15/11/2012 BBC News at Ten

Air raid sirens sound in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv for the

first time in more than two decades. $WHITE Palestinian militants fire

rockets at Israel's commercial capital, sending residents

scurrying for cover. In Gaza, funerals for some of the

15 Palestinians who've died in the escalating violence.

As Israel moves more troops towards the border, we'll be asking how

serious this latest development is. Also tonight:

The former Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis is bailed following his

arrest on suspicion of sexual offences.

The BBC has agreed to pay Lord McAlpine �185,000 after Newsnight

led to him wrongly being accused of child abuse. He says he's been left

shattered. It gets into your soul. And you just think there's

something wrong with the world. The British oil giant BP receives

the biggest criminal penalty in American history for the Deepwater

Horizon disaster two years ago. And I am in Beijing. China unveils

the President who will run this superpower for the next 10 years.

Xi Jinping takes centre-stage. He will govern over 1 billion people

and is the man the West will have to deal with. And we meet China's

richest person, worth up to $20 billion, but now he is warning

In Sportsday: Graeme Swann becomes England's most

successful off-spinner, despite his side struggling against India in

Good evening. Air raid sirens have sounded in the

Israeli city of Tel Aviv for the first time since 1991, after

rockets were fired at the city by Palestinian militants. Two rockets

landed south of the city but there were no reports of casualties. This

morning, three Israelis were killed in the south of the country in a

separate attack. In Gaza, funerals have been held for the 15 people

who've died since Israel killed the military leader of Hamas yesterday.

Tonight, amid fears of a ground assault, Israeli troops are being

moved towards the border with Gaza. From there, Wyre Davies reports.

Tonight, sirens sounded across Tel- Aviv. Israel's commercial capital

and most populous city, now a target for the rockets being fired

by militants in Gaza. People took over where they could. One rocket

reportedly landed but there were no casualties. Another fell into the

sea. TRANSLATION: I saw a flash of light

in the direction of the rubbish tip in Jaffa, two kilometres in the

direction of the sea. There was an explosion and a rocket landed in

the sea. Targeting Tel-Aviv marks a significant escalation of this

growing conflict. The body of Ahmed al-Jabari, the man held responsible

by Israel for launching hundreds of rockets from Gaza. Israel had tried

to kill him many times before, and yesterday they succeeded. At his

funeral in Gaza City today, the shrouded body of Hamas' military

commander was carried through the streets by a noisy and passionate

crowd. These men are angry, determined to avenge the

assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari. Israel has already threatened all

Hamas operatives, junior and senior, to keep their heads down in coming

days. The senior men are nowhere to be seen, but already today the

militants have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. Renewed

attacks which Hamas today sought to justify it.

TRANSLATION: It is the occupation it does not have the will or the

decision to end it, and it will pay the price. If this is Israel's

vaunted Iron Dome defence system, but it could not cope with the

sheer number of rockets. Dozens got through. Two women and a man were

killed when their house, just a few miles north of Gaza, got it.

Israel's Prime Minister accused Hamas of committing war crimes.

This is why my government has instructed the Israeli Defence

Force to conduct surgical strikes against the terrorist

infrastructure in Gaza. And this is why Israel will continue to take

whatever action is necessary to defend our people. And this is what

the Israelis call a surgical strike. An underground Hamas launching site,

taken out with pinpoint accuracy. But Israel has been accused of

killing innocents, too. 11 months old Omar died from horrific burns

when what his father says was an Israeli shell came crashing through

the roof of their home. Her father, a colleague of the BBC in Gaza,

insists there were no militants or missile sites in the area. We are

civilians. Around our house, all of them civilians. We do not know

anyone who is fighting, who is in anything, who does anything. No one

is firing. Egypt is tonight reported to be trying to arrange a

truce. If that comes to nought, there are concerns the conflict

could escalate and more civilians on both sides will suffer.

Jeremy Bowen is with me now. Israel are moving troops towards the

border. Are their fears of a ground assault? Well, it is an option they

have and it might even be a plant. It is the kind of thing they have

done in the past and they have talked about it, too. There have

been some big hints dropped by people, statements even that they

might do it, so it is definitely possible. The message coming into

Israel, and also to Hamas, from the outside world is to stop this whole

process getting worse. Escalation could be driven either by a plan,

in other words, in their lead, or send more rockets towards Tel Aviv,

or it could be driven by a casualties, and that is when it

gets out of control. If there is a particularly big attack on either

side, they want to do something about it and responded in the way

that they want. We heard about Egypt try to get a ceasefire. The

Egyptian Prime Minister is due into Gaza. That is quite a clever move,

perhaps, by the Egyptian President, wanting to show some support, but

it is fairly low risk for him, for the President, politically speaking.

