tv BBC News BBC News April 9, 2017 7:00pm-7:31pm BST
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this is bbc news. the headlines at 7pm. a british man, chris bevington, is named as one of the four people who died in the stockholm lorry attack. a huge crowds attended a commemoration for the victims near the attack site in the swedish capital. the so—called islamic state group says it was behind two separate bomb attacks targeting coptic churches in egypt. greater manchester police say they have dealt with 31 calls relating to the drug spice yesterday. the payday loan firm wonga says hundreds of thousands of its customers have had their accounts hacked. also in the next hour... the grand national winner, one for arthur, returns to his stables in kinross. the eight—year—old was welcomed back by fans after winning — the first scottish success in the race since 1979. and at the masters at augusta, thejoint leaders — england's justin rose and spain's sergio garcia — are getting ready for the final round.
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we'll have full details of this and the rest of today's action in sportsday. good evening. a british father of two was among the victims of friday's terror attack in the swedish capital, stockholm. chris bevington, who was a1, was among four people killed when a hijacked lorry crashed into a department store. today, as thousands attended a vigil for those who died, more details have been emerging of the man behind the attack. our correspondent, danjohnson, is in stockholm. chris bevington chose to marry and
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call sweden home. he had young children here and work for the music company, spotify. he was here in stockholm's crowded streets on friday when a highlight —— hijacked truck was turned into a weapon. a belgian and two swedish citizens we re belgian and two swedish citizens were attacked. today, investigators revealed more about the man they think was at the wheel. translation: we know the suspect showed sympathies for extremist organisations, says the police chief, among them islamic state. he isa chief, among them islamic state. he is a 39—year—old from uzbekistan although he's not been officially named. he was on the radar of the security services although they say he was marginal. his application to stay in the country was turned down last summer and police were looking for him because he had avoided being deported. this is where the truck ended up. people have come here to
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write messages of hope and defiance on the boards and there have been what tributes to the victims. —— there have been more. yards away, a chance to share feelings and make sense of them. sadness, anger and fear of what might happen next. sense of them. sadness, anger and fear of what might happen nextlj sense of them. sadness, anger and fear of what might happen next. i am quite emotional, sad and angry but it is wonderful how people have come together. we stand here in solidarity. but just together. we stand here in solidarity. butjust with together. we stand here in solidarity. but just with those in stockholm but around the world, with everyone. who needs to feel the love. we a re everyone. who needs to feel the love. we are together and not afraid. there is also pride in the response so far. spontaneous applause for the stockholm police officers and a challenge to those who threatened the way of life here. if we become scared, then we played their hand. i think this is a good
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picture of how sweden reacted. this was a display of multiculturalism, kindness and tolerance. things are people recognise that could be threatened. you could see from the thousands gathered together, many were trying to process the confusion of their thoughts over the weekend, thinking of victims and considering what this could mean in terms of changes for the future and they were absorbing some of the details about those who died. we know of the four who lost their lives and the truck crashed into this department store on friday, two of them were swedish citizens, one of them was a belgian and another was a british man, chris
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bevington, a1, who had moved to sweden to build a life and family here. he had young children, he was married here and work for the music company, spotify. his family have paid tribute to him this evening and there is also news from the police investigation, they have made progress in giving more details about the main suspect. he is a 39—year—old from uzbekistan but we learned that he came to sweden in 201a and applied for residency. that was refused last year and he should have been deported. police were searching for him but could not find him. we also know that he had expressed sympathy for certain extremist organisations, the police say, including islamic state. that questioning will continue and reflection of people hear about what happened on friday will take time to sink in also. that was danjohnson in stockholm. and we'll find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10.30pm and 11.30pm this
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evening in the papers. our guestsjoining me tonight arejournalist lucy cavendish and tom bergin, business correspondent at reuters. more than a0 people have been killed and many others wounded in two attacks on christian coptic churches in egypt. one blast in tanta, north of cairo, happened as worshippers were gathering for palm sunday. so—called islamic state has claimed responsibility. this report from our middle east correspondent, yolande knell. egyptian christians had gathered to celebrate one of their holiest days. but this palm sunday brought violence. the first deadly explosion was during mass at st george ‘s church in tanta, leaving blood everywhere, wooden pews shattered. just hours later there was another attack here, in the northern city of alexandria, this time just outside the church, the dead included police officers who had stopped the suicide bomber from entering, the head of egypt's
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coptic church had already left. in rome, at palm sunday prayers, pope francis condemned the bombings, he is going to visit egypt later this month. a recent upsurge in attacks on egypt's coptic christians is causing concern, they are one of the oldest christian communities in the world and they make up one in ten of the country's mainly muslim population and in february hundreds fled the so—called islamic state group which also claimed the latest bombings. in december nearly 30 were killed in this church explosion in cairo, and coptic leaders say christians feel increasingly threatened. i'm very blessed to be part of a church that has faced discrimination systematically now for decades, and the response to that has always been quite gracious, no retaliation and no
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violence and i pray this continues, because if we return with violence more people will get hurt. egypt said this is another attempt to destroy national unity by causing divisions, but the coptic community says much more needs to be done to make them feel safe in their own country. the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, says russia is to blame for every civilian death in last week's chemical weapons attack in syria. his words follow a decision by foreign secretary borisjohnson to cancel a visit to moscow, due tomorrow. that move's been criticised by labour and the snp, as our political correspondent, susana mendonsa, reports. america's military response to the gas attack that left 89 people dead in syria was clear. but now attention is turning to
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the role of russia and its support for the syrian government. the british defence secretary michael fallon accused the kremlin of being complicit in the chemical attack, describing it as a war crime that happened on russia's watch. writing in the sunday times, he said... speaking to the bbc‘s andrew marr show, the international development secretary said it was time for concerted pressure to be applied on russia. this isn'tjust about one voice, this is about the international community coming together, and our foreign secretary is working with his american counterpart, as that is the right thing to do. following the us air strike on the al—shayrat air base in homs, britain's foreign secretary boris johnson announced he was cancelling a planned trip to russia, but his american counterpart rex tillerson will go ahead
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with a trip there later this week, prompting ridicule from mrjohnson‘s critics. the idea that the foreign secretary can't be trusted because he might pursue his own line or have an independent thought or cross over what the americans are going to sayjust makes him look like some sort of mini—me to the united states of america. pictures last night on russian tv showed what they said were aircraft flying once again from the airbase damaged by us missiles. and british hopes of influencing the kremlin‘s position on syria seem slim, after the russian foreign ministry said borisjohnson‘s cancelled visit showed that the uk had no real influence over world affairs. susana mendonca, bbc news. the us secretary of state, rex tillerson, has criticised russia for failing to prevent last week's poison gas attack on syrian civilians. mr tillerson did not accuse moscow of involvement in the attack but he said he would discuss russia's international obligations on chemical weapons when he visits
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the country on tuesday. he also clarified there is no change in the us policy towards syria. i think the president was very clear in his message to the american people. this strike was related solely to the most recent, horrific use of chemical weapons against women, children and as the president said, even small babies. the strike was a message to assad that your multiple violations of agreements at the un and under the chemical weapons charter in 2013, that those would not go without a response in the future and we are asking russia to fulfil its commitment and we are calling on assad to cease the use of these weapons. other than that, there is no change to our military. joining me now from washington is our correspondent, david willis. that air strike by the united states
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will surely affect the tone and agenda of mr tillerson‘s visit to moscow? there is no doubt. the secretary of state has had some pretty harsh things to say about the russians in recent days and he renewed his criticism on the american talk shows today, basically taking russia to task for its failure, as he saw it, over the commitment to oversee the destruction of syria's chemical weapons stockpile. he said that the russians had either been, as he put it, incompetent or i delivered by the syrian regime. mr tillerson goes to moscow this week to meet with his counterpart, sergei lavrov, and he is expected to press the russians to follow through on that commitment following syria's chemical weapons
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and also to rethink, in his words, the relationship they have, the close ties they have with the syrian government and he said that this meeting will be a chance to basically look at how the relationship between the us and russia might pan out over the course of the trump administration. there was a lot of thought a couple of months ago that they were maybe heralding this new era of cooperation between the countries, but that now looks very much less likely. how is this playing out in congress? whether our divisions over what united states did in syria, with some republicans saying that this was not what mr trump should have done, he should not have acted unilaterally? rex tillerson, in a sense, addressed some of those concerns in interviews he gave today. he said this did not
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represent, this missile strike, a change in policy on the part of the trump administration as far as syria was concerned. the priority, he said, remained the destruction and elimination of so—called islamic state. once that was achieved, then it would be possible to cooperate with allies in attempting to get some sort of ceasefire on the ground in syria but any suggestion that the cruise missile strikes in response to that weapons attack represented any change in direction was false, he said, and there had been speculation that perhaps the isolationist america first policy of donald trump had somehow been abandoned overnight. that does not seem to be the case. david willis in washington. thank you very much. the us military has ordered a navy strike group to move towards the korean peninsula
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amid growing concerns about north korea's missile and nuclear weapons programme. us pacific command described the deployment as a "prudent measure to maintain readiness in the region". president trump has said the united states is prepared to act alone if necessary to deal with the nuclear threat from north korea. the payday loan firm wonga says up to 270,000 of its customers may have been affected by a data breach. the information stolen includes names, addresses, phone numbers and bank account details. with me is our business correspondent, joe lynam. when and how did this happen? last tuesday, wonga were made aware that there had been a data breach and after three days, on friday, we established that sensible —— sensitive personal data was accessed by somebody outside of the company. you have named some of the personal information, names, addresses, bank
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sort codes, e—mail addresses and the last four digits of credit card numbers or bank account numbers. very sensitive information. we are talking about a large number, 270,000 people, the vast majority of which are here in the uk, the rest in poland. the company has basically put its hands up to say we have this issue, they are apologising to customers and urge them to act, be vigilant, watch for unusual activity and withdrawals in their bank accou nts and withdrawals in their bank accounts in the coming days and months. this is certainly an issue. are they promising compensation if people are affected? they are not promising anything. they are trying to establish exactly what type of data breach is involved, how many people have been genuinely compromised, or is there stuff that potentially can end up being hamas?
