13/05/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Philippa Thomas.

How much more will be destroyed in Syria?

who's just announced he's stepping down.

Lakhdar Brahimi announced his decision at the UN,

where the Security Council must now consider what to do next

A senior Nigerian minister has called for dialogue with Boko Haram,

the Islamist militant group that kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls,

Nigeria says "all options are open" to secure the girls' release.

As Ukraine's eastern rebels insist on their right to independence,

the BBC has an exclusive interview with the Ukraine's Prime Minister,

who says Russia is trying to build a new Berlin Wall.

A victory for privacy or a failure for freedom of information?

Why a court's decision on Google is dividing opinion.

And the man behind the monster. We'll hear about

the creator of the Alien in Ridley Scott's epic horror film,

The international Syria mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, has confirmed that

he'll step down from the role at the end of this month.

His decision was announced at the UN in New York.

Mr Brahimi was thanked by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

for his work chairing two rounds of talks between the Syrian government

But his announcement came as a sharp reminder that the process

has failed to yield any agreement on a transitional government,

Everybody who has a responsibility and inflation has to remember that

the question is how many more dead? How much more destruction there will

be before Syria becomes again this area we have known? The new city are

different from the one of the past, -- new Syria, the one we have loved

and admired for many years. With with his experience,

I thought and we thought, and it was a natural expectation

that he would be able to deliver and we would have

been able to deliver altogether. But somehow,

because of the division, because of the divided world, here

and there, and within the United Nations and

the region, we have not been able to make any progress

in the course of these three years. and many people have been displaced

internally. The Nigerian government says it's

prepared to talk to the extremist group that has

kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls. Some of the schoolgirls have been

identified by relatives from a video released by their captors,

the Islamist militants Boko Haram. The government had earlier

refused to negotiate with those Our World Affairs editor, John

Simpson, has been to the extreme North-east of Nigeria and sent this

report. These pictures have been

scanned with immense care by the families

of the missing girls. And there has been just

a little movement After the scornful message yesterday

by Boko Haram's leader, that they would

only give the girls back in exchange for captured Boko Haram militants,

a government minister has said they are trying to get talks

underway. It hasn't worked in the past,

but it could now. In the skies above us here

in north-east Nigeria, American surveillance planes have

started operating, hunting for any sign of the girls.

But there is still no indication the Nigerian government is stepping

up its efforts. This is Maiduguri Airport, which

serves the capital of a state which You might expect the aprons here to

be packed with military aircraft. I asked a local senator why

so little was being done. The international community must

put pressure on the government. Because on their own, left to them,

they don't care, because it is not Hence the fury in places

like the town of Gamboru, The governor came here to

offer help and money. But

the survivors are working themselves up into a frenzy of anger that the

Nigerian government should be doing The governor was lucky

to get away unhurt. The governor and all of the rest

of us are being thrown out So we are having to get back to

our cars pretty quickly. And they can't understand why

a world which cares so much

about the missing schoolgirls seems to care so little about

the destruction of an entire town. Germany's Foreign Minister has

held talks with Ukraine's He says it is now crucial that

the two sides, government The minister's visit comes

a day after separatists in eastern Ukraine declared independence after

an unofficial referendum at the weekend, which Russia has recognised

but which the West rejects. The BBC's Ben Wright

in Brussels has this exclusive interview with the Ukrainian prime

minister Arseny Yatsenyuk. What is happening today in Ukraine

is not only a threat to Ukraine. This is a threat to

the entire Europe. And trying to build up a new Berlin

wall. Do you think now is the moment

for the European Union to increase significantly the sanctions they are

applying to Russia? They finance and support Russian-led

terrorists and separatists They are doing everything they can

to disrupt presidential elections in Ukraine not to have

a legitimate president. It seems the ultimate goal

of the Russian President and regime Russia will fail

in making Ukraine a failed state. But my question to you therefore is

at what moment do you want talk of tougher sanctions within the

European Union to turn into action? It is high time to have

tougher sanctions on Russia. How do you describe

the current situation in Ukraine? There was the referendum

at the weekend that we do not have There was the referendum

at the weekend that you do not But pro-Russian separatists

in that part of your country have no still don't have control over many

government buildings. They are occupied

by heavily armed people. It is a chaotic situation over

which you do not have any control, We do understand that the majority

of Ukrainians, including those who live in eastern and southern

Ukraine, supported Ukraine as one united. On the other hand,

we do understand and acknowledge And the best way to resolve these

problems is to have a nationwide dialogue that we launched two months

cannot have dialogue with terrorists who are holding and possessing live

ammunition and machine guns. We are willing to talk to

the Ukrainian people, How do you ensure that these

elections are legitimate? We are doing everything that is

needed to have free We do understand that we have

a number of hotspots And my government will do

everything, and will undertake all And we acknowledge that, in some

areas, it will be difficult. To hold elections and allow everyone

freely to cast the ballot. And it is difficult to cast a ballot

having the barrel at your hand. Mainly pointed

by these Russian-led terrorists. But we are absolutely sure that we

will pass these elections and we Let's talk to the BBC's David Stern

in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. We have gathered German Foreign

Minister talk of dialogue, but just there the acting Prime Minster say

you cannot hide dialogue with Terrell is -- with terrorists as he

sees it. That is a bit of an impasse?

It is, and difficult to get the sites to talk to each other. And

clashes are ongoing. Part of the German's Foreign Minister's job was

to get both sides to stop using force, but a few hours ago, we have

that the pro-Russian separatists attacked a group of Ukrainian

government forces, and armed personnel carrier, dealing seven and

wounding seven, the worst single day loss for the Army so far. It is

difficult to see if they can come together to talk at the very moment.

But that the moment, this will make the job more difficult in the

upcoming days for the European Union to bring some kind of reduction in

the escalation of this crisis. Other voices in Kiev, in Parliament,

saying they do have to talk to stop this getting worse? There are many

voices saying there needs to be a dialogue. You heard the prime

ministers saying there needs to be a nationwide dialogue. They are going

to hold a round table tomorrow in Parliament. But neither side wants

to talk to the other. The government says it will not talk to terrorists

and the pro-Russian separatists say they will not talk to the

government. They say they have declared their independence. It is

an impasse to overcome. But perhaps, if the situation escalates further,

maybe cool heads will prevail and managed to bring them to the table,

or at least some proxies to the table to speak for them. Thank you.

A top European Court has ruled that people have the

right to ask Google to delete personal data. The

European Union Court of Justice says some

individuals have the right to "be forgotten" when information about

them is irrelevant or outdated. The European Justice Commissioner

Viviane Reding says this is a "clear victory for the protection of

personal data of European". Google says it's disappointed and has

argued that forcing it to remove data amounts to censorship.

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger is Professor of Internet Governance

and Regulation at the University of Oxford.

The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age.

He joins me via webcam from Frankfurt in Germany.

Welcome to the programme. This is quite a blow to Google? I think so,

but Google must have expected it, losing some court cases in France,

Germany, and Spain, though this is just another blow. Does it set a

precedent for other Internet companies? I think other search

engines will certainly take notice. But we must also put this in

perspective. In this case, an individual went to the national data

protection authority in Spain, with a complaint, and that authority

agreed, asking Google to take down a link to a particular web page. No

web page was taken down, just the link.

link to a particular web page. No web And Google did not comply, that

is the basis of this court case, which will require people to go to

local authorities to force Google to take links down. You can imagine,

with their being millions of Internet users, there could be many

requests which could clog up law courts at the least? Very unlikely,

because the fact is the European Court of Justice did today, in a

relatively balanced decision, was not to invent a new right, but

reaffirm and we state the right on the books or 20 years. And in these

20 years, very few individuals have exercised that right, so I do not

perceive thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people exercising

their right and going to authorities, because that takes time

and money. In fact, Google already is inundated, not with requests for

more privacy, requests to remove links from -- pointing to

intellectual priority by lesions. It raises the conceptual idea of can be

re-right past? -- intellectual priority violations. The challenge

is that human forgetting performs an important function, allowing us to

evolve and grow, to go beyond what we wear ten or 15 years ago. And as

the digital tools link us to this past, to this comprehensive memory,

we have difficulties evolving and growing, which may have

repercussions on how we as a society and individuals forgive. Very good

to speak to you. Thank you. Let us go back to our lead story. The

special envoy to Syria is about to stand down from his role. I suppose

this is an admission of failure? Yes, and not a surprising one. We

have known that he wanted to step down. He tried to bring the talks

together in Geneva. The parties came together, but there wasn't any

significant headway made at the talks. After that he signalled that

his time in the job was numbered. The diplomatic track had come to a

halt. When President Assad announced elections, there was talk of him

stepping down. When he indicated he wanted to stand for election, there

was no point in carrying on. We know that he will be meeting members of

the UN council, but whether we go from here? It is all about the

dynamic. There are divisions that exist on the Security Council that

don't help. That dynamic has made meaningful diplomacy so difficult

over the last three years and the Syrian envoy's job has been occupied

by two senior UN officials. They are experienced diplomats and they are

well known troubleshooters. They have helped in situations before

like Iraq and Afghanistan, that Syria has been beyond both of their

skills and whoever takes over faces one of the most thankless and

difficult jobs in world diplomacy. Thank you. Let as have we've looked

at some of today's other news. Let us

go back to our lead story. The special envoy to Syria is about to

stand down from his role. I suppose Jordan's ambassador to Libya has

returned home after being The Envoy, Fawaz al-ltan,

was released unharmed and was flown Meanwhile, Jordan has freed a Libyan

militant whose release was reportedly demanded by the

kidnappers, though it denies there The International Criminal Court

in the Hague says it will launch a preliminary investigation

into claims of abuse by It will be the first time Britain

has been the subject of an ICC This follows a submission by lawyers

alleging more than 400 cases of More than 200 miners in Turkey have

been trapped underground after an explosion and fire at a coal mine

in the west of the country. It's believed

at least four men have died and the fire may still be burning.

Our correspondence is there. Please bring us up to date. We are getting

our information from the Turkish energy minister. He said he did not

want to speculate over how many miners were killed and how many arch

wrapped. One local MP says that three people have been killed, but I

should stress he has change those figures throughout the day. Local

officials and union officials say that perhaps between two and 300

people, miners that is, may be trapped. They may be several

kilometres underground and they made the trapped because the elevator is

they use to get to the service are out of action because there is no

electricity. Oxygen is being pumped down to the miners.

Turkey does not have a very good record on mine safety.

It hasn't. 19 miners were previously killed in various accidents across

the country. In the last few years they have tried to get more coal

mines going to limit the importation of gas. Some of the opposition

parties actually got together to ask Rushton is about safety concerns and

they say the government did not answer those questions. They will

certainly be asked again tonight. It is suspected that a local politician

in Spain was killed in a revenge attack. All European election

campaigning has been suspended. United in grief after the murder of

one of the Spanish's -- this Spanish's city leading politician.

Although this solution has -- although this problem has no

immediate solution, we are united in our grief. Woman-macro was shot

several times in broad daylight near her home. Spanish politics is

normally a polarised sometimes tribal affair. Today there is unity

on all sides. All main political parties have suspended campaigning

for the European elections due in less than two weeks time. A mother

and daughter have been arrested. Both suspects reportedly had links

to the popular party in Lyon. According to one report, just days

ago the younger woman was denied compensation for losing her job at

the local authority. The artist responsible for designing the

monsters on the film Alien has died. Person-macro was also known for his

sculptures. Whitney is Ian Nathan, the executive editor of Empire

magazine. We have never seen anything quite like this monster on

our screens, have we? We haven't. I think Ridley Scott liked him because

he was getting frustrated with science fiction conventions. When he

came on board, there was a clean cut sci-fi universe. He was told to go

against that. He was frustrated with the tentacle beasts that he had been

shown in diagrams. One day the screenwriter sat him down and handed

him a collection of person-macro's art. Ridley Scott said, this is the

guy. What he difficult to work with? He was a complicated man. He had

amazing ideas, although the studio were wary of him and were horrified

when they saw his designs. When Ridley Scott came on board, he loved

what HR Giger was doing. And this film changed the nature of the

genre. It was transformative. Whether it is science fiction horror

is always questionable. But HR Giger's contribution was more than

just the monster. He designed the planet that the aliens came from.

Scott thought it was wonderful that you could never tell quite where the

mechanism stopped and the biology began. That is exactly what he

wanted, a thing of nightmares. It truly represented the idea of Alien.

The hairs are standing up on the back of my neck as you talk about

it. It was something that stayed with you. It not into your psyche,

just watching it. That is right. There are Freudian undertones and it

is very for luck, but HR Giger said the arts came from his own

nightmares. He lived in a house with very few windows when he was a

child. He used to dream about pipes and mechanisms covered in human

skin. At that awful point, we have to leave it.

skin. At that awful point, we have to leave Thank you for joining us.

Some of us will be experiencing the warmest weather of the year so far

later this week. High pressure is building up and the changes will be

noticed from tomorrow. Here comes the high-pressure, but there will be

these weather