15/03/2012 BBC World News

The rise and fall in China of an anti-corruption campaigner, sacked

as commoners Party boss in the city of Chongqing.

After a deadly soccer riot in Egypt, 75 people are charged with murder

and negligence, including the local chief of security.

Syria's government marks the first anniversary of a bloody uprising.

Welcome to BBC World News. Also coming up in the programme:

Investigators rule out speeding as the cause of a coach crash in

Switzerland which killed 28 people, 22 of them children.

Also, are these 11,000 year-old Scholes found in China the evidence

Chinese state media have announced a major sacking within the ranks of

the ruling Communist Party. It says that the party boss in the south-

western city of Chongqing, one of the five central cities, has been

dismissed in a scandal involving his former police chief. Bo Xilai

was a high-profile politician who had been tipped for a place later

this year on the most powerful body in China, the standing committee of

the Politburo, as Martin Patience reports.

He is one of China's most high- profile politicians. Bo Xilai is

comfortable in the limelight and had been tipped for a top position

during this year's leadership change. He made his name launching

a campaign against organised crime in Chongqing, where he was party

chief, but since last month there has been intense speculation over

his future. His police chief, shown here on the right, apparently tried

to defect at a US consulate.'s's close associate is now under

investigation. -- Bo Xilai. It was this extraordinary political

scandal which now appears to have claimed Bo Xilai. On Wednesday, the

premiere took the highly unusual step of criticising his colleague

in public. TRANSLATION: The municipal party committee and

municipal government must reflect seriously on the incident. Bo Xilai

appeared withdrawn at this year's parliamentary session. He may have

already known that his days were numbered. Later this year, a new

generation of leaders will start assuming power in China. Bo Xilai

was expected to be among them, but with his career now over, he has

become a casualty in a struggle at the very top of Chinese politics.

David Zweig is a professor of social science at the Hong Kong

University of Science and Technology. I asked him what Bo

Xilai did wrong that cost him so dearly. Well, two things. We do not

know specifically what his former secret head of police had on him in

his file that he took to the American embassy and then up with

him to Beijing, to the American consulate. I assume he share that

with people in Beijing. But I think he also, with his firebrand way of

politics, he probably made the leadership nervous that if he was

put on the standing committee of the Politburo and things did not go

so well, maybe he would try a kind of populism, take politics to the

streets again, making people nervous. I think that kind of thing

might have made people nervous. you read into that, then, the sort

of people who will be appointed to the standing committee? The

majority of places are up for grabs. Well, I think we have a good sense

of who is likely to get in, and these people, some of them are not

necessarily really passive guys. I have met one or two of them, one in

particular, and he is not a... Is responsible for the party

organisation and he is not a passive guy. He is a charismatic

guy, but I think he plays within the boundaries, and I think Bo

Xilai played a little bit too much outside the boundaries.

75 people have been charged in connection with the Egyptian

football riots last month in which more than 70 people were killed.

The violence that plays in the northern city of Port Said at the

end of a match which was taking place between rival teams. Those

charged include nine police officers, along with two miners.

Jon Leyne is in Cairo. He gave me more detail on the charges. They

include the former head of security for Port Said and his deputy, and

seven other police officers, we are not sure of their ranks. Three

officials from Al-Masry, the club in Port Said where the tragic game

happened. And also football fans themselves. They are accused of

physically killing Al-Ahly fans. This seems to have come in response

to increasing pressure from Al-Ahly, the club whose fans were mostly the

victim, the club based in Cairo. They are staging a big

demonstration, several thousand people descending on the public

prosecutor's office, and they have been demanding justice for the

rights of the martyrs, and they are still not happy with what has been

announced. What are they say they have drawn all this from? Are their

confessions involved? We saw some pictures, didn't we, at the time?

We have not got any details of that. We just heard the announcement from

straight TV, but very quickly after the tragedy the security teeth in

Port Said did resign from his possession -- the security chief in

Port Said did resign from his position. It is not clear what the

evidence would be against the football fans. I would doubt that

the CCTV would be as in a British football ground, but it is possible.

