:00:10. > :00:14.Tax returns of government ministers could be made public under plans
:00:15. > :00:20.being considered by the Chancellor. George Osborne says he wants
:00:20. > :00:26.greater financial transparency for those in high office. The race has
:00:26. > :00:32.been stopped! There is a man swimming across between the boats.
:00:32. > :00:37.High drama on the River Thames, as the Boat Race descends into chaos.
:00:37. > :00:47.And teaching unions vote to step up industrial action, threatening
:00:47. > :00:57.
:00:57. > :01:01.Good afternoon. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, says
:01:01. > :01:04.he is considering publishing the personal tax returns of senior
:01:04. > :01:07.ministers in the interests of greater transparency. The
:01:07. > :01:13.Government is suggesting that the changes could be in place but the
:01:13. > :01:18.next general election. Our political correspondent, Ben Wright,
:01:18. > :01:23.reports. He sets our taxes, but how much texted he and his colleagues
:01:23. > :01:28.pay? This year's Budget contained a controversial cut to the 50p top
:01:28. > :01:30.rate of income tax. In the Commons, Labour goaded the front bench of
:01:30. > :01:37.the government side to come clean about whether they might be better
:01:37. > :01:40.off. Hands up if you will benefit from the income tax cut... In a
:01:40. > :01:42.interview in the Daily Telegraph, George Osborne said that in the
:01:42. > :01:52.George Osborne said that in the last tax year, he was not a 50p
:01:52. > :01:54.
:01:54. > :01:58.I think it should be for very senior politicians, those who want
:01:58. > :02:02.to run our country or be in charge of the nation's finances, I think
:02:02. > :02:06.it is reasonable to ask them to put their tax affairs into the public
:02:06. > :02:11.domain. It is the race to be the Mayor of London which has fired up
:02:11. > :02:15.this argument. Was that a yes or no? I am happy to publish details
:02:15. > :02:20.of everything I have learnt in the last four years - will you do the
:02:20. > :02:24.same? Of course I will. Both candidates have now revealed their
:02:24. > :02:29.earnings, after accusing each other of avoiding income tax. Politicians
:02:29. > :02:33.have been reaching for transparency in an effort to increase trust in
:02:33. > :02:40.their profession. Now, in an age of austerity, it is their tax affairs
:02:40. > :02:45.which are under focus. Cabinet ministers earn �134,000 a year, but
:02:45. > :02:49.what about any money they make from rental income or shares, what tax
:02:49. > :02:55.do they pay on that? By the time of the next general election, senior
:02:55. > :02:59.politicians may be able -- may be expected to show that they do in
:02:59. > :03:03.private what they talk about in public. In America, Mitt Romney has
:03:03. > :03:08.been under pressure to explain how much tax he pays. But not everybody
:03:08. > :03:13.is convinced the Americans have got it right. We need to ask, what
:03:13. > :03:16.makes for best conduct in public life and elections? We are in
:03:16. > :03:20.danger of too much of the debate being about individuals, and not
:03:20. > :03:24.enough being about what they're going to do with their public time
:03:24. > :03:30.and in their public office. source close to Ed Miliband said
:03:30. > :03:37.Labour would match any move on tax disclosure. George Osborne's
:03:37. > :03:41.comments are designed in part to keep pressure on Ken Livingstone.
:03:41. > :03:48.You can see a full list of candidates for London's mayoral
:03:48. > :03:52.election on the BBC website. The 158th Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race
:03:52. > :03:56.was suspended in dramatic fashion this afternoon after a swim and
:03:56. > :04:00.moved into the path of the boats, narrowly avoiding getting hit. He
:04:00. > :04:09.was arrested by police, and the race was restarted almost half-an-
:04:09. > :04:15.hour later. The two boats clash, and Oxford lost an oar, allowing
:04:15. > :04:20.Cambridge to take the victory. After so many years, this was the
:04:20. > :04:25.most dramatic boat race. COMMENTATOR: What has happened?
:04:25. > :04:30.Cambridge have stopped. There is a man's woman a cross between the
:04:30. > :04:34.boats... A swimmer stopped the race, narrowly averting injury himself.
:04:34. > :04:40.Police would not immediately confirm that he was a protester,
:04:40. > :04:44.but he was arrested. It is a reminder in Olympic year of how
:04:44. > :04:54.high-profile sport can be disrupted. The race was restarted, but it
:04:54. > :04:55.
:04:55. > :05:00.quickly became chaotic. That is a big clash, and there's a broken oar.
:05:00. > :05:09.The oar of Hanno Wienhausen was missing a blade. But the umpire
:05:09. > :05:16.decided that the collision was the fault of the Oxford cox. Oxford's
:05:16. > :05:20.attempts to catch up had their effect on Alex Woods, who was
:05:20. > :05:28.carried from the boat, and taken to hospital. Oxford say he was
:05:28. > :05:31.conscious. After all of this, the victory seem meaningless. Teaching
:05:31. > :05:35.unions have voted to escalate industrial action in their dispute
:05:35. > :05:40.with the Government over pay, pensions and working conditions. It
:05:40. > :05:44.raises the possibility of strikes closing schools later in the year.
:05:44. > :05:50.From Birmingham, Reeta Chakrabarti reports. A vicious assault on
:05:50. > :05:53.teachers, that was the NASUWT's verdict on government policies,
:05:53. > :05:57.prompting a vote to intensify industrial action. Teachers here
:05:57. > :06:01.were ready to go on strike. I think it is regrettable but necessary,
:06:01. > :06:06.given that every single day we are being very publicly, deliberately
:06:06. > :06:12.vilified. Teachers do not want to take action, they want to teach.
:06:12. > :06:17.But teachers will feel more pushed to take action in the future, yes.
:06:17. > :06:21.chairs and angry about their pensions, into which they are
:06:21. > :06:25.paying more, and have to work longer for, and they are opposed to
:06:25. > :06:28.the spread of academies, publicly funded, independent schools which
:06:29. > :06:32.they say will break up state education. There is no minister
:06:32. > :06:36.here for the first time ever, but the Labour spokesman told teachers
:06:36. > :06:39.they should be held in higher esteem, although he would not back
:06:39. > :06:44.strike action. I am not in the business of supporting strike
:06:44. > :06:48.action, I want schools to be open, I want children to be learning.
:06:48. > :06:51.However, I recognise that teachers have some legitimate grievances and
:06:51. > :06:56.an important contribution to make to the debate. I would appeal to
:06:56. > :06:59.Michael Gove to listen to those concerns and sit down with the
:06:59. > :07:03.NASUWT and with the other representatives of teachers.
:07:03. > :07:08.Government says strikes benefit no- one, and the present pensions offer
:07:08. > :07:14.is as good as it gets. Without compromise, today has brought the
:07:14. > :07:18.possibility of strikes in the autumn closer. An avalanche has
:07:18. > :07:24.struck a Pakistani military base in the Himalayas, burying more than
:07:24. > :07:30.100 soldiers. The men are trapped in snow up to 80ft deep on a
:07:30. > :07:33.glacier in the Kashmir region. Activists in Syria say more than 70
:07:33. > :07:37.civilians have been killed today by security forces loyal to the
:07:38. > :07:42.President. President Assad has pledged to withdraw heavy weapons
:07:42. > :07:49.from built-up areas by next week, as part of the UN-brokered peace
:07:50. > :07:53.plan. This report from Jim Muir. In Damascus, almost as though
:07:53. > :07:59.everything were normal, the regime was holding a big rally to
:07:59. > :08:05.celebrate the 65th anniversary of the ruling Baath Party. But in Homs,
:08:05. > :08:12.not far to the north, a very different story. Several quarters
:08:12. > :08:17.of the country's third biggest city were being heavily bombarded.
:08:17. > :08:22.Activists say many died here, and even more further north, near Hama,
:08:22. > :08:26.where they said shelling caused the real massacre. They put video
:08:26. > :08:29.images on the Internet, but they are too gruesome for us to show.
:08:29. > :08:33.Under the Kofi Annan peace plan, Syrian troops are meant to be
:08:33. > :08:37.already withdrawing from towns and cities, a process which is to be
:08:37. > :08:45.completed by Tuesday. The Americans said satellite images showed them
:08:45. > :08:49.to be still in place. If the regime does call off its crackdown and
:08:49. > :08:52.call out the military by Tuesday, rebel fighters from the Free Syrian
:08:52. > :08:57.Army are supposed to follow suit, so that a comprehensive truce is in
:08:57. > :09:01.place by Thursday. That would allow UN observers to deploy. But the
:09:01. > :09:06.approaching deadline has led to an upsurge in violence, sending
:09:06. > :09:15.thousands of refugees across the border into Turkey. Ankara has told
:09:15. > :09:19.the UN it will need help if the Sport, and Celtic have clinched the
:09:19. > :09:25.Scottish Premier League title in style, winning 6-0 at Kilmarnock.
:09:25. > :09:31.Charlie Mulgrew got the first, with a header. Four more followed,
:09:31. > :09:36.before Gary Hooper got the sixth, to claim the club's first title in
:09:36. > :09:42.four years. It is the greatest moment in my professional life, it
:09:42. > :09:48.does not get much better than this. I am so proud. It is hard to put it
:09:48. > :09:53.into words at times, what you go through. But today was the epitome
:09:53. > :09:57.of this team. England's cricketers have retain their status as the
:09:57. > :10:01.number one Test team, following victory over Sri Lanka in the
:10:01. > :10:07.second Test match. Graeme Swann took six wickets in the second