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>> the figures show britain slipped back into recession over the last six months. let's listen to prime minister david cameron taking questions. >> i shall have further meetings

later today. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i would like to ask my friend if he will confirm that although british serviceman are scheduled to leave afghanistan in 2014, the actual pace of withdrawal will be determined first by the need to minimize the risk to members of the armed forces serving in afghanistan. >> my friend makes an important point. i confirmed by the end of 2014 we will not have anything like the troops numbers we have now and will not be in a combat role. after 2014 we believe in having a training role with the afghan army, particularly the officer training role that president karzai has personally asked us to undertake. the speed of the reduction between now and 2014 will be done in accordance with conditions on the ground and what is right in terms of transitioning from allied

control to afghan control of an dead all times paramount in our minds is the security and safety our brave armed forces. here is the leader of the opposition, the ed miliband. >> connor carried out his duties with the utmost courage, saving british lives by what he did. my deepest condolences to his family and friends. mr. speaker, we have been catastrophic news that britain is back in recession. i am sure the prime minister has spent the last 24 hours thinking of an excuse as to why this has nothing to do with him. what is the excuse this time? >> these are very disappointing figures. i don't seek to excuse them. i don't see it tried to explain them away. let me be clear, there's no

complacency at all in this government in dealing with what is a very tough situation that has just gotten tougher. believe the truth is this, it's very difficult recovering from the deepest recession in living memory, accompanied by a debt crisis. our banks had too much data and our households had too much debt as well as our government. we have to rebalance our economy. we need a bigger private sector and more investment. this is a painstaking work, but we will stick with our plan, stick with a lower interest rates, and do everything we can to manage the risk in our country. >> mr. speaker, typical of this arrogant prime minister who tries to blame everyone else, the reality is this is a recession made by him and the chancellor.

over the last 18 months since his catastrophic spending review, our economy has shrunk. this is a slower recovery from recession and even more than the one in the 1930's. arrogance and complacency. why does he not admit that it is is catastrophic economic policy, his austerity plan, cutting toot far that has landed us back into recession-- too far. >> there's not a single business organization or international body that thinks these problems emerged in the last 24 months. the debt crisis has been long in the making. the failure to regulate the banks has been long making. the government overspending has been long in making. this is a tough and difficult situation. but the one thing we must not

do is to abandon public spending and deficit reduction plans because the solution to a debt crisis cannot be more debt. we must not put at risk the low interest rates that are absolutely essential to our recovery. that would be absolute folly. that's why there's no business organization and no international economic organization that suggests we take that course. >> it is all bluster. his plan has failed. back to reality. they were the people who said that britain was a safe haven. the chancellor even said on monday and we are back in recession. he was the person who said that we were out of the danger zone. . this is what . -- this is what has happened. the complacent people just don't get it. let's turn from the economic

disaster of this government to the political disaster that is the culture secretary. we now know from the evidence published yesterday that throughout the time the culture secretary was supposed to be acting in an impartial manner, he and his office provided a constant flow of confidential information to news corp. about statements to be made in this house in advance, his private discussions with regulators, and his discussions with opposing parties. having seen the 163 pages published yesterday, could the prime minister seriously trying to tell us the secretary of state was acting as he should've done in a transparent, impartial, and fair manner? >> first let me finish on the economy. order. let's hear what the prime minister has to say on the economy and everything else. it's we will not let anyone

notwho got us into this mess in the first place. more spending, more borrowing, more debt. that is what caused these problems. it cannot be the solution to these problems. let me turn to the leveson inquiry. i set up the inquiry, the terms of reference of the inquiry were agreed by the leader of the liberal democratic party and the leader of the labor party. i believe that to step in and tried to prejudge that inquiry would be wrong. let me be clear. lord justice leveson has

made that point this morning. let me read what he has said. >> prime minister has to say and the questioning will continue. >> he said this this morning. "it is very important to hear every side of the story before drawing conclusions. although i have seen requests for other inquiries and investigations and of course i do not seek to constrain parliament, but it seems to me that the better course is to allow this inquiry to proceed." having agreed with this inquiry, let's listen to the inquiry it. >> mr. speaker, lord justice is a responsible for a lot of things, but he is not responsible for the integrity of the prime minister --

