25/04/2013 BBC News at One

avoids a triple-dip recession after better than expected figures. Growth

went up by 0.3%. The Government says that the UK is recovering.

numbers are an encouraging sign that the economy is healing. Despite a

tough economic situation, we are making progress. Also this lunch

time: Tackling measles. 1 million children were targeted with a huge

vaccination campaign in England. The search vor survivors continues in

Bangladesh after a building collapsed killing mover than 200

people. A teenage Erwins a High Court battle for 17-year-olds, not

to be treated as adults in police custody. And Prince Harry open as

new headquarters for the brain injury charity where his mother was

the patron. On BBC London: An inquest into the death of an African

stowaway. 20 years on, we look at how the bomb changed the security in

BBC News at One. The UK economy has avoided slipping into a triple-dip

recession. First-degrees for economic output, show the economy

grew by 0.3% in the first three months of the year. That is more

than analysts predithed. Year on year, that is the strongest rise

since the end of 2011, still well below the long-term average, though.

Hugh Pym has the details. It was the dominant services sector that helped

to get the UK economy going. Everything from advertising and

finances to restaurants and hotels, and other consumer-related areas

like retail. The triple-dip recession was avoided with higher

than expected growth in the first quarter of the year. So, no

surprise, then that there was a bit of a spring in the Chancellor's step

as he visited a media business this morning. The figures are an

encouraging sign that the economy is healing. Despite a tough economic

situation, we are making o progress. We have difficult decisions to take,

there are no easy answers. People understand that, but we have to go

on confronting the problems if we want to build an economy fit for the

future. At a trade fair in Leeds, business representatives said that

the news would help boost confidence at an important time for the

economy. . Business needs to grow. It gives an environment of optimism

it is easy to talk ourselves into depression. Anything to talk about

our confidence in buying and selling it is great news for the economy and

for us. One area that has not been doing well is construction. Output

fell between agenda March. The cold weather did not help, but the

industry has been under pressure because of the Government investment

cuts. Builders' merchants like this one in Swindon are good barometers

of how the industry is faring. The message is that things have picked

up recently, but the foundations of genuine recovery have not yet been

laid. They are finding it tough. There is a lot that are busy but

many that with working harder for less. The value of orders, the order

book going forward is smaller than it would have been several years

ago. Manufacturing is another sector still in declined Labour argued that

the underlying state of the economy was weak and still spluttering,

rather than running at a normal speed. These are lack-lustre

figures. The economy is barely growing in the last three years. It

is flat lining, the slowest recovery for 100 years. Families are paying

the price. Businesses are not confident to invest. We cannot carry

on like this. We need our Chancellor to admit it is not working and

change course. The Chancellor knows that there are many factor, not

least the eurozone that could throw the economy off course. Today's

figures, at least, gifr him breathing space. With me now, is

Stephanie Flanders. Stephanie, you have spoken to George Osborne. He

does say that the economy is healing. How optimistic should we

be? The Confederation of British Industry has said that this is good

news but nothing to write home about. This is what many would say.

Clearly it shows forward momentum in the economy. The first few months of

this year. Many of the people had expected it in the City. So we are

not in a so-called triple-dip recession, but looking at the

numbers, the economy has been broadly flat for a year-and-a-half.

That is what the Office for National Statistics says it is still smaller.

The national output is lower than it was at the start of the recession

five years ago. So this is not a case where we can say that we are

coming up to the sunny uplands, but if we carry on growing at this rate

for the rest of the year, we grow by maybe 1.-2%. That is the official

forecast. So we are on track for that. We have not been derailed as

we have in the past, but you can't say we are about to take off yet.

Stephanie Flanders, thank you very much. Let's catch up with Norman

Smith joining us from Downing Street. Norman, the Government will

be pleased with the figures but also acknowledging that the recovery

could be bumpy yet? Yes, I have no doubt that the walls of the Treasury

were reverberating to a sigh of relief from the offices of the

Chancellor, but what is striking is that in public there has been a more

guarded response. No attempt to present the figures as a decisive

borough to suggest that somehow green shoots are thrusting through

the flower beds of middle England, but the sort of language we are

hearing is a difficult -- is of difficult decisions, hard choices

and a long road ahead. The reason is that the Treasury know that the

nugget of growth underlines how fragile the economy is. We are still

in economic pancake land. Flat front lining the bottom. Secondly, they

know in the real world where people are facing benefit cuts, pay

freezes, job losses, that they would look on this with difficulty if the

ministers present this as a turn be point. Politics, like economics, it

is often about confidence. Today's figures make it easier for the

Government to sell a confident message on the economy. For more on

today's GDP figures, including questions and answer, features and

background to the story too, head to the dedicated section on -- section

on the BBC News website. In Spain, unemployment has hit a new high.

More than 6 million people or 27% of the workforce are without a job.

There is anger at the Government's austerity measures that the

opponents are saying are worsening the crisis there. Tom Burridge is

joining us. Tonight there will be a demonstration to show their anger

there, why are they so against the government's plans? Well, the

government is to announce yet more economic reform. I don't think we

will get tomorrow what we got last year, ie public spending cuts, deep

public spending cuts and tax increases. The reason for that,

there seems to be a shift of opinion in Madrid and in Europe, but the

southern European xhishgs like that of Spain are only really struggling

more to get out of their deep recessions, because of so much

austerity all at once, but there will be a protest tonight. There

have been arrests in Madrid this morning ahead of the protests. I

think with the unemployment it has passed the depressing milestone.

That figure of 6 million people in the country now out of work it is a

huge social problem. There is lots of youth unemployment. Young people

going abroad to Britain, to places like Britain to seek work. Also a

lot of long-term unemployment. People have been out of work so long

that they are struggling to get back into the Spanish workforce. Thank

you very much. A huge vaccination programme is to take place in

England to protect about 1 million children from catching measles. It

follows the outbreak in South Wales which affected more than 800 people.

There has been a growing number of infections in eng lad also, compared

with this time last year. We have this report. Health officials say

that the measles ep demic in South Wales, which led to people queueing

for the measles, mumps, rubella jab in Swansea, should be a -up for

people in England. Measles is highly contagious and outbreaks can happen

anywhere. Figures show that there were 587 confirmed cases of measles

in England in the first three months of the year. Double the same period

in 2012. One in five needed hospital treatment. Of those, 15 people

developed complications, such as pneumonia, meningitis and

gastroenteritis. Most of the English cases are in the north-west, with

179, and the north-east, with 1756789 We have a group of people

who chose not to vaccinate their children ten or 15 years ago. Who

probably don't think much of vaccines at all these days for their

children. That is where we have to make a difference. I really appeal

to them. For whatever reason you made your choices those years ago,

think now about the risk that your children face because if they the

measles, it is not trivial. A target of the campaign at schools and GPs'

surgeries is to immunise a third of a million ten to 16-year-olds who

never recieved the MMR jab at 13 and months those who did not have a

preschool booster. Six-year-old Henry Davidson is being treated for

leukaemia. The drugs suppress his immune system, making him vulnerable

to infections like measles. So much so, he cannot go to school at the

moment. We have a responsibility to protect the vulnerable in our

society. That includes children who are being treated with chemotherapy.

It also includes babies and the old, all people at risk from the measles.

Sclierld plain takened high MMR uptake, so the catch-up campaign

there is are not planned at the present. A search for survivors is

continuing at a building outside of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, that

collapsed killing more than 200 people. Rescuers and volunteers are

trying to free those thought to be trapped inside. Thousands of family

members have gathered at the site, waiting to hear if their relatives

were alive. The police said that the factory own owners had allowed to go

back into the building after cracks appeared in the building building on

Tuesday. The grief and the shock remains overwhelming as the casualty

count from Wednesday's collapse continued to mount. For rescue

workers, a desperate search is going on amid the wreck agenda of what was

once an eight-storey building. One of the garment workers, pinned by

the concrete, is begging to be rescued. TRANSLATION: Save us,

brother, I beg you. I want to live. It is painful here. I have two

little children. The fear is that there may be hundreds trapped or

buried in the wreck agenda. Rescuers could hear voices calling out,

pleading to be saved. On the streets outside, anger too, a crowd

protesting that the rescue operation was too slow. Questions mounted over

why the building had not been cleared when the cracks appeared and

Primark confirmed it had been using a supplier there but said in a

statement: The company is saddened by the a-- appalling incident and

expresses its condolences to all involved. My mark has been engaged

with NGOs and others to look the Bangladeshi standards. And Britain's

retail Association says that the customers can check if there are

concerns. Consumers can look at the ethical trading website. To see for

themselves the standards that our members are asking of producers and

manufactures in the developing world. Consumers can be confidence

that those standards are built into the contracts these days. They are a

part of the negotiations. But this is already Bangladeshi's worst

industrial accident. These images, five months after another garment

factory was consumed by a fire, have raised doubts by safety standards

and the real costs for the West's demand of cut-price clothes.

Newspaper industry representatives say that they will reject the

Government's Royal Charter for the regulation of the press and publish

their own. Last month the political parties reached a compromise over

how to respond to the Leveson report, but the newspapers argue

that they have no say in the final discussions. So, the newspapers then

are proposing their own plans, what are they? They are that compromise

that you mentioned. That was then for a Royal Charter that gets the

authority direct from the Queen to regulate the newspapers, that is

what the politicians decided that they wanted, but the papers were not

in the room in the final negotiations. The vast majority of

the national press are not happy. This time they are publishing their

own version, their own Royal Charter to give publishers a greater say in

the regulatory process, that there would not be a special vote in the

House of if the rules were changed in the future. Now, some campaigners

will be furious. They will say that the problem always was the press

writing tear own rules and here they are doing it again. For the

Government, the press are indicating that they are not going along with

Government plans, the Government cannot force them. Sources close to

the ministers say that may cost the newspapers more money in court. This

lunch time it looks like some newspapers are perfectly willing to

take the risk. three Islamic extremists including a

former PCSO have been jailed at the Old Bailey for terrorism offences.

The court heard how Richard Dart I'm a Mac mood used a laptop to all

silent conversations about terrorism plans. Both were jailed. A

co-conspirator, Jahangir Alom, was sentenced to four years and six

months. All three men had admitted the offences at a previous hearing.

A teenager has won a High Court victory over the Home Secretary's

policy of treating 17-year-olds in police custody as adults. It means

that a 17-year-old will now have the right to contact their parents or an

appropriate adult if they are arrested. Today two judges ruled the

previous policy was incompatible with human rights law. Clive Coleman

is at the Royal Courts of Justice now.

Campaigners who supported this legal challenge said this was an anomaly

as 17-year-olds are treated as children everywhere else in the

criminal justice system except in Emerging from the High Court

victorious, the 17-year-old who has just won a landmark legal victory

against the Home Secretary. Last year he was arrested on suspicion of

robbery, taken to a south London police station and detained for 12

hours. Currently, 17-year-olds are treated

as adults in police custody, which means officers do not have to inform

a parent or allow them to be with their child. Lonely, I did not know

my rights, whether the police were acting lawfully or unlawfully. I

just needed an adult that I trusted to advise me, to help with what I

was doing. High emotion amongst campaigners

after the High Court ruled that the current position is unlawful,

breaches human rights and that the Home Secretary must revise the

current law. The borders include the mother of 17-year-old Joseph

Lawton. Last year he was stopped by police for drink-driving and held

for several hours before being charged and released. Huhne days

later, he was found dead at the family home. -- two days. The charge

sheet was found at his feet. We knew from the first moment that if we had

been there, it could have been very different, so we are so pleased

now, but it is also tinged with such sadness and devastation. Today's

judgment will come as a relief to many parents who firmly believed

that their 17-year-olds are still children.

This really was a comprehensive defeat for the Home Secretary, with

the Lord Justice saying that the treatment of a 17-year-old as an

adult seems to me not capable of justification.

Clive Coleman, apologies for the breakup in sound. A quick look at

the time, 18 minutes past one, our top story: The economy grew by 0.3%

in the first quarter of the year, so Britain avoids a triple-dip

recession. Still to come, the feral lynx which

suggest that big cat prowled the Devon countryside more than a

century ago. Later on BBC London, fears grow that

London is next in line for a measles outbreak with one of the lowest

vaccination rates. And the capital's Cypriot community sends

food to Cyprus to help families Prince Harry has opened the new

headquarters of the brain injury charity where his mother, Diana,

Princess of Wales was patron. Headway provide support to those who

are affected by a brain injury. Luisa Baldini is at the centre in

Nottingham now. Yes, this is Prince Harry's first

visit to Nottingham. He spent about an hour at the charity before

changing into casual clothes to come here to this youth club. We saw him

on Saturday at the London Marathon, and also last week when he announced

he is to join a race to the South Pole, but today is his first solo

official royal engagements since returning from Afghanistan in

January. Just a warning that there is/photography in my report.

Prince Harry has said before that he has a real connection with children,

so it was straight to the youngsters as he arrived for his visit at the

charity. Inside, he took place in various exercises to experience for

himself the difficulties those suffering with brain injuries have

in everyday life. One of the exercises involve trying to change a

nappy without the use of one arm. This is exactly how my brother is

going to be! You may have joked about his brother, but the uncle to

be admitted to never having changed a nappy. Did they help you from the

word go? Prince Harry met with James Cracknell, the double gold winning

rower who suffered a head injury while cycling. He also met Lance

Corporal Johnson by Harry, who suffered injuries in Iraq and was

awarded the Victoria Cross. Prince Harry has no official role

with the charity, but as is so often the case with him, his mother is

reflected in his areas of interest. I am particularly pleased to be with

you today because my mother very much admired Headway, and that is

good enough for me. The Prince's last task was to officially open the

new headquarters and then to be the first to sign the new visitors book.

Well, Prince Harry spoke earlier this year about how he says there

are three different parts to himself, one is just one of the lads

in the army, the other is a private person with a social life, and the

other is the Prince with royal duties, and is very much that third

Harry whom we are seen here today. He has one more location to visit in

Nottingham before he heads back to London.

Families of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster are finding

out more details about the new inquest into their deaths. April and

every hearing is being held to decide the date and location of a

fresh inquest. -- a preliminary hearing. It follows a High Court

decision to quash the original verdict of accidental death after

years of campaigning by the families. Judith Moritz sent this

report. The original inquest into the

Hillsborough football disaster ruled that the Liverpool fans who were

crushed died accidental deaths. The coroner, Stefan Popper, also

declared they have all received their fatal injuries by 3:15pm in

the afternoon. The follies of those who died were angered by both

points, arguing that the disaster was not accidental and that some

fans lived beyond 3:15pm and could have been saved. 96 people were

fatally crushed at the Sheffield ground as Liverpool played an FA Cup

semifinal match in 1989. Last year, the Hillsborough Independent Panel

found that 41 of those fans could have been saved. The Hillsborough

Independent Panel report through open a range of new legal avenues

for the families. There is now a criminal inquiry and an independent

investigation into the police, and in December there was a landmark

moment when the Lord Chief Justice quashed the old inquest verdict. The

families celebrated as the high court also ordered a new inquest,

the process of which is just getting under way with an initial

preliminary hearing in London today. It is a monumental day, having spent

24 years having to get here. The whole truth has to come out, and the

public be made fully aware of what happened on that dreadful day.

Hillsborough families have made the journey from Liverpool for the

hearing, 24 years after the disaster they say they are still in pursuit

of justice. In a week's time, photos -- voters

in parts of England and Wales will decide who they want to represent

them, but are the key issues at the ballot box going to be local or

national? Local government correspondent Mike Sergeant has been

to Gloucestershire to hear the thoughts of people there.

The bean counties of England, where this years elections are being

contested. The local authorities in charge have not escaped the spending

squeeze, but in Gloucestershire there are still signs of investment,

not just cuts. It is a safety education centre. We are designed to

teach all ages to live safely... Inside this brand-new centre, a mini

village has been mocked up. It is an unusual council project to teach

schoolchildren and other visitors have to avoid everyday dangers.

is a big investment for the county. Yes, it is, but we are really

pleased with it, because we know we are making a difference to people's

lives, young and old alike, and we know it is a long-term investment.

The council says keeping children safe from house fires and other

risks is a good use of limited resources, but opponents say many

services across the county are still under pressure. In Stonehouse, a

library has reduced its hours and they plan to redevelop this youth

club has long been shelved, leaving a church fund a drop-in centre as

one of the few facilities for young people in the town. If we had not

been here, then the kids would have had nothing, and that is one of the

big problems. As kids, they all felt they had nothing, that nobody cared

for them. The question for the elections is whether people are

voting on local issues or whether national politics dominates the

campaign. I took to the streets of Gloucester to try to find out. When

you vote in a local election, do you think national politics, the parties

led by these people, or the local issues? Local. You don't have to

whisper! If you ask me why... think both of them is important.

They have to work together. So you are looking to national politics in

a local election. Yes. So for those hoping to get

elected, there is no avoiding the obvious problem is that voters see

on their streets. In America, it was once said that all politics is

local. Some here in Gloucestershire will be using their vote to send a

message about the state of the nation, but for many others it is

all about issues much closer to Well, you can find much more

information about the upcoming some have doubted sightings of feral

beasts on Bodmin or elsewhere, but now we discovered remains in a

museum vaults suggested links twice the size of a domestic cat prowled

the Devon countryside more than a century ago. Lynx. Here is science

reporter Rebecca Morrell. Move over, the beast of Bodmin Moor,

there is another big cat in town. Scientists believe that this cat

here was actually on the loose, prowling around the fields of the

south-west of England 100 years ago. It was brought here to the

Bristol Museum in 1903, and these are the original records. It was

brought in after it attacked and killed two dogs. It was shot dead

after that, an untimely end for this cat. I am here with a curator at the

museum. At first they did not know what this cat was, but some

scientists have got their hands on it, what have they found out?

early records just say Wildcat, but the University of Durham have

applied new techniques to determine it was a Canadian lynx. They have

looked at the skull, so you can see there is a build-up of plaque on the

teeth, and this can be very indicative of an animal that has

been in captivity, because they have a different type of food. And you

can see some teeth have been lost as well. So it is a captive bred

animal. This is probably the earliest example of a big cat on the

loose in the UK. That is right, there are stories going back a

little bit earlier, I remember the stories about the beast of Bodmin

Moor, there was funny evidence on a camera, flickering in the

background. Thank you very much. Spotting big cats in the countryside

seems to be a bit of a national pastime here in the UK, but as this

lynx shows, just sometimes the rumours do turn out to be true.

It looks pretty fierce! Let's take a look at the weather with Darren

the year so far, but only for a lucky few, and we are all going to

get colder over the coming days, the colder air coming from the north,

bringing shower clouds. The warmth is getting wafted into the

south-east, and where we see sunshine 23 degrees as possible.

This area of cloud is reducing patchy rain and drizzle sinking

southwards, arriving along the northern shores of Devon and

Cornwall later this afternoon, but ahead of it we are going to be

seeing something brighter than recent days but not particularly

warm. Certainly not very warm across Wales, where we have got cloud,

patchy light rain or drizzle heading southwards. The colder air chasing

in behind brings sunshine and showers for Northern Ireland and

Scotland, some of the shower is heavy, most frequent in the

north-west of Scotland, and there may be snow over the hills as well.

The North of England may get late sunshine, but we are stuck with

cloud for the most part. My current patchy rain drifting into the

Midlands, East Anglia and the south-east is generally dry, and

Inland 22 or 23 is possible. But that is the last of the warmth, and

we are going to see rain heading into the south-east, and initially

light and Patsy through the Midlands, it packs up later in the

night. It will be colder than it has been for the last few nights,

particularly in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and in these areas

tomorrow we will see showers getting going. Early rain to clear from the

south-eastern corner, clearing around rush hour, and then we will

have sunshine for a while. The cloud builds, showers develop widely, the

best of the brighter weather will be in the south-west, the showers over

the northern hills have a wintry flavour. A noticeable chill compare

it with recently in the south-east, and it is going to stay that way

over the weekend. As the showers eased down, we run the risk of a

touch of frost. Heading into the weekend, most of the showers will be

England and where is, some of them heavy, trip on by a brisk wind.

Saturday does not look too bad for Scotland and Northern Ireland, drier

and brighter here, and then as the skies clear, temperatures drop. In

rural areas there is a risk of a touch of frost, particularly in that

central third where we will have the best of the early sunshine. Spots of

rain in the south-east clearing away, most of the cloud on Saturday

comes from the north-west with Atlantic winds bringing spots of