29/05/2013 BBC News at Ten

European commission gives countries more time to reduce their budget

deficits. After months of protests across Europe, six countries are

encouraged to focus more on stimulating growth. The fact that

more than 120 million people are now at risk of poverty or social

exclusion in Europe is a real worry. We will assess the warning from the

OECD as it cuts its growth forecast for the British economy.

Also tonight, Britain is accused of holding up to 85 Afghan nationals

for months without charge at camp Asti on.

Sealed with a kiss - history is made in France with the country's first

gay marriage. And crushed Range Rovers, part of

written's exhibition at what is known as the Olympics of

contemporary art. In Sportsday, Heather Watson is not out of the

French Open. She's beaten in her first match

since recovering from glandular fever.

Good evening. The European commission has sounded a retreat

from austerity in the first concrete sign that Brussels is growing

increasingly alarmed by its social cost across the Eurozone. Six member

states including France and Spain are to be given more time to reduce

their budget deficits in an attempt to kick-start their economies.

After three years of protest over spending cuts, the EU confirmed

today a shift away from putting austerity first. It has granted

several countries more time to bring visits under control. Budgetary

discipline has not been abandoned, but is no longer the priority.

European officials now feel the consequences of recession and

unemployment more than debt and deficits. The fact that more than

120 million people are now at risk of poverty or social exclusion in

Europe is a real worry. In the unemployment lines, there are 6

million young people. The EU says the cost of inaction would be very

high. So six countries have been given more time to reduce their

deficits - France, Spain, and the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and

Slovenia. France has been given two more years to get its deficit under

3%, but it has been told to reform its costly pension scheme by the end

of the year. The French president has bristled at the report, saying

the European Commission cannot dig take to it what they have to do. The

EU's new emphasis will be on freeing up the labour market as the best way

of boosting growth. Today in Greece, medical students were

protesting as the central bank warned that unemployment would rise

to 28%, with the recession continuing. There were similar

warnings for Spain. Eurozone policymakers have finally realised

that the most important issue of the Eurozone is to tackle the high

unemployment in southern European countries. If this does not happen,

we could see social unrest in many countries. This was Portugal at the

weekend. Europe's leaders are aware that patients with austerity is

wearing thin. Today a leading international body, the OECD,

slashed its forecast for the Eurozone, predicting that the

economy would shrink by 0.6% this year. This week, Europe 's leaders

are warning that a generation might turn against the entire European

project unless they can deliver on jobs and growth.

With me now is our chief economics correspondent. The OECD has cut its

forecast for growth not just for the Eurozone, but the British economy as

well? Yes. The OECD's idea of a three speed economy among leading

industrialised nations, for the US, it says there will be decent growth.

Japan, where have there has been the military stimulus, will have

reasonable growth. On the other hand, a sharp downgrade for the

Eurozone. The OECD says the situation is dire and the

authorities need to protect over two. The UK is perched somewhere in

between. It has downgraded the UK a bit. Some growth this year and next

will stop it gives its backing to George Osborne's deficit reduction

plan, but says the government could do more to bring down youth

unemployed in. For the OECD, the key thing in the UK is what happens in

the Eurozone, given its importance as a trading partner.

Britain is being accused of holding up to 85 Afghan nationals for months

without charge at Camp Bastion in Helmand province. Lawyers

representing some of them say it amounts to unlawful detention. Today

the Defence Secretary said they would be handed over soon to the

Afghan authorities. Taliban insurgents, responsible for

the deaths of hundreds of British soldiers. Since last November, the

UK has refused to return suspects to the Afghan authorities for fear that

they would be tortured. The solution seems to be to hold them here

indefinitely and without charge at Camp Bastion in a facility where UK

lawyers claim up to 85 men are being held illegally. The BBC has had

exclusive access to court documents relating to eight of the detainees,

who are now challenging their detention in the UK courts. This

man, who does not want to be identified, says his cousin is one

of the eight and has been held for 13 months. TRANSLATION: He told us

that he cannot get information about the reason for his arrest. He asked

us to find out the charges against him. He did not commit any crimes

and was not doing anything illegal. British forces in Afghanistan are

allowed to detain suspects for 96 hours. The Ministry of Defence has

confirmed that up to 90 suspects are being held. Lawyers for eight say

they have been held for between eight and 14 months. The Afghans

want the men returned. TRANSLATION: This is against Afghan law. It is

also in humans. The prisoners should be handed over to the Afghan

authorities after 96 hours. These detentions put the government into a

real legal bind. For months now, it has been unable to transfer the men

back to the Afghan law enforcement agencies. Detaining them may be

unlawful, and there is a legal challenge pending. Perhaps that is

why today, the Ministry of Defence has reacted by saying it has now

found a safe way to transfer the men back to the Afghan authorities.

