18/02/2012 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has

warned that Iran's nuclear ambitions could plunge the Middle

East into a Cold War. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph,

Mr Hague says that if Iran builds an atomic bomb, it would trigger

"the most serious round of nuclear proliferation since nuclear weapons

were invented". Peter Biles reports. Iran's nuclear ambitions continue

to be a matter of international concern. The West has long

suspected that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran

insists the nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes and

says it has a right to press ahead with these plans. William Hague

says, if Iran does create a nuclear weapon, this could trigger an arms

race. He said this is a crisis coming down the tracks. He said it

would be the most serious round of nuclear proliferation since nuclear

weapons were invented, and that would be a disaster in world

affairs. Analysts agree that if Iran got the bomb, then Saudi

Arabia and other countries in the Middle East would want to follow

suit. Saudi Arabia would look to Pakistan to get its own, Egypt and

Turkey would reconsider their Non- Proliferation countries, although

they would not obtain a bomb in the short term. Other countries would

look to the outside world for assistance. Iran has just sent two

of its naval ships through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean.

Israel will see that as another provocation, although the latest

signals from Tehran suggest a willingness to resume talks on the

nuclear issue. 40 children wrongly held in adult

detention centres while seeking asylum are understood to have

received a share of more than a million pounds in compensation from

the Home Office. Our political correspondent Naomi Grimley is here.

Naomi, why has the Home Office had to pay out this money? This is

regarding cases back in 2005, 40 cases of asylum seekers from

countries like Afghanistan, Uganda, Somalia, even a 14 year-old girl

from Sri Lanka. When they were interviewed by officials who were

not experts, they were classed as adults even though they were in

fact children. That meant they were locked up in adult detention

centres and they shouldn't have been, hence why they have had to

agree to pay compensation. Are the children still being detained now?

Nick Clegg has said trial detention should not happen. It can still

happen in a handful of cases in a child-friendly environment but the

refugee Council is saying an added problem is that children may be

being processed as adults if they don't have any documentation to

show otherwise. New research suggests average house

prices have risen in just two local authority areas since the UK's

property boom peaked in 2007. Best performing was Rochford in Essex

which showed a 1% rise. Nine of the worst ten areas were all in

Northern Ireland. On average, the study for the Halifax bank found

house prices have fallen by 24% since 2007.

Syrian forces have opened fire with live ammunition to break up a

protest against President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. Shooting

broke out at the funeral of three youths killed in earlier protest

against the President on Friday. The demonstration comes as a

Chinese envoy visiting Syria has called on all sides to end the

violence. This footage is thought to be killed in a region of

Damascus. After nearly 40 years, there is

fresh evidence that Lord Lucan fled to Africa to avoid being questioned

about the murder of his children's nanny and the attempted murder of

his wife. The unsolved mystery of the peer's disappearance is one of

the most infamous cases in British criminal history. But now a former

employee of one of Lucan's closest friends has shed new light on the

case, as Glenn Campbell reports. Lord Lucan vanished on seventh

November 1974, after murdering his children's' nanny and attempting to

murder his estranged wife. His car was found abandoned here in New

Haven in Sussex, and detectives suspected he may have been smuggled

abroad by friends. Today the suspicion has been confirmed by a

former personal assistant to Lord Lucan's personal confidant, John

Aspinall. Arrangements were made for John Bingham, also known as

Lord Lucan, to see his children. I have to put them on flights to

Africa. I don't know the exact dates, it was between 79-81.

woman says she arranged the flights twice so he could see his children.

At some point, I think in Gabon, his -- he wanted to see how they

were growing up, to look at them from a distance. It was clear he

would not speak to them or make himself known to them because that

would make it difficult for them going back to their mother, saying

I had seen daddy. That was it. theory Lord Lucan has fled to

Africa was confirmed by the detective who led the inquiry

during the 1980s. I made a few inquiries around and it was quite

obvious that people were aware that Lord Lucan was not dead, and the

word was that he was in Africa. John Aspinall never publicly

admitted any involvement in his disappearance, and died of cancer

in 2000, but his former personal assistant says she is now willing

to talk to detectives about the role she played in Lord Lucan's

abroad. If you're in London and the south