17/05/2016 World News Today

31 athletes test positive after samples from the Beijing Olympics

"a powerful strike against the cheats".

Those accused could now be banned from competing in Rio.

A wave of bombs hit Baghdad, killing 69 as the government

Now oil workers are forced to evacuate as the wildfires

And boiling over - a decision to scrap the BBC's Food

website has been met with fury and a petition against

the plans attracting more than 100,000 signatures.

It's the latest blow to the credibility of anti-doping

authorities, and one that raises many questions.

Up to 31 athletes from 12 countries could be banned

from the Rio Olympics after NEW tests were done on samples

from the Beijing Games eight years ago.

Ever since the recent doping scandals, sporting bodies have been

re-testing old samples using the latest technology.

With the results from the London and Sochi Games still to come,

it raises the possibility that medals and even world records

could be called into question. Richard Conway reports.

Antique and rules allow stored urine and samples to be retested for up

to ten years after being taken from an athlete.

Samples from 454 competitors who took place in the 2008

Beijing Olympics have now been subjected to the latest scientific

methods to test for any banned substances that went undetected

As a result, 31 athletes could be banned from competing at this

The IOC say they targeted athletes taking part in Beijing

who are likely to reappear at the summer's event.

Other Olympic Games are also in focus.

Back in 2012, the Olympic Stadium here in London was the centre point

for a lot of the drama, but 250 samples from those games

Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC, has called the measures

The identities of the 31 athletes are, for now, unknown,

given that formal disciplinary processes are underway.

What is disappointing, certainly for athletes who compete

clean and for the public is, they are beginning to get confused

about what they are really seeing, because if it takes us ten years

in order to sort out whether or not somebody deserves that medal,

that's a very long time in sport, and so many things well have

happened, so many other athletes will have been denied.

Russian athletes will next month learn if they can compete

in this summer's games, following the international ban

handed down for what was described as state-sponsored doping

The IOC may well hope this latest retrospective action will send

the message they are very serious about catching those who dope,

Chris Mitchell joins us live from the BBC Sports Centre.

Chris, after all these years, how is it that athletes could be caught out

now? Well, as Richard alluded to, this is really science catching up

with the dopers, if you like. The IOC tries to give it as much time as

possible to use those frozen test samples it took from the games to

find the dopers. So basically, it freezes them, keeps them in

Switzerland, where they are based, and tests than when any new

technology comes about. This is what happened is that what has happened

now. Beijing in 2008, eight years ago, comes within its parameters.

They have tested 450 odd samples, and found 31 discrepancies, the same

is happening with the London games, and also, interestingly, with Sochi

as well. So we don't know who these 31, but they won't be the only ones.

That is looking pretty certain. What action can the IOC now take?

If these people are found to have cheated, they will be banned from

Rio, and they could have their medals, if they won medals in

Beijing, stripped from them, so you could find that models are handed to

athletes who thought at the time they did not win. It is adjusting,

because we are talking about this now, and an athlete we heard from in

this piece said it takes too long. The IOC want to do that would prove

here, with the Kenyan and Russian scandals and allegations going on,

that they are on the front foot, doing something proactive about

this, trying to get a poacher out there into the dopers early on

before Rio comes about. Rio will begin a couple of months, and the

IOC will love to be in a situation where they can say, we have dealt

with the dopers. But all they can do at the moment is look at these 31,

if they are hoping to be in Rio, well, they will not be. The first

course of action the IOC will take will be to ban them.

We don't have any details about these competitors yet. When might we

know more? There are 12 nations here. The IOC

said those 31 athletes will be contacted in the coming days. It may

be that the athletes themselves know who they are. It may be that some of

this information in the coming days leaks out. It is very unusual for

the IOC to have told us that such information. 31 athletes, 12

nations, lots of clues out there, and there will be people out there

now looking at who won medals in Beijing and who could possibly be

competing in Rio. There are not too many. Already, the names have been

narrowed down to a list, not a list that we will mention here, but it is

not hard to work out. Thank you very much, Chris Mitchell.

Militants have yet again targeted Iraq's capital Baghdad in another

wave of bombings. Outdoor markets and a restaurant in Shia dominated

areas where hit, with more than 70 people dying.

The Islamic State group said it was responsible

for the deadliest bombing, as Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.

There are growing concerns about the ability of Iraq's dysfunctional

government to keep the areas of control so.

The first and most deadly attack hit a street market in this district of

Baghdad, a densely Shia populated area. So-called Islamic State said

one of their suicide bombers blew himself up here, and claimed the

attack was aimed at Shia militia men. That is not what the people

here said. This survivor said he hid under a table, and rescuers took

away body parts of shoppers who were no longer recognisable. There was

much anger at the random nature of the attack.

TRANSLATION: The explosion here killed a woman. And her brother and

her niece, as well as of the people who just came here to shop. What

crime have these innocent people committed? Across town on the East

side of Baghdad, there was anger as well in the sprawling Shia suburb

called Sadr City. This was the aftermath of a big

suicide car bomber poison, which took many lives. Sadr City has

frequently been the subject of such provocative attacks by the sunny

militants. Another suicide bomber struck shortly after this attack

nearby. This is the second blast inside. The

other blast was outside a restaurant Al sparing the city. We are fed up

with this violence. With bombs going off on busy streets

like there is virtually every day, the Iraqi authorities and western

coalition, which is fighting IS, say they believe it is because the

militants are losing so much ground on the battlefield. They say they

have lost nearly half the territory they control at the height of their

expansion nearly two years ago. That is little consolation for the

survivors of these increasingly frequent bomb attacks in Baghdad,

and for the friends and families of those who died. There is mounting

anger here, not just at the militants who did it, but the

country's feuding politicians for failing to protect the public.

Across the Iraqi border in Syria, a shaky truce

is giving little peace - and today 20 foreign ministers

meeting in Vienna failed to agree on any new date for peace talks

There WAS a commitment to push through humanitarian aid deliveries,

There WAS a commitment to push through humanitarian aid deliveries.

This is how the US Secretary of State, John Kerry,

The challenge that we face now is to transform these possibilities

into the reality of an agreement at some point, and because of

the gains that we have made in recent months,

yet because of their fragility, and we acknowledge they're fragile,

and increasingly threatened by irresponsible and dangerous

actions taken by those who would rather have this effort

fail, who want to create problems because rather than solutions,

And there are frankly actors on both sides.

One outcome from those discussions on Syria is an agreement that any

party breaching the current truce will be expelled from

The BBC's Bethany Bell has more from Vienna.

The international community is trying to change

the shaky truce in Syria into something more comprehensive.

It's announced a number of rather modest measures.

They say they'll set up a task force to monitor the truce,

and that anybody who breaches it will be expelled from the peace

process, and they've also announced measures in terms of humanitarian

They say that if they can't reach those areas by ground before

the beginning of June, the World Food Programme will

These are all part of movements to try to encourage the opposition

to return to indirect peace talks which have been ongoing in Geneva,

because back in the last round of talks in April,

the opposition said it was suspending its participation

because it was concerned about the mounting violence

in Syria, and about the lack of humanitarian aid.

The Russian Foreign Minister, speaking here in Vienna,

said that all parties had to compromise when it came

to the political aspects of peace talks, but at the moment,

they're still very, very big divisions which remain,

not the least being the fate of the Syrian President

The opposition, and its supporters like Saudi Arabia and the West,

saying he has to go, but Russia and Iran

Thousands of workers in the Canadian oil industry have been advised

to leave areas near Fort McMurray in Alberta because of a renewed

The blaze began more than two weeks ago and is currently about 250

At the height of the fire in Fort McMurray, more than

80,000 of the city's residents were forced to flee.

The area in red shows the worst affected part.

Now, even more people have been urged to leave oil sands camps

between the city and Fort McKay to the north.

We'll speak to one of the evacuees shortly,

but first, this report from Rajini Vaidyanathan.

Dense clouds of smoke can be seen from the skies

The worst of the wildfires is not yet over.

12,000 oil workers, who had been based just north of the city,

These oil-rich lands are once again under threat.

Winds have pushed the fires back towards the city.

The big factor for folks that are on site is that they will see

very, very heavy, dark smoke and that will obviously

Heavy smoke is probably the biggest issue right now.

This is one of Canada's worst natural disasters.

The dangers centred in Alberta province in and around

the city of Fort McMurray, where fires raged two weeks ago.

Now the area between Timberlea and Fort McKay, where big oil

The devastating wildfires have already turned the vibrant city

90,000 residents, who called this place home, could now wait even

Roughly a million barrels a day of crude oil will be lost

because operations have shut down here.

But with more than a dozen fires continuing to burn, this

disaster is costing Canada in more ways than one.

BJ Spears is a steam fitter, usually working in the oil sands

BJ Spears is a steam fitter, usually working in the oil sands

He's been evacuated and is now 70 kilometres north of the city.

Tell us what has happened to you. It really has been one thing after

another? Yes, I have been evacuated two weeks

ago. I got a phone call to return to work, so I showed up, completed a

night shift, and then the next night, I woke up to complete

darkness in the middle of the day. Smoke and ashes. We have been

evacuated now, 40 kilometres north of that camp. We're just waiting on

word to see what happens next. So you went to one camp, went back

to work, and had to leave again and go even further north?

That's right. The wind continues to blow from the south, pushing north,

and unfortunately, the fire and the smoke has just followed right behind

us. And what is it like there? How many

are you, and what I conditions like? Right now, it think this camp holds

about 2000 people, and it seems to be pretty full right now. We are

being told to hang tight and wait for further instruction.

And at one point, you must have thought all the drama was over, and

then it started all over again. Yes, when we got the call to come

back to work, we were assured that there was a brake in the weather, a

break in the smoke, so it was a good time to come back, but it doesn't

take long, once the wind turns around. It doesn't take long to blow

the smoking. How safe do you feel there? What are you being told about

how long you have to stay? I feel safe now, because you can't

see the flames, but it is just a matter of time, with the wind. We're

finding out now that one of the camps that was evacuated last night,

just down the road from where I was, it is now on fire, so I mean, it is

coming. And there must be no sense of

normality? You are stuck in a sort of limbo after all this time?

Yes, yes. It is very intimidating. You see about it on the news, and it

is what we have dealt with for the last two weeks, and it just feels

like there is no end in sight. It really doesn't feel like it is

getting any better. Did you manage to take any

belongings with you, or is it all happening so quickly?

I managed to, just because I was on night shifts, so I happen to be in

camp ennui had the evacuation, but a lot of friends of mine were working

day shifts, and couldn't make it back to camp in time to grab

anything, so they have been wearing the same clothes for a couple of

days now. I had to give my friend some of my clothing to wear. I had

to give him some shampoo and some toothpaste as well.

So it is pretty uncomfortable conditions in that sense. And you

described what it was like earlier, that day turned into night,

completely black? Yes, it was unbelievable. Like

something you would see in a movie. It was 3pm, usually, sunshine and

birds chirping, you know, but it was almost like it was midnight. It was

completely dark. Ash was falling from the sky, smoke so thick it

would burn your eyes, and was burning your throat.

Poor, poor conditions. Do you have enough information, or do you feel

you don't really know when this will come to an end?

No, they are kind of making a plan now. It is hard when there are 2000

people here to get us all moved, and there are other evacuees at the

camps as well. They figure there are about 4000 of us needing to get out

of here. Thank you very much. We wish you all

the best. Thank you for talking to us at that camp in the north of

Canada. Now a look at some of

the day's other news. The European Crime Agency Europol

says it estimates that organised crime groups made between five

and six billion dollars last year The agency says human trafficking

is now one of the main sources French riot police clashed

with protesters in cities including Nantes and Marseilles,

as opponents of controversial labour reforms embarked on a fresh wave

of strikes and marches. Water-cannon and tear gas were used

against demonstrators who hurled crowd-control barriers and glass

bottles at police. Union members were urged to bring

the entire transport system Kenya's police chief has ordered

an investigation after policemen were filmed beating a protester

as they broke up a demonstration organised by the main opposition

coalition on Monday. Three officers could be seen

kicking and hitting a man, Ten gay rights activists in Georgia

have been arrested for painting Gay rights are a battle ground

around the world, and the former Soviet republic of Georgia, the

issue is especially controversial. Despite their country's lean towards

the West, many Georgians remained deeply conservative, and gay rights

supporters have been attacked. On Tuesday, ten activists were arrested

for painting rainbow graffiti on the side of an Orthodox church building,

where church members were holding an event.

The BBC's Rayhan Demytrie went to their main event in Tbilisi.

You can see this procession, organised

There are hundreds of supporters behind.

They are marching towards the Holy Trinity Church.

Today, they are marking what they call a day of family

values, which was established here in 2014 in opposition

to the International Day Against Homophobia,

A very short walk away from here in a hotel, an American

conservative organisation is holding its annual congress,

This organisation is against abortions, against contraception,

and of course, they are against any sort of laws or policies that

Why all of this is happening here in Georgia?

Because homophobia is a massive issue here.

In 2013, this country made world headlines when a small group of LGBT

activists was attacked by a mob led by orthodox priests.

Recently, a parliamentary committee introduced a constitutional

ban on gay marriage, which was illegal here anyway.

So, Georgia is a country which has pro-western aspirations,

but there is a huge contrast when it comes to gay rights,

because the vast majority of the population here

The authorities in Thailand are set to close the island of Koh Taa-chai,

Much has been made in this campaign of the success

of Bernie Sanders attracting young Democratic party voters.

But for many Republicans, this was supposed to be the year

that their party became "cool" among the younger generation.

With two leading candidates in their 40s -

there WAS hope that a similar groundswell of support,

that swept Barack Obama into office eight years ago, would unfold.

Three young Republicans tell the BBC's Barbara Plett-Usher

why their party missed the boat on attracting voters like them.

I am highly disappointed in the Trump movement,

but I do understand that there are a significant amount of people

in this country that like him for his at least strong rhetoric,

and especially in a troubling time from our country.

But the sort of fearmongering that we are seeing out

of Donald Trump really concerns a lot of us.

He doesn't represent Republican values.

This is a party that should be espousing opportunity and hope.

We've got Trump just tearing down everything that the party has built

over the last two years to dispel these false

That we are not inclusive, that we are a bunch of racists.

Does the Republican party have a problem with

Republican ideas have a bit of a branding problem.

To date, the Republicans haven't really learned how to

This was supposed to be the election where we were supposed

to do it, right? Rubio was cool.

Rubio listens to rap music, Rubio speaks two languages,

You like EDM? I do.

Yes, maybe people thought it was something else.

We're supposed to have the cool candidates, and we do.

Given the field now, do you think Republican

We've got a lot of strong, young leaders in the party,

from Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz.

If you look at the Democratic party, you've got Harry Reid,

But they have been able to get a lot of the youth vote.

Yes, the Republican party just need to learn to speak the language,

because the values of the Republican party, I think, translate more to

to where this country needs to be going.

And there are primaries in two more states today. Democrats voting in

Oregon, and in Kentucky. We will bring you results as they happen,

and there is, of course, much more on our website. Now, speaking of BBC

websites... The number of signatures has

now gone over 120,000 against the closure

of the BBC Food website. The Corporation has announced that

a number of its websites, including Newsbeat, the online

News Magazine and BBC Travel, are to close as part

of a plan to save money. Three bakers, three

final challenges. And if you want to join

in and cook at home, for many it now begins

with a search. Whatever I get, it will be online,

so I very rarely use recipe books. My mum, I persuaded her

to throw all hers away. If I ever do home cooking,

I will often use a BBC recipe, because it is often one of the first

ones that comes up They are very clear,

very straightforward, and they always work,

because they have so many stars, they have people's reviews,

so you know you are onto Bake Off, Rick Stein, Nigella,

all these food programmes There are more than 11,000,

more than 3,000 pies. Now, if you tap in Yorkshire

pudding, it's almost always the BBC recipe that's at the top

of the search page. However, thousands of these recipes

will soon be disappearing The pages will become

harder and harder to find. However, BBC Good Food,

another website run by the BBC's commercial arm, will carry on

and it may take on some of For a famous chef such

as Ken Hom, the BBC is simply an essential part

of the food business. A lot of people like myself,

I started with the BBC 32 years ago. And it's nice to have my recipes

on that website simply because it helps people who maybe are not

going to buy the book right away, The News Channel may merge

with BBC World News. News presenters' pay is under

review, websites are being dropped. Many, especially the papers,

do want a smaller BBC. I don't think that the fundamental

questions in the minds of newspaper proprietors will have

gone away as a result But, nonetheless, every little bit

helps and there may be a sense that these concessions are the start

of a process of negotiation. And, this evening, the BBC has now

said that, following the uproar, they will accelerate the transfer

of content to BBC Good Food. Well, while David 's report was

running, the number of signatures on that petition has gone up to

133,040, so it gained about 1000 while that was on air.

You can get in touch with me and some of

the team via Twitter - I'm @KarinBBC.

But for now, from me and the rest of the team,goodbye.

Hello there. Some fine weather around today, but the weather is now

on the change. Wet weather arriving in the West, and most of us will

season downpours either tonight or tomorrow or both. The brightest

weather