05/08/2014 BBC News at One

The Foreign Office minister, Baroness Warsi resigns - describing

the government's policy on Gaza - as 'morally indefensible'.

Lady Warsi says the government's 'approach and language' over

the Gaza crisis - is not in Britain's national interest.

A three day ceasefire comes into force in Gaza - as Israel

An Afghan soldier opens fire at a military academy near Kabul, run

by the British army. There are said to be international casualties.

The former Radio One DJ - Chris Denning - pleads guilty to a string

The parents of a murdered man hear a judge say

that impact statements from bereaved families make no difference.

Alex Salmond and Alastair Darling prepare for tonight's TV debate

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry - plant ceramic

A warning to Brits planning to live in the Untied Arab Emirates after a

And the London doctor who's on the front line

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC news at One.

The Foreign Office minister, Baroness Warsi,

has announced her resignation - blaming what she called the

government's 'morally indefensible' approach to the conflict in Gaza.

Lady Warsi said the policy was not in Britain's

national interest and would harm the country's international reputation.

David Cameron has faced growing calls in recent days to take

a tougher stance against Israel's offensive, which has claimed more

Our political correspondent, Robin Brant reports.

And, in presenting the government that she has now resigned from. She

stepped forward in a moment of the single is to extinguish a candle, as

part of a national event to mark the centenary of the First World War.

Hours later, she was unable to contain anger over a modern-day

conflict. She attacked the government. The approach and

language on Gaza is morally indefensible, she said. It is not in

Britain's national interest. It will have a long term detrimental impact

on our reputation, she writes. Sheehan said deeper problems, saying

there is great on these across the Foreign Office about how decisions

are made. I think this is frankly an unnecessary decision. The British

government is working with others in the world to bring peace to Gaza and

we have now a tentative cease-fire which we all hope will hold. Lady

Warsi is one of the most prominent British Asian politicians in the

country. David Cameron made much of her rise. I'm proud that I can stand

here with the first Muslim woman in a shadow cabinet or cabinet in

Baroness Warsi who will be a great talent for our country. A mother of

five and a lawyer by training, she went on to take part in UK Pakistan

relations, often seen alongside the Prime Minister when he visited the

country. In recent weeks, she has made no secret of her undies at the

government stance on Israel's wore with Hamas. People around Britain

have been shocked by the casualties and suffering we have seen in Gaza.

I hope that David Cameron will reflect on what she says in her

reservation letter and change his approach. The resignation reveals

cracks within the government. David Cameron has faced criticism from

some in his own party or not condemning Israel for what they

believe is disproportionate force. It is a word he has refused to use.

How damaging is this for the Prime Minister? He did not know this was

coming and the splits are genuine within the coalition and the

Conservative Party. The word, disproportionate, is one that Nick

Clegg has reiterated this morning but it is one that has a legal

significance for the Prime Minister and senior members of the

government. They have refused to use the word. The Prime Minister

described an attack on Palestinians as a slaughter yesterday. Philip

Hammond said the conditions faced by some in Gaza were intolerable and

other senior ministers have described what is going on as a

catastrophe but the fact that Baroness Warsi could no longer stand

by this publicly will lead to the question, are there are others that

feel as uncomfortable on the conservative side and will this

increased the pressure for them to come forward and forced the Prime

Minister to review his stance? One other thing to note, the Prime

Minister did not know this was coming and he will be angry. I'm

told that he was tipped off just before she sent that he was tipped

off just before she sent. He is on holiday in Portugal at the moment.

She had time to do an exit instant view that was -- exit interview with

a blocker that was online within an hour. But the government were

scurrying around before they could make a response. It is clear she

chose to inflict the maximum damage on the government she has left this

morning. Israel has withdrawn

its ground troops from Gaza, as part of a three-day ceasefire,

brokered by Egypt. The army says it's now completed

the destruction Israel is due to send a delegation

to Cairo for talks - Palestinian Our correspondent Jon

Donnison sent this report. This is his region. After a month of

war in Gaza. She lives here with four young boys and her husband.

