25/09/2012 BBC World News

Another confrontation in the East China Sea over disputed islands, as

the Japanese coastguard seas of Taiwanese fishing boats.

Traumatised by conflict. The children of Syria, who have

witnessed killings, torture and other atrocities. Queen Elizabeth

upset that Abu Hamza used Britain as a platform to express a violent,

hateful views. Also to come: Europe's top banker

is on a charm offensive in Germany. But the eurozone remains divided on

how to deal with debt. The closing chapter of Japan's

biggest corporate scandals. Three former top bosses plead guilty to a

Top diplomats from China and Japan are currently meeting in Beijing.

They are hoping to find a way to ease the tensions over the disputed

islands in the East China Sea. They are located along of fighting

shipping lanes and are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas. Now,

Taiwan has sailed into the affair. A flotilla of Taiwanese fishing

boats entered the waters around the archipelago, called Senkaku in

Japan and Daioyu in China. The protest was brief. But it was

political. Amassing the largest float delay in

years. Taiwan asserts its claims to the disputed islands. The boats

carried nearly 300 Taiwanese fishermen. They insist that their

waters are the traditional fishing grounds of their country, cast down

to them by their ancestors. Japan's Coast Guard vessels ordered them to

leave. But one point, they used high-pressure water cannons to try

to drive them away. Taiwan's coastguard vessels, which came to

protect the fishermen, insisted they had a right to be there and

told to Japan to leave instead. The Taiwanese boats also sprayed water

on Japanese ships. All sides are aware of the high stakes involved,

especially Taiwan. It needs Japan, not only as a trade partner, but as

a friend in the region as it faces military threats from China, which

still claims the island as its province. The Taiwanese boats did

not linger long. They headed back to Taiwan after making a point. In

Beijing, the Vice Foreign Ministers of the two major powers in the

region, China and Japan, are meeting to try to defuse tensions.

Protests in China against Japan's move have been widespread and

violent in recent days. Japan is under pressure to resolve the issue,

as two of its important neighbours, China and Taiwan, both seem

increasingly insistent. Translation one of the things we have to think

of is how to deal with all of the ships that are coming from China

and Taiwan to Senkaku, and how to keep relations stable and it wants

them. There tier one is a smaller playing this dispute, it does not

want to be left out of any negotiations. President Ma Ying-

jeou says that all sides should agree to a code of conduct and

start by a liar on a sharing of resources. But an agreement may be

a long way off. Until then, tier 1's coastguard says it will

continue to send vessels to the disputed waters to defend Taiwanese

fishermen's rights to fish there. - Amid the increased tension, China

has just announced that its first aircraft-carrier has formally

entered service. The ship, caught Leo Lane, is refurbished. They say

it will increase its capacity to defend the interests of sovereignty

and security. But it is not expected to take complaints for

some time yet. The charity Save the Children has

collected first-hand accounts of trauma suffered by children who

managed to get out of Syria. They describe experiencing torture and

witnessing atrocities, like 15- year-old Khalid. He says he was

hung up by his wrists and beaten in his old school, which had been

turned into a torture centre. Another boy, Hassan, says he saw

shabbiha create a human shield using children. The charity says

that children in Syria need urgent help. Mike Wooldridge has been

looking at the report. What the children have come up with

here are 18 first-hand accounts from refugee children they have

spoken to, that Save the Children workers have spoken to. The

accounts, in their view, amount to have shocking testimony, as they

put it. It collectively suggests that children have been the target

of brutal attacks, that they have seen, in a good number of cases,

the deaths of parents and other children. In some cases, they say

they have experienced torture. They don't necessarily suggest who is

responsible for these alleged atrocities. Nor, in many cases, is

there any time or place to make it clear exactly what happened. They

certainly believe that this, in their view, corroborate the sort of

thing we have heard before from the UN and other human rights groups.

