01/05/2012 BBC World News

The British parliament delivers its verdict on the phone hacking

scandal of Britain's best-selling Sunday newspaper.

In France, Marine Le Pen is intending to state her intentions

poor voting in the final round of the presidential elections.

May Day rallies across Europe reflect frustrations about

austerity in an economic crisis. Welcome to World News Today. Also

coming up: The capital of Mali witnesses and night of heavy

gunfire as rival groups of soldiers to fight for control.

And Australia's Reserve Bank cuts interest rates by half of 1% as it

Thank you very much indeed for joining us on show macro will stop

a group of British MPs is on the verge of publishing and long

awaited report into the News of the World foam packing scandals. This

committee looks at issues of the media, and the question the

committee meets to decide is whether Parliament was misled about

the extent of the practice of phone hacking at the newspaper, the News

of the World. The report will certainly look at the role of James

Murdoch, who has denied to them knowing of wrong doing at the paper.

Our political correspondent is following events.

Yes, it looks like it is going to be a massive bomb shop. I have been

told that the committee will say that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit

person to run a major company like News Corporation. That is a very

damning indictment of his role in this affair and it will have

massive implications for the continued state of News Corporation

in the satellite broadcaster BSkyB. At the moment, that role is being

examined by the UK regulator Ofcom, and obviously if that is the

finding of a parliamentary committee, they will have to take

that into consideration. That is a staggering blow, not

least in terms of what we have been led to expect would be the minute -

- limits of the report. It was thought the report would

focus more on the managerial layers below the Murdochs but it now looks

like they take their criticism right to the top of News

Corporation and this will certainly be a stain on Rupert Murdoch's

reputation, if the parliamentary committee comes out with that kind

of criticism. I think we can catch up on a little

bit of what they are saying now.... I was not aware of the e-mail and

other evidence which indicated that phone hacking was more widespread.

The committee was never the less astonished that he did not seek to

see the evidence on which the decision to pay the settlement of

the Gordon Taylor case was based. The committee also went on to

conclude by a majority vote that corporately, the News of the World

and News International had misled the committee repeatedly about the

true extent and nature of the investigations that they claimed to

have carried out in relation to phone hacking, and that they had

failed to disclose documents which would have revealed the truth. As a

result of these various attempts to mislead the committee, the report

but we published in 2010 was not based on a fully accurate picture.

As a result, the committee have decided that we will table a motion

in the House of Commons, asking the House to endorse our conclusions

about misleading evidence and we also refer the report to the

liaison committee, which is looking into questions relating to the

powers of the effectiveness of Select Committees. My colleagues

wish to speak. Thank you. To put it politely, we have been led up the

garden path by News International but more importantly, so with the

readers of its newspapers, the general public, and their victims

of phone hacking -- so were the readers. Two years ago, we found

the organisation guilty of collective and the Asia and said it

was inconceivable that one reporter was involved -- collective amnesia.

In the same evidence we received, the Press Complaints Commission

exonerated the News of the World and indeed shocked the Messenger,

the Guardian. After closure of the News of the World, we have to look

at you misled us. We do not want to prejudice any future trials

following the arrests but we also thought that it was not right that

a few people in these circumstances should carry the whole of the

corporate can and you will find in the report a strong corporate

finding against News of the World and News Corporation. I would just

remind people of one thing in relation to these findings: Rupert

Murdoch, who founded the organisation, has at all times been

a director of News International, not just of News Corporation. One

of the things we have sought to set out in the report is the human cost

of phone hacking and other wrongdoing to which it contributed.

It was not just a technical trick, a victimless crime. The human cost

is laid bare in some of the statements, agreed finally in open

court, and in particular recite one pot of one of those statements,

that a Charlotte Church and the treatment of her family -- recite

one part of one of those statements. Extraordinary. Our correspondent is

listening to this. The wilful blindness of Rupert Murdoch.