These people are to be handed over to the Afghan authorities for proper

investigation and prosecution through the Afghan judicial system

as soon as we are able to do that. The legal challenge, funded by legal

aid, is being handled by this lawyer who specialises in claims against

the military. This afternoon, his team spoke for the first time the

two of the detained men. They are complaining about solitary

confinement for the first month or so, repeated and lengthy

interrogations involving harshing, which is a technique where you get

right in someone's intimate space, a few inches away, and shout foul

abuse at them. The Ministry of Defence refused those allegations,

but the legal battles look set to continue.

The introduction of gay marriage has engulfed fans in fierce protest and

widespread anger. Earlier today, the first took place as two men tied the

knot at a ceremony in Montpellier amid tight security. The couple

exchanged their vows only a day after the "Marriage for All" law was

passed. It makes fans the 14th nation in the world to allow gay

marriage. Of course here, it is still the cause of much political

controversy. This report contains flash photography.

A day for pushing the boundaries, and yet a service familiar to many.

The nuptials were traditional. Heartfelt vows were exchanged, and

then the case. All of it greeted with cheers and tears of family and

supporters. 40-year-old gay rights activist Vincent Auburn and

29-year-old civil servant Bruno Boileau are France's first gay

couple to marry. Five years since they met, just 24 hours since the

new bill officially became law. It was not just our big day, they said,

it was a day for gay and lesbian couples everywhere. Our country made

a step to equality. It is a very important moment for all French

citizens. But not everyone in France approves of these flowers they have

taken. This past weekend, thousands marched against this bill in Paris,

the demonstrations infiltrated by an increasingly violent extreme right.

Files Warhol and prom is to give same-sex couples equal rights in

marriage and adoption -- Francois Hollande promised to give same-sex

couples equal rights. But he has been accused of ignoring the

economic problems of the country. No president has fallen faster in the

polls during a first year in office. It is now a legal obligation for

mayors in France to marry same-sex couples. Some find themselves

trapped between the law and their conscience, and some from the right

say they will delegate their responsibilities to a socialist

colleagues. TRANSLATION: I can't be hypocritical. I am not going to

marry two people of the same sex when in my head, I am against it.

Liberty, equality, fraternity, the founding principles of the Republic,

and they must apply, says this socialist government to, to all

French, irrespective of their sexuality. That same argument has

been used in Britain by a Conservative David Cameron, and it

has divided his party just as it has divided France. So jubilation in

some quarters, consternation in others. The happy couple will

celebrate tonight, but not in public. And in the current climate,

they made need protection for some weeks to come.

A Taliban source in Pakistan has told the BBC that one of the

movement's most senior leaders, Wali-ur-Rehman, has been killed in a

US drone strike. The United States had offered a $5 million reward for

Rehman, who was wanted in connection with the killing of seven murders of

the CIA in Afghanistan four years ago. A minute's silence has been

held in Woolwich in south London to remember Drummer Lee Rigby, who was

killed there week ago. Local people and soldiers gathered

side-by-side pay their respects. Police have renewed their appeal for

eye witnesses to come forward. Aside from the odd tweet and Facebook

message, no one really planned this but they came anyway. At about the

time Lee Rigby was hacked to death a week ago, this busy Woolwich Street

came to a silent, sorrowful standstill. Just some of the

hundreds who visited this place in the last seven days, leaving their

tributes. Among them, Billie holiday, former servicemen and

father-in-law of a soldier at the barracks where Lee Rigby was based.

That could have been anyone us. Anyone of us that served, anyone of

us supports Help For Heroes, because he was targeted because he had one

of these sweatshirts on. I made a point of wearing mine today, just in

his memory. Another face in the crowd, the woman now famous for

confronting the two attackers. She returned to Woolwich for the first

time. It took me awhile to recognise place. Very overwhelming, all of

these flowers, it's quite powerful. I do it again, no doubt about that.

It's murder, cowardly murder. suspects are in custody, one still

in hospital, one now at a police station. But police flooded the area

today, searching for more witnesses. It's a pretty big operation.

Officers on every corner here. The investigation already has CCTV and

mobile phone footage. But what they are looking for is the spark of a

memory, perhaps someone has seen something but haven't called the

police until now. As one officer put it to me, it might be the last piece

of the jigsaw. The flowers are close to filling all of the available

space here, but still more arrive. Friends of Lee Rigby have left

pictures of happier times. And those who didn't know him, words carefully

chosen to express deep feelings. The social networking site Facebook is

to review how it deals with what it is calling controversial, harmful

and hateful content, after several countries, including nationwide and

Nissan, withdrew their advertising. It follows complaints from women's

groups about Facebook posts and images which they say were

misogynistic and degrading to women. Rory Cellan-Jones has the story, and

his report contains examples of some of the posts. It started in a

student bedroom, grew into the network more than a billion used to

socialise and all along, Facebook has felt confident enough to ignore

most criticism. Now a week-long campaign by women angry about the

sense of material has forced a response. We are not just talking

about sexist joke here or there. It's hundreds and hundreds of pages

which show pictures of women lying in pools of blood, battered, bruised

and beaten, with black eyes, and captions on them suggesting they

should be raped or beaten. campaign has highlighted the fact

that this kind of image was appearing next adverts, asking the

companies involved how they felt about that. Some, including the

nationwide, here on a page recon show, decided to suspend their

advertising campaigns. Now Facebook says it will act to curb hateful

content. When the Facebook got started it was very simple, with few

controls on what users could say. Mark Zuckerberg's Boehm prided its

way on the way users police themselves. Now it's a huge, global

business earning billions from advertisers. Facebook has to listen

if they don't like what they see next to their ads. And here is what

one of those advertisers is saying will stop sites like Facebook should

have stringent processes and guidelines in place to ensure that

brands are able to protect themselves from appearing alongside

inappropriate content. There's no advertiser or brand in the world

that would want to be associated with the kind of content that has

been publicised over the last seven or eight days. Certainly in the

short term, until Facebook get a grip on it and until that content

has been resolved and the wider issue of gender hate has been

resolved, advertisers will be thinking about how they spend their

money. At a conference today, Facebook's most senior woman said

there was a fine line between protecting people and allowing free

expression. The same people who were protesting is also publicly

acknowledged we are not behind everyone else, we are the most

protected site, we do not approve of violence against women. Facebook

never wanted the job of policing its users but, as a grown-up company,

commercial pressures are forcing it to do just that. For the hundreds of

thousands fleeing the violence in Syria, like in refugee camps in

neighbouring countries, such as Jordan, can be desperate and

uncertain. Reliant on handouts with no way of earning a living. Syrian

women, often without a male guarding your breath, are particularly

vulnerable, sometimes forced to turn to prostitution to survive. There

are now more than half a million Syrian refugees in Jordan. Many are

crammed into camps. They fled their homes to become exiles. The majority

are women and children, with little money and few possessions. They are

told when to move and told when to wait.

TRANSLATION: They entered the houses, they rape and kill in front

of our eyes and they shoot. Everything happens there now. But

beyond the nowhere land of the camps, many more Syrians are

struggling to survive in the cities. And here, women can face choices

they couldn't have imagined before the war. Jordan provides a refuge.

