04/02/2014 BBC News at One

weather moves in. The Prince is meeting residents affected by the

flooding for weeks as he joins the Government in promising more money

to help victims. Hundreds of acres of land are still under water and

more storms are being forecast for the next couple of days. We'll have

the latest from the Somerset Levels. Also this lunchtime. The boss of BP

voices concerns about the impact of an independent Scotland on the oil

business. My personal view is Great Britain is great, and ought to stay

together in my view. Exploring for shale gas. The fracking company

Cuadrilla announces two new exploratory sites in Lancashire.

Most councils in England are paying too little for home care. The

findings of a BBC investigation. And a fisherman who's washed up on a

Pacific island says he's been adrift at sea for more than year.

Tube staff prepare to go on strike tonight unless a last-minute deal

can be reached. And police released CCTV footage of a man wanted in

connection of a man -- murder in Earls Court.

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News At One. Prince Charles is

visiting flood-hit communities in Somerset this lunchtime and talking

to residents, some of whom have now been cut off by flood waters for

more than a month. The Prince is donating ?50,000 from a charitable

to help victims of flooding. The Government has also announced that

it's providing another ?300,000. Our correspodent Clare Marshall is in

Somerset for us now. Yes, that cash is really good news and will provide

short-term relief. There are still some real problems. Just around the

corner, it's completely cut off, still, so there is the business of

daily life to be got on with, like going to do your shopping, and to go

to the doctor. This also some real issues coming up about contamination

of the floodwater that is stagnant now. It's been sitting there for

over a month by the Prince of Wales turned up about an hour ago, a group

of schoolchildren came out to greet him, it was a very welcoming

atmosphere. This is the scene awaiting Prince Charles today. The

Somerset Levels are a long way from drying out. The first village on the

itinerary. Now there is only one way in. Here, a warmer reception than

the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson got last week. I hope it

raises the profile of the Somerset Levels and the plight we are all

going through. And he will be able to knock on some doors and just, you

know, what we're going through, he has come down to see for himself. It

definitely helps the profile and he's been very sympathetic down here

and hopefully he will get the opportunity to say thank you to some

of the people who've been working very hard on our behalf. In the

village hall comedy met local councils and members of the

emergency services. -- the prince met. Now it is an insight into how

locals are coping with this local disaster. The fact is showing he

cares about what people are going through is very relevant. You know,

it could have sent a minion or something but he didn't. He came

down in person. The volume of water is staggering, millions of gallons

are still is fooling around. -- swilling around. This is the river

and the farmland. It is flowing back in as soon as is its pumped out.

This is the reality people hope Prince Charles will see. The storms

have also battered other parts of the UK. Particularly hard-hit,

Cornwall and Wales. It's been one winter storm after another. The

temperature contrast has strengthened. The Jetstream has

strengthened the Jetstream across the Atlantic. There's been a high

number of storms this winter and further south than you would expect

and there's no sign of the weather pattern changing for the next week

or even two weeks. Today is just as valid to be calm and brief break in

the weather. So the prince will be really experiencing how some people

are dealt with getting about here this afternoon. He will be done in a

boat, which are still operating, and also in a trailer on the back of a

tractor. That is still how people are getting in and out of their

homes. The question is, though, will he be drawn into the stormy question

of dredging? Back to you. Thank you very much. The chief executive of BP

has told the BBC that there are quite big uncertainties for the

company if Scotland becomes independent. Bob Dudley said there

was a question mark over which currency Scotland might adopt if

there was a yes vote in September's referendum. He was speaking to our

Chief Economics Correspondent Hugh Pym who's with me now. A significant

innovation? Indeed, so people is not many big companies have made a

contribution to the Scottish independence debate. BP is a major

operator in the North Sea. The biggest British operator in those

fields. So Bob Dudley was unveiling as results today. He flagged up

concerns that there wasn't any clarity, in his view, about which

currency Scotland that would adopt and that was a concern to him and

other businesses. Here's more of what he had to say. We have a lot of

people in Scotland, a lot of investment in Scotland. I don't

know, there's much debate about the currency, what would happen the

currency and of course, connections with Europe and not. These are quite

big uncertainties for us and, at the moment, we are continuing to invest.

These projects are underway but it's a question. All businesses have a

concern. My personal view is Great Britain is great, and a door to stay

together, in my view. And quite striking there, he went on at some

length and continue to answer questions I put to him, saying if

Scotland's independent, BP would have to have two separate head

offices and that would have cost imprecation. No sign of him backing

away from the sensitive political issue. What has been the reaction

politically? Alistair Darling has said he welcomes intervention and

which is more businesses would do the same and Mr Dudley was right to

be highlighting this uncertainty over the currency but, for the yes

Scotland campaign, spokesperson said other businesses said they're quite

relaxed about the issue of independence including some in the

energy fields, so this shouldn't be regarded as speaking for a wider

range of companies. The spokesperson also said, in their view, there were

no problems over the currency and it would be negotiated if Scotland

achieved independence. Thank you very much. The Energy firm Cuadrilla

has revealed details of two new locations in Lancashire where it

intends to carry out exploratory drilling for fracking. It plans to

drill up to four wells each on sites near the villages of Elswick and

Little Plumpton. Our Business Correspondent John Moylan is at

Elswick. John, the reaction? Yeah, the reaction is pretty mixed,

really, but it's big news, I guess, in this emerging world of the

fracking industry in Britain and is the first time one of these

companies have said, not only do they intend to drill, but they do

intend to frack and use this controversial fracking process which

is cause controversy in different parts of the world. Last year

Elswick you talk about having sex site in Lancashire but today it was

going to focus on two, but in each of those two site, they want to

drill four Wells each. The importance of that is if we're going

to have viable shale gas industry in the future, to make a difference to

our energy bills, and these could be the sites will we get an idea of

whether this will happen. The company has been leafleting local

people. About 170 homes in the vicinity of the sites. They say they

have had a positive response on the doorstep. The environmental groups

are not positive, not happy about this. Greenpeace told us today

public support for this is flagging. Opposition is mounting. Friends of

the Earth also say plans will be met with stiff opposition by local

people. If the go ahead, it could be fracking in black usher --

Lancashire by next year. John, thank you very much. An inquest has opened

into the death of a female military police officer who was found hanged

after saying she had been raped by two fellow Royal Military Police.

Anne-Marie Ellement surge was being bullied by other soldiers and nobody

believed her allegations. Anne-Marie Ellement was found dead in 2011.

Following severe depression after claiming she'd been raped by two

army colleagues. At today's inquest, her sister Sharon in the

red skirt spoke briefly on the way in. A day of justice. Her other

sister Katrina also stopped. Why was she bullied? Why didn't she get the

care that she needed? When she joined the army, you know, they were

supposed to look after her, just like she was giving them everything

she could possibly do. The inquest heard from members of the Royal

Military Police. In particular, from a female corporal who was the

girlfriend of one of the men accused of raping Anne-Marie Ellement. The

corporal, can't be named for legal reasons, spoke of learning about

boyfriend had had sex with Anne-Marie Ellement. The corporal

said when she heard that she felt anger, frustration and upset towards

Anne Marie. She also said it was possible that she called Anne Marie

a slag and would make her life hell and make a paper watches done. The

coroner then ask the corporal whether she called Anne-Marie

Ellement names? The corporal denied it and the coroner said, it did you

say to her you're the girl who cried rape? The corporal denied it and

said it was not true. The family of Anne-Marie Ellement said that

Corporal and others bullied her in the months before she took her own

life. They also say the army didn't provide an Marie with support after

the alleged rape. Something the Army deny. Being quest continues. The row

over alleged vote rigging by the Unite union in Falkirk has been

reignited. An internal Labour Party report has been leaked which

concludes that there is no doubt that union members were recruited to

the Labour Party in Falkirk without their knowledge. But Unite says

there's no evidence to support the fresh allegations. They are

demanding an independent inquiry. Our Political Correspondent Ben

Wright reports. It's been a long and bitter fight between Labour and its

biggest trade you a back, Unite. Last summer, Labour halted a

selection of its Parliamentary candidate for Falkirk amid

allegations the contest is being fixed by Unite. An internal enquiry

was launched and the party's leader Ed Miliband said it was a sort of

machine politics he wanted to end. Unite has denied doing anything

wrong and the report was never published but now, it has been

leaked to the Guardian newspaper. The 20 page report concludes that

new members were recruited without their knowledge. They were pressured

into competing direct debit forms by Unite. And members were recruited in

an attempt to manipulate party processes. But Unite called the

leaked report a stitch up and a union backed candidate forced to

quit the Falkirk selection race said none of the allegations were

supported by the evidence. As far as I'm concerned, we have a new

candidate, and we are campaigning for a Labour victory at the next

election. For months, Labour has refused to publish its report into

the Falkirk selection saga but today it appears, in a newspaper, just as

the party's National executive meets to discuss changes to Labour's

century-old link to the unions, if the plan was agreed and future trade

unionists were to choose to become individual members of the Labour

Party. Instead of dealing with numbers of levy paying members,

which were pushed around as if they were just numbers on a piece of

paper, actual individuals will now be attached to each local

constituency party. The plan pushed forward by Ed Miliband will to the

process for electing Labour leader scrapped and replaced with one

member, one vote, but the Tories are unimpressed. They simply do not

remove the unions, Unite in particular, who have given ?10

million to Ed Miliband since it became leader. It doesn't remove

them from the process, the setup, and this means more power to the

unions. The facts of what happened in Falkirk are still fiercely

disputed, but a new arrangement between Labour and the unions will

probably be the result. Our Chief Political Correspondent Norman Smith

is in Westminster. How damaging is this report? Sophie, at one level it

is damaging. Today is more about dragon slaying, or the appearance of

it, with Ed Miliband smiting the over mighty union powers, because

surely an extraordinary coincidence that, on the very day Labour's

national executive committee meet to consider the union reforms, Mr

Miliband put together in the wake of Falkirk, this reporter drops from a

clear blue sky, after being locked away for months, enabling Ed

Miliband to metaphorically point to it and say, there is the Dragon of

union power I come to smite. And that certainly is the view of the

unions themselves who believe the supporters been leaked by those

around Ed Miliband, to strengthen his case for reform. Albeit Mr

Miliband's people deny it. Not only other forms likely to be approved by

the NEC, the unions themselves are remarkably relaxed about them. Some

of Ed Miliband's critics wonder if this really was the big shake-up of

the unions, surely they would be putting up a much bigger fight?

Thank you very much. Most local authorities in England are paying

less for home care than the recommended amount. The BBC has

found four councils out of more than 100 who responded paid more than the

?15 per hour suggested. Janet pickles provides much more

than tea to Dennis. The carer gives the widower much-needed support,

including important freedom to stay at home. We are friends, think it is

true to say now, and I welcome her visits. We talk sensibly most of the

time! And it is companionship. Dennis pays for his care so the

company employing Janet can charge and what they think is a fair price

for decent care. But for the many agencies providing care at home to

around half a million people in England, they are being paid by

local authorities and the situation is very different. The UK Homecare

Association calculates councils should pay a minimum of ?15.19 per

hour for decent care. But using Freedom of Information requests,

Radio 4's programme found just four out of 116 councils were paying at

least that figure. Three were paying less than ?10 per hour. This company

refuses to bid for council contracts. It is impossible to

deliver quality care for the hourly rate being offered. We have to cut

to the corners, cram into vehicles, and that is not acceptable. Local

authorities say they have had huge budget cuts in recent years and

spending on local care has been reduced. It is up to each council to

decide how they spend the money. And you can hear more about that

story in the Radio 4 programme this evening at 8pm.

Our top story this lunchtime, with more storms on the way, Prince

Charles visits flood hit communities in Somerset and joined the

Government in promising more money to help it ends.

And still to come, a warning that batteries in mobile phones and

cameras could be a fire risk on board planes.

Later on BBC London, the family of this Luton man who died in police

custody demand answers over his death.

And a surprise win for Chelsea, as they beat Manchester City on home

soil. It is the world's most popular

social networking site, one of the greatest internet success stories of

all time, and today, Facebook is celebrating its 10th birthday. It

was created by a student in his bedroom at Harvard and now more than

750 million people use it everyday. But the road to success has been far

from smooth and some question how long it will survive.

Status update - it is my birthday. After ten years of posting, poking

and sharing, Facebook now has more than a billion users. It has brought

people together all over the world and finally it is making lots of

money. It does it by using your personal information, your likes,

which is how it sells advertising. Facebook office last year were $1.5

billion. I think people have slowly realise we are the product, and that

is slightly disconcerting. That actually the information we are

supplying is what is keeping this going, creating the advert revenue,

the sales, the shares. More and more people are realising that and

feeling more uneasy, possibly leaving for that reason. This is

Facebook's London headquarters. Protecting people's data and

ensuring privacy has become a key issue. Last year they admitted they

had received almost 10,000 requests from American government agencies to

access people's personal information. It is important people

know they are in charge of their data and privacy, so we create the

framework within which people can do this. Are you talking to government

spy agencies? I am not talking to any government agencies... We work

very closely with governments around the world and there are requests

from time to time which we have published and shared with you, and

you have all of that information. We would like government is to be more

open about the information they are cresting because, at the heart of

it, the most important thing for us, as I have said, is to co-operate and

make sure our users are very confident in the platform and how we

protect their data. The content on Facebook can be banal, profound,

heart-warming, sometimes deeply offensive. Some of it is so

offensive, like videos of beheading, that we cannot show it. So what

responsibility does Facebook have for the material that people choose

to post? Is it ever acceptable, for example, to see videos of people

being beheaded? I think we have to understand what Facebook is setting

out to do, and we are very simple in that we are a mission -based

company, and our mission is to make the world more open and connected

and allow people to share information. Anything? To share

information that is relevant to them. But like beheading?! For

people to share information that is important to them. There are some

people, like the Prime Minister, who think that action is irresponsible.

There may be a minefield of privacy and content worries for Facebook on

its 10th birthday, but has proved remarkably enduring and profitable

and is now an essential part of day-to-day life. British military

advice was given to the Indian authorities ahead of the 1984

massacre of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, but it had a limited

impact on the operation, which resulted in up to 3000 deaths.

That is what a UK government investigation has found. Documents

published last month suggested and SAS officer had ordered for the

attack inside the Golden Temple. In a Commons statement, William Hague

said a review had concluded that additional advice had limited

impact. The report finds that the nature of the UK's assistance was

purely advisory, limited and provided to the Indian government at

an early stage, that it had limited impact on the tragic events that

unfolded at the Temple three month later. There was no link between the

provision of this advice and defence sales, and that there is no record

of the government receiving advance notice of the operation. Our

political correspondent is in Westminster, and William Hague was

speaking a short time ago. What did he say? He is still on his feet but

very much stressing the sensitivity of events in Amritsar, which

unleashed a wave of violence across India, and, as he put it, Sikhs

still feel the pain. This was a very thorough investigation and the

Cabinet Secretary looked at 23,000 documents. What he was trying to get

to the bottom of was, why on earth was advice given on the storming of

this temple? He says it was because they request was received and the

British High Commissioner said it would be good for our relationship

with India if we responded. He says a single UK military adviser went to

India for about a week but he says his advice was that any storming of

the temple should only be as a last resort, they should be an element of

surprise to keep casualties to a minimum and helicopters should

possibly be involved, and the UK government should not contemplate

any more sort of assistance beyond that. So that is why they have

concluded it was purely advisory and had a limited impact. But it is

interesting, too, William Hague talking about the strong, positive

relationship between the government and the Sikh community. He says this

report should offer reassurance to them. There is a warning that at in

mobile phones and cameras could be a fire risk on aeroplanes.

That is according to the safety regulator. The Civil Aviation

Authority says powerful lithium batteries can catch fire or explode

if they developed a fault. Our transport correspondent's report

contains some flashing images. They might be small but if they go

wrong, they pack a hell of a punch. The average airliner will have

hundreds of lithium batteries on-board, in our phones, laptops,

cameras and tablets. It's very rare for them to end up like this. We

forced these to fail by heating them up. But Britain's is safety watchdog

has told the BBC it is especially concerned about people flying with

untested counterfeit arteries bought online. Any fire on an aircraft is a

serious incident and it can result in the loss of an aircraft. That is

why it is so important a very stringent international safety

standards are adhered to. When you saw how dramatic that was, it was a

normal laptop artery. There is the before... And there is no after. It

has completely disintegrated. Just imagine something like that

exploding on an aircraft. And batteries have already gone wrong.

In April 2012, a flight attendant on the US aircraft described a shooting

fire in the aisle from a passenger's burning battery. They

managed to put it out with wet towels from the drinks cart. In

September, another flight attendant and two passengers were burnt

dealing with an overcoat overheating -- overheating phone. There have

been similar incidents around the world. The standard procedure for

dealing with this is as follows... This training video is about to go

online so that airport workers and passengers understand the risks.

Still, one testing expert is keen to dampen fears. Most batteries go

through an extensive quality control process. And although they are

putting working to increasing the capacity of these batteries, they

will continue doing work on improving the safety mechanisms

built into them. If you are flying with lithium batteries, the

regulators advise you to take up any exposed metal connectors or put it

in a plastic bag. And always carry them in your hand luggage. 2013 was

the safest year in aviation history. But the threat from fire remains as

great as ever. A fisherman who was washed up in a

boat on an island in the Pacific says he has spent more than a year

adrift at sea. The man thought to be from El Salvador says he is survived

by drinking turtle fish and birds with his bare hands. The man told

officials he had set out from Foucault on a shark fishing trip in

December 2012 but was blown out to sea. -- set out on a shark fishing

trip. Unsteady on his feet and helped by a

nurse, Jose Salvador Albarengo steps of the vote and towards a waiting

ambulance. He was lost at sea for 13 months, drifting across the Pacific,

exposed to the elements. Other than a swollen ankles and a weak immune

system, his health is said to be good. After medical checks, he spoke

about the moment he was washed ashore on a coral.

This is how Jose Salvador Albarengo has told his story. He set out from

a village in Mexico, the vote was blown out to sea, and then an 8000

mile ordeal in which he says a teenage fisherman with him died.

After being rescued on the Marshall Islands, she said thoughts of his

family had kept him going. His sister says their mother never gave

up hope he was still alive. Individual in Mexico where he

worked, a former employer has confirmed he set off on a local boat

in late 2012. -- in the village in Mexico. He was presumed drowned. It

is thought a new world record for the biggest wave ever surfed was set

on Sunday by a plumber from the UK. 34-year-old Andrew Cotton rode the

80 foot wave off the Portuguese coast. He will have to wait until

May for confirmation he has definitely broken the record but he

described the experience as very intimidating, PR and far from

perfect. -- people. Time for the weather.

Hello. We have more pressure of waiting to unleash some wins and

very, very heavy rain. Many of us will see some decent sunny spells

this afternoon as we go through. So let's take a closer look. For

Scotland, a few showers here generally moving to the north-east

of the country as we head to the afternoon. Showers reasonably well

scattered so some sunny spells here as well. Should stay dry in Northern

Ireland and the same, too, across much of England and Wales. In the

sunshine, temperatures in London peaking at around 10 degrees. The

winds. To ramp up across the south-west of England and we are

looking at the next storm system coming in off the Atlantic. This is

the storm system as we have been monitoring it for a few days. Very

deep, low pressure. It spells out more severe gales and heavy rain,

not that we need any more of that. This evening, we will see the winds

gusting to 70 or 80 miles an hour as our band of rain spirals northwards

into Scotland by the end of the night. It will technically be a mild

kind of night but it is the wind and rain that will cause fairly big

concerns over the next few days. The winds will be at their strongest as

they head across the English coast on Wednesday. More wet weather

spiralling in here over Dorset. And we will probably have picked up

another 22 for 30 millimetres of rainfall, bringing more localised

flooding and the wet weather spiralling into Northern Ireland.

Scotland still cold enough for some snow over the tops of the mountains.

So the impact we could see is trees being blown over by 60 mile an hour

gusts inland, the risk of flooding from rain and dangerous conditions

around the coastline, with large and battering waves pounding the shores.

As we head into Thursday, a quiet spell of weather, with the overnight

rain clearing into Scotland, but then another area of low pressure

moving up from the South in the afternoon bringing with it more

rain. So, another 20 to 30 millimetres of rain with this. As we

go through Thursday evening, it is a spec -- it is expected to move

northwards. A stormy spell of weather with no sign of it ending

any time soon. As we go into the weekend, another deep area of low

pressure bringing gales and severe gales and more heavy rain on the

way. A reminder of our main story -

Prince Charles has visited flood hit communities in Somerset and prompted

the government to give more money to help victims. There will be more on

that through the