24/09/2013 BBC News at One

The siege in Nairobi enters its fourth day, as Somali militants

continue to hold out against Kenyan security forces. Fighting has

continued this morning, with reports that the group are still holding

hostages. The Somali militant group Al Shebab

says this is the moment when its fighters stormed the shopping mall -

51 people are still missing. Was the British wife of a 7/7 bomber

part of the attack? UK security services say it's a possibility

Samantha Lewthwaite may have been involved in the attacks. From the

information that we have, two or three Americans and I think so far

I've heard of one Britain. I'm live outside the Westgate centre where a

senior police source has told us the siege is over. There is still no

word yet on the fate of the hostages.

Also this lunchtime: As the Labour leader Ed Miliband prepares to give

his speech to conference in an hour's time, why is a former leader

so keen to get away from the camera? Has the BlackBerry dream run out of

juice? It's agreed in principle to a buy-out by one of its leading

shareholders. And a black and white case of a very

cute story - 14 artificially-bred pandas are put on show in China.

Later, firefighters planned to strike tomorrow and we find out what

contingency cover there will be. And why not everyone is welcoming the

gentrification of London. Good afternoon.

Police in Kenya say they've been trying to defuse bombs left in the

Nairobi shopping centre which was stormed by Islamist militants on

Saturday. At least 62 people are known to have died at the Westgate

mall, including six British nationals. The Kenya Red Cross says

that 51 people are missing. Sporadic gunfire has been heard throughout

the morning, but a senior police commander has told the BBC that the

operation is over. Let's cross to my colleague Jon

Sopel who's at the scene in Nairobi. Jon.

It has been a morning of some confusion about what is happening

300 metres behind me. We've heard sporadic gunfire and there have been

small explosions, but we've also heard from a senior Kenyan police

source that the siege is over. That has been contradicted by Al-Shabab

who say they are still holding hostages. It may be that we're going

to a definitive statement from the Interior Ministry in the next hour.

We know morgues in the city have been told to prepare to receive more

bodies. Let's get this report from a correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse.

The morning after the assault, the shopping centre is still cordoned

off as security forces try to secure the complex. They are being

cautious. The building could be booby-trapped. Yesterday afternoon,

the road leading to the centre echoed with the sounds of gunfire

and explosions. The fire burned per hours afterwards as government

forces tried to flush out the militants. At the moment, this is an

ongoing security operation, and a humanitarian one as well. The Red

Cross has been providing counselling to the victims, many of them

children. They've been preparing for the horrors they may have to

confront when this is over. They say at least 51 people may still be

missing. I believe we will recover the bodies or have people alive.

Which ever way, the human beings will be accounted for. Do you think

51 people are still inside? There is a likelihood, although it is a

difficult question for meat and said. -- for me to answer. So, a

confusing picture coming out. Clearly there is an ongoing

operation. We think there may be a number of gunmen still alive inside

the building. But the attention is now beginning to shift to the

identity of the attackers. An image has urged appearing to show two of

the gunmen inside the shopping centre. It cannot be independently

verified, but Al-Shabab say it is genuine. The Kenyan authorities have

been giving conflicting statements. Some say the attackers were all men,

others, that a British woman may have been involved. From the

information that we have, two or three Americans, and I think so far

I've heard of one British person. A British-born woman. Yes, I think

she's done this many times before. This crisis is slowly edging towards

its conclusion, but as it does so, the death toll edges upwards.

