12/11/2013 BBC News at Ten

An emergency appeal is launched to help those who suffered in the

Philippines typhoon. Bad weather and blocked roads are preventing tonnes

of aid supplies from reaching the victims. It is now the fifth day

since the storm. There is still a sense that aid is still not getting

in here. There's desperation and anger as hundreds of thousands are

still without shelter or food. Some of them are dying from hunger so we

need the help and assistance. Tonight the death toll remains

unclear, the full extent of the damage is still emerging. In the

countryside, farmers have lost all their crops.

And the day's other main stories: EDF breaks ranks with a smaller

energy price rise, but it depends on ministers cutting the green levy.

Cheaper fuel, lower air fares - two factors pushing inflation down to

its lowest level for more than a year.

And Sir John Tavener, one of Britain's leading classical

composers, has died. Coming up, FIFA will use Switzerland

as it strokes testing base for the World Cup. -- drugs testing base.

Good evening. I am at a collection point for local charities here.

Internationally, the United Nations has launched a ?200 million appeal

for the relief operation getting under way in the Philippines. The UN

has described the situation as unprecedented. The full-scale is

still not clear. The Filipino president says the death toll may be

about 2500, but that is way below the United Nations estimate. What is

beyond doubt is that more than 9 million people are in need of aid.

Our first report tonight is from Rupert Wingfield-Hayes who's in the

city of Tacloban, and his report contains some graphic images.

The last thing people in Tacloban need now is more water, but today it

rained and rained, and rained. In most places when the rain comes

down, people go inside. Here, for most, there is no inside. So they

huddle under whatever cover they can find. Although some seemed

blissfully unaware of the misery all around them. As we head into town,

we come across this extraordinary scene. Hundreds, maybe thousands of

people waiting patiently beside the road. Many have been here since

before dawn in the hope of a few kilos of rice. What are you doing

here? Waiting for rice. Are you hungry? Do you have any food? No

food? This is the really big issue, people lost all of their food and

their rice was damaged in the storm. It is now the fifth day since

the storm, supplies are running out. There is still a aid is not getting

in here. Planes are coming in but we don't see any of it here. As we head

towards the airport, our driver suddenly down. Overcome by the

strain of the last few days. Beneath the surface, people here are being

stretched to breaking point. But Tacloban's airport, US aircraft are

landing, perhaps the desperately needed aid has started to arrive.

But no, the plane is empty. It is here to evacuate US citizens.

Anybody who can and is now getting out, and you can understand why.

Just a few hundred meters away, the doll lies beside the body of a dead

child. You can see over there, that aeroplane is at the end of the

runway at Tacloban's airport. We are just 500 metres away from the

airport terminal and I can see ten bodies on the side of the street

here. Just this short distance, and nothing has been done about it. By

the time we head back, their patience has gone. The crowd we saw

earlier waiting for rice are now looting. Tonight is the fifth since

the Typhoon/ . People are feeling increasingly abandoned and alone.

The first British aid flight landed here in Cebu a few hours ago, but

getting the aid out from here to the remote areas is proving to be a huge

logistical challenge, especially with those warnings of more bad

weather to come. Earlier today I took a flight from here heading

towards Tacloban and I got a sense of the challenges that lie ahead.

Flying time to Tacloban, the heart of the disaster zone, is about 45

minutes, but Captain Frederick warned us that we might have to

dodge some storms on the way. So far, much of the aid effort has been

concentrated on the big towns. From 300 feet above ground, you can see

how many villages have been affected. Helicopter mercy missions

would be ideal but there is a problem. One of the pilots had a bad

experience where he landed and the people just run towards the

helicopter and grabbed everything they could, which is dangerous both

to the helicopter crew and the people inside Tacloban. I guess you

cannot really blame them, they are desperate. Exactly, they need help,

which is why they are desperate at times. Around this area the roads

have been cleared but other infrastructure has been destroyed.

Much of Leyte province is given over to agriculture like sugar cane and

rice. Up here, you can see that Miles of crops have been destroyed.

The farmers have lost their whole growing season. They will the

dependent on food aid for months. Our pilot tried several passes but

the weather was closing in, no choice but to turn back. The rain is

too thick, we cannot really get through. You really get a sense of

how difficult the aid operation must be. Filipinos are resilient, this is

not the first storm they have had to weather and it will not be the last.

Five days on, and people are becoming increasingly angry at the

lack of food, shelter and medicines that has reached them. The

government has pledged aid to every survivor, but many in the more

remote areas have seen no official aid at all. Our correspondent has

travelled from here to the far north of the country. On Cebu Island, the

road north is littered with the remains of the storm. Holmes turned

to matchsticks, trees stripped of flattened. Every village has a

terrifying story of the night the storm hit. Where is your house? It

is there. This woman was inside with her husband and three children when

the roof came off. It came straight off here? They had to battle the

wind to reach the safety of a neighbour's home. The rain is still

falling, we saw two teams working on the power lines, a desperate task

for so few people. All along the road, children have been sent out to

ask for help but it has been slow in coming. These people managed to

collect some sacks of rice, and drove up to the first place where

they found people in need. It didn't take long. The line was soon down

the road. We are packing rice and medicines. The further you go north,

it is very badly affected. She was right, the wind tore off this roof

in one place. So much damage, and four days on, help has not arrived.

Please, we need help for our people because some of them are dying

hungry. We need help and assistance from some kind-hearted people. On

the northern tip of Cebu island, the storm hit the hardest. Some need to

patch up holes, others need to start from scratch. Pretty much every

house has either been flattened or had its roof taken off. The people

here say the islands surrounding it are even worse. There are still so

many remote places along the trail of disaster where people are

desperately waiting for help. That was a report from the north of

this island which has seen so much devastation. Let's speak to our

correspondent in Tacloban. Rupert, there are these contradicting

reports about the number of dead, the government here saying it is

about 2500, the UN is saying it is more. I know it is difficult but

what is your sense on the ground? It is hard to know how they would come

up with any figure, quite frankly, because there is no systematic

assessment of the death toll as far as we conceive. We haven't seen

people to the houses counting the dead, but we have seen local people

making their own mass graves. Yesterday we saw 30 bodies going

into one mass grave, no record being kept as far as we could see. There

are bodies on the road is all-around tackler -- Tacloban, but, as I say,

no systematic assessment that we have seen. It has rained again

heavily overnight so the situation is once again very miserable. There

is a combination of people living in the open, there is standing water, a

lot of water on the ground. I went to one place where it was nearly

knee deep in black, stagnant water, and many people were injured in the

initial storm on Friday. They have patched themselves up but there is

no medical attention coming here. It is a hot, wet environment, perfect

for the spread of disease. Thank you very much, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in

Tacloban. That is it for the moment from us

here, but I will be back later in the programme. Now it is back to the

studio. George, thanks very much, let's look

at the other news. EDF is to increase its prices from January.

The rise is less than half of those announced by four other major

companies in recent weeks, but it seems there are still conditions

attached. EDF announced its average gas and electricity prices will go

up by 3.9%, that is in the New Year, contrasting sharply with the

rises announced by SSE, npower, ScottishPower and British Gas, who

of all increased prices by an average of around 9%. As John Moylan

reports now, EDF is suggesting that the lower price rises depend on the

Government cutting the green levies. Four weeks, big energy price rises

have dominated the headlines and much of the political landscape,

too, but now EDF has broken ranks, announcing the lowest increase yet.

Instead of what the others have done, which is to increase more than

twice, we roll back part of the increase now, so that our customers

are going to benefit now from this review of the cost. That review is

into the green and social taxes suppliers passed on to us. The

Government is seeking to scale them back. If that happens, another big

six supplier has said it will reduce bills, too. If the levy comes down,

the price will come down, on the basis of EDF, our price would go up

around 6%, so from ten down to six, that is about the amount, but it is

critical how this happens. The biggest part of the Energy Bill is

the cost of wholesale gas and electricity. Then there is the cost

of getting energy to our homes. Suppliers claim that their profits

are around 5%, less than the green and social levies, which are

forecast to rise in the years ahead. Today's moved by EDF has put the

pressure back on the Government. David Cameron has said he wants to

roll back the green levies, but the key question for millions of

households now is just how much the Government can reduce our energy

bills. 50 pounds or ?60 seems to be the informed speculation at an

industry conference today, where the Energy Secretary would not comment.

Instead, he stepped up his attack on the firms. It is so difficult for

people to work out what exactly they are paying for, and they fear the

big energy comes at taking them for a ride. Fair or not, consumers look

at the big suppliers and see a reflection of the greed that

consumed the banks. Labour has promised to freeze energy prices if

elected and accuses the Government of inaction. Here we have a

stand-off with the EDF saying, unless you do something about the

levies, we will put our bills, and Ed Davey is talking tough, but no

amount of hectare -- hot air will keep homes warm. But the stand-off

will not last long. Changes to those green and social taxes are expected

to be announced on or before the autumn statement in just three

weeks' time. Inflation has fallen to its lowest

weeks' time. level form or than a year. It fell

to 2.2% in October. Let's talk to chief economics correspondent Hugh

Pym, who is with me. What are the factors involved here? This was a

sharper than expected fall, and most analysts are recasting their

predictions, writing them down for the next few months. Let's look at

the factors behind the figures, first of all food prices, and worth

remembering that although inflation did fall, they were up 4.3% over the

year to October, still quite a lot. But clothing, a smaller increase, up

1.4% over the year, and the big downward pressure on inflation came

from fuel prices paid by motorists. They were down 4.2% over the year to

October, so the pressure is easing a little bit on consumers, though with

saying is inflation is well above average pay rises, and pressure is

easing the Bank of England. Falling inflation, rising growth, they will

present their latest forecast tomorrow, and it is a good backdrop

for them. What everyone wants to know is when interest rates will

start going up, and we may get more clues at that conference tomorrow.

Now, new mothers in parts of England are to be offered up to ?200 in

shopping vouchers to encourage them to breast-feed their babies. The

pilot scheme is being targeted at areas of South Yorkshire and

Derbyshire. Doctors say that the health and welfare benefits of

breast-feeding needs to be more widely understood. Vouchers for

Matalan, John Lewis, Mothercare and some supermarkets will be given to

new mothers, and if successful, the scheme could be extended to other

parts of England. Now, officials at Westminster have

announced that there will be no investigation into the business

dealings of the Conservative MP Mark Pritchard. The MP who represents the

Wrekin in Shropshire had been accused of offering to use his

contacts in Albania to set up deals in exchange for hundreds of

thousands of pounds. He denied any wrongdoing and referred himself to

the parliamentary commissioner for standards. The watchdog has now

decided there is insufficient evidence for an inquiry.

Sir John Tavener, one of the most celebrated British composers of the

past century, has died at the age of 69 having suffered health problems

for many years. His choral and orchestral compositions reflected

his own religious outlook. His words were adapted by the Beatles at one

stage at performed at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. Arts

editor Will Gompertz looks back at his life and many achievements.

Religion was Sir John Tavener's inspiration and informed his music,

which in turn gave purpose to his life. I know God exists, he said,

when I am writing music. The reasons sacred music continues

is because people have a first, I learned a bit about Indian music, I

learned a bit about Arabic music and a various traditions to understand

how they work, and then I tried to create a style out of these various

traditions. Sir John Tavener grew up in west

London, displayed an early talent for playing the piano, studied at

the Royal Academy of music and turned to composition. He came to

public attention in the late 1960s with an avant-garde post-modernist

cantata based on the biblical story of Jonah. It was published by the

Beatles on their Apple record label. I'm often surprised by the kind of

people who like it. I usually find a considerable cross-section of the

public seem to appreciate what I am doing. A lot of people who like pop

music seem to like it. He enjoyed critical and commercial

success in 1989 with The Protecting Veil, a BBC commission that was

premiered at the Proms. I think he answered a need in people for

something that was spiritual and serene, that took them inside

themselves and also managed to place them in the context of the world.

His name and music became known to a broad global audience in 1997, when

his Song For Athene was played at Princess Diana's funeral.

He had suffered from ill health for many years, starting with a stroke

in his 30s. He nearly died in 2007 following a heart attack, but he

continued to write music. He was an original, deeply spiritual composer,

and he was one of the outstanding musical talents of his generation.

The composer Sir John Tavener, who has died at the age of 69.

That is all from me, back now to the Philippines to join George Alagiah

in the city of Cebu. Thanks, Huw. Well, the disasters and

emergency committee in Britain says it has been overwhelmed by the

response that it has had to its appeal. The Queen has tonight sent a

personal donation and expressed her condolences to the people of the

Philippines. The UN says that getting aid through to those who

needed is going to be difficult and it is going to be slow. Fergus Walsh

looks now at the huge logistical difficulties of this operation.

More pictures have emerged of the terrifying onslaught of Typhoon

Haiyan as it ripped through a beach resort in Tacloban on Friday with

winds gusting at nearly 200 mph. Some water and food supplies arrived

at Tacloban airport today, but the amount is tiny compared to the vast

and unmet need. The scale of the disaster has shocked aid

organisations. People were expecting a typhoon, and they got the

equivalent of a typhoon and a tsunami. They were not expecting

this at all. We do not know how many people have died. International

teams are facing massive challenges. The Philippines

comprises more than 7000 islands, 2000 of them inhabited. As the

typhoon swept westward, it caused devastating damage across a huge

area. Two island provinces were worst hit. Bridges have collapsed,

roads are blocked, and phone networks are down. This was the 25th

typhoon to affect the region this year, and more may be on the way.

Nearly 10 million people need urgent aid, and more than 600,000 are

homeless. The number needing medical help is unknown, and emergency

surgical teams from Britain are flying out tomorrow. Our principal

focus will be an untreated, open wounds that are now at risk of

becoming infected, and if they are not treated appropriate surgery, by

appropriate medical intervention, these become septic and the patient

dies. The first British aid flights loaded with tense landed this

evening at Cebu airport, but bad weather has meant many other planes

are grounded. Help is also coming by sea. The Royal Navy destroyer HMS

Daring is en route from Singapore and should arrive on the 16th. An

American flotilla is sailing from Hong Kong. I have got boats, a

helicopter, I can get these items into the more remote communities and

ensure they have water as well as help them with the provision of

electricity restoration. I can make water on board myself. ?25 buys

water purification tablets for ten families... An appeal by the

Disasters and Emergency Committee raised ?1.5 million in the first few

hours, but much more is needed. Rebuilding the shattered communities

of the Philippines will take years. Naturally enough, we have

concentrated on the international aid effort here, but one thing needs

to be stressed - just how resilient the people in the Philippines are.

Flying over yesterday, I saw families,, going back to their

families and beginning to rebuild the place, and as people here know,

this is not the first storm and not the last storm, indeed there is more

predicted, but they are ready for it. The other thing that needs to be

said, having reported on the great Boxing Day tsunami, for example, is

that this aid operation is not needed for weeks or four months. It

will go one, I think, for many years to come. That is the sense I get,

travelling over the countryside and seeing the extent of the

devastation. That is it from us here can be,