26/03/2012 BBC News at Six

Things are so desperate that the only way to save these fish is to

catch them and move men to deeper water.

Coming up on the BBC News Channel, harsh lessons for England's

cricketers in Sri Lanka England father after a great start in the

The tycoon... Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

David Cameron has revealed that some of the Conservative Party's

biggest donors have been invited to private dinners at Number Ten. It

follows the emergence of secret filming in which the party's former

treasurer says six-figure donations would buy access to the Prime

Minister and his policy unit. Initially, Downing Street refused

to give the names of the guests, but has been mounting pressure to

do so. Mr Cameron has launched an internal party but Labour says that

is not enough. Here is political editor Nick Robinson.

Not everyone can afford to have dinner in the flat over the shop,

not least when the shop in question is Number Ten Downing Street. And

when your host is none other than the Prime Minister himself. Today

Cameron had, as claimed, hosted not dinner-parties but doughnut parties

for the very, very rich. -- Donor. They have been three occasions on

which significant donors have eaten dinner in my flat. None of these

were fund-raising dinners, and none of them were paid for by the

taxpayer. This is not what those attending a conference on dementia

had expected, but David Cameron knew he had no choice but to reveal

who had attended the shadowy dinners which his Treasury --

treasurer was caught on camera boasting about. Our bigger donors

have been for dinner in Number Ten Downing Street, in the Prime

Minister's private apartment. guests at the three parties hosted

in the flat above Number Ten contributed nearly �10 million to

the Conservative Party. Amongst these six were Henry Angus, a

Swiss-born banker who also runs groups sceptical about climate

change and British membership of the farmer, whose hedge fund trades

much of the world's copper, the chief executive of the world's

largest oil Trading Company, and Michael Spencer, billionaire City

businessman and owner of a broking firm. At the end of today's speech,

David Cameron left refusing to take any questions. Order! Andy Prime

Minister was not in the Commons to answer questions on party funding.

-- and the Prime Minister. The minister had come to talk about

reforming party funding. He was met by division. As set out in the

coalition government funding, funding needs to be reformed...

The Labour leader was particularly scathing. It shows at the contempt

for this House that the Prime Minister can make a statement to

the media just three hours ago but refuses to come here to face

Members of Parliament. Ed Miliband condemned what he called the

whitewash of an inquiry into the Conservative Party by the

Conservative Party. This gamble speaks to the conduct and character

of the Prime Minister and the government. -- this scandal.

Anything short of an independent inquiry will leave a permanent

stain on this government and this prime minister. Only a few weeks

ago, the Prime Minister told a visiting schoolchildren about his

flat over the shop. I live in a very nice flat above Number 11

Downing Street, but what I get up to in mayor is private! How he must

wish that was still true. What he gets up to our there is private no

Nick, we have got some names, beyond that what have we actually

learnt today? We have learnt what the Prime Minister wanted to keep

private. Last night we were being told that we could not be told who

had dinner with him in his private flat, he needs to keep his family's

privacy. Well, we have now got that information, because he knew he

could not hold out against demands to give it. And yet the world has

not dramatically changed having got it. If you did not know that the

Conservative Party was funded by enormously wealthy people, you have

been reminded of it, but most of that information was in the public

domain, most of it was already published. If you did not know that

politicians and the Prime Minister have cosy dinners with people who

give them money, now you do, but most of that was obvious to people

who have followed politics for a long time. One big thing we have

been reminded of, although this is not new, is that back in the House

of Commons he mentioned the word party funding reform and you get

mayhem. The Conservatives accused the Labour Party of being in the

trade union pockets, the Labour Party accused the Conservatives of

being in the pockets of the wealthy, and what nobody actually wants to

mention is that every recent independent report on this subject

has said that there are ways of solving the problem but they are

not very welcome ways for those of you watching at home, because the

answer, according to the reports, is that you should pay more, that

the reform requires taxpayer funding of politics, and if you

don't like that, you will have to put up with those dinners and with

the trade unions backing the Labour Party.

Last March, Thusha Kamaleswaran was a typical five-year-old with dreams

of becoming a dancer. Today she is paralysed, a victim of gang warfare.

