16/09/2012 BBC Weekend News

Two British soldiers are among six NATO troops killed as insider

attacks in Afghanistan reach a new milestone. The soldiers from 3rd

Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment died at the hands of men in Afghan

police uniform. Tributes are paid to a rising rugby

star who died - with his father and brother - in a farm accident in

Northern Ireland. As the Duke and Duchess of

Cambridge arrive in the Solomon Islands, Palace lawyers prepare to

go to court in Paris to make a criminal complaint over the topless

photos. And, a jubilant return for Andy

Murray as the new Grand Slam champion is welcomed home to

Good evening. The BBC understands the killer of two British soldiers

shot in Afghanistan lured them to his side with a fake injury. The

troops, from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, died after the

Afghan man - who was wearing a police uniform - opened fire on

them at a checkpoint in Helmand province. Another incident, also

involving men dressed as Afghan police, killed four American

soldiers. As Jonathan Beale reports from Kabul, it means more than 50

coalition troops have now been killed in insider attacks this year.

Two more names will now be added to this memorial that stands in

Helmand. Two more members of 3 Yorks who have lost their lives

trying to help secure a country far from home. Their part of

Afghanistan is now the most dangerous. One in ten of all all

insurgent attacks take place. The soldiers were working with members

of the Afghan local police, like these. Out on a patrol one of the

policemen said he was injured. The British soldiers came to help him,

it was then that he opened fire. Today, in a separate attack, four

American soldiers were killed by another rogue policeman. There's

been a dramatic rise in so-called green-on blue killings, Afghans in

kwraorpl targeting NATO soldiers. In 2007, just two NATO troops died

as a result of these insider attacks.

By 2011, that figure had jumped to Already this year NATO has lost 51

troops, seven of them British. What's the motive for these

attacks? Many others we simply don't know, because they've been

killed or they escaped after they left this attack. Here at NATO

headquarters, there is increasing concern about the number of insider

attacks. Not just because of its impact on trust between NATO

soldiers and their Afghan partners, but also its effect on support back

home. Just last week the Defence

Secretary raised his concerns about the so-called insider attacks, with

President Hamid Karzai. Philip Hammond said he was reassured that

the problem was being addressed. There's the promise of tougher

vetting and better intelligence. But with 7,000 raw recruits passing

out each month and that's just for the army, it is a massive challenge.

Even before these latest killings, the head of the Afghan army told me

he was increasingly worried about this threat to his allies. We live

together, we fight together. We are partners, shoulder to shoulder. If

anybody's hurting you, and somebody abuses you, of course it's

embarrassing. It's been a grim 48 hours for NATO, with another two

lives lost and six American planes destroyed in an you a you a an

audacious attack and still the question what will happen when

troops leave in two years? Jonathan joins us live now. There

are also reports coming in of eight women killed in a NATO air strike

in eastern Afghanistan. Yes, this was NATO air strike in the east of

the country. NATO says they were targeting a group of more than 40

insurgents, some of whom were killed but it also appears that

women were gathering firewood on that same hillside and it seems the

latest reports that nine women have been killed, eight have been

injured. Now in the last hour NATO has issued a statement saying -

expressing deepest regrets and sympathies over the civilians who

died, or were injured. The issue is this is something that causes the

greatest strain between President Hamid Karzai and NATO. In the past

the President has asked for a halt to these air strikes by NATO. Of

course, this will only add to the problems for NATO over what's been

a difficult few days. Thank you. The Ministry of Defence

has named a soldier who was killed in Afghanistan on Friday. 32-year-

old Lance Corporal Duane Groom served with the Queens Company, 1st

Battalion Grenadier Guards. He was killed in an explosion in Helmand

province. Tributes have been paid to a rising

star of Irish rugby who died in an accident on his family farm in

County Down. Nevin Spence, his father and his brother, were all

killed after they fell into a slurry tank at their home near

Hillsborough. Mark Simpson reports. The family farm where a father and

his two sons died in a tragic accident. They were found in a

slurry tank. Among the dead was one of the rising stars of Irish rugby,

Nevin Spence. The 22-year-old played more than 40 times for

Ulster. He was tipped as a future Irish

international but yesterday evening he died along with his father and

his brother at their family farm 15 miles from Belfast. The emergency

services tried to rescue them from the slurry pit, but it was too late.

Because the size of the pit, it wasn't that deep and it would

appear that as would be the case normally in incidents such as this,

that the fumes overcame the people who got into it very, very quickly.

At the home of Ulster rugby fans paid their respects, including old

school friends. It feels like it's some strange

horrible joke and someone's going to say, you know, it's been a

mistake. It's not Nevin. It's just - can't believe it. Ulster rugby is

in mourning. He was born in Ulster, he came through school in Ulster,

he played rugby for Ulster, and all he wanted to do for the remainder

of his career was to stay here, win trophies and be successful with

Ulster. He was part of the Ulster squad that reached the final of the

European Heineken Cup last season. Rugby players across the world,

from New Zealand, to France to South Africa have paid tribute to

Nevin Spence. Here his team-mates described him as a wonderful player,

and a wonderful person. Sentiments which were echoed by fans who came

to Ulster's home ground to remember the young rugby player, and his

family. Lawyers for the Duke and Duchess of

Cambridge will make a criminal complaint to the French prosecutor

tomorrow over topless photographs taken of the Duchess. A St James's

Palace spokesman said they would seek damages and an injunction

against further publication. The couple are continuing their Jubilee

tour and have now arrived in the Solomon Islands, from where our

Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell reports.

Keep smiling, and carry on, that is very much the motto of this tour

now and when you receive a welcome as warm as the one William and Kate

were given in the Solomon Islands it would be hard not to smile.

The fury of Friday, when they first saw the paparazzi photographs, has

softened, though not their determination to hold fully to

account the French magazine which published them.

William and Kate travelled from the airport into the centre of the main

town in a vehicle fashioned to look like a canoe. Thousands of

islanders had come out to greet them and perhaps this was just what

the couple needed. Warmth and enthusiasm. Half a world away,

literally, from the cynicism of editors in Europe. Behind the

scenes officials are very focused on identifying the photographer who

took the pictures and to pursuing the legal action in France. In

public, the couple are very focused on making this visit a success.

They attended a service of thanks giving for the Diamond Jubilee of

the Queen, who is the head of state. Later, at an open air dinner given

in the couple's honour, William tried the local dial local dialect.

Mifala barava Tagio tumas. message has been clear, William and

Kate are as one in wanting to seek the maximum legal redress against

the paparazzi photographer and the magazine. That could be a civil, or

a criminal recommend remedy. Tomorrow, lawyers for the couple

will o seek an injunction in a Paris court to prevent any further

publication of the pictures in France.

Details of the new exam to replace GCSEs in England will be unveiled

tomorrow. The new single qualification will be introduced in

2015 with the first students sitting it in 2017. But there have

been disagreements within the coalition over the planned changes.

Our political correspondent Robin Brant is in Westminster now. Nick

Clegg and Michael Gove will be unveiling this together tomorrow?

Yes, both sides of the coalition coming together and they believe

this is very much evidence of a positive achievement. It's good

news about what the coalition sides can achieve when they come together.

We will see Clegg and Gove tomorrow unveil the replacement for GCSEs. I

am told the two men have been thrashing it out over the last

three months and what they've come up with to use a Liberal Democrat

word is sa radical reform. Out goes the GCSE in 2015. In comes

something dubbed a return to the old O-Level. What the Conservatives

get is a more rigorous exam. The end of course work, no more

assessment. Most of the grading will happen in terms of how do you

in that one exam. The Liberal Democrats in return get a slight

delay, 2015 but more importantly, just one single level of exams

knocks return to the old CSE and O- Levels which Liberal Democrats

believe condemned some children at 13. Instead, one single exam and

that's good news for Nick Clegg, good news on his priority as he

heads to Brighton, which is social mobility, he believes this can help

on that. Families of the 96 Liverpool fans

killed in the Hillsborough disaster say they will seek new inquests

into the deaths. They met following this week's report which revealed

the full extent of the cover-up. The relatives want the original

verdicts of accidental death overturned.

The Pope has urged Arab leaders to work for reconciliation in the

Middle East. Speaking at an open air mass in Beirut, he also called

on the international community to find a solution to Syria's civil

war. His visit coincided with anti- US protests across the region over

a film deemed insulting to Islam, as our Middle East Editor, Jeremy

Bowen, reports. Around a third of Lebanese are

Christians. It felt as if most of them were packing into Beirut for

the Papal mass. This was a celebration, and Lebanon

has the region's strongest Christian population. But these are

hard times for Christians across the Middle East as political Islam

changes the landscape. In Lebanon we think we are very much more

protected because we lived war and now it's only peace. We only think

of peace. The mass was a relaxed event at a moment of great tension

in the region. Pope Benedict appealed for peace and

reconciliation and for an end to the war in Syria.

I call on the international community, he said, especially the

Arab countries as brothers, to find a viable solution that respects

dignity, rights and religion. Not just Christians, Lebanese of

all religions fear violence spilling over the Syrian border.

They live on the same sectarian fault lines as their neighbours.

Lebanon is a small, weak country with a history of getting caught up

Middle East. What it does have, though, is a collective memory of

the horrors of sectarian civil war and at the moment that might be its

best insurance policy. During his visit the Pope congratulated the

Lebanese for finding a way since their civil war to respect

religious and cultural differences, unlike what's happening in Syria.

It's more than civil war. It's like a genocide over there. And Lebanon,

I don't think we don't reach this because as long as both, Muslims

and Christians, they believe in Lebanon is their country, you are

preserved. But the Syrian war has already

sharpened sectarian tensions in Lebanon. This is Beirut from the

road to Damascus. The Syrian border is less than an hour away. Too

close are to comfort. -- for comfort.

Andy Murray has been given a hero's welcome in his home town of

Dunblane after his success at the Olympics and the US Open. Thousands

of people lined the streets to meet the first British man in over 70

years to win a tennis Grand Slam. Today was a rare chance to get up

close and personal. Andy Murray returned home to Dunblane an

Olympic gold and silver medallist, and Britain's first Grand Slam

champion for 76 years. This is an opportunity for those

who know Andy Murray best, his friends and neighbours, to

congratulate him in person. Today the streets are bursting, and so

are people in pride. Everybody made the effort to come out, it was

raining so hard this morning, as well. You know, it was the least I

could do for the support they've shown me. He signed thousands of

autographs, delighting those who waited hours to see him stphaofplt

I have never really seen him smile before. It was nice to see that he

was smiling. Andy Murray ended his parade with where his tennis career

began. A chance to say thank you and perhaps inspire a new

generation. That's what it's been like in

Dunblane. Let's go to the sports centre for a roundup of the sport.

Thank you. After the Success of Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de

France and the Olympics, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has become the first

British winner of the Tour of Britain in 19 years, and for the

thousands of cycling fans who turned out at the finish in Surrey

there was the bonus of Mark Cavendish winning the final stage

as well. From Guildford, here's our Correspondent Dan Roan.

An unforgettable summer of sport may be over, but when it comes to

cycling there's no end to the enthusiasm. This could have been

the Alps rather than the Surrey hills, such is the euphoria which

accompanies the sport's biggest names but this is the Tour of

Britain, not France. And more evidence that this is now a cycling

nation. It's immensely satisfying. When we started out in this sport

you were lucky to get a man and his dog out. To see the number of

people that we now get to support sus incredible. British hopes for

the overall title rested with Jonathan Tiernan-Locke. A four-man

group did build an early lead but although the chasing pack wasn't

helped by some unexpected obstacles, the breakaway was eventually reeled

Here at the finishing line on gill tportd's cobble -- Guildford's

cobbled high street, huge support. More than a million speculaters --

spectators have seen the Tour of Britain, proof again that cycling

is no longer a minority sport. Back on the course the contest had

opened up. This 8th and final stage of the event borrowed some of the

route used in the Olympic road race. Mark Cavendish couldn't manage gold

that day but this may have gone some way to easing disappointment.

British cycling's sprint King doing what he does best and claiming

another stage win. Jonathan Tiernan-Locke wasn't far behind.

British cycling's latest success story. With the Tour and Olympics

and that, it's inspiring just be to be able to contribute to that this

year. It's great to be a part of. The sport in this country's never

known a year like this and with this week's World Championships to

come, the hope will be that the cycle of success continues.

There was one game in the Barclays Premier League today and Tottenham

have their first win of the season. Jermaine Defoe scored twice in

their 3-1 victory at the Madejski Stadium against Reading. He got one

goal in each half. Gareth Bale also scored for Spurs. Reading are one

point off the bottom. African runners dominated the Great

North Run today. Wilson Kipsang won the men's race and was one of four

Kenyans in the top five. Kipsang won the London Marathon earlier