:00:11. > :00:15.A new Government assault on the Syrian city of Homs. Our
:00:15. > :00:19.correspondent reports from inside the city where 50 people are now
:00:19. > :00:25.reported killed. Syrian troops appear to have moved up to the
:00:25. > :00:29.perimeter of. It does not appear to be an invasion at the moment, but
:00:29. > :00:34.it is a pretty constant stream of artillery fire and so far we
:00:34. > :00:39.believe at least 10 people have been killed. Probably more.
:00:39. > :00:43.The two rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, agree that Mahmoud
:00:43. > :00:47.Abbas will meet an interim unity Government.
:00:47. > :00:51.A rising death toll and traffic chaos. From East to West, the
:00:51. > :00:55.extreme winter weather in Europe continues.
:00:55. > :00:58.Welcome to BBC World News. Coming up in the programme: In Greece, a
:00:58. > :01:03.second day of talks on austerity measures, crucial for the country
:01:03. > :01:08.to avoid defaulting on its debt. one knew then that the bill would
:01:08. > :01:14.arrive here as Princess Elizabeth would leave again five days later
:01:14. > :01:19.as Queen. -- the girl that would arrive. We report from the Kenyan
:01:19. > :01:29.holiday spot where Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne 60 years
:01:29. > :01:37.
:01:37. > :01:45.Thank you for joining us. Syrian forces have intensified their
:01:45. > :01:49.bombard a tea of Homs, which has been the main focus of President
:01:49. > :01:52.Assad's regime. Local activist say that the field of battle has been
:01:52. > :02:02.hit and there has been an explosion at an oil pipeline that feeds the
:02:02. > :02:06.main this -- refinery in the city. Up to 50 people are reported to
:02:06. > :02:10.have been killed. The regime is accused of encircling the city with
:02:10. > :02:13.tanks ahead of a major offensive. There are calls for the
:02:13. > :02:17.international community to act quickly to avoid a massacre. Paul
:02:17. > :02:21.Wood has managed to get into the city of Homs. Reporting from there
:02:21. > :02:25.is very difficult but he did manage to provide an update. There has
:02:25. > :02:30.been pretty constant shelling since Six o'clock local time, two hours
:02:30. > :02:37.ago. It sounded like mortars at the beginning. Local people are saying
:02:37. > :02:41.that there Rom off -- there are multiple rocket launchers being
:02:41. > :02:45.used. I am speaking from inside the building. We are trying to put as
:02:45. > :02:48.many thick walls between us and the street as possible. It does not
:02:48. > :02:52.appear to be an invasion at the moment but it is a constant stream
:02:52. > :02:57.of artillery fire. We believe that 10 have been killed and probably
:02:57. > :03:00.more so far. That is the sound of the rebel fighters, the Free Army,
:03:00. > :03:05.as they call themselves, replying to heavy artillery with Kalashnikov
:03:05. > :03:10.fire. That is pretty much a futile gesture. When this attack started,
:03:10. > :03:14.some people went out into the streets, on to their balconies,
:03:14. > :03:19.shouting that God is great. The Free Army, as they call themselves,
:03:19. > :03:22.started firing back with small arms. Really there is nothing that this
:03:22. > :03:28.part of Homs can do about this except take to the stairwells and
:03:28. > :03:32.find as much shelter as possible. Paul Wood from right inside Homs.
:03:32. > :03:39.Jim Muir is monitoring developments from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon
:03:39. > :03:41.for us. Given the international situation has no sign of consensus
:03:41. > :03:44.among the powers that the United Nations, I asked him for his
:03:44. > :03:48.assessment of the role that Russia might still hope to play in
:03:48. > :03:53.stemming the violence. The Russians are under pressure. The Foreign
:03:53. > :03:57.Minister is arriving on Tuesday in Damascus. He will be seeing
:03:57. > :04:02.President Assad and he will bring with him at the Russian head of the
:04:02. > :04:09.CIEA equivalent, basically. They will presumably try to urge
:04:09. > :04:12.restraint. The Government does seem to be regarding the UN veto by the
:04:12. > :04:15.Russians and the Chinese as carte blanche to go ahead on the ground
:04:15. > :04:21.and tried to finish of the Resistance. The Russians are
:04:21. > :04:25.talking about a political solution. They would like to get a process of
:04:25. > :04:29.reforms that President Assad has supposedly launched sped up and
:04:29. > :04:32.more real. They would like dialogue with the opposition to start, but
:04:32. > :04:36.they are not well placed to preside over that because their relations
:04:36. > :04:42.with the opposition were already bad and have been made worse by the
:04:42. > :04:44.veto on Saturday at the Security Council.
:04:44. > :04:47.The Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has accepted leading an interim
:04:47. > :04:52.Government which will prefer for wider election to the Palestinian
:04:52. > :04:58.territories. -- prepare for wider elections in the Palestinian
:04:58. > :05:02.territories. The appointment follows talks with the Hamas leader
:05:02. > :05:06.Khaled Meshaal on Saturday. Our correspondent is in Ramallah. I
:05:06. > :05:11.asked him for his thoughts on the latest development. You can look at
:05:11. > :05:15.this in two ways. It can be seen as a step forward towards Palestinian
:05:15. > :05:18.political reconciliation. They have now agreed on who would form the
:05:18. > :05:21.interim unity Government. The fact of the matter is that this is
:05:22. > :05:25.probably a bit of a fudge. The reason they have come up with
:05:25. > :05:29.Mahmoud Abbas to serve as President and Prime Minister, is because they
:05:29. > :05:33.could not actually agree on another name. For the last five or six
:05:33. > :05:36.months they have had talks to try and agree on the name of an
:05:36. > :05:41.independent a figure to be Prime Minister. They could not do that so
:05:41. > :05:43.they have just said, look, Mahmoud Abbas can be President and Prime
:05:43. > :05:50.Minister. I think a lot of Palestinians will be wondering how
:05:50. > :05:55.that will work. Is that an interim appointment, do you think, building
:05:55. > :05:59.up to the elections? That is what they are saying. We heard earlier
:05:59. > :06:07.in the year that the elections would be as soon as May. We
:06:07. > :06:11.understand they might experience some delay in that. These elections
:06:11. > :06:14.have been delayed over and over again. What Mahmoud Abbas is saying
:06:14. > :06:24.that he will do is to form an interim Government initially, made
:06:24. > :06:28.up our -- primarily of interim figures. If the elections don't
:06:28. > :06:32.happen, who knows what will happen? This will not change much on the
:06:32. > :06:40.ground. The fact is that the West Bank and Gaza are politically
:06:40. > :06:44.divided and geographically divided by about 50 kilometres of Israeli
:06:45. > :06:49.territory. Really you need to have one entity governing in Gaza and
:06:49. > :06:55.another in the West Bank. So much is also dependent on how the other
:06:55. > :07:02.parties do this and how they buy into it. From what you have told us,
:07:02. > :07:06.there has not been much that has been concrete in that regard.
:07:06. > :07:10.and it will be interesting to see what Israel and United States have
:07:10. > :07:14.to say. Israel has been against political reconciliation between
:07:14. > :07:24.the Palestinians because they regard Hamas as a terrorist
:07:24. > :07:25.
:07:25. > :07:32.organisation, as does the United States and the European Union. Tax
:07:32. > :07:38.funds have been held back in the past, for instance, so it will be
:07:38. > :07:41.interesting what happens. Mahmoud Abbas sees political reconciliation
:07:41. > :07:47.as a priority, rather than the peace process, which is going
:07:47. > :07:53.nowhere. If Hamas are in unity with Fatah, then in the short term that
:07:53. > :07:57.will put the peace process even further on ice than it already is.
:07:57. > :08:01.Europe's debt crisis has claimed another political scalp, and this
:08:01. > :08:05.from a country that is not even in the eurozone. Emil Boc, the Prime
:08:05. > :08:08.Minister of Romania, has resigned. He says he wants to defuse
:08:08. > :08:12.political and social tensions, and these pictures show there is plenty
:08:12. > :08:17.of that. They have been weeks of protests against the centre-right
:08:17. > :08:24.Government following pretty drastic austerity measures. Emil Boc
:08:25. > :08:29.announced his decision during the live broadcast of a Cabinet meeting.
:08:30. > :08:36.I would like to have a political discussion at this moment. As you
:08:36. > :08:43.know, from last week, I said that after the visit made by the EU
:08:43. > :08:48.Commission, the IMF and the World Bank, the Government has to pass on
:08:48. > :08:55.to another level of its political evolution. It is the moment for
:08:55. > :09:01.some important political decisions. From this point of view, I would
:09:01. > :09:07.like to tell you that I have taken the decision to resign.
:09:07. > :09:11.Romanian Prime Minister. That is a decision that the Greek Prime
:09:12. > :09:15.Minister cannot take at the moment, however he might feel! But there
:09:15. > :09:19.were rumours that he could have resigned over the weekend. He has
:09:19. > :09:23.not. It seems like a political impossibility, Mission impossible.
:09:23. > :09:29.How many times have we sat here? This is the on-going Greek tragedy,
:09:29. > :09:32.if you will. It is a crucial time for Greece. We were hoping over the
:09:32. > :09:42.weekend that the coalition Government and Lucas Papademos, the
:09:42. > :09:46.Prime Minister, would be some kind -- meet some kind of resolution.
:09:46. > :09:52.There are more spending cuts and private sector cuts but the talks
:09:52. > :09:57.broke down. They have to come to an agreement and meet the EU and IMF
:09:57. > :10:02.demands to receive the next chunk of bail-out money, $170 billion.
:10:02. > :10:07.That is the total sum of the bail- out. We have to remind everybody
:10:07. > :10:11.that come March, Greece has to pay back $19 billion of debt. If they
:10:11. > :10:16.don't get this next chunk of rescue money, they will not be able to pay
:10:16. > :10:21.back that debt. The situation worsens. They also have to get to
:10:21. > :10:25.an agreement with the Greek private creditors. That picture has not
:10:25. > :10:29.improved in terms of getting closer to a deal. On top of that, it looks
:10:29. > :10:33.like the situation for Greece continues to worsen. The EU
:10:33. > :10:40.statistics office told us that the Greek debt continues to spiral out
:10:40. > :10:45.of control. It now stands at 159.1 percent of GDP. This time last year
:10:45. > :10:49.it was 138%. In comparison, everybody else's debt is dropping,
:10:49. > :10:55.even Italian debt. I spoke to a professor in Athens and I asked him
:10:55. > :11:00.what is going wrong in Greece. Let's not forget that this is our
:11:00. > :11:07.4th year in recession. Estimates say that the economy probably
:11:07. > :11:12.declined by almost 6.5%, and the estimates for next year are also
:11:12. > :11:18.negative. That means that we are going to have negative GDP for 2012
:11:18. > :11:23.as well. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the primary deficit
:11:23. > :11:28.has not been completely eliminated. However, let's not overlook the
:11:28. > :11:33.fact that it has been decreased. Not as much as we would have liked.
:11:33. > :11:36.Let's move on with the rest of the business news. Staying with the
:11:36. > :11:41.eurozone, Angela Merkel and the German Cabinet have descended on
:11:41. > :11:44.Paris in a mission to rescue her French ally, Nicolas Sarkozy, and
:11:44. > :11:48.his struggling re-election campaign. France and Germany were soon as the
:11:48. > :11:52.twin motors of the European Union but Paris is now clearly the junior
:11:52. > :11:56.partner with its economy lagging behind.
:11:56. > :11:59.Let's turn our attention to Asia. China has banned all and lines in
:12:00. > :12:04.the country from joining the European Union's Emissions Trading
:12:04. > :12:06.Scheme, which is aimed at cutting carbon emissions. The authorities
:12:06. > :12:12.in China have also barred the Chinese airlines from increasing
:12:12. > :12:14.fares and adding new charges for the scheme. This ban comes just
:12:14. > :12:18.weeks after the China Air Transport Association said that its members
:12:18. > :12:22.did not support of the scheme. Let's get reaction on this from
:12:22. > :12:27.Brussels. Victoria Moores is the general manager of communications
:12:27. > :12:31.at the Association of European Airlines. Thank you for joining us.
