21/03/2012 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Tim Willcox.

Cornered in his apartment in Toulouse - French police surround

the man suspected of being behind the recent killings.

He referred to the fact he was planning other killings. If he is

telling the truth, the gunmen would have left his house this morning

and once again killed any soldier he came across.

Cutting the top rate of income tax - but how big a political gamble is

George Osborne's budget? This country borrowed its way into

trouble, now we're going to earn our way out. It's a millionaires'

budget which squeezes the middle - wrong choices, out of touch, same

old Tories. Free after more than six months -

the British woman held in Somalia is released after a ransom is

handed over. Also coming up in the programme:

The increasingly amazing aspirin. New evidence that a daily dose

might not only prevent the spread of cancer, but actually treat it.

In the name of imperial Caesar, hail Caesar.

And how easy is it to translate one of Russia's greatest literary

Hello and welcome. As we come on air, the man suspected of being

behind the recent killings in France remains cornered in an

apartment block in Toulouse. The man, identified as Mohammed Merah,

a 24-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin with links to

Pakistan and Afghanistan, is surrounded by police commandoes.

Shots have been fired and several policemen injured. It's also

emerged that French intelligence had been tracking him for years.

Christian Fraser has been following events.

They swooped in the early hours of the morning. Intelligence gathered

in the biggest manhunt France has known led them to an apartment in

this quiet residential street. Inside was the gunman responsible

for seven murders. His name is Mohammed Merah, aged 24-year-old

French citizen who was arrested in Afghanistan and was known to the

intelligence services. As they try to force their way end, there was

an exchange of fire in which two policemen were shot and injured.

The gunman's brother was arrested in a separate operation and his

mother was brought to the scene to try and talk him out. We have now

spoken to the man who yesterday afternoon handed the police their

key piece of information. 10 days ago, Mohammed Merah came to this

Yamaha franchise in Toulouse to discover how to disable the

tracking device on his scooter and how he would dismantle it to

respray it. This man has known the killer since he was a teenager.

seemed a normal kid. A bit more unruly than others and he did have

a criminal record, but there was nothing that may Keith -- make me

think he was capable of this. remembered their conversation and

phone the police. President Sarkozy has come to congratulate the based

on a job well done but serious questions will be asked. How did a

well-known fundamentalist managed to kill seven people and how did he

gather such an extraordinary arsenal of weapons which was found

in the boot of his car without raising the concerns of the

surveillance teams which were following him. For the families,

who were today attending the funeral of the victims in Israel

and France, they will be anger and frustration that maybe this could

have been prevented. Two weeks ago, Mohammed Merah appeared in court

charged with a minor driving offence. It was the last

opportunity to stop the man who would soon become the most

dangerous killer in France. We can now go live to the scene and

the BBC's Richard Galpin. One deadline to give himself up has

been and gone. What is the situation? The siege continues. The

police commandos still surrounded the apartment building. Mohammed

Merah is still inside his flat and we now know they have been many

hours of negotiations because the first initial police raid was at

3am in the morning. We are talking 17 hours ago. They have been

talking but so far it seems there has been no breakthrough. They have

not persuaded him to actually surrender and come out of the

building and the question now is, it is night-time here, what will

the police do? Will they continue talking to him throughout the

night? Or will they decide that they have got used force and try

and break into the apartment he, perhaps when he is feeling

particularly exhausted and tired? Fills this began at 3am in the

morning. At some point, it is likely he is going to fall asleep.

What sort of weapons has he got in there? According to reports we have,

he is quite well armed a. He handed over one Pistyll earlier round

today in exchange for getting a mobile phone. But we understand he

still has a Kalashnikov assault rifle, apparently he has a machine-

gun and there are reports also that he has a number of hand-grenades.

He remains well-armed and we know that he is prepared to use them

against the police because, in the initial raid this morning, he

opened fire, firing through the door, injuring three policemen. He

remains an extremely dangerous man and it is going to be a very

difficult decision for the police as to what they should do in the

coming hours. Thank you very much. Let's go to Paris now to speak to a

French journalist. What sort of questions are being asked there?

The strange thing is that he had not entirely served under the radar

because he was known as being increasingly radical eyes in is a

part of Toulouse where he lived and he was under an amount of

surveillance which also kept an eye on him. He applied to join the army

twice, we don't know why, but the police were aware of him. He was

rejected. These three different spate of murders have taken place

within 10 days so he was under the radar but not, they could not get

to him a fast and ever. This all comes ahead of the presidential

elections. President Sarkozy said this would not divide France but

has it? We don't know yet what the result is going to be. I think all

the politicians in France are terrified that they will say the

wrong thing and then they will destroy their electoral chances,

the way it did for the Spanish conservative premier who was not

cautious and described the Madrid bombings to the Basque separatist.

Mohammed Merah's grievances include the deaths of Palestinian children

and France's role in Afghanistan, the 4th largest contingent. Could

this change the withdrawal of forces? The Socialist candidate is

on record as saying he wants forces out sooner rather than later.

Several politicians are on record on that and I suspect the French

military are not happy with the way the Afghanistan campaign is going

but what is certain is that nobody is going to ask for a faster

withdraw mouth because that means if you perpetrate a terrorist act,

the country will yield a. It is an encouragement to go and kill people.

I would imagine that nobody in France will call for any kind of

early withdrawal out of Afghanistan. Thank you very much.

There have been weeks of pre-Budget speculation but, today, Chancellor

George Osborne took quite possibly the biggest gamble of his political

career. During an hour-long statement, he confirmed he's

cutting the top rate of income tax, taking it down from 50% to 45% next

year. The 50p rate, he said, had raised next to nothing. Labour has

dubbed it the millionaires' budget. But Mr Osborne said he'd also

helped millions of low and middle income earners by raising the

income tax personal allowance to more than �9,000.

Let's hear more from our Political Correspondent, Naomi Grimley. A

difficult decision politically for the Chancellor because he lays

himself wide open to attack from Labour. Although polls we have had

on the subject of the top rate of tax to suggest it is going to be a

tough sell. It was just part of a Budget which actually opens up some

new dividing lines between the two parties on the subject of tax.

Let's have a look at the main points. The government will cut the

top rate of tax for the nation's highest earners from 50 % down to

45 %. That is coming into effect next year. But ministers also

pledged to take more low earners out of tax altogether. That is by

increasing the personal tax allowance significantly. And to

help pay for those tax cuts, has George Osborne announced a new 7%

rate of stamp duty on properties over �2 million. But inside the

chamber, inevitably, the debate pivoted on that whole question of

cutting the top rate of tax. George Osborne pointed to a report that

the Treasury had done, showing that the tax only raised a third of what

it was supposed to do. He also suggested that wealth creators

could be scared away from the UK altogether. Mr Deputy Speaker, no

Chancellor can justify a tax rate that damages our economy and raises

that. And thanks to the other new taxes on the rich, which I have

announced today, we will be getting five times more money each and

every year from the wealthiest in our society. Ed Miliband was not

convinced that was going to be the case. He did this a budget for

millionaires. What has he chosen to make his priority? For Britain's

millionaires, a massive income tax cut each and every year. The

fairness test for this Budget was whether the Chancellor used every

penny he could to help middle- income families that are squeezed.

He has failed that test. One other constituency which will not be very

happy are pensioners. It was almost an off-the-cuff remark that the

Chancellor announced he was going to freeze some of the tax-free

allowances for pensioners. This is probably going to pick between 4

million and 5 million over 65 year- olds. It has already been dubbed on

Twitter as the granny tax. Knowing what we do about the power of the

green lobby in Britain, I think it could cause the government quite a

big headache. We have got a few will rise as well in a few months'

time and he was under pressure to postpone that, but that has not

happened. The fuel tax has been something that caused the

government a lot of pain as well because it points to squeeze to

household budgets. There has been a lot in the press talking about the

squeeze Middle, a phrase adopted from America, and although in the

past the Chancellor has offered help to motorists, this time he did

not. He says it is a fiscally neutral but the other question has

been that of child benefit. What sort of tweeds have been done

there? -- tweaks? That has proved very controversial in the past,

particularly hitting a group of middle earners who are going to see

their money, their benefits cut. He has actually raised the threshold

at which that it is going to taking so there will be some relief from

those households, well-off households, who are going to see

this benefit cut, but some people will say, if people at the bottom

end of the income scale were going to suffer benefit cuts, why

shouldn't those who are better off Now a look at some of the day's

other news. The UN Security Council has given its backing to a peace

plan for Syria put forward by its envoy, Kofi Annan. In a statement,

agreed after weeks of negotiations with Russia and China, the council

urged the Syrian government and its opponents to implement Mr Annan's

proposals immediately. It said further steps would be considered

if they failed to do so. A Libyan government delegation has

left Mauritania without the former Libyan Intelligence Chief, Abdullah

al-Senussi, who was detained there last week. Earlier, Libya's Deputy

Prime Minister had said he'd been promised Mr Senussi's extradition

from the Mauritanian president. Mr Senussi was considered to be

Colonel Gaddafi's right-hand man. Foreign private security companies

in Afghanistan have begun to hand over control to Afghan government

forces after a new law came into force. President Karzai has been

increasingly frustrated by the behaviour of some companies.

They'll be replaced by an Afghan special protection force. The

change also reigns in private Afghan security companies, raising

fears that foreign aid workers could be less well protected in

future. Thousands of mourners attended a

memorial service in Lommel, Belgium, for some of the victims of last

week's bus crash in Switzerland. 22 children and six adults died when

their coach crashed in a road tunnel while the group was

returning to Belgium from a skiing holiday.

The Beatles didn't manage it, nor did the Rolling Stones, but the boy

band One Direction have. They've become the first British group to

go straight to the top of US music charts with their debut album,

selling 176,000 copies of their album Up All Night. The group was

formed in 2010 by judges on the Judith Tebbut, the British woman

held hostage in Somalia for more than six months has been freed. Mrs

Tebbutt has been reunited with her son in Nairobi following her

release which came after a ransom was paid to her kidnappers. Her

husband, David, was killed when she was snatched from a beach resort in

northern Kenya last September. Will Ross has the details.

The dramatic rescue from Somalia, or as a security official whisks

Judith Tebbutt of to a plane and freedom. Emotions are mixed. She

held back the tears as she spoke of her husband's dying. A I did not

know he had died. I think it was about two weeks from Mike Catt

chair. I assumed he was alive -- two weeks from my capture. My son

told me he had died. The terrifying ordeal began last September, at

this isolated, tranquil resolve to on the Kenyan coast. An armed gang

burst into the room in love the night. Shots were fired. The gunman

bundled Judith into a boat. Her husband was left behind and died of

his injuries. Just before her flight out of Somalia, Judith

Tebbutt spoke to the man who helped raise the ransom. Her son, Oliver.

OK, Honey bun. Sorry, Oliver! Mother and son have been reunited

in Kenya. On arriving here in Nairobi, officials from the British

High Commission stepped in to take care of Judith Tebbutt. The British

government's involvement in her release had been minimal, because

it opposes the idea of paying a ransom to secure the release of a

hostage. Two people who know the horror of captivity in Somalia and

the joy of being set free appal and Rachel Chandler. The process of

release is about 20 or 30 hours of travelling towards freedom. You get

on an adrenalin high. It is fantastic to realise you are free.

As Judith Tebbutt puts it, now is the time to pick up the pieces and

move on. The extraordinary qualities of the

simple aspirin have been known for years, but today came evidence of

another one, with research published in the Lancet suggesting

aspirin can not only protect people against cancer but actually treat

it as well. But there can be side effects as well, which include

internal bleeding. Fergus Walsh has this report.

The possible benefits of aspirin against cancer appear to be

mounting. This research shows its protective effect are quicker than

previously thought. For the first time, it showed a reduction in the

spread of disease of patients with cancer. For some patients, such as

those with bowel cancer, the risk was reduced by 50 % six years after

diagnosis. That means cancer spreading two out of 10 patients

taking daily aspirin, compared with four out of 10 taking a placebo or

a dummy pill. The researchers believe the guidelines on who would

benefit from daily aspirin need revision, as they do not include

the cancer benefits. I think we need to do more research on which

particular people are at highest risk of cancer and vascular events,

and have the most to gain from taking aspirin. I think we are

urgently need to do some trials of a spring in the treatment of cancer.

A weather, long-term aspirin used as a major and well researched

drawback -- however. That is the risk of internal bleeding. That is

what prevents it from being used daily in healthy adults. Aspirin

has long been known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Now,

cancer prevention must be included, but the dangers of internal

bleeding mean that anyone considering taking a small daily

dose of aspirin should first talk to their doctor.

Jessica Harris is a health information manager at Cancer

Research UK and joins us now from central London. That is the

question. We will be, you were excited, but how many of us should

think about taking aspirin? These are encouraging findings. It is

great to say so much good quality research into the benefits and

drawbacks of taking aspirin daily. It is important that people talk to

their doctors. Some people will have conditions, quite common

conditions in some cases, which mean it is a bad idea to take

aspirin. For example, asthma, and other medications people might be

taking, such has anti-inflammatory drugs, they can react badly with

aspirin. It is a good birdie to be careful with whom should not take

it -- it is a good idea. But it is extraordinary, isn't it? Every

month, we seem to be hearing of some other feature of this. The

fact that it could actually prevent cancer, is it credible? There could

be a number of different ways. The way it is looking like it is

probably working is to do with its effect on our platelets. As far as

cancer developing goes, it has an effect on reducing inflammation

throughout the body. That could be how what is having that effect. It

is a very interesting drug, and one which has a range of effects across

the body, which is why it is so important to make sure we balance

appropriate in the benefits, which seemed to be stacking up highly,

with making sure we do not put people at risk. What age should we

stand? In these studies, the benefit was most his team of people

to locate in middle-age. For example, people in their fifties.

His is something that should perhaps be advocated for children?

-- is it something. We need to make sure people are recommended to take

it at an age at which the benefit is greatest, and the risk of harm

is lowest. The risk of side-effects goes up quite a lot in older people,

in elderly people, they are at more risk of the side-effects. You go

people will be at low risk of cancer so the benefit will not be

so great -- younger people. We need a review of the risks and

recommendations from the government at him -- about to his best to take

it and who should not definitely take it. Thank you.

It's considered one of the greatest novels of Russian literature. For

many of its admirers, Mikhail Bulgakov's Master And Margarita is

a rival to War And Peace, or Crime And Punishment. Now the British

director Simon McBurney has adapted it for the stage. The BBC's Russian

Service Arts Editor Alexander Kan has been talking to McBurney about

It is not the first time Simon McBurney has turned himself to

Mikhail Bulgakov. One year ago, he put on a production of Heart Of A

Dog, based on the book. This time, he took on a more challenging task.

I have lost count of the number of people who have said it is their

favourite novel. That is very disturbing to me, because when you

take anybody's favourite anything, you feel you have a responsibility,

and so you have to forget the idea that it is everybody's favourite

novel and just concentrate on the personal experience. The novel

evolves in two parallel universes. The story of Jesus Christ and

Pontius Pilate. If the biblical story is universal, Stalin's Moscow

is fading into history. The way Mikhail Bulgakov right means that

the story rises above local and particular -- the way he writes.

You do not say, this is a portrait of Stalin, he is writing eminently

not like Solzhenitsyn. It goes further, in my opinion. Master And

Margarita, with its mix of fantasy and realism, and leaps between

intersecting stories, asks for a unique approach in bringing it to

the stage. In my adaptation, what I have done is splintered the novel,

and I have inter-cut elements, so you are in one place and another,

them back in the first place them in a third place. Then you were

hearing something else, and seen something you were not sure about.

What happens is, gradually, you piece together the fragments and

they begin, slowly, to form something you in your mind. --

something new. Let me be quite clear, this is not Mikhail

Bulgakov's novel. This is filtered through Simon McBurney's lens, and

doll-like can do is hope to put my own passion in it. -- and all I can

do. A modern production with video and special effects, the music of

Shostakovich and the Rolling Stones, Simon McBurney's masterpiece.

A reminder of our main news. The prime suspect in the killing of

seven people in France is surrounded by elite police

commandos. The man, identified as Mohammed Merah, a 24-year-old

French citizen of Algerian origin with links to Pakistan and

Afghanistan, is surrounded by police commandos. Shots have been

fired at the house in Toulouse where negotiators have spent the

day trying to persuade the man to give himself up. That siege

continues. Commanders say they want to take him alive. We will bring

you on the latest developments. Hello. We had a lot of sunshine

across parts of the country. Tomorrow will be dry for many, with

more sunshine. There will be a few exceptions. Essentially, we have

high pressure in the Atlantic. There is a weather front moving up

through the Bay of Biscay which will complicate matters in the

south-west corner. It will throw in some more cloud for Devon and

Cornwall and some showers may be. Along the coast of eastern England,

it will be a bit misty and murky, and feel much colder. Inland, the

sunshine, and temperatures could reach as high as 18 degrees. South-

west England, we will see some showers on and off through the day,

and temperatures at 12 degrees. Further north, in South Wales, it

should be warm earth. Warm or through West Wales, with

temperatures around 16. Cool around the coast of Northern Ireland, but

in the north-west corner, we have some sunshine, and about 15 degrees.