:00:12. > :00:17.Hello, welcome to BBC World News. Our top stories: An attack by the
:00:17. > :00:20.Taliban in Kabul. A gun battle at a police compound
:00:20. > :00:25.has ended. Day one of India's gang-rape trial
:00:25. > :00:28.has ended. Five men are accused of rape and murder, and have appeared
:00:28. > :00:32.in court. Heavy snowfall leaves hundreds
:00:32. > :00:35.stranded at Europe's busiest airports.
:00:35. > :00:38.We have the very latest from our weather centre.
:00:38. > :00:48.And, new research suggests the smoking ban in England has led to a
:00:48. > :01:00.
:01:00. > :01:03.big improvement in asthma rates in An eight-hour attack on the traffic
:01:03. > :01:05.police headquarters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has ended,
:01:05. > :01:08.according to the police. Heavily- armed insurgents detonated a
:01:08. > :01:12.suicide bomb, and a car bomb, before entering the building. The
:01:12. > :01:14.authorities say that three police officers have been killed, together
:01:14. > :01:24.with five attackers. Our correspondent Quentin Sommerville
:01:24. > :01:25.
:01:25. > :01:30.is in Kabul. Those five attackers had suppliers
:01:30. > :01:35.of food, they were heavily armed. The attack began at dawn. A few us
:01:35. > :01:44.later, it was over. Oh early-morning near the traffic
:01:44. > :01:52.headquarters in Kabul. A massive car bomb is triggered. The
:01:52. > :01:56.explosion could be seen and heard for miles. Afghan Special Forces
:01:56. > :02:03.arrived to retake the building, but this fight would last for more than
:02:03. > :02:10.80 hours. This man said, we heard a huge bang, then the electricity
:02:10. > :02:15.went off. After that, there was gunfire, you can hear it continuing.
:02:15. > :02:20.Hours later, the upper floor of the headquarters caught fire. Inside,
:02:20. > :02:25.the Taleban attackers fired back with machine guns and grenades.
:02:25. > :02:30.We have been hearing more gunfire and large explosions for half-an-
:02:30. > :02:40.hour. This is the second major attack on a government building in
:02:40. > :02:41.
:02:41. > :02:45.Kabul in the space of one week. Later, reinforcements arrived.
:02:45. > :02:50.Norwegian Special Forces joined them, but still the heavily armed
:02:50. > :02:54.Taleban attack has fought back. This is a city which is well
:02:54. > :02:58.prepared for this type of Taleban assault. The government responded
:02:58. > :03:04.with force but still could not bring these attacks to a quick end
:03:04. > :03:09.or prevent them from happening. Why did they choose the traffic
:03:09. > :03:13.headquarters? The Taleban say it was because they were targeting
:03:13. > :03:18.foreign trainers in the building. As is often the case, no foreigners
:03:19. > :03:23.were killed in that attack. What are people saying about the
:03:23. > :03:28.ability of the Taleban to do this in the centre of Kabul, the second
:03:28. > :03:32.attack in a week? That is right, we have seen
:03:32. > :03:39.consistently, despite the considerable security in place here,
:03:39. > :03:43.in Kabul, it is like a fortress, the Taleban can still mount these
:03:43. > :03:50.sophisticated attacks, and get their men and suppliers in and
:03:50. > :03:53.attacked some of the most secure buildings. More needs to be done in
:03:53. > :04:01.terms of gathering intelligence to prevent these attacks happening in
:04:01. > :04:04.future. The five men accused of the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-
:04:05. > :04:08.old woman in Delhi have arrived in court this morning, for what's
:04:08. > :04:11.being described as a fast track trial. A sixth suspect, who claims
:04:11. > :04:15.he is 17, will be heard by a separate juvenile court. It's a
:04:15. > :04:25.case that has shocked India, and triggered a wider debate about the
:04:25. > :04:29.
:04:29. > :04:33.treatment of women. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder is in Delhi.
