03/10/2012 BBC News at One

The mother of a missing five-year- old break downs in tears as she

appeals to the public to help find her daughter. April Jones was

playing with friends on Monday evening when she was seen climbing

into a car. A man has been arrested We are desperate for any news.

April is only five years' old. Please, please, help find her.

Police are continuing to question 46-year-old Mark Bridger and have

appealed for witnesses who saw him or his car earlier this week.

The West Coast Main Line rail fiasco. The Government scraps

FirstGroup's contract to take over the line after the Transport

secretary says significant flaws from found in the bidding process.

I think what has happened is unacceptable, regrettable. I

apologise. We have made a big mistake and the companies that have

put bids in have done nothing wrong. Hundreds of police officers line

the streets of Manchester for the funeral of Constable Nicola Hughes

who was killed in a gun and grenade attack.

Tesco reports its first fall in profits for nearly 20 years.

On BBC London, paying tribute to the bomber, command but the

ceremony could cost victims their Good afternoon. Welcome to the BBC

News at one. The mother of the missing five-year-old, April Jones,

broke down in tears as she made ang emotional plea for the return of

her little girl. April was last soon by friends climbing into a car

on Monday evening in Machynlleth. Police searching for her say there

is still no news of her whereabouts. They are still questioning a 46-

year-old, Mark Bridgerers who was arrested yesterday. The report

contains flash photography. Despite the efforts of hundreds of people,

there is no sign of April Jones. This lunch time her Des straut

family appeared before the cameras for the first time, to plead for

her safe return much -- distraught. Ch There must be someone out there

who knows where she is and can help the police find her.

We are desperate for any news. April is only five years old.

Please, please help find her. This morning, the police confirmed

that this man is being questioned on suspicion of April's abduction.

Mark Bridger is 46, and from the local area. Detectives have also

released a photograph of his vehicle, an land rover Discovery. -

- Land Rover. Did you see that vehicle between Monday evening and

Tuesday afternoon? Please don't assume that someone else has

already contacted us. Please, even if you have the smallest of

information, it could be crucial to this investigation.

Once again, search teams have been scouring the town and surrounding

area. So far without success. This time it's been without the help of

the hundreds of volunteers. The emergency services preferring to

rely now on specialist teams. Disappointment for some, who

travelled more than 50 miles to be here. We heard about April going

missing yesterday and we have come to see if we could help today, on

our day off. We got here and they have stood down the volunteers.

Frustrating? Veryous straighting, yeah.

-- very frustrating. The town is trying to get back to business as

usual, but it is proving difficult. Alison Jones is used to serving

April and her friends in her sweet shop. The thought that something

awful could happen to any one of these children and in particular

April, is devastating. You know, they are so innocent and at that

age, they are just full of wonder and it's just deep anguish, just

worrying where she is. And until April is found, that anguish is

unlikely to go away. Jon is in Machynlleth now.

Heartbreaking seeing April's mother talking a short time ago. What is

the latest, though, on the police investigation? Well, in terms of

the search, Sophie, there is still no good news to report. There are

specialists teams now in the town itself, in the surrounding

countryside and on the river but so far still no sign at all of the

missing girl. And of course, with every passing hour, the chances of

a happy outcome to this are Dee diminishing just a little bit more.

So a real sense of frustration here at the lack of progress, but they

are still just holding out some hope that she is somewhere, safe

and well and can be returned. Thank you very much.

The Government has apologised after suddenly cancelling the multi-

billion pound West Coast Main Line rail franchise that had been

awarded to FirstGroup. Three civil servants have been suspended after

significant technical flaws were found in the way the bidding

process was handle. The fiasco will cost the taxpayer around �40

million. The existing operator, Virgin Trains lcontinue to run the

service for the moment. -- will continue. In a moment we will speak

to the Virgin chairman, Branson ban but furst the Transport

Correspondent is at Euston train station.

-- but first. It is a seemingly incredible mistake that stopped the

contest to run one of our busiest raillines in its tracks.

