12/06/2013 BBC News at One

as unemployment falls by 5,000. But it comes as a new report says

comparative wages have fallen sharply in the past five years

putting a tight squeeze on household budgets. Plans to close three

children's heart surgery units in England are suspended as the Health

Secretary calls a major review. Tighter controls on electronic

cigarettes. They are to be classed as medicines. Scientists warn that a

generation of ash trees could be wiped out within a decade, killed

off by the ash dieback fungus. And the Australian cricketer, David

Warner, is being investigated after he attacked an England player,

following a warm-up match for the Ashes. Later on BBC London, the

inquest into the death of a reggae start during a police raid in

Surrey. And Prest against Prest, the landmark divorce ruling by the

news at One. The number of people out of work has fallen by 5,000 and

now stands at 2. 5 million, according to the latest figures from

the Office for National Statistics. The figure also show that 29. 7

million people have some kind of job, that's a record number, but the

figures come as a new report says the recession has had an

unprecedented impact on finances, with lower pay and higher inflation.

The labour market, the creator of jobs has moved up a gear. The

jobless total has fall and the figures have dominated Prime

Minister's questions. They show employment, the number of people in

work in our country, going up. They show unemployment going down and

they show that - I know the party opposite don't want to hear good

news - but I think it's important we hear it. And the claimant count, the

number of people claiming unemployment benefit has fallen for

the seventh month in a row. There was a rise of 24,000 in total

employment over the three months to April. Youth unemployment fell by

43,000. But long-term unemployment was up 11,000. That's people out of

work more than a year. For those in jobs, there's been a tinned squeeze

on spending power. Ever Raj pay is well below inflation and a report by

the Institute for Fiscal Studies says last five years have seen the

biggest drop in inflation-adjusted pay since records began. The Labour

leader picked up that point in the Commons' exchanges. What people see

is prices rising, wages falling, while the Prime Minister tells them

they're better off. He claims the economy is healing. But for ordinary

families life is getting harder. They are worst off under the Tories.

For young people trying to find work, it's been a challenging task

for some time now. At this time of year, many students are about to

graduate and they are having to face up to the realities of trying to

land their first job. At recruitment fairs like this one at the

University of Nottingham, they are offering a helping hand. Employers

here are advertising career opportunities, with students

discovering that getting a job is possible, but only if you work hard

at it. I applied for several graduate opportunities and didn't

get anywhere really. It's hard, I guess. I think that it will be

difficult at first, but then eventually I hope I'll get a good

job. It doesn't matter where you start, because if you work hard

you'll get somewhere. They can only hope signs of improvement in the

economy translate into more demand for their skills and greater numbers

of jobs. We'll speak now to Norman Smith. We

have a record number of people in work now, but a big squeeze on wages

and both sides in the Commons seem to be blaming each other? I do think

we learned a couple of truths today. One, that people are absolutely

desperate to stay in work and if that means working part-time,

working fewer hours, taking a pay cut, they will. But the consequence

of that is huge pressure on family incomes and household budgets, with

that Institute for Fiscal Studies report saying in effect that we have

never had it so bad when it comes to the contraction in the sort of pay

people are bringing home. Worse than the 1930s. And you think then there

was the Great Depression and all that sort of thing. Ed Miliband

blames it on coalition austerity. David Cameron blames it on the

Labour boom and bust of 2008. I suspect most people want to know

when is it going to end. Today's figures, they don't give us much

cause for optimism, because what they basically tell us is that

unemployment is pretty much sticking where it was six months ago and it's

not really shifting much. Similarly, the deficit, not really shifting

much. Similarly, growth, not really shifting much. All of which

suggests, I'm afraid, that the pressure on family incomes is very

likely to go on for some considerable time. Thank you.

Plans to stop children's heart surgery at three hospitals in

England have been suspended. An independent review into the proposed

closure of the sites at Leeds, Leicester and the Royal Brompton in

London, has ruled that the original decision was based on flawed

analysis. The Health Secretary told the Commons the proposals have been

suspended while the issue is re-examined. The surgery is delicate

and precise. Around 3,500 operations are carried out a year on children.

Most of successful, but successive inquiries have included that

outcomes would be even better if surgery was restricted to fewer

centres. I would like to make a statement on the review of

children's congenital heart services. After more than �8 million

and five years, the biggest independent review into NHS care has

been suspended. Outcome of the review was based on a flawed

analysis of the impact of incomplete proposals and leaves too many

questions about sustainability and implementation. This is clearly a

serious criticism. Last year, the review had concluded that three

hospitals should stop children's heart surgery from 2014. There was

an outcry from those affected. The Royal bomb tonne in London, Leeds

General Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital in Leicester. Earlier this

year, children's heart surgery was briefly suspended at Leeds, after

concerns over death rates. That came just after the hospital had won a

High Court case quark plans to shut the unit. The NHS won't now contest

that ruling. All those involved agree that the quality of care for

children must be the number one priority, but this bitter battle,

over the issue of children's heart surgery, has shown how difficult it

is to reorganise NHS services. Fergus is with me now. This was a

five-year review. Major review. It's a bit of a mess now? It is. It's a

huge embarrassment for the NHS and it raises the question how do you

reconfigure services? Ministers thought this was a great way of

doing it and they didn't have to take the difficult political

decisions about cutting which units. They would leave it to the

independent panel. That panel spent a huge amount of money. It does a

huge public consultation with 75,000 responses and it came up with this

plan that three units in London, Leeds and Leicester would shut. But

the trouble was that that became -- began to unravel, because the

analysis was repeatedly found to be flawed and there were two High Court

cases and that led to effectively one part of the NHS spending NHS

money taking another part of the NHS to court. It has been poorly

handled. NHS England has to July to take stock and decide how to go

ahead and at the end, what we have to think about, is the childrenened

-- children and the families. The intention is to improve the care for

those children. The surgery is very successful anyway, but to

concentrate it in fewer bigger centres. Everyone agrees that is the

right way ahead, but it's how you do it and that's the problem. They have

five years on, and they still have that problem. In Instanbul, a heavy

police presence remains in tack six square after -- Taksim Square after

overnight clashes. There are doubts that a meeting will take place with

the President. -- with the Prime Minister. In Instanbul's morning

rain no-one has the energy to protest. The police have cleared

Taksim Square and antigovernment protesters have all moved back to

next door Gezi Park. This is why everyone needs time to recover.

Skirmishes between the police and demonstrators lasted late into

night. The police took back some of the ground they had lost at the

start of the protests. It took quite an effort. The police now control

Taksim Square. But, coming up here the protesters are still in control

of next door Gezi Park and they want to make it as difficult as possible

for the State to get back in. Theirs is a damp, bedraggled stronghold.

This woman is a law student. Every night she camps here with her

friends. She doesn't think the Prime Minister is serious about

negotiating an agreement. I don't think he will negotiate with the

protesters. He will meet the community? I don't know. They don't

present us -- represent us actually. The protesters say they refuse to

talk to a government which uses violence against them. To those

here, camping makes more sense than talking.

Australia's opening batsman, David Warner, is being investigated

following on attack on the England player, Joe Root. The incident

happened in a bar after a warm-up game. Warner has apologised, but the

incident puts a question mark over his selection for the Ashes. Andy

Swiss is at the ground for us now. Australia are playing a one-day

match against New Zealand here today, but all the talk is about

someone who is not playing. Australian batsman David Warner. His

tour of England could already be over in quite extraordinary

circumstances. Australia lined up for their latest match this morning.

Their summer already mired in scandal. Conspicuously absent, this

man, David Warner. On Saturday, he played for Australia against

England. In the early hours of Sunday morning, in this bar in

central Birmingham, the England camp say he physically attacked one of

their youngest stars, Joe Root. Hes with back practising today seemingly

unharmed. England have condemned what they say was an unprovoked

attack from one of their opponents. Clearly disappointed that the

incident happened, but after obviously investigating on our side

we realise we haven't done anything. We don't believe we have done

anything wrong, so - Warner is no stranger to controversy. He was

fined for making insulting comments on Twitter and my Australian fans

believe he should be sent home. a disgrace. He's an absolute

disgrace. He needs to pull his socks up. I guess behaviour with players

is always a challenge. Hopefully whoever takes his place will do a

great job. We have to be consistent with what we do with the guys and he

has to sort himself out before he gets back into the side. Australia

have enough problems on the pitch, as they soon showed again this

morning. They are a team lacking the stars of the past. So this is all

they need. David Warner was reduced to bringing on the drinks. His Ashes

summer may already be over. David Warner will now face a disciplinary

hearing, where he will be given any further punishment. The one thing

that is certain, that the traditional pre-Ashes tension will

only be ramped up a few notches after this.

