11/04/2014 BBC News at Six

The man charged with murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing in 1998

appears in court. Seamus Daly is accused of being part of the single

bloodiest terrorist attack in the history of the Northern Ireland

Troubles. A car bomb was detonated in Omagh town centre on a busy

Saturday afternoon. Relatives of those who died were in court today.

We have to know the truth about what happened and we have to cede those

responsible being brought before the court with proper evidence and

sentence. Also on the programme tonight: The Co-op says sorry to its

customers as it announces the biggest losses in its history. Oscar

Pistorius insists in court that he did not hear his girlfriend scream

when he fired his gun at the locked toilet door. Getting better, NHS

performance across the UK is improving according to a major new

study. The woman who brought as Adrian Mole, the author Sue

Townsend, has died at the age of 68. On BBC London: Christmas chaos at

Gatwick, a report calls on all airports to plan for disruption.

Jailed for life, four Turkish gang members are sentenced for the murder

of an innocent man in Hackney. Good evening and welcome to the BBC

News at Six. It was the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles in

Northern Ireland and today the man accused of carrying out the Omagh

bombing appeared in court. Seamus Daly is 43 and from the Irish

Republic. He was arrested on Monday. He is charged with 29 counts of

murder as well as two charges relating to the explosion in August,

1998. He has already been found liable for the attack in a civil

case but has always denied involvement. Our Ireland

correspondent Chris Buckler is in Omagh for us now.

Here in the centre of Omagh they have built a garden, a place where

people can come and remembered their loved ones who were killed in that

bombing. On all of these stones engraved by the names of those who

died. What strikes you is not just the names, but the ages. They are

both young and old, even a woman pregnant with twins. Today almost 16

years after that explosion which has become notorious as the worst

atrocity of the Troubles, a man appeared in court charged with

causing all of their deaths. Amid high security Seamus Daly was driven

to court to be charged with murdering 29 people. He appeared

handcuffed in the dock as details of 23 offences were read out, the vast

majority connected to an explosion in the heart of Omagh. The bomb

transformed a busy Saturday afternoon shopping into a day of

horror. It is a bombing that stands out, even among Northern Ireland's

bloody years of violence these images remain scarred amateurs and

memories. There have been inquests, many investigators, even court

cases, but no one has ever been convicted of the murders that were

committed here. In court today a detective inspector set out the case

against Seamus Daly. He said the police had forensic, telephone and

witness evidence. But Seamus Daly's lawyer claimed there were

significant witnesses in their case. Among those in the courtroom

was Michael Gallagher. His son Aidan was murdered. Over the past 15 years

I have spent a lot of time in court in Dublin and in Belfast and with

the civil action taking almost ten years it can be soul destroying. 14

years ago the BBC secretly filmed the man who has now been charged and

confronted him. I would like to ask you some questions, please, about

the Omagh bombing. Seamus Daly has always strongly denied any

involvement in the bombing. Seamus Daly has a conviction for membership

of the redial RA and pleaded guilty in a criminal Court in Dublin a few

years ago. No matter who was or was not responsible, loss is still felt

in Omagh. In the Memorial Garden mirrors have been built to reflect

light into the town. But this is a place where they will always be

aware of the shadows cast. The Co-op Bank has apologised to its customers

after announcing losses of ?1.3 billion, the largest in its history.

The bank said it did not expect to make a profit this year or next, but

it revealed that the bank's Chief Executive will receive a ?2.9

million pay package, including a performance related bonus. The

figures come out as the bank struggles with bad debts and failed

ventures. Our business editor Kamal Ahmed reports. It has been a

disastrous year for the Co-op. The takeover of the Britannia building

society ended with a ?1 billion bill and then the bank's chairman was

forced to quit after being filmed buying drugs. Today it announced the

loss of ?1.3 billion. The Chief Executive brought in to rescue the

bank, Neal Booker, will be paid ?2.9 million a year. He announced further

cost-cutting with the closure of 44 branches and the possibility of more

redundancies. Our members who work in bank branches across the country

are concerned about what the future holds for the group. We have lost

over 1000 jobs in the last few years and the fear is there will be more

job losses to come. Many customers have remained loyal to the bank, and

all deposits are guaranteed up to ?85,000. But others, like Andrew

Baird who owns a solar panel business in Northern Ireland, have

decided to move elsewhere. It seems to want to compete with Barclays and

HSBC and that seems to be at the expense of good, rigorous, financial

control, strong governance. It seems to have lost all control and lost

its way. The Co-op Bank is still dealing with problems of the past.

