17/01/2013 BBC World News

That is close to the Libyan border. Two people are known to have died

when the plant was stormed on Wednesday. Dozens are being held

hostage. There are reports that 30 Algerians and 15 foreign Hospice --

hostages may have escaped. The complex, deep in the Algerian

desert is the focus of this stand- off. According to some reports,

there were clashes overnight between Algerian troops and heavily

armed asked -- hostage takers. Governments around the world are

swinging into action. Japan has set up a special government task force.

TRANSLATION: Firstly, I would like to say these kinds of acts are

unforgivable. After hearing the news last night, I said, at giving

priority to the lives of the people. Second, gather as much information

as possible. Co-ordinate as closely as possible with the relevant

nations. On a visit to Rome, the UN Defence Secretary told reporters

that the United States would take all necessary and proper steps to

deal with the crisis, without specifying what those steps might

be. The besieged plant is in the east of Algeria, close to the

Libyan border. To the west is Mali, where the Government has been

battling Islamist insurgents. The French have stepped in with the

assistance. The group behind the kidnappings has said it is why it

did it. Exactly what the demands up of its leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar,

who has made millions from kidnappings in the past, remains

unclear. The British government is holding emergency meetings. The

Foreign Office has condemned the killing of a Britain in one of the

storming full stubbed it is cold- blooded murder. -- at the storming

of. It is now reported that some 30 local workers have managed to

escape from the complex as Algerian authorities continue to seek a

solution to this incident. That hostage crisis in Algeria has its

roots in the continuing conflict in Mali. Up to 3,000 troops from

across West Africa are preparing to join the military operation, begun

by the French, in support of the Malian government. They are trying

to push back Islamist rebels, who have been securing territory across

northern and central Mali. EU diplomats have agreed to send

military trainers to Mali. Troops from Chad and Nigeria are boarding

planes. Our reporter is in a northern Algerian town as the

troops prepare to leave her. The Nigerian forces are in high spirits.

They will be going to Mali over the next few days. 900 will reach Mali.

They will become the bulk of the forces from West Africa. It will be

a difficult place to go and fight. In the north of the country, the

terrain is very harsh. Nigerians have plenty experience. There has

been fighting in Darfur. Also there is experienced in countries like

Sierra Leone and Liberia. One of the issues for Nigeria is, here in

the north of the country, they have been fighting against an Islamist

insurgency for the past few months. It has been a very difficult fight.

It has also given them relevant experience. What is clear is this

conflict in Mali is becoming internationalised. More from the

region shortly. First, an update on the business news. It is midnight

there now for Dreamliner. Are any flying? We are just waiting for

Ethiopian Airlines to make a decision. They are alone. We have

just had Qatar same their grounding all their planes. The problems of

Dreamliner arch -- are going global. Air safety regulators have

officially grounded all of the planes. That is all pending these

investigations into a fire risk, caused by the batteries in be

aeroplanes. On Wednesday, All Nippon Airways was forced to make

an emergency landing. That followed a string of other problems. Let me

just add to this. There may be one silver lining when all of those

clouds gathered over the Boeing Dreamliner. The main rival, at

least one of their planes - the Airbus - has been overtaken by

Boeing as the top-selling plane maker in 2012. The Dreamliner is

bowing'his vision of the future of air travel. -- Boeing's. It helped

it win some 1200 aeroplane orders in 2012. Airbus instead developed a

double-decker, which packed in over 500 passengers on a flight. It is

the Dreamliner which course -- caught the imagination and Airbus

is trying to catch it up. When you look at the combined sales, you are

talking 1300, 1400 units, compared with about 280 sales for the A380.

This direct service with the long haul capable wide-body twin is

actually the way forward. Airbus and Boeing make most of their

profits not from long-haul giants but single aisle planes used for

short-haul flights. Both companies are bringing out new versions with

more fuel efficient engines. Cost- conscious airlines have been

ordering hundreds of them. First they favoured Airbus. More latterly

they have been favouring Boeing. Airbus was first off the mark a few

years ago and brought in a few engine efficient models. That was

very popular and they flocked to order it. It was not until last

year that Boeing had a competing version. That has proved popular as

well. 2012 was the year for Boeing against Airbus. The grounding of

extreme miners in Japan little over a year after their launch has been

a blow to its reputation. -- Dreamliner us. Airbus has promised

an alternative. Let's just day with this story. The head of Airbus has

been speaking at a press conference about the company's latest results.

It says it is on track to do even better this year - 2013. That was

not enough to be bowing, which has overtaken Airbus. It has praised

the decision by the US aviation regulators to ground the aeroplanes.

They say it is not their place to make such decisions. Both Boeing

and Airbus give the same priority to safety. This is paramount. By

the way, the track record of safety in 2012 was excellent, to my

knowledge, for both companies. There is a decision and this

decision confirms again that the air transport is probably one of

the safest transport around the world. When there is a doubt, yes,

it is better to look at it very carefully. OK, let's move on. Let's

talk about the Greek divide. Ordinary Greeks are suffering

biting austerity. There has been fury at the tax scandal that goes

right to the top. Greek parliament votes on whether to investigate top

politicians, including two former prime ministers and the ex Finance

Minister for tampering with the list of suspected tax invaders -- e

Vedas. The names were passed on by the format Finance Minister. -- the

former Finance Minister. Just for viewers around the world, let's do

this in an at Shell and explain the story. Christine Lagarde handed a

list of the tax evaders to the Greek government in 2010. Since

then, a few of the names have been removed from the list and no

government has done anything about it. It has all the makings of a

real-life political thriller. You have ministers and alleged cover

ups. Suspected tax evasion. It reads like a spy novel. The tour

starts in 2010 with a list of 2000 Greeks in Geneva. It was leaked by

a bank employee and given by Christine Lagarde to George

Papaconstantinou. He, and his successor, are accused of failing

to act upon the list until it was leaked by an investigative

journalist with three names missing - all relatives of George

Papaconstantinou at the start today, the Greek parliament is debating

whether to launch a criminal investigation on George

Papaconstantinou. He denies any involvement. Peace as he did not

doctored the list and has been made a scape goat. -- he denies. Greeks

have been captivated by it every twist and turn. For them, it

highlights the inequality gap between the wealthy and the poor,

which has grown. Corruption eats at the heart of this country will

start they are desperate to find somebody to blame, somebody to

punished for the mess this country is in. Could this be that moment

for ordinary Greeks? We will talk to you very soon. Let's take a look

at the markets. You can see it right here, there has been positive

news from the United States. Mild inflation. That means they can keep

on the path to research the struggling economy. All eyes and

ears in Europe are still on the eurozone. In particular, around the

corner in February, the Italian election. Many are asking, could

that rocks the whole eurozone vote? That is it. You are with BBC World

news. We are about to take you inside one of the most powerful and

influential locations around the world that few outsiders ever

experience. The BBC has been given rare access to broadcast live from

inside the Kremlin, right inside the heart of Moscow. It is an

historic palace and the seed of Russian power, with the official

residence of President Vladimir Putin. Let's go live to inside the

Kremlin and our Moscow correspondent. Welcome to the

cathedral square inside the Kremlin walls. A very snowy Cathedral

Square. We only got here this morning and all the snow had been

cleared. There has been a snowstorm since then. This is the official

residence of Vladimir Putin. Behind is the official office - the office

from where this country is officially Ram. We have been

talking about repressive reputations of Russian leaders in

the past. What about Vladimir Putin? He has come into a lot of

criticism. The first Prime Minister has become a great advocate for

greater democracy and free-market reforms. I asked him if he saw any

echoes today from those governments of the past. Yes, of course there

are echoes - a lot of echoes of that time. A completely different

situation. I would say, the country is different. Of course, Russia is

not comparable with the Soviet Union. It is a totalitarian part of

history. President Putin is firmly set in his third term. We can get

an idea now of what this third six- year term is going to be like. What

are you seeing, positive and negative, from how it looks as if

he is going to run the country in the next few years? We will

continue to get power by it all means. That is why we could not -

will not - have any development, I would say. We will continue to come

to stagnation more and more. Also in the moral. The changes in

Russian society is inevitable. That is why the issue of Time. We do not

want revolution. That means free and fair elections. Elections that

control civil society but not the civil services. How would that help

the development of Russia? As soon as we re-establish all those

freedoms, and people will understand that personal freedom is

the major value ended his respected by all authorities and by the

President, the Government and parliament. People will start to

behave differently. That is personal freedom and would give

them encouragement that there would be a new inspiration to deal with

the business and then the signs and culture, etc. We need to install

such an understanding that private property is untouchable. And the

same level as a property is equal for Equality and the Government and

the state are applied to defend the private property. That is the basic

constitution for development of market economy. Of course, it will

From the leader of Russia today, to be leaders of the past. I am now

inside the cathedral. This is where the Sans were crowned. Where they

got married and baptised their children. This is the Cathedral of

the Archangel. This is where these ares were buried. They are all

around me. These are their tombs. This is the tomb of Michael I, the

founder of the Romanov dynasty. The BBC's Daniel Sandford there

inside the Kremlin. Thank you. Stay with us, still to come: A

state of emergency declared in Jakarta as floods submerged parts

of the Indonesian capital. At least four people have died, 20,000 are

evacuated. Who went Antarctica? For half a

century, the question, like the Continent, remains frozen -- who

owns Antarctica. Part of it was named in honour of Queen Elizabeth,

for the jubilee celebrations. The problem is Chile has claimed the

same area. The icy wastes at the bottom of the

world. Wild and magnificent. Can they, should they, belong to any

one? On Tuesday, President Pinera of Chile flew in to restate his

country's claim to a stake -- a slice of the Continent. P planted a

flag in the ice at what will become Chile's latest research station and

said the country was there to stay. TRANSLATION: Today we are taking

another step to strengthen our Antarctic presence. This new base

will be one of the closest to the South Pole, after the Americans and

the Chinese. It will allow us to protect our nation towards this

Continent, the Continent of the future. Before the 19th century, no

one knew Antarctica even existed. In the 20th, countries started to

claim slices of it, beginning with Britain. Those claims were never

fully recognised and just over 50 years ago, a treaty was signed to

prevent new ones and keep the Continent free of military or

industrial development. But the many territorial claims have not

been abandoned. Britain's overlap almost entirely with chilli and

Antarctica. An area of the Antarctic, and area... Last month,

the British government named part of Antarctica Queen Elizabeth Land

to mark the monarch's Diamond Jubilee. That provoked a protest

from Argentina. Now the Chilean government is planting a research

base in the same area. Sofa, everything is friendly at the

bottom of the world but the question of who owns all this

emptiness is not entirely frozen. Thousands of native Canadians have

held a day of action across the country. That is over their long-

running demands for better living conditions for indigenous peoples.

You are with BBC World News. These are the latest headlines: Islamic

militants holding foreign nationals hostage at an Algerian gas plant

say they will only negotiate if government forces withdraw. This,

as Algeria's official news agency is reporting some 30 hostages may

have escaped. Hessay for regulators in Europe,

the United States, India and Japan have grounded Boeing's Dreamliner,

pending an investigation into a fire risk. At Somali militants say

they have executed a French hostage who was the subject of a failed

military rescue attempt at the weekend.

Dennis Alex, a French agent had been held by Al-Shabab since 2009.

French special forces tried to rescue him last Saturday, but they

failed. Al-Shabab have used their Twitter feed to claim the group

executed him last Wednesday evening. But it is believed he may have been

killed during the failed rescue mission. The intelligence suggested

that he was. They responded by saying it is the most heinous type

of propaganda. They have made use of what happened at the weekend. A

bit of detail about the operation. It was run by Special Operations

Command which is the French equivalent of the SAS, supported by

the three French forces. About 50 commandos were involved. There was

a fierce 40 minute gunfight to try and rescue Dennis Alex. It did not

go particularly well. Two commandos were killed. The feeling was he had

been killed during the operation. Now to Indonesia. Flooding in

Jakarta has brought the city to a standstill causing several deaths

and forcing thousands of people to evacuate the area. A state of

emergency has been declared in the capital, part of which are reported

to be under two metres of water. The BBC's Indonesia correspondent

Karishma Vaswani has more details. Jakartans are still trying to find

some intrepid ways of getting to work in this intrepid City, despite

the rising flood waters. I am in the central business district. All

around me people are trying to get to work, wading through knee-high

water, sometimes finding refuge here in the city. This is an area

that is surrounded by some of the biggest department stores in

Jakarta and some of the fanciest hotels. This area of the city is

never as badly affected as it has been this time round. You can see a

few public buses have been stranded because they cannot move any more

because the water has reached far too high. Officials have warned

that over the next few days, we could see even more rain that would

mean waters in this part of the area and Jakarta would also

continue to rise. Already, residents and some of the low-lying

areas have talked about waters reaching two to three metres high.

The Indonesian President has spoken with the national disaster agency

and said all steps should be taken to protect Jakarta's citizens but

so far there have not been any specific measures implemented yet.

Over the past two am -- over the past four but three years, the

statistics have become more familiar. Half of Spain young

people are out of work. The country has just ended its third recession

in four years. What is it like to live through such tough, austere

times? For the first of our reports are in our new winter in Europe

series, Katya Adler has been talking to families in the Spanish

town of Alcala de Henares which has been hard hit by the recession.

For David and Raquel, 7 o'clock in the morning means time to get ready

for school, however reluctantly. Their routine never changes. Unlike

that of their parents. Spain's economic crisis has turned their

lives upside down. Mum Margarita lost her job a while ago. A husband

has been told he is about to lose his. A loving kiss at the school

gates. All over Spain, parents are trying to stay cheerful for their

children. Behind many of the smiling faces lies a harsh reality.

And of course, the children notice. The situation affects us all,

Margaretha tells me, as she drives home from school. We are serious

all the time now, she says. Raquel cries a lot and David asks if we

will have enough money for food when his dad is out of work. 6

million people are already employed in Spain. Once out of a job here,

you are unlikely to find a new one. This man and his fellow workers

have organised a round-the-clock protest outside their factory, to

try and persuade bosses to slash wages instead of jobs. The men tell

me they are desperate. Some have worked in a factory for decades, as

their fathers did before them. TRANSLATION: Our company keeps

talking about lay-offs but we are not numbers, we are people with

mortgages to pay. Ask any of us here. This is the worst thing that

could happen. I am the pillar of my family. If I fall, the whole thing

collapses. It is freezing outside so the guys are taking it in turn

to come in here to grab a bite surrounded by pictures drawn by

their children. There have sad messages. One says my dad does not

bring in any money any more. People have been telling me that if they

lose their job, the whole family suffers. Often now in Spain, it is

the grandparents who are picking up the pieces. Raquel and David's

grand mothers have come to see them. Their support is not just emotional.

They help financially where they can, although they live on a basic

state pension. Spare pennies are saved for David's music lessons. He

dreams of being a violinist but prospects for Spanish and

youngsters are bleak. People talk of a lost generation.

We have been hearing about winter in Europe. On the other side of the

world, bush fires continue to burn in the intense heat of the

Australian summer. This is Warrumbungle National Park in the

north-west of not -- New South Wales. Locals are worried fires

will spread to the town of Coonabarabran. Already, 40,000

hectares of land have been scorched and homes have been lost.