12/01/2012 BBC World News

A video has emerged of US Marines apparently urinating on dead bodies

in Afghanistan. The Taliban called it a barbaric.

Burma's government signs a ceasefire with the rebels fighting

for greater rights for 60 years. Million dollar payout for factory

workers unpaid overtime. Welcome to BBC World News. Coming

up, tension in the west wing, Michel denies claims of a rift with

her husband's advisers. -- Michelle The Afghan president says his

government is deeply disturbed by a graphic video which appears to show

four American Marines urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters.

The US military says it is investigating. The Marine Corps

says it has not verified the origin or authenticity of the video but

officials describe it as deeply troubling. Our correspondent has

been studying the images. The video appeared on line and was

picked up across the internet and by television stations around the

world. It is pretty grotesque to watch. You see four men standing

outside in camouflaged uniform, they look like American troops, and

they are standing over three bodies covered in blood, not moving, and

the men lying on the ground, dead, have brown skin, bare feet, beards,

loosely fitting clothing, they look like Afghans. During the course of

the 40 seconds them then proceed to urinate on the corpses. One is

heard saying, have a great day, buddy. This has not been

authenticated yet, if at all. The US military has been quick to

respond. The Marine Corps put out a statement saying we have not

verified the authenticity of this video of their the actions

portrayed and not consistent with our bodies and indicative of the

character of the Marines in hour call. They said they will fully

investigate the matter. The Pentagon has put out a statement

are much along the same lines. It is unacceptable behaviour for a

member of the military. There has been response in America from

leading Muslim rights group which says desecration of the dead is not

only a violation of US military regulation but the international

laws of war and they say that if the video is verified as authentic,

it could ultimately endanger other soldiers and civilians. The US is

very worried about stirring memories of the prison at the abuse

scandal in Iraq which engulfed the US military in 2004, led to 11

convictions. The difference here is that we do not know if this video

hadst been verified. It is interesting even without

verification US military is responding so swiftly because it is

very jumpy about any allegations of abuse by his forces in Afghanistan.

Director of Afghan ready and at what has told us how afghans are

responding. It is not the first time it is

happening way US forces kind of carrying out abuses which is

against human dignity, the code of conduct, probably provided. And

against the International Convention and the rules of war and

how you should treat your enemy and those engaged in conflict. I am

interested you use the word disappointed. One Taliban spokesman

has said there are many similar videos showing the sort of thing

which have not come to light. Do you think people in Afghanistan are

going to be shocked, more than surprised, perhaps?

Definitely. People to understand this is a war and so many things

can happen in a war, and we have always stressed that the recent we

want the Afghan government and the international community to add more

responsibly is to first show their difference with the insurgents who

have killed Afghans in so many ways, and secondly to establish the fact

they are here to help us and protect us, and not to anything

against the values that is not only important to Afghan people but

anyone else on the planet. But we haven't yet forgotten the killing

of innocent boys and civilians by the American troops and cutting

their fingers and gambling on them. Luckily we have heard news on --

news of them being put in trial. The government in Burma has signed

a ceasefire agreement with the ethnic Karen rebels in a move to

try to end one of the world's longest-running civil conflicts. It

is a preliminary ceasefire which means members of the Karen tribe

are able to open a liaison office and travel freely. This comes after

successful discussions between government officials and senior

Karen leaders. Our correspondent has just returned from Burma.

It is potentially a very big deal. It is only a first step but the

current -- the Karen National Union has not had a ceasefire for 60

years, since independence, effectively, and there has been

fighting on and off throughout that period. There was a big flat up in

fighting close to the Thai border around the time the current Burmese

government came to power. -- flare- up. It is a ceasefire, a long way

to go before a full-scale peace deal but it is an important first

step and the second peace deal the government has signed with an

ethnic minority group. They signed another one last month. It is part

of a broader process. Encouraging news for Spain and

Italy, don't hear that too often. A real big test of investors'

confidence. The troubled economy, Italy, Spain, returning to the

money markets for the first time in 2012 and it went off with rather a

success. The telling government was trying to raise $10.5 billion in

terms of selling its debt to investors, Spain doing the same,

selling around 12.7 billion euros of debt, they have got what they

wanted. The interest rate, the yield investors demand they are

paid has dropped. But they are short term, it is not a ten-year

solution, it is easier to get higher confidence dealing in the

short term. On top of that we should remember the European

Central Bank last year made available half a trillion Euros at

very cheap interest rates to most European banks so they have had all

this money and they have been buying these bonds. Let's listen to

what the experts told me about the success of today's actions.

borrowing costs have dropped dramatically. The amount they

sought is significant and that is good because at the end of the day

one of the things we are worried about is how these countries could

not raise enough funds. It is early days but this is the good news.

They are selling short aid debt, Italy, Spain. If you look further

up the Kurth to the Tony apart not a lot has happened in terms of

borrowing costs -- up the curve to the ten-year path. I would extract

more of the positive rather than negative news.

Part of this is investors looking at what the government in Spain has

done. At the end of last year, big austerity cuts, and then another

round of big austerity cuts. Is this investors looking at Spain and

saying perhaps they are putting the lid on the problems?

It is not only at the end of last year. In contrast to other

countries, Spain has been doing enormous strides. We have to

recognise they introduced the famous dead break into the

constitution which is a very rare occasion in Spain -- debt break.

The yield posterity packages you mentioned as well. The markets is

taking some heard from these measures but it is much more from

that. We seek liquidity injections from the European Central Bank and

positive feedback. The sentiment turned and that makes things better.

He mentioned the liquidity. The key to be a success of this is the role

of the European Central Bank. Given that financial sector, a cheap

loans, hoping it will plant back to back into the bond market. We will

be hearing from the ECB later as it holds its first meeting of the new

year. Most market watchers are expecting it to hold interest rates

are at that record low. We have had two exciting meetings

in November and December, two rate cuts and now it is time to see how

the economy evolves and how the financial sector evolves and what

do you resent crisis is doing. Time for a breather but in the next two

months we should see another rate cut.

Air Asia is cutting routes to London and Paris as well as flights

to India. It is planning to concentrate on its core market. It

has blamed the fall in demand from Europe as well as higher oil prices

and on top of that they also said the new emissions tax imposed by

the European Union has compromised their possibility to offer these

first. Could it be the first casualty in a row over the tax?

The budget carrier has been facing a lot of pressure as has every

airline in the world in terms of rising fuel costs, demand coming

from Europe is weaker. They have the emissions taxis. Bass said they

cannot sustain it. It has come as a bit of a surprise to analysts

although it hasn't -- it has been making profit. They thought it

would continue to expand their brand in Europe. At this point in

time they say they cannot sustain it, especially for budget carriers,

they compete mainly on price. The biggest shake-up in the

internet addresses for more than two decades gets under way later.

From today it will be possible to register almost any word as a so-

called top level domain name. We could have .pepsi. But it is

believed the high fees will put off cyber squatters.

Greece is now discussing the extent of the losses they are prepared to

accept. Private sector credit has agreed to a 50% write-off but are

under pressure to make further concessions.

The world's top wind turbine maker has announced it is cutting more

than 2,300 jobs later today as it battles rising costs. Most are

thought to be in Denmark. Managers are under pressure to quit after a

profit warning last week. The second in three months and it sent

shares to their lowest in more than eight years.

Let's take a quick look at the market. In the doldrums really at

the moment, despite some of the positive news we have had from

Positive signs art of the US. Markets very nervous inside line in

these debt auctions in Italy and Spain. That is the recent European

markets are higher. The Italian market up. They are liking the debt

The Pepsi story, my surname has just got a -- just gone up in

smoke! Nike Has agreed compensation in a

dispute with workers in Indonesia over overtime. It will pay more

than a million dollars after a year of negotiations with trade unions

and reflect almost 600,000 hours of unpaid overtime. It will compensate

for 1,500 workers at a plant. We assess what the deal could mean for

other companies in Indonesia. It is arguable how much of an

impact the settlement will have on the Indonesian business plans. It

was made out of court. There is no judicial precedent that has come

out of this case. What is interesting to note will be what

kind of signal this settlement will send to other international

companies in the footwear and apparel business here in Indonesia

and what they do in terms of elevating the standards of business

in the local factories. It is easy for these international firms to

say they do not know what is going on on the ground here in Indonesia

but the settlement which is significant in terms of $1 million

to almost 4,500 employees will certainly raise that issue and

already we are hearing from trade union officials, people involved

with this case, they are looking to take this sort of case to other

companies in the country. You or watching BBC World News.

Still to come, all action in the snow. South Korean special forces

Television stations in Pakistan are reporting the President has gone to

Dubai for further medical check-ups. A comes amid growing tensions

between the military and civilian government. Officials say the

President will be back on Friday morning and the trip is not

Pakistan's Armed Forces heading for a showdown. That came a step closer

on Tuesday after the Prime Minister sacked the Defence Secretary. He's

this man, retired Lieutenant Colonel general Naeem Khalid Lodhi.

He's been fired for gross misconduct and illegal action, but

this is the latest incident in a growing row between the Government

and the Army. It centres on this unsigned memo leaked in October. It

appears to show Pakistan civilian leadership asking the US for direct

intervention to help weaken Pakistan's Armed Forces. The

sacking of the Defence Secretary will only add to the tensions, but

Pakistan's Prime Minister has defended his decision.

TRANSLATION: Tell me, when we have not stood by our military in the

past, we've always supported it. As far as the rules of business are

concerned, there should be no violation. The Army's warned of

grievous consequences, fuelling speculation in the media and on the

streets about what happens next. TRANSLATION: If anything

unconstitutional happens, it will be wrong. It will take the country

towards instability. It will create more problems. Pakistan already has

so many problems. If the constitution is not followed, the

consequences could be very bad. Tensions between Pakistan's Armed

Forces and politicians are nothing new. But there's no sign of how or

You are watching BBC World News. The headlines:

The US military is investigating a video which appears to show

American marines urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters in

Afghanistan. After decades of conflict in siest

Burma, the government has signed a ceasefire with the ethnic rebels. -

- south-east Burma. Syria's President's displayed chilling

cynicism in his response to the uprising in the country, those were

the records of Hillary Clinton who said that Bashar Al-Assad failed to

take responsibility for the violence, choosing instead to blame

the unrest on an outside conspiracy. First the explosions. Then mayhem

in the city of Homs. At the scene of the attack, the dead and injured

carried to waiting cars. In just a moment, lives gone, worlds changed.

Among them, French reporter, the French journalist who was bundled

into a taxi which headed off. The death toll now exceeds 5,000, it's

believed. The Arab League monitors were supposed to be in Syria to

help stop this. Since they've arrived, the violence has only

increased. Now, one of the team has resigned in disgust. Another has

also said he might leave. TRANSLATION: I stepped down because

I felt I was serving the Syrian regime. I did not feel I belonged

to an independent body monitoring the situation. That's why I stepped

down. I was giving the regime a greater chance to continue its

killing and I could not prevent that. The US once supportive of

Arab League intervention is fast losing patience. The Monitoring

Mission should not continue indefinitely. We cannot permit

President Assad and his regime to have impunity. Syrians deserve a

peaceful transition. All that seems to strengthen the

hand of President Assad. He appeared in front of large crowds

of supporters in Damascus. He blames the violence on what he

calls terrorist gangs and shows no sign of backing down.

So what now for Syria? The Arab League mission appears to have

failed. An international intervention is unlikely. But the

protests, the fighting continues and there's still no sign of when

or how Syria's bloody conflict will end.

Time to focus on other matters now and Aaron is here with the sport.

Bad news and bad news. Shall we start with the bad news? The super

fight of the century as know doubt it would have been billed probably

won't happen at least this year between the two best pound for

pound fighters. Yesterday, we reported that may weather taunted

his opponent on Twitter to get the fight going for May. But today, his

camp have said it probably won't happen for economic reasons - how

dull is that - because the arena where it would take place in May,

the MGM Grand only holds 70,000 and he wants to fight in a bigger arena

or he wants to avoid it. The arena will be ready in June, but

Mayweather will be in June serving 90 days for domestic violence, so

perhaps not this year at least. familiar story, fights that don't

happen. You have got some news on Formula One which is pretty tough?

Genuinely bad news for the former Renault driver, Robert Kubitsa. He

had a terrible accident last year in a rally car in Italy. He almost

lost his arm, so really severe injuries. He's in the process of

making his comeback and earlier yesterday he slipped on ice outside

his home in Italy, he's broken his leg, so the comeback for Formula

One fans of one of the most exciting drivers probably will have

to wait for another season. He's the sort who will be back, you

presume? You would think so. When he was with Renault, he was very

quick and rumoured as a replacement at Ferrari for their second in hand

driver so yes, that didn't happen because of the accident now we'll

have to wait and see. Good luck to him. Thank you very

much. To the United States now, as

America's First Lady, Michelle Obama has been denying claims in a

new book that she's caused tensions in the White House. In a television

interview, Mrs Obama said she was tired of people trying to portray

her as an angry black woman making trouble behind-the-scenes. She is a

trend-setter, a role model and a working mother. But what does

Michelle Obama really think about life in the White House? Speaking

to CBS News, the First Lady dismissed claims she'd been unhappy.

I love this job. It is a privilege, it's been a privilege from day one.

Now, there are challenges with being a mother and trying to keep

your kids sane and I worry a lot about that. If there's any anxiety

that I feel, it's because I want to make sure that my girls come out of

this on the other end whole. But me, Barack, we are grown-ups, all the

ups and downs, you know, we take it on. Mrs Obama granted the interview

as a new book was making waves in Washington. Written by New York

Times journalist, it says relations were strained between the First

Lady and her husband's closest political advisers because she

allegedly meddled in west wing affairs, a claim she denies. That's

been an image that people have tried to paint of me since the day

Barack Obama announced that I'm some angry black woman. The book

says the First Lady discovered a sense of mission in London when she

was rapturously received by schoolgirls during a visit on the

sidelines of the summit. Now, she looks relaxed and confident, ready

to be at his side for another four years, if that's what America

decides. South Korean analysts have been

warning of what they call military adventurers and in North Korea, the

handover of power to Kim Jong-Un has prompted South Korean officials

to ask whether their country's military is ready for all

eventualities. Lucy Williamson has been without with Korean Special

Forces and sent this report. On South Korea's snowy peaks, Special

Forces are training to infiltrate the communist neighbours. This

drill is simulating a rescue mission. These troops could also in

the event of all out war be dropped behind enemy lines inside North

Korea. The two Koreas have never signed a

peace deal and there are regular military crashes along the

demarkation line dividing them. With the sudden change of power in

North Korea last month, forces here have been placed on high alert.

the wake of Kim Jong-Il's death, the military situation's become

very uncertain. No-one can anticipate what is going to happen,

but as soldiers wrbgs we need to be prepared for the worst and prepared

for combat. The North Korean threat hasn't changed, so the best we can

do is be ready. North Korea over the past few weeks has paraded its

million-man army in public squares. South Korea with fewer soldiers is

offering a different image. A military it wants to be slim and

strong. Reliant more on skill than simple numbers.

It's rare to be allowed to get this close to South Korean Special

Forces. But these are unusual times. The sudden change of leadership in

North Korea has meant huge pressure on units like this one to prove

they're fully prepared. Even elite soldiers have to begin with the

basics. This class, military skiing for beginners. South Korea relies

on conscripts, every male citizen is meant to serve for two years, it

makes for a steady supply of cheap soldiers, but also means few of

them have much experience. As South Korea watches for signs of military

change across the de facto border, the camaraderie here on the

mountain hides a new tension here this winter. The main stories:

The video of what is alleged to be American marines, as you can see