27/02/2013 BBC News at Ten

Profits at British Gas up 11% anger customers and MPs.

The company says cold weather meant families used more gas, but it is

criticised for putting its prices The prices are going up and up and

up which I don't understand because British Gas made a profit. So why

haven't they put the prices down? We'll be assessing whether British

Gas is getting the balance right between prices and profits.

Also tonight: The Pope bids a final farewell and

speaks of the difficulties of the last few years.

For the first time Nick Clegg admits that some of the concerns

about Lord Rennard were known when he resigned as party chief

executive. The best friend of Reeva Steenkamp,

shot dead by Oscar Pistorius, talks about her final hours. Haven't you

run before? Well, yes!

The interview who left Mo Farah In Sportsday on the BBC News

Channel: Former England captain, Michael Vaughan, says cricket

should be wary of player behaviour between seasons. It is after the

Good evening. The UK's biggest energy supplier,

British Gas, and its parent company Centrica have been defending a big

jump in profits. While many customers are struggling to pay

their bills, British Gas profits rose by 11% or �606 million after

raising its prices. Under attack from consumer groups, the company

claims its profits per household have fallen. David Cameron

reiterated today his plan to push ahead with plans to force companies

to put their customers on the cheapest tariffs. Here's our

industry correspondent, John Moylan. In 2012 temperatures fell. Bad news

for households which used more gas, but good news for the UK's biggest

energy supplier. Profits at British Gas jumped to �606 million. That's

up 11% on the previous year, it amounts to around �49 profit her

household. We put our prices up and our profits are uppm. The company

was unrepentant. If we are going to continue to keep

the lights on, to keep secure supplies of gas coming to the UK,

we have entered into �50 billion worth of commitments for gas for

our UK suppliers. You cannot do that unless you remain a successful

company. All the major suppliers hiked up

tariffs last year making life tougher for customers. Back in

October, British Gas announced that it was increasing prices by about

6% for both gas and electricity. Now that that added around �80 to a

typical dual fuel bill which jumped to over �1,300 a year for a

household. Some like Karen O'Brien from

Gosport pay even more, around �30 a week for gas alone. If I put the

gas cook er on, I switch the heating off and vice versa. We

don't have it on at night when we are asleep. It is not a huge house.

There is no a lot to heat, but British Gas have raised the prices

as well which we have noticed so it is costing us more money.

Higher tariffs also meant energy was high on the political agenda

today at Prime Minister's Questions. What is he going to do now to keep

his promise to those families who are struggling to heat their homes?

We are legislating to make sure that energy companies put people on

to the lowest tariffs. When that bill comes in front of the House of

Commons I hope she will vote for it. British Gas accounts for part of

the profits at its parent company, Centrica. Overall, it made made

�2.7 billion last year, much of that from producing oil and gas.

But while bills were rising, it also paid out �850 million to

shareholders. So is that too much? They are around the average mark.

They are on the higher end, but when you look across all the

companies in the FTSE 100, they are not paying out excessive sums of

money in comparison with their peers.

2013 has started cold. That could send profits higher again. But

Centrica insists that it contributes to the economy and

employs 40,000 people in the UK and paying around �800 million a year

in tax too. John is here now. John some support

and criticism of British Gas there. Has British Gas got the balance

right between prices and profits? Well, it is a question we heard a

lot today. We heard a lot today from consumer groups about the

concept of fairness where the profits fair? It is worth

remembering that British Gas and Centrica, they are not charities.

They are there to make money. They make a bit of money and part of the

problem today was these were strong strong profits at British Gas, up

11% on the back of the price rises they saw last year and in a year,

when British Gas saw its customer numbers fall overall. They didn't

go up, they fell. That led some to ask the question - is British Gas

recession-proof? Can it make money whatever is going on out in the

economy? And is it getting as you say, the balance right? Consumer

groups are asking is the balance between profits and the payouts to

shareholders and also what is happening to our bills and higher

prices, is that balance right? On bills, today we heard the debate go

on, the political debate is raging about the best way to keep the

bills down. A warning today from Centrica saying as it looks ahead,

it thinks the only direction for bills is upwards.

