09/03/2014 BBC Weekend News

Malaysia Airlines flight continues. Prayers for the missing as it's

revealed the plane may have tried to turn back as it crossed the South

China Sea. As rallies take place across

Ukraine, Foreign Secretary William Hague calls Russia's occupation of

Crimea a big miscalculation. Nick Clegg makes the case for

staying in Europe at the Liberal Democrat spring conference.

And fixing a hole - the Government pledges more money to improve roads

after the recent rain and floods. Good afternoon. The families of the

239 people on board a Malaysia Airlines flight which disappeared

yesterday have been told to expect the worst. A day and a half after

the plane disappeared off radar over the South China Sea, more than 20

aircraft and 40 ships are still searching for wreckage.

Investigators are also looking at the details of two passengers who

appear to have been travelling on stolen passports. I should warn you

the following report contains flash photography. It comes from John

Sudworth in Beijing, where anxious relatives are waiting for any news.

There is little hope left. It's now more than 40 hours since Flight

MH370 disappeared. This woman's sister-in-law was on board. We're

praying for America, she tells me. 40 ships and 20 planes from seven

different countries are involved in the search. The only possible clue

so far is this oil slick lying far out in the South China Sea. This

morning, the Malaysia and government confirmed that two of the passengers

appear to have used stolen passports. I am in touch with the

international intelligence agencies. At the same time, our own

intelligence has been activated and, of course, the counterterrorism

unit. The concern is focused on the Malaysia airlines passenger list

which shows two men as being on board, an Austrian and an Italian.

In fact, neither man was on the plane. And, it's been discovered,

both have their passports stolen in Thailand. China is treating the

search as a national emergency and sending two warships to help. 154 of

the passengers were Chinese citizens. There is a growing sense

of frustration from the families gathered at this hotel about the

lack of information. But the truth is, there appears to be very little

to give them. It also emerged today that officials believe to be bowing

777 may have turned back before it disappeared from radar screens but

given the fact that no distress signal was sent, that only deepens

the mystery. While they wait for answers, family members have been

told by the airline to prepare for the worst.

Well, we can speak to our correspondent Jonathan Head in Kuala

Lumpur, where the authorities have been speaking in the last hour.

Jonathan, what have they been saying?

Well, this is the room where they've been holding the press conference.

There have been three today. There were no major updates. There were no

confirmed signs of any wreckage of this plane despite two days of

searching with a massive flotilla of ships. Some reports of some day bree

have come through but they say none of these is connected to the plane.

They can't even confirm that that oil slick is from an aircraft

either. They are as baffled and arrest of information as anybody

else and all they can say is they're exploring all angles, all

possibilities. The spread of the search is quite extraordinary.

They're not just searching in the South China Sea but telling us the

search has spread to the other side of the Malaysia and Peninsula. That

suggests that the plane may have gone very badly off course. But

there is so little information, they are still in the woods as to what

could have gone wrong with this aircraft.

The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has said he believed Russia's

occupation of Crimea will prove to be a big miscalculation and warned

again there will be further significant consequences if

President Putin refuses to enter talks with Ukraine. Rallies are

taking place across the country there. We can speak to Ben Brown,

who's in the Crimean city of Sevastapol - where a pro-Ukrainian

rally is being held. Then, it has got violent at times.

Yes, we were at this pro-Ukrainian rally where they were singing songs

and waving the Ukrainian flag, then some young Russian demonstrators

turned up and it got quite ugly. Some of the Russians chased some of

the Ukrainians into a car park and started beating them up. One man in

a car - they smashed his windscreen. Another man was set upon

in some bushes and beaten and hit and whipped with a Cossack's whip.

There is a growing air of menace and a sense that the Russians are

tightening a military grip on Crimea. We can see these aerial

pictures of the Russians digging in their positions in a town on the

Crimean border, where unarmed monitors try to get across to see

what's going on here in Crimea and have been turned back for three days

in a row. A real sense of continuing tension.

Thank you. A senior High Court judge has denied

ever supporting or condoning paedophiles after being linked to

the 1970s campaign group the Paedophile Information Exchange by a

newspaper. The Mail on Sunday claims Lord Justice Fulford offered legal

advice and support to PIE. Our legal affairs correspondent Clive Coleman

is here. Clive, tell us who Lord Justice Fulford is and what is being

claimed in the newspapers. He's a very senior judge and was made a

High Court judge in 2002. He presided over a very high profile

criminal cases, including the trial of the men convicted of the plot to

bomb London on the 21st of July 2005. He became a Court of Appeal

judge last year. The claims include that he was a founder member of a

campaign to defend the Paedophile Information Exchange when it was

campaigning to reduce the age of consent. He claims -- it claims he

planned demonstrations outside a court where PIE members were on

trial and had meetings to discuss tactics with its chairman. Also that

he wrote an article saying that PIE was way for paedophiles to make

friends and offer each other support. He says he has no memory of

being involved in the foundation or detailed work of his campaign. He

says the only work he would have done was directed against a criminal

charge of outraging public morals. He said it was a vague charge and at

the time he was concerned it was being used against individuals and

groups in inappropriate ways. He says he was never a supporter of

PIE's objectives, the abuse of children, which he considers wholly

wrong. Thank you. In the last hour, the Deputy Prime

Minister, Nick Clegg, has been laying out the argument for Britain

staying in Europe in his speech at the party's Spring Conference in

York. Let's speak to Vicki Young, who's in York for us this lunchtime.

Vicki, what's he been saying? Well, Nick Clegg believes that the

political debate has become very negative, particularly around the EU

and emigration. So this is his appeal to those who want a

tolerant, liberal, open society. In the run-up to the euro elections in

May, he is pitching himself and the Lib Dems up against UKIP and their

leader Nigel Farage. Though he didn't name him, it was very clear

who he was talking about. And ungenerous, backwards looking

politics has emerged in Britain. The politics of blame has found an

acceptable face. It wears a big smile, looks like someone you could

have a pint with down the pub. So I'm drawing a line in the sand. I'm

going to defend the tolerant and modern Britain we love and I'm going

to start by showing people what is at stake in the upcoming European

elections. There was also an appeal to activists here, really saying, "

be proud of your achievements, of the things the Lib Dems have done a

coalition". He knows many of them are unhappy about being in that

coalition with the Conservatives but he believes that's the only way they

have a chance of getting back into power after the next general

election. The Co-operative Group is set to

give pay rises and bonuses to its senior staff, despite the near

collapse of its banking division. The group is recommending its new

chief executive should get a package worth ?3.6 million. The Co-op claims

these rises reflect the greater experience of its new top team.

However, the group chief executive recently said that 2013 had been

"perhaps the worst year" in the Co-op's 150-year history. Councils

in England are to get a share of an extra ?140 million of Government

money to help repair roads damaged by this winter's rain and floods.

Local authorities have welcomed the money but say it won't cover the

full cost of repairs. They were soaked by relentless rain

and battered by storms. Many local roads are now ravaged by potholes.

The crumbling services are giving drivers and increasingly dangerous

and bumpy ride. Councils say they've been trying to patch up the damaged

network but complain of a serious long-term issue. Authorities say

they've been starved of road maintenance funding for many years.

Today the government has accepted the extent of the problem. Ministers

have set aside an additional ?36 million for the council is most

affected by the severe weather. On top of this, ?103 million extra will

be made available to all councils across England. A loss of areas have

had very severe damage and we've made a lot of money available to

those areas. Other authorities have been saying they need more money for

road repairs so, as it comes to the end of the year, we looked at the

department's underspend and are allocating that local authorities to

get on and do the job this summer. But the Local Government Association

said councils were already facing a road maintenance shortfall of over

?10 billion. They've welcomed the new money but say con system and

funding over a number of years will be needed if the road network is to

recover. The next news on BBC One is at

6:05pm. Have a good afternoon. Good afternoon. Whilst we have got

some warm sunshine, 18 degrees for some, others are not so fortunate.

Whilst the next couple of hours will not bring a huge change, we will

continue to see the