25/03/2014 BBC News at Ten

about missing flight MH370. They accuse the Malaysian government of

trying to delay, distort and hide the truth about what happened. As

the search for wreckage is affected by bad weather, Malaysia Airlines

reject the criticism of their handling of the case. Well, I think

it is unfair, I think we've done all we can within our means to help

them. We'll have the latest from Beijing,

where the public protest has intensified.

Also tonight, the gap between wages and prices narrows as inflation

falls to its lowest level for four years.

Paul Flowers, the former chairman of Co-op Bank, tells the BBC about his

and the bank's failures. I am no better and no worse, it seems to me,

than any number of other people. But of course I have sinned in that

old-fashioned term. The latest evidence that cases of

liver disease are rising dramatically in England.

And in tonight's big Manchester derby, City were ahead in the first

minute. And coming up in Sportsday on BBC

News, Andy Murray breezes past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets

at the Miami Masters. The defending champion will now play Novak

Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Good evening. The search area for

the missing Malaysian airliner has been narrowed, but there's still no

evidence of what happened to flight MH370. Angry relatives waiting for

proof of what happened have clashed with police outside Malaysia's

embassy in Beijing. They accused the Malaysian government of trying to

delay, distort and hide the truth. But speaking to the BBC, the head of

Malaysia Airlines has defended the way his company has dealt with the

families.The search for wreckage was suspended for much of the day

because of bad weather. From Kuala Lumpur, our correspondent Alistair

Leithead sent this report. Grief turning to anger on the

streets of Beijing, a rare show of protest from families of those lost

aboard Flight MH370. If you don't let me through, you're

not Chinese, this woman says, bursting towards the Malaysian

Embassy, the focus of their anger. We just want the truth, he says.

But news the plane had crashed into the ocean is not the truth they

want. Like many relatives here in Kuala Lumpur, Daniel Tan, the

brother of one of the Malaysian passengers, is still convinced he's

alive. As long as they don't find any craft, it's going to be a

waiting game for us. We just have to wait until they find the body of the

aircraft. Before that, we will continue waiting, we will continue

to wait. Until you see wreckage? Until we see the wreckage of MH370.

Otherwise we will not give up hope. The chief executive of Malaysia

Airlines agreed to be interviewed for the first time today. He said

the families were his top priority. Our primary role in this tragedy is

really to ensure we care, we really take care of the families of those

on board. And I think we've gone beyond our normal responses. I think

they would say you haven't gone far enough. Their response has been very

angry and has been targeted at you. Well, I think it's unfair, I think

we've done all we can within our means to help them. You must realise

that in an incident like this, normally, in any tragedy there's

always some evidence in place. We have not had any evidence until

maybe last night. The search for remains of the plane

was grounded today by bad weather, the international search effort

stalled with a huge challenge still ahead. If I could put the analogy of

what we've got out there at the moment, we're not searching for a

needle in a haystack - we're still trying to define where the haystack

is, so that's just to put it in context.

A vast span of ferocious ocean, the sightings of a day before now

scattered in the high seas, the approaching ships delayed. It was a

big decision by the Malaysian Prime Minister to announce the loss of

flight MH370 without any physical evidence, and there's still a sense

of things being in limbo. For the families of those on board, who

really need to see wreckage before they can remove that faint glimmer

of hope. And for the investigators who have to try and pinpoint the

black-box flight recorder to solve the core of this mystery - what

caused this flight en route to Beijing to crash deep in the

southern Indian Ocean? Alastair Leithead, BBC News, Kuala

Lumpur. Live to Beijing and our

correspondents John Sudworth, the intensity of the anger we saw in the

report, is that directed wholly at the Malaysians in Beijing or also

the Chinese authorities? Protests are extremely rare on the streets of

the Chinese capital, Huw. This one was emotional, spontaneous, it

appeared to catch the authorities by surprise, and it shows the political

stakes are rising for the Chinese government as well. You have had

hundreds of relatives cooped up in hotels for two and a half weeks,

deeply Grix stricken, frustration mounting, beginning to demand that

their only does do a little more. Chinese politicians can appear aloof

and distant, of course. There have been no visits by senior politicians

to these families. But that is beginning to change. Yesterday,

after these protests, senior officials from the Chinese cabinet

visited the hotel, we had an announcement from the president that

he is sending a special envoy to Malaysian, and the Chinese premier

issued a statement saying, we feel for the plight and the sorrow of the

families. At the moment, the anger is directed at Malaysia, that is the

main focus and concern of the families, but I think the risks for

the Chinese leadership are rising, also.

