29/04/2013 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at 10 o'clock: New evidence of abuse in children's homes in

North Wales that spanned four decades. The latest inquiry

catalogue delegations from 140 people who say they were assaulted

in as many as 18 care homes. There are 13 people but I know of that

have committed suicide. If this had been done earlier, we could have

stopped that. Police say the abuse was more widespread than previously

reported. Three British men jailed in Dubai

for drugs offences. They allege they were tortured by police.

Major welfare changes get under way. The universal credit is introduced

in part of Greater Manchester. The declining bee population and

why the EU is banning some farming pesticides.

And after the stunning double last year, Sir Bradley announces he his

after another stunning success this year.

Aston Villa and Sunderland hope to move a step closer to Premier

Good evening. A police investigation has found significant

new evidence of abuse at care homes in North Wales. Detectives say that

140 people have come forward naming 80 allege abuses. There is also

evidence that the abuse continued from much longer than previously

thought. It is a scandal that refuses to subside. Despite a

police investigation, an independent inquiry, and a full

public inquiry led by a judge, today we learnt that child abuse in

North Wales children's homes was far more widespread than previously

thought. The investigation has been given what it calls significant

evidence of systemic and serious physical and sexual abuse of

children at 18 different care homes across North Wales, in a period

from 1963 right through to 1992. Today at North Wales Police

headquarters in Colwyn Bay, the media gathered to hear what happens

next in this long-running saga. The Chief Constable told reporters that

the passage of time did not reduce his resolve for achieving justice.

People who commit serious and sexual offences should live with

the knowledge that we were always examine new information and

evidence, and seek to bring them to justice for their crimes. Offenders

quite rightly should have to look over their shoulders for the rest

of their lives. Watching today's events, Keith Gregory. One of those

who said he was abused as a young boy in care in North Wales. For him

in has been a day of hope and regret. There are 13 people I know

of that have committed suicide. If this had been done earlier, we

could have stopped that. For everybody's sake, I hope that

everything is done properly and arrests are made. Yet these people

off the streets, really. The new investigation was ordered by

Theresa May after a BBC Newsnight report last November led to a Tory

peer being falsely accused of paedophilia. But the BBC also

alleged that far more people were involved than had been acknowledged

since allegations were first made about this children's home in

Wrexham. 140 allegations of abuse have been made to police and 76

victims have never spoken out before. Detectives have been given

84 names of people said to have abused children as young as seven.

People need to be aware that regardless of the passage of time,

people will be held to account. say held to account, at 50 years

after the fact can you really get a case? We need to investigate his

allegations thoroughly and we will go where the evidence takes us.

Turning allegations into court convictions often hinges on in back

of the -- often hinges on DNA. But that will be difficult to find half

a century later. It will not be easy, but the hope is that finally

justice can now be done. Three British men have been found

guilty of drugs offences in Dubai. They were each jailed for four

years. The men were all from London and claim they were tortured by

police after they were arrested. David Cameron has confirmed that he

will discuss the allegations with the President of the United Arab

Emirates, who arrives on a state visit tomorrow.

More than nine months after arriving on holiday here in Dubai,

Grant Cameron, along with his friends Karl Williams and Suneet

Jeerh, a finally found out what their fate would be. Inside this

court, they were convicted of taking illegal drugs and were

sentenced to four years in prison. Grand Cameron's mother had little

hope that they would be released, despite the allegations that they

had been tortured by the Dubai police. She told me how Karl

Williams had been singled out for the worst treatment. He was laid

out on the bed. His trousers were stripped down. Electric shocks were

administered to his testicles while he was blindfolded. I believe all

the boys had guns held to their head. They were told they were

going to die. The holiday last July went wrong within a few days. The

police in Dubai arrested the three men, accusing them of having more

than one kilogram of synthetic cannabis inside their car. But

human rights campaigners say their convictions should be overturned

because there is evidence backing up the torture allegations.

position remains that the men should have been released and the

prosecution against them was grossly unfair. There is no way

someone can get a fair trial in these circumstances, where police

torture has been used. At the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates

they are making final preparations for the visit of their President,

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, to Britain which starts tomorrow. The

torture allegations could cast a shadow over the state visit of what

is an important trade partner for Britain. Because while the

authorities in the United Arab Emirates deny the allegations, the

Prime Minister seems determined to get to the bottom of what happened.