It has said it will now withhold up to ?5 million from former

executives. It will also pay ?412 million in compensation for previous

mistakes. It also needs to look to the future. An ethical review will

promote community banking. It needs to raise ?400 million to secure its

future. There are still tough decisions to be made. We can only

hope that is the end of the bad news is that we have had and there is not

anything else to find in the closet. We have to trust the management know

what they are doing and there is a chance of recovering the position

from here. But it will be difficult to rebuild the capital base.

Attention now turns to the Co-op group results next week. The

supermarkets and pharmacies owner is expected to reveal heavy losses and

a new set of problems for Britain's co-operative movement.

The South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has faced a third day of

intense cross-examination at his murder trial in Pretoria. He

insisted that his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, did not shout or scream

as he fired at the locked toilet door last year. Mr Pistorius denies

murder and says he thought there was an intruder in his house. From

Pretoria Andrew Harding reports. At the end of a punishing week,

another session of cross examination. Oscar Pistorius

repeatedly accused of lying about how and why he shot Reeva Steenkamp.

No video images of the athlete giving evidence were allowed. The

prosecutor asked him why he did not talk to his girlfriend and check

where he was the moment they felt they were in danger that night. When

you heard the noise, you never discussed the noise with her? I did

not discuss the noise with her. Weaver, did you hear that? Did you

say that? I did not. Pistorius argued it was instinct that prompted

him to rush from the bedroom to the bathroom to confront intruders. I am

not sure why, my lady, I did not have any time, it was my instinct is

to do it, I did not have any time. I find instinct strange. The

prosecutor returned again and again to the exact moment Pistorius fired

those four shots, insisting that regardless whether he thought his

girlfriend or an intruder was hiding in the toilet, his aim was to kill.

Did she screamed at all whilst you shot her four times? No, my lady.

Are you sure? Are you sure, Mr Pistorius, that Reeve did not scream

after the first shot? Reeva Steenkamp's mother never took her

eyes off him. The Director of Public Prosecutions

has defended the Crown Prosecution Service against accusations it

prosecutes weak cases with no realistic prospect of conviction. It

comes after the MP Nigel Evans was cleared of rape and sexual assault

yesterday. Our political correspondent Vicki Young is at

Westminster. There was a lot of criticism from MPs yesterday who

felt Nigel Evans was treated differently because he was a public

figure, so Alison Saunders came out and defended her corner saying the

case must be seen in context. She said 86% of cases brought to court

and in convictions. She also says the CPS have to feel there is a

realistic prospect of conviction. A jury listening to a case have to be

sure beyond reasonable doubt. Meanwhile the Conservative Party has

sent out a new code of conduct for its pimply -- employees. What is

this? Stories about inappropriate behaviour have been searching --

circulating for years. People felt they could go nowhere with a

complaint because they were directly employed by MPs. This says staff

must understand the difference between normal work disagreements

and bullying and it says MPs must lead by example to foster and aspect

of respect and tolerance. This code of conduct is voluntary, so Tory MPs

can chuck it in the bin if they want to. There have been significant

improvements in the performance of the NHS across the UK according to a

major study, which says the gap between England and the other

nations is narrowing. The NHS in England still rates highly on

ambulance response times as well as life expectancy. But Scotland has

seen improvements in waiting times, while in Northern Ireland deaths

from MRSA have fallen. Waiting times are a persistent problem in Wales,

though satisfaction among many patients is high. The report 's

authors suggest that funding and targets were the biggest factors in

driving up standards as Dominic Hughes reports.

The 15 years since devolution have seen four very distinct health

systems evolve in the UK. There was sustained investment across the NHS,

but now austerity is biting, no more so than in Wales. Satisfaction with

the Welsh NHS is the highest in the UK, but recent budget cuts have seen

waiting times increase. This NHS nurse Paul four decades was told she

might not get a hip replacement for a year and a half. Facing months of

pain she chose to go private. I thought the NHS was there for

everybody who lived in the United Kingdom and it was not a two-tier

system. If you needed treatment, then you should get the treatment.

In England the NHS is built around competition, patient choice and

targets. In the early 1990s life expectancy in the North East of

England was the same as it was in Scotland, but after a couple of

decades of fairly heavy investment, the region has started to pull

ahead, so people here can live up to a year longer than their Scottish

neighbours. This is the kind of thing that makes a difference. At

Wansbeck Hospital in the North of England, Rose was operated on within

hours of breaking her hip. Getting patients back home quickly improves

their chances of a good recovery, but it requires an injection of cash

across the system. The investment has been incredibly important in

terms of patient care and from a quality perspective across the board

from general practice and into hospital care and community

services. In Scotland politicians rejected competition, but some

targets have been used to bring down waiting times. But across the UK the

NHS faces the challenge of older patients, tighter budgets and

greater expectations. In Northern Ireland local politicians have to

sell the reform of the health service to their electorate. The

system we have is not sustainable. It requires huge change in order to

make it fit for the 21st-century. Our politicians and the media have

to make sure that the public believe it and are fully committed to it.