Mortuaries in the city are preparing to take in more bodies. It will be

some time before we know the full enormity of what happened at the

Westgate centre. What has been emerging as some of

the harrowing stories of the people who were in the shopping centre on

Saturday morning, just going about their everyday business when the

shooting started. Satpal Singh described coming face to face with a

gunman. Here's what he had to say. Well, I'm afraid we can't seem to

bring you that report. Let's speak to our correspondent who has been

following the events closely. We keep hearing different claims about

what is going on. Police are saying the siege is over. When can we say

definitively that it is done? Not quite yet. We are seeing military

trucks both going away but also going in. The shopping centre is

still cordoned off. As you say, we've been hearing contradictory

remarks. Al-Shabab say they are still holding is -- hostages. The

Interior Ministry said there were no hostages left. I don't think we can

say that this is fully over until the Westgate shopping centre is

opened up and we can go in and see what is inside them. The people I've

spoken to from the Red Cross are quite nervous about what they will

find. Yes, we've heard that morgues are being told to receive more

bodies. Presumably, this death toll is going to rise. That is almost

inevitable. The Red Cross say at least 51 people are still reported

missing. They've had nearly four days to get comprehensive lists of

names from hospitals and morgues, so their logic is whoever is not on

those lists and still missing, there is a high likelihood that they may

be inside Westgate. Thank you. Just say in the last half an hour we

soared to British vehicles with plates going in. -- we saw two. They

would not say what they were doing. And we've also heard the Interior

Ministry is going to get some kind of statement in the next hour.

Whether that happens remains to be seen.

So, still some confusion about who exactly carried out this attack. But

according to the Kenyan foreign minister, some foreigners are

believed to have been involved, including Samantha Lewthwaite, the

British widow of a 7/7 bomber. This from our security correspondent

Frank Gardner. Did this British woman, Samantha

Lewthwaite, take part in the Nairobi attacks? She has been on the run in

East Africa. Something they saw her at the scene. She is the widow of

the 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, but had no record of terrorism before

she left for Africa. Last year, she was suspected of involvement in a

plot to bomb tourist resorts. Investigators believe she is a

behind-the-scenes terrorist facilitator. Those who knew her

buying this hard to believe. I think she would be incapable of such

sophisticated terrorism activity. It frightens me. Is she involved? Is

she under pressure or duress? So many questions to be asked. This

month that I knew, I cannot imagine it. -- the Samantha that I knew.

So, what are the global connections of Al-Shabab? With the jihadists be

coming from the US, the UK, Scandinavia and elsewhere? People

talk of a pipeline of recruits coming from the US. Experts I'd hope

-- I talked to said they hoped the pipe line had slowed down, but this

attack obviously proves it is continuing. Al-Shabab is not doing

well in Somalia. Its forces have been driven out of the main cities

by UN backed African troops. Their draconian rule is resented in many

error ears they still rule. But they can still strike across borders.

Since the African union forces have driven them out of the capital and

one of the main ports, they have gone on the attack and become more

like Al-Qaeda leader. There has been a coup within the organisation and

from trying to hold territory, they are simply going on the attack and

creating a spectacular incident that makes the world take them seriously

again. As Kenyan investigators race to identify the attackers,

counterterrorism officials from many other countries are urgently

checking their records and looking for answers.

There will be more on that story throughout the afternoon on the BBC

News Channel. In just under an hour's time, the

Labour leader Ed Miliband will take to the podium at his party's

conference for one of the most important speeches of his political

career. He is expected to announce plans to help more than a million

small companies in England by reversing a planned rise in business

rates. The move would be paid for by cancelling a UK-wide cut in

corporation tax for larger firms. Mr Miliband will cast the Conservatives

as the party of the rich, and he will accuse David Cameron of stoking

what he calls "a cost of living crisis". Our political correspondent

Iain Watson reports. Ed Miliband has a question for you.

Do you feel better off? He says there is a crisis in Britain, with

prices rising faster than wages. He believes only a change of government

will ease the financial pain. But there are questions for him as well.

Do voters see him with -- as a potential Prime Minister? I think he

would be a great future prime minister. So mini people feel

politicians are out of touch. The unerring ability he has of

understanding people's concerns, ordinary, practical concerns, that

they've got, and also he is intelligent and committed enough to

work out what needs to be done. Politics is entering uncharted

territory. Governments rising -- presiding over a rise in the cost of

living do not normally last long. But Labour are becoming less trusted

to take over the nation's finances as the situation improves. He is

quite a way behind David Cameron on personal ratings, and Labour is

quite a way behind David Cameron on behind conservatives on economic

competence. It is hard enough, but possible, to overcome one of those

obstacles. I can't think of an example of a party over coming both.

So Labour are trying to go way beyond pleasing their own

supporters. Today, Ed Miliband will pledge to keep electricity prices

down and to help small businesses by freezing their rates. This would be

at the expense of bigger companies. Labour are not yet seen as the party

of enterprise. Taking one section of the business community and saying,

we will take something from you to give it to another section. That

will not cause businesses to invest. In these wide ranging speech

delivered without notes, Ed Miliband succeeded last year in convincing

critics that he was a credible leader of the opposition. Now, he

has to convince us he can be a leader of the country as well.

Let us be to our chief political correspondent Norman Smith. This is

a big speech. A huge speech with huge

expectations, and it follows last year's speech which was regarded as

a pretty good speech. The crux of this year will be what Labour can do

for the average person. There will be a big announcement on bearing

down on energy bills, those proposals on housing and help the

smaller firms. The wrinkle in all this is the business community are

beginning to look increasingly unhappy because they don't like the

idea they might lose out on that cut in corporation tax. They are not

thrilled they will have to take on more apprenticeships, they are not

excited about having to pay a higher minimum wage. The problem is this:

The price of Ed Miliband's cost of living pledges may be the danger of

being portrayed as anti-business, and therefore anti-recovery.

In your hand is a book which is causing something of a sideshow down

there, isn't it? It is the book by Damian McBride,

Gordon Brown's former spin doctor. He's been in Brighton doing endless

interviews, telling us about all the dark deeds he got up to. I caught up

with him earlier. I am ashamed of a lot of things

did and it is something I deeply regret, equally I don't think I was

alone in politics over the last decades in some of the ways I

operated and I hope people can see the truth of some of these

operations laid bare, and learn from that so those things can never

happen again. Is it true Gordon Brown knew nothing about what was

going on? He didn't know about the activities I have described. Did he

just choose not to know? He didn't know about those activities.

Then Damian McBride went to do more interviews, but as the Gordon Brown

he was on the other side of the Atlantic, where an enterprising

reporter from the Daily Telegraph managed to catch up with him to ask

him what he knew about the skulduggery that had gone on. Gordon

Brown was in less than conversational mode, he didn't seem

keen to answer questions. We don't know whether this is just

Westminster gossip, something for the Westminster village to chat

about, or whether it will sour the way people view Ed Miliband and Ed

Balls who were also part of Gordon Brown's in a team.

Thank you. Our top story this lunchtime: The Nairobi siege enters

its fourth day, militants are holding out against Kenyan security

forces. There was a time when it was the

mobile phone of choice, but has blackberry run out of juice? Later

on BBC London, we see some of the artworks that could make it onto the

plinth in Trafalgar Square in two years. And how netball is going from

strength to strength at Wembley Arena.

Scientists say smoke from millions of tiny cooking stoves in Pakistan,

Bangladesh and India is causing glaciers to melt more quickly. The

UN's climate panel, meeting in Stockholm, will say soot in the

smoke darkens white glaciers making them absorb more heat. Campaigners

say this is another reason to promote the use of new clean cooking

stoves which could also help protect millions of women from lung disease.

stoves which could also help protect Our environment analyst Roger

Harrabin reports. They are collecting cow dung, a

traditional fuel the millions of people in places like this. This

person is using the other main fuel, wood. Both of these fuels cause

massive health problems for the people who use them, almost

invariably women. She tells me the stove turns her house black, makes

her calf and hurts her eyes. You can see the effects of this stove, this

beam is blackened from the smoke and the heat that pours out of these

stoves. This brings problems to the family, this is one of the biggest

killers for women and children under five. The killer is the smoke, yes?

The smoke is the killer. This family owns a shop and they can afford an

improved cooking stove. This family is part of the UK aid scheme to

bring stainless steel cooker is controlled by battery-powered fans.

