01/03/2014 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. The crisis in the Crimea region of Ukraine intensified

today. Russia says it's extremely concerned about the recent

developments there. The new pro-Russian Prime Minister of Crimea

has appealed to President Putin to help, as he put it, restore calm

there following the overthrow of the Ukrainian President. President Obama

has warned there would be costs if Russia intervened militarily. Our

world affairs correspondent Christian Fraser sent this report

from Sevastopol. The airports, the Borders - every

strategic pressure point in this peninsula now lies in the grip of

the armed forces. The Essbase remains closed. It barely matters

who these soldiers belong to. Their allegiance lies with Russia, and

their orders come from the new Crimean Prime Minister, installed

yesterday in a parliament occupied by a paramilitary unit. TRANSLATION:

With full understanding of my responsibility for the lives of our

citizens, I call on the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir

Putin, to provide assistance in securing peace on the territory of

the autonomous republic of Crimea. The interim government in Kiev is

powerless to stop them, and Washington shares the frustration.

We arguably concerned by reports of military movements taken by the

Russian Federation inside of Ukraine. The United States will

stand with the international community in affirming that there

will be costs for military intervention in Ukraine. These are

seismic events unfolding on the Crimean peninsula, not that you get

any sense of that crisis in Sevastopol. The ethnic Russian

majority had felt great uncertainty within the new Ukraine. Today they

are relaxed and Holly at ease with what they are hearing from the new

administration. -- Holly. Moscow will use the prevailing mood to its

advantage. It has been a speedy, effective takeover endorsed by the

majority and seemingly irreversible without a dangerous and divisive

response. Christian Fraser reporting. We can

speak now to Christian in Sevastopol, a lot of developments in

the last couple of days, all amounting to a deepening of

tensions. You would not see it here in Sevastopol. It feels more like a

city that has been liberated. The new government in simper report has

called a referendum for the end of the month, and I imagine the

majority of the Russians here... -- Simferopol. With that, they are wary

of tensions spreading, and we are starting to see dangerous signs that

it is spreading to cities like Donetsk, Kharkiv. In Donetsk today,

there was a failed attempt to storm a public building. What you see very

quickly is that this fledgling government in Kiev, which is deeply

indebted, is going to have a very difficult challenge keeping the

country united. Christian, thank you very much. Apologies for the

problems with the sound in hearing Christian there.

The former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, who was released

without charge nine years ago, has now been remanded in custody charged

with Syria-related terror offences. 45-year-old Begg, who's from

Birmingham, denies the allegations. He is accused of providing terrorist

training and funding terrorism overseas.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has opened a special party conference to

approve plans to reform historic links between the party and trade

unions. Party members will vote on ending the automatic affiliation of

trade union members and introducing one member, one vote in leadership

elections. Our political correspondent Iain Watson is at the

conference in east London. Well, Martine, in the next 20

minutes delegates here are going to be voting on what Ed Miliband calls

historic reforms. The outcome is not really in doubt, so that means over

the next five years individual trade unionists will have to give explicit

consent if they want to hand over money to the Labour Party. Some of

them, inevitably, won't do that, it will cost the party some cash, but

Ed Miliband believes it is a price worth paying.

Ed Miliband since he wants to mend not end Labour links with the trade

unions. Even before he arrived at the trade conference, he had the

necessary votes in the bag. The unions had delivered him the

leadership, but now his successor will be elected not just by

rank-and-file trade unionists but anyone who registers their support

for the party. By voting for these reforms, though, you are not just

voting to open our doors and reach new people. You are voting for the

biggest transfer of power to our members and supporters in the

history of the Labour Party. Ed Miliband says this is an historic

day for Labour, a new type of politics, but his critics inside as

well as outside the party argued that his reforms are not any thing

like as radical as he would have you believe. The Conservatives point out

that the unions will still control 50% of vote Labour conferences and

that the party will still depend and union donations for a significant

part of its funding, and the big union leaders say they will not

contemplate any further changes. This is the end of the road, and if

any body start of that argument again, I think the party as we know

it, its current structure will dissolve. But Ed Miliband insists

that today's changes are significant. Well, the unions will

go along with these changes, but some going along very grumpily. The

leader of Unison has accused Ed Miliband of watching the party's

dirty linen in public. Nonetheless, the party leader will be relieved

that his big reforms won't be rejected.

The New York City coroner says the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour

Hoffman died from a combination of heroin, cocaine and other drugs. Mr

Hoffman was found in his apartment last month. The coroner ruled his

death was accidental. Tests found heroin in samples from at least 50

packets at his Manhattan home. Councils in England are warning that

the elderly and disabled could lose vital bus services because of cuts

in Government funding. The Local Government Association says support

for the free off-peak bus service entitlement has been reduced by over

a third since 2010. But the Department for Transport says it

provides extra funding to bus operators to help meet the cost.

You can see more on all of today's stories on the BBC News Channel.

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