In Afghanistan, the local man is stolen vehicle burst into flames at

the British base at Camp Bastion in Helmand province has died from his

burns. The Afghan worked as a translator. He was attempting to

ram the vehicle into a group of US Marines. At the same time, the US

Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta's plane was landing at a nearby

runway. Any last that also, he told reporters he had no reason to

believe he was the target. -- in the last hour or so. The American

soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians earlier and taken

to Kuwait. US officials say legal proceedings against him will be

going ahead beyond the borders of Afghanistan. The victims, nine of

them children, were shot in their homes in the early hours of Sunday.

A short while ago I was joined from Kabul by a former independent

member of Afghanistan's parliament and now a political activist. He

said the US soldier ought to have been put before a criminal tribunal

in Afghanistan. Well, I think it would be very helpful to address

the public perception in this country and take the soldier to the

crime scene or the area that his crime was perpetrated and hold a

war crimes tribunal might there. This would go a long way in

quelling the nation's frustration and narrow the gap that is widening

every day between the Afghan people, their government and the coalition.

He do not think that it would fund a further the flames of antagonism

and upset and frustrate people? The response has been extraordinary,

hasn't it? I think we have to remember one thing, that the people

of this country think that if the US and the Allies came to our

Afghanistan to protect their national interest and safeguard

their civilians from a repeat of September 11th, they also would

like to see that justice is for all human beings the same, and that the

lives of Afghans are worth the same as lives of Americans and Brits and

Italians and Germans and French. So therefore it would go a long way in

removing that perception of conspiracies that exist in the east

and the Islamic world that lives are worth differently in the east

and the West, and this trial would Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a

roadside bomb has killed at least 13 Afghan civilians in the southern

province of Uruzgan. Officials said that nine children were among those

killed on that occasion. He said the Taliban were behind the attack.

Military officials in Pakistan says Swiss couple who were held hostage

for eight months by the Pakistani Taliban have been released. The

Olivier David Och and Daniela Widmer were abducted at gunpoint as

they travelled through Balochistan in south-western Pakistan. It is

reported that they have been handed over to authorities in North

Waziristan near the Afghan border. Time now to get a look at the

business news with Rachel Horne. We are starting with South Korea.

That is right, trade ties with China might be strained, but the

United States relations with South Korea have rarely been stronger. A

free-trade agreement comes into force today which could create more

than 300,000 jobs in South Korea and boost economic growth over the

next 10 years. But not everyone is happy with the deal.

After six years of negotiating, ratifying and protesting, South

Korea's free trade agreement with the US has arrived. Starting today,

American products here should start to look a bit cheaper, and in five

years' time 95% of Trade should be tariff-free.

For lovers of American brands here in the main shopping district in

Seoul, how real will the savings be? One survey in a local newspaper

found that while some companies were planning on importing more

American products, only a quarter were come to pass on the full

reductions to their customers. But for Korea, the real value of the

deal lies in access to customers in the US. South Korea's share of the

US market has fallen, something the trade minister said he hoped the

deal would of said. Given the current eurozone crisis, the timing

of the agreement could not be any better. With this FTA, I have every

confidence that the trade sector will pick up and the business

community in both Korea and the US will enjoy the benefits of this

win-win agreement. But not everyone sees things that way. Farmers have

staged regular protests, saying the American agreement will damage

Korean agriculture by welcoming more competitive American imports.

And opposition parties have said they will try to block the deal if

they win elections this year. The US agreement may be done, but there

is still plenty of negotiating to do at home.

Another trade row seems close to conclusion. The US says it will

lift import duties on some orange juice produced in Brazil. The

Latin-American country is the world's biggest producer,

accounting for 85% of export, but influential citrus farmers in

Florida had claimed Brazil was hurting their industry by dumping

artificially cheap juice on the market.

Now, recovery and eurozone are two words rarely heard together, but

today one group of accountants has suggested there is light at the end

of the tunnel for the region. Then stand young's euros on spring

forecast is predicting a strong return to growth in 2013 as long as

politicians keep up momentum with regard to fiscal policy. Marie

Diron is a senior adviser to the forecast. How confident is she that

the currency will survive? Well, the thing that is the most likely

scenario, certainly this sense that an economic disaster was upon us at

the end of last year seems to have diminished. Now we have a structure

in place for Greece, and it will be a long road ahead. Nothing is a

given, and there is still a risk that a country of several countries

could exit the eurozone, but the impact would be disastrous on the

economy, and we think that policy makers are aware of these risks and

will do everything to keep the eurozone together.

