24/07/2014 BBC News at One

The UN's humanitarian chief expresses "extreme concern"

at what she calls the dire situation in Gaza - describing

More than 700 Palestinians and 35 Israelis have been killed -

and Baroness Amos says residents in Gaza are running out of food.

The Foreign Secretary says both sides must stop.

Israel has the right to defend itself and its citizens, but we are

gravely concerned by the ongoing heavy level of civilian casualties.

We'll have the latest from Gaza and from Jerusalem.

Calls for tighter security at the Air Malaysia crash site -

as more victims are flown to Holland, eyewitnesses describe

They went too far - the undercover police who spied on

the families of 18 bereaved families - including Stephen Lawrence, Ricky

I'm here in Glasgow as the Commonwealth Games are

Shock for Team England as Olympic star Mo Farah pulls out of the Games

- after failing to recover from a recent illness.

And Jodie Stimpson has just won gold in the women's triathlon.

Alleged child rapes in the capital rise - a report finds police

And the company responsible for this waste mountain says that if it's

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One.

The United Nations says it's struggling to cope with the

increasingly desperate situation faced by Palestinian civilians

in Gaza as Israel's offensive against militants there continues.

The UN's humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said that

in the last couple of days the equivalent of one Palestinian

At a meeting with Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond the Israeli Prime

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he regretted civilian casualties -

but that it was grotesque that Israel had been condemned by the

Our correspondent Yolande Knell sent this report.

Trying to feel at home in a school. These are the faces of Gaza's

growing humanitarian crisis. Most families here have seen their homes

partly or fully destroyed. This woman and her family lived near the

eastern border. Their house was flattened by Israeli tanks. They

left with no money and just the clothes on their backs. I don't know

what to do, she tells me. When there is a cease-fire, where will we go?

There are 17 others, including little kids. Nobody can accommodate

us all. More than 1000 people who fled the fighting off staying at

this school. It is one of dozens of UN buildings across the Gaza Strip

that is being used as a shelter and the UN says it is struggling to cope

with so many displaced families. Officials say the priority should be

protecting the most vulnerable. We have over 118,000 people sheltering

in UN schools. We have schools unable to be used for education.

People are running out of food. But there was no end to the violence.

These residential areas were hit by the latest Israeli air strikes.

Israel says its soldiers are targeting Palestinian militants who

try to attack its civilians. Today, the Foreign Secretary was in

Jerusalem for talks with Israeli officials. Britain has been very

clear that Israel has the right to defend itself and its citizens. But

we are greatly -- we are gravely concerned by the ongoing heavy level

of civilian casualties. We want to see a cease-fire quickly agreed. So

far, international diplomacy has not come up with a cease-fire

arrangement that satisfies both sides in this conflict. For ordinary

people suffering here, each day makes a deal more urgent. We can

speak to our correspondent, Quentin Sommerville, who is in Tel Aviv.

Listening to the Israeli Prime Minister, he was very angry? That is

right. The rockets from Gaza continue to fall here in Israel.

Here at about 11 o'clock there was another barrage of rockets came

over. Most of them were intercepted. Israel has said from the beginning

they will match quiet with quiet, but the cease-fire efforts have

stalled in the past. The longer this goes on and the higher the body

count and Palestinians are certainly bearing the brunt in those terms,

the more difficult it becomes for both sides to pull back. There is a

momentum building that says, if we have lost so many lives, either on

the Palestinian side or among Israeli soldiers, something has to

be won here to make that worthwhile. More victims of the

Malaysia Airlines disaster in Ukraine are being flown to

the Netherlands this afternoon. About two thirds of

the 298 people who died were Dutch. At the crash site itself there are

renewed calls for tighter security - after some reports it had been left

abandoned. The Ukrainian president,

Petro Poroshenko, has declared a 25-mile radius

ceasefire to protect the area. Another Dutch military transport

plane leaves with more remains. It is expected more than 70 bodies will

be brought here today to be flowing to Holland and formally identified.

But there are increasing concerns a significant number of bodies have

yet to be found. The crash site in the Donetsk region, which is rebel

held territory, is wide open. No one protecting it, no sign of any

investigation getting under way. This morning, the BBC saw human

remains still lying near the road. The Australian Prime Minister Tony

Abbott has announced he has sent 50 police officers to London, ready to

go to Ukraine to secure the site, so there can be a proper search.

