Browse content similar to 19/09/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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This is BBC World News Today with me, Philippa Thomas. Is this the | :00:10. | :00:14. | |
start of President Obama's campaign for re-election? He's making the | :00:14. | :00:17. | |
case for raising taxes on the rich, saying it's time for America's | :00:17. | :00:22. | |
wealthiest to pay more of the nation's bills. It is wrong that in | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
the United States of America a teacher or a nurse or a | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates | :00:28. | :00:38. | |
:00:38. | :00:38. | ||
than somebody pulling in $50 million. Violent confrontations in | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
Yemen - the death toll mounts during a two-day crackdown on the | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
streets of Sanaa. Reflecting on a tough year of coalition government | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
- we'll be live at the Liberal Democrat party conference in | :00:47. | :00:56. | |
Birmingham. And the conjoined sisters who have | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
overcome the odds to survive after being separated by surgeons in | :01:00. | :01:10. | |
:01:10. | :01:14. | ||
Hello and welcome. The gloves are off in Barack Obama's fight for re- | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
election. We heard his new rhetoric for the first time today but we | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
will hear it again and again over the year to come. The president | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
says he wants to tax the rich, or as he put it at the White House | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
this afternoon, he will veto any "one sided deal" that puts all the | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
burden for reducing the US deficit on the shoulders of ordinary | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
Americans. So we could call this the first airing for Mr Obama's | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
campaign "stump speech", his pitch to voters to share his sense of | :01:39. | :01:49. | |
:01:49. | :01:51. | ||
urgency. During the past decade, profligate spending in Washington, | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
tax cuts for multi-millionaires, the cost of two wars, and the | :01:56. | :02:03. | |
recession, turned a surplus into a yawning deficit. But left us with a | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
pile of I in use. If we do not act, the burden will fall on our | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
children's shoulders. The last few months in Washington have been | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
dominated by the conservative focus on cutting spending to pay down | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
America's debt. Today, the president called for what he terms | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
a "balanced plan", where for every two dollars cut from Washington | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
spending, another dollar will be raised in new revenue. To sell his | :02:25. | :02:33. | |
plan, Mr Obama swung into populist mode. Middle-class families should | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
not pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That | :02:38. | :02:45. | |
is straightforward. It is hard to argue against that. Warren | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
Buffett's Secretary should not pay it more tax than Warren Buffett. | :02:50. | :02:56. | |
There is no justification for it. It is wrong that in the U S A eight | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
teacher or nurse or construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay | :03:01. | :03:09. | |
a higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million. Anybody who | :03:09. | :03:15. | |
says we cannot change the tax code to correct that, anyone who has | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
signed a pledge to protect every tax as long as they live, they | :03:20. | :03:26. | |
should be called out. They should defend that unfairness. President | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
Obama went on to insist that he wasn't indulging in class warfare, | :03:29. | :03:34. | |
but he certainly seemed to be adopting a newly populist tone. | :03:34. | :03:36. | |
We'll hear analysis in a minute from political commentator Robert | :03:36. | :03:38. | |
Traynham, who's served on a number of Republican presidential | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
campaigns, but first let's ask the BBC's own Adam Brookes in | :03:41. | :03:50. | |
Washington how this speech has gone down. Adam, what's the initial | :03:50. | :03:59. | |
reaction? On the face lit, President Obama was in professorial | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
moat. It was a disquisition on the tax code. Under Lerwick -- | :04:04. | :04:12. | |
underline it, was par for election season politics. It was a challenge | :04:12. | :04:19. | |
to the Republicans, an attack on, strong criticism, of senior members | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives by name. | :04:23. | :04:29. | |
And it was a challenge to the Republican Party. It was when the | :04:29. | :04:35. | |
President said he will veto any plant that comes out of the House | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
of Representatives which cuts welfare and entitlement payments, | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
payments to the elderly and the poor, unless there are tax rises in | :04:44. | :04:50. | |
