02/12/2011 BBC News at Six

David Cameron pledges to protect Britain's interests as a German

plan emerges to rewrite Europe's treaty.

The Prime Minister and the French President meet to discuss how THEY

think the Eurozone can be saved. I'm absolutely convinced the bottom

line for me is always what is in the interests of the UK and how can

I promote and defend that? Also on tonight's programme:

Boozing Britain - how young people are on course for an epidemic of

alcoholic liver disease. After blocks of concrete are thrown

from this bridge onto cars below, a woman is seriously injured. It is

as far as I am concerned attempted murder. You throw a large piece of

concrete off a road bridge on to a fast-moving road - the consequences

are you're likely to kill someone. Now warming temperatures have meant

less sea ice. A new warning on the impact of

cliej on the -- climate change on Good evening. Welcome to the BBC

News at 6.00pm. The Prime Minister has promised to protect Britain's

interests as the German Chancellor unveiled her plan to rewrite the EU

treaty and impose greater central control over tax and spending

across the Eurozone. Angela Merkel said it was the best way to force

countries that use the Euro to stick within their budgets and that

there should be sanctions for those that don't. David Cameron went to

Paris today to hold talks with President Sarkozy ahead of a summit

next week to try again to find a solution to the European debt

crisis. Christian Fraser reports from Paris.

It's tempting to see the crisis in Europe as distant, unrelated to the

problems in Britain, but the pound and the euro are so closely

entwined the collapse would be devastating for the British economy.

So today, the Prime Minister arrived in Paris to hear what

measures are now being proposed to solve the problem.

We want to help resolve the crisis in the eurozone. In the end, what

that is about is convincing the markets that the institutions of

the euro will defend and protect and promote that currency with

everything they've got, the so- called big bazooka approach. What

might that be? Eurozone countries are agreed they need new powers to

impose financial discipline. That could require a change to the

Lisbon Treaty, the rules which govern the EU. It would mean tough

new sanctions to enforce the new controls on spendthrift governments,

and with tighter regulation of government budgets, the door could

open to a more active approach from the European Central Bank.

For David Cameron, though, opening up the Lisbon Treaty could prove

problematic. He's repeatedly pledged he'd use any changes to

claw back powers from Brussels. Yet if he pushes too hard, the eurozone

could move towards a new separate treaty defining a two-speed Europe

in which Britain's influence might well diminish. Nonetheless, there

are limits. If there is treaty change, I'll make sure we further

protect and enhance Britain's interests. So we'll see what

happens next Friday, but I'm absolutely convinced the bottom

line for me is always what is in the interests of the UK. In Germany

today, Angela Merkel was laying out her terms, a fiscal union in which

a Budget Commissioner in Brussels would have powers to impose heavy

penalties on governments which run up unmanageable debt. She's ruled

out the ECB involvement favoured by Britain and France until all

eurozone governments are playing by the same legally binding rules.

TRANSLATION: There are no easy and fast solutions, no last push. That

is not my way of thinking. The resolution of the euro crisis is a

process, and the process will take years. But like the money, time is

in very short supply. The German Chancellor will be the

first to arrive on Monday before a crucial European summit in Brussels

Friday. At the very least nay must find by then a coherent longer term

solution to the crisis. The single currency depends on it and so does

Britain's economy. Our Europe Editor Gavin Hewitt is

with me here. First of all this suggestion by Angela Merkel to

rewrite the EU treaty - how likely is that to happen? I probably think

it will happen. Why? Because both France and Germany want it. In

particular, France cease it as essential in order to impose

automatic sanctions on those countries that break the rules, but

let's be clear. There is a lot about this treaty change we don't

know. How limited would it be or how significant would it be? If it

was significant that could trigger referenda in a lot of countries. Of

course, all of that takes time. Also, who will impose these

sanctions? Brussels or some other body? I think the big question

hanging over all of this is, how much time will it take? And from

Britain's perspective, what are the implications? I think let's be

clear - David Cameron doesn't want treaty change. He does not believe

it is necessary. His position at the moment is to wait and see.

Britain doesn't want to show its hand until these proposals have

hardened up, but if treaty change is significant and British support

is needed, one thing is certain - a number of Tory backbenchers will

see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get back powers from

Brussels, and David Cameron will be under pressure from Europe and

under pressure at home. Britain is facing an epidemic of

liver disease caused by binge drinking according to some of the

In the north-east there's been a 400% increase in the number of

people in their early 30s admitted to hospital with alcoholic liver

disease. The consultants have called for alcohol advertising to

be curbed to protect young people. Our medical correspondent Fergus

Walsh is here. Fergus, it sounds pretty worrying.

It used to be rare for people under the age of 50 with alcoholic liver

cirrhosis. But that's all changed. If we compare the number of people

in their late 20s admitted to hospital in England with alcoholic

liver disease back in 2002 with last year, it's increased by 70%.

Now, if we look at people in their early 30s, there's a similar

worrying upward trend. The increase there - 60% in a decade.

Joanne needs dozens of pills a week to stay alive, the result of years

of alcohol abuse. The 41-year-old from Sunderland used to drink at

least three bottles of wine a day. Her liver is so damaged, she may

need a transplant. I do think it was because I started drinking too

young, and you get a taste for it. What more - what can you do? You

take yourself to the next level. Adults in Britain drink double the

amount of alcohol they did in the 1950s, but in recent years, overall

alcohol consumption has been falling. A group of liver

specialists in the north-east is concerned with binge drinking among

the young and has called for restrictions on alcohol advertising.

We've seen this epidemic of alcoholic liver disease and

hospital admissions as a result in very young people in their very

early 30s and in their 20s, and this is all because alcohol is far

too cheap, far too available and far too heavily promoted.

drinks industry says there are already strict controls on

advertising and it's the minority that abuse alcohol, but when they

do, it increases the risk of not just liver disease, but cancer,

stroke a range of conditions. This graph shows the rising trend in

deaths from alcohol in Britain since early '90s. You can see there

was a slight fall recently which might be due to falling consumption,

but today's figures are worrying signs of what may happen to the

next generation of drinkers. Police in Essex are treating two

incidents in which concrete blocks were dropped on to cars on the A12

as attempted murder. A woman was badly injured in one when a block

smashed through her windscreen. The driver also suffered cuts. Jon

Brain is at the scene for us now. Jon, this was an incredibly

dangerous thing to have done. That's certainly the way the police

are looking at it. It's still closed off this evening as police

continue their investigations into chapped last night. As -- what

happened last night. This is the scene of attempted murder. Police

have spent the day on this small bridge near Chelmsford

investigating a crime which nearly cost a woman her life. It was

around 10.00pm last night when a concrete block was thrown from here

on to a car passing below. It went through the windscreen, and the 57-

year-old passenger suffered extensive head and chest injuries.

Her husband, who was driving, has been treated for cuts. Despicable

acts, mindless acts. This seriously injured a woman and injured a man

at the same time. This could quite easily have led into a multiple-

casualty scenario. Just half an hour earlier and ten miles away at

another bridge, another concrete block had been thrown on to a

passing vehicle on the Group A, though this time -- A12, though

this time the occupants escaped unharmed. Because of the locations

and time frames of these incidents, they have been treated as acts of

attempted murder. I would like to appeal to anyone who was involved

last night - they may be considered as guilty as the person who threw

it over the A12. Users of the A12 are angry and concerned. Absolutely

terrible. A concrete block might kill somebody. For something like

that to happen, to be fair, is unexpected. My heart goes out to

the family. It's not a road we enjoy going down anyway. We'd avoid

it now. Essex Police say extra patrols will be on tonight to try

to reassure drivers. Detectives say there have been 30 cases of objects

being thrown on to the A12 in recent years, but last night's was

by far the most serious. Thank you.

The organisation which monitors standards at care homes in England

has been accused of several failures, including not carrying

out enough inspections. The National Audit Office says the Care

Quality Commission is facing ''serious and considerable

difficulties''. The Commission's Chief Executive Cynthia Bower

admitted the commission had faced "a challenging period", but said

it's now "on track and making rapid progress".

The Office of Fair Trading has launched an investigation into

Groupon after it broke regulations several times in under a year. The

group has hundreds of thousands of consumers in Britain to whom it

offers cut price discounts. They say the amount of money consumers

can save has been exaggerated. A university lecturer who admitted

possessing Class A drugs at a school where a girl died has been

suspended. The 15-year-old died in April after taking ecstasy at a

party at his home. The British ambassador to Iran has

spoken for the first time about the moment the embassy compounds were

overrun by protesters. The attacks Tuesday caused diplomatic outrage

with Britain expelling Iranian diplomats in London. Today the last

of those diplomats left the UK. These are pictures from the

ambassador's camera. Dominique Chilcot took them after protesters

overran his embassy. They looted homes, stole hard drives and went

to work on a few British symbols. Queen Victoria's portrait barely

survives. Edward VII is defaced. The ambassador and his core staff

locked themselves into a safe room. You could hear them trying to smash

the windows and the doors down below, but they couldn't get into

our part of the building, exempt in one point where they got into one

of the consular offices and started a fire. In the end, it was the fire

and the smoke coming on to the third floor corridor which forced

us out. This is what they had to hide from.

The police didn't stop the protesters. Britain believes that

they were strongly supported by the Iranian state. Eventually, the

ambassador and his core staff made it to safety, but his non-essential

staff who were hiding in a separate residential compound, were in real

trouble. One colleague had locked himself properly in his keep. He'd

pressed a heavy safe against the iron door and a bed and braced

himself against the bed. They came for him because they knew he was

there. You can imagine what it was like. They were banging on the

doors and the windows, breaking the windows, bashed the door in. He

kept them out for 45 minutes, but in the end there was nothing he

could do. In the end he got out. All British diplomats left Tehran

the next morning, and today Iran's diplomats in London were expelled.

Iran's diplomats are leaving in a hurry. Iran has called the decision

to close the embassy a hasty one. It's promised when the diplomats

get back to Tehran, they'll be treated as heroes. They're already

on their way. This afternoon we filmed the diplomats and their

families at Heathrow. Their tickets to Tehran were one way.

And the time is a quarter past 6.00pm. Our top story tonight:

David Cameron meets the French President to discuss the eurozone

crisis and vows to defend Britain's interests. Coming up:

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 52 seconds

Last one is England. England find Audiences in their millions, guided

by the giant of Natural History broadcasting. David Attenborough.

The last of the Series next week is a highly personal view. The pain

quint is the most southerly nesting of all. -- Penguin. Like the polar

bear, opened the North, their lives are dependent on the sea ice.

big concern is the effect of rising temperatures. Age huge iceberg

breaks away from green land. This does happen naturally. But the

melting could accelerate if the Arctic and part of Antarctica

continue to warm up. It is not like that. When I met him, he explained

it was the speed of change that was most striking and worrying. This is

extremely swift. It is happening within our lifetime. We have seen

it happening. In geological terms, biological, ecological, it is

usually swift. To adapt, you can adapt to slow change, but quick

changes more difficult. One of the great features of the coast, this

ice shelf, is seen breaking up. The Frozen Planet crew filled fishes.

This does not prove anything on its own, but it fits into a pattern of

change. It is not beyond possibility that warming it will

cause sea level rises, which could threaten the centre of London.

there a risk of sounding too alarmist about this? I try not to.

We know that these changes are happening, the evidence is

incontrovertible. As far as we can see ahead, if we go on, they will

have catastrophic effects on the human race. Behind this concerned,

the lifelong passion for which he is best known. Wildlife, and his

delight in his favourite poem a creature. -- polar creature.

caterpillar that leaves for 14 years and is frozen solid to its

core 14 times, which takes 14 years to accumulate enough food to allow

it to go into a moth. That is amazing. But what about the future?

Scientists cannot be sure about the rate of melting. But we do know

that distant regions that once seemed irrelevant feel much closer

to us now. You can see the final episode of

Frozen Planet on BBC One on Wednesday next week at 9pm.

The government has won a ruling on the way that pensions are

calculated for millions of public sector workers. A number of unions

argued a decision about which measure of inflation is used was

unlawful. Ministers say it will save the taxpayer billions.

This week, between 1 and 2 million public-sector workers went on

strike over changes to their pensions. Today, unions lost their

key legal battle over how pensions will be increased for years to come.

Pensions are uprated annually, to take account of the rising price of

a basket of goods. Governments have used the Retail Prices Index

measure, but in April, it switched to the consumer prices index, which

it says is a more accurate reflection of the inflation we all

feel. But CPI tends to be lower. That means millions of former

public sector employees were not quite receive what they had

expected. The CPI measure is like a percentage point lower than the RPI.

I will not notice the next year, but it is the same amount every

year, by pension will be eroded and eroded. That does not seem just.

Take a teacher who retires on a pension of �10,000 a year. Over 20

years, she will now receive almost �40,000 less. That is an enormous

saving for the government and taxpayers, which will amount to �11

billion a year across pensions benefits and tax credits in just

four years' time. There were some sighs of relief here when the

result of this case finally came. The Government was confident it

would win, and in a statement, it said it welcomes the High Court

acceptance of its decision to use the consumer prices index for

inflation for pensions and benefits. But unions insist this legal fight

is not over. We intend to appeal and push for the appeal to be heard

as quickly as possible, because the case is far too important for our

members, for pensioners, and for the majority of people in the

country. The government wants to see an agreement on its wider

reforms by the end of this year. This case still has the potential

to upset those plans. The son of a pensioner murdered as

he tried to stop a family car being stolen has appealed for information

to catch his father's killer. James Simpson was run down by his own

Land Rover outside his home in Lanarkshire.

This report contains flash photography.

The murder of James Simpson has left his family broken. Today, his

widow and son braved the cameras are to appeal for help in catching

the killers. One day ago, I saw my father lined it on a cold table,

and I have to watch my mother suffer from flashbacks of what she

witnessed. If there is any information you have that would

help this investigation, no matter how small or insignificant this may

seem to be, please come forward. Jamie Simpson said his father had

been fit and active, always ready with a smile and a joke. His

parents were, he said, content with their life together. This is the

black Land Rover Discovery outside the Simpson's house. Detectives

think it may have been stolen to order, but when the theft went

wrong, it was dumped nearby. The home lies just a short distance

down this road are. Police believe the thieves may have used and 74,

the main motorway between Scotland and England, as an escape route.

They say the clue could lie almost anywhere in Britain. I have no

doubt, because of the nature of the crime, they have confided in

somebody, and I believe somebody has got information in relation to

the murder that they have got from the people responsible, and I urge

them to come forward. James Simpson was murdered here, protecting his

property as his wife watched helplessly. Tonight, she is still

too traumatised to tell the police exactly what she saw.

England have just found out who they will face in Euro 2012. They

will play Ukraine, Sweden and England arrived here at the Palace

of Arts in Kiev, hoping to draw would provide a path to end 46

years of hurt at major tournaments. They were hoping to avoid the likes

of Spain and the Netherlands. They were definitely avoid their arch-

rivals, Germany. An intriguing match against Ireland was possible.

It depended on how the balls would fall. England were quite lucky.

They are some of the stars whose talents could light of European

football's showpiece event next summer. Euro 2012 will feature many

of the world's best players, and we discovered who would play who.

Having steered England safely through qualifying to Poland and

Ukraine, Fabio Capello arrived keen to know his team's fate. He would

learn which three countries England would be up against in the group

stage of his last tournament in charge. The question was whether

the draw would be kind. England. The last one is England. They will

be pleased to have drawn one of the co-hosts, Ukraine, along with

Sweden, who they beat in November. But France will provide tough

opponents. All of the matches will be played across the border from

the Polish base. If they can progress, this is where they will

hope to be on July first, the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, where the

final will take place. England now know what awaits them when they

come up against the best Europe has to offer. After a shambolic World

Cup last year, they have a point to prove it.

It could have been a lot worse. there are no easy games in

international football any more. But they were pretty fortunate here

this evening. The headline news, they avoided the big guns, Spain,

the favourites, and the Netherlands. They avoided Portugal and Italy. At

one stage, it applied they would face the likes of Spain and Italy

and the Republic of Ireland -- it looked like. Instead, they will

play Ukraine, Sweden and France. If England are to do well, they do

need some luck, and that started this evening. Better luck abandon

will be the violent -- better luck than the Republic of Ireland, they

play Italy, Croatia and Spain. All of England's matches will be over

the border from their base in Krakow. It will be longer journeys

into the Ukraine. Long journey times for the fans. From Kiev to

the far east of the Ukraine will be It will be blustery this weekend.

The wind is helping to keep the temperature up. As well as turning

windy, most of us will get some rain overnight. It is wet across

Wales and south-west England. The rain is moving across England and

Wales through the night. Showers through the night across Scotland

and Northern Ireland. It will turn cold, but not as cold as last night.

A mild night in the far south. The wind is Peking first think in the

morning. It stays very windy throughout the day on Saturday.

They will be some sunshine, but a lot of showers across northern and

western Scotland. The southern counties of England, it will stay

cloudy. In the far south-west, the rain is never too far away. It is

largely dry across Wales. Some sunny spells. For Northern Ireland,

a mixture of sunshine and showers. Parts of the South might not see

too many showers. Lots of showers for western Scotland. Very strong

wind easing across the far north. Decent sunshine on the east coast

of Scotland. Showers to the west of South -- to the west of the

Pennines. It may brighten up in London, though most southern

counties will stay cloudy. On Sunday, cloudy in the far south.

The threat of rain edging up from the Channel. It starts to turn

colder. The wind will be lighter, but the showers are turning wintery.

There could be issues with snow. Stay tuned for the forecast. You