02/05/2013 BBC World News

Hello. Welcome to BBC World News. These are the top stories: North

Korea sentences an American citizen to 15 years hard labour for crimes

against Pyongyang. An Indian man convicted of spying in Pakistan has

died after being beaten up in a la history jail.

Two girls aged five and six are killed in China after eating

poisoned yoghurt. And the fight to stop the bite of

the great white. South Africa He's been accused of trying to

scombroefr throw the state of North Career, but Human Rights Act visits

beav that Kenneth Bae's real crime could have been merely taking

pictures of starving children. An American tour operator had been

specified 15 years of crime -- of sentence because of crimes to the

state. Kenneth Bae, a American tourist, now

a North Korea prisoner. He has been sentenced to 15 years hard labour

for what it calls vaguely, hostile acts against the regime. This is

where Kenneth Bae was arrested six months ago. Travelling as part of a

small tour group in the zone. Rason on the border of China. Much less is

known about the prison camps run by the North Korea state. Human rights

organisations say that they are part of an extensive network of s with

perhaps 200,000 people in them, risking starvation and torture, but

Kenneth Bae is not the first American to enter and exit the

prison system here. Four years ago, journalist Laura Link and Miss Lee

were imprisoned but patriotic intervened.

We were taken to a location. When we walked in the doors we saw standing

before us, President Bill Clinton. Having a former President negotiate

your release is not that unusual. A year after they were released Jimmy

Carter intervened to help another American arrested by Pyongyang.

Some say that this is politically motivated, the last two months have

seen tensions between North Korea and the US spiral. The US has

offered to talk but only if North Korea agrees to give up its nuclear

weapons. Pyongyang may see its latest prisoner as a way to start

talking with no conditions attached. An Indian man convicted of spying by

a court in Pakistan has died after being beaten up in jail. Edwin van

dar Sar in a coma after being beaten by prisoners. He was sentenced to

death for his role of a series of bombings in 1990s , family say that

he had nothing to do with the bombings.

Orla girain says that the man's death is the latest incident to

strain relations between India and Pakistan.

The death of the prisoner has caused a great deal of anger in India. We

have had a statement from the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh,

saying he was deeply saddened that this man was a brave son of India.

That it was deeply regrettable that the government of Pakistan had not

heeded appeals from the Indian government and the family of the man

to take a humanitarian view of the case. It has been maintained that

the man was innocent. That he was a farmer, that he strayed across the

border by mistake when he was drunk, but he was convicted in of spying

and of carrying out four bomb attacks in Pakistan that killed 14

people. He was sentenced to death. He appealed that decision, but the

judgment was upheld. Last Friday he was the victim of a severe attack in

a Pakistani prison. Apparently beaten with bricks. He spent several

days in a coma and on life support. India claims that the diplomats were

not given access to him. Pakistan is denying that, that they were given

ak sthaeshgs the family facilitated and everything done that was

possible to try to save his life. That the doctors worked around the

clock, but the fact that he died, he was the -- in the custody of the

Pakistani, India maintain he should have been safe. It has been said

that the relations between the two countries have been hurt about this

case that it will introduce more tension into an already troubled

relationship between the two nations.

Three college friends of the Boston bombing suspect have appeared in

court in the US accused of obstructing the police

investigation. Police say that two from Kazakhstan, threw away Dzhokhar

Tsarnaev's laptop and backpack. No-one is implicated in plotting

last month's attacks. The bombs caused chaos in downtown

Boston. Three people were killed, more than 200 were wounded. Three

days after the blasts, the police released pictures of the pair that

they suspected of planting the bombs. It was then, according to the

FBI that three friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tried to cover his tracks.

Appearing at a Boston court on Wednesday, two of the men, both 19

years old, both from Kazakhstan, were charged with conspireing to

obstruct justice by destroying evidence but they were not involved

in the bomb plot itself. The investigation is continuing.

There are three arrests. Two have or will be charged with

obstruction of justice. One has or will be charged with lying to a

federal official. Here are the two men with Dzhokhar

Tsarnaev before the Boston bombings. Police say that when the photograph

of the brothers were released on the 18th, the two men recognised their

friend and went to his college room at the University of Massachusetts

in Dartmouth. There, they saw a backpack with fireworks and powder.

The investigators say that was then that they realised that Dzhokhar

Tsarnaev was involved in the bombs, that they then threw the backpack

away and removed the laptop from the room, in order to help their friend.

A charge that the men strongly deny. As we have said from the beginning,

he assisted the FBI in the investigation. He is as shocked and

horrified by the violence in Boston that took place as the rest of the

community is. He did not know that this individual was involved in a

bombing. His first inkling came later.

A third man, a US citizen, has been accused of lying to investigators

about the visit to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's room. A charge that he

denies. The surviving bombing suspect,

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is in a prison hospital outside of Boston. The

police are continuing to build their case against him and anyone else who

may have helped. Now within the past few hours or so,

a court in Libya has decided to postpone the trial of one of the

sons of the former Libyan dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Saif

al-Islam Gaddafi is being held by local militia in the town of citizen

dan since being captured. He appeared in court, accused of

violating national security and insulting the flag. Now a disturbing

case in the Hebei province of China. Two young girls have died after

eating poisoned yoghurt. The girls were just five and six-year-old. The

police are working on the theory that the deaths are linked to

competition between privatelily run kindergartens for the best pupils.

It happened a week ago, in Hebei. So three or four hours' drive from

Beijing. That is the province adjacent to us. What the state news

agency here is saying, we cannot get through the local police or anyone

else in the village is that an elderly woman, found by the

roadside, close to a school in the village, found a pot of yoghurt and

school notebooks. She took it home. When the two Grand daughters came

home, she gave them the yoghurt. The children were young. They fell down,

they had convulsions and they were foaming at the mouth. The two young

girls died. The police have arrested a rival doneder garden, that woman

confessed to lacing the yoghurt with rat poison, and doing so,

apparently, as she was in competition with the other school to

attract children in the village so. Pretty shocking details.

So, a really des tressing case, isn't it? But it comes down to an

issue, it would seem, of criminality, rather than of

incompetence and of the system, the food safety system in China again at

fault? That is right. It seems if the allegationses were right, that

this was a deliberate attempt to harm someone by the head of the

rival school, but as you say, there have been many cases in China in

recent years that have prompted a lot of national soul-searching of

anxiety in which we have seen cases of poison, tainted foods and the

shocking case was in 2008, around the time of the Olympics here, when

tens of thousands of children were sickened as they had drunk baby milk

powder laced with the industrial chemical melamine. That was put in

there to make the protein content appear higher than it was. In that

case it was a profit motive. In this case, there is a situation about

money, and rival students but it is a deliberate attempt, it appears to

harm children. In the early case of 2008, there were two death sentences

handed. A British man, estimated to have

made tens of millions of dollars from selling fake bobbing detectors

has been sentenced to ten years in jail. James McCormick sold the

devices to country including Iraq, Belgium and even the United States,

but the gadgets had no scientific basis and were based on a novelty

golf ball finder. Now, there are 4,000 troops

stationed in Mali there. They are helping the government there to dry

out the Islamic extremists in the borders. There is also a smaller

British presence, 31 soldiers, there to help to train the local troops.

We have this report from Central Mali.

When Islamist rebels got within a day's drive of the capital in

January, the soldiers in the Mali demoralised army discarded uniforms

and ran away. It was left to the French troops to drive the

insurgents north into the desert. We had command chain problems. The

entire command chain was broken in Mali. Everyone knows that. There

were problem -- problems with cohesion and not enough equipment.

Now the British soldiers have arrived in a west African country,

to help Mali's humiliated army get into shape.

The training is going on, far from the desert where the French troops

are fighting insurgents it is tailors its force with limited

technical means. In weeks, the men are to put into practise,

battlefield tactics with the help of instructors from the Royal Irish

Regiment. With this training mission, seen for

the first seem since the First World War, our soldiers are working under

British command. The European Commission feels this

is ambitious. But not a shot has been fired.

