22/08/2014 BBC News at Ten

No deal with President Assad, says the Government n the fight against

Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Talks with Syria would be poisonous

says Philip Hammond. The former head of the Army says they must be

considered. Some kind of dialogue, whether above or below the counter

has to take place with the regime. Tonight, British Muslim leaders

denounce the extremists. There's nothing Islamic about it.

There's nothing that they do that our faith teaches and we condemn it.

We'll ask what options are open to the West to tackle the threat. Also,

in Gaza, Hamas announces the names of 18 people accused of

collaborating with Israel and executes them.

Bernie Eccleston gives his first major interview after paying ?60

million to end a bribery trial. I have been found innocent. I just had

to pay. To get rid of the case, that's all.

And Saturday's most famous fixture - Match Of The Day turns 50.

Later on BBC London - a 14-year-old boy is arrested on suspicion of

raping a woman at the Reading festival. A Tube strike on two major

lines causes disruption for thousands of travellers.

Hello. Good evening, welcome to the BBC's news at ten. The Foreign

Secretary has rejected the idea of holding talks with President Assad

of Syria. Philip Hammond told the BBC there will be no co-operation

with the Syrian Government, which he called "a ghastly regime." His

comments came after the former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt,

suggested discussions should be held if there is to be any chance of

fighting the militants of Islamic State. Tonight, IS forces dominate

large parts of Iraq and Syria. The Syrian Government is reported to

have killed 70 IS militants in the last 48 hours of fighting near

Raqqa. Our Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, reports.

Kurdish fighters have steadied themselves and are pushing back

against Islamic State. IS will not be beaten without much more fire

power - political, as well as military.

It won't be hurt badly while it still has a power base in northern

Syria. That is why there's talk of doing a deal with President Assad.

Syria. That is why there's talk of doing a I think, on practical

grounds, we have to possibly consider taking a deep breath and

holding our nose and saying that it would seem to us now that the

extremely vicious nature of Islamic State and objectives are worse that

Bashar al-Assad has been doing. It may be when my enemy's enemy becomes

my friend. The West's main so far strategy for ending the Syrian war,

includes the departure of President Assad. Britain says it will not

change its mind about him. I have said

Sectarian conflict in Iraq and across the region makes building a

coalition against Islamic State much harder. On the edge of Baghdad

earlier this summer, a police general, a Shia, was at pains to

point out his chief bodyguard was Sunni.

Most Arab Sunnis in Iraq don't trust the security forces. If the new

Iraqi Government cannot get its people to find the gunman,

reportedly Shia, who killed around 70 Sunni worshippers in a mosque

north-east of Baghdad today, the collapse of Iraq will continue. In

London, the Iraqi ambassador was trying to reassure a small group of

Christian demonstrators outside his embassy. He said peace in Iraq

depended on separating Sunnis from Islamic State. To feel they are

partners in this Government and partners in real partnership, not

only signed and declared over the television, but then next day

forgotten. You are talking about a real power-sharing agreement with

Sunnis? Absolutely. On the ground. real power-sharing agreement with

Sunnis? Absolutely. On If you can't get that? We'll be in a difficult

position. Very, very difficult position. So, what happens next? The

US has said it will do whatever it take against IS. More air strikes

are an option. Doing that in Syria, without the regime's conwould be

difficult and -- consent would be difficult and dangerous. The forces

have good intelligence and are well supplied. The price would be the end

of pressure on him to go. Whaebt neighbouring states. Iran is against

Islamic State. Saudi Arabia says it is too, but

building a coalition against IS means getting tangled in difficult,

often bloody, regional politics. It will not be easy.

Now Iraq's own sectarian conflict is emerging with the Syrian war, the

challenge facing anyone who wants peace becomes twice as big.

Syria's war has been impossible to stop. No-one yet has a proper

strategy to end the war in Iraq either.

David Cameron is facing calls to do more to combat radicalisation among

British Muslims. Some critics have argued neither the Government more

the Muslim community is doing enough to stem the tide of young Britons

leaving to fight in Syria and Iraq. It comes as investigations continue

into the death of the American journalist James Foley, apparently

at the hands of a British extremist. Here is our Religious Affairs

Correspondent. Tonight, the hunt for those who

killed the American journalist, James Foley, goes on.

The man who may have murdered him is thought to be British, perhaps with

family and friends here. This evening, the Secretary-General of

the Muslim Council of Britain issued this appeal over the killing.

There's nothing Islamic about it and we roundly condemn it. It is our

duty to make sure that anyone of us who has seen or witnessed, or is

knowledgeable about any wrongdoing, they must report to the police or

must report to organisations like the Crimestoppers.