For all the differences, today's research suggests it is the funding

and a few carefully chosen targets that are the key factors in how well

it works. Our top story: Seamus Daly has appeared in court

charged with murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing in 1998 -the

single bloodiest attack in the history of the Northern Ireland

Troubles. And still to come: On the brink of

greatness - again. Liverpool eye their first league title for more

than two decades. On BBC London: Technology on trial.

Magistrates' courts go paperless to speed up cases. And he won the

mini-London marathon as a teenager. Will Mo Farah succeed when he goes

the full distance for the first time on Sunday?

Sue Townsend, the author famous for writing The Secret Diary of Adrian

Mole, has died after suffering a stroke at the age of 68. The diaries

of the angst-ridden teenager made millions laugh out loud. The

novelist had been working on her latest Adrian Mole book - which

would have been the 10th - in her best-selling series. Our arts

correspondent David Sillito looks back at her life.

It's time I fell in love. After all, I am 13... Poor Adrian Mole, the

undiscovered teenager literary genius. You're so beautiful! 15

years later he was still struggling on, still in Awe of Pandora. Adrian

was more of a character. In a sense he is my worst side. Spots on my

chin for the first day of the new year. If people realise that I was

so near to Mole, they would be less... Well, they wouldn't admire

me. She was joking, of course. Sue Townsend had failed her 11 Plus,

left school at 15 and at 23 was working in a petrol station bringing

up three children. Then in her -- in her 30s she wrote the most

successful novel of the 1980s. Perhaps one day my heart will be

healed. Adrian was a terrible poet. However, many of us have a little

inner Mole. This generation Mole has grown up and grown older with

Adrian. Is there any Mole-ish in you? Terrible poetry. I think we all

have a little of Adrian Mole in us, definitely. A lot of us can equate

with some of his experiences. I think Pandora, that's my fantasy.

Beyond the Adrian books Sue Townsend wrote other plays and novels.

Through it her sight was failing, she had health problems linked to

diabetes but she was happy to be remembered for Adrian, this under

underdog history of modern Britain, growing up can be painful. Sue

Townsend made it funny. The Scottish National Party are

holding their last conference in Aberdeen, before Scotland's

referendum on independence in September. With polls suggesting the

gap between the Yes and No camps is narrowing, the party's deputy

leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said the country was on the threshold of

becoming independent. Allan Little considers whether the party's

buoyant mood is more widely reflected.

It is 80 years this week since their party was founded and they believe

themselves finally on the threshold of their founding purpose. Alex Sam

has dominated the party for -- Alex Salmond has dominated the party for

years. The rising star is his deputy. Today she appealed beyond

the confines of the SNP in the belief that many disaffected

traditional Labour voters are now tempted to vote yes. To every Labour

voter in the country I say this, the yes campaign is not asking you to

leave your party. Instead, it offers you the chance to get your party

back. A Labour Party free to make its own decisions, no longer dancing

to a Westminster tune. The polls still put the anti-independence

campaign well ahead. But nationalists believe the momentum is

all in their direction. Oh, yes, without any doubt we are there. You

are going to win? Definitely. Do you think you will win in September? Oh,

yes. We must. No decisions are being made here, no

policy debated, this is more of a campaign rally than a party

conference. They feel the wind at their backs now. They believe in the

polls the gap between yes and no is narrowing. But there is another gap,

the gap between the enthusiasm and unshakeable conviction in this hall

and the enduring scepticism in the country at large.

