16/02/2016 Outside Source

I'm Ros Atkins, welcome to Outside Source, and our international news

live from the BBC newsroom. We begin again in Syria, still claims and

counterclaims over air strikes on hospitals and a school. Meanwhile,

the Syrian government has agreed to allow aid into seven besieged areas

of the country. A dramatic day of politics in Ukraine. The government

survived a vote of no-confidence, but hours before, the president told

the Prime Minister that he should resign. David Cameron has been in

Brussels, still working on those draft reforms of the EU's

relationship with the UK. We will take a look at why that relationship

always appears to be so conjugated. Last week we showed these pictures

of a leopard who got into a school in India and attacked six people.

This is scarcely believable, but the leopard has managed to escape. We

will also get into two really interesting health stories, one

about a breakthrough in treating cancer, the other about 3-D printing

of body parts. The claim and counterclaim continues

over who carried out those air strikes that hit hospitals and a

school in Syria on Monday. The Turkish government said it was

Russia, and that this amounts to a war crime, unsurprisingly the

Russians have already responded to that. President Putin had this to

say... He goes on to say... If you are watching yesterday you

may remember that hospitals and a school was struck in two places. One

place was near the Turkish border. If we look much further down in the

south-west of Syria, there is the capital, Damascus. That is where the

UN special envoy for Syria has been holding meetings today. Here is what

he said earlier. I just had a meeting. We have been effectively

talking about the issue about the humanitarian unhindered access to

all besieged areas, not only by the government but also by the

opposition and by Isil. It looks like progress is being made.

Millions of you followed the BBC breaking feed on Twitter. A bit

earlier it told us that the Syrian government has approved aid for

seven besieged areas, according to the UN. We are told that convoys are

being prepared as soon as possible. Often on stories about Syria we turn

to the BBC Arabic correspondent. Here he is on the particular areas.

There are several areas near the Syrian capital, Damascus. And one of

the areas was besieged until last month when aid convoys managed to

get there, it is still under siege and there is a lot of suffering and

famine going on there. There are some areas also further to the east

which are besieged by rebels. There are talks with the representatives

of the rebels that the UN is conducting to try and get that as

well. The majority of the areas are besieged by Syrian government

forces. These air strikes on hospitals and a school... Is it at

all possible for a neutral observer to try and ascertain who carried out

these air strikes? It is really very difficult, because news came

yesterday, it was several hospitals and schools were hit by missiles.

There was accusations, counter accusations, Turkey accused Russia,

Russia said, we didn't do it, Syria accused the US-led coalition, the US

said that was not true. Unfortunately we don't know who did

it, but we know what happened, which was that 50 people died. Has BBC

Arabic been in touch with people inside those two pounds to try and

find out what has occurred since the air strikes -- two towns? The people

we have been in touch with were people who managed to give us a

description or an account of the aftermath of these missile strikes.

It is really very difficult even for the people in these areas to find

out where these missiles came from or who fired them. And for that lets

go from Syria to the Ukraine. A full blame political crisis has been

narrowly averted, for now at least. The Prime Minister survived a vote

of no-confidence in his government, hours before, the president had

called for him to stand down. This has not been a good day for him. To

understand what all of this matters so much, we need to go back years.

These are some of the pictures that the BBC broadcast at the time of the

mass protest in Kiev against the then government's decision to cancel

plans to move closer to the EU. The now Prime Minister was one of the

protest leaders, and after new elections he assumed office. The

BBC's respondent in Kiev is Tom Burridge. -- correspondent.

As the government faces a key test inside the parliament,

here outside, there are several hundred protesters.

You can see the blue and yellow flags of a right-wing nationalist

Most of the anger of these people is directed at the Prime Minister.

His government and popularity has plummeted, and his position looks

So, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, at least for now, is addressing

parliament, fighting for his political survival.

He is beginning an account, essentially, of his government's

work over the course of the last year.

But given that the president, Petro Poroshenko, has now called

on the Prime Minister to resign, his position now

So, the government lost one vote, essentially that was a vote

on its record over the course of the past year.

It then survived a second vote, a vote of no-confidence.

Essentially, opposition MPs failed to garner enough support to bring

But European leaders will be watching with interest now.

There is increasing cynicism about whether the Ukrainian

government can implement the necessary reforms

And they are reforms on which the IMF bailout and support

Onto a story which has been generating huge amount of interest

and excitement today, about a blood cancer therapy trial involving

patients suffering from leukaemia. These claims are generating

interest, more than 90% of terminally ill leukaemia patients

who took part in this trial went into remission. First of all, let me

play you a report from the BBC's editor Hugh Pym, explaining how this

treatment works. This is the body's natural

defence mechanism at work, an immune cell attacking

and utilising a cancer cell. They are grown in a laboratory and

injected back into the patient. This is what the lead scientist involved

in this trial has been saying, another reason why it is developing

a lot of interest. He says the early data is unprecedented, but, we are

being told to be cautious here. For instance, have a look at this. It is

important to remember that standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy are

usually quite effective for these cancers. They are usually 70% to 90%

effective. This is used on patients where that hasn't worked. It is

fantastic to have this back-up treatment, but in terms of using

this more regularly for blood cancer, would we start with this

treatment? Or can we use this type of treatment in other cancers? That

is something we are still addressing. We have got a few

challenges to overcome, but this has come some way to addressing it. My

first reaction on seeing this story was that we should make it our lead

story, but several colleagues, including our whole correspond at

James Gallagher warned me of doing that. Total health correspondent a

lot of exciting research is taking place. Powering the parrot -- having

the power of the immune system to tackle it. There are a lot of

headlines saying it will cure cancer. We know it seems to be

working very well in leukaemia, a blood cancer, something in your

bloodstream, but we know these kinds of therapies do not work as well on

solid tumours, things like breast and prostate cancer, the solid hard

masses it struggles to get into. The data was presented at a conference,

it has not been scrutinised by other scientists and is not publicly

available yet. It is interesting but not necessarily the ground-breaking

moment that everybody is hoping for in cancer. I mentioned the headlines

district, 90% of people with leukaemia going into remission. Can

you define being in remission? It does not mean cancer has been too

odd. When you have cancer you are always waiting for it to come back

-- has been George. You talk about people being clear of cancer for

five or ten years, and these patients are a couple of years in.

This is done remarkable. This bunch of patients, three to five months to

live, they tried chemotherapy and radiotherapy, nothing was working,

and they are still alive and there is no signs of cancer in their body

at the moment. That is tremendous. The question is, what are the

indications for the rest of cancer? I have another story I want to ask

you about. We have a second health story. Scientists say they have

managed to three 3-D print custom made body parts. This is the website

of the journal Nature, you can get the report there. This video gives

you an idea of the process involved in 3-D printing. This is speeded up.

The researchers are telling us they have managed to implant sections of

bone, muscle and cartilage into animals produced in this way, and

they all function normally. The hope is that if this works for animals it

could also work for us. Here are a couple of examples of how this might

work. If you had a broken jaw, a 3-D printer could produce a replacement

part that might look like this, or if you lost a year in an accident on

a 3-D printed a could be produced for you. -- 3-D printed here. Are

you going to make a joke about a 3-D printed on! How do we know whether

this kind of technology will translate from animals to humans? We

don't. The reason this has got people quite excited and interested

if that there are already lab built organs in patients. Some patients

have what are known as lab grown bladders and they have been

implanted into patients in the past few years, that has been using an

old technique where it you build a scaffold in the shape that you need

and you see it that with cells, that is a different approach where you

are trying to print more, the gated structure that has the scaffolding

and the cells all mixed in together. -- a more complicated structure. It

has been proven before, these have been implanted into patients. It is

looking a little bit more complicated and interesting now,

that is the great potential. He is doing well in difficult

circumstances with his on! Coming out in business, we are talking

about a story which started with a single picture which I spotted

online earlier, these are tomatoes in Nigeria, and there is a glut of

them, too many for producers to sell, despite the fact that tomatoes

are sometimes imported into Nigeria. We will find out. Really moment. --

the full story in a moment. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir

Bernard Hogan-Howe has a border as to the widow of Lord Brittan. For

his force's handling of the rape allegation against the former Home

Secretary. Lord Brittan died in January last year without knowing he

would not be charged. His family said Lady Brittan had accepted the

apology. Tom Symonds has been explaining more about the nature of

the apology. What the commissioner is apologising for is not for not

telling Lord Brittan before his death that he would have effectively

been cleared, but not telling his family earlier after his death,

there is a subtle difference that, as he put it, that is the precise

apology he gave to the family today. Either way, we are told was

well-received by Lady Brittan. The family stressed they are less

interested in apologies and more interested in answers. They have

asked 30 questions of the Met in writing, and they are expecting

responses. I'm Ros Atkins with Outside Source.

Our lead story is that after Monday's air strikes on hospitals

and a school in Syria, the government is agreeing to allow UN

aid into several besieged areas of the country. We should say, nobody

has claimed responsibility for those extracts. We will bring you some of

the main stories from the BBC World Service. Former UN Secretary-General

buttress but trust Ghani has died. He was aged 93. -- but trust but

trust Carly. BBC is what he is focusing on

Uganda, the last day of campaigning before the general election on

Thursday, there have been violent protests after the main opposition

candidate was detained by police. The president is hoping to win a

fifth term. As we are doing every day, let's turn to Europe, and in

particular those negotiations around the UK's relationship with the EU.

Here is a tweet from Donald Tusk, the European Council President. He

says... He is not the only one with a very

hectic travel schedule. We know in the last few days the UK Prime

Minister David Cameron has already been to Hamburg, Paris and Brussels,

and the reason these two men are so busy? The answer can be found on the

EU's website. Here are details of a European Council summit on Thursday.

We are seeing of negotiation and the diplomacy ahead of that. Mr Tusk

will be the chair, and the leaders of all 28 members of the EU will be

attending. There are really two things top of the agenda bash the

UK's renegotiation, the migrant crisis, which is affecting the whole

continent. We had an update on the story this evening. In relation to

the UK's efforts to renegotiate, this comes from the BBC News copy

coming through our newsroom at the moment.

That is Downing Street saying, the UK Government saying, it is helpful

to bear that in mind. Number ten feels it is making progress in

selling these reforms, not just here in the UK but the short-term goal is

to persuade its partners within the. Downing Street saying the three

largest groups in the European Parliament are signing up to these

proposed negotiations -- within the EU. A great report from the BBC's

Rob Watson looking at why this relationship and the EU always seems

to to be so delicate. A history of Britain's love hate relationship

with Europe. If this were Facebook, Britain's relationship status with

the EU would be "Is concentrated". Sometime soon, the British people

will get the chance to either break up the good or stay together. What

is the relationship history? Much can be explained by geography. Being

an island nation gave Britain the cycle borders its European

neighbours liked -- subtle. Within those borders, powerful institutions

such as the monarchy and the church grew strong, providing Britain with

a stability unmatched in other European countries. That is why,

when European countries signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957, Britain

decided it was better off staying single. In fact, the UK only joined

the EU in 1973. After it had gone through a rough period of Imperial

and economic decline. Britons have already had the opportunity to vote

on EU membership. In 1975, they decided overwhelmingly to stay in

the relationship. But, as always happens, people, or in this case

international organisations, change. Over the years, Europe transformed

from intimate free trade area of nine countries into a political

union of 28. The UK remains reluctant member of the EU. With its

citizens the least likely to identify themselves as European. And

deeply worried about a mass movement of people that has seen mass

migration to the UK from within the EU top 1.5 million since 1997. But

none of this is to say most people in Britain are unfriendly or are

itching to leave or even that they care all that much. Most opinion

polls suggest people are likely to vote to stay. But for practical

reasons to do with jobs and security, not because of some

emotional attachment to the dream of a united Europe. While the EU and

Britain still be friends, all while they block each other's we will find

out very soon -- or will they lock each other. Time for business, and

we will start by showing you this website, the BBC Africa live page,

running every day point together the latest African stories. I was on it

earlier and spotted this story from the daily trust website run out of

Nigeria. The headline is tomato glut hits markets. This got me

interested. The province is in the north of Nigeria, and the thing

about the story that grabbed me was this very striking picture by the

person behind that article. His article describes waisted produce on

a grand scale, prices crashing, and general frustration in particular

among producers. I tweeted about this, and I started to get all sorts

of tweets in reply from Nigerians. For instance, Soliman said...

It would be far higher in normal circumstances. Another viewer

contacted me... I know that in Nigeria, tomatoes are used heavily

in Nigerian cooking. This seemed very strange, food is being produced

and it cannot be sold. While Ross was the BBC's Nigeria correspondent

until recently, he is based in London. I asked to try and make

sense of the story. It has been a good season for the growers, this is

largely in the north of the country. The thing about Nigeria is that for

a long time it has been importing all of the tomato paste, that is the

basic ingredient that so many Nigerians love to put in their fiery

soups, and also to code their beat sticks when they are making the kind

of kebabs. -- coat their meat sticks. They don't have the

facilities to process all of these tomatoes. Coupled with that commits

huge infrastructure problems of moving the produce across the

country has led to the situation where farmers are in a desperate

situation. They are saying that the price of the big baskets of tomatoes

they sell has gone down from over $20 under $2 a basket. They are

being hit very hard. It seems like an economic opportunity if you can

turn this tomatoes into income for the farmers. That is what should be

going on. It is a big challenge setting up a big project like that

in Nigeria. Africa's wealthiest man, a Nigerian, is trying to set up a

factory, it has been in the pipeline for some time now and he is hoping

that a lot of these tomatoes are going to be bought from across the

North, giving the farmers a steady income. At the moment, that is not

happening, the factory has not got going, and still people or importing

from China and Italy while the farmers' tomatoes are rotting. I was

tweeting earlier and they were saying they also had onion glut will

swear in the country. The agriculture sector in Nigeria has

improved, but it has got a long way to go. The country were

self-sufficient in food in the 1960s, and then along came the black

stuff that you can't eat, oil. That was the end of agriculture sector,

it went into decline. Across the board you have got a massive amount

of arable land that is not being used. It could be used. It is huge

opportunity now for this government to try and improve the whole

agriculture sector. The economy is in trouble, and that would benefit

farmers right across the nation. This story has got me interested

today, I have been getting messages from viewers saying about tomato

pate processing facilities that are being opened in the near future.

Total tomato paste. Why is a country like Nigeria importing tomatoes when

they wrote so many? We will return to this in the coming days. Let's

talk about oil prices. Not for the first time, they have gone down

again. That was not the idea when Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar and

Venezuelan all major oil producers, announced they agreed to freeze

output at January's level. They say they will only do it if the

producers do as well. Let's bring in the BBC's Michelle Fleury, live from

New York. That is quite a big catch, you wouldn't normally announce a

deal unless everybody was signed up already? There were a couple of

reasons why there was a degree of scepticism out there, want because

Iran and Iraq were not at the table for this particular round of talks.

There talks due to take place on Wednesday which will involve them.

Their concerns that if they not part of any deal, then how meaningful was

it be? The other key point is that they are talking about a freeze on

production, not a cut in production. Part of the reason we have seen this

sharp drop in oil prices over the last one but five years has been

oversupply. They are talking about holding production at the current

levels, not reducing debt, which is what some in the market feel is

necessary. Michelle, don't go anywhere, I want to bring another

story up, concerning Louise mentioned. She used to be a Tory MP,

she is now based in the US. She is announcing a new project. She is

using this hashtag, that is going to be the name of the new website that

she is launching in conjunction with Rupert Murdoch's new score. I have

read a couple of articles on this and I am not entirely clear what

this is. Is it just a website where people go to express opinions, or is

there something more concentrated in there? We haven't got too many

details of over the name and some of the figures involved. Apparently it

is going to be a space for right-wing viewpoints to be shared.

They are calling get a safe space where people can express, a free

space where people can talk about whatever they want without fear of

the political correctness police coming after them. I think in part

trying to take advantage of the US election year, one where we have

seen figures like Donald Trump, who have taken positions that many find

controversial, but yet continue to do well, certainly according to the

polls. The other thing interesting about this is, as you mentioned,

this lady is for well-known in the UK, but this is a website being

launched, directed at a US audience, where she is not a household name,

it will be interesting to see how that plays. She may well be known in

the circles that Rupert Murdoch knows in, but not for the rest of

us. It is interesting from Mr Murdoch's point of view, bearing in

mind things like MySpace and the An's website did not turn out to be

great moves online boggle the asylum's website.

Let's take a look at the big weather stories around the world. We start

off in the north-east of America, where we have seen a nasty cut,