28/03/2012 BBC News at Six

David Cameron says motorists should top up their tanks in case the fuel

strike goes ahead. There are no dates yet, but there are queues

outside some pet control station -- petrol stations. There's no fuel

anywhere. It's ridiculous. People are panic buying and making the

situation worse. Retailers say ministers are creating a crisis,

but the Government says fill up a jerry can and take sensible

precautions. There are lives at risk as well as massive

inconvenience to millions of people up and down the country. Also

tonight - MPs accuse the NHS are putting -- pushing women into two

operations after it refuses to replace faulty breast implants.

Surgeons perform the most extensive face transplant ever. They say it's

like giving someone a new life. The veteran remember one of the most

daring raids of the Second World War. Coming up in sportsday at 6.30,

England face a record run chase in Sri Lanka. They closed day three on

Good evening. Welcome to the BBC News at Six. David Cameron has

suggested that motorists should top up on fuel in case a strike by

tanker drivers goes ahead. Another minister advised families to keep a

jerry can in the garage. They've been criticised by unions and fuel

retailers have accused them of creating a crisis. Tonight, there

are signs that some motorists are queuing for petrol. Labour has

accused the Government of being irresponsible, but ministers say

it's about taking sensible precautions.. Here's our transport

correspondent, Richard Westcott. We still don't know if there's going

to be a strike, but just look at this. A tank running low near

Ipswich. Queues in North Wales. And in south London. It's not exactly

panic buying, but it's not everywhere, but people are clearly

worried. It's ridiculous, isn't it? Everyone is panic buying and making

the situation a lot worse. I must get some today because we've got

hospital appointments to keep. livelihood is gone lls I can get to

work -- unless I can get to work. This dispute has been dribbling on

for months, but now it's turned toxic, the Government advice, fsh

fill up if you can. There are lives at risk, as well as massive

inconvenience to millions of people up and down the country. The

greater the extent to which people have petrol, fuel in their vehicles,

maybe a little in the gather in a jerry can the longer we'll keep

things going. It's advice that has been condemned by retailers.

couldn't believe the news this morning that the Government were

encouraging people to stockpile fuel. This could be the start of

panic buying that the Government themselves have fuelled and also

that the health and safety issue of stockpiling fuel at home is not

appropriate. The Unite union happens to be Labour's biggest

backer. Ed Miliband has been asked to condemn the ask. He didn't go

that far. My message to all sides, unions and employers and to the

Government, is to make sure both sides get around the table and sort

out the problem. Look, we no -- know we can't afford a strike. The

way it has to be stopped is with proper negotiations. What's this

dispute actually about? The unions says this drivers are suffering in

a clamber for profits and wants a minimum standard across the

industry for wages, pensions and safety. The delivery firms say they

have excellent safety records, but their training is good and that

drivers are some of the best-paid in the business, around �45,000 a

year. It all means an uncertain time for anyone who relies on their

car, bus or van. What's your advice to motorists? Ministers joined

David Cameron today to thrash out an action plan. I think we should

have a lot of resilience in the position. We are planning to make

sure we have more storage and tanker drivers. The public should

also make sensible plans. There's no need for panic and queuing, but

I think they should keep their petrol tanks topped up. Tonight,

the union says it's willing to talk, but even the thought of a strike

has been enough to cause a number of queues across Britain. Richard,

what is the latest? It's very patchy to be honest. Lots of people

getting in touch all day with the BBC. Some saying they've been to

fill up and there are long queues and even forecourts running out.

Other people saying it's absolutely fine. It's very easy to forget they

may never -- there may never be a strike. The union hasn't named a

date. If they do, we'll get a week's notice. Something like nine

in every ten journeys in this country is by road. We need our

fuel. We love it. That's why people are worried. Thank you very much.

We'll join James Landale in Westminster. The Government being

accused of scaremongering tonight. It's a tricky issue - how do you

warn the public to take sensible precautions without causing a

panic? Downing Street say they're clear the message is sensible. If

you are passing a station fill up. Don't queue. This is as important

as making sure there are enough replacement tanker drivers

available. Clearly, there is a balance. Labour say that Francis

Maude got it wrong by suggesting people should fill up their cans,

because that implied stockpiling and that could lead to supplies

dwindling, even if there's no strike. Downing Street say the

remarks are out of context and exaggerated, but people in

Government admit it hasn't been helpful. Where does all this lead

the dispute now? This is a tricky one for Labour, because this is a

dispute that has been threatened by a union which pays most of Labour's

bills. So far, Ed Miliband says he doesn't want a strike and everybody

should get around the table, but he hasn't condemned the union. The

Government says it's not for them, it's a dispute between employers

and the employees. ACAS is holding talks so there is a possibility of

a negotiated solution. Thank you. The NHS is being accused of putting

women under unnecessary risk because it refuses to replace

faulty breast implants. Current guidelines for England, Scotland

and Northern Ireland mean that women who had implants privately

can only have them removed on the NHS. The Health Committee says the

women should be offered the option of paying for them to be replaced

on the NHS to avoid undergoing two operations. Our medical

correspondent, Fergus Walsh, reports. Is this implant a danger?

