15/03/2016 BBC News at Six

Terror alert in Brussels - there's been a shoot-out

It's linked to last November's deadly Paris attacks -

the hunt is on for at least two terror suspects after a police raid.

People have been saying people have been shot in the street.

We'll be live at the scene with the latest developments.

All schools in England will become academies -

A heroes' welcome for Russia's fighter crews,

The parents at the centre of the record breaking meningitis

The fight to save the African elephant.

We're on the trail of the poachers in deepest Congo.

There are another four of these carcasses spread all around

They arrived too late to catch the poachers,

Accusations that Donald Trump is inciting violence on another big

All power to Mullins and Walsh as Annie Power takes

the Champion Hurdle on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

As we go on air tonight there is stand-off between Belgian

security forces and at least two gunmen in the capital,

Earlier this afternoon eyewitnesses reported gunfire during a raid

The raid was linked to the Paris attacks which killed 130

Let's go straight to the scene and our correspondent

It was just after lunchtime the first report came. This is where the

police sealed off this area in the Forest, south of the centre. I have

been here in the daytime and it is busy. That way, the streets where

they launched the raid, they were met with gunfire but we know what

brought them here were investigations following the Paris

attacks. Dozens of armed police units moved

into the Southern district of Brussels in the afternoon. They

sealed off a series of streets bringing the entire area to a

standstill. There had been a police raid shortly after lunchtime, and as

they moved in the officers were met with gunfire. People inside the

cordon police threw up were told to stay indoors, unable to move as

police hunted the suspects. Gunfire came from this street and down to

the side, where the operation has been focused. Also there is a school

where there were five classes of toddlers who were trapped, being

cared for by teachers while parents were unable to get into bring them

out. Belgian prosecutors say the raid is linked to the Paris attacks

that killed 130 people. Much of the planning and preparation for those

attacks happened in Brussels. Belgian police have been searching

for two suspects linked to the attacks ever since. TRANSLATION: Two

individuals are apparently holed up in the building and a cordon has

been set up following the setting up of the cordon special forces teams

arrived and are in position along with Federal police and so the

operation is ongoing. Police have not said who the targets were. It is

known armed French officers were involved in the operation. And a

short time ago from in there there was word there may have been more

action. Belgian media saying one of the suspects may have been as they

put it neutralise. Back to you. The Chancellor will deliver his

latest budget tomorrow and will confirm a radical

shift in the way schools The role of local councils

in managing local schools will come to an end within a few years,

with every primary and secondary school expected

to become an academy. Our Education Editor Branwen

Jeffreys is with me. Just how significant is this? What

makes it different is it is not about intervening in schools that

are failing or in schools coasting or underperforming. George Osborne

will tell good schools currently run by the Council that they need to

begin to plan to move out of control of the Council and become an academy

within the next four, six years. What does it mean if you are a

parent? The school will have more freedom to decide what it teaches

and what to pay staff. Ministers say it leads to more innovation and

competition and greater choice for parents but critics say there are

failures in the academy system. Some schools have struggled despite

having been taken out of council control and becoming an academy. At

the moment there is not clear evidence it will produce a better

system than the one we have. Russian fighter pilots have been

given a heroes' welcome back home His decision took world leaders -

including David Cameron It raises questions

about what the Russians have achieved and how their partial

withdrawal from Syria will affect More on that in a moment but first

here's Steve Rosenberg from Moscow. At the Russian air base in Syria,

it's the final checks. In the cockpit of a Sukhoi 34

bomber, preparations for take-off. And then for Russia's air force,

the long flight home. Led by a command plane,

the bombers head to Russia. President Putin has ordered

the majority of Russian forces He says they have

completed their task. A few hours later the planes and

pilots are back on Russian soil. It is quite a homecoming. To Russia

with Love. There is a traditional Russian greeting. And there are

prayers. It is a hero 's welcome. Vladimir Putin wants Russians to see

the military operation as having been a success and that is why the

soldiers' return seems to be choreographed to present them as

heroes. A message that is going down well with the Russian people. We are

really glad our troops are coming home she tells me. Surprised, but

happy. Thanks to our soldiers, he says, so-called Islamic State is

doing worse, the Syrian army is doing better. That is victory. There

will be more planes coming home, more parties. But Moscow is not

pulling all troops out of Syria and Russia has warned it will continue

to launch air strikes against what it calls terrorist targets.

The partial withdrawal of Russian forces coincides with the latest

round of Syrian peace talks in Geneva.

So what are President Putin's motives and what impact

Here's our diplomatic correspondent, Bridget Kendall.

Thank you. The move may have caught Western leaders by surprise but it

is carefully calculated. What is known in Russian as a multifaceted

chess move taking several options into account.

Russia's military airbase in Syria last night.

Pictures to suggest this campaign as promised is time-limited

Recent scenes like this reinforce the sense of victory.

Grateful Syrians in government-controlled Latakia

thanking Moscow for coming to their aid.

Announcing a withdrawal now is about getting out

while the going is good with almost no Russian bloodshed,

without being drawn into a messy quagmire that Russians back home

facing economic hardship might no longer support.

The main goal is to pull out before Russia will get

dragged into this mess, because I don't think anybody

in Moscow believes seriously that Syria and the broader Middle East

can be stabilised and settled any time

On the one hand this is a partial pull-out.

There will be hundreds of troops protecting

Russia's Naval facility and airbase in Syria,

poised to continue attacking what they called terrorist

On the other hand Russia has been reluctant to confront jihadists

of so-called Islamic State, the stronghold in orange,

perhaps to stop making Russia itself a target.

Then there is what this pull-out says about Mr Putin's

relationship with the Syrian president.

It looks like the warning, not to block progress at peace talks

in Geneva, and not to get in the way of impairing

--Russia repairing relations in the west.

If Russia is pulling forces out of Syria it is good news

and could be a vital boost to the peace process.

But we do not yet know if that is the case.

Keeping the west guessing might make Mr Putin look like the one

controlling the chessboard. But maybe this is as much an ambition of

Russian weakness as strength. All children up to the age of 11

should be vaccinated against meningitis B, is the message a group

of parents gave to politicians today. The vaccine is currently

given only to infants and the government said it would not be

cost-effective to more children. The faces of some of the children

struck by meningitis who have helped Their stories encouraged record

numbers of people to sign what is Parliament's

largest ever online Today their parents went to see MPs

to call for the vaccine for meningitis B to be

extended to more children. Among them the former England rugby

captain Matt Dawson, I know and my wife

knows we are lucky These parents want the meningitis B

vaccine to be made available The father who started the petition

was told one of his daughters We are a modern country,

not a Third World country. This two-month-old is having

the meningitis B vaccine. The UK is the first place in Europe

to offer it routinely but only The government said it is not

cost-effective to extend it This is one of the laboratories

where the meningitis B vaccine It is an alarming disease,

because of the speed and severity It is also a rare disease

and over the past ten years in the UK, the number

of cases has been declining. That is part of the reason

the government's scientific advisers have not

recommended older children should They made their decision

on the best evidence available. On that basis, under one,

it is appropriate to give it to them but for older children it

would cost such a lot if it would mean they could not spend

money on other things in the NHS, then I think

it was right. There is a question

about whether young adults At 21, he got meningitis

B and lost both Young people are most likely

to transmit the disease and some scientists want to see

whether vaccinating them Prince William has unveiled

plans for a crack down He called the agreement signed

at Buckingham Palace today a "game changer in the race

against extinction". Every year between 30 and 40

thousand African elephants With under half a million left,

their numbers are being decimated by Asia's seemingly insatiable

appetite for ivory. Poachers and rangers are now

in armed conflict in a number of African countries

with the Democractic Republic Our Africa correspondent

Alastair Leithead has sent this It's tough terrain in

Garamba National Park, where less than 100 rangers

are trying to protect the last

of the elephants across thousands We joined one of their foot

patrols to a place where The grass is so high,

the only way to see a carcass Well, this elephant was clearly

killed by a poacher. Its ivory tusks were hacked off,

it has been dead about three weeks. There are another four of these

carcasses spread all around They arrived too late

to catch the poachers, 30-40,000 elephants are being killed

in Africa every year. And with only around 400,000 left,

it is not going to be long this rate And with so few boots on the ground,

those responsible often get away We followed their footprints,

one of the rangers told me. There are perhaps 1300

elephants left here. Garamba was one of Africa's

first national parks originally set up to protect

the northern white rhino. but that has already been

wiped out by poachers. Now, they're fighting

to save the elephants that are left, in a place surrounded by civil war

and heavily armed militia. And that's why African Parks,

the group managing Garamba, But the weapons are old,

few hit even a close target. Training rangers takes a lot of time

and money and the men they're up This really does feel like you're

fighting a war against poachers? I think Garamba is probably today

at the forefront of conservation, I just don't think that many other

places have so much contact and so many threats to one

park as we have here. This local man was arrested after

a tip-off, and ivory recovered. By the time it reaches the market

in Asia, it goes for at least ?750. Then reports came

in of another attack. And there are the carcasses,

just down there by the river. Five of them, one of them a baby,

and the sixth we've just spotted, a little bit further up

the river from there. It's hard to make out from up here,

but you could see that their faces They need hundreds more

rangers to protect Garamba. On the front line of

the poaching war, the elephants Alistair Leithead, BBC News,

in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There's been a shoot-out

in Brussels. Anti-terror police have been hunting

for at least two men. One British woman's journey

from make-up artist It's a big night for Manchester

City, they have a two-goal cushion against Dynamo Kiev as they attempt

to reach the Champions League Voters in Florida and four other key

states are voting now to choose their preferred candidates

to run for President. Support for the Republican

candidate, Donald Trump, stronger - that's despite

accusations that he has incited violence with some

of his campaign speeches. Today, President Obama has

intervened, describing some of the rhetoric

as "vulgar and divisive." Our North America editor,

Jon Sopel, has more. If there's one place in America

where Donald Trump shouldn't He's upset a lot of Hispanics

with his rhetoric and he's up against the local Cuban-American

Senator, Marco Rubio. But for all the controversy,

if you join up the dots, Trump is the most important

man in the world now. Donald Trump is scary,

but he's the only one who can beat I think anything's better

than Hillary Clinton. I'm very proud of Rubio,

but I identify with Trump. The latest fire storm

is the violence that has erupted at Trump rallies, as his supporters

skirmish with protesters. Actions that should have no place

in democratic politics. The charge against Mr Trump is that,

far from condemning, his language has condoned,

even incited, such behaviour I'd like to punch him

in the face, I tell you. You know what they used

to do to guys like that, when they were in a place like this,

they would be carried out I don't know if I would have done

well, but I would have been - So if you see somebody getting

ready to throw a tomato, I promise you, I will pay

for the legal fees, I promise. Am I allowed to rip that

whistle out of the mouth, Yes, Donald Trump's comments

have caused a furore, If anything, his poll

lead is increasing. At this polling station in Miami,

he seems to be the only The others seem to have

given up the fight. For all the discussion of punch-ups,

if he wins here tonight, and in Ohio, the talk will instead

be about having delivered a knockout The Chancellor, George Osborne,

is set to give the Government's backing to two major rail projects

in his Budget tomorrow - the upgrading of the line

between Manchester and Leeds He's expected to outline plans

to spend ?300 million on transport in the north of England,

where a commission is urging him Our transport correspondent,

Richard Westcott, reports. 8.00am and the daily grind

for commuters across northern Welcome to the M62 at rush-hour,

we're stopped, which isn't unusual This is a critical section of road

because it links up the two biggest northern economies,

Leeds and Manchester, and yet this section of road hasn't

been widened since 1971. I'm sat in it sometimes for an hour

at a time and today's probably one of worst for those poor

people going eastwards. The transport links down south

are a lot better than they up I think because we're out

of the way, we're forgotten about. Does it put you off travelling

between Leeds and Manchester? The trains are no better with not

enough fast services or seats. Today's report calls for a detail

plan to speed things up, especially across the Pennines

and it wants immediate action on the M62, easing jams

between Leeds and Manchester. If you can cut those journey times

and make the journeys much more reliable, hence improvements

to the M62, that would lead to a lot more trade and business

between the two cities and that The Government's now promising

?160 million for more lanes on the M62, plus money to develop

ideas for much faster trains and a huge Trans-Pennine road

tunnel, but in England transport spending per person in the north

is still dwarfed by spending On the day before his Budget,

Chancellor George Osborne was doing his bit on

London's Crossrail project. REPORTER: What do you think

about a Crossrail II then? It's the capital's brand new rail

line, and he wants to build another We're currently planning to spend

around ?2,600 per person on transport infrastructure

in London, compared to around about ?500 per person

on transport in the north. So the announcements today will be

a small step in the right direction In reality, new road tunnels

and rail lines cost billions So this morning ritual won't be

changing any time soon. Richard Westcott,

BBC News, on the M62. A brief look at some of the day's

other other news stories. A prison officer, injured in a bomb

attack in Northern Ireland The 52-year-old Adrian Ismay was

seriously hurt after a booby-trap device exploded under his

van in east Belfast. A dissident republican group,

widely referred to as the New IRA, A report into a helicopter crash off

Shetland, in which four people died, says flight instruments were not

adequately monitored by the pilots in the moments leading

up to the crash. The Air Accidents Investigation

Branch report says the lack of monitoring meant a reduction

in air speed was not noticed The Church of England

is to introduce changes to the way it deals with allegations

of sexual abuse by clergy, that's following a critical

independent report. The confidential report -

which has been seen by the BBC - reveals that senior clergymen kept

no record of claims disclosed A ?1.2 billion deal has been signed

to improve public transport and bring economic

growth to Cardiff. It includes ?734 million

for the South Wales Metro. The scheme aims to create 25,000

new jobs and attract an extra ?4 billion in private

sector investment. She's a part-time hair and make-up

artist, but last month beat all of Britain's best 800 metre

runners to get a place at her first senior championships,

the World Indoor Athletics Adelle Tracey is a rising star

in British athletics COMMENTATOR: Adelle Tracey's not

beaten yet, and she's I think it wasn't really

until about maybe 150, 100 to go that I kind of felt,

actually, you know, I can do this. COMMENTATOR: But it's

Tracey who wins it. I suppose my aim was always

to kind of get that I really wanted to go

to the World Indoors in Portland. So it's just very much a case of me,

you know, being at my first championship and getting that

experience and trying to do the best So, you know, if I can give

everything that I have on that day, Young runner, Adelle Tracey,

is nominated by Dame Kelly Holmes it's not sunk until, you know,

I watch it back and I look at the scale of everything,

I do realise how important The only thing that could really

top that is, you know, being at a Championship or,

you know, the Olympics myself. I've done a lot of weddings,

which I love because, you know, you get to share that

moment in the morning, the excitement of the bride

and everything, which is perfect. You know, working in prosthetics

is very different, it's long hours I guess, slightly

more less glamorous. I helped work on projects

for Doctor Who. I think it's very much a case

of me just, you know, carrying on doing what I'm doing,

running as fast as I can because, at the end of the day,

that's all you can do, and I really hope that that's

enough to make the team. Adelle Tracey there talking

ahead of her appearance at the World Indoor

Championships on Saturday. Hello. The dry weather will

continue. The devil is in the detail. The sunshine will make a

difference. Today in western Scotland a cracking day in the

sunshine, postively feeling like summer he at 16 degrees. The east

coast was murky and cold, five or six degrees across parts of East

Anglia. The cloud has been coming in from the North Sea. Sunshine

disappearing across parts of Wales. It lasted all day across western

skiesment the cloud will filter in. It may provide spots of rain to

eastern England. Murky and misty across the North Sea coast of

north-east England and eastern Scotland. Temperatures staying above

freezing with clearer skies in western Scotland close to zero here.

A grey start for many tomorrow. There maybe rain and drizzle over

the Midlands, northerned a western parts of England and Wales for a

time. Not amounting to much. Soon disappearing. It should be another

sunny day across north-west Scotland. There will be more cloud

than today. Where we see the sun we could get 17 degrees. More cloud

tomorrow for Northern Ireland right down the east coast it will feel

cold, temperatures for much of the day four or five degrees. Should

cheer up over the Midlands, Wales brighter after a grey start.

Cloudier day tomorrow across the far south-west of England it will

brighten up on Thursday. A bit of a breeze in the south. Southern areas

seeing more sunshine on Thursday. Further north it will be a bit

cloudier. Again, most places dry. Again, the sunshine makes all the

difference. Where it's grey and dull, we are in single figures,

sunshine, 10-12 Celsius. The dry theme will continue to the weekend,

more cloud and Turner colder as well.