30/01/2016 World News Today

broadcasting in the UK and around the world.

At least 39 people drown trying to reach Europe,

in the latest migrant boat disaster off the Turkish coast.

16 more people are reported to have died of starvation,

a stark reminder of the importance of peace talks.

We are here to make this a success, we are ready to start negotiation.

At least we should see something on the ground in Syria. We should stop

these massacres against our people. The number of people infected

with the Zika virus in Colombia women are being advised

to avoid getting pregnant Serena Williams loses

the Australian Open final The plight of migrants escaping war

in Syria shows no signs of abating. After five years of violence

there are more risks than ever Those inside the country face

fighting and major food shortages. The medical charity MSF says 16

more people have starved to death in the town of Madaya,

since the UN aid convey gained For those trying to

leave there are other risks and uncertainty,

and Syrians are among those who have The news at least 39 people

including five children have drowned as they crossed the sea

between Turkey and Greece shows just how desperate

these people are. It comes as a team of negotiators

representing Syria's main opposition groups makes its at to UN sponsored

peace talks in Geneva, though the umbrella group

representing the opposition has threatened to withdraw before

they even get started. But first Mark Lowen reports

on the latest migrant deaths VOICEOVER: What remains of a death

trap for the desperate, it carried 120 but was

meant for far fewer, dozens onboard drowned

when the vessel capsized off the western coast of Turkey,

just miles from the Greek most of the pictures are too

graphic to show. The casualties were from Syria,

Afghanistan and Myanmar, He is asked, don't

you have a conscience? he says he was onboard and had

six relatives. He says he does not know

if they were alive and he wanted Typically the migrant task

with driving the boat is caught and the big smuggling

bosses are never found. have already made the journey

to Greece this month, Here, Italian coastguards

spot a group of the Scuba divers are sent

in to the rescue. Gradually they are

pulled in, Strong winds and freezing seas

are still not deterring those who risk their lives

dreaming of a new one. STUDIO: Staying inside Syria is not

an option for many civilians, the latest deaths from starvation

highlight that, even so, how to help those still inside Syria

has been one of the main stumbling blocks in the UN-sponsored peace

talks underway in Geneva. The BBC's Imogen Foulkes

has the story. VOICEOVER: Syria's war has

lasted five long years. At least one quarter of a million

Syrians have been killed, 13 million have been

driven from their homes, After months of trying

and a lot of false starts, the United Nations has

persuaded the Syrian government and the opposition to come

to Geneva to talk. TRANSLATION: The Syrian people

are waiting for rapid results, especially regarding

the humanitarian crisis. They need the delivery of aid

supplies to besieged areas, we also need to solve pending issues

like detainees, kidnapping, these issues are becoming

the top priority, we The goals for these talks are very

ambitious: a ceasefire,

a transitional government, a new constitution, and finally,

UN-supervised elections. Previous attempts to bring peace

to Syria have collapsed in failure, United Nations is hoping that this

time, the tranquil surroundings of Geneva will have

a positive effect. Even if these talks are successful,

they will not be quick, we are told to expect six

months of painstaking negotiation and even as talks inch

towards their start, reports claim of more deaths

from hunger, in the besieged city. We know that in many of the besieged

areas, people do not They have not had food in weeks.

They are emaciated. We have seen people

die from starvation. Over the five-year long

years of the conflict, the United Nations estimates

that life expectancy has fallen from just over 70 years

old to just over 50 years old. For people trying

to live here, peace STUDIO: We can hear from one of the

main spokesman for the main opposition in Syria. This is him,

Salem al Maslet, as he arrived in Syria. We are here to get a success,

we are ready to start negotiation, but we need to see something on the

ground. We need to stop these massacres against our people. These

help us save our children, save the remaining children of Syria. We are

willing to do anything to put an end to this war. We want to put an end

to Isis, to terrorism in Syria. We want to put an end to what this

dictatorship is doing. We want to see a new Syria. Coalition bombings

continue across Syria. Turkey's president,

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has warned Russia it will face