Exactly under what circumstances Australian police will be deployed

is yet to be determined, but the police are pre-deployed to London.

They are ready to go into Ukraine. We want them to go into Ukraine as

part of an international team. Under the authority of the United Nations,

to do this vital job, to ensure that operation bring them home is

successfully concluded. But at the moment it is not clear how the

pro-Russian rebels would react if foreign police officers arrived

here, and whether they would need to be armed. Details have yet to be

worked out. The bodies that have been found so far have been brought

to the Dutch city of Hilversum. For relatives now in mourning over the

loss of loved ones, there could be an agonising wait before finding out

if there remains have been found. We can speak to our correspondent in

Eindhoven, Anna Holligan. The agony for the families goes on.

Absolutely. In just a few hours' time, those military planes are

expected to land here at Eindhoven airbase. Just like the first 40

officers arrived here yesterday, these 70 will receive the same

ceremonial homecoming. The planes will come to a standstill beside

each other, a bugler will pay the last post -- play the last post and

there will be a minute's silence. We are expecting the relatives of many

of those 298 passengers who were on board the Malaysia as light to be

here, to watch, as coughing after coughing is placed -- was coffin

after coffin is placed here and identification can take place.

Algeria's national airline, Air Algerie, says it has lost

Early reports suggested that the plane, an MD83, disappeared

There are reports of severe weather in the region.

With me is our correspondent, Richard Lister.

It was flying to waggler Dudu to Algiers, and was supposed to arrive

at five o'clock this morning. Contact appears to have been lost

over northern Mali. The BBC has been told by a senior military source on

the ground in Mali that the plane came down between the north-eastern

towns in Mali, although a search and rescue operation is now under way.

The fate of the aircraft is unclear. The question is what brought it

down. There will be speculation in the wake of the shooting down of the

Malaysian Airlines plane over Ukraine that may the jihadists in

northern Mali were involved. It seems unlikely, given that they are

not thought to have that kind of weaponry that could bring a plane

down. A far bigger threat is almost certainly the weather. There were

reports of a sandstorm overnight and reports that the pilot asked air

traffic control to divert his route shortly before the wreck -- shortly

before before the plane vanished from the radar screens. We do not

know who was on board. The French Foreign Ministry has said a number

of French nationals are likely to be on board, but this is early days.

The plane has not been found. The search goes on.

A report has revealed undercover police officers at Scotland Yard

gathered information on 18 bereaved families campaigning for justice.

The cases included the high-profile campaigns surrounding the deaths

of Stephen Lawrence, Ricky Reel and Jean Charles de Menezes -

who was shot dead by police who mistook him for a suicide bomber.

These were deaths in police custody is all murders, and information from

the families was covered by undercover officers working for a

unit known as the Special Demonstration Squad. Or the FTS. It

was part of Special Branch at Scotland Yard and has been

disbanded. This report makes no criticism of the individual

officers, but it is blistering about the management. It says there was a

complete failure to manage this squad. A senior officer said here

said he regretted enormously what had happened to these families.

This week saw the ninth anniversary of the death of Jean Charles de

Menezes. He was the young Brazilian electrician shot dead by police

after being mistaken for a suicide bomber. The day before police killed

him there had been a failed terrorist attack on the London

transport system. It was two weeks after 7/7 and the atmosphere was

free trial. John Charles's parents came from Brazil to London and

visited the underground station where their son died. His death

provoked a massive campaign, which involved some of his relatives

living in the UK. Now it has emerged that intelligence was gathered on

his family by undercover police. The family feel it distressed and upset

to hear they have been spied upon full stop it feels like a violation

of privacy at a time when they were seeking answers to find out what

happened after the death of a loved one. They want to know why the

police were doing this, what information was being gathered and

our lawyers will take this forward. Many years before, Ricky Reel, a

young Asian student was found dead in the River Thames. His parents

wanted the police to investigate his death as murder. Officers said it

was probably accidental. His family were also targeted by undercover

officers, they gathered intelligence on his mother. If someone follows

someone, it is spying. My understanding is police officers spy

on criminals, right? I am thinking, what crime did I commit? It was the

revelation that the family of the murdered black teenager Stephen

Lawrence had been spied on by the police which led to the catalogue of

Revelations. Once again, Scotland Yard is in dock over its behaviour

towards bereaved families who had committed no crime.

