12/08/2014 BBC News at One

Robin Williams, the American actor and comedian, is found dead at his

home in California - it's thought he took his own life.

The star of countless films was found unconscious by paramedics -

today friends and colleagues rushed to pay tribute to a unique talent.

He was a benchmark and what he did, he did the best.

The comic star struggled with addiction and depression throughout

his life - and spoke freely about his personal demons.

We'll be looking back at his long career and his troubled life.

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq - thousands cross into Syria to flee

These people have walked for days to get here. They are exhausted. Here,

they have been able to get some food. Now, they are looking for

somewhere to stay. World health officials give the

go-ahead for the use of experimental drugs in an effort to battle the

ebola outbreak in West Africa. Investigating the chief constable -

Sir Peter Fahy, Manchester's top policeman, is facing a

criminal inquiry. And is she or isn't she? Experts at

Edinburgh Zoo believe Tian Tian The family of a man from Tooting

who's served his prison sentence in the US for terror offences ask

why he's not yet home. And why the demand for food banks

increases in London in the summer. Good afternoon

and welcome to the BBC News at One. The American actor and comedian

Robin Williams has been found dead at his home in California, having

apparently taken his own life. Robin Williams had

a long career that started with his zany portrayal of an alien in

the 1970s TV show Mork and Mindy. He went on to become famous

for films such as Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poets

Society, and he won an Oscar But he struggled with depression,

and addiction to drugs and alcohol. Our Los Angeles correspondent,

Alastair Leithead, reports. It was this zany alien that

propelled Robin Williams to stardom. Mork and Mindy was a huge TV hit

in the late 1970s and early '80s and he was soon making him

self heard on the big-screen. It won him a Golden Globe

and an Oscar nomination. His versatility and talent

eventually rewarding him with an This might be the one time I'm

speechless. But it is his comic roles he

will be best be remembered for. I specialise in the education

and entertainment of children. He was due to start filming

a follow-up to his famous role Robin Williams was discovered

unconscious and pronounced dead He had struggled with drug

and alcohol addiction He's a comedic legend,

a dramatic legend. World cinema has lost one

of its biggest stars. One only hopes that he's gone to

a good place. Grieving fans came to pay tribute

at his star on Hollywood's He was one

of the greatest men alive. Robin Williams was one of those rare

talents whose work crossed generations from the 1970s of Mork

and Mindy through Mrs Doubtfire, all those characters he created

on screen, on television, and he's someone who from what we have been

hearing from Twitter and from all those comments from around the

world, who will be sorely missed. Alastair Leithead, BBC News, on

Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles. Robin Williams' frenetic energy

and quick wit as a performer masked his personal

troubles off the screen and stage. He battled with drink and drugs in

the 1970s and '80s, and although he managed to overcome his addictions

for 20 years, he eventually returned to them, and was said

by his publicist to have recently Our Arts correspondent, David

Sillito, looks back at his life. This is why I had to give up alcohol

- you have pay the next day! At his peak, his brain could come up with

jokes, characters, situations faster than you could begin to process

them. The phrase used over and over was "manic energy". But those

routines about drink and drugs, he was speaking from real experience.

When people medicate themselves, there are other things, you are

trying to resolve, or trying to shut down. Like I said, with cocaine, it

was to realise the fame is disappearing, to deal with that

loss. In Aladdin they rewrote the film around his exuberant

performance. It was not just a film around his exuberant

quick-fire armour of jokes... His best roles revealed an actor who

seemed to have great lines of emotion below the surface. In recent

months, that sobriety needed some fine-tuning. Often people are

surprised when you see someone who spreads such joy, had bouts of

depression. I understand recently it was severe depression, so much so

that he checked himself back into rehab, just weeks ago. His mother,

he said, had been a drinker. There were childhood experiences he

occasionally referred to, with a shudder. The story of the clown that

is sad or tormented is almost a cliche. Robin Williams was far from

alone. We have had a lot of comedians in the entertainment

industry talk about mental health problems like depression. Some will

say it is a coping strategy. I look at life differently and to help me

get through life I take quite a comedic slant on life. The group

with the highest risk of suicide? It is not comedians. It is middle-aged

men. In July, the last photo he posted was a birthday message, a dad

saying happy birthday to his daughter who he said would always be

his baby girl. Our Arts Editor, Will Gompertz, is

in Edinburgh. How would you assess the legacy of

Robin Williams? Well, he was an extraordinary performer. He

performed here early in his career, in the '70s. What he did was he gave

you everything he had. You were in no doubt that you had the full Robin

Williams. That was an amazing thing to be on the receiving end of,

whether it was in a theatre, or in a cinema. The problem with that, of

course, is it leaves a huge gap for a performer and as we have been

hearing, he replenished that gap with alcohol and with drugs. Not, he

said, because he wanted to get up, but because he wanted to get out,

get down. We saw, as an audience, the manic side of Robin Williams. We

didn't see the depressive side, which he kept secret. I think we did

see a hint of it in his films. As an actor and a comedian, he was able to

go from the funny guy, to a nuanced character actor, like we saw in Good

Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society. We began to see the sensitivity of

the man. Thank you. There is more on this story

on the BBC News website. There you'll find more reaction to

the death of Robin Williams, Several Tornado jets are due to

leave RAF Marham in Norfolk this lunchtime to help

in the humanitarian mission over The planes will carry out

surveillance, to support the aircraft making air

drops of food and water. On the ground, the UN says many

thousands of people remain trapped by Islamist militants, in

the searing heat on Mount Sinjar. Caroline Wyatt has been to a

crossing on the border with Syria, where fleeing refugees have

been arriving. Safe at last, this family escaped

death at the hands of the Islamic state, only to face it again on

Mount Sinjar. There, heat and hunger were the new enemy. These are the

survivors, they crossed over as daylight came. The shock of the

ordeal still raw. Most had to walk through Syria and then back into

northern Iraq, helped by Kurdish fighters from the PKK. People are

desperate to get on these vehicles to try and find some sanctuary

further Cowen in the towns. -- further down in the towns. They have

walked for days to get here. They have been starving, they are

exhausted, but here they have been able to get some food. Now, they are

looking for somewhere to stay. It is unclear where most of them will end

up. They have, in many cases, no final destination. Some have said

they have heard of derelict buildings that they can go and camp

in, so they are going to go and see where they end up. The only thing

they are sure of is that they can't go home. Staying alive was the

priority. Now, it is finding somewhere to sleep and to live.

International aid agencies are here, but the need is overwhelming, as

nearby towns struggle to cope. Many refugees,

members of the minority Yazidi community, remain stranded on

a mountain side in north-west Iraq. They've been without food,

water and shelter for days now, Our correspondent, Jiyar Gol,

travelled to Mount Sinjar on one of the helicopters that's involved

in dropping aid. In a quiet corner of Iraqi

Kurdistan, a couple of old Soviet helicopters are waiting to be

loaded. This is everything the Kurds have. This woman is a British Kurd.

She's only arrived today. We saw lots of displaced Yazidis, it was

horrific to see. And I can't imagine what's waiting there on the

mountains for us to see. After four hours waiting for patrol, the

helicopter finally takes off to Sinjar Mountain. Transporting aid by

road is a dangerous mission. The small helicopter is packed with

food, water and medicine. Islamic State militants control swathes of

land in this region. The crew frequently come under attack. We

were lucky this time. After 14 minutes in the air, we finally

reached them. In the past ten days, tens of thousands of the minority

Yazidi sect are trapped on the mountain. When we try to land, we

were overwhelmed by people trying to jump on board. Just about a dozen

made it out. The fear is with airlifting on this scale, many might

not survive. Days without water and food, these people take what they

can. They have lost many loved ones and hold on to those who remain.

Finally, a safe landing back at the base. Those who made it on to the

helicopter will now head to the relative safety of a refugee camp in

Kurdistan. But this handful were the lucky ones. Just a fraction of the

thousands still suffering fear and despair on the besieged mountain.

Over the last four nights, British forces, along with US air

crews, have dropped food, water and medical supplies to the many people

It's an ongoing operation, and our correspondent, Andrew Plant,

is at an aid storage centre at Kemble airbase in Gloucestershire.

This huge hangar is the main base for UK aid. You can see it's

half-full. Those are not destined for Iraq. This is where the air

drops came from. This whole bottom section here, full of pallets, due

to fly out to northern Iraq yesterday evening. This is what they

were carrying, tarpaulins to shelter people from the extreme heat there.

These water bottles, very important, several thousands of these have

gone, too. These can give people fresh water for up to two years. It

is the basics to keep people alive. Night-time airdrops over northern

Iraq. Hercules sending supplies. You could go there and drink the water.

In this hang-up more than 3000 water containers were loaded into the

airdrops, turning filthy water into drinkable with a fuel pumps the

handle. Dropped into an area with little clean water or food

available. There is limited food. We have heard reports of eating raw

sheep. These supplies will provide the most life-saving issues. Solar

lamps are also inside the airdrops, which can charge mobile phones,

allowing agencies to keep in touch with the people waiting on the

ground. This was the second airdrop. The first was on Saturday.

Sunday's was abandoned over fears supplies could injure people waiting

below. There is a balance between the risks and the accuracy. We take

that carefully into consideration when planning these missions. We

make sure we get it done safely. ?3 million from the government is being

made available to aid organisations on the ground in Iraq, to try to

ease a desperate situation. There are talks going on on how best to

distribute that ?3 million. The two Hercules that blew the aid will not

fly home again. They will be based overseas. This operation has a base

on Cyprus. Airdrops are likely to come now from there. There are also

thousands of refugees gathered in the town Irbil of -- town of Irbil.

How are they coping with the influx? The refugees are not visible

in the city. They seem to melt away in this town and other cities

considered safe in this semi-autonomous Kurdish region of

northern Iraq. Another characteristic that is unique of

this plight of internally displaced and refugees is that they move fast

from one place to another, because of the fast changing situation on

the ground. Nobody seems to understand who controls what close

to the front lines of the battles between the Kurdish fighters on one

side, and the fighters of Islamic State on the other. This ambiguity

translates into people setting up camp in certain areas considered

safe and then going again to other areas of Iraq and some have gone

into Syria, two areas considered safer.

The top story. Robin Williams, the American actor and comedian, is

found dead at his home in California. It is thought he took

his own life. I am in Kent, for a re-creation of the first deployment

of British military aircraft overseas in 1914. On BBC London, Mo

Farah says his tooth led to him missing the Commonwealth Games after

he was airlifted to hospital. And at the Tate, robots are let loose on

500 years of art. The World Health Organisation has

approved the use of experimental drugs to treat victims of the Ebola

virus in West Africa. More than 1000 people have

been killed in the outbreak. The latest victim is a Spanish

priest, who contracted Father Miguel Pajares is

the first European to die Will Ross reports from Lagos

in Nigeria. Miguel Pajares contracted the virus

when working as a missionary in Liberia. He was airlifted to Spain

last week. Reports said he was treated with an experimental drug.

He has died in hospital in Madrid. There have been calls the patients

in West Africa to be given the same drug, Zmapp, which has not yet been

tested on humans. At a meeting in Switzerland, the World Health

Organisation agreed that given the scale of the outbreak the untested

drugs can be used, as long as certain conditions are met, one

being all patients give consent. There was unanimous agreement among

experts that the special circumstances of this outbreak, it

is ethical to offer unregistered intervention as potential treatment

or prevention. The Liberian government said it will get a

limited supply of the drug, which will treat two infected doctors. The

drug is highly unlikely to end the outbreak. What is needed is a

concerted effort to assist the weak health systems in affected

countries, so cases can be identified and patient isolated. So

far the virus has killed 1013 people and infected 1848. What is not known

is how many undetected cases are out there.

Our medical correspondent is with me. How effective might this drug

be? We simply do not know. It is called Zmapp. It is developed by a

Californian company. A combination of three antibodies, derived from

mice and grown in tobacco plants. The aim is that these antibodies

latch onto the surface of the virus and neutralise it, or induce the

body's immune system to attack it. There have been animal trials

involving monkeys which have been partially successful, but no trials

involving humans. Three people were given it on compassionate grounds,

two US aid workers, they are recovering well. And the Spanish

priest, who has died. The World Health Organisation said it is

ethical to use provided patients who are offered it are told and give

consent. The trouble is, it takes a long time, months, to produce the

drug. Perhaps only 20 doses in the world. There are other experimental

drugs in development and two prototypes vaccines. But it will be

a year before they go into early patient trials.

The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter

Fahy, has been told he's facing a criminal investigation over his

role in the handling of inquiries into a suspected sex offender.

It's one of several whistle-blower allegations that

the police watchdog, the IPCC, has been looking into.

How serious is this? Very serious allegations against one of the most

senior police officers. Criminal investigations could go to Sir Peter

Fahy being sacked from his role. It relates to evidence from a

whistle-blower, a serving officer in Greater Manchester Police who made

allegations against senior officers within the force, including

bullying, cronyism. The allegation against Sir Peter Fahy was he was

involved in a poorly handled investigation into a suspected sex

offender who raped a young boy. We have heard from the Police and Crime

Commissioner in Manchester and he explained why he had taken the

decision not to suspend Sir Peter Fahy. On the basis of the

information provided so far by the IPCC, I have no cause to take action

with respect to the Chief Constable. I have asked the IPCC to

update me as the investigation progresses. I will respond

proportionately as that investigation moves forward and that

information is made available. The claims against Sir Peter Fahy, three

senior serving officers within Greater Manchester Police and a

retired officer, will be investigated by the IPCC. We expect

a length investigation. We had a statement from Sir Peter Fahy. He

told the BBC that, as a Chief Constable, you face complex

decisions daily. He said, it is right this decision-making is

scrutinised and I am held to account as part of the investigation.