Government experts got their sums wrong, failing to take inflation

into account when they judged each company's bid. A mistake that will

cost the taxpayer �40 million. An angry Transport Secretary, who has

only tpwhn his job a few weeks, has been forced into a humiliating

apology. -- only been in his job a few weeks. What has happened is

unacceptable, regrettable. I apologise. We have made a big

mistake as far as this department is concerned and the companies that

have put bids in have done nothing wrong. All a far cry from the

assurances of the last Transport Secretary, after losing boss Sir

Richard Branson accused the Government of not running a fair

contest. It is a fair and established process. It is a very

probust process. The whole point of it actually being so probust is to

Mick shur it is not politicised -- so robust. And that it is handled

fairly for the bidders. It is an unbelievable shambles. I think it

is almost difficult to comprehend how they could have wasted so much

money with such gross mistakes and ministers not noticed. There is

absolutely no chance that this mess is going to be cleaned up by the

time Virgin's contract runs out in December. So, the big question for

customers then - who is going to keep these trains running over the

busy Christmas period and n beyond until they sort this whole thing

out? Ministers have two choices: takeover the line themselves, or

make an Mbeki bars aing phonecall to Sir Richard Branson, asking him

to help Virgin must be delighted. If they had been preparing to

rundown, they have now got to run up again -- make an embarrassing

phone call. I would be happy for Virgin to keep the franchise.

is not broke, don't fix it. It is a good service. Now the whole process

for handing out train contracts is in doubt with more than a dozen

multi-billion pound deals due to be awarded in the next couple of years

There is no doubt that this will raise big questions, not only about

the process itself and how bids are assessed but about the very nature

of franchises. You know, why do we have this railway operated with

this franchising system that no other country in the world actually

uses in this particular way? Three officials have been suspended,

while a review tries to find out how the Government got things so

badly wrong. Richard Westcott with that report.

Let's speak to Sir Richard Branson who is in our New York office. Good

afternoon. Thank you for joining us. First of all your reaction to this

rather sudden news? Well, obviously we're pleased that we don't have to

go to court to try to settle it in court. We are grateful that the

minister has taken it on the chin and been so forth right in

acknowledging the major flaws to the process and we're obviously

hopeful that Virgin Trains can now be back in the process and

hopefully be running the West Coast Main Line and maybe other lines in

the UK for many years to come. said at the time when this was

first given to FirstGroup that it was flawed and insane. What, from

your point of view, went wrong? think the process has been flawed

and insane for some time. As we mentioned at the time, you know we

were runners-up on three different occasions on the East Coast

mainline. The bidders all went bust and the East Coast mainline could

have been running high-speed fast trains today if the process had

been correct. So, obviously the process is flawed. It needs to be

sorted. I'm sure the Government will sort it. And if it is sorted

and we feel - as I'm sure we will - it is going to be a fair process,

we will be in there bidding and hopefully being able to do what we

have done to the West Coast Main Line over the last ten years, for

the next ten years, and this is invest in fantastic new trains,

invest in our staff and increase the number of people who want it

use the train. So you are pretty confident that you will now retain

this line? Well, obviously what we were hopeful for, was when

FirstGroup's bid was found to be flawed, that as runners-up we would

have been given the keys. I don't think that is going to happen. I

think we are going to have to go through yet another bid process but

we are hopeful that in a fair bid process we can win it. We believed

that we won this it this time and we believe we can win it next time

around. There is still uncertainty, so for the meantime you keep

running the West Coast Main Line, just to be clear? I think it is

likely we will continue to run it. It would be madness for Government

to try to, you know, put a team in to run it. We have a great team of

people. You know, we should be able to run it until the bid process

takes place, and then hopefully on a new, you know, seven-year or 15-

year contract, whatever they decide going forward. Thank you very much

for joining us. Hundreds of police officers and

members of the public have lined the streets of central Manchester

for the funeral of PC Nicola Hughes, the 23-year-old officer was

murdered alongside her colleague, PC Fiona Bone in a gun and grenade

attack last mob. Our correspondent, Judith more sits in Manchester.

