07/02/2012 BBC News at Six

In this country, we expect the police to get on with their job

impartially. They didn't in this case. But at least they ordered a

new inquiry which has shown the truth. We'll be asking if police

officers were involved in a cover- up. Also tonight:

Russia's Foreign Minister give an hero's welcome in Syria. But his

presence fails to stop the carnage. British born and British educated.

The Syrian President's wife on why she's standing by her man.

The Islamist preacher due to be freed within days. Ministers attack

the European court for banning his deportation.

The right place for a terrorist is in a prison cell.

The right place for a foreign terrorist is a foreign prison cell

far away from Britain. Prince Charles leads the tributes to

Charles Dickens, born 200 years ago. But his words are as vivid today.

It's the light acoming, Sir. It is close at hand, hallowed be thy name.

Welcome to the BBC's news at Six. The Metropolitan Police knew the

names of people whose phones were hacked by the News of the World but

refused to tell the victims. Today, for the first time, it's accepted

that the failure to warn people like the former Deputy Prime

Minister, Lord Prescott, was unlawful.

A lawyer for several victims says the police officers' silence helped

in the cover-up of the phone hacking scandal. Our Home Affairs

correspondent, Matt Prodger, is at Scotland Yard.

George, a police force which prides itself on enforcing the law was

today in the humiliating position of having to finally formally admit

that it had itself acted unlawfully and it was phone hacking, a crime

which it initially failed to take seriously which has once again

caused such serious harm to its reputation.

Today, we call it phone hacking. But back in 2006, it was barely

known. This is where today's police apology has its roots.

An investigation that began and ended with a conviction of just two

men, a reporter and private investigator working for the News

of the World. But even then, the police knew of

thousands of potential victims. They failed to tell them. They

failed to investigate far enough. One of those victims was Brian

Paddick who was himself a senior figure in the Met, another was

Labour MP, Chris Bryant and a third, the former Deputy Prime Minister,

Lord Prescott. Hi arrived at court today hear the

Met admit it acted unlawfully by repeatedly telling him he was not a

victim of hacking. That happened five years ago and I've been

fighting to get the police to say they were wrong. The court got the

police to apologise for not properly investigating and properly

informing people of those that were involved in the phone hacking.

In today's declaration, the Met admits that more should have been

done by police in relation to those identified as victims and potential

victims of phone hacking several years ago.

Can I ask whether they... Chris Bryant's phone was hacked just

months after he challenged former News of the World editor Rebekah

Brooks. He's long argued the relationship between the police and

elements of the media hindered the phone hacking investigation.

relationship between journalists and senior police officers was so

close, I think they just got confused in their head and in the

end, they couldn't see clearly what their real legal obligations were.

Two more victims were part of today's judicial review, a personal

Assistant to the actor Jude Law and another man known in court

documents by the initials HJK. The solicitor was damning in her

criticism of the police. By failing to tell victims what had

happened and investigate fully, News Group was able to put out

statements from 2006 onwards claiming there was one rogue

reporter and that everything had been dealt with. That wasn't true.

So the effect of what happened in 2006 and on until more recently was

to assist News Group to cover up the scandal.

Six years ago, the Met met police had hoped to hear the end of phone

hacking. Today, it hears of little else and it's far from over.

Indeed, today, the Met confirmed it has 130 police officers working on

the various inquiries which form the phone hacking investigation.

Back in 2006 it says it simply didn't have the resources to fully

investigate something that it considered to be a low priority

crime. So it's something of an irony that it's taking up so many

of those resources today at a time when it can ill afford to spare

them. Thank you very much.

At the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, the editor of the Times

has apologised for an occasion when the paper hacked into a detective's

e-mail. James Harding told the inquiry that he sorely regretted

the intrusion and that people expected better of the Times.

For the fourth day, the Syrian Army's been pounding the opposition

stronghold of Homs. That's despite the presence of the Russian Foreign

Minister, Sergei Lavrov, who's in the country for talks. Activists

say up to 100 people have been killed in hoplgs in the last 24

hours. Our Diplomatic Correspondent, Bridget Kendall, reports -- Homs.

Thousands thronging the streets of Damascus waving Russian flag this

is morning. It's not often a Russian Foreign Minister get this

reception when his car arrives in town. But the Syrian government was

making a point. Gratitude for Russia keeping UN pressure off

President Assad. But look closely at the picture. At

least one man seems to be organising and orchestrating the

crowd. And not everyone looks as though

they really know what is going on. Who knows what private message was

brought from Moscow for the Syrian leader, but in public afterwards,

the Russian Foreign Minister said President Assad had offered talks

with the opposition, a new constitution and new elections and

pledged to do all he could to bring about peace.

TRANSLATION: We confirmed we are ready to do all we can to solve the

crisis based on the Arab League's plan of November 2nd last year.

President Assad gave his commitment to end the violence no matter where

it's from. There was no mention of the Arab

League's crucial call for President Assad to step aside and no sign on

the ground that the Syrian Army's bombardment is about to stop.

In Homs, the relentless shelling continued for a fourth day. This

amateur video footage shows the BA BA amar district. The cameraman can

be heard in Arabic appealing for international help -- babr Amr.

Government tanks are now on street corners, some of them apparently

Russian-made. The likely armed opposition

fighters no math match for the Government's heavy weaponry.

Every two minutes you can hear a rocket. Yesterday every two minutes

you could hear five rockets landing, you could hear mortar bombs, shells,

yesterday was terrible. In the street there are still bodies,

there's destruction. Latest amateur pictures from Homs give a sense of

the chaos and panic, desperate efforts to deal with the wounded.

A snatched moment of calm apparently today to bury a body.

Whatever the rhetorical pledges coming out of Damascus, the grim

reality seems to be that this conflict, if anything, is getting

more entrenched. She's British born, British

educated and she's married to the Syrian President. Today, Mrs Asma

Assad took the unusual step of writing to the Times newspaper to

explain why she thought her husband was still the right person to lead

Syria. The letter has caused a furious backlash among Syrian's

living here. Our World Affairs Correspondent, Caroline Hawley,

hack talking to those who knew Mrs Assad when she lived in Britain.

Glamorous and gifted, Syria's First Lady once fated around the world

and seen as a liberalising hope for the dictatorship her husband

inherited. She's been curiously out of the spotlight since the uprising

against Bashar Al-Assad again. Now with the slaughter in Syria

intensifying, she's broken her silence to stand by her man. The e-

This is the family home in Acton where Asma grew up, known to her

school friends as Emma. The red paint is the result of a protest

last year. This man played with her younger brother and now he's Editor

in Chief of an opposition television station.

On a personal level, I feel sorry for her because she's been put in

this situation. I genuinely believe she's got a kind heart. From a

political perspective, it's completely unacceptable, her

standing by Bashar Al-Assad after all that's happened for the last 11

months. She knows full well what's happening in the country.

Nothing ins a mar Al-Assad's upbringing here in West London can

have prepared her for the position she finds herself in now.

This is the private school on Harley Street where Asma Al-Assad

did her A-levels before a degree in computer science at Kings College

London and a career in investment banking. Her father, a consultant

cardiologist, has a clinic just up the road.

But her family hails originally from Homs which has been freshusly

pounded by Bashar Al-Assad's Army. Bangladesh ferociously. It's her

fellow Sunni Muslims being killed. Homs has been at the centre of this

uprising, not least in the last few days where we have seen a massive

bombardment of this area of the city. But, simply, does she care

about the city? Does it mean anything to her? Do we know

anything about her inner emotions right now? The answer, I'm afraid,

is no. Asma Al-Assad once seen as a PR

asset for Syria, it's acceptable face, now defending an unacceptable

and Britain says doomed regime. The Home Secretary, Theresa May,

has said the Government is doing everything possible to deport the

radical Islamic preach Erekat Qatada to Jordan where he's been

convicted of terrorism offences. It follows a ruling yesterday that Abu

Qatada should be released on bail despite the fact he's been

described as a threat to national security. Our Political Editor,

Nick Robinson, is at Westminster. Nick, what options does the

Government have? The options that you might think

they would want to have they don't have. They can't lock him up on the

grounds there simply isn't enough evidence to do that, they can't put

him on a plane to Jordan because the European Court of Human Rights

says that would be a breach of his human rights. All they can do now

is appeal against the judgment, go to a higher level, if you like,

within theian court, that is being considered, or go to the Jordanian

government and say, can you give us some new assurances? The Jordanians

have already said to the British, we promise we won't torture him if

you send him over here. The European court is saying, that is

not enough, we need the assurance that if he's put on trial in Jordan,

that the evidence that is used in that trial has not itself been

obtained as a result of torture, so some Foreign Office minister now

has to go to the Jordanians and say, can we have that assurance. That

didn't impress many Tory MPs in the Commons today. Some said to Mrs May,

the Home Secretary, you can be a national hero if you simply put him

on the plane and damn the consequences. Briefly, how long has

the Government got? How long can he be kept under the bail conditions?

He's out next week but under the tough bail conditions, then three

months later they go and they are a lot weaker, he can't use a mobile

phone and the Internet under the bail conditions, after three months

he can, under some restrictions. That's why there's so much pressure

from the Labour Party too saying look, this Government's actually

weakened what used to be known as control orders against terror

suspects, so you get the Home Secretary now with a man she thinks

is dangerous, she can't lock up, send away attack from the right and

attack from the left. Not a very comfortable position, George.

Thank you. Lloyds Banking Group's announced

990 job losses which it says are part of a broader plan set out last

year to cut 15,000 posts. Offices in Romford, Newcastle upon Tyne and

Scunthorpe will close. The union, Accord, says Lloyds, partly owned

by the taxpayer, has now shed more than 30,000 jobs since it took over

HBOS three years ago. A Roman Catholic priest who abused

vulnerable boys for 18 years has been convicted of a string of

sexual offences. 58-year-old Alexander Bede Walsh was told to

expect a lengthy prison sentence. Police said there may be further

victims yet to come forward. The former First Minister of

Northern Ireland, the Reverend Ian Paisley, remains in hospital under

intensive care. Lord Bannside, who is 85, was takesen ill at his home

on Sunday night. It's thought he's being treated for a heart condition.

Sir Paul McCartney will be among those stars at the Jubilee concert

to mark the Queen's 60 years on the throne. Other artists due to

perform outside Buckingham Palace include Sir Elton John, Dame

Shirley Bassey and the boy band JLS. Nick Witchell has more. There is

some flash photography in this The national anthem, played from

the Palace roof, the summer of the Golden Jubilee. Brian May and his

guitar stole the opening of the show that there was no doubt who

was the star. The Jubilee girl is here! Roll forward 10 years, and

for the Diamond Jubilee a concert is being planned on an even bigger

scale in 2012. This Jubilee concert will be out here with Buckingham

Palace as the backdrop and a huge stage built around the Queen

Victoria Memorial. This is how it will look with they area in front

of the Palace turned into an open- air auditorium and the stage

constructed and a transparent canopy around the memorial. The

list of artists is still being drawn up but it will include

performers from Britain, Canada, and the United States. Among those

that have confirmed that they will be there are Elton John, Paul

McCartney, Tom Jones, Cliff Richard and Shirley Bassey. For the under

generation, JLS and Jessie J. For classical fans, Alfie Byrne.

Pulling the show together with the BBC is a musical director, Gary

Barlow. I won the whole world to be on that stage because the whole

world will be watching the stage that night. This is a massive event

on a worldwide basis and we are very excited. There are 5000 pairs

of free tickets available for the concert. Applications for the

ballot can be made online at the BBC website. If you cannot get a

ticket, the concert will be broadcast by the BBC.

Our top story tonight. The Metropolitan Police acted

unlawfully by not telling victims they had been targeted by the News

of the World in the phone hacking scandal.

And the man who will fall to earth in the highest skydived in history.

On the BBC News Channel: BP's profits rise.

And will a new price comparison website make any difference to

energy bills? It is 200 years to the day since

the second child of a Portsmouth naval clerk was born into obscurity.

Charles Dickens would become the most famous writer of the Victorian

era, and one of literature's greatest novelists. Today

celebrations have been taking place around the country to mark his life

and work, including a ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

The words of his characters are instantly recognisable. His books

have never gone out of print. Charles Dickens has become a

literary superstar. His life began in a modest terraced house close to

Portsmouth dockyard. Today the street outside was crowded with

well-wishers in the first of a series of celebrations which traced

his career. In the London borough of Southwark, others followed the

Charles Dickens trail, to an area that caused him painful memories.

200 years later, it is still possible to find traces of the

world that inspired his writing. This is the wall of the old present.

At the age of 12, Charles Dickens saw his father locked up for debt

here and he gained first-hand experience of what it was to be

disadvantaged. At another former home, now the Dickens Museum, a

royal audience for those that have helped to bring his stories to a

new generation. His descriptions of characters and the state of being

at that time in England, you know, it is part of our historical record

of what it was like back then. Charles Dickens had 10 children. In

Westminster Abbey's Poets corner the largest ever gathering of his

descendants joined the congregation for an act of remembrance.

As a member of the family you have a different opinion. When you see

the explosion of interest in Charles Dickens for the bicentenary,

it hits the family rather hard when we realise quite how special he was.

This is an extract from Bleak House. Besides Charles Dickens's grave,

Ralph Fiennes, working on a new Virgin of Great Expectations,

reminded us of his storytelling brilliance. -- a new version.

nobody here but you, Mr Woodcut. Charles Dickens had asked to be

buried in Kent, the county he loved as a child. But the public demanded

that he be allowed to join other literary figures in the abbey. A

man who grew to enjoy the attention would probably have appreciated

their efforts. Plans to introduce women bishops

into the Church of England have been discussed by its ruling body,

the General Synod. The plan allows parishes to opt for a male bishop

instead. Reformers fear that could sideline future women bishops.

Robert Pigott reports on what could be the church's most significant

decision for 20 years. Women priests are poised to change

the Church of England forever. As the General Synod began, more than

200 marched their to demand equality with men in leading the

church. I think it is well timed. I think that God is calling women to

leadership in his church at all levels. I think God usually gets

his own way. Bishops from North America came to support the

campaign. There is consensus in the Church of England that women should

be bishops. And also that traditionalist parishes should have

access to a male alternative. What is alarming women clergy is a

proposal being debated this week which would force future women

bishops to allow male bishops into their diocese and give them equal

power to deal with traditionalist parishes. Campaigners say that

would create second-class women bishops. They are determined to

stop it. Almost 4000 women priests already preside over the church's

most sacred rituals. They reject any further limits being placed on

the authority of women bishops. automatically send somebody to a

different bishop of a different gender because they object to the

authority of the woman is a nonsense, I think. I would rather

not have women bishops at all than to have that. Traditionalist

Anglicans insist that because Jesus was a man, he chose only meant to

be his apostles, and men alone should lead the church. This senior

woman cleric does want women to be bishops, but she says that

preserving unity is vital. We need to show, as far as is absolutely

possible, that we are church that can hold together differences, that

we can learn to live alongside one another. But campaigners say that

undermining women bishops is too high a price to pay for unity and

they would rather wait than compromise any more.

A woman thought to be the world's last surviving veteran of the First

World War has died. Florence Green from King's Lynn was just two weeks

away from her 111th birthday. She joined the Women's Royal Air Force

in 1918 when she was 17. You have got to have a head for

heights for this one. Austrian Felix Baumgartner is planning to

jump from close to the edge of space. He is hoping to break the

record for the highest skydived in history. The jump from 23 miles up

is fraught with danger. The earth, from 20 miles up. Then

this happens. Captain Joe Kissinger jumps from a balloon to test new

parachute systems for the US Air Force. There was a leak in his

right glove and he temporarily lost the use of his hand. Somehow he

managed to deploy his parachute and he landed safely, but only just.

That was more than 50 years ago. Now this man, Felix Baumgartner, is

hoping to break his record. This is the ultimate skydived. It is scary

but on the other side I have a lot of courage, which is bigger than my

fear. That is why I am going there. I want to find out how it looks.

Felix Baumgartner will be falling from a height that only astronaut

have been to before. Let's see how I that is. IoS mountain is Mount

Everest, over five miles high. -- the highest mountain. Passenger

jets go up to eight miles. Felix will have to go much higher, 23

miles, where the atmosphere end and space begins. He will be taken up

all that way by balloon inside the capsule. When he jumps out, all

that will protect him is a pressurised suit. If the suit leeks,

at this altitude his blood will begin to boil and he will pass out.

So engineers have developed an advanced pressure suit to protect

him. The team has carried out its final tests, and say it is now

ready for the jump. Some experts say there will still be risks. As

he falls through the atmosphere, although the temperature is very

low at that altitude, as he falls through the atmosphere the friction

against the air itself may well have a heating effect on the suit.

All of that has to be considered in the design and operation of the

life-support system. Felix Baumgartner will fall so fast that

he may break the sound barrier. That is the moment that the new

technology in his suit will be pushed to the limit.

Now the weather, and what is all this about the coldest night of

winter coming up? Could be. The riskiest thing that you can do

tonight is leave your feet hanging out of the duvet because there will

be frost across most of the country. We could get down to minus ten in

East Anglia and the South East before temperatures lift later.

Possibly minus 15 in central and northern England. Frosty in

Scotland, too. Apart from the far west and Northern Ireland, which

will remain free from frost. That is because cloud will build with

outbreaks of rain and the breeze picking up as well in the morning,

it so a rainy day to come. It will be bright in Glasgow, none of the

mist and fog of the past 24 hours. Bright but cold to start in

northern England. More cloud in the Midlands and eastern England. If

you are in part of East Anglia and the South East, there could be a

dusting of snow first thing in the morning, which will only compound

the ice risk for the morning commute. Most of England and Wales

will have a dry day with varying amounts of brightness. Western

Scotland will be cloudy and windy with outbreaks of rain and across

the Highlands of Scotland it will fall over high ground so there will

be and ice risk. For many temperatures will only just creep

above freezing in the afternoon. The sum will remain below. If you

are in the South East and on the South coast, the wind-chill will

make it feel more like minus seven. The winds will ease tomorrow into

Thursday. Another cold night with another severe frost. Scotland and

Northern Ireland will have a different story. Cloud and

outbreaks of rain, not heavy. That will move to the South, with

temperatures lifting. In England and Wales we stick with the cold

weather, struggling to get above freezing. There is also a risk of

snow and we will keep you updated on the BBC weather website.