20/07/2011 BBC News at Six

Regrets and the benefit of hindsight, the Prime Minister

admits he would not have employed Andy Coulson had he known then what

he knows now. David Cameron says he is extremely sorry for the furore

caused by his decision to hire the former News Of The World editor.

course I regret and am extremely sorry about the furore it has

caused, and with 20/20 hindsight and all that has followed I would

not have offered him the job and I expect that he would not have taken

it. It is not about hindsight, Mr Speaker, it is not a bad weather Mr

Coulson lied to him, it is about the information and warnings that

the Prime Minister ignored. As Rupert Murdoch flew out of

Britain, the Prime Minister faced repeated questioning about his role

in News Corporation's bid for BSkyB. Also, a nurse is arrested on

suspicion of murder following the deaths of three patients at a

hospital in Greater Manchester. A key moment in Afghanistan as

British troops hand over control of how man's capital to Afghan forces.

And the pressures of going for Olympic gold, we follow a Namibia

athlete in pursuit of a London 2012 dream.

And in Sportsday, the two captains meet at Lord's ahead of the 100

meeting of England and India. At stake is the right to be regarded

Good evening. For weeks, he has defended his

decision to hire the former News Of The World editor Andy Coulson, but

today David Cameron admitted that with hindsight he would not have

employed him as head of communications. During a heated

emergency debate in the Commons this afternoon, he told MPs that he

regretted and was extremely sorry for the furore caused by appointing

Mr Coulson in 2007. He said Andy Coulson assured him he knew nothing

about phone hacking, but if it turned out that was a lie, the

Prime Minister would make a profound apology. Nick Robinson has

more. A friend in need is a friend until

they become a massive political headache. David Cameron has always

defended his decision to give Andy Coulson a second chance, until,

that is, today. With 20/20 hindsight and all that has followed,

I would not have offered him the job, and I expect that he would not

have taken it. But you do not make decisions in hindsight, you make

them in the present. You live and to learn, and believe you me, I

have learned. The Prime Minister said he was extremely sorry for the

furore Andy Coulson's appointment had caused. But was he ready to say

sorry for hiring him? Not yet, at least. If it turns out I have been

lied to, that would be a moment for a profound apology. And in that

event, I could tell you I will not fall short. Few expected him to go

that far, but it simply was not far enough for the Labour leader.

is not good enough, because people... It is not about Tyneside,

Mr Speaker, it is not about whether Mr Coulson lied to him, it is about

the information and warnings that the Prime Minister ignore.

warnings Ed Miliband claimed came before and after David Cameron

moved into Number Ten. On that day, his director of communications

tried very hard to keep a low profile. It was a plan that would

not last long. It is 8pm on Monday 6th September. Police are to

examine fresh claims about phone hacking by the News Of The World.

Last autumn a New York Times investigation into phone hacking

claimed Andy Coulson knew about it, something he has always denied

vehemently. Despite the paper's claims, Coulson was not fired and

only left Number Ten many weeks later with the Prime Minister's

praise ringing in his ears. Prime Minister was caught in a

tragic conflict of loyalty. Between the standards and integrity that

people should expect of him and his staff, and his personal allegiance

to Mr Coulson. He made the wrong choice. There were questions, too,

about the Prime Minister's over choice of friends. His many

meetings with News International bosses, with Rebecca Brooks, and

with Rupert Murdoch, who left London today on the morning after

the most humble day of his life. Prime Minister, did he ever discuss

the question of the BSkyB bid with News International at all of the

meetings they attended? I never had won in appropriate conversation.

was the third time of asking, and Labour did not like the answer.

completely took myself out of any decision-making about this bid. I

had no role in it, I had no role in mind the announcements were to be

made. In increasingly confident mood, David Cameron accused Labour

of hiding their close relationships with the Murdoch empire. The great

contrast is I have set out all of the contacts and meetings that I

have had in complete contrast to the party opposite, and I can say

this to the honourable gentleman, I have never held a slumber party or

seen her in her pyjamas. David Cameron says he has an old-

fashioned view that a man is innocent until proven guilty, but

today he tried to separate his fate from Andy Coulson's.

Nick Robinson is in Westminster for us. Another big day in the Commons

and a big day for the Prime Minister. What is your assessment

of how he fed? I think he fared well in convincing

his backbenchers that he could escape the quagmire of frack Gate.

I said a couple of days ago that his problem in this story was that

he could not own higher Andy Coulson. Today he tried at least

verbally to do that. To say, what is a statement of the obvious, that

if he had no what was to be, he would not have done it in the first

place. That will not satisfy those who say he ignored warnings and

that there are still questions, but today, there was not a single piece

of concrete evidence that made it impossible for David Cameron to

move on. Before the Tories breathed a huge sigh of relief, remember

this, there will be more cases in this hacking inquiry. Today the

police hired more officers in order to do that, and therefore there

will inevitably be more days, more debates, more difficulties, as the

Prime Minister is reminded of a judgment he now tells us he wishes

he had never made. Nick Robinson, thank you very much.

As Rupert Murdoch and his wife flew out of Britain this afternoon, News

Corporation announced it will stop paying with immediate effect legal

fees for Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed four

years ago for plotting to intercept voicemail messages. It was the fact

they were paying theirs is that came as quite a surprise, wasn't

it? Four months -- four months, journalists including myself had

been asking News International but that they were still playing the

legal costs for Glenn Mulcaire. He was the private investigator who

did the hacking of phones on behalf of News Of The World and he was

imprisoned in 2007 on hacking charges. So the fact that he was

still being subsidised by News International was genuinely, too

many people, shocking, and one of the things that is extraordinary is

that it took six months on the moment when News Of The World said

it would start co-operating with the police until today for the

company to say it will stop paying his expenses. It tells you that the

clean-up of this company is still at an early stage. Rupert Murdoch

has gone back to America today. He knows that there is more bad news

to come, he knows he will face quite a lot of increased pressure

on his own position. The most interesting statement for me that

he made in the last 24 hours came from one of the most influential

shareholders in the US, who say they will campaign for complete

change in the way that the company is owned. They want all of the

shares to have votes, which would dramatically undermine the power of

Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch family if they are successful.

Thank you very much. Detectives investigating the deaths

of three patients at a hospital in Stockport have arrested a nurse on

suspicion of murder. 27-year-old Rebecca Leighton from the Heavily

area works at Stepping Hill Hospital. The deaths are being

linked to a saline solution which police believe was deliberately

contaminated with insulin. Ed Thomas is outside the hospital.

This has been a very difficult day, not just for patients, but for

staff who work here. Rebecca Leighton was arrested less than two

miles from the hospital, and today the family of 84-year-old George

Keep, one of the three people to die year, say they are aware an

arrest has been made, but also say they are totally in shock about

what happened here. At 6am on this road, Rebecca

Leighton, a nurse at Stepping Hill, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

While neighbours watched, she was taken of it. I was born at Stepping

Hill Hospital and have been following the story, then it is on

my door step. It is a shock. arrest of a colleague has been

difficult to take at the hospital. Every door you bought in, there is

security. This nurse did not want to show her face and we have

disguised her voice. She cannot understand how anyone could

contaminate medicine. I do not know how we could run through someone's

head in the first place to do it. It is sick. It makes me

uncomfortable about coming to work, because you get questioned every

time you go in and have to sign him when you go on the ward. So far, we

know that on 7th July Tracey Arden died at Stepping Hill. Four days

later, Arnold Lancaster also died. The next day, police were called

after a nurse discovered a high number of patients with unexplained

low blood sugar levels. Then, on the 14th, great grandfather George

Keep died. All three had been given saline ampoules that had been

contaminated with insulin. The security has now increased. Saline

is kept in a locked room and medics worked in pairs to administer all

drugs. It is some comfort for patients like Dorothy Potter, who

was treated on the wards where saline was contaminated. What were

the nurses like with you? Absolutely wonderful, night and day.

How do you feel about this? I feel very disappointed for everybody,

really. Forensic work is still being carried out at Rebecca

Leighton's home while detectives tried to find out exactly how these

three patients died. That forensic work is expected to

go on for quite a while yet. We have still got the tight security

here. Rebecca Leighton is still being questioned by detectives, and

we are still waiting for these post-mortem examination results

before we can finally find out exactly what happened here.

Thank you. The United Nations says famine will

spread across Somalia within two months unless the international

community sends more aid to the region. Famine has been declared in

two areas of southern Somalia which have been ravaged by conflict and

the worst drought in East Africa for more than half-a-century. Our

Africa correspondent Andrew Harding sent this report.

Now it is official, Somalia is sinking into famine. It is the

first time that compelling word has been deployed in almost 20 years.

The United Nations is hoping it will jolt the world into action as

thousands of Somalis continued to flee a lethal combination of

drought, conflict and poverty. Since I was here, in 1992, when I

look around, and I see yet again, these are resilient people.

substantial aid operation is underway, supplies arriving in

neighbouring Kenya. But the UN is asking for an extra �185 million

immediately. The international response has been mixed. Britain

has given �23 million to Somalia this year, the United States barely

half of that. Germany and France on 3 and 1 print �6 million are among

those accused of ignoring the alarm bells -- �1.6 million. The response

from other countries has been sometimes derisory and dangerously

inadequate. Britain is setting a good lead and we expect others to

contribute. There are signs today that others are beginning to put

their shoulders to the wheel, but we need that to happen rapidly.

money is not the only problem here. Famine has taken hold in areas

controlled and influenced by a militant is met -- Islamist group,

Al-Shabab. They have made it too difficult for aid groups to operate

directly. They say a ban has been lifted, but the politics are lifted

and -- the politics are complicated and the aid is not getting there

fast enough. And so familiar images of hunger and homelessness, and the

predictable scramble for money and access as famine bites into Somalia.

If you would like to make a donation to the Disasters Emergency

Committee appeal for East Africa, you can call the DEC on their heart

line, the number is 0370 60 60 900. You can also visit their website,

Our top story tonight: the Prime Minister admitted that in hindsight,

he would not have employed former News Of The World editor Andy

Coulson. Coming up, smuggled out of India -

the ketamine normally used by vets has become one of the most popular

illegal party drugs in Britain. Later on the BBC News Channel, a

warning on private pensions. Could bad advice and high costs leave

people are at risk? And Airbus snapped up an order from

American Airlines, beating its British troops have handed over

responsibility for security for the capital of Helmand Province to

Afghan forces. British forces have been Lashkar Gah since 2006. 24

service personnel have been killed there. It is one of the most

challenging areas in this first wave of transition from

international to Afghan government forces.

A moment of national pride. Afghans taking responsibility for their own

security. This ceremony is designed to send the message that they are

up to the job. But the British soldiers who have helped train them

and who will now step back still have concerns, not least about

corruption within the Afghan police. There is some illicit income

generation and allegations of corruption, and we would be foolish

to deny that. But we want to eradicate that from the police. If

we get it wrong, the police could push locals away. He even if

Afghanistan manages to root out corruption, huge challenges remain.

This is Bamiyan, another province just handed over to the Afghans.

Unlike Helmand, there has been little fighting here for the past

ten years. Bamiyan is still waiting for the dividends of peace. Around

half the population does not have enough to eat. Malnutrition and

diarrhoea are the biggest killers here, not bombs and bullets.

International aid keeps this hospital going, and the biggest

worry is what will happen when the foreign troops leave. The pressure

is now on the Government to win the trust of its own people. There will

be lots of concerns. We acknowledge the concerns, but our job is to

change our institutions and perceptions. This, in theory, is

the easy phase. The transition of just a few less violent parts of

the country. For NATO, it marks the beginning of the end, the exit

strategy that will see all British combat troops leave by 2015. If

transition does not succeed in Lashkar Gah or Bamiyan, what hope

for the rest of Afghanistan? The president of the European

Commission has warned that history will judge Europe's leaders harshly

if they fail to find a solution to the financial crisis facing the

Eurozone. Jose Manuel Barroso said that if leaders gathering for

tomorrow's summit in Brussels did not respond decisively, the

negative consequences would be felt throughout Europe and beyond. How

Europe Editor is in Brussels. A stark warning from the head of the

European Commission, but finding a solution will be a challenge? To

absolutely. This summit is crunch time for the euro. And the whole

financial world will be watching. There are two main challenges.

Firstly, Greece needs a second bail-out. Secondly, and Greece's

debts have mushroomed to 360 billion euros, and they need

bringing down. Some measures are easy to agree, like reducing the

interest that Greece pays on its loans, but there are sticking

points. In the past, the taxpayer has stood behind these bail-outs,

but the German Chancellor Angela Merkel says that is unfair and she

wants private investors, the banks and pension funds both to support

the second bail-out and to help reduce those debts. If those banks

end up taking big losses, some will say that is a default. That would

unsettle markets across Europe. There is one other big fear here.

Say it proves difficult helping Greece. What about Italy, a much

bigger economy? It also has huge debts, 120% of GDP. If they have

difficulties tomorrow, it will put further pressure on Italy. If Italy

runs into trouble, that could threaten the survival of the

Eurozone. So much is at stake here tomorrow.

It is a drug that is normally used by vets to tranquillised horses,

but ketamine has now become one of the most popular illegal party

drugs in Britain. It can have devastating effects. A BBC

investigation has discovered that much of it is being smuggled into

the UK from India. In Delhi, everybody is looking to

do a deal. Ketamine is manufactured in India as an animal tranquilliser,

but its growing popularity is as an illegal party drug. Away from here,

the city's pharmaceuticals market, we discovered ketamine being traded

on the black market. Harsh Chaudhary is a pharmaceutical agent

who advertises on the internet. Smuggling of the Holy so telegenic

At a meeting that night, he reveals that he smuggles the ketamine out

And then he hands over a small plastic bag, hidden inside a napkin.

It is clear that he is keen to do business. He even gave us a free

sample. This is ketamine, the drug he says he is already illegally

exporting from India into Britain. In the UK, Chris Francis is serving

time for drug dealing, and ketamine has left him scarred for life.

have racecard there. His abuse of the jokes are badly damaged his

bladder that it had to be removed. You start off with stomach cramps.

Then there is not being able to urinate. So you start sniffing more

to get rid of the stomach cramps, which was why they were there in

the first place. Then you start urinating lumps of Q and blood.

Ketamine has also led to a small but growing number of deaths. This

woman's son had taken the drug when he killed himself last year. It is

a very dangerous drug, and needs to be reclassified. You feel so

helpless. You cannot sleep or eat. You have to do something to stop

somebody else going through this. In less than a decade, the number

of clubbers who said they had used ketamine went up from 20% -- 25% to

68%. It is a class C drugs, the lowest of the categories for

controlled substances. Tomorrow's report says this classification

does not accurately reflect its known and potentially severe harms.

There is a debate about this. Our evidence shows that changing

Classification does not change people's use of the drug. Back in

India, we are going to meet the man who has offered to sell us ketamine,

but not to make a deal. Do you know the damage done by ketamine? Do you

understand? It is doing major damage to people. Yeah. Do not

care? No. For Delors, the main concern about ketamine is the price.

But for users, the real worry is the long-term damage to their

health. The Queen has attended a service to

honour the memory of the British servicemen and women who were

killed in 2010. All 112 troops who died in the line of duty last year

were remembered in the ceremony at the National Memorial Arboretum in

Staffordshire. Most died as a result of injuries sustained in

Afghanistan. It is just over a year until Monday

2012, and the race is on to make the games next summer. This week,

the News at Six is focusing on some of the hopefuls. Tonight, it is the

turn of 19-year-old Namibian sprinter Merlin Diamond. She has

been sponsored to train at a high- performance centre on the island of

Mauritius. Our correspondent has been finding out how injury and

homesickness are hampering her preparations.

I have really big hopes. I want to be the first Libyan be an --

Namibian to bring a gold medal home. Big dreams have big momentum when

the sun shines. But Merlin -- Merlin Diamond is far from home and

her family. And training has not been perfect. She is on an

internationally sponsored training programme and in Mauritius until

2012, but the centre's facilities are rudimentary and she has had a

setback with a hamstring injury. Just go on the track now and do

some light jogging. Despite the injury, there is still a drainage -

- daily training schedule, which is overshadowed by the feeling that

time is not on her side. It is just around the corner. So it is putting

a lot of pressure on me. Now I am more worried about getting back on

track again. If I am back on track again, I can see my goal. I can see

where I am heading. The life of an athlete can be fraught with ups and

downs. For Merlin Diamond, it also means she has thousands of miles

from home, but she has an injury to contend with which forces her to

sit on the bench when all she wants to do is one. Watching what she

cannot do, she cuts a forlorn figure. It is a far cry from the

heady days when her dreams were forged in the face of tragedy. She

has been sponsored by a white Namibia and couple whose own two

athlete daughters died in a car crash. From humble beginnings, she

has been given the chance to excel on an international stage.

Alongside the hope of Olympic success is the weight of loneliness

carried by this teenage sprinter. have been here for at least three

months. So yeah, getting to miss people back home. Then I get out

there as if nothing happened. only has a year, and she must hope

that the tranquillity of being on this island will give her the

result she needs. If you want to find out more about

Marilyn Diamond and the athletes we Now the weather.

It was a good one for cloud spotters today. The atmosphere is

in a volatile state. This is a funnel cloud. There were a few of

these in the Midlands. If it had reached the ground, it would have

been a tornado. There are no reports of tornados yet, but it

shows how unstable the atmosphere is. Tonight, the showers will fade

away, but a few are continuing across northern England, where

there are some heavy ones. Many places stay dry, if cloudy.

Temperatures are getting into single figures, so it will be a

cool night. Another fresh start to a fresh day. No heatwave. A lot of

cloud again, and showers will bubble up. More sunshine than many

of us saw today. The south-west of England is not doing too badly. The

far west of Wales is OK, too. But in the east, sharper showers will

develop. Across Northern Ireland and Scotland, largely dry, albeit

rather cloudy. You will be unlucky if you catch a shower. Most of

those are across the higher ground in Scotland. The north-eastern

parts of England, fewer showers. Most of them will be further west.

For the Midlands, East Anglia and much of southern England, some

heavy and slow moving showers. That means for the first Test at Lord's,

there is every chance of interruptions. The same applies to

Friday. The showers linger into the end of the week across many parts

of the south-east. Elsewhere, the showers gradually fade away by

Saturday. Most places should be dry. Tonight, there is the great British