They cut out most of the pollution and need only half as much wood. She

tells me it does not get as hot and it doesn't produce as much smoke. It

is easy to see how cutting pollution would benefit people in a village

like this but there are so many stoves polluting. 80 million of them

estimated in India but they are creating a problem hundreds of miles

away in the Himalayas. The smoke combines with pollution from open

fires and dirty engines. It lands on the glaciers and turns them darker

which makes them absorb more heat. Black carbon as an impact on snow,

wherever it is, and certainly on the glaciers. It is an area that we need

to tackle because it has harmful impact on human health. So there is

a double benefit to promoting clean cookers. For about £30 a family,

this is a problem the world can solve, if there is a will.

The inquest into the death of Mark Duggan, whose shooting in north

London in 2011 led to riots in a number of English cities, has been

hearing further evidence from a senior police officer. Detective

Chief Inspector Mick Foote from the gang crime unit Trident told the

jury he'd been surprised by media reports after the killing, which

wrongly stated that there had been a shoot-out between Mr Duggan and the

police. Let's speak to our home affairs

correspondent. This is the second day Detective Chief Inspector Mick

Foote has been giving evidence here. He arrived at court today to

be cross-examined by Michael Mansfield QC who is representing the

Duggan family. He said he had no recollection of making a phone call

Duggan family. He said he had no to another officer within 15 minutes

Duggan family. He said he had no of the killing of Mark Duggan. That

phone call noted that Mark Duggan came under the officer's firing.

Mark Duggan fired no shots before he was shot dead. In response to

questioning, Detective Chief Inspector Mick Foote said he was

surprised by media reports after the killing which said there had been a

shoot out between Mark Duggan and the police. He said that was not the

case. The evidence is continuing this afternoon and we will be

hearing more from Detective Chief Inspector Mick Foote. Thank you.

Household waste is becoming a fuel of choice in Norway where vast

energy plants have been built to turn non-recyclable rubbish into hot

water and electricity. Oslo is also importing waste from Leeds and

Bristol to use. But the process is proving controversial, as our Europe

Correspondent Matthew Price reports. The waste from tens of thousands of

households. A disgusting decaying mass. The stench sticks in the back

of your throat. But here, this is not classed as waste. It is seen as

energy. Anything that can be recycled is before it gets to this

stage, then they pile it up in tonnes ready to burn. All of that

waste is burnt in the incinerator and if you take a look, it is 850

degrees in there, you can see it still doesn't quite burn everything.

Tin cans and metal mattress springs are left over, so at the end of the

process you get some ash, some metal which can be recycled, and a lot of

heat. That heat boils water, the steam drives this turbine producing

electricity, and the scalding water is piped off from the plant to

houses and public schools across Oslo. Rubbish from across Europe

helping to heat them through the harsh winter. Energy from waste, an

environmentalist's dream you would assume, well not completely. The

overall goal should be to reduce the amount of waste, but when you have

power plants that require that we produce more and more waste, we are

not able to reduce the amount. Public transport is also running on

rubbish fuelled by biogas given off Public transport is also running on

by decaying food and other organic waste. Enough eventually to run over

100 buses every year but is now most of our rubbish ends up in landfill.

The energy locked within, wasted for ever.

Not long ago BlackBerry accounted for half the world's smartphones but

now that market share has collapsed to a mere 3%. It's been massively

outperformed by rivals Apple and Samsung. The company has now agreed

to be bought by a consortium led by the private equity group Fairfax

Financial. But is it the end of the road for the device? Our business

correspondent is here to explain. Gone it seems are those days, and

this rescue deal underscores how fickle the technology market can be.

Just five years ago BlackBerry was worth $83 billion. Last night the

Canadian firm agreed to be bought for just 5% of that value - a measly

$4.7 billion. The deal is with one of its major shareholders, the

private equity firm Fairfax Financial. So what happened? Well,

compare Blackberry sales to rival Apple and the picture becomes

clearer. Apple is powering ahead in the market BlackBerry once

dominated. In just one weekend, Apple sold nine million of its new

iPhones. That's more than BlackBerry has sold in the last four months.