Thank you very much. Pope Benedict has bid his followers

an emotional public farewell and spoke openly about the difficulties

of his papacy. Addressing an estimated 150,000 people in St

Peter's Square in Rome, some carrying banners reading, "Benedict,

change your mind", the Pope said that at times during his eight

years in the Vatican, there had been choppy waters. Benedict will

formally relinquish his role tomorrow evening becoming the first

Pope for 600 years to step down. From Rome, our special

correspondent, Allan Little reports. Pope Benedict has never seemed

comfortable in front of crowds. Even a crowd as adoring as this one.

The Vatican said they expected 50,000. It was four or five times

that. It is like - it means the world to me. I grew up Catholic so

it's just huge. To deepen our understanding of this great event,

you know, that is taking shape in our church. This is the main reason

why I'm here today. It was a long and physically

demanding event for a man hose frailty is -- whose frailty is

evident. Hes message was emotion -- his message was emotional and he

referred the controversies. He said the church faced stormy weather. It

had seemed at times that the Lord was sleeping.

When he was elected Pope eight years ago, he said, he surrendered

his life to a a private life and there could be no going back. He

said, "I am not abandoning the cross."

I ask each of you to pray for me and for the new Pope.

This is the last time the public will see this Pope. Soon for the

sake of the credibility and authority of the next Pope, ben

Benedict will be hidden from the world for the rest of his life.

There will soon be two Pope in the Vatican. Benedict XVI will hold the

title Pope Emeratius, could he become a focus for descent in a

church hierarchy that is plagued by ifighting?

The new Pope will inherit a church that is shrinking in its

traditional European European heartlands and growing in the the

developing Worle, but -- world, but remains dominated by European

cardinals at the top. He will inherit a church reeling from sex

and child abuse scandals in the priesthood.

Pope Benedict retreats from public view, buoyed today by the affection

of the faithful, but leaving a church that is still in crisis and

still by his own admission bitterly divided.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, has been giving a new

account of the sexual harassment crisis that's hit the party. For

the first time, he now says that Lord Rennard's inappropriate

behaviour was known when he resigned as the party chief

executive in 2009. Lord Rennard refutes the allegations of sexual

harassment made against him. Vicky Young's report contains flash

photography. The questions keep coming for Nick

Clegg and the answers well, they keep changing. A week ago, he said

he didn't know complaints had been made about Lord Rennard's behaviour.

Now he says they were part of the reason the peer resign.

-- resigned. The Lib Dem leader was doing his bit for the by-election

in Eastleigh. Mr Clegg offered yet another version of what happened

rumours surfaced about Lord Rennard. He left for health reasons and

those health reasons are well-known, but as everybody now knows, these

concerns about Lord Rennard's behaviour, inappropriate behaviour,

were obviously circulating at the time. That was in the background as

well. Lord Rennard denies any impropriety

and his friends contradict Mr Clegg, insisting his health was the only

reason he resigned. Now for the first time, one of the party's

senior women has spoken out. Lady Williams says Lord Rennard is a

fine man and the whole thing has been exaggerated and came to Mr

Clegg's defence. Nick has behaved in a exemplary way.

If people are not prepared to have their names recorded.

That's upset one of the women who complained about Lord Rennard years

ago. She says she will be speaking to the police tomorrow about what

happened. I always had a lot of respect for

Shirley Williams so I'm disappointed by that. It was a

serious incident. It was more, people have been talking about

hands on the knee and things like that, it was very much more serious

than that. Tonight, it emerged that Lib Dem

peer Lord stoneham has been reprimanded.

This row has been rumbling on for a week with the Liberal Democrats

finding it impossible to deal with the fallout and Nick Clegg's

handling of the situation coming in for criticism. The by-election just

hours away, the party's hoping the voters of Eastleigh have other

Live now to Eastleigh where that by-election is taking place. Ross

Hawkins is there. How do things stand tonight? Fiona, many people

here are still dealing with the story about Lord Rennard. It is an

indication, I think, as to just how quickly this is moving that earlier

on the walls of the Lib Dems HQ there was a picture of Lord

Stoneham celebrated as a VIP visitor to this campaign. Since

then we've learned he has been formally reprimanded bit party.

Activists are asking where this leaves the campaign. The

Conservatives Partys and Liberal Democrats regard themselves as

broadly level pegging. The great unknown is UKIP. They are polling

much better at the end of this campaign than they were at the

start. Labour are wondering out loud whether they could push either

the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats into third place. It all

means even if UKIP don't win a seat, which would be a momentous result

for them, they could still come second and give a larger party a

very bloody nose. Thank you.

There is a full list of all the candidates contesting the Eastleigh

by-election. It's on the BBC News website. That's bbc.co.uk/news.

Italy's political system remains deadlocked tonight after

inconclusive elections gave no party overall control in the lower

House and Senate. Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment

Five Star Movement, today told the BBC he's ruemed out a pact with any

other political grouping. He described Pier Luigi Bersani as a

political stalker and a dead man talking.

The head of the balloon company involved in yesterday's fatal crash

in Egypt has admitted to the BBC that another of his balloons

crashed 18 months ago. He said that he hopes to be flying balloons

again within six months. 19 foreign tourists, three of them from

Britain, were killed when their balloon exploded and crashed to the

ground near Luxor. One other It's here on the banks of the Nile,

the hot air balloon crashed from the skies. Remnants of the basket

and belongings of some of the passengers still lay on the ground.

Flowers have now been laid here too. The balloon's thought to have been

close to landing when a fire broke out. The heat lifting it higher

before an explosion brought it down in the most horrifying of ways. The

only tourist to survive was Michael Renni from Perth. Doctors say he's

physically well but distraught. His wife Yvonne was killed. So too was

Joe Bampton and his partner Suzanna Gyetvai who worked for an auction

house in west London. Colleagues have been devastated. For most

people here he was like a brother and it's like loseing a brother.

It's very, very difficult. He was a lovely, lovely man. We went to meet

the manager of the company in Luxor that operated the balloon that

crashed. He told us they passed a government inspection only two

weeks ago. TRANSLATION: Everything that was

checked in the balloon was perfect. We have never had any problems

before. Things have only gone wrong when there has been bad weather.

knew that was a lie. We showed him footage of an accident 18 months

ago, when one of his balloons crashed into the Nile.

We listed other incidents. He just tried to explain them away. This is

a company that had been used by Thomas Cook for customers that

chose to take balloon rides as part of their package holidays. Today, a

spokesman for Thomas Cook said, "In this tragic case, the operator, Sky

Cruises had been verified and approved by the Egyptian Civil

Aviation Authority. We, like all other major tour operators, rely

upon this endorsement. The question may be should they

rely on checks by Egyptian authorities or are those same

authorities culpable for allowing companies to continue to operate

when they endanger the lives of tourists.

Coming up on tonight's programme: The best friend of Reeva Steenkamp,

who was shot dead by her boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius, has been speaking

about her final hours. She said last night that she was

sleeping out and I think, you know, you look back and you say, well,

why didn't we say "come home". It's said to be one of the most

ambitious trade deals between six Central American countries and the

European Union to import a range of produce such as frout, rice and

beef. It also includes sugar, one of the region' largest industries,

which is already feeling the benefit as producers now receive a

higher price for their products. Humphrey Hawksley has been to

Guatemala to see how it might affect a country where over half

the population live below the poverty line. From a country with

high levels of poverty and malnutrition comes one of the most

modern food industries in the world. This is raw sugar in gat Malia. --

Guatamala. The country has signed a breakthrough deal to sell to Europe,

where it gets a higher price. is an issue here, and you can call

it what you want, about our sugar being consumed in all markets of

the world. We value the taste and the know-how of the European

consumer. The more sugar they have on there, the Queen of England eats

our sugar, we'll be extremely proud. But there are conditions. This

trade agreement is one of the first that directly binds market access

to human rights and democracy, working conditions too. With a big

exporting company like this, the staff get health care and other

benefits. Treating them well is seen as good for business. Then we

travelled to a very different world, not far away, but a dark contrast.

These sugar cane cutters work for small, independent farmers.

Guatamala has to start ensuring their rights too or the agreement

could be suspended. These are the vulnerable of the sugar industry.

They get up before dawn and work through until dusk. It's hot. It's

dangerous and there are children here.

Michael says he's 14, but he doesn't look it. Many of the

children have stunted growth through malnutrition. They still

work, -- they still work as family bread winners. With a machete, it's

not safe at all. TRANSLATION: I start work at 3am.

We get a bit of food and the water we drink comes from the river. It's

difficult to work all day. mainstream industry maintains that

sugar harvested like this would never be sold to Europe. The checks

are too rigorous. Europe says it's impossible to be completely certain.