Well, we have said that we want to see a proper, independent inquiry

into this and we will raise that during the visit. That could lift

the hopes of these three men. They could soon be pardoned instead of

spending years in prison. Reports from Syria say the

country's Prime Minister Wael al- Halqi has survived an assassination

attempt. A car bomb exploded at his convoy drove through Damascus.

State television said he escaped unharmed and then showed him at a

Government meeting some hours after the attack.

Nelson Mandela is in good shape according to Jacob Zuma, the South

African President, who visited him today. He was discharged from

hospital three weeks ago looking frail and sensitive to the camera

flashes. The 94 year-old is being treated for recurrent lung

infection. The clothing retailer Primark says

that will compensate some of the victims of the collapsed textiles

factory in Bangladesh. 380 people lost their lives when the building

came down last week. Rescue workers are giving up hope of finding any

more survivors. There is an angry surge running

through Bangladesh after this disaster. Clothing workers have

attacked other garment factories. And now there is extra security

around the site of the ruined building. The remains of hundreds

are still buried inside. Photographs of missing relatives

tell some of those terrible stories at the entrance to the nearby

hospital. Inside, survivors are still traumatised by memories of

being trapped in the ruins for days. People were so desperate for water,

she tells me, they were drinking their own urine. We saw cracks in

the building the day before it fell, she says. We complained, but the

bosses told us if we did not return to work, we would not get paid.

Every bed in his ward is occupied by injured survivors and it is the

same story next door in this ward, and in every other walk in his

hospital for seven floors beneath me. There are people recovering

from their injuries after being caught in the collapse of the

factory complex and this hospital has never seen anything like it.

Questions are growing over how the disaster could have happened. The

Bangladeshi Prime Minister is feeling the pressure. Visiting the

site for the first time a week after the building collapsed.

Making cheap clothes is crucial the Bangladesh, accounting for 80% of

its exports. British retailers are among its biggest customers. But

this disaster has been an earthquake for the industry. As the

clear up gets under way, it has emerged that Bangladesh turned down

British offers of specialist help and equipment to search the ruins,

which could perhaps have saved more lives. Even now, mothers and

sisters prey in hope. They struggle to comprehend how their relatives

died. Two men have been found guilty of

raping a teenage boy in a department store in Manchester city

centre. The assault took place last June, after the men approached the

14 year-old one he was visiting the Arndale Centre. Our correspondent

was in court. Outside court, they tried to hide.

42 year-old Alex Wilson-Fletcher and this man, applecart Alger Nabis,

55, could not avoid CCTV cameras of the day they wrote to a schoolboy.

-- Abdul Qayyum Downton Abbey. They cornered the teenager and

threatened him before forcing him out of the Arndale Centre and

across the be the street and into Debenhams. Upstairs in a toilet he

was attacked and warned not to run all they would come after him.

fact that two grown men can go into a city centre and prey upon a 14

year-old boy, and careers him into going with them to another location,

in order to attack him in the way they have attacked him, beggars

belief, to be honest. It is absolutely abhorrent. The attack

happened last June, close to one of the busiest streets in Manchester.

On Saturdays, Market Street is packed full of shoppers and covered

with CCTV cameras. Police used as many as they could to try to track

down the attackers. Abdelkader El- Janabi and Alex Wilson-Fletcher

will be sentenced in June. The police told both men to expect long

prison terms. Radical changes to the benefit

system have been initiated in one region of Greater Manchester.

Universal credit has been introduced in Ashton-under-Lyne, a

new credit paid monthly which is meant to be simpler and will ensure

people are better off in work than A benefits system which encourages

work, not dependency, is the stated work, not dependency, is the stated

aim. But if this is to be a welfare revolution, it started very slowly,

with just a few claimants and only one JobCentre, in one town. An

early test of a benefit which will ultimately be claimed by millions.

It is a big change, a big positive, and it saves money through fraud

and error, and by getting people back to work and making them

taxpayers. The Government's plan is to combine six benefits,

including... The first claims under the new single payment are being

made here in Ashton-under-Lyne. In October, new claimants across

England and Wales will start using the system. By 2017, eight million

households will be getting universal credit. What is starting

here is rather different to most of the welfare policies. Overall

spending is forecast to increase as a result of this change. Ministers

say it is about making sure people are always better off in work. A

single mother and benefits, Kelly Parsons agrees with that. And am

glad that they can put it all into one and get people into work.

most claims will have to be made online, which is a worry for this

unemployed father. I have only just managed to go online. It is not

something I have been interested in. Concerns have been raised about

whether the Government's computer system will be able to handle the

enormous complexity of universal credit. Labour says the scheme is

already late, over budget and not as radical as ministers claim.

were promised a great big welfare shake-up, but what we have got is a

small scheme, three years into this Parliament, and meanwhile, the

social security budget is up �20 billion more than forecast of for

the plans have also led to concerns about budgeting. But the Government

thinks universal credit should be paid in the same way as salaries,

preparing those on benefits for a life of work.. You can find out

more about the new universal credit The the world's bee population is

in sharp decline, and pesticides are probably responsible, according

to the European Commission. It has proposed a two-year ban across the

EU. The bee population has been falling for a decade, but the

scientific case linking it to pesticides is hotly disputed. Tough

times for Britain's bees. Last summer's washout killed off huge

numbers. Years of attack by a deadly parasite have also taken a

heavy toll. These, then, are the survivors. This is a very, very

small colony. As we are opening up hives this year, we are finding

they are weak, they have not come through the winter very well a tall.

Some beekeepers also believe pesticides are no major threat, in

particular, a group called neonicotinoids. You might think

that the industry would be delighted by this ban, but it is

not necessarily the case. Farmers, in their search to produce the food

that everybody wants, at a price which people are prepared to pay,

will have to use other pesticides, older, more dirty chemistry.

pesticides which are proposed to be under the ban be long to a group of

neonicotinoids. They are toxic to pests such as aphids, supposed to

be less harmful to bees than some other pesticides. The challenge is

to strike a balance between protecting the bee population and

food production. It is an issue which has split opinion across

Europe, and amongst some British beekeepers. The Soil Association is

among the groups which support the ban. Many scientists are saying

there is a huge problem in terms of the impact of neonicotinoids on

honey bees, but also wild pollinators as well. The ban is a

triumph for those who have campaigned for it, but the UK

Government, and many beekeepers here, believe it may do more harm

than good. The National Farmers' Union warns it could be

catastrophic for food production. The alternatives to neonicotinoids,

they are less effective than the neonicotinoids, and we know that is

going to be the case. So, it is going to have an impact upon the

ability to produce food in the UK. All sides say there should be more

research into how damaging these chemicals are to our bee

populations. Nick Clegg says he will not rule out the possibility

of the Lib Dems forming a coalition government with Labour, after the

next general election. He was speaking three days ahead of the

local elections in England and Wales. In the last of his reports

meeting the main Westminster partitas, Nick Robinson asked Mr

Clegg about his party's hopes for Thursday. Slice of cake for the

Prime Minister... Do not adjust your set, Whitehall has not created

a new government ministry. It is instead election time, and the real

Deputy Prime Minister has come to speak to factory workers in Taunton

about how to slice up the national cake. Would this be an opportunity

for the Lib Dems to differentiate themselves slightly from the George

Osborne austerity? I think this idea of the nasty Plan A, and this

lovely, uncontroversial shudder, it is not like that. Cuts to the Fire

Service here in Somerset are being opposed by the Lib Dems, even

though they follow on from budget cuts made by the coalition back in

London. The fire authority here have lost �5.5 billion, 10% of

their budget this year, thanks to the decisions of your government,

not a Tory government, your government. So, you cannot oppose

cuts, can you? Of course you can, if you think they are not being

applied fairly. I think it is a source of pride to the Liberal

Democrats that where Liberal Democrats are in charge, we will

not be closing a single public library this year. Your opponents

say something very simple - typical Liberal Democrats, imposing cuts

nationally, and locally, making hay by opposing them. It is hypocrisy.

No, it is not. This is a big question in British politics. We

all know that however is in charge will need to continue to take

difficult, tough decisions to repair the economy, and to make it

strong again. The question is, who can do both, making the economy

strong, but doing so as fairly as possible? As another Whitehall

battle over the next spending cuts begins, Nick Clegg rejected the

suggestion that defence cuts might be avoided by cutting into the

school's budget. The heads of departments will be seeking to come

up with reasons why their budgets should not be cut over the next few

weeks. That is the nature of the Whitehall bunfight. But that simple

principle, which I fought for, I was Adam Ant within government,

that we should protect the school's budget, will remain. Nick Clegg is

fighting these elections not just to hold onto councils controlled by

the Lib Dems, but to hold on to third place nationally. UKIP, or

work it critics see as the known of the above party, is ahead of many

of the opinion polls. They are, he says, proving seductive... But I

think people will be struck when they discover that UKIP want to cut

money for your local schools and hospitals. They want poor people to

pay the same taxes as it rich people. They want to jeopardise up

to 3 million jobs in this country by turning our backs on the huge

export markets on our European doorstep. Whatever the results this

week, Nick Clegg believes his party may still hold the balance of power

after the next general election. So, could he be Deputy Prime Minister

under Ed Miliband? He said it was a hypothetical question, a decision

for the country, but when pushed, listen to what he said...

Absolutely. If the public say that the only way in which this country

could be governed in a sensible, centre-ground, stable way, would be

a coalition of a different combination, still involving the

Liberal Democrats, I would, just as last time, and the Liberal

Democrats, would do our duty to the country. Whether decorating cakes

for the cameras, bricklaying, or standing on a soapbox, it is clear

our political leaders already have their eyes firmly set on the next

general election. For Nick Clegg, another slice of power really would

The British Horseracing Authority has confirmed it is investigating a

second Newmarket trainer over claims that anabolic steroids were

administered to horses. The trainer claims he used a treatment

containing a prohibited substance on vets' advice. A powerful

explosion has damaged a building in Prague. At least 35 people were

injured. The area, popular with tourists, was sealed off. Emergency

workers believe a gas leak could have caused the explosion. Sir Brad

Wiggins says he has hopes of repeating last year's historic

triumph in the Tour de France, rather than playing a support role

for his teammate Chris Froome. Sir Bradley says his goal is to be in

condition for the Tour de France. His Sky team's management must make

a big decision on who is the best cyclist to be Team Leader. He is

Britain's knight in shining Lycra, Sir Brad Wiggins, for many, the man

who defined 2012, an unstoppable blend of speed, sideburns and rock

stars swagger. So, how on earth do you follow that? Answer? You go for

road cycling's other big prize, the Giro d'Italia. For Brad Wiggins, it

is a relief to get back to racing. My saving grace is that I have not

gone out and tried to cash in on the Olympics and got my face

everywhere, gone on game shows and everything, like most of them have

done, dancing programmes... I have gone back to trying to do what we

do best, which is trying to win by crisis. So, once again, all eyes

are on Sir Brad Wiggins. In Italy, he will be the man to beat, but it

is just the start of what could be an intriguing summer. Because then,

of course, there is the Tour de France. Normally, each team has a

designated leader, and this year, we thought it would not be Brad

Wiggins, but fellow Briton Chris Froome. Wiggins was expected to

support him rather than challenge him, but Wiggins says he wants to

win again himself. Two teammates battling for one ambition. My goal

is to be in condition to win the Tour. After that, a decision will

be made on the leadership of that. Can you say that it will not cause

friction? I do not think so. We have been there before. We are in

the same team, and at the end of the day, we are both professionals,

but we know what needs to be done. So, he is no understudy. For