19/07/2012 Newsround

Good afternoon gang. Ricky and Joe here bringing you all today's

biggest news from around the world. Coming your way today... The

amazing tale of the little boy trapped in a sewer. And the team GB

stars are getting ready to take on some of the biggest athletes in the

world. But first to Syria where, after 16 months of fighting,

experts say the country's reached a major turning point. Last night

three of the President's top security chiefs were killed when a

rebel bomb went off in a government building. It's the first big blow

the government's suffered and has led to intensified street battles

between rebels who want President Al-Assad to step down and those who

support him. Last night's attack sent shockwaves across Syria.

The attacks sent shock waves across Syria. Three of the president's top

men, killed. They were some of President Bashar Al-Assad's closest

advisors. One of them was his brother-in-law. The rebel

supporters celebrated on the streets. The government condemned

the suicide bomber they say was responsible. It's not entirely

clear what happened but what is clear is that the rebels think this

attack shows that, for the first time in a long and violent conflict,

the tide is turning in their favour. It's sent a message to the regime

that the hand of the Syrian people and the Free Syrian army can reach

anyone inside Damascus and even Bashar Al-Assad itself is not safe

anymore. Experts say they might be right. The President has not been

seen since the attack. Unconfirmed reports say he's fled to a town on

Syria's coast. All this has fuelled more fighting across the country.

Both sides say large numbers of people died yesterday in one of the

deadliest days of fighting. President Assad retaliated by

sending tanks, artillery and helicopters to crush rebel picas

and parks -- fighters in part of the capital. It's a blow for United

Nation's peace keepers. They condemned the bomb attack, saying

it was wrong. But as the scale of the conflict increases so does the

pressure on world leaders to find a solution and bring an end to the

violence. Well, in the last two hours world leaders have failed to

agree on a plan to stop the Syrian government carrying out any

retaliation attacks. Britain, France and America all want to put

pressure on president Assad to step down but Russia and China are still

backing him. So while the leaders talk, what's it like to be living

in Damascus? There were a lot of clashes yesterday, we heard a lot

of sounds. The blasts were stronger in the day than at night. We heard

the only sounds are of clashes and all the shops and markets are

closed. Everybody is afraid. Moving on... Ricky you've run a marathon

and I bet when you did you used sports drinks to get that little

bit or umpf? Yes of course! Well new research by the British medical

journal and the BBC programme Panorama, has suggested they don't

make much difference for normal people. Research has said there is

some benefit to sportsman but kids are better sticking to the simple

stuff. A There is no evidence of benefit whatsoever. You should

think of these products as not performance enhancing. They don't

make you better at football running, you should actually stick to water

and products like bananas, milk. One group of athletes that

definitely don't need any help are the USA basketball dream team.

They're made up of the some of biggest names and highest paid

sports men in the world and they've just arrived in the UK to take on

Team GB in an Olympic warm up game - a pretty daunting task. You might

not recognise many of these but in their home country they are

absolute superstars. Teen USA are 13 time Olympic champions and they

all play in the MBA, the biggest and best basketball league in the

world. Auberon James has just won the championships and was voted the

league's most valuable player but he says the Olympics is something

different. It is great to represent my country, a great honour. I am

happy to be here. So getting the gold might be a tall order but Team

GB had some stars of their own. This man is a huge player for the

Chicago Bulls and will be heavily relied on for the Olympics. We have

come a long way, we are competing with the best in the world. We have

players playing at high-level basketball. Despite all the medals

the US have collected over the years Team GB say they are not

scared of them. It is not scary, it is more of a challenge. I think

people will take it more as a personal challenge to see what they

can do against the world's best. Tonight the giants of the US take

on a relatively unknown British team, nobody is giving Team GB a

chance and it will be one of the biggest upset in the history of

basketball if they were to win. With almost 20,000 fans cheering

them on you just never know. quite tall enough to be a

basketball player, and I? So of those guys are 6 ft 11! Next to

news of an amazing rescue. It happened in Columbia in South

America after a big search for a three-year-old boy who'd gone

missing. He'd been playing with his brothers on a building site and was

eventually found trapped in an underground sewer. We have not got

the pictures unfortunately. He was pulled out by rescue teams and is

now safe and well. Maybe a bit smelly! To Greenland next which is

now a smaller country than it was this time yesterday. Confused? Well

it's all because of this. A huge iceberg broke off the Petermann

Glacier in Greenland overnight. It was 46 square miles big, about

twice the size of Manhattan in New York. Experts say the iceberg could

now drift over to Canada which might cause big problems for ships

that come across it. Back to sport and one of the world's biggest golf

tournaments got underway today. The Open is the longest running

competition in the history of golf and the only major tournament

outside of America. This year it's being held here in Lancashire.

There's plenty of British players in with a chance of winning but as

I've been finding out there's lots of obstacles that could get in the

way. The Open - 156 golfers battling it out on one of Britain's

finest and toughest golf courses. And this year there's only one word

If players find themselves in this stuff they could spend precious

shots trying to get their ball out. It is not very nice, I have just

been in it, it goes up to your knees. Last year's winner Darren

Clarke says the rough here at Royal Lytham & St Annes is "absolutely

brutal" and Tiger Woods says it's the hardest he's ever faced. And

he's not alone... The broth this week is very thick, it will be a

huge penalty. -- rough. We will see some decent scores but hard scores.

But organisers have other ways to cause trouble for the world's best.

There's also a few bunkers to deal with as well... 205 in fact! This

is renowned for being one of the toughest courses. Some people find

it to their liking and win, so have a good attitude and things will

happen. Speaking of attitude, some players didn't even try and hit the

ball out during practise. To be honest though I don't know what all

If you would like to hear more from the experts about how they became

professional check out our interviews on our website. Finally,

if you've ever got in trouble for bad spelling at school it's nothing