28/09/2012 BBC News at Ten

The missing 15-year-old schoolgirl and her teacher have been found in

France. Megan Stammers is now under police protection in Bordeaux, to

the relief of her family. We are so relieved that Megan has been found

safe and well. We just cannot wait to be reunited with her.

The maths teacher Jeremy Forrest is in custody, arrested on suspicion

of child abduction. Details have been emerging of the

couple's whereabouts over the last week. We'll bring you the latest

from Bordeaux. Also tonight:

Seven British men are among 19 people who've been killed in a

plane crash in Nepal. Timothy Oakes was on the trip of a lifetime. His

family say he had always wanted to go to Mount Everest. We are hanging

on to the fact that today Tim died, so we believe, in an aircraft are

doing something he had always wanted to do.

David Cameron suggests he may be ready to hold a referendum on

Britain's membership of the EU. And pregnant women will be offered

a vaccine against whooping cough after the worst outbreak in

And coming up in Sportsday on the BBC News Channel, the latest on the

Ryder Cup, and Steve Kean resigns as Blackburn manager, saying his

Good evening. Megan Stammers, the 15-year-old

girl who disappeared from East Sussex a week ago with her maths

teacher, has been found in France. She is now under police protection,

while Jeremy Forrest, who's 30, has been arrested on suspicion of child

abduction. They were spotted walking through the centre of the

southern city of Bordeaux at lunchtime. Megan's family say

they're thrilled she's been found and cannot wait to be reunited with

her. Christian Fraser reports from Bordeaux. This report contains

flash photography. In handcuffs, and in police custody,

30-year-old maths teacher at Jeremy Forrest, who was driven from a

police station in Bordeaux today at the end of a week-long search

throughout France. He and Megan Stammers were last seen together on

board a ferry from Dover to Calais. They looked the average couple,

only she was 15, and half his age. This afternoon they were still hand

in hand, walking down this, one of the main shopping streets in

Bordeaux. Police, acting on a tip- off, were following. They had

travelled the entire length of the country to evade the authorities

but they had been a number of sightings in Bordeaux's since

Wednesday, from both French and British members of the public. We

understand they abandoned the black Ford Fiesta in which they were

travelling in Paris before catching a train to the south. It is said

Jeremy Forrest was trying to find work, possibly in a bar, and

yesterday went for an interview, which suggests that in spite of

desperate appeals from the families, they had no intention of returning

home. None the less, Megan's stepfather, who had made two

appeals for her return, spoke of his relief is evening that she was

safe and well. I would just like to say that Danielle and I are so

relieved that Megan has been found a safe and well and we cannot wait

to be reunited with her. Our family are overjoyed at the outcome, as

you can imagine. It has been an emotional roller-coaster. But to

see you guys now is quite nice because I have smiles on my face

because we have Megan. Sussex police said the pair were found as

a result of an intense media campaign that intensified in France

in the past 24 hours. Megan is now in the care of British consular

staff and a Sussex police child protection team officers. She will

be returned to the UK to be with her family. Jeremy is in custody in

Bordeaux after his arrest, and the process of his extradition will now

commence. The alarm was first raised on Friday when Megan fails

to arrive at school. The two had left Britain, crossing the Channel

by ferry. With no contract from them over the weekend, Megan's

family made an emotional appeal for her return. On Tuesday, the

European arrest warrant was issued for Jeremy Forrest. Yesterday, his

family made their appeal for him and Megan to get in contact. The

pair also featured on the BBC Crimewatch programme. Today they

were eventually traced in Bordeaux, just after midday. We are told that

Megan, who has spoken to her family, will fly home tomorrow. Jeremy

Forrest has already appeared before a judge. It is not clear whether he

remains in custody. British police, who are here, say that the legal

process could take several days before he returns for formal

questioning. Seven British tourists are among 19

people killed in a plane crash in Nepal. They were due to start a

two-week trek in the Himalayas. The cause of the crash hasn't been

confirmed. The plane was travelling from Kathmandu to Lukla, near the

Everest base camp, but crashed just moments after it had taken off.

Sanjoy Majumder reports from Kathmandu.

A journey to the Himalayas, ending in tragedy. Eyewitnesses say that

the plane was already on fire before it crashed. Emergency

workers put the flames out, but the damage was so intense that hopes of

finding survivors swiftly faded. All 19 people on board were killed.

The plane was flying from Kathmandu to Lukla, gateway to the Everest

region. It took off at 615. After just two minutes in the air, it

crashed about a kilometre from the airport. It is quite dark now, so

are not easy to make out the remains of the aircraft. There are

parts of wreckage strewn around this large field, where the twin-

engine Dornier came down. And over in the distance I can see the

lights of Kathmandu international airport. You get a sense of how

quickly this must have happened, the last few terrifying moments

before the plane came down. This is the plane that's it off this

morning. 57-year-old Tim Oakes, a keen mountaineer, was on board.

one dream he has always had was to go to base camp. There is no real

words of comfort here for my daughter, for myself, but we are

hanging on to the fact that today Tim died doing something he had

always wanted to do. And we are trying very hard to take comfort.

It is a trip thousands of people take every year, and mountaineers

are surprised it crashed so close to the airport. Among the victims

was Stephen Holding, Vincent Kelly, Raymond Eagle and Ben Ogdon.

Vincent's brother, David, was also killed, along with Christopher

Davey. Bits of twisted metal are all that remain. Tonight, it was

announced that two British investigators would head out to

Nepal to assist in determining what caused the crash.

David Cameron has given his biggest hint yet that there'll be a

referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union if the

Conservatives win the next general election. Speaking during a visit

to Brazil, he said there would be opportunities for "a fresh

settlement" with Europe, which would need "fresh consent". He also

said the Government would opt out of some European police and justice

powers. From Rio de Janeiro, James Landale reports.

David Cameron at a boxing academy in Rio, with Olympic stars of the

present and perhaps the future. He has come to Brazil with a team of

businessmen and women to make the most of the legacy of London 2012

and box clever. He said he could offer Brazil access to millions of

consumers in the European Union via the UK, but he said the time was

coming for a new relationship between Britain and the EU, with

the British people having a say. do think that what there is

increasingly coming a time for is a new settlement between Britain and

Europe. I think that new settlement will require fresh consent. A new

referendum? In the next Parliament I think there will be opportunities

for a fresh settlement and new consent for that settlement.

Cameron also revealed that he would withdraw Britain from hundreds of

EU policing and justice powers by invoking an opt-out included in the

Lisbon Treaty. The opt-out is there. We will be exercising that. The key

thing is which of the array of things you have come out of do you

think are good for Britain and you want to co-operate with European

partners on. That is a discussion we are having at the moment. This

could mean withdrawing from the European arrest warrant which makes

it easier for Britons to be handed over to other countries, scrapping

rules which forced police to share DNA fingerprint data with European

counterparts. And allowing British courts to ignore unsafe convictions

in another country. This has already inflamed coalition tensions.

Nick Clegg's spokesman said he valued European police co-operation

and insisted that opting out was still under review. And while the

hint of a referendum may reassure some MPs, the parties want more.

will not join until this as we do not join a full European federation,

but we stay where we are and we will get a vote to approve that. It

is simply not good enough. Tonight, after holding talks with the

President of Brazil, David Cameron returned home with the promise of

million-pound deals with Brazilian firms that he claims shows positive

things are happening in the economy. But it is the promise of changes in

Europe that he hopes will please his party, too.

Nine men from Oxfordshire have appear at the Old Bailey accused of

a string of child sex offences. They face more than 50 charges,

including rape of a child, conspiracy to rape and trafficking.

They deny the allegations. The setting of the inter-bank

lending rate, known as LIBOR, is expected to change following the

recommendations of a Government- commissioned report. One of the

likely changes will be a new, independent body to set the rate,

rather than the banks themselves. The Treasury has welcomed the

proposals. Robert Peston has the details.

Global banking, global finance. Underpinning trillions of dollars

of deals in Tokyo, in Frankfurt, Wall Street in America, a system

called LIBOR operated out of London for determining what banks had to

pay to borrow. That, in turn, influences what millions of us have

to pay to borrow. But there is a problem. The system is broken and

needs complete overhaul. The disturbing events that we have

uncovered in the manipulation of LIBOR have severely tarnished

confidence and our trust. It has torn the very fabric of our

financial system. In July, Barclays former boss, Bob Diamond, lost his

job over his band's attempts to rig LIBOR. And it has become clear that

other big banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland, lied about the

interest rates they were paying. Love them or hate them, the banks,

the City of London are important to the prosperity of the United

Kingdom, so when it became impossible to any longer ignore the

fundamental flaws in the LIBOR system for measuring borrowing

costs, the Treasury, the Government, ordered an emergency review. There

will be three big reforms. Proper regulation will be introduced of

how LIBOR rates are set, and fixing the rate will become a crime.

Control of LIBOR will be taken away from the British Bankers'

Association, the lobby group for banks, and given to a more

independent body. And the rates should become more reliable. There

will be fewer of them and they will be calculated in a new way based on

real deals, not the judgment of bankers. Running through the heart

of the report is a rich vein of distrust about banks. A we know

that self regulation did not work for banks. What he is saying is, I

do not think these people are capable of exercising self-

restraint or integrity. The LIBOR reforms may go some way to

restoring confidence in the City, but more than a dozen banks are

bracing themselves for further accumulations, as regulators around

the world decide what penalties to impose on them for their past LIBOR

Thousands of pregnant women across the UK are to be offered a whooping

cough vaccine to protect their unborn babies from the disease. The

latest outbreak, the worst in two decades, has killed nine newborn

babies in England this year. Health officials say there are no safety

concerns about the vaccine, which will be available from Monday.

The sound is distinctive. The disease is distressing. Whooping

cough has made a dramatic comeback after years in decline. Matthew is

a picture of health, but he has spent half his young life in

hospital with whooping cough. He got infected at three weeks, too

young to have been immunised, and it nearly killed him. The every

night, we used to just pray that God would let us be a mummy and

daddy and that we could take him home and give him all the gifts we

had been given. We really did not know if that would ever happen, if

we would be able to come home as the three of us. Her other

officials hope that cases like Matthew will persuade all pregnant

women of both the potential dangers of whooping cough and of the clear

benefits of having the vaccine. The vaccine will be given to women

between 28 and 38 weeks of pregnancy to boost their immunity.

They will pass antibodies to their unborn baby, which should protect

newborns until they are immunised at two months. The vaccine also

protects against diphtheria, tetanus and polio. It is the same

jab that is given to all three- year-olds. Health officials say

there are no safety concerns and women should not hesitate.

overwhelming evidence at is that this will save lives, save hospital

admissions and the distress that cause us to the baby and the family.

It is horrible. I remember looking after babies like that. It is a no-

brainer. That view got some support from pregnant mothers in Bristol.

He whenever a vaccine was offered to me in the past with my first

child, such as the swine flu vaccine, I have always taken that

up. It is a positive step. It is not something that I would take up

until I found out more about it. In terms of vaccinations, I tend to be

a bit wary. It is a decision that many pregnant women will need to

make quickly, as the vaccine will be available from Monday.

Coming up: not so easy, as America takes control in the Gulf. -- golf.

France is proposing a 75% tax on its highest earners as part of its

plans to control its rising debts. The Socialist government aims to

raise EUR20 billion in new taxes next year, but insists that nine

out of ten of its citizens would not be affected by the highest rate.

France tonight, learning details of one of its toughest budgets in 30

years. Ministers met at the Elysee Palace to decide how to fix a large

hole in the country's finances and reduce the deficit. The Government

was clear. The richest households and the biggest companies would

bear most of the paying. TRANSLATION: This is a fighting

budget to restore the country to health. This is a fighting budget

to fight a debt that does not stop rising. The Budget will lead to

savings of EUR30 billion next year, although that is less than 2% of

France's economic output. Public spending will be frozen. There will

be higher taxes on companies and the rich. Those earning over EUR1

million will be taxed at 75%, although that will affect only a

few thousand people. Pinsent is a new media entrepreneur and a

millionaire. He believes the higher taxes will send a message that

France is not open for business. The big risk is that not only that

talent leaves the country, but that the young ones with talent feel

that they are not welcome and leave the country. This week has seen the

Paris Motor Show. Hard-selling in tough times. The French economy is

stagnating, and workers are being laid off. 8000 ACPO show alone.

Some argue that if France is to grow again, it needs radical reform.

In France, we must do everything it takes for the future to be

competitive. We must reduce the cost of manpower in France, which

is one of them are highest in Europe. Men the of these Peugeot

workers face redundancy. The Government says growth will return

next year. Others say the Government has missed an

opportunity to reduce state spending and make it easier to

hire-and-fire workers. Today's budget in France reflects a deeper

unresolved problem with the Eurozone. As we have seen this week,

other countries like Spain and Greece have struggled to reduce

spending, even while their economies are weak or in recession.

China's leadership has expelled the senior politician Bo Xilai from the

Communist Party. Mr Bo has been at the centre of the biggest scandal

to engulf the party in two decades when his wife admitted murdering

the British businessman Neil Heywood. State media says he will

face criminal charges linked to corruption, abuse of power and

taking bribes. Among china's characterless leaders,

he was an exception. Bo Xilai, filmed by the BBC 15 years ago,

when he was mayor of a small port. Popular, charismatic, at ease on

camera. It is not the biggest city in China, but I hope to create the

best city. He became commerce minister, then a Politburo member.

One of the two dozen people who run China. But the Communist Party now

says that all along, he was corrupt. The main evening news announced

that Mr Bo will go on trial. It said he had abused his power, taken

huge bribes and done serious damage to the image of China and the party.

The trigger for his spectacular downfall? The death in China last

year of the British businessman Neil Heywood and the embarrassment

that has caused. Mr Pol Pot my wife was last month found guilty of

murder. Now he is accused of trying to cover up her crime. Not everyone

believes the case is simple. One of China's top forensic scientists

today told the BBC that in her opinion, there is no evidence that

the businessman was poisoned with cyanide, as prosecutors claim.

TRANSLATION: there were no signs of cyanide. First, it would have

caused immediate death. His skin should have bright red patches.

Second, his blood should have been bright red, too. Whatever the truth,

the party will now install new leaders in November or who will

rule for the next decade. Bo Xilai will not be one of them. The

Communist Party has been deeply tainted by this gamble. It now

wants to wrap it all up. The -- but prosecuting Bo Xilai will now raise

questions. How did such a senior leader get away with so much for so

long undetected, and can the Communist Party, with few checks

and balances on its power, really clean itself up?

And Dre week of intense diplomacy at the United Nations in New York,

there is still no agreement on how to resolve the crisis in Syria. The

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has complained that efforts

to reach a solution have been repeatedly blocked and that a split

in the Security Council is paralysing the UN's response to the

bloodshed. Another group of Syrians about to

become refugees, waiting to cross into Turkey. Most of the 350,000

Syrians who have fled the country have done so in the last six months.

That is because the war is getting worse. Among the latest pictures

out of Syria is the aftermath of an air strike, a baby among the dead

being pulled out of the rubble. This matters not just because of

thousands of individual human tragedies, but because a long war

in Syria could make a region that is already unstable even more

dangerous. Here at the UN, they all know the risks, but can't do

anything because the Security Council is split. Russia and China

are blocking more pressure on the Assad regime, arguing that it could

make matters worse. Western countries and their friends meeting

in New York, wanting a new UN resolution to back a peace plan

based on regime change, and struggling to be polite about their

old Cold War adversaries. It is no secret that our attempts to move

forward at the UN Security Council have been blocked repeatedly.

whole international community has to address this. We need a binding

resolution. We cannot waste more time, because people are dying.

Syrian war already looks like the ones that destroyed Lebanon in the

'80s and Bosnia in the nineties, which international diplomacy also

could not stop. That is a frightening prospect for Syria's

neighbours. Turkey, housing 90,000 Syrian refugees in camps, is

calling again for safe zones inside Syria. Turkey's foreign minister

says the UN has been a serious failure and should now send a

strong signal to the Assad regime. A unfortunate do, since there was

no clear message and decisive position of the international

community in the early stages of the crisis, the Syrian regime felt

confident in doing more and more tax. If we do not take decisions

today for the women and children escaping from these attacks, we

will face more risks in the future. If Turkey's border force or its

allies moved into Syria to create a safe zone without the regime's

consent, it would be an act of war. The foreign minister said risks had

to be taken to protect civilians. But it would need a UN resolution,

which the Security Council remains too divided to produce. The UN has

never had a magic formula for ending wars. Often, the time for

diplomacy does not come until both sides have exhausted themselves. It

could be that the Syrian regime and its enemies need to spill more

blood before they are prepared to talk properly.

The Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton is leaving the British-

based McLaren team after 14 years and will race for Mercedes from

next season. Hamilton won the world championship in 2008. McLaren's

team principal called his decision to leave a mistake. Hamilton will

replace the Formula One veteran, Michael Schumacher.

It golf, the Ryder Cup is under way in Chicago, with Europe already

facing a struggle to retain the trophy against a partisan crowd and

some outstanding goal from the Americans. Andy Swiss is their

force. Are the Americans already out in front? Yes, it has been a

tough few hours for the European team. They made a solid start this

morning, but America are the favourites for this Ryder Cup, and

this afternoon, they have been showing why.

On a crisp Chicago morning, they flocked in their thousands.

Transatlantic rivals, ready to make some noise. USA, USA, all the way.

We are ready. Bring it on. It is seven in the morning, and it is

about to get louder. Indeed it was. A wall of American noise, as

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell got things under way. The nerves

were plain to see. Not the greatest of omens, but but when your partner

is the world number-one, most things are possible, and Rory

McIlroy was soon conjuring some strokes of genius. The Northern

Irish pair claimed Europe's first point, and a second soon followed.

In Poulter as the chairman of the European team, so he enjoyed this.

But the home crowd were not quiet for long, and the USA claimed the

other two matches. 2-2 at after the morning session. The decibel count

was rising fast. Soon, it was sky high. Crowd favourite Bubba Watson,

in stunning form as he and Webb Simpson dominated Paul Lawrie and

Peter Hanson. The US were charging, while Europe seemed to be wilting.

Makah were's brilliance disappeared into the undergrowth as the

momentum role the US's way. It is early days, but America is already

finding plenty to cheer. The latest is that the USA lead 3-2, and if

the rest of the matches out on the course to stay as they are, they