28/11/2017 BBC News at Six

The desperate plight

of the Rohingya Muslims -

the pope calls for respect

for all ethnic minorities

on a visit to Myanmar.

While the pope doesn't mention

the Rohingyas by name,

he makes a plea for every

individual's human

rights to be defended.

More than 620,000 Rohingyas have

been driven out of their homes

and are trapped in refugee camps

over the border in Bangladesh.

I am here at Southern Bangladeshi

refugee camp where have fled

terrible conditions.

terrible conditions.

We'll be hearing from Reeta

in the refugee camps in the second

of her special reports.

Also tonight:

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

are to be married next May.

The venue - St George's

chapel in Windsor.

The Duchess of Cambridge

wishes them well.

William and I are

absolutely thrilled,

it is such a exciting news.

It is a very happy time for any

couple and we wish them

all the best and hope they enjoy

this happy moment.

Why living in the East Midlands

could blight your chances

for the rest of your life.

And the extra terrestrial bin lorry

catching old bits of satellite

and rockets that are filling

up outer space.

Coming up on Sportsday

on BBC News...

Ben Stokes heads to the southern

hemisphere, but he's more likely

to be playing cricket

in New Zealand than Australia.

Good evening and welcome

to the BBC news at Six.

Pope Francis has used a trip

to Myanmar to call for respect

for all ethnic groups and for human

rights in what's being seen

as a reference to the plight

of the country's Rohingya muslims.

Since August, more than 620,000

Rohingyas have been driven out

of their homes mainly by the Burmese

army though the army

claims it is responding

to militant attacks.

The Rohingyas have been forced

to flee across the border

into neighbouring Bangladesh.

The UN has called it "a textbook

example of ethnic cleansing".

My colleague Reeta Chakrabarti

is at the Kutupalong

refugee camp in Bangladesh,

home to hundreds of thousands

of Rohingyas, half of them children.

Reeta, what difference is a papal

visit going to make to them?

Thanks, Fiona.

People here do look to world leaders

to highlight their plight and they

will have been expectations of Pope

Francis on his first visit to

Myanmar and in particular whether he

would refer directly to them

Rohingyas by name, something he has

done in the past, but the word that

the Myanmar authorities and their

leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has

refused to do. It has been a highly

sensitive visit and we will have

more on that in a moment. But first,

I have been following one young

family on their journey from

different points in the refugee

camp.

Waiting at the border in Bangladesh,

600 refugees who have

crossed from Myanmar.

They are held here for two days

before being allowed in.

They are exhausted and anxious.

Among them we found 18-year-old

Rabia and her two nieces,

nine-year-old Umi and four-year-old

Noor.

They said they escaped

after the army and local

Buddhists in Myanmar

attacked their local village.

Rabia's parents were killed.

The little girl's mother was also

killed and they do not know what has

happened to their father.

They had been walking for 25 days.

TRANSLATION: People gave us food.

I just brought the two children.

I didn't bring

anything to cook with.

She says she is determined

to keep the children

with her although it

may be difficult.

A week later we find them in the UN

transit camp were vulnerable

A week later we find them in the UN

transit camp where vulnerable

people are looked after.

Umi has left to get

their food rations.

So how are they getting on?

Oh, this is where you live.

You don't have much, do you?

Psychologists say little Noor

is severely traumatised

by her experiences.

She never speaks to any adult.

Almost everybody that you meet

in this camp say that they have seen

some terrible things.

This group has been set up to help

people deal with their experiences.

It is run by Mahmuda,

a psychologist.

All the women here have

lost their husbands in the violence

in Myanmar and they are grateful

for her counselling.

Anjum and Khatoun, says Mahmuda,

ask questions about their lives,

they really talk to each other

about all the bad and the good that

has happened to them.

Her friend Hemida Begum echoes her,

saying the sessions make her feel

happy and they are thanksful.

People come from all over the camp

come for help from Mahmuda.

She works with them

to rebuild their lives.

It really works magically

because in my session

normally I say a few words

and that is like you are here,

now you are safe and you are not

alone, we are with you.

So acknowledge your life

as you are alive because you have

to work through many stories

and experiences, but finally

you are here and you are safe.

We knew the three girls we met

earlier were safe but it had been

four days and they had moved on.

We found them with a group

of people from their village,

waiting to be registered

in a more permanent camp.