Muffed as there has warned -- Lufthansa has warned its profits

will be slash this year. The German carrier reported a $13 million loss

for the last three months of 2011. It is already selling British

Midland International to raise money, but that sale could take

some time to go through. Fitch has become the third ratings

agency to warn the UK that it could lose its AAA credit rating. Late

yesterday it changed its outlook on the UK economy to negative, just

one week before UK finance Mr George Osborne announces his annual

budget. He is under pressure to make cuts. The managing director of

Fitch ratings had warned that the trouble I rating could come under

scrutiny a few months ago. When you look at the Al club for the UK, you

see that it will become the most indebted of the AAA rated

governments, with the sole exception of the United States. --

output. There is a possibility it could come under scrutiny. Shares

in electronics giant Cavalier the shop closed down 6% in Tokyo after

the group warned it would make sharp losses. It announced a change

at the top with a new President for the company.

Profits at China mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by

subscribers, have risen by more than 5% as its customers download

more games and video. The Hong Kong-listed company said it made

125.9 billion yuan, $20 billion, in profit last year, compared with 120

billion in 2010. The company says the buoyant economy would underpin

future growth in profits, but it also said it expects to face

And those of you wanting to challenge America's interest rate

strategy can do so via Twitter. As part of a plan to make itself more

accessible to the public, the Federal Reserve has joined the

social network site using the name @federalreserve. The central bank

says it will use it to post press releases and speeches. Let's take a

look at the markets. We are expecting news from America that

jobless claims should follow. That's it. It back to you. You're

watching BBC World News. Still to come. Are these 11,000-year-old

skulls found in China the evidence The American actor George Clooney

has given a first-hand account to a US Senate committee of the

suffering that he witnessed during a recent trip to the South Kordofan

region of Sudan. He's just returned from an eight-day visit to the

region and told the committee that civilians there have been caught up

in a conflict between rebels and the Sudanese military. These people

every single day of their lives have to deal with fear, not just of

the future in terms of starvation, but actively being killed, and that

was what the majority of what we are here to do, I'm here to talk

about the dangers of these people particularly. And the specifics are,

the exact same people who did this before other people who are doing

this again. George Clooney there. And you can get much more on that

story on the website including in depth reports on the situation in

Sudan. All that and more via the BBC.com website.

The mayor of a town in southern Italy has banned dying. He passed

the law earlier this month because the town Falciano del Massico,

which is near Naples, has run out of burial space. But as Zoe Conway

reports it's not an easy law for the residents to obey. The Falciano

del Massico cemetery cannot accommodate any more pips Paul. It

can't expand, either, because the residents are feuding with the

neighbouring town which owns the burial site -- more people. So the

mayor has felt compelled to issue an almighty edict, stating it is

forbidden for residents to go beyond the boundaries of earthly

I issued a challenge in which I said, citizens, while we await the

construction of the new cemetery, I order you not to die, so we don't

have any problems. The law has indeed proved challenging to

enforce. Within 10 days of it being passed, two elderly residents

disobeyed. It's not clear from which burial ground they are now

experiencing the afterlife. I think people have realised it has been a

challenge because we don't have the power to limit death. Only our Lord

has it. The residents are reportedly not taking the law too

seriously. Arguably, they have little choice. The mayor has not

made any public plans for This is BBC World News. The

headlines. One of China's best-known

politicians, Bo Xilai, has been sacked as Communist Party boss in

the city of Chongqing. Prosecutors in Egypt have charged

75 people in connection with last month's football riot in which more

Some breaking news out of Kabul for you. Afghanistan once the USA to

pour all its troops out of villages and relocate them in bases

according to President Kasai's office in the 2013. He told the US

Defence Secretary in a meeting that US forces should be withdrawn in

that time frame in the context of the American soldier who killed 16

villagers just four days ago. The Syrian authorities say they

have regained full control of the northwestern city of Idlib a year

to the day since the uprising in the country began. There are also

reports that some fighting is still going on on the edges of the city.

