30/08/2011 BBC News at Six

Libya's rebels give Gaddafi forces an ultimatum - surrender by

Saturday, or we'll finish you off. Rebels prepare for what could be

their final battle - we report on what happens if the loyalists

refuse to back down. The question then is what will happen when the

Gaddafi have no-where else to retreat to and perhaps have to make

a last stand? In the capital, thousands try to

get their money out of the banks as the rebels try to get basic

services working again. We'll have the latest on the hunt

for Colonel Gaddafi. Also tonight:

A generation locked out of the housing market, with home ownership

in England heading for its lowest level for nearly 30 years.

"He will live on in my heart" - a widow's message to the husband she

lost in a honeymoon shark attack. Thousands of Brits left stranded in

America as airlines struggle with the tropical storm backlog.

And whatever happened to our summer? The latest from the Met

Office on why we soaked up the rain Good evening. Welcome to the BBC

News at 6.00pm. Libya's rebel leaders have issued an ultimatum to

die-hard supporters of Colonel Gaddafi - surrender by Saturday or

face an all-out assault. Many of the pro-Gaddafi troops are in Sirte,

the Libyan leader's birthplace, and rebels closing in on the town have

been trying to negotiate a temporary ceasefire to mark the

Muslim festival of Eid which begins in Libya tomorrow, but with no

success so far. Our correspondent Paul Wood is with the rebels and

"Allah, Akbar!" By Saturday, these men expect to be at the gates of

Sirte, then they'll be face to face with thousands of Gaddafi loyalists.

As you can see, people are in pretty good spirits, and these

fighters say they're not going to wait for the Muslim festival of Eid.

They're going to push right on through to Sirte. The question then

is what will happen when the Gaddafi forces have no-where else

to retreat to and perhaps have to make a last stand?

"Allah, Akbar!" The rebels hope it won't come to that. They have had

intensive talks with tribal leaders. Officials here say a deal is being

vetoed by die-hard loyalists with blood on their hands. We don't

expect that Gaddafi has soldiers anymore. It's some of the troops -

they have no way unless they fight because they know they have killed

a lot of civilian people. In one of the villages just liberated, as the

rebels say, they're preparing for the Eid feast. Food prices here

rose 30-fold while the village was cut off. They're glad that things

are getting back to normal. The fighters have been told their

leadership is trying to organise a two-day ceasefire for the holiday.

For the time being, we're going to have a defence line here, and

because we have to respect the lead lead holiday and so on, as you know,

it's the end of Ramadan, so after the Eid holiday, we proceed on to

Sirte hopefully. Few of the rebel fighters we spoke to believe an Eid

truce will hold. Most didn't want it. They're winning, and they want

While rebels are preparing for what could be the Gaddafi loyalists'

last stand in Sirte, they're also struggling to get basic services

working across Libya. In the capital, many areas have been

without power, water and rubbish collections, and many banks remain

shut. Our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has been assessing the

challenge in the Tajoura District of Tripoli. Suspicion and

insecurity are never far away in Tripoli, so it's remarkable how

calm the city seems now. This is a way into Tajoura, a suburb that was

the centre of opposition to the old regime. "Sorry, mop head," say the

children, a saying that was inspired by Colonel Gaddafi's hair,

which might have put the family in jail two weeks ago. So the Libyans

are now ready to be part of the world? We're all the time part of

the world. We have never been out, but someone left us out. But not

everyone is happy. This woman wants her salary. "There's 2 million in

there," she says. "We need a good system. We're tired." Everyone else

queuing at the bank, all the employees, want to get paid. But

the crowd is angered. "Shut up," he says. "We'll get everything in the

end." "I won't shut up. I am hungry. I

want my money." She retreated to an alleyway. "It has been three months

since we were paid." The women were sympathetic. "I am divorced. My

salary is 400. I've got three children. They can't wait." But the

men said they were happy with their diet, a revolutionary euphoria.

don't need money or water, just freedom. Other regions like Tunisia

were just as happy when they toppled their dictators. More than

six months later, their excitement about the future had been lost in

life's daily struggle. But freedom from fear makes you feel rich if

you're just out of prison, like this man. He was arrested in early

March after organising the first anti-Gaddafi demonstrations here in

Tajoura. He doesn't want Colonel Gaddafi dead. He wants him to see

their triumph. I want him to see how Libya will be without him,

without his sons. We will be building this country, and I want

him to see that. During the last six months, these streets were

always tense - sometimes frightens - and sometimes very violent. Now

you can feel the relief that the Colonel has gone. But they face

really big challenges because for 40 years, Colonel Gaddafi has taken

away all the conventional institutions of government, and

that means that in many ways they have to start again from scratch,

and that is going to be difficult. Here, the number of people owning

their own homes is heading towards its lowest level in England since

the 1980s. Combination of high property prices, tougher lending

rules and large deposits could leave a hole generation locked out

of the housing market. That's the warning from housing

associations. Our chief economics correspondent has the details.

Housing has long been a hot political issue, even more so now,

with predictions the availability of new homes for sale will fall

even further behind demand in the years ahead. Ten years ago, more

than 70% of householders owned their own home. Now the figure has

fallen to 67%. Today it was forecast that would slide below 64%

in ten years' time. There are two key questions which have been

raised again in the housing debate. The first one focuses on prices and

access to mortgages - are homes affordable? House prices have

fallen 18% since the end of the boom in 2007, but whereas the

average first-time buyer deposit was 10% then, nowadays 20% is the

average deposit required by lenders. And that's proved to be a nightmare

for grant and Megan Bemrose. With a family, they're desperate to buy a

home, but with bills to pay, they can't afford a deposit. Everything

is too expensive for us to allow that extra bit of money to not be

used on the money we've got. So it's all needed, every penny, and

it's all gone before we think about putting something away. One of Mrs

Thatcher's aims in the 1980s was to boost home ownership. This

presentation marked the millionth council house sale. After Labour

came to power, Tony Blair and John Prescott set up ambitious targets

for house building which proved hard to meet. So the question is

still being asked - are we building enough new housing? In the year

before the banking crisis, nearly 170,000 homes were built in England,

was in the latest financial year, that had slumped to not much more

than 100,000. The house building industry was hit hard by the

recession, but it's expanding again. Today, Bovis Homes reported an

increase in its order books, but it feels planning restrictions didn't

help. Planning has held back supply for many years. The sector as a

whole has - if the Government wish us to step up activity to meet the

demand that's out there, then the landing process will have to

increase. Rural campaigners have launched peats opposing further

house building. They fear acres of green belt land will be lost.

believe there is a significant risk that'll begin to see much more

urban sprawl, and that's not say that development shouldn't take

play, but what we're concerned about is where that development

should take place. So are we becoming obsessed with home

ownership and building more just so people can own their own house or

flat? Is it sensible to expand mortgage -- borrowing? Ministers

say they're simplifying planning rules and making more land

available for house building, but it's clear there are no easy

answers. A Royal Marine from 42 commando has

been killed in Afghanistan. The Marine was killed while on foot paj

patrol in the noire sarage -- nar sarage district.

A confidential document welcoming Hamid Karzai. The briefing paper,

briefly in the hands of Andrew Mitchell, said the UK should

publicly and privately approve his decision not to seek a third term

as President in 2014. Hundreds of mourners have attended

the funeral of Ian Redmond, who died in a shark attack while in the

Seychelles. His wife gave an emotional eulogy in west Lancashire

where the couple were married less than a month ago.

Judith Moritz reports. His wedding here was just three

weeks ago, but today, Ian Redmond was brought back to the same church

to be buried. His then-bride, Gemma, now his widow, followed behind,

supported by her parents. So many mourners came to pay their respects,

some stood outside to hear the 27- year-old read out a letter to her

husband. "To my darling husband Ian, I love you with all my heart. I

always have done, and I always will do. You filled me with such pride.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - you were and are my best

friend." Gemma Redmond described the couple's wedding earlier this

month as the most wonderful day of her life, honeymooning in the

Seychelles ten days later, they were spending the day at the beach

when Ian Redmond went snorkelling. As his new wife watched, he was

attacked by a shark. She heard his screams, but couldn't save him. He

was the second bather to be killed by a shark there in a month.

Today's funeral was conducted by the same vicar who had married the

couple. She spoke in the church particularly bravely I thought, an

amazing thing to do, really, and - but it spoke a lot to people.

Gemma Redmond described her husband as "the gold standard of men,"

adding that she has precious memories of their honeymoon when

The time is coming up to 6.15pm. Our top story:

Libya's rebels have given Gaddafi loyalists an ultmait um- surrender

by Saturday or we'll finish you off. Coming: she's a bright hope nor

London 2012, but Jessica Ennis is second best at the Athletics World

Championships. Later on BBC London news: why the capital's rivers are

cleaner now than at any time in the past 20 years. Learning from the

best - find out how our reporter fared when he took on members of

Thousands of British travellers are stuck in the US tonight. Airlines

are struggling to clear a backlog of flight cancellations caused by

the reform Irene, which blast its way up the east coast of America

over the weekend. From New York, Laura the revolian reports.

This is the scene in airports across America's east coast -

thousands of flights were cancelled because of the reform Irene, and

now stranded passengers are waiting to fly home - some forced to camp

out. The storm's strength led to the closure of all of New York's

airports. The high winds and flooding made it too dangerous to

fly. Teachers Daniel Lawrence and Sean Allen have been stuck in New

York since their flight was cancelled on Sundays, packing and

repacking their bags. Now they have missed the first day of school.

were very anxious and frustrated, and so we spent the last few days

on the telephone to Virgin filling in appeal forms online, desperately

trying to get an earlier flight. It's just a real pain not being

there on the first day when everything gets up and running, but

I mean, overall, the fact that we're going back, you know, soon

means that relatively speaking it should be OK. New York is a

favourite destination for British tourists, which is why Irene has

left so many struggling to get home. It's estimated there could be

10,000 British holiday-makers in New York right now. The airlines

are saying that Irene has left them with two days of cancelled flights

to reschedule at a time when flights to the UK are already full

because it's the end of the summer holidays. Virgin and British

Airways are now laying on extra flights to the UK in an effort to

clear the backlog, but trains too have been cancelled along the east

coast, ruining British tourists' plans. We're on holiday from

Scotland. My girlfriend is actually waiting on getting refunds, and

it's been a bit of a washout, spent 24 hours in the hotel. It's just a

bit of a disaster. Along the Atlantic coast, Americans are still

reeling from the devastation wrought by Irene. Cancelled flights

is one of the many consequences of So what rights do travellers have

if bad weather stops them getting home? Do the airlines have to pay

for accommodation? And what if they end up needing extra time off work?

Our Special Correspondent Razia Iqbal has been finding out.

George, Hurricane Irene may have passed off with less damage than

was expected, but the storm has caused upheaval for thousands of

families. So as a consumer caught up in a similar situation, what

exactly are you entitled to? For those who do not have confirmed

flights, there is the possibility of being stranded in New York for

days, with all the expense that involves. So what are your rights?

If you flee to the US on a European union career, you have the legal

right to claim back on accommodation, but that does not

mean five-star luxury. Food and travel can also be claimed. You

have to pay, and you will be reimbursed. But the claims must be

reasonable. Last weekend's disruption cost the

airlines millions, and they are doing all they can to limit their

losses. So they will demand itemised expenses, and if there is

anything they do not like the look of, like you have chosen a too

expensive hotel or had the temerity to go out for three good meals a

day, they might say, we are not paying. Her those who definitely

will not pay up our non-EU airlines. They are not legally obliged to do

anything. In that case, you are reliant on travel insurance, which

varies from policy to policy. Airlines and passengers are all too

familiar with such disruption. We have had the ash cloud, extreme

wintry weather and the chaos of Terminal 5 opening. If you miss

work because of travel delays, your employer is under no obligation to

pay you. For the self employed, it is back to being reliant on

insurance. We do not need compensation for the inconvenience

of having to stay longer in America. Nor do they have to pay for car

parking or cover for pets. While airlines are doing everything

they can to get people home, this is costing them a lot of money, so

they will be reviewing all claims with care. It may be the end of the

week before everyone gets home. Police searching for a registered

sex offender connected with the murder of a pensioner have issued

new CCTV pictures of him. The 47- year-old, seen here at Sainsbury's

in the Cleveland last Wednesday, went missing two days before 77-

year-old Judith Richardson was found dead at her home in Hexham.

She's one of Team GB's biggest Olympic medal hopes, but for now at

least, Jessica Ennis is second best. Today she failed to retain her

heptathlon title at the World Athletics championships in South

Korea. And as our Sports Editor David Bond reports, it could turn

out to be a blow to Britain's big ideas for London 2012.

Even here in Daegu, Jessica Ennis's profile seems to be on the rise.

For the poster girl of London 2012, these world championships were

supposed to be a formality, another step on the road to Olympic gold

next summer. This could decide the gold medal. But it did not work out

that way. Having failed to build up a big enough lead on day one, Ennis

produced a poor performance in the javelin, throwing way short of her

best. That gave Tatyana Chernova a huge lead going into the 800 metres.

Ennis needed to beat the Russian by nine seconds to win gold. Despite a

brave run, she had to settle for silver. I will not beat myself up

to much. It was just one event that had performed poorly in. With

expectations higher for Britain coming into these championships,

Jessica Ennis was one of the firm favourites to win gold. But her

silver medal is the latest setback for a team who have so far proved a

little disappointing. At the halfway mark of the world

championships in Korea, Britain are 14th in the medal table, with two

silvers and a bronze. But the target was to bring home seven

medals. Although Britain could yet have a strong finish, it is not

going according to plan. That has left coach Charles van Commenee

feeling the heat. Mo Farah narrowly missed out on gold, while other

strongly tipped athletes failed to live up to expectations. But it is

not all bad news. Andy Turner won bronze despite finishing fourth,

because the winner of the 110 metres hurdles was disqualified. He

says it is too soon to make judgments. I would not write off

our hopes at all. We will do well. It will be people you do not expect

to get the medals he will get them. No one thought I would get a medal

at here. So we should expect the unexpected. Jessica Ennis did not

take long to put her disappointment behind her. With the pressure

mounting on track-and-field ahead of London 2012, Britain's team will

that they are left with something to smile about at the end of these

championships. Now, remember the "barbecue

Easter"? It feels like a long time ago now. For many of us, sunny

Spring has turned to a summer soaking. Today the Met Office

published its latest figures on the rain. Jon Kay is in Burnham-on-Sea

in Somerset with the details. If only it could have been like

this all summer, glorious evening here in Somerset. These guys have

just turned up for a weekend of caravanning from the Midlands. They

think they have timed it right. But these figures from the Met Office

tonight confirm what many of us thought. It has been about half a

degree Celsius cooler across the summer than the national average

you would expect. It has also been wetter and there has been less

sunshine. It all looked so promising. Easter

was one of the sunniest ever, with record-breaking crowds on Weston-

super-Mare beach. Beautiful, isn't it? Better than working. Enjoy it

while you can. Too hot. She should have been careful what she wished

for. Since then, things have nosedived. Four months on, end of

August, just after the Bank Holiday weekend. School is still out for

most, and look - the beach, pretty much deserted. What has the weather

been like this summer? Absolutely awful. Diabolical. Overcast, and

lots of rain. Hardly a sunny day since April. But has it been that

bad? Is this really how we should remember the summer of 2011?

Tonight provisional figures from the Met Office suggest that it has

been the coolest summer since 1993. Today, it was certainly scars and

sweaters on the seafront. Temperatures have been below where

we might expect them to be in a more normal summer. It has been

cool in August and it was the coolest July since 2000. That is in

contrast to what we had in spring, which was very warm and dry. As for

rainfall, across the UK, the summer has been 25% wetter than normal.

But it has been a mixed picture. In Scotland, there was some

significant flooding. But parts of Wales and Northern Ireland have

been drier than usual, causing problems for many farmers. So,

cooler and wetter than usual, and you will not be surprised to hear

that august has been De La Rue as well. 25% fewer hours of sunshine

then we would expect to have it. The few want summer, take a plane

and go to Jamaica! All right? I will be there again next year.

he is happy. They are happy for now, but what they want to know is, will

I might just have a man who knows the answer, Darren.

Fortunately, there is only one more day of summer to go, and it is not

warming up a great deal tomorrow. Things may change in September,

though. But tonight, it will be on the cool side. For most of us, it

stays dry and cloudy. At the moment, we have patchy rain across northern

England, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The showers in Scotland will fade

away. And skies will clear. It will be a chilly night in areas where we

have the clear skies. The rest of the sunshine will be in the morning.

As temperatures rise, the cloud will bubble up, limiting the

sunshine in the afternoon for most of us. Things should be quite

bright in Scotland. Very few showers here, and for most of us it

will be warmer than today. A bit of sunshine sneaking through across

northern England in the afternoon. In the Midlands and the Xavi to

England, it is more cloud than sunshine. There will be some

sunshine in Cornwall and possibly into Devon. Maybe a bit more cloud

in the afternoon. We should see some morning sunshine in South

Wales, but then the car arrives through the afternoon. But it is at

least a dry, but quite cool day tomorrow across Northern Ireland.

This cool and cloudy weather is trapped underneath that area of low

pressure. This weather has remnants of Hurricane Irene in it. That is

not heading our way, but there is a weatherfront which will bring

change later in the week. Friday sees some rain in Northern Ireland

and Scotland. We would get drier air after that to lift the

An update on tonight's main news now. Libya's rebels have given

Colonel Gaddafi's loyalists an ultimatum - surrender by Saturday,

or we will finish you off. Tonight the whereabouts of the former

Libyan leader himself remain a mystery. There are reports that he

may have fled south of Tripoli towards the town of Bin Walid. Our

correspondent joins us from them now. What about these reports that

he may have passed through all headed your way? That is what the

rebels believe it. This is where the hunt for Colonel Gaddafi is now

focused. For the rebels, we have talked a lot about Sirte, but it is

over there in the distance across this expanse of desert where the

town of Bin Walid sits. These are two areas where tribal groups have

been loyal to Colonel Gaddafi. It is believed that he and members of

his family have passed through this area. Those members of his family

who fled to Algeria are believed to have gone through this area. I

spoke to a tribal elder from Bin Walid who told me that two of

Colonel Gaddafi's sons were spotted in the town two days ago. And he

has spoken to people in the town by satellite phone. We cannot verify

that, but that is what rebels believe it. The rebels want

completion and an end to this ongoing conflict in the country.

But they also want to find him because they fear that if he stays