17/03/2014

:00:15. > :00:28.recognise the results. The US and the EU say it was illegal. I will be

:00:29. > :00:31.reporting live from Crimea where the final referendum results show 97% of

:00:32. > :00:35.voters chose to be part of Russia. Also this lunchtime: 26 countries

:00:36. > :00:37.have now been asked to help join the search for the missing Malaysia

:00:38. > :00:40.Airlines jet which disappeared ten days ago. Speed things up, the boss

:00:41. > :00:44.of HS2 tells politicians building work on the northern section of the

:00:45. > :00:46.rail line should be ready six years sooner. Convicted Mafia boss

:00:47. > :00:49.Domenico Rancadore, nicknamed "the professor", goes back to his London

:00:50. > :00:57.home after a court ruled he will not be extradited back to Italy. The

:00:58. > :01:07.Cook Clarissa Dixon Wright, who found fame as one of the Two Fat

:01:08. > :01:10.Ladies, has died at the age of 66. Later on BBC London: The Transport

:01:11. > :01:17.Secretary backs plans for a bigger Euston station as part of HS2. And a

:01:18. > :01:18.court hears how PC Blakes Lock's attackers passed around his helmet

:01:19. > :01:37.like a trophy. Good afternoon and welcome to the

:01:38. > :01:40.BBC News at One. Crimea's Parliament has formally declared independence

:01:41. > :01:43.from Ukraine and asked to join the Russian Federation. It follows

:01:44. > :01:45.yesterday's controversial referendum which officials say overwhelmingly

:01:46. > :01:52.backed leaving Ukraine, but it is not clear how many people actually

:01:53. > :01:54.voted. The Government in Kiev says it will not recognise the results,

:01:55. > :02:00.the interim prime minister calling the vote a circus performance. The

:02:01. > :02:05.US and EU say the vote was illegal and have vowed to impose sanctions

:02:06. > :02:15.on Moscow. Live now to Simferopol and our correspondent Ben Brown.

:02:16. > :02:20.Yes, Simon, as soon as that referendum result came through MPs

:02:21. > :02:27.here at the Crimean parliament took a vote to break away from Ukraine

:02:28. > :02:31.and to become part of Russia. A delegation of Parliamentary leaders,

:02:32. > :02:35.including the Prime Minister, have now left the parliament and are on

:02:36. > :02:42.their way to Moscow to discuss annexation. It could all happen

:02:43. > :02:47.pretty quickly. They partied into the early hours of this morning.

:02:48. > :02:53.Ethnic Russians who believe in their words Crimea is going home to the

:02:54. > :02:58.Russian motherland. Much of the world may have denounced their

:02:59. > :03:05.controversial referendum. Here they celebrated it. 97% were in favour of

:03:06. > :03:09.absorption into Russia. TRANSLATION: It is a festival, it is happiness,

:03:10. > :03:16.it is a time for joy, we are coming home. I think there is a great and

:03:17. > :03:21.huge future ahead for us together with the Russian Federation and I

:03:22. > :03:27.can see a future for my children and grandchildren. In the Parliament

:03:28. > :03:30.Crimean MPs wasted no time. Right after the final referendum results

:03:31. > :03:35.they declared independence from Ukraine and voted to formally ask

:03:36. > :03:39.Russia to annex their peninsular. This place is already beginning to

:03:40. > :03:45.feel less and less Ukrainian. They have changed street signs into

:03:46. > :03:49.Russian. Within a few weeks it is expected they will change the

:03:50. > :03:54.currency into the Russian ruble and even to switch to the Moscow Times

:03:55. > :04:02.own. In Kiev there was no surprise at the referendum result, but plenty

:04:03. > :04:07.of dismay. TRANSLATION: What can I say? It is the same band again which

:04:08. > :04:12.is lying, stealing and it is criminal. I think this referendum is

:04:13. > :04:16.illegal. All the world, the Ukrainians and our Government do not

:04:17. > :04:22.recognise it and a minority of Crimean 's want to live in Russia.

:04:23. > :04:27.Ukraine has lost Crimea, that much is clear, but what now of other

:04:28. > :04:33.parts of the country like Donetsk in the East with a large Russian

:04:34. > :04:36.population? They are restless as well. These Russian protesters

:04:37. > :04:42.attacked Government buildings over the weekend. The great fear in Kiev

:04:43. > :04:46.is that President Putin may not stop at Crimea, but may ultimately move

:04:47. > :04:53.his troops into the east of Ukraine as well. The European Union has

:04:54. > :04:59.decided to punish Russia for what it has done here in Crimea. EU foreign

:05:00. > :05:02.ministers have been meeting in Brussels to discuss sanctions.

:05:03. > :05:08.Matthew Price is therefore as this lunchtime. What have they decided?

:05:09. > :05:13.Breaking news, foreign ministers have decided that 21 Russian and

:05:14. > :05:19.Crimean officials will be subject to restrictions. They will not be able

:05:20. > :05:23.to come to the European Union. Any assets they hold in European Union

:05:24. > :05:28.institutions will be frozen. That will happen in the next few hours,

:05:29. > :05:32.certainly by tomorrow morning. One source told me they hoped it would

:05:33. > :05:38.start the knees knocking in Russia and would make Russia realise its

:05:39. > :05:42.actions have consequences. So far European pressure has not

:05:43. > :05:59.persuaded Russia to back down. Will today be any different? In Brussels

:06:00. > :06:01.the frustration with Moscow is building. Listen to the barely

:06:02. > :06:03.disguised contempt from the EU's top policy official. The top of our

:06:04. > :06:06.agenda will be the situation in Ukraine to look at the results of

:06:07. > :06:07.the so-called referendum. It is illegal under the Constitution of

:06:08. > :06:11.Ukraine and under international law. Events on the ground in Crimea

:06:12. > :06:16.are forcing the EU to consider tougher measures. But as the fallout

:06:17. > :06:20.from the old Cold War splinters Ukraine two decades on, fears of a

:06:21. > :06:26.new Cold War between East and West means some in the EU are reluctant

:06:27. > :06:30.to push Russia too hard. How far will they go? It is likely they will

:06:31. > :06:42.end the day with a list of people who will be banned from travelling

:06:43. > :06:44.to the EU and have any EU -based bank accounts they hold frozen. We

:06:45. > :06:46.are also prepared to move to further measures and there will be long-term

:06:47. > :06:52.consequences for Russia if they continue to approach things in this

:06:53. > :06:56.way. In Washington similar measures are also likely. Russia has

:06:57. > :07:01.threatened to retaliate with like-for-like sanctions. Everyone is

:07:02. > :07:06.calling for de-escalation, but the diplomatic temperature is rising.

:07:07. > :07:12.They started the day with more than 100 on the list and ended up with

:07:13. > :07:16.just 21. It seems as though some of the voices of moderation in the

:07:17. > :07:21.European Union are winning out. They want to take this slowly and they

:07:22. > :07:27.want to send a message. Thank you very much indeed. Crimea

:07:28. > :07:32.is a pretty small place, a population of just over 2 million

:07:33. > :07:36.people, but it has sparked off the biggest crisis in East -West

:07:37. > :07:41.relations since the end of the Cold War.

:07:42. > :07:46.26 countries are now involved in the search for missing flight MH 370 as

:07:47. > :07:51.confusion still surrounds the circumstances in which it

:07:52. > :07:56.disappeared ten days ago. The search area now extends from Central Asia

:07:57. > :08:02.to the Indian Ocean. Each state continues to bring new details of

:08:03. > :08:08.the Boeing 77 seven's last contact, but with them are as many new

:08:09. > :08:12.questions. Jonah Fisher is in Kuala Lumpur. The information from the

:08:13. > :08:15.Malaysian officials has been confusing and sometimes

:08:16. > :08:19.contradictory, but today we came the closest we have come so far to

:08:20. > :08:24.discovering who was controlling this plane when it veered off its course.

:08:25. > :08:30.These are believed to be the last images of the pilots of flight MH

:08:31. > :08:36.370 as they passed through security in Kuala Lumpur. Their roles in the

:08:37. > :08:40.plane's disappearance once again in the spotlight. At the centre of the

:08:41. > :08:44.investigation the exact sequence of events in the cockpit in the early

:08:45. > :08:49.hours of that fateful Saturday morning. We already knew the final

:08:50. > :08:54.words from the plane when it went silent and turned west were all

:08:55. > :08:58.right, good night. Now the investigation team has announced

:08:59. > :09:06.they believe it was first officer Zaharie Ahmad Shah who said those

:09:07. > :09:13.words. The initial investigation indicates it was the co-pilot who

:09:14. > :09:17.spoke the last time. The Malaysians are still far from clear as to

:09:18. > :09:21.exactly the sequence in which communication is on board were

:09:22. > :09:26.turned off. Two minutes after the good night message they say the

:09:27. > :09:30.transponder was switched off. Whoever was flying the plane did not

:09:31. > :09:36.sign in with Vietnamese air traffic control and the plane turned to the

:09:37. > :09:42.West. The first officer's name first came up in this operation when two

:09:43. > :09:46.women said they spent time with him in the cockpit floating and smoking

:09:47. > :09:50.cigarettes on another flight. But there is little in his background to

:09:51. > :09:56.suggest a man capable of hijacking a plane. Passengers have also come

:09:57. > :10:00.under renewed scrutiny, in particular those who might know how

:10:01. > :10:08.to disable a plane's communication system. 129-year-old engineer for a

:10:09. > :10:13.private aviation company is one who fits that profile. His father is

:10:14. > :10:20.sure his son is not involved and still clings to the hope he might be

:10:21. > :10:25.found alive. TRANSLATION: People can say what they want about my son, I

:10:26. > :10:32.do not care. He is my son and I know he is not involved. New maps today

:10:33. > :10:37.show the area being searched extended further. It could be near

:10:38. > :10:42.the Caspian Sea or to the south just off the coast of Antarctica. Despite

:10:43. > :10:47.a huge multinational effort the mystery of what happened to flight

:10:48. > :10:53.MH 370 is still a long way from being solved. So this complex

:10:54. > :10:59.investigation continues on two France, firstly trying to find

:11:00. > :11:02.somewhere where the aircraft is, and increasingly difficult task, and

:11:03. > :11:06.secondly trying to piece together all those events inside the plane on

:11:07. > :11:11.that fateful Saturday morning. You can keep up to the date with the

:11:12. > :11:19.mystery of the missing flight by watching the news channel and there

:11:20. > :11:23.is an analysis on the BBC website. Sir David Higgins, the new head of

:11:24. > :11:27.the high-speed rail project HS2 has called for work to be speeded up so

:11:28. > :11:32.the line from London to the North of England can be completed six years

:11:33. > :11:35.ahead of the original schedule. But opponents of the scheme have

:11:36. > :11:41.questioned how easy it will be to be able to speed up construction.

:11:42. > :11:45.It is still years away, but the man in control wants to speed up

:11:46. > :11:51.delivery of this project. Phase one of the scheme from London to

:11:52. > :11:56.Birmingham is due to be completed by 2026. So David Higgins says phase

:11:57. > :12:00.two should be speeded up with the line to crew completed just one year

:12:01. > :12:05.later, six years earlier than planned. Both branches of the

:12:06. > :12:11.northern section will be finished by 2030, that is three years ahead of

:12:12. > :12:14.schedule. If done right, High Speed two can provide an answer that

:12:15. > :12:19.stands the test of time and addresses the issue of congestion in

:12:20. > :12:24.the south and lack of connectivity to the North. The costs have to be

:12:25. > :12:30.recognised and acknowledged and so too does the cost and impact of

:12:31. > :12:34.doing nothing. Crewe station will be a major hub with services from other

:12:35. > :12:40.parts of the North feeding into the root, welcome news for some

:12:41. > :12:45.businesses. London receives a tremendous amount of investment and

:12:46. > :12:48.infrastructure and having HS2 is a start to close that divide and it is

:12:49. > :12:53.something businesses in the North needs to be able to compete with

:12:54. > :12:59.their counterparts in London and in Europe. But Phil Smallwood takes a

:13:00. > :13:03.different view. His family have kept cattle in Cheshire for 60 years, the

:13:04. > :13:09.route goes straight through their farm. We have decided amongst

:13:10. > :13:16.ourselves, myself and my neighbours, you can reckon 6000 litres of milk

:13:17. > :13:22.is lost per acre of land that is taken. It will finish me off. There

:13:23. > :13:28.was opposition outside today's meeting. If this revised schedule is

:13:29. > :13:35.approved, these protesters will have less time to fight the plans. Our

:13:36. > :13:40.chief political correspondent Norman Smith is in Westminster. I suppose

:13:41. > :13:46.so David Higgins is saying, cut the waffle, get on with it.

