16/10/2012 BBC News at One

The British computer hacker, Gary McKinnon, has won his ten year

fight against extradition to the ufpt states. The 46-year-old

accused of the biggest military computer hack of all-time won't be

extradited after the Home Secretary blocked it on human rights grounds.

I have concluded that Mr McKinnon's extradition would give rise to such

a high risk of him ending his life that a decision to extradite would

be incompatible with his human rights. The Attorney General seeks

new inquests for victims of the Hillsborough disaster and asks the

High Court to overturn the original verdicts.

Denying war crimes - Radovan Karadzic begins his defence saying

he should have been rewarded for the good he done.

Inflation falls to its lowest level for nearly three years, but it's

not expected to last as energy price rises take hold. And the

concrete reminders of the Cold War which are being protected for

future generations. Later on BBC London:

A police officer is accused of racially abusing a man in East

London. He says he didn't mean to cause distress. Breast cancer is

set to quadruple according to Good afternoon.

Welcome to the BBC News at One. The Home Secretary says she'll

block the extradition to the United States of the computer hacker, Gary

McKinnon. The 46-year-old, who has Asperger's Syndrome, admits

accessing the United States Government computers a decade ago

in what one American prosecutor called the biggest computer

military hack of all-time. He claims he was looking for evidence

of UFOs. The case has dragged on for years over questions about his

mental health and the fairness of his health. Theresa May made this

statement in the House of Commons. After careful consideration of all

of the relevant material, I have concluded that Mr McKinnon's

extradition would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life

that a decision to extradite would be incompatible with his human

rights. I have therefore withdrawn the extradition order against Mr

McKinnon. It will now be for the Director of

Public Prosecutions to decide whether Mr McKinnon has a case to

answer in the UK courts. Our legal affairs correspondent,

Clive Coleman is with me. It's been a very long legal fight, ten years.

What the Home Secretary's decision a surprise? It's unprecedented

really. This is the first time a Home Secretary has barred the

extradition to the United States since we've had this controversial

2003 extradition Act. The first time that's happened since the Act

has been in operation. She can do it on human rights grounds, that's

obviously the basis on which she's done it, so it's a momentous event.

It's not the end of everything as far as Gary McKinnon is concerned

with legal proceedings. It's the end of extradition, but now the

Director of Public Prosecutions will have to look at the evidence

against Gary McKinnon and make a decision as to whether he's charged

with any criminal offence in the UK. Clearly, the medical evidence which

Theresa May found compelling which related to the fact what he has

Asperger's and that he's been rated as a very high and likely risk of

attempt suicide if he was to be exdieted, that will have a bearing

on whether he's fit to plead in the UK. It will have wider implications

on another level, won't it? Today's announcement will have because what

Theresa May has announced today is that there's going to be an

introduction of a forum test. At the heart of so many of his high

profile extradition cases has been this question, I'm a UK citizen,

accused of a crime committed in the UK, why can't I be tried by a UK

court? She's introduced now, or is going to introduce a test whereby a

British court with make a judgment as to whether it's in the interests

of justice for someone accused by a foreign state but of a crime

committed in the UK should be tried here or should be extradited.

Thank you very much. The Attorney General, Dominic

Grieve, has announced he'll apply for the original himself bra

inquest verdicts to be quashed. It fol follows a damning report which

found police altered evidence about what happened during and after the

disaster. The families of the 96 victims have always shadgeed --

challenged the original verdicts of accidental death. Ed Thomas reports.

The call has been for truth and justice. But there's also been

another call - for the original 96 inquests to be overturned. Those

inquests said the Liverpool fans died here because of an accident,

something their families said was an insult.

Question number one... Today, those families will listen to the

Attorney General ordering new inquests. I've decided to take the

exceptional step and announce that on the basis of what I've already

seen, I'm persuaded there is an application to the court that fresh

inquests must be made. The original inquests said all fans died or were

beyond sayling by 3.15pm. -- say -- beyond saving by 3.15. I'll smilt

it to the Attorney General. Anne Williams has campaigned against the

decision for two decades. Her son Kevin died at hills brafplt a

police officer told her he cried at the word mum at nearly 4pm --

Hillsborough. They weren't all dead at 3.15. I

was hoping they would come up with others, but 41. Scandalous.

coroner at the time refused to hear evidence after 3.15pm. Today, he

didn't want to comment, but has told the BBC in the past that he

was fair and honest. I do feel aggrieved that I'm

treated as somebody who was misbehaving, basically. I didn't

try to subvert the evidence. That 3.15 cut-off is important, meaning

the coroner's court never heard from the paramedics, the police

officers at Hillsborough or the stories about what more that could

have been done to save the 96 lives. Families of the 96 now know 41

lives could have been saved. They know the bigst ever investigation

into alleged police corruption is under way. There is a sense they'll

soon be getting the answers they've long campaigned for.