Rural aber den shire is -- Aberdeenshire. At this livestock

market there was little evidence of a pro-independence momentum. I am

voting no. Why? Well, there is a lot of things you don't know what can

happen if you vote yes. We are being asked to vote yes and there are

dozens of questions which remain unanswered and we are told by Mr

Salmond that this is all to be negotiated. But negotiation doesn't

say which way the answers are going to come. This conference is the

SNP's attempt to reach out beyond party boundaries. Its message, you

don't have to be SNP to vote yes. Nationalists will need to make big

in-roads into traditional Labour territory if they're to win in

September. But Scottish politics are famously tribal and old tribal

loyalties die hard. They are, without doubt, the biggest

team never to have won the Premier League. This weekend, Liverpool hope

to move a crucial step closer to lifting that coveted trophy. They

play Manchester City at Anfield, knowing that victory would leave

them within reach of reclaiming their place at the very top of

English football. Our sports editor, David Bond, reports. It's been more

than two decades since this city dominated English football. Now

Liverpool could be on their way back to the top. Beat Manchester City on

Sunday and the club's young manager knows it will really start to feel

like old times. We will unleash the supporters this weekend yet again on

the opponent and it's a very, very difficult place now for people to

come and play. I sense a real nostalgia about the place at the

moment. A real feel of the old Liverpool. The club's title charge

this season is made all the more poignant as it comes 25 years after

the Hillsborough tragedy. Here in this cafe, across the road from

Anfield, fans are starting to dream that this season, of all seasons,

could be the one. To win it now, OK, well, 15, 20 years later, it still

gets that buzz and excitement that there is a possibility. No more than

that, a possibility that we could win it. I think this one, more than

any, and I was there for the others, must be 12 of them, I think myself -

this is going to be, we won it this year it would be the most important

of them all. Coming to this place used to strike fear into opposition

players but Liverpool have been waiting a very, very long time to

taste the success which they once took for granted. The last Liverpool

captain to lead the club to the league title knows just what it will

mean to win it now. When you look back at those pictures now did any

of you think it would be such a long time before Liverpool would win

again? No, if you said then it will be 24 years barren as far as the

league championship is concerned people would have said you are off

your head. I remember going around the ground after we beat QPR to win

the title and it was a sort of muted applause. This time they'll go

ballistic. They will go ballistic. Over the last 20 years this city has

begun to emerge as a more sigh Brant, confident place -- vibrant,

confident place. But football teams have struggled to live up to their

glorious past. Liverpool could be about to change all that.

Kylie Minogue has announced she's leaving the BBC One singing talent

show The Voice after just one series as a coach. On Twitter, Kylie -

who's been credited with boosting ratings this year - said she

wouldn't be back for the next season because of the timing of her concert

tour. Now, earlier this week we brought

you the story of a young girl caught up in the horror of Afghanistan's

conflict. Seven-year-old Shah Bibi suffered terrible injuries after she

was wounded by a stray grenade. She was sent to America for treatment

and now, months later, she's arrived back home to be reunited with her

father. Our Correspondent Karen Allen sent this exclusive report

from Kabul. Today I met Shah Bibi and her

guardian as she returned to Afghanistan. A country with an

uncertain future. With elections last weekend security is tight. She

seemed fascinated by the streets of Kabul.

Taliban, she says, pointing to the men with guns. In fact, they're

police. I first came across Shah Bibi days after her tiny body had

been shattered by a grenade in one of the most dangerous parts of

Afghanistan. But she was one of the fortunate few, flown to America

after a nurse raised the alarm she's been treated for her injuries and

has even been going to school but her family were left behind

thousands of miles away. After many months forced apart,

finally the moment her father arrives. At first, she seems

overchiped by it all. Then -- overwhelmed by it all. Then the

intimacy returns. The moment I saw her I laughed and then I cried a

little. Seeing her healthy like this I feel deeply indebted to the people

who helped. I am bursting with happiness. I feel it in my heart. I

can't stop smiling. Shah shows off what little English

she has learned. I want to see my brother, my sister and my mother,

she tells me, and I want to teach them to write.

In a country dominated by images of war, captured is a father's relief

that his daughter has survived. Let's look at the weekend weather

now. A fine Friday evening. Many places

seeing sunshine. Most of us will see some sun this weekend. The northern

half of the UK, there will be a brisk wind and rain here. In the

south generally it will stay dry and we should have lengthy spells of

sunshine. Further north it's clouding over and we have rain which

will continue across western Scotland. A strengthening wind, too.

For the bulk of England and Wales dry with clear spells and that means

another cold one. In some rural areas not far above freezing into

the weekend. A chilly start, but some sunshine. However it will cloud

over from the north. Outbreaks of rain across Scotland and Northern

Ireland through the morning. That should clear and it will brighten up

across the central belt of Scotland and much of Northern Ireland.

However, blustery showers will continue to pepper the Highlands of

Scotland. One or two for Northern Ireland but generally brightening up

here. After a bright start across northern England and North Wales it

will turn cloudy with some rain through the afternoon. For much of

South Wales and south-west England most of the day will be dry. Some

brightness across the south-east. Temperatures dropping through the

night. A cold start for the London marathon. Should be dry with light

winds. Good news for the speculators. For the later finishers

it might get too warm. The winds again light across the south with a

fine day here on Sunday. Further north again a brisk wind with

frequent showers across western Scotland. Temperatures maybe into

the mid-teens across parts of the south. More details on the weekend

forecast and the latest on that powerful storm hitting Australia are

available on the BBC weather website.

Thank you very much. Our main stories: Seamus Daly has

appeared in court charged with murdering 29 people in the Omagh

bombing. The Co-Op Bank has said sorry