TRANSLATION: I hope for a good life,

I will never let the children go,

I will never go anywhere,

I will never leave their side.

Aid workers told us the girls

will get child protection

because they have no parents

and they will be placed with

the others from their community.

Rabia, Umi and Noor are being looked

after, but they will take a long

time to recover from the trauma

they have experienced.

Reeta Chakrabarti,

BBC News, Bangladesh.

A flavour of what some of the camp's

young inhabitants have had to

endure. Back now to the Pope's visit

to Myanmar. Our religious affairs

correspondent has been travelling

with the Pope and has just sent this

report. On the lush grounds of

Myanmar's presidential palace a

military band announces the arrival

of Pope Francis. The rich pageantry

a world away from the terror felt by

more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims

who, since August, have fled into

Bangladesh in what the United

Nations has called textbook ethnic

cleansing. Today Pope Francis met

with Myanmar's de facto leader Aung

San Suu Kyi with human rights

organisations urging him to name the

Rohingya as victims despite Myanmar

not recognising them as citizens.

Myanmar's civilian leader, whose

shares power with the army, spoke

first, acknowledging the focus of

the area where the Rohingya have

lived for generations.

As we address

long-standing issues, the support of

our people and of good friends only

who wish to seek to succeed in our

endeavours has been invaluable.

Aung

San Suu Kyi chose to say little

about the crisis. Expectations then

shifted to Pope Francis.

TRANSLATION: The future of Myanmar

must be peace, based on the respect

for the dignity and rights of each

member of society. We speak for each

ethnic group and its identity,

non-excluded.

Pope Francis praised

the United Nations, but he did not

referred to the UN's accusation that

Myanmar has engaged in ethnic

cleansing. While he said the future

of this nation must include all

people regardless of their race and

religion, he did not use the word

Rohingya. Those working with

Rohingya refugees say the Pope

surrendered his moral authority by

not offering an explicit criticism,

but many in a country that is 75%

Buddhists were relieved he did not

mention the Rohingya by name.

TRANSLATION: It was wise of him not

to use the word. The world is

hearing the wrong message.

The Pope

may also have been mindful of

potential repercussions for another

religious minority. Christians make

up just 6% of the population here

and many have travelled here to take

part in a special Mass were Pope

Francis will preside tomorrow.

Martin Bashir, BBC News, Myanmar.

Martin Bashir, BBC News, Myanmar.

While world leaders attempt in their

way to find some resolution to this

crisis, here on the ground

conditions remain desperately sad.

What is really needed is more food

aid, clean water and proper shelter.

With that from southern Bangladesh,

Fiona, it is back to you.

In the day's other news:

Prince Harry will marry his fiancee

Meghan Markle next May

in St George's Chapel,

Windsor Castle.

Buckingham Palace has released more

details of the couple's wedding

plans and say that Ms Markle

will become a British citizen.

As our Royal Correspondent

Nicholas Witchell reports,

the Palace has also confirmed

the royal family will cover the cost

of the wedding and the reception.

They have in the words

of their spokesman been overwhelmed

by the amount of the support

they received from Britain and other

parts of the world of the News

of their engagement,

Now, Harry and Megan

are starting to organise

For all aspects of the ceremony,

according to officials.

Other members of the Royal family

have been expressing their happiness

at the news of their engagement.

William and I are absolutely

thrilled at such exciting news, it

is a happy time for any couple and

we wish them all the best and they

enjoyed this moment.

It is our gain

and we are all absolutely delighted.

They are so happy. Sometimes in a

climate where we are surrounded by a

lot of bad news it is a real joy to

have a bit of good news for once.

The first big decision in terms of

the wedding planning is the venue.

It will take place inside Windsor

Castle in the historic Saint

George's Chapel. The month on the

invitations will be made, a precise

date has still to be decided. The

15th century chapel festering by the

banners of the Knights of the Garter

is where Harry was christened. The

disadvantage is its size. It can

seat only 800 guests, half the

capacity of Westminster Abbey. It is

a more intimate setting, it is where

the marriage of the Duchess of Wales

and the Duchess of Cornwall was

blessed after their marriages in the

wedding office. The reaction in the

town was predictably positive.

We

are amazing, we are so excited.

Fantastic, really nice, it will be

good for winter as well.

I lived

locally and it will be nice to have

such a big event in the local area.

Aside from wedding preparations,

Megan will be preparing for British

citizenship. Yesterday she said she

wanted to get to know them better.

As far as boots on the ground are

concerned, I am excited to get to

know more about different

organisations here and I am excited

to get to work with passions by her

boys been excited about.

That will

start this Friday in Nottingham, the

city will witness the first

engagement of the new Royal team,

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Nicholas Witchel, BBC News.

Nicholas Witchel, BBC News.

Our Royal Correspondent Daniela

Relph is outside Windsor Castle.

I imagine there'll be some

excitement there and preparations

will start pretty soon,

even though the wedding's

not until May.

Yes, they will start soon, but

Windsor is a place that takes a ride

event in its stride there have been

so many here. It will be very well

prepared for a royal wedding.

Princess Anne's son has married here

so they know what they are doing. It

is within the precincts of the

castle and it is that bit more

private, but it will still feel very

much like a big royal event. Prince

Harry is very familiar with Windsor

Castle. He has been coming here

throughout his life. He went to

school down the road at Eton and we

know during the course of their

relationship Prince Harry and Meghan

Markle have come to Windsor on many

occasions and they have described it

as a special place to them, hence

their decision to choose it as their

wedding venue in May next year. In

terms of the costs of the wedding,

it has been confirmed by Buckingham

Palace that the church, the flowers,

the reception, the music, the bill

for all of that will be paid for by

the Royal family.

Within the last hour,

Bath university has

announced the retirement

of its Vice Chancellor,

Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell

who'd been criticised

over her salary.

She's the highest paid university

vice chancellor, in the UK,

on a salary of £468,000.

Students and staff had complained

her pay was disproportionate and far

exceeded pay rises for lecturers.

Our Home editor Mark Easton is here.

Professor Breakwell's salary

has been under fierce

attack for many months,

why is she going now?

She is resigning. The inflated

salaries of university vice

chancellors, the argument is they

are living a life of luxury whilst

the students are saddled with debt.

She leaves ahead of a planned

protest this Thursday by students

and staff and that was really the

final straw. Her wages and benefits

amounted to £468,000, a fabulous

Georgian house on Lansdowne

Crescent, and interest loan piquant,

£31,000 for her housekeeper to do

laundry and ironing. There was even

£2 for biscuits. When all this was

revealed, there was pressure on her

to quit. She is also the chief

executive of a very successful

business that has tripled in size

and her leadership. The university

today did indeed praise her

outstanding service and said she

will continue to contribute to the

ongoing success of the University

until she leaves the job at the end

of the summer. She will not get a

payoff. It signals a change. Vice

chancellors will have to be much

more transparent about their pay and

perks and justify all that to the

other stuff and most importantly the

students.

Our top story this evening:

The desperate plight

of the Rohingya Muslims,

the Pope calls for respect

for all ethnic minorities

on a visit to Myanmar.

Still to come:

New measures to help

reduce the number of baby

deaths and injuries

in childbirth in England.

Coming up on Sportsday on BBC News:

Looking to qualify for the next

World Cup, Wales' women

top their Group after beating

Bosnia-Herzegovina.

England and Northern Ireland

are in action later.

There's a "spiral of ever growing

division" between richer

and poorer parts of England,

according to a report

by the Social Mobility Commission.

It says many areas feel left behind

with children getting

a poor start in life

from which they can never recover.

The report ranked all 324 local

authorities on this map in terms

of life chances for someone

from a disadvantaged background.

The areas coloured blue,

many rural or on the coast,

have the lowest levels

of social mobility.

The orange, the highest.

In London, 51% of children on free

school meals achieved A star to C

in English and Maths GCSE, compared

to 36% in the English regions.

Newark, in the East Midlands,

is the worst performing authority.

Adina Campbell has been finding out

the challenges people face there.

That's for you to figure out.

So don't doubt it, stand up

and shout it - I've got this.

I've got this!

A special assembly from a local

poet, inspiring children

here in Newark to dream big.

I want to be a heart surgeon

and to do that I'm going to have

try my hardest and get into the best

universities there are.

I'd like to be an architect

with my sister and to do that I've

got to pick it in my GCSEs.

I would like to be a police officer

and to get that I'm going to nurture

other people and work together.

A third of children at this school

have free school meals and to give

those from poorer backgrounds

a fighting chance of doing well,

teachers say it's all

about starting early.

We've got learning

mentors in school.

We've got people trained

in Lego therapy.

The families have support

with attendance and reading at home.

It all comes together to give

the children that springboard

into all of the rest

of the curriculum.

Young people from disadvantaged

families in Newark are facing

a tough reality, only one in three

achieve the expected standard

at the end of primary school.

While one in four gets two or more

A-levels, and only one

in ten go to university.

It's not just children

from poorer backgrounds

here in the East Midlands who may

face some challenges,

only a fifth of those in work have

senior or professional jobs.

You're not really pushed

into this area and I wouldn't

say our colleges are that good.

I didn't really feel encouragement.

Round here not very many people want

to give opportunities to people.

The Social Mobility Commission says

people who live in places

like Newark need hope,

the stakes are too high.

We are becoming a nation of us

and them and the growing sense

in the country that we've become

an us and them society is deeply,

deeply corrosive of our cohesion

as a nation, and that goes to not

just our society or the economics

of our country, but also

the politics of the country.

The Government says 1.8 million more

children are in good or outstanding

schools than in 2010

and the national living wage

is helping to boost salaries.

Like many other small market towns,

job opportunities in Newark

are limited, many people have no

option but to commute

if they want to climb

up the career ladder.

Relax your shoulders...

And that's why starting young

could make all the difference,

but there's only so much

schools can do.

With budgets being squeezed

everywhere, this could

have a lasting impact

on the country's future.

Adina Campbell, BBC News, Newark.

If you'd like to know how

social mobility varies

across your local authority,

if you live in England,

you can go to the BBC News website

and click on the map to find out.

2,500 staff have been redung tan at

the Palmer and Harvey. The company

has collapsed into administration.

The NHS in England must do better

at learning from mistakes to reduce

the number of baby deaths

and injuries in childbirth,

says the Health Secretary.

The UK has some of the highest

levels of stillbirth

in western Europe.

For the first time, parents

of stillborn babies are to be

routinely offered an independent

investigation into what went wrong.

Here's our health

correspondent, Dominic Hughes.

Amanda is a busy mum,

but she lives with a terrible loss.

Hi, Riley-moo.

Hi, mummy.

She enjoyed a normal

pregnancy and labour

with her second baby,

but shortly after the birth her

daughter, Tallulah, died.

The response from the

hospital didn't help.

They said, you know,

often there aren't any answers.

It was the first thing I was told,

not to get my hopes up

that there would be answers.

That many babies just die in labour

and no-one really knows why.

Unfortunately, by the time the

inquest came around, the hospital

had lost all the blood results,

the chord results, so we had

nothing really to go on.

But the histologist

at the inquest said,

looking at her and doing

the post-mortem, there

was no explanation.

It's this kind of situation Health

Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to end.

Among the measures announced today

is an independent review of every

unexplained death during labour,

rather than hospitals

conducting their own investigations.

When I talk to parents whose

heart has been broken

by something that's gone wrong,

in those very small numbers

of cases, what they say is,

it's not about the money,

they just want to know that the NHS

has learned from what went wrong,

so that that same mistake isn't ever

going to happen again.

Without doubt there has been some

real progress over the last decade

when it comes to reducing the number

of stillbirths and neonatal deaths,

which is when a baby dies

within four weeks of being born,

but the UK still lags some way

behind other European countries.

Ministers clearly believe part of

the reason for that is that the NHS

has been slow to learn the lessons

of past mistakes.

The vast majority of 700,000 births

a year pass out without incident,

but each day there are around

nine stillborn babies.

-- off.

Roughly 50 women die in England each

year from issues related

to pregnancy and around 50,000

babies are born prematurely.

Problems during pregnancy and birth

have complex causes, alcohol,

smoking and being overweight can

all come into play,

but across the NHS a shortage

of staff to provide safe care

remains a concern.

We've been saying for some time

there isn't enough midwives.

We really need more staff and more

capacity in order to safely care

for mums and babies.

Too many families are

being left to deal with

the devastating loss of a baby.

Care is improving,

but there are concerns that

progress is still too slow.

Dominic Hughes, BBC News.

Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister,

Frances Fitzgerald, has resigned.

It follows criticism of her handling

of a whistleblower scandal.

She said she's stood down to avoid

a "potentially destabilising" snap

election and insists she's acted

with integrity throughout

her political career.

The Brexit Secretary, David Davis,

has been summoned to appear before

a committee of MPs to explain why

they've not been given full details

about the economic impact of the UK

leaving the European Union.

Mr Davis gave them a dossier

covering 58 different

sectors of the economy,

but has withheld some

"sensitive information."

He's been accused by some MPs of

treating Parliament "with contempt."

Space is filling up with junk -

old bits of rocket,

fragments of space crafts,

even old satellites

are all up there.

That poses a threat to vital space

technology which could

be hit and damaged.

Now, a British team is hoping

to solve the problem by sending up

a spacecraft to clear it up.

Our science correspondent,

Rebecca Morelle, explains.

Trois, deux, un - lift off.

Blasting off, for decades we've been

launching into space,

but what goes up rarely comes down

and space has become

crowded with junk.

The Remove Debris spacecraft

could be the answer,

the world's first attempt to test

how we can clean-up

celestial clutter.

It will see if it's possible

to snare a satellite in a net

and review how effectively

a harpoon is.

It will then bring everything back

down, burning up as it enters

the Earth's atmosphere.

It's been assembled in Surrey

and it's cost £15 million.

This is the last chance to see it

before it's packed up

for its launch early next year.

This is the Remove Debris platform

and it's going to be one

of the world's first missions

to actually demonstrate

cleaning up space junk.

This mission is

incredibly important.

We have technologies on here that

have never been demonstrated

in space before and it's urgent

that we actually launch this mission

now so that we can develop these

technologies for use in the future.

Since the early days of exploration,

the area around the Earth has grown

more and more cluttered.

It's estimated there

are about 7,500 tonnes of junk,

made up of old bits of rocket,

fragments from defunct spacecraft,

even tools dropped by an astronaut.

Scientists believe there are now

half a million pieces of debris

the size of a marble or bigger

and each piece has the potential

to do some serious damage.

Last year, the International

Space Station was hit.

This chip in a window

was caused when it was struck

by a tiny fleck of paint.

But the bigger pieces of junk

are a more pressing problem.

This European satellite,

the size of a double decker bus,

suddenly stopped working in 2012.

Since then, it's been circling

the Earth, threatening other key

satellites in its path.

The problem is going to grow.

It's going to grow because

collisions are going to take place

in the orbital environment.

We're going to lose

the satellites that we rely on.

That's going to be costly to us,

it's going to be costly

to the future generation.

All eyes are now trained

on the Remove Debris spacecraft.

If the technology works,

the hope is future missions can be

scaled up and the space

clean-up can begin.

Rebecca Morelle, BBC News.

Back down to planneth earth.

Time for a look at the weather,

here's Lucy Martin.

Time for a look at the weather,

here's Lucy Martin.

Sunny spells today, but it has been

feeling cold. Snow on the hills

there. Scattering of showers as we

moved through the day. The showers

largely in the north and east. There

have been a few for Northern

Ireland, Wales and the south-west of

England. Brightness despite the fact

it feels cold. Tonight he we will

see showers clipping the east coast.

They will extend further into East

Anglia and one or two into the

south-east. Showers for Northern

Ireland, one or two for south-west

Wales and England. It will feel.

Where we have showers there is the

potential for patches of ice for

northern parts of Scotland. Cold

start to the day tomorrow, patchy

frost first thing for prone spots.

Plenty of brightness. The best of

the sunshine in the south-west of

Scotland, Wales and south-west of

England. Showers along eastern

coastal areas. Some could be wintry

in nature. Showers for Northern

Ireland. One or two in the

south-west. Temperatureses not up to

much, maximum around seven degrees

Celsius. Here is how the pressure

charts are looking as we move into

Thursday. High pressure out in the

west continuing to see that norly

feed as we move into Thursday. It

will turn a bit colder. You can see

we are firmly in that cold air mass.

The temperatures coming down a bit

on what we've seen today. Again,

that north-easterly wind means it

won't feel particularly warm. A cold

start to the day again as we move

into Thursday. Plenty of sunshine

around and the best of the

brightness down the central spine of

the country, still some scattered

showers in the east. Some of those

could be wintry in nature, even to

low levels. Temperatures though not

feeling warm when you add in the

cold north-easterly breeze. Feeling

wintry by the