I think the message they will send to the Palestinians in Hamas is

that you won not alone here. That is something they will find

comforting but will maybe also strengthen their desire. -- the

message is that you are not alone. The former Radio one DJ Dave Lee

Travis has been bailed following his arrest on suspicion of sexual

offences. The 67-year-old was detained at his home in

Buckinghamshire this morning by detectives from a Scotland Yard

unit set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. But police

say the allegations don't relate directly to Savile. Luisa Baldini's

report contains flash photography. What a good way to start off the

final half-hour... For nearly three decades, Dave Lee Travis was a star

of BBC Radio One. He worked across the station's output, including the

Breakfast Show, and also hosted a programme on the BBC World Service.

And Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi asked to meet him,

saying the show had given her a lifeline. The 67-year-old was

arrested here at his home in Buckinghamshire at 7:45am. The

police say the allegations against him do not directly involved Jimmy

Savile, but they come under the wider scope of their investigation

involving adults. Dave Lee Travis has previously denied newspaper

allegations against him. Police launched an investigation when

alleged victims started contacting them after Jimmy Savile's crimes

were exposed by an ITV documentary. Dave Lee Travis is the 4th arrest

prompted by Operation Yewtree, which is looking into offences

relating to children and adults. Gary Glitter, comedian Freddie

Starr, and Jimmy Savile's former producer, Wilfred De'Ath, have all

been questioned. Today, detectives revealed they have identified 450

potential victims, an increase of 150 in the past three weeks. Mr

Travis returns to his home this evening after being bailed until

January pending further inquiries. The BBC has reached a settlement

with the Conservative peer Lord McAlpine, after a Newsnight report

resulted in him being wrongly accused of child abuse. He's being

paid �185,000 in damages. His lawyers have warned that legal

action is also being prepared against ITV's This Morning

programme, as well as a lengthy list of individuals who identified

Lord McAlpine on Twitter, adding it would cost them "a lot of money".

Here's Mark Easton. It was in the BBC's own words and

unacceptable failure that has already cost the corporation the

Director-General and now �185,000 plus costs. That will be the sum

handed over to Lord McAlpine in an out-of-court settlement following a

Newsnight report that led to him being wrongly accused of being a

child abuser. It gets into your bones. It makes you angry. And that

is extremely bad for you, to be angry. Newsnight never named Lord

McAlpine but that was who they were understood to mean, and their

reference to a former senior Conservatives saw frenzied

speculation on Twitter and elsewhere on the internet.

Disciplinary proceedings have begun after an internal BBC report found

the programme had failed to carry out basic journalistic checks, like

putting the claim to Lord McAlpine. Of course they should have called

me. And I would have told them exactly what they learnt later on.

What was that? That it was complete rubbish. The media regulator Ofcom

is investigating Newsnight and ITV's This Morning, after presenter

Phillip Schofield showed the Prime Minister a list of alleged

paedophiles he had found on line. It is understood Mr Schofield has

since been disciplined by ITV but will remain on air. Lord McAlpine's

lawyers are also looking to those they believe spread that cilia on

Twitter. We know who you wire and the extent of what you have done.

It is easier to come forward and see us and apologise and arranged

to settle with us. A couple of days after the Newsnight programme the

wife of the House of Commons Speaker, Sally Bercow, tweeted, why

is Lord McAlpine trending, innocent face. She subsequently apologised

on to to for the comment. With almost 60,000 comments, --

followers, a tweets light that can gain the same circulation as a

popular magazine. Before social media, had the BBC Broadcast News

night, only a small number of people would have known that the

person they were really talking about was Lord McAlpine. Probably

only a tiny handful. But because Twitter makes it possible for

hundreds of thousands of people to know, it means you have to be

careful about identification issues in the way that you did not have to

be in the old days. It is understood the BBC and

representatives for Lord McAlpine will read statements in court in

the next few days. The BBC will make a full apology and Lord

McAlpine will say that in general he holds the BBC in great esteem.

After a week of secret talks and closed door meetings, China finally

has its new leader who'll run the country for the next ten years.

George Alagiah is in the Chinese Here in Beijing, China's carefully

choreographed handover of power is finally complete. As expected, this

superpower of more than 1 billion people will be run by Xi Jinping.