:12:31. > :12:37.What is the reaction from the Association of European airlines to
:12:37. > :12:41.this official Chinese ban? It is getting political now. Yes, it
:12:41. > :12:46.absolutely is. This is what we have been deeply concerned about. We
:12:46. > :12:49.have warned about this for a long time. Other countries, non-European
:12:49. > :12:53.countries, are not comfortable with this system that Europe is looking
:12:53. > :13:00.to bring in. We are seeing an escalation of the tensions once
:13:00. > :13:02.again. We find that extremely worrying. We are going to be
:13:02. > :13:06.writing to the European Commission, urging them to escalate their
:13:06. > :13:09.action and engage with these countries and come up with a
:13:09. > :13:13.solution which is mutually beneficial. That is probably a
:13:13. > :13:20.tough task. This particular ban from china puts the EU in a tough
:13:20. > :13:24.spot. Chinese visitors to Europe spend an awful lot of money, they
:13:24. > :13:30.are a big trading partner, but under this EU Law, Europe could
:13:30. > :13:34.banned Chinese airlines from entering Europe, right? Yes, that
:13:34. > :13:39.is true but it is very much a last resort. I don't think anybody wants
:13:39. > :13:42.to get to that ultimate outcome. What we have is a window of
:13:42. > :13:47.opportunity over the next 12 months before the permits have to start
:13:47. > :13:52.being submitted. We really need to see this getting up to a global
:13:52. > :13:56.level, a solution through the UN body which is responsible for
:13:56. > :14:01.aviation. We have that window and we are urging the politicians to
:14:01. > :14:07.use this momentum to redress the situation. And not to go to the
:14:07. > :14:09.ultimate outcome, which will not help anybody. I follow the airline
:14:09. > :14:13.industry closely and they will say that there are many other measures
:14:13. > :14:18.that can help combat the environmental issues, and one of
:14:18. > :14:24.them in Europe, which has been a long saga, is the single skies in
:14:24. > :14:27.Europe. We have a single currency in the eurozone but we have 18 air-
:14:27. > :14:35.traffic control systems. That keeps the birds up in the sky longer than
:14:35. > :14:39.necessary have to be up there. is absolutely true. As an industry
:14:39. > :14:48.we have to understand that we have to decouple traffic growth because
:14:48. > :14:51.we are an industry with aviation emissions. Market growth is one
:14:51. > :14:55.part of the solution but basically we have to make sure the emissions
:14:55. > :14:59.are not created in the first place, which involves using the latest
:14:59. > :15:05.generation of aircraft, fitted air- traffic control practices, and as
:15:05. > :15:08.you mention unifying the skies. -- efficient air traffic control
:15:08. > :15:13.practices. The European Commission is backing that at the moment and
:15:13. > :15:23.we need to see further action on that. Member states are needing to
:15:23. > :15:28.
:15:28. > :15:36.We have a mixed picture in the markets, but let's turn our
:15:36. > :15:46.attention to Europe. It is the same old story, the European markets are
:15:46. > :16:00.
:16:01. > :16:05.Thanks for watching, we have more to bring you, including this -
:16:05. > :16:14.guilty of taking performance- enhancing drugs, one of the most
:16:14. > :16:18.high-profile cyclists is stripped of his Tour de France title.
:16:18. > :16:24.The problems of famine and conflict in East Africa have contributed to
:16:24. > :16:34.a growing refugee crisis. Among those who leave their homes are an
:16:34. > :16:34.
:16:34. > :16:43.estimated 2000 people from Eritrea hoping to claim asylum every month.
:16:43. > :16:47.They came hoping for a better life, but the people who flee from
:16:47. > :16:53.Eritrea are all too often subjected to a much worse fate when they
:16:53. > :16:58.crossed into Sudan. This woman was kidnapped by armed men who beat her,
:16:58. > :17:03.and then it got worse. I was held for four months, I was raped, I
:17:03. > :17:09.became pregnant and they threw me away. My baby is nine months old.
