18/04/2013 BBC News at Six

plant in Texas. Residents nearby said it was like an earthquake. A

father and son thought they were watching an out of control fire and

then this. You OK? I can't hear! I can't hear. Let's get out of here.

Please. The search and rescue operation continues. Officials say

hundreds of people could be injured. Just a major explosion. The windows

came in. The roof came in. The ceiling came in. I worked my way out

to get more help. Up to 15 people could be dead. We will have the

latest. Also tonight: President Obama joins

the people of Boston for a service to remember the victims of the

marathon bombing. Guilty of raping an 11-year-old

girl. He had attacked a child before but was not registered as a sex

offender. Enough is enough - the words of a

paralysed man who is taking up the legal battle for the right-to-die.

One of Britain's greatest Olympians says his last race is over. Sir

Chris Hoy confirms he is quitting cycling.

I will be here with Sportsday later in the hour. It is Monte Carlo and

bust for Andy Murray. He is knocked News at Six. Up to 15 people are

thought to have been killed by a huge explosion at a fertiliser plant

in Texas last night. It flattened buildings in the town of West and

survivors have said the blast was like a tornado. Officials say

hundreds could be injured. A search and rescue operation was still under

way this morning. The first sign of fire, filmed on a

phone from what seemed to be a safe distance away. But this was a huge

explosion. You OK? Dad, I can't hear. Cover your ears.Let's get out

of here. Please. The blast was felt many miles away. Voluntary

firefighters were among the dead. Darkness complicated the rescue

operation as the extent of the damage became clear. Fires raged

across the town. Homes, buildings within a mile around the fertiliser

plant, were levelled by the blast. Dozens of homes and an apartment

block collapsed. There was a major explosion. The windows came in. The

roof came in. The ceiling came in. I worked my way out to get some more

help. We lost all communication because the power went out.

pressure was pushing me back. were injured. The local sports

stadium was used to treat those who needed urgent help. A fleet of

emergency vehicles queued to pick up those caught in the blast and thet

them to the hospitals treating the injured. -- and get them to the

hospitals treating the injured. A nursing home was in the radius of

the blast. Some were trapped. rest home was gone. You had to

remove the sheet rock that was on top of them. The ceilings were down.

There was a water leak, so you were standing in water, wires were

hanging down. We evacuated the one wing. The plant was in West, a few

miles from Waco. The blast was felt up to 45 miles away. On the edge of

town, the plant was close to a school, homes and a care home. It is

thought that the company had 20 tonnes of ammonia stored on the

property. The extent of the damage in the area immediately around the

factory is shocking. The explosion tore through homes. The authorities

have been going door-to-door looking for survivors. I can tell you there

is nothing out of control there at this point. There is no fire out of

control. There is no chemical escape from the fertiliser plant that is

out of control. They are working to contain everything that they have in

that area and are doing a fantastic job in very harsh circumstances, in

a very rough terrain. This is what's left of the fertiliser factory. What

is smouldering behind us here first caught firs and then exploded --

first and then exploded. Investigators are combing through

what is left of the factory, trying to establish what caused the fire

and then the explosion which had such a devastating impact.

Staying in America, President Obama businessman has attended a memorial

service for the victims of -- President Barack Obama has attended

a memorial service for the victims of the Boston bombings. Let's join

Ian Pannell now in Boston. Thank you very much. As you say,

there have been developments. This morning, the FBI said there are two

people that they would like to talk to. They are not being regarded as

suspects, but they are people that they would like to trace. In the

last few minutes, President Obama gave a rousing speech in the church

behind me. He paid tribute to those who died, those who were injured and

those who had rushed in to try and help. He reflected that sense of

bewilderment here in Boston that what happened on Monday doesn't make

any sense. It's been a week Boston will never

forget. From early morning, crowds gathered at the Cathedral of the

Holy Cross. Waiting to see their President. Wanting to remember the

dead and wounded. And share thoughts of what happened that day. It's

terrifying. It is terribly sad. I know someone who was hurt and is in

a critical condition. It is terrifying. It hits close to home. I

feel, like, it is in our own backyard this time and Boston has

not experienced anything like this before. The President came here to

honour the victims and kfRlt those whose lives will never be the same.

-- comfort those whose lives will never be the same. Once again having

to speak for the nation in a time of mourning. Your resolve is the

greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act. If they sought to

intimidate us, to terrorise us, to shake us from those values, the

values that make us who we are as Americans, well it should be pretty

clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it. Investigators

say they have a strong lead, a potential suspect. They have CCTV

footage of a man dropping a bag off at the scene of one of the

explosions. And they are analysing this - a photo that shows a bag next

to a postbox near the finish line. This is the same scene seconds

later. It is one of thousands of leads the FBI must now sift through.

Today is an opportunity for the people of Boston to come together to

pray and to reflect. It is a moment to remember those who lost their

lives and the many who suffered terrible injuries. It is also a

chance to thank those who selflessly rushed to the scene. Like this

woman, a paediatrician and marathon runner, who dashed in to treat the

wounded at the finish line, a real hero whose emotions today are of

guilt. In some way, these people died because of me. I mean, they

were there cheering for me at the finish line. They were there to get

me through. They lost their lives and they lost their limbs. I have

such sorrow. Was it my fault? Was it because of me? Had they not been

there, they would have been alive. In a country where people often feel

immune to the dangers of the outside world, the bombings have left many

feeling less sure, less safe as they struggle to make sense of the attack

on the marathon. A man has been convicted of raping

an 11-year-old girl as she made her way home from school. The Old Bailey

heard that 18-year-old Opemipo Jaji subjected the girl to a three-hour

ordeal. The jury was told that he had a previous conviction but he was

not put on the sex Sex Offenders Register.

18-year-old Opemipo Jaji, seen here, is a brutal sex offender. When he

raped a little girl, he was already known to the authorities. It was the

second time he had carried out such an attack. Today, a jury at the Old

Bailey took less than four hours to convict him. He posed great danger

to young females. Despite the great weight of evidence against him, he

has never admitted his culpability. That forced the victim to give

evidence. Like other teenagers, Opemipo Jaji posted this YouTube

footage of himself, but he was far from ordinary. He can be seen on the

left-hand side of the CCTV footage. It was recorded in November last

year, shortly before he spotted his victim on board this bus in Enfield.

He followed his young victim to this park as she made her way home after

school. He gagged her, threatened her with a knife and subjected her

to a three-hour ordeal after which she needed surgery to recover. This

wasn't the first time he had attacked in this way. In February

2011, he robbed and sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl. As a

young offender, he was sentenced to less than a year's detention. It

meant that he was not put on the Sex Offenders Register. A year later, he

admitted downloading indecent images of children and was given a

supervision order. He was with his probation Officer 19 minutes before

his last attack. The prosecuting authorities welcomed the verdict but

were reluctant to comment on whether he had been adequately supervised.

dangerous sexual offender has been brought to justice. I would like to

thank the 11-year-old victim and her family for their strength and

courage in supporting this prosecution. Tonight, questions

remain over why Opemipo Jaji was free to attack for a second time.

The Ministry of Justice will review how he was monitored, why he was not

offered treatment and whether he should have been placed on the Sex

Offenders Register. He will be sentenced in June and could face

life imprisonment. Four men from Luton have been jailed

for between five and 16 years after pleading guilty to terrorism

offences. The men talked about using home-made bombs and guns and two of

them discussed blowing up a TA base in the town. Zahid Iqbal, Mohammed

Ahmed, Umar Arshad and Syed Hussain pleaded guilty in March.

Doctors are warning that more than a million schoolchildren in England

could be vulnerable to measles because their parents failed to

complete their vaccinations during the MMR scare a decade ago. They

warned a generation of children are now in secondary school where there

is a greater risk of the disease spreading.

A paralysed man who wants doctors to end his life without fear of

prosecution has spoken publicly for the first time about his legal

campaign. Paul Lamb says he's in terrible pain and his life is

intolerable, but he is unable to end it without medical assistance.

Paul Lamb has been paralysed from the neck down and suffering chronic

pain for 23 years. He needs full-time help for almost

everything, having just minimal use of one hand. He describes his life

as "tedious" and "pointless". pain is horrendous. I just - I'm

getting less. I stay in this room. I stay in here all winter. I have no

desire to go out most of the times. I just - my will has gone. This was

a fit and active Paul Lamb before a car crash in 1990. Now, unable to

end his own life, he wants a doctor to kill him. In law, that amounts to

murder. He's taking up the legal battle fought by locked yin sufferer

Tony Nicklinson. It is such a shame he had to die the way he died.

passed away last year, days after the High Court rejected his bid to

change the law. He wanted doctors to be protected from prosecution, where

patients were in intolerable situations and wanted to die. When

Tony Nicklinson's case came to the High Court last summer, the judges

said that it raised some of the most profound, ethical, moral, social and

religious issues, but only Parliament and not the courts could

change the law. Any change to the law will be strongly opposed.

vulnerable people will feel pressure, whether that is real or

imagined to end their lives. Some campaigners for the disabl d want a

different focus. --Disabled want a different focus. It should be about

re-evaluating why people want to die and what can we do to improve the

quality of lives of individuals such as Paul Lamb so he was a change of

mind? Paul Lamb will take his case to the Court of Appeal next month.

Persuading it to change the law operation continues after a massive

explosion at a chemical plant in Texas. Officials say hundreds of

people can be injured. Still to come: The first woman to conduct

The Last Night Of The Proms. Later on the BBC News Channel, I will be

here with Sportsday including the latest from Bahrain as Formula One

prepares to race again in the Great Britain's most successful

Olympian, Sir Chris Hoy, has announced his retirement from

competitive track cycling at the age of 37. He has won six Olympic

Gold medals and 11 world titles, but say it's "beyond him" to carry

on to next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. He is British

sport's own Mr Incredible. For the last decade, Sir Chris Hoy has

dominated Olympic track cycling. The home of Scottish rugby was an

unlikely setting, today he called time on a career which was supposed

to end in more glry at next summer's Commonwealth Games in gas

glow gsh glory. I have had time to reflect on the last 20 years of my

career. I have got everything out. I don't have any more to give. I

wouldn't be going there to be competitive. I would be turning up

to get the tracksuit and wave to the crowd. That is not what I

wanted to do. Hoy first tasted Olympic success in Athens in 2004,

the starting point for a revolution in British cycling. In London he

guided Team GB to another goldrush on the track. What sort of shape is

British cycling in, as you leave the sport? British cycling has

never been in better health than it is just now. You know, you look

back over the years and see where it has come from, it's almost

unbelievable how far it has come as a sport. To have been part of that

journey, I'm proud of that. That is one of the biggest things I take

from my career, I have been part of this amazing transformation in the

sport. After more than a decade at the top of cycling he boy bows out

as one of the giants of British sporting history with six Olympic

gold medals is the most successful Olympian this country has produced

and is arguably the greatest. That debate may never be settled. There

was support from one of British cycling's original trailblazers.

have great talent coming up. It's the time to celebrate what he has

done, what has gone before. It was an amazing career. He is the most

iconic best representative of British sport - EVER! He says

it's's time to hand over to a new generation. Few are likely to tower

over his sport as he did. There's been another downbeat assessment of

the British economy from the International Monetary Fund. It's

head, Christine Lagarde, said growth figures in the UK "weren't

looking good". Her comments follow those of the orgs's chief economist

who said on Tuesday that the Government was "playing with fire"

by squeezing budgets in a flat economy. It's a big debate right

now, how to get the economy going. The Chancellor says bringing down

borrow something essential for the economy to thrive. This week the

International Monetary Fund's top economist suggested the UK needed

to ease up on austerity and focus more on boosting growth. Today, his

boss, the IMF chief said they aren't reached a final view, that

would come in the next month or so. The growth numbers are certainly

not particularly good. So, in a sense, this is a continuum of the

position, what has changed is, clearly, the quality of the numbers.

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, at a growth conference today, last

month backed the idea of more investment to back the economy. He

had this reaction. They argued for more flexibility. We have been

flexible, we will be flexible, that is a common sense approach to the

problem. We work -- the Government does it bit much we have a major

deficit problem and we have to continue to deal with it. The Bank

of England is another key partner in keeping a stimulus going. Labour

said the questions raised by the IMF proved the Government should

change course. What more does George Osborne need to hear when

even the IMF are saying that they are anxious about economic growth.

He has to start stimulating the economy and his extreme austerity,

the path of cuts and tax rises are actually choking off the recovery

and the growth that we need to repair the public finances. At the

Treasury they are waiting for figures neck week showing how the

economy performed in the first three months of the year. Any

growth will come as a relief. Any contraction will mean the second

successive quarter of decline putting the UK technically back in

recession. Latest retail sales figures showed a downturn in March

because of the cold weather. Over three months there was growth. It

might be a positive side for the consumer side of the economy. The

Chancellor will keep his fingers crossed that the next growth

figures and the IMF check will be crucial tests of his policies.

Michael Gove has called for school children to have longer school days

and shorter school hoi days. He said that English students are at a

"significant handicap" when compared with with students in east

Asia. Joining me now is Reeta Chakrabarti. Unless he is proposing

legislation to standardise the changes across schools in England

it would run into opposition from parents who might have some

children off at one time and other children off at another time. From

what I understand, I don't think Michael Gove is proposing something

as sweeping as that, she talking about reforms coming in about the

way teachers work and Heads can pay them more for extra duties that

could mean an extension to the school term. A few schools do this

already, but they are in a real minority. An American woman will

make history at the world's largest and longest running classical music

festival, the BBC Proms, this year. Marin Alsop will be the first woman

to conduct the famous Last Night of the Proms. The mass celebration of

classical music that is The Last Night Of The Proms. This year, for

the first time in 11 years a woman will hold the baton and leading the

orchestra, Marin Alsop. I'm proud to be the first woman to conduct,

but I'm also sad that it's 2013 and there can be first for women -- 118.

We have to create more opportunities for women to be seen

It is here at the Royal Albert Hall where Marin Alsop will take to the

stage for The Last Night Of The Proms when she will be an exception

that proves the rule. When it comes to professional conducting, it is a

man's world. Almost all the great orchestras, both here and abroad,

For a whole number of reasons I suspect why composers and

conductors who are women have been slow to cut through. You can only

work with what you have. What is encouraging now is that will are so

many women composers and conductors beginning to come through. In the

institutions we don't have many women who are teachers, professors

and so on. If that changed, if the balance changed a little bit it may

help to inspire women composers. Highlights of the 2013 season

include the return of Nigel Kennedy, a Proms premier of Wagner's Ring

Cycle and Marin Alsop first Last Night. It's time for the weather

Night. It's time for the weather now with Helen Willetts. We have

had thunderstorms, heal and the showers will ease this evening. The

heavy rain across Scotland, that is heading southwards. It will give

wet conditions through the night for parts of England and Wales.

Behind it, it turns colder, north- westerly wind setting in. We could

have a widespread ground frost tonight, not a problem in the south.

It will be a grey and damp start tomorrow morning. The April

sunshine is getting stronger, it will work its way through the cloud.

There will be showers in the afternoon. It will be a nicer day

in Scotland. Showers still for Northern Ireland, promising than

today. It will feel warmer, more sunshine coming through.

Temperatures into the low teens. The western side of England and

Wales decent weather, a few showers to the west country. Most of the

day's showers, by the afternoon, will be in central and eastern

areas. Quite cool here, the odd sharp one around, not as heavy as

today. They will fade quickly. Tomorrow night colder still. Ground

frost right across the country, mist and fog. It will set us up for

a nice day on Saturday. The weekend for all of us will start dry.

Strong April sunshine to help us by day. Even by the end of play on

Saturday the next weather system is knocking on the door of the

highland and western and northern isles of Scotland. On Sunday the

rain will work southwards. At the moment, it looks for the marathon