This lab is trying to find out. Comparing PIP filler with medical-

grade silicone. 47,000 British women, most who had PIPs privately

for breast enlargement, need to know. Wales is offering free

replacements, but elsewhere, the NHS is refusing to replace their

implants and is simply offering removal. I don't think it's fair,

nor do I think it's good medicine to expect a woman who has a faulty

implant and acknowledge that that should be removed, but who wants it

replaced then to go through a second separate surgical procedure.

Jane Brown's PIP implants are leaking and she's in pain. She says

her only option is to get the NHS to remove them now and save up for

private treatment later. operations is always a risk. Two

lots of general an necessary thetic. Ideally, the clinic should be doing

it for us. -- anaesthetic. Ideally, the clinic should be doing it for

us. The fact we have to fall back on the NHS is not a good thing.

have discovered this Merseyside hospital broke ranks. It's been

removing PIP implants on the NHS and charging for replacements. A

Trust document said: It's now stopped, but ministers won't be

pleased. Once the NHS puts something in your body it then has

a duty of care which could be a lifetime duty of care. There has

been monitoring and there may even be further operations, so there are

costs that mean that there are NHS patients who have clinical needs

are put down the queue. That's unfair. We don't know whether the

implants pose a health risk. The MPs said there was a striking

absence of evidence, compounded by uncertainty over the exact nature

of the filler that was used inside them. That's why these tests are

vital, to see whether PIP implants contain anything which might prompt

more women to have them removed. Oil industry engineers are

monitoring the risk of an explosion on a North Sea oil rig. Tonight,

there are fears that a gas leak could be ignited by a flare that

continues to burn even though the platform has been shut down. Total,

the company which owns the rig, says the wind is currently blowing

the gas cloud away from the open flame. The Elgin platform is 150

miles off the coast of Aberdeen. The flare was left burning when the

platform was evacuated at the weekend The flame is 75 metres

above the platform. Total says there is a visible gas cloud

surrounding the platform. Our Scotland correspondent, Lorna

Gordon, is in Aberdeen. Lorna, how dangerous is this open flame?

flame, a flare, above a platform leaking highly flammable gas,

sounds pretty risky, doesn't it? But Total say there's no imminent

risk of an explosion. They've been explaining today how events

unfolded over the weekend. They say this flare was left burning

deliberately. They said their priority was to get workers off the

flat form safely. Also to extinguish the flare would have

taken further time. They also point out that this flare is above the

gas cloud and it is situationed away from the prevailing winds.

That said, at the moment it's too dangerous for workers to go back on

to the platform to extinguish the flare, so they're hoping it will

burn itself out naturally. What about the gas leak itself? Well,

they've confirmed that from a distance you can actually hear the

sound of escaping gas and said the cloud is visible and it's drifting

eastwards. They think the gas is leaking from somewhere on the

platform itself, from the well head, so actually fixing it could take

many months. For the time being, for a fourth night, this gas is

continuing to escape from a platform abandoned and way out in

the North Sea. Thank you. Two British servicemen killed in

Afghanistan on Monday have been named by the Ministry of Defence.

Sergeant Luke Taylor, of the Royal Marines, and Lance Corporal Michael

Foley, of the Adjutant General's Corps were shot by a rogue Afghan

soldier at their base in Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province. The

latest figures on the economy show that it shrank by more than the

previous estimate for the final quarter of last year. Official

figures show that gross domestic product declined by 0.3%. The

previous estimate was 0.2%. Thousands of insurance claims by

families of people who died after being exposed to asbestos could be

allowed following a ruling by the UK Supreme Court. Judges have ruled

that insurance liability began at the time an employee was exposed to

asbestos not when the symptoms first appeared. An American man has

been given a new face, nose, teeth, tongue and jaw, in what his

surgeons say is the most extensive facial transplant ever performed.

Richard Lee Norris has been a recluse since he was disfigured in

a gun accident 15 years ago. Our health correspondent, Jane Hughes,

has this report. It's a surprising transformation, from a young man

with his Haifa head of him, Richard Norris went to being so badly

disfigured he felt unable to go out without a mask. Now he can look

forward to leading a more normal life. Surgeons led a team of over

100 medical staff in a 36-hour operation. They believe it's the

most extensive face transplant procedure ever carried out. When he

was accidently shot in the face 15 years ago, Richard lost his nose,

his lips and most of the movement in his mouth. Surgeons used finely-

tuned computer techniques to transplant the bones in his nose

and the area around it. They then gave him a new jaw, including teeth,

as well as a new tongue. Finally, all his soft tissue was replaced

right from his hairline to his neck, including nerves and mussels. Six

days -- muscles. Six days on he can move his tongue and smell for the

first time in 15 years. When we look at the donor and look at

Richard, it's a blend of two individuals. Clearly, there are

some specific features, like the nose and chin, but behind that

soft-tissue draping, it's Richard Norris. This was Isabel after the

world's first partial transplant in 2005. She made good progress, but

experts say physical recovery is just the start. The surgey of that

sort you don't recover that quickly and he'll have to gradually come to

terms with this new thing that he sees in the mirror, which will be

his face and I hope he will have the support to own his face, as his

face. Doctors funded by the US military have been developing face

transplants techniques for years. The aim is to refine them to help

injured veterans returning from Afghanistan. For Richard Norris,

after 15 years, it means a chance Our top story:

No date for a fuel strike, but there are queues in some parts of

the country as the Prime Minister warns drivers to top up.

Coming up, panic in the skies - why the passengers had to overpower the

captain on this American flight. got him good. He was down. They

subdued him. Honestly after that, it was like, OK, something bizarre

has just happened. But we're going Thousands of trees are being

planted across the west coast of Europe in a huge international

experiment to find out which species will thrive in the warmer

conditions predicted as a result of climate change. Forest researchers

want to test how 30 different types of tree cope with pests and disease.

Jeremy Cooke has to been to Crychan Forest in Wales - one of the five

test sites in Britain. Britain's beautiful woodlands,

broadly forested commercial conifer plantations - all our trees stand

exposed to climate change. But can they survive and thrive in

predicted warmer conditions? Can they resist new diseases which may

result? Here in Wales scientists are planting trees from the

Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, even California, looking for answers.

Some of the species we currently have in our woodlands in Britain

are actually getting out of their climate niche, if you like. We're

already seeing problems with drought. We're getting drought

crack in the timber. What we're looking for is some other species

to replace those. It's all part of a fuel trial on an epic scale.

Thousands of trees are being planted from the Azores in Portugal

along the Atlantic coastline in Europe. The multi-national

initiative will cover sites running some 1600 sites up to the Isle of

Mull in Scotland. This, then, is a huge outdoor scientific experiment.

6,000 trees from all around the world will be planted on this plot

alone. The result, when they come, in are likely to have a profound

impact on the future of our forests. For instance, if native oaks start

to fail, should we plant them fromer on Europe? Can we identify

trees with better commercial value? The research is highly ambitious,

answers potentially a long way off. The main problem is the timescale.

To be use. They need to be kept going until the trees mature. Of

course, that's 50, a hundred years depends on the species. The data

will benefit the forestry business. It also aims to protect our natural

environment. Syrian authorities are

systematically detaining and torturing children, according to

the United Nations' human rights chief. In an interview filmed last

week, Navi Pillay has told the BBC that President Bashar Al-Assad

could end the detentions and stop the killing of civilians

immediately, simply by issuing an order. Syria has accepted a peace

plan amid scepticism about its intentions. Fergal Keane has this

special report. In a place we cannot name with

faces we cannot show, this is a kind of therapy for Syria's child

survivors. These art lessons organised by activists for children

who can no longer go to school. Some have seen parents dragged away

in the night. Others have fled from the bombardment of Homs. This child

describes being at a march hearing the chanting, and then the moment

the Army opened fire. Now in an exclusive interview, the

UN's top human rights official has accused the Syrian Government of

deliberately targeting the children. They have gone for the children for

whatever purpose in large numbers - hundreds detained and tortured. I

have seen some of the evidence gathered by the Commission of

Inquiry who talked with parents, who talked with other victims. It's

just horrendous. APPLAUSE

The Syrian Government denies the accusations and accuses the High

Commissioner of bias. But under international law does President

Assad bear command responsibility for crimes against humanity? That

is the legal situation. Factually, there is enough evidence pointing

to the fact that many of these acts committed by these security forces

must have received the approval or the complicity at the highest level

because the - President Assad can issue a single order and release

all of these children and stop the killings.

The High Commissioner also criticised abuses by opposition

groups. But the UN and human rights organisations say the majority of

violations are being carried out by the government's side. Much of what

bombs and bullets do to the bodies of children is simply too

distressing to show, and the trauma inflicted on young minds is beyond

calculation. In Homs, a free-lance cameraman met

a boy whose father had vanished Is Bashar Al-Assad ever going to

face justice for the atrocities you say he bears responsibility for?

People like him can go on for a very long time, but one day they'll

have to face justice. But inside Syria in these anonymous rooms of

refuge, justice is far away. A plane on an internal flight in

America had to make an emergency landing after the captain

apparently suffered a breakdown. He was overpowered by passengers on

the JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas and was removed from the

cockpit after shouting that there was a bomb onboard the plane.

Alastair Leithhead reports. Chaos at 30,000 feet - passengers filmed

the commotion as the captain freaked out, as they put it,

running down the aisle shouting about Iraq and Iran and talking

about a bomb. The co-pilot locked him out of the cockpit and diverted

the plane. After 20 dramatic minutes, the plane made an

The flight had started in New York and had been in the air more than

three hours when the co-pilot decided to divert to Amarillo,

Texas. He started to curse at me - you know, trying to tell me, "Hey,

you better pray - Iraq and Iran," so I said, "You know what? I'm

going to show you what Iraq and Iran is and I took him in a chose

hold They got him down. They subdued him. After that, it was

like, OK. Something bizarre has just happened but we're going to be

OK. I was thinking of my wife and my children. That's the only thing

I could think of. The plane was met by the ambulance and the FBI. The

captain, Clayton Osborne was restrained as he was taken off the

aircraft and escorted to hospital. JetBlue's Chief Executive said he

had known him personally for years, a consummate professional with

nothing in his record to suggest he'd be a risk on a flight, but

something clearly went very wrong. The Football Association says it's

investigating a huge punch-up that erupted between two League 1 sides

last night. The final whistle had gone, and Crawley town had just

beaten Bradford 2-1 when the fight began. Five players were red carded

after the incident. The FA said it would talk to both clubs and review

the video evidence. England's cricketers faced an

uphill struggle if they're to beat Sri Lanka in the first test in

Galle. The tourists will resume on day four on 111 for two, chasing a

target of 340 for victory, having lost the wickets of their two

openers Alistair Cooke and captain Andrew Strauss. It was one of the

most daring raids of the Second World War. 70 years ago today an

old US Navy ship was disguised to look like a German destroyer,

packed with explosives and rammed into a dock in St.Nazaire on

France's Atlantic coast. Gordon Corera joined a handful of veterans

marking the day. 70 years on, the last handful of

survivors gather to remember one of the most daring raids of World War

II, an emotional moment for some. It was a battle that was brief and

costly, but helped shape the course of the war.

From 1941, a huge new German battleship, the Tirpitz, threatened

to menace the Atlantic and Britain's vital supply link. There

was only one dry dock on the Atlantic coast large enough to

repair the Tirpitz, so if this dock here at St Nazaire could be

destroyed, then the Atlantic would be safe from the German battleship,

a daredevil plan was devised to destroy these vast gates.

An old ship, the Cambletown, sailed from Falmouth disguised as German

and with a huge bomb onboard. It navigated a six-mile estuary packed

with German gun emplacements which opened fire as it approached. The

Cambletown rammed into the dock gates and then the demandos jumped

off. This 20-year-old colonel's job was to destroy one of the winding

houses for the dock gates. I went and reported to my colonel and said,

"Sir, we have destroyed the northern winding house, and we're

ready to return to England." What did he say? He then said to me,

"Old boy, take a look at the river. Our transport is not available."

The small boats the men were supposed to escape on were burning.

Within hours, they were arrested. But then ten hours after it crashed,

the Cambletown, pictured here impaled on the gate, finally blew.

Success came at a price. Nearly 170 men were killed, and today is a

chance to remember for the last remaining few.

We've got some wonderful people who are buried here. I come back in

their memory, quite frankly, and Hello. We have been playing spot

the clouds once more across the country, and we have been watching

the America Yuri intently. We got up to 22 Celsius today. We may

reach 23 Celsius tomorrow. But we're in for some changes as we

head towards the weekend. Temperature curve takes a nosedive

starting to drop off in the coming days. By did weekend we'll be

closer to 11 Celsius. Temperatures tonight dropping sharply once more.

It will be another chilly night under largely clear skies. Last

night we hit minus 2-3 Celsius in rural areas. We will tonight. These

are the towns and cities staying 4- 4 Celsius above zero, definitely a

chilly morning. Mist and fog will disappear, then it's sunny pretty

much everywhere again. There will be subtle changes. The western part

of Scotland and more cloud will spill in around the Irish Sea

coasts. Generally, it's blue skies. We'll be watching the temperatures

once more reach 20 Celsius across southern counties of gays. We could

hit 23 Celsius, a breeze blowing. Cooler around some coasts. Even

temperatures here significantly above average. 18-19 Celsius in

Northern Ireland. With more cloud along the coast, it will feel

cooler. That cloud affecting Western Scotland, though generally

sunny across the central belt and the south-east. That cloud becomes

more extensive Friday, more wide across Northern Ireland, sinking

into parts of north and West Wales, North England. Friday, hazy

sunshine and we could reach 20 Celsius in the south. Further north,

notice the temperatures are dropping a few degrees comfrey.

That trend continues into the weekend. We will be cooler. There

will be more cloud around. The weather isn't going to spoil your

weekend. It looks generally dry. That's not good news, of course,