11/03/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me, Kasia Madera.

Possible new clues about the location of the missing Malaysia

Airlines plane. Military radar shows the Malaysian

airlines plane changed course, heading West before it vanished.

In another development, Interpol have identified two Iranians who

used the stolen passports. The CIA does not rule out terrorism. Also

coming up, the number of people killed in drone strikes crippled

according to the UN support. -- UN report.

And, British jugglers, tightrope walkers and trapeze artists are to

be given the same recognition as performers in the world of music and

theatre. Hello and welcome.

We start with perhaps a few more clues about what happened to flight

MH 370 before it vanished four days ago. The Malaysian military says it

has radar -- we know that the plane lost

contact with civilian authorities between Malaysia and Vietnam but now

the Norwegian military says they have radar evidence that suggests

the plane headed west and could have made it as far as the Malacca

Straits, hundreds of colour mutters away. But with still no sighting,

there's confusion about how and why it vanished. Interpol says they

don't believe there are any terrorism links to its fate.

Jonathan Head reports. Dozens of planes, and maps. But no wreckage.

They have been scanning these seas for four days. Now they are being

forced to consider an extraordinary possibility, that the plane deviated

hundreds of miles off course without being detected. The search area has

been doubled. One Mr Lee has been solved, the identities of the two

men travelling on stolen passports. Both of them Iranians have been

disclosed and any links to terrorism dismissed. In the past 24 hours UCD

story changing, as the belief becomes more certain that these

individuals were probably not terrorists. We were in school

together. Hamlet is a young Iranian living in Kuala Lumpur. He has asked

to keep his identity heaven. -- Mohammed is a young Iranian. He said

his friend had flown from Iran and wanted to go to Europe to seek

asylum. We went to the village shop and printed a ticket, then I saw the

ticket and I said, this is not your name. And then he said, I have

another passport. After that I do not want to continue this story. I

just said OK. Is there any possibility in his mind that his

friend could have had anything to do with the disappearance of the plane?

He was just looking for freedom. He was looking for a better life. He

wanted to live in freedom. All of those fears that the stolen

passports have perhaps been used by terrorists to board the ill-fated

airliner had ended here in an ordinarily Kuala Lumpur suburb and

with a simple tale of young men from a troubled country in search of

something better. Let's discuss the suggestion that the plane veered

course. From Washington we're joined by

Stephen Trimble, Americas Managing Editor of Flight-global, which

provides online aviation news. What do you make of this suggestion that

radar shows the plane actually, not necessarily did a U-turn but

certainly changed direction. They have been seeing almost since day

one that militarily radar detected a slight U-turn or even a full U-turn

by the aircraft around the time that or just shortly before it dropped

off radar. The suggestions today that it then continued somehow

across Malaysia into the Straits of Malacca seem very interesting, it is

also troubling. Why do you think it is travelling? The suggestion is

that when it's turned it could have actually been flying for up to an

hour. It certainly had enough fuel to fly for several more hours. But

the idea of an aircraft the size of a 777 flying across a populated

landmass at any altitude and not being detected either just by people

listening and hearing something they were not expecting Apple altitude or

especially by middle tele- radar -- militarily radar is unusual. For

them to show up again on the other side in the Malacca Straits in

militarily radar is also very strange. Almost inexplicable.

Doesn't let go with what the search vessels have not found in the South

China Sea? We have been looking at the map, the fact that because

nothing was found there then it could potentially be that it did

turn around. It seems that there is now an excavation at the moment. One

explanation could be that it is still in the South China Sea and we

just have either recovered the degree or it is not big enough to be

visible. That is still a possibility. If it did reach the

Straits of Malacca that raises a whole new list of questions about

how it got across Malaysia. An aircraft the size of a 777 is very

hard to hide. Governments do not like their fact that size crossing

into their airspace. Unidentified, without the transponder, it all

seems very strange. What is happening with the transponder? Why

are we not getting any information from that? All we know is that the

transponder stopped working almost at the same time that it dropped off

radar. What that means is that it is anybody's guess. It could have been

turned off or it stopped working. It could have been damaged or lost. But

we do not know. Thank you very much for giving us some of your inside.

As you say, it is worrying and we will continue to monitor that. Like

I say we will continue to monitor this. You can look at the map of the

plane deviated. Now to Ukraine, diplomatic efforts

to settle the crisis are proving unsuccessful. In a crossfire of

words, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, told Russia's Foreign

Minister that it was unacceptable that Russian forces were taking

matters into their own hands in Crimea. While Russia called the

United State's one million dollar pledge to Kiev illegal. And now

Ukraine's acting president is calling for the creation of a

national guard to help defend the country. The BBC's Diplomatic

Correspondent Bridget Kendall reports.

Pro-Russian forces consolidating their grip on Ukraine's Crimean

peninsula. This large military convoy presumably Russian was on the

move just outside the port city of Sevastopol. Pro-Russian Cossacks are

among the self-defence forces manning checkpoints. There are also

patrols at the main cranium airport in the capital where it seems that

you flights from Kiev have all been cancelled. The only planes landing

now come from Russia. And they are getting ready for Sunday 's

referendum, hastily arranged and Dorsey planned to break away from

Ukraine and possibly join Russia. A step welcomed in Moscow but

condemned as illegitimate in Kiev and Western capitals. Today a copy

of the ballot paper was on display. It gives Crimean voters to choices,

joined Russia straightaway or possibly later. Meanwhile in

southern Russia be hosted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has made

another appearance. To scotch rumours that he had suffered a heart

attack and had announced that the band of the Nationalists and

neofascists he claims have seized power in Kiev with the help of

Western backers. TRANSLATION: I would like to ask the western

masters of these dark forces, have you gone blind? Have you lost your

memory? Have you forgotten what fascism is? As for Ukraine's new

authorities, they are continuing to brace themselves. Calling for

military veterans to join the reserves to help defend the country

if necessary. The house most worrying of all is the ratcheting up

of tensions between the West and Russia, a meeting between President

Putin and his Foreign Minister yesterday it clear there is no

foreign ground. This was later confirmed by the Americans. The US

Secretary of State John Kerry last met face-to-face with the Russian

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Rome on Thursday. This book again

today on the phone but there was no indication that they made any

headway. As Ukrainian troops begin on their side in the cranium border

the scene is set for further escalation. The West no debates

targeted sanctions against Russia to be imposed within days of nothing

changes. Our World Affairs Editor, John

Simpson describes a tense standoff at a military base in northern

Crimea. This is a curious situation, I am standing more or less in front

of an air defence base belonging to the Ukrainian forces. We are

standing a little bit away from it so as not to upset the Russian

troops who have taken it over to much. They have been fairly relaxed

but we managed to get a call through to the commanding officer, who came

out to speak to us. The Ukrainian officer, very nervous indeed. It

must have taken him some courage to walk out and walk past the Russian

soldiers and speak to us. He would not be interviewed on camera, you

would not be interviewed on a tape recorder. He did not even give us

his name, all he would say is that things were extremely tense inside,

he said his men had their weapons and had plenty of ammunition but

they were clearly extremely tense and nervous about what might happen.

Then quite shortly after he started talking to us a Russian, probably an

officer but with no markings, came over very politely and said

something to him in a quiet voice. And he turned and went away. That

was it. He is now back inside, the tension is palpable but we cannot

see any of it from the outside here. John Simpson reporting from Crimea.

Tension rising ahead of Sunday's referendum. We will continue to

monitor the events in Ukraine. The United Nations says 45 civilians

were killed last year in drone strikes, an increase on the year

before. In a new report, the UN Human Rights Council is calling on

governments to carry out independent investigations into any allegations

of civilian deaths. Our Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera has

been looking at the report. Drones have become an increasingly

common tool of war, a means for targeted killing from the error. But

our government is open enough about the innocents who are caught up when

their weapons are unleashed? Now a new study has provided details of

what has happened in dozens of incidents in which civilians have

been injured or killed. A UN special investigator has investigated 30

strikes in different countries, modelling what happened and how

civilians were affected. He believes the idea that only combatants are

killed as wrong and that mistakes must be acknowledged. Where things

go wrong we regard them as essential for promoting reconciliation,

promoting reparation, that those who have been responsible take

responsibility and make public the results of their own enquiries. The

team have used advanced computer forensics to recreate the strikes,

in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Gazza and Pakistan. They examine evidence

about who was killed and how. Last year he says 45 civilians were

killed in 19 confirmed drone strikes in Afghanistan. One strike was in

Yemen, it killed the Al-Qaeda militants but to villagers also

died. One was a cleric who denounced Al-Qaeda. His brother-in-law

witnessed the attack. TRANSLATION: It was the most frightening sound I

have heard in my whole life, with all of the wars we have seen in this

country between the north and South. It felt like the mountain have

fallen on us. Although there have been a few voices of dissent at home

the US has been at the forefront of using drones to after Al-Qaeda.

Crippling the readership in Pakistan. President Obama has

justified his increased use of drone strikes seeing they are self defence

against terrorists planning to attack Americans but he has conceded

there must be near certainty that civilians will not be killed before

any strike takes place. The loans are a new weapon in the earth here

to stay. What the UN investigator is calling for is greater debate and

legal clarity about how they are used and openness about what the

costs really are. Now a look at some of the day's

other news: Protesters have clashed with police in the Turkish cities of

Ankara and Istanbul on Tuesday after the death of a 15-year-old boy. In

Istanbul, police fired tear gas at protesters, who gathered outside an

Istanbul hospital to mourn the death of a teenager. The boy, Berkin

Elvan, who died after a long coma, was hit in the head by a police gas

canister during anti-government protests in June.

In the last few hours the Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, has been

ousted by parliament after MPs said a tanker laden with oil from a

rebel-held port broke through a naval blockade and escaped to sea.

The North Korean-flagged tanker had docked there without government

permission to take on the cargo. The defence minister has been appointed

as interim Prime Minister. A powerful US Senator has made

explosive accusations against the CIA. The head of the US Senate

Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, has accused it of

interfering with a computer network which was set up to help Congress

investigate allegations of CIA abuses during the Bush

administration. This is what she told the Senate. Based in what the

director has informed us, I have grave concerns that the CIA search

may well have violated the separation powers principles

embodied in the United States Constitution. Including the speech

and debate clause. It may have undermined the constitutional

framework essential to effective Congressional oversight of

intelligence activities or any other government function. That was

Senator Dianne Feinstein. The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan is in

Washington. These are really big accusations. Potentially the CIA

could have violated federal law 's, according to the Senator? That is

exactly what she is saying. It is quite remarkable. You might hear

about leaks and accusations coming out against the CIA, but it is very

rare that you get a powerful senator standing on the Senate floor making

these accusations. Her claims all surround the work of her committee,

the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is looking into accusations

and allegations that the Bush administration used torture and

interrogation techniques. She is accusing the CIA tampering with

their investigation. And what are the CIA saying about this? They are

denying the accusations, they are saying that they are not spying on

the committee or the Senate. I should elaborate more about what

exactly they are talking about. As part of the investigation, computer

files, millions of files of CIA records and e-mails, or handed over

to the Senate committee on a secure computer network. What Senator

Dianne Feinstein is accusing the CIA of his unauthorised access of this.

She says they went into the secure computers to see what this committee

was up to and look at some of the reports. She also says they removed

hundreds of files. Quite strong accusations, and the director of the

CIA says that these accusations could not be further from the truth.

They are not spying on the committee or the Senate, and he was confident

the authorities would review things appropriately. Thank you very much.

Five and a half million children in Syria have been affected by the

country's civil war. A report by Unicef also says that at least

10,000 children have been killed in the conflict. The UN's children's

charity warns that unless there is an immediate end to the fighting, a

whole generation of children will be lost. With the story, here's Paul

Wood. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian

children are growing up in refugee camps. Here in Lebanon, there is a

permanent refugee population. A generation spending childhood in

squalor and deprivation. Refugees are just one aspect of the crisis of

quite staggering proportions. The Unicef report as a series of

horrifying statistics. 1 million children are refugees in foreign

countries, another 3 million have lost their homes within Syria. Some

3 million as well have had their educations disrupted. Another

million children are cut off, under siege, unable to get humanitarian

aid. And 2 million need counselling for psychological trauma. A Unicef

School is a taste of the normal life they have lost. Even young children

work to support their families. This nine-year-old girl used to pick

potatoes, $4 for a day's work. It is tiring, she says. She would like to

go home to Syria. Home for the past year and a half has been this tent,

shared with 13 brothers and sisters. Her father says he had to send his

children out to work. Somebody had to bring bread for the family, he

says. It is a tragedy. Refugee children grow up too fast. This

woman was married off aged 13 because her parents were destitute.

She was badly beaten and returned home. She once trained of becoming a

lawyer. I have no more dreams, she says. No more ambitions. My life has

changed, nothing will ever be the same. Inside Syria, conditions are

often far worse than in the refugee camps. The Civil War is entering its

fourth year. Unicef says Syria's children cannot afford another year

like the one just passed. People in Spain have been marking

the 10th anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, which killed 191

people and injured more than 1,800, in the worst terror attack in

Spanish history. Memorial events have been taking place in the

Spanish capital, from where our correspondent Tom Burridge reports.

It felt like the normal daily commute. But this morning was not.

Because ten years ago was a day in Madrid like no other. Bombs placed

on packed commuter trains during the morning rush-hour, 191 people died.

More than 1800 injured. Today, at the scene of one of the attacks,

Madrid's main train station, they remembered. Music, flowers and a

balloon for each person killed. This woman lost 34-year-old son.

TRANSLATION: They have taken our lives and destroyed us forever.

Across town at the Capitol's main cathedral, a more real service.

Relatives of victims, survivors, politicians and McCain. -- and their

king. In many respects, today was a show of unity in Spain, a moment of

common grief. Ten years ago, in the days following the attacks, the

country was split. The then government insisted for three days

that the Basque militant group was responsible, when there was strong

evidence to suggest that Islamist extremists were to blame. Vote is

punished as party at the subsequent general election. Surrounded by the

police, the seven alleged Al-Qaeda inspired ringleaders blew themselves

up in a flat three weeks later. Ten years on, it was not a time to break

-- it was not a time to debate but a chance to remember the victims on

one of the most violent days in Spain's recent past.

Ever felt tempted to run away and join the circus? Well now you can

take the dream a step further and even get a degree. The National

Centre for Circus Arts is, for the first time here in Britain,

introducing a degree in circus studies. The idea to get circus

skills into the mainstream actually places the UK in line with many

other countries. So what is it like to study circus arts? And do

students manage to find enough work at the end of the course?

Circus is... A theatrical experience. Circus is dangerous.

Creating a relationship with the audience. Beautiful, intelligent,

hard. How far can you push yourself? I am a juggler, that is my

specialisation. I use these clubs. I was always quite a hyperactive

child. I am dyslexic, academic work was something I never excelled at.

The National Centre has given me the opportunity to do what I love and

make a living out of it. We are trying to set up a new company, it

feels like it is already starting while I am at university. It is so

exciting. What we are really trying to do here

is grow a culture of circus in the UK. We believe that it is an art

form that deserves to be centre stage, and by becoming the National

Centre for Circus Arts, it gives us the recognition, brings us into the

fold. It does actually cost a lot to train a circus artist, but we have

generous supporters and sponsors, which mean that we have got

bursaries available and we keep the costs as low as possible. You need

to look like you're only just holding your balance. When you see

the things our students do, when you see how they amaze people when they

are performing, you see the joy and wonder they create, that cancer is

any critic. -- that cancer Mac any critic.

It is two ropes suspended in shapes. I have always been a crazy physical

person, running around, climbing trees, jumping on stuff. You have

got something that is physically challenging, which is a great

feeling. Doing something engaging for your body, as well as being able

to perform. It is really great when you're in a show and somebody goes,

that is disgusting, how did she do that! Or you can hear audible gasps.

I got rope burn on my neck. It is tiring. Let's go home, get in Bath.

With my feet firmly on the ground, from me and the team, had by. Thank

you for watching. Hello. Over the next few days we

will stick with sunshine. Essentially, it will be dry.

Sunshine coming and going. Some places will see brighter skies, for

others there is a little more cloud around. The reason for the changes

courtesy of our, switching further