16/12/2013 BBC News at One

The United Nations launches its biggest ever appeal to help the

people of Syria. In desperate need of food, shelter and medicine, the

UN is warning that nearly three quarters of the population will need

aid. Why has the world abandoned us? That's how Syrians who have fled as

refugees feel. We'll be live from a refugee camp on the Syrian border

where conditions are worsening. Also this lunchtime. The Deputy Prime

Minister attacks leaked Tory plans to cap EU migrants coming to

Britain, calling the idea illegal and undeliverable. Tottenham's

manager Andre Villas-Boas is sacked after last night's crushing home

defeat at the hands of Liverpool. Dubbed the Hollywood of England, why

the film makers are flocking to Yorkshire. Late, crack on slum

housing. The council becomes the first authority to license

landlords. How Hello and welcome to the BBC News At

One. The UN has launched its biggest ever appeal for global aid. Most of

the money will go to the victims of the Syrian civil war. The aim is to

help more than nine million Syrians who are in need of help inside

Syria, and more than two million refugees, half of them children, who

have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Our Middle East

correspondent Jim Muir is at the Lebanese border town of Arsal, home

to more than 40,000 refugees. That's right. It's bitterly cold

here. The sun is just going down. It warms up a little bit during the

days that the children are still shivering and now the sun is going

so they face yet another night of subzero temperatures. It all adds up

to a massive challenge to the international community. Let's look

at this report on the latest tuition. Children play in the snow

here as they do all over the world. But life is tough at Arsal. On high

ground, very close to the Syrian border. This is the only official

tented camp the authorities have allowed to be set up. With subzero

temperatures at night, leaving one is a desperate need. My husband is

sick, she says. The cold is making a fall ill from fumes from the stove

was overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge, the UN and aid agencies

have launched the world 's biggest ever appeal. They are asking for

$6.5 billion to help cope with the 2.3 million refugees who fled Syria

and more than 6 million others displaced internally. The bulk of

them children. It's a problem that's not going to go away. We are now

talking about 9.3 million people across the country in need. Over 6

million people displaced. Many of them more than once. The figures are

so large that we have kind of lost sight of the fact that behind each

one of those numbers as a child, is a woman, is a man. The family, it's

a community. Refugees are still pouring out of Syria at a rate of

around 130,000 a month. It shows no sign of slowing. Leven on is taking

more than its share of the virgin. One in five people now in the

country is a Syrian refugee. Here and other neighbouring countries are

fears the influx of a destabilising effect the longer it goes on. And

some of the more vulnerable refugees really resettling elsewhere. People

who cannot be helped just with money, they are vulnerable because

they are disabled, because they have illnesses. They don't have the money

to get adequate care. There is no system to allow them to get care

like they get in the UK and anything you can do is to take them somewhere

where they can get their the effort to help the needy Syrians are

solidly messy. It broke new ground now with direct aid flights going

into the cage themselves north-east of the country for Northern Rock for

the first time. But much more is still needed to cope with the

disaster that is growing every day. Indeed, that is felt here, the fact

that it's growing every day because every single day just across the

border we can see from here more refugees come on in. And, for a town

like Arsal, to give you an idea of the impact it has, the population of

the town itself, the original population is 35,000 but there are

65,000 Syrian refugees here now so almost double the number of the

actual original population. So that gives you some idea on this

microlevel here of the impact this refugee disaster was having four

neighbours like Lebanon. Like you said in your report, the challenge

is enormous and there is no end in sight, is there?

That is really what is unsettling. It's not as though the people here

can say, oh well, we will stick it out for a couple of months and then

we can go home. There was no end in sight. As you know, there's an

international conference call for the 22nd of January in Geneva. But

it's not even sure that's going to go ahead and that chances of it

being successful swiftly are very slight indeed because the Syrian

government seems to think it is winning. It is pushing forward for

the rebels are holding their ground as well as they can and fighting

back. But they are in total disarray politically. There is no coherent

opposition force that can go to Geneva and negotiate forcefully on

behalf of the opposition because the forces on the ground have largely

been taken over by Islamists factions who don't want to talk to

the regime and who want to set up and Islamic state which is not at

all the Western agenda, so it is a massive dilemma there. There is no

clear solution in sight. And, of course, as long as the political

deadlock per se persists, people here are living a provisional life

which may well continue possibly even the years to come.

