06/02/2012 BBC World News

A new Government assault on the Syrian city of Homs. Our

correspondent reports from inside the city where 50 people are now

reported killed. Syrian troops appear to have moved up to the

perimeter of. It does not appear to be an invasion at the moment, but

it is a pretty constant stream of artillery fire and so far we

believe at least 10 people have been killed. Probably more.

The two rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, agree that Mahmoud

Abbas will meet an interim unity Government.

A rising death toll and traffic chaos. From East to West, the

extreme winter weather in Europe continues.

Welcome to BBC World News. Coming up in the programme: In Greece, a

second day of talks on austerity measures, crucial for the country

to avoid defaulting on its debt. one knew then that the bill would

arrive here as Princess Elizabeth would leave again five days later

as Queen. -- the girl that would arrive. We report from the Kenyan

holiday spot where Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne 60 years

Thank you for joining us. Syrian forces have intensified their

bombard a tea of Homs, which has been the main focus of President

Assad's regime. Local activist say that the field of battle has been

hit and there has been an explosion at an oil pipeline that feeds the

main this -- refinery in the city. Up to 50 people are reported to

have been killed. The regime is accused of encircling the city with

tanks ahead of a major offensive. There are calls for the

international community to act quickly to avoid a massacre. Paul

Wood has managed to get into the city of Homs. Reporting from there

is very difficult but he did manage to provide an update. There has

been pretty constant shelling since Six o'clock local time, two hours

ago. It sounded like mortars at the beginning. Local people are saying

that there Rom off -- there are multiple rocket launchers being

used. I am speaking from inside the building. We are trying to put as

many thick walls between us and the street as possible. It does not

appear to be an invasion at the moment but it is a constant stream

of artillery fire. We believe that 10 have been killed and probably

more so far. That is the sound of the rebel fighters, the Free Army,

as they call themselves, replying to heavy artillery with Kalashnikov

fire. That is pretty much a futile gesture. When this attack started,

some people went out into the streets, on to their balconies,

shouting that God is great. The Free Army, as they call themselves,

started firing back with small arms. Really there is nothing that this

part of Homs can do about this except take to the stairwells and

find as much shelter as possible. Paul Wood from right inside Homs.

Jim Muir is monitoring developments from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon

for us. Given the international situation has no sign of consensus

among the powers that the United Nations, I asked him for his

assessment of the role that Russia might still hope to play in

stemming the violence. The Russians are under pressure. The Foreign

Minister is arriving on Tuesday in Damascus. He will be seeing

President Assad and he will bring with him at the Russian head of the

CIEA equivalent, basically. They will presumably try to urge

restraint. The Government does seem to be regarding the UN veto by the

Russians and the Chinese as carte blanche to go ahead on the ground

and tried to finish of the Resistance. The Russians are

talking about a political solution. They would like to get a process of

reforms that President Assad has supposedly launched sped up and

more real. They would like dialogue with the opposition to start, but

they are not well placed to preside over that because their relations

with the opposition were already bad and have been made worse by the

veto on Saturday at the Security Council.

The Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has accepted leading an interim

Government which will prefer for wider election to the Palestinian

territories. -- prepare for wider elections in the Palestinian

territories. The appointment follows talks with the Hamas leader

Khaled Meshaal on Saturday. Our correspondent is in Ramallah. I

asked him for his thoughts on the latest development. You can look at

this in two ways. It can be seen as a step forward towards Palestinian

political reconciliation. They have now agreed on who would form the

interim unity Government. The fact of the matter is that this is

probably a bit of a fudge. The reason they have come up with

Mahmoud Abbas to serve as President and Prime Minister, is because they

could not actually agree on another name. For the last five or six

months they have had talks to try and agree on the name of an

independent a figure to be Prime Minister. They could not do that so

they have just said, look, Mahmoud Abbas can be President and Prime

Minister. I think a lot of Palestinians will be wondering how

that will work. Is that an interim appointment, do you think, building

up to the elections? That is what they are saying. We heard earlier

in the year that the elections would be as soon as May. We

understand they might experience some delay in that. These elections

have been delayed over and over again. What Mahmoud Abbas is saying

that he will do is to form an interim Government initially, made

up our -- primarily of interim figures. If the elections don't

happen, who knows what will happen? This will not change much on the

ground. The fact is that the West Bank and Gaza are politically

divided and geographically divided by about 50 kilometres of Israeli

territory. Really you need to have one entity governing in Gaza and

another in the West Bank. So much is also dependent on how the other

parties do this and how they buy into it. From what you have told us,

there has not been much that has been concrete in that regard.

and it will be interesting to see what Israel and United States have

to say. Israel has been against political reconciliation between

the Palestinians because they regard Hamas as a terrorist

organisation, as does the United States and the European Union. Tax

funds have been held back in the past, for instance, so it will be

interesting what happens. Mahmoud Abbas sees political reconciliation

as a priority, rather than the peace process, which is going

nowhere. If Hamas are in unity with Fatah, then in the short term that

will put the peace process even further on ice than it already is.

Europe's debt crisis has claimed another political scalp, and this

from a country that is not even in the eurozone. Emil Boc, the Prime

Minister of Romania, has resigned. He says he wants to defuse

political and social tensions, and these pictures show there is plenty

of that. They have been weeks of protests against the centre-right

Government following pretty drastic austerity measures. Emil Boc

announced his decision during the live broadcast of a Cabinet meeting.

I would like to have a political discussion at this moment. As you

know, from last week, I said that after the visit made by the EU

Commission, the IMF and the World Bank, the Government has to pass on

to another level of its political evolution. It is the moment for

some important political decisions. From this point of view, I would

like to tell you that I have taken the decision to resign.

Romanian Prime Minister. That is a decision that the Greek Prime

Minister cannot take at the moment, however he might feel! But there

were rumours that he could have resigned over the weekend. He has

not. It seems like a political impossibility, Mission impossible.

How many times have we sat here? This is the on-going Greek tragedy,

if you will. It is a crucial time for Greece. We were hoping over the

weekend that the coalition Government and Lucas Papademos, the

Prime Minister, would be some kind -- meet some kind of resolution.

There are more spending cuts and private sector cuts but the talks

broke down. They have to come to an agreement and meet the EU and IMF

demands to receive the next chunk of bail-out money, $170 billion.

That is the total sum of the bail- out. We have to remind everybody

that come March, Greece has to pay back $19 billion of debt. If they

don't get this next chunk of rescue money, they will not be able to pay

back that debt. The situation worsens. They also have to get to

an agreement with the Greek private creditors. That picture has not

improved in terms of getting closer to a deal. On top of that, it looks

like the situation for Greece continues to worsen. The EU

statistics office told us that the Greek debt continues to spiral out

of control. It now stands at 159.1 percent of GDP. This time last year

it was 138%. In comparison, everybody else's debt is dropping,

even Italian debt. I spoke to a professor in Athens and I asked him

what is going wrong in Greece. Let's not forget that this is our

4th year in recession. Estimates say that the economy probably

declined by almost 6.5%, and the estimates for next year are also

negative. That means that we are going to have negative GDP for 2012

as well. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the primary deficit

has not been completely eliminated. However, let's not overlook the

fact that it has been decreased. Not as much as we would have liked.

Let's move on with the rest of the business news. Staying with the

eurozone, Angela Merkel and the German Cabinet have descended on

Paris in a mission to rescue her French ally, Nicolas Sarkozy, and

his struggling re-election campaign. France and Germany were soon as the

twin motors of the European Union but Paris is now clearly the junior

partner with its economy lagging behind.

Let's turn our attention to Asia. China has banned all and lines in

the country from joining the European Union's Emissions Trading

Scheme, which is aimed at cutting carbon emissions. The authorities

in China have also barred the Chinese airlines from increasing

fares and adding new charges for the scheme. This ban comes just

weeks after the China Air Transport Association said that its members

did not support of the scheme. Let's get reaction on this from

Brussels. Victoria Moores is the general manager of communications

at the Association of European Airlines. Thank you for joining us.

