28/12/2012 BBC News

A little girl from Greater Manchester abducted three years ago

is on her way home from Pakistan. The six-year-old was taken by her

father. Now her mother and local campaigners are looking forward to

her return. I am delighted and her mother is delighted. For the first

time on Christmas Day she saw pictures of her daughter after

three and a half years. Lady Thatcher's private thoughts

after the Falklands conflict, revealed in government papers just

released. Cases of the winter bug, norovirus,

have risen to over one million in England and Wales.

And tributes to Norman Schwarzkopf, the American general who led

coalition forces in the first Gulf Good evening. A six-year-old girl

who was abducted by her father and taken to Pakistan three years ago

is travelling back to the UK. Atiya Anjum-Wilkinson was taken from her

home in Greater Manchester on her third birthday. She was found with

the help of Pakistani authorities and is understood to be fit and

well. Our correspondent Ed Thomas is at Manchester airport waiting

for the return, and he has the latest for us.

Yes, Huw, Gemma Wilkinson was told on Christmas Day that her daughter

was saved and well. She was shown a photograph of Atiya, and after such

a long campaign, in just a couple of hours, her weight will be over.

Atiya was three years old when she was abducted and left in Pakistan.

Until now, her mother had no proof that her daughter was alive, just a

text message from Razwan Ali Anjum, the child's father. He sent me a

message to say that I was never going to see Atiya again, basically

laughing, you know, in a text message. A child just does not

disappear. A person cannot hold this control over a child, an

innocent child's life. Atiya was taken in 2009, one day before her

third birthday. Her father said he was taking her to Southport.

Instead, they boarded a plane to Pakistan. Gemma Wilkinson appealed

for information. Today she was told her six-year-old was safe and on

her way home. It was the end of a five-week investigation. Atiya was

found in the Punjab region in a village 60 miles outside Lahore

after a North East MEPs both to the foreign minister in Pakistan. She

was staying with relatives of her father. The family have only given

this small bit of co-operation when they have realised that actually

the game is now up, there was nowhere left for them to turn. The

first to the line made, I made it quite clear to them that they

should not underestimate the determination with which this

matter will be pursued. Police used his picture of how Atiya might look

now. A lot has changed in the three years shins she went missing.

is coming back to a mother that she has not got a deeper relationship

with, but hopefully with the love of the mother and the immediate

family and with help from professionals, she will be able to

form that relationship began. her mother has remembered her

constantly. There has been several campaigns in finder, and now her

painful wait will soon be over. -- find her.

Yes, Atiya's flight is due to land here at 7:15pm, but do not expected

to be walking down the arrivals corridor. She will be taken aside

and spoken to by specially trained police officers. It is still a

delicate situation, and we do not know if the six-year-old can even

speak English or what memories she has of her times here and

Manchester, but maybe those are concerns for another day. Tonight

is about a mother being reunited with her daughter.

Ed, thank you very much, Ed Thomas from Manchester airport.

The invasion of the Falkland Islands was the worst moment of

Lady Thatcher's life according to evidence she gave to an official

inquiry after the conflict. The details are revealed in government

papers released under the 30 year rule show that the then Prime

Minister was acutely worried about the chances of retaking the islands

from Argentine forces. Lady Thatcher, now 87, stressed that the

invasion had taken Britain completely by surprise, as Peter

Biles reports. April 2nd, 1982, Argentine forces

came ashore on the Falklands and, within hours, the capital was under

their control. Later, giving evidence in private to an official

inquiry, Margaret Thatcher said she had not thought an invasion was

likely until two days beforehand. I never, never expected the

Argentines to invade the Falklands head on, she said. It was such a

stupid thing to do, as events happened, such a stupid thing even

to contemplate doing. On March 31st, 1982, Margaret

Thatcher saw the raw intelligence that suggested an Argentine

invasion of the Falklands was imminent. Later she told the Franks

inquiry that it was the worst, I think, moment of my life. It was

then that she realised just how serious this was. She went on to

write, that night, no-one could tell me whether we could retake the

Falklands, no-one, we did not know, we did not know. On the day of the

invasion, the official records reveal it was an amateur radio and

working at the BBC who provided the Government with the first

confirmation of the Argentine landings. The Argentines had

announced the invasion at 9:30am in the morning, and there was nothing

coming from the islands. I spent the day on the amateur radio

transmitter and managed to contact someone I knew on the islands he

said, it is all over, there is an Argentine aircraft carrier in the

bay, troops all over town, the Governor and the marines under

arrest, it is all finished. The USA was keen to provide Britain with

maximum support. America offered an aircraft carrier, although it was

not needed. The files also show that Mrs Thatcher rejected

President Reagan's calls for dialogue. Mrs Thatcher really is

not in the mood for compromise. There will be negotiations while

the task force is moving south, but there is no mistake that she is

prepared to use force in the negotiations fail. After a late

night phone call between the two leaders, Mrs Thatcher's private

secretary wrote, the Prime Minister at the President to put himself in

her position, she had lost valuable British ships and invaluable

British lives. She was sure that the President would act in the same

way if Alaska had been similarly threatened.

I have heard that the white flag is flying over Stan Lee! On June 14th,

Argentine troops surrendered. The archives tell us that Argentina was

also wrong-footed by events in the Falklands. The junta in Buenos

Aires never thought that British forces would sail 8,000 miles and

Well, other papers released under the 30 year rule include some

letters sent by Jimmy Savile to Lady Thatcher when she was Prime

Minister. The correspondence deals mainly with his charity work. David

Sillito has been looking at some of the contents. What have we learnt?

Given what we now know about Jimmy Savile, it is a fascinating glimpse

at the level of access, the meetings at Chequers and Downing

Street with Thatcher, the informality of it. One handwritten

letter from Jimmy Savile, a thank- you note after a lunch at Chequers.

Certainly, some words jump out, Guinness and then up at the time,

but talking about his girl patients, who were madly jealous because of

his friendship with Margaret Thatcher. -- innocent. The context

of the time was that he was talking about tax relief on charitable

donations, a possible gift to Stoke Mandeville. He was a trusted

charity fundraiser, and she seems to trust him a great deal. In fact,

the civil servants asking, what has she promised over lunch? Issue be

going to be going on Jim'll Fix It? A one-word answer in His, no, from

Margaret Thatcher. But you have got to look at the way Jimmy Savile was

with air, saying that everyone at Stoke Mandeville loves you, and his

final words are meat. In Australia, police say that radio

presenters involved in a hoax call to the London Hospital where the

Duchess of Cambridge was being treated are unlikely to face

prosecution. Michael Christian and Mel Greig made a public apology

after the nurse who transferred the call was found dead. Senior

officers in New South Wales say Scotland Yard has not asked them to

cook -- interview the presenters. They have been more than one

million cases of norovirus, the winter vomiting bug, in England and

Wales since the summer, more than 80% higher than the same time last

year. Health Protection Scotland has also reported a rise in cases.

Branwen Jeffreys has more details. This is the virus that has ruined

Christmas for thousands of families, invisible to the eye, but highly

infectious, and this winter it began by spreading earlier. It is

not like the football season, when you know when it is going to start.

It is unpredictable, and therefore it can begin to rise... We know it

rises in winter, but exactly when it starts to rise, we do not know.

In the last week, just over 3,500 cases have been confirmed in

England and Wales. For each one of those confirmed cases, an extra 288

people are estimated to also be ill. That means more than one million

people so far this winter have had this nasty illness. And across the

UK, it has hit harder than usual for this time of year. Today, East

Surrey Hospital has had to close to visitors. It is a last resort in

trying to reduce the spread of the virus. Many hospitals have had

similar restrictions in place in recent weeks. The NHS is trying to

protect the sick and frail, but families have been telling the BBC

of their Christmas misery. It has gone through our family of six and

left a trail of devastation. It is a hideous virus, it as totally

ruined Christmas for us. Being stuck in bed for two days, a truly

horrible bug. That was from Mark, whose whole family in Glasgow was

ill. Scientists have been trying to find out more about this virus. It

is changeable and unpredictable, but one thing is known for certain.

It has an amazing capacity to spread. Norovirus is like the

Ferrari of the virus world. It infects people very quickly and

spreads very quickly, so by the time you know you have been

infected, you have probably spread the disease. So has norovirus done

its worst this winter? Experts say they will not know that for several

Police in Sheffield had started a murder inquiry after a man who was

attacked on his way to church on Christmas Eve died in hospital.

Alan Greaves, 68, died from his injuries yesterday. Detectives say

it was a brutal attack with no known motive, as Ben Geoghegan

reports. A husband, a father of four

children, and a man very much at the centre of his community, Alan

Greaves was getting ready for Christmas when he was viciously

attacked. He was due to play the organ at the midnight service at

his local church on Christmas Eve, but he never turned up. His friends

describe him as a gentle soul, and they are shocked at what they say

is a senseless killing. If I were describing him, I could only call

him a good man, and he would come in here to lead a service, which is

about light coming into darkness, and in this context the only thing

I could really say is that this is an evil act. The church is just

around the corner from where he was found on Monday night, lying on the

pavement. He had been assaulted and suffered a serious head injury. He

was taken to hospital, but last night he died with his family at

his bedside. Today, police officers have been going door to door,

looking for witnesses and trying to reassure the local community.

cannot think of a motive why anybody would choose to attack Alan

Greaves, and again, any assistance from the local community would be

greatly appreciated. Alan Greaves was looking forward to celebrating

Christmas with his family and friends. Instead, a whole community

In Russia, President Putin has signed a controversial law

preventing Americans from adopting Russian orphans. The ban is part of

the Kremlin's response to US sanctions against Russian officials

are suspected of human rights abuses. From Moscow, our

correspondent Steve Rosenberg has the story.

More than 700,000 Russian children have no parents to care for them.

Now they are caught up in a political battle, reminiscent of

the Cold War. The placards outside the Russian parliament recently

read, do not deprive kids of a decent life, and the Duma has gone

mad. It did not stop MPs voting to ban Americans from adopting Russian

children. It was Moscow's retaliation for a US law that bans

Russians suspected of human rights violations from entering America.

Vladimir Putin has now signed the adoption ban. He has complained

that Russian children in America have suffered abuse. This is

perhaps the most controversial law that Vladimir Putin has signed

since his return to the presidency, a law which even some members of

the government here have publicly criticised, and it has opened him

up to accusations that he is playing politics with Russian

children. Supporters of the ban say they are unfazed by international

criticism. I do not think there is much which can really damage the

image of Russia, which is bad anyway for at least the last 500

years. The law is a blow to the dozens of American families who

have been close to adopting Russian children, many of them with special

needs who have not found homes in Russia. Kendra was expecting to

adopt a five-and-a-half year-old orphan with spina bifida. I cannot

help up. I cannot tell her I love her. So it is really hard.

Kremlin is unrepentant. Russia, it says, is now more than capable of

The former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to pay

his former wife around �30 million a year as part of a divorce

settlement. Veronica Lario, seen here on the

left, was married to Mr Berlusconi for more than 20 years. She began

divorce proceedings after accusing him of pursuing affairs with young

women. The head of the British armed

forces has praised the American general Norman Schwarzkopf who's

died aged 78. General Sir David Richards said his command in the

first Gulf War "displayed the finest qualities of American

leadership'". President Obama described him as an "American

original", as Richard Galpin reports.

Returning home to a hero's welcome. A triumphant general back in the

United States after the victory in the first Gulf war. It is a great

day to be his daughter, and it is a great day to be an American, thank

you very much. The general had been overall commander of the large

military coalition which pushed Saddam Hussein and his forces out

of Kuwait in 1991. Operation Desert Storm routing the Iraqi army in

less than two months, forcing it into a humiliating retreat.

United States honours this soldier who takes his place in history as

far as a great commander. Following his death, George Bush Senior,

President at the time, issued a statement paying tribute,

Are you going around, over? On top, underneath, any way. He was also a

big character, known as Stormin' Norman and Plan A because of his

bluff, fiery temperament. He became a household name that has had to be

televised news conferences during the Gulf war. Later turning down

offers to become a politician. Instead, after retiring from the

military 20 years ago, he started working for charities and other

national courses, including promoting awareness of prostate

cancer for which he was treated. But, having survived cancer, his

family say he died yesterday from complications arising from