Three men have been found guilty of grievous bodily harm after they

shot the chart while chasing a rival gang member in a corner shop

owned by the girl's aunt. This report contains CCTV footage of the

attack. This is five-year-old Thusha

Kamaleswaran playing at the back of her uncle's south London grocery

store, and what follows is the moment in March last year when

London's gang wars changed her life forever. CCTV shows staff, Thusha

and Another Little girl rush to investigate a commotion at the shop

door. A gun is fired, and everyone retreats except Thusha, who has

been hit in the chest and is lying on the floor. That image is too

distressing to show. Seconds later, the intended targets of the

shooting in black walk calmly from the shop. The shooter was Nathaniel

Grant, his accomplices Anthony McCalla and Kazeem Kolawole. Today

convicted of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm. It is an

absolutely dreadful case, you know, these people are shown no remorse

for what they have done. The team, I think they would have worked as

many hours as it took for as long as it took just to make sure that

we got a result in his case. Police scoured 700 hours of CCTV from 150

cameras. Among the images they found this, Anthony McCallum

mimicking a drive-by shooting as they leave Brixton to hunt rival

gang members. -- Anthony Mike Catt. As the men up broke the shop where

Thusha was plain, two members of a rival gang ran in to take shelter.

To the right, you can see the first shot being fired through the door.

The camera in a neighbouring store recorded the sound of the gunshot.

Then the bike is pulled up at the door and Grant fired another shot,

hitting Thusha in the chest and another customer in the face. Both

survived. After Thusha was shot, her family carried her through to

the safety of the office at the back of the shop. When paramedics

arrived, her heart had stopped, but they were able to revive it. It

stopped again in the ambulance on the way to hospital, and there

doctors were able to save a life. In a statement, her mother and

father thanked the emergency services for saving their daughter.

They said the shooting had been unbearable. Thusha herself had once

dreamed of being a dancer, but doctors say she will never walk

again. Fuel tanker drivers belonging to

the Unite trade union have voted in favour of strike action. The

correspondent Richard Westcott is at a fuel depot in west London for

us now. Does this mean a strike is definitely going to happen,

Richard? The good news is that it does not. The good news for drivers,

anyway. I have been speaking to the unions, and they are keen to stress

they have not set strike dates yet. This is really a bargaining chip, a

powerful one for the unions, in a dispute that has been rumbling on

for months about everything from pensions and safety training. If

there is a strike, the army will be involved, and speaking to one of

the companies affected, I know that they have been training soldiers

today. The skies, already tanker drivers of the army, they have been

given a week's training so that they are ready to go. The

government is stressing that they have got the police on standby to

make sure that any tanker drivers who are going in and out of places

like this behind me, this fuel depot, are not intimidated by

picket lines. 12 years ago, those at full blockades, the government

was caught out. To emphasise again, it is not time to fill up your car

just yet. A Royal Marine and Isolde from the

Adjutant General's Corps serving in Afghanistan have been shot dead by

an Afghan soldier. -- a soldier. The Taliban said it was responsible.

The men's families have been informed. As our correspondent

David Loyn reports from Kabul, a growing number of NATO troops have

been killed by Afghans were supposed to be their comrades and

allies. This is a tough conflict at the

best of times, but for international troops the risk of

being shot by the very men they are is the hardest one-day phase. These

two deaths bring to 15 the number of British troops who have died in

this way. The news was announced in the Commons. Details of the

incident are still emerging, but it appears that a member of the Afghan

national army opened fire at the entrance gate to the British

headquarters in Lashkar Gah City, killing the two British service

personnel. The assailant was killed by return fire. Afghan anger has

followed stories of US soldiers urinating on enemy corpses, burning

copies of the Koran, and then 17 villagers were killed by one row US

soldier. That is the background to the attacks by Afghan soldiers. In

military jargon, NATO is always blue, Afghan forces are green.

These attacks are long does green on blue. A total of 13 troops have

died this year at the hands of Afghan forces before the deaths of

the two British troops today, six American soldiers, including two

inside the Minister of Interior. One Albanian was killed close to

the Pakistan border, and four French troops were killed by an

Afghan soldier in February. We are taking a lot of measures to ensure

these incidents are kept to a minimum, and I cannot predict this

will result in a shift in policy. It is a terrible spate of attacks.

It is terrible. Although these attacks are relatively small number,

the effect they have is a beer. aim is that Afghan forces will be

ready to take on the fight against the Taliban for themselves by 2014.

