09/02/2018 BBC News at Six

The two British jihadists

captured in Syria.

Families of their victims call

for them to be tried in court.

The two men belonged to a group

within so-called IS infamous

for executing Western hostages.

The daughter of one

of the victims wants justice.

If it goes to trial,

I certainly will be there.

I will look them in the eye and let

them know that I am who I am

and they have destroyed a big part

of my life.

But questions now as to where

the two British men could be tried.

Will they face a court

in the United States?

Also tonight:

The EU's chief negotiator warns

the UK to face up to the potential

consequences of Brexit for Northern

Ireland.

A UK decision to leave

the single market and to leave

the customs union would make

border checks unavoidable.

We investigate whether building

on brownfield sites is the answer

to Britain's housing crisis.

And during a spectacular,

if freezing, opening ceremony,

the Winter Olympics in South Korea

get under way.

And coming up on Sportsday on BBC

News, we are live at Twickenham

ahead of this weekend's Six Nations

action where England prepare to take

on Wales in what could be a defining

match of this year's Championship.

Good evening and welcome

to the BBC News at Six.

The families of some of the victims

of two British jihadists belonging

to the Islamic State group

and captured in Syria,

have called for them

to face justice in court.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee

Elsheikh were part of a team of four

British IS members whose British

accents earned them

the nickname "the Beatles".

US officials say the group are

accused of executing 27 hostages.

Bethany Haines, whose father, David,

was one of those hostages,

has told the BBC the men should be

forced to look in the eyes

of the people whose

lives they'd destroyed.

Our Home Affairs correspondent

Daniel Sandford has more.

They became the most infamous

gang of foreign fighters

in the self-styled Islamic State,

callous torturers and public

executioners of hostages.

Jihadi John, his real name

Mohammed Emwazi, now dead.

Aine Davis, in prison in Turkey.

And the two men captured last

month, Alexanda Kotey

and El Shafee Elsheikh.

The two were detained

by American-backed

Syrian Kurd fighters.

Kotey, the Kurds said today,

was trying to escape into Turkey.

The gang are suspected

of beheading Alan Henning,

the driver and aid worker

from Eccles, and David Haines,

seen here in Croatia,

a former RAF engineer and long-time

aid worker from Perth.

This morning, his daughter, Bethany,

was finally contemplating

what punishment two of his suspected

killers should face.

They should die a long,

slow, painful death.

And I think quite a lot of people

will understand that,

that they shouldn't be

allowed to live.

But realistically, that's

not going to happen.

And I have to come

to terms with that.

And the best thing for them is to be

locked up and throw away the key.

They should never be

allowed back in society,

because they will just recruit

people and they will

just do this again.

And for the sake of her father,

if they end up in court,

she will go to watch.

If it goes to trial,

I will certainly be there,

I will certainly want to look them

in the eye and let them

know that I am who I am,

and they have destroyed a big part

of my life.

And hopefully there will be

some sort of justice.

Some of the gang's hostages

were freed, including

former French reporter,

Nicolas Henin.

He wants them to have

the fairest trial possible.

I would not be happy

if they were just sent

to Guantanamo Bay, because this

is denial of justice.

If we want justice, we need

to give them the trial

that would satisfy them,

but also the victims.

The British men detained last month

are El Shafee Elsheikh,

who arrived in Syria from Britain

in 2012, and Alexanda Kotey,

who left the UK on an aid

convoy to Gaza in 2009,

and also ended up in Syria.

Their gang is accused by the US

of beheading at least 27 hostages,

including Alan Henning,

David Haines and Americans

James Foley, Peter Kassig

and Steven Sotloff.

They are also accused

of water boarding, mock

executions, crucifixions

and electric shock torture.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee

Elsheikh grew up close to each other

in quite a small area of west

London, near to the A40 flyover.

It became infamous as

an IS recruiting ground.

As well as Mohammed Emwazi,

Jihadi John, some half a dozen other

men from these streets died fighting

for IS in either Syria or Iraq.

At El Shafee Elsheikh's house,

his parents, who had another

son killed in Syria,

asked the media to leave.

There's nothing we can say,

no comment whatsoever.

Please, please, let us be in peace.

Their son and Alexanda Kotey

have had their British

citizenship removed already.

Now a trial, possibly

in the United States,

seems the most likely outcome.

Daniel Sandford, BBC News.

Our Security correspondent

Gordon Corera is here.

We heard Daniel saying that a trial

in the States is the most likely

outcome but there are a number of

options.

That's right. A US official

in the last hour has told me they

are still considering options, so no

set path yet. It is not entirely

clear that these individuals are

even in American hands. They may be

in the hands of Kurdish forces that

captured them in Syria in January.

The Americans were given access to

them for interrogation and it

appears that important intelligence

might have been obtained about where

foreign fighters have gone, the

location of any other Brits. That

will have been the priority until

yesterday it became public that

these men were being held, which has

forced the issue of what to do with

them. It looks as if they have not

yet finally decided whether they

will be put on trial in the US, sent

to Guantanamo Bay, or somewhere else

for trial. The most likely option

would be trial in the US but it

seems as if discussions are ongoing

and British officials are not

commenting on their preferred

option.

Thank you.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiatior,

Michel Barnier, has issued

a stark warning to the UK,

effectively telling the British

government, "You can't

have your cake and eat it".

He said the UK's decision to leave

the EU single market and customs

union meant border checks

at the Irish border

were "unavoidable", something

both the UK and the EU

have said would be unacceptable.

He also warned that without greater

agreement on key issues

like Northern Ireland,

the two-year transition period

after Brexit was not a given.

John Pienaar, reports.

Brexit is coming and time is running

short. Just 13 months before Britain

is officially out of the European

Union, and today the EU had a sharp

warning. Sort out key sticking

points, or there will be no deal and

no transition. Britain's Brexit

Secretary met the EU chief

negotiator in Downing Street on

Monday. Friendly enough, but just

weeks to thrash out the shape of a

Brexit transition. Today in us all

is, with a big EU summit next month,

Michel Barnier had blunt message in

terms easy to understand.

If these

disagreements persist, the

transition is not given.

So much to

sort out, and talks are getting

prettily. On the rights of migrants

will arrive after Brexit date, will

Russell 's block trade if Britain

breaks EU rules. The Brexit

secretary Colback discourteous. Mr

Barney disagreed.

TRANSLATION:

Throughout these

negotiations, my attitude has not

been in the least discourteous or

vindictive. We have never wished to

punish the UK. It is totally foreign

to my state of mind.

And how to

leave the EU without bringing back a

hard north- south Irish border.

Nobody wants that at...

It is

important to tell the truth. A UK

decision to leave the single market

and to leave the customs union would

make border checks unavoidable.

It

is not just a political problem at

this shoe shop in Northern Ireland.

These issues are men for walking, on

both sides of the border. Customs

and tariffs could mean a business

like this running into trouble.

We

need easy access from the factory to

our shop floor. If there is a hard

border, there will be hold-ups all

the way along that we cannot

predict.

But the unionist party

shoring up the government in

Parliament says that when Britain

leads the customs union, Northern

Ireland must leave, too.

The bottom

line is that Northern Ireland will

leave the European Union with the

rest of the United Kingdom. We would

not countenance a situation where

there would either be political

constitutional barriers within the

United Kingdom, and economic

barriers within the United Kingdom

internal market would be

catastrophic for Northern Ireland.

Brexiteer Tories say ministers

should take warnings from Brussels

in their stride and not give ground

on the way out of the EU.

We will

not accept that we become rule

takers from the EU when we have no

say over it. Yes, business wants

certainty and to know they have time

to get ready for things like customs

changes. That is what the

implementation period is about. It

is not about having the EU dictate

to us in a way that would be

unacceptable to us and to businesses

as well.

Tonight, the Brexit

secretary is saying he is surprised

that Mr Barnier is not clear that

Britain wants to go on trading as

now during a transition. The

government is hoping for compromise

in negotiations, but if there is no

transition deal next month,

ministers will have to prepare

Britain and British business for the

possibility of a cliff edge Brexit.

If there is a transition deal it is

on to deciding the ambitions for

Brexit, which divide Parliament,

Tory MPs and the Cabinet. One day,

one crisis after time.

Joining me is our Europe

correspondent Adam Fleming.

Is this just about Brussels trying

to flex their muscles in the latest

stage of the negotiations?

Michel Barnier says the same thing

every time. When he stands at the

podium in there, he is not

conducting negotiations. Except we

know that he is, a bit. Some of this

is tactical, but he is also saying

things that the EU feels deeply and

fundamentally. That boils down to

two things. One, you don't mess with

the single market, the rules are the

walls. Two, the EU does not want the

UK on the outside that has a big

influence on the inside. David Davis

says it is OK for the EU to defend

its own interests but Britain has to

be allowed to do the same. And the

Brexit talks are all about finding a

compromise between those points of

view. That is the philosophical

staff. The practical stuff we

learned today is that the transition

period is not going to be waved

through without any disagreements,

and the Northern Irishman order

issue has been parked, not solved

for good.

Thank you.

Can the UK build the houses it

needs without developing

on the green belt?

There have long been

calls to build new homes

on brownfield sites first,

land that's been used

for construction before and may be

contaminated by chemicals.

But they are often less

attractive to developers.

In Greater Manchester,

where there have been numerous

protests against green belt

development, the mayor has announced

he'll use his powers to encourage

building on brownfield sites.

But is it the answer?

Mark Easton reports.

Could the old mill towns

of Greater Manchester hold

the answer to the housing crisis?

Places like Stalybridge,

where the industrial revolution took

root along the banks of the River

Tain.

Instead of building on precious

green belt, why not use brownfield

sites in struggling town centres?

Greater Manchester's Mayor,

Andy Burnham, was elected

on a promise to protect the green

belt and now plans to promote

brownfield hotspots

in six rundown towns.

We have had an approach where it has

been developer led greenfield first,

because it has been easier

for developers to go over

there and I am saying, no,

let's come back to our town centres,

breathe new life into them

and build higher density

residential development there.

Among sites identified

in Stalybridge, the former police

station, an old pub,

the Pineapple Inn and what

was once a local shop.

The plan is to turn these plots

into luxury flats aimed at young

professionals who can

afford market prices.

Some are already under construction,

build to rent apartments

with a coffee shop and gym,

Friends-style loft living

on the site of what was once

an 18th-century woollen mill.

Jasmine and Josh will be

moving in this summer.

It is our first home together, so...

This is the perfect thing.

It is brand-new, it is modern,

it is a big step for us.

And we are really excited.

In some cases, housing associations

will sell the luxury homes and use

the profits for building social

and affordable homes elsewhere.

Not everyone is convinced.

I will believe it when I see it.

At the end of the day,

it is basically a slap in the face.

I mean, on average, they want

about 600 pounds per calendar

month, I am on half that.

Working-class mill town,

no one can afford things like that.

The focus on brownfield sites

is politically popular,

but small projects in rundown town

centres are not going to be that

attractive to investors

and even if every scrap of land

was used to its full potential,

the brownfield land register shows

there is not nearly enough of it

to fulfil Greater

Manchester's housing needs.

The brownfield register has

identified a number of sites

in Stalybridge and almost 1250

in Greater Manchester,

which could be used for housing,

with a maximum capacity of just

over 100,000 homes.

But, Greater Manchester needs more

than 227,000 homes to meet demand.

Brownfield does not

even get halfway there.

Are you not deluding people, though,

who believe that we can

solve the housing crisis

simply using brownfield?

You can't!

And I would accept that.

This is not about saying,

no, we will never build

on anywhere green again,

but it is about saying, look,

start with our towns,

so that we minimise the take

from the green belt.

There are controversial plans

to build homes on Sidebottom Fold,

green belt on the edge

of Stalybridge, but when it comes

to the general claim that brown

should be the new green,

here, as in elsewhere,

the numbers do not quite add up.

Mark Easton, BBC News, Stalybridge.

Our top story this evening.

The families of victims of two

British, Islamic State Jihadists,

captured in Syria, call for them

to be brought to trial.

And still to come, the world's

most famous dinosaur,

Dippy the Diplodocus,

goes on tour.

First stop the Jurassic coast.

Coming up in sports day, we are

alive at Twickenham where old foes

prepare to reunite as England take

on Wales in what could be a crucial

match in the 6 Nations Championship.

An elaborate opening ceremony

for the Winter Olympics has been

taking place in South Korea.

Among those attending

was the sister of the North Korean

leader, Kim Jong Un.

She's part of the most senior

North Korean delegation

ever to visit the South.

The British team is hoping

to win ten medals as our

Seoul Correspondent,

Laura Bicker, reports

from Pyeongchang.

Korea!

These athletes have been divided

by a war that never truly ended.

They carry the flag

of a unified Korea.

And in one stadium for one night

decades of rising tension

and suspicion ebbed away.

In the VIP box a moment most

thought they'd never see.

A member of the Kim dynasty,

the sister of the North Korean

leader, shaking hands

with the South Korean president.

The arrival of Kim Yo-jung has

surprised this tiny town just miles

from the militarised border.

It is nice to have the high-level

delegates from the North and it also

feels strange and wondrous.

I have never seen a North Korean.

Of course I welcome them but I don't

know why the South Korean government

is bending over backwards

to appease them.

I don't like seeing

the South serving the North.

My heart is melting.

The South and North have been

divided and now it feels

peace is coming to us.

But America is beginning to wonder

whose side South Korea is on.

The only moment the US

Vice President looked comfortable

was when he welcomed his team.

He refused to acknowledge

the North Korean guests behind him.

It's a note of caution many

in the diplomatic community share.

There's a real sense of pragmatism.

Nobody is over optimistic

because we have seen too many

false starts before.

But, of course, we all hope

that this will turn out for the good

and that Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

will be remembered

as the Peace Olympics.

The political drama has loomed

over these mountains,

but soon attention will turn

to the sport and the medal

hopes of thousands.

And we welcome Great Britain!

Team GB is aiming for its most

successful Winter Games,

with a medal target of five or more.

A challenge in this frigid climate.

But some didn't seem

to mind the cold.

As many in the crowd bundled up

in their heated seats they gave

a warm welcome to the bare-chested

flag bearer from Tonga.

The dazzling displays

were full of symbolism,

but there's one team

above all others that represent

the hopes of this peninsular.

The joint Korean ice hockey team had

a controversial start -

players from the North had to be

integrated into the squad,

forcing players from the South out.

But the two sides now

appear to have bonded.

Looking at the bigger picture,

I think that this is a very

important moment in history

and I think that it's

a privilege to be a part of it.

I'm happy about it so I think that

everyone is just embracing it.

And so, to the moment of truth.

As ice skating gold medalist

Yuna Kim lights the flame,

South Korea has challenges ahead,

including fears that it's fallen

victim to a fake charm

offensive from the North.

This is a public relations coup

for North Korea to have its athletes

appear on this global stage.

It gives what's been an isolated

regime a human face,

but critics also fear it will allow

them to portray this

image of a normal,

peace-loving nuclear power.

As with all shows, this one

must come to an end.

The Olympic flame will only burn

in Pyeongchang for two weeks.

It will take more than warm sporting

gestures to lead to permanent change

on this Korean peninsular.

Laura Bicker, BBC News, Peongchang.

The charity Oxfam has denied

allegations it covered up the use

of prostitutes by its aid

workers in Haiti.

Responding to a report

in The Times newspaper,

the charity admitted

that the behaviour of some

of its staff had been

"totally unacceptable".

But Oxfam said it had publicly

announced an investigation

into the allegations

when they surfaced in 2011.

Sarah Campbell is here ,

just fill us in on the background

to this first of all.

Fill us in on the background. This

happened following the earthquake in

Haiti. 200,000 people died and more

than a million were made homeless

and Oxfam was brought in to try and

help the population recover and

British people donated millions of

pounds. It is the conduct of their

staff that has been the subject of

the investigation by the The Times

and the newspaper alleges that there

were sex party 's Oxfam workers

invited young prostitutes to

guesthouses, including, according to

one source, underage girls. Oxfam

has confirmed there was an

investigation at the time and there

is no question that prostitutes were

used, but the use of underage girls

was not proven. The director

resigned and did not face

disciplinary action and two others

were also allowed to resign and four

members of staff were dismissed. The

charity says the investigation was

made public that the time, and they

did not involve or informed the

police in Haiti even though

prostitution is illegal in the

country. Oxfam say they reported it

to the Charity Commission and the

response today is interesting, they

said that they had not been aware of

the precise

the precise allegations and did not

see a final copy of the Oxfam report

and in the last hour, but Culture

Secretary said these allegations are

deeply shocking and Oxfam must now

provide the Charity Commission with

all the evidence they hold of the

events that happened as a matter of

urgency.

Sarah, thank you.

Toxicology reports submitted to a

pre-inquest hearing suggest the men

had taken and naturally occurring

steroid often used by body-builders.

The men were shot dead by police

minutes after the van and knife

attacks last June.

The owner of the Daily Mirror has

agreed to buy the Express and Star

newspapers as well as OK magazine

in a deal worth 127 million pounds.

Newspaper circulation

continues to fall.

The company Trinity Mirror

says it will be able

to save money by sharing content

and reducing duplication.

Now here's one thing you don't

expect to find in the post -

this two-month old tiger cub,

which had been packed into a plastic

container and mailed

to an address in Mexico.

The package was detected when a dog,

which was searching

for contraband, sniffed it out.

The cub was taken an animal

management centre,

and is reported to be "dehydrated

but otherwise well".

He was the star who greeted visitors

to the Natural History Museum

in London for over a century,

but last year the skeleton cast

of Dippy the Diplodocus was removed

from the museum's entrance hall

to make way for Hope the Blue Whale.

Now Dippy is on the road,

visiting all four Home Nations.

His first stop until May

is the Dorset County

Museum in Dorchester.

Our Correspondent,

Duncan Kennedy, is there.

Duncan.

Fiona, with all these lights

and music tonight, it is no wonder

they have called Dippy, the rock

star dinosaur and like any other

self-respecting rock star, he is

going on a nationwide tour, starting

tonight here in Dorchester. It is

incredible to think that in all his

130 near history, it he has never

been seen outside London before.

It's taken about 150

million years...

Dippy is here.

I think we're in business!

..and five days to bring Dippy

the dinosaur to Dorset.

OK, Dippy's 292 bones may be

made out of plaster,

but this iconic replica of a real

diplodocus is still palaeontology

perfection right up to his head.

Hurray!

A nice moment.

It was touch and go

as to whether it would fit in,

but it's absolutely perfect,

so I'm happy.

Dippy has been called

the People's Dinosaur,

105 feet of prehistoric inspiration.

Wow!

Wow!

No wonder these slightly younger

visitors were wowed today.

What's the best bit about him?

His tail, because it can

whack people around.

What's so great about Dippy?

That he's ginormous.

He's massive, isn't he?

Dippy was in the Natural

History Museum since 1905,

but the museum decided it was time

for change and to reconstruct

him outside London.

Now that he is assembled

he is embarking on a huge

nationwide tour of England,

Scotland and Wales.

They reckon that over the course

of the next three years

about five million people

will engage with this project.

And where better for Dippy's first

stop than Dorset's Jurassic Coast?

If Dippy was going to choose to go

somewhere he'd probably

want to choose to come

the Jurassic Coast to find out

all about the fossils

and all the other creatures living

in what is now the British Isles at

around the time that he was roaming

what is now Wyoming in America.

Wherever Dippy goes,

it will be free to see him.

A chance for older visitors

to relive childhood memories,

and for younger ones to create some.

Duncan Kennedy, BBC

News, in Dorchester.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Louise Lear.

Here's Louise Lear.

To weather watcher pictures that

illustrate the story for today, a

rather soggy scene in Norfolk. Large

puddles due to the intense rainfall

and further north and west, we have

the best of the Sunshine but it has

been cold and any snow showers have

tended to settle. As we go through

the night, we see this bump in the

ice bars, a quiet start to the

night, cold and frosty before cloud

and rain gathers in from the West.

Here are the first signs of this,

some snow at low levels in Scotland

and Northern Ireland and north-west

England, clear skies in these, the

blue tones denote temperatures

falling below freezing. For some, a

cold and frosty start but for

others, snow will be an issue.

Between five and ten centimetres

falling in parts of Scotland and icy

stretches here. I've around and

isolated snow showers in the

north-west of England but it is rain

through north-west England and that

rain will pep up as we go through

the morning and also stay with you

for the afternoon. Cloud and rain

gathers and moves steadily east

taking its time to arrive in London

and perhaps we will see brighter

skies in the far north of Scotland

by the end of the afternoon. It is

pretty dismal elsewhere. As we move

out of Saturday, it is worth

pointing out that the isobars are

pulling together. Gales in

north-west England, a scattering of

wintry showers look set to be the

story for much of Sunday. A cold day

on Sunday, in the central and

eastern areas, they will see the

best of the sunshine, and there will

be snow showers settling at low

levels and it will feel pretty cold

indeed. That is it, whatever you do,

enjoy your weekend.

indeed. That is it, whatever you do,

enjoy your weekend.

A reminder of our main story.

Relatives of some of the victims of

the two British Islamic State group

jihadist is captured in Syria call

for them to be brought to trial.

That's all from the BBC News at Six,

so it's goodbye from me -