What is the reaction from the Association of European airlines to

this official Chinese ban? It is getting political now. Yes, it

absolutely is. This is what we have been deeply concerned about. We

have warned about this for a long time. Other countries, non-European

countries, are not comfortable with this system that Europe is looking

to bring in. We are seeing an escalation of the tensions once

again. We find that extremely worrying. We are going to be

writing to the European Commission, urging them to escalate their

action and engage with these countries and come up with a

solution which is mutually beneficial. That is probably a

tough task. This particular ban from china puts the EU in a tough

spot. Chinese visitors to Europe spend an awful lot of money, they

are a big trading partner, but under this EU Law, Europe could

banned Chinese airlines from entering Europe, right? Yes, that

is true but it is very much a last resort. I don't think anybody wants

to get to that ultimate outcome. What we have is a window of

opportunity over the next 12 months before the permits have to start

being submitted. We really need to see this getting up to a global

level, a solution through the UN body which is responsible for

aviation. We have that window and we are urging the politicians to

use this momentum to redress the situation. And not to go to the

ultimate outcome, which will not help anybody. I follow the airline

industry closely and they will say that there are many other measures

that can help combat the environmental issues, and one of

them in Europe, which has been a long saga, is the single skies in

Europe. We have a single currency in the eurozone but we have 18 air-

traffic control systems. That keeps the birds up in the sky longer than

necessary have to be up there. is absolutely true. As an industry

we have to understand that we have to decouple traffic growth because

we are an industry with aviation emissions. Market growth is one

part of the solution but basically we have to make sure the emissions

are not created in the first place, which involves using the latest

generation of aircraft, fitted air- traffic control practices, and as

you mention unifying the skies. -- efficient air traffic control

practices. The European Commission is backing that at the moment and

we need to see further action on that. Member states are needing to

We have a mixed picture in the markets, but let's turn our

attention to Europe. It is the same old story, the European markets are

Thanks for watching, we have more to bring you, including this -

guilty of taking performance- enhancing drugs, one of the most

high-profile cyclists is stripped of his Tour de France title.

The problems of famine and conflict in East Africa have contributed to

a growing refugee crisis. Among those who leave their homes are an

estimated 2000 people from Eritrea hoping to claim asylum every month.

They came hoping for a better life, but the people who flee from

Eritrea are all too often subjected to a much worse fate when they

crossed into Sudan. This woman was kidnapped by armed men who beat her,

and then it got worse. I was held for four months, I was raped, I

became pregnant and they threw me away. My baby is nine months old.

Elsewhere, life seems to go on as normal, but everyone is scared they

could be taken. The kidnappers typically ask for thousands of

dollars. If the person can't pay, they are tortured until the

relative sense the money. Many of the abductions are happening near

the border, but also in this refugee camp. The scale of the

problem and the terrifying stories being told are causing growing

concern. These gangs are extremely active, and the roots are moving

from Sudan to Egypt, Egypt to Israel, to Europe, and this is

indeed a big concern. They Sudanese government says this is a simple

law and order issue. Almost all of the kidnappers come from a

particular ethnic group. Armhole they should not be accused of

committing such crimes, but maybe some individuals in the east, and

we would consider such activity as a crime to be committed by

individuals, not tribes. In the camp, the victims are struggling to

deal with what has happened to them. There were six, they raped me, it

lasted five hours until I became unconscious. Eventually the church

and friends raised a lot of money to set me free. Kidnapping here has

become such a lucrative trade, it The headlines: Syrian government

forces have stepped up their bombardment of the city of Homs

over the last few hours. The opposition says 50 people have been

killed. The two rival Palestinian factions,

Hamas and Fatah, agree Mahmoud Abbas will head an interim

government. I want to give you the latest on

the situation from Homs because a short while ago we managed to get

in touch with a local resident, and I asked him precisely what the

situation was right now. situation is really terrible. They

have been bombarding us from 6 am with rocket launchers. This is the

first time they have hit us with rocket launchers. From 6 am until

now there have been rockets landing. We have parts of bodies, we can

identify 20 of them but the rest of the bodies, we can't see their

faces, they do not have any faces, hands or legs. Most of the people

have been killed and their houses. There are snipers all round us

shooting at everybody. You can't leave this area. They have shut it

down with tanks and security forces so they can bombard us with rockets.

In it any worse today than it has been over the last two or 3? Of yes,

this is the first time I have ever seen it like this in my life.

UN gave this regime the green light to kill more. The United Nations

did nothing about this yesterday. Two days ago, the regime killed 200

people after they gave this decision. When they saw the United

Nations did nothing about it, they saw that as a green light to kill

more. We wanted the United Nations to help us, we don't care how. We

our civilians, are human beings, we only want help.

This severe winter weather which has swept across the UK and much of

Europe in serious degree is showing little sign of weakening. Hundreds

of people have died in the cold, many more have found themselves cut

off, and the cold snap is putting increasing pressure on many

transport links. One of the world's busiest airports, Heathrow,

cancelling around half of its flights in the last 24 hours.

One of the world's most high- profile road cyclist has been found

guilty of taking performance drugs. Alberto Contador, whose Kabul the

Tour de France in 2010, claimed he had innocently eaten contaminated

meat. He will now be bound for two years, and stripped of his title.

Our correspondent joins us from Madrid, a country that pleaded his

case as hard as they could. That's right, Alberto Contador went to

great lengths to try to prove his innocence, ever since he tested

positive for the banned substance. He claimed the steroid had

basically come through into his body through meet he had eaten. The

Court of Arbitration for Sport today has found that he upheld the

positive test, and banned him, the three-times winner of the Tour de

France, from the sport for 2000 -- for two years. Her was this going

down? It won't go down well in Spain. He has won the highest prize

in cycling three times. He won't be able to compete in the London

Olympics this year, which he was hoping to do, and effectively it

will end what has been a very successful career.

On February 6th, 1952, Princess Elizabeth found out that her father,

King George VI, had died. At the time she was staying in the

Treetops Hotel in the foothills of Kenya. Our correspondent is there.

The royal visitor steps off into the hot sunshine of Nairobi. No one

knew then that she would leave five days later as Queen. This place is

extremely significant for the British royal family. A lot has

changed in the last 60 years. In 1952, this was a British colony.

Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip came here, stopping off on

their way to Australia. For on her car, the Princess took film from

her cine camera. They stayed in a basic tree house, which stood here.

It was destroyed in 1954 during the Mau Mau rebellion. The very well-

known story is that at night princess Elizabeth went up the

ladder to sleep. During that night, her father King George VI died, so

she went up the ladder a princess, and came down in the morning the

Queen. Just after arriving here, the Princess and the Prince went to

a viewing platform and watched this waterhole, a water hole that today

still attracts elephants, rhinoceros, and all sorts of

antelopes. This is now being renovated, and it attracts

thousands of visitors every year. We managed to track down a man who

worked for the Treetops Hotel way back in 1952. TRANSLATION: We met

at Treetops, I helped carry the mortgage from the calf to the room.

When she reached the tree house, she was just about to climb the

ladder and then she saw the herd of about 100 elephants, and she was so

thrilled. We are almost the same age, but most outrage have died.

God has been kind to us, we are lucky to have lived this long.

Police say hello to the Queen for me, I would be very pleased to see

her again. The Queen's 60 years as monarch are

to be celebrated today with a 41- gun salute in London's Hyde Park,

followed by a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London. Two official

Diamond Jubilee portrait photographs have been released of

the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh taken in the Centre Room of

Buckingham Palace. In a message to mark her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen

promised, in her words, "to dedicate myself anew to your

service," repeating a pledge she first made at the age of 21. And

BBC World News will have special coverage of events marking the

Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June. Let me take you over to Paris, just

before we go, because President Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela