22/03/2012 BBC News at Six

French police raid the flat in which the man suspected of the

Jewish school killings was holed up. A blaze of gunfire and the 32-hour

stand-off is over. A police marksman shot Mohamad Merah dead as

he tried to flee. How did a 23- year-old petty criminal grow into

such a dangerous fundamentalist, and how did he get such a lethal

arsenal of weapons? Also on tonight's programme... The morning

after the Budget before - pensioners accuse the Chancellor of

a stealth tax on their incomes. When I realised what he had done

with the age allowance, I felt that was a direct hit to me. What we are

doing for Britain's pensioners is delivering the biggest ever

increase in pension, in April, �5.30 a week. The great escape -

the BBC learns that hundreds of suspected sex offenders and

thousands of violent suspects have jumped bail. Team GB show off their

Stella McCartney kit - but are the athletes spending too much time in

Good evening, welcome to the BBC News at Six. The stand-off between

French police and the man accused of killing seven people, including

three Jewish children, is over. After a 32-hour siege, an armed

unit raided the flat in which Mohammed Merah was holed up. They

were met with a hail of bullets before the gunman himself was shot

dead as he tried to flee. Our correspondent Christian Fraser is

in Toulouse. It has been 11 days since the first shooting, since

when this region of France has been gripped by fear, act now or --

anger and sadness. It has finally ended today, and now, this region

will want to forget Deni Marney, and the violent crimes he committed

-- will want to forget the money, and the violent acts he committed.

It was thought Mohammed Merah had taken his own life in the Ernie Els

of this morning, but as police moved in to clear the apartment,

sustained rounds of gunfire were omitted. This is him falling about

in his car. He was a 23-year-old criminal with a string of

convictions for robbery and violence. A French citizen trained

in Afghanistan who claimed he had orders from Al-Qaeda. For hours he

had negotiated with police, but late last night he told them it was

against his conscience to surrender, and all Communications stopped.

There were attempts to break his resolve. Several times, flash

grenades were thrown at the apartment, but with no response

during the night, the decision was taken to send in the elite

commandos. They entered through the commandos. They entered through the

front, blowing off the door, and using specialist fibre-optic

cameras, they picked their way through the apartment, trying to

locate Merah, until they reached the balcony. Suddenly, he appeared,

armed with a Colt 45 handgun, opening fire. Two policemen were

injured. He jumped from the window wearing a bullet-proof vest, and

still firing wildly, but waiting for him was a police marksman, who

shot him dead. Merah had died exactly as he wanted, in a

ferocious stand-off with police, armed, with a pistol in his hand.

In three separate and brutal attacks, Merah had killed seven

people, three soldiers, and, on Monday, three children and a rabbi

at the Jewish school. Police said he conversed in negotiations that

his only regret was not killing more. He had filled his attacks,

revelling in the gruesome and appalling way in which he had

appalling way in which he had executed each victim.

He told us he had been radicalised in prison, said the prosecutor, and

had been reading the Koran, although he did not show any signs

of fundamentalism. He was violent with other prisoners, however. He

travelled to Afghanistan on his own, and later immersed himself in

extremist websites. He burgled houses to raise the money to build

up an extraordinary arsenal of weapons, which was found in the

boot of his car. Today, the French President told the nation an

inquiry was under way to find his apprentices. Every person who goes

on websites which glorify terrorism, he said, will be punished by law.

For a President facing a battle for re-election, it is a successful

conclusion. Throughout the week he has been centre stage in this

crisis, overseeing the biggest manhunt France has ever known. But

questions have been asked today by his own Foreign Minister - how did

the domestic intelligence agencies lose track of such a violent

criminal, who had travelled to Afghanistan, and was already on

their radar as a dangerous fundamentalist? Merah told

negotiators that he had killed Jewish children to avenge the

deaths of children in the Palestinian territories, and that

he had killed soldiers in retribution for his country's

involvement in Afghanistan. This afternoon the prosecutor told me

that yesterday morning, he was planning to leave to kill another

David Cameron has been defending changes in the way pensioners are

taxed, insisting that yesterday's Budget had been fair and would help

Britain's economy. It comes after an angry backlash from some

pensioners after it emerged that more than 4 million people in

retirement would have less money than they expected, as our

political correspondent Vicki Young reports. A raid on the elderly, a

tax cut for the rich, that is not how George Osborne once his Budget

to be remembered. Millions of workers will get to keep more of

their earnings, but pensioners were surprised by a move to get them to

pay more tax in future. The Prime Minister wants to focus on jobs and

growth, visiting the pharmaceutical giant Glaxo SmithKline today. He

welcomed news that they have confirmed 1,000 new jobs in Cumbria.

Mr Cameron insisted the Budget was fair. For Britain's pensioners we

are delivering the biggest ever increase in pension, in April,

�5.30 a week, which will help pensioners right across the country.

At the same time the Budget has delivered a tax cut for 24 million

working people. But so vitally important for people to see. It is

a fair budget and a good budget. The argument at the Treasury is

that while benefits have been cut and many workers have had their

wages frozen, pensioners have not done too badly. This has been

backed up in a report by leading economists, which says that the

over-65s have recently lost a lot less than any other group. The

Treasury will be hoping that the bad headlines about a granny tax

will soon be forgotten. But it has given ammunition to Labour, who say

targeting pensioners while cutting the 50p rate of tax shows the

Government has written a budget for the rich. I think it is wrong to be

given a tax cut to millionaires of �40,000, at the same time as your

hitting hard-pressed pensioners. We will be fighting against this still

tax on pensioners. It is outrageous what the Government has done. The

Chancellor was not open and honest about it yesterday. I think they're

going to have to think again. Tebbit has called it unfair and

lousy politics. What to pensioners think? Pensioners are a fairly

resilient, but they have hit us, and it is not fair. The last time,

we were less hit, so I'm not too worried about, did a more concerned

that the rich are getting away with it. So unfair, from the top to the

bottom, I have been up all night thinking about it. With money tight,

George Osborne could not afford a big giveaway, so someone has to pay

for the tax cut for those on low and middle incomes. In the coming

years he will have to prove it is the rich forking out, not the

elderly. So, plenty of controversy around those changes to pensioners'

tax allowances. But taking other benefits for the elderly into

account, are pensioners really worse off? Our chief economic

correspondent, Hugh Pym, has been Yes, George, a lot of attention is

Yes, George, a lot of attention is focusing on the restriction of the

pensioners' tax-free allowance. That's the amount they can receive

from the state pension and other sources before paying tax. For 65-

to 74-year-olds, it's set to be �10,500 a year. For the over-75s,

it will be a little bit more. But next year it will be frozen - it

will keep up with inflation, meaning more income will be taxable.

Around 4.4 million taxpaying pensioners will be affected. They

will see an average loss of �83 in the first year - not money taken

away, but a reduction on what they would have received. And there's

bad news for new pensioners. If they reach 65 on or after April 6th

next year, their allowance will be lower - around �9,200. That's an

average loss of more than �280. This man is one of those pensioners

This man is one of those pensioners whose allowance will be frozen. He

could be up to �100 worse off next year than he would have been if the

Chancellor had not announced a change, and he is not happy. I felt

that that was a direct hit to me, as a pensioner, and millions of

other pensioners. Maybe they might not all be like me, that have

supported the Conservative Party all their life, but I had, and I

felt betrayed by that. But some argue that pensioners have done

relatively well, compared to other households. Their state pension has

gone up in line with inflation, more than 5% this year, and

benefits like the bus pass and the winter fuel allowance have not been

touched. On average we think pensioners will lose about 0.25% of

their income as a result of this change, obviously some will be hit

harder. It is worth saying that up until now, pensioners have been

pretty much protected from the various changes enacted by this

government. And it's worth stressing that most of the under-

65s have benefited from a big increase in their tax free

allowance. But as so often after Budgets, the losers make a lot more

noise than the winners. George. Our political editor, Nick Robinson, is

at Westminster for us this evening. There is a danger, is there not,

that is Budget will be remembered for the granny tax? There is, and

there is a danger that the people behind me at Number 11 Downing

Street did not foresee this happening. It reminds me of Tony

Blair, when he had a row with pensioners. He said that aggrieved

pensioners were like Rottweilers on speed. In a battle between your

grandparents and a man in a suit in Westminster, you can be pretty

clear about who will win. George Osborne has every reason to be

nervous. But he will be pleased that at least the Institute for

Fiscal Studies, the body which is normally terrifying for government

ministers and officials, has effectively backed his Budget on

that particular issue, saying that this is a marginal change, not

taking cash away from pensioners now, but denying them extra tax

relief which they might have got in the future. On that 75p pension

rise, every pensioner got a letter telling them that it was going to

be 75p, whereas every pensioner has now just had one saying they are

getting an inflation-linked rise. George Osborne will hope this goes

away, but the one big danger for him will be that people will say,

look at those people who are getting a big tax cut. Whether you

think this change for grannies is big or small, it sure as hell is

not as big as that. For everything you need to know about the Budget,

you need to know about the Budget, including our Budget calculator,

which helps you work out what has changed for you, you can go to our

A soldier killed in Afghanistan has been named as captain Rupert Bowers.

The 24-year-old was working alongside an Afghan security force

patrol when he was struck by the blast from an improvised explosive

device yesterday. A 17-year-old youth has gone in

trial of Florida accused of murdering two British tourists.

Shawn Tyson denies shooting them dead in Sarasota last April.

The BBC has uncovered evidence which appears to show widespread

fraud at a flagship employment programme. A draft internal audit

produced by A4E, a private company paid by the Government to get

people into work, found numerous cases of irregular behaviour.

Newsnight's Paul Mason is with me now. I know you have looked at

these documents, what do they reveal? A4E is already facing

reveal of all its contracts after four employees were arrested in

January on suspicion of fraud. A 5th person has been arrested today.

Nick Clegg has made it clear that all the contracts will be

terminated if there is evidence of systematic fraud. The company

claimed money for placing people in the work and that job is expected

to last 13 weeks. Newsnight obtained an internal report from

Tue 1009 which suggests widespread internal fraud, activity across

numerous offices and the report warns of a systematic failure to

mitigate risk in relation to these fraudulent or potentially

fraudulent activities or stop it warns that the management's

knowledge of whether their own controls were working were minimal.

The report surveyed the work of the 20 top recruiters. Highly-

successful people in putting people into work and earning money from

the taxpayer. 8% of the claims were either potentially fraudulent or

irregular, 14% and could not be checked, 17% only could be verified.

What other reaction has there been? The Department for Work and

Pensions told us they were made aware of the auditor at the time

but they had not uncovered any major issues. A4E have said only

one person was found to have done wrong and they repaid any monies to

the Department for Work and Pensions. Thank you. And you can

see Paul Mason's report for Newsnight on BBC Two this evening

at 10.30pm. Our top story tonight:

French police shoot dead Mohammed Mareh - the man suspected of

killing children and a rabbi at a Jewish school.

Coming up: Stella McCartney launches her new

Olympics kit, but critics see red Ind Business, sales slump.

Disappointing retail figures for February reveal a continuing

squeeze on consumers. And GlaxoSmithKline announced plans

Deaths from liver disease in England have risen by a quarter

over the last decade. A new report says more than 11,000 people died

in the eight years up to 2009. A major factor in the dramatic

increase is alcohol abuse, with many more victims now in their 40s.

Our health correspondent Dominic In hospitals across the country,

every day, staff see the damage caused by alcohol abuse. Grant has

been a regular visitor, admitted 71 times in the past year as his

drinking started to take its toll on his health. I couldn't eat, I

couldn't keep any food down. Then I ended up in hospital with chronic

pancreatitis and then acute pancreatitis. Because of the

drinking. This latest study makes the start reading. Deaths from

liver disease in England are up by 25% since 2001. Alcoholic liver

disease caused well over a third of those deaths and the people who

died were relatively young, 90% of them were under 70. The north-west

had the highest death rate, followed by the North East and

London. 10 years ago it may have been 15% of hospital beds taken up

by liver patients. Now it is 60% to 70%. The wards are full of patients

with liver disease. By the time a patient is sick enough to get into

hospital, they have quite advanced disease. Many specialists blame

cheap alcohol for the steep rise in deaths through liver disease. They

are not alone in calling for a minimum price for alcohol in

England, similar to the proposals for Scotland. In a late stage case

like this, you will see most of the liver replaced by Scottish U.

Doctors like Steve from Aintree Hospital are left to cope with the

damage done when drinking gets out of control. This is the kind of

disease he sees on a regular basis. Patients here are struggling with

an alcohol habit that is fearsomely hard to get. The consequences for

them, the hospitals where they all took often come to died, could not

be more serious. A man who was dubbed the M25 rapist

has been convicted of an eighth rape - an attack that took place

almost 25 years ago. Antoni Imiela is already serving a life sentence

for a series of assaults on women and children along the route of the

M25 motorway a decade ago. Our correspondent Sangita Myska is at

the Old Bailey this evening. Why has this case they can so long

to come to court? This case came to the Old Bailey as a result of a

cold case review conducted by the Metropolitan Police. Imiela

brutally attacked his victim in 1987 on Christmas Day in Forest

Hill, south London. It was samples taken back then, put into cold

storage that were then retested during this review and it was their

DNA link that link -- led to him. In unrelated circumstances, the

victim died in 2006. Nevertheless, the Crown Prosecution Service

today's said they believed justice had finally been done.

In his conviction. During the trial, the jury were told that Imiela was

By a police say they believe he raped other women in the 1980s and

1990s. They want those women to contact their local police force.

Five Metropolitan Police officers are in hospital after being savaged

by a dog in east London. They were attacked when they went to arrest a

man in Newham. Four of the officers have serious injuries. The animal,

described as a pitbull-type dog, has been put down and a man in his

20s has been arrested. Thousands of people accused of

violent crimes, including sexual offences, are on the loose and

evading trial. The BBC has learned that the police are hunting for

more than 30,000 suspects, many of whom were released on bail but have

now disappeared. Victims groups are calling for much tougher rules on

just who qualifies for bail. Nicola Fleeing justice, these are some of

the UK's most wanted suspects. Thousands of people charged with

crimes, some as serious as murder and assault, have disappeared. Many

were arrested but fled while on bail. Like this man. He is wanted

for an alleged rape and is still at large. This is the woman who says

he attacked her. She has waived her right to anonymity to speak to us.