They have gathered up what little they have left. She tells me that

only God can help them. And that she will move her family into a tent

outside her house. She hopes the cease-fire might finally be the one

that sticks. Israeli tanks just a few miles from here have made a

dusty withdrawal. People have been returning to their homes. What's

left of them. Israel says it has destroyed many of Hamas's weapons

stores and more than 30 tunnels used to carry out attacks across the

border. But not every house in Gaza as a tunnel under it. This man says

he does not know why they destroyed his house. He says there was no

resistance year and that they were all civilians. People in Gaza have

had to rebuild so many times. They have seen half a dozen wars and

decades of Israel's occupation. Much of the money for reconstruction will

be foreign aid, some of that American. Who also provided Israel

with the weapons to do much of this. But this will not be a lasting

peace. In a few years time, there is no guarantee that it will not just

happen again. Gaza has been crippled. The healing will take

years. Many will never recover. Bethany Bell is in Jerusalem. After

so many failed attempts, a robust is this cease-fire? -- how robust.

There are hopes that this may last longer than previous ones have done.

So far, it seems to be holding and that maybe because troops have drawn

back out of Gaza onto the Israeli side along the border. They are in

what they called offensive positions they are. -- what they call

defensive positions they are. That is because they have completed their

main target, destroying the tunnels through which Palestinian militants

have been trying to enter Israel. They say they are prepared to

respond if there is any rocket fire from Hamas so far, that does not

seem to have happened. A while, there is intense international

pressure on Israel to try to come up with a negotiated settlement to

this. -- meanwhile. There is suggestion that an Israeli

delegation may head to Cairo to hold talks the Palestinians there, but it

is not clear when or if that will happen. Even if it does, even if

Israel does manage to come to some negotiated truce in this, there is

little sign that either side is prepared to tackle the underlying

causes of this conflict and that means that many people are afraid

that another outbreak of fighting could happen in the next few years.

Let's pick up with that final thought. The truce is holding. If it

continues, what happens next? Nick Charlton is here. They have to make

this stick? Yes. In terms of this high-stakes jewel between Israel and

Hamas, a temporary truce has been an big diplomatic task. Turning it into

something more lasting is going to be even more of a challenge. After

bitter failures, this looks like an important development, but in terms

of the demands of both sides, they are still very far apart. Israel

says it wants Hamas to be disarmed and a commitment to demilitarise

Gaza. That means a lasting end to rocket attacks and not allowing

Hamas to rebuild tunnels. But the Palestinians have a long list of

demands on Israel over the top of which is, they say, that it must end

the siege. That means opening the borders for free flow of goods, and

opening the border crossings fully to Israel and Egypt. There are talks

in Cairo, and they are clearly a key player. But getting the talks of the

ground will not be easy. Turning to other news.

There's been a shooting at a military academy near Kabul,

run by the British army and modelled on Sandhurst.

Afghan sources say an Afghan soldier opened fire.

There are said to be international casualties.

Our correspondent David Loyn is in Kabul.

What more can you tell us, David? Very sketchy details at the moment.

What we understand happened is that after an argument, and Afghan

soldier turned his weapon on Afghan troops and international troops who

were near him, and injured or possibly killed some of them. We

understand that the Afghan commander of the military Academy, modelled on

Sandhurst, was injured. And several international troops were also

wounded. Including, understand, one British soldier. We will not get

full information on this until families have been informed. There

are also reports that American soldiers are involved in this

incident. It is a serious incident. The worst attack of this sort, this

Academy, and it may not have actually been in the building where

the Sandhurst Academy is, because it is part of a huge site. The Afghan

National defence University has several other different facilities

on the site. But there is enormous political sensitivity around this.