-- last month. The impact of the double police

shooting always meant this was going to be a high-profile occasion

and the grand setting of Manchester cathedral has provided a focal

point for it, although I understhand PC Hughes's family also

wanted to retain an ipbt feel to proceedings. But there has also

been the marked involvement of officers of Greater Manchester

Police. Right now inside the cathedral behind me, the service is

under way and the Chief Constable of Manchester, Sir Peter Fahy has

been talking, giving his recollections and some memories of

PC Nicola Hughes' life and time as a police officer. There are 1,000

members of her family, friends and colleagues inside the cathedral and

many, many hundreds more watching this service on screens outside,

because although many of these officers didn't know PC Hughes

personally, they wanted to be a part of today, too.

Nicola Hughes loved policing Greater Manchester. Today the

city's police came out to return that affection. Thousands lining

the road to the cathedral, as the funeral cortege passed by.

They were joined by officers from each of the 43 police forces of

England and Wales, some there to provide cover to allow their

Manchester colleagues to attend. Police officers are very special

people and they feel it all over the world when their colleagues are

killed in this way. They are showing it by the support they are

giving us today. I work in the Gwent yfrplt I personally wanted to

come. In the Gwent area. I never met the officers but it has touched

me. You expect to come to work and go home at the end of the day. It

is a reminder of the dangerous job we do. From the City of London

police. Obviously it is important to show our respect and solidarity

do our colleagues in another force. Nicola Hughes was just 23 when she

was shot. She died, her familiar polysay, doing the job she loved.

She'd only joined the police three years ago. -- her family say. Last

month she was on shift with PC Fiona Bone when the two officers

were sent out to respond to a reported burglary. When they got to

the house in Mottram they walked into a gun and grenade attack. PC

Hughes' coffin was carried into the cathedral by her close colleagues.

The occasion designed to include them alongside the officer's

friends and family. PC bones' funeral is tomorrow. There are also

plans for a further memorial. will be, later on, probably

sometime in the new year, a sort of civic ceremony, a celebration of

their lives a service of thanksgiving, which will be more a

celebration of what they stand for, Nicola and Fiona and of the whole

work of the Greater Manchester Police. After the cathedral service,

PC Hughes' body will be taken away for a private sermony. Her family

have said that she'd always be wanted to make a difference and

that in doing so, she made a big difference to everyone she knew.

Well as well as the involvement of the Chief Constable, some of the

readings today have been given by the closest colleagues of PC Hughes

who worked with her in the Tameside division here in Greater Manchester

and with Fiona Bonne's funeral tomorrow these scenes will be

repeated again as for a second time all of these police officers come

out to pay tribute to a fallen A British boy was among those who

died when a ferry crash in Hong Kong. 38 people were killed,

including five children, when the boat sank in the busy waters south

of Hong Kong island. Seven crew members have been arrested.

The Hamas government in Gaza is being accused of using torture,

police brutality and arbitrary arrests. The allegations come in a

new report from the grim Human Rights Watch. Hamas have denied

widespread abuse. Britain's biggest retailer, Tesco,

has reported its first fall in profits for nearly 20 years. One of

its rivals, Sainsbury's, saw its like-for-like sales rise slightly

in the first half of the financial year. Tesco's chief executive,

Philip Clarke, said it was proof of difficult trading conditions for

all supermarkets. Emma Simpson has the details.

20 million of us may shop in one of the stores every week, but for the

mighty Tesco the going is tough. Recession has taken its toll, and

sales have slowed over says. Today's saw the first fall in

profits for nearly 20 years, down at 11.6%, but they still made close

to �2 billion. The boss says they took a hit to turn a UK business

around. Back in April, we set out a plan to put that right. We are

investing �1 billion in the first six months, 8,000 new colleagues

into our existing stores, relaunched 2000 products, you know,

we are busy making improvements that our customers will notice.

There are signs that the plan may be working with UK sales growing

ever so slightly for the first time in almost two years. Tesco is still

a hugely successful world-class company. It continues to be the

biggest player by far up here in the UK. But if they have already

got so much of the market, winning more of it becomes increasingly

difficult. Tesco took its eye off the ball and now a smaller

retailers like Sainsbury's are Campaigns like this have helped

Sainsbury's pylon sales, outperforming its bigger rival.

performance is relative. We are growing more than any of our

competitors, and that must mean we are helping our customers better

than they are. It is a fast- changing business, partly because

these days many of us are no longer doing the big trolley shop. Instead,

they are shopping little and often in local stores, buying the big

shop online, mostly to avoid fuel prices, to avoid paying VAT on

prices to go to the out-of-town locations. The battle has never

been rated to win our wallets. For Tesco, the fightback has begun, but

the turnaround is not going to be Our top story this lunchtime: The

mother of missing five-year-old April Jones broke down in tears as

she appealed for the safe return of her daughter. Police are

questioning 46-year-old Mark Bridger.

