07/09/2012 BBC News at One

Police in France investigating the murder of three British tourists

say they want to talk to the dead man's brother. They say a possible

family dispute over money is one of the lines of inquiry they are

following. I've just come from the scene of the shooting about half a

kilometre up this road where there are still bloodstains on the ground

and shards of glass from a windscreen.

Prince Harry has returned to Afghanistan to fly attack

helicopters in the fight against the Taliban.

President Obama sets out his case for a second term in the White

House. He tells Americans they face a generational choice in November's

election. Good news on the UK economy -

industrial output in July soared at the fastest pace in 25 years.

A British soldier killed when an American helicopter fired on a

British base in Afghanistan - died as a result of "mistaken beliefs

and cumulative failures". Scientists warn that Arctic ice is

melting faster than ever, and it could bring changes to the British

weather. Later on BBC London: There will be

know decision over aviation expansion before 2015. So what'll

that mean for London's airports? As GB's athletes prepare for a victory

Good afternoon, and welcome to the BBC News at 1.00pm. Police in

France say they want to speak to a brother of the man who was murdered

near Annecy in the French Alps on Wednesday. 50-year-old Saad al-

Hilli, his wife and mother-in-law were found shot dead in their BMW

near Lake Annecy. His two young daughters survived the attack, but

one remains in a medically-induced coma in hospital. Jon Sopel is near

the scene at Chevaline. Simon, thank you very much. Yes, in

the last hour, the police have opened up the crime scene to, and

we're allowed to walk about half a kilometre up the road to where the

shooting took place, hard to exaggerate how remote it is, hard

to believe that it was anything like a gunman running amuck. Why

would a gunman be up there? It's hard to believe as well that this

was a carjacking went wrong. You could wait all day up there and not

see another person come by, and that, of course, means that the

focus will be on the idea that this was some kind of targeted shooting.

If so, what was the motive? Let's get this report from our

Nearly 48 hours after the killings, police still guard the scene of the

crime, a crime that has mystified and horrified people here. These

aerial pictures show the al-Hilli's family BMW after the shootings

before it was taken away for forensic examination. You can see

holes in the window and a rear tyre seems to have burst. The police say

they're urgently trying to establish what happened.

TRANSLATION: The positioning of the bodies is very important. It will

tell us where the gunman was standing in relation to the car, so

that's why I stress the importance of the position of the bodies. The

autopsies are being done this morning and maybe more bullets will

be found and will be analysed. the family's home in Surrey,

thoughts for the two young sisters orphaned by this attack. French

police say they've received what they call "credible information"

from the UK that the father of the family, Saad al-Hilli, may have

been involved in a family dispute over money. They say they want to

talk too his brother, who also lives in Britain. But the police in

France say they're ruling nothing out. They say this might have been

a targeted execution, but it could also have been a random roadside

robbery. One local woman says that she saw a small white car with one

man inside it driving at speed through these quiet country lanes

at about the time of the attack, but that is just one of many leads

that the police are now following The two young sisters are now being

cared for by French medical teams and British Embassy staff.

My consular staff, who are very experienced in the handling of the

children, are with the little girl, the four-year-old, who's not

physically hurt, but is deeply traumatised, and they'll stay with

the little girl to help her English speaking alongside the French

authorities. As soon as the elder girl who is badly hurt, not yet

able to receive visitors - as soon as she can, we'll be with her as

well. Police are preparing to return this remote road to normal,

but it seems their work here has only just begun.

Well, Jon Kay reporting there. Now, of course, as we heard in his

report, a lot of focus now on the relationship between Saad al-Hilli

and his brother. Saad al-Hilli lived in Claygate in Surrey. We can

go live there now to our correspondent Richard. What's the

latest where you are? The very quiet and affluent area is probably

one of the last places you would expect to be associated with such a

brutal multiple murder. That's why there is still a deep sense of

shock and surprise here this has happened at all. The family were

very well known here. It's thought they lived here for at least ten

years. They were very popular and very much involved in the local

community. That's why quite a few neighbours and friends have arrived

here this morning with floral tributes including a bouquet of

flowers and a candle brought from the local primary school, the

primary school where the two daughters were due to start the new

school term this week. There is still a police presence here. There

are three or four officers from the Surrey force, but their role looks

like it tends to be more of maintaining the security of the

property rather than being involved in any sort of formal investigation.

