31/08/2011 BBC Channel Islands News

Good evening and welcome to BBC Channel Islands. Our top story

tonight: A hero's welcome, a teenager attacked by a polar bear

relives his trauma. I remember beat their poking through the tent.

Everyone was screaming. Plus a new crackdown on the growing

problem of illegal fly-tipping. Beat 17-year-old pushing himself to

As you may have seen in the national news, a teenager who

survived an attack by a polar bear has received a hero's welcome in

Jersey. In his first television news interview, Patrick Flinders

spoke to Amy Harris about his escape during the expedition in

Norway. The 16 a mad -- 16-year-old fought the bear off, but one of his

friends died in the attack. Patrick Flinders, training hard for

an Arctic adventure. But his dream trip soon it turned into a

nightmare when a Polar Bar attacked the team as they slept in their

tents. It left one teenager dead and four others, including Patrick,

seriously injured. Back in Jersey, Patrick told me how he fought for

his life. I remember the bed ripping through the tent, everyone

screaming, looking at my sleeping bag, seeing everyone really scared.

He grabbed my arm, bit it, grab my head. I punched it to get it off me.

Patrick was left with the bare's teeth in his skull and is

continuing to receive treatment for his injuries. He says been back at

home is helping him get over the ordeal. I have had my friends,

family, they are with me all the time, helping me. What have people

said locally, your friends and family? That you are a hero for

punching a polar bear. That I am very brave. They said I am a hero

and glad that I am back. Although Patrick still carries the scars and

the attack, he is glad to be alive, and just wants to move on.

Sometimes at night, I just remember what happened. I see the stuff in

my mind. I tried to move forward, I just want to move on. I want to

move on to the future. Patrick Flinders speaking to Amy

Harris. Efforts to stop people illegally

dumping rubbish in Jersey are being stepped up. It is in response to an

increase in fly-tipping, which is not only costly to clear-up, but is

causing concern for the environment. Unwanted bicycles, old television

sets, even garden furniture. This is just a snapshot of Jersey's fly-

tipping problem. A problem that is frustrating residents like Brian.

This TV has been dumped, fridge and freezers. The children smashed the

TV up the other night. It makes the place look like a tip. It is our

money paying to clean the place up. Recycling spots like this one in

Saint-Martin are a hot spot for fly-tipping. Here, technical

services have installed cameras to help catch the cameras -- culprits.

People can bring things to the recycling centre for free, but

instead clearing up the fly-tipping is costing us about �7,000 a year.

Things are particularly bad in the Island's country parishes, so bad

that it is concerning the National Trust for Jersey. The worst

incident we had is a kitchen being thrown over a cliff top. It is a

major problem for us because it is in a difficult place to get and it

has a big impact on the environment. It is an eyesore as well. With

plans to charge companies to charge -- dump garden waste, some fear

fly-tipping will get worst. But for now, be warned because you could be

caught on camera. After a couple of false starts, he

has done it! A retired breast- cancer surgeon from Guernsey has

set a new world record to become the oldest person ever to swim the

English Channel. At 70 years old, Roger Alsop swum at 20 not call

miles in under 18 hours. Breaking that record was not the main aim of

the exercise. One man against the sea, and now he

is a world record holder. Roger Alsop's tremendous feat of becoming

the oldest person to swim the English Channel was partly down to

his gritty mental and physical strength to battle on one he wanted

to give up. I am elated to have done it, but it was a bit rough.

Everything has been shaken up a lot, my muscles are hurting. I was

absolutely delighted for him, and for Guernsey. We all know that

swimming the English Channel is one of the greatest feats, one of the

great extreme challenges, and Roger has now done that twice. But his

ultimate aim was to raise money to help others battled cancer when

they wanted to give up. The main reason was to raise money for new

equipment. We have been working on that for almost five years. With

these the new machines, they will be able to continue their research.

It is expensive, unfortunately. want to prevent the disease, not

cure the disease, so if we can have some sort of traffic-light signal

at the front, that is what the technology is about. There was a

representative from the Guinness Book of World Records to verify the

achievement and after seven years of an American holding the title,

the English Channel record has now been reclaimed by an Englishman who

is very much a part of Guernsey. Houses in the Channel Islands will

soon be monitored for the effects of radon. The gas is emitted from

granite and could be harmful if not ventilated properly. The Health

Protection Agency is carrying out a three-month survey from October.

Detectors will be placed in a number of houses thought to be in

high risk areas. We are in the process of selecting properties

across the Channel Island that will take part in the survey. In

addition to the houses that are selected, if members of the public

are concerned that they have not been selected, but would like to

join the programme, they can contact us, but we will let people

know probably when the time comes so that they can buy into the

programme if they wish. You are watching BBC Channel

Islands. Later in Spotlight, an artist and a pear tree. The fight

to save one of Britain's rarest trees.

La Cotte in St Brelade has long been known for its Neanderthal

origins. It is now thought to be the most exceptional long-term

record of early man's life in north-west Europe. Recent findings

are amazing academics and are soon to be represented in a BBC Two

programme called 'Digging for Britain'. Our reporter has been to

find out more. This is where it all began. Human's

ancestors lived at La Cotte caves for more than a quarter of a

million years. There has been over 100 years of findings. The most

recent ones are that there are a lot more materials he

archaeologically than was ever predicted before. It is in the

process of being eroded. Tools used to hunt have been unearthed by

archaeologists and show have technically advanced been the on

the false work more than 30,000 years ago, sheltering in Jersey's

cave system. It is a significant finding. It brings the Island to

the forefront of a very important archaeological academic study. The

whole of Europe would have been reflected in the deposits here. To

some extent, the evolution of our own species. Here at the museum,

some odder facts have gone on display. Beside me of the skull and

tooth from a ruck not -- a rhinoceros, just one of the animals

be meander poll's of thought to have hunted. Are to act like these

are bringing the history of our ancestors closer to hour lives.

In the future, researchers hope to escape more to uncover the hidden

history that lies beneath the seabed.

You never know what sort of history is lurking under your nose! Keep an

eye out for that in the autumn. A few showers around this evening,

but they will ease as the night goes on. At the moment, we have

high pressure to the north which has been keeping the weather quiet

over recent days, but it does start to decline over the next couple of

days. Very slowly, it will turn more unsettled into the weekend and

the start of next week. For the time being, still a couple of

showers around, but they will ease away so a generally dry night,

cloudy, 14 degrees. Tomorrow, weak start off with cloud, but it should

break up nicely as the day goes on, increasing amounts of sunshine into

the afternoon. A pleasantly warm day with temperatures up to 22 or

23 degrees. Just a light easterly breeze. Here is the forecast for

the coastal waters. Winds will be from the east. There is a risk of a

few showers, but they will be fairly few and far between. The

visibility tomorrow should be good. Not very much in the way of surf

around, just around one, maybe two ft at best, but for most, it will

be fairly flat conditions. Here is the outlook. Friday, perhaps the

best day of the week with plenty of sunshine. The temperatures will get

up to 24 degrees. It will feel very warm in the sunshine with just a

light breeze. Still remaining generally find into the start of

the weekend, although we do lose that very warm air, so turning

cooler for Saturday. We will see a bit more in the way of cloud,

although still some bright or sunny spells. Sunday will be a cooler and

more unsettled with a risk of That is the news and weather from