17/03/2014 BBC News at One


17/03/2014

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recognise the results. The US and the EU say it was illegal. I will be

:00:15.:00:28.

reporting live from Crimea where the final referendum results show 97% of

:00:29.:00:31.

voters chose to be part of Russia. Also this lunchtime: 26 countries

:00:32.:00:35.

have now been asked to help join the search for the missing Malaysia

:00:36.:00:37.

Airlines jet which disappeared ten days ago. Speed things up, the boss

:00:38.:00:40.

of HS2 tells politicians building work on the northern section of the

:00:41.:00:44.

rail line should be ready six years sooner. Convicted Mafia boss

:00:45.:00:46.

Domenico Rancadore, nicknamed "the professor", goes back to his London

:00:47.:00:49.

home after a court ruled he will not be extradited back to Italy. The

:00:50.:00:57.

Cook Clarissa Dixon Wright, who found fame as one of the Two Fat

:00:58.:01:07.

Ladies, has died at the age of 66. Later on BBC London: The Transport

:01:08.:01:10.

Secretary backs plans for a bigger Euston station as part of HS2. And a

:01:11.:01:17.

court hears how PC Blakes Lock's attackers passed around his helmet

:01:18.:01:18.

like a trophy. Good afternoon and welcome to the

:01:19.:01:37.

BBC News at One. Crimea's Parliament has formally declared independence

:01:38.:01:40.

from Ukraine and asked to join the Russian Federation. It follows

:01:41.:01:43.

yesterday's controversial referendum which officials say overwhelmingly

:01:44.:01:45.

backed leaving Ukraine, but it is not clear how many people actually

:01:46.:01:52.

voted. The Government in Kiev says it will not recognise the results,

:01:53.:01:54.

the interim prime minister calling the vote a circus performance. The

:01:55.:02:00.

US and EU say the vote was illegal and have vowed to impose sanctions

:02:01.:02:05.

on Moscow. Live now to Simferopol and our correspondent Ben Brown.

:02:06.:02:15.

Yes, Simon, as soon as that referendum result came through MPs

:02:16.:02:20.

here at the Crimean parliament took a vote to break away from Ukraine

:02:21.:02:27.

and to become part of Russia. A delegation of Parliamentary leaders,

:02:28.:02:31.

including the Prime Minister, have now left the parliament and are on

:02:32.:02:35.

their way to Moscow to discuss annexation. It could all happen

:02:36.:02:42.

pretty quickly. They partied into the early hours of this morning.

:02:43.:02:47.

Ethnic Russians who believe in their words Crimea is going home to the

:02:48.:02:53.

Russian motherland. Much of the world may have denounced their

:02:54.:02:58.

controversial referendum. Here they celebrated it. 97% were in favour of

:02:59.:03:05.

absorption into Russia. TRANSLATION: It is a festival, it is happiness,

:03:06.:03:09.

it is a time for joy, we are coming home. I think there is a great and

:03:10.:03:16.

huge future ahead for us together with the Russian Federation and I

:03:17.:03:21.

can see a future for my children and grandchildren. In the Parliament

:03:22.:03:27.

Crimean MPs wasted no time. Right after the final referendum results

:03:28.:03:30.

they declared independence from Ukraine and voted to formally ask

:03:31.:03:35.

Russia to annex their peninsular. This place is already beginning to

:03:36.:03:39.

feel less and less Ukrainian. They have changed street signs into

:03:40.:03:45.

Russian. Within a few weeks it is expected they will change the

:03:46.:03:49.

currency into the Russian ruble and even to switch to the Moscow Times

:03:50.:03:54.

own. In Kiev there was no surprise at the referendum result, but plenty

:03:55.:04:02.

of dismay. TRANSLATION: What can I say? It is the same band again which

:04:03.:04:07.

is lying, stealing and it is criminal. I think this referendum is

:04:08.:04:12.

illegal. All the world, the Ukrainians and our Government do not

:04:13.:04:16.

recognise it and a minority of Crimean 's want to live in Russia.

:04:17.:04:22.

Ukraine has lost Crimea, that much is clear, but what now of other

:04:23.:04:27.

parts of the country like Donetsk in the East with a large Russian

:04:28.:04:33.

population? They are restless as well. These Russian protesters

:04:34.:04:36.

attacked Government buildings over the weekend. The great fear in Kiev

:04:37.:04:42.

is that President Putin may not stop at Crimea, but may ultimately move

:04:43.:04:46.

his troops into the east of Ukraine as well. The European Union has

:04:47.:04:53.

decided to punish Russia for what it has done here in Crimea. EU foreign

:04:54.:04:59.

ministers have been meeting in Brussels to discuss sanctions.

:05:00.:05:02.

Matthew Price is therefore as this lunchtime. What have they decided?

:05:03.:05:08.

Breaking news, foreign ministers have decided that 21 Russian and

:05:09.:05:13.

Crimean officials will be subject to restrictions. They will not be able

:05:14.:05:19.

to come to the European Union. Any assets they hold in European Union

:05:20.:05:23.

institutions will be frozen. That will happen in the next few hours,

:05:24.:05:28.

certainly by tomorrow morning. One source told me they hoped it would

:05:29.:05:32.

start the knees knocking in Russia and would make Russia realise its

:05:33.:05:38.

actions have consequences. So far European pressure has not

:05:39.:05:42.

persuaded Russia to back down. Will today be any different? In Brussels

:05:43.:05:59.

the frustration with Moscow is building. Listen to the barely

:06:00.:06:01.

disguised contempt from the EU's top policy official. The top of our

:06:02.:06:03.

agenda will be the situation in Ukraine to look at the results of

:06:04.:06:06.

the so-called referendum. It is illegal under the Constitution of

:06:07.:06:07.

Ukraine and under international law. Events on the ground in Crimea

:06:08.:06:11.

are forcing the EU to consider tougher measures. But as the fallout

:06:12.:06:16.

from the old Cold War splinters Ukraine two decades on, fears of a

:06:17.:06:20.

new Cold War between East and West means some in the EU are reluctant

:06:21.:06:26.

to push Russia too hard. How far will they go? It is likely they will

:06:27.:06:30.

end the day with a list of people who will be banned from travelling

:06:31.:06:42.

to the EU and have any EU -based bank accounts they hold frozen. We

:06:43.:06:44.

are also prepared to move to further measures and there will be long-term

:06:45.:06:46.

consequences for Russia if they continue to approach things in this

:06:47.:06:52.

way. In Washington similar measures are also likely. Russia has

:06:53.:06:56.

threatened to retaliate with like-for-like sanctions. Everyone is

:06:57.:07:01.

calling for de-escalation, but the diplomatic temperature is rising.

:07:02.:07:06.

They started the day with more than 100 on the list and ended up with

:07:07.:07:12.

just 21. It seems as though some of the voices of moderation in the

:07:13.:07:16.

European Union are winning out. They want to take this slowly and they

:07:17.:07:21.

want to send a message. Thank you very much indeed. Crimea

:07:22.:07:27.

is a pretty small place, a population of just over 2 million

:07:28.:07:32.

people, but it has sparked off the biggest crisis in East -West

:07:33.:07:36.

relations since the end of the Cold War.

:07:37.:07:41.

26 countries are now involved in the search for missing flight MH 370 as

:07:42.:07:46.

confusion still surrounds the circumstances in which it

:07:47.:07:51.

disappeared ten days ago. The search area now extends from Central Asia

:07:52.:07:56.

to the Indian Ocean. Each state continues to bring new details of

:07:57.:08:02.

the Boeing 77 seven's last contact, but with them are as many new

:08:03.:08:08.

questions. Jonah Fisher is in Kuala Lumpur. The information from the

:08:09.:08:12.

Malaysian officials has been confusing and sometimes

:08:13.:08:15.

contradictory, but today we came the closest we have come so far to

:08:16.:08:19.

discovering who was controlling this plane when it veered off its course.

:08:20.:08:24.

These are believed to be the last images of the pilots of flight MH

:08:25.:08:30.

370 as they passed through security in Kuala Lumpur. Their roles in the

:08:31.:08:36.

plane's disappearance once again in the spotlight. At the centre of the

:08:37.:08:40.

investigation the exact sequence of events in the cockpit in the early

:08:41.:08:44.

hours of that fateful Saturday morning. We already knew the final

:08:45.:08:49.

words from the plane when it went silent and turned west were all

:08:50.:08:54.

right, good night. Now the investigation team has announced

:08:55.:08:58.

they believe it was first officer Zaharie Ahmad Shah who said those

:08:59.:09:06.

words. The initial investigation indicates it was the co-pilot who

:09:07.:09:13.

spoke the last time. The Malaysians are still far from clear as to

:09:14.:09:17.

exactly the sequence in which communication is on board were

:09:18.:09:21.

turned off. Two minutes after the good night message they say the

:09:22.:09:26.

transponder was switched off. Whoever was flying the plane did not

:09:27.:09:30.

sign in with Vietnamese air traffic control and the plane turned to the

:09:31.:09:36.

West. The first officer's name first came up in this operation when two

:09:37.:09:42.

women said they spent time with him in the cockpit floating and smoking

:09:43.:09:46.

cigarettes on another flight. But there is little in his background to

:09:47.:09:50.

suggest a man capable of hijacking a plane. Passengers have also come

:09:51.:09:56.

under renewed scrutiny, in particular those who might know how

:09:57.:10:00.

to disable a plane's communication system. 129-year-old engineer for a

:10:01.:10:08.

private aviation company is one who fits that profile. His father is

:10:09.:10:13.

sure his son is not involved and still clings to the hope he might be

:10:14.:10:20.

found alive. TRANSLATION: People can say what they want about my son, I

:10:21.:10:25.

do not care. He is my son and I know he is not involved. New maps today

:10:26.:10:32.

show the area being searched extended further. It could be near

:10:33.:10:37.

the Caspian Sea or to the south just off the coast of Antarctica. Despite

:10:38.:10:42.

a huge multinational effort the mystery of what happened to flight

:10:43.:10:47.

MH 370 is still a long way from being solved. So this complex

:10:48.:10:53.

investigation continues on two France, firstly trying to find

:10:54.:10:59.

somewhere where the aircraft is, and increasingly difficult task, and

:11:00.:11:02.

secondly trying to piece together all those events inside the plane on

:11:03.:11:06.

that fateful Saturday morning. You can keep up to the date with the

:11:07.:11:11.

mystery of the missing flight by watching the news channel and there

:11:12.:11:19.

is an analysis on the BBC website. Sir David Higgins, the new head of

:11:20.:11:23.

the high-speed rail project HS2 has called for work to be speeded up so

:11:24.:11:27.

the line from London to the North of England can be completed six years

:11:28.:11:32.

ahead of the original schedule. But opponents of the scheme have

:11:33.:11:35.

questioned how easy it will be to be able to speed up construction.

:11:36.:11:41.

It is still years away, but the man in control wants to speed up

:11:42.:11:45.

delivery of this project. Phase one of the scheme from London to

:11:46.:11:51.

Birmingham is due to be completed by 2026. So David Higgins says phase

:11:52.:11:56.

two should be speeded up with the line to crew completed just one year

:11:57.:12:00.

later, six years earlier than planned. Both branches of the

:12:01.:12:05.

northern section will be finished by 2030, that is three years ahead of

:12:06.:12:11.

schedule. If done right, High Speed two can provide an answer that

:12:12.:12:14.

stands the test of time and addresses the issue of congestion in

:12:15.:12:19.

the south and lack of connectivity to the North. The costs have to be

:12:20.:12:24.

recognised and acknowledged and so too does the cost and impact of

:12:25.:12:30.

doing nothing. Crewe station will be a major hub with services from other

:12:31.:12:34.

parts of the North feeding into the root, welcome news for some

:12:35.:12:40.

businesses. London receives a tremendous amount of investment and

:12:41.:12:45.

infrastructure and having HS2 is a start to close that divide and it is

:12:46.:12:48.

something businesses in the North needs to be able to compete with

:12:49.:12:53.

their counterparts in London and in Europe. But Phil Smallwood takes a

:12:54.:12:59.

different view. His family have kept cattle in Cheshire for 60 years, the

:13:00.:13:03.

route goes straight through their farm. We have decided amongst

:13:04.:13:09.

ourselves, myself and my neighbours, you can reckon 6000 litres of milk

:13:10.:13:16.

is lost per acre of land that is taken. It will finish me off. There

:13:17.:13:22.

was opposition outside today's meeting. If this revised schedule is

:13:23.:13:28.

approved, these protesters will have less time to fight the plans. Our

:13:29.:13:35.

chief political correspondent Norman Smith is in Westminster. I suppose

:13:36.:13:40.

so David Higgins is saying, cut the waffle, get on with it.

:13:41.:13:46.

He is. He is saying the problem is not a money problem, a transport

:13:47.:13:50.

problem, it is the politicians, it is the failure to reach agreement to

:13:51.:13:55.

give it the go-ahead and approved the necessary legislation that is

:13:56.:13:59.

deterring investors and which is delaying a meaningful start date and

:14:00.:14:04.

which is driving the costs up. He was appealing for an end to

:14:05.:14:08.

political uncertainty and he wants to get Labour on board by getting

:14:09.:14:13.

the line into the North sooner into Labour constituencies and Labour

:14:14.:14:19.

local authorities. But his difficulty is this place, the

:14:20.:14:23.

legislative architecture of Parliament is an absolute gift for

:14:24.:14:27.

politicians who want to snarl and slow up the whole process. All the

:14:28.:14:32.

signs are the legislation to approve HS2 will not get through until after

:14:33.:14:38.

the election. A former Tory whip has told a jury

:14:39.:14:43.

that the MP Nigel Evans was told a complaint from an alleged victim was

:14:44.:14:47.

a very serious matter and he should apologise. John Randall told Preston

:14:48.:14:53.

Crown Court that he had admitted making a pass on a constituent in

:14:54.:15:00.

his home. Danny Savage is outside the court for us.

:15:01.:15:06.

Once again the event in court today have focused on a weekend in July,

:15:07.:15:11.

2009, when this alleged victim said he was sexually assaulted by Nigel

:15:12.:15:16.

Evans at his constituency home in Pendleton in Lancashire. That young

:15:17.:15:22.

man returned to Westminster and complained to Tory party managers

:15:23.:15:25.

about what had happened and there was a hastily arranged meeting

:15:26.:15:28.

between this man and Tory party whips. He said that Mr Evans had

:15:29.:15:42.

come down and got under the blanket with him. We asked him what he had

:15:43.:15:47.

wanted to happen, the young man who says he was the victim. He said that

:15:48.:15:52.

Nigel Evans should stand down at the next election, get help for his

:15:53.:15:57.

drinking and come out as being gay. They then did meet with Nigel Evans,

:15:58.:16:11.

and he admitted he had made a drunken pass, admitted the

:16:12.:16:18.

allegations and apologised. Our top story this lunchtime: Crimea's

:16:19.:16:20.

parliament formally declares independence from Ukraine. The

:16:21.:16:25.

government in Kiev says it will not recognise the results.

:16:26.:16:28.

And still to come - why you'll have to look a little harder to see the

:16:29.:16:33.

smallest planet in space. Later on BBC London: Shut the B taking French

:16:34.:16:39.

lessons? Could they learn from Parisian measures to cut pollution?

:16:40.:16:44.

And we speak to the eight-year-olds running their own restaurant.

:16:45.:16:49.

After 13 years and the loss of 448 British service personnel, the UK's

:16:50.:16:53.

military role in Afghanistan is coming to an end. All but two

:16:54.:16:58.

military bases in Southern Afghanistan have now been closed or

:16:59.:17:03.

handed over. At the height of the war there were 137 British bases,

:17:04.:17:06.

but all that remains now are the hub - Camp Bastion - and an observation

:17:07.:17:11.

post nearby. Our defence correspondent Jonathan Beale is in

:17:12.:17:24.

Helmand. You can really sense the difference here at Camp Bastion. It

:17:25.:17:32.

was once a bustling military hub, but if you look around you will see

:17:33.:17:38.

vast empty spaces where military equipment was once stationed. There

:17:39.:17:44.

are still 4000 British troops in Helmand but they are focusing very

:17:45.:17:47.

much on the next stage of the mission, which is going home. From

:17:48.:17:53.

dust to dust, this was Camp Price, once a large British base. Diggers

:17:54.:17:56.

and saws are now the soldiers' weapons. They've even taken the

:17:57.:18:02.

concrete barriers that stood as makeshift memorials to fallen

:18:03.:18:07.

comrades. I am now currently dreaming of iso-containers. There

:18:08.:18:12.

have been so many here every day, we are sending out 20, 30 day at the

:18:13.:18:16.

moment and it is a nightmare. ?? WHITE But the British are leaving

:18:17.:18:20.

while the fighting continues. Listen carefully and you can hear gunfire

:18:21.:18:28.

in the distance. These soldiers on their last patrol are still dressed

:18:29.:18:31.

for combat, and they are still weary, but there is relief that they

:18:32.:18:39.

will soon be home. It is somebody else's nation and I'm happy that

:18:40.:18:42.

they are in a better place now, but for me it is just job done and get

:18:43.:18:48.

on. I don't think I will be sad to go, no. I'll miss the sun and that's

:18:49.:18:52.

probably about it, I'm afraid. The end is getting nearer. This is one

:18:53.:18:55.

of the last military convoys bringing back kit to Camp Bastion.

:18:56.:18:59.

The British presence is slowly being erased, so what is the legacy they

:19:00.:19:05.

leave behind? I only wish that people at home could see the changes

:19:06.:19:10.

that I have seen. I think they would feel a lot better about the

:19:11.:19:13.

investment and the work we have done here. But the British military can

:19:14.:19:21.

give no guarantees for the future. They will soon all be out, with no

:19:22.:19:25.

one left behind to see what happens next. 448 British soldiers have lost

:19:26.:19:37.

their lives in Afghanistan and you won't hear military commanders

:19:38.:19:40.

saying this is mission accomplished. They say there is

:19:41.:19:44.

still a lot of work to be done. Time is running out and buy won't be any

:19:45.:19:49.

British residents here by the end of this year. Thank you.

:19:50.:19:54.

A convicted Mafia boss who's been living in London for 20 years has

:19:55.:19:57.

won his battle against extradition back to Italy. Domenico Rancadore,

:19:58.:20:00.

who's known as The Professor, was arrested in Uxbridge last year,

:20:01.:20:02.

where he was living under the assumed name of Marc Skinner, with

:20:03.:20:05.

his wife and two children. Clive Coleman reports. Oxbridge in

:20:06.:20:12.

suburban west London, the last place you would expect to find a member of

:20:13.:20:16.

the Sicilian Mafia. Domenico Rancadore, the man whose crime

:20:17.:20:23.

family the Italian police say were involved in extortion racketeering

:20:24.:20:30.

and drug trafficking. Since 1993 he had been living here under the name

:20:31.:20:38.

of Marc Skinner. He was known as The Professor, and in 1999 he was

:20:39.:20:43.

convicted in his absence of being a Mafia associate and sentenced to

:20:44.:20:48.

seven years. Domenico Rancadore's quiet suburban life came to an

:20:49.:20:52.

abrupt end last August when police arrived here with an arrest warrant.

:20:53.:20:57.

He has been fighting extradition until today. The district judge told

:20:58.:21:03.

the court he had originally decided to order Domenico Rancadore's

:21:04.:21:07.

extradition. Satisfied with assurances from the Italian

:21:08.:21:11.

authorities about its prison system. But in a dramatic turnaround he said

:21:12.:21:15.

a judgement from the High Court last week meant that those assurances

:21:16.:21:21.

were now simply too vague. The general assurance as to where

:21:22.:21:26.

Domenico Rancadore would be held is insufficient and because of the

:21:27.:21:29.

problems they have in their prison system, they must give specific

:21:30.:21:32.

assurances as to where people will be held. The Italian authorities say

:21:33.:21:40.

they intend to appeal. Meanwhile Domenico Rancadore's British wife

:21:41.:21:44.

left court to arrange a security payment, that is one of the bail

:21:45.:21:49.

conditions under which her convicted Mafia husband can now return to his

:21:50.:22:02.

quiet life in Uxbridge. The jury in the Oscar Pistorius

:22:03.:22:05.

trial has been told the Olympian had good knowledge of the rules on gun

:22:06.:22:08.

use and dealing with intruders. A firearms instructor who taught

:22:09.:22:11.

Pistorius and sold him weapons has been giving evidence. Mr Pistorius

:22:12.:22:13.

denies murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last year, saying he

:22:14.:22:16.

mistook her for an intruder. Let's get more from our correspondent,

:22:17.:22:24.

Andrew Harding. An interesting day in court and is it kicked off we saw

:22:25.:22:33.

