10/04/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me, Zeinab Badawi.

Is help coming at last for the desperate, terrified and starving

civilians trapped by the inter-communal violence in the

Central African Republic? The United Nations Security Council votes

unanimously to send nearly 12,000 troops to the country to help

protect civilians and stop the mass violence.

The chief prosecutor in the Oscar Pistorius trial says the South

African athlete's version of events surrounding his girlfriend's killing

is improbable and a lie. You see, again, Mr Pistorius, it is the

strangest day-to-day. You just don't take responsibility to anything. You

are a liar. Also coming up. The third day of the

biggest electoral exercise in the world. India's general elections and

why the ruling Congress Party may be losing its lustre with voters.

And posting so-called selfies and other photos on the internet.

Everyone's at it, but is it good for us? Research says it may be

damaging, especially to young women. Hello and welcome. As the American

ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said today, 20 years ago the world

said never again after the Rwanda genocide. As the 20th anniversary of

that genocide is being marked this week, the UN Security Council has

voted unanimously to send a new peacekeeping force of nearly 12,000

troops to the Central African Republic. Thousands have died in the

conflict between Christian militias and Muslim rebels since last year.

The UN says about 1.3 million people, a quarter of the population,

are desperately in need of aid and protection from marauding militias.

Around 5,000 African Union soldiers are in the Central African Republic.

There are also 2,000 French troops in the country. And 500 EU troops

started arriving in the CAR this week. All these forces currently in

place will remain to support the new UN mission. Paul Woods reports.

A city clinging continuously to normal life, but this and the rest

of the country remain in the grip of violence and turmoil. Thousands

killed, quarter of the population in desperate need of help. France

already has 2000 peacekeepers here in its former Connelly. Working

alongside 5000 African union troops. -- former colony. Now the UN has

unanimously approved a new ocean, 12,000 police to take over from the

African union, the French will stay on. We are engaging a long-term

endeavour, to rebuild the central African state, rebuild prisons, the

police and an administration. The challenges are enormous. That is why

we are very happy that the members of the security council adopted that

solution. We think the UN is the only partner in the world who can

help us. Top is handled this crisis. The killings began a year

ago when Muslim rebels seized power. After months of violence against

Christians, it is now Muslim civilians who are the targets. Tens

of thousands have been forced to flee. The violence began in late

2012, with growing attacks perpetrated by Muslim and Christian

militias, has brought the central African republic to the edge of

disaster. The African union troops have done heroic work and sacrifices

have saved lives, but aren't old horrors continue throughout the

countryside. The new resolution authorises the UN to protect

civilians and investigate both sides. It sets a deadline for free

and fair elections by February next year.

Joining us now from the UN in New York is the BBC's Nada Tawfik. So

time is of the essence for the Central African Republic. Give us an

idea of the timeline for this new UN force, when it might be deployed.

The civilian component of the peacekeeping operation will start

immediately, but what's really needed, the military component,

those 10,000 military officers and the 1800 police forces, are not

going to get into the country until September 15. That is because the UN

have to build from the ground up its forces. The 5000 a year troops that

are currently in the Central African Republic, many of them will be under

the UN command. But the UN will have to go to other African and Asian

countries to try and make up the rest of that 12,000 strong force for

the Central African Republic. So this will take time. But groups here

in the Security Council, the secretary general, everyone realises

that there is a real risk of ethnic and religious cleansing. There is a

real effort to get these peacekeepers by September 15 ready

to start their strong mandate to protect civilians, monitor human

rights violations and leave the country going into a political

transition process. Thank you very much.

The UN force will be going by September. The South African athlete

Oscar Pistorius, who is standing trial for the murder of his

girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, has faced tough questioning from the

prosecution for a second day. He denied accusations by the

prosecution that he bullied Reeva and that he was self obsessed. Mr

Pistorius denies intentionally killing the twenty-nine year-old

model. First our correspondent Andrew Harding reports.

This was not a good day in court for Oscar Pistorius. His character and

credibility coming under withering attack. First target, his selfish

behaviour towards Reeva Steenkamp, as shown in text messages. I had to

go to training, I had to go to lunch. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel

suggesting the story is, as usual not shown on camera in court, cared

only about one person. Your life is about you, what is important to

Oscar. Then to the athlete's reckless attitude to guns, and an

incident at this restaurant, where he fired a friend's pistol by

mistake. The prosecutor said Oscar Pistorius must be lying when he

suggested he had not actually pulled the trigger. I must accept that it

is your version, the government off by itself or study gave you a gun

and it went off by it self. I do not recall how the firearm went off, my

finger was not on the trigger. Note yesterday, in fact, Oscar Pistorius

became increasingly assertive, but refusing to look at the prosecutor

and directing all his answers to the judge. But Gerrie Nel was making

headway, suggesting a pattern of Oscar Pistorius backing response

validity for his actions. You see, again, it is the strangest day. You

don't take response booty for anything, you don't do anything

wrong. You are lying. -- responsibility. He said that was the

same on the night that Reeva Steenkamp died. I went out onto the

balcony, I shouted for help, the fan might have been in the way. It never

happened. You see because, Mr Pistorius, your version is alive.

Oscar Pistorius strongly denied that but alone on the stand it has been a

bruising day for him. The killing of Reeva Steenkamp and

the case of Anni Dewani, the young British bride whose husband may yet

stand trial for her murder three years ago, have both been used by

women in South Africa to speak out about the high rates of domestic

violence in the country. Joining me now from Pretoria is Rachel Jewkes,

of the South African Medical Research Council. Why are women

campaigners using the Oscar Pistorius trial, Reeva Steenkamp and

the case of Anni Dewani, to highlight their campaigns? Nobody

has been found guilty, the husband and the partner, so why are they

using this? Well, over 1000 women are killed by their partners in

South Africa every year. And there's a desperate feeling that the

government is doing far too little in order to mobilise the

population, and mobilise its resources to address our problem of

gender-based violence effectively. And in that context, these women who

are part of these, the victims in these very high profile trial cases,

become named and known figures. For these large numbers of otherwise

unknown women. And so they provide a way of mobilising and galvanising

interest and action and putting the spotlight on the government, and the

campaign and the efforts to advocate for really effective action to

prevent gender-based violence. But by using the pictures, both of Reeva

Steenkamp and Anni Dewani, in their campaigns as we have seen, injuring

the Oscar Pistorius trial particularly, photographs of Reeva

Steenkamp being held up, isn't this seen as influencing the trial in

some way? Does it not matter in South Africa because there are no

juries? We have professional charges, and the judges are trained

not to follow what happens in the media. And in civil society. Around

the cases that they are judging. And so we trust our judges to be able to

reach an impartial judgement based on what goes on in the courtroom. It

is as straightforward as that. You are talking about violence against

women that they are trying to highlight, how far does gun culture

in South Africa make the matter worse? Just talking away from the

Oscar Pistorius situation, just in general terms. Well, when we look at

all murders of women, we find that 17%, nearly one in five, are as a

result of a gunshot. And the proportion is the same whether women

are shot by a partner or by a non-partner. The big thing about

guns is that they are incredibly lethal. So if somebody points a gun

and fired it, the chance of a person dying from that injury is very much

higher than with other forms of injury. And that's why we see it as

so incredibly important to campaign against gun ownership in South

Africa, and to ensure that we can eradicate at least a proportion of

violence which is associated with handguns. Thank you very much

joining us. It's the biggest voting event in the

world and most polling stations have closed on day three of India's

general elections. In some constituencies voting was extended

by an hour to deal with the demand. On day three, more than 110 million

people were eligible to vote. Voters had to choose 91 members of

parliament across 11 states including the densely populated

northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Many areas reported high voter

turnout. It was as high as 65% in some states. One of those with

high-voter turnout was the capital Delhi, where a new anti-corruption

party is making a strong challenge to the two main parties, the

governing Congress and the Hindu nationalist BJP. Today's voting saw

leaders of both those parties vying for seats. So, who is appealing to

the electorate? Andrew North reports from a polling station in Delhi.

The quiet dignity of democracy in action. From here in north Delhi, to

southern India, millions of voters are going to the polls. Many

bringing their families as the voting means a public holiday.