Let's get more from our correspondent Judith Moritz. The

families of those who've died campaign ford a long time for this

and it all now seems to be happening very fast? Yes, it's 23

years since the Hillsborough disaster happen and you could argue

that the families have seen more progress in the last month since

the publication of the Hillsborough independent report than they have

at any other time during that 23 years. There's now the prospect of

criminal prosecutions, of new inquests and of the biggest ever

investigation into British policing. I think the families would say they

feel that after many years of fighting the establishment, that

the establishment, both legal and Parliamentary, is now on their side.

To be fair, this is a legal journey which still has many months, if not

years to run. It's all base on the what the independent report said

last month and there are still lawyers going through that very

weighty document to see how they'll proceed. But the families feel

their views are being given equal weight now and the Attorney General

this morning said that he would be listening to them before proceeding

and this afternoon, here at Westminster, family campaigners

will be giving evidence to the Home Affairs committee. So they say,

Sophie, that that they've been fighting for truth and justice.

They had the truth last month with the report, now they say they feel

that they are on the way to achieving justice as well.

Thank you very much. The former Bosnian Serb leader,

Radovan Karadzic, has begun his defence against charges of war

crimes, telling the court he should have been rewarded for all the good

things he'd done. He said he'd done everything he could to avoid war

and to reduce the human suffering. He's pleaded not guilty to ten

charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the

war in Bosnia in the 1990s. From The Hague, Alan Little reports.

His case has changed hardly at all in 20 years. It was his duty, he

said, to rescue the Serb people from the threat of genocide they

faced when Yugoslavia collapsed. He had not chosen war, he was a mild

and tolerant man who had struggled for peace, he said.

TRANSLATION: Everybody who knows me knows that I'm not an awe

thoughcrat, that I'm not aggressive, that I'm not intolerant - authocrat.

On the contrary, I'm a mild man, tolerant man with great capacity to

understand others. Karadzic argued the Serbs had not

started the war, Muslims and Croats armed themselves and formed illegal

militias, anti-Serb extremists seized control of the police.

Karadzic's case is that the Serbs had no choice, there were people

who knew their history, they said, they were faced with genocide

before and were threatened with genocide again. All members of the

international community came, he said, with such huge prejudice

against the Serbs that there was nothing we could do to get the

truth across. Karadzic claimed many of the atrocity force which Serbs

were blamed had been staged for the international media. These pictures

of a Serb-run detention camp in 1992 were faked, he said, the

western media did more damage to the Serbs than NATO bombs.

The 1994 bombing in Sarajevo in which a single shell killed 68

people were also staged, he said. Some people died but most of the

dead were fake, he said. Some were brought from a morgue already dead,

others were plastic models from shop windows.

TRANSLATION: The shameless ork station -- orchestration, obviously

some people got killed by that explosion, but we also saw Android

mannequins being thrown on to truck, creating this show for the world.

At Srebrenica in 1995, more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were

murdered. Karadzic said he gave the order to enter the town but also

ordered the protection of civilians. In the public gallery, a survivor

shouted "Lies, lies". There was, Karadzic said, no indication that

anyone was killed at Srebrenica, he could not accuse the Serb army of

what he called rumour and propaganda.

Radovan Karadzic is accused of the worst atrocitys in Europe since the

Nazis. That these crimes were committed is now beyond dispute.

Many of his closest lieutenants have already been convicted and

sentenced to long jail terms. Karadzic now has the right to call

hundreds of witnesses in his defence. The trial is likely to

last many more months, even years. A consultant treating the Pakistani

schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth

Hospital, has described being impressed by her resilience and

strength. The 14-year-old was shot in the head on a school bus by

Taliban gunmen last week. She was flown to Britain yesterday for

treatment after being attacked as a punishment for campaigning for the

right to an education. I can tell you that Malala's had a

comfortable night. All her initial assessments have been undertaken by

the neurosurgical and other members of staff. We still have some

detailed astesments to undertake from specialist teams who may be

involved later on down the line -- assessments. We are very bleeds the

progress she's made so far. She's showing every sign of being just

every bit as strong as we've been led to believe that she is -- we

are very pleads. The rate of inflation has fall tonne its lowest

level in almost three years, now standing at 2.2%, less than half

the rate it was at this time last year. Gas and electricity price

rises that have been announced are expected to push it higher again.

Here is our Chief Economics Correspondent, Hugh Pym.

Inflation which measures increases in the cost-of-living was at 2.2%

in September, the lowest rate since November 2009, and a sharp drop

from the previous months' rate. One reason is that last year's big

increases in gas and electricity prices were not repeated in

September this year. It all adds up to an easing of the pressure on

consumers. The big trouble last year is that

they were having to fight against a decline in their real incomes. This

year, it's going to be the reverse. So that is going to help them to

consume and I think that's going to be one of the few bright spots in

the economic outlook. Pensioners like these ramblers in

Derbyshire were watching today's figure closely. The September

inflation rate is used as benchmark for the next state pension increase,

but they're guarantee admin mum of 2.5%, so they'll get an above

inflation rise. As I discovered, there are mixed views on how

they're affected by the cost-of- living. It's not affecting us too

much, but we do shop around and all that. Everything seems to be going

up-and-up and up. It might be at a slower rate, but it's still eating

into our reserves. The price of petrol's gone up

significantly and it doesn't seem to drop at all, it just keeps

creeping up-and-up and up. Every week, you seem to go to the purpose

and it's gone up 2 or 3p. Inflation might be heading in the right

direction for now, but there are many cost pressures which are not

made in the UK and are outside the control of British policy-makers.

With these, there are concerns there could be problems further

down the track. This outdoor clothing specialist,

based in Derbyshire, can see the trends which might effect next

year's shop prices. It uses synthetic materials where cost res

flect a global oil price. Most of the products are made in Asia where

wage costs are rising. Oil prices continue, and that does impact on

the cost of raw materials. Also, we are increase bing by as much as 20-

25% in wages. We'll negotiate hard but some of that will flow through

into the consumer. And the consumer will also see

higher gas and electricity bills flowing through over the next

couple of months and that could push inflation back up. Hugh is

with me now. It's not just pensioners affected by this is it,

Some of these have to be raised in line with that rate, for example,

incapacity benefit. On others, the Chancellor has discretion. So, they

are set to get 2.20%. There will be relief that it is a lot lower than

what had been predicted. People receiving those benefits might feel

hard done by, but the Chancellor will be paying out less. Of course,

the Chancellor has that discretion. He may not raise them in line with

the 2.20%. There is a lot of speculation that to curb the bills,

he will hold them flat. There has been political outcry, but he made

do that, to cut back on his bowling. Our main headline - the extradition

of the computer hacker Gary McKinnon to the United States has

been blocked by the Government. Coming up, Heather Watson talks

about whether she has got what it takes to become the world number 1

in tennis. I believe in myself, I would not be in the game if I

didn't. I think I have the capability, I have the mental

toughness, I have the game. Will look at the interest of a leasing

university in this new technique. We will also have the weather, with

Peter Cockroft. -- of a leading university. A man whose wife and

four of his children died in a house fire in Essex has been moved

to the hospital where his surviving daughter is being treated. Three-

year-old Maheen is still in a critical condition. Her father, Dr

Abdul Shakour, is suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation. He

wanted to be closer to his suffering child. Within the past

hour, police have given an update on this investigation. They do not

think a serial arsonist was to blame, and they do not think it was

a racially-motivated attack, but they still believe that someone in

his community knows how and why this fire was started. Essex police

say this is a major investigation. Today, officers continued the

detailed search for clues, looking for anything which might help to

establish how this devastating house fire started. Sabah Usmani

and four of her children died. Today, residents came to lay

tributes and to express their deep shock that a hot working, well-

liked family had been struck by this tragedy. -- hard-working.

is really sad, it is terrible. You do not think it is going to happen.

We do not normally get any trouble in this area, which is what is so

shocking I don't know, I cannot get over it. A Ford Focus car was also

on fire just across the street at the time of the house blaze. Police

say a possible link between the two is a key part of the investigation,

but officers are following several different lines of inquiry.

there is nothing to indicate that this is racially-motivated, but in

terms of other motivations, nothing has been ruled in or out.

father, Dr Abdul Shakour, has been transferred to Broomfield Hospital

in Chelmsford, where is one surviving daughter, the three-year-

old, is in a critical but stable condition. The head teacher of the

local primary school said pupils and staff were destroyed. --

distraught. The three were intelligent and sociable children,

with a good sense of humour, good at sports and much loved by

everyone. Local residents say this is normally a peaceful area of

Harlow. They say there are few instances of anti-social behaviour,

making what happened to this family so hard to explain. This afternoon,

police will continue their house- to-house inquiries, trying to find

out whether there are any underlying issues in this area.

They said community relations were generally very good, and they said

it was far too early to come to any firm conclusions about why this

fire started, or the motive, if, as seems likely, it was deliberate.

The Deputy Prime Minister says there may be a case for an

independent inquiry into abuse committed by Jimmy Savile at the

BBC and other organisations. Speaking in the Commons, Nick Clegg

said he was not wriggling out an inquiry. It comes after Ed Miliband

called for a single, independent inquiry.

A newspaper request for private letters written by Prince Charles

to seven government departments to be made public has been blocked by

the Attorney-General. We can get more on this from our political

correspondent, Norman Smith. Why has the government blocked the

publication of these letters? These have become known as the Black

Spider memos, which sounds a rather sinister, but it is a reference to

the Prince's rather scrawny handwriting in fountain pen. They

are letters to former Labour ministers, after King -- asking

about government policy on the environment and so on. The

Attorney-General says the Prince wrote them as part of his desire to

inform himself about government policy, because he is going to be

king one day. Secondly, if they were released, the fear is that it

might compromise the Prince's political neutrality. It is true

that ministers on occasion can veto the release of sensitive documents,

but it is not routine. I suspect critics will surmise that the

reason these have not been released might be something to do with

protecting the Prince from any embarrassment, shall we say, if

indeed these letters contain angry broadsides about political

correctness or suspect architecture. It was the closest the world has

come to nuclear war, and on the 50th anniversary of the start of

the Cuban missile crisis, the remains of two Cold War nuclear

missile sites, which housed American missiles, in

Northamptonshire, have been given listed status. Britain's favourite

buildings - all sizes, all shapes and every vintage. But all have one

thing in common - many of them are listed, protected for future

generations. That listed status normally applies to some of our

most beautiful historic buildings. But now, there is this, hardly the

most attractive structure in the world, but granted Grade II* listed

status, one of the highest categories - not, clearly, because

of its appearance, but because of its history.

NEWSREADER: Horizontal shelter slides back to reveal the Thor

missile. In the 1950s, American nuclear missiles were based here,

pointing towards the Soviet union, ready to fire and inflict

unimaginable carnage. If the Cold War had gone hot, the launch pads

in eastern England and their RAF crews would have been at the

epicentre of it all. We are standing where the missile had

would have been lying on its transport. Group Captain Peter

Rogers needs no persuading that this corner of RAF North Luffenham

deserves its new listed status. He is a veteran of the Thor missile

programme. As a young officer, he literally had his finger on the

button. They were hugely dangerous times. You tried not to think about

it. You knew perfectly well that if you got one of these missiles under

way, it was perhaps five or 10 minutes before the earth grow up.

You did not spend too much time thinking about what it was going to

hit at the other end. This man, Wayne Cocroft, makes it his

business to record these sites, which he regards as a forgotten

part of our national heritage. is one of our most important listed

buildings in the country. We believe it is an important part of

our national story, the Cold War. It is a story which perhaps not

many people know about. It may look like a ruined today, but in the

late 1950s, this was state-of-the- art technology. Hard to imagine

that exactly 50 years ago, the Cuban Missile Crisis had this place

on the highest state of alert - an historic moment, an historic place,

one which is now guaranteed to be preserved. The British tennis

player Heather Watson has broken into the top 50 players in the

world after winning the Japan Open at the weekend. She was the first

Briton to win a WTA singles title since 1988. She has now overtaken

Laura Robson to be named as Britain's top female player. James

Pearce went to meet her. The end of a 24-year wait for a British winner

on the main women's tour. Heather Watson's victory in Japan was a

perfect end to her season. This morning, she was back in London,

reflecting with me on a job well done. I think sitting in the middle

seat on a 12 hour flight, it definitely sunk in, on my way back

from Osaka. Success has come through hard work and significant

family sacrifice. Since the age of 12, she has left her home in

Guernsey and been based in Florida. When she was younger, her mother

spent plenty of time there with her, but her father had to stay at home

working. How- to you think you can get, can you get to world number 1?

-- how high? I believe I have the capability to do it, I have the

mental toughness, I have the game to do it. I would not be in the

game if I did not. But all these girls think the same thing. Tell me

about the sprinkler. It is this, this is the dance, and I taught

Judy Murray that dance, and she said she would do it if I won the

title, and she did. She made a video for me with some of her

students, who she works with, doing the sprinkler. It is brilliant.

even Andy Murray's win at the US Open this summer would have

persuaded his mother to do this! What a year for British tennis.

Gateshead has its Angel of the North, Kent will soon have a giant

white horse, dubbed the Angel of the South, and now, Devon is

getting its own version, a statue by Damien Hirst. It is being loaned

to the town of Ilfracombe for 20 years. It is already causing

controversy. Yes, local people and holidaymakers are gathering here on

Ilfracombe Pier to see the structure, Verity, 66 feet tall,

being put into position. She is controversial, not just because of

her size, bigger than the Angel of the north, but because of what she

is. She is a pregnant woman, naked, with some of her internal organs on

display. You can see one of her legs in the air. And on the right-

hand side, you can see her belly. This is what local people have

thought of her in the last few days. I thought it was awful, a horrible

thing to depict Ilfracombe. But it is the ultimate in natural beauty,

is it not? Not with half of her insides hanging out. It is just not

nice. I think it will frighten a lot of children. What do you think?

Fantastic. Great for tourists, we have heard a couple of people

already saying, what a fantastic place, and then, oh, look at the

coastline! I think it is beautiful. I am all in favour of putting

Ilfracombe on the map. Anything that brings business into the town

will be good for Ilfracombe. Even a giant pregnant woman? Even that.

They tell me that the next thing is for her waters to break. When that

happens, I will... Stay out of the way! Yes, that will cause a flood

in the harbour. I live here, and I have got to look at it every day.

What are your thoughts? It is horrible. I do not want to look at

that. We have got enough pregnant women in the town without having to

look at another one. Lots of people waiting to see this, it is a bit

like waiting outside a maternity ward. She is supposed to go up at 3

o'clock this afternoon. Let's have a look at the latest weather. There

are some pretty strong winds coming are some pretty strong winds coming

in the south-west of England later on tonight, which will help blow

some of those leaves off the tree. Often windy over the next few days,

but with some sunshine as well. Let's have a look at what has

happened so far today. This low pressure has been pushing Caroline

and east. It has brought a pretty dismal day across southern Scotland

and the north of England. Anywhere to the south of that cloud will be

where the strongest winds will be this afternoon. It will leave a

legacy of cloud, I suspect, for the afternoon. In the south-east corner,

not a bad afternoon. At least there will be some sunny spells. Coming

into the south-west of England, some isolated showers along the

Cornish coast, but nothing to substantial. Some pretty choppy

seas up through the Bristol channel. Further inland, some of essential

and this afternoon. A better afternoon in Northern Ireland.

After a chilly start in Scotland, temperatures, still struggling a

little. But at least you have got some sunshine. There is the legacy

of that cloud. Coming down into the Midlands, East Anglia and the

south-east of England, it is the strength of the wind which will be

the future this afternoon. The wind will ease for a time, but it is

only a brief respite, as the next area of low pressure starts to come

in from the south-west. It will be accompanied by some strong winds

and intense for rainfall, as it pushes further north. It will be a

chilly night again in the far north of Scotland. But it is the strength

of the wind and the intensity of the rainfall, together with high

tides, which could be causing problems in the south-west of

England and in South Wales. A disappointing day tomorrow in

Northern Ireland. Our area of low pressure will be anchored above

Northern Ireland, with plenty of frequent showers out in the west.

On Thursday we are not quite sure how much rainfall we will see in