Browse content similar to 29/01/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight, the BBC learns that the Duke executive of RBS will not be | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
taking his bonus. Stephen Hester says that he will turn down nearly | :00:15. | :00:16. | |
�1 million after coming under intense pressure. | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
The Afghan Government prepares to meet with the Taliban in Saudi | :00:20. | :00:23. | |
Arabia to try to kick-start peace talks. | :00:23. | :00:28. | |
In Syria, reports of more than 60 dead in fresh clashes after Arab | :00:28. | :00:36. | |
League monitors withdraw. It is over. You have to say that | :00:36. | :00:43. | |
the man deserves this. Novac Djokovic's nocturnal victory. His | :00:43. | :00:53. | |
:00:53. | :01:05. | ||
Good evening. Within the last few minutes, the BBC has learned that | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester, | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
has decided not to take his bonus. He has been under intense pressure | :01:12. | :01:17. | |
since the bonus of just under �1 million was made public last week. | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
In a moment I will speak to our political correspondent but first | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
joining us on the line is Robin Paxton, who broke the story tonight. | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
-- Robert Peston. The final straw for Stephen Hester was the decision | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
of the Labour Party to push to a vote in the House of Commons, | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
questioning whether or not he should get a bonus. It became clear | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
to Stephen Hester that this issue was not going to go away. There was | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
a significant risk that actually Labour would win the vote because | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
there are a number of Lib Dems that are very angry about the bonus. | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
They may well have voted with Labour. He simply took the view | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
that it was damaging to the bank and to him personally for this row | :02:00. | :02:05. | |
to go on and on, and he has therefore decided to waive the | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
bonus. I can tell you that the board was urging him to fight. They | :02:09. | :02:19. | |
:02:19. | :02:21. | ||
felt that he had burned the -- earned the bonus for making it the | :02:21. | :02:26. | |
Royal Bank of Scotland less risky, reducing loans and borrowings by | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
something like �600 billion. In their view, this has put RBS on a | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
firmer footing. Curiously and despite the controversy, the board | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
was saying that they would back him if he decided to fight all this | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
pressure to waive the bonus. Ultimately he has taken the view | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
that he will not be taking this �1 million in shares. Thank you very | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
much. Our business Editor Robert Peston, who broke the story in the | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
last few minutes. Our political correspondent is here. The | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
political pressure was really growing today. Yes, it did. There | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
will be relief among ministers. Iain Duncan Smith said today that | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
nobody would be happier than the Government if Stephen Hester gave | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
up the bonus, which is what has happened. This has been a problem | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
for the Government. They have had a rational argument that you have to | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
pay the best in the City a lot of money, but this just did not chime | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
with the rhetoric that we have been hearing from many ministers and | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
David Cameron himself, who has been talking about shareholders clamping | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
down on excessive pay. The Conservatives particularly did not | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
want to be painted as being on the side of the rich and the City when | :03:35. | :03:41. | |
they are making cuts elsewhere. They will be relieved that this has | :03:41. | :03:43. | |
happened but the problem is this will rear its head again next year | :03:43. | :03:45. | |
unless they come up with some kind of long-term solution to the | :03:45. | :03:55. | |
problem. Thank you very much. That is the latest on the Stephen Hester | :03:55. | :03:57. | |
bonus story. In other news, after a decade of | :03:57. | :04:05. | |
war in Afghanistan, there are signs that the Government is taking the | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
first steps towards peace talks with the Taliban. The talks will | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
take place in Saudi Arabia in the next few weeks. Any dialogue will | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
be Afghan-led, according to Hamid Karzai, but so far focus has been | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
on US efforts to talk to the Taliban. For 10 years the war | :04:22. | :04:30. | |
against the Taliban has ground on relentlessly. The fight has become | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
bloodier and deadlier, as each side failed to find victory on the | :04:34. | :04:40. | |
battlefield. But now even as the killing goes on, there are the | :04:40. | :04:46. | |
first hints that the two sides may be ready to talk. The Taliban are | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
far from ready to put down their guns. But for the first time, they | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
are planning to speak to Hamid Karzai's Government. They will meet | :04:56. | :05:02. | |
in either Saudi Arabia or two Turkey. Previously the men who led | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
these fighters said they would only speak to the Americans from the new | :05:06. | :05:14. | |
office in the Gulf state of Qatar. This NVQs says it is time for talks | :05:14. | :05:22. | |
to happen Afghan to Afghan. -- this MP. It is incredibly difficult to | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
win this war using the military so they have to talk. David Cameron | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
met Hamid Karzai this weekend. Peace may be a long way off, but | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
the clock is ticking. There is this pressure that nobody wants to be | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
left out and that now accounts for the Taliban side and the Afghan | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
Government, and the international actors. There is a sense that there | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
is a more real opportunity to move towards negotiation and settlement. | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
This is a war that will likely never be won on the battlefield. | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
These British combat troops and the Americans will leave Afghanistan in | :05:55. | :06:02. | |
three years' time. So the worry here in Kabul are the Taliban | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
serious about the negotiations? Could they ever accept an Afghan | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
constitution and women's rights? Are they simply playing for time, | :06:09. | :06:16. | |
waiting for foreign troops to go? There have been fierce clashes on | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus following the withdrawal | :06:20. | :06:25. | |
of Arab League monitors. Activist so that 60 people have been killed | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
today. The Free Syrian Army claims it has been strengthened by a fresh | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
wave of defections from Government forces. They are now making | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
advances towards Damascus. What is left of a military bus, bombed by | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
armed rebels close to Damascus. It is attacks like this, the | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
Government says, that have provoked the current escalation. Six | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
soldiers died here. Others were wounded but survived to tell the | :06:50. | :06:58. | |
tale. Suddenly the bus into take- off. It burst into flames and all | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
the windows shattered. We were thrown onto the ground and then | :07:01. | :07:09. | |
they opened fire on us as well. This is the Government's answer, | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
attacking and bombarding places like Homs which has been a hotbed | :07:12. | :07:19. | |
of defiance from early on. Dozens of tanks and hundreds of troops are | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
being thrown into battle in residential areas. The regime is no | :07:24. | :07:34. | |
:07:34. | :07:34. | ||
longer just facing crowds of These are the man the Government | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
calls terrorists and the opposition calls heroes, defending civilians | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
against brutal oppression. The Free Syrian Army, made up of deserters, | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
seemed to be growing by the day. With the Arab League observers now | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
standing down, the escalation of violence is going ahead with no | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
outside witnesses. That means the focus is even more strongly on | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
intensifying discussions at the UN Security Council, the only hope | :08:04. | :08:11. | |
left of our way out of the carnage. President Sarkozy has claimed | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
tonight that Europe is over the worst of its financial crisis. He | :08:14. | :08:21. | |
has been speaking ahead of a summit of EU leaders that begins tomorrow | :08:21. | :08:27. | |
in Brussels. How is President Sarkozy couching this? Well, he was | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
a little bit optimistic tonight. He said Europe was no longer on the | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
edge of an abyss. He said the financial markets were,. The debt | :08:35. | :08:41. | |
crisis has not gone away. He announced new taxes tonight, and | :08:41. | :08:47. | |
said that VAT, sales tax, would go up to 21% in France. He also | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
announced a tax on financial transactions, that will go ahead. | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
It was the same tax that David Cameron described as mothers. | :08:55. | :09:02. | |
David Cameron will be at this summit. -- describes as madness. | :09:02. | :09:10. | |
What will the atmosphere be like given what happened the last time | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
there was a summit? There is always a chance that the tension will | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
flare up again. There will be discussion about jobs and growth, | :09:20. | :09:27. | |
and the decision for greater budgetary discipline in the EU, it | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
was that treaty that prompted David Cameron to use his veto and that | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
will be discussed. Greece will cast a shadow. There are intense | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
negotiations going on over another bail-out. If that were to fail, | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
then breeze would be facing bankruptcy some time in the late | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
March. -- Greece would be facing bankruptcy. And a German proposal | :09:48. | :09:55. | |
at the weekend, which they suggested might need an EU | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
commissioner to enforce tax and spending issues in Greece, that has | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
caused fury in Athens. It is interesting to observe, two years | :10:03. | :10:09. | |
into the crisis, and Greece still very much on the agenda. Thank you. | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
Our European Editor, live from Brussels. | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
Rough seas and strong winds have caused the Costa Concordia to slip | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
slightly further into the water today. Italian divers have | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
continued their search of the wreck before efforts to remove the fuel | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
begin. 16 people remain unaccounted for after the discovery of another | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
body yesterday. It could be several months before the wreck can be | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
moved. United Nations inspectors have | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
arrived in Iran to investigate a possible military aspects of its | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
nuclear programme. The team hopes to tour nuclear facilities over the | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
next few days, look at documents and tried to assess the exact | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
nature of Iran's activities. Western countries recently imposed | :10:50. | :10:58. | |
the tighter sanctions get against Iran. -- the tightest sanctions yet. | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
At the Tehran International Airport, handful of protesters did the place | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
of a red carpet as IAEA inspectors began a three-day tour of Iran. | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
hope that Iran will engage with us on our concerns regarding the | :11:13. | :11:19. | |
possible military aspect of this programme. We are looking forward | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
to the start of the dialogue which is overdue for a very long time. | :11:24. | :11:30. | |
This is where they will expect to go. The inspectors will tour Iran's | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
nuclear facilities and they will analyse documents. They will ask | :11:34. | :11:41. | |
scientists why Iran is directing so much uranium, more than it may need | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
for civilian purposes. The Government says that this | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
