06/12/2011 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Kirsty Lang. Sectarian violence

arrives in Afghanistan. These Shia pilgrims marking the festival of

Ashura were the target. In two simultaneous attacks leaving nearly

60 dead. Hundreds flee the Democratic Republic of Congo as

fears grow that delayed and disputed election results will

plunge the country into widespread violence. TRANSLATION: I'm from

Ivory Coast, I saw what happened there. I don't want to go through

the same thing here. America's treasury secretary ups the pressure

on Europe to get its house in order. Arriving in Berlin, Tim Geithner

said the world is watching. Also coming up in the programme -

Remembering Ted Hughes. To gold bears came down and swam like men

beside us, and dived and stood in deep water as on a throne. Hello

and Welcome. As if Afghanistan didn't have enough problems, the

spectre of sectarian violence between Sunnis and the minority

Shia community has raised its ugly head. A suicide bomber struck in a

crowd of Shiite worshippers in a packed Kabul mosque while another

exploded minutes later in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

It's an ominous sign just a day after the Bonn conference promised

to retain international support in the country once troops withdraw in

2014. Let's hear from our correspondent in Kabul, Quentin

Somerville. You can get an idea of this by the fact that President

Karzai has cut short his trip to Europe, he was planning on visiting

the UK and had meetings planned with David Cameron, those have been

cancelled. Instead he will return Afghan Shias be themselves in a

A massive explosion from a suicide He it is chaos, hundreds are heard,

dozens dead. The dying and injured are piled up on drugs. -- trucks.

At the City Hospital it struggles to cope. And on the pavement

outside a mother mourns her lost son. Her -- my heart is broken, she

cries. Desperate and in despair, more gathered for news of missing

family and friends. TRANSLATION: This is a day of mourning, it is an

attack against humanity and an attack against Islam. It was part

of a co-ordinated assault against Shias, a bomb it also exploded in

Kabul but the -- in Mazar-i-Sharif but the explosion in Kabul was

bigger. The people here are very angry, there has long been tensions

between Afghanistan's, Sunnis and Shias but violence on this scale is

unprecedented. In Germany, President Kasai had just finished

attending a summit on his country's future. This is the first time on

such an important religious day that something of that horrible

Major has taken place. We all wish the best for those who are injured,

a quick recovery and patience to the families of those who have lost

dear ones. As the injured were treated the Taliban issued a

statement saying they had not carried out the attack. The

government says they are lying. These attacks turned this Muslim

day of mourning into a day of terrible loss, bringing a new kind

of suffering to this already fractured country. We still do not

know who carried out the attacks, you have to ask the question who

would benefit from further disharmony, more violence and

insecurity here in Afghanistan? There are a large number of

insurgent groups, many of them based in Pakistan, who would

benefit from introducing a sectarian strain of violence into

this country, a strain of violence we have not seen before.

Thousands of people have fled the Democratic Republic of Congo and

riot police are patrolling the capital, Kinshasa amid fears that

the election results could spark violence. President Joseph Kabila

is reported to be ahead of his main rival after preliminary results.

But the opposition claims there's been electoral fraud and says it

will reject the outcome. There were several violent clashes between the

two sides during the election campaign. Here's our correspondent

in Kinshasa Thomas Hubert. Fleeing from the post-election violence by

a fear is on its way in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over

the last two days more people have left the capital, many making the

short journey to the neighbouring republic of Congo, results from the

presidential election are due out on Tuesday evening but the

electoral commission itself is not certain it will be ready in time.

Security has been tightened amid fears the result could spark

renewed violence. TRANSLATION: I say better safe than

sorry. I am from Ivory Coast, I saw what happened there. I don't want

to go through the same thing here. With two-thirds of the votes

counted the incumbent Joseph Kabila is reported to be ahead of his main

rival. The opposition has already said it will reject the had come.

All these electoral documents, these bags of ballot papers, these

results sheets are being compiled and brought together in this centre.

This is one of 169 centres across the country where the presidential

results are being tallied together. Tensions have only been increased

by a slow and seemingly chaotic accounting process as well as

allegations of vote rigging. TRANSLATION: I think the results

that will leave this place will no way of represent the real results

from the votes counted in the bureau's immediately after the

official ballot. This is what people fear, even

before people went to the polls of violence broke out as security

forces were called upon to restore order. According to Human Rights

Watch at least 18 people have been killed in election related violence

so find witnesses are reporting army deployments in several cities

around the country. These were the first locally organised and funded

election since the official end of years of war in 2003 and were meant

to offer hope of greater stability in the mineral-rich, crisis-ridden

giant. But fears are mounting that the rejection of the results will

pave the way for further bloodshed. Jendayi Frazer is former US

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. She's now a

professor at Carnegie Mellon University and has co-authored a

book Preventing Electoral Violence in Africa. She joins me from our

Washington studio now. How concerned are you about the way

this election was conducted? think it was conducted as best it

could be from the point of view of the significant operational and a

logistical challenge is that exist in a country of such a huge size

and with such limited infrastructure. So I think the

Independent Electoral Commission with the support of the

international community, particularly the United Nations,

did the best it could in terms of conducting an election. Despite the

images we see, it was largely peaceful, so I think they have done

well. The country of that size will have problems and challenges.

were involved in the Congo's first democratic elections five years ago

following this long period of civil war, are you disappointed by the

progress in the last five years? the contrary. I think there has

been significant progress. In fact, there was more violence in the last

election than there has been in this election to my understanding.

At that time the opposition carried out major clashes in the capital

city and we have not really seen at this time, so I think things are

better. You have an opposition that has, even prior to the boat and

accounting, been threatening violence and claiming a rigging, so

they are essentially trying to deal legitimise the election and the

process before losing the election -- prior to the vote. The thing

that has been unfortunate. But I think the electoral commission

should be congratulated. This is a real concern, that the opposition

has said it will not accept the results. Presumably this is why

thousands of people are fleeing the area, they are terrified? They are.

And it is because they said they would not accept a result and were

threatening violence if they do not win. That is just irresponsible on

the part of political parties and politicians. The book we wrote on

preventing electoral violence, one of the suggestions was there should

be criminal charges if you incite violence prior to and after results

because you lose. There has to be a willingness of political parties to

accept defeat. They all want to win but they need to accept defeat as

well. Thank you very much. Now a look at

some of the day's other news... Police in Moscow say they have

arrested about 250 people, including opposition leader Boris

Nemtsov. The detentions came during a second night of demonstrations in

the Russian capital. The protesters were holding an unauthorised rally

against the result of Sunday's election, which they say was rigged

in favour of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party. Belgium

finally has a new government 18 months after the country's election.

Elio Di Rupo is the country's first French-speaking prime minister for

more than 30 years. He's promised to push through tough austerity

measures. Forming the government has taken a year and a half - it's

believed to be a world record. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the

Lebanese Shia movement, Hezbollah, has made his first public speech in

several years. He gave a short address to tens thousands of

supporters in Beirut to mark the Shia Muslim holy day of Ashura. He

offered his support to the Syrian government and accused the United

States of plotting to destroy Syria. French parliament has began

debating a law against prostitution. It will then begin debating a

tougher new law aimed at punishing people who pay for sex. The Bill is

seen as a test of the country's long history of liberal attitudes

towards sex. Eurozone leaders felt the heat from America today. First

came the warning from the credit rating agency Standard and Poor's

that 15 European nations - including France and Germany -

could lose their triple A credit rating. And then hours later the US

Treasury chief flew into Berlin to impress on European leaders that a

break-up of the single currency would be disastrous for the world

economy. Stephen Evans reports from Berlin. Power meet power - shoulder

to shoulder as eurozone leaders try to work out had to keep the

currency afloat. Tim Dyke the's message was that he is reassured

that European leaders -- leaders are acting to prevent the euro

shattering -- Timothy Geithner. encouraged by the developments in

Europe in the past few weeks including reform commitments made

by the new Government's in Spain and Greece and the new steps taken

this week about progress towards a physical combat for the eurozone.

earlier Timothy Geithner went to the European Central Bank in

Frankfurt at the start of a whistle-stop tour. It comes as the

ratings agency Standard and Poor's, which assesses credit risk and

which the Finance markets listen to, threatened to strip eurozone

countries including Germany of their triple A rating. Across the

eurozone there has been irritation from political leaders, the

chairman of the -- Jean-Claude Juncker said it was an exaggeration

and unfair. A similar annoyance in Paris - we have done much to cut

deficit and we will do more, that was the tone. TRANSLATION: Does not

take into account Franco-German proposals. The rating of France and

the others will depend a lot on that. The talking continues as many

leaders gather in Marseille for a political conference. The European

Central Bank meet on Thursday with the crisis top of the agenda. And

then at the summit in Brussels to consider the Merkel Sarkozy plan.

In Berlin shoppers are spending but we fear of the economic future

rising. Their ability to spend over the coming years really depends on

whether this summit of leaders at Tim Geithner goes from the finance

ministry here to meet the leaders of France, Germany and Spain. His

message is that if the euro collapses, the damage goes wider

than the eurozone. He is not saying whether extra funds may be

available to keep it afloat. In Ireland, the new austerity

budget there has been unveiled, including more than $1 billion in

tax increases and a hike in VAT to 23 p cent. The finance minister

said that tough measures are necessary to tackle the deficit,

and despite the gloom, he does -- expect Ireland to make as swift

recovery if plans to ease the eurozone crisis succeed.

It may look like Christmas, but it does not feel like it in Dublin.

The Irish government's December Budget contained a whole new set of

austerity measures. Hitting every section of society. For those in

the retail business, the timing could hardly be worse. People are

fearful to spend. Two categories, younger people, 18-25s, they are

not saving -- spending, they are spending. 25-fortifys have no money.

The over 55s are fearful, all they have is doom and gloom. There is no

optimism, people is paralysed. Ireland has gone from boom to bust

a bail-out, and still has big problems. The Government's freeze

spending more than it is taking him. The unemployment rate is almost 15%,

and he is now having to raise taxes, including an increase in VAT. It

was want of a series of revenue- raising measures announced today by

Ireland's new finance minister. He said the previous government had

let the country down. The people of Ireland have paid the very high

price for the mismanagement of the economy. Personal wealth has been

destroyed, thousands of people are sinking into poverty. Immigration

has returned, and unemployment is far too high. He said it would take

another four years at least for the country to recover. In spite of

Ireland's huge debts, there are still grounds for optimism. Exports

are going well, and after three years of political and financial

turmoil, the country has now entered a period of relative calm.

The problem for the Irish people is that it looks like the cutbacks are

going to get worse, before the economy get better.

To discuss that, I am joined by a London -- Mark Hennessy, the London

editor of the Irish Times. That is a killer statistic we heard there

in that report, the Irish government still spending 16

billion more than it takes in. It is difficult to see a way out of

that. Yes, if you take the cuts they have made today, if they

implement them it will still leave us with a told billion gap. It will

either have to be met by growth or by increased taxes or reduced

government spending. There is no growth of any significant form. The

majority of that is going to have to come from extra tax and lower

government spending over the next three Budgets. What we had today it

was bad, last year it was bad, every budget we have had for three

years has been pretty awful, and they will remain or four for a

considerable period of time. Irish have been pretty stoical

compared to their other European counterparts. You have not had

widespread demonstrations or civil unrest. We have not, largely

because we are a pretty pragmatic people and we would tend to believe

that 500,000 of us watching on the main street of Dublin would not

make any difference, we would shout but it would not fundamentally

change the facts in which we have to exist. The difficulty we have

now at the European level, what is happening, with the euro zone deal

which has been spoken about and a new EU treaty, that is almost

certainly going to have to be put before the Irish people under Irish

constitutional law. That is going to be very difficult to pass,

particularly if there is anything in it which is going to look like

there is greater transfer of sovereignty, and there has to be

otherwise there would be no point of the treaty. Has this crisis

brought about more anti-European feeling in Ireland? Well, it

certainly a more questioning attitude to those people who would

have argued that the European Union is always to our benefit, and the

euro is to our benefit. Those in the opposite camp are going to get

a more considerable hearing next time round. One lessons we have

from referendum in the past, people start of being asked one person --

question and they end up answering another one. Our people questioning

whether posterity is the right way forward? People saying, the only

way to get out of this is growing the economy, so investing?

majority of opinion it would accept that, where will the money come

from? It would not come from ourselves, we have not got it. It

is not coming from our European partners and it is not going to

miraculously appear. Unless you have money coming from somewhere,

it will be impossible to do a stimulus programme. There is no

belief in any short-term solutions. What has been impressive is the

effort by small business in Ireland to get its act together, start

fighting for export markets that they previously would not have felt

they were capable of fighting for, or perhaps would not have been

interested in fighting for. That sort of pragmatic response has been

exhibited at many levels in Irish society.

I'm afraid that is all we have got time for, thank you very much.

It is almost 100 years since the British explorer Captain Scott's

doomed expedition into the Antarctic, and it ended in the

deaths of five men on their way back from the South Pole. A new

exhibition in Cambridge has brought together papers and journals, some

of which have been never seen before in public, which give a

vivid record of the daily life of the exhibition.

Miserable. Utterly miserable. We are camped in the slough of despond.

The words were written on 6th December, 1911. It was the

beginning of the end, the final push by Scott and his four

companions to reach the South Pole. And we know that story, in

extraordinary detail, because of this. The letters they wrote, those

final words that were discovered after their deaths. Had we lived, I

should have had a tale to tell of the hardy heard, endurance and

courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of

every Englishman. These rough notes, and our dead bodies, must tell that

pale. There are also drawing, this the cave where one team it lived

for 21 months. A line drawn to separate the men from the officers.

There are even cartoons. It is the words which are most affecting.

They were starving, racked with frostbite, yet the handwriting is

perfect pot of letters written for both their families and history. It

veers between Scott to the tragic hero and Scott the stiff upper-lip

bungler. 100 years on, what do the letters suggest? What is coming out

of some of the less well known manuscript material, you get the

sense of him having his public persona, being a buttoned up

Edwardian. You read the letters to his wife and you realise, he is a

man of real passion. And so, 100 years on, the first public display

of the private letters. The words that turned the icy remains of

history into a human story. The poet Ted Hughes has been added

to the pantheon of Britain's greatest writers, a memorial has

been unveiled in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. The stone with

his name Nye it lays -- now lies next to his mentor, TS Eliot, and

alongside torso, Wordsworth and Keats. -- Chaucer, Wordsworth and

Keats. Ped would be utterly honoured to be

at the foot of TS Eliot's stone. And he would be indeed honoured to

be in the corner, because he was a poet of England. Do you think it is

important that he is in Poets' Corner? I think it is what he

deserved, it is his due. Thinking of the other poets who are there,

there is a memorial to the First World War poets who made -- meant

everything to him as well. A memorial to Sir John Betjeman,

previous Poet Laureate, a memorial to John Clare, and native poet. A

memorial to William Blake, a visionary. I think he is at home in

that company. How would you describe Ted Hughes's poetry?

of all, I think his work is linguistically compelling. It is in

a direct line from Anglo's gap -- Anglo-Saxon languages, and he is

aware of that, and he was conscious of the lineage, deep, deep into

English tradition. His reputation took some bashes took his lifetime.

Do you think putting him in Poets' Corner put that to rest? I think

his reputation as a poet did not suffer that much. Now and again,

everybody gets a few whacks from that area. But it was about his

life, and I think, as he said himself, his version of his life

was only one version of among many. That will be part of the discourse

for a while. But I think it will dwindle to an awareness of two

extraordinary 20th century poets been together, Sylvia Plath and Ted

Hughes. All the evidence is that they energised each other as

writers. And that is the literary fact of the matter. The

biographical thing will probably go on a bit. What d'you think we have

lost with the passing of Ted Hughes? I think we have lost a

patriotic visionary English poet. And a great poet in the language.

The poet Seamus Hughes, -- Seamus Heaney, remembering Ted Hughes.

A suicide bomb attack on Shia Muslim worshippers has killed at

least 58 people in the Afghan capital.

It has been a chilly day, we have wintry weather to come tonight

across part of Scotland. Once that has cleared away, tomorrow, many

places will have a windy day but there should be sunshine around

with showers in the north and west. This weather front through part of

Scotland is bumping into the cold air through the night, giving a

spell of sleet and snow up particularly across higher ground.

Strong winds, and problems of ice across the night and tomorrow

morning. Through the morning, we have got some snow across north-

east Scotland, a few showers elsewhere but a lot of dry weather

and sunshine through the afternoon. It will be a windy day, coming down

from the north-west bringing showers. Across the Pennines, we

may seep sleet and snow for a time, further south, try and sunshine.

The dry afternoon to come for south-west England, sunny spells

here. A bit more cloud for Wales, we could see a peppering of showers

through the day with temperatures at seven degrees. Cloudier through

north-west England and Northern Ireland. Many places down towards

County Antrim and County Down should be dry and fine, but the

north coast will have frequent showers. At 3pm, most the rain