:17:09. > :17:13.Elsewhere, life seems to go on as normal, but everyone is scared they
:17:13. > :17:18.could be taken. The kidnappers typically ask for thousands of
:17:18. > :17:22.dollars. If the person can't pay, they are tortured until the
:17:22. > :17:27.relative sense the money. Many of the abductions are happening near
:17:27. > :17:30.the border, but also in this refugee camp. The scale of the
:17:30. > :17:37.problem and the terrifying stories being told are causing growing
:17:37. > :17:46.concern. These gangs are extremely active, and the roots are moving
:17:46. > :17:51.from Sudan to Egypt, Egypt to Israel, to Europe, and this is
:17:51. > :17:57.indeed a big concern. They Sudanese government says this is a simple
:17:57. > :18:02.law and order issue. Almost all of the kidnappers come from a
:18:02. > :18:08.particular ethnic group. Armhole they should not be accused of
:18:08. > :18:13.committing such crimes, but maybe some individuals in the east, and
:18:13. > :18:17.we would consider such activity as a crime to be committed by
:18:17. > :18:23.individuals, not tribes. In the camp, the victims are struggling to
:18:23. > :18:28.deal with what has happened to them. There were six, they raped me, it
:18:28. > :18:32.lasted five hours until I became unconscious. Eventually the church
:18:32. > :18:42.and friends raised a lot of money to set me free. Kidnapping here has
:18:42. > :18:53.
:18:53. > :18:57.become such a lucrative trade, it The headlines: Syrian government
:18:57. > :19:01.forces have stepped up their bombardment of the city of Homs
:19:01. > :19:06.over the last few hours. The opposition says 50 people have been
:19:06. > :19:10.killed. The two rival Palestinian factions,
:19:10. > :19:14.Hamas and Fatah, agree Mahmoud Abbas will head an interim
:19:14. > :19:18.government. I want to give you the latest on
:19:18. > :19:25.the situation from Homs because a short while ago we managed to get
:19:25. > :19:28.in touch with a local resident, and I asked him precisely what the
:19:28. > :19:34.situation was right now. situation is really terrible. They
:19:34. > :19:41.have been bombarding us from 6 am with rocket launchers. This is the
:19:41. > :19:49.first time they have hit us with rocket launchers. From 6 am until
:19:49. > :19:53.now there have been rockets landing. We have parts of bodies, we can
:19:53. > :20:00.identify 20 of them but the rest of the bodies, we can't see their
:20:00. > :20:07.faces, they do not have any faces, hands or legs. Most of the people
:20:07. > :20:12.have been killed and their houses. There are snipers all round us
:20:12. > :20:20.shooting at everybody. You can't leave this area. They have shut it
:20:20. > :20:27.down with tanks and security forces so they can bombard us with rockets.
:20:27. > :20:34.In it any worse today than it has been over the last two or 3? Of yes,
:20:34. > :20:39.this is the first time I have ever seen it like this in my life.
:20:39. > :20:48.UN gave this regime the green light to kill more. The United Nations
:20:48. > :20:52.did nothing about this yesterday. Two days ago, the regime killed 200
:20:52. > :20:57.people after they gave this decision. When they saw the United
:20:57. > :21:07.Nations did nothing about it, they saw that as a green light to kill
:21:07. > :21:14.more. We wanted the United Nations to help us, we don't care how. We
:21:14. > :21:19.our civilians, are human beings, we only want help.
:21:19. > :21:24.This severe winter weather which has swept across the UK and much of
:21:24. > :21:28.Europe in serious degree is showing little sign of weakening. Hundreds
:21:28. > :21:33.of people have died in the cold, many more have found themselves cut
:21:33. > :21:38.off, and the cold snap is putting increasing pressure on many
:21:38. > :21:43.transport links. One of the world's busiest airports, Heathrow,
:21:43. > :21:47.cancelling around half of its flights in the last 24 hours.
:21:47. > :21:53.One of the world's most high- profile road cyclist has been found
:21:53. > :21:58.guilty of taking performance drugs. Alberto Contador, whose Kabul the
:21:58. > :22:08.Tour de France in 2010, claimed he had innocently eaten contaminated
:22:08. > :22:09.