That formal investigation, though, will surely come because the French

authorities will want to have a look inside this property if not

just to find some clue, some evidence, that might help explain

why this family was attacked. Richard, thank you very much.

Apologies for the poor sound quality at the start of Richard's

report there. We're going to get news conference this afternoon.

Postmortems are also taking place on the four bodies, and hopefully

more details will emerge about what happened and maybe why. Now, though,

back to you in the studio, Simon, in London.

Jon Sopel, thank you. Prince Harry has returned to

Afghanistan to start a four-month tour of duty as an Apache

helicopter pilot. His first tour of duty was cut short after details of

the deployment were leaked. He arrived in Camp Bastion last night

weeks after reports of his holiday in Las Vegas provoked headlines

around the world. Quentin Somerville reports from Afghanistan.

Back in uniform and back in Afghanistan - Prince Harry is now

fully qualified to fly this Apache in combat. It's one of the most

sophisticated attack helicopters in the world, and in a matter of days,

helicopter Commander Wales will be flying missions against the Taliban.

The Prince's arrival here in Afghanistan is a timely reminder of

his more dutiful side, but it hasn't been arranged to distract

from his misadventures in a Lassana Diarra hotel room. It's been months

in the planning, and behind it lies something much more - the Prince's

personal determination to presume his combat career and to complete

for the first time a full tour of duty on the front lines. He was

last in Afghanistan in 2008. Then his deployment was kept secret. In

southern Helmand he was part of ground forces calling in aircraft

to target the insurgents. SOUND OF GUNFIRE

But the threat he faced dramatically increased when news

linked that the third in line to the throne was here in Afghanistan.

His tour was cut short. The Prince left, bitterly disappointed. But

training to be an Apache commander changed the risk he faced. He came

top of his class, and Britain has never lost one of these aircraft in

combat, but Apaches are still regularly targeted. Working

together with his colleagues in the squadron, he'll be in a difficult

and demanding job, and I ask that he be left to get on with his

duties and allowed to focus on delivering support to the coalition

troops on the ground. This is where the Prince says he feels most

comfortable - alongside his squadron on active duty. The

challenges of the past couple of weeks are likely to be nothing

compared to his next four months of combat.

President Obama has set out his case for a second term in the White

House. He told delegates at the Democratic Party National

Convention in North Carolina that the United States faces a choice

between two fundamentally different visions of the future in November's

Presidential election. Steve Kingstone reports. The President of

the United States of America, Barack Obama.

APPLAUSE Win or thru, campaign is the last -

- lose this campaign is the last time Barack Obama will ask the

American people for their trust. Democrats savered the moment but he

seemed impatient to address a troubled nation far beyond the

convention hall. Know this, America: our problems can be solved.

Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it

leads to a better place, and I'm asking you to choose that future.

Republicans have framed this election as a referendum on the

Obama economy, but he said voters faced a choice. And on every issue,

the choice you face won't just be between two candidates or two

parties. It will be a choice between two different paths for

America. Ours is a fight to restore the values that built the largest

middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known.

By contrast, he said, Republicans were about little more than tax

cuts for the rich, and he mocked Mitt Romney's inexperience on

foreign policy. You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if

you can't visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally.

He rattled off goals for a second term: new manufacturing jobs, more

science teachers, less imported oil. But it was a speech about direction

more than detail, and it ended with a rallying cry. The providence is

with us, and we're surely blessed to be citizens of the greatest

nation on earth. Thank you. So a stirring performance by a man

pleading for more time. Once again, Barack Obama showed that he can

turn on the style, but what really matters, of course, is what America

far beyond this hall makes of the substance.

Our correspondent Jonny Dymond joins us from Washington. The

president says he wants time. It's in short supply, and of course,

we've got unemployment figures out very shortly. Unemboimt figures out

in just a few minutes' time. I think the president's team must be

dreading bad news because that'll knock any gloss he got from the

speech right off the agenda. This was a pretty workman-like speech.

There was none of that soaring rhetoric about hope and change we

heard last time. Instead, he was talking about the harder path ahead.

This is because this is a President chastened by four very hard years -

hard economic times and hard files from an opposition Republican Party

that's given him almost no room for manoeuvre, so there was much less

ambition in the speech and more talk about choice for the country,

a choice between a party that sees Government as a problem - that's

Republicans - and a party that sees it as a solution. As Steve Kingston

says, he was pleading, asking for four more years to get the job done.

Industrial output increased at its fastest pace in twenty five years

in July, raising hopes the country may be on its way out of the double

dip recession. Our chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym is here.

What are the figures? Simon, as you say, unexpectedly good figures.

Market analysts taken by surprise. They were expecting a bit of an

increase but not as much as. This let's take look at the detail for

the latest figures for July. They show industrial output was up 2.9%.

That's the fastest rate of increase since February 1987, 25 years, but

let's remember that June had seen a sharp drop, a fall of 2.4%, so

clawing back that and a bit more. That was because of the extra Bank

Holiday in June because of the Jubilee. That meant there was some

production that didn't take place in June, which was always going to

happen in July, so a bit of a caveat, if you like, about the

underlying trend. We have talked about unemployment figures which

seem to be out of match with what people are saying about the state

of the economy, so what's going on? We're in the third quarter of the

year. The second quarter showed a fall of 0.5%, so did the first

quarter and the final quarter of last year, so three successive

quarters of falling output, in other words, recession. There is

every possibility that the current quarter will show a bounce back

into positive territory helped by the Olympic effect and the

industrial productions we've just seen - production figures we've

just seen. But the problem is, if you like, it's clawing back what we

lost before, and the underlying trend is still pretty flat, so I

don't think anybody is breaking out the champagne just yet. There is

every possibility of a long, hard slog to come. Hugh, thank you very

much. The online retailer Amazon says

it's creating two-thousand permanent jobs in Britain over the

next two years. 600 new posts will be based at a new distribution

centre at Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, which was officially

opened yesterday. It will open another two depots in the coming

months. It's coming up to 1.15pm. Our top story:

Police in France investigating the murder of three British tourists

say they want to talk to the dead man's brother.

Also coming up: Here in the arctic scientists are

stunned by how much ice has melted this summer, a change so dramatic,

it could even be affecting our weather.

Later on BBC London: the Games volunteer from Essex who kept a

Paralympic dream alive, and cyclist Sean McKee Kewan -- Mceowan and his

win. There's a warning that Britain's

weather could become more stormy because of the melting of polar ice.

Scientists in the Arctic say this summer's thaw set a new record ,and

it's likely to accelerate over the next few years. Our science editor

The temperature is still above freezing here, which is crucial,

because the summer melt is still under way, and a new summer record

is being set. It is on a scale that has left scientists completely

stunned. A heavy swell in the High Arctic. These latest pictures are

from the Norwegian Polar Institute, and were filmed in the past few

days. Huge areas of ice have broken up and more have melted than at any

time in the last 30 years. On the deck of a Norwegian research ship,

a hi-tech device to measure the ice is lifted into the air. A

helicopter flies the instrument over the ocean. All the signs are

that the ice is getting thinner and weaker. Moored up at Norweb was

back Arctic research station, this artists are assessing the data. The

melt has been faster than predicted. It is a faster change then we could

have imagined 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. It has taken us by

surprise, and we must suggest -- had just how our understanding of

it and adjust our feelings of the nature around. I have seen for

myself how rapidly the Arctic is changing, and the more life

disappears, the more the melt will speed up. The Arctic is warning --

warming faster than any other region, and the reason for that is

when the rays of the Sun land on the surface, most of the energy is

reflected back into space and the region stays cool. But when the ice

retreats and melt, those rays fall on the darker surface of the ocean.

But energy debts absorbed, warming the ocean, nothing more ice. That

begins what scientists call a positive feedback. The Arctic may

seem remote, but the changes could be far reaching. The melt could

even implement the pattern of the weather over Europe.

circumstances where the Arctic sea ice is reducing in summer, and if

we have warmer than average surface temperatures in the north-west

Atlantic, these factors lead to storms being steered over the UK in

summer, which is not the normal situation. It leads to our poorer

summers. We find a bearded seal on a tiny iceberg, one of the many

creatures who need the ice. Some time soon, there may be a summer

with no ice at all. The sea ice will freeze again this winter, no

question of that, but it is getting weaker and thinner, which means

that in summers to come, it is more likely to break up, a pattern that

scientists sake is a to a rating. They are still trying to work out

the consequences. A coroner has ruled that a British soldier was

killed in a US helicopter attack as a result of "mistaken beliefs and

cumulative failures". Lance Corporal Christopher Roney, who was

23, died from head injuries when the Apache helicopter fired on his

base in Sangin. The coroner said the Americans ought to have

realised sooner their target was not an enemy, and called off the

attack. Sangin district in Afghanistan, a

place where it the British have suffered many casualties. But in

2009 those losses were compounded when his patrol base was mistakenly

attacked by an American helicopter. It had been under attack from

Taliban insurgents when air support was sent to help. But despite

having obvious signs of being a British base, it was identified

wrongly, and raked with so-called "friendly fire" from the air. 23-

year-old soldier macro was fatally injured, 11 others in there

compound were winded. Today the coroner and the army paid tribute

to the professionalism of the soldiers in the base that night.

True courage was demonstrated at on that fateful night in December. We

would also like to pay tribute to Chris's family, who have shown

great dignity and courage and strength in coming through this

together. But other British soldiers on duty that night were

today branded as unprofessional by the coroner here in Sunderland. He

said misplaced assumptions and beliefs became fact, and a total

loss of the situation will awareness cost Chris his life. He

said some of the risks still existed, and he would race is

concerned with the secretary of state for defence. -- raised his

concerns. The dead brother's soldier spoke on behalf of his

family. He left a lovely wife, a child, he enjoyed doing what he did,

he was an excellent soldier. another serviceman is remembered

with a reef. A soldier who died in an attack by his own side, which

should never have happened. We often hear about the binge-drinking

culture of young people - but what about alcohol abuse among the

elderly? Panorama has been investigating why nearly one and

half million older people drink too much. Research commissioned by the

programme shows that the deaths of 50,000 British pensioners could be

avoided over the next decade by setting a minimum price for alcohol

at 50p per unit. The programme was made by Dame Joan Bakewell, who was

previously the Government's voice for older people - and we can talk

to her now. You describe this as a hidden problem, how big is it?

nearly 1.5 million people are drinking too much, which means

beyond the government's recommended guidelines. But there is a very

serious element, in that there are more admissions to hospital for

alcohol-related injuries and illnesses among the over 65s then

between the ages of 16 and 24, which is a great surprise to

everyone. Everyone imagines it is about binge drinking youngsters,

but the story that goes untold is that of older people, living alone,

isolated, drinking on their own every day. Is that the main driver

of this loneliness? Yes, there are many things about the lifestyle of

people who are older. It is quite different from that of other people.

They don't have jobs, couriers, ambitions, for full brunt of that

kind -- fulfilment. There is often and loneliness, which is

accelerated when there is bereavement of the person they are

married to, or of close friends. The overall sadness of knowing that

you have not got very long at left believe it. So there is a sense of,

enjoy it what you can. If that is the problem, what is the solution?

Well, I think the solution is to change your pattern of drinking. I

am in the programme as one of the candidates for this advice, which

is not to drink regularly every day, but take a break from drinking, to

allow delivered to recover. This programme isn't against sociability

and drinking, but against that to pinpoint in which social drinking

becomes addiction, and becomes an unhappy state of affairs. The thank

you for your time. Yesterday saw six gold medals on

the track, the swimming pool and the sea. There have been more

medals today. It all comes as the government announces that the

country's victorious athletes will be recognised in their own Honours

List. There had been concern that the usual system wouldn't be able

to reflect the scale of British success - a grand total of 29

Olympic golds in London 2012 and more than 100 medals so far in the

Paralympics - with more expected to come today.

The morning after the night before. A glorious Friday at the Olympic

Park, but it will struggle to be more glorious than Thursday. The

name is Jamie Peacock, the performance of breathtaking. In a

Paralympics full of highlight, this is perhaps the brightest yet.

Peacock had beaten the best in the business, the great Oscar Pistorius,

he could get no way near him. He was just five when his left leg was

amputated, now at 19, Peacock is the Paralympic champion. A packed

stadium was it chanting his name. He doesn't get any better.

Absolutely crazy. A can't put into words what the crowd have been like,

they truly have made these games and brought it alight. You can't

take an athlete away from these and say they will not take anything

away from it, I think the crowd a commentary, I am so proud of them.

What a gold rush it was. The most glittering night in Britain's

Paralympic history, led by the wheelchair races. David Weir's

third goal of the games in the 800 metres prompted howls of delight.

While in the 200, and a Cockroft was again in a league of her own,

streets ahead of her rivals. A margin even she couldn't quite

believe. Everybody said we must have realised you were going to win,

but no, I only realised when I crossed the line. But the greatest

achievement of all belonged to Sarah story, who went to another

victory. She first made her Paralympic debut to decades ago in

Barcelona. -- two decades ago. feels amazing, but you cannot

control those kinds of things, some after Leeds' only get one event

each time. I'm just grateful I had been able to compete for my country.

This is my 6th games, I still feel like a 14-year-old! To Paralympians

and Olympians are to get their own New year's Honours List, with no

limit on the number of all wards, to reflect this remarkable summer

of sporting success -- the number of awards. And there was more this

morning. Tracy Pearson to gold in her distance events. Although the

happiest man today was surely this Iraqi after lead, after his silver

medal winning throw in the javelin. -- Iraqi after leaked.

The TV presenter Terry Nutkins has died. He was best known for Animal

Magic. The 66-year-old was in hospital being treated for

leukaemia. He died yesterday afternoon. Let -- let's catch up

Summer is lingering on for the start of the weekend, but as Sunday

goes on, we will see a better of a change. Let's concentrate on here

and now, and it is a beautiful day developing, after a chilly start.

Temperatures currently hitting 24 degrees across some eastern parts

of England. It has been a bit more of a struggle for the north-west

and western parts of Scotland, the cloud has been lingering on. It is

these western parts of Scotland which are likely to hang on to a

bit more cloud, maybe even some patchy light rain, are still better

than yesterday, mind you. Down across northern England to the east

of the Pennines, we hang on to the sunny spells, temperatures peaking

around the mid- twenties across East Anglia, a lot of sunshine to

be enjoyed. The beaches of the south-west looking as good if not

better than they have done for the most part of this summer. A fine

afternoon across Wales. A fine evening as well, we should find it

the skies staying clear, but the cloud will tend to increase

gradually. We will see more for turning up, a hint that the nights

are getting longer. Still a chill in the air across southern areas

underneath those clear skies. Into Saturday, a bit of a slow start for

many. Sunshine initially becoming much more widespread as the day

goes on, very few places missing out on that warm sunshine. Western

Scotland and parts of northern England, a bit cloudier at times.

Temperatures will dip a weight if you're heading towards the Proms in

the park in Caerphilly and the Belfast. Into Sunday, a change

under way, winds a freshening up from the West, bringing some cloud

and rain, but further east we hang on to the very warm weather. That