Criticism of some representatives of the Metropolitan Police and a

whole host of executives working for Rupert Murdoch accused of

misleading Parliament. Yes, it is very damning. They are

saying it was not just a few individuals at Music Corporation,

they are saying that the company misled the committee of the Houses

of Parliament -- at News Corporation. It looks as though the

committee will refer its findings to the House of Commons so that

there could be a vote of censure for those involved, but the main

headline remains that they believe that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit

person to run a major company, and that is a very damning indictment

of him and will have major implications for the media

landscape in Britain, particularly the News Corporation state in BSkyB

-- stake. The parliamentary knives are out.

They are being thrust into anger at Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation.

The reporters are still being announced, as you ANC. We will

leave that for the moment. -- as you can see. We will take you now

to Paris. The National Front garnered 18% of the first round of

the presidential elections. They clearly have a key role in deciding

where those 18% will go in terms of the second round. If they were to

go in favour of the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, could he possibly

remain as president? Otherwise it looks as if there will be a

socialist president in France. Let us into Marine Le Pen.

TRANSLATION: To be a Republican is to defend French sovereignty and

not to bow down to globalisation and the power of the Europeans and

the banks. To be Republican is not to allow people to come in, gangs

and Islamic fundamentalists, into The rallying cries are clearly

working for the supporters. We still wait to get the message she

will deliver in terms of Sunday. Champs Marine Le Pen on the right

there, her father, a stalwart member for so many years -- John

Marine Le Pen. We now turn our attention to Greece.

It is May Day and demonstrations are taking place pretty much around

the world, certainly in those countries which are feeling the

pinch. Greece is right at the top of that list at the moment.

Demonstrations about the government austerity measures are building.

Also on there is an election in Greece just around the corner. The

Greek government is facing an awkward situation.

A very tough job for any government that will take power of the

Sunday's election. They will have to agree on 11 billion euros worth

of cuts in June on top of the massive savings that have been

pushed through over the last two years, and there is so much anger

in Greece against the austerity measures. That is on show today.

The protests. Strikes. Traditional May Day social unrest. I have to

say they are smaller and less violent than in recent years and

that is because minds of focused on Sunday's election. That is where

people will vent their anger, at the ballot box rather than on the

streets. Disappointment with mainstream parties is having

another effect, that is pushing many Greeks away from the

mainstream parties towards the extreme, the political extreme. You

heard Marine Le Pen doing very well in France. The far right is also on

the rise in Greece. On the road for votes from the most

honourable. The far-right Golden Dawn party, delivering food and

clothes to the needy. It is the first side of a group that critics

call violent extremists but they are gaining support fast from those

suffering from the crisis. The group makes several stops along the

way. The next one is Katarina, a pensioner struggling to get by. She

tells me she is battling with cancer. Why not vote for Golden

Dawn? They are helping us so I should give them something in

return. In the Athens suburbs, their

message spreads fast. They are anti- immigrant. The poll suggests

they will enter Parliament for the first time. Halfway through, the

round on opponents. First a member of the public, who gave chase

through a local market. Them a target a Socialist MP with food and

water. Behaviour giving fuel to those who call the group fags. -- a

violent thugs. You can see the face of them. Brutal violence, no

respect to the democratic institutions. Golden Dawn have

called for all immigrant to leave Greece but they go further still.

We will have fences, we will have electric fences, guards and

everything to protect the country. Do you think immigrants should be

killed? I don't care, they should not come in the country. The whole

country is dying from immigrants, from politicians like the guy you

saw before and bankers. That anti- immigrant rhetoric is striking a

chord, with increasing attacks. This Pakistani says he was

assaulted. Golden Dawn denies frequent allegations that its

members are behind anti- immigrant violence. I am scared of going out,

he said, it never used to be this way.

Immigration has emerged as one of the key issues in the upcoming

election. 80% of migrants to the EU now pass through Greece, making

them a target and playing directly into the hands of the far right.

The other side also shouts loudly. Anti- racism rallies by those

determined to stop Golden Dawn at all costs, but as Greece's

recession deepens, many have turned to political extremes. A divided

nation fearing the future and looking for someone to blame.

What Greece would give to have the room for manoeuvre that Australia

has! Absolutely. We have a big surprise

from down under today. Not just about the Reserve Bank about the

interest rate cut, it was the size of the interest rate cut. Half of

1%. The main rate down to 3.75%. The reason being, the global

economic slowdown that we started is now nipping at the shores of

Australia. It is important to remind everybody that Australia was

the Ali G 20 economy that avoided recession in the last downturn. --

the only G20 economy. The Australian economy started to

develop into two speeds. The mining and resource sector continued to

boom. Other parts of the economy are slow them down, retail, home

sales, at their lowest level in more than ten years, house prices

have fallen for five consecutive quarters. Although many experts

believe that this big surprise cut should do the trick. The housing

market has been looking very soft today. Australians are highly

indebted and any moves on the interest rate front does help,

particularly if it is enough to get the banks to cut their interest

rates. That has been part of the issue in the last six months, that

the banks have been moving their mortgage rates independently of the

Reserve Bank because a big chunk of their funding comes from deposits,

which they are having to fight for, and because of the offshore funding

issue, which is largely related to the deterioration of global

financial conditions. So you if it will help, because of the surprise

factor, and it could go further -- yes, it will help. China is seen

steady growth again for the fifth month in a row. Its manufacturing

sector expanded to its highest in one year indicating that the

world's second largest economy is So can we put behind us fears of a

sharp slowdown in China? From Beijing, China economist

Alistair Thornton from IHS Global Insight said it's looking positive

but no cigar just yet. There is a lot of optimism in the sector but

it is too early to break out the champagne. There is a massive

amount of volatility in the global economy. The Eurozone is a crucial

risk for China and domestically there are higher risks, centred

around the property market in particular, which continues to

detract. That is having an impact on domestic growth momentum. I do

not like to answer because I already pulled out a bottle of

bubbly! How much impact as the policies that Beijing has put in

place in particular, the limiting of the reserves on the banks,

basically allowing a more, freeing up credit, has that had an impact?

It certainly has, but monetary policy through this year has been a

marked by our real reluctance to listen too quickly. The space in

which policyholders operate has narrowed over the past couple of

years which means that if they moved to aggressively, we have

inflation and government debt. They are trying to softly go down the

middle path and that is pretty tricky. But as we saw today, so far

so good. Growth in the UK manufacturing

sector slowed in April, according to an influential survey. The

Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index, or PMI, dropped to 50.5 in

April, down from 51.9 in March. Let me give you an idea. Any figure

about 50 indicates an expansion of the sector. April's figure was the

fifth consecutive month of growth. Azad Zangana, European Economist

from Schroders, told me exports are falling and that's key. The export

orders, brand new export orders were the weakest index and the

biggest fall, falling to about 45. Domestic orders have also been weak

but when we look at the employment numbers, those were a little

stronger, so it seems that the export side has been the weakness.

Given that it is exports, surely that has to be worried because the

story for the UK has to be that it can weather the storm in the

Eurozone to see some form of growth? Absolutely. To the advance

surveys from mainland Europe highlight the weakness there. The

French survey came in at 43 and the German won at 46.3. Both were below

50 and contracting. That is the story that we are seeing, the UK is

catching the cold from the rest of Europe. We are back in a recession

in Britain, and giving today's numbers, does this push the powers

that be back down the path of further economic stimulus? I think

it does. It will be very difficult for the Bank of England not to

seriously consider adding further stimulus through quantitative

easing. It's this data came out and the confirmation that we were back

in recession, before that, there was a reduction in the number of

members on the committee voting for quantitative easing. Now we're

seeing some of this weakness coming through, we could see more stimulus

being added. That is the business news.

You're watching BBC World News. Still to come: A blood test to show

how likely you are to develop breast cancer could be available in

five to ten years' time. The steamroller of symbolism in

Burma continues apace as the UN Secretary-general has now held

talks with Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. They met

at her villa in Rangoon, where she spent nearly two decades under

house arrest. Mr Ban said she had accepted an invitation to visit UN

headquarters in New York. I have invited her to visit the United

Nations. She can do this at a time convenient to her randy United

Nations. I received a positive answer from her and I am looking

forward to continuing our relationship for Peace and Human

Rights. Rachel Harvey is in the Burmese

capital, Nay Pyi Daw. I asked her if this latest high profile visit

really gives a sense that Burma has reached a point of no return.

I do not think anybody can put to date on it, but the momentum is

continuing, and it has done for the past six months or so. That is why

we are seeing so much diplomatic activity. In December Hillary

Clinton came here. William Hague was here in January. Since then we

have had the German and Italian foreign ministers, and the British

Prime Minister, and in the past few days, we have had Catherine Ashton,

the EU's foreign policy chief, and now Ban Ki-Moon. Pretty much all of

the high-profile diplomatic and European leaders have been here in

a matter of months which is an indication of how seriously they

are taking this reform process, and how much they realise that it will

need international support if this country is really to develop and

move in the right direction. There is never much sign of dissent

at all at these important meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi. It is very

much, we agree exactly on where she stands, but do you detect some

difference on opinion on the issue of sanctions?

Between Aung San Suu Kyi and Ban Ki-Moon, yes. There is no doubt

that there is the beginnings of a consensus in the sense that this

government under President Thein Sein deserve some kind of reward

and support for this ongoing reform process. The question is what form

the support should take and how much and how great it should be.

The leadership of Mali's military junta say they are in control of

the country's TV station and the capital's airport after they say

rival soldiers tried to stage a counter coup. Fighting broke out

between members of the presidential guard and troops loyal to coup

leaders who succeeded in toppling the president five weeks ago.

If de people of Mali's Once again caught in the fight for control of

their country. Barely five weeks ago there was a case here and on

Monday night the city was in the throes of a counter-coup. -- it

there was a coup. Soldiers reached the television offices and started

firing all over the place, causing general panic. There is real worry

raining across the capital which has already suffering from the

trauma of recent events. I have seen panic everywhere since the

news. It seems that there are ongoing exchanges of fire at the

airport and the headquarters of Mali radio and television. On March

22nd this army captain seized power in Mali. He and his men accused the

ousted president of incompetence. They said he had not done enough to

help the army fight Tuareg rebels in the north of the country. Three

weeks ago the leader of the coup signed a deal with other African

leaders, agreeing to an interim government. But there have been

signs that they have changed their mind, such as the arrest of several

opposition figures. This soldier is part of Mali's military junta. On

Tuesday they took over this television studio to announce that

they have defeated a counter to it by forces loyal to the President. A

simple blood test could be used to predict a woman's risk of

developing breast cancer later in life, according to new research.

Scientists in Britain say they've identified a chemical process which

is driven by cancer-causing factors like alcohol use, smoking and

pollution. That process is called epi-genetics. Dr James Flanagan,

who is the Breast Cancer Campaign scientific fellow at Imperial

College, London explained to me what that is. First you have to go

back and understand what genetics is. This is the code in our DNA

that tells us what the genes are to turn into proteins. Epi-genetics is

a pattern on top of the DNA that decides how much of that pattern

gets made. Epi-genetics decides how much of a gene gets made in each

person's cells. And you can work that out for an individual? We have

methods that can detect DNA mutilation. We have methods to

detect this. We can look within individuals and see who is

different or variable for these particular marks. Let's apply that

to the case of breast cancer. How does that work, and how sure can

you be that this is a genuine breakthrough? We are looking for a

variation across a population so we have looked at a case control study,

of about 1,300 women, half of whom have had breast cancer. The

distribution of the marker we're looking for, will look at the top

20 % of individuals, one in five women, and they have at two fold

increased risk of breast cancer compared with the people in the

bottom 20 %. That tells us about the risk for individuals. We're