awkward trip to

London. If you you can't visit the Olympics

without insulting our closest ally. Scarcely timed to catch breath and

both con dates hit the -- candidates hit the campaign trail.

This is what greeted the president when he visited New Hampshire. The

Romney campaign are focusing ads like this. The Republican candidate

leapt on new unemployment figures. It has been 43 straight months

above 8%. There are today 23 million Americans, that are out of

work or stopped looking for work. It is a national tragedy.

This is the reality behind the statistics and the rhetoric a North

Carolina Jobcentre. Today's figures show unemployment isn't going up,

but few new jobs are created, do people here blame the president?

I don't think he caused the problem, but I don't think he helped the

problem. I believe he is for the people and

I believe he is going to do what he would do for his own family.

They need somebody else in there to see if they can help do anything.

On mane Street USA it would take a striking speech to outweigh

people's experience. Now, both the political conventions are over and

nobody made any big blunders or had terrific trium triumphs so what

matters is happens in swing States like this. The opinion polls are

still neck and neck between the candidates. It looks as though they

Industrial output rose by a 2.9% in July. The rise can be partly

explained by poor figures in the previous month when production was

hit by the Diamond Jubilee weekend and out but was slightly down

compared to the same period last year. -- output.

The National Union of Teachers says its members have voted to strike

over their pay and conditions. And there are fresh concerns of a wave

of industrial action later this year, with the leader of the UK's

biggest union, Unite, saying he'd back calls for more co-ordinated

strikes. Trade union delegates gather for their annual congress

this weekend, but the BBC has learned that membership has fallen

to a new low, as Jon Moylan reports. Protests, demonstrations, strikes.

2011 saw the greatest number of working days lost to industrial

action in more than 20 years. Now the leader of the UK's biggest

union is warning of more to come. We would certainly support calls

for co-ordinated industrial action on pay and any other issues. This

government is intent on trying to make public sector workers and

private sector workers, ordinary people, pay the price for a crisis

they did not cause. This weekend the annual TUC Congress gets under

way in Brighton. That issue of strikes is likely to grab headlines.

But trade unions are facing other challenges. Not least the fact that

the membership of unions which belong to the TUC have fallen to

their lowest level since the 1940s. In the post-war years, trade union

ranks swelled. By the end of the 1970s, a decade of widespread

unrest, membership had sought a more than 12 million, but under

Margaret Thatcher, the decline was swift. It continued under New

Labour. Three decades on, numbers have halved to just under 6 million.

The TUC says the recent fall is inevitable given hundreds of

thousands of jobs are going in the public sector. Ray Pritchard lost

his job in the civil service in 2010. If I were still in employment

and in that position, I would be very supportive of my fellow

colleagues. We would all have to join together in order to fight

that single cause. But unions can still pack a punch. More than a

million workers walked out last November over the reform of public

sector pensions. Now there's talk of similar action in the months

ahead over a range of issues including pay. In a statement, the

government said it is disappointing that some unions insist on pushing

for futile strike action which benefits no one. Pay restraint has

helped to protect jobs and public sector and support high quality

public services. But at the TUC Congress, unions will say that job

cuts and pay restraint leave many with little option but to protest.

There may even be bought -- calls for a general strike.

Coming up on tonight's programme: Why did sharing a bronze medal

leave Paralympic officials brassed Scientists in the Arctic are

warning that the polar ice cap has been melting this summer at its

fastest rate for more than 30 years. They claim that without drastic

action, the rate of the summer ice melt will only accelerate and that

could lead to wetter, stormier summers in the UK. Our science

editor, David Shukman, has spent the last few days at a remote

Norwegian research station in the A journey through the frozen ocean

transformed into slush. This is the high Arctic, where temperatures are

rising and the ice is staring. We approached the edge of a glacier.

We need to be careful. Like many here, it is shedding great chunks

A million fragments fall like buttons. It is now beyond doubt

that the Arctic is changing dramatically, with glaciers in

retreat and the frozen ocean going through a record melt and although

this region is remote, it could have serious repercussions for

global weather patterns thousands of miles away. Across the Arctic,

scientists are trying to understand what is happening. A helicopter

lifts a hi-tech device into the air. It measures the thickness of the

ice, a crucial indicator of how long it might last. Results are

verified the old-fashioned way, by drilling. Researchers from the

Norwegian Polar Institute say the ice is definitely getting thinner.

During a break in their expedition, I went on board Demi the scientists.

These are cautious people, but they are stunned by the scale of the

melt. It is of course amazing. As a scientist I know that this is

unprecedented in 1,500 years. It is truly amazing. Huge, dramatic

change in the system. This is how much ice, on average, is left at

the end of the summer melt. Compare that to what is left now and the

melt is still under way. This warning for the Arctic -- warming

of the Arctic is so extreme that it could influence the jet stream,

shifting its path, which could mean wetter summers for Britain. Where

the Arctic Sea ice is reducing in summer, and if we have warmer than

average sea surface temperatures in the north-west Atlantic, these

factors together League Two storms over the UK in the summer and leads

to poor summers. So the ice, sculpted into extraordinary shapes,

is getting weaker and is likely to melt at an increasing rate. But the

Arctic has warmed up in the past during cycles of natural change.

They are playing a part now. But they assembles gathered at a

research station show a steep rise in man-made greenhouse gases and

scientists say those gases are to blame. There's more and more

evidence that the changes we see are caused by mankind. The patterns

in the change we see is consistent with what the models say that

greenhouse gas warning should give an could give. We find a bearded

seal on a tiny iceberg, one of many creatures that need for ice. The

ocean will refreeze this winter, but some time soon, there may be a

summer with no ice at all. And you can see more video and read

David Shukman's blog about his trip to the Arctic by going to the BBC

The Green Party in England and Wales are holding their annual

conference in Bristol - the first with their new leader, Natalie

Bennett. The Australian-born former journalist is taking over from

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party's only MP. Ms Bennett said she wanted

the Greens to become the third party in Britain, insisting they

have the policies for a more equal society. We know that this new

Britain needs to invest in the future. Invest in homes, in public

transport, in energy conversation - - conservation and renewable energy

to meet our society's urgent needs and to provide quality, stable jobs

for our workers. Britain's Paralympic team has won

more medals today. Among the successful athletes was 26-year-old

Josie Pearson, who took gold in the discus. However, an attempt by two

British cyclists to cross the line together so they could both take

home a bronze fell foul of the authorities. James Pearce reports

Han cycling at Brands Hatch. Two British women in the event, but

when Karen Darke a Rachel Morris reached the final stages, there was

only one medal remaining. They decided that instead of competing

for the bronze, they would share it, holding hands as they cross the

line. The judges had other ideas. They ordered a photo finish. Morris

was fractionally ahead. Karen Darke was told she would get nothing.

Sportsmanship prevailed, only one medal but still big enough for two

people to get their teeth into. Bronze is a, that Dutch tennis

player Esther Vergeer does not have to worry about. Her gold medal

victory in the singles was a remarkable 470th a match in a row

that she has won. Britain's Josie Pearson, who broke her back in a

car crash nine years ago, set a world record on three occasions as

she won a gold medal in the discus. This is a British athlete everybody

is talking about. Jonnie Peacock. Reflecting today on the night of

his life and one of the highlights of these Paralympics. His victory

over Oscar Pistorius made front- page headlines, but he believes

that these gains could be as good as it is going to get. Paralympics

has got bigger and bigger every year. But I can't see it getting

bigger than this. I can't even think for a second how it can get

bigger than this. This is huge and it is amazing. If we have half the

support we have had for this in Rio, it will be unforgettable. Jonnie

Peacock's name is likely to feature in the New year's Honours and while

the prime minister was visiting ParalympicsGB HQ today, it was

confirmed that Olympians and Paralympians will have their own

list to ensure there is no limit on the number of awards handed out.

Maybe some of those who get a gong will celebrate luck the Iraqi

javelin thrower avid and us. This was his reaction when he broke the

world record. -- Ahmed Naas. Football, and three of the home

nations kicked off their World Cup campaigns today with their first

qualifiers for Brazil 2014. England, Wales and Northern Ireland were in

action. Patrick Gearey was watching. England's road to Brazil begins

somewhere off the beaten track. There are tougher parts to cross

than Moldova and the visitors were soon travelling at speed. They had

a penalty after three minutes. Handball looked harsh, but Lampard

showed no pity. Tension eased, time for England to enjoy themselves. No

more than Lampard who had a second within 30 minutes. Goals were

readily available and Joan -- Jermain Defoe has a sense for them.

No more Daven be able to resist England's advances. They were more

stubborn after the break and England less insistent. They kept

leaving it to each other to score until James Milner hit it in the

corner. This was a night when everything went for the visitors,

exemplified by Leighton Baines's deflected 5th. An ideal start.

Plenty of bright-eyed enthusiasm about the chances of a young Wales

team. But some of it wasn't as directed. James Collins's challenge

ended his match. He could not afford that disadvantage against a

talented Belgian side for whom Vincent Kompany scored the opener.

Defeat was unconcerned crashed and burned onto an BOP Jan Vertonghen's

late free-kick and Wales must begin again in Serbia on Tuesday. An

artificial pitch but a real challenge for Northern Ireland in

Russia. He was half an hour before they went behind. Craig Cathcart's

second half barge presented Roman Shirokov with the chance for a

second. It takes more than that has abjured Northern Ireland fans, but

the size of their qualification task has been brought sharply into