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i say this because the breach from talktalk two years ago, 160,000 people initially but once that dust settled, the number was much smaller. the number of people affected. it does not mean this issue will not go away and i was sticking to the information commissioner and they said that companies have responsibility for the husbandry of personal data. their biggest everfind the husbandry of personal data. their biggest ever find was applied to that company, talktalk, almost £a00,000, the biggest they can impose is £500,000. if your company earns millions every year, some people might say that is not much of a deterrent. joe lynam, thank you. the headlines... a british man, chris bevington, is named as one of the four victims of the stockholm lorry attack. the so—called islamic state group says it was behind two separate bomb attacks targeting coptic churches in egypt. greater
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manchester police say they dealt with 31 calls relating to the drug spice injust 2a with 31 calls relating to the drug spice in just 2a hours yesterday. the body of pc keith palmer, who was murdered in the westminster terror attack, has arrived at the houses of parliament ahead of his funeral tomorrow. his coffin will lie in rest at the chapel of st mary undercroft. our home editor, mark easton, reports. it is an honour traditionally afforded only to great statesmen and women, but this afternoon the body of police constable keith palmer arrived at the palace of westminster to lie in rest at the chapel of st mary undercroft. the bodies of baroness thatcher and tony benn were the last to lie here, with the permission of the queen — the chapel falls under royaljurisdiction. her majesty agreed that pc palmer should be granted the same privilege.
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an ordinary copper who performed an extraordinary act of bravery. killed protecting parliament. tomorrow pc palmer's coffin will pass through these gates and pass the exact spot where he lost his life. and then the funeral cortege will make its way across the river through streets lined with police and public to southwark cathedral, to his funeral. today, part of the route was being traced by worshippers from the cathedral at the start of holy week. the dean of southwark will officiate at tomorrow's funeral. the service will include these verses from stjohn‘s gospel. "greater love has no one than this". "to lay down one's life for one's friends". the important thing for me is, tomorrow will be his funeral, something that we need to do to honour him and to help his family with their grieving. but for the rest of us, of course,
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it's representing that sacrifice which i think we can speak of his death as a kind of sacrifice on our behalf. tributes to pc palmer continue to be laid in parliament square. his courage and his sacrifice commended at the heart of britain's democracy. throughout the night, two police officers will stand beside the constable's body, guarding the man who died guarding our values. mark easton, bbc news, the palace of westminster. len mccluskey, the leader of the uk's biggest trade union, unite, today demanded the labour party investigates what he claims are attempts by certain labour mps to undermine his campaign for a third term. mr mccluskey‘s bid to continue as unite's general secretary is being challenged by gerard coyne. the result of this bitter contest could impact the future
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of the labour party, as our industry correspondent, john moylan, reports. he's the former liverpool dock worker who rose to be the most powerful trade union leader in britain. but he's up against this man, gerald coyne, politically to len mccluskey‘s right, who believes the uk's biggest union needs to change. make sure that you do vote, because it is really important. campaigning in nottingham, gerald coyne says the union needs to focus on the challenge of brexit, insecure work and the increase of automation, and he is scathing about what he calls len mccluskey‘s meddling in the labour party. i am standing because i believe the union has spent too much time messing in westminster politics, and actually what we need to do is make sure we are focused on making our members‘s priorities absolutely top of the agenda.