Before casting their ballots, everyone has their finger marked

with ink to prevent fraud. This electrician came to vote early,

bringing his six-month-old grandson to the polling station. Like many

other Muslims living in this part of Delhi, he said he was staying loyal

to the ruling Congress party. I have always voted for the Congress and

the Gandhi family. Inflation is an issue for us, but it is not the

fault of the Congress party. But others said it was time for a change

and were backing the petition BJP candidate. Narendra Modi has clean

politics. People say he is against Muslims, but I think he should get a

chance. We should see how he performs. As well as in Delhi,

voters are casting ballots in nearly a fifth of India's Parliament treat

seats in this latest round of voting. But it will be another month

before the world's biggest election is over. There has been a steady

flow of voters arriving at this polling station in the old city.

This is the biggest day so far in India's marathon elections. Voters

have been saying issues like corruption and inflation are

deciding their vote, but others are also talking about old loyalties. We

will know the result in the middle of May. With me is Rahul Roy

Chaudhury, senior fellow for South Asia at the International Institute

for Strategic Studies. First of all, opinion polls seem to suggest that

the Congress party is not doing very well, but its appeal is often

underestimated, is in the pre-election opinion polls? Yes, but

at the same time opinion polls get it wrong quite often. The Congress

party appeals to a wide range of the electorate in India, huge number of

people, but one of the key problems this time is that it has been

governing the country for the last ten years and there have been

several own goals for the Congress, including widespread allegations of

corruption, a sense that the leadership has not been decisive

enough, that leadership has been divided in the country. The head of

the Congress party and the Prime Minister. This time, I think it

might be difficult for the Congress to return to government. How big an

issue is corruption for the electorate and will the new

anti-corruption Patsy Kane traction for this? -- anti-corruption party

keen traction. We have seen challenging in the daily province,

challenging the government and getting power for 49 days in Delhi.

But we should not overestimate its influence throughout the country.

Today ironically we are seeing a presidential style of elections in

the largest Parliamentary democracy in the world. The focus is on the

two leading contenders for Prime Minister, not necessarily their

parties. One party is unlikely to have the importance nationally. So

you have Rahul Gandhi, and Narendra Modi for the BGP -- BGP. How can

Rahul Gandhi appealed to the youthful? There will be 100 million

new voters from the last election. There is a tremendous appeal that

Rahul Gandhi could hold for Indian use, but unfortunately he has not

capitalised on that. There was a horrific incidents of Crete in Delhi

when you go and we never saw Rahul Gandhi coming out onto the streets

of Delhi to empathise... He has had a low profile? He has had a low

profile. He is 43 years old. His main rival is 63. It is a 23 year

gap. He does have an advantage in that he is talking about decisive

leadership. He is talking about change and governance. Areas in

which the youth of India are very keen, to move forward and get jobs,

and modern India, a strong India. There is an appeal that he is

putting to the use even though he is older than Rahul Gandhi. Thank you

very much indeed. Now a look at some of the days other

news. Russia's President Vladimir Putin

has written to several European leaders to warn them their supply of

gas from Russia could be affected by Ukraine's energy debts. Many East

European states import most of their gas from Russia via pipelines

through Ukraine. And West Germany, Italy and Austria are high users of

Russian gas. Meanwhile NATO has released

satellite images and maps of what it says is the Russian military

build-up on Ukraine's eastern frontier. They were taken as

recently as the beginning of April and show sophisticated warplanes,

helicopters as well as an airborne early warning aircraft and a number

of military deployments on the ground. A NATO official said the

force was at high readiness and could move quickly.

Five members of Russia's parliament have called for the former

president, Mikhail Gorbachev, to be prosecuted over the collapse of the

Soviet Union. The deputies say he allowed the Communist state to

disintegrate in 1991 despite a referendum vote to preserve its

unity. Mr Gorbachev dismissed the move as a total absurdity that was

driven by a hunger for publicity. As we alluded to earlier, it is 20

years since the start of the genocide in Rwanda. The impact of

that tragedy are still being felt in the neighbouring Democratic Republic

of Congo. That's because Hutus, many of whom were behind the violence,

fled Rwanda and ended up there. Some are refugees. But others are accused

of taking part in the killing as members of the FDLR Hutu militia.

Now UN and Congolese forces are preparing to move against FDLR bases

inside the Democratic Republic of Congo. The BBC's Maud Jullien has

travelled to meet the FDLR's president, in a remote village

there. SIINGING.