Jim York, on the Lebanese and Syrian border, thank you very much. It's

not just those who have fled Syria that the UN wants to help. It says

half the Syrian population are in urgent need of food, water and

medical aid. Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet reports

from the Syrian capital Damascus. Syrians are queueing patiently in

the bitter cold here in the centre of Damascus. All of the Syrians have

had to flee their homes because of the fighting and some of them tell

us they have been displaced for more than one year. The men don't have

jobs, the women are worried about their children who don't have warm

clothing as a harsh winter sets in. They are having to rely on the

United Nations world food programme for essential items like cooking

oil, rice and lentils to feed their families in the coming months. I

have come here to speak to the country director for the world food

programme, Matthew Hollingworth. These are families today that a year

or two years ago would have been living a pretty good life, employed,

and doing well. Now, today, they have been made homeless once, twice

three times, which is why they now rely on support from organisations

like the world food programme to give them the basic food needs for

their families each month. So this is the human cost of the war. We

believe 6.3 million people are food insecure and desperately in need of

assistance from agencies such as ours each month. We're working with

27 local charities but the Syrian Arab Red Cross and the number of

international organisations, to reach these people each month. But

we know it's frequently not enough. People don't have enough food, they

don't eat frequently enough and when they do, they are eating food which

is not of the quality that gives them everything they need to

survive. The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says an annual cap of

75,000 on EU migrants coming to work in Britain would be illegal and

undeliverable. The Home Secretary Theresa May has refused to comment

on reports that a review by her department has proposed the

immigration limit. Let's get more from our chief political

correspondent Norman Smith. He is in Westminster. No confirmation of the

support for the support of adapted by ministers of the come out and

attack them. How serious is this? Sophie, it's various and perhaps not

so serious. It is serious because the government is already involved

in a bust up with a European Commissioner, the son of Mr

Cameron's thinking on trying to change the rules on free movement

and travel within the EU, with the commission saying that is a

non-negotiable if you want to stay in the European Union. Now, we have

a Deputy Prime Minister weighing in as well, saying that they are

undeliverable and illegal, such ideas, warning it could result in

tit-for-tat retaliation against Brits working abroad for that they

could profoundly damage the city because of its reliance on foreign

workers. But maybe not so serious because none of this is likely to

happen any time soon and certainly not before January first. Then, many

remain in some Bulgarians are expected to come to Britain when

restrictions are removed on them. What is going on, I think, Mr

Cameron and the government and the Conservatives are trying to put down

a rhetorical marker to show how serious they take people 's concerns

over the imminent arrival of Romanian and Bulgarian and if that

involves a little light sparring with Mr Clegg and the European

Commission, then so be it. Norman, thank you very much. Tougher

sanctions to tackle modern day slavery and human trafficking have

been published. It's estimated that there are 10,000 victims of slavery

in the UK. The Modern Slavery Bill proposes increasing the maximum

sentence for offenders, from 14 years to life imprisonment. Our home

affairs correspondent Tom Symonds reports. A complex investigation

ends with a bang. Cambridgeshire police caught up with a gang alleged

to have been exploiting farm workers from Lithuania and Latvia. Slavery

could be loosely defined as forced labour. And the Home Secretary has

made of a government priority. Today she publishes the modern-day slavery

Bill which brings together several existing pieces of legislation. It

allows for a possible maximum life sentence in the worst cases. New

orders to limit the activities of those convicted of slavery. And a

new slavery Commissioner to coordinate the response to the

problem. Modern slavery is an absolutely horrendous crime and are

too many victims in the UK. What this bill is doing is enabling us to

get tough on the slave drivers and the perpetrators of these crimes.

Critics of this bill say it should have included specific measures to

help children caught up in slavery and trafficking. Labour and many of

the organisations involved in this debate once designated guardians who

would work with young people to help them escape the cruelty they have

experienced and build new lives. The former Labour minister Frank Field

examine the evidence for the government. His conclusion. We

should change our attitude to victims because it's crucial that we

actually step over the line and help those on the receiving end of modern

slavery. And we do that by, for example, making sure the care that

we give them is first rate. And the government wants prosecutions.

Police officers who fight slavery and trafficking no one can be hard

to define, let alone detect. It's a largely hidden problem for every

victim rescued, like these, women trafficked for sex in the Midlands,

an estimated nine go undiscovered and it's often the victims who make

the best witnesses. Should always be illegal to help someone to die? The

Supreme Court has begun hearing arguments about whether a doctor

should be allowed to help someone kill themselves. The latest round of

the legal battle involves the family of the late Tony Nicklinson who had

locked-in syndrome, and Paul Lamb from Leeds, who's been paralysed

since a road crash. Our Legal Correspondent Clive Coleman reports.

For more than two decades, Paul Lamb has suffered chronic pain having

been power lies from the neck down in a car accident. He needs help of

almost everything, having just minimal use of one hand. This was

him as a young active man. Now he wants the doctor to assist in to

die. At a time of his choosing. He is taking of the legal battle fought

by the late Tony Nicklinson, who died last year, just days after his

bid to change the law failed. Now he is taking the challenge to the

highest court in the land. To get the change in the law would be... It

would be... Give me the peace of mind I need, as and when I want to

take my life, the law is on my side when nobody can get prosecuted. In

July, the Court of Appeal said only Parliament which it said represented

the conscience of the nation, on issues of life and death, could

change the law and that judges, however eminent, couldn't. Well,

today, Paul Lamb is going to ask nine of the most senior judges hear

the Supreme Court to do just that. To change the law on assisted

suicide so that a doctor can assist the patient to end their life. But

any change to the law on assisted suicide is opposed by many. A change

in the law would be a recipe for the exploitation and abuse of elderly

and disabled people who would feel under pressure to end their lives so

as not to be a financial and emotional burden. It would also put

pressure on relatives and doctors. And this is the very last thing we

need. The court will also consider the case of a man known only as

Martin. He once current guidance which said Lublin acting

compassionately the two assist suicide are unlikely to be

prosecuted to include medical professionals. Cases like Martin and

Paul Lamb raise some of the most profound moral, ethical and legal

issues imaginable. The Supreme Court's decision is eagerly awaited

by those both for and against a change to the law.

A police of us are accused of falsely claiming to have witnessed a

row at the gates of Downing Street has been charged with misconduct in

public office. PC Wallace said he saw what happened in Downing Street

when Andrew Mitchell became involved in a dispute with a police officer.

Mr Mitchell has always denied using the word pleb.

A woman who worked as an account assistant for a Charles Saatchi says

she is committing career suicide by speaking out. She told the court

that somebody needs to speak up because most people are too scared

to. She was giving evidence at the trial of two former PAs accused of

defrauding Nigella Lawson and her ex-husband, Charles Saatchi. Tell us

more about what was said in court. This woman worked for the Saatchis

for about 4.5 years. The relationship broke down and she was

accused of stealing from petty cash and taking taxes home without

authorisation. She was asked to terminate her agreement and she was

asked what the consequences would be if she did not. She said, if I did

not sign, the consequence would be she would accused of fraud. She said

she was not speaking out in defence of her sister. She said, I have

everything to lose and nothing to gain. I am committing career

suicide. She said, other former employees were too scared to come

forward and she was worried about, at four. By Jessica Grillo has been

giving evidence, talking about starting at six o'clock in the

morning and waiting until very late. She said she had a loving

relationship with Nigella and Charles.

The UN launches its biggest ever appealed to help Syria. It wants ?8

billion to give food, shelter and medicine to people inside the

country and in refugee camps. England's cricketers are on the

verge of a humiliating defeat in Australia.

Predictions of traffic chaos in South West London, as plans to close

Putney Bridge to traffic are announced.

Santa's little helpers - why 38 tonnes of toys are being wrapped and

delivered by children for other youngsters in hospital.

It was the worst mining disaster in Wales in recent times. Four men died

in September 2011 after they were trapped 300 feet below ground after

an explosion. The place where they were working quickly flooded with

water. The man who owned the colliery where they worked denied

charges of manslaughter. The coffin either work for also denied

corporate manslaughter. Moving tonnes of silt and rock by hand,

rescue teams worked for over 24 hours to try and reach the four men

killed. Gary Jenkins, Philip Hill, David

Powell and Charles Breslin were all experienced miners. They became

trapped in the flood 90 metres underground. Malcolm Fyfield was

also in the mind that day. Today he appeared in court to deny

responsibility for the deaths through gross negligence.