The University is planned to be the only British military contribution

to Afghanistan when combat operations and at the end of this

year. The first of the cadets are due to pass out next month, and, of

course, many people who want Britain to pull out altogether will be

looking at the threats of this kind, if they continue to happen

here. This is the first serious one it opened. That could then be --

there could then the pressure on that continued process. We are

trying to get information on what happened. We know it is the most

serious shooting incidents so far against international troops at the

military training academy here. Thank you.

The former Radio 1 DJ, Chris Denning, has pleaded guilty at

Southwark Crown Court, to 29 charges of sexually abusing

He denies 12 further charges, and will go on trial in November.

Our home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds is at the court.

Tell us more. Chris Denning is started out on radio Luxembourg and

he was one of the DJs who founded Radio 1 in the mid-19 60s. He is now

73. He has significant health problems including Parkinson's

disease. But he managed to stand in the dark and plead guilty to 29p of

indecent assault of young boys, aged between nine and 16. This is another

historical sexual abuse cases dating back to the 1960s, 70s and early

80s, triggered by the Jimmy Savile fear that so many of these cases.

Will he has pleaded guilty of those offences, there are still 12 that he

has pleaded not guilty to. Again, involving the sexual abuse of boys

of a similar age and again dating back to the early 80s. So there will

be a trial here. And it will start on the 24th of November. Some

victims are expected to give evidence. And Chris Denning remains

in custody. Ed Balls, Labour's shadow

chancellor, has been fined ?900 and given five penalty points

for failing to stop after his car The incident took place

in a car park in his West Yorkshire At the time,

Mr Balls said he hadn't been aware A judge is under investigation,

after the parents of a murdered man heard him question the significance

of personal statements from victims. Graham White made the remarks

during a parole board hearing Geraldine and Peter McGinty had just

given a statement, via a video link. Here's our Home Affairs

correspondent, June Kelly. It's 13 years since Colin was stabbed to

death. His killers recently applied to the Parole Board to be moved to

an open prison. Peter and Geraldine spoke at those hearings about the

impact of their son's murder. At one of the hearings, they say the panel

chairman, Judge Graham White, commented:

The couple heard this because the judge believed mistakenly that the

videolink to them had been switched off. The heartache that we go

through to do these statements, to be told - they don't make any

difference! They felt they had gone over all the events of Colin's death

for nothing. What is the point? Why are we being put through pain and

heartache? The judge has recommended that the killers be moved to an open

prison. What went on at the hearing is being investigated. There are

real communication difficulties in this field, both with victims and

with prisoners, some of whom find it hard to understand the process

themselves. We are constantly on the look out for ways of getting our

message out. No interview from any Government minister on this case,

but from Labour there was this. We have already been very clear that a

future Labour Government would introduce a Victims Bill. I think

that is what the public want and that is the way we need to proceed.

Peter and Geraldine are not critical of the judge who made the remarks,

they say they applaud his honesty. The Foreign Office minister,

Baroness Warsi, has resigned. She said the Government's policy

on Gaza was 'morally indefensible'. Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone

offers a German court ?60 million to Marking the centenary of the Great

War, we look back at one of London's And we'll get a full weather

forecast - all in 15 minutes. After yesterday's events to

commemorate 100 years since Britain joined World War One, today the

Tower of London's moat has been turned red with 888,246 ceramic

poppies - one for every British and Commonwealth soldier killed during

the conflict. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

and Prince Harry visited this morning to view

the dramatic art installation. Well, our Royal correspondent,

Nicholas Witchell, is there. This is artwork inspired by a

wartime poem which sets out to establish the scale of the losses

during the Great War and scale is certainly what strikes you when you

see it. Each poppy represents a life and

with approximately one million British and Commonwealth fatalities

in the Great War, this is a piece of art on a scale which is spectacular

and sobering. Spreading from the walls of the Tower and into the dry

moat which surrounds it, a reminder both of the magnitude of the losses

and of the part played by the Tower in the recruiting process. Here, men

assembled to join up and to swear their allegiance to King and country

before heading off to war. The idea for the installation was a wartime

poem by an anonymous soldier, the blood swept lands and seas of red,

it inspired the installation's creator, the artist Paul Cummings.

You can visualise it all. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince

Harry, who last night were representing the United Kingdom at

the official commemoration of the start of the conflict at a War

Cemetery in Belgium, walked slowly through the field of poppies and

then each in turn placed a poppy in the installation. William first,

followed by Catherine. This is an artwork which is still only

partially complete. So far, they have planted around 120,000 poppies

and that's just a fraction of the total number. By the time this

installation is complete in November, the poppies will stretch

around the Tower. Bridging the years, a piece of artwork in modern

London which reminds us of the events and the price that was paid

in human life a century ago. The plan is to have all the ceramic

poppies in place across the moat here and around the Tower in time

for Armistice Day this year, that is the 11th November.

Five cities in the North of England have come together with one aim -

to improve their economic prosperity by working together.

Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Leeds have responded

to a challenge set them by the Chancellor to begin competing

Leaders in the cities leaders say around ?15 billion of transport

improvements are needed to make it quicker and easier to move around

Our correspondent, Danny Savage, is in West Yorkshire near Wakefield.

The wider picture is that journeys between Leeds and Manchester, about

40 miles, commuters say they never know when they are going to get to

the other end because the congestion is so bad. Civic leaders are saying

it is the transport system that needs the investment if the economy

is to fulfil its potential. The cities of Northern England,

Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield. Powerful

individually, but better as one economic force. Today, the

Chancellor was told by the leaders of those cities what they want to

see so the North can rival the South. Our infrastructure is not

good enough and we need to invest in every mode of transport to make sure

that we are in a competitive position that we can compete with

the best. This allows our cities to prosper and grow individually and

still retain their own identity. That is what the report sets out and

let's hope that is what we will be able to deliver. So they are asking

the Government to invest ?1 billion a year for the next 15 years to

achieve their goal. So what does the man with the purse strings say? I'm

committed to building this northern powerhouse. It means bringing these

cities together with better transport links, more skills, more

science, so we increase prosperity in the North and we don't have an

unbalanced economy where all the bets are on London and the South.

That is what went wrong in the past. If the cash is forthcoming, the plan

is to improve links between all the Northern cities. That would boost

road capacity by 150%. Achieve 5% quicker journey times and make it

happen through a 15-year investment plan. In Wakefield, one businessman,

who over the decades has seen it all, says he's fed up with long-term

plans, the North needs help now. When it is something that is going

to bring work to the North and better jobs to the North right now,

we need something that is going to make a difference right now and then

coupled with that, further development. So the transport thing

is a bit of a mess. Let's get HS2 right before we mess with other

things. The key priority is to reverse the gap between North and

South. After years of it being an issue, can it really be closed?

As the Chancellor mentioned, there are infrastructure projects under

way, like on the M1 here at Wakefield, they are upgrading the

A1, they have done the M62. The civic leaders say more needs to be

done if the economy up here really is going to get going better than it

is at the moment. Scotland's First Minister,

Alex Salmond, is preparing for his first live TV debate tonight with

the head of the Better Together Let's speak to our Scotland

political editor, Brian Taylor. What can we expect? The thing to

stress about this debate is this is not s is -- this is not a

presidential contest. It will be about the concept of independence

versus the concept of the Union. The two are not setting out their

particular pitch for leadership. That means that both of them will

play it down to some extent. They will seek to expose weaknesses and

to offer their own strengths. I expect from Alex Salmond that he

will say there is an opportunity for the people of Scotland to enhance

the economy and he will say that the other side only offer obstacles,

opportunities versus obstacles. I expect Alistair Darling to pursue Mr

Salmond doggedly on the issues that Mr Darling believes are still weak

in the offer of independence, issues such as the currency, such as

membership of the European Union. He will seek answers rather than

assertions. Both of them, they are not pitching to be elected to

anything, they are not pitching to win for themselves, they are

pitching to the people of Scotland the idea of independence, or the

idea of a reformed Union with more powers. Ideas not individuals.

140,000 students across Scotland have received

their exams results today for the first time since new "national"

The Scottish Government is phasing out the old Standard Grades, which

were similar to GCSEs, but it's meant more young people have failed.

Pupils who sat Highers also received their results - passes reached

a record level although the pass rate itself fell slightly.

Military jets were scrambled to escort a passenger plane into

Manchester Airport. The planes have now landed.

The boss of Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone, has had his offer of

?60 million to end his bribery trial accepted by German prosecutors.

The 83-year-old billionaire went on trial in April charged with bribery

Our sports correspondent, Andy Swiss, reports.

He is no stranger to big money deals but perhaps none as important as

this. Bernie Ecclestone arriving in court this morning to agree a ?60

million payment which would spell the end of the case which had

threatened his Formula One future. Accompanied by his lawyers and his

wife, the relief was already plain to see. For more than three months

now, Ecclestone has been on trial in Munich. The accusation - that he

bribed a German banker ?26 million to steer the sale of Formula One to

a company which would keep Ecclestone in charge. Ecclestone

said this wasn't Ecclestone in charge. Ecclestone

he had only paid the money because the banker was blackmailing him. The

judge said the suspicion of bribery was by and large not backed up and

asked him if he could pay the ?60 million quickly. Ecclestone said he

could. Such deals can be struck under Bavarian law and it leaves the

Formula One boss a free man. TRANSLATION: This is not about a

conviction, but the cessation of the trial while maintaining the

presumption of innocence. There will be no guilty verdict whatsoever. For

30 years now, Ecclestone has been Formula One's driving force,

transforming the sport into a global success story. These allegations had

threatened that control. He won a civil case in London this year, but

was warned he would be sacked if convicted of any criminal act. With

the case now dropped, though, the reign of one of sport's most

powerful men seems set to continue. Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Nick Miller. Today isn't too bad. There is a bit

of sunshine out there. But also some showers. Most of them have been in

the west. It is tonight into tomorrow that we will see some heavy

rain sweeping north. We will get to that in a moment. First, to the

weather we have seen so far today. Many eastern areas have enjoyed hazy

sunshine. This area of cloud has produced some showers. Where you

have been dry so far today, you may find the odd shower appearing later

this afternoon. Most of the showers - and the heavier ones are in

Northern Ireland - but even here some drier and brighter spells. The

best of the sunshine temperatures have reached 24 so far today. Later

on tonight, here comes that heavy rain. That will advance across the

rest of England and Wales. Some hill and coastal fog around, too. A much

warmer night than we have had recently, so things will feel very

different heading out and about tomorrow morning. 8.00am - the

overnight rain will clear away from South West England and Wales. It

will still be wet on the ground. The rain will still be falling, you will

still be driving through it in South East England. So a wet and messy

rush hour. The rain will clear from Northern Ireland, but it will

advance across northern Scotland. If you start tomorrow wet, don't write

off the day. Across eastern England, that rain will clear. It will take

longer to head north across Scotland. Still some poor

visibility. But in the brighter skies that follow, for Northern

Ireland and England and Wales, the odd heavy shower, but also some

warmth in the sunshine, as there will be on Thursday. Most of us

having a fine day on Thursday. Then we get to Friday, we get to the big

picture and to this. Lots of weather fronts. If it looks messy, it is.

That translates into uncertainty. Somewhere may see some heavy rain on

Friday. The uncertainty continues into the weekend forecast,

especially later in the weekend, when a former hurricane is swept

across the Atlantic. If you have weekend plans, keep checking the

forecast on bbc.co.uk/weather. This will help. If you want more weather,

this is for you. Now a reminder

of our top story this lunchtime: The Foreign Office minister,

Baroness Warsi, has resigned. She said the Government's policy on

Gaza - was 'morally indefensible'. A a three-day ceasefire has come

into force in Gaza. That is all from us. Now it is time for the