there too. The Republicans made it very clear they will not accept any | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
tax rises. We are seeing the battle lines getting drawn and the | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
President coming out of his corner swinging in a way it many of his | :04:59. | :05:05. | |
supporters have been waiting for him to do. How much is he trying to | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
re-energised the base that sometimes says he forgot where he | :05:07. | :05:16. | |
came from? I felt I could almost see congealing before my eyes, the | :05:16. | :05:23. | |
principal themes of the Democratic campaign. It will be about fairness, | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
energising Democrats to make sure the bankers who have huge bonuses | :05:29. | :05:35. | |
on Wall Street pay their fair share, about using government stimulus and | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
tools to create jobs and it is trying to get the disaffected, | :05:40. | :05:45. | |
recession battered democratic base at the political centre to rally | :05:45. | :05:54. | |
behind President Obama, a more centrist frame of mind. Let's bring | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
in our political commentator. You are a veteran of Capitol Hill and | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
campaigns. What would you advise your politicians to say in answer | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
to this if you were advising the Republicans? | :06:09. | :06:15. | |
This is an interesting contrast in argument between the haves and | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
have-nots and also at the Republicans would say what you're | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
doing is penalising the people living the American Dream, | :06:24. | :06:33. | |
penalising the folks climbing up the economic ladder. I would think | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
Republicans would say first and foremost we are for tax reform, | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
levelling the playing field, for making sure the tax code is fair | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
but we need to understand this really is about class warfare and | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
you are trying to penalise those more fortunate than those that are | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
not. Do you think there will be worried in Conservative ranks this | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
is quite a powerful appeal to the American public? | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
Well, what's more worrying to any politician running for re-election | :07:01. | :07:07. | |
is we have 9.1 unemployment. What is more worrying is there is no | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
short-term solution to the millions that are unemployed in America. | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
That is the number one concern so the question becomes hard to fix | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
the immediate problems, overhauling the tax code, although important, | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
that will not bring the unemployment rate down. Final | :07:28. | :07:34. | |
question to you, it struck me the famous campaign slogan about taxes | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
was read my lips, no new taxes. He paid the price when he changed his | :07:39. | :07:45. | |
mind. It is quite brave saying read my lips, more new taxes. It depends | :07:45. | :07:51. | |
who you ask. If you ask the president, that is what he wants. | :07:51. | :07:57. | |
He wants to draw this contrast that I am willing to come up with new | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
programmes and a vision but it will cost something and if you look at | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
the presidential battle grounds in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida | :08:05. | :08:11. | |
and Ohio, it is a pretty resonating argument. If I am a democrat rave | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
re-election, it is not a bad argument to run on. | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
Thank you. Escalating violence in Yemen has left at least 50 people | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
dead over the past two days. The government cracked down on | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
demonstrations in Sana'a, but now the protests have spread outside | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
the capital. Anger has been directed at President Ali Abdullah | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
Saleh who has in Saudi Arabia since June recovering from an | :08:33. | :08:42. | |
assassination attempt. Mike Wooldridge reports. | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
A second day of deadly violence in the Yemeni capital. The battles | :08:47. | :08:55. | |
bringing to an end what was a political stalemate lasting months. | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
The protesters have been trying to extend the area where they have | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
been encamped in their thousands demanding the Yemeni ruler leave | :09:04. | :09:13. | |
office for good. In this new confrontation between the | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
demonstrators and security forces, many more casualties today hastily | :09:17. | :09:26. | |
removed to hospitals and makeshift clinics. It has forced Yemen and a | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
greater escalation back into the international arena. We call on the | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
government to end attacks against civilians and civilian targets in | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
full compliance with the obligations under international | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
human rights law. The government will investigate and hold | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
accountable those responsible for these acts. It's unfortunate those | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
events occurred at a time while some solutions for the crisis were | :09:52. | :10:00. | |
appearing. President Saleh a left for treatment in Saudi Arabia after | :10:00. | :10:05. | |
wounded -- been wounded. He told his vice-president to discuss a | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
deal under which he would step down in return for immunity from | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
prosecution. But the President has backed away three-times from | :10:13. | :10:22. | |
signing deals to transfer power. It is not just Sanaa seeing an upsurge. | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
This is Taiz. More evidence of the pressure on the government and | :10:26. | :10:36. | |
mediators. UN and Gulf envoys have arrived to try to find a solution. | :10:36. | :10:43. | |
Opposition leaders say protests will continue. Joining me from | :10:43. | :10:51. | |
Birmingham is Abdulalem Alshamery. What a you hearing from the streets | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
about the tactics the security forces are using -- what are you | :10:55. | :11:03. | |
hearing? The tactics at the moment, I call it genocide against humanity. | :11:03. | :11:10. | |
It is led by the Sun and cousins. Since yesterday, more than 50 | :11:10. | :11:16. | |
people were killed and hundreds wounded. I do not know what an | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
international community is waiting for. They have the right to step in | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
further and stock what he's doing. We are seeing the international | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
community stepping back and watching what is happening. King | :11:29. | :11:37. | |
Abdullah, the Saudi king, received the President of the Yemen and | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
thanking him for the support he has given to the regime. I don't know | :11:40. | :11:50. | |
what will happen in the near future, as I speak now the death toll is | :11:50. | :11:58. | |
increasing. We have not seen any thing in the Arab League. We are | :11:58. | :12:05. | |
hearing reports of UN and Gulf envoys travelling to Sanaa to | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
negotiate with the President to step down. For the last nine months | :12:10. | :12:17. | |
now, the GCC has been sending representatives but the agreements | :12:17. | :12:27. | |
:12:27. | :12:28. | ||
and initiatives and offers by the GCC and worldwide given to sell a, | :12:28. | :12:33. | |
he is not signed any agreement. Why are they not doing like they did | :12:33. | :12:39. | |
with the Syrians and the Libyans and Egyptians? Why do we have to | :12:39. | :12:45. | |
suffer, the death toll is still increasing. We have seen no action | :12:45. | :12:55. | |
:12:55. | :12:55. | ||
from the UN. Yemen have received the head of the GCC and the UN in | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
Sanaa and they say they want to revive the initiative. What sort of | :12:59. | :13:06. | |
initiatives? Let's look at the pressures within because we could | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
look at how the military is still supporting the present, is that a | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
united force or do you see cracks in military support for the regime? | :13:16. | :13:22. | |
There is a crack in the military, the Republican Guards and the | :13:22. | :13:29. | |
central security forces led by his son and nephews. They are the only | :13:29. | :13:37. | |
loyalists. Of the Ali, there is a huge crack and we have heard many | :13:37. | :13:43. | |
of the Republican Guards members have defected and are not excepting | :13:43. | :13:52. | |
what is happening to Erin people. Thank you. -- to their own people. | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
The Greek government is trying to find the money it needs to deal | :13:55. | :14:02. | |
with his debts. The need to be satisfied with the Government's | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
progress on deficit-reduction before more bear that funds can be | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
released. The IMF has criticised the Greek Government's strategy of | :14:09. | :14:15. | |
reducing the deficit by raising taxes. | :14:16. | :14:22. | |
Some people say the future of the euro-zone lies in this man's hands. | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
He is the Greek Finance Minister and these are critical days. His | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
country faces bankruptcy next month without another injection of bail | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
out money. Other European leaders insist Greece must do more to | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
reduce its deficit and that this was the message the IMF gave him | :14:40. | :14:46. | |
today. The ball is in the Greek court, implementation is of the | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
essence. Yes, there have been tax rises and pay cuts but they have | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
not done the job. The numbers in the public sector remain high, tax | :14:56. | :15:00. | |
collection is a shambles and the economy is shrinking. So, more cuts | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
are on the way but this time increasingly the Greeks are | :15:04. | :15:14. | |
:15:14. | :15:18. | ||
The Athens bike fair drew many middle-class families. Among them, | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
was so Joanna Karelles, a public sector worker. She says she is | :15:23. | :15:29. | |
scared. We are very careful about what we buy now. Every time we go | :15:29. | :15:32. | |
to the supermarket, we are very careful to go with a list and it is | :15:32. | :15:39. | |
becoming a shorter and shorter list. When schools started this autumn, | :15:39. | :15:44. | |
this family found a shortage of books in the classroom. Just a week | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
ago, the government announced a property tax, the aim to raise 2 | :15:49. | :15:55. | |
billion euros. It would hit flat owners like Anna. It works out | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
about six or 7 euros per metre which means just about more than | :16:01. | :16:07. | |
700 euros for this flat for a year in two instalments. How do people | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
feel about that one-off tax because it is quite a lot of money? It is. | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
I think the middle classes and property owners are getting | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
outraged. The taxes will be collected by electricity bills and | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
already the power unions are saying they will sabotage it. On the | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
streets there are crowds saying they will not pay the new tax. That | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
is the problem. Families and public-sector workers are | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
increasingly unwilling to accept cuts in exchange for a further | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
bail-out. 53 people have been killed in the | :16:41. | :16:47. | |
earthquake which hit the India Nepal border according to officials. | :16:48. | :16:50. | |
The epicentre of the quake was in the northeastern Indian state of | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
Sikkim, where at least 31 people were killed. Police and media say | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
rain and landslides are blocking the efforts of rescue workers | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
searching for survivors. Gunmen in Burundi have shot dead at | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
least 36 people in an attack on a bar. Survivors said dozens of men | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
armed with automatic weapons entered the bar in Gatumba, close | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
to the capital, Bujumbura. It's the worst outbreak of violence since | :17:09. | :17:11. | |
disputed elections in Burundi last year. | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
Here in the UK, six men and one woman have been arrested on counter | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
terror charges. The men, aged between 25 and 32, were detained | :17:18. | :17:22. | |
last night in a series of raids in Birmingham. The woman is being | :17:22. | :17:30. | |
questioned on suspicion of withholding information. The Greek | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
Cypriot government says drilling for natural gas in water south of | :17:34. | :17:37. | |
Cyprus has started, despite repeated warnings from Turkey that | :17:37. | :17:42. | |
it must not go ahead. Turkey said drilling would prompt it to send | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
its own exploration ships into waters controlled by a Turkish | :17:46. | :17:54. | |
Cypriots. Britain is facing an economic | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
crisis, the equivalent of being at war, that was the stark assessment | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
given today by Vince Cable at the Liberal Democrats' conference in | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
Birmingham. He painted a gloomy picture of the economic recovery, | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
saying there were gloomy times ahead. Nick Clegg, the party leader, | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
said there was no alternative to the Commission's strategy. | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
A bleak warning was issued in Birmingham today. A warning to the | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
country that danger lies ahead. The enemy is not one that we can see, | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
not one they can protect us against. It is the threat that the economy | :18:28. | :18:33. | |
may not recover. We now face a crisis that is the economic | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
equivalent of war. The Business Secretary told his fellow Liberal | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
Democrats today that the public deserved and wanted to be told it | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
like it is. The truth is, that there are difficult times ahead, | :18:47. | :18:53. | |
that Britain's post-war pattern of ever-rising living standards has | :18:53. | :18:58. | |
been broken by the financial collapse. Ministers' language is | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
changing. They have begun to talk of the need opt for a stimulus to | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
get the economy moving, to get more companies to follow Jaguar Land- | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
Rover who today announced they would be creating 750 jobs building | :19:11. | :19:17. | |
a new engine plant in Wolverhampton. The Lib Dem Conference has echoed | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
to the sound of coalition disharmony, as one partner | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
criticises the other in what they call their political marriage. Some | :19:26. | :19:29. | |
people say coalition is a political marriage, how would your wife, | :19:29. | :19:34. | |
Miriam, feel if you describe her as witless, a nightmare and that | :19:34. | :19:42. | |
divorce was inevitable? I think... Miriam would not be pleased! People | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
on that platform behind me have said it. To accept that people | :19:46. | :19:51. | |
would get on the platform and say stuff about the Conservatives, that | :19:51. | :19:56. | |
is what happens in politics. Party conferences are the times when | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
ministers display their differences in public with their coalition | :20:00. | :20:04. | |
partners. In private, they are united in worrying about how one | :20:04. | :20:14. | |
earth to get the economy moving again. | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
Our political correspondent is that the conference in Birmingham for us. | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
We have been talking about the economy, in the USA, Greece and | :20:20. | :20:27. | |
here, it seems economic gloom is the theme of the hour? Exactly. And | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
yet, the mood at the Liberal Democrats' conference is strangely | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
upbeat, especially when you consider that it was only back in | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
May that they suffered really bad losses at local government | :20:39. | :20:42. | |
elections and even now, they are still languishing in the opinion | :20:43. | :20:47. | |
polls. To talk a little more about this, I have with me Mark | :20:47. | :20:53. | |
Littlewood, a former head of press for the Liberal Democrats. They at | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
11 % in the opinion polls, that is half what they were on before the | :20:58. | :21:03. | |
general election, why are they so upbeat? Why is there not more | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
revolt in the air? I think it is more defiance than being upbeat. | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
The Liberal Democrats usually get a boost from local elections. The May | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
results were horrible and there were many councillors who lost | :21:16. | :21:21. | |
their seats. They will probably conclude that is because the party | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
is in coalition with the Conservatives. It is not since the | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
days of David Lloyd George back in the 1920s that Liberal Democrats | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
have held any high office of sorts. Although there is concern about the | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
opinion poll ratings and what should be done to get them back up | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
to the twenties, I think there is still a degree of pride that the | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
Liberal Democrats are in a meaningful power. Vince Cable was | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
warning of tough times ahead on the economy and we know the Liberal | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
Democrats were getting a lot of blame for the austerity, presumably | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
that means there could be more pressure on whether the coalition | :21:59. | :22:05. | |
actually holds together to 2015? think it is likely the coalition | :22:05. | :22:10. | |
will hold together for the duration. There is total unity on the need | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
for fiscal retrenchment to get the budget deficit under control over | :22:14. | :22:19. | |
the course of this Parliament. That is the glue which is holding the | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats together. I think Vince Cable was | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
right to say the outlook for the economy was hardly rosy and what is | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
happening internationally will buffet it, they are not in control | :22:31. | :22:35. | |
of their own destiny but I think the Liberal Democrats will have to | :22:35. | :22:38. | |
do more to explain how the British economy can get out of this mess, | :22:38. | :22:44. | |
what concrete steps have been taken -- can be taken. There has been a | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
lot said at the conference to echo what President Obama has said, we | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
have got to hit the rich harder, that has been the message repeated | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
by Vince Cable, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander. Really, the | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
challenge is, what can the coalition do to help growth in the | :23:02. | :23:07. | |
British economy? We are bumbling along at very sluggish rates of | :23:07. | :23:11. | |
growth. What can we do to make this a better environment to do business | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
in? My concern is the Liberal Democrats are drawing red lines | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
about tax cuts for the rich, considering how the burden of pain | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
should be shared out, rather than working out what steps can be taken | :23:23. | :23:28. | |
to get the economy off the floor. Thank you for joining us. Nick | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
Clegg will give his speech to conference in a couple of days' | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
time and his big theme here has been the Liberal Democrats are | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
providing a restraining influence on the Conservatives in the | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
coalition, but once again, the opinion polls do not quite suggest | :23:43. | :23:50. | |
he is having much luck convincing the voters. | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
Thank you. Surgeons who successfully separated conjoined | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
twins a month ago say the two baby girls are recovering well. Rital | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
and Ritag Gaboura were born joined at the head. The sisters, who are | :24:04. | :24:09. | |
from Sudan, had four operations at Great Ormond Street Hospital in | :24:09. | :24:14. | |
London. Doctors say they have overcome incredible odds to survive. | :24:14. | :24:20. | |
Fergus Walsh reports. This is now to get the nurse for | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
Rital and Ritag, sharing the same cot but these twins have undergone | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
an extraordinary journey to be physically separated. Born at | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
joined at the head, doctors said they would probably have died | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
unless they underwent surgery. Their parents, both doctors from | :24:38. | :24:43. | |
Sudan, can now each hold one daughter in their arms. For them, | :24:43. | :24:46. | |
it is a miracle. What was it like when the twins | :24:46. | :24:52. | |
were able to look each other in the eye for the first time? It was | :24:52. | :24:59. | |
really a great moment in our life. I will never forget. I hope that | :24:59. | :25:05. | |
they will get a normal life and treated as normal human beings and | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
to forget all of their suffering times. Looking at the twins now, it | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
is remarkable to think that just a month ago they were joined at the | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
head. It is still too early to be sure but there are no signs at this | :25:19. | :25:23. | |
stage that either has suffered any neurological damage as a result of | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
the separation. This was the huge surgical team at Great Ormond | :25:29. | :25:34. | |
Street Hospital who carried out four complex operations spread over | :25:34. | :25:40. | |
four months, first dividing the veins and arteries, then growing | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
use skin to cover the skull and finally this, the moment when the | :25:44. | :25:51. | |
twins were separated. There are so many things that you have to get | :25:51. | :25:54. | |
right in the right order, separating the blood vessels, | :25:54. | :25:59. | |
making sure the brain is safe, reconstructing skin. It has really | :25:59. | :26:04. | |
been a tribute to the team that we have been able to plan this in such | :26:04. | :26:08. | |
detail and keep them safe throughout. A charity, Facing the | :26:08. | :26:14. | |
World, paid the medical costs and say the twins will still -- soon be | :26:14. | :26:20. | |
well enough to be flown home with the hopes of a bright future. | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
Our main news: President Obama has up blind his plan for cutting | :26:24. | :26:30. | |
America's huge budget deficit saying wealthier citizens must pay | :26:30. | :26:33. | |
higher taxes. At least 50 people have been killed | :26:33. | :26:38. | |
in the capital of Yemen, Sanaa, in escalating violence between | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
opponents of President Saleh and forces loyal to him. | :26:42. | :26:48. | |
That is all from the programme. Next, the weather, from the | :26:48. | :26:58. | |
:26:58. | :27:01. | ||
Philippa Thomas and the rest of the Hello. The weather for this week is | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
looking pretty changeable. Weather fronts queuing up from the Atlantic | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
sweeping across the UK. Today, we have a band of rain affecting | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
southern areas of the UK. It is courtesy of this weather front | :27:15. | :27:21. | |
moving across northern England over Nat Nat, slowly sinking its way | :27:21. | :27:31. | |
:27:31. | :27:32. | ||
southwards throughout Tuesday. -- moving its way southwards overnight. | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
Tomorrow, the skies should brighten across Lincolnshire and the | :27:37. | :27:44. | |
Midlands but later turning cloudy and white. South East is looking | :27:44. | :27:50. | |
largely dry and bright. In Devon and Cornwall, some of the rain will | :27:50. | :27:57. | |
be heavy at times, continuing through southern Wales. Northern | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
Wales will be dry and brighter through Tuesday afternoon. The | :28:00. | :28:04. | |
Northern Ireland and Scotland, quite a different looking afternoon. | :28:04. | :28:08. | |
Sunny spells and scattered showers, watch out with some gusty winds. | :28:08. | :28:12. | |
There will be some heavy showers in the afternoon with the odd rumble | :28:12. | :28:16. |