in case he forgot, that is the responsibility of the prime minister. mr. speaker, he was not judging this bid. he was helping the bid by news corp.. in january the culture secretary's office was not only colluding with news corp. to provide them information in advance, there were hatching a plan to ensure " it would be a game over for the opposition to the bid." does the prime minister believe that is how a judge and his advisers are supposed to act? >> the leader has clearly not read what lord leveson said this morning. let me remind him what he said yesterday about the leveson inquiry. this is the leader of the opposition speaking. "i think he's right, that the

leveson inquiry takes its course. the most important thing is that the leveson inquiry gets to the bottom of what happened, of what labor did and what the conservatives did, and we reach a judgment about that." this is typical of the right honorable gentleman. in the morning he sets out is very clear position, but in the afternoon he cannot resist the passing political bandwagon. >> order. the prime minister must be heard. the leader of the opposition must be heard. however long it takes. ed miliband. >> totally pathetic answers at, esther speaker. he is the prime minister. if he cannot defend the conduct

of his own ministers, his ministers should be out the door. he should fire them. now, he does not even tried to defend the secretary on what he did. the secretary of state said on the third of march of this year in answer to question, " today we are publishing all consultation documents, all the submissions we received, all the exchanges between my department and news corp.." 163 pages have emerged. the prime minister does not defend him over giving confidential information and does not defend him over collusion. is he really going to defend him about not being straight with this house of commons? " let me make clear about the culture secretary, who has my full support. the culture secretary will be

giving a full account of himself in this house of commons this afternoon and in front of the leveson inquiry and he will give a very good account of himself for this very simple reason -- in judging this important bid the culture secretary saw independent advice from independent regulators at every stage although he did not need to plan the culture secretary to pat independent advice at every stage although he did not need to. the way that the culture secretary has dealt with this is in stark contrast to the government of which he was a member. >> let's talk about this with our correspondent with me in the studio while we're watching those fiery exchanges. ed miliband started on the economy, but let's stick with the rupert murdoch? . we have seen that rupert murdoch

has been on gmt. this is another facet of the relationship between the murdoch empire and government. >> that's right. this relates to e-mails that came out during james murdoch's evidence. it relates to the recent history when the murdochs were trying to launch a full buyout of the satellite broadcaster b sky b. the government was in the middle of trying to decide whether to allow that bid to go ahead. it appears the back channel of information going back and forth between james murdoch and the office of the culture secretary. that is why he is under so much pressure. ed miliband was there saying he was colluding with news corp. and that he was withholding information from parliament. that is very serious allegations. >> very serious. we are looking at pictures of rupert murdoch at the leveson inquiry, the inquiry into media

ethics. if the board that you have this particular instance it over b sky b, but the broader question is that he had influence over several british politicians, several british leaders. >> indeed. one of the lawyers asked, were you the power broker even in the time of margaret thatcher. he has been asked about whether he tried to trade his support for british politicians in return for commercial favors. he was very stern on that matter. he said that he never asked a british prime minister for anything. he also tried to portray it as perfectly normal, if perfectly natural for politicians and editors to want to speak together. >> it is only natural for politicians to reach out to editors and [unintelligible]

to explain what they are doing and hoping that makes an impression and that it goes through. i was only one of several. >> trying to say that things were not that unusual. put this into context for us, the business of murdoch and the broadcaster and the sale. and we have the whole argument as the prime minister has questions about the recession. tough times for the government. >> very tough times for david cameron. next week he will face a local election. it will be interesting to see how all this plays out. he will be particularly nervous about rupert murdoch's evidence when it gets on to recent history. so far rupert murdoch has just been asked about his relations with characters like margaret thatcher and tony blair. but when it gets on to the subject of david cameron, it will get to the matter of the b

sky b bid. then to jeremy hunt. >> right to the top. thank you. let's look at some other stories making headlines around the world. anders breivik has told them the psychiatric reports that declared him insane was full of lies. peace and its purpose was to portray him as a rational and unintelligent person. he killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting attack last july, which the admits. the second report concluded that he was actually accountable for his actions. our correspondent richard galpin gave us the latest from the trial. >> we know this is a very important stage of the trial. essentially, what anders breivik is trying to do is convince the judges that he is sane, that is not insane. so far over the past year we

have had two psychiatric reports completely contradictory. the first one said that he is insane. and more recently just before the trial started, another one said that he is sane. he is attacking that first report. made upescribed it as of 80% implies. lies.% he accused the psychiatrist of making him seem a syrup. he has gone on about allegations that they have made up all sorts of things about him. he has gone on to question those psychiatrists themselves, saying that their report was carried -- carried out too soon after the attacks and there were not able to understand someone who carry out an act of

political violence. if he is found to be sane, then he will go to prison. he sees himself as something of a martyr, someone fighting for a far-right extremist, racist, nationalist ideology. pythias found insane, then he will go to a psychiatric ward and be held there. >> that was richard galpin with his analysis of the trial so far. the african union is calling on sudan and south sudan to reach a peace deal within a new african union framework. a senior official says the organization would take appropriate measures if either country fails to implement the proposed road map within a specified time frame it. the u.n. security council has called for an immediate stop of bombardment by air of sudanese. there's continued violence in

syria. kofi annan spoke to reporters and said you and government troops had entered the central city of hama and killed a significant number of people after observers left that area. two major south korean supermarket chains have suspended purchases of u.s. beef after a case of mad cow disease was found in california, the first such case to be discovered in america in six years. mad cow disease is believed to cause a deadly brain condition in human beings. let's get the business news with aaron. let's start with this double-dip recession in the u.k. that you might have seen in parliament there was a lot of banter about it. the government defended its position, saying they will stick to the cuts. >> for the first three months of this year, the economy. economy

0.2%. worse than expected. did this first double dip recession since the 1970's. some suggesting the construction industry is pretty much on its knees. although construction typically slows down during the winter. manufacturing is weak. the 20% depreciation of the british sterling is not helping. what is important about these numbers today is the fact that it does not really changed the economics. it is psychological. if we were to get a slightly positive number, that would've been a boost for consumers. but a negative number, the word recession on newspapers and across the tv screen keeps consumers cautious and they don't spend. but the problem for growth. let's listen to the chancellor of the exchequer and the british finance minister george osborn. >> it's very disappointing news and it's a very tough economic situation when you are recovering from these enormous debts that burton boltuch in the good years.

it is not been made any easier by the fact that much of europe is in recession or heading into recession and we have got to go on dealing with those debts and making our businesses more profitable and making sure we don't add too boring and make a difficult situation worse. >> george osborn defending his position and setting much of europe was in difficulties as well. we hear today the european commissioners wnt their budget to go up to 6.8%. -- want. >> i am smelling hypocrisy. european officials saying they want a near 7% increase in the 2013 budget. there are cries of double standards. it's the european commission that has told all the european countries in particular the euro

zone countries to get their financial house in order. quite astonishing. they are expected to justify it by saying they have been big financialhave spending commitments like agriculture and. will they get an increase? >> $182 billion question. those negotiations will continue for many months. the last time around, if that's anything to go by, the original pitch by the european parliament was for a rise of 5%. but other countries pushed back down to about 2%. i suspect we will see a budget which is a little smaller than the one european commission is pushing now. >> a rough cut. sorry about that. thanks very much. the american businessman donald

trump has questioned the scottish government policy on green energy. this morning in front of a committee of the scottish parliament to object to a proposed wind farm which is a short distance offshore from a golf course than his building in scotland. -- he appeared before a committee. >> donald trump is not known for subtlety. >> the best in the world. >> the golf course is impressive. plans for a hotel and hundreds of homes put on hold. he will not build them if a wind farm is constructed just offshore. >> this is a much bigger project than the wind farms. frankly, if they do it and if they destroy scotland, they would have committed a terrible error. >> one of donald trump's neighbors says that the american has a cheek.

david's of view has been blocked by a line of's of donald trump's trees. >> he is talking about something that is a mile away and would barely be visible. >> the windfall will be situated about as far away as those ships on the horizon. it is just a couple miles from these dunes, one of the most famous and important sites in britain, but donald trump's development is still a fair distance up the beach. >> a reminder of our top stories, the media tycoon rupert murdoch has been giving evidence to a british inquiry into his media ethics about his links and influence over politicians. he denies the allegations. if that's all for the moment. stay with us. there's plenty more to come.

>> we have had stormy weather across the northeast and eastern canada during the past 24 hours. remnants of the low pressure still with us. heavy showers, strong wind over the mountains as well. things are starting to settle down it and the main showers are moving out. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture

new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles.