27/08/2012 BBC News at One

Labour has joined Sir Richard Branson in urging the Government to

delay the signing of a new contract to run the West Coast Mainline.

They say MPs should be given time to scrutinise the decision toward

the franchise to a new operator. Two boys die, a girl is critical in

hospital and the search resumes for a man after their canoe capsizes.

Opposition forces claim to have shot down a Syrian Army helicopter.

And police in Essex warn residents that a lion may be on the loose

Good afternoon. The Government is facing calls to

delay the signing of a new contract to run the West Coast Mainline

until Parliament's had time to scrutinise the deal. Labour's

joined Sir Richard Branson to demand that MPs be given a chance

to consider the decision to take the franchise from Virgin Trains

and award it to First Group who has again stated that the bid is

deliverable and the best deal for taxpayers. Our Political

Correspondent, Ross Hawkins, has more.

Often seen celebrating conspicuous success, time is running out for

Richard Branson to overturn a defeat. The Government is set to

sign a contract tomorrow that will see Virgin Trains replaced by First

Group on the West Coast Mainline. Virgin is lobbying hard for a delay

and has offered to run the franchise for free while ministers

have a rethink. We are not letting this drop because we have spent 15

years creating what we believe to be the best train network in the UK.

We don't want to see that ruined. So we will fight very hard to try

to defend our rights to continue to operate.

But it's First Group that's set to run the operations now. Its critics

fear it won't be able to afford the �5.5 billion it offered in its

successful bid. In a statement this morning though, First Group's Chief

This isn't just a row between two companies fighting for their own

commercial interests. More than 130,000 people have signed an

online petition urging the Government to think again and

Labour says the process should be put on pause so politicians can

have another look. This is a deal that's going to last,

not for the next Parliament, but for the next three Members of

Parliament. It seems that if the Secretary of State signs it in the

recess, having announced it in the recess, MPs and they represent many

whens affected by this, won't have a Hans to debate it. That's wrong.

A spokesman for the Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, said

the bidding had been run faurly. There is no sign yet of her giving

way, but Richard Branson, still lobbying hard to stay in the race,

knows there are just hours to go before the fate on Virgin on the

West Coast line could be decided for good.

Two boys, aged five and two, have died in hospital after a canoe

capsized on a sea loch in the north-west Highlands. Six people

were on the boat when it overturned in Loch Gairloch on Sunday

afternoon. A man in his 30s is missing. Let's go to our

correspondent James Cook who is there at the scene for us. Give us

the latest. Well, what's happening at the

moment is that a search is still continuing for the missing man,

although we've been told that that is a recovery operation, that is to

say he is missing, presumed dead. The search was called off last

night with no sign of his body at all and so they are now just trying

to find it and bring it ashore basically. What we know about what

happened out here yesterday afternoon is, we are now told that

it was a pretty lovely afternoon really. It was calm, sunny, with

people sunbathing on the beach. These two families who were

involved in the accident were staying at a caravan park a short

distance up the beach here when they got into trouble in an open-

decked Canadian canoe which capsized out there perhaps several

hundred metres offshore. Exactly why that happened is not clear. We

are told that the children involved were wearing life jackets but the

adults were not. What we know is that basically, one family survived

this accident, a man in his 30s, an eight-year-old girl and five-year-

old girl who's seriously ill in hospital, while the father from the

other family and the two boys, believed to be aged five and two,

were the ones who died. Thank you very much.

Now, opposition forces in Syria say they've shot down a helicopter

during an attack on rebel fighters in a suburb of the capital Damascus.

State television's confirmed that a helicopter crashed naer a mosque

but didn't say whether it was actually brought down -- near a

mosque. Barbara Plett reports from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon.

A dramatic development in the battle for the state of Damascus. A

helicopter crashed. Rebels claim to have shot the

helicopter down. This unverified footage peers to show the

smouldering car bus. There is no sign of the pilot. -- car kus.

Fighting has raged in the capital for over a week with the Army

trying to drive out rebels who've regrouped in the outlying suburbs.

These pictures are said to show a fire ignited by random shelling.

The district worst hit was the one which ground troops entered on

Sunday after a siege. 300 people are believed to have been killed.

This unverified video of a mass grave is just one of many said to

be of victims. In another part of Syria, the town

of Maria, opposition fighters take a break from the war, but they're

angry about being left alone to face a far superior Army. The rebel

commander says the world needs to wake up.

I have seen horrible things. I'm not talking to the people inside

Syria, I'm addressing the world. Can you not see the shelling, the

destruction, the children that are being vaugtered -- slaughtered? Is

this not enough proof for the world. The world should proside us with

safe havens. At least for refer gees who gather on the border of

Turkey. -- provide us with safe havens.

Afghan officials have accused the Taliban of killing 17 people,

including two women in southern Afghanistan. One local Governor

said they gathered to listen to music and watch the women dance

when the party was attacked. Another official disputed that.

Let's go to Quentin Somerville in Kabul. Tell us more?

Matthew, this was an astonishingly brutal attack, 17 individuals

including two women, all of them civilians, either had their throats

slit or they were beheaded. It may have been a dispute over a party

taking place, singing and dancing, which these Taliban commanders

objected to, or local officials say the Taliban commanders were

fighting over the affections of two women. The reason it's taken so

long for this information to come out and the reason why it's been so

difficult to get to the bottom of this attack is because this is

Taliban controlled territory, a local police chief says he cannot

get near the area and has not even seen the bodies. There have been

two other attacks in Afghanistan today, serious attacks. Tell us

about those? It's a reminder of the ferocity of this war, the

continuing ferocity. Afghan soldiers were killed when a massive

attack by the Taliban, over 200 attacked the checkpoint and killed

them. The Taliban say they then took over the checkpoint. The

Government say it's back in their hands. There are no international

sources available to support that attack.

An Afghan soldier turn his gun on those who we believe are Americans.

Thank you very much. Shares in the Korean electronics

company Samsung have fallen after the company lost a legal dispute

with its American rival Apple. The price dropped 7.5% on the Seoul

Stock Exchange. It's been ordered to pay $1 billion in compensation

and noif withdraw some products from the US market.

The authoritys in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have

declared a state of emergency as they brace themselves for the

arrival of tropical storm Isaac. Currently in Mexico, the storm is

expected the strengthen to a hurricane by the time it reaches

land either tomorrow or by Wednesday. It's already brought

strong winds and heavy rains to Florida, as Steve Kingston now

reports. An unwanted guest touching down in

Florida. Isaac hit as a tropical storm, not quite at hurricane

strength but still packing winds of 65mph.

Before long, the storm surge brought localised flooding. Earl

euro, many heeded the official warnings, boarding up and getting

out -- earlier. The Republican Party Convention in Tampa is not

directly in the storm's path but it's close enough for organisers to

have put it off until tomorrow. The building with the flags is

where Mitt Romney will be formally nominated for the presidency. As

the weather turns, you can see why Republicans have delayed things.

Look how close it all is to the downtown waterfronts in one of

America's most flood-prone cities. The forecasts say Isaac will pick

up wind speed in Mexico before making hand fall as a hurricane

midweek. Emergencys have been declared in four gulf states.

Communities prepares for the worst include New Orleans which lived

through the nightmare of Katrina seven years ago this week.

Make sure you have got a game plan, make sure you follow the advice

from your local leaders, make sure you are paying attention to the

changing weather conditions. The storms can change, we have seen the

change in the last few days. With hundreds of flights already

cancelled, schools closed and homes scarred, this is now a waiting game

to see where Isaac will strike next and with what force. Golf now and

the European Ryder Cup Captain has announced his team for this year's

competition, the Englishman Ian Poulter and the Belgian Nicholas

Colsaerts were picked. Police in Essex are investigating

reports that aly-on has been spotted in the field near Clacton-

on-Sea. The alert was raised by a member of the public who spotted an

animal resembling a lion in a field last night. Let's two to our

reporter Lisa Hampele. What more are police saying about this?

Police got a very unusual call last night. They are taking it seriously.

They've cordoned off the area behind me and earlier, he want

kolers joined the search. -- helicopters. Last night, armed

police were called in after people staying in a caravan on farmland

had seen what they thought was a lion. We believe we saw a large cat,

looking at a tree, thought it was going to go up the tree because we

were talking to the police at the time. It didn't go up the tree, it

turned, sat, I believe it could be hearing us from the other side of

the field and it just sat there looking at us. It was very

impressive, a nice sight to see. A circus that was recently nearby

did not have any lions and Colchester Zoo doesn't have any

missing. Experts there have seen a photo but say it's hard to tell if

it's the real thing. It's a picture of a blurry sandy

coloured animal at a distance. I wasn't prepared to say really one

way or the other as to what it could be.

Essex Police initially advised people to stay indoors. That's now

been relaxed but some are worried. I think it's quite concerning. If

it's true and there's a large cat out there, then it's quite a

worrying thing, but we do have a lot of fields around us here so

there's men toif places for the animal to hide. -- plenty of places

for the animal to hide. Many are worried the King of the jungle is

hiding here, but the police can't afford not to take the sightings

soariously. It's been 18 hours now since the