27/02/2012 BBC News at Six

One of Britain's top police officers tells the inquiry into

press standards that there was a culture of illegal payments at The

Sun. The newspaper paid officials, the police, the military and

Government, according to new evidence today. The current

assessment reveals a network of corrupt officials.

Charlotte church accepts �600,000 from the publishers of the News of

the World over the phone hacking scandal. What I have discovered as

the litigation has gone on has sickened and disgusted me. Nothing

was deemed off-limits by those that pursued me and my family just to

make money for multinational News Corporation. Also on the programme:

Owned by the same company as the Costa Concordia. Tonight this ship

is adrift in the Indian Ocean after a fire.

Home to thousands of illegal immigrants. The garden shed and

ramshackle rooms that make-up Britain's modern day slums. This is

just one street and on the end of beach garden of brick buildings

like this one. -- at the end of each garden of

brick buildings. The Artist walks away with five

Oscars, including Best Actor and Best Film and Meryl Streep is Best

Actress for The Iron Lady, her third Oscar. When they called my

name I felt I could hear half of America saying, oh, no! Not her

again! Later on the BBC News Channel I

will have all the sport including the latest from the Twenty20

International in Abu Dhabi as England look to wrap up the series

in Pakistan. Welcome to the News At Six. One of

Britain's most senior police officers has told the inquiry into

press standards that there was a series of illegal payments at The

Sun newspaper. Sue Akers has said that the journalists paid a network

of corrupt public officials for leads on stories. Tens of thousands

of pounds were received by officials in Government, the police

and the military. Nicholas Witchell reports.

Part two of the Leveson Inquiry, the relationship between the press

and the police. In particular between News International and the

Metropolitan Police. And little more than 24 hours after Rupert

Murdoch launched The Sun's Sunday edition with its commitment to the

best in journalism, an insight into some of the things the newspaper

hoped would never be made public. Giving evidence to the inquiry,

Deputy Commissioner Sue Akers, who heads the Scotland Yard

investigation into phone hacking and improper payments by News

International. The payments were made not only to police officers

but to a wide range of public officials. In the military, health,

Government, prison and others. They suggest that public officials

received payments from all areas of public life. The current assessment

reveals a network of corrupted officials. She told the inquiry

that the approach to journalism was deeply embedded. There appears to

have been a culture at the Sun of illegal payments. Systems have been

created to facilitate those payments, while hiding the identity

of the officials receiving the money. The journalists involved for

well aware that what they were doing was unlawful, according to

criminal law, is that right? Yes. That is by reference to comments

being made in staff risking losing their penchant for their job, the

need for care and the need for cash payments. -- their pension or their

job. The money was significant. One

journalist paid out �150,000. vast majority of the disclosures

made have led to stories that I would describe as salacious gossip,

rather than anything that could remotely be regarded as in the

public interest. Responding in a statement, Rupert Murdoch said that

the press to -- the practice's Sue Akers described at the Leveson

Inquiry War of the past and no longer existed at The Sun. And one

of the reasons why they could get away with those alleged past

practices was the proximity between the press and the police then. Just

one more alleged example. The inquiry heard that in September,

2006, Rebekah Wade was briefed by police that they would not be

widening the phone hacking inquiry at the News of the World beyond it

royal editor, despite having evidence that more than 100 people

had had messages intercepted. One of the victims of phone hacking was

the former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. What did he think

had been going on? I think there is a conspiracy of silence to hide the

facts. Frankly I am more strongly of that view in the last few months.

In the last few days, senior Metropolitan Police officers, past

and present, will give their The revelations come on the day

that Charlotte Church and her family revealed they have received

�600,000 of damages. The singer said she was sickened and disgusted

by what she had learned during the phone hacking scandal. This report

contains flash photography. She has been famous from the age of 11.

Charlotte church was the young girl who grew up in the public eye. As

she moved into her teens, media interest became more intense and

more intrusive. Today the court heard how when she was 16, the News

of the World began hacking her telephone. It went on for years.

They ran stories about her personal life, including her first boyfriend.

Some of her medical details were also published. What I have

discovered as the litigation has gone on has thickened and disgusted

me. Nothing was deemed off-limits by those pursuing me and my family,

just to make money from a multi- million-pound News Corporation.

Somebody thought that was OK. How can that be in any right-thinking

society? Charlotte church has often been in the headlines because of

her private life, here with her former boyfriend and the father of

her children, Gavin Henson. The News of the World decided that the

parents were fair game, too. The newspaper were said to offer an

ultimatum to have mother, Maria, described as vulnerable and with a

complex medical history. She was poet into an interview in which she

said she had harmed herself and attempted suicide. -- she was

coerced into an interview. They try to make this investigation into an

interrogation of my mother's medical condition. In my opinion

they are not truly sorry, only sorry that they got caught.

�600,000, the family payout is one of the biggest. Other large

settlements included the actor Jude Law. He received 130,000. His one-

time girlfriend Sienna Miller pop 100,000 and there were 68,000 for

the former footballer Paul Gascoigne. Once again, the News of

the World is writing a six-figure cheque. Some claimants have not

revealed how much they have received, so we cannot do a running

total of how much this is costing. Today we were told that 180 more

people could be in the queue for damages.

The cruise ship carrying 1000 passengers and crew is adrift in

the Indian Ocean tonight after a fire in its engine room. The Costa

Allegra belongs to the same company that owns the Costa Concordia, the

liner that ran aground last month with the loss of least 25 lives.

The Costa Allegra is drifting without power 200 miles on the

Seychelles. In the midst of the Indian Ocean,

the Costa Allegra sent out distress signals this morning as it steamed

from Madagascar to the Seychelles. A fire had broken out and the 636

passengers were ordered to muster stations. The commander of the

Italian coast guard said that the fire was in the generator room, but

he said it had been put out quickly and nobody had been injured. The

company website showed how the live feed of pictures and information

from this ship had stopped. The Costa Allegra's engines have been

cut. Although have now is battery power to keep essential machinery

working. -- all they have now. Now this cruise ship faces and night

adrift with no lighting and in an area where Somali pirates are known

to operate. The repairs to the ship and getting everybody back to

dryland will take a couple of days and it will be uncomfortable for

the passengers and crew, but not life threatening. It will be an

incident that would pass almost without comment were it not for

that terrible image of the Costa Concordia. It was last month that

the Costa Concordia, which is owned by the same company, capsized off

Italy. At least 25 people were killed. Seven are still missing,

presumed dead. There are more signs of division at

the heart of the coalition Government over controversial plans

to reform the NHS in England. The Lib Dem leader has written a public

letter to his MPs and Peers about why he thinks the bill still needs

changing. Downing Street has insisted that the proposals are

fine as they are. Our deputy political editor it is at

Westminster now with the latest. is health bill has been dragged

from pillar to post. There have been demonstrations, calls for

change, defeat in Parliament and now there are yet more calls for

change. But they are not coming from outside Government but within

the Government itself. Government's troubled plans to

reform the NHS in England are still in trouble. They had lots of

emergency surgery in Parliament but today the Deputy Prime Minister

called for yet more. In a letter to his MPs, Nick Clegg praised the way

his party, he claimed, had changed the plans. He said the health bill

is undoubtedly better because of the Liberal Democrats. He went on

to call for even more changes this week. Given how precious the NHS is,

he said, we want to rule out any threat of a US-style market in the

NHS, which is why he wants to see changes in the House of Lords.

want to address the concerns about competition. I regard competition

as the means to a better NHS and not an end in itself and that is

why the amendments will make it clear once and for all that the NHS

is not a slave to that. Nick Clegg said that it should become law so

long as more is done to protect it from competition law, and that the

independent hospital watchdog is protected. All of this who put his

name to the health bill when it was published last year, promising

critics that they would... Paws, listen, engage. Today he was trying

to put distance between himself and the Tories and some of them were

not impressed. I am surprised by the intervention and they think it

is more about politics than substance. If that is what it takes

to get this bill through and onto the statute book, then so be it.

David Cameron knows that Nick Clegg needs to bring his party on board

and avoid a potential row up the Lib Dem conference next week. Some

MPs still have worries. We are not out of the woods yet and the double

is always in the detail. This bill has the capacity to destabilise the

coalition and indeed the NHS. ministers said they were relaxed

about what Nick Clegg was demanding but whether this changes are

substantially of or symbolic is still causing tension. -- the

changes are substantial. In servitude MPs think the Lib Dems

are going too far and some Lib Dems think there is more to be got out

of the Government on this bill. -- Conservative MPs. Nick Clegg has

singled that if these changes are made, whether they are symbolic or

substantial of, he will give his support to this bill and it is more

likely to get onto the statute book now. However there is still a long

way to go before the Government feels that it has won the argument

and persuaded people that the bill is necessary.

European Union foreign ministers have imposed a new round of

sanctions against President Assad's regime in Syria. It comes as his

forces launched a fresh offensive against opposition groups in the

North West of the country. Despite the violence, the Government is

celebrating victory in a highly controversial referendum on reform

Night time protest. This is a suburb of Damascus. Pictures

apparently taking yesterday evening, although it is impossible to verify.

The crowds denounced President Bashar al-Assad's regime. And the

regime's response is predictable. A protester lies wounded, but still

moving as others call for help and chant "Magog protect the three

Syrian army". And these pictures appear to show shelling of the Baba

Amr district of Homs. A correspondent in Syria is

witnessing renewed efforts by Government forces to seize back

towns in open revolt. We were owed -- woken up to sounds of artillery

coming in. We believe they are using anti- aircraft guns targeting

against the town and setting up more suppositions and with infantry.

In response to this, the European Union it is united in its response.

Even if the international community is not. EU foreign ministers have

agreed to impose new sanctions on Syria, adding to their existing ban

on oil imports. Assets a brought a more Syrian officials are being

frozen and it will apply to the freezing of assets in Syria's

central bank. There will be a ban on cargo. But Europe but Mick's it

sanctions are blunted by lack of support by the key powers. Do we

have a difference of opinion with China? Yes we do. It remains a

major blockage in what the international community can do.

Look how Syrian state television is drawing straight from Russia's

position. The Russian Prime Minister says the nobody should be

allowed to repeat the Libyan scenario in Syria. It is no

surprise President Bashar al-Assad won the referendum comfortably. The

opposition boycotted the poll and many others called it a sham. But

the regime has proved impossible to dislodge.

Our top story tonight: One of Britain's top police officers says

there was a culture of illegal payments to corrupt officials at

The Sun newspaper. Coming up: The glitz, the glamour - and the

big winners from the Oscars. Later on BBC London. The two men go

on trial for robbing a student during the riots.

The second hand cars being sold with debts running into thousands

of pounds. They're modern-day British slums,

made up of sheds with beds - some dangerous and cramped - and they're

offered by landlords to the poorest of workers. Many came to Britain to

work illegally and send money back to their families in India, paying

thousands of pounds to traffickers. But the economic downturn means

work has dried up leaving hundreds of illegal immigrants stranded in

the UK. In the first of two special reports, Chris Rogers, investigates.

These are Britain's 21st century slums. Hidden at the end of

suburban gardens. In one area of west London, 2,500 poorly

constructed buildings. They house hundreds of illegal immigrants.

They call them sheds with beds, many built without planning

permission. Others, converted garages. This is just one street,

and on the end of each garden there are brick-built things like this

one, all with windows and doorways bleeding to this alleyway. And they

just go on, and on, and on! Inside, the accommodation is basic. They

came here from India to make money, but Britain's economic downturn has

driven them into poverty. TRANSLATION: We can barely make

ends meet, it has been two months and we have only worked for macro

days. We have to pay the landlord's, there are few of us, so we club

together to pay it. Their rent, �800 a month. Landlords will risk

housing illegal immigrants, but at an inflated price. They have been

told not to open the door to anyone in case they are planning officials

are planning officers. We got inside posing as volunteers and we

brought them food and blankets. They complain of damp, clamped --

cramped conditions. TRANSLATION: People here legally,

permanent residents, they have paid for their houses because of us,

their mortgages are paid. They charge higher rents. Everyone who

lives it is Punjabi. Row after row of terraced houses in

this predominantly Asian areas of west London housing illegal

immigrants in back gardens. Many illegal immigrants are paying

hundreds of pounds a month to live in squalor, illegal and in some

There are estimated 10,000 are illegal dwellings in garages, sheds

and outbuildings across London and the Home Counties. The highest

number has been detected in Ealing and neighbouring Slough. To house

the problem -- how has the problem grown? Authorities say they are

handled by the law which means they have to give 24 hours' notice

before inspecting a property. Plenty of time for landlords to

conceal evidence. The BBC is making its evidence available to the

authorities. Recent figures show thousands of illegal immigrants

have had enough and are applying for voluntary deportation. But,

getting home isn't always that easy. And tomorrow, Chris Rogers, reports

on the illegal immigrants who live rough on the streets, still here

years after handing themselves in for voluntary deportation.

Two men have gone on trial in Glasgow accused of plotting to

murder the Celtic manager, Neil Lennon and two supporters of the

club. 43-year-old, Trevor Muirhead, and 42 year old, Neil McKenzi, are

accused of conspiring to assault and kill Mr Lennon and the others.

Our Scotland correspondent, James Cook reports. The effort had

football manager, Neil Lenham, lawyer, Paul McBride and politician,

Trish Godman, all in two Celtic Football Club and alleged target of

terrorism. From postboxes in Ayrshire, travel

Muirhead and the Mackenzie argues of sending parcels they intended

would expose, causing severe injury and death. This postman, Andrew

Brown, told the court he was suspect Best suspicious of a

package addressed to Neil Lennon. It was early March, not long after

the scuffle between Ally McCoist had raised tensions. The jury was

shown pictures of a package addressed to Neil Lennon, you could

see wires, a digital read-out and a party substance. The package

contains what look like easily 100 nails. But when this was Inspector

Brian Ferguson, a counter-terrorism officer, who told the court he took

the decision to open the parcel. The sorting office had been

evacuated, and the X-ray machine had failed and he wanted to see

what he was dealing with. He told But, he insisted whoever received

the parcel addressed to Neil Lennon, may have thought it is a bomb.

Trevor Muirhead and Neil Mackenzie denied the charges and the trial

continues. It was a triumphant night at the

Oscars for the silent, black and white film The Artist. It won five

awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor. Meryl

Streep, who last won an Oscar in 1982, won Best Actress for her

portrayal of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher,

in The Iron Lady. Our correspondent, Alastair Leithead, is in Los

Angeles with all the details. It was an evening without any

surprises. A film which has been building hikes since the awards

season began and it did not disappoint on the last awards of

the season. Five gongs, a first French Best actor, and the

wonderful story of a film they feared they wouldn't get the money

to make. Aim red-carpet crammed with

Hollywood and loyalty. Tinseltown at its most glamourous and glitzy.

Sacha Baron Cohen used the spotlight to plug his latest role,

as a dictator. The Academy warned him about publicity stunts and

throwing pretend Ashes over one of the biggest entertainment

presenters live, wrote -- broke the protocol. You know the show is

ready to start when Brad Pitt and Angeline a Joely hit the red carpet,

always the last to arrive. It was the clear favourite from the

beginning and The Artist did not disappoint. Becoming the second

only silent-movie to win Best Picture. And it took Best Director,

Best costume, best music and Best actor. The actor goes to Jean

Dujardin, The Artist. If George Valentine could speak he

would say, "Wow! Merci beaucoup! I love you!" it the right another

gentleman could pay close attention to what I am saying.

The last time a Neal Street won an Oscar, Margaret Thatcher, was Prime

Minister, but it was a betrayal as the Iron Lady which won her the

Best Actress prize. I look out here and see my life before my eyes, my

old friends and my new friends. Thanks to all of you, departed and

here for this inexplicably wonderful career. There were

British hopes for best supporting role, but Christopher Plummer, won

his first award aged 82, the oldest actor ever to win an Oscar. You are

only two years older than me, darling, where have you been all of

my life? The biggest British winner of the evening went to a gritty

tale of life amid the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which won best

short film. It was an amazing night. We make this short film a couple of

years ago based on peace and reconciliation. Little did we know,

here we would be tonight. With the awards given out, the party went on

into the night, with the new owners of the little golden statues,

already getting used to live with Oscar.

This wasn't the year for a big British film, or a movie

Blockbuster. This was a year where we saw a wonderful story of a

wonderful film go all the way. It wasn't of course, big for the

movies that bring money in. It was a smaller film, and gratis the a

Hollywood outsider taking the top prize.

-- great to see. Let's take a look at the weather

Temperatures will be high by day and night. Cloudy for the next few

days, particularly western areas. Not much rain. Cloud pushing across

the south-east of England so a damp and evening. The rain fizzles out

and we in misty and cloudy night. Eight or nine, double figures in

Scotland and Northern Ireland. That leads into a mild day tomorrow.

Cloudy start, but sunny skies on the eastern side. Cloud in the West,

light and rain and drizzle across the western fringes of Scotland,

over the hills and mountains of North West England and Wales. The

coasts in the West could stay misty and sea fog around the coast of

south-west England and South Wales. Temperatures should still reach

double figures. Further East there are breaks in the cloud. The South

East could see temperatures of 15, 16. Staying Dole to the west and

parts of the east of Northern Ireland will brighten up. Western

Scotland's days dull, but Eastern Scotland's's temperatures and may

get up to 17.9 degrees. That record was set over 100 years ago.

Wednesday not as high, but it is a similar story with eastern areas

seen sunny spells and western areas day in grey. Sunny spells for South