inspection will prove that their nuclear programme is peaceful. | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
Previous inspections never managed to resolve that question. This | :11:52. | :11:58. | |
short me that in itself is not likely to provide a definitive | :11:58. | :12:04. | |
answer. -- short visit. It is only three days so it is not likely much | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
could be achieved. Nevertheless, if they start to negotiations on the | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
military aspects of the programme, that would be highly significant. | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
Iran often prefers displays of power to actual negotiations. They | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
recently carried out naval exercises in the Gulf. They have | :12:21. | :12:27. | |
even throttle to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping channel | :12:27. | :12:37. | |
in the region. In their turn, they have sent their own message. Keep | :12:37. | :12:46. | |
the Strait of Hormuz open and engage with the visiting officials. | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
Now the sport. Arsenal have staged a remarkable FA Cup comeback. They | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
were 2-0 down against Aston Villa and booed off by their fans at half | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
time. But three second half goals gave them victory at the Emirates | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
Stadium. Earlier Sunderland drew 1- 1 with Middlesborough at the | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
Stadium of Light in their fourth round tie. Tim Franks watched the | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
action. The first half-hour at the Emirates Stadium may have been | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
forgettable but the rest was not. Richard Dunne scored this | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
thunderous goal and then Darren Barr and was acute. 2-0 to the | :13:15. | :13:22. | |
visitors. -- Darren Bent. They repaid their visitors with some | :13:22. | :13:28. | |
gracious hospitality in the penalty box. Robin van Persie was the reply | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
of this. Theo Walcott should have been going nowhere but Aston Villa | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
seemed to insist that he should score, which he did. Darren Bent | :13:35. | :13:42. | |
then proved why he is the strike and not the defender. Robin van | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
Persie, with machine tooled accuracy, making it 3-2. Arsenal | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
will face the winners of the replay between Sunderland and | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
Middlesbrough. The lowly visitors provided the class in the first | :13:55. | :14:01. | |
half. Barry Robson's Folly was sublime. His touch was anything but | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
in the second half. His back-pass carved open his own defence and the | :14:06. | :14:08. | |
ball arrived in the path of a Sunderland man making his comeback | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
after 17 months of injuries. Fraizer Campbell, his delight | :14:14. | :14:20. | |
understandable and unfettered. After today's games, the draw for | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
the fifth round was made and the stand-out ties include League Two | :14:23. | :14:25. | |
Crawley Town hosting Premier League Stoke and League One's Stevenage | :14:25. | :14:27. | |
playing Spurs. Championship side Brighton's reward for beating | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
Newcastle is a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool. | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
Celtic will face Kilmarnock in the final of the Scottish League Cup | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
next month after they beat Falkirk 3-1 at Hampden. The First Division | :14:36. | :14:40. | |
side had been hoping to knock both Old Firm clubs out of the | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
competition having already beaten Rangers. But Anthony Stokes scored | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
twice to secure the victory after Falkirk's Jay Fulton had earlier | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
cancelled out a Scott Brown penalty. It was the longest Grand Slam final | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
in history, between two of the sport's greats. But after nearly | :14:55. | :14:58. | |
six hours, the result had a familiar ring. Novak Djokovic beat | :14:58. | :15:03. | |
Rafael Nadal in a five set thriller to win the Australian Open. It's | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
his third consecutive Grand Slam title, all of them at the | :15:06. | :15:16. | |
:15:16. | :15:19. | ||
Look closely at jock's trainers he keeps a tally of the Grand Slam | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
trophies he has won but in first set it didn't look as if he would | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
be holding on to his Australian title. In fact it looked as though | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
he had put his shoes on the wrong feet. He was so out of sorts he's | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
gave up on his racket before the end of the first set. The change | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
didn't stop him losing that 7-5 but things began to look brighter. He | :15:39. | :15:47. | |
won the second set, 6-4. The third, came more easily. 6-2. Djokovic was | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
on a roll. But Nadal can never be accused of folding, no such thing | :15:51. | :15:57. | |
as lost cause in his book. Saving three break points. It took a tie- | :15:57. | :15:59. | |
break to separate them in the fourth, one of the great, the | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
importance of such moments in a match can be gauged by the number | :16:03. | :16:10. | |
of Nadal fist pumps. That is out. Into a fifth. Set and hour, fatigue | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
a possible factor as they passed the mark for the longest match in | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
Australian Open history. From a break down, Djokovic found himself | :16:19. | :16:28. | |
serving for the match. It is over and you have to say the man | :16:28. | :16:33. | |
deserved it. T-shirt was off again, the champion's every sinew | :16:33. | :16:37. | |
stretched to breaking, to defend his trophy. A third Australian Open | :16:37. | :16:44. | |
title for Djokovic and what a way to start the year. England's Robert | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
Rock held off the challenge of the former world number one Tiger Woods | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
and Rory McIlroy to take golf's Abu Dhabi Championship. Rock ranked | :16:53. | :16:58. | |
117th in the world went into the final day sharing the lead but | :16:58. | :17:05. | |
birdied three of his first six holes to set up a one shot victory. | :17:05. | :17:12. | |
Rory McIlroy finished second while Woods was third. It was Rock's only | :17:12. | :17:21. | |
second win in 228 attempts. The New Zealand amateur Lydia Ko has become | :17:21. | :17:27. | |
the youngest winner of a profaetion event at 14. She won the New South | :17:27. | :17:36. | |
Wales open by four shots. That is all the sport for now. An our main | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
news Robert Peston has learned the Royal Bank of Scotland chief | :17:40. | :17:44. |