12/03/2012 BBC News at Ten

President Obama calls the shooting of 16 Afghan civilians by an

American soldier heartbreaking, but says it underlines the need to

bring US troops home. As more details emerge about the

shootings, he insists he will stick to the schedule for the US to

withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014. It makes me more determined to make

sure we are getting our troops home. It is time, it has been a decade,

and frankly now that we have got Bin Laden, we are in a stronger

position. As David Cameron prepares to fly to

Washington tomorrow for talks with the president, we will be assessing

the increasing strain on relations between Afghans and Western forces.

Also tonight: Paralysed by a stroke. The severely disabled man who wants

a doctor to kill him wins his battle to take his case to the High

Court. In him ideal world, what he would like is for me to give him a

sedative so that we can be with him and he can go to sleep, and then

for a doctor to come and end his life at.

Hosepipe bans come into force in less than a month across parts of

southern and eastern England with warnings the drought could spread.

Israeli air raids kill six more in Gaza, bringing the death toll to 25.

Israel says it is only striking back at militants to of firing

rockets out of Gaza but inevitably, that isn't the way things work, and

last night, one of their missiles hit this house.

And a helping hand onto the property ladder. The new-build

properties that can be bought with just a 5% deposit.

Coming up on the BBC news channel: A boost for the Cheltenham Festival.

Kauto Star is fit to race and will go for a third Gold Cup victory on

Good evening. President Obama has called the shooting of 16 Afghan

civilians by an American soldier heartbreaking but he says its makes

him more determined to get US troops home after more than a

decade in Afghanistan. He has insisted that the killings will not

affect US strategy or the timing of the withdrawal. Tomorrow the Prime

Minister flies to Washington, where he will hold talks with President

Obama about plans for America and Britain to hand over to Afghan

forces in 2014. Our world affairs editor John Simpson reports.

In Kandahar and the rest of Afghanistan, there has been an

uneasy silence, while people see what happens to the unnamed

American soldier who carried out this massacre, shooting children in

the head and beating and killing women. Most Afghans seem to want

him handed over to Afghan justice. It won't happen.

TRANSLATION: I personally feel very sad. Even I am ready to go to the

side of the Taliban to fight Against these foreigners. President

Obama knows an apology isn't enough, but he got on -- straight on to

President Karzai to try to limit the damage. It will not be easy.

The massacre came just as the protests over the burning of the

Koran at a big American airbase were starting to die down. In

January, these pictures emerged of American soldiers urinating on the

bodies of dead Afghans. The massacre is far worse. It is

already causing nervousness in Washington. We recognise that an

incident like this is inexplicable and will certainly cause many

questions to be asked. One such question: We'll President Obama

managed to get President Karzai to a Greek about NATO's role in

Afghanistan after the combat troops leave -- get President Karzai to

agree. If he does not get this, the pull-out could look like a defeat,

uncomfortably reminiscent of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan

back in 1989. In previous American wars, massacres like this have had

a bigger effect on public opinion back home. My Lai in the Vietnam

war, Haditha and others in the Iraq war. Before this latest massacre,

American polls indicated that well over 50% of people wanted the

troops pulled out quickly. To night President Obama said he shared that

view. It makes me more determined to get our troops home. It is time,

it has been a decade, and now that we have got Bin Laden and weakened

Al-Qaeda, we are in a stronger position than we were three years

ago. As a Briton, an opinion poll tonight suggests that 73% of people

want a withdrawal -- as for Britain. David Cameron says the British

troops still have a job to do. are there to train up the Afghan

army and police so that the country is able to look after its own

security, it to make sure it is not a haven for terrorists without

having foreign troops on its soil. Britain will have to take account

of whatever the Americans do, but with France possibly pulling its

troops out by the end of this year, and public opinion in the West

hardening, withdrawal is likely sooner rather than later, with it

looks like a defeat or not. -- whether it looks like.

Our political editor is in Downing Street and will be travelling with

the Prime Minister to Washington. His Afghanistan going to dominate

the talks? These talks were scheduled a long

time ago and are nothing to do with the latest incident, but they have

ensured that Afghanistan has gone right to the top of the agenda. In

public, you are hearing the Prime Minister and President saying the

same thing, and no doubt they will in Washington. We have a good plan,

we shall stick to the plan. The plan says that the combat role of

troops will come to an end some time, yet to be defined, in 2013

and troops will start to withdraw in large numbers by the end of 2014,

but what they will have to discuss tomorrow is whether that is still

practical. How to sell it to a sceptical electorate. And just as

importantly, what on earth they do to the mounting hostility of

another Electorate: The Afghan one. How important is this trip for

David Cameron? It is important because impart the

symbolism of what everybody insists we must still call the special

relationship is so important to any prime minister. Tomorrow, some will

raise the doubts as to whether it is as special as ever and the

president and the Prime Minister will try to answer that in pictures

and words. The Prime Minister will be the first world leader welcomed

on Air Force One, to sit and watch a baseball game, the President's

favourite. But they are doing that not just because the images matter

but because this year, they need each other. Not just because of

Afghanistan, not just because of Syria, but also because in private

they will ask each other a question: Could this be the year

that there is a war between Israel and Iran?

A severely disabled man who wants a doctor to be able to kill him

legally has won the right to have his case heard in the High Court.

Tony Nicklinson has been paralysed from the neck down since he had a

stroke in 2005. He can't speak but his mind is unaffected. He says his

life is intolerable and he wants to be able to end it. Fergus Walsh

reports. Letter?

His mind is intact but Tony Nicklinson cannot talk. He is

paralysed from the neck down. He communicates with his wife, Jane,

by head movements and blinking. Today a judge ruled that the court

should hear his plea that a doctor be allowed to kill him when he so

wishes. He says, I am delighted that the issues surrounding

assisted dying are to be aired in court. Politicians and others can

hardly complain about the courts providing a forum for debate if the

politicians continue to ignore one of the most important topics. It is

no longer acceptable for twentieth- century medicine to be governed by

twentieth-century attitudes to death. This takes the law on

assisted dying way beyond current boundaries and the Ministry of

Justice says it is Parliament and not the courts that should decide.

At present, any doctor who gave a lethal dose, even with the aim of

ending suffering, would be charged with murder. It is that law which

Tony Nicklinson is challenging. The judge said the courts were being

asked to cross the Rubicon, which separates the care of patients on

one side and euthanasia on the other. The courts have intervened

in end of life decisions before. Tony Bland, crashed in the

Hillsborough disaster and left in a vegetative state, was allowed to

die after judges ruled it was in his best interests. The courts

ordered conjoined twins at Great Ormond Street Hospital to be

separated, despite knowing it would mean one would die. But this doctor

who specialises in the care of terminally ill patients is deeply

worried about this attempt to permit euthanasia. My concern is

that by setting a precedent, it would fundamentally change the

relationship between doctors and patients and an expectation that we

are able to deliver something that currently within the 0 we cannot

deliver, namely to actively kill our patients -- within the law.

law on assisted dying was successfully challenged by Debbie

Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis and wanted protection for her

husband if he took her to a Swiss research organisation. Tony

Nicklinson has even few options and could take his own life only by

refusing food. Starvation is a horrible way to go and Switzerland

is not what he wants, so this is his only way out really. The judge

said Tony Nicklinson's case raised questions of great social, ethical

and religious significance, which will now be fully aired in court.

Hosepipe bans are to be brought in across south and eastern England in

less than a month's time. Some areas are experiencing the worst

conditions for over 30 years after two unusually dry winters have left

reservoirs well below normal levels and land cracked and parched. Seven

water companies will introduce water restrictions, five of them

from April the 5th. Jeremy Cooke reports.

Early spring. The reservoir should be full. Instead, two extremely dry

winters have left many English water regions high and dry.

Hosepipe bans on the way, truly exceptional conditions. This is

very similar to the situation in 1976. In February 1976, the ground

level, reservoir and river levels now on lower than they were then.

It is serious but a situation that we have planned for. Which water

companies will impose restrictions? They range from Anglian Water to

I have never seen it... Water restrictions will not only affect

farmers. Gardeners are also suffering. This man is putting less

crops in the area. We only had 60% of our crops and the problem is

getting bigger and bigger. It is a real big concern in East Anglia at

the moment. Monitoring it, the Environment Agency, which says that

unless there is serious brain soon, the drop zone could extend be on

south and eastern England and stretch as far as Wiltshire and

Shropshire. Across you'd suedes of England, rivers are now worryingly

low. -- across huge swathes of England. What we are looking at

these levels more likely to be seen in the middle of a dry summer.

of England is at drought or at higher risk of drought and that is

why we are working with water companies and others to make sure

that we balance the needs and use water in the wisest way possible

and the most efficient way possible, and that we protect the environment

at the same time. Water levels are now so low that even if there is

rain, the hosepipe bans that come into force on April fifth are

likely to remain true about the summer. -- throughout the summer.

Droughts have become a regular occurrence in some parts of Britain

while water levels have remained abundant in others. So what options

are there for preventing water We have this assessment. Go dry

winters in a row, the result, revoyeurs running low, drought

conditions that could last months and may be more common in the years

ahead. So, what should Britain do? One solution is trafring water from

north to south -- transferring water from north to south. A

national water grid could supply a drier England. The Scottish

Government like the idea. We have massive resources and we are

willing to help those resources to help the south-east of England

solve its water shortage. But could this work? This map was

drawn up 40 years ago, but deemed to expensive, nothing has changed

since. It cost as lot of money to move

water long distances, the viewers know that water is heavy.

It is expensive to be pumped. More likely are cheaper local

schemes, this canal bringing water to the Severn to the River Thames.

Another is to build more reservoirs, this is one in Essex, but it took

years to get off the ground and Thames Water failed to get

permission for a new reservoir near Oxford, but there will be pressure

for more. More reservoirs, ministers have

accepted that, but there are all sorts of things, metering, asking

people to use less it could be part of the overall solution in the

future. Desalation is a third possibility. Thames Water has built

a plant to make salty water drinkable, but the costs much

running it are high. All of the options require investment over a

long period. That is never easy, the water is divided up between the

privatised companies, so who pays? Regions that need the water or

everyone? Which leaves another possibility that we are all just

more careful about how much we use. That is one of the aims of today's

warning, to encourage people to use less water to. Buy a little time to

work out what to do. In Syria, opposition groups have

accused Government forces of killing up to 47 people in the city

of Homs in what they have called a cold-blooded massacre. State

division blamed the latest deaths, including women and children, on

terrorist gangs. The violence in the country dominated a special

meeting of the UN Security Council chaired by the Foreign Secretary,

William Hague. We have this report from the UN. Allah ak blah!

Akbar. A year of deadly force since the

Syrian uprising started. This is Deraa where it began. This appears

to show the unarmed demonstrators running away from regime bullets.

Elsewhere, it's become an armed insurrection against the regime.

The rebels are getting more skillful, attacking an armed

vehicle, but the President's men are still much stronger. Accurate

journalism is difficult without being there, but this, according to

reports from Homs was the aftermath of a massacre of civilians,

including women and children. The man filming this burning building

in Homs asks if the world is watching to please save us.

Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League envoy is watching. It was received

by President Bashar al-Assad over the weekend, but the President with

his own supporters and a still- strong army, believes he is in a

fight he can win. In Turkey on his way out, Kofi Annan voiced growing

international anger and frustration. The can Iing of civilians must end

now. The world must send a clear and

united message that this is simply unacceptable.

But here in New York, it is still theUnited Nationss, the United

States, France, Britain, say that President Bashar al-Assad must go.

Russia and China, so far, are watching his diplomatic back.

The United Nations Security Council has failed in its responsibility.

That is absolutely right, but it does not mean in any way we stop

trying. We have to continue to talk to Russia and China. But no change

in the Security Council. The Western supporters of the Arab

League, blame the Syrians for the killing.

The Russians say that is not true, that they are fighting combat units.

The Russians say that hasty changes to Syria could make the situation

more dangerous, not less. While the Security Council is divided nothing

is going to change quickly. Longer term it is hard to see how

the Assad regime can survive, but for now, in Damascus, they may

believe that they have this crisis under control.

Coming up: What lies beneath? The intricate search for a lost

Leonardo da Vinci in Florence. Plans to make it easier to buy a

newly built home in England have been unveiled by the Government.

They are offering people a chance to buy a home of the value of up to

�500,000, with a deposit of just a%, but the scheme's been criticised as

a desperate measure to do little to boost the housing market.

Since the credit crunch, the housing market across the UK

stalled and it never really re- started. Sales have halved, 800,000

lower a year. 40% fewer homes are built per year, down 66,000.

Deposits for first-time-buyers have doubled to 20 percent.

-- 20%. David Cameron was at a development in London today to

launch one way of kick-starting the market. Lenders accept 5% deposits

for homes in England in an change for a guarantee that limits losses.

We have lenders not lending, so the builders can't build, the buyers

can't buy. It needs the Government to step in and help unblock the

market. The guarantee, partly provided by

the taxpayer is welcome news for 20-year-old Harley Angus in

Cambridgeshire, along with 1 million other house hunters, she

could not afford the deposit, but this would help nicely.

This is fantastic. With the 5%, it will really help people out.

If people like Harley Angus are encouraged, the Government says

100,000 more homes could go up. The idea is that buyers will find

it easier to buy, so builders will be able to build more new homes,

but how much difference that will make to the overall housing market,

where most people are purchasing old moment homes is not at all

clear. In fact, only one in ten mortgages

is for newly built homes. So other buyers simply pli would not get the

help. -- simply would not get this help.

It will not help those not buying a property for the first time, what

mortgage funding is left should be spread around this scheme. 20,000

have registered to say that they are interested in the scheme, but

Labour is concerned it is not enough.

It is right to help those who want to buy to be able to realise their

dreams, but the question is will the scheme work, will ordinary

families be able to get a mortgage at a price that they can afford?

And some MPs have been asking whether the taxpayer really should

guarantee mortgages, warning that the tactic could fuel another

housing bubble. Six Palestinians have been killed

by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza today, bringing the number who is died in

raids that began four days ago, to 25. More than 240 rockets have been

fired from Gaza into Israel since Friday. Two Israelis have been

seriously injured, but Israel says that its Iron Dome air defence is

succeeding in intercepting the vast majority of missiles firing at it

We have this report from Gaza city. Another day, and another funeral in

Gaza city. This time it is for a 65-year-old

mand he 35-year-old daughter. More than 20 people have been killed

here since Friday. It is now the worst violence between Israel and

Gaza in three years. Like these two, more and more casualties are

civilians. A ragged shoe and a pool of blood

mark the spot where they were killed this morning. Caught in an

Israeli counterstrike. A few minutes' drive away, the

debris of another fresh bomb site. The smell of burning is still

pungent in the air here. Israel says it is only striking back at

militants who are firing rockets out of Gaza, but inevitably that is

not the way things work. Last night one of their missiles hit this

house in the north of Gaza, where 30 member -- 13 members of the same

family were sleeping. Amazingly no- one was killed in this destruction,

but 29 members are in hospital, including nine children.

The man who owns the house d'you not deny that he supports the

militants. One of his sons has been killed already.

TRANSLATION: I have another two sons, I am ready to sacrifice them

too. This all began on Friday, when

Israeli missiles tore apart this car.

Inside was the leader of a Gaza militant group. Israel says an

attack by the group was imminent and the killing justified.

Since then, militants in Gaza have hit back. Sending more than 130

rockets into towns and cities in southern Israel. In response,

Israel has rolled out the latest hi-tech answer to the Gaza rockets.

It is called the dome dome, its job to shoot down the rockets, before

they hit Israeli towns. The citizens of Israel know that

they have an active defence. It is not just to help us take shelter,

it is us as the military and the government of Israel have made a

decision that we will actively act against the rockets.

The Iron Dome missiles may make Israelis feel slightly safe fr, but

as the conflict -- safer, but as the conflict terns the fifth day,

another generation on both sides is learning to hate an enemy it has

never met. It's not been seen for 400 years,

but a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci may have been found hidden

behind another work of art on a wall in Florence. An art historian

heys -- says he has discovered traces of paint, but some have

dismissed this. The walls of Florence's old Town

Hall, every where you look there is is a masterpiece, but it is claimed

that the greatest piece of work is hidden behind it Australianing.

There is a fresco here by Pissar,, there are paints here discovered to

have been used by Leonardo da Vinci. It could be the The Battle of

Marciano. The lost da Vinci.

Having found organic materials, well, it cannot be just a

coincidence. This image, a copy of the The

Battle of Anghiari gives an idea of what Leonardo da Vinci painted

before he abandoned the work. At the press conference it was claimed

that Giorgio Vasari had hidden the painting behind a wall, on to which

he had then painted his fresco and then added clues, such as the

phrase, "Seek and you should find." Like a detail from a Dan Brown

thriller. Many art historians a far from convinced.

I don't wish to pour cold wateren o this, but if it is discovered to be

true, it will be one of the biggest things of its time in the ordeal