08/07/2014 BBC News at Six

Two British men plead guilty to fighting in Syria after the mother

of one of them reports them to the police.

Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar, childhood friends from Birmingham,

admit fighting alongside a group linked to Al-Qaeda. The police pay

tribute to the Sarwar family. You have to feel for them. It was a

really difficult situation. In this case, they have been led an

elaborate deception by the youngsters.

tribute to the Sarwar family. The police appeal to other families

to contact them if they suspect their children may be

involved in terrorist activity. Also tonight:

The Home Office's top civil servant tells MPs the missing files linked

to child abuse allegations at Westminster have probably been

destroyed. As Israel launches fresh air strikes

on Gaza, it says it's ready to send in ground troops to stop continuing

militant rocket attacks. British scientists say they've taken

a major step forward towards a test to predict the onset of Alzheimer's

disease. And Prince Charles makes good on his

promise to return to the Somerset Levels.

disease. Tonight on BBC London:

A failure in cancer care - an NHS trust is criticised for errors

which could have led to two deaths. And the Londoners accused of trying

to fund Syrian terrorists by smuggling cash in their underwear.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News At Six.

Two men from Birmingham have pleaded guilty to fighting in Syria with

a group affiliated to Al-Qaeda. Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar,

who are both 22, were caught after Sarwar's mother

reported her son to the police. He had left her

a letter telling her he intended to "do jihad" with a terrorist group.

Thanks to her, the police were waiting at Heathrow Airport for

the pair when they returned after eight months fighting in Syria.

Our home affairs correspondent June Kelly is outside

Woolwich Crown Court. These are just two of a growing

number of British men who are going to Syria to fight. That's right.

We're told around 500 Britons are out in Syria fighting. A growing

number of them hoof returned have been arrested and charged and we are

now starting to see convictions like those today. -- who have returned.

Yusuf Sarwar, thousands of miles from his home in Birmingham, a

university student with an AK-47 and ready to die as a martyr. And with

him at the heart of the Syrian conflict, his school friend Nahin

Ahmed. These photos were found on their camera. The pair had chosen a

deliberately western look when they flew out of the UK bound for the

Middle East. They headed to the Syrian city of Aleppo, the scene of

some of the worst fighting. But come, Yusuf Sarwar left a note

demonstrating his alienation from the country where he was born. He

described how he planned to join the Al-Nusra Front, an organisation

linked to Al-Qaeda. He told his family that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda

were not bad but the West portrayed them as bad. His parents went to the

police. When the men arrived back in the UK, officers were waiting. But

the police were aware of the dilemma facing the family. You have to feel

for them. It is a really difficult situation. In this case, they have

been led an elaborate deception by the youngsters, to give the

impression they were going to Turkey, rather than Syria. But they

have done the right thing by telling us. It has allowed us to progress

the investigation and get to where we are today. At this mosque in

Birmingham, like others around the country, there is alarm at the

growing exodus of young Muslims heading for the war zones of the

Middle East. The local mosques should be more proactive in helping

young British Muslims be part of the humanitarian aid and assistance, in

order to show them that there is a way they can help the people in

Syria and make a difference to the lives of the Syrian people, and that

is to do charity, do events where you can see a difference that it

makes to the lives of the people. Today Yusuf Sarwar and Nahin Ahmed

were in the dock, where they pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in

preparation for acts of terrorism. The former foreign jihadi is now

facing jail terms American country. They will be sentenced later. -- in

their own country. These men have only just turned 22. They had been

due to stand trial here at Woolwich Crown Court but they suddenly

pleaded guilty to the charges they were facing today. Because of those

guilty pleas, they will get a shorter jail term when they are

sentenced. Thank you. The most senior civil servant at the Home

Office has admitted to MPs that hundreds of files relating to

politicians have been destroyed. It comes as the retired senior Judge

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss is to chair the government's wide-ranging review

into host Oracle child abuse. -- historical. The allegations are

that 30 years ago there was child abuse at the very heart of public

life, abuse that permeated Parliament and Whitehall. The Home

Office was told about these allegations at the time and today

the top civil servant there was summoned by MPs to explain how and

why he investigated the claims last year, claims he said were

horrifying. As a citizen and a parent I still shudder when I think

of this. But as a public servant, I think all of us - and you've made

this point yourself - must be appalled at how the systems of --

the system as a whole, the state as a whole, failed its most vulnerable

systems. The MPs asked what happened to 1400 files which had mysteriously

gone missing, leaving no trace, just their titles. Most of the files were

probably destroyed because the kinds of topics that they covered would

have been subject to the normal file destruction procedures that were in

place at that time. But they can't be confirmed to have been destroyed

because there isn't a proper log of what was destroyed and what wasn't.

For some MPs, his answers weren't good enough. The Home Secretary said

yesterday in a statement at one of her principles was around

transparency. Well, there was very little transparency being shown on

the select committee today from the permanent secretary at the Home

Office. Today the Government appointed the former High Court

judge Lady Butler-Sloss to head up its new Hillsborough style inquiry

into how all public bodies have handled child abuse accusations over

the years. But Peter Forbes, who says he was abused repeatedly at a

school and watch sale 40 years ago, and whose allegations were abroad by

the authorities, doubt of the inquiry would bear fruit. There have

been enquiries in the past but nothing has come from them and I

think this will go along the same lines and be swept under the carpet.

The focus today was on the Home Office - how and why it had kept

these allegations of abuse secret all those years ago. Once the wider

inquiry gets going, it's a question that will be asked of other

institutions across public life. Some MPs fear it could get ugly. We

are creating a fevered atmosphere, which is going to make rational

investigation all that much more difficult. And it will just end up,

if we're not careful, denying justice to the victims. 30 years

ago, the Government warned children not to talk to strangers. The

question now is whether it should warn them about figures of

authority, too. Woolwich Crown Court.

Israel has warned it's considering sending in ground troops to Gaza to

stop Palestinian militants as rocket attacks and air strikes

between the two sides continue. Israel has launched dozens of

airstrikes on Gaza, killing at least ten people, while some 100 rockets

have been fired into Israel. In a moment we'll have a report

from James Reynolds in the Israeli town of Sderot, but first

Yolande Knell reports from Gaza. Footage filmed by the Israeli

military as it air strikes targeted Gaza and each one brings

destruction. This car was turned to wreck it as Israel hit three

Palestinian militants. It says it wants to stop those behind rocket

attacks. Their burials soon took place. Just a fewer hours ago, the

three men, all her mass militants, were driving along a street in Gaza

city. Now they've been carried into the graveyard. They were killed in

an Israeli air strike. And just look at the crowd that turned out to pay

their respects. With several civilians killed here

in southern Gaza, including children, how mass leaders swore

they'd hit back. TRANSLATION: We warned the occupiers against

escalation and attacking homes. At this hospital, ambulances ferried in

the wounded and doctors worry about how they will cope if this

continues. Within one or two or three days, all our resources will

be finished and how do we deal with the victims? But with dozens more

rockets fired, from Gaza into southern Israel today, the cycle of

violence continues. Israel is massing its forces on the

border with Gaza. It is called up reserves and it is determined to

stop incoming Palestinian rocket fire. I feel I am not safe where I

live, although I know I've got shelters and I've got all the army

around me and everything. But still, it's a scary just to be around the

noises and the bombing and everything. In towns and villages

along the border, is reallys take refuge in shelters. Since midnight,

more than 90 rockets have hit this country. This is the headquarters of

Israel's Southern command and if Israel does order a ground offensive

into Gaza, but operation will be directed from here. Are you about to

order a ground offensive into Gaza? One way or another, we are going to

stop her mass, either by charging them a heavy price or by launching

any kind of offensive measures, by air, by ground or whatever, in order

to stop them. Israel now faces decisions. A ground offensive into

Gaza would be its most serious move. Yolande Knell reports from Gaza.

British scientists claim to have made a major breakthrough in

developing a blood test to predict the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Such a test could lead - in the future -

to the development of new treatments to stop or cure the condition.

Our health editor Hugh Pym reports. Gill and Dominic have lived with

Alzheimer's for more than a decade. She's been caring for him ever since

he was diagnosed. Today's research breakthrough has come too late for

them. They can see that some in the future may benefit from early

diagnosis. Some people can go for a test because they want to know what

the facts are. But other people who don't know what the facts are, and

then suddenly find what the facts are, can be very distressed by it.

Now in this London laboratory, they've devised a simple blood test

based on the presence of certain proteins. The aim is to predict

which patients displaying symptoms like memory loss will succumb to

Alzheimer's Society now is of possible treatments and drugs can be

applied to the right people. This will guide us on current developing

drugs that different pharmaceutical companies will be able to use to

treat these people a lot earlier because we want to detect them a lot

earlier before they convert to Alzheimer's disease. The disease

accounts for about two thirds of the total number of dementia cases in

the UK. The test was trialled on 1100 patients. It predicted with 87%

accuracy which would develop Alzheimer's disease. This is an

important milestone on the journey towards finding a treatment which

would delay the onset of Alzheimer's but while research continues, it may

be a few years yet before the test is widely available to patients. So

will people worried about their brain function - loss of memory, for

example - be offered a test to tell them whether they could develop

Alzheimer's? Because all tests have what we call a false positive rate,

which is where you say someone is going to get a condition and, in

fact, they won't, this certainly won't be available yet and shouldn't

be available for general screening of the public to see whether they

are going to develop Alzheimer's disease. More than 40 million people

suffer from dementia around the world. Alzheimer's research has

moved painfully slowly. Now British science has opened up new

possibilities. Our health editor Hugh Pym reports.

A mother accused of murdering her young son in Edinburgh is alleged to

have beaten him for up to four days before dumping

his body in a suitcase in woodland. A huge search was organised when

three-year-old Mikaeel Kular was reported missing back in January.

Danny Savage is in Kirkcaldy, where his body was eventually found.

When a three-year-old boy went missing this January, thousands of

people turned out close to his home in Edinburgh to search for him. They

believed the child had managed to climb on a stool, open his front

door and vanish. But the prosecution say Mikaeel Kular hadn't wandered

off and that he had actually been killed by his mother. She was today

brought to the High Court in Edinburgh, her first public

appearance since she was charged with murdering her son. Rosdeep

Adekoya didn't speak during three-minute hearing. More details

of what she is accused of word today made public. The prosecution say

that over a four-day period she repeatedly punched her son before

murdering him. She's then accused of wrapping his body in a duvet and

murdering him. She's then accused of wrapping his body in a duvet putting

him in a suitcase before taking him from here to a wood about 20 miles

away. And it was here in Kirkaldy where the little boy's body was

eventually found. It's claimed his mother tried to hide the suitcase

under a bush. The case returns to court later this month.

Hopefully, Mr Modi is making the right sort of moves to cut through.

To grease the wheels of British businesses improofing Two British

men plead guilty to fighting in Syria after the mother of one of

them reports them to the police. Still to come:

As fans young and old gather, will the World Cup hosts, Brazil,

be denied a place in the final by Germany?

Just how did they survive? Office workers tell

of the moment an ambulance crashed through their front window.

And, a blooming success. A charity garden helping

ex-offenders wow the crowds at Hampton Court Palace.

Around 90,000 people arrive at Heathrow Airport every day. Spotting

who among them is being trafficked into the country for the sex trade

or to be a domestic slave is the mammoth task of the UK Border Force.

Now, new specialist teams from the force will be posted at every major

port and airport around the UK to try to pick them out. An estimated

1,700 potential victims of trafficking that came into the UK

last year, almost double the number the previous year. Our social

affairs correspondent, Alison Holt, has had exclusive access to the

first of these specialist teams to be set up at Heathrow.

The watch room at Terminal 5 Heathrow Airport. From here Border

Force officers survey passport control. Hidden in with the many

people returning from holidays or business trips, will be the

traffickers and their victims. Today, the new safeguarding and

trafficking team is targeting a flight from Athens, a place often

used as a staging point by gangs trafficking people to Britain. First

the briefing. Pay attention to anyone who is travelling on a

passport that purr ports them to be an adult, but they look to be

younger. If we think they may be with a suspected trafficker we need

to separate them. Five minutes until the plane lands, they head to the

gate. This specially trained team started working in April. Similar

teams are being rolled out around the country. Documents are checked.

There are questions about their age, who they are travelling with, where

they are going. Anyone who raises concerns will be taken aside for

further checks. This time no-one worries them. Since the team started

they say they have identified between 10-12 trafficking victims a

month. Most victims are not aware they are coming in for exploitation.

They believe they are coming in for education, for better jobs, to be

able to send money back home to their families. The challenge for

the new teams is to pick the victims of trafficking out of the crowd.

That's when the victims may not realise what is happening to them

and when the traffickers are constantly changing the way in which

they operate. This girl was just 13 when she was trafficked to the UK.

She was kept as a domestic slave, locked up and beaten. She arrived

with a trafficker on someone else's passport. She was asked no

questions. I was behind him. I always had to stay behind him.

No-one really asked me anything or if, it's like, open the passport,

look at me once, done, let me go. Trafficking is big business with

some victims ending up in cannabis farms or the sex trade. Campaigners

say we're not doing enough. There still needs to be more done. We are

failing these children at the border. Once they go through, they

are lost, lost in the system, lost to everybody and being harmed. To

stop the traffickers will need greaterville begans at every stage

of their journey. There's been a surprise drop in

manufacturing output across the UK, ending a six-month run of growth.

It fell by 1.3% in May, compared with the previous month.

The announcement comes as the Chancellor is in India on a mission

to boost trade and political links. He's met the country's new,

and controversial, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.

Our economics editor, Robert Peston, was there.

Everyone rides on the Delhi underground, including Britain's

Chancellor of the Exchequer. In India, to win precious business

for British companies from the new government here.

And, at the other end of the line, here's Mr Osborne again,

for talks with Narendra Modi, India's Prime Minister,

who's party won a landslide victory in May's general election.

But the British government and Mr Modi haven't always been

the best of friends because in the riots of 12 years ago, in Gujarat,

he was accused of not doing enough to prevent a brutal massacre of

Muslims, and Britain boycotted him. Do you think that Mr Modi harbours

any kind of a grudge against the British?

Back in 2002 there were concerns about what happened in Gujarat, but

they were extensively investigated. This Government,

this British Government, took a decision, in 2012, actually ahead

of quite a lot of other western nations, to re-establish contact

with Modi, to begin a dialogue. A British company has played

an important part in developing Delhi's new Air

Traffic Control tower and airport. And winning other valuable contracts

with Britain to help modernise India is what Mr Osborne and the

Foreign Secretary dearly want. But it's not easy.

As somebody now who has worked here for some time, what are the pit

falls that you have to look out for? Dealing with the bureaucracy and the

administrative system there. Mr Modi is making the right moves to cut

through. To grease the wheels of British businesses improving India's

business struck sure George Osborne is providing ?1 billion of credit.

Have you done anything on this scale with any other country? This is the

first time. This is about fixing what is not working as well as other

parts of the British economy, which is our exports. As a country we

depended too much on exports to the continent of Europe or to North

America. You look at a country like India you say, Britain has to be

more part of this. It's not all sunshine. Previous Indian

governments promised to modernise India and have been defeated by the

elements. A typical Mumbai monsoon, washing everything clean and new.

It's what the Indian people I've spoken to expect of Mr Modi's

government and what he has promised. The world's second most populous

country, determined to become richer, maybe with the help and to

the benefit of Britain. Robert Peston, BBC News.

He promised he'd return, and today he did.

Prince Charles has paid another visit to the village of Muchelney

on the Somerset Levels, which last winter bore the brunt

of severe flooding. Five months ago,

he had to be ferried through the waters by boat and tractor.

Today, he saw how the area has been transformed.

Our correspondent, John Kay, was there too.

Last time Prince Charles needed a boat to reach Muchelney, it was an

island village cut off for 12 weeks. Today no wellies required, bright

sunshine and blue skies. The Prince had come to see the transformation,

to see fields that were full of water in February, now full of life.

The road to Muchelney, yes this was a road, now re-opened. This time,

the Royal Bentley could get through. Prince Charles had promised people

here he would come back this summer and see how things have improved.

He's keen to show the outside world that Somerset is open for business.

Like this wedding venue. When we filmed back in February it was a

sorry sight. Well, this was the wedding barn then. So a slight

transformation. Here it is today. Hosting a Royal reception. Do you

feel you're over it now? 110%, completely over. It it's almost like

the flooding never happened. It's amazing. You are right. How quickly

nature recovered. It was hard. Freaky, nobody expected it to be as

bad as it was. Many in Somerset have concerns about flood defences,

insurance and attracting tourists. With plans to make the road here

higher, this village at least hopes it will never be cut off again. John

Kay BBC News, Muchelney. It's the million dollar question on

the mind of every Brazilian football fan tonight. Will their side cope

without their star striker in their World Cup semi-final clash with

Germany? Neymar suffered a fractured vertebrae following a challenge in

the match against Colombia last week. Our chief sports

correspondent, Dan Roan, reports from Brazil.

Every day they come in the hope of a glimpse at their heroes. With their

team one game away from the World Cup final, it was never going to

happen. Brazil is coming to terms with this. The dramatic moment star

player are, Neymar's World Cup was injured by a challenge that

fractured his vertebrae and broke the hearts of a nation. A lot of

emotion is involved. They are are very motivated. To do it for him?

Yeah. I think. It's a good, you know, good extra push. It's the

feeling of all Brazilians now. Inside the camp there is no escape

from the glare of the world's media. Everyone curious to see whether

Neymar's absence will cost this team or inspire it? It's an additional

motivation for us. The sadness is behind us. We understand he has done

his share, we must do Brazil don't others. Only have to contend with

the attention and the loss of their best player, they are coming up

against a team who would love nothing more than to spoil the

host's party. Germany have been impressive here. This win over

France taking them to a record fourth consecutive semi-final. A

golden generation of players will now expect to go all the way. I

think the way they have been playing probably one of the best teams. It's

when they play against another giant, it's the details that will

see who is in the final. The hosts have already provided some of this

tournament's defining moments. The reality is that they will count for

little if Brazil's own World Cup ends tonight. It's hard to overstate

just how big a game of football this is for the hosts. There has been

talk about how good a World Cup it has been. There is a sense here that

if it truly is to be the greatest World Cup ever the hosts, Brazil,

need to be in the final on Sunday here, in Rio, against Argentina or

the Netherlands on Sunday. To lose tonight would be unthinkable.

Germany present formidable opposition. Tonight, something

simply has to give. That match will be on BBC One from 8. 30pm if you

want to watch. Now a look at the weather. Evening. Another day that

brought us vicious thunderstorms across the British Isles. Tomorrow

will be different. This evening the picture becoming quieter. Still, for

the next couple of hours, if you are heading on to the roads in eastern

Scotland, Midland or the south-east of England heavy showers to come.

Temperatures in rural areas sliding down to perhaps eight or nine

degrees. A fresh feel for tomorrow morning. The difference between

today is very clear from the word go. A dryer day in prospect. There

should be decent sunshine around as well. Our exception on Wednesday

will be the east coast, a nagging northerly wind, building cloud,

gusting up to gale force at times through the afternoon, some rain

will arrive later on in the day. For Northern Ireland, perhaps a little

more cloud from the west through the afternoon. We should see decent

sunshine here. Scotland with sunny spells. A cooler field to the east

coast. Wales and the South West are the best areas for the unbroken

sunshine through Wednesday afternoon. For the afternoon

building cloud across the south-east of England. A lot of dry weather to

come into the evening. The reason though for the change in the weather

is this weather front which will push towards us from the continent.

It looks that it might reinvigorate through Wednesday into Thursday and

bring the potential on Thursday for heavy rain to eastern Scotland and

perhaps, if you like, down the spine of the British Isles. A few bundles

of thunder mixed in with this weather further. Further west quiet

story. Further east warmed and humid with a threat of thunderstorms.

Friday we could spark up big thundery showers. Some areas could

escape with a fine day. If you see the sunshine it could turn out warm

indeed, temperatures of 25 or 26. from Brazil.

That's all from the BBC News at