:13:47. > :13:50.He is. He is saying the problem is not a money problem, a transport

:13:51. > :13:55.problem, it is the politicians, it is the failure to reach agreement to

:13:56. > :13:59.give it the go-ahead and approved the necessary legislation that is

:14:00. > :14:04.deterring investors and which is delaying a meaningful start date and

:14:05. > :14:08.which is driving the costs up. He was appealing for an end to

:14:09. > :14:13.political uncertainty and he wants to get Labour on board by getting

:14:14. > :14:19.the line into the North sooner into Labour constituencies and Labour

:14:20. > :14:23.local authorities. But his difficulty is this place, the

:14:24. > :14:27.legislative architecture of Parliament is an absolute gift for

:14:28. > :14:32.politicians who want to snarl and slow up the whole process. All the

:14:33. > :14:38.signs are the legislation to approve HS2 will not get through until after

:14:39. > :14:43.the election. A former Tory whip has told a jury

:14:44. > :14:47.that the MP Nigel Evans was told a complaint from an alleged victim was

:14:48. > :14:53.a very serious matter and he should apologise. John Randall told Preston

:14:54. > :15:00.Crown Court that he had admitted making a pass on a constituent in

:15:01. > :15:06.his home. Danny Savage is outside the court for us.

:15:07. > :15:11.Once again the event in court today have focused on a weekend in July,

:15:12. > :15:16.2009, when this alleged victim said he was sexually assaulted by Nigel

:15:17. > :15:22.Evans at his constituency home in Pendleton in Lancashire. That young

:15:23. > :15:25.man returned to Westminster and complained to Tory party managers

:15:26. > :15:28.about what had happened and there was a hastily arranged meeting

:15:29. > :15:42.between this man and Tory party whips. He said that Mr Evans had

:15:43. > :15:47.come down and got under the blanket with him. We asked him what he had

:15:48. > :15:52.wanted to happen, the young man who says he was the victim. He said that

:15:53. > :15:57.Nigel Evans should stand down at the next election, get help for his

:15:58. > :16:11.drinking and come out as being gay. They then did meet with Nigel Evans,

:16:12. > :16:18.and he admitted he had made a drunken pass, admitted the

:16:19. > :16:20.allegations and apologised. Our top story this lunchtime: Crimea's

:16:21. > :16:25.parliament formally declares independence from Ukraine. The

:16:26. > :16:28.government in Kiev says it will not recognise the results.

:16:29. > :16:33.And still to come - why you'll have to look a little harder to see the

:16:34. > :16:39.smallest planet in space. Later on BBC London: Shut the B taking French

:16:40. > :16:44.lessons? Could they learn from Parisian measures to cut pollution?

:16:45. > :16:49.And we speak to the eight-year-olds running their own restaurant.

:16:50. > :16:53.After 13 years and the loss of 448 British service personnel, the UK's

:16:54. > :16:58.military role in Afghanistan is coming to an end. All but two

:16:59. > :17:03.military bases in Southern Afghanistan have now been closed or

:17:04. > :17:06.handed over. At the height of the war there were 137 British bases,

:17:07. > :17:11.but all that remains now are the hub - Camp Bastion - and an observation

:17:12. > :17:24.post nearby. Our defence correspondent Jonathan Beale is in

:17:25. > :17:32.Helmand. You can really sense the difference here at Camp Bastion. It

:17:33. > :17:38.was once a bustling military hub, but if you look around you will see

:17:39. > :17:44.vast empty spaces where military equipment was once stationed. There

:17:45. > :17:47.are still 4000 British troops in Helmand but they are focusing very

:17:48. > :17:53.much on the next stage of the mission, which is going home. From

:17:54. > :17:56.dust to dust, this was Camp Price, once a large British base. Diggers

:17:57. > :18:02.and saws are now the soldiers' weapons. They've even taken the

:18:03. > :18:07.concrete barriers that stood as makeshift memorials to fallen

:18:08. > :18:12.comrades. I am now currently dreaming of iso-containers. There

:18:13. > :18:16.have been so many here every day, we are sending out 20, 30 day at the

:18:17. > :18:20.moment and it is a nightmare. ?? WHITE But the British are leaving

:18:21. > :18:28.while the fighting continues. Listen carefully and you can hear gunfire

:18:29. > :18:31.in the distance. These soldiers on their last patrol are still dressed

:18:32. > :18:39.for combat, and they are still weary, but there is relief that they

:18:40. > :18:42.will soon be home. It is somebody else's nation and I'm happy that

:18:43. > :18:48.they are in a better place now, but for me it is just job done and get

:18:49. > :18:52.on. I don't think I will be sad to go, no. I'll miss the sun and that's

:18:53. > :18:55.probably about it, I'm afraid. The end is getting nearer. This is one

:18:56. > :18:59.of the last military convoys bringing back kit to Camp Bastion.

:19:00. > :19:05.The British presence is slowly being erased, so what is the legacy they

:19:06. > :19:10.leave behind? I only wish that people at home could see the changes

:19:11. > :19:13.that I have seen. I think they would feel a lot better about the

:19:14. > :19:21.investment and the work we have done here. But the British military can

:19:22. > :19:25.give no guarantees for the future. They will soon all be out, with no

:19:26. > :19:37.one left behind to see what happens next. 448 British soldiers have lost

:19:38. > :19:40.their lives in Afghanistan and you won't hear military commanders

:19:41. > :19:44.saying this is mission accomplished. They say there is

:19:45. > :19:49.still a lot of work to be done. Time is running out and buy won't be any

:19:50. > :19:54.British residents here by the end of this year. Thank you.

:19:55. > :19:57.A convicted Mafia boss who's been living in London for 20 years has

:19:58. > :20:00.won his battle against extradition back to Italy. Domenico Rancadore,

:20:01. > :20:02.who's known as The Professor, was arrested in Uxbridge last year,

:20:03. > :20:05.where he was living under the assumed name of Marc Skinner, with

:20:06. > :20:12.his wife and two children. Clive Coleman reports. Oxbridge in

:20:13. > :20:16.suburban west London, the last place you would expect to find a member of

:20:17. > :20:23.the Sicilian Mafia. Domenico Rancadore, the man whose crime

:20:24. > :20:30.family the Italian police say were involved in extortion racketeering

:20:31. > :20:38.and drug trafficking. Since 1993 he had been living here under the name

:20:39. > :20:43.of Marc Skinner. He was known as The Professor, and in 1999 he was

:20:44. > :20:48.convicted in his absence of being a Mafia associate and sentenced to

:20:49. > :20:52.seven years. Domenico Rancadore's quiet suburban life came to an

:20:53. > :20:57.abrupt end last August when police arrived here with an arrest warrant.

:20:58. > :21:03.He has been fighting extradition until today. The district judge told

:21:04. > :21:07.the court he had originally decided to order Domenico Rancadore's

:21:08. > :21:11.extradition. Satisfied with assurances from the Italian

:21:12. > :21:15.authorities about its prison system. But in a dramatic turnaround he said

:21:16. > :21:21.a judgement from the High Court last week meant that those assurances

:21:22. > :21:26.were now simply too vague. The general assurance as to where

:21:27. > :21:29.Domenico Rancadore would be held is insufficient and because of the

:21:30. > :21:32.problems they have in their prison system, they must give specific

:21:33. > :21:40.assurances as to where people will be held. The Italian authorities say

:21:41. > :21:44.they intend to appeal. Meanwhile Domenico Rancadore's British wife

:21:45. > :21:49.left court to arrange a security payment, that is one of the bail

:21:50. > :22:02.conditions under which her convicted Mafia husband can now return to his

:22:03. > :22:05.quiet life in Uxbridge. The jury in the Oscar Pistorius

:22:06. > :22:08.trial has been told the Olympian had good knowledge of the rules on gun

:22:09. > :22:11.use and dealing with intruders. A firearms instructor who taught

:22:12. > :22:13.Pistorius and sold him weapons has been giving evidence. Mr Pistorius

:22:14. > :22:16.denies murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last year, saying he

:22:17. > :22:24.mistook her for an intruder. Let's get more from our correspondent,

:22:25. > :22:33.Andrew Harding. An interesting day in court and is it kicked off we saw

:22:34. > :22:36.Reeva Steenkamp's mother there for the second time and it seemed there

:22:37. > :22:41.was a fleeting acknowledgement between her and Oscar Pistorius as

:22:42. > :22:48.she sat down. Yesterday we saw blood splatters across Oscar Pistorius's

:22:49. > :22:53.bed, but the key thing today was this man who trained Oscar Pistorius

:22:54. > :22:56.how to handle guns. He read from a questionnaire that Oscar Pistorius

:22:57. > :23:02.had filled in giving various scenarios about when it was

:23:03. > :23:06.appropriate to fire your gun on an intruder and Oscar Pistorius made it

:23:07. > :23:11.clear he understood it was only appropriate when intruders were in

:23:12. > :23:14.his house, they were visible, approaching him under threat. Two

:23:15. > :23:19.other questions he answered that it would not be appropriate to fire on

:23:20. > :23:23.intruders. The prosecution clearly trying to show that Oscar Pistorius

:23:24. > :23:31.must have known what he was doing on that night was wrong.