consequences after alleging that a Russian fighter jet had again

violated Turkish airspace. In November, Turkey shot down

a Russian plane which it said had A Turkish foreign ministry statement

said that in the latest incident on Friday, a Russian pilot

was warned in advacne in both -- A Turkish foreign ministry

statement said that in the latest a Russian pilot was warned

in advance in both

English and Russian. The Russian defence ministry has

dismissed the claims In Sweden police say a number

of masked men have carried out assaults on migrants in the capital,

Stockholm. A gang of up to a hundred

people, wearing black balaclavas and armbands,

marched through the city's main Local reports say they beat-up

foreigners and handed out leaflets Sweden is among the EU states

with the highest number of refugees Earlier,

we spoke to James Savage, Editor of The Local

magazine in Stockholm. We asked him what more

we knew about the incident. What we know is about 100 masked men

gathered in a central part of Stockholm, on Friday evening,

handing out leaflets calling for immigrant children to be given the

punishment that they deserve. One man was arrested for attacking a

plainclothes police officer, no other people have been taken into

custody as yet. Witnesses say that they saw masked men hitting

foreigners, and targeting people of foreign appearance in the area.

In Britain, three people have been arrested in Dover during

Far right demonstrators clashed with anti-fascist groups

One person suffered a broken arm and five others sustained minor

Earlier Maidstone service station was closed when coaches on the way

The United Nations has for the first time

revealed the nationalities of peacekeepers

accused of sexually abusing children in the Central African Republic.

The suspects come from Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic

Our Africa editor Mary Harper reports.

VOICEOVER: The United Nations said more than one third of last year 's

alleged cases involve troops in the Central African Republic, revoking

anger and disgust in the country, but increasingly within the United

Nations itself. It is hard to imagine the outrage that people

working for the United Nations and for the causes of peace and security

feel when these kinds of allegations come to light.

Particularly involving children, so hard to understand. Last year, an

independent panel condemned the United Nations approach to the

problem, as gross institutional failure. Fresh allegations have also

been made against soldiers serving with EU and French intervention

forces. A seven-year-old girl said that French troops demanded sex in

exchange for biscuits and a bottle of water. TRANSLATION: It is not

just girls who are abused, it is all central Africa, the interior is

abused. TRANSLATION: They came here to help us, we were in a difficult

situation, instead of helping us, they aggravated the situation.

International troops have been in the C a R since 2013, their mission

is to protect civilians from sectarian and ethnic violence, which

has killed tens of thousands. -- the CAR. The repeated allegations of the

sexual abuse of children suggests some of these so-called peacekeepers

are adding to the trauma. STUDIO: Brazil is at the forefront

of the zika outbreak which the World Health Organisation

says is spreading "explosively" More than 20 countries

in the Americas are affected. Colombia has released its latest

figures on the outbreak which include some suspected but not

yet confirmed cases. There are 20,297 people

infected with the Zika virus which is spread by mosquitoes

who breed in stagnant water. This includes 2,166

six pregnant women. It's feared that the virus can lead

to babies being born with smaller And the government is warning

that there could be six hundred thousand cases to come

as the virus spreads Natalio Cosoy joins

us now from Colombia. What is the government telling

people they can do to help to stop the spread? There is a couple of

things, they say that first thing, take pre-emptive measures, try not

to leave water stagnant. Use nets. Use repellent for mosquitoes. The

other thing they have said, they have told women, if you can, try not

to get pregnant for the next six to eight months. They are encouraging

as much as they can women to postpone pregnancies if they can.

For women that are pregnant already, it is the same measures that they

are telling people that they should implement but they are also asking

women who are pregnant to go to the doctors as soon as they feel any

possible symptom of the disease, to check on them, to see if they

actually have the virus or not. There has been called from the World

Health Organisation for countries in the Americas to come together to

work together to help stop the spread of the virus, do you get any

sense that is happening? It is not completely clear yet, there is

difference in reporting, for instance, you are seeing many more

cases in Colombia because the reporting system is working harder

and harder but you are not getting the same number of figures from

other countries, from Venezuela, we do not get as much of a clear

picture, unless they get together in terms of reporting and informing on

the cases, it will be difficult for them to work together. At some point

they will end up coming together. Thank you very much for the update.

Coming up: blasting into space, the network of satellites capable of

beaming back information on natural disasters within minutes.

The shuttle Challenger exploded soon after liftoff, seven astronauts on

board, one of them a woman schoolteacher, all of them believed

to have been killed... Thirty nine people

including several children in the latest migrant boat disaster

in the Aegean Sea. Health workers in the besieged

Syrian town of Madaya say another sixteen people have starved to death

since UN aid convoys reached it Dozens more are said to be at risk

of death from severe malnutrition. The New York Times Editorial

Board has endorsed Hillary Clinton in the race

for the Democratic nomination This comes as the State Department

has said that it will not allow some of Hillary Clinton's private

emails to be released, because they contain information it

considers "top secret." It applies to seven email chains

in an unsecured account used by Mrs Clinton

when she was Secretary of State. Our Washington correspondent

Laura Bicker reports. VOICEOVER: The campaign continues,

but so does the controversy. Hillary Clinton has tried to end

the endless questions about her use of a private e-mail account

while Secretary of State, 22 messages she either sent

or received from her home account have now been classified

as top secret. They were not at the time

she dealt with them, but the State Department is looking

at whether they should have been. I can confirm that as part of this

monthly production of former the State Department will be denying

in full seven e-mail chains

found in 22 documents, at the request of the intelligence

community because they contain

a category of top-secret

information. These documents were not marked

classified at the time Hillary Clinton has always said

she's done nothing wrong, that using her private e-mail

account was simply convenient. But the public were drip-fed her

e-mails over months and, finally, there was an

expression of regret. Looking back, it would have been

better for me to use two separate I thought using one device would be

simpler, and obviously it hasn't In Iowa, the Clinton

campaign reacted swiftly, calling for the e-mails to be

made public, saying this It's unlikely to harm

her core support. has already said he is sick

of hearing about her e-mails. But Republican opponents

are unlikely to play by those rules and saying her actions

were, at the very least, has launched the first of a planned

network of telecoms satellites. They'll send images back to earth

much faster than has been It's hoped the European Data

Relay System, or EDRS, will provide emergency

services around the globe with information on natural

disasters within minutes. On the line now

from Leiden in the Netherlands of this project at the

European Space agency. Michael Witting, how long does it

take at the moment? It typically takes images, and they have about a

contact time of ten minutes per 100 minute orbit, to relay it. In the

worst case, you have to wait 100 minutes. So, give me an example, of

how this would work, let's say that there is a huge unprecedented flood

in the United Kingdom. How would these satellite help people back on

Earth? What we are doing is relaying the data, the satellite data, and we

transfer it with a high-speed laser link. It is on the ground within

minutes compared to 100 minutes, and we have a rescue team, and emergency

health team on the ground -- help team. In case of flooding, we would

have the data to the team within minutes, giving you a big advantage.

Flooding can destroy roads and bridges and houses I guess. Will

this be used solely for natural disasters to get better emergency

responses to what is going on, or can it be used for other things as

well? I cannot speak for other uses but it is certainly very useful for

many other applications. Ships moving through polar ice, ice sheets

move very quickly. If you want to go through where I see breaking up,

Betty to know in minutes rather than two hours later. It is not really

disaster application. But it is very important for ship navigation. Is

this something that the European Space Agency is particularly proud

of, are we ahead of the curve in impaired to Americans by using laser

technology? We are very proud, this is cutting edge, the most cutting

edge in the world, we do it by laser beam, high data rates. The Americans

have a similar system to the last couple of years which uses a classic

radio frequency technology, but you can also see that if you use optical

communication, eavesdropping, as well as jamming the signal, is very

difficult. An terms of security it is a real step ahead. Who would have

thought this, some people may have thought that the space race no

longer exists! Shocking tennis news coming up for

many fans of Serena Williams, we have the sports news for you.

to beat the 21-time Champion, Serena Williams.

Serena Williams was seeking her seventh Australian open title and

22nd overall, seventh-seeded Angelique Kerber, however, would not

be an done by the occasion of her first grand slam final, breaking

twice in the first set, Williams made 23 unforced errors. Not many

people dared to challenge Serena Williams to a game of baseline

tennis, but Angelique Kerber did just that, she was rewarded with the

opening set. She began to get her timing back and made less errors as

she raced out to a 4-1 lead in the second, but the power return of the

American was back in business. The world number one send the match into

a decider, when Angelique Kerber hit an easy looking for hand straight

into the net. -- forehand. Both players suffered early breaks in the

third set, the championship was beginning to tip in favour of the

German, she managed to take a 4-2 lead. She extended that to 5-2 and

was serving for the title before Williams fought back. Angelique

Kerber was inspired and went on to clinch a first grand slam title,

completing victory after two hours, eight minutes. The German in

disbelief on Rod Laver arena. I wish try to believe in myself,

when I won the first set against Victoria Azarenka, I am a good

player, and I can show it on the big courts. I was not playing very well

last year on the big tournaments, but the first big tournaments of the

year here, and I have won it, it is my first grand slam! It sounds crazy

but I can say that I am a grand slam champion now! -- The seventh seed

said she had spent her whole life working for this moment after she

beat the world number one and defending champion, Serena Williams

to claim the Australian Open. Kerber becomes Germanyt's first Major

winner since her childhood idol Steffi Graf.

STUDIO: There was success in the men's doubles

for Brazilian Bruno Soarez and Jamie Murray.

The pair, who were playing in their first Grand Slam

to beat Daniel Nester and Radek Stepanek.

There we no major upsets in the 13 ties played in the fourth

all of the favourites progressing to the last 16 of the world's

The holders Arsenal were drawing 1-all at half time

against second tier side Burnley but they are through thanks

to an Alexis Sanchez winner at the Emirates.

Manchester City had a very comfortable 4-nil win

at the Premier League's bottom side Aston Villa.

Kelechi Iheanacho scored a hat-trick, with record signing

Raheem Sterling grabbing the other goal at Villa Park.

Tottenham Hotspur are also safely through to the fifth

round after they beat third tier side Colchester United.

Nacer Chadli scored twice for Spurs, Eric Dier and Thomas Carroll also

scored in the comfortable 4-1 win for Mauricio Pochettino's side.

Branden Grace produced a superb display to become the first player

to successfully defend the Qatar Masters in

Grace began the final round two shots behind former

Open champion Paul Lawrie,

who was seeking his third victory at the Doha Golf Club.

Lawrie had won on six of the seven occasions where he held the lead

after the third round but he couldn't manage it this time.

Grace shot four birdies and one bogey to finish 14 under par,

two shots ahead of Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen and Spain's Rafael

STUDIO: The latest sinkhole spotting, one has turned up in the

US state of Oregon. It opened up because of heavy rain, it is

believed, last month, it has not swallowed any vehicles, and there

have been no injuries but it is big, repairs could take eight weeks.

Detours will be in place for most places for sometime! The police in

Turkey say they've recovered a stolen Picasso painting in an

undercover operation. It's believed to be a1 1940 painting

of Pablo Picasso's muse -- Dora Maar -- titled "woman dressing her hair".

It's believed to have been stolen from a collector in New York and

Turkish police mounted a sting operation in Istanbul to get it

back. If you have a story or a sinkhole that we have not

spotted(!), get in touch with us. That is it from the world today.

Thank you for watching.