The labour activists who brought us here are not convinced by the

agreement. Europe is. It is a good thing because the agreement will

give us stronger mandate for the EU to monitor and stronger framework

for the government to be able pull together all the actors together

and the government itself do the internal job of monitoring the

respect of human rights. The trade deal is one of the most

ambitious the EU has signed. But how much will it help change these

David Cameron has said the Government needs to go further and

faster in cutting Britain's deficit in response to the loss of the

country's triple-A credit rating. He was speaking at Prime Minister's

Questions. His comments came after official figures show that the

economy grew by 0.2% in 2012, but that's up from a previous estimate

of zero growth. Stephanie Flanders is here. First of all, what do you

make of Mr Cameron's comments? don't think he was suggesting we

are going to see a list of deficit cuts announced in the budget next

month. The Prime Minister's spokesmen at Number Ten were keen

to clarify that after Prime Minister's Questions. They were

saying, they said look, he was saying possibly a bit clumsily

things that we already knew, that the Government will have to spend

longer than it thought in getting rid of the hole in the public

finances, because it's turned out to be larger than they thought. And

it's going to have to have a faster pace of deficit reduction in future

than this year. We may not have seen the borrowing fall at all in

the last year. It speaks to the very aggressive way they've

responded to this news of the loss of the triple-A rating last week.

Citibgdz say -- critics say it's a sign of the failure of George

Osborne's course. They've been determined in saying no, it shows

how right we were. If we hadn't taken the taufproch on the deficit

the borrowing -- tough approach on the deficit the borrowing would

have been that much higher. What about the GDP figures? The Office

for National Statistics has the first take on the GDP figures,

which we had at the end of January. Now it has more numbers. It's taken

another look at them. It hasn't decided that anything different

happened in the last three months of the year. The economy shange.

We've had revisions to previous parts of the year. We had 0.2%

growth, if you strip out of the effect of decline in North Sea oil,

it is more like 0.6%, which is better than we might think. Some

bad news is that there's been no sign of support from exports, in

fact trade, which we were hoping to play a much bigger part in growth,

has been pulling back the economy. The only thing supporting it last

year was Government spending and spending by hard-pressed consumers.

Thank you. The best friend of Reeva Steenkamp,

who was shot dead by her boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius, has been speaking

about her final hours, describing the model as a thoughtful person

who everybody loved. She told our Africa correspondent Andrew Harding

that she wanted to make sure Reeva's voice is heard.

Reeva Steenkamp at home in the weeks before she died. She was

living in the suburbs of Johannesburg with her close friend

Gina Myers and family. Gina showed me Reeva's bedroom and spoke of the

family's grief. My dad is a mess. I think because she was living here,

he feels like he didn't protect her. She said that night that she was

sleeping out. I think, you know, you look back and say well why

didn't we say come home. Instead, Reeva was shot dead by the man

she'd been dating for about three months, Oscar Pistorius. He used to

come to the house here to pick Reeva up. So what happened that

night? We all just want to know the truth. I think that's everyone in

the world now. Do you think Reeva was happy? I did. And happy in her

relationship? Yes. So what do you think the truth is? I don't want to

comment on that. You'll wait for the trial? I'll

wait for the trial. But that trial is months away and

in the meantime, Reeva Steenkamp's friends and family worry, as is so

often the case even with far less famous murder suspects, it's the

victim who's being forgotten. I want people to know Reeva. Do you

feel she's been overlooked? I do. I feel like, at the end of the day,

Reeva was killed. Her friends speak of a romantic, ambitious woman and

believe that justice will prevail. Now how much do you drink or rather

how much do you add noit drinking? New research in England suggests

there's a big difference. The study by University College London

compared alcohol sales figures in England with surveys detailing what

we say we drink. Almost half the alcohol sold is unaccounted for,

indicating we're drinking much more than we admit to. The authors of

the study suggest that could mean 80% of women and three quarters of

men are drinking more than the recommended safe levels.

You'd have thought winning two gold medals at the London Olympics would

give you an international sporting reputation, but for one British

superstar, it seems, it wasn't quite enough. Month Farah racing to

victory in an athletics Grand Prix in Birmingham. A household name,

but not over in the States, it turns out. After winning the New

Orleans half-marathon at the weekend, Mo, ever keen to please

agreed it a post-run interview. Then came a question he couldn't

have expected. Now haven't you run before? Sorry? Haven't you run

before, this isn't your first time? No, it's not my first time. I've

done before half-marathon, but not New Orleans, this is my first time