:04:33. > :04:37.There was a fairly brief, incredibly dramatic proceedings
:04:37. > :04:44.which hardly lasted very long. It started with the judge announcing
:04:44. > :04:47.proceedings from now on will bid closed to the media, he asked the
:04:47. > :04:52.media in the court room to leave, he did not give a reason why he had
:04:52. > :04:56.made that decision. The five accused were produced, the charges
:04:56. > :05:00.made, and he said the next hearing would take place on Thursday when
:05:00. > :05:06.we understand that the defence lawyers will start to challenge the
:05:06. > :05:10.prosecution, including challenging and contesting the charge of murder.
:05:10. > :05:15.At least one ploy has told the media they will argue that the
:05:15. > :05:20.charge of murder should not stick, because they say it is not what led
:05:20. > :05:25.to the death of the young woman. They will argue there was medical
:05:25. > :05:30.negligence. Separately, one lawyer for the defence has asked the
:05:30. > :05:36.Supreme Court to move the truck outside Delhi, because of the
:05:36. > :05:40.intense media scrutiny been placed on the judge. He said his client
:05:40. > :05:44.could not get a fair trial. That hearing we understand will take
:05:44. > :05:48.place tomorrow when the Supreme Court will decide whether to
:05:48. > :05:53.acknowledge that and decide to move the hearing out of Delhi, or carry
:05:53. > :05:59.on as usual. We have seen again how much public attention has been
:05:59. > :06:04.placed on this trial, how much it is leading to public introspection
:06:04. > :06:10.on how women are treated. There was another protest outside the court
:06:10. > :06:20.room today. Protesters say it is not enough to enforce law but then
:06:20. > :06:27.
:06:27. > :06:32.these to be a public campaign. The details are emerging about the
:06:32. > :06:37.storming by Algerian troops were 80 people are thought to have died.
:06:38. > :06:43.Algerian forces are reported to have captured several militants
:06:43. > :06:47.arrive -- alive. The debris of a ferocious fight,
:06:47. > :06:52.Algerian forces dealt with the militants in their accustomed way,
:06:52. > :06:56.with force. And without protracted negotiation. They say if they
:06:56. > :07:01.hadn't acted, the complex could have been blown up and hostages
:07:01. > :07:06.were already been killed. Searching the site, they found more bodies.
:07:06. > :07:12.It now looks as if the 80 people had been killed, 48 of the dead
:07:12. > :07:18.were hostages from the Philippines, Japan, the UK, Romania, Colombia,
:07:18. > :07:24.Canada and the US. 20 hostages are not accounted for. 32 hostage
:07:24. > :07:29.takers were killed. The lucky survivors have now left the desert
:07:29. > :07:34.and had been flown home. It has sent north African Islamic
:07:34. > :07:39.militancy to the top of Western politicians priorities. In the UK,
:07:39. > :07:43.another meeting of the emergency Cabinet committee. The British
:07:43. > :07:49.Foreign Secretary has pointed to Somalia as a model for action.
:07:49. > :07:53.The strong African forces engaged in fighting terrorist organisations,
:07:53. > :07:58.funded by the EU but it is the African forces which do the actual
:07:58. > :08:03.fighting and manoeuvring. And strong humanitarian and diplomatic
:08:03. > :08:08.support from the rest of the world, including the United Nations.
:08:08. > :08:13.man who is claimed to behind the kidnapping is Mokhtar Belmokhtar,
:08:13. > :08:18.his group has threatened to carry out more attacks unless Western
:08:18. > :08:23.powers end what it calls an assault on Muslims in Mali. The Algerian
:08:23. > :08:28.army has put on display the arms allegedly found at the gas plant.
:08:28. > :08:37.If this is the Arsenal, the question of what is needed now to
:08:37. > :08:42.guard Algeria have has become even more urgent.
:08:42. > :08:46.We go over to Mali, latest reports say French forces had entered the
:08:46. > :08:55.central town of which was captured by Islamist rebels last week. 2000
:08:55. > :09:00.French troops are helping end the fight Against the rebels. We have
:09:00. > :09:04.been finding out how well the forces are working together.
:09:04. > :09:08.It is obvious here that the government army has limited
:09:08. > :09:17.capacity compared with the French. They are working together where
:09:17. > :09:22.they can, if only for public relations purposes. The reason the
:09:22. > :09:28.Army is quite week is because they were thrown out of the north only
:09:28. > :09:33.last year, when the Islamists took control of the Sahara desert part
:09:33. > :09:37.of northern Mali. That led to demoralisation, some army officers
:09:37. > :09:46.felt they weren't being supported by politicians, so they mounted a
:09:46. > :09:49.military coup which led to issues with the command and control. There
:09:49. > :09:55.are some government soldiers over here. I will see if I can talk to
:09:55. > :10:04.them. The these guys are resting, they
:10:04. > :10:08.have come back from the front line. The sergeant in charge of them has
:10:08. > :10:18.just returned. What is the situation on the front line just
:10:18. > :10:19.
:10:19. > :10:25.north of here? The sergeant says that they had to
:10:25. > :10:30.withdraw, because the population was in danger, a danger because the
:10:30. > :10:37.Islamists were mixed up with them and civilians were being killed. He
:10:37. > :10:41.is confident they can get in there, and it will be very soon.
:10:41. > :10:51.Hundreds of flights across western Europe have been affected by heavy
:10:51. > :10:51.
:10:51. > :10:57.snow and icy conditions. Frankfurt, Heathrow, Paris, all badly affected.
:10:57. > :11:02.We have more, what has been happening?
:11:02. > :11:06.I don't think it is necessarily the mark of snow which has fallen in
:11:06. > :11:11.any one location. It is a sensitive area of Europe would be a big and
:11:11. > :11:18.busy airports. All these airports seem to have been affected by the
:11:18. > :11:25.same snowy weather system at once. Heathrow, in the last 24 hours, 10
:11:25. > :11:30.centimetres of snow, as across much of the UK. Again, it is not
:11:30. > :11:36.necessarily the snow which is the problem. We have the de-icing,
:11:36. > :11:42.reduced visibility. With reduced visibility, the aeroplanes need to
:11:42. > :11:48.be spaced out more, which means it takes them longer to get in and out
:11:48. > :11:53.of airports. Similar conditions in France. We have that knock on
:11:53. > :12:00.effect, if one airport gets a lot of snow, the others are affected.
:12:00. > :12:07.Air France, 40% of flights into Paris were cancelled. Air France is
:12:07. > :12:15.expecting on Monday, again, we will sit around 40%, similar amounts
:12:15. > :12:21.cancelled. Further east, Frankfurt. A little bit more used to the
:12:21. > :12:28.conditions. Again, when western Europe gets affected, it affects
:12:28. > :12:35.Frankfurt. The next few days, or snow is possible.
:12:35. > :12:39.A lot of us were apprehensive getting to work today.
:12:39. > :12:42.Stay with us, we've got more coming up here on BBC World News. The
:12:42. > :12:52.latest James Bond movie, Skyfall, is released in China, but it's gone
:12:52. > :12:54.
:12:54. > :13:00.through an extra session in the cutting room.
:13:00. > :13:05.Let us go live to the White House where President Barack Obama will
:13:05. > :13:11.have his public inauguration, to begin his second term in office. It
:13:11. > :13:17.is still dark there at the moment. We did see him being sworn in on
:13:17. > :13:22.Sunday. That was behind closed doors, it had to be done by the
:13:22. > :13:32.dead lie in 20th January, but the public version will be happening in
:13:32. > :13:33.
:13:33. > :13:37.a few hours -- deadline. He will be delivering his inaugural address in
:13:37. > :13:45.a few hours. A crowd of up to 700,000 people are expected to
:13:45. > :13:49.attend. That compares to the 2 million people who were there on
:13:49. > :13:56.January 20th four years ago, to watch it unfold, for his first term,
:13:56. > :14:02.when he made history and was sworn in the first time. The second term
:14:02. > :14:07.not attracting so much of a crowd, still, 700,000 people braving the
:14:07. > :14:13.winter weather in Washington. We will bring you live coverage of
:14:13. > :14:17.that a little later on BBC World News.
:14:17. > :14:22.Some of the other stories. Police in Austria have voted to
:14:22. > :14:32.keep compulsory military service. At the moment, or Austrian men must
:14:32. > :14:34.
:14:34. > :14:39.serve six months in the military or nine months Mick -- work.
:14:40. > :14:43.Columbia's rebel group has said it has ended the temporary ceasefire.
:14:43. > :14:48.The rebels had declared a unilateral truce when negotiations
:14:48. > :14:51.began in Cuba but the Colombian government has refused to halt
:14:51. > :14:56.military operations against them until a final peace accord is
:14:56. > :14:59.achieved. Just when you thought it was safe
:15:00. > :15:08.to go back in the water, let us show you some incredible pictures,
:15:08. > :15:15.a shark, here in Australia, in a shallow waters where people were
:15:15. > :15:25.bathing. Luckily, this 62-year-old British tourist sent it packing. It
:15:25. > :15:31.
:15:31. > :15:36.is thought the shark was Let's remind you of the latest
:15:36. > :15:42.headlines. A Taliban attack on Kabul's traffic police headquarters
:15:42. > :15:46.has ended. By suicide attackers and three policemen died in the assault.
:15:47. > :15:52.Five men have appeared in court in Delhi on the first day of India's
:15:52. > :15:56.gang rape trial. They are accused of rape and murder. Senior
:15:56. > :16:00.officials from the United Nations are in Syria to assess the scale of
:16:00. > :16:04.the humanitarian crisis there. The UN estimates that the civil war has
:16:04. > :16:08.left around 4 million people in need of help. In December, it
:16:08. > :16:13.launched an appeal for more than $1 billion but a me a tiny fraction of
:16:13. > :16:16.that amount has been promised so far. The BBC's James Reynolds is on
:16:16. > :16:21.the turkey Syria border, where he has found many groups are staking a
:16:21. > :16:27.claim to the same piece of land. A minute Turkish town which is
:16:27. > :16:34.right on the southern edges of this country. About 40 metres away from
:16:34. > :16:39.us is Syria. President Assad's forces have withdrawn from that
:16:39. > :16:44.town and residents here say that the government last tried to bomb
:16:44. > :16:50.the town about two months ago. But the war in that town continues. It
:16:50. > :16:54.continues between two factions. Syrian rebels from the S F and
:16:54. > :16:59.Syrian Kurdish militias. Have a look here. This is the part
:16:59. > :17:03.controlled by Syrian rebels. They have their own hardware, they've
:17:03. > :17:10.been moving about quite openly. They've been burying their dead.
:17:10. > :17:16.They've been fighting a Syrian Kurdish militia, which is on this
:17:16. > :17:20.side. When we went to try to film there earlier, it proved to be a
:17:21. > :17:25.bit dangerous, bullets were whistling by. Syrian Kurds have
:17:25. > :17:29.kept broadly an independent line in the war so far, but essentially
:17:29. > :17:34.they want to control any territory which is Kurdish, and this is a
:17:34. > :17:38.Kurdish town. Despite the fact that Assad's forces are gone, the war
:17:38. > :17:45.continues here. That might give you some indication of the complexity
:17:45. > :17:49.of Syria's civil war. Israel goes to the polls on Tuesday to elect a
:17:49. > :17:52.new Prime Minister, with parties of the left and centre of fractured
:17:52. > :17:57.and fractious, the polls are predicting a swing to the right.
:17:57. > :18:03.What will that mean for the Arab citizens of Israel, who make up 20
:18:03. > :18:07.% of Israeli society? Something that is often forgotten when it is
:18:07. > :18:11.election time in Israel is that one fifth of Israeli citizens are Arab
:18:11. > :18:17.Israelis, many of whom prefer to describe themselves as Palestinians.
:18:17. > :18:20.We've come to the home of many Arab citizens of Israel. The picturesque
:18:21. > :18:26.minaret is in the mosque behind me. We've asked of people there will be
:18:26. > :18:35.voting. I come to this cafe, well known for political debate. There
:18:35. > :18:39.are plenty of books on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Thank you for
:18:39. > :18:46.speaking to us. How will you be voting on Tuesday? Just come as
:18:46. > :18:50.there is eight election, I don't believe in Israel being a
:18:50. > :19:00.democratic state. The reason I am going to vote, ICL where resistance
:19:00. > :19:04.in Israel should take part also in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
:19:04. > :19:08.You question Israel's democracy. Because be equal to all the
:19:09. > :19:13.citizens. To me, democracy is when everyone is equal, regardless of
:19:13. > :19:21.their faith, Ethna to see -- ethnicity or background. Term out
:19:21. > :19:25.at election time tends to be very low. The Arab citizens of Israel
:19:25. > :19:30.have parties representing their voices, so why don't more Arab
:19:30. > :19:35.citizens of Israel vote for those parties? Simply be because they do
:19:35. > :19:38.not believe Israel is a democratic state. No matter what we do, it's
:19:38. > :19:43.not going to change. You can understand this because we are
:19:43. > :19:49.living here for the past 64 years and racism has become a part of our
:19:49. > :19:57.life. Does the state of Israel, as it exists now, the Jewish state of
:19:57. > :20:02.Israel, have a right to exist? a complicated question. We don't
:20:02. > :20:07.deny the right of the Jewish people or the Israeli people to live in
:20:07. > :20:14.this state. We are the victim here. We suffered 64 years. We are
:20:14. > :20:19.demanding equality, the real one. But the absurd thing about Israel
:20:19. > :20:24.is if a Jewish President lives in Los Angeles, who has never set foot
:20:24. > :20:29.on this land, having more rights than I do. It's absurd. To why
:20:29. > :20:33.think that the Jewish state has a right to exist? I think that this
:20:34. > :20:43.state has a right to exist but not as Jewish, as being a state for all
:20:44. > :20:44.
:20:44. > :20:47.Thank you for speaking to us. We mentioned that later we will bring
:20:47. > :20:51.you special coverage of the inauguration of President Obama. He
:20:51. > :20:55.won his second term, partly thanks to the overwhelming support from
:20:55. > :20:58.Hispanic voters. Three-quarters of them backed him last November,
:20:58. > :21:03.turned up by Mitt Romney' and Teague immigrant rhetoric and
:21:03. > :21:13.attracted to the President boss macro promise of immigration reform.
:21:13. > :21:20.
:21:20. > :21:25.Obama has said it is his priority And the originally from Mexico City.
:21:25. > :21:33.A day don't have a licence but what can I do? We don't have any buses
:21:33. > :21:36.here. We don't have any taxis, Metro. My mother and father drive
:21:36. > :21:41.throughout this state without a licence and without a work permit.
:21:41. > :21:46.If they were ever to get pulled over, that could be the last time I
:21:46. > :21:49.could see them. I've been here in Birmingham, Alabama, for 14 years.
:21:49. > :21:56.I've had to say goodbye to a lot of my friends because they've been
:21:56. > :21:59.deported. I love the state of Alabama. When I was growing up, I
:21:59. > :22:04.always questioned my parents why they brought the year. Now I really
:22:04. > :22:08.can't imagine living anywhere else. My plans, I'm at a crossroads. I
:22:08. > :22:14.have a work permit due to deferred action for child would arrivals.
:22:14. > :22:19.But if you were not undocumented immigrant, you can't get student
:22:19. > :22:23.loans or loans from the government. I graduated in 2010, I was accepted
:22:23. > :22:26.too many universities, yet I was unable to attend many of them as I
:22:26. > :22:31.would be charged as an international student.
:22:31. > :22:36.International it's usually three to four times the amount. One of the
:22:36. > :22:39.things I'm thinking of starting his a newspaper, an immigrant when you
:22:39. > :22:43.split up. It's something that other youth throughout the country have
:22:43. > :22:48.been doing, other undocumented youth in part of the US have
:22:48. > :22:52.started their own business, hiring American citizens. The mentality I
:22:52. > :22:56.hope to challenge and hope to overturn is the victim mentality.
:22:56. > :23:02.The sense of helplessness, isolation, the sense that, though,
:23:02. > :23:07.we are just undocumented immigrants. This is the first place that I ever
:23:07. > :23:10.got to when I was in Alabama. I came here around December. When
:23:10. > :23:14.Obama speaks of Immigration Reform and how he's going to make such a
:23:14. > :23:18.strong push for it, I wonder if he's ever been places like this,
:23:19. > :23:26.instead of meeting with the leaders of non-profits, Congressman... I
:23:26. > :23:30.often wonder if he realises that. He has supported more people. Am
:23:30. > :23:35.hesitant to believe what the President says because what he says
:23:35. > :23:41.is not often what he does. When he was elected in 2008, he said he
:23:41. > :23:45.would pass immigration reform within his first year. On election
:23:46. > :23:50.night, I felt cautious but I also felt a sense of relief. I felt that
:23:50. > :23:53.because the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, really pushed forward
:23:53. > :23:59.and anti- immigrant agenda. One of the things I would love Obama to do
:23:59. > :24:02.is meet with undocumented immigrants because many of the
:24:02. > :24:07.members who believe in him most, many of the people who want to see
:24:07. > :24:12.him succeed are the people he's not even aware of. The latest James
:24:12. > :24:16.Bond film, Skyfall, has just been released in China. Like other films
:24:16. > :24:22.before it, parts have been chopped at the request of the Chinese
:24:22. > :24:27.censors. The cinemas have been open for a few hours here already.
:24:27. > :24:36.There's a bit of a Skyfall bus. There's a James Bond champagne
:24:36. > :24:40.promotion coming on behind me. It's no coincidence that Skyfall was in
:24:40. > :24:44.part shot in Shanghai, any film that wants to sell itself here
:24:44. > :24:47.needs the China angle, but with that comes increased scrutiny. The
:24:47. > :24:51.censors want to make sure that China is shown in the correct light.
:24:51. > :24:56.They have been a number of changes to Skyfall. For example, one
:24:56. > :25:01.complete sequence has been removed, the sequence in which a French hit
:25:01. > :25:06.man shoots dead a Chinese security guard.
:25:06. > :25:09.It doesn't sound too bad, dare I say a little trivial. Why have the
:25:09. > :25:16.sense has been concerned enough about it to end up on the cutting
:25:16. > :25:21.room floor? You do wonder. Skyfall hasn't
:25:21. > :25:26.fallen victim to the cuts as much as some films that have been
:25:26. > :25:30.released in China before it. On a more political note, there have
:25:30. > :25:36.been changes to Skyfall's subtitling in a small but
:25:36. > :25:42.significant areas. In particular, references in the subtitles to one
:25:42. > :25:45.of the films are back box, that of the main villain, Javier Bardem,
:25:45. > :25:54.who in the film is said to have been tortured by the Chinese
:25:54. > :26:00.security services. They kept me for five months in a room with no air.
:26:00. > :26:10.They tortured me. I protected your secrets, I protected you. But they
:26:10. > :26:14.
:26:14. > :26:18.made me suffer. And suffer. And suffer. The censors were moving in
:26:18. > :26:21.the subtitles reference to that suffering being at the hands of the
:26:21. > :26:25.Chinese security services. It is worth pointing out that eclipse
:26:25. > :26:28.you've been seeing off from a pirated DVD version of the four
:26:28. > :26:33.movie that has been doing the rounds here for weeks, well ahead
:26:33. > :26:36.of today's official general release of the film in cinemas. Despite the
:26:36. > :26:41.best efforts of the censors any weight, perhaps audiences are
:26:41. > :26:48.seeing the ball think for themselves. You can get in touch