In the past 12 months, the UN says 8,000 people have been killed and

more than 200,000 have been forced to flee their homes. Today Turkey

has said that in the last 24 hours alone, some 1,000 Syrians have

crossed over the border. A short while ago our correspondent

Jonathan Head joined me from Hatay on the Turkish border with Syria

and explained how Turkey was dealing with the influx of refugees.

They are running out of space and the refugee camp behind me is one

of the oldest and they have 7,500 people here in the makeshift

buildings they have got behind me. There is a tented city behind that.

Many residents have been here since the beginning of the exodus in the

summer last year, 10 months, but new arrivals are coming into this

camp and the other six scattered along the border. The Turkish

authorities have told us they are running out of space. They are now

considering building two or three more camps to accommodate possibly

many more thousands who might come across. It's not just an attack on

the town of Idlib, but Syrian army forces going from village to

village inside Idlib, driving people out. There are people from

all different villages who have arrived at telling the same story,

their cities were fired upon for several days and the villagers just

left. They say many thousands more in the hills, a couple of

kilometres behind me, are waiting to make their way across. It's very

dangerous for them because they are fired at by Syrian troops before

they reach the border. 1,000 a day is a very high number. We expect

those numbers to continue in the next few days.

Investigations are continuing in Switzerland into the cause of the

fatal bus crash on Tuesday night which left 28 people dead,

including 22 children. The victims were on their way back to two

schools in Belgium after a skiing holiday. One possible explanation

has been ruled out. The authorities say the coach was not speeding at

the time of the accident. Nine lives have been lost here and a

teacher. Many tributes on the wall behind me are to him and a teaching

assistant. As I speak, inside the small primary school is a meeting

going on, parents, teachers, the local priest, a police, the Red

Cross, trying to decide what to do about funerals, and memorials.

Bodies being brought back and the injured coming back? How do they

welcome them? How much should children be protected from the

media? Lots of difficult questions being considered right now. Let me

show you some of the difficult front pages. This was a special

edition of one of the Flemish papers that came onto the streets

last night. At land in the sorrow. Also this is the scene from early

this morning, children bringing flowers and lighting candles to

show what they feel about losing so many. Here, those who are dead,

those who are injured. A lot of pictures obviously from the website,

the children set up because they were so excited about their skiing

trip. Children in woolly hats and goggles, waiting to come home and

share their stories. Another picture of from the website. 22

children will not be coming home. A state of shock fall this school and

for Belgium as a whole. We will bring you the latest from

Switzerland as well about the investigation about what happened

there from Chris Morris, but his report contains flash photography.

The mangled remains of the bus which crashed into a wall are now

sitting inside a police warehouse next to the motorway where the

fatal accident happened. There's no indication it was travelling too

fast. Or there was anything wrong with the road surface but the

impact of the crash was so severe the front of the bus was ripped

apart causing multiple debts and many injuries. That death. Many

parents are in Switzerland to visit either seriously injured children

in hospital or to identify the dead in a local mortuary. Belgium has

announced it will soon hold a day of national mourning. Most of those

killed in the crash were around 12 years old. When you lose an adult,

it is dramatic, but when you lose a child, there are no words. There

are no words because the pain is so personal and intense. We would so

much like to ease the pain a child is suffering in hospital. Or for

one who has perished. There are no words. The the president of

Switzerland has said her country will do everything it can to help

the injured and the bereaved. Researchers have discovered human

skulls and bones from southern China dating back more than 11,000

years which were of people that looked look quite different to us.

The researchers say that it may be a completely new species.

He lived more than 11,000 years ago. And some scientists think his kind

might be a completely new species of human which involved in Asia. --

evolved. Their skulls were found in southern China. They should look

like modern human skills but they don't. This is 100,000 years old

and you can see it as primitive features like this brow ridge of

four for this one is 30,000 years old and you can see it looks more

modern. The new discoveries from China date from just 11,000 years

ago, so you would expect them to look even more modern but instead,

they look more primitive, more like this than this. This is from...

researchers say these people are a completely new species of human a

but scientists at the Natural History Museum in London believe

that they have too many features similar to ours to be considered a

separate species. Just time to tell you we are getting word from the

Afghan Taliban say they are cutting off all talks with the United