Coming up, he is back, Kevin Pietersen is reinstated to the

England cricket team after apologising for sending provocative

text matches. -- text messages. Later on BBC London, a story of

love, mistaken identity and revolution, choreographer Katie

Prince talks about Some Like it Hip Hop and the company's Olivier

It is called the Bloodhound, it is powered by a rocket, and British

engineers are hoping the car will break the land speed record and the

sound barrier by travelling at more than 1,000 mph. The engine has been

fired up for the first time today. Robert Hall is in Newquay.

Sophie, tense times for the Bloodhound team, inside a concrete

hangar, about 100 metres from where the rocket test will take place.

They are completing the fuelling process. It is a tense time because

this is the moment that will test whether the drafting and design

stage will bear fruit. Over my shoulder, is the control centre,

and expect to push the button On a windswept Cornish hill top,

shrouded by a relic of the Cold War, the sounds which herald a milestone

moment, Europe's largest hybrid rocket burning a fuel which needs a

Formula One engine just to supply it fast enough. From the outset,

the team set out to confront the seemingly impossible, the kit of

parts laid out in this Heine might just be the key. The rocket will

combine with the power from this, the engine from an RAF Typhoon.

They will fit one above the other in the body of the car that is now

being built. The object is to get a seven-ton vehicle down a measured

mile in just under 3 1/2 seconds. Building a thousand mph car is an

extraordinary technical and engineering challenge, and to make

it work is going to be huge amount of pressure from five years ago

when we started with a blank sheet of paper, all the way through to

This is a project which aims to draw us all in, to inspire

engineers of the future, whether they are from the UK or from the

communities that surround the chosen track near the Namibian

border. That they carry out their dry runs, Blood and's engineers

know they will have a worldwide audience. This is the first time we

have put all the elements of the rocket system together. We have

tested the Allen and separately, but we will be bringing the whole

system together for a complete test. -- the elements. Bloodhound should

go across the 1,000 mph barrier in 2014. The countdown to that moment

is well under way. Well, it is not just the

engineering team who are monitoring what is going on. I talked about

accessibility, there is an application so anyone can watch the

performance of the rocket engine on their mobile devices are any sort,

computers at home. There are already 100,000 people who are

watching what is going on. The latest I have on the timing, Sophie,

is that they expect to fire the Rock shortly after 2 o'clock if you

want to join those viewers. -- the rocket.

Lawyers for Abu Hamza have told the High Court he has diabetes,

depression and high blood pressure. He is fighting extradition to the

United States on terrorism charges, but one of the judges hearing the

case said the sooner he stands trial, the better and that he did

not see how a delay was in the interests of justice.

The new women's minister, Maria Miller, has said the leap in

abortion limit -- the legal abortion and it should be lowered

by four weeks because of advances in medical science. She said it was

common sense because care for extremely premature babies has

improved. Nearly half of all state schools in

England have no girls taking A- level physics, according to a new

report. The Institute of Physics says the situation is shocking and

unacceptable. Science correspondent Pallab Ghosh reports.

Today we are talking about velocity... The pupils of Lampton

School in west London love their physics lessons, especially the

girls. I like learning about different things, especially as I

am into Formula One, and that has quite a lot to do with it. I enjoy

science in general, but in physics you see how things used every day

have a lot of science included. Many of the girls here are likely

to go on to do A-level physics, but that is not the case in most state

schools. In England, half of them do not send a single Goole to Delhi

A level physics. -- girl. Campaigners say they are interested

in A-level physics but have their curiosity driven out by the

attitude in many schools that it is not for girls, and so the thought

too many highly paid jobs is slammed shut simply by their choice

of secondary school. The disparity is much greater for physics than

any other science subjects. Slightly more A-level entries for

biology from girls, in chemistry the numbers are equal. But for

physics, it is much less, just 20% are girls. While at NASA, this

astrophysicists discover atmospheres around the world's

orbiting distant stars. She hopes girls will be inspired by her

example. I wanted to be a physicist, and I am very happy at 42 have done

those choices, so I would like to see female students like me who

take the same path. At Lampton School, it helps that the physics

teacher is a woman. She organises girls-only workshops and brings in

female scientists as well models. It is an approach that the

Institute of Physics would like more schools to follow.