Reeva Steenkamp's mother there for the second time and it seemed there

:22:34.:22:36.

was a fleeting acknowledgement between her and Oscar Pistorius as

:22:37.:22:41.

she sat down. Yesterday we saw blood splatters across Oscar Pistorius's

:22:42.:22:48.

bed, but the key thing today was this man who trained Oscar Pistorius

:22:49.:22:53.

how to handle guns. He read from a questionnaire that Oscar Pistorius

:22:54.:22:56.

had filled in giving various scenarios about when it was

:22:57.:23:02.

appropriate to fire your gun on an intruder and Oscar Pistorius made it

:23:03.:23:06.

clear he understood it was only appropriate when intruders were in

:23:07.:23:11.

his house, they were visible, approaching him under threat. Two

:23:12.:23:14.

other questions he answered that it would not be appropriate to fire on

:23:15.:23:19.

intruders. The prosecution clearly trying to show that Oscar Pistorius

:23:20.:23:23.

must have known what he was doing on that night was wrong.

:23:24.:23:31.

The way deaths in police custody in England and Wales are investigated

:23:32.:23:34.

is to change - to give bereaved families more involvement in the

:23:35.:23:36.

process, and more support. The Independent Police Complaints

:23:37.:23:39.

Commission carried out a review after complaints that investigations

:23:40.:23:41.

weren't thorough enough, took too long and appeared to treat police

:23:42.:23:43.

favourably. Here's our Home Affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw.

:23:44.:23:46.

Who polices the police? For a decade it has been the IPCC, a body made up

:23:47.:23:50.

of former police officers and civilians. Too often it has been

:23:51.:23:55.

found lacking so now it says it is changing. One of the things we are

:23:56.:24:02.

doing is putting in more support into training. Anyone who thinks

:24:03.:24:08.

doing the job of investigating the police is easy ought to try doing it

:24:09.:24:12.

and we need to make sure we've got those systems in place. It is in the

:24:13.:24:18.

cases of people who died in police custody, people like Sean Rigg,

:24:19.:24:24.

where the IPCC has come in for most criticism. It found that police used

:24:25.:24:29.

proportional restraint against Sean Rigg. It took his family and a

:24:30.:24:34.

charity to suggest otherwise. His sister took part in the recent

:24:35.:24:39.

review of how the IPCC could improve. I have no faith whatsoever

:24:40.:24:45.

in the police system and the complaints system. So far they have

:24:46.:24:49.

not been fit for purpose and we have been vindicated by these reports

:24:50.:24:55.

that prove that. Now it is a defining time, a critical point for

:24:56.:25:03.

the IPCC to prove themselves. In 2011 communication failures

:25:04.:25:05.

following the shooting of Mark Duggan were blamed for sparking the

:25:06.:25:14.

Tottenham riots. Since then the IPCC has also been given extra powers but

:25:15.:25:20.

admitted more is needed. The commission says it needs to deal

:25:21.:25:25.

more sensitively with relatives, improving communication, but it has

:25:26.:25:29.

to strike a balance because its investigations need to be

:25:30.:25:33.

independent not just of the police but of complainants and their

:25:34.:25:36.

relatives as well. The report addresses the most inane criticism

:25:37.:25:41.

that it is not independent enough of the police. Labour has previously

:25:42.:25:46.

called for the IPCC to be scrapped and replaced. Reform is crucial to

:25:47.:25:55.

its survival. The smallest planet in our solar

:25:56.:25:59.

system is getting even smaller. A NASA mission has revealed that

:26:00.:26:02.

Mercury has shrunk as it has cooled over time, almost nine miles in

:26:03.:26:05.

diameter since it was formed more than four billion years ago, and the

:26:06.:26:08.

planet's surface has been cracking and wrinkling in the process. Our

:26:09.:26:10.

Science Correspondent Pallab Ghosh has more. The planet Mercury,

:26:11.:26:13.

dwarfed by the sun. It is the smallest planet in our solar system

:26:14.:26:17.

and over the years, it has become smaller. NASA's Messenger spacecraft

:26:18.:26:22.

has spent the past three years photographing the planet. And this

:26:23.:26:27.

is the result, the first complete picture of Mercury. On the ground,

:26:28.:26:33.

chemicals, known as volatiles, that simply shouldn't be there anymore.

:26:34.:26:37.