There is international resolve to stick to the plan, keeper to the

timetable of withdrawal by 2014, but however strong that may be, it

trussed on the ground between the soldiers of these different nations

after the spate of violent killings. The flags will be flying at half-

mast again tonight at the base in Lashkar Gah as they have so often

before. Another high-street name has

revealed the extent of its financial problems tonight. More

than 2000 jobs will go this week at Game, the UK's biggest video-game

retailer. Nearly 300 stores in the UK and Ireland will close. Business

editor Robert Peston is with me now. This is a huge blow.. It is, this

is the biggest corporate collapse of a British company since

Woolworths in 2008. It is a major blow to the high street. High

street are already suffering from store closures, another 277 stores

going, more than 2000 jobs being lost. Partly, this is due to the

stagnation and the high street, partly it is the migration of games

to the online world, in terms of purchases, but also Game is a story

about an over-ambitious management expanding too much in the UK and,

importantly, overseas. It is not all bad news tonight, and I

understand that Royal Bank of Scotland is close to agreeing a

deal to purchase the residual 300 stores in Britain. That would

protect something like 3,000 jobs. So although bad news tonight, then

maybe a bit better news in the next few days with the rump of Game

Robert, thank you. Our top story tonight.

Downing Street has revealed the names of the millionaire donors who

were invited to dinner in the Prime Minister's private apartment.

Coming up. Fans to the rescue for the Olympic athletes who couldn't

get tickets for their own events. Someone going out the way to help

others is exactly the Olympic spirit. It's everybody helping each

other and having a good time. on the BBC News Channel, Game

enters administration so what will become of its stores and thousands

of employees? Drivers involved -- vote to go on strike over terms and

British aid agencies working in Niger are warning of a food crisis

after severe crop failures across the impoverished country. The West

African nation is the seventh poorest in the world. More than one

in five children already die before the age of five. And as the desert

spreads further south, more land is lost to agriculture. As Andrew

Harding reports, the aid agencies say action now could prevent a

The we need an armed escort to venture into the barren fringes of

the Sahara. Islamist militants are a growing threat here in Niger. So

his hunger. In the tiny village here, this woman pounds grain.

Recently she has lost her husband and six children to disease and

poverty. Now the rains have failed and this year's put a full crop

only fed what is left of the family for a week.

TRANSLATION: Of course we go hungry. The rain did not come. It's been

getting worse for years. There are almost no men are left in the

village now. All have gone abroad in search of work. There is a food

crisis pretty much every year in this village now, but 2012 is going

to be particularly tough. The harvest has failed, prices are

shooting up, and there is growing insecurity across the region. And

so the familiar warning signs. 10 are severely malnourished children

a ride this week in the local clinic. The UN fears 400,000

children could be in this condition in Niger within months, almost one

in 10 likely to die. It's much worse already this year, says this

nurse. We are seeing more children arrive in a state of complete

exhaustion. And yet, Niger has not without hope.

But this village, there is a scheme to trap rain water and revive the

fields. Niger now has a democratic government which is acknowledged a

tin -- a drought and is co- operating with the outsiders. She

gets a small wage from the United Nations. Because of this work, we

can feed our families, she says. Maybe in the future, these fields

But that doesn't change the fact that the village well is drying up.

She needs a longer rope each year. As a child she remembers life was

wonderful here. Not any more. The BBC has learned that the

Government is in talks to sell a considerable stake in RBS to the

gulf-rich state of Abu Dhabi. The bank, which only survived the

financial crisis because of a massive bail out, is largely owned

by the taxpayer. Our Business Correspondent Joe Lynam has the

How are these talks going? Dhabi is part of the Emirates and

they made a fortune on oil and they are planning for a post oil world

and so they are investing in entities and project all over the

world, so they are in talks with the UK government about taking a

stake in RBS. They could have quite a bit left to go before we come to

a possible deal. What will tax pair get out of this? The a-share price

today is 28p. The breaking point is 50 pence a share. Today they are

looking at a substantial loss and that will attract criticism, but it

sends a clear signal to the markets the government is not the bank

owning business for the long term. It wants to return the bank to the

private sector. It also shows where the next bonus round his. They can

say, we are not the only major shareholder, talk to people in the

Middle East. OK, thank you very much.

Blue skies, record breaking temperatures and spring flowers in

bloom. It's been a glorious week for many parts of the country. But

with the good weather comes a warning. Parts of England face a

drought and some of our rivers are drying up, leaving fish stocks

stranded. Our correspondent Jeremy Cooke is in Cambridgeshire for us

now. Jeremy. Yes, thanks, George. As you can see, this stunning

mother has an absolutely nothing to help the drought situation. You can

look at how low the water levels are. The glorious sunshine has been

great fun. It's only March would officially it's a scorcher. Record-

breaking highs for parts of Scotland. In Aberdeen it felt like

summer. The temperature map of Europe turned on its head. Two

degrees hotter in Scotland and Cyprus, and in England strides them,

no sign of brain. Many rivers are too low for fish to survive --

drought is them. And so this is the frontline of the national drive

response. The electrical probes stun the fish and they are

collected, and moved to deeper waters. If we didn't do this now we

have a major environmental disaster during the summer. That's why we

are taking action. We need to protect the environment. It's a

race against time off. Without heavy rain, soon, the flow will

stop altogether and any fish left will die. The drought period is

growing. Much of the south-east of England already has stroked status.

A huge swathe of the country is rated as at risk -- drive to status.

Even a Yorkshire could be declared in the correct zone within days.

Low reservoir levels mean hosepipe bans for some start next month. Is

this climate change? Some experts are already convinced. We saw a

shift in the 1990s from a pattern of relatively cooler springs to

warmer springs, and recently we've seen trial ones as well. If the

trend continues, we will have to adapt to. The days when water could

be taken for granted are, it seems, over. For those of us lucky to be

out in the sunshine, it's been a memorable day. But the farmers and

gardeners waiting for rain, well, that wait goes on.

Jeremy, thank you. The deepest of. On earth in the Pacific Ocean has

been breached by the Hollywood director James Cameron piloting a

one-man submarine, he descended nearly 11,000 metres, into a murky

undersea world of extreme pressure. His journey lasted 2.5 hours,

making him the first person to go there since 1960.

Cricket. England have made a promising start to the first Test

against Sri Lanka in Galle. James Anderson became the first

Englishman for 30 years to take 250 Test wickets after taking two in

the third over of the first innings. At close of play, Sri Lanka were

289 for 8, with captain Mahela Jayawardene at 168 not out.

Now, if you've had trouble buying Olympic tickets, spare a thought

for the athletes who find themselves in a similar situation.

Many have told their families that watching TV will be as close as

they can get to the action. But now, some selfless sports fans, brought

together on the internet, have stepped in to help. Our sports

correspondent James Pearce picks up the story.

He's in the final months of training for the biggest event of

his life. Although one of Britain's best hopes of gold at the Olympics,

he's the same problem as everybody else, getting hold of tickets.

Until some body he never met read about his frustration on line. He

tracked down tickets from an official foreign seller, contacted

him on Twitter, and then spent 1,500 pounds of his own money to

buy them for him. He was paid back and now, for the first time, they

are meeting. Great to meet you, at last forced you saved my Olympics,

I think. A big thank you, really. It's been a pleasure. When he won

the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, getting hold of tickets was not an

issue, but the demand in London is so great, athletes are limited to

two each, which was never going to be enough for his family. You don't

hear many stories like this. It's normally doom and gloom. Somebody

going out the way to help others is exactly what the Olympic spirit

embodies, really. Everybody having a good time and helping each other

and it's thanks to some body I've never met before doing a kind deed.

Anything I can help, the champions, with their events at the Olympics,

getting his family and friends and supporters there, anything which

could help us and it Team GB achieve more at the Olympics is

fantastic. He's not the only British athlete to be helped out

like this. Around the country, others have clubbed together in the

same way to assist some of their favoured Olympians. Third man down

here is Olympic rowing champion at Zack and the people who, between

them, managed to get term an astonishing 14 tickets for his

final. I I so many people over the years to have got behind me and

helped me out. It's nice to be able to help them out and reward them.

These are his family and friends after he won gold in Beijing.

Whether they had tickets, now they can share on more British success

this summer. It looked beautiful in Cambridgeshire.

Let's take a look at the weather now with Matt Taylor. I believe

another record in Scotland? Yes, the warmest March day in Scotland,

only to be put today by Aberdeen again, 2.9 Celsius. Just after half

Across those Eastern codes, again, a bit cold. -- coast. A cold night

in touch for all of us. Temperatures dropping to a touch of

frost. Like recent warnings, there will be mist and fog to hamper the

journey into work. Limited across the Vale of York and the Trent

Valley, most prone to fog in the morning, which will clear readily,

and then sunshine through the day. The green colours are indication of

the chart. It warms up in the afternoon as temperatures rise

under the sunny skies. A breeze coming in from the south-east. Most,

a gentle easterly flow, with temperatures on the east coast

warmer than recent days. Warm, too, across Northern Ireland, low

twenties. A westerly wind makes it cool across western Scotland but

Aberdeen a game could get close to 23 degrees, and the record may fall

yet again. Wednesday, more cloud in the far north of Scotland with a

few spots of rain but elsewhere, more mist and fog than recently,

but another sunny day for the vast majority and central England will

see the warmest year, maybe 24 Celsius possible. Things turning

cooler for the rest of the week. Northern areas affected most as the

cloud starts to build and a temperatures drop. Gradually, those

temperatures drop and by the weekend, it will feel cooler.

Temperatures much closer to what it Thank you very much. A reminder of