:23:32. > :23:34.The way deaths in police custody in England and Wales are investigated

:23:35. > :23:36.is to change - to give bereaved families more involvement in the

:23:37. > :23:39.process, and more support. The Independent Police Complaints

:23:40. > :23:41.Commission carried out a review after complaints that investigations

:23:42. > :23:43.weren't thorough enough, took too long and appeared to treat police

:23:44. > :23:46.favourably. Here's our Home Affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw.

:23:47. > :23:50.Who polices the police? For a decade it has been the IPCC, a body made up

:23:51. > :23:55.of former police officers and civilians. Too often it has been

:23:56. > :24:02.found lacking so now it says it is changing. One of the things we are

:24:03. > :24:08.doing is putting in more support into training. Anyone who thinks

:24:09. > :24:12.doing the job of investigating the police is easy ought to try doing it

:24:13. > :24:18.and we need to make sure we've got those systems in place. It is in the

:24:19. > :24:24.cases of people who died in police custody, people like Sean Rigg,

:24:25. > :24:29.where the IPCC has come in for most criticism. It found that police used

:24:30. > :24:34.proportional restraint against Sean Rigg. It took his family and a

:24:35. > :24:39.charity to suggest otherwise. His sister took part in the recent

:24:40. > :24:45.review of how the IPCC could improve. I have no faith whatsoever

:24:46. > :24:49.in the police system and the complaints system. So far they have

:24:50. > :24:55.not been fit for purpose and we have been vindicated by these reports

:24:56. > :25:03.that prove that. Now it is a defining time, a critical point for

:25:04. > :25:05.the IPCC to prove themselves. In 2011 communication failures

:25:06. > :25:14.following the shooting of Mark Duggan were blamed for sparking the

:25:15. > :25:20.Tottenham riots. Since then the IPCC has also been given extra powers but

:25:21. > :25:25.admitted more is needed. The commission says it needs to deal

:25:26. > :25:29.more sensitively with relatives, improving communication, but it has

:25:30. > :25:33.to strike a balance because its investigations need to be

:25:34. > :25:36.independent not just of the police but of complainants and their

:25:37. > :25:41.relatives as well. The report addresses the most inane criticism

:25:42. > :25:46.that it is not independent enough of the police. Labour has previously

:25:47. > :25:55.called for the IPCC to be scrapped and replaced. Reform is crucial to

:25:56. > :25:59.its survival. The smallest planet in our solar

:26:00. > :26:02.system is getting even smaller. A NASA mission has revealed that

:26:03. > :26:05.Mercury has shrunk as it has cooled over time, almost nine miles in

:26:06. > :26:08.diameter since it was formed more than four billion years ago, and the

:26:09. > :26:10.planet's surface has been cracking and wrinkling in the process. Our

:26:11. > :26:13.Science Correspondent Pallab Ghosh has more. The planet Mercury,

:26:14. > :26:17.dwarfed by the sun. It is the smallest planet in our solar system

:26:18. > :26:22.and over the years, it has become smaller. NASA's Messenger spacecraft

:26:23. > :26:27.has spent the past three years photographing the planet. And this

:26:28. > :26:33.is the result, the first complete picture of Mercury. On the ground,

:26:34. > :26:37.chemicals, known as volatiles, that simply shouldn't be there anymore.

:26:38. > :26:40.Now, NASA has published, in the journal Nature Geoscience, that the

:26:41. > :26:47.planet has shrunk by 4.5 miles from its centre to the surface. We are

:26:48. > :26:50.learning more every month, we are nearly three years into NASA's

:26:51. > :26:54.orbital mission around Mercury and there's still a year to go. And I

:26:55. > :27:00.think there are more surprises to come. I am staggered already, it is

:27:01. > :27:03.rich in volatile elements that it shouldn't have, it has recent

:27:04. > :27:07.volcanic activity, it has ice in the craters near the poles and it is

:27:08. > :27:12.shrinking, as we expected - but in ways we hadn't expected. I am sure

:27:13. > :27:16.there is more to come. The mission is showing that what many thought to

:27:17. > :27:18.be the dullest planet in our solar system is more interesting and

:27:19. > :27:34.interesting than astronomers had imagined.

:27:35. > :27:38.The celebrity cook Clarissa Dickson Wright, who found fame on television

:27:39. > :27:41.as one half of the Two Fat Ladies, has died at the age of 66. Our Arts

:27:42. > :27:53.Correspondent David Sillito has more. Clarissa Dickson Wright was

:27:54. > :27:58.best known to the world as one of the Two Fat Ladies. In the sidecar

:27:59. > :28:03.next to Jennifer Paterson, TV brought the unlikely duo together.

:28:04. > :28:10.They're cooking was as old school as their attitudes and they were a hit

:28:11. > :28:14.around the world. She had, as you could perhaps guess from her bearing

:28:15. > :28:19.in her lengthy name, come from a wealthy background. Her father had

:28:20. > :28:30.been a surgeon to the Royal family and he was also a violent drunk, she

:28:31. > :28:35.said. Her size, her straight talking, she was scornful of health

:28:36. > :28:40.targets and a supporter of hunting. She was as far from the typical TV

:28:41. > :28:50.presenter as you could get, which is probably why she was so popular.

:28:51. > :28:54.Clarissa Dickson Wright, who has died at the age of 66. Let's catch

:28:55. > :29:03.up with the weather forecast. up with the

:29:04. > :29:08.Slow changes with the weather this week, but just a cautionary note,

:29:09. > :29:16.sunshine and light winds are not always without their perils. This

:29:17. > :29:21.picture taken in Paris where smog has been caused by sunshine and

:29:22. > :29:27.light winds, which has been caused by this area of high pressure which

:29:28. > :29:34.has been dominating across France, Iberia and the rest of the UK. Some

:29:35. > :29:37.rain across the Northern Isles of Scotland and a scattering of

:29:38. > :29:42.showers, but for most of England and Wales it is another fine day. Still

:29:43. > :29:44.some sunshine lifting the temperature is another fine day.

:29:45. > :29:50.Still some sunshine lifting the temperatures may be not to 20

:29:51. > :29:55.Celsius but brightening up. Like yesterday around these western

:29:56. > :30:00.coasts, it may stay rather gloomy. Elsewhere, a bit of sunshine lifting

:30:01. > :30:04.temperatures. Sunshine across eastern Scotland, a sprinkling of

:30:05. > :30:08.showers in western Scotland and Northern Ireland, and here overnight

:30:09. > :30:12.we will see the breeze picking up. We will also see those showers

:30:13. > :30:19.gathering together and it could turn wet over Northern Ireland by the end

:30:20. > :30:22.of the night. Becoming cloudy, and also becoming breezy with a

:30:23. > :30:28.combination of cloud and breeze meaning it will not be a cold night.

:30:29. > :30:35.Temperatures will certainly be frost free to start tomorrow. Generally

:30:36. > :30:38.tomorrow across the UK there will be that stronger breeze blowing and

:30:39. > :30:44.some showers, which could be heavy and possibly even thundery. You can

:30:45. > :30:49.see this band really fizzles out as it gets to the east and the south so

:30:50. > :30:55.many here having another dry day. Far from dry in the north with heavy

:30:56. > :30:59.downpours coming through. Temperatures still reaching double

:31:00. > :31:04.figures widely. Feeling a bit cooler than today because of the breeze,

:31:05. > :31:09.which is still in evidence on Wednesday, when temperatures jump up

:31:10. > :31:18.again. More cloud in the west, and the rain likely to put up late in

:31:19. > :31:21.the day across north-west Scotland. Still some uncertainty about this

:31:22. > :31:26.weather front as it drives south but it could well bring some heavy rain

:31:27. > :31:31.across England and Wales on Thursday, though it may not reach

:31:32. > :31:39.the south-east until Friday. Further north, showing signs of turning

:31:40. > :31:41.colder once more. The Crimean parliament has declared the region

:31:42. > :31:42.an independent state and