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this contest matters, because whoever ends up occupying the general secretary's office on the seventh floor of the unite headquarters here in london will have an influence, which stretches from workplaces, right through to westminster. unite is the uk's biggest trade union, and, of course, it is the biggest donor to the labour party. what's more, len mccluskey has been one of the most powerful supporters ofjeremy corbyn, and put £225,000 into mr corbyn‘s leadership campaigns. he says he is standing by his record, and he rejects accusations of political meddling. of course we are involved. we are always driven by unite's policy, determined by our members. it is myjob to make certain their views, their policies, are heard in the policies of power. if i have to kick doors down, i will do that, but the idea that i spend too much time meddling in westminster politics is ridiculous. there is a third challenger, seen as politically to the left of len mccluskey. ian allinson says he is the grassroots candidate. i think i am the one candidate in this election that has not worked at the top of the union for decades, and i know the expressions
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of frustration of members at first hand, and it needs shaking up and putting right. the political stakes are high. seasoned westminster watchers believe it could define the leadership of the labour party. it feels like a proxy battle. there is no question that corbyn will be watching this vote, and will hope it goes the way of len mccluskey, because if gerald coyne wins, he knows he will have another enemy. whoever wins will lead to unite through to the next election. voting in this increasingly bitter battle closes in just over a week. a father has been left with life—changing injuries after a family had acid thrown at them in north london. the ao—year—old and his wife and two—year—old son were attacked in broad daylight in islington yesterday lunchtime. police are appealing for witnesses. marc ashdown reports. it is this spot behind me where this attack happened. it's a busy london street, lots of families around. just behind me there's a children's play park, as well. yesterday lunchtime at around one
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o'clock a family was walking here. a ao—year—old man and his 36—year—old wife, and their young son, just a toddler, two years old. police say they were attacked by someone armed with an acid substance. it was thrown on them. the child and woman suffered minor chemical burns but the man suffered much worse chemical burns to his hands and face. police have described his injuries as life changing. all three victims were treated right here at the scene by paramedics and also by firefighters who we understand poured water onto their faces to try and cool the burns down. they were then taken to hospital for treatment. the woman and the toddler were released overnight, but the man remains in hospital, being treated. he hasn't got life—threatening injuries, but as i said, they are life changing. these type of incidents are on the increase. there were a50 last year in london, that's double the number from the previous year. it's too early to say what happened in this incident, in which a family was attacked
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in broad daylight by someone armed with acid. police are appealing for witnesses but have not made any arrests as yet. marc ashdown, bbc london news in islington. police in manchester have launched extra patrols in the city centre, after receiving a surge in calls about people passing out from taking the banned drug, spice. it's been reported that the substance left some users looking like "zombies". shabnam younus—jewell reports. zombies in broad daylight — these people are users of spice, a synthetic drug which used to be legal, known to cause extreme effects including psychosis and muscle weakness. you see a lot of people who get absolutely smashed out of their trees, throwing up and falling all over the place. i don't smoke it to do that. ijust have a smoke and just relax, you know, like... basically, it's an escape route from the normalcy of life, with it being so cheap.
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this weekend, greater manchester police took 31 calls about people thought to have taken spice — 1a of them had collapsed and needed an ambulance. on this glorious day here in piccadilly gardens, shoppers are being entertained, but, at the same time, police are out here and there's quite a presence. it's because piccadilly gardens has been quite a problem area when it comes to spice use in the past. over this weekend, police have had special extra patrols on here, and have revealed they've made a number of arrests related to spice use. these volunteers do their bit. in one weekend we had seven overdoses and the paramedics were dealing with that. it is horrible to watch, messing with people badly. itjust
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affects the city centre. police say their focus is on dealers of spice, but they'll continue to tackle all anti—social users of the drug. shabnam younus—jewell, bbc north west tonight, manchester. the prince of wales, president hollande and the canadian prime ministerjustin trudeau all gathered in northern france today to mark one of the bloodiest battles of the first world war. more 3,500 canadian troops died in four days of fighting at the battle of vimy ridge. duncan kennedy reports from the site. it was the battle that defined a nation, in a conflict whose horrors defied belief. today's commemoration at vimy ridge was a chance for canada to remember those who fell here and those who rose to the challenge of victory. the burden they bore and the country they made, because this, too, is why we're here.
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why we remember. more than 3500 canadians died in the four days it took to secure the ridge. an event later described as the moment canada came of age. today, beneath a world war i fly past, prince william and prince harry laid boots and poppies, as symbols of loss and remembrance. this was a battlefield of corpses, the canadians at vimy embodied the true north, strong and free. in nearby arras, scottish losses were also remembered today. that he lay down his life for his friends. the daily rate of casualties
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was greater than the somme, amongst those to die was 26—year—old sergeant david wood from edinburgh. we would not be here without them, we would not be free to do what we want, when we want, they fought and died for us and we have got to remember them. there are no more combat veterans alive from the first world war. vimy ridge and arras are amongst the final great acts of commemoration, to honour their sacrifice mourn their loss, and remember their lives. duncan kennedy, bbc news at vimy ridge. this is bbc news. the grand national
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winner has returned to his stables at kinross after winning what was the first scottish success in the race in almost a0 years. he was welcomed back by fans but perhaps not by the bookmakers who lost millions on his unexpected 1a—1 win. back home after winning the war‘s greatest steeplechase. title might rather —— 1a after... greatest steeplechase. title might rather -- 14 after... they have done a fantasticjob. rather -- 14 after... they have done a fantastic job. a really exciting couple of days and i am really happy for everyone involved. the four after! the race itself went remarkably to plan, with after taking up the running, jumping the last.
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