In their view, this even more justifies the UN taking tough

action on Syria and, indeed, that there should be a process of

greater documentation of the kind that they believe they are

contributing to. Time for business news. Aran has

just bounced in. Mario Draghi, is he dancing today? He's got to do

something. He's on a big charm offensive to try to convince the

Germans that his bond buying programme, he is going to buy up

troubled debt from the eurozone economies. That has the Germans are

very worried. They think the programme=printing money. And

printing money equals higher inflation. It is definitely a major

concern and he has a major charm offensive. There is a lot going on

in the eurozone. Tomorrow, he meets Angela Merkel. There is a lot more

happening. The new high-rise headquarters of

the European Central Bank. Topped off only last week. At least 300

million euros over budget. Will they ECB President's also be over

budget with bail-outs? The ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to

preserve the euro. Whatever it takes. That phrase made German

business shudder. This business park in Berlin is a huge cluster of

high-tech companies. This is Germany's biggest science park.

8000 workers in 450 companies, virtually a hi-tech small town. New

German industry, but old German worries. Inflation. They fear that

ECB bond buying adds up to printing money. The question I will be

asking Mario Draghi is how he will really be able to put the genie

back into the bottle. That genie of inflation is all the talk of the

big conference of German business leaders now under way. These are

the people who owned and run German industry. They want answers.

would be wonderful if Mario Draghi could explain the logic behind the

ECB's recent policy moves. I think there is a misconception in Germany

about the role of central banks, given that the Bundesbank, quite

legitimately, has a point of view that is widely shared by the German

public. On the other hand, you have the ECB, which assumes a much wider

responsibility. I think it would be helpful if Mario Draghi could

explain that he is not acting in contradiction to the Bundesbank.

the new ECB rises, Germans fear it is overpowering their Bundesbank

values. Can Mario Draghi reassure Can he indeed, that is the question.

Let's move on. It is the scandal that rocked corporate Japan and

sent tremors about good governance across the globe. Olympus pleaded

guilty to charges that they covered up losses worth $1.7 billion

stemming from bad investment. Former President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa

said that he would take full responsibility for the crime and

also that the cash-strapped company could benefit from plans by Sony to

invest just over $640 million, becoming its biggest shareholder.

Let's get more from Charlie Parker. Always good to see you. Does this

draw a line? It has been a long line, but does it draw a line under

the sand with the former chairman saying, yes, I take responsibility?

As far as investors are concerned, it says that this is dealt with,

the share price and start to recover. We can stop worrying about

a love this in isolation. But it has fulfilled a lot of investor

fears about Japanese corporate governance in general. You might

even say the prejudices about Japanese businesses. It enhanced

the perception that they are run by a largely elderly Japanese

executives that are hostile to foreign executives coming in. For

that reason, the implications for the wider Japanese stock market

carry on. I am glad you touched on that. I was reading one of the

notes, one of the papers that he put out. You were saying that, on

the face of it, investors would be crazy not to buy into Japanese

customers. They are incredibly cheap, they boast globally strong

franchises, technologically they are very excellent. Yet, correct me

if I am wrong, Japan remains one of the most shunned major stock

markets in the world? Absolutely, shares are incredibly cheap

compared to other developed markets. At the heart of it is a sense from

foreign investors that they are not being represented properly at the

top of Japanese businesses. There are other factors like Japan

refusing to devalue the yen and so forth. The thing that pervades in

it is a lack of confidence in top executives. His sense that if you

buy a share in a Japanese company, you cannot count on the big

Japanese shareholders to fight short-corner. In the Olympics

scandal, very few Japanese shareholders said anything to

criticise them. The banks were silent. That really exacerbated the

problem for these shares. The country desperately needs its stock

market to be re-rated for the shares to go up in price, to help

build the economy. If we talk about an Olympus, you mentioned the

shares, cannot get past this scandal? From the reports that we

are reading, it could get by with a bit of a tie-up or investment from

Sony? That is the irony, of course. As much as we criticise Japanese

executives for being a bit of a club, they are doing exactly that.

Sony wants to take advantage of the fall in their shares over the past

year. They know they still make incredible products. I am sure that

the company can rebuild and its own right and go forward from here. It

does leave this very negative legacy on reinforcing investor

prejudice about some incredibly good companies that you find in

Tokyo. Great stuff as always, thanks very much, mate.

An interesting story indeed. I will have more business through the rest

More to come, including car with 300,000 troops suffering from post-

traumatic stress disorder, the US is finding new ways to help them.

And golf's most keenly fought Trophy gets under way into Chicago

later this week. Now it has been omitted concerns were raised before

the disappearance. This report from Ben and know. For a 5th day 15-

year-old Megan stammers remains missing, presumed in France with

her teacher, a man twice her age. Her mother made an emotional

rapport -- appeal fund its come home. I don't care what you have

done, I just want you home. Your brother is absolutely devastated.

Luke is beside himself and he wants you back. Please, darling, it just

text me, ring me. The alarm was raised when Maginn failed to arrive

at her school in Eastbourne on Friday. She is thought to have

travelled to France and a ferry from Dover on Thursday evening with

her maths teacher, Jeremy Forest, who performs as a musician. The

pair had tickets for a return ferry on Sunday evening but did not use

them. Message posted them -- by them on social media are being

evaluated and agonised by them as the French authorities continue the

-- to investigate. There is nothing here to do but waste and hope. The

deal has been struck to turn by- products from Scottish whisky to

fuel cars. It is thought to be the first time that the company has

linked up from Napier University in Edinburgh. They will use bacteria

to feed on by-products to produce full. Robots scoring hat-tricks,

throwing a mean punch, and displaying some dance moves Michael

Jackson would have been proud of. That's what visitors were treated

to this weekend at Beijing College's first ever student

robotics competition. The top stories today, with May. Taiwanese

fishing boats confront Japanese coastguard vessels in the waters

around a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea. Children

have fled Syria in which they described witnessing killing,

torture and other atrocities. The BBC learns that Queen Elizabeth

raised the case of the radical Muslim cleric, Abu Hamza, with a

former Home Secretary. The British office said it would not comment on

private conversations. Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights

ruled that Abu Hamza could be extradited from the UK to the US

where he is accused of plotting to set up a terrorist training camp in

Oregon as well as assisting hostage-taking in Yemen. Our

security correspondent has been following developments and has been

explaining Queen Elizabeth's interest in this case. This was a

conversation we had a while ago. She did say that she had mentioned

to and I don't know which Home Secretary was her, was there not

some law he had broken? It is not to say she was necessary lobbying,

but like any one she was upset that her country and subjects were being

denigrated by this man who was using his country as a platform for

his very violent, paid for be used. -- hate for dues. I'm not

suggesting her installation made any difference but she was making

her voice known. Danny Shaw has been explaining why it was

remarkable she had made such comments. Our ensure the Queen has

an opinion on a range of matters and she had discussions with the

Prime Minister on a weekly basis. She has had a number of meetings,

and conversations, and it is very unusual for the content of those

conversations to be divulged. But what we understand is that she did

express an interest in the case of Abu Hamza or an did it raised

slight concerns as to why this individual at large in the UK and

whether he could be prosecuted. Eventually he was prosecuted in

Britain and was convicted of crimes, and whether he could have been

extradited. It is unusual for the content of those conversations to

be made public. But here we have it. Dewar's Iraq and Afghanistan have

dramatically increased the number of trips to suffer from post-

traumatic stress disorder. In the US, 300,000 troops are estimated to

be effective and now the military is developing ways of helping more

veterans cope when returning home from a longer Parliament. We

visited the US military technology lab in Washington state. They are

human hamster ball and an armed guinea pig. It is the virtual-

reality technology, on child of the US military to help treat veterans

for post-traumatic stress. In this case, recreating a foot patrol in

Iraq. Or sitting in an armoured car when a roadside bomb goes off.

Bombs are a freak and core of -- cause of trauma, and recreating

what happened and recreating events is one way of getting over them.

Virtual reality may appeal to service members and they give us

the opportunity to treat some who may not coming to see us and help

us to react their trauma. It is more computer-game and sitting on

account of the psychiatrist, but the research suggests it's even

more effective. The whole idea is to submerge the patient in a re-

creation of what happened to them. With these goggles on it gives you

a sense of being behind the wheel of a tank and there is a smell that

is generated to make you feel like you're in Iraq, and then, when a

bomb goes off, you feel it in your will and for at the body. -- you

feel it in the wheel and throughout your body. Technology is helping in

all sorts of ways. Smart phone applications are designed to track

moods and help patients cope between sessions. Brian Solomon was

a bomb disposal experts in Afghanistan. After years of failed

Alec -- medication, he is trying something new. It is a pocket

therapist. These are applications for when you are sitting at home or

you're out and about. You can put in a set of headphones and no one

knows what you're doing. And in the future it will go further.

Monitoring devices linked to mobile phones, recording brainwaves, skin

temperature, and heart rate. This is a difficult thing to manage and

identified. To be able to look at my device and be able to understand

that you are having an attack, a doctor there understands these

things might be up to say here is something we need to look at.

new technology, making a dream for post-traumatic stress more

convenient and more accessible for more people. -- making access for

post-traumatic stress. The biannual battle for the golfers in Europe

and the US gets under way in the Ryder Cup today. Europe by the

offending the tricky 1-under the guidance of column Montgomerie

Celtic Manor. Now alas a bar has the challenge of retain the title.

-- retaining the title. Fresh from so cargo airport, hand-luggage. The

European captain and the Ryder Cup arrived to blue skies and a warm

welcome from American counterpart Davis Love. For the resumption of

one of sport's greatest battles. Two years ago at Celtic Manor it

was Europe and a Colin Montgomerie who celebrated. His replacement

leaves it is too close to call this time. The crowds will be rooting

for the home team and we have to be prepared for that. I have said it

all along, both teams are pretty much even. And it's going to be a

close match. After the deluge at Celtic Manor this year, conditions

are almost perfect, war and with the home advantage, the USA are

marginal favourites and they know that the peace and quiet will soon

be replaced by deafening support. Chicago is an incredible sporting

10 and they will be fired up. It's an incredible, big golf course and

I think the first tee could be the loudest any of these guys have seen.

And so the waiting is almost over. The players now have three days of

practice here before the latest chapter of one of sport's most

When South Sudan split from the North some vital issues were left

unresolved. One in particular, a disputed oil-rich region, brought

the countries to the brink of war. Now the leaders of Sudan and South

Sudan are in Ethiopia for talks where it's hoped they'll come to an

agreement on borders, security and oil. The UN is threatening

sanctions if a deal isn't reached. The BBC's James Copnall is in

Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa where the talks are taking place. Despite

several hours of talks, the comprehensive agreement has not

been reached. The outstanding issues are pretty clear. They

concern the Morda, the demilitarised buffer zone, and the

disputed reason and oil seems to be largely under control there. But

the public statements of those from both camps have become increasingly

pessimistic. Here is the south Sudanese view. We have said earlier

that any successful efforts will be dependent on Khartoum. If it is

complying and goes with regional decisions such as the UN Security

Council, and the African Union road map, we will reach an agreement. If

Khartoum does not comply with this then definitely we will face those

problems and they restore the status between South Sudan and

Sudan which will continue as a problem in security. The Sudanese

people is no more positive. One official told me he had no idea op

deal would be reached. Talks are continuing and there is a

possibility that agreement will be reached, but the signs at the

moment are not looking particularly positive. US drone strikes in

north-west Pakistan are frequently killing and injuring rescuers in

so-called "double-tap" strikes, where follow-up strikes target a

location that's just been hit. That's according to a new report

from two leading American universities. The supposed targets

are al-Qaeda and Taliban militants but the authors concluded that many

of those hit are low-level and not British doctors have alerted the

health authorities worldwide about a new potentially lethal virus. A

man from Qatar is being treated in a London hospital, presenting the

second confirmed case of this virus. The first was actually detected a

couple of years ago in Saudi Arabia. This virus is apparently very

similar to the stars virus, which killed hundreds of people in Asia

in 2003. Remember, all of these stories and the rest of the day's

news are available on the BBC News website, and you can keep right up