12/08/2014 BBC News at Six

The death of Robin Williams draws tributes from the worlds

of entertainment and politics. President Obama hails

an immeasurable talent. His quick wit shone through

in his film roles, but he fought depression for many decades.

He had a great heart, he was very compassionate.

But he was also like a benchmark, in what he did.

He did what he did the best. He was a great comedian,

and to make people laugh in our days is a serious business.

We'll look back at the career of one of Hollywood's biggest stars

and reflect on his troubled private life.

Also tonight, Thousands of people are managing to

escape Sinjar mountain in Iraq, but the UN warns many remain trapped.

A Spanish priest who helped Ebola patients in Liberia has died.

The WHO says untested drugs can now be used,

given the scale of the outbreak. The Chief Constable of

Greater Manchester Police faces a criminal investigation over

an alleged child abuse case. And, is she or isn't she?

Keepers at Edinburgh Zoo think Tian Tian

the giant panda may be pregnant. The mother of a man found burned to

death accuses the Met of a cover-up And attempts to encourage sex

workers to report crimes Good evening and welcome to the

BBC News at Six. Barack Obama has led the tributes to

the actor and comedian, Robin Williams, who's died at the

age of 63, in a suspected suicide. President Obama said he touched

every element of the human spirit. The director Steven Spielberg

described him as a lightening storm of comic genius.

But behind the humour, Robin Williams suffered for years

with depression, and tried to fight an addiction to drugs and alcohol.

From Los Angeles, here's our correspondent Alistair Leithead.

Well, there has been a huge outpouring of grief and sadness

around the world, but particularly here in Hollywood, where people have

been coming to his star on the walk of Fame, to leave flowers, to cast

their mind back over all of those films. President Obama touched on

that, saying he arrived as an alien but ended up coming to catch every

element of our hearts. correspondent Alistair Leithead.

Good morning, Vietnam! Robin Williams brought

his own incredible energy and comic twinkle to every role he played.

Is that me, or does that sound like an Elvis Presley movie?

Nanu Nanu! What a unique way to emerge

as one of the most influential stars of the last four decades.

Mork And Mindy was a huge TV hit in the late 70s and early 80s.

But he'll be best remembered for his big-screen blockbusters.

Euphegenia Doubtfire, dear. I specialise in the education

and entertainment of children. He was funny, he was versatile.

Surprise! But he was hounded by addiction.

For much of his life, battling against drugs and alcohol.

Robin Williams had been suffering severe depression when he was found

dead at his home near San Francisco. The coroner suspects suicide.

His wife of three years paid tribute to her husband and her best friend,

to one of the world's most beloved artists and beautiful human beings.

I'm utterly heartbroken, she said. His daughter, Zelda,

quoted the Little Prince. Fans paid tribute at his Walk

of Fame star in Hollywood. Just yards away, some of

the biggest names of his generation arrived for a red-carpet premiere.

He was also a friend, I admired him and he's a legend.

He's unbelievable. Everything is a bad day when someone

like that is gone, you know? Tragic loss.

He's gone too soon. He should have stuck around.

But that's the way it is. You don't get a second shot.

And God help him. The tributes continue to come in for

a man who embraced stardom, brought such joy and obviously faced such a

struggle with his own personal Demons.

It's still early in the morning on Hollywood Boulevard, still people

coming here and leaving flowers, paying tribute to this man whose

humour and versatility really have this remarkable ability to touch

people around the world. His character, and the characters that

he developed, I think, the things that people will remember for a long

time to come. And God help him.

Robin Williams had enormous range as a performer.

As well as the comedy, he excelled in darker, dramatic roles, winning

an Oscar for Good Will Hunting. Our arts correspondent David Sillito

looks back at a glittering career and a troubled life.

This is why had to give up alcohol. Because you have to pay

the next day. Dear Lord, please don't hurt me now.

At his peak, he could create, comedy faster than you could process it.

Dear Lord, please don't hurt me now. The phrase used over

and over was manic energy. Those routines about drink

and drugs, he was speaking from real experience.

I took them, because in those days, OK, let's do it. Three days later I

was like, boy, why am I in Bombay? I was still going. You are up and up.

But when you crash, even the devil is going, this is not going to go

well. from real experience.

In case of emergency, the exits are here, here, here, anywhere.

In Aladdin, they simply wrote the film

around his exuberant performance. And it wasn't just a quick fire

arm of jokes and characters. Use your imagination.

Say anything that pops into your head.

His best roles revealed an actor who seemed to have great

geysers of emotion lying just below the surface.

He may have kept the drink and depression at bay

for many years, but in recent months that sobriety needed, in the words

of his publicist, some fine tuning. So often people are surprised

when you say someone who spread such joy had bouts of depression.

But I understand recently he was severe depression.

So much so that he checked himself back into rehab just weeks ago.

His mother, he said, had at times also been a drinker.

There were childhood experiences he occasionally alluded to with

a shudder. The story of the comedian who is

come off stage, sad and depressed, has almost become a cliche. But Tony

Hancock, Charlie Chaplin, Spike Milligan, he was in that company.

When the gods gift you, there is a price to pay. There always is. It

doesn't come from nothing. It probably comes

price to pay. There always is. It doesn't come from nothing. It from

deep concerns inside, all sorts of fears, but he could always channel

those things and turn them into some thin gold. The last thing he posted

was in July, a birthday message for his daughter, who he said had always

been his baby girl. He was, in the words of one tribute, joyful,

unafraid hilarity. A light has gone out.

a shudder. Tens of thousands

of civilians are still trapped on a mountain in northern Iraq,

after fleeing Islamic State militants, formerly known as ISIS.

United Nations monitors say a tragedy

of huge proportions is unfolding. Some have managed to flee

Mount Sinjar, and cross into Syria and into Iraqi Kurdistan.

From there Caroline Wyatt has sent this report.

At last, the men and women from the mountain

reach sanctuary - of a sort. Yazidi families are streaming over

the border in their hundreds, into Kurdistan.

Carrying their children and little else,

their ordeal etched on every face. The memory of the day that fighters

from the Islamic State attacked their villages is hard to bear,

even though this woman and her six children escaped with their lives.

TRANSLATION: We've tried for 15 years to make a home for us.

In a minute, ISIS comes and destroys everything.

They killed my sister. She left two kids.

A girl and a boy. We left them

because we couldn't help them. The kids of my sister.

There is news that they make it, to run from ISIS,

and they are in the mountain now. For the youngest, finally

a chance to sleep without fear, though the mothers remain watchful.

For the eldest, simple relief of this chance to sit

after their long walk to safety. Somehow, these families have

survived not only the massacre by Islamist militants,

but the next enemies waiting on their journey, hunger and heat.

The families here came down from the mountain

and they have walked four days to get here, through Syria, and now to

the relative safety of Kurdistan. At last, they are able to get food

and water after days without. The aid agencies say

while they are doing their best, the needs here are immense.

For now, they are handing out the basics while well-wishers

from local towns have brought clean clothes and food.

This man and his family of nine have walked

for two days from the mountain. They have just heard there are

vehicles ahead that can take them to a derelict building

in the nearest town. Others have no idea

of where they are going next. All they know is that

they can't go back. Their villages are now dominated

by the Islamic State, no longer under Iraq's control.

Their fate is at the mercy of the shifting realities

of the new Middle East. RAF Tornado jets have arrived

in Cyprus, to help with the humanitarian

mission in northern Iraq. The planes will carry out

surveillance, supporting RAF cargo planes which are dropping

essential supplies to the people still stranded on Mount Sinjar.

Britain and America have said there will be no boots on the ground,

but what is the US and British strategy in Iraq?

Here's our diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall.

Preparing for take-off for northern Iraq. British Tornado crews at RAF

Marham in Norfolk today. Their mission, not offensive strikes, but

strictly humanitarian, to provide surveillance for the safe delivery

of aid to refugees. There have already been two UK aid missions,

the latest was last night. Water canisters and lamps that can also

charge mobile phones. The government is considering adding Chinook

helicopters to help with aid drops. But the focus is on safety. So far,

Britain is resisting pressure to counter the Islamic State extremists

in a military role. There is a balance to be struck a tween the

risks of doing this versus the accuracy we can get being relatively

low. We take that into consideration when planning these missions and

make sure we get it done safely. How powerful is the Islamic State

threat? Let's not forget, they control a third of Syria, a source

of weapons, funds and fighters, which is fuelling their advance

across northern Iraq. The lines on the map show what they hold. Air

strikes by the United States might have slowed down their advance, but,

as the US admits, they have done little to degrade the militant's

capacity to fight. The plight of people stranded on Mount Sinjar

remains serious. Latest estimates say 35,000 Yazidis are there. Aid is

helping. Some 20,000 gallons of water have been delivered by Britain

and the United States, along with 85,000 meals for people, some of

whom have not eaten for well over a week. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, there

are some signs the precarious political situation might be

easing. The outgoing Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who has resisted

moves to replace him, today hinted he would not fight to stay, telling

Army officers to keep out of politics and focus on the terrorist

threat instead. But even the new Iraqi government may not be able to

keep the country together. US Navy fighter jets, launching air strikes

from the Persian Gulf, a limited intervention to buy time so Iraq can

send itself, so long as this crisis is not already out of control.

Let's talk to Paul would from Erbil. I know you have been to a town from

which the Kurds have just got back from, what are people saying to you

there? There is a lot of anger, and frankly shame over what happened

over the last few days. Political and military leaders told me there

was a collapse in their forces in some places, then abandoning their

post, even senior officers abandoning their post in a scene

reminiscent of the Iraqi army, earlier. I watched soldiers get out

of a truck, shouting cowards, local men, who shouted back. Local

diplomats say this mood of panic had spread to Erbil, the capital of what

the Kurds hope will one day be their embryonic state. He thought there

was a dangerous moment last week, when huge swathes of territory,

including the Arbel, -- Erbil could have fallen. Are you talking about

Islamic State continually advancing, or is there a sense in some quarters

that they can be stopped? They have been stopped and indeed turned back

in places like the town I visited today. Local people are not going

back to these towns. They don't trust their own security forces to

keep them safe. They are appealing, and I heard it many times on the

streets, for the Americans to carry out more bombing raids, for there to

be more international support. The Kurds are very likely armed, and the

is like state have captured 1000 tonnes of ammunition in recent

advances, as well as armoured vehicles and tanks. It is only,

Kurdish people have told me, with American help and air power that

they will be turned back and perhaps stopped.

Out top story: A huge number of tributes have been paid to the actor

and comedian, Robin Williams, who's died in a suspected suicide.

And still to come, a sculpture to remember the land girls.

Later on BBC London. The family of a man from Tooting

demands he be allowed home now that he's completed his sentence

for terror offences. And how a tooth infection got

the better of double Olympic Champion, Mo Farah.

United Nations medical experts have cleared the use

of experimental drugs on people infected with the Ebola virus.

The World Health Organization has ruled that it is ethical,

given the scale of the outbreak, to give patients drugs which have

not yet been tested on humans. So far the disease has been

confirmed in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

More than 1,000 people are believed to have died.

And at least 1,800 more have been infected.

A Spanish priest who was working in Liberia has become one

of the latest to be killed by the virus, as our Medical Correspondent,

Fergus Walsh reports. This is Miguel Pajares, a Catholic

missionary who spent his life amongst the sick and poor. He

contracted Ebola in Liberia, where he had been treating patients. He

was flown home to Madrid last week, amid the tightest bio-security but

died this morning. His body swiftly cremated to minimise the chance of

Ebola spreading. He's one of just three people treated with an

experimental drug, known as ZMapp. The others, two American aid

workers, are recovering. In a highly-unusual move, global health

experts said it was ethical to offer untested drugs to Ebola patients In

the past ten years, research efforts into Ebola treatments and vaccines,

means, that for the first time, we have a range of potential treatments

and vaccines, they could be supporting our efforts to control

Ebola viruses. ZMapp is the only experimental drug

which has been used so far. It's created by exposing mice to Ebola.

Their serum contains three antibodies which are then grown in

tobacco plants but there are just two dozes. All have been allocated

or used. There will be no more until the end of the year. Another

potential treatment is to use serum from patients who have recovered

from ebowl la. There are also anti-viral drugs -- Ebola. As for

prevention, there are two vaccines in development but all of these have

only been tested in monkeys. We have to make sure there is informed

consent from the patient, if the patient is conscious and able to

give that. Otherwise from the family, or the community. And we

also have to ensure that data is properly collected and the cases are

well-documented, so we will get information on whether or not these

treatments work. Global health officials said there had been

limited research into Ebola drugs because it was largely a disease of

the poor in West Africa. The virus can overwhelm the immune system but

intravenous fluids, oxygen, modern emergency medicine can help. It

won't be experimental drugs, but better health care and the early

isolation of infected patients that will bring this nightmare epidemic

to an end. Fergus Walsh reports.

The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter Fahy,

has been told he is facing a criminal investigation - in relation

to the handling of inquiries about a suspected sex offender. Sir Peter

says it's right that his decision-making is being

scrutinised. Our correspondent, Ed Thomas, is at Greater Manchester

Police Headquarters. Sir Peter Fahy is one of the

country's most senior police officers, now under pressure, like

never before. He faces a criminal investigation that could lead to a

court case. He faces misconduct claims that could lead to him being

sacked as Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police. All this relates

to evidence from a whistleblower, a serving officer inside Greater

Manchester Police, who has made a number of accusation against senior

officers. These be a cuecations include cronyism and bullying. The

claim on Sir Peter Fahy is he was involved in an auto a -- in a parly

handled investigation into a child sex offender. He is not the only

Chief Constable to face inquiries like this. Across England and Wales,

five chief constables have faced criminal investigations whilst in

office. Sir Peter Fahy has not left the office it make a statement on

camera but he gave the BBC some words. He said "You face complex

decisions on a daily basis... It is right this decision-making is

scrutinised and that I am held to account."

Thank you. Police say they are concerned for

three brothers from Sundayer who have gone missing. They were last

seen yesterday evening boarding a train to Newcastle station. The mat

lock brothers were in foster care -- Matlock.

The invaluable work done by tens of thousands of women during the first

and Second World Wars, is being commemorated in a work of heart. The

women's Land Army, or Land Girls as they became known, helped feed

soldiers and the nation. By 1944 there were some 80,000 of them. Now

work is under way on a sculpture which will be unveiled later this

year. Sian load has been to meet the artist and one of her models. --

Sian Lloyd. The call for women to work the land.

Over the course of two world wars and beyond, thousands of women left

their old lives behind and joined ed Land Army or Timber corps, ploughing

the fields and chopping wood. Jobs until then that had been done by

men. Mary Wright was one. In 1947 when food was still in short supply,

17-year-old Mary answered an advert in her local paper When I first

joined the Land Army I don't know whether I ever imagined that I would

be farming, still, at my age. The contribution of the Land Girls and

lumberjilles, as members of the Timber Corps are known, is now being

officially commemorated. We've had access to the statues being made.

The year-long project begins with a steel frame being discovered in clay

a pain-staking process for the artist. My great-aunt was a Land

Girl. It intrigued me. It was nice to have a sculpture that means

something. I can think of her while I'm doing it as well. Modelling the

figures takes months, as layer upon layer of clay is moulded. Their

features are carefully copied. The Land Girl is modelled on Is Abel

Wright. She's following on her grandmother's footsteps, working in

the family farm Nanny and every Land Girl and LumberJill worked so hard

to keep the can untrigoing. It makes us proud. -- keep the country going.

At this stage, the figures are still in pieces. At this stage the fist

coat of wax gets all the detail. It will he be a two months before it is

finished and placed in the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

It'll mark a period in social history that saw many women's

everyday lives, change forever. Edinburgh Zoo says its giant panda,

Tian Tian, may be pregnant, and could give birth at the end

of the month. Keepers

at the zoo have been monitoring Tian Tian since she was artifically

inseminated earlier this year. If all goes to plan, this will be

the first giant panda to be born in the UK, as Lorna Gordon reports.

She is one half of Britain's most famous animal couple. And now, Chang

Chang has a cub on the way. The zoo are hoping this could be third time

lucky for the giant panda after previous disappointments, the signs,

this time are good. But panda pregnancies are notoriously hard to

monitor. In part, because the incubating baby is tiny, compared to

its mum. At the moment I would imagine it is the size of a bean.

The panda cub develops very quickly. The actual pregnancy, the length of

time we don't know for sure, I would hazard a guess of something between

24 and 30 days. For visitors today the focus was on the wait. She was

kept away from public view. Then there is the daddy. Seemingly

oblivious to the attention. And Edinburgh's giant pandas, popular

already, will be more in demand if the patter of tiny panda paws are

heard. I think it is really cool. But I wish they would

the patter of tiny panda paws are heard. I come out and play. Well,

they are endangered and I think not many people get to see pandas during

their lifetime. It is fantastic for Edinburgh. It is a fantastic

achievement for the zoo and to promote Scotland. These triplets

were recently born in China. And while the zoo here is urging

caution, the first giant panda, or pandas, to be born in Britain,

should, all going well, be adding to this endangered species' numbers in

just a few weeks' time. Follow that, Matt, Taylor with the

Will forecast. How is it looking? Follow that, Matt, Taylor with the

Will forecast. How is it looking? Maybe Midsummer but I bet even you

thought the word autumn through the head. It has for many. If you were

in Scotland today, across the central belt, cloudy, driving winds,

pouring rain, 13 in Glasgow and Edinburgh in an August avenue. A

disappointment. Things will get better here tomorrow. The area of

cloud that has brought that persistent rain is pushing

southwards bringing heavy rain into the far north of England.

southwards bringing heavy rain into the far north It'll fragment as it

works southwards. Lively thunderstorms nor parts of Wales,

the Midlands and southern England through the fist part of the night.

Most will grad will youly decay. To the end of the night a scattering of

showers, through the central belt and Scotland.

And there will be a bit of breeze strongest across the north-east of

Scotland. Further bursts of heavy rain around. Winds touching

galeforce. The rest of Scotland into Northern Ireland, a vastly improved

picture compared with today. More dry and bright weather around. Cloud

across north England north Midlands and north Wales with occasional rain

which will work southwards. The showers we have in the

south-west, not quite as heavy as they were this morning.

The story for Wednesday is slightly fewer showers, slightly lighter. If

you don't stay dry all day long, any wet spell will only be fairly

short-lived as the showers push through on the north-west breeze.

Because that breeze is lighter, it'll feel warmer out there. Most

notably across parts of Scot lands and Northern Ireland, after today's

conditions. But it is cooler again as we go into Thursday. Still a

notable breeze. Heavier showers developing from Wales, across the

Midlands, southern England and rumbles of thunder and hail with

that. It'll decay from the west and Friday and Saturday look drier.

Try to keep some optimism. Thank you very much. That's all from the BBC

News at Six. Goodbye from me. On BBC One, we join the teams