The past and present will be brought together today to

commemorate 100 years since the first aerial deployment to war .

A replica of a biplane from the First World War and RAF Tornado jets

are due to stage a fly past over the White Cliffs of Dover.

They have just taken off from the Headcorn airfield in Kent,

-- they will take off. We have come here for a glimpse into the earliest

days of military aviation, a time when pilots at to do battle with

primitive machines and, crucially, the weather, just as much as with

the enemy. Buffeted by the wind, a replica World War I biplane arrives

in France. 100 years ago, fragile craft like these future war, the

first overseas deployment of the fledgling Royal air flying Corps. In

conditions like today, it is like a kite in the wind. It bounces around

in the turbulence. It has been a gruelling couple of hours to get

here from Northamptonshire. Aircraft with the sensational new technology

of the age, when the number two Squadron landed in 1913, planes were

mobbed by enthusiasts. This was the first squadron to go abroad, led by

Lieutenant who disobeyed orders and took a short cut to touchdown first

in a French field. He was killed in 1917. Later, the Royal Flying Corps

invented a new form of warfare, the aerial dogfight, with its German

equivalents. The job of the early planes was purely reconnaissance.

The first that touchdown were like this, BE-2s. Their job was to be the

eyes and ears of British expeditionary Force. Their

successors in the modern RAF, they do a similar job, but flying

tornadoes, 20 times heavier and ten times faster. The aircraft have

changed fundamentally, but the mission has not. The mission remains

to protect the nation and allies, where ever they are in the world. As

for the First World War blades, they were flimsy, primitive and slow. But

as they set off for France to BVI in the sky, they showed warfare would

never be the same again. The plan today had been to fly this replica

aircraft to France and meet up with an RAF Tornado over the White Cliffs

of Dover. But it is too windy. This aircraft is not going anywhere and

today it will stay here and try again tomorrow. We expect the

Tornado to fly pass quickly over our heads in the next few minutes. --

fly past. Experts at Edinburgh Zoo believe

their female panda is pregnant and could give birth towards

the end of the month. If Tian Tian does becomes a mother,

it'll be the first time a giant There is much excitement, but is it

true? Panda pregnancies are notoriously difficult to monitor.

The scientific signs point to the fact that Tian Tian is pregnant and

may give birth at the end of the month. If she does, there is the

daddy, Yang Guang, and he is oblivious to the interest in his

female mate's potential pregnancy. What are they doing? They are

monitoring daily her home -- her hormone protein level. She has not

had a scan, because she does not like being handled. She is sleeping

more and said to be eating less. The zoo hope she is nesting. They could

be signs of a false pregnancy. Really, it is the scientific data

they are keeping track of most closely. There is already a

considerable interest in the animals at the Edinburgh zoo. They attract

many hundreds every single day. There is a knot of interest as to

whether there will be a baby panda on the way. We will know for certain

at the end of this month. Time for a look at the weather.

The British Isles weather is still dominated by the remnants of the

hurricane. It will continue to bring breezy and showery weather across

the British Isles the next 24 hours. Bringing colder air South. And

unstable weather overnight tonight passing across central and southern

France. Spare a thought if you think the British ours is having it bad,

for those further south. For the rest of today, a progressively

improved picture on what we had to start the week will stop it will

improve further tomorrow. Today, cloudy in the North. Further south,

decent spells of sunshine. For the rush-hour in Scotland, it is a grey

picture. More persistent rain towards the south. Thicker cloud in

Northern Ireland with outbreaks of rain, but they should be showery.

Further south in England and Wales, decent spells of sunshine and the

best in East Anglia and the south-east, but further west,

thundery showers. The breeze will not be as strong as yesterday. This

evening, we will see many of the showers dying out. More persistent

rain for a while pushing into northern England. What you might

notice by the end the night, things are starting to calm down. The area

of low pressure is further out and that will make a big difference

tomorrow, particularly across Scotland. Lighter winds in general.

More and fewer showers. The best improvement will be to central and

southern Scotland. Tomorrow, in the sunshine, temperatures up to 19

degrees. It is a big leap forward in terms of improvement from today. On

Thursday, widespread showers across the British Isles and on Friday,

they might then out somewhat. Throughout, breezy, and also

starting to feel like autumn. A reminder of the top story. Robin

Williams, the American actor and comedian, is found dead at his home

in California. It is thought he took his own life.