There is at least stability here. But with the economic collapse back

in Syria, more and more women are coming here now to work as

prostitutes. We've been told of growing numbers operating in

brothels here and in the border areas. The war has created a

desperation that is pushing women to sell themselves for money. Using

secret filming, we spoke with several women caught up in the

trade. One woman said she'd lost her young Syrian women become a

commodity. Others are married off to older men from the Gulf for up to

�2000, money to support their families. They can be sexually

exploited and abandoned. As this teenager discovered after two months

of marriage. TRANSLATION: I can't describe him as

a man. The way he treated me... He treated me savagely. He was a

monster. He was hitting me so much. The bruises are still on my body. He

changed and said, I don't love you. And I only married to for pleasure #

you for pleasure. Destitute families approach marriage brokers, like this

woman, a refugee herself. What do you feel in making marriages like

this must remark TRANSLATION: You ask me what I feel about doing

this. Ask yourself, how would you feel of

one of your children didn't have anything to eat or drink. How would

you feel? Anthony and then I'll answer you. -- Anthony and then I

will answer you. Desperately short of resources, the UN struggles to

provide shelter for refugees. And every day the war scatters more

women into a world of agonising choices. The government has

introduced legislation intended to stop businesses claiming tax relief

for costs met by other firms. Ministers say the loophole has been

used in particular by energy companies claiming against

installation costs dating back decades. They estimate it could have

cost the exchequer almost �1 billion in lost revenues. England have been

playing the Republic of Ireland in a friendly at Wembley, part of the

football Association's 150th anniversary celebrations. The two

teams hadn't played since 1985, when the game was marred by violence.

What was the score? It ended in a drawer, it felt like an end of

season International. That match 18 years ago was one of the darkest

episodes in recent England footballing history. Little wonder

that the FA appealed to the home fans to refrain from political

chanting, head of a game that many hoped would underline recent

political progress and heal old wounds. The winds of change in

Anglo-Irish relations are nothing new, but in football it has taken

time. A generation, in fact, since Ireland fans were last seen at

Wembley. Now, 18 years after the last game between the two countries

ended in a riot, they would meet again. The fans did ads they'd been

asked. First, showing appreciation for Ashley Cole, England's captain

for the night, and then each other, both anthems impeccably observed.

England may have looked like Germany in the new strip, but initially they

didn't play like them. Shane Long leaping to put the visitors won up.

England now new and they responded well. The elusive Frank Lampard

timing his run to perfection and poaching an equaliser. The second

half was tame. Ashley Cole came close to capping his big night but

this wasn't the confidence boost England wanted ahead of key World

Cup qualifiers. The hosts had chances to win later on but 1-1 it

finished, honours even, but then this game was always more about

respect than a result. Tonight showed what many have always argued,

that this game should have been played years ago. It was only a

friendly but it mattered. In the 1995 abandoned match, it now seems

an awful long time ago. The Turner prizewinner Jeremy Deller has

created what has been described as an aggressive antiestablishment

exhibition, to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale. It features a

tax on the royal family, Tony Blair and the artist pet hate, Range

Rovers. The Biennale, often called the Olympics of contemporary art,

sees 88 countries and host exhibitions. Will Gompertz has been

taking a look. Venice, the man-made masterpiece created by wealthy

merchants and fine artists. Both gathered here once again. The

International art fest that is the Venice Biennale. There's 88

countries represented at this year's event, or putting on exhibitions

which inevitably say something about how they see themselves and want to

be seen. A crisis-ridden Spain presents rooms of rubble. Russian

oligarchy appears to be the beam of its presentation. The Americans seem

to want to bring a sense of order to a chaotic world. The British

pavilion has been handed over to Turner prize winning artist Jeremy

Deller, whose show opens with this. Amy mural of a hen harrier carrying

off a range Rover, a reference to an incident in 2007 when it was alleged

that two such birds were shot down above the Queen's Sandringham

estate. His dislike of Range Rovers continues with this film, which you

watch on a seat made out of a crushed range Rover. When everything

was put in place I realised there's a lot of aggression and a lot of

destruction. But I wasn't really expecting that. I think it's because

I was trying to get things off my chest that I'd been thinking about

for years. The sociopolitical beams continue. Here, and my two William

Morris, the arts and crafts leader, Phil Roman Abramovich's yacht into

Venice's famous lagoon. I'm able to act almost my fantasies. These

murals are fantastic fantasy scenes. They are not going to happen,

unfortunately, but this is the next best thing, is to show them to the

world and for the world to think about them happening and what it

would be like if a giant bird destroyed Range Rovers, or William

Morris came back from the dead as a colossus and destroyed Roman

Abramovich's yacht. That would be an amazing thing and I'd be excited if

that did happen. The critical response to the show, although that

is universally positive, has been generally warm. Very nostalgic,

folk-arty feel, banners and murals. Quite a simple political message,

which is basically - look out for obtuse social justice, live more

sentiently. At best, that is what art is supposed to be about.

social commentary makes a loving nod to traditional craft and the British