12/02/2018 BBC News at One

Oxfam is in crisis talks

with the Government over the scandal

of aid workers using prostitutes

in Haiti, seven years ago.

The International Development

Secretary at the time says

the charity didn't explain the full

extent of what happened.

I think Oxfam were economical

with the truth

about what they were investigating.

They may well have stuck

by the letter of the rules

but they certainly did not

stick by the spirit.

The Government is now threatening

to cut funding to Oxfam,

of more than £30 million.

We will have reaction from Haiti.

Also this lunchtime:

Three Britons killed

in the helicopter crash

in the Grand Canyon,

have been named.

Theresa May and the Irish Prime

Minister are in Belfast,

amid new hopes power sharing can be

restored at Stormont.

There are new details

of Prince Harry's wedding

to Meghan Markel, including

a carriage procession

through the centre of Windsor.

And the first pictures have been

released of an iceberg, that's

broken away from the Antarctic ice

sheet, and it's four times

the size of London.

Coming up in the sport on BBC news,

high winds cause big problems for

the women's slopestyle. Amy Fuller

from Great Britain crashes and

finishes 17th.

Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC News at One.

Senior officials from Oxfam

are in emergency talks today

with the International Development

Secretary, to try to prevent

Government funding being cut,

following the scandal involving some

of its aid workers and prostitutes.

It's claimed the charity failed

to give the Government full

details of what happened,

in the wake of the devastating

earthquake in Haiti in 2010.

Oxfam denies there's

been a cover up.

Matt Cole reports.

In the worst imaginable

circumstances, Oxfam staff were

meant to be in Haiti to help. It's

now clear son had a very different

agenda. Amidst claims of sex parties

and prostitutes, Oxfam sacked four

staff and allowed three others to

quit including their country

director who went on to secure work

with another aid organisation. Oxfam

denies it has covered up what

happened but now it has emerged the

international of element secretary

wants answers about the way it

handled the case.

We are talking

about an historic case but it is

common in some respects, still live.

They still have information they

should be giving to the authorities.

It is to the department here that

Oxfam's leaders were summoned to

make their case to the Secretary of

State following her threats to cut

millions of pounds of funding if she

didn't like their answers. But there

are also questions for the Charity

Commission which regulates these

matters, not least how much it new

and why didn't do more.

They did say

they were investigating some

allegations of sexual misconduct.

So

why wasn't that looked into further?

Because what was not clear was the

extent and seriousness of those,

which, as I've said, they assured

us, in fact, they categorically said

there was no allegations of abuse of

beneficiaries.

Andrew Mitchell was

the International Development

Secretary when all this took place.

I think Oxfam were economical with

the truth about what they were

investigating. They may well have

stuck by the letter of the rules,

but they certainly did not stick by

the spirit. After all, one of the

big changes we made in 2010 was to

introduce much greater transparency

and openness into the way

international development takes

place. I'm afraid Oxfam were very

clearly in breach of that at the

time.

There are also questions for

civil servants here, after another

former Secretary of State, Priti

Patel suggested they dismissed her

efforts to question how wide a

problem sexual abuse and predatory

behaviour is in the charity sector.

Haiti Save the Children has vomited

it had 31 claims of sexual

harassment last year but if says

everyone must do more.

I will not

sit here pretending you can wave a

magic wand and eliminate all risk

tomorrow. I can assure the British

public and the British public and

the people who are ultimately

responsible for... These vulnerable

women and children, that we will

give this our best shot.

Oxfam says

it has now put new safeguarding

measures in place including tougher

vetting of staff. Other charities

are calling for a new sector wide

passport that workers can take from

agency to agency to verify they are

suitable and saved to be trusted

helping those most in need.

Our Diplomatic Correspondent

James Landale is here.

James, to be clear, it's not just

Oxfam facing a crisis with the

government over funding over

allegations of sexual misconduct?

The government has made it very

clear that they are going to write

to all charities that receive public

funding to say, look, do you have

any allegations of abuse? Within

your own organisation and also what

safeguards do you have in place and

at the government is not satisfied,

they will also have the threat of

losing their public funding hanging

over them. There's clearly a

specific issue relation to

charities. The Charity Commission,

the body that regulates the sector

said this morning, they know of 1000

cases at the moment. That's not just

the aid sector that the whole

charitable sector. The prime Mr's

official spokesman in this morning

was clear. They said the government

has to do more -- the Prime

Minister's official spokesman. For

the charity to toughen up their

procedures, vetting and recruitment,

to ensure that people who have

positions of authority, money or

because they have some kind of

authority over vulnerable people who

are being helped by the charities,

do not have the opportunity for

these kind of cases do take place

again.

Thank you.

-- to take place

again.

Our correspondent Will Grant

is in Haiti - he explained

that the aid sector will need

to work very hard to rebuild trust

within the country.

By and large, the reaction

in Haiti to the Oxfam

scandal has been twofold.

On the one hand, there is deep

anger, resentment at the fact

that this organisation,

ostensibly here to help

the country's most vulnerable

after the 2010 earthquake,

ended up exploiting

those people, instead.

And there is a certain

degree of resignation.

People here say that

the sorts of abuses that

are happening were well known.

We have reached out to people

in the charity sector who say

they had certainly heard

the rumours, and they point

to a wider culture

of abuse they say has been happening

among international organisations.

They point at the UN

peacekeeping force, for example,

a very high-profile case of alleged

sexual abuse of minors,

and the fact the UN peacekeeping

force was said to have introduced

cholera to this country.

As for Oxfam, they say

they're going to work hard

to rebuild public trust,

in Britain, in their reputation.

In fact, they already have a very,

very long way to go to rebuild trust

in Haiti again, too.

Three British tourists killed

in a helicopter crash

in the Grand Canyon,

have been named

by police in America.

Becky Dobson, Jason Hill

and Stuart Hill, died

on Saturday evening.

Three other Britons,

and the pilot, were injured.

Here's James Cook.

The helicopter came down

in rocky, remote terrain,

bursting into flames.

It appears the survivors

were able to get out,

despite suffering serious injuries.

But three Britons on board

died at the scene.

27-year-old Becky Dobson,

30-year-old Stuart Hill,

and Jason Hill, who was 32.

For the survivors, three young

Britons and the pilot,

the ordeal was far from over.

Rescuers including local military

personnel were flown in,

but then had to walk to the crash

site using night-vision goggles.

It was more than eight hours before

the injured were flown

to hospital in Las Vegas.

We weren't able to extract

everybody from the crash site

until 2am this morning.

High winds, brownout dust

conditions, rugged to rain,

High winds, brownout dust

conditions, rugged terrain,

and as you know, when you fly

in treacherous conditions like this,

you have to have special

training and special people.

It's not clear what caused

the crash, which involved

a Eurocopter EC130.

The tour company, Papillon Airways,

says it is the world's largest

aerial sightseeing outfit,

flying around 600,000 people year.

In 2001, six people died

when another of the firm's

Grand Canyon helicopters crashed.

The Foreign Office says it is now

providing support to the British

families of this weekend's victims.

James Cook, BBC News, Las Vegas.

Mireya Villa-Real from CBS News

is at Grand Canyon West.

It's early days, nine, but are there

any indications as to what may have

caused the crash? -- it's early

days, I know.

Good afternoon. What

we know right now is that it's still

too early in the investigation do

know what might have caused the

accident. As we heard the police

chief talk about, the weather is

something they are looking at. There

are federal investigators that will

be on the scene today. The Federal

aviation administration as one of

the National Transportation Safety

Board. They will take a look at

everything here, talking to

witnesses and surveying the scene.

They mentioned yesterday that

something truly important, there is

a camera and black box that was on

the helicopter and they have

retrieved that and they will be

reviewing that. We also know that

tribal leaders from the reservation

nearby building meeting with these

federal agencies to figure out

exactly what they could have done or

what will be done in the future to

make sure this doesn't happen again.

Thank you.

Theresa May and the Irish Prime

Minister, Leo Varadkar,

are visiting Belfast for talks

with Northern Ireland's

main political parties.

There are suggestions

the Democratic Unionists

and Sinn Fein, could be close

to a deal to restore

devolved government,

after the failure of several

previous rounds of negotiations.

Power sharing at

Stormont collapsed more

than a year ago.

Keith Doyle reports.

The first visit for the Prime

Minister this morning was the

bombarding a factory in Belfast.

Last month, a surprise settlement in

a long running trade dispute saw

jobs secured. Mrs's secure visit to

Belfast is seen as positive. To rest

all the Northern Ireland executive.

Northern Ireland has been run by

civil servants since the

power-sharing executive collapsed in

January last year. Tensions between

the ruling parties, the Democratic

Unionists and Sinn Fein, of

implementing the Irish language and

same-sex marriage as well as an

overall acrimonious relationship. It

has resulted in 13 months of

stalemate. At the weekend, the new

Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald,

indicated that some sort of deal

might be in the making. But it seems

that may now be the case. The Prime

Minister was last in Northern

Ireland in the election campaign and

has been criticised for what some

described as a hands off approach to

restoring the power-sharing

executive. Today's visit is a clear

indication that progress has been

made. The prime nest is meeting the

parties at Stormont, the home of the

assembly along with the Irish

premier. The speculation is the deal

to restore the power-sharing

assembly may include a workaround to

resolve the issue of the official

status of the Irish language, which

has been a better source of division

between the DUP and Sinn Fein. The

bitter source. Restoring the

power-sharing executive would come

at a crucial time for Northern

Ireland as it faces another huge

issue, Brexit and the Irish border.

The Irish comment wants further

guarantees that there will be no

hard border. Theresa May has given

those guarantees but as yet, no

clear plans have emerged to show how

that will be the case. While this

has all the makings of being a day

for deals, these days have come and

gone in Northern Ireland in the

past. How much confidence is there

that perhaps power-sharing could be

restored?

The tea shop and Prime

Minister are in talks at the moment.

They are having them here, and it

indicates the deal is in the air. It

is far from buying and delivered.

The Irish language, the DUP has said

that it would not bring in the

stand-alone bill that will not

increase the level of the Irish

language to an official status. Sinn

Fein has said that is exactly what

they want. Having the Taoiseach and

the Prime Minister here, they are

both saying they are encouraging the

parties to reach an agreement and

emphasising the importance of

reaching an agreement. The DUP has

said this morning that there is

still work to be done. While there

is optimism that a deal is possible,

the fact that the optimism is geared

up toward a deal being done today, I

think that is far-fetched. It is

more likely that we are likely to

see a deal this week rather than

today.

Thank you.

London City Airport has

been closed for the day,

affecting almost 20,000 passengers,

after a Second World War

bomb was found nearby.

All flights have been cancelled

or rerouted to other airports

and local residents have been

asked to evacuate.

The bomb was discovered by divers

in the River Thames.

The Metropolitan Police estimate

that, depending on the tides,

the operation should be over

by tomorrow morning.

Kensington Palace has announced more

details of the wedding

of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

at Windsor Castle.

The service, in St George's Chapel,

will begin at midday on May

the 19th, avoiding a clash

with the FA Cup Final.

Here's our royal correspondent

Nicholas Witchell.

They are said to be closely

involved in the arrangements

for their wedding, which is now

a little less than 14 weeks away.

As already announced,

it will take place in the historic

setting of St George's Chapel

within Windsor Castle

on Saturday 19th May.

The service will begin

at midday with the Dean

of Windsor officiating,

and the Archbishop of Canterbury,

Justin Welby, leading

the service itself.

Room within the chapel

is limited, there'll be space

for around 800 guests.

But after the service,

at one o'clock, the couple, married,

as they will be by then,

will set off in a carriage

procession, through the centre

of Windsor and then a long walk back

to the castle for a reception

in St George's Hall.

The carriage procession, they hope,

will fulfil the pledge they made

at the time of their engagement

to make it possible for members

of the public to feel

part of the occasion.

Nicholas Witchell, BBC News.

Our top story this lunchtime.

Oxfam is in crisis talks

with the Government over the scandal

of aid workers using prostitutes

in Haiti, seven years ago.

She's gone huge!

And coming up - battling

against the weather -

it's high winds, not just freezing

weather, causing havoc for

competitors at the Winter Olympics.

Coming up in sport, the American

teenager Chloe Kim with a

spectacular run in halfpipe

qualifying.

Despite an agreement

allowing Rohingya Moslems

to return to Myanmar,

from refugee camps in Bangladesh,

many say they won't go home.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled

a military crackdown and violence

from pro-government militia groups

Myanmar last year, but now

want safety guarantees

and the right to citizenship,

before going back.

Well, three aid workers from one

charity have been filming video

diaries of their work helping

the Rohingya at the world's largest

refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Chris Rogers reports.

The world's largest refugee camp.

This is home to more than 800,000

Rohingya Muslim refugees,

escaping persecution

in Buddhist dominated Myanmar.

Dr Ramiz Momeni,

Genevieve Jones-Hernandez

and Sarah Wade have travelled

the world helping refugees.

But nothing can prepare them

for what lies ahead.

The Humanitas charity

are heading deep into the camp,

where there is no aid

to a medical centre.

We are walking to set up our clinic,

where no one else has reached yet.

So obviously it's going to be tough.

There are so many babies,

newborns, 14 days old.

They don't have any food, starving.

DR MOMENI:

An underweight baby...

She was prescribed vitamins but just

for her, not for the baby.

Honestly, it's like the baby's...

Yeah...

Dying.

So, we've just organised

for her to go and get referred,

because she needs to go

to a hospital and for that she needs

to have her ID card.

Tell her that we're very

sorry she lost the baby.

I think we expected to turn up

and be working alongside a lot more

organisations or volunteers.

We've worked within the Syrian

refugee crisis, and it was full

of organisations and volunteers

and people there on the ground,

and I think we expected this

to be slightly similar,

and it isn't.

Her pulse is very low, so we're just

rushing to the hospital.

We've got these newly arrived

Rohingyas and severe,

severe dehydration.

There is an absolute lack

of aid for these people.

Large international aid

organisations complain Myanmar has

blocked aid convoys and staff

reaching the refugee camp.

It's time for the team to head home,

but more refugees arrive,

in biblical numbers.

All of these people are tired, sick,

hungry, and yet have

reached their final destination

in this camp and set up home.

It's not so much that it's

a difficult thing to be here.

I think it would be a more

difficult thing to leave,

knowing that we are leaving these

people in such a dire situation.

This is my last exit from the camp,

because we're heading home tomorrow.

Somehow, they're incredible.

THEY CHEER.

And, you know the way that I see it,

we're here to be a positive

influence, a positive...

You know, so we have

to come with energy,

come with smiles, come

with balloons, bubbles,

as well as the medicine.

Show them that people care.

Chris Rogers reporting there,

and viewers in London can see more

of that report on "Inside Out"

tonight at 7.30, on BBC One -

and on the BBC iPlayer.

The leadership of South Africa's

ruling ANC is meeting this lunchtime

to decide on the future of

President Zuma.

He has remained in office

despite repeated calls

for him to stand down

amid allegations of corruption.

The new ANC leader, Cyril Ramaphosa,

has issued an ultimatum,

that Mr Zuma must stand down,

or be forced out.

Pumza Fihlani is in Pretoria.

What are the chances of Jacob Zuma

finally learning his fate today? I'm

sorry, we seem to have lost the line

to South Africa. We might bring you

that story.

Rescue workers have found the second

black box flight recorder

from an airliner that crashed

near Moscow over the weekend,

killing all 71 people on board.

Russia's Emergencies Minister says

he wants the ongoing

search operation to be

completed this evening.

Weather conditions, human error

and technical failure

are being considered as possible

causes of the crash.

It's estimated that £3-4 billion

is being laundered every year

in Europe via so-called

cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin -

that's according to the director

of the law enforcement

agency Europol.

Rob Wainwright has told the BBC's

Panorama programme that more

regulation is now urgently needed.

Spencer Kelly reports.

A cryptocurrency mine, almost hidden

in Iceland's snowy landscape. These

mines manage currencies like

Bitcoin.

Bitcoin. There are in their owners

cryptocurrency to doing so and many

have popped up to cash in. Every

single one of these is a desktop

computer. There are thousands of

them, all wired together. This

particular mine contains 20,000

machines, a very expensive setup.

Unlike with normal currencies,

Bitcoin transactions pass through

machines not through a bank. Because

there's no central point, it's hard

to trace the money as moves around.

The criminals, it's an almost

perfect system for money-laundering,

something of growing concern to the

charities.

There are three or £4

billion worth of dirty money being

laundered each year I think in

Europe through virtual currencies.

It's still a small proportion of the

overall amount, but it's quickly

growing. Because this is an

unregulated area, highly and an

iced, very difficult for the police

to identify who's cashing this out,

we need the help of regulators and

legislators.

Politicians admit the

recent cryptocurrency frenzy has

called them asleep at the wheel.

I

think that to date cryptocurrency

hasn't been on Parliament's agenda.

I think probably hand on heart we've

all been too slow, but the

opportunity isn't lost and we should

get on with the job now.

Some

investors have made a lot of money

from Bitcoin. Tim Draper correctly

predicted the body would explode

last year, and pocketed hundreds of

millions of dollars.

If we bang, it

could easily go to a million in any

given period of time. Because

depending on people's perception and

how excited they are and how the

press portrays it and how

governments push it around.

Others,

even the infamous scammer known

even the infamous scammer known as

the Wolf of Wall Street...

It's easy

to think this is going to be the

next big thing. People are

mortgaging their homes, taking loans

out on their credit cards, putting

their last dollars in two Bitcoin.

The ones that get slaughtered the

most at the end of the day the

average mums and dads.

It is these

concerns that have led Lloyds bank

and Virgin Money to ban the buying

and selling of cryptocurrency with

credit cards. And with calls for

worldwide regulation, the rules

around cryptocurrency could soon be

much more controlled. Spencer Kelly,

BBC News.

And you can see the full report

tonight on Panorama,

that's at 8.30 on BBC One.

Let's return to the ANC meeting

taking place in South Africa

deciding the fate of Jacob Zuma. I

was asking you earlier what are the

chances that Mr Zuma will finally

learn what's going to happen to him?

It certainly seems the writing is on

the wall. This is officially D-Day

for the country's president. The

African National Congress have made

no secret they've run out of

patience. We understand that behind

me in the conference room the party

is going to officially make a

decision to recall him. The stakes

are high, political parties are

planning to begin campaigning for

the national elections which are

meant to be in 2019, and the ANC

doesn't want to begin the race with

President Jacob Zuma still

lingering.

Thank you.

The first pictures have been

released of an iceberg,

which has broken away

from the Antarctic ice

sheet, and it's four

times the size of London.

Scientists say they're on an urgent

mission to document the marine eco

system of the Continent,

hidden for more than

100,000 years.

Our science correspondent

Victoria Gill has the details.

A new perspective on a 6000 square

kilometre swathe of floating ice.

So the iceberg is 150 kilometres

long, 50 kilometres wide,

and will be about 150 metres deep.

You will be able to see the first

20-30 metres above the water,

and everything else is underneath.

The trillion tonne A-68 iceberg

is gradually drifting away

from the Antarctic continent

and into the sea.

It's these ice-filled waters

and the sea floor beneath them that

scientists are now to explore.

In the British Antarctic Survey

vessel, the James Clark Ross,

a team will spend three weeks

studying the marine life that has

been locked away here for millennia.

They've described it

as a treacherous but urgent mission.

There are likely to be

new species discovered,

as researchers seek out

the creatures that make their home

beneath the vast ice sheet.

We have no idea what living

underneath these huge ice shelves.

We assume it is animals that

are specially adapted to life

without green food and vegetarian,

so we have a lot of

scavengers and carnivores.

So we expect animals

like in the deep sea,

that doesn't have light as well.

But the team also hopes

to understand the processes that

caused the iceberg to break away.

This could reveal more

about just how this fragile,

frozen wilderness at the bottom

of the world will change

as the climate warms.

Victoria Gill, BBC News.

Bad weather's making headlines again

at the Winter Olympics

in South Korea, but this time it's

not the cold, but the wind that's

making life challenging

for the competitors.

The final of the women's giant

slalom has now been postponed.

And after the heats of the women's

snowboard slopestyle

were cancelled yesterday,

today's final did go ahead,

but in conditions some

described as "dangerous".

From Pyeongchang,

Andy Swiss reports.

Just getting to the

start was a struggle.

Howling winds for the women's

snowboarders and soon

a blizzard of controversy.

Instead of postponing, they went

ahead, with calamitous results.

Instead of postponing, they went

ahead, with calamitous results.

COMMENTATOR:

Goodness me!

Quite how no one was injured,

especially Slovakia's Klaudia

Medlova, almost defied belief.

As one after another,

their hopes crash landed.

All of the 25 riders fell

at some point, including

Britain's Aimee Fuller.

The wind forced to pull out

of a jump on her first run,

which meant on the second

it was all or nothing,

and agonisingly it was the latter.

Fuller finished 17th,

but more importantly, intact.

The conditions, she said,

where simply brutal.

It felt like I had

a sailboat under my board.

The wind ripped me sideways.

There wasn't a chance

I was going to land.

So, yeah, devastated.

Amidst the chaos, America's Jamie

Anderson kept her balance

and her Olympic title.

Organisers felt it had been safe

to start the final, but was it?

The coaches and judges,

they all have a chat together

and make a decision at the top

of the slope.

I wonder what went on in that

conversation, why somebody didn't

say let's postpone this.

say let's postpone this.

These biting winds have already

blown the schedule off course.

Today's women's giant slalom

had to be postponed,

and with more high winds forecast

tomorrow there could

be more disruption.

For now though, there will be relief

no one was badly hurt,

on a day when extreme sport

certainly lived up to its name.

And the Swiss, BBC

News, Pyeongchang.

The makers of a new film adaptation

of the Peter rabbit books have

apologised over the treatment of a

character who has food allergies. In

one scene the boy who is allergic to

blackberries is pelted with the

fruit by a gang of rabbits. The

charity Allergy UK says it

trivialises a life-threatening

condition.

Pretty terrible weather in South

Korea, what about here? We are going

Pretty terrible weather in South

Korea, what about here? We are going

to have some pretty strong winds

over the next 24 hours. Over the

weekend we've had a number of snow

showers which has left a covering of

snow in places. In Staffordshire

we've got some snow on the ground at

the moment. Although today's weather

is quite quiet, it's going to cause

some problems not just in terms of

wind overnight. Some of us will also

see a spell of heavy snow. Most

areas having dry weather with

sunshine. There are wintry showers

across the north-west. Here the

showers will be heavy and showery

with hail and blunder mixed in. It

feels quite cold if you're out and

about. Overnight tonight that wind

will continue to pick up in

strength. Could see gusts of wind up

to 70 miles an hour. The thing that

most of all catches your eye is the

rain turning to snow. The White

indicating weather heavy snow is

likely to be falling. That will

cause some problems out and about as

we look at the rush hour for

Tuesday. The snow coming down very

heavily. With 5-10 centimetres of

snow expected over higher parts of

Scotland, down further south if you

centimetres could cause problems on

the roads. Similar for parts of

Northern Ireland and the Cumbrian

fells. Further south, a bit more of

a mixture. You're more likely to see

a spell of link rain across southern

counties of England. The rain grinds

to a halt late in the afternoon.

Cold and dank in the East of

England. Elsewhere some sunshine but

feeling cold.

feeling cold. As that front clears

out of the way, clearing skies could

allow a frost and risk of icy

stretches. Further west on Wednesday

we've got the same kind of scenario.

Strong winds followed by another

weather front. The snow mainly

targeting the high ground of

northern England and Scotland. The

rain could be quite heavy.

Temperatures struggling across

eastern areas but further west it

could get milder. Temperatures

pushing up to 9 degrees in Plymouth

and Belfast as well. Looking towards

the end of the week and the weekend,

high pressure building across the

South. Becoming dry across southern

areas. We should see things turning

milder over the next few days. A

spell of disruptive snow on the

cards across parts of the north of

the UK overnight tonight and into

tomorrow as well.

A reminder of our main

story this lunchtime.

Oxfam is in crisis talks

with the Government,

over the scandal of aid workers

using prostitutes in

in Haiti, seven years ago.

in Haiti, seven years ago.

The International Development

Secretary at the time said the

charity didn't explain the full

extent of what happened.

I think

Oxfam were economic or with the

truth about what they were

investigating. They may have stuck

by the letter of the rules, but they

certainly didn't stick by the

spirit.