Now, NASA has published, in the journal Nature Geoscience, that the

:26:38.:26:40.

planet has shrunk by 4.5 miles from its centre to the surface. We are

:26:41.:26:47.

learning more every month, we are nearly three years into NASA's

:26:48.:26:50.

orbital mission around Mercury and there's still a year to go. And I

:26:51.:26:54.

think there are more surprises to come. I am staggered already, it is

:26:55.:27:00.

rich in volatile elements that it shouldn't have, it has recent

:27:01.:27:03.

volcanic activity, it has ice in the craters near the poles and it is

:27:04.:27:07.

shrinking, as we expected - but in ways we hadn't expected. I am sure

:27:08.:27:12.

there is more to come. The mission is showing that what many thought to

:27:13.:27:16.

be the dullest planet in our solar system is more interesting and

:27:17.:27:18.

interesting than astronomers had imagined.

:27:19.:27:34.

The celebrity cook Clarissa Dickson Wright, who found fame on television

:27:35.:27:38.

as one half of the Two Fat Ladies, has died at the age of 66. Our Arts

:27:39.:27:41.

Correspondent David Sillito has more. Clarissa Dickson Wright was

:27:42.:27:53.

best known to the world as one of the Two Fat Ladies. In the sidecar

:27:54.:27:58.

next to Jennifer Paterson, TV brought the unlikely duo together.

:27:59.:28:03.

They're cooking was as old school as their attitudes and they were a hit

:28:04.:28:10.

around the world. She had, as you could perhaps guess from her bearing

:28:11.:28:14.

in her lengthy name, come from a wealthy background. Her father had

:28:15.:28:19.

been a surgeon to the Royal family and he was also a violent drunk, she

:28:20.:28:30.

said. Her size, her straight talking, she was scornful of health

:28:31.:28:35.

targets and a supporter of hunting. She was as far from the typical TV

:28:36.:28:40.

presenter as you could get, which is probably why she was so popular.

:28:41.:28:50.

Clarissa Dickson Wright, who has died at the age of 66. Let's catch

:28:51.:28:54.

up with the weather forecast. up with the

:28:55.:29:03.

Slow changes with the weather this week, but just a cautionary note,

:29:04.:29:08.

sunshine and light winds are not always without their perils. This

:29:09.:29:16.

picture taken in Paris where smog has been caused by sunshine and

:29:17.:29:21.

light winds, which has been caused by this area of high pressure which

:29:22.:29:27.

has been dominating across France, Iberia and the rest of the UK. Some

:29:28.:29:34.

rain across the Northern Isles of Scotland and a scattering of

:29:35.:29:37.

showers, but for most of England and Wales it is another fine day. Still

:29:38.:29:42.

some sunshine lifting the temperature is another fine day.

:29:43.:29:44.

Still some sunshine lifting the temperatures may be not to 20

:29:45.:29:50.

Celsius but brightening up. Like yesterday around these western

:29:51.:29:55.

coasts, it may stay rather gloomy. Elsewhere, a bit of sunshine lifting

:29:56.:30:00.

temperatures. Sunshine across eastern Scotland, a sprinkling of

:30:01.:30:04.

showers in western Scotland and Northern Ireland, and here overnight

:30:05.:30:08.

we will see the breeze picking up. We will also see those showers

:30:09.:30:12.

gathering together and it could turn wet over Northern Ireland by the end

:30:13.:30:19.

of the night. Becoming cloudy, and also becoming breezy with a

:30:20.:30:22.

combination of cloud and breeze meaning it will not be a cold night.

:30:23.:30:28.

Temperatures will certainly be frost free to start tomorrow. Generally

:30:29.:30:35.

tomorrow across the UK there will be that stronger breeze blowing and

:30:36.:30:38.

some showers, which could be heavy and possibly even thundery. You can

:30:39.:30:44.

see this band really fizzles out as it gets to the east and the south so

:30:45.:30:49.

many here having another dry day. Far from dry in the north with heavy

:30:50.:30:55.

downpours coming through. Temperatures still reaching double

:30:56.:30:59.

figures widely. Feeling a bit cooler than today because of the breeze,

:31:00.:31:04.

which is still in evidence on Wednesday, when temperatures jump up

:31:05.:31:09.

again. More cloud in the west, and the rain likely to put up late in

:31:10.:31:18.

the day across north-west Scotland. Still some uncertainty about this

:31:19.:31:21.

weather front as it drives south but it could well bring some heavy rain

:31:22.:31:26.

across England and Wales on Thursday, though it may not reach

:31:27.:31:31.

the south-east until Friday. Further north, showing signs of turning

:31:32.:31:39.

colder once more. The Crimean parliament has declared the region

:31:40.:31:41.

an independent state and

:31:42.:31:42.

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