Already at least 500 British Muslims have travelled to Iraq or Syria to

support Islamic extremists. Many joining the fighters of Islamic

State. Some as young as 16. The oldest, 42. Many are active on

social media and keen to recruit more. One British convert to Islam

says he can understand why they go. He's careful to stay within the law,

but the sentiment still shocked after the violence meted out by

Islamic State. There is not a single country in the

world, whether it is Saudi Arabia or Pakistan or Iran who are

implementing Islam in its totality. Now we have this caliphate, I think

you will see many Muslims wanting to flock there and leave the insecurity

they face in Muslim countries as well as in the West and migrate

there and live there peacefully under the Sharia. The Islamic State

message was countered by Imams today. The Government's strategy to

prevent extremism is supposed to work by engaging the most vulnerable

within their communities before they are radicalised.

Over the years, the British Government has tried many strategies

to stop young British Muslim men going to fight abroad. But

increasingly people here are saying the Muslim community itself may also

have to do more to help prevent that process of radicalisation.

This man is a post graduate student in London. He believes it is up to

all British Muslims to act and not stay silent. I am disappointed in

our own community. There are some who would rather sweep it under the

carpet. Many would love to practise their religion quietly with their

own peaceful interpretation and with that silence and only begets the

evil that exists out there. And ultimately, peer pressure may prove

crucial in countering a message of a group skilled in reaching out to the

young and the disaffected. Our Middle East editor, Jeremy

Bowen, is with me. Tell me more about the sectarian violence in Iraq

- the impact this will have. Horrendous levels of killing. 70 or

so dead in a Sunni mosque. Now, the impact that this has is like it is a

poison in the political system, this kind of killing. There are already

reports this evening, unconfirmed, of some revenge killings taking

place as well. And all this is coming at a time when the new Prime

Minister is trying to get together a new Government in Baghdad and very

importantly Sunnis have pulled out of that. At least for a time because

of the killing. Now, if they cannot find a way of including Sunnis in

the overall political shape of the next couple of years in Iraq, then

the kind of chaos that will ensue is the kind of thing that Islamic State

thrives on. It will be highly dangerous. The more people that die,

the harder it gets for the politicians. Thank you. Now, the

rest of the day's news. And NHS patients could soon be treated by a

growing number of physician associates. The Government wants the

health service to employ more of this grade of medic, who perform

some of the same roles as a junior doctor but with fewer years of

training. Some patients' groups have expressed concern that they would be

employed to cut costs at the expense of care. Here is our health editor.

Is that OK for you? Meet Kate, examining a patient with an ear

infection. She's not a doctor, but what has been described as a

physician associate - a job title which has emerged over the last

decade. I wanted to work within a medical field. I wanted to see

patients, treat patients and work with them on a daily basis. And I

like the challenge of a new career within that area. What does her

patient, Bill, feel about that treatment? If they are doing the job

that Kate's been doing, OK. I would say, carry on doing it.

I would say, The Government

I would say, The wants to expand the number of

associates in England - doubling the number of training places. So, what

does the role involve? A doctor has seven years training, a physician

associate needs a science or medical degree and two years' training. A

doctor has overall responsibility for a patient. An associate can

carry out an examination, under a doctor's supervision. Those

hospitals wanting to expand medical care on weekdays and weekends, say

these posts provide a welcome addition to their staffing options.

We need more clinical staff during the day time. They give us an

exciting new role which can compliment the doctors on the team

and give us the ability to do more across the whole week. Questions are

being asked about how far this process will go. And to what extent,

if at all, standards of patient care may be compromised and corners cut.

Patients' groups say the physician associates are not currently

regulated in the same way as doctors and they do have concerns.

One of the fears that we have is that because money is tight, the

powers that be are trying to find ways around spending proper monies

on proper care. That is definitely one of our worries. The Government

denies that boosting the number of associates who work in GP surgeries

as well as hospitals will dilute standards, helping sustain care in

the face of increasing demands on docks' time -- doctors' time is the

aim. Hamas militants have killed 18

people accused of helping Israel locate targets for air strikes.

11 men were shot outside a police station in Gaza City,

and another seven people were killed near a mosque.

The shootings came after an Israeli air strike yesterday left three

senior Hamas leaders dead. Here's Quentin Sommerville.

You may find some of these pictures disturbing.

On a Gaza city street, just after Friday prayers, a group

of men are led to their deaths. Bound and hooded, they are made to

kneel as a crowd looks on. They are shot dead. Hamas, which supplied

these pictures, say they were collaborators. It was a bloody day

in Gaza. As well as the men killed here, 11 were earlier put to death

by firing squad, accused of the same crime.

TRANSLATION: Because they are spies, they

helped to kill people. The Jews don't know there is resistance here.

The collaborators tell them. The sign on the wall reads, "They gave

information on places of resistance and caused many martyrs". Hamas say

the men were sentenced by an emergency court, but human rights

groups say these were extrajudicial killings. Two women were among the

dead. The deaths came a day after Israel dealt its heaviest blow to

the militants, an air strike here in the Gaza which killed three of its

top military commanders. The brutality and swiftness of today's

killings are an indication of the severity of the blow struck by

Israel against Hamas with the killing of its three military

commanders. The militants suspect that Palestinians in Gaza

colluded with Israel to bring about those deaths. Today's shootings are

an attempt to disable any network of informants but also send a message

to deter others from collaborating with Israel's intelligence services.

Hamas is an armed movement but it has been years since it turned its

weapons with such force against its own people. Even so, it warns that

more killings will follow. Quentin Somerville, BBC News, Gaza City.

The boss of Formula One, Bernie Ecclestone, has given the BBC his

first major interview since the end of his bribery trial in Germany.

He says he always believed he would walk free and he wants to run

the sport for as long as possible. Bernie Ecclestone went on trial in

April, accused of bribing a German banker to ensure that F1 would be

sold to a private equity company which would keep him in charge.

But he walked free after paying tens of millions

of pounds to the German court to bring proceedings to a close.

Bernie Ecclestone has been talking to Dan Roan at Spa in Belgium,

in advance of this weekend's Grand Prix.

It may have cost him ?60 million but today Bernie Ecclestone was

back holding court in the Formula One paddock, finally clear of

the cloud that for so long had hung over his leadership of the sport.

Two weeks ago, the 83-year-old tycoon pulled off perhaps

his biggest deal to date, paying a settlement for a German bribery

case against him to be dropped. For months he faced the threat

of jail but today in the luxury motorhome from where he rules F1, he

told me he was as defiant as ever. I'm not scared of anything,

to be honest. Even a ten year jail sentence?

I was never, ever bothered about the jail sentence because I

was sure it wouldn't happen. Why did you feel the need to pay up,

to settle? Because there is a system in Germany

which allows you to do it, gets rid of things.

It could have gone on. If they had one,

I would have appealed, if I had won, they would have appealed.

It could have gone on until next year.

He was accused of bribing a German banker over the sale of F1.

He insisted he had been the victim of blackmail.

In February, he won a multi-million pound High

Court damages case, although the judge ruled he had paid a bribe and

said he was an unreliable witness. Then came the criminal trial

in Munich, but he preserved his innocence after paying the biggest

settlement in German legal history. Although it has become almost

impossible to imagine Formula One without Bernie Ecclestone,

his remarkable reign had been in jeopardy.

But now, ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix in Spa,

the sport's most powerful man is back firmly in the driving seat.

He is one of the world 's greatest survivors.

This man has been through everything,

not just the case in Germany. Lots of other cases

and situations before. He has a remarkable survival sense.

For 35 years, Ecclestone has run F1's commercial rights,

becoming a billionaire in the process and helping turn the sport

into a gleaming global phenomenon. I'm going to do what I do as long

as I can. How long, realistically,

do you think that could be? No idea, I haven't got a clue.

After a summer break, it was back to business as usual for F1, Mercedes'

British driver Lewis Hamilton setting the pace in practice ahead

of this weekend's race. Whatever the result on Sunday,

behind-the-scenes, only one man leads the way.

Dan Roan, BBC News, Spa. Ukraine has accused Russia

of staging an invasion, after dozens of lorries carrying aid

entered the east of the country without permission.

The convoy left the Russian town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky and has arrived

in the rebel stronghold of Luhansk, where there's been fierce fighting.

Here's Daniel Sandford. For more than a week the Russian

lorries at the centre of the latest crisis, all specially painted white,

have been sitting at the border carrying food, water and generators

which Russia says are desperately needed in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

They have been held up by arguments between Kiev and Moscow.

Today, the Foreign Ministry's chief spokesman told me

Russia's patience has run out. Kiev has desperately attempted

to derail a very important humanitarian operation.

Numerous grounds have been invented, bureaucratic procedures have been

introduced to delay to the maximum extent the passage

of the Russian convoy. And then, without permission

from Kiev, the convoy of over 100 trucks simply drove through

the abandoned border post and into rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine.

The International Red Cross, who should have been in charge,

were left behind in Russia. As the lorries meandered through

countryside controlled by pro-Russian gunmen,

there was an international outcry. America called it a violation

of Ukraine's territorial integrity. The government

in Kiev was furious but said it would not shoot at the convoy.

TRANSLATION: This is

a direct invasion done cynically under the cover of the Red Cross.

These are military vehicles. These are military men with fake

documents who have been trained to drive combat vehicles,

tanks and artillery. The war in eastern Ukraine has been

particularly bloody in the last two months.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed

and thousands take shelter each night, as the Ukrainian army pushes

forward on the main rebel held cities of Donetsk and who Luhansk.

Tomorrow sees the start of a week of frantic diplomacy aimed at

bringing the fighting to a close. First, the German Chancellor Angela

Merkel will travel to Kiev, and then on Tuesday the presidents

of Russia and the Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko,

will meet face-to-face in Minsk. But to achieve peace,

they will have to make compromises, and it's not clear that either

of them is prepared to do that yet. Daniel Sandford, BBC News, Moscow.

South Yorkshire Police have accused the BBC of a cover up,

in relation to its reporting of the raid on Sir Cliff Richard's

home, by officers investigating an alleged historical sexual offence.

BBC News had cameras at the scene, after being notified

of the operation the day before. The BBC's director general Tony Hall

has said BBC journalists acted appropriately.

The former Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay has apologised

for offensive text messages he sent while working for the club, but he's

insisted he isn't racist, sexist, homophobic or an anti-Semite.

He shared the text messages with his former colleague Iain Moody.

Richard Conway reports. What started as an acrimonious

break-up between the owner of a football club and its manager

has now enveloped English football in another row over discrimination.

Malky Mackay, the man at the centre of this latest affair, has now

apologised after admitting he sent a number of offensive text messages.

That was something that was unacceptable but I am no racist,

I am no sexist, I am no homophobe, and I am not anti-Semitic.

The people that know me know that. The League Managers Association had

issued an apology on behalf of Malky Mackay in which they sought

to justify the texts as banter. Today there was an apology about

that apology, but Malky Mackay's former employer, Cardiff City,

believe the LMA Chief Executive, Richard Bevan, should stand down.

In a statement, the club said, "We find it entirely reprehensible

that the LMA should itself put up a statement which seeks to dismiss

deeply offensive racist comments as friendly banter".

Malky Mackay had been considered one of Britain's brightest young

managers, but despite this admission of guilt

he is confident he can return. I've got values,

and I've got resilience. And that being the case, as I said,

I've got a love for British football.

And I will come back from this. Mackay insists these are

isolated incidents. In the face of another crisis,

football is finding it harder and harder to make the same argument.

Richard Conway, BBC News. It has probably

the most famous theme tune of any television programme.

Its presenters - David Coleman, Jimmy Hill, Des Lynam -

became household names, the voices of its commentators a feature

of Saturday evenings at home. Today, Match Of The Day turns 50.

Natalie Pirks looks back at half a century of a programme

that became an institution. The tune and the titles have

been tweaked over the years. But the chills remain.

For football lovers, this melody has been a staple of Saturday nights.

It was one of the things I was always allowed

to actually do by my parents. They always let me watch

Match Of The Day. The format has always been simple,

the day 's top matches cut down into highlights with chat in between.

If it ain't broke... You can watch all the live football

in the world but to get that fix in an hour and a half of everything

that pretty much happens on that day, it really does work.

Welcome to Match Of The Day, the first of a weekly series coming

to you every Saturday on BBC Two. Match Of The Day began life

as a pre-recorded show in 1964. The first goal broadcast was Roger

Hunt for Liverpool against Arsenal on Kenneth Wolstenholme's watch.

Since then, a raft of famous presenters have brought their

own special charm to the show. Sorry about the noise.

And then there are the commentators. That is absolutely phenomenal.

One of the most famous voices returns

for a one-off commentary tomorrow, ten years after his retirement.

In this digital age, fans can now watch goals almost

instantly, anywhere, any how, but Barry Davies says the show remains

appointment to view television. It is the comfort that people feel.

They know they've got the package. It is true that they try not to know

the result of other matches, and they go home and watch.

There are other places they can watch.

They could get all the scores while they were in the ground,

let alone when they leave. So it's a phenomenon.

50 years may have passed but it seems the same arguments rage.

If anybody is still trying to tell you that football was far better

ten, 20, 30, 40 years ago, just very politely say to them, "Nonsense".

But as long as the goals still give us goose

bumps, Match Of The Day will remain a broadcasting institution.

And we will see you next Saturday. Good night.

You can see a special programme, Match Of The Day at 50,

shortly after this bulletin, at 10.35pm on BBC One.

In Northern Ireland, it will begin at 10.50pm.