I went through something twice. A wedge through the incident and end

the ordeal afterwards. It feels like nothing. For nothing. Where is

the justice in that? How can you encourage other people to go and

report serious crimes when nothing comes of it? People are allowed to

walk free. All suspects have a right to bail unless there's a risk

they may flee, commit more crime or interfere with witnesses. But the

BBC has learned that the police are hunting for more than 30,000 people

across the UK. Only the details of half of the warrants were submitted

to us. Of these, 2027 relate to to us. Of these, 2027 relate to

to us. Of these, 2027 relate to violent crimes like assault. 423

concern sex crimes, including rape. In London, the Met Police are

cracking down on wanted suspects. Good morning. More than 700 arrests

have been made over the past today's. This woman was wanted for

jacket -- traffic offences. Operations like these aim to round

up people who fail to attend court. The Association of Chief Police

officers say their priority is to target the most dangerous suspects

and bring them back to court. Police officers have been co-

ordinating the operation from this command centre. Senior officers say

they are committed to capturing these suspect. We have an approach

called total policing, about using a relentless approach to tackling

crime, tough as during offenders. If you have not turned up in court,

we will pursue until we catch you. The question still remains why so

many suspects have been granted bail. The Ministry of Justice say

the decision as a matter for the courts, but the courts say it is a

matter for the police. Team GB unveiled their kit for the

Olympic games today - designed by Stella McCartney. But there's been

some criticism of the way she's used the Union Jack. And as some of

the athletes took to the catwalk, there have been questions over

whether team GB stars are spending too much time on their promotional

work and not enough on training. Here's our sports editor, David

It was more London Fashion Week than London Olympics. Gerat

Britain's new kit unveiled today, all under the watchful eye of its

famous designer, Stella McCartney. Even for McCartney it was a big

challenge for top come up with a kit for 900 athletes of different

shapes and sizes from 46 different Olympic and Paralympic sports.

Concerned about it... She told me why she wanted to put her label on

Team GB. I'm really excited about the games. You can really feel it

now, living in the city. I was born and bred here and I now work here

every day. You can really feel it in the streets and in the city

itself. After presenting the kit like that, you get the energy.

not everyone was excited about her take on the Union flag, with

different shades of blue replacing read. So was she trying to make a

fashion statement? When you look at it, you read it as the flag. You

knew what was the flag, it is very recognisable. I have definitely

represented or of the nation's, the different parts of Great Britain

visually. A lot of red, but I have used it in a very different way.

Most Olympic athletes don't get the chance to taste this sort of glitz

and glamour very often. But the danger is that in spending too much

time at launches like this on the catwalk, they jeopardise their

chances of delivering gold medals this summer. Tom Daley knows all

about the risks after British diving's top coach went public with

his concerns about his commercial commitments. Other young medal

hopefuls insist they will not make that mistake. As an athlete you

have to be sure that you don't spread yourself too thin. You need

to be at a peak level because the rest of the world are. It is

getting the balance. British cycling has created some of our

biggest stars. The man behind that success says the profile is just

reward for all their hard work. and Mrs mediocre haven't got this

chance. It is credit to them that they have the opportunity, but it

needs to be carefully managed from a performance first perspective in

order to make sure that both the training demands and commercial

demands can live happily and are integrated into the same plan.

the game's getting closer, today's launch show how the hype and

expectation is growing for Britain's athletes of up come July,

most people will worry more about what they are winning and less

what they are winning and less about what they are wearing.

It's time to look at the weather. T-shirt weather for most today and

through the weekend with a few notable exceptions. Today's

exception was across the south-west of England. Some showers there. Fay

will continue to push up through for south-west England and into

South was Wales. For the rest of us, a fine end to a fine day. It will

stay that way overnight. Some cloud forming, but the figures cloud will

be across western areas. -- thickest cloud. Most of us will

stay dry. A fairly cool night and maybe a touch of frost in the glens

of Scotland. It could be a slow start with mist and low cloud in

one or two places, but that should readily break-up and for most of us

it will be another stunning day with a lot of sunshine. Showers in

western areas would become very isolated. One or two left behind,

but for most it will be dry and fine. Some low cloud persisting in

some sports and a chance of sharp showers in the central belt of

Scotland. Eastern coastal areas, a cooler. A chance of some low cloud

coming in off the North Sea. Further west, a lot of sunshine.

The showers will be very isolated. Temperatures as high as today.

Somebody somewhere could reach 20 Celsius. More of the same on

Saturday. Eastern coast areas prone to have more cloud. Most other

places fine and dry. The West is the best of sunshine. To sum up the

weekend, dry, warm and sunny nearly everywhere, but eastern coastal

areas will be cooler with the risk areas will be cooler with the risk

of some mist lapping onto the shore from time to time. Looking good for

most. A reminder of the top story.