These Rwandan refugees have been living here in the DR Congo for the

last 20 years. We want help from the international community, our

children are sick and do not go to school, they sing. They may be

desperate for a better living conditions but they are trapped,

unable, they say, to go home. TRANSLATION: We are afraid to go

home because in Rwanda there is no security for us. They live under the

control of Hutu militia, the FDLR, who they say is protecting them but

many of the group's members are accused of taking part in the

genocide against the Tutsis in 1984. -- 1004, They fled to Congo after

the massacres and then regrouped into trying to topple the Rwandan

government. I'll --1994. The Congolese and Rwandan armies have

attacked the group many times, forcing them to move further and

further into the bush. I'm talking with the president of the FDLR and

his security guards. We are being escorted to a safe place. They have

walkie-talkies. They ask for IDs. They are very cautious. Major

General Byiringiro says they have dropped their weapons and they want

to negotiate with Rwanda. Major General Victor Byiringiro says he

wants the country to become a "true democracy" and for the FDLR to be

recognised as an opposition party. TRANSLATION: We hope that President

Kagame will hear reasons for negotiation, we beg him to speak

like a president and stop threatening his population. But the

president will not speak to a group he accuses of committing genocide. I

asked what his response was to that. TRANSLATION: This genocide is not my

concern, to look into who committed the genocide is not my concern. It

is my concern to lead a peaceful political struggle to change Rwanda.

But their struggle has been far from peaceful. The rebels have been

accused of recruiting child soldiers, rape. And systematic

quitting. This woman lives in this hut because the rebels burned her

house down. One night I slept in this forest, in the pouring rain. I

could not lie to fire because of the rebels, these don't everything. They

stole everything from me. I did not even have a piece of clothing to

cover my body. UN peacekeepers in the DR Congo do not believe the

group has disarmed.They say they will go after them in the next few

months. But they are also worried about the hundreds of civilians who

live with them, who they fear could end up being used as human shields.

The craze for selfies - photos you take of yourself - usually on a

mobile phone has become so prevalent that it was the Oxford English

dictionary's word of the year in 2013. You want to do a selfie! And

we know that President Obama and many other politicians as well as

celebrities are not above being in selfies. But could the selfie, along

with other photos that people post on the internet, be damaging to our

psychological and emotional health? A new survey suggests sPending lots

of time on the internet looking at pictures of friends could make women

in particular insecure about their body image. The lead author on the

study is Petya Eckler from the University of Strathclyde in

Scotland. She joins me from our studio in Glasgow. What did you

find, in what way was the health of women being damaged psychologically

and emotionally? Hello. We studied University women in the United

States first of all. We found that there was a clear linear

relationship between the time they spent on Facebook and how they felt

about their bodies. The more tiny spent on Facebook, the poor body

image they had and the more the compared themselves to the bodies of

their friends. Why is comparing themselves to their friends more

damaging than looking at celebrity pictures for instance? We are

speculating at this point because we did not ask them that but we think

this is more damaging, because you know these people. These are people

you are similar to. Celebrities are distant and aloof. This connection

to your friends makes it more relevant to you. Another factor

rethink make these photos more damaging than photos in magazines is

because you know photographs in the traditional media are often photo

shopped. The altered. This is not necessarily the case for Facebook

photographs. -- they are altered. A lot of women try to present their

best self online, not their real self. Women often try to look the

best possible way online and that is not something we take into account

when we look at those pictures. We're not just talking about

selfies, which tend to be about the fees generally. You're talking about

photographs in general. Why is this a problem about women rather than

men? -- about the fees generally. -- the face. We're not talking just

about winning. But young women at university are more inclined to post

photographs. They are more inclined to share photographs and post

photographs than men. The more photographs online, the more

conditions for comparison. The conclusion is therefore do not post

as many photographs of yourself, ladies, on the internets! Thank you

very much. A reminder of our main news...

The UN Security Council has voted to send almost 12,000 peacekeepers to

the Central African Republic. The country's foreign minister said the

UN had laid the foundation for a way out of the crisis, while the French

ambassador to the UN called the resolution a key turning point.

That's it from this edition of the programme. Goodbye.

programme. Hello there. Thursday turned out to

be a decent day for many parts of the British