:00:09. > :00:11.A major shake-up in the way some offenders on probation are
:00:11. > :00:17.supervised. Private firms and charities could be allowed to
:00:18. > :00:21.monitor low risk offenders and they'd be paid by results.
:00:21. > :00:23.The coaltion is set to publish a dossier on the progress of its
:00:23. > :00:26.pledges revealing its successes and failures.
:00:26. > :00:29.The Duchess of Cambridge's birthday means the union flag flies at
:00:29. > :00:36.Belfast City Hall for the first time since a ruling to limit the
:00:36. > :00:40.number of days. Cooler weather brings some relief
:00:40. > :00:44.to fire crews battling bush fires across Australia, but more
:00:44. > :00:48.scorching temperatures are forecast. And Stephen Spielberg's epic
:00:48. > :00:53."Lincoln" leads the way with ten BAFTA nominations. Later on BBC
:00:53. > :00:58.London: closing 65 front counters and selling off buildings - how the
:00:58. > :01:08.Met plans to save millions. Warnings of a huge shortfall in
:01:08. > :01:18.
:01:18. > :01:21.paying for adult social care in the Good afternoon, and welcome to the
:01:21. > :01:23.BBC news at One. Private companies and charities could be allowed to
:01:23. > :01:26.supervise low risk offenders on probation in England and Wales
:01:26. > :01:33.under plans being announced by the Government. And they'd be paid for
:01:33. > :01:35.by results. There'll be no change though in the way high risk
:01:35. > :01:45.offenders are monitored, but the probation union has warned the
:01:45. > :01:48.
:01:48. > :01:50.plans could compromise public protection. Among the big changes -
:01:50. > :01:52.responsibility for around 200,000 low and medium-risk offenders would
:01:52. > :01:55.transfer to the private sector. But the probation service would
:01:55. > :01:58.continue to monitor around 50,000 high-risk offenders. And for the
:01:58. > :02:00.first time, prisoners sentenced to less than 12 months in jail will
:02:00. > :02:08.have to undertake compulsory rehabilitation. Our home affairs
:02:08. > :02:13.correspondent Matt Prodger reports. About two-thirds of prisoners
:02:14. > :02:16.reoffend after release, unable or unwilling to build a life without
:02:16. > :02:20.crime. But here at Peterborough Prison, they have been trying to
:02:20. > :02:25.change that with a pilot scheme of payment by results.
:02:25. > :02:29.Angela Baillie is a mentor on the project helping find jobs, homes
:02:29. > :02:33.and support for offenders on the outside. This time might be the
:02:33. > :02:37.difference, because we're here to help when they do come out. They've
:02:37. > :02:42.got somebody there that's going to point them in the right direction.
:02:42. > :02:48.Matt is a persistent offender. If he stays out of prison this time,
:02:48. > :02:52.Angela's organisation gets paid. Before I was released from prison I
:02:52. > :02:56.am excited but as soon as I get released, all the support I had in
:02:56. > :03:00.prison stays in prison and you think, wow, what am I going to do
:03:00. > :03:02.now? Payment by results is already being used by the Government to get
:03:03. > :03:06.the unemployed back into work, for example. There is no statistical
:03:06. > :03:11.evidence it is particularly effective, but the Government is so
:03:11. > :03:15.enthusiastic about the idea it's planning to give the private and
:03:15. > :03:19.voluntary sectors responsibility for rehabilitating all low-risk
:03:19. > :03:23.offenders in England and Wales. What I want to do is capture the
:03:23. > :03:27.best of the public sector, private sector and voluntary sector. In the
:03:28. > :03:30.voluntary sector you find superb voluntary skills. In the public
:03:30. > :03:35.sector you have expertise in risk management, protection of the
:03:35. > :03:39.public. We should have all of those present in our Probation Service.
:03:39. > :03:42.It means the Probation Service will be left managing only the most
:03:42. > :03:47.high-risk ex-onders. That's a huge reduction in the role it's played
:03:47. > :03:51.for more than a century. Having many agencies involved is going to
:03:51. > :03:55.fragment, be very messy, and I feel some offenders will fall through
:03:55. > :03:59.the cracks. You'll have a system whereby risks are taken with public
:03:59. > :04:03.safety because the private sector may have got things wrong.
:04:03. > :04:10.Government calls the policy a rehabilitation revolution. Critics
:04:10. > :04:16.say it's privatisation for its own sake are no proof it works.
:04:16. > :04:21.Our home editor Mark Easton is here. This overhaul has been triggered by
:04:21. > :04:25.high reoffending rates? Absolutely. As Matt was saying, more than half
:04:25. > :04:27.of all prisoners leave jail and find themselves very quickly back
:04:27. > :04:30.in the criminal justice system again. That's the simple fact. It's
:04:30. > :04:34.the difficult bit that. Comes next and the Government is saying we
:04:34. > :04:37.want to reduce the amount of reoffending and at the same time
:04:37. > :04:41.save money. That's really difficult to pull those two off together. The
:04:41. > :04:46.idea is effect lively to privatise great chunks of the Probation
:04:46. > :04:49.Service in England and Wales, and the hope is that the profit motive
:04:49. > :04:54.will drive creativity, will actually bring costs down and take
:04:54. > :04:58.efficiency up, so I think we're going to see companies like Sirco
:04:58. > :05:01.and G4S really going for the 16 or so contracts which will be
:05:01. > :05:05.available. These are really big changes. They would be. You've got
:05:05. > :05:09.the unions saying this could potentially compromise public
:05:09. > :05:12.protection? We'll see about that, obviously. The worry, I think, is
:05:12. > :05:16.you're going to have two categories. You're going to have the state-run
:05:16. > :05:20.sector looking after the very high- risk people and private stroke
:05:20. > :05:24.voluntary run look after the low to medium-risk. What happens, people
:05:24. > :05:29.say, if somebody - a drunk driver, who is involved in a reckless
:05:29. > :05:33.driving thing, was in prison for awhile - actually, you then
:05:33. > :05:37.discover there is a domestic violence problem. He's actually a
:05:37. > :05:42.high-risked oner. How easily will it be to move from one to the
:05:42. > :05:45.other? The governments say the contracts are key to this. Thank
:05:45. > :05:47.you very much. David Cameron has promised that
:05:47. > :05:49.this afternoon's publication of the Government's mid-term review will
:05:49. > :05:52.be full, frank and completely unvarnished. The Labour leader Ed
:05:52. > :05:54.Miliband says the coalition has broken several promises. As our
:05:54. > :06:04.political correspondent Chris Mason reports, the subject caused some
:06:04. > :06:08.heated exchanges at Prime Minister's Questions. It has
:06:08. > :06:11.happened yet again in the most filmed street in the country. An
:06:11. > :06:15.official is caught clutching a private document that is suddenly
:06:15. > :06:21.not so private. It spells out the pros and cons of releasing an annex
:06:21. > :06:24.to the mid-term review that was published on Monday. Publishing the
:06:24. > :06:28.annex could lead to unfavourable coverage, it sea, and identify what
:06:28. > :06:32.it calls the Government's broken pledges. It will now be released
:06:32. > :06:35.this afternoon. So what will it say? Will Downing Street sources
:06:35. > :06:43.tell us it will conclude that the vast majority of their promises
:06:43. > :06:46.have been met? But in more than 70 areas, more work needs to be done.
:06:46. > :06:50.At the first Prime Minister's Questions of the year, it was
:06:50. > :06:55.Labour's first line of attack. the Prime Minister tell us why on
:06:55. > :07:02.Monday when he published his mid- term review, he failed to publish
:07:02. > :07:08.his audit of coalition broken promises? We will be publishing
:07:08. > :07:11.absolutely every single awe audit of every single promise, all 399
:07:11. > :07:15.pledges set out in the mid-term review, unlike the party opposite.
:07:15. > :07:20.This will be full. It will be frank. It will be completely unvarnished,
:07:20. > :07:22.and he will see it this afternoon. Downing Street insists it has been
:07:22. > :07:26.their long-standing intention to publish this annex to the mid-term
:07:26. > :07:32.review, but it's long. It's full of facts and figure, they say, and
:07:32. > :07:34.they wanted to double-check them. No doubt advisors wandering up and
:07:35. > :07:41.down Downing Street with secret documents in their arms will be
:07:41. > :07:43.checking too that they're carrying them rather more discreetly.
:07:43. > :07:48.Our political correspondent Norman Smith was at Westminster. It was
:07:48. > :07:53.the hot topic in the Commons this lunch time. Explain why it all
:07:53. > :07:59.matters. It matters because when this document, the mid-term review,
:07:59. > :08:03.was published on Monday we were told it was the unvarnished review
:08:03. > :08:10.of the Government's achievements. Now the gloss is coming off because
:08:10. > :08:15.we discover at the same time that was published the Government had
:08:15. > :08:20.another dossier cmu annex which presents a less rosy picture, that
:08:20. > :08:24.the Government hasn't met 70 of its promises. The Government say we
:08:24. > :08:28.were going to put up on the website. By the way, it shows we have met
:08:28. > :08:32.90% of our commitments. The difficulty is many people will
:08:32. > :08:40.raise a rather sceptical eyebrow and suspect what was going on here
:08:40. > :08:43.was an attempt to bury broken pledges in a 34,000-word PDF
:08:43. > :08:48.document in the corners of a Cabinet Office. Secondly it matters
:08:48. > :08:53.because this document was meant to be a part of a Cabinet relaunch.
:08:53. > :08:59.Now they find themselves tripped up by a self-imposed PR blunder. We
:08:59. > :09:04.can safely say when the 70-odd broken pledges are published by
:09:04. > :09:06.2.00pm, they'll probably receive an awful lot more attention than if
:09:06. > :09:08.they'd been included in this document in the first place. Thank
:09:09. > :09:11.you very much. In Belfast, the Union flag has been
:09:11. > :09:15.raised above City Hall for the first time since the council's
:09:15. > :09:17.decision to restrict the number of days it can fly to 18. It's been
:09:18. > :09:20.raised today to mark the Duchess of Cambridge's 31st birthday. Last
:09:20. > :09:29.night Loyalist protests continued and police were targeted with
:09:29. > :09:32.fireworks and rocks. Mark Simpson is outside City Hall for us now.
:09:32. > :09:36.Well, the flag is back. You're probably going to have to trust me
:09:36. > :09:40.because you can hardly see it because the wind isn't blowing here
:09:40. > :09:43.in Belfast today, but of course, this is a flag which has created
:09:44. > :09:48.headlines right across the world during the past five week, but I
:09:48. > :09:53.have to say, this morning here in Belfast events have been remarkably
:09:53. > :09:58.low-key. Just before 8.00am this morning as
:09:58. > :10:02.the city was coming to life, the Union Flag reappeared on Belfast
:10:02. > :10:07.City Hall. There was no fanfare, no ceremony and no sign of the
:10:07. > :10:12.controversy the issue has caused. It's flying because it's the 31st
:10:12. > :10:16.birthday of the Duchess of Cambridge. She's been to Belfast
:10:16. > :10:20.City Hall before. She came here just before her wedding. This is
:10:20. > :10:25.the first of the 18 designated days that the flag will fly. It will be
:10:25. > :10:30.raised again on January the 20th to mark the birthday of the Countest
:10:30. > :10:35.of Wessex. Other dates include March the 17th for St Patrick's Day
:10:35. > :10:44.and November the 14th to mark the birthday of the Prince of Wales.
:10:44. > :10:48.The flag used to fly every day. Not just on special occasion.
:10:48. > :10:51.Supporters of the policy change says it's the perfect comp miez,
:10:51. > :10:55.but what do shoppers think? can't have a compromise of the
:10:55. > :10:58.country's flag. It should stay up. It's a British country. So it is. I
:10:58. > :11:01.don't understand why it was taken down in the first place. It's just
:11:01. > :11:05.a flag at the end of the day. It doesn't really mean that much to me.
:11:06. > :11:08.I think the compromise was needed. It's the same at Stormont as well.
:11:08. > :11:12.It's just something they have to accept and move on with. Some of
:11:12. > :11:16.the flag protests have turned violent. There's been trouble in
:11:16. > :11:22.east Belfast six nights in a row. Police today released footage of
:11:22. > :11:26.the crowd that confronted them last night. Although the protests have
:11:26. > :11:32.been going on five weeks, the trouble has been localised and the
:11:32. > :11:37.numbers falling. If we think historically back to 1985, militant
:11:37. > :11:45.Unionists could bring a quarter of a million people out on to the
:11:45. > :11:50.street outside City Hall. Now we're talking crowds of one to 200.
:11:50. > :11:52.flag now seems to be turning into a tourist attraction. I have to say,
:11:52. > :11:56.there is a very different atmosphere here in Belfast today,
:11:56. > :11:59.and I have been speaking to a number of hard-line loyalist
:11:59. > :12:03.protesters who say they're not going to go out protesting tonight
:12:03. > :12:08.even when the flag comes down this evening, but they're making it
:12:08. > :12:11.clear they'll be back out tomorrow and the next day and the next day
:12:11. > :12:14.after that. Sophie? Mark, thank you very much.
:12:14. > :12:16.A leading health care lawyer is to review breast care services at
:12:16. > :12:18.Solihull Hospital after concerns were raised that hundreds of
:12:18. > :12:21.patients could have undergone unnecessary or unauthorised
:12:21. > :12:24.operations. Police and the General Medical Council are looking into
:12:24. > :12:26.work done by Dr Ian Patterson, who has been suspended. Today Sir Ian
:12:26. > :12:34.Kennedy will start talking to patients about whether mistakes
:12:34. > :12:37.could have been identified earlier. The Care Quality Commission, which
:12:37. > :12:40.is meant to check that all hospitals and care homes in England
:12:40. > :12:43.are up to scratch, has been criticised by MPs for failing to
:12:43. > :12:45.win public confidence. The Commons Health Committee says the
:12:45. > :12:48.Commission has failed to grasp its primary role to ensure patient
:12:48. > :12:55.safety following scandals including the abuse uncovered at the
:12:55. > :12:57.Winterbourne View Care Home. Britain's military could be fatally
:12:57. > :13:06.compromised by a sustained attack on computer networks. That's the
:13:06. > :13:09.warning from a group of MPs. The Commons Defence Select Committee
:13:09. > :13:11.says the threat posed by cyber attackers could "evolve at almost
:13:11. > :13:14.unimaginable speed". They've called for rapid action to protect
:13:14. > :13:23.national security. But the Ministry of Defence says it has a range of
:13:23. > :13:27.contingency plans in place. More than 100,000 records dating
:13:27. > :13:31.back 45 years will be examined by officials at a crematorium in
:13:31. > :13:36.Edinburgh to investigate how it handled the remains of dead babies.
:13:36. > :13:40.Staff at the council-run crematorium routinely told bereaved
:13:40. > :13:44.parents that they couldn't collect their babies' ashes. Let's get more
:13:44. > :13:48.from our correspondent who is at the crematorium. Give us the
:13:48. > :13:54.background to this, Colin. When Edinburgh City Council find
:13:54. > :13:59.out what was happening here, they apologised and described it as
:13:59. > :14:03.dreadful. What was going on is when bereaved parents asked for the, a
:14:03. > :14:08.of their dead baby, they were told the cremation process didn't leave
:14:08. > :14:11.any, but in fact staff were taking the ashes, placing them in a
:14:12. > :14:15.cardboard box and burying them in a garden of remembrance. The trouble
:14:15. > :14:21.is they weren't telling the parents. This may have been going on for up
:14:21. > :14:24.to 45 years. That's why the council decided there should be external
:14:24. > :14:28.auditors brought in and 100,000 records examined to determine the
:14:28. > :14:30.extent of the problem. What's the reaction from the
:14:30. > :14:34.families involved, then? Some suspected there was something
:14:34. > :14:38.strange going on because they knew of other cases in other places
:14:38. > :14:42.where the babies' ashes would be handed over to parents, but when
:14:42. > :14:47.they found out the truth of what was going on here, they were very
:14:47. > :14:51.upset and angry. 150 have approached the council already, and
:14:51. > :14:56.there's going to be public meetings and meetings with MSPs because, as
:14:56. > :15:01.one mother put it, all these years, we have had nowhere to grieve no,
:15:01. > :15:07.where to lay our flowers. Colin blain, thank you very much
:15:07. > :15:10.Our top story this lunch time: A maik major shake-up is proposed
:15:10. > :15:17.in the way offenders are supervised. Private firms and charities could
:15:17. > :15:23.be allowed to monitor low-risk offenders, and they'd be paid by
:15:23. > :15:29.results. Coming up: It was so much cooler than just landing on a feeld,
:15:29. > :15:34.getting out of a -- field and getting into a balloon. Taking the
:15:34. > :15:38.plunge - the Californian couple who escaped unhurt after their wedding
:15:38. > :15:43.went adrift in a hot air balloon. Later on BBC London:
:15:43. > :15:47.The tube is 150 years old today. We look back at how it's transformed
:15:47. > :15:57.our lives. And 50 years since it became a
:15:57. > :15:59.
:15:59. > :16:02.classic, Oh, What A Lovely War Fire fighters in south-eastern
:16:02. > :16:05.Australia are still tackling widespread bushfires although
:16:05. > :16:09.cooler weather has offered some respite. Hundreds of fires are
:16:09. > :16:12.still burning and some remain out of control. Meteorologists have now
:16:12. > :16:17.confirmed that yesterday was Australia's hottest day on record.
:16:17. > :16:21.More hot weather is forecast. Nick Bryant is in New South Wales for us
:16:21. > :16:26.now. Very different conditions over the
:16:26. > :16:31.past 12 hours or so, where we are in one of the catastrophic areas -
:16:31. > :16:35.that's the highest level of alert. Temperatures have really dropped.
:16:35. > :16:41.Yesterday they were 45 degrees. The winds were ferocious. But they've
:16:41. > :16:50.calmed down as well. But while those temperature changes have
:16:50. > :16:55.brought relief, they haven't There's almost an end of world feel
:16:55. > :17:00.to the sight of burning forest land, immediately after a fire front
:17:00. > :17:03.sweeps through. These were the overnight conditions outside this
:17:03. > :17:06.small New South Wales' Hamlet where thick bring bush was transformed
:17:06. > :17:10.within minutes, into a black and amber wasteland.
:17:10. > :17:16.Through the night, cooler weather brought something of a respite to
:17:16. > :17:20.much of the state. Not that you'd have known it here.
:17:20. > :17:25.So the residents found themselves nervously eying a fast-advancing
:17:25. > :17:28.fire front. But most decided to fight to save their properties,
:17:28. > :17:33.rather than flee. I'm pretty devastated. A bit shocked. I don't
:17:33. > :17:38.know how to take it all in and what it means for the immediate future.
:17:38. > :17:42.130 bushfires are raging still across New South Wales. 30 of them
:17:42. > :17:46.out of control. But some of the most hazardous conditions the state
:17:46. > :17:50.has ever witnessed, have not brought the devastation that was
:17:50. > :17:55.feared. 24 Hours ago the fire front here was threatening two local
:17:55. > :17:59.communities. But although it has left a lot of black and forest land
:17:59. > :18:03.and burntout grass, whras' remarkable about these bushfires is
:18:03. > :18:07.how few properties they've destroyed. -- what's.
:18:07. > :18:12.Given the ferocity of the fires, it's amazing, too, that as yet no-
:18:12. > :18:18.one has lost their life. Stories are emerging of extraordinary
:18:18. > :18:21.escapes, especially in Tasmania, the fist state to be hit. In the
:18:21. > :18:27.worst-affected down, one family managed to escape the approaching
:18:27. > :18:32.flames by jumping into the sea and hiding under a jetty. We saw
:18:32. > :18:37.tornadoes of fire just coming across towards us. And the next
:18:37. > :18:41.thing we knew, everything was on fire, everywhere, all around us.
:18:41. > :18:46.came from both directions. It came at us and then from the
:18:46. > :18:50.side. Australia has been in the grip of what mete rolgss here are
:18:50. > :18:54.calling "a superheatwave." -- meteorologists. Which is why the
:18:54. > :18:59.fires are so intense and so widespread. Cooler temperatures in
:18:59. > :19:05.the coming days bring the chance of containment. But the fire crisis is
:19:05. > :19:10.not over yet. I think one of the reasons why so
:19:10. > :19:16.few properties have been destroyed, and why we're not talking about a
:19:16. > :19:22.death toll, nobody yet has died in any of these bushfires. Is because
:19:22. > :19:29.so many lessons have been learned from the Black Saturday in Victoria
:19:29. > :19:32.in 2000 2349 which 70 people were killed. People are more prepared.
:19:32. > :19:39.People are removing combustible materials from their properties.
:19:39. > :19:44.And they are deciding to evacuate whereas prior to that, people
:19:44. > :19:50.stayed rather than flee. But we are watching it over the
:19:50. > :19:52.next few days, when temperatures are due to rise. The brother of the
:19:52. > :19:54.murdered black teenager, Stepehen Lawrence, has made a complaint to
:19:54. > :19:56.the Metropolitan Police, claiming he's been repeatedly stopped and
:19:56. > :20:00.searched because of the colour of his skin.
:20:00. > :20:02.The Met say the complaint is a very serious matter which they will
:20:02. > :20:06.investigate thoroughly and speedily. Our Home Affairs correspondent
:20:07. > :20:09.Danny Shaw is in central London. What more can you tell us? This
:20:09. > :20:12.complaint was received by Scotland Yard last night. It's be a
:20:12. > :20:18.complaint from Stuart Lawrence, the brother of Stephen Lawrence, who
:20:18. > :20:21.was murdered by a group of white youths 20 years ago. The report
:20:21. > :20:25.into the inquiry into Stephen's murder branded the Metropolitan
:20:25. > :20:29.Police institutionally racist. So this is a deeply embarrassing
:20:29. > :20:33.allegation for the Metropolitan Police, which has tried and worked
:20:33. > :20:37.hard to stamp out racism in its ranks. Now what Stuart Lawrence
:20:37. > :20:41.says, is that in November he was stopped by police while he was in
:20:41. > :20:47.his car in south London and that there was no reason for officers to
:20:47. > :20:50.stop him in his car, except for the fact that he was black. He goes on
:20:51. > :20:55.to say in the letter to the Metropolitan Police that he has
:20:55. > :21:00.been stopped about 25 times over a number of years. And only on a few
:21:00. > :21:05.of those occasions where they routine stops when he was at
:21:05. > :21:09.vehicle checkpoints. So, he is saying that the Metropolitan Police
:21:09. > :21:12.are targeting because of the colour of his skin and no other reason.
:21:12. > :21:16.The Metropolitan Police is going to look seriously at his complaint. It
:21:16. > :21:19.says stop and search is a useful tool to combat crime and is support
:21:19. > :21:27.bid communities if it is used professionally and Fairley.
:21:27. > :21:30.Thank you very much. In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez was due to be sworn in
:21:30. > :21:33.as president tomorrow but his inauguration for a new term in
:21:33. > :21:35.office has been postponed because he's in Cuba being treated for
:21:35. > :21:40.cancer. There's no sympathy from the opposition. They claim the
:21:40. > :21:44.government is violating the constitution. President Chavez
:21:44. > :21:53.hasn't been seen or heard from for almost a month. In the latest
:21:53. > :21:56.update on his health, the Minister of Information said he was still
:21:56. > :21:59.suffering a serious respiratory infection. After days of
:21:59. > :22:05.speculation, President Chavez's absence from his swearing in
:22:05. > :22:08.ceremony was finally confirmed. process of post-operative care will
:22:08. > :22:13.extend further than January 10th of this year. Because of this, he will
:22:13. > :22:18.not able to appear on that day in front of the National Assembley.
:22:18. > :22:21.It was greeted with applause by the majority of the deputies from Mr
:22:21. > :22:26.Chavez's Socialist Party, who went on to approve his absence for as
:22:26. > :22:31.long as is necessary. The political opposition has been angered by the
:22:31. > :22:36.delay. It believes the constitution stipulates that the precedent must
:22:36. > :22:40.be present on 10th January, in order to continue in office. -- the
:22:40. > :22:45.President. The opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, has called on
:22:45. > :22:48.the Supreme Court to make a ruling on the dispute.
:22:48. > :22:52.TRANSLATION: If the government wants to interpret the constitution
:22:52. > :22:56.in one way, and others want to interpret the constitution in a
:22:56. > :23:01.different way, then what happens in this case? Does everyone interpret
:23:01. > :23:04.it as they wish? No. There needs to be a response from the Supreme
:23:04. > :23:10.Court. Even if his inauguration is postponed, many are asking when
:23:10. > :23:14.he'll be able to return to Venezuela.
:23:14. > :23:18.The American cyclist, Lance Armstrong, has agreed to give a
:23:18. > :23:22.television interview to Oprah Winfrey to be broadcast next week.
:23:22. > :23:26.Her website says, "Armstrong will discuss the doping scandal for the
:23:26. > :23:29.first time, which led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de
:23:29. > :23:33.France victories last year." Until now he has always strongly denied
:23:33. > :23:43.using any banned drugs. The racing pundit, John McCririck,
:23:43. > :23:44.
:23:44. > :23:45.has started legal proceedings McCririck, who is 72 claims the
:23:45. > :23:48.broadcaster axed him last year because he was too old. He has
:23:48. > :23:51.described it as "age discrimination" and is seeking �3
:23:51. > :23:55.million in damages. The film awards season is under way.
:23:55. > :24:00.The BAFTA nominations have been announced and Steven Spielberg's
:24:00. > :24:03.epic film, Lincoln, heads the list with ten nomination. Les Miserables
:24:03. > :24:08.rabble and Life of Pi have also done well. And there were nomnai,
:24:08. > :24:18.too, for sky fall. The winners will be revealed next month. --
:24:18. > :24:23.
:24:23. > :24:27.nominations, too, for Skyfall. Lincoln, with its weighty subject-
:24:27. > :24:33.matter, President Abraham Lincoln fighting to abolish slavery always
:24:33. > :24:38.looked like the kind of film to do well with awards. And it has got
:24:38. > :24:42.ten nominations, including Best Film and Best Actor for Daniel Day-
:24:42. > :24:50.Lewis. It is the self-evident truth that things that are equal tlt same
:24:50. > :24:53.thing, are equal to each other. -- equal to the same thing.
:24:53. > :24:56.Close shiepbtd most nominated British film, the big screen
:24:56. > :25:00.version of stage musical, Les Miserables rabble, which has nine
:25:00. > :25:04.nominationss. Much -- Les Miserables.
:25:04. > :25:09.Two of its star, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway are recognised, and
:25:09. > :25:12.it is also up for Best Film. It was an expensive movie. It was a bit of
:25:12. > :25:16.a risk. You know, it opened very well in America and is opening here
:25:16. > :25:20.this weekend it. Feels like a lot of people want to see the film,
:25:20. > :25:24.which is the most important thing. And a lovely bonus to get a bunch
:25:24. > :25:27.of nominations. And also with nine nominations, including Best
:25:27. > :25:35.Director is Life of Pi, based on the acclaimed novel about a boy,
:25:35. > :25:40.marooned in a boat, with a tiger. With three films relatively evenly-
:25:40. > :25:44.matched, it makes it hard to predict what will happen at the
:25:44. > :25:48.awards. Have a really, really widespread. What that will mean, I
:25:48. > :25:53.think, is that the ceremony will be more interesting. There is one
:25:53. > :25:57.great big Titanic coming along to win everything. I think that makes
:25:57. > :26:01.it more interesting. Admit it. Actually I think it is a
:26:01. > :26:05.huge mistake. Two leading British actresss are up for awards. Helen
:26:05. > :26:12.Mirren has a Best Actress nominations for her role as
:26:12. > :26:15.director Alfred Hitchcock's wife in Hitchcock.
:26:16. > :26:22.While Dame Judi Dench is up for Best Supporting Actress for her
:26:22. > :26:25.portrayal of M in Skyfall. The Bond movie has eight nominations in
:26:25. > :26:29.total. Again making it a possible big winner on the night. Of course
:26:29. > :26:33.we do it all again tomorrow with the Oscar nominations and if one
:26:33. > :26:35.film does particularly well there, that could make the difference,
:26:35. > :26:45.with it doing well at the ceremonies, on both sides of the
:26:45. > :26:46.
:26:46. > :26:50.Now, couples choose to get married in all kinds of unusual places
:26:50. > :26:54.nowadays but for one couple in California, married life got off to
:26:54. > :26:58.a very bumpy start, when they decided to tie the knot in a hot
:26:58. > :27:03.air balloon. Soon to be married a happy couple
:27:03. > :27:08.take to the skies for a wedding they'll never forget.
:27:08. > :27:13.Positions everybody. Brace. Hold on. But shortly after they exchanged
:27:13. > :27:20.their vows, the wedding party comes back to Earth with a bump.
:27:20. > :27:24.And then an almighty crash. Fortunately no-one was seriously
:27:24. > :27:28.injured and there was no significant damage to the house the
:27:28. > :27:32.balloon unexpectedly dropped in on. Even before their ordeal, both
:27:32. > :27:36.bride and groom were a little nervous about heights. She said, "I
:27:36. > :27:42.want to arrange for to us get married in a had the air balloon."
:27:42. > :27:45.I said, "I'm scared of heights." She said, "I am too, it'll be fun."
:27:45. > :27:49.I thought it was pretty fast. We were all holding on in our stance
:27:49. > :27:56.to land it. Bounced two or three times. Then we were just being
:27:56. > :28:01.dragged by the balloon. There is always a lot of tidying up
:28:01. > :28:05.to do after a wedding but it doesn't usually look like this.
:28:05. > :28:09.Gathering up a had the air balloon, spread across a home and garden, is
:28:09. > :28:12.rather more tricky than cleaning away the remains of a wedding
:28:12. > :28:19.breakfast. For better or worse, this was a wedding with a
:28:19. > :28:22.difference. Looking back on their big day... The couple may reflect
:28:22. > :28:27.that while many people decide it take the plunge and get married,
:28:27. > :28:31.they did it the other way around. Unbelievable. We are all alive.
:28:31. > :28:37.Well, let'slike at the latest weather now with Alex. Lots of
:28:37. > :28:38.sunshine around but you mentioned sunshine around but you mentioned
:28:38. > :28:41.the word "snow" to me, a moment ago. The possibility, particularly the
:28:41. > :28:46.early part of next week. It is getting colder. Temperatures
:28:46. > :28:49.dropped off a bit over the past few days it. Feels chilly out there.
:28:49. > :28:54.The big compensation as Sophie mentioned. Something we haven't
:28:54. > :28:57.seen much of this year. There is some sunshine around. The far south
:28:57. > :29:00.is still smothered with this weather front and this lump of
:29:00. > :29:04.cloud in north-west England is fog which has caused problems. There is
:29:04. > :29:07.a band of cloud pushing southwards across the far north of Scotland,
:29:07. > :29:10.providing rain this afternoon across Orkney and Aberdeenshire.
:29:10. > :29:13.For most of Scotland it is dry, good spells of sunshine in the east,
:29:13. > :29:19.a cracking afternoon in Northern Ireland, with sunshine here. There
:29:19. > :29:23.is that foggier, misty zone across north-west England. To the east of
:29:23. > :29:27.the Pennines, generally sunny. Skies are brightening across the
:29:27. > :29:31.south but along the south coast, it may well stay rather glum.
:29:31. > :29:35.Temperatures here eight or nine Celsius. Elsewhere it is more like
:29:35. > :29:40.five or six degrees. Those temperatures will fall sharply.
:29:40. > :29:44.We'll see a touch of frost. The cloud will return to the southern-
:29:44. > :29:48.most counties of England and gales and stop temperatures falling too
:29:48. > :29:51.far. Another misty and murky night with lows of four or five.
:29:51. > :29:56.Elsewhere temperatures tumbling, towns and cities hovering around
:29:56. > :29:59.freezing but in rural areas, colder than last night, down to minus two
:29:59. > :30:03.or minus four in the countryside. There will again be fog matches.
:30:03. > :30:06.Again thick for the morning rush- hour. A greater risk in the
:30:06. > :30:10.northern in East Midlands as well as northern England and Northern
:30:10. > :30:14.Ireland. Overall a grey day tomorrow. Some brightness there.
:30:15. > :30:18.Maybe North Wales and south-west Scotland. Grey in the north-east
:30:18. > :30:21.with patchy rain. Weather into the south-west through the course of
:30:21. > :30:24.the day. That is a weather front which will continue to nudge its
:30:24. > :30:28.way across the country during Thursday night. As it does so, it
:30:28. > :30:32.tends to weaken. It's really just left with a band of cloud for fri,
:30:32. > :30:38.bringing a spot or two of rain here and there. -- for Friday.
:30:38. > :30:41.Either side, generally dry butal cold day with highs of three or
:30:41. > :30:44.four. Brighter on Friday but only before another area of rain
:30:44. > :30:48.approaches. That is tied into this area of low pressure which is going
:30:49. > :30:55.to change things a bit for the weekend. The isobars are sqeegz
:30:55. > :31:02.together so the winds will pick up. As that -- squeezing together. As
:31:02. > :31:06.the low drifts away, it'll get colder. Expect some increasing
:31:06. > :31:11.winds and rain which could turn to sleet or snow particularly into the
:31:11. > :31:18.weekend and early part of next week. The message at the moment is stay
:31:18. > :31:28.tuned to the forecast for that. The top story: a major shake-up is
:31:28. > :31:28.
:31:28. > :31:32.proposed on the way some offenders are -- on probation are monitored.
:31:32. > :31:36.Still to on the BBC News Channel. Live coverage from Westminster as