09/04/2014 BBC News at Six

The Cabinet Minister Maria Miller resigns after anger over her

expenses claims. The Culture Secretary finally stood down after a

week of damaging headlines, saying it was entirely her own decision. I

hoped that I could stay but it has become clear to me over the last few

days that this has become an enormous distraction. If a normal

person had done it we would be locked up.

As Labour accuse the Prime Minister of an error of judgement for not

sacking her, we'll be asking how damaging it has been. Also tonight.

A man is cleared of killing police officer Keith Blakelock during riots

in north London in 1985. A tough day for Oscar Pistorius as

he's repeatedly questioned about his version of events on the night he

killed Reeva Steenkamp. The changing shape of men - warnings

about the rapidly increasing numbers injecting steroids.

And a Royal crawl about - Prince George on his first public

engagement in New Zealand. Tonight on BBC London. The victims

of an alleged kidnap and robbery attempt by the police speak of their

horror at finding out they were targeted. And the Government reveals

its compensation package for the thousands living on the route of

HS2. Good evening and welcome to the BBC

News at Six. After days of hostile headlines over her expenses claims,

the Culture Secretary Maria Miller has resigned from the Cabinet. She

said she'd stepped down to end what she called an "enormous distraction"

for the government. The Prime Minister said allowing her to

apologise and continue her duties in recent days had been the "right

thing to do". But the Labour leader Ed Miliband accused Mr Cameron of a

"terrible error of judgement" in keeping Mrs Miller in her post. This

from Nick Robinson. Going, going, gone. The pressure too much. After a

week of it Maria Miller lost the will to fight on. Breaking news.

The culture secretary Maria Miller. Downing Street has revealed she has

resigned. I was cleared of the central allegation made about me by

a Labour member of Parliament. I hoped that I could stay but it has

become clear over the last few days that this has become an enormous

distraction. By distraction she means this. Seven days of hostile

headlines which began when an enquiry into her expense claims

ordered her to stand up and apologise to the Commons. Which she

did. Sort of. The committee has recommended that I apologise to the

house for my attitude to the commissioners enquiries and I of

course unreservedly apologise. And that was almost that. 32 seconds

later she sat down and the questions began about her expense claims for

this house in Wimbledon. She was cleared of the original charge,

asking taxpayers to fund it as a home for her elderly parents. But

the standards committee of MPs asked her to pay back almost ?6,000

because she had failed to cut your mortgage claims when interest rates

fell. The independent polyamory -- Parliamentary Commissioner

originally suggested she should pay back ?45,000. Meantime the prime

minister backed his minister again and again. I think people should

leave it at that. I think she should get on with the job of being culture

secretary. His aides claimed he had been ready to defend her again today

at Prime Minister 's questions. He said six days ago she had done the

right thing and should leave it at that. This was a terrible error of

judgement. David Cameron said it was right to give Maria Miller at the

chance to apologise and clear her name. This is a good and honest

Parliament with good and hard working people in it. He just does

not get it. That is what he has shown today. He promised in

opposition to be an apostle for better standards and has spent the

past week being an apologist for unacceptable behaviour. If he thinks

it is leadership to fire someone at the breast sign of trouble rather

than giving someone a chance to get on with the job, that is not

leadership but weakness. What did for Maria Miller was the fact that

number ten Downing St was told by many Tory MPs that she was costing

them votes, a message that was passed on to her yesterday. If there

is one winner from this saga it is the new culture secretary, said Jude

Javed. The son of a Pakistani bus driver who became his party's first

Muslim MP. But the Cabinet now has one woman viewer around the table.

There are now just three after the emotional decision of Maria Miller

to quit. I want to make sure that the situation is clear to everybody

and make sure I can move on. What is clear is the country has yet to move

on. From its fury about MP expenses. Well today the Prime Minister said

there was more to do to "reassure the public" about MPs' expenses. So

how does the system work? And how could it be changed? Our Political

Correspondent Vicki Young sent this report from Maria Miller's

Basingstoke constituency. It is less than an hour from

Westminster but voters here in the Basingstoke constituency of Maria

Miller say MPs are living on another Janet. Politicians insist they have

cleaned up their act since the scandal over their expenses was

first exposed. It is not a method that has got through here. They make

the rules and they are the ones failing the rules. If a normal

person had done it we would be locked up. It is one rule for them

and a different one for us. If you are a Cabinet minister you have to

be above reproach and she is not. It is a different level. And the

apology was next to useless. They're using the rules to own benefit. They

have changed the rules since 2010 but that does not make a difference.

They have been big changes to the system since the expenses scandal a

few years ago, including restrictions on what MPs can claim

for their accommodation. But also the way the complaints are

investigated. Maria Miller's expenses data back to 2005 so she

was investigated under the old system. That meant an independent

commissioner that a panel of MPs had the final say. Now that has changed

and an independent body looks into these matters which does not include

any MPs. I think the system is perfectly adequate. The fact is you

cannot have orders put out to third parties. Parliament must have some

responsibility for policing itself in a partly because we are the

people who make the laws of the land and we are accountable. No longer a

minister, Maria Miller could now be spending more time here at

constituency home. Her departure from the Cabinet no does mean she's

entitled to a payoff of just over ?70,000. And our political editor

Nick Robinson is in the Houses of Parliament now. How damaging is it

that expenses are back in the headlines all over again as Mac it

does feel sometimes that nothing has really changed. It is now five years

since the scandal of MP expenses first broke. Back then we had a

prime minister defending some of his own, a leader of the opposition

saying he simply did not get it. But that was David Cameron as leader of

the opposition attacking Gordon Brown. Words that were quoted back

at him today by Ed Miliband. David Cameron believes the rules have

changed much more than people have changed much more than people

realise. Today Maria Miller is not entitled to a second home to be paid

for in any way, and even if she was she could only claim rent and not a

mortgage. And if she abused the system MPs would have no say on the

penalty used against her. This was a so-called legacy case but I think

she believed she was under attack, for the way she looked after and

brought up her family and looked after her parents. And as a result

she simply paid no attention at all and perhaps the Prime Minister made

the same mistake, to the fact of what would emerge as she was

defending herself. The fact that tens of thousands of pounds had been

paid to her in the form of housing payments. The real legacy of

expenses was that fury of voters did not go away, it was simply waiting

to be woken again. Now Labour may not do that. One senior source put

it to me that the view of the electorate was a plague on all your

houses. India may be, but the politicians who are not in here, not

least UKIP, they certainly will exploit it.

A man has been cleared of killing the police officer Keith Blakelock

during the Broadwater Farm riots in north London in 1985. Nicholas

Jacobs, who was 16 at the time, denied murdering the officer, who

was stabbed 43 times while on duty that night. At the Old Bailey the

jury heard from three witnesses who said they saw Mr Jacobs take part,

but the defence team questioned their credibility. Our correspondent

Robert Hall was in court. On the pavement outside the Old

Bailey those who had supported Nicky Jacobs gathered to mark the end of a

five-week trial which they say should never have gone to court. Mr

Jacobs had protested his innocence from the outset. His supporters

included Winston Silcott and Mark Braithwaite and wiki -- who were

cleared of the murder of PC Blacklock back in 1991. This case

was as close as you could come to our legal lynching as we have ever

seen. The case was built on the testimony of three lying witnesses

who told lies through their teeth. The story began on a north London

estate known locally as the farm. Broadwater Farm, 1000 flats linked

by overhead walkway. In 1985, completely out of control on that

October night. Rising tension between the community and the police

had finally boiled over. Officers tried and failed to contain several

hundred people who attack them with petrol bombs and other missiles. It

was scary. It was scary. I believe that is what hell is like. Seeing so

many cars warning and people going backwards and forwards. PC Keith

Blacklock was with colleagues call to protect firefighters on the first

floor of the complex, but they were driven back down the stairwell. As

Keith Blakelock ran out of this car park he tripped over a low wall and

he fell. His colleagues were powerless to reach an as he was

surrounded by a crowd. He was punched, kicked and stamped. At his

postmortem he was found to have more than 40 wounds to his body. You

could see their arms moving up and down, moving up and down. And with

machetes and knives just cutting into his body. Although it was from

a distance I knew exactly what was happening. From the outset there

were questions over the subsequent investigation. The crime scene

inadequately protected it. Suspects interviewed without lawyers present.

Arrests which the community claimed were prompted by internal pressure

rather than hard evidence. In 2004 there were 14 further arrests. But

only Nicholas Jacobs was charged. The case against Jacobs depended on

three anonymous witnesses. Two of them had received financial

assistance from police. All had been granted immunity. It is really

tricky simply because there are no forensics, no CCTV from those days

and the only witnesses to a crime like that are people involved in

writing. We do not have people of good character walking through the

area. You have to deal with difficult people. We have not given

any financial incentive to anyone in this trial. Tonight the widow of PC

Blacklock and his three sons said they were sad and disappointed at

the verdict. Events of that evening in 1985 hang heavy over those who

believe that justice must be done and those convinced that old Reggie

juices will taint that investigation.

A postmortem examination has failed to establish what caused the death

of Peaches Geldof. The body of the 25-year-old broadcaster and writer

was found at her home in Wrotham on Monday. Kent Police say the results

of toxicology tests may not be known for several weeks.

The South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has faced tough

questioning from the prosecution about his version of events on the

night he shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. And there were gasps in

court as the prosecutor produced a graphic photo of her head wounds and

told Oscar Pistorius to look at it. The athlete denies murder. Andrew

Harding reports from Pretoria. For two days he has been a

remorseful, fragile figure in court. Today the prosecution decided it was

time to remind people who the rails at Tim is. As usual no images of

Oscar Pistorius giving evidence but here is the prosecutor launching

into a furious cross-examination. I made a mistake. Your repeated three

times. What was your mistake. I took Reeva's life. You shot and killed

her. Take responsibility for that. I do. Then say it. Say yes. I shot and

killed Reeva Steenkamp. I did, my lady. And that was just the start.

Next, amateur video footage of the stories with friends at a firing

range. It exploded, my right. You know the saying it's -- the same

happened to Reeva's head. And to reinforce the point, a photograph of

her head wound, to graphic to show your. It came up on the screen in

court. Pistorius's relatives were distraught. Reeva's mother simply

bowed her head. Pistorius refused to look. I will not look at a picture

where I was tormented by what I saw and felt that night. I remember, I

do not have to look. I was there. As viszla objected. I think it is

uncalled for. I see no basis for that. The athlete broke down,

sobbing. The focus then moved to the toilet door, the one Oscar Pistorius

shop through four times. Today he told the court he had done so

accidentally. I did not intend to shoot anyone. I fired my firearm

before I had time to think. I believe somebody was coming out of

the toilet. This goes to the heart of the case,

the prosecution can group he committed murder. Our top story this

evening: The Cabinet Minister Maria Miller resigns after anger over her

expenses claims, saying she had become a distraction. And still to

come, new exams for A-level and GCSE students in England. Are they really

going to be tougher? On BBC London: We will have the latest from

Tottenham as the man accused of killing PC Keith Blakelock is

cleared. And on board a tall ship on the Thames ahead of the biggest

regatta in the capital for 25 years. There has been a dramatic rise in

the number of body-builders injecting themselves with anabolic

steroids according to one of the country's biggest drugs charities

called CRI. The charity, which provides needle exchanges in

England, says the number of steroid users it has helped has jumped by

645%, from 290 people in 2010 to more than 2000 last year. Catherine

Burns from Radio 1's Newsbeat has been investigating and found fears

that a shift in men's attitudes to body image could be fuelling an even

bigger rise. Dave Crosland claims his biceps

could be among the biggest in Britain. He spends hours in the gym,

it eats 10,000 calories a day and takes anabolic steroids. He has been

a careful user over many years, but thinks there is a growing number of

people who are more reckless. There are a group of 17-25 year olds who

do not train and have a poor diet and are using steroids for a quick

fix and they are mixing it with recreational drugs. Anabolic

steroids are class C drugs and they can help you train longer and harder

and stimulate muscle growth, but there is a list of side effects,

everything from acne, hair loss, mood swings through to live,

fertility and heart problems. Dave takes tablets and inject

steroids and every couple of months he goes to stock up on equipment at

a needle exchange. The drugs charity CRI says one third of its needle

exchanges now see more people on steroids than illegal drugs like

heroin and crack cocaine. They are different from other substance users

because they can lead a normal life, but the risks when it comes to

injecting is the same as any other drug user and they could get

hepatitis and HIV. Some experts think several thousand people take

steroids and that number is rising. This is partly due to a culture

change among men with many obsessing about their appearance and feeling

extra pressure to get an ideal physique. We cannot ignore the

stresses and the amount of exposure young men have towards a stylised

body image, to performing, to having is basic -- specific way of

looking, which is more muscular than in the past. Drug workers are saying

people are injecting more drugs to change their appearance. Now the

health watchdog NICE says needle exchanges in England need to adapt

to meet all these different types of drug users.

GCSEs and A-levels are to get tougher in England according to the

Government. It says it is tackling grade inflation and the dumbing down

of subjects. There will be a bigger emphasis on maths skills and problem

solving in science subjects. The first students to be affected will

be those sitting their exams in 2017. With me now is Reeta

Chakrabarti. How much are these exams going to change? Quite a bit.

We are getting details about the contents that is being phased in in

England in GCSEs. The grades will be from 9-1 and an AES grade in

A-levels will not count towards the final grade. Looking at GCSEs in

history we will get more British history than we have at the moment

and everybody will do 3 euros of history, medieval, early and modern.

In science we will have more cutting edge themes, things like Gene

technology and space physics. A-levels will be taught in schools

from 2015 and in sciences everybody will do 12 practical is, more than

at the moment, although they will not be included in the final grade.

It will be a registry of a pass or a fail. For economics there will be

things about financial regulation and the role of central banks, a nod

to the financial crisis of recent years. Ministers say this will add

two more rigorous and more challenging exams, but teaching

unions say it is too rushed and it could be confusing because children

will be sitting old and new exams at the same time. This is England only

because Wales and Northern Ireland are sticking to existing exams. In

Afghanistan votes are still being counted after Saturday's

presidential election. More than seven million people defied Taliban

threats of violence by going to the polls to select a successor to

President Karzai. A top priority for the new leader will be to try to

reduce growing numbers of civilian casualties, among them young

children. Our correspondent Karen Allen tracked down a badly injured

young girl she met in a Kabul hospital last year. You may find

some of the images in this report disturbing.

This is what happens to little girls in Afghanistan. This saving

numeral's body was shattered when she took the full force of a

grenade. I met her in Kabul by chance six months ago after fears

she would not pull through. Now she is an American success story. She

has been at school following more surgery, flown here by a medical

charity to a foreign land far from home. She is making a slow but

steady recovery. She has got new friends and is talking again, but

behind the smile she is still deeply traumatised by what happened. Left

behind was her father. He described the family home where still everyday

people live in fear of their lives. TRANSLATION: I am scared because we

live in the mountains. When there is fighting between the Afghan army and

the Taliban there is no guarantee people will not get killed. This was

the first time her father saw pictures of his little girl. Just

like foreign friends who have been there to help his daughter, he

believes a foreign, military presence has helped his country as

well. In Afghanistan funerals for the young have become a familiar

sight. 2013 saw a record number of women and children killed and hurt.

Many children have taken some explosive materials in their houses.

They are injured by these explosions. Do you fear you will

have to carry on treating these injuries for many years to come? I

think so, I will be busy in the future as well. Tomorrow she will be

home, but her family fears a future, when troops finally leave,

these are uncertain times and it would not take much for their

country to slide back into war. The school student in the US state

of Pennsylvania has stabbed 19 pupils and a security guard during

an attack in classrooms and hallways. Officials say nine people

from Franklin regional high school in Pittsburgh were seriously

injured. Most of the victims were aged between 14 and 17. A

16-year-old boy has been arrested. The Australian team searching for

the missing Malaysian airlines plane has picked up signals. Ocean Shield

has recorded two more transmissions from the same area of the Indian

Ocean as those heard over the weekend. They are optimistic the

remains of the aircraft will be found.

It was his first public engagement and at just eight months old Prince

George seemed to enjoy his royal crawl about. The prince met ten

other babies at his play date in New Zealand as part of the Duke and

Duchess of Cambridge's tour of the country. Our royal correspondent

Nicholas Witchell was there. He was not afraid to assert himself,

but that is perfectly normal for an eight-month-old boy. His crawling,

and people said there were moments when he was not far short of

walking. For George it was something new, a brief but boisterous start to

what will potentially be a lifetime of bumping into people and being the

centre of attention. He had been brought by his mother to a playgroup

at Government House. Ten babies of roughly the same age as him. At

first he was more bashful and seemed more interested in his mother's

here, but then a girl caught his eye. Not an entirely successful

encounter. She retired in tears. George tried again with someone

else. He spotted at what he wanted, so he reached out and grabbed it.

Once again, mum had to come to the rescue. He was his own little man

and took control and went into the middle of the circle of toys. He

propped himself up and he owned the place, basically. George at eight

months, starting to learn about the world around him, though still

oblivious as to what his own future holds. For now he seemed happiest

playing with his rattle. Now he has completed his first public

engagement, George can relax at Government House. He will not be

seen again in public until he leaves New Zealand with his mother and

father in about a week's time. Let's have a look at the latest

weather. Conditions in Wellington are pretty

similar to overhear in the next few days. It will be relatively mild by

day and the temperatures will be getting into the teens, but it will

still be a bit chilly at night. Rain has been across western Scotland

during the day and it pushes steadily into Northern Ireland.

Elsewhere it is a dry night. In rural areas it will get down to two

or three and it will be a bit fresh first thing. For many it is a dry

and a bright day. Rain early on in Northern Ireland and West Scotland.

A brighter day in the north-west of Scotland. A few light showers in

south-west England and South Wales, but generally in the south it will

be dry. Temperatures get up to 16 or 17 and there should be some decent

spells of sunshine in the East. A different feel in the north-west of

England as the rain pushes in. Early reign in southern Scotland and

Northern Ireland, but it will be brighter by the afternoon. A few

showers in the North West on Friday, but generally another fine

day. Most places are dry and bright with some sunshine. Temperatures get

up to 11 or 12 and in the south they get into the mid-teens. It is very

similar as we go into the weekend. There will be a bit more clout and

maybe some rain. It is looking pretty good for the London Marathon.

There is more information on the website.

The Cabinet Minister Maria Miller has resigned after anger over her

expenses claims, saying she had become a distraction. Now it is