Blackberry isn't the first company overtaken by events. Computer giant

IBM lost out to rival Microsoft in the PC revolution, but did carve out

a niche for itself making business machines. The original hand-held

computer, Palm, has all but disappeared after being bought by

Hewlett Packard for a knock-down price. And Nokia, that once

dominated the mobile market, fell so far behind its rivals, it was bought

by Microsoft earlier this month. So will Blackberry go the same way? It

is a fast-paced industry and the deal is not done yet. Turning around

the firm's fortunes will not be easy, it is already planning to cut

40% of its workforce and has warned its losses could hit £620 million.

This deal could be a lifeline BlackBerry can't afford to turn

down. The controversial UK Independence

Party MEP who last week referred to some women activists as sluts, will

no longer represent UKIP in Europe. Godfrey Bloom was facing

disciplinary action after his remarks at the party conference. He

said he would continue to sit as an independent member of the European

Parliament, saying the new UKIP was "not really right" for him.

Well while zoo keepers in Edinburgh anxiously wait to find out if their

pandas will have a cub, there's no anxiously wait to find out if their

such worry in China. 14 newly-born cubs have been put on display at a

breeding and research base in Sichuan province. The eldest, Meng

Meng, is four times heavier than the youngest, Ya Yi. Our correspondent

Olivia Richwald has more. Is there anything cuter than a baby panda?

How about 14 cubs coupled up? No wonder this research base is keen to

show them off. This man says the biggest now weighs almost four kilos

and the smallest just 700 grams, far more valuable than gold. Panda can

be rented to a foreign zoo for £600,000 a year. Fewer than 2000 of

the animals are left in the wild. The habitat is shrinking and in

captivity pandas find it hard to reproduce. Today there has been

disappointing news from Australia - it panda pair in Adelaide have

failed to produce a cub for the third successive year. But in

Britain there is hope this panda will give birth. There has been

promising signs she is pregnant, and will give birth. There has been

yesterday the panda and closer -- enclosure was close to the public

because the panda has become sensitive to noise. China is

justifiably proud of this year 's cubs. In Britain we are not greedy,

we just want one, please! That would be enough!

The change of mood, let's have a look at the weather. This was the

chart from yesterday and although the overall pattern doesn't change

much, it does not do to think that the days are just going to be pretty

much the same as one-day follows another, and I can best illustrate

that with the satellite picture. There is depressing familiarity

about the days across the northern part of Scotland, fairly gloomy

there, but it is these islands of cloud further south that changes the

day is completely. Yesterday many of the locations struggled for heat,

but it doesn't mean to say everybody is on that improving curve. Many

parts are going in the opposite direction. This is how things are

shaping up for the rest of the afternoon. The further north and

east that you are, the duller things are. After the foggy start across

central and southern parts, there will be some sunshine with

central and southern parts, there temperatures which have been on the

high side this week. Then in the north, this is where we have the

bulk of the cloud and there is some rain to be had. Not a great deal of

change through this evening. If you have had some sunshine, it will be a

glorious evening. Through the course of the night and into the small

hours of Wednesday, there will be fog forming again but not in the

same places as was the case this morning. It will be down into some

of the southern counties, probably not as bad as we had it in the south

for this morning so bear that in mind. On Wednesday I'm afraid the

weather front is still there but it has come further south, introducing

rain and fresher weather into the northern part of Scotland. Further

south, watch out for the fog but here we go again. By Thursday, that

weather front will have fizzled away, a better chance of some

sunshine there, and on the western side of the British Isles there will

be some rain drifting across. Now a reminder of our top story this

lunchtime. The Nairobi siege enters its fourth day. Somali militants are

holding out against Kenyan security forces. There are reports the group

is still holding hostages. In the last few minutes we have seen

pictures of what appears to be soldiers roaming an area of the

shopping centre.