Kevin Pietersen has signed a new England contract but must undergo a

reintegration period before he returns to international action.

The 32-year-old batsman was dropped for sending provocative text

messages to opposing players during the Test series against Africa.

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo, he expressed regret for

the controversy. I would just like to take this opportunity to

apologise to my team-mates, all the England supporters and the EC

before the situation that has arisen over the last couple of

months, but thankfully we have drawn a line under it and it is

time to move forward. Although it has already been covered in my

statement, at no time did I ever share tactical information with any

of the South Africans or management. Playing for England is the pinnacle

of any cricketer's career, and I want the opportunity to do it again

as soon as possible. Some of the proudest and best moments of my

life have been in an England shirt, and I want that to continue for as

long as possible. I am entirely completed to completing the

reintegration process that we have agreed and resuming my England

career in all forms, hopefully until the World Cup in 20 will stop

-- in 2014, as long as my body allows.

We can speak to cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew, who

was at that press conference in Colombo. What does this

reintegration process mean? Well, I will try on a rather difficult line,

but I have never heard of one in 35 years of cricket! It means he is

going to have to show commitment and loyalty to his team-mates. The

text messages are very central to this. Basically, his colleagues

felt he had become treacherous in sending text messages to the South

Africans. It is clear that the board take his fear that he did not

send the first one, it was not instigated by him, but he will have

meetings with his team-mates and the management, a process overseen

by Andy Flower, and will he then go on tour to India and the Test squad

next month? That is the big question. England have been beaten

badly without him, and I think that the first sign of loyalty and

commitment, he will be back in that Test side again.

A look at the weather now with Nick Quieter weather for a time this

weekend, but I have also got more heavy rain in a forecast. All those

details coming up, but today it is a mixture of sunshine and showers,

not evenly spread across the UK, some of us getting more than our

fair share, others largely dry with sunshine. The showers are mostly

focused on the south coast, the Bristol Channel, north-west England,

northern and western Scotland. Away from these areas, you may well stay

dry and get the sunshine. Frequent showers in the North West,

particularly in Lancashire, some drifting into West Yorkshire, and

where the ground is saturated there will be some local flooding. It is

wet in Shetland, showers in northern and western Scotland, very

few to the East Stand in Northern Ireland. Drier weather in Wales,

but showers will gather this evening, some brushing the south

coast, running through the Bristol Channel and into south-west England.

With any showers today, you could get a rumble of thunder and see

some hail, further heavy downpours. Few are inland across England and

we have seen today, plenty of sunshine across East Anglia, the

winds easing. The showers in the north-west and Wales continue this

evening, starting to break up. An area of potentially heavy rain

running along the south coast from the Isle of Wight. Away from these

areas, lots of dry weather overnight, clear spells, cold in

the countryside, particularly from the north of the UK we could see

ground frost. A chilly start to Thursday, a bright start, and fewer

showers on the way. There will be one or two that drift further east,

but many of us will avoid them, staying dry with sunny spells and

lighter winds. Temperatures not a great deal higher, but feeling

warmer. If you think that is the start of quieter weather for the

weekend, think again! Thursday night, more heavy rain coming into

England and Wales, heavy showers to the north-west of the UK. When the

ground is saturated, we do not need his reign and it could cause

problems. One area of heavy rain clears eastwards on Friday, another

potentially coming into the southwest later in the day. A lot

of uncertainty about timing and positioning, we will keep you

updated. Into the weekend, quieter weather on Saturday, a cold night

on Saturday night, some of us holding on to the fine weather on

Sunday, but more wet and windy weather coming in to the west later

in the day. There are weather Our top story: The mother of the

missing five-year-old April Jones has made an emotional appeal for

the safe return of her daughter. Police are still questioning 46-