06/05/2014 BBC London News

report from South Africa, on the impact of the long-running Oscar

Pistorius murder trial. Now Good evening. One of Britain's most

notorious armed robbers remains on the run, despite apparently being

spotted in Twickenham last night. Michael Wheatley, nicknamed Skull

Cracker, escaped while on day release from an open prison in Kent.

He's serving 13 life sentences for a string of robberies. Here's Alex

Bushill. Michael Wheatley admitted 13 charges of robbery chewing which

he pistol whipped a manager and 73`year`old woman. Threatened to

kill Claire Townsend as he held up a bank in London. He put his hand

round my neck, a gun to my temple and started screaming and shouting,

not me but at the cashier 's. Michael Wheatley was held at this

open prison on the Isle of Sheppey. On Saturday morning, he left the

prison on temporary licence. At 9:20pm, he boarded a train for city

born. Last night he was apparently spotted in Twickenham. ``

Sittingbourne. 120 people absconded from open prisons last year.

Questions must be asked about this incident. He is clearly in open

prison after a decision by the independent parole board. I want to

check that proper assessments are carried out. People who are a threat

to the public must be kept behind bars where it is possible to do so.

At some point, people get towards the end of their sentence and the

design of the open prisoners for people who have served a long

sentence in a closed environment, if you like, another wild. To bring

them into our world here, they need some transition and they need some

help to do that. You need to focus on cutting reoffending rates and

that seems to be one of the best ways of doing it. The police tonight

repeated their warning. While he remains at large, he should not be

approached. Researchers at King's College Hospital believe eczema

sufferers may have less chance of developing skin cancer. Scientists

found the way the body's immune system reacts to eczema could also

stop tumours forming by getting rid of potentially cancerous cells. Skin

cancer is one of the world's most common cancers. Millions of

Londoners had braced themselves for a potential headache in getting

around the capital today. The first rush hours during the three`day

strike were supposed to have taken place this morning and tonight. The

action was called off at the 11th hour. But how long will the peace

last? Our transport correspondent, Tom Edwards, has been looking at the

issue. At last, some respite for commuters but it is unlikely this is

the end to the dispute. It causes unnecessary chaos, doesn't it?

London is busy enough so keep the trains working. We are making it

easier for customers to plan... An agreement yesterday could start some

of the biggest changes in the history of the tube. It seems all

ticket offices will close. There will be 950 job losses. No

redeployed staff will have their pay cut. Nobody believes any money. No

compulsory redundancies. Anybody who wants a job can still have a job.

The agreement says there will be a station by station review. Bosses

say it will not include ticket offices. The RMT union says it will

still make a case to save them. Today, the man mentioned again

another contentious area, driver less trains. We will close the

ticket offices, let's be clear about that. At mainline stations, really

big stations, there will of course be a role for visitor information

centres or whatever but the traditional ticket office is going

to be a thing of the past. The people of London will be worried

about the Mayor of London inflaming the situation. He should be allowing

us to have proper discussions without pre`determining the outcome.

The RMT union is also in the middle of a leadership contest. London

Underground managed to run half of all of its services. It claimed it

could have vanish more this week. There is concern that passengers

have missed out on having a say. I like to see the man talking to trade

unions and I like to see London Underground consulting with

commuters and experts. If you want an idea of what the two could look

like in the future, look at Paris. Here there are ticket offices but

only at the main stations. It is not an issue to not have a dedicated

agent to sell tickets. It would be better to have people selling

tickets. There is less and less human contacts. More talks are

planned for three weeks' time. This dispute still has the potential for

more strikes in the future. The luxury hotel chain Shangri`La has

opened its first hotel in Britain, here in London. It's on the 34th

floor of the Shard, and it aims to attract guests particularly from

Asia. All rooms have ceiling`to`floor glass windows, with

one suite costing ?14,000 a night. Certainly no problems seeing the

weather from up there. We have fairly unsubtle conditions.

It has been a fine day that it will turn increasingly settled as we go

through the week. There may be a few showers in a few places. They are

mainly light to moderate as we go through the night, just hereunder.

There will also be some dry and clear whether to be had. The breeze

is fairly strong so it is blowing the showers through fairly quickly.

Temperatures getting to around 11 degrees. As we go through the

morning, tomorrow could have some sunny weather. Much more chance of

encountering one or two of the showers. Do not stick around to long

because there will be a breeze behind them from the south`west

which will help to keep them which is up to 17 Celsius. On the

outlook, a cloudy day on Thursday and there will be some outbreaks of

rain from time to time. Some showers on Friday as well. I rather wet

start the weekend and it will be blustery during the week. As you may

have just heard, our weather is taking a turn for the worse. Some

lovely weather on the Spanish Costas. We leave that behind and

find low-pressure close by the British Isles. Behind that, there

are bands of wet weather. Some heavy downpours. In Northern Ireland, this

goes on through parts of England and Scotland. To the south, a few heavy

showers moving through and the breeze freshening. Many of us will

see some rain between now and the end of the night but it will not be

cold. On the many for tomorrow will be a bit of sun here and there but

nowhere near as much.