Accompanied's directors appear to deny corporate manslaughter. Members

of the victims Pae families were in court. For the last two years, they

have followed every step of the case as a way to learn what happened to

their loved ones. The colliery was a small drift mine. It's removed

location made it difficult for rescue teams to reach. Through the

night and into the next day, the miners' families waited for news in

a community centre until the police finally confirmed that four dead

bodies had been recovered. There is now a permanent memorial to the men

and more than ?1 million has been raced to help the families. Their

thoughts when I turned to preparing for a trial which is due to begin in

March. At 22-year-old man has been remanded

in custody after being charged with murdering the missing Oxfordshire

teenager, Hayden Parkinson. Police are still searching for a

17-year-old Jayden, who was last seen at Didcot Parkway railway

station on 3rd December. Ben Blakeley was additionally charged

with perverting the court of justice -- course of justice. Ben Blakeley

was Jayden's boyfriend, said police. He appeared in court today and he is

accused of disposing of her body and lying to police about when he last

saw her. A second man has also been charged in connection with this

murder. It is a 17 you old man from Didcot, charged with assisting an

offender. He will appear here at Oxford Magistrates' Court this

afternoon. Jayden disappeared 13 days ago. What began as a missing

persons investigation turned into a murder enquiry but the spiked

expensive -- despite extensive searching, police have not found the

body. The BBC has been criticised by MPs over payoffs to senior

managers. They have accused the BBC of

cronyism and failing in its studio to protect public money. A report by

the Commons Public Accounts Committee says the large payoffs

revealed a system of oversight which was dysfunctional and broken. In

July, it emerged the BBC paid ?25 million to outgoing executives.

Since then, the corporation has wrought in a cap on severance pay.

Tottenham Hotspur have sacked their manager, Andre Vilas Boaz, day after

they were 5-0 at home by Liverpool. He has been under pressure since

Spurs lost last month. In the 18 month he has been there he has spent

?100 billion on players. The booing that echoed around White

Hart Lane yesterday afternoon said it all. The manager's fate hung in

the balance following just one win in six home games, this 5-0 drubbing

to Liverpool was the breaking point. Afterwards he insisted he could hold

onto his job. I am not going to resign and I am not a quitter. The

only thing I could do with is get the players on track. Today,

Tottenham Hotspur released a statement saying...

The decision is for a rapid rise and fall for Andre Villas-Boas. He

achieved great success in Portugal before moving to Chelsea in 2011.

After a poor run of form and reported disagreements with senior

players, he was dismissed by the West London club in early 2012. He

joined Tottenham and early this year, after Gareth Bale was sold for

a record fee, he went on a spending spree on new players. Results were

not just expected, they were demanded by the board and fans.

Tottenham Hotspur should now appoint a new manager, with speculation that

Fabio Capello could take over. Is now left to ponder how it could all

have gone so wrong. -- is now left. Yorkshire is doing

rather well in films at the moment. It is the setting for some of the

highest profile television programmes this Christmas, including

the Great Train Robbery and Death Comes To Pemberley. Production

cabinets are spending millions pounds in Yorkshire.

Certain parts of Yorkshire have been used in films for years. This is how

Earth -- Bronte country. This is home to the line and location in the

Railway children. It has also been used recently for filming a more

modern railway story. In 125 years no one has thought of knocking it

off? That is the beauty, none. No police, no security. One of the

biggest challenges was finding the right railway location. They came

here, and it is one of several locations used for the production

here in Yorkshire. But it was not as easy as it looked.

Trying to rekey it -- recreate the West Coast Main Line in August

during a snowy April was the biggest challenge I shall ever faced in my

life. 40 miles away in North Yorkshire, another production is

underway. Set in Napoleonic times, this stately home has been turned

into the set of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Set in Yorkshire, it

seemed like the right place to make it. It has got everything. It has

got fantastic landscapes and everything you would want to see.

Yorkshire is doubling for Venice and Italy and all sorts of places. This

isn't the place to film just because of the scenery and the people, it is

about money. Drama is very expensive to produce, so when you have an

investment fund like the Yorkshire Content Fund, that attracts

producers. If you can match that funding with good locations and a

good crew, you have got a strong reason to come here. 20 productions

are underway or planned for next year. The Christmas Showcase is Mr

Darcy and the Bennetts returning in Death Comes To Pemberley, shot on

location in the county. And it all brings jobs and money to

the region. Jess, the hair stylist and Eugene, the extra, are both

based in the area. It means an industry in the North of England is

drawing people who once thought the industry was based in the south. The

actress, Joan Fontaine, who starred in several Hollywood films in the

40s and 50s, has died at the age of 96.

Among her best-known films work Alfred Hitchcock was Mike Rebecca

and Suspicion, for which she won an Oscar. -- Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca

will stop she shared her reverie with her sister, Olivia De

Havilland. Australia seemed poised to regain the Ashes with two games

to spare. At the end of the fourth day of the

third test England are on 251-5, 252 runs behind.

The Ashes, the most precious prize in cricket. They are not supposed to

be handed over cheaply. Anyone can buy a replica. Winning the real

thing should take everything you have got. In past it was a help

yourself morning. That is Graeme Swann, with over 250 test wickets,

hit 452 in an over. Shane Watson raced to a century. And Anderson was

head for 28 in an over by George Bailey. It equalled the Test record.

Australia were ruthless. They stopped battling with a lead of over

500, again. For England, things can always get worse. Alastair Cook's

first ball, as good as any he has faced. So, what was left for

England? They had to dig deep for pride. Three wickets down, Kevin

Pietersen on the attack. The trouble is, this is what came next -

Pietersen on 45. These days, the Australians do not dropped catches.

There must be something in the future? Step up Ben Stokes. In just

his second Test match, taking on the bowling. Ian Bell was the

outstanding batsmen of the last Ashes, nothing like that in this

series. Until this flash of defiance. Ian Bell on 60 had this

overturned. Stokes played the senior role, striding for others had

stumbled. English batting in general has been grim this series. Australia

have been fantastic in all departments. They have batted,

caught and bowled better than us and that is what cricket is about. 253

more runs to win. But maybe purely theoretical. It feels like England

have delayed the inevitable as we go into the fifth day.

What a dreary start for many of us to our mandate. We have seen

outbreaks of rain pushing down from the north-west in a southeasterly

direction. We have also got sharp showers through Scotland and

Northern Ireland. If we look at the satellite picture, sandwich between

the two you can see breaks in the cloud. Hopefully something a little

bit brighter for one or two of us for the rest of the afternoon. We

still have the potential for rain across the south-east. It is going

to be nuisance, I suspect. But there should be a bright afternoon with a

cluster of showers across Northern Ireland and Scotland. There is the

potential for some hailstones and maybe some thunder, and yes, snow to

the tops of the mountains. A cool afternoon, but some brightness

across the North a figment and North Wales. It will dry up through the

south-west but staying damp and jury. There is more rain to return

later this evening. There is rain across the south-east corner. It is

mild for the time of year, but perhaps that is not what you want to

hear with temperatures around 13 or 14 degrees. The rain will be a

nuisance for the early evening rush. Persistent rain anywhere from the M4

corridor to East Anglia. It'll be grey and wet through the evening and

overnight. Clearer skies overnight mean the temperatures will fall

away. We could see some pockets of frost forming as well. Also, some

fog. Some showers to the extreme north and west. A cold night to come

with temperatures around five degrees. Some of the fog may will

linger into the day but generally, Tuesday will be a better day,

perhaps the best of the week. Make the most of it if you cancel top

largely fine and dry, just the potential for a little rain across

the Kent coast and a cooler field to things with highs of around six to

nine degrees. On Wednesday things turned decidedly unsettled stop an

area of low pressure pushes in and wet and windy weather arrives.

Myler, yes, because the winds are southerly body will be grey, wet and

windy. The wind could strengthen to severe gales do the latter stages of

Wednesday into Thursday. That will push the rain through sharply. It

could be pretty unsettled at the end of the week, often wet and often

windy. Please watch the forecast for the end of the week.