In his first speech as President elect, he said he wanted to tackle

corruption within the Communist Party, and he said it was time the

West learned more about China. But he expressed fears about the future

of the economy of the country. Damian Grammaticas reports. Welcome

to the dawn of a new Chinese Iraq. It is the Xi Jinping era, a new

leader and a new team in charge of the world's rising superpower.

These seven men are now going to rule more than one fifth of

humanity. But neither we nor the 1.3 billion people of China really

know very much about them. Immediately, it felt different. The

Communist party's new general secretary was more relaxed, more

confident, more plain-speaking. TRANSLATION: The problem was among

peasant Party members include corruption, taking bro bits, --

taking bribes, being out of touch, undue emphasis on formalities, and

bureacraticism, and these must be addressed. Xi will have to share

power with the other six men elevated today. Some are hard

liners, so major reforms would seem unlikely. On the left, Xi has been

groomed for power. His father helped lead China's communist

revolution. Following it all for decades has been the American

Sidney Rittenberg. He is not going to be a dominant leader, like Deng

or Mao. He is going to have to create a consensus in the leading

party, and that is not going to be easy to do. However, many believe

China needs change, urgently. This tale was where Xi Jinping had his

first important job as a young official. Now, economic growth is

slowing, and people's demands of their new leader are rising. This

man is 69 - he survives by selling soap which he makes at home. He

wants Xi Jinping to spend more on health care and education. But that

will require enormous investment. This man is a photographer, and he

remembers the young Xi. He hopes he makes more use of China's growing

military. TRANSLATION: He should be prepared

to fight our enemies abroad. People may die, but we should beat our

enemies. Avoiding conflict with a rising shiner is one of America's

priorities. Xi Jinping now controls the world's biggest army, along

with a nuclear arsenal. He is very candid, not somebody who sticks to

talking points. He is somebody who engages, he will be somebody that

we will be able to deal within the future. So, China's new leader, on

his very first day, is already bringing a change of style. What is

not know is whether he will also be able to bring a change of substance.

China's economic boom has transformed the lives of hundreds

of millions of people here and created a select club of

billionaires. Top of the pile is Zong Qinghou, who grew up in

poverty, but now sits on a fortune of up to $20 million. He has warned

that the growing gap between rich and poor has become a huge problem,

which needs addressing by the new leadership. I went to meet him at

his headquarters. This is a retreat for China's emperors over the

centuries, but it is now home to a new kind of empire. This is the

headquarters of the Wahaha soft drinks business. Note the political

banner, with communism and capitalism sitting side-by-side. We

got a glimpse of how it works. Zong Qinghou is worth up to $20 billion.

He is courted by the party. His delegation is from far away Sichuan

Province. On both sides of the table, they know that too many are

still missing out on China's economic miracle.

TRANSLATION: Lots of people here are still poor, while only a small

number are which. This wealth gap has become a huge problem and a

source of social dissatisfaction. My brother grew up in poverty...

was a rags to riches story. His first business was selling ice

lollies from a bike 25 years ago. Even now, he eats in the staff

canteen and says he lives on $20 a day.

TRANSLATION: I spend less than my workers. I believe in a simple life.

I give money to charity. Even though I am rich, I will not be

hated for it. The rich should earn respect. But it turns out the

frugality gene does not run in the family. We were told the

Lamborghini outside belongs to his daughter. The company has a 66

factories around the country. This line alone produces 30,000 bottles

of milky tea every hour. Successful as Mr Zong is, his business empire

epitomises the mass-production model of economic growth. But it

has its limits, there will always be someone or somewhere trying to

compete on cost. Now, there are calls for China to get creative.

Vega Wang is starting from scratch, relying on her parents and a rich

patron. There was no question of borrowing from a bank. She set up

her designer label after three years training at St Martin's in

London. A government which is good at spotting large investment

projects seems less adept when it comes to nurturing creative talent

like hers. The government has already noticed that these things

are really important for a developing country. But I think it

takes time for them to understand, and maybe to find the people who

really work in this area, because this country is too big. It is just

possible that the likes of Vega Wang represent a new generation and

a new meaning to the "Made in China" brand. Our world affairs

editor, John Simpson, joins me now. Let's speak a bit more about that

speech from Xi Jinping. He mentioned a lot of problems...

an awful lot of people are very pleased that he is in position,

they believe he is the man to sort out all of these problems. It does

look as though he is bringing that kind of waxworks image of Chinese

politics to an end, by being kind of free-and-easy. But one of the

members of the seven-man standing committee studied economics in

North Korea, so he is not exactly a card-carrying liberal. But Mr Xi,

after five years, should have a freer hand, because five members of

the Standing Committee are in their 60s and will have to retire in 2017,

so that should give him more freedom - although that is quite a

long time to wait. Looking outwards, do you see any possible change in

the way he will deal with the rest of the world? Western governments

are very pleased that he is there, which has a clear sign. But there

are big problems ahead. He himself said that. There is a real

difficulty of course about whether China can carry on maintaining this

high level of growth, for instance. There are serious problems here,

and the big nervousness is that China will start to become much

more inward-looking, more hostile, blaming the outside world for

things which are going wrong. So, there are problems all the way

round. Nevertheless, as I say, a lot of people are very happy to see

Mr Xi in power, and so, there is a general kind of sense of things

getting better here as a result. That's it from the Beijing team. It

is back to London. The British oil giant BP is to pay

a record fine of nearly �3 billion to the US Government to settle

criminal charges relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster two

years ago. 11 people died in the disaster, which resulted in the

biggest ever offshore oil spill. Our Washington correspondent has

the latest. April 2010, a drilling rig consumed by flames after an

explosion which claimed 11 lives and triggered the worst oil spill

in American history. Today, BP, the owner, accepted criminal

responsibility. This marks the largest total criminal resolution

in the history of the United States. Today's resolution does not mark

the end of our efforts. In fact, our criminal investigation remains

on going. Under the settlement, BP has pleaded guilty to 14 criminal

charges, 11 of them for misconduct and negligence resulting in the

death of workers. Two supervisors from the Deepwater Horizon have

been charged with manslaughter. And the company will pay a total of

almost �3 billion in fines and compensation. Accident

investigators identified flaws in the cement work, which should have

prevented a gas explosion. BP has admitted it misinterpreted test

results, which showed there was a problem. The chief executive

officer became the British face of an American disaster, photographed

yachting around the Isle of Wight as oil spewed into the Gulf. Then

there was this notorious gaffe. Nobody wants this to be over more

than I do, I would like my life back. The resulting outcry forced

him to step aside. In a statement today, BP's new management said it

deeply regretted the impact of the oil spill and the loss of life. He

said the settlement was in the best interest of its shareholders,

because it removed legal uncertainty. But even as the

company tries to move forward, this is far from over. Civil claims must

now be settled with different layers of US Government and the

insurance companies. BP has seen a huge fall in its value.

There is more to do in terms of dealing with the civil cases, which

will add many billions more. Ultimately, what we see going

forward is a smaller BP, which has had some of its competitive edge

taken away because it has had to fund all of these penalties. It

will be a reduced force for some years to come. The hardest cost to

factor in will be the damage to BP's reputation - a global brand

which was responsible for an environmental catastrophe. The

polls have closed in elections for the first Police and Crime

Commissioners in England and Wales. Voting has also ended at three

parliamentary by-elections. There was also a contest to choose the

first elected mayor in Bristol. The eurozone has gone back into

recession for the first time since 2009. Output fell by 0.1% in the

third quarter of this year. Our Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, is in

Madrid. Both northern and southern Europe are hurting, according to

these figures, so, is the austerity drive working? Well, it is clear

that the problems of countries like Spain and Greece are beginning to

have an impact on the wider eurozone economy. It was

interesting today that a northern European country, like the

Netherlands, saw its economy shrinking sharply in the last

quarter. The news today of the eurozone being back in recession

came after yesterday's huge protests, hundreds of thousands of

people essentially on the streets, about austerity. There are signs

that some European officials are easing off on those targets,

backing away on the reduction of deficits so sharply. His return to

recession, and also the protests on the streets, are causing something

of a rethink. The basic question is this - is it right to make a

priority of cutting deficits when some countries are in recession?

Bear this in mind - when we go forward to the coming months and

years... Apologies for the loss of that satellite link. England have

had a tough time at the hands of India's batsmen on the first day of

the opening Test in Ahmedabad. Graeme Swann took all four wickets

Graeme Swann took all four wickets for England, but India finished the

day on 323-4. Cricket starts before breakfast in Ahmedabad. It is

serious stuff. Bowling here can require maximum effort for minimal

reward, as England soon discovered, just down the road. India won the

toss, batted, and Virender Sehwag scored almost in his sleep. India

made 120 just in the morning session. Sehwag got to 100 off just

90 balls. Test cricket may not be the draw it once was in this

country, but this match has been drawing quite a big crowd - at

least while Sehwag was batting. No spin bowler of Graeme Swann's style

has ever taken more wickets for England. There was silence as

theatres Tendulkar fell. 250 were on the board. Did Jonathan Trott