14/04/2014 BBC News at Six

Unrest spreads across eastern Ukraine as the government in Kiev

calls for UN peacekeepers to be sent in.

As protesters ransack another police station, Britain accuses Russia of

fomenting the violence. There is very little doubt, there

can't really be any real doubt that this is something that has been

planned and brought about by Russia. The government in Ukraine has

offered the possibility of a referendum to try to restore peace

in the country. We will bring you the latest.

Also tonight: The investigation into an alleged plot by hardline Muslims

to take over schools in Birmingham now extends to 25 schools.

The robotic submarine that will search the ocean floor to try to

find any trace of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.

The Oscar Pistorius trial - a hug outside court, but unrelentingly

hostile cross-examination within. Why are you getting emotional now? I

did not fire at Reeva! And William, down under, tries to

bowl his maiden over. Tonight on BBC London: Exposing the

shopkeepers prepared to trade in stolen smartphones - we go

undercover. And tributes to the 60-year-old

woman found dead after a gruesome attack at her home in Hackney.

And they work and dies after a building collapses in Mayfair. - man

a work man dies. Good evening and welcome to the BBC

News at Six. As pro-Russian activists in Ukraine attack more

official buildings in the east of the country, the government in Kiev

has issued a plea for UN peacekeepers to be deployed in the

region. Russia and the West are accusing each other of fomenting the

crisis, which has now spread to at least ten cities. Our correspondent,

Daniel Sandford, begins his report in the city of Sloviansk.

A moment of extreme tension in Sloviansk today, as the morning

shoppers emerged from their homes. Gunmen suddenly took up defensive

positions. There was a rumour that government forces were about to

attack the rebellious town in eastern Ukraine. But in the end, the

attack never came. Despite the threat of what the Kiev government

called an anti-terrorist operation, the people here have remained

resolutely in place, and the barricades are still standing. I

asked the men manning the defence as if they were not worried about a

possible attack. TRANSLATION: Of course we are worried, because

people here are peaceful, but we stand up for our principles. Then,

as we wove through the checkpoints, came news that pro-Russian militia

were storming another police headquarters. This was the scene at

Horlivka, where activists smashed windows, threw rocks and quickly

took over the building, erecting a Russian flag outside. The chief of

police ended up in hospital with a broken skull. And so even on the day

that the Kiev government had threatened to start attacking those

in the East who were taking over police stations, they have taken

another one. Inside, we found some of the police still at their desks,

now apparently loyal to the new power in town. Then these pictures

emerged in which a man who claimed to be a lieutenant colonel in the

Russian army addresses some of the police after the raid. The same man

can also be seen on mobile phone footage, addressing the crowd

outside the building, fuelling concerns that Russia is organising

these protests. But in the crowd of supporters, we found many people

with genuine grievances against the Ukrainian government. TRANSLATION:

On the 23 years that Ukraine has been in charge here, they have been

stealing. It was all further evidence that Kiev is struggling to

control the rebellious East, although the number of people

actively supporting the uprising is still quite small. Daniel Sandford,

BBC News. European foreign ministers have been

meeting in Luxembourg to discuss the situation in Ukraine. The Foreign

Secretary, William Hague, says he has no doubt the unrest in the east

of the country is being planned and brought about by Russia. Our

diplomatic correspondent, Bridget Kendall, looks now at the evidence

to back up that claim. A dangerous new phase in Ukraine's

crisis. Already, blood has been shared during the unrest in the east

of the country, but the deadline for surrender has been ignored and

instead of sending in the army, as it threatened yesterday, the

Ukrainian government is now calling for UN peacekeepers to restore

control. Outside the parliament in Kiev, pro-Western protesters, with

placards to accuse their government of a failure of nerve. Inside, the

acting president admits he has not been able to rely on police in the

east to obey orders. In an effort to appease those rebelling in the East,

he today signalled that he would not be against a nationwide referendum

next month if it helped calm the situation down. In Luxembourg, EU

foreign ministers mould new sanctions against Russia. Once

agreed, sanctions take time to bite. The only other pressure is rhetoric,

accusing Russia of deliberately fuelling the unrest to weaken Kiev

and show that it lacks support in the East. There cannot be any real

doubt that this is something that has been planned and wrote about by

Russia. I don't think denials of Russian involvement have a shred of

good ability. So what is the evidence of Russian involvement?

Well, it is more circumstantial than hard-core proof. There are lots of

local protesters, clearly angry with Kiev, but more suspicious are the

masked men, kitted out in camouflage and protective clothing, heavily

armed with Russian weapons, seizing buildings in a quarter noted and

professional way. And a few, like the kernel we had earlier, openly

admit he is from the Russian army. It is ominously reminiscent of the

armed men who took over Crimea, raising fears that the same thing

could happen again. At Russia flatly denies it. TRANSLATION: As for the

hypothetical question, what would lead to Russian military

intervention, I don't even want to speculative. We do not meddle in the

internal affairs of Ukraine. It is against our interests and we don't

have any agents there, either from military intelligence or the

security services. But across the border from Ukraine, tens of

thousands of Russian troops still stand ready to move if needed.

Moscow says they are only training, but President Putin today said he

was watching developments with great concern. He said appeals were

pouring in from eastern Ukraine, asking him to intervene. This crisis

may be on the brink, but it has not yet tipped over. Talks between

Ukraine, Russia and the West are still banned for Thursday, but it is

unclear whether either side will back down. Bridget Kendall, BBC

News. Daniel Sandford is in Donetsk, in

eastern Ukraine, for us now. Let's talk about the options for the

government in Kiev. The deadline for the pro-Russian activists to get out

of official buildings has passed. That was ignored. Now it has offered

a possible referendum and is also asking for UN peacekeepers. What

options are left? In truth, they are running out of options. The threat

to use force did not work because the protesters called their bluff,

knowing it would be a huge decision to use force and would open the Kiev

government up to accusations that they were just as bad as the

government they replaced. If they can limp through to the presidential

elections at the end of May, the Kiev government have a chance if

they can get a reasonable mandate from people in the East for a new

president. That is something that might be all right. But at this

stage, it is not even clear that they will get that far. That brings

us to negotiations. That will depend on what Russia really wants. It

would be possible, if what Russia wants is a federal Ukraine which

they can then influence through support in the East, and the Kiev

government can negotiate that. But if Russia wants to divide Ukraine,

there is nobody in Kiev could negotiate that. To give you an idea

of the tensions in this region at the moment, last week, a US naval

destroyer came into the Black Sea, just south of here. We have now

heard that on Saturday, a Russian fighter jet made multiple low passes

over that US destroyer, flying just 150 metres above the sea, just 1000

metres away from one of the US Navy's finest warships.

The former editor of the News Of The World, Andy Coulson, has told a jury

at the Old Bailey that his affair with his colleague, Rebekah Brooks,

was wrong and shouldn't have happened. It's the first day of his

defence at the phone hacking trial at the Old Bailey. Mr Coulson, who

also worked as David Cameron's head of communications, denies

allegations of conspiracy to hack phones and to commit misconduct in

public office. Our home affairs correspondent, Tom Symonds, reports

from the Old Bailey. This report contains flash photography.

Once editor of Britain's test selling Sunday newspaper, then the

man trusted to defend the reputation of the prime minister. It is doing a

half years since Andy Coulson was arrested, and he said next to

nothing publicly in his defence, until today. Today, there were

admissions and denials. Andy Coulson admitted damaging those close to him

by his affair with Rebekah Brooks. That revelation came from

prosecutors keen to prove they were so close that they must have

discussed the so-called dark arts of Fleet Street, including phone

hacking. The, Mr Coulson said this. -- of the affair. He resigned as

David Cameron's communications director in 2011, but admitted today

that they and their families then spent a weekend together at

Chequers, a prior arrangement. I have not spoken to the prime

ministers since, said Mr Coulson. The former editor was being

questioned today by his barrister, Timothy Langdale. He asked if Mr

Coulson had known the name of the private investigator, Glenn

Mulcaire, before he had been convicted of phone hacking into

thousand six. Mr Coulson denied it. He told the court he thought Glenn

Mulcaire's company looked for people and possibly did surveillance. But

he said he was not interested in that. He was a former show business

reporter, and he never used private investigators. He and Rebekah Brooks

wanted to modernise the News Of The World, Mr Coulson said. He worried

back then about what he called the paper's destructive competitive

culture. Today's evidence was setting the scene. He could we in

the witness box for three weeks. Andy Coulson denies three charges of

phone hacking and making illegal payments to public officials. Tom

Symonds, BBC News, at the old daily. Nigerian officials say at least 70

people have been killed by two huge explosions at a crowded bus station

on the outskirts of the capital, Abuja. Over 120 people have been

injured. No one has admitted planting the devices, but the

Nigerian president has suggested that the Islamist militant group

Boko Haram is to blame. An investigation into allegations of

a plot by hardline Muslims to take over schools in Birmingham and

introduce Islamic practices is being widened to include 25 schools.

Birmingham City Council says it has appointed a new chief adviser to

handle at least 200 complaints. Sian Lloyd has more details.

These are some of the primary and secondary schools across Birmingham

who are facing questions about the way they are run. The individual

allegations vary, but there is a common theme by that a small group

of so-called hardline Muslims are trying to impose their religiously

conservative views, ousting non-Muslim headteachers in the

process. We have referred some allegations to the police. So it is

not unrealistic to expect that if they find substance to those, we

could see criminal proceedings at one end of the spectrum. But

equally, we would like to use regular policies and procedures to

make sure there is good governance in schools. That includes making

appointments properly to governing bodies and to school teaching staff.

The council is so concerned about potential abuse of the recruitment

process that it has currently imposed a freeze on appointing new

school governors. It is six months since the council first received an

anonymous letter warning of a plot called Operation Trojan Horse. It

suggests that agitators can turn parents against the headteacher and

the leadership team by alleging that schools are corrupting their

children with sex education, teaching about homosexuality,

Christian prayers and organising mixed swimming and sport. Parkview

academy is one of the schools named in the Trojan horse letter. It has

been alleged that a senior Al-Qaeda figure was praised during school

assembly and that boys and girls are segregated during lessons. But when

we have spoken to some parents here before the Easter break, they did

not raise any of these concerns, and wanted to praised the school for its

academic achievements. The chair of governors has strenuously denied all

the claims. These are ridiculous assertions, meant to serve the

frenzy that has been generated in the media, which actually is a kind

of witch hunt. Ofsted recently inspected this school and 14 others

across Birmingham. The council's investigation is due to report by

July. Education officers say they want to get to the bottom of what is

happening in some of the city's schools before the end of the

academic year. Our top story this evening: Unrest

spreads across eastern Ukraine is the government in Kiev calls for UN

peacekeepers to be sent in. Sadiq Khan: making the medals for the

Commonwealth Games, with 100 days to go.

Later on BBC London News a fantastic day tinged with sadness. Marathon

organisers pay their respects as a runner who died on the finish line

is named. And claims that a fund manager.

Britain's biggest fare dodger paid his way out of persecution.

Teams looking for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane are to use

a robotic submarine to search the floor of the southern Indian Ocean.

Bluefin will travel to depths of 4,500 metres to determine whether

signals detected last week were from the plane's black box. The last

signal, or ping, was received nearly a week ago. It's feared the

batteries may now have run out. The submarine will spend 16 hours a day

on the ocean floor searching for any wreckage. But the task isn't easy

and is agonisingly slow. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes has the latest from

Perth. This hi-tech yellow torpedo is now

the last hope of finding Malaysian Airlines flight 370. Tonight, it is

being dispatched into the depths of the Indian Ocean, close to where the

four pings, thought to be from the missing plane, were detected last

week. I would caution you against raising hopes and the deployment of

the autonomous underwater vehicle will result in the detection of the

aircraft wreckage. It may not. However, this is the best lead we

have and it must be pursued rigorously. The depth it must go to

is breathtaking, nearly three miles deep. Far deeper even than the wreck

of the Titanic. Once down there, the Bluefin-21 will cruise backwards and

forwards just above the ocean floor, its side scanning sonar mapping the

bottom. This is an actual image of a shipwreck from the previous mission.

The challenges this time are much greater. It has to travel that depth

before it starts travelling along the track. It will only go at six

kilometres an hour, walking pace. The sonar range is only about 600 m

either side, it is like mowing the lawn 600 m one-way, turning around

and then 600 m the other way. It is a long operation. When they picked

up the sound of the pingers last week there was a real sense of

expectation that they were about to find the plane. The pings stopped

and they have heard nothing for the last six days. Now they have no

choice but to start the long, laborious process of mapping the

ocean floor using sonar. It could take weeks, months or even years.

After 30 days of scanning the ocean surface and finding nothing, today

they found a small oil slick. -- oil slick. It may still turn out to be

nothing but if it is aviation fuel, it could be more evidence they are

at least searching in the right area. The South African athlete,

Oscar Pistorius, has been accused in court of concocting his evidence

about the night he shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The

prosecution suggested there was a row and Miss Steenkamp wanted to

leave. In another tense and highly emotional day of testimony and cross

examination, Mr Pistorius again denied murder, saying he thought

there was an intruder in the House. Our correspondent, Andrew Harding,

reports from Pretoria. Back in court, and some well-wishers waiting

for Oscar Pistorius. He shrugged aside the balloons, the hug was

harder to escape. In court, there was no hint of sympathy from the

athlete from the prosecutor they dubbed the pit bull. Your version is

so improbable that it cannot be reasonably possibly true. The focus

again today, the circumstances of Reeva Steenkamp's death, the

prosecutor looking for holes in Pistorius's story, insisting the

couple had a row. I am saying that she wanted to leave and that you

weren't sleeping. You were both awake. That is not correct. It is

untrue. And that there was an argument. Then, Pistorius was asked

again about his movement from the bedroom to the bathroom where, he

says, he feared intruders had broken in. I screamed. I said, get the

BLEEP out of my house. Get the BLEEP out of my house. But Nel was

sceptical. At one point he got a policeman to sit in the toilet

cubicle, reconstructed in court with the original door, to show where

Reeva Steenkamp might have been. Under relentless pressure, Oscar

Pistorius struggled badly today. Sometimes evasive, sometimes

changing his evidence, as the prosecutor kept asking him how it

was possible he had fired four times through this door without checking

who was on the other side. You fired at Reeva. The other versions of

yours cannot work. That is not true. Why are you getting emotional now?

I did not fire at Reeva. This was a tough day for the athlete who, as

usual, was not shown on the court cameras. His evidence has been shown

to be incomplete and, at times, inconsistent.

There are just 100 days to go before the start of the Commonwealth Games

in Glasgow and the organisers have unveiled the new specially designed

medals. Our correspondent, Lorna Gordon, was there. Lorna... Some of

those medals will be competed for and won here at the velodrome on the

very first day of Commonwealth competition. Each medal is

handmade. That means each one is ever so slightly different. The

designer says every single medal is a work of art. The other medals,

competitors at this summer 's Commonwealth Games will be hoping to

win, bronze, silver and gold. Every single one made by hand in the city

where they will be handed out. A small team has been working long

hours to handcraft medals, close to 1400 will be awarded. It was trying

to do something that reflected Glasgow but also having a feel of

movement. Is it a labour of love? Exactly. There is blood, sweat and

tears in these medals. To the Auckland games and the medals of

Delhi just four years ago, they all have a very different look and feel.

Medals for this summer 's games are inspired by Glasgow 's heritage,

shipbuilding on the Clyde, the buildings designed by Mackintosh.

One of Britain 's greatest ever sportsman says the medals are worth

more to him than their weight in gold. It is just a hunk of metal on

a bit of ribbon. But it's not what counts. It represents everything you

put into it, achievement, hard work, highs and lows. The Glasgow games

have encountered difficulties. Protest and concerns over safety of

demolition of the flat has been cancelled. Looking at the type of

opposition, it would be beyond regular debate. We were looking at a

commemorative action as part of the ceremony, not to enhance protest.

Organisers are hoping the controversy will not tarnish the

event. The last few medals are now being completed. The games get under

way in 100 days' time. Mumsnet says it has 10 million visits a month and

it believes cyber thieves may have obtained sparse words and personal

messages before this was fixed. -- passwords. People in Cheltenham

believe they have been paid a secret visit by the street artist, Banksy.

A mural has appeared on a wall, depicting three 1950s-style spies,

wearing trench coats and trilby hats, using devices to tap into

conversations at a telephone box just a few miles from the

Government's GCHQ surveillance centre. There has been no

confirmation on Banksy's website. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

have been visiting the city of Christchurch in New Zealand to meet

the families of people who died in the earthquake of 2011. The couple

also took part in an impromptu cricket match with William

demonstrating some potentially lethal bowling. From Christchurch,

our royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell, reports.

He returned to a city which has picked itself up from tragedy, and

this time he was accompanied by his wife. William and Catherine spent

several hours at Christchurch, the scene three years ago of a major

earthquake. William visited Christchurch soon after it happened.

He was shown the devastation. It made a deep impression on him. This

is Christchurch today. Some parts are still in ruins and are gradually

being demolished, but much of the city has already been rebuilt. 185

people were killed in the earthquake. William and Catherine

met bereaved families and heard accounts of the day the earthquake

struck. In a speech, William paid tribute to the city. What has struck

me on this visit, three years on, is the resilience and adaptability of

Christchurch. Despite the daunting job ahead of you, life continues

with classic Kiwi humour, creativity, innovation and

determination. Then a sharp change of mood. Next year, Christchurch

will be one of the cities hosting the Cricket World Cup. Good reason,

then, to invite these sporting guests to have a quick game. No

matter that she was hardly dressed for the occasion. Catherine took to

the crease. The bat was grasped, and advice was taken. A batting stance

of sorts was adopted. At the bowler's end, William, his first

delivery a full toss. The crowd gasped. Catherine wagged

her finger. A wide was signalled. She survived three more deliveries,

then retired not out. The crowd loved it. Over the past week,

William, Kate and not forgetting baby George, certainly appear to

have endeared themselves to this country. In coming days, we will see

whether they can do the same in Australia.

Time for a look at the weather. Autumn in New Zealand, spring back

home. It has been a beautiful day. On the satellite, we have had

predominantly blue skies. The cloud is starting to dissolve away and it

will turn into a clear night. Temperatures will fall away from

here on in. It will turn particularly cold in the early

hours. In towns and cities we will get into single figures. In the

suburbs and more rural areas, we should get down close to freezing or

even below. A cold start to another fine and predominantly Sunni day. No

two days are the same. There will be some subtle variations. There will

be compiled, particularly across it Yorkshire. The wind will be in a

different direction. It will be a warm day. The North Coast of

Northern Ireland and on the coast of North Wales, it would be up into the

mid teens. Conversely, some of us will be cooler today. Notably along

some southern and eastern coasts of England. Here we will have an

onshore breeze. Tomorrow, right on the coast, perhaps no more than ten

or 11. A chilly breeze but do not be fooled. The sun is particularly

strong. High UV levels at the moment. If you are out in the

sunshine for any length of time, do put on some sunscreen. There will be

some rain around, particularly in the far north. Some sunshine. Easter

looks like being try to start with. What happens thereafter is open to

question. We will keep you updated. A reminder of our main story...

Unrest spreads across Eastern Ukraine as the Government in Kiev

calls for UN peacekeepers to be sent in. That's all from the BBC News at

Six. So,