11/02/2013 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at 10 o'clock: We are in Rome where Pope Benedict has

unexpectedly announced his The 85 year-old elected eight years

ago said he no longer has the strength to lead the world's 1

billion Roman Catholics. It is a decision of great courage and great

integrity, I think. And a decision that illustrates again his humility.

In an unforeseen break with tradition, he becomes the first

Pope in six centuries to step down and relinquish his powers.

Pope? Oh, my God. Oh, I am so shocked. He has been a such a short

time with us. The Catholic Church is still taking

in the news. There should be a new Pope by Easter. We will have the

latest. Also on tonight's programme: The

Government confirms plans to cap care bills for the elderly in

England at �75,000. DNA tests reveal some of Tesco's

own-brand skidder to bolognese contains 60% horsemeat. --

spaghetti bolognese. A mother relive the moment she saw

her son shot dead in a Manchester pub. The court is told that was

Dale Cregan, who allegedly went on to murdered two police women.

Coming up in Sportsday on the BBC News Channel, can West Brom do

enough to beat Liverpool at Anfield with Peter Odemwingie are left out

Good evening from Rome where Pope Benedict has stunned the Roman

Catholic Church by announcing his resignation today. He is 85. In a

statement he said he no longer felt he had the strength, physically or

mentally, to sustain the pressures of the papacy and to fulfil his

duties. He becomes the first Pope in six centuries to decide to step

aside and to relinquish his powers. First tonight, our Europe Editor

Gavin Hewitt reports on the events of today.

It was during a routine meeting with Vatican cardinals that Pope

Benedict did something that no pontiff had done in nearly 600

years. He announced his resignation and stunned his audience. Speaking

in Latin, he said, I have come to the certainty that my strengths,

due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate

execution of St Peter's ministry. Pope Benedict said that strength of

mind and body are necessary, strengths that in the last few

months he admitted had deteriorated to the point he doubted he could

carry out his duties. Only yesterday the Pope had spoken to a

Sunday audience in St Peter's Square. The Vatican said there was

no specific medical condition that forced him to stand down, more the

recognition from the Pope himself that at 85, he did not have the

stamina to continue. I am very disappointed and in shock about

what happened this morning, really, as a Catholic. I think it is a

great act of courage to do something that has not been done in

600 years. One Cardinal described it as a liberating act for the

church. No future Pope would feel compelled to stay on until death.

Hints had been dropped before, but still it was a huge surprise.

had a warning from the Pope about this and we did not pay a whole lot

of attention. A couple of years ago in a book the Pope said there are

certain circumstances where the Pope can resign and should resign.

One Cardle said that the news had come like a bolt out of the blue. -

- one Cardinal. But his closest aides have said that the issue of

standing down have been under consideration for several months,

particularly since the strenuous trips to Mexico and Cuba. Indeed,

he had been counselled against making further difficult

transatlantic trips. Tonight at a Mass in Santa Maria in the centre

of Rome, there was an awareness that this was an Restorick moment

for the Catholic Church. -- historic moment. It was a sign of

humility and great courage, said this man. The timing shocked many

Catholics across the world, but many came to the conclusion that

the decision was the right one. is a decision of great courage. I

think a decision of great integrity. And a decision that illustrates

again his humility, that he has never been pushing himself forward.

He has always wanted to fulfil his role as a preacher of Christ.

2010, Pope Benedict visited Britain. The first state visit by a pontiff,

during which he urged the UK to resist aggressive forms of

secularism. He has worked tirelessly to strengthen Britain's

relations with the Holy See. His visit to Britain in 2010 is

remembered with great respect and affection. Pope Benedict's message

on that visit of working for the common good is something that spoke

to our whole country. cardinal's recognise that this was

a momentous decision for Pope Benedict. In two weeks' time he

will no longer be Pope and in March his successor will be chosen, at a

critical moment for the church and the world's 1 billion Catholics.

Pope Benedict, as we know, took office in 2005. He was 78 at the

time. He was the oldest man to be elected Pope in three centuries.

The church is still reeling, as we know, from the impact of the

worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal, the full extent of which

has come to light during his papacy. He eventually apologised for the

impact of that and met with some of the victims. Our religious affairs

correspondent Robert Pigott considers his record during the

past eight years. Benedict became the church's leader already an

elderly and frail man. He knew the burden would be heavy and the path

steep. He was seen as a caretaker but nothing prepared Roman

Catholics for his decision to step down. This has taken the world by

surprise. Catholics attending services at Westminster Cathedral

today were shocked by the news. You're joking! The Pope? Oh, my God.

Oh, I am so shocked. He has been such a short time with us. Joseph

Ratzinger was born into a devout Catholics family in southern

Germany just at the National Socialists 40 were sweeping to

power and he was forced into the Hitler Youth. He was a theologian

but appalled by the student riots in the 60s he became more

conservative. As a traditionalist who became the doctrinal watchdog

for Pope John Paul II. But people who met the Pope said he was shy

and charming and his first -- most important writing dealt with topics

such as love. I think he will be remembered probably as the most

intelligent, eloquent Pope we have had in years because his sermons,

his homilies, his writings are beautiful. Pope Benedict visited

Britain to warn that excluding Christianity from national debate

could threaten democracy. He was warmly received. By the time Pope

Benedict came here to Westminster Cathedral on his visit two years

ago, he had already won renewed respect for his argument that

religion should stay at the heart of public life. Indeed over the

last seven years, Catholicism has grown in much of the developing

world. But in its European birthplace Pope Benedict has found

the tide of secularism all but impossible to withstand. It is one

of several issues that have overshadowed his papacy. Early in

his reign, he offended Muslims by quoting historical criticisms of

Islam. His management of the Vatican has been questioned after

the theft of documents alleging corruption there. And he has faced

criticism over the handling of the sexual abuse crisis. The Pope has

been accused of doing too little to prevent abuse by priests, at least

in his years as a top Vatican official. He seems to not have

acted very vigorously in that role. But you know there is a suspicion

that they were being shielded by John Paul II, rather than by him.

Benedict hoped to build a stronger church but in just seven years

there was little he could do. At the Vatican tonight, Gavin

Hewitt is with me. Let's start with the shock and the impact of the

news. This was a shock. But some of the insiders here thought it might

happen. The reason, as you have been saying, he was 78 when he

became Pope, the oldest in 300 years. People have been saying when

they have gone to visit him that he does appear very frail and

sometimes does not quite follow conversations. This is a story of

the modern papacy, which does involve constant travel and it does

need a strong, authoritative voice to deal with controversial issues

like the abuse scandal. That is the reason why there are people tonight

saying that in the future the papacy will need a younger Pope.

With that in mind, let's think about the weeks ahead. What should

we look out for? If first of all, on the 28, Pope Benedict will stand

down. Then in March there will be a conclave of cardinals and then

before Easter a new Pope, probably. What kind of Pope will they be

looking for? Somebody from South America, Africa? The church is

growing strongly there. Will they look for Great Communicator to deal

with these controversial issues? Are they going to look for somebody

from Europe? The reason for that is that the church is struggling in

Europe, struggling to get its message across in an increasingly

secular society. In fact in some parishes they are struggling to

find priests. In all of the weeks ahead, these arguments will play

out. Thank you. We will be back before the end of the programme

with more thoughts on what is to come.

Thank you. Big changes to the funding of care

for the elderly have been announced by the Government. Anyone in

England needing social care help with regular tasks like washing,

eating and pressing will not have to pay any more than �75,000 over

their lifetime. As our social affairs correspondent reports,

elderly people needing care will still have to pay for the cost of

accommodation and food. None of us can predict how much

help we will meet in our old age. For some the cost of that care can

be huge. But the Government believes that the plans it set out

today will create a fairer system for the future. Certainly Ingrid

Canwell and her mother Helga feel let down by the current system.

Another has dementia and lives in a residential home. To pay the

�30,000 in fees each year, they had to sell the house where two

generations of the family had lived. The Government claims in future

people will not be forced to do that. None of the family had been

wealthy. They had come from poor circumstances. They were labourers

and clerks. It was a joint effort to live together to save this house,

to have this nice house. It was their only asset and I think it is

not fair. After a weekend of looks, this afternoon the Government

confirmed its plans for social care. -- leaks. There will be a limit of

�75,000 on the amount of money anybody is expected to pay for help

at home or in residential care. This will not include the cost of

food or accommodation in care homes. Anyone with assets of less than

�123,000 will be able to get help. That is an increase of nearly

100,000 on the current threshold. It will be introduced in 2017 and

care costs will not be backdated. There are many who are disappointed

by the level of the cap, but for the first time this system could

give people clarity about how much they might be expected to pay for

care. The Government believes that will encourage people to plan for

We make it possible for people to plan much earlier in their life,

whether it's through insurance products, whether it's through a

change in their pensions policy, to plan for that amount of money.

The. The care Minister and Health Secretary, who were visiting

residents at a home today, estimate by 2025 an extra 100,000 people

will get support each year. But Labour describes the reforms as

meek and says they don't address current problems. I am very

concerned, it's not going to be fair for people with modest homes.

Also, that it's not going to do anything for the thousands of

families that are really struggling in the current care system.

Campaigners also fear the cap has been set so high it won't help

enough people. The independent commission that devised the funding

system preferred a �35,000 limit. Even so, the man who wrote the

report sees this as a start. There's a broad consensus across

the stakeholders and even politically, of course some would

like this to go further, some don't want to go this far, but to have

change in this area I think is something to note and be pretty

pleased about. The �1 billion cost of reform will

be partly paid for by freezing the level at which people have to pay

inheritance tax. There are slightly different systems elsewhere in the

UK, including Scotland, where personal care is free.

Our home editor is with me. Lots of figures out there, just who will be

affected by these these changes? Fewer than you might imagine. Only

one in four of us as pensioners will require residential care,

which is where the big costs kick in, in terms of care. So, of that

25%, perhaps one person in six or seven will actually have �75,000,

in total it means quite a small proportion of people, perhaps only

four or 5% of pensioners will need the benefit cap, - will benefit

from that cap. The Government says that's not really the point.

They're saying for the other 95% they will benefit because they'll

be able to plan ahead and you heard the Minister talk about the

insurance market, they'll be able to take out a product perhaps which

will mean they'll be able to cover those costs. There are two big

caveats, again you heard them mentioned. One is this only covers

care costs and it doesn't cover those hotel costs, residential

costs and in some places that can be more than the care. If you

haven't got an income to cover that, you will have to dip into savings

and you may still lose your house. The other is that this plan doesn't

address perhaps the much bigger problem, which is the population

ages, demand for adult social care is going up and at the moment in

England supply of social care is going down. The number of adults

getting social care has reduced a little over the last couple of

years. Clarity perhaps, but some of the big questions remain. Thank you.

For more details on this story you can visit the BBC News website.

There is an explanation of the current system of social care and

how the plans will affect people in England.

You can also find out about the system in other parts of the UK.

Tesco says they've found more traces of horsemeat in another

product that's been on sale in their stores. DNA tests have found

that some of its Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese contains more

than 60% horsemeat. The meal - which has been withdrawn from sale

- came from the French factory producing Findus beef lasagne. Now

the Government's announced plans to test all processed beef products.

Our medical correspondent Fergus Walsh looks at if there are any

health concerns from eating horsemeat.

Is it beef or horse? These are samples of bolognese sauce

undergoing a battery of tests at that laboratory in south-west

London. Every processed beef product on sale in the UK will have

to undergo checks to see if they contain horsemeat. With initial

results by the end of this week. Horsemeat in itself poses no risk

to human health. But the tests here will also check for traces of an

equine painkiller called phenylbutazone, or bute, which is

banned in food products. The chemical can cause a serious blood

disorder in humans but should it be found in horsemeat the threat to

health is judged to be extremely low. There is no safe level

established for phenylbutazone in food for human consumption. If it

is found, though, it will be present, if at all, at parts per

trillion level, low amounts and the risk there is very low. Of course

it shouldn't be present, but I wouldn't want people to be unduly

concerned. Tonight, Tesco confirmed some of its Everyday Value

Spaghetti Bolognese were more than 60% horse, none contained

phenylbutazone. Checks are still being carried out on Findus Beef

Lasagne and two Aldi products. All have have been withdrawn from sale.

The Environment Secretary said there was no evidence of a food

safety risk, but of fraud and mislabelling. There appears to have

been criminal activity in an attempt to defraud the consumer.

The prime responsibility for dealing with this lies with

retailers and food producers who need to demonstrate that they've

taken all necessary actions to ensure the integrity of the food

chain in this country. The supply chain of these products is highly

complex. Meat from Romania went through different agents before

arriving at a meat factory in south-western France. It supplied

the Comigel plant who turned it into ready meals for 16 countries,

including the UK, supplying Tesco, Findus and Aldi. Romania has flatly

denied it's the source of the problem. The Prime Minister is

furious his country has been implicated. I am very angry, to be

very honest. No fraud has been committed by Romanian companies or

on the Romanian territory. There may well be more revelations in the

days ahead. The official advice to consumers is to keep buying and

eating processed beef products. A mother's been reliving the moment

that her son was shot dead in front of her in a pub in Manchester last

year. She told a court that a masked gunman burst into the pub

and opened fire. She was giving evidence in the trial of Dale

Cregan, who is accused of killing her son and her partner, as well as

two policewomen - Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes. Dale Cregan denies

the charges. Ed Thomas reports. Through the rush hour traffic the

convoy carrying Dale Cregan and his co-defendants is led into court.

Inside, the jury was told about a feud between two families, the

Shorts Ann Atkin sons that led to a -- and the Atkinsons.

Today, David's partner and Mark's mother Michelle Kelly, told the

court about an argument in a pub between the matriarch of the

Atkinson family, and this man, Raymond Young from the Short family.

She said Teresa Atkinson was 12 days later on 25th May last year,

Mark Short was shot inside the Cotton Tree Pub. The jury's been

shown this CCTV footage. The prosecution says Dale Cregan is in

the parked car acting on behalf of the Atkinsons. He gets out, walks

inside, and carries out the shooting, before running out and

driving away. Michelle Kelly told the court what

happened here the night her son was killed. She said she heard bang,

bang, bang, then it was all over. Asked if she saw the gunman she

said, yes, Mark tried to grab him. Three months later, David Short was

killed at his home on the same day a grenade was thrown in a separate

attack nearby. And in September, PC Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes were

shot dead, again a grenade was used. The prosecution says Dale Cregan

carried out the murders. Today in court he listened to the evidence

against him along with his nine co- defendants. They deny all the

charges and the case is expected to last for 12 weeks.

Nine more NHS Hospital Trusts in England are to be investigated

following concerns over higher than expected death rates. It follows a

damning report into failures at Stafford Hospital where hundreds of

patients are thought to have died after receiving poor care. Last

week, it was announced five other Trusts would also be investigated.

A man has died after a group of six hill-walkers went missing in the

Cairngorms. The others, thought to be students from the Leeds area,

were rescued by an RAF helicopter. More than 100 people from the

police and mountain rescue teams were involved in the search.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has told the BBC that he is

very confident that the Lib Dems will hold on to the constituency of

Eastleigh in Hampshire in the forthcoming by-election. The

contest was forced by the resignation of Chris Huhne last

week. Our deputy political editor James Landale has been on the

campaign trail. The battle for Eastleigh has begun,

an old railway town where the resignation of Chris Huhne is

pitching Lib Dem against Tory for the first time in coalition. For

this man the outcome could not matter more. Nick Clegg came here

knowing that his party may control the council, it may be the

incumbent with a slim majority but... You have to show that you

can hold on to seats like this in the south of England. If you cannot,

your prospects for the elections are poor. I am very confident we

will hold on to this seat. But not because I say so, but because the

people of Eastleigh are telling us they like the fact that it's

Liberal Democrats locally who have been cutting council tax. They like

the fact there's Liberal Democrats who have been creating jobs. Even

though their MP lied to them? most people have to make a decision,

the key question they'll ask themselves is who is going to put

money back in my pocket, protect the green spaces we like? This is

one of many seats the party will have to win if it wants a majority

in in 2015. We think we have a chance to put a Conservative in.

Just a chance? Well, you know, it's early days. I have seen a few by-

elections in my time, and nothing entirely settles until all the

candidates are there. We know from the opinion polls that we are ahead

or just slightly behind, I think there is a lot to fight for.

the Lib Dems and Tories the stakes here could not be higher. The

result will have a huge impact on the morale of both parties and the

future of their leader. For both sides there's only one outcome that

matters. How well other parties do will

shape that outcome. Labour want to win votes in the south but talk

more of protests than victory. think that Labour is here to set

out our alternative and to give people a way of sending a real

protest to the Government and saying you are out of touch, we

don't like what you are doing. The change you promised isn't happening.

As for UKIP, their leader may not be standing, but they could pick up

support from all the larger parties. The hard part for us is that the

two parties that see themselves as contenders will throw the kitchen

sink at it and we are not as big as them but there is this issue of

Romanian and Bulgarian entry from 1st January next year in unlimited

numbers to this constituency. Jobs and housing are real issues here

and if that catches on we could do amazingly well. This by-election

will be a test of which party can get more of its voters out on the

day. But the outcome will have huge consequences for the coalition.

There's more detail about the battle for Eastleigh and the list

of candidates so far on our website. Back to our main story and the

sudden resignation of Pope Benedict this morning. Huw Edwards is in

Rome with the latest. Thank you. It's fair to say the impact of the

news has been felt around the world, not just talking about the Roman

Catholic Church with its 1.3 billion members, world governments,

too. There's intense interest in the outcome of the race that is

starting today. With me is the BBC's David Willey who spent 40

years in this city observing Vatican matters. How does today

rank in your experience? Unprecedented. I have never seen a

day like this because even in previous centuries the transition

from one Pope to another has always followed a certain pattern. The

Pope gets sick, he dies, and then his successor is elected. This time

the Pope is not dead, the Pope is going to be hovering in the

background. When the Cardinals arrive in in Rome in the coming

weeks to elect his successor, it's an unprecedented situation and we

are in unchartered territory. are hinting strongly that because

the Pope is still with us, the next few weeks could be very interesting

as that race progresses. Very interesting indeed. Of course the

big question is shall we have another foreign Pope? Will there be

an Italian returning to run this empire of the Church? Could it be

that there's going to be the first ever African Pope? Or even an

Asian? These are all possibilities. However, one thing we can be sure

about, which is that the next Pope is going to be chosen, if not

directly, but very indirectly by Pope Benedict, who has put all his

men in positions of command in the Vatican for the succession. So even

though he won't be Pope, he is still going to play a very