24/10/2011 BBC News at Ten

The Prime Minister's authority is put to the test as he faces his

biggest Commons rebellion yet. Dozens of Conservative MPs are

expected to defy him tonight in a vote over a referendum on

membership of the European Union. It is not the right time at this

moment of economic crisis to launch legislation that includes an in or

out referendum. When your neighbour's house is on fire, your

first impulse should be to help them to put out the flames. Like

his predecessors, he is caught between the party interest and the

national interest. It is an out-of- touch Tory party tearing itself

apart with Europe. This is the theme live in the House of Commons,

where voting is now under way. We will bring you the results as soon

as we get it. Also tonight: Trapped beneath tons

of rubble. The desperate efforts to rescue survivors of Sunday's

earthquake in Turkey, which killed at least 279 people.

Claims of a massacre in Libya after the bodies of more than 50 Gaddafi

loyalists are found outside a hotel in Sirte. With the Earth's

population about to reach seven billion, the United Nations warns

of the threat to poorer countries. And the Queen's close encounter

with koala bears, as she meets victims of Brisbane's floods in

And straight after the 10 o'clock news, we will have continuing

coverage from Westminster of tonight's referendum vote and its

Good evening. David Cameron's authority is being put to the test

tonight as he faces his biggest Commons rebellion since entering

Downing Street. MPs have just started voting on a motion calling

for a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.

This afternoon, the Prime Minister made a personal plea to

Conservative backbenchers asking them not to support the motion. The

government will not lose the vote but it is thought dozens of

Conservative MPs will rebel. Let's go straight to Westminster.

David Cameron is bracing himself tonight, not just for the biggest

rebellion he had faced as prime minister but almost certain the

biggest on Europe faced by any Conservative Prime Minister ever.

The worst was 41 votes against the government line when John Major

fought to keep his government in office over the issue of the

Maastricht Treaty in the early 1990s. There will be no instant

referendum tonight but David Cameron Dan Snow, depending on the

site of the revolt, he could be facing a battle over Europe for

many years to come. Europe is like a ticking bomb under the

Conservative Party. That is what David Cameron was warned by William

Hague when he became Tory leader. Tonight, the crisis in the eurozone

and a rebellion in the Commons means it is ticking louder than

ever. I am not prepared to go back on my word to my constituents. If

Britain's future as an independent country is not a proper matter for

a referendum, then I have no idea what is. That was the man who,

until he resigned tonight, with the Europe Minister's parliamentary

aide. Just one of those Conservatives ready to defy their

leader. Rule Britannia! Outside Parliament today, some dreamt of

Britain ruling herself again, free from European influence. Inside,

demands grew that the people be given a vote on whether to stay in,

get out or renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU. The Prime

Minister insisted that that would be the wrong referendum at the

wrong time. When your neighbour's house is on fire, your first

impulse should be to help them to put out the flames, not least to

stop the flames reaching your own house. This is not the time... This

is not the time to argue about walking away. Warned that doesn't

on his own side did not share that view, the Prime Minister told his

backbenchers that he shared their yearning for fundamental change.

Like you, I want to see fundamental reform. Like you, I want to

refashion our membership of the EU so it better serve the nation's

interest. The time for reform is coming. How, when and what that

reform would be, he did not say. With his Lib Dem deputy beside him,

perhaps he couldn't. The Labour leader was scathing. He is caught

between the party interest and the national interest. We see the re-

run of the old movie, and out-of- touch Tory party tearing itself

apart over Europe and all the time, the British people are left to

worry about their jobs and livelihoods. All three main party

leaders have ordered their MPs to vote no to a referendum on Europe

tonight but it is David Cameron who has failed to convince even his

newest MPs, including the backbencher who ensured that

today's vote took place at all. Voters know that the tentacles of

the European Union intrude into more and more areas of our national

life. Understandably they are saddened and disillusioned at being

fobbed off, as they see it, by the political elite who always seem to

find a reason to stop them having their say. In the last week, I have

had dozens and dozens of letters and telephone calls and e-mails

from constituents urging me to support this motion and the only

communication urging me to vote against it was a phone call from

the whip's office. That the Tory party is split on Europe is in no

doubt. The only question that remains to be answered is by how

much. And the answer to how many

Conservatives have rebuilt against their party leadership we will know

it in 10 minutes' time -- have rebelled. You can see Members of

Parliament the be queuing at the end to go through the voting lobby,

to physically vote yes or no to a referendum, or returning to their

seats to hear the results. They know the outcome will be defeat for

a referendum but they know something else, too. Today and

tonight has changed the debate about Europe and the next question

facing the Prime Minister is, what exactly did you mean by fundamental

reform of the EU and when will we get it?

Thank you, for now. Rescue teams in Turkey are still

managing to pull more people alive from the rubble after the strong

earthquake that hit the east of the country on Sunday. At least 279

people are now known to have died, but it's feared the death toll will

rise considerably. More than 1,000 people have been injured in the

quake, which measured 7.2 and struck close to the border with

Iran. The city of Ercis was the worst-hit, with almost 1,000

buildings destroyed. From there, Daniel Sandford sent this report.

Hammering, cutting, pulling frantically at the remains of

reinforced concrete apartment blocks. The ordinary people of

Ercis were desperately helping the official rescue teams to look for

the hundreds who are missing. At the centre of this rescue effort is

the 29-year-old, pinned between a car and the wall. He has been there

for over 24 hours. Amongst all of those trying to get him out of all

of his brothers. They had formed a human chain, passing saucepans full

of rubble away from my injured brother, slowly making space for

him to be brought out. With exhaustion setting in, his mother

waited patiently near by. We have all been here since yesterday, she

told us, we slept in the car overnight. No food has passed any

of his brother slips. This six- year-old girl is also somewhere

under the rubble. Her uncle told me she had been out playing at the

time of the earthquake and no one has heard from her since.

TRANSLATION: The saddest part, my sister's husband is dead in more

rubble. We were there burying him and then we got back here, hoping

that it could well come out. Hopefully... No matter how

seriously injured, but alive. Overnight in the regional capital

Van, a small boy had been found alive. His rescuers pleading with

him to be patient while they worked to get him out. And in Ercis, this

toddler were successfully pulled out alive by emergency workers.

CCTV footage has emerged, which shows the moment the powerful

earthquake struck. The shaking stops this couple in their tracks.

And late tonight, the man whose brothers have never given up was

lifted out from the rubble. The 29- year-old, cold, dusty and with

broken bones, was carried off on concrete that could have been his

tomb and down past his mother, before being loaded into an

ambulance. He had survived. The United States has pulled its

ambassador out of Syria, accusing the authorities there of inciting a

campaign of attacks against him. Robert Ford has been openly

critical of the Syrian government's violent response to the uprising

against President Assad. In response, Syria recalled its

ambassador to the US. James Murdoch is to give evidence

for a second time to a parliamentary investigation into

phone hacking at the News of the World. Rupert Murdoch's son, the

executive chairman of News International, will appear before

the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee on November 10th.

In Libya, there are reports that more than 50 pro-Gaddafi fighters

have been massacred in Sirte, the city where Gaddafi was found last

week. Their bodies were discovered a day after the country's new

leaders declared national liberation. Many people who were

forced from their homes during the fighting in the city are now

returning in the hope that they can rebuild their lives. Wyre Davies

reports from Sirte. Some of the images in his report you might find

distressing. There was heavy fighting, loss of

life and wanton destruction throughout this Libyan conflict,

but nothing on the scale of what has happened in Sirte. Some say

Gaddafi's home town is where transitional government forces took

their revenge, collective punishment for Gaddafi's crimes. A

vivid and grotesque example of that in Sirte today. The bodies of 53

Gaddafi supporters, discovered shot with their hands tied. The man and

aftermath of the dictator's death continues to fascinate, but the

interim authorities have finally stopped the increasingly macabre

public view of his body at the refrigerated in Misrata. It was to

this modest mansion that Gaddafi fled after the fall of Tripoli.

Plenty of food for long-stay, even an exercise bike. But when the

fighting began to intensify, he had to move from home to home, Senator

seller. Caught in the middle of the assault on Sirte, civilians,

including this family. We went with them to the home they had to

abandon two weeks ago. No chance of moving back in. CRYING. Their four-

year-old granddaughter is also missing, not seen in a panic and

confusion for days. They hope she is alive somewhere with her father.

TRANSLATION: I don't know how to feel. I have been building and

living in this house for 30 years. We have no where to go.

certainly feels too early here for talk of reconciliation. This town

on which Colonel Gaddafi spend billions will not enjoy such

privilege and favouritism in the new Libya. Indeed some people say

that Sirte should not be rebuilt at all. It should remain to a memorial

-- it should remain a memorial for Gaddafi's victims, to eventually be

subsumed by the fans of the desert. Coming up on tonight's programme:

As Hollywood tackles Tin Tin, we look at why the character's first

book, To the Land of the Soviets, This time next week it is thought

that the world's population will have reached 7 billion. The number

of people on the planet has expanded rapidly in the past decade,

the United Nations is warning that the rate of growth is threatening

poorer countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our

correspondent has been to Zambia, where the population is expected to

trim by the middle of the century. Welcome to the world. Like each and

every one of us, these new-borns help to make up the 7 billion

people in on planet. Katherine Piri has given birth for the fourth time

to a daughter. Hours old, she does not have a name yet. Despite living

in poverty, the parents want more children and they are ambitious for

their future. TRANSLATION: I want my daughter and

my sons to become important people. Then they can help us.

But I don't know if there will be enough money for them to go through

school. Big families are the norm. Six

children is the average and it is causing a huge increase in numbers.

Zambia's population is project ected to triple by 2050 and --

project ected to triple by 2050 and keep rising. That is despite an

array of modern contraceptive methods, including injections,

implants, the pill and condoms, all available without charge.

The family planning methods are free, but the health facilities,

people have to travel to, to obtain the services, they are not enough.

So they rather use the money for traveling to buy food to feed the

family. This is a youthful country. Half of

the population is aged 16 or under. More and more families are leaving

the countryside to live in the capital, Lusaka in search of work.

Population growth can be good for the economy, with the young

workforce and relatively few elderly, but the increase here is

so rapid, the fear is it could perpetuate poverty. Zambia is

barely able to feed 13 million now, how will it cope with 100 million

more by the end of the century? And how do you encourage the young to

have fewer children than their parents? Aid agencies say it starts

with more rights for women. If you are married to a man and he

decides to have ten children, you have no say, even when you know

that the children will not be looked after properly. We need to

empower the women so that they can make decisions about their lives.

What can the new government do for you, girls and you... That begins

in the classroom where attitudes are changing. These taingers want

the careers first and motherhood second.

-- teenagers. I want to have two kids, one boy

and one girl. I want to have two kids to reduce the population.

As nations become richer, population growth stabilises as

couples choose to have fewer children. Zambia has lots of

economic potential. It is three times the size of Britain, but

there is a long way to go before poverty is replaced by pros pairt.

-- prosperity. You can see more stories from

people affected by the world's growing population on the BBC News

website. On Thursday Ireland goes to the

polls in the country's presidential elections. There are seven

candidates, including McGuinness, whose IRA pass has been a feature

of the contest. The country's economic future has taken centre

stage. Our Ireland correspondent has been following the final steps

of the campaign. Ireland's recovery seems to be on

track. After three years of political and financial turmoil.

Here in County Tipperary and elsewhere money is at least

changing hands. When it comes to betting it is not just on the

horses, but the presidential race. In total, there are seven runners.

Including a former government minister, mike D Higgins. A former

Euro song contest winner, Dana and a former IRA commander. At the

start of the campaign McGuinness was confronted by the son of an IRA

victim. I believe that you know the names

of the killers of my father. No, I don't.

Then, a television studio confrontation.

How do you square, McGuinness, with your God, the fact that you were

involved in the murder of so many people. That is a disgraceful

comment to make. In the latest poll he came third, but he still thinks

he can win. I think that the Irish people are

fair. They understand the history, but I do think that there are

critics who know nothing, absolutely nothing about the art of

peace making. All seven of the candidates are

involved in a last-minute round of TV and radio debates. The job of

Irish President is largely ceremonial. Whatever the focus on

the past of some of the candidates, the Irish people are being asked to

decide on Thursday who they want to represent them in the future.

And this is the favourite, businessman Sean gagging a her, one

of the Dragons from the Irish TV version of Dragons' Den. He said he

is ready to swap the small screen for the big job.

We're a great country in Ireland. We hold you are heads up high with

the sense of renewed vigour. That is the face and the voice that I'm

carrying as a message from Ireland around the world.

As they know, the favourite does not always win, but at this stage

it looks like Ireland's next President will be a former TV star,

rather than a past paramilitary. Now, let's get back to Westminster

where MPs have just voted on whether to have a referendum on

membership of the EU. Our Political Editor Nick Robinson is there. How

big was the rebellion, then? What we know at this stage, Sophie is

how many people, MPs of all parties voted for a referendum. That is 111.

If you assume that 20 Labour MPs went against their party line, some

unionists, that looks to be about 80 Conservative rebels. We cannot

confirm that for certain, but about 80. That is a huge rebellion on the

issue of Europe. The previous highest figure ever, suffered bir

John Major when he was the Prime Minister in 1993 was 41. Of course

it was more serious in those days, had he been defeated, the

Government would have fall on the issue of the Maastricht rebellion.

This rebellion douse not have an immediate consequence, but when a

Prime Minister cannot persuade as many as 80 of his own party, not to

include the many that chose to abstain, instead of to vote with

the Government line, he has a real problem tonight. Now, the Prime

Minister has, in effect, promised his MPs that he shares their views,

but just did not want to vote with them today. Quickly, he will come

under pressure to spell out what change to the EU he wants, when he

will get it, how he will get it and how on earth he would get that

agreed with his Liberal Democrats pat ners in coalition? What tonight

means is that the debate about Europe, far from being over, has

really only just begun. Nick Robinson, thank you very much.

7 In Australia tens of thousands of people have greeted the Queen as

she visited Brisbane, the city hit by floods earlier in the year. She

met some people forced to leave their homes when the Brisbane River

burst its banks in January, leaving 30,000 homes under water. It was a

gesture of solidarity, with the city's whose river had risen

against it. The Queen was taken along the Brisbane River. It was

benign and welcoming, with tens of thousands lining its banks. Last

January, the business bane River had become a swollen torrent,

swamping large sections of the city. It was described as Brisbane's

darkest hour. Today, the Queen saw a city restored after the floods

which had been the worst for a generation.

We are right in the heart of the city. Just to give an idea of thou

was during the floods, the waters then were above the level where the

spectators now are standing. Hard to imagine on a day such as

this, how it was in January, but there were many here to share their

stories. The Queen heard from some of those who had lost their homed.

In a speech she praised the city's resilience.

I have seen the fortitude, and the determination of the people of

Brisbane. But it was not the words that meant

the most, it was the fact that she had wanted to come.

It mean as lot to me. It really does.

For a person who has taken the time to come and see people who really,

really suffered. It is wonderful of her to bother to do that. She made

a specific request that she came to Queensland. What she brings is an

unmatched presence. Supported as ever by a husband, cutting through

the security so that the children could present their flowers. The

Queen and Australia, as attached as ever, if seems.

-- it seems. Now, it was the book that launched

the career of one of the most famous reporters of the century. A

boy renowned for he jumpers and ever faithful dog.

But, Tintin and his first assignment, The Land of the Soviets,

it was a mystery. We asked why its creator Herge, kept it unpublished

for so long. The adventures of the plucky boy reporter had become a

world wide known phenomenom. But the first ever Tintin book

stayed hidden from the English readers fore60 years. The artist

thought that this seminal work, crudely drawn, simplistic, even.

Yet this unflattering depiction of early Soviet Russia was one of the

few glimpses that the Europeans had of the life there after the

revolution. So was it accurate? This summer I crossed to Moscow to

find out. Here is a Russian historian and the

daughter of a KGB colonel. The details of Tintin's adventures

in Russia are fantastic, but the spirit of the country, ruthlessly

oppressing its citizens, who cannot even be called citizens, who are

more like slaves, the spirit is true.

Russia has largely come to terms with that dark past. This is a

monument outside of the headquarters of the FSB, the

Russian intelligence. I think that Herge and his editor would have

approved of the sign it refers to the 1920s Russia as the years of

terror in which it says that over 40,000 people were shot on

groundless political charges. It is that kind of brutality that Herge

was describes in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

The farmers suffered more than most at the hands of the bell shevics. I

went to meet a modern day farmer whose grandfather was executed.

Do you feel this is a broad lay accurate of the Bolsheviks in the

1920s? This is the evidence of one man. It can't be accurate in all

things. In all little things, but the majority of it, I think, it is

true. It was a statement I was to hear

again and again. Life under the early Bolsheviks was grim. Herge's

depiction of it, which he was later ashamed of, turns out to be

surprisingly accurate for someone who never went there. Although

Tintin's Soviet adventure ends there, it went on to spawn a cast

of well-loved characters that would entertain millions for years to