On that point, what emerged this morning was that the SDF was such a

secret unit that even some of the top brass did not know it existed.

What was said here this morning was that if those officers were still

serving and these are very senior officers, they could be facing the

misconduct hearings because they had behaved negligently and with

complacency. The UN's humanitarian chief

expresses 'extreme concern' at what she calls the 'dire' situation in

Gaza - describing a ceasefire there Still to come: Better news for power

customers, compensation is going up. The housing expert calling

for older people to move into flats And the iconic image

of the 2012 Olympic games is going After the excitement of last night's

opening ceremony when the Queen declared the Commonwealth Games open

in front of a 40,000 strong crowd - actual competition got underway this

morning with the gold of the games going to England's Jodie Stimpson

in the women's triathlon. But Team England has suffered

a blow with Mo Farah, who won gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres

at the London Olympics, pulling out of the competition,

saying he needs more time to For more on that -

and the other day's events here's Welcome to Strathclyde Country Park

just outside Glasgow where the Commonwealth Games have well and

truly got underway this morning. In total there are 20 gold medals up

for grabs and just a short time ago England's Jodie Stimpson won the

first gold of these games in a thrilling finish in the women's

triathlon. We will have more on that in a moment but as you say there was

huge shock and disappointment as Mo Farah, the Olympic champion,

announced this morning that he was pulling out of Glasgow 2014. Andy

Swiss reports. He was meant to be one of the star attractions of these

games. Mo Farah, the double Olympic champion a double world champion,

aiming for two more titles. A fortnight ago Mo Farah was taken ill

with stomach pains. He had hoped to recover but today he took what he

called the tough decision to withdraw from the games. Another

incredible performance! In a statement Mo Farah said:

It is incredibly disappointing for Mo and for the event as well. He is

one of the big stars and he will be a big miss that it is a big miss for

him. The Commonwealth Games is a massive competition for him. And

athletes in their careers look to win the Olympics, the World

Championships and the Commonwealth Games. But as one big-name withdrew

another name made his entrance, Sir Bradley Wiggins back on the track

for the first time in six years in the team pursuit. Wiggins has never

won a Commonwealth gold for England and his presence seemed to inspire

his team. Guaranteed at least a silver they will race for gold this

afternoon. The most powerful unit possible! And the hosts had plenty

to cheer as para- cycling made its Commonwealth baby. Aidan McGlynn and

Louise Haston one of the fastest qualifiers in sprint tandem. For the

fans here it is still flourishing. -- Commonwealth debut. Great

excitement and tears for England's Jodie Stimpson in the last few

minutes as she won the first gold in the women's triathlon at Strathclyde

Country Park. It is a great setting, great weather and huge crowds but

even more people are expected this afternoon when the roundly brothers

compete in the men's triathlon. The opening ceremony may have been

quintessentially Scottish but the first medal race of the games had a

cosmopolitan feel. Sport plus sunshine equals happy customers.

Just loving the Scottish sunshine here and looking forward to the

race. And the hospitality. Fantastic. Scotland is always like

this. Strathclyde Park had an issue before the Games, high levels of

blue green algae were given or NISAs headaches ahead of the 1500 metre

swim that there were no slippery issues in the calm waters for

England's Lucy Hall and Jodie Stimpson who were in the first pack

out of the water. This area is called transition as the athletes

jump out of the lock and onto their bikes. The clock keeps on ticking.

There are a number of rules they have to follow so speed is of the

essence but remembering those rules is crucial. The 40 kilometre bike

ride is a tough test of injuries, and in some cases the pain

threshold. Goodness me! We have got one down followed by another! With

Wales missing two key medal hopes England went into battle in front

pack of ten but tactics were in play and no one was willing to make the

break on the unforgiving hills. That was until Lucy Hall decided to go

and the gap was yawning. But her lead was not enough and in the ten

kilometre run Jodie Stimpson made her move. The highest ranked athlete

in the field was controlling the pace. Team-mate Vicky Holland,

though, sticking with her all the way but when Stimpson kicked it

became clear she would win the first gold of the games with Holland

taking bronze. Their compatriots, the Brownlee Brothers, will hope for

similar success when they race this afternoon.

In the pool there are big hopes for Scotland today with the poster boy

Michael Jamieson and Anna Miley both competing and have both been in

action already today and arc respondent Chris McLauchlan is

there. How are they doing? Here at Tollcross Team Scotland are hoping

their summers can provide them with a golden start of these games. It

has been an interesting morning as you can see in the build-up. All of

the attention has been on the 200 metres breaststroke performer

Reichel Jamieson. 200 metres breaststroke semifinal, silver medal

sorry, at London 2012 and he hopes to go one better here in Glasgow. He

says it will be the most important race of his career. Our stash

Michael Jamieson. Earlier on in the heat he came second to Ross

Murdoch, his countryman, who set a new games record in the pool and

also setting a new games record Hannah Miley, his fellow Scot, in

the 400 metres medley. He will be up against England's Aimee Willmott

later this evening -- she will be. We will also see Liam Tang clock,

Robbie Renwick. But given some of the times we have seen so far in the

pool this morning you would not bet against world records going. The

hopes will be on home boy Michael Jamieson. He learned to swim here at

Tollcross earlier in his career and all of the attention will be on him

at 9pm this evening. It is a great atmosphere at Strathclyde Park.

Colours about the atmosphere there. We saw Hannah Miley tweet about the

amazing support she was getting there. I spoke to her after her race

and she described the atmosphere as awesome. Her father is her coach and

he told me earlier in the week that she is in the best condition of her

career. You should have heard the atmosphere when Michael Jamieson

took to the stage and when Hannah Miley took to the stage as well. We

are expecting something special at Tollcross this evening. Thank you

for joining us. Well with is Andy Hunt the former

chef de mission of Team GB at the London Olympics and now ivolved

with England's Commonwealth team. What has happened to Mo Farah? It is

hugely disappointing for Mo Farah given he has had this illness. It

has been all over the media, in terms of the disappointment for him

and for the team. That is the nature of sport. People drop out just

before competition whether it is through injury or illness and I'm

sure Mo Farah was coming here to win. If he felt he couldn't win he

had a difficult decision to make. Great scenes you saw a short time

ago at Strathclyde Park with Jodie Stimpson crossing the finish line

first and she dissolved into tears as she did so. What an achievement

for the 25-year-old. An amazing achievement for Jodie and Vicky

Holland. You cannot get a better start. I remember being there at

2012 for the first medal, such an important moment, it is the

beginning and the start of everything and beginning to Runrig

are fast as people chase those medals. There are some big names

like Mo Farah who sadly will not be here. There are lots of people who

really come through at events like these. It is disappointing when big

names go out but the Commonwealth Games is full of great athletes and

some that we don't know about yet but will go on and perform for Team

GB in Rio in 2016. There are tonnes of them. There are the Brownlee

brothers this afternoon who I'm sure will make us very proud in this

country. We have got Michael Jamieson tonight. We have got all

kinds, Sir Bradley Wiggins, adding Jimmy Lee, gosh, we have got the

England netball team, the England rugby sevens team. I could go on and

on, Laura Trott. Plenty of sports that don't get the Olympic limelight

like squash for example and lawn bowls which is getting a lot of

attention. For certain sports like netball and squash this is a real

pinnacle and very important. People talk about them being the friendly

games but I will tell you what, the athletes are here to win. You

experienced London 2012 and you were at the heart of it. You are getting

your first taste of Glasgow 2014. It is a hard act for Glasgow to follow

in many ways but they seem to be doing an incredible job. I'm so

impressed at the quality of what they are delivering here. The

athlete experience and the spectator experience, I hope that is coming

across four people viewing this from afar but it is amazing what they

have put on. The opening ceremony did Scotland and Glasgow crowd last

night and we are going to season really top-quality sport over the

next ten days. Let's hope so. Andy Hunt, thank you for joining me. That

is all from us at Strathclyde Park. Plenty more action and excitement

this afternoon when the Brownlee brothers compete later on. But for

now, back to you, Simon. After last year's storms more than 1 million

people were left without power and many customers were frustrated at

the length of time it took to get reconnected and at the level of

compensation they received. Well, now the energy regulator,

Ofgem, says it's more than doubling the minimum payment

for consumers who lose power Our business correspondent

John Moylan has the details. Cutting down trees in the summer to prevent

power cuts in the winter. In Hampshire this week the energy giant

SSE has dozens of teams out clearing trees away from overhead lines. It

is spending almost ?30 million to try and prevent blackouts across its

network. In order to be able to work safely here today they have had to

cut off the power in the high-voltage line. There is a

consequence of that, about 100 local households and businesses will today

we be without power for a few hours but that is a lot better than the

much longer power outages that some households experienced last winter.

As storms battered Britain over Christmas almost 1 million homes

were left without electricity. For some, the power cuts lasted days

leading to intense criticism of the network firms. Today SSE and UK

power networks agreed payments of ?8 million for failing to reconnect

customers and keep them informed. We want them to be better prepared. We

want them to communicate more with their customers about what is

happening, get more staff trained and get social media strategies

working and get their websites up-to-date so customers know when

they can be reconnected. This pub in Kent lost power on December 23. It

did not come back until Boxing Day evening. We were off for three days

and some parts of the village will offer five days and other parts were

off for a few hours. UK power networks should have known as soon

as it became daylight that the power was not going to be restored

quickly. In the aftermath of the firms were hauled in front of MPs.

Today one of the companies that faced the grilling said that it had

overhauled its operations. I'm proud of the way we dealt with it but

recognise this had a major impact on customers, and we have to learn and

we have to move forward and we are making improvements for the future.

The higher compensation pay-outs should ensure the firms are better

prepared. The Rhyl test will come later this year. -- the real test.

Time for a look at the weather. Those storms seem a long time ago.

Temperatures heading towards 24, 20 5 degrees in Glasgow. That is the

case are much much -- across much of the UK. A bit of cloud here and

there, case are much much -- across much of

the UK. A bit of cloud here most notably across eastern Scotland and

North East England but even here it is thinning out. In the south-west

it is a bit different to recent days, we have some cloud producing

one or two showers. They are offshore at the moment but will

drift in across parts of Devon and Cornwall this afternoon, so one or

two heavy downpours possible but temperatures still getting up to the

mid to high 20s between those. That is the story across most other

areas. Nice breeze coming in across East Anglia and southern England

tempering the heat a little bit but once things get up to 30 degrees and

maybe the odd shower in western parts of Northern Ireland but look

at the contrast across Scotland. We're getting close to 30 in the

north-west Highlands, the mid-teens in the north-east coast where the

mist is lingering. They will spread inland across eastern Scotland and

eastern parts of England as the night wears on. Otherwise we have

clear skies. Air temperatures looking like this, the mid-to high

teens but your house is probably still warmer than that. The heat has

been building up over the last few days which is why it feels rather

uncomfortable for sleeping. Tomorrow we go through the same process, mist

and low cloud burning back to the coasts in the east, otherwise a dry

day or most everywhere and long spells of hot sunshine. Temperatures

much the same as they have been in the last few days, made to high 20s

but again in the north-east that little bit cooler with that mist and

low cloud coming off the sea. That is a trend we will all seek over

this coming weekend. There will be some sunshine and a scattering of

showers turning up, but gradually it will turn cooler from the

north-west. We start to see the change coming in across north-west

Scotland and Northern Ireland during Saturday. Some outbreaks of rain

heading in. Ahead of that another hot day and southern Scotland and

particularly England and Wales with similar temperatures to recent days.

The change coming across all areas as we go into the second part of the

weekend with a north-westerly breeze, a few showers around most

notably in the north-west but southern parts could see a few

showers but still plenty of dry weather in between those.

Temperatures across Scotland and Northern Ireland are about 10

degrees down on what we have at the moment so you will feel the

difference here and a fresher feel to things further south as well,

which should continue into next week. If you are not a fan of the

weather the heat is on its way out to some extent but still decent

weather around into next week. Our top story this lunch time:

The UN's humanitarian chief expresses 'extreme concern' at what