E cigarettes are to be classed as medicines to tighten up the

regulation of products containing nicotine. It means tough new tests

for manufacturers and there will be tighter controls on how they are

marketed. More than one million people in the UK use the

e-cigarettes, inhaling a mist of nicotine rather than smoke. Len

probleming yin cigarettes look and feel like the tradition traditional

tobacco equivalent, but what appears to be smoke is water vapour, giving

smokers the nicotine hint, without the dangerous chemicals and they

offer former smokers a way to cut down or give up. You have the health

benefits. It does taste like a cigarette. The production, use and

sale of them has been largely unregulated, with no restrictions on

advertising or sales to children. But as the number of people using

them in the UK approaches one million, regulators have decided to

act. The content of the nicotine, how it's delivered, other things

that are in them, the quality of the manufacturer, is not of the standard

we would expect and it wouldn't current currently meet the medicine

standards, that's why we want to send a clear signal that we want the

products to be brought up to a standard where people can rely on

them to cut down on the harms of smoking. Medical opinion on the

devices is split. Some believe they could help save millions of lives

through helping smokers quit. Others argue not enough is known about the

long-term effects. At the moment everyone says they are probably

safer than cigarettes. That's not good enough. We need to be able to

say to people, these are the risks. The e-cigarette industry initially

resisted regulation, but it will now have to adapt to the product being

as a medicine will improve their quality, but other questions such as

use in public areas like pubs or The UK jobs market has a record

number of people in work. Still to come, how serious children are

coping with the effects of civil war. -- Syrian. Later on BBC

London: The e-mails that one London Council congratulating themselves

on a number of tickets they issued. Could there be a massive

redevelopment of the unloved end of They are a beautiful sight. Acres

of native ash trees in the Peak District. But there are fears they

could soon disappear forever. The Forestry Commission is warning that

a generation of ash trees could be wiped out within a decade, killed

off by the ash dieback fungus. The disease was first discovered in the

UK last year. And, with young trees now coming in to leaf, scientists

say it is becoming apparent that the country is facing its biggest

woodland disaster since Dutch Elm disease in the 1970s. Our

Welcome to the iconic, beautiful ash woodlands of the Peak District.

At the moment there is no ash dieback he get. It is spreading

across the country. When it gets to areas like this, it is young trees

that are almost certain to die. A classic, British landscape. Almost

every tree you can see is an ash tree. Almost every tree you can see

will get the ash dieback disease as it sweeps across the country.

Thousands of them will die. On the forest floor, it is hard to find

any good news. I suspect we will start to lose all the young ash in

this landscape. Best-case scenario, most of the mature ash will survive.

Worst case scenario, we will lose the majority of ash in this

landscape and that will be a tragedy. If it is a tragedy, it

looks something like this. In the woodlands of eastern England, the

ash dieback fungus is already a clear and Present danger. This

summer canopy should be fully grown but the leaf cover is sparse. These

trees are already dying. The area is brightly son let. That is

obvious if we look up. -- brightly lit by the sun. The disease is

getting to grips. The experience on the Continent is not encouraging.

In Denmark, the vast majority of ash trees are dead or dying. But,

about 2% of trees appeared to be naturally resistant. UK scientists

are on the case, making intensive studies of ash DNA. They cannot

save existing ash trees from infection but there is some hope

for the future. We are hoping that eventually we will be able to

produce a strain of ash tree witches resistant to the ash

dieback fungus. It can be planted in the UK so that it will be

healthy without needing fungicides to help it. It is a potential

solution but one that could take decades to deliver. The Forestry

Commission is stressing that it is not all bad news here. They are

developing management techniques which will slow down the spread of

the disease and they are putting lots of money into this research to

find naturally resistant trees, to use those to produce a new stock of

young trees which can eventually use that natural resistance and

replace all of the trees which will be lost in landscaped like this one.

In the last few minutes, Jacob Zuma has said Nelson Mandela is

responding better to treatment. He is being treated for a lung

infection at a hospital in Pretoria. This is the first bit of positive

news we have had since Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital

last week. Jacob Zuma was speaking in parliament. He said just that.

Nelson Mandela was responding better to treatment and that was it.

Yesterday evening, he went on television to say he had met the

doctors treating Nelson Mandela. He was satisfied they were doing

everything to make them better. His assessment was more upbeat than

what we had been hearing in the preceding hours. He said Nelson

Mandela was a fighter and he expressed the hope he would be back

with us soon. What we had been hearing from the presidency before

that was, no change in his condition. That lack of detail

perhaps accounts for the very intense scrutiny here, outside this

hospital from the media and the public. This morning, we have been

seeing a steady trickle of family members coming and going as they

have been over the past few days. His ex-wife, Winnie Mandela,

underlined the seriousness with which they treat this condition now.

These latest comments will certainly be a boost from the

thousands and thousands of South Africans who are praying for Nelson

Mandela to get over this, as he has done in the past. There is is still

a sombre mood here. Among some, a recognition that we're talking

about the man in hospital with a recurring lung infection and an

acceptance of the mortality of this man, he has done so much to change

South Africa. A schoolgirl has told a court how the teacher, who

allegedly abducted her and took her to France, felt guilty when their

friendship turned into a sexual relationship. The girl, who was 14

at the time, told the court that she and 30-year-old Jeremy Forrest

would meet in hotels. The couple disappeared last September, going

on the run for seven days. He denies abduction. Duncan Kennedy is

at Lewes Crown Court. We have been hearing more evidence from that 15-

year-old girl at the centre of this story put that she has been telling

the court had her relationship with Jeremy Forrest developed over the

course of several months last year. She said it went from flirtatious

text messaging to a full-blown sexual encounter. Today came more

details of the intimate relationship of Jeremy Forrest with

his 15-year-old pupil. She described it from going from the

flirtatious to the serious. It developed last year at a school in

Eastbourne, where he was her year 10 maths teacher. The girl said it

started with text messages but that they moved on to kissing in the

classrooms. She said she arrived early so they would not be seen. In

court, he watched as the police into the was played on screen.

Asked about their sexual relationship, she said he knew he

could go to prison and lose his job. She said, I know in law it is wrong

but this did not fill wrong to me. She was asked about the 15 year age

difference and said it did not matter because they were in love.

In September, they were captured on CCTV cameras leaving the country

after the hearing they would be found out. They tried to disguise

their identities. Eight days after leaving, they were found by the

police and brought home. The prosecution says Jeremy Forrest was

in breach of his position of trust as a teacher. The girl is currently

in the middle of sitting her GCSEs. She told the court how she felt her

relationship was normal. She said they spent several weeks before

having a sexual encounter discussing the matter. She said, in

the end, it was what they both wanted to do. She will continue to

give her evidence this afternoon. Flights across Europe are being

disrupted this morning because of a strike by French air traffic

controllers. It is affecting flights to and from French airports

but it is also having a knock-on effect on travel to and from the UK

with almost 200 flights being It is having a huge impact, not

surprisingly, on airports in France. Some have actually closed down for

the day. It is the second day of a two-day strike. It was going to go

into a their data rubber that has been called off. About 2000 strikes

have been cancelled. -- a third day tomorrow but that has been called

off. Many people from Britain are unable to fly to France today. This

has been long in the coming and it has been planned for. They are not

the scenes of queues and such force at airports. This afternoon, there

will be some unplanned stoppages. Some people may find that flights

are down. Tens of thousands of people have died in Syria's two

year long civil war. Hundreds of thousands more have fled their

homes to escape the fighting. But many have remained and all they can

do is try to live as normal a life as possible, while the war rages

around them. Lyce Doucet has sent this report from the Syrian capital,

Damascus. In parts of Damascus, it is easy to forget there is a war.

Relief that one more exam is out of the way for these high-school

students. In Syria, nearly one in five schools is now shut. These

teenagers are fortunate to live in a safe, government controlled area.

You do not have any worries. The answer in unison. Mayor, none at

all. -- no throws up a bank the Army and President for keeping them

safe. -- no. They thank. Some areas are a battleground. Rebel fighters

are holed up and the Government responds with overwhelming force.

Nearly everyone has left, including those 13-year-old. Her whole family

fled and found shelter. What is it like? Not very good, it is very bad,

she says. I ask her if there were problems. A lot of problems, she

says. Even in parts of Damascus, like this, where it is peaceful

enough to still play, the impact of the war is ever-present. Now that

these pupils have covered in that apples, they will be asked to write

what they will do when they are older. The last time they did this

exercise, three children Road, we just want to grow up. She once

every detail to be just perfect. She has made her wish. She has

written, I want to go back to my home. She knows she has no home to

Not much sign of any warm weather. Just when you thought it was safe

to go into the garden, the fine weather has disappeared. Two areas

of low pressure close by the UK at the moment which will deliver wet

and windy weather at times. Into tomorrow, the squeeze of the

isobars and strong winds into southern areas. I want to flag that

up straightaway. And usually windy weather, coming into the south of

Britain. Gales in places. Let's deal with today first of all. To

the south, we have outbreaks of rain moving in. Steadily turning

wetter in the south. There is a zone of drier and brighter weather.

In the north of Scotland, some outbreaks of rain. Still some

warmth to be had in the east of England. For the tennis, it will

turn wetter during the afternoon with maybe some gaps in the rain.

Tomorrow, the problems come from the strength of the wind. Tonight,

the wind will start to strengthen. Tonight, we will have this band of

rain in Scotland and Northern Ireland. There will be patchy rain.

Also some coastal and hill fog around. That takes us on to

tomorrow morning with the strong wind. Gales in places. It starts

the day in the south-west. Gusts up to 50 miles an hour in the Bristol

Channel. This will transfer through parts of the Midlands and into East

Anglia. Right across the South, very gusty winds. With trees in

full leaf, we could see branches coming down. Did a good conditions

for small boats. Along -- difficult conditions for small boats. There

could be some heavy and thundery downpours into the afternoon. In

Northern Ireland, there will be sunshine and showers. Temperatures

a little bit down on where they have been today. The winds will

ease on Thursday night. On Friday they will freshen again to the

western areas. Ahead of the rain, there will be sunshine and showers.

It will stay fairly blustery for the weekend. In the South, the