No-one knows the size of Mali's army. It is laden with soldiers past

fighting age. Abilities, ages and experiences are mixed among the

members. What we are here to do is to help

the battalions to get ready to go into operations. The wealth of

experience we can bring from our operational tours in both

Afghanistan and Iraq will be of a huge benefit to the soldiers.

The new camaraderie among the soldiers matters yound the country's

borders. In the face of violence, they can never again be an army that

runs away. Still to come: Fire season is

starting early in California. 1700 Millions of people in Pakistan will

vote in the country's general election. If it all goes to plan it

will be the transition from one elected Government to another.

Our correspondent has found out which issues most people will be

voting for. I am at a busy marketplace. Later this month

Pakistanis will vote in a landmark election. Karachi is also my home

town. I want to find out what issues affect the people of this

Are you going to vote? You're not going to vote in the election. He

is saying he's scared for his life. He is saying in 65 years nothing

has changed, so there's no point in going to the polling station to

vote for somebody. I have never cast my vote before. It is time to

go out and vote. The main issue is lawlessness. Our

movements are restricted. We don't even let our boys go out at night,

let alone the girls, so we would like the next Government, whoever

is going to come, to take this matter very seriously.

I am not sure that I will get a job. Lots of my friends don't have jobs

and they need jobs. They are educated and they have degrees, but

there are no jobs in Pakistan. Loif is really hard for the people

of this -- Life is really hard for the people of this city. Often the

beach is the only place people can get away from it all. Time and time

again Pakistanis have felt let down by their leaders N the past few

weeks I get a sense there is a determination to vote because

Our main story here today: North Korea has sentenced an American

citizen to 15 years hard labour at a time of heightened tension

between the two countries. President Obama is on the road. He

is off to Mexico later today for the start of a two-day visit to

Central America. Officially trade and immigration will be the main

focus of talks, with his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto.

They will talk about the new President's strategy for dealing

one of Mexico's biggest problems, drugs, of course. Mexico and the

United States always have plenty to discuss. With a 3,000km-long shared

border, across which there is a constant flow of people, commerce

and drugs. A lot of focus will be on economics.

We have spent so much time on issues between the United States

and Mexico that sometime I think we forget this is a massive trading

partner, responsible for huge amounts of commerce and huge

numbers of jobs on both sides of the border. We want to see how we

can deepen that, how we can improve that and maintain that dialogue

over a long period of time. That doesn't mean we will not talk about

security, he added. With some 70,000 killed in drug-related

violence since 206, the fight against Mexican drug cartels has

been the background to the bilateral relationship. Cocaine

produced in the Andes heads through Central America and Mexico en route

to the main market - the US. Mexican drug cartels produce much

of the methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin consumed north of the

border. Mr Obama may hope for a new commitment from Mr Enrique Pena

Nieto. Mr Calderon encouraged US

involvement in the drug agency and the CIA as well as American drones

to seek out drug barons. He may be disappointed. Mr Nieto has talked

of taking it in a different direction, to focus on reducing

violent crime rather than making high-profile arrests of drug Lord's.

His critics say it may involve a pact with the cartels. Something

his administration denies. Certainly, that would not sit well

until Washington. In past President Obama and Enrique Pena Nieto will

weigh each other well on a personal level to see if they and their Co-

op administrations can co-operate more closely. So far the signs have

been warm and reasonably positive. There are thorny issues of cross-

border trade and immigration up ahead.

Now, gunmen in southern Thailand have killed six in an attack

outside a village shop. Most of the victims were Buddhists. This comes

just two days after peace talks between Muslim separatists and the

Thai Government ended in deadlock. More than 5,000 people have been

killed in violence in the southern provinces since an insurgency

started there in 2004. Hundreds of firefighters are battling to

control a fast-moving wildfire, 140kms east of Los Angeles. Strong

winds are fanning the flames in the foot hills of the San Bernardino

mountains. A red flag has been issued for much of southern

California because of heat and humidity levels. The fire is fierce,

it is moving fast and it is getting bigger all the time. 1700 acres of

land have been