The rate of inflation has fallen to 1.7%, the lowest level for four

years. The fall, which is partly the result of lower fuel prices, means

the gap between pay increases and price rises continues to narrow. But

Labour said prices were still rising faster than average wages, as our

business correspondent Emma Simpson reports.

Inflation, it swung upwards during the recession with prices rising

faster than earnings. But with the cost of living coming down and

earnings on the rise, could the balance be about to tip? It already

has. At this engineering company in East Kilbride. They got a 5% pay

rise last year, thanks to new business in foreign markets. Sales

are 60% higher than they were five years ago, and every year better

than the previous year, so we have not been affected by the crisis, we

have not been held back in terms of what we can offer in terms of wage

increases. The fall in inflation was largely driven by lower prices at

the pumps, and economists reckon it will continue to stay below the Bank

of England's 2% target for some time. Before the downturn, average

wage rises were higher than increases in the cost of living.

Then the trend reversed with inflation racing ahead of average

earnings, putting a huge squeeze on living standards. But it may not be

too long before this gap is closed. During the recession, it was the

private sector that first saw wages take a hit, then the public sector

followed. But in the past few months, private sector pay has been

creeping back up, driven by the recovery, with average wage

increases now neck and neck with the rate of inflation. But public sector

workers are still finding their pay lagging behind. Low inflation is

good news, but that doesn't hide the fact that real wages are falling

across the economy. Workers are still, on average, ?40 per week

worse off, pay packets are as small as they were ten years ago. It will

take another ten years before their full value is restored. House prices

aren't included in the consumer prices index. They are rising.

Strong growth in London and the south-east drove average prices up

by nearly 7% across the UK in the last year, a key part of our economy

which is being very closely watched. Emma Simpson, BBC News.

Live to Downing Street and James Landale, Howard deputy political

editor. This long-running debate about the cost of living, how is it

effective? Clearly, the fact that the gap between wages and cost is

narrowing is helpful for the Government. David Cameron was saying

this will help people, George Osborne saying it will mean more

economic security for families, but there is quite measured response.

They know that there can be a huge gap between what statistics say and

how people actually feel. There was nobody there jumping around and

saying the debate is over. They know that even if later this year, wages

do rise faster than inflation for many people, they will not feel that

immediately in their pocket. That is why Labour were saying that what it

calls the cost of living crisis is still there and they reckon that in

2015 people will still be worse off than in 2010, simply because real

wages will take so long to catch up. As one of Ed Miliband's aides said

to me, one low inflation swallow does not a summer make. But the

figures are good for the Government and put more pressure on Labour to

come up with a clear economic strategy that some of their MPs

Beale has yet to be made. -- feel.

A major new investment has been announced in Hull. 1,000 jobs will

be created making offshore wind turbines. The project costs more

than ?300 million and is being funded by the German engineering

giant Siemens and by Associated British Ports.

But Honda has announced it will cut production at its Swindon factory,

putting 340 jobs at risk. It follows disappointing sales in Europe. The

company said strong UK sales haven't been enough to keep the factory

working at full capacity. The former chairman of the Co-op

Bank, Paul Flowers, has told the BBC that he and the bank failed in their

duty to customers. The bank had to be rescued after it was found to

have a shortfall of ?1.5 billion. Mr Flowers resigned last year after he

was alleged to have been buying cocaine. He's given his first

interview since stepping down to BBC Newsnight, as our correspondent

Simon Gompertz reports. Paul Flowers, the Methodist minister

with no experience of managing banks who found himself at the helm of

Co-operative Bank when it nearly imploded with a ?1.5 billion hole in

its accounts. At the height of inquiries into the bank's problems,

he was shown in a newspaper video allegedly involved in a drug

transaction. This was well after he'd stepped down as chairman.

Interviewed by Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman, Paul Flowers wouldn't talk

about the drug allegation but admitted to frailty and failings. I

am no better and no worse, it seems to me, than any number of other

people. But of course I have sinned in that old-fashioned term - which I

would rarely use, I have to say. He was still leading the bank

earlier last year when it was negotiating with Lloyds to buy more

than 600 branches, a dramatic expansion plan which fell apart as

the Co-op's dire financial straits became clear. Before the drug

episode, MPs probing the Lloyds debacle exposed Paul Flowers'

financial frailty when he underestimated the Co-op Bank's

assets by tens of billions. Just to give you an idea, you were offering

me three billion, and I'm telling you that your annual accounts showed

47 billion. Indeed they did, forgive me. And your loan book is about 32

billion. These are very basic numbers.

He told them then that a Treasury minister, Mark Hoban, had encouraged

the Co-op in the ill-fated attempt to buy the Lloyds branches, and he

went further tonight. They actually said that they were keen on the

Co-op becoming a much more significant player with more scale.

We would have had about 7% or 8% of the market if this had gone through.

And there was pressure, certainly from Mark Hoban, but I believe and

know that that originated much higher up with the Chancellor

himself. Sources at the Treasury deny there

was interference over the Lloyds talks. They say the decisions were

entirely commercial and made by the Lloyds board. This is the odd

spectacle of a man now subject to a police investigation trying to

justify his record at a bank which nearly fell apart.

Simon Gompertz, BBC News. The Ukrainian authorities say a

leader of the hardline Right Sector movement has been killed while

resisting arrest. Oleksandr Muzychko, who led the far-right

group in Western Ukraine, was also suspected of involvement with

organised crime. Russia has cited right-wing extremists as one of the

reasons it's intervened in Crimea. There has been a significant

increase in the number of people dying from liver disease in England.

Between 2001 and 2012, deaths from the disease increased by 40%. In

2012, nearly 11,000 people died and doctors say most of those were

preventable. Instances of liver disease have risen across the UK and

one in five people is said to be at risk. Our medical correspondent,

Fergus Walsh, has the details. Two faces of liver disease. Both these

men know they are lucky to be alive after decades of self-inflicted

damage. For Chris Wilde, it was alcohol. The retired dentist nearly

died after living scarring caused a huge internal bleed. He's given up

now but used to drink two cans of lager and half a bottle of wine a

day. I was a social drinker. Perhaps on the heavier side than the lighter

side. As far as I was aware, I was not doing myself any harm. It was

only when my life was threatened and I was in casualty, that the message

came home that if I didn't stop, I wouldn't be alive in six months'

time. For Dave Norris, it was obesity that

damaged his liver. He used to weigh 15-and-a-half stone and has

diabetes. Four months ago, he had a liver transplant. I was never light.

I was never sort of what you consider massively overweight. Then

suddenly to be told that, you know, your liver is no longer functioning,

and it won't get any better, was, yeah, a complete shock. This all

feels fine. Nothing to make me worried. A simple blood test or

ultrasound scan may have picked up Dave Norris's liver problems a

decade ago. Liver specialists say it typifies how the disease has been

ignored. I have done my ward round. I have 40-year-olds dying of liver

disease that is very difficult to treat because they have come along

too late. All of those patients were potentially preventible, curable, if

I had got to them early. The average age people die from liver disease is

just 59 and getting younger. Of the five biggest causes of death in the

UK, liver disease is the only one that is increasing. That's in

contrast to most of Europe, where death rates are going down. So, why

has liver disease increased so sharply? Well, the UK is one of the

few European countries where alcohol consumption has soared in the past

50 years, and, we are the fattest nation. An MPs' report has called

for a minimum unit price of alcohol of 50p in England and for more

action to tackle hepatitis, the viral infection and the third major

region why healthy livers like this are becoming damaged beyond repair.

Let's have a look at some of the day's other stories. The Government

is to sell off a further stake in Lloyds Banking Group, worth more

than ?4 billion. It means the Government's share holding in

Lloyds, which was bailed out at the height of the financial crisis,

would be reduced to about a quarter. Ireland's police chief, the Garda

Commissioner Martin Callinan, has resigned after facing months of

damaging allegations about his force. He'd been under pressure to

withdraw remarks about two police whistleblowers, who'd claimed

officers had removed penalty points from the driving licences of some

offenders. In South Africa, the prosecution in the trial of Oscar

Pistorius has finished presenting its evidence. The defence will begin

to outline its case on Friday. The Olympic athlete denies murdering his

girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, saying he shot her because he thought she

was an intruder. Is Relatives of a young soldier who

died at Deepcut barracks in Surrey nearly 20 years ago have been told

they can apply to the High Court for a new inquest. Private Cheryl James

was one of four soldiers to die there during a seven-year period,

prompting allegations of bullying and abuse. The Attorney-General

ruled that the original hearing failed to examine her death

properly. In the US, rescue workers in

Washington State say they're expecting to find more victims of a

landslide which devastated a village on Saturday. 14 bodies have been

recovered so far, but dozens of people have been reported missing,

or remain unaccounted for. President Obama has declared an emergency in

the area, which lies in the north-west of the USA, as our

correspondent, David Willis, reports.

A desperate call to the emergency services as a deadly tide of mud and

rock crushed everything in its path. Homes were torn apart. Trees

wrenched from the ground and people sucked into a giant sea of mud. We

were tumbled inside and had mud in our eyes and nose and mouth. I'm

really grateful I'm alive. From the air, you can see the scale

of the disaster. Weeks of heavy rain had softened the ground, causing a

guyant slice of the hillside to collapse without warning. -- a giant

slice. The mud covers a mile square. The small town of Oso remains buried

beneath T rescuers have tried using helicopters, sniffer dogs and even

hovercraft but the mud is 20-feet-deep in places. One of the

last to be pulled from the wreckage was this little boy, Jacob. That was

on Sunday. Still missing, it's thought, is his father and his three

siblings. After hearing cries for help from the wreckage on Saturday

but being unable to reach those trapped in the mud, rescuers say

this sight has now fallen silent. Privately, they concede they stand

little chance of finding anyone else alive.

As the wait continues, the anguish builds for people like Ray Smith

whose daughter is thought to be buried beneath the wreckage. My

16-year-old daughter. My adult son and his two young sons were down

there digging with his hands, trying to find her. This close knit

community has been devastated by this disaster. And in the last few

hours, it emerged that a Government scientist warned of the possibility

of just such a disaster 15 years ago, but still people were allowed

to build homes here. Open fishes countered by saying a small

earthquake could have been to blame. -- officials countered. After the

unusually wet but mild winter, the Met Office is suggesting that this

could be the pattern for British winters to come, while summers are

expected to become hotter and drier. The findings coincide with the final

stages of an investigation by the United Nations into global warming.

Our science editor, David Shukman, reports.

A single raindrop is a thing of exquisite beauty but imagine when

billions fall in a sudden burst. The results can be catastrophic

flooding, as we have just seen during the past winter. So, will

scenes like this become more frequent? The United Nations Climate

Panel assessing the global picture and the Met Office has studied what

might happen in the UK. The conclusion - they are not totally

sure but think think we are getting more of the heaviest downpours In a

warming world, the atmosphere holds more moisture. So when it does rain,

the storms bring heavier rainfall. The key question is - will all

winters look like that or how will the variations look? It is a

challenging question for us. Watching out for the next storms is

a network of radar systems. It is quite a climb to the top. This tower

is in Dorset. It's one of 15 around the country and the radar beams

detect how much water is in the clouds.

The devices are being upgraded to provide more accurate forecasts

about the most damaging rain. And here you can see how the radar picks

out the detail. So, if more intense storms are on the way, this should

help prepare for them. The challenge with extreme weather

is that there can never be any certainty about it. Instead, it is a

question of risk. But the message from the US Climate Panel s despite

any uncertainties in the science, it is still worth getting ready,

adapting, for a future where the weather may well be much more

violent. Giant waves battered the coast last month but gearing up for

more dangerous weather is difficult and often expensive. Repairs are

under way at Portland. The storm shifted vast amounts of rock and

shingle. The equivalent of 30,000 lorry loads. But many are wondering

if it is worth spending vast sums when projections for climate change

can never be certain? As a strong resistpence to making those

decisions. -- there is a strong resistance. It is based down on a

deep down hope that there will be more certainly emerging in the

science community around the sort of predictions of climate change.

Scientists are trying to provide a clearer picture of what may lie

ahead but as an island nation, on the receiving end of an

unpredictable jet stream, that's never going to be easy.

The charity Action for Children says neglect of the most vulnerable

people in our society is a growing problem in the UK. Its new report

suggests that 10% of children suffer neglect of some kind and it warns

that there needs to be greater awareness of the warning signs. Our

correspondent, Jeremy Cooke, has the story.

It is a tragic list of young lives lost. Donele Pelka, Ciara, Keanu and

Hamza. They all died at the hands of those who should have protected

them. In each case there had been previous neglect, prompting calls

for more awareness of the problem. No action to intervene. Mary knows

how devastating neglect can be. Her foster son arrived in her life, aged

13. He looked like an eight-year-old, malnourished. He

never owned a toothbrush. We had to teach him to wash himself. In the

park he would smell the bins of dog mess. A psychologist told us because

it reminded him of home. As soon as I saw him I knew he needed a hug.

Child neglect can be many things, children who aren't properly fed,

poorly clothed or perhaps who repeatedly miss medical

appointments. Any one of those would be cause for concern but they are

also potential indicators of much more serious problems. Other signs

of neglect include children being left alone for long periods.

Routinely being late or absent from school. Being withdrawn, and having

few friends. Looking unwashed and wearing dirty clothes.

Today's report says neglect now affects, on average, a child in

every street across the country. ! 1. 5 million children are being

neglected. We are not talking about it. Nobody is talking about it. I

guess the reason is there's so many other things around. Perhaps we need

to stand up, as we are today, and speak about it, because it is a

terribly damaging fact in our society today. The Government

insists it is already delivering many of the charity's

recommendations, and an Ofsted report is calling for better

training for teaches and social workers. It says too many children

suffering neglect are left in harmful situations for too long. At

issue is how best to intervene in cases where parents have failed in

their responsibilities. The Apollo Theatre in London's West

End re-opens tomorrow, three months after its roof collapsed during a

performance, injuring dozens of people. Initial investigations

suggest that some of the material supporting the ceiling was more than

100 years old, and had deteriorated. It has now been redecorated and is

ready for another opening night. Football now and Manchester United's

season has hit a new low. They were beaten 3-0 by Manchester City. For

the first time in the history of the Premier League, they have lost ten

games. Manchester City, their march for the league title gathers pace.

Dan Roan reports. The usual rivalry but this was a derby with a

difference. For once at Old Trafford, Manchester City arrived at

favourites and immediately it was obvious why. United's defensive

disarray pounced on by Edin Dzeko. This the fastest away goal here in

the Premier League history. Two wins may have eased recent pressure on

David Moyes but the hosts mini revival was over T could have got

worse before half-time. Dzeko denied by David De Gea. But United could do

nothing about this. Dzeko, who else, extending his side's lead. City

finding it all too easy. United did finally respond. Danny Welbeck

testing Joe Hart but nothing could halt the visitor's dominance. Yaya

Toure sealing a win that keeps City on course for the title. United left

to reflect on yet another humiliation that will raise more

questions about the future of their manager but which in truth, no

longer comes as a surprise. That's all from us. On BBC Two, Newsnight

last the full version of that interview with Paul Flowers, the