:22:09. > :22:12.meat. He will now be bound for two years, and stripped of his title.
:22:12. > :22:17.Our correspondent joins us from Madrid, a country that pleaded his
:22:17. > :22:24.case as hard as they could. That's right, Alberto Contador went to
:22:24. > :22:28.great lengths to try to prove his innocence, ever since he tested
:22:28. > :22:38.positive for the banned substance. He claimed the steroid had
:22:38. > :22:39.
:22:39. > :22:44.basically come through into his body through meet he had eaten. The
:22:44. > :22:48.Court of Arbitration for Sport today has found that he upheld the
:22:48. > :22:58.positive test, and banned him, the three-times winner of the Tour de
:22:58. > :22:58.
:22:58. > :23:07.France, from the sport for 2000 -- for two years. Her was this going
:23:07. > :23:11.down? It won't go down well in Spain. He has won the highest prize
:23:11. > :23:15.in cycling three times. He won't be able to compete in the London
:23:15. > :23:21.Olympics this year, which he was hoping to do, and effectively it
:23:21. > :23:25.will end what has been a very successful career.
:23:25. > :23:30.On February 6th, 1952, Princess Elizabeth found out that her father,
:23:30. > :23:40.King George VI, had died. At the time she was staying in the
:23:40. > :23:42.
:23:42. > :23:48.Treetops Hotel in the foothills of Kenya. Our correspondent is there.
:23:48. > :23:55.The royal visitor steps off into the hot sunshine of Nairobi. No one
:23:55. > :23:59.knew then that she would leave five days later as Queen. This place is
:23:59. > :24:04.extremely significant for the British royal family. A lot has
:24:04. > :24:09.changed in the last 60 years. In 1952, this was a British colony.
:24:09. > :24:15.Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip came here, stopping off on
:24:15. > :24:22.their way to Australia. For on her car, the Princess took film from
:24:22. > :24:30.her cine camera. They stayed in a basic tree house, which stood here.
:24:30. > :24:35.It was destroyed in 1954 during the Mau Mau rebellion. The very well-
:24:35. > :24:40.known story is that at night princess Elizabeth went up the
:24:40. > :24:45.ladder to sleep. During that night, her father King George VI died, so
:24:45. > :24:51.she went up the ladder a princess, and came down in the morning the
:24:51. > :24:56.Queen. Just after arriving here, the Princess and the Prince went to
:24:56. > :25:02.a viewing platform and watched this waterhole, a water hole that today
:25:02. > :25:07.still attracts elephants, rhinoceros, and all sorts of
:25:07. > :25:11.antelopes. This is now being renovated, and it attracts
:25:11. > :25:20.thousands of visitors every year. We managed to track down a man who
:25:20. > :25:27.worked for the Treetops Hotel way back in 1952. TRANSLATION: We met
:25:27. > :25:31.at Treetops, I helped carry the mortgage from the calf to the room.
:25:31. > :25:38.When she reached the tree house, she was just about to climb the
:25:38. > :25:48.ladder and then she saw the herd of about 100 elephants, and she was so
:25:48. > :25:49.
:25:49. > :25:54.thrilled. We are almost the same age, but most outrage have died.
:25:54. > :25:59.God has been kind to us, we are lucky to have lived this long.
:25:59. > :26:09.Police say hello to the Queen for me, I would be very pleased to see
:26:09. > :26:19.
:26:19. > :26:22.her again. The Queen's 60 years as monarch are
:26:22. > :26:25.to be celebrated today with a 41- gun salute in London's Hyde Park,
:26:25. > :26:27.followed by a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London. Two official
:26:27. > :26:30.Diamond Jubilee portrait photographs have been released of
:26:30. > :26:33.the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh taken in the Centre Room of
:26:33. > :26:36.Buckingham Palace. In a message to mark her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen
:26:36. > :26:39.promised, in her words, "to dedicate myself anew to your
:26:39. > :26:42.service," repeating a pledge she first made at the age of 21. And
:26:42. > :26:44.BBC World News will have special coverage of events marking the
:26:44. > :26:46.Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June. Let me take you over to Paris, just
:26:46. > :26:48.before we go, because President Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela