28/12/2012 BBC News

A little girl from Greater Manchester, abducted three years

ago, has tonight been brought home from Pakistan. The six-year-old,

who'd been taken by her father, was found with the help of the

Pakistani authorities. Atiya Anjum-Wilkinson landed in

Manchester this evening and was promptly reunited with her mother.

In she walked into the room and looked at me. And I stood up to

walk over to give her a cuddle. She looked at me and put her arms up

and I walked over and gave her a massive cuddle.

Also tonight: Lady Thatcher's private thoughts

after the Falklands conflict, revealed in Government papers just

released. Cases of the winter bug norovirus

rise to over a 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 has been brought back to Britain. Atiya

Anjum-Wilkinson was reunited with her mother in Manchester a few

hours ago. She'd been found with the help of the Pakistani

authorities. Ed Thomas reports on the evening's events.

Flight 701 touched down from Pakistan just after 7pm. On board,

Atiya Anjum-Wilkinson, who was three when she was abducted by her

father. Now six, she has finally been reunited with her mother,

Gemma Wilkinson, who never gave up hope of seeing her daughter again.

She is absolutely fine. She is trying to communicate and she is

playing with the things we have brought for her. She has settled.

When she saw you, she recognised you? She had a big smile on her

face. Atiya was taken a day before her third birthday. A father took

her to Pakistan. He is now in jail in the UK for refusing to help

police. Atiya was found in a village 60 miles outside Lahore,

after a north-west MEP spoke to the Foreign Minister in Pakistan. She

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

this small bit of corporation when they realised that actually the

game is up, there is nowhere left for them to turn. -- Co operation.

I made clear to them that they should not underestimate the

determination with which this matter will be pursued. Once Atiya

landed at Manchester Airport, she did not come through the arrivals

gate. She was taken aside by specially-trained officers by --

from Greater Manchester Police. After three years, much has changed.

It is clear she will need time to readjust to life with her mother.

She is a bit disorientated, quiet and withdrawn. She does not speak

any English at the moment. It will be a long period for her and her

mother and her extended family, just to get to know each other

again. But I am sure with the love of the family, it is a great

occasion for everyone, really. the first time in three years,

there is an opportunity for mother and daughter to rebuild their life

together. I just want to cuddle her. I just want to hold Atiya. I don't

think I have any other emotion than wanting to do that. What was it

like when you gave her that first hug after three years? Beautiful.

The big hoax. - a big hug. The invasion of the Falkland

Islands was the worst moment of Lady Thatcher's life, according

evidence she gave to an official inquiry after the conflict. The

detail is revealed in Government papers released under the 30-year

rule. They show that the then Prime Minister was acutely worried about

the chances of retaking the islands from the 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 in the Falklands and

within hours the capital, Stanley, 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

On 31st March, 1982, Margaret Thatcher saw the raw intelligence

that suggested that an Argentine invasion of the Falklands was

imminent. Later, she told the Franks Inquiry, it was the worst, I

think, moment of my life. Because it was then 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, official records reveal

it was an amateur radio ham 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

our time. I spent the day on the amateur radio transmitter at the

BBC and managed to contact someone in the Highlands who said, it is

all over, there is an Argentine aircraft carrier in the bay and

troops all over town. It is all finished. The United States was

keen to provide Britain with maximum support. America offered an

aircraft carrier, although it was not needed. But the files also

showed 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 if the

negotiations fail. After a late night phone call between the two

leaders, Mrs Thatcher's private secretary wrote, the Prime Minister

asked 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 just heard the white flag is flying over

Stanley. On 14th June, Argentine troops surrendered. The war

archives tell us that Argentina was also wrong-footed by events in the

Falklands. The junta in Buenos Aires never thought British forces

would sail a 1000 miles and defend Police in Sheffield have started a

murder investigation after a church organist was attacked on Christmas

Eve on his way to a midnight service. Alan Greaves, who was 68,

died from his injuries yesterday. Detectives say it was a brutal

attack with no known motive, and they want anyone with information

to come forward. There have been more than a million

cases of norovirus, or winter vomiting bug, in England and Wales

since the summer. That is more than 80% higher than at the same stage

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. This winter, he began

spreading earlier. It is not like the football season, when you know

when it will start. It is unpredictable, and therefore it can

begin to arise... We know it arises in the winter, but when it arises,

we do not know. In the last week, just over 3500 cases have been

confirmed in England and Wales. For each of those confirmed cases, an

extra 288 people are estimated to also be ill. That means more than 1

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. 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. It is like the Ferrari of the virus field.

May infect people very quickly and spread very quickly, so by the time

you know you have been infected, you have probably already spread

the disease. So, has norovirus done its worst this winter? Experts say

they will not know for several weeks.

A woman who was gang raped on a bus in India has died, after suffering

"severe organ failure". She had been taken to a hospital in

Singapore after undergoing surgery in Delhi. The attack, which

happened nearly two weeks ago, triggered violent protests that

left one police officer dead. Six men have been arrested in

connection with the rape. President Obama has been meeting

Congressional leaders in the latest effort to avert a full-scale budget

crisis. The Democrat leader in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, said the

meeting, which broke up in the last hour, had been "candid and

constructive" as she left, but there's no sign of an agreement.

Unless a deal can be struck by New Year's Day, sharp tax rises and

spending cuts will automatically come into force.

In Russia, President Putin has approved a controversial new law

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

the Kremlin's response to US sanctions against Russian officials

suspected of human rights abuses. From Moscow, Steve Rosenberg

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,

don't deprived 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 claimed that

Russian children in America have been badly treated. In one

prominent case, a Russian boy was rejected by his new American mother.

She simply put him on a plane and sent him back to Moscow. This is

perhaps the most controversial law that Vladimir Putin has signed

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

government here have publicly criticised. And it has opened up

President Putin to accusations that he is playing politics with Russian

children. Supporters of the ban say they are not fazed by international

criticism. I do not think there is much that 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 had

been close to adopting Russian children, many with special needs,

who had not found homes in Russia. Kendra Skaggs was weeks away from

adopting 5 1/2 year-old Paulina, who has spina bifida. She visited

her only last week at an orphanage outside Moscow. I cannot help her.

I cannot tell her I love her. So it is really hard. With this law, the

Kremlin has hit American families and Russian children who had been

hoping for a better life. 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". And President Obama described him as an "American

original", as Richard Galpin reports.

Returning home to a hero's welcome. A triumphant General Schwarzkopf,

back in the United States after the victory in the first Gulf war.

a great day to be a soldier, and it's a great day to be an American.

Thank you very much. The general had been no overall commander of

the large military coalition which pushed Saddam Hussein's forces out

of Kuwait in 1991. Operation Desert Storm routed the Iraqi army in less

than two months, forcing it into a humiliating retreat. The United

States honours this soldier, who takes his place in history's role

of great commanders. Following the general's death, George Bush Senior,

who was President at the time, has issued a statement paying tribute,

describing him as a true American patriot and one of the great

military leaders of his generation. We are going to go around, over,

through, on top, underneath and any other way... He was also a big

character, known as "Stormin' Norman", apparently because of his

bluff, fiery temperament, and he became a household name thanks to

these televised news conferences during the Gulf war. He later

turned down offers to become a politician. Instead, after retiring

from the military 20 years ago, he started working for charities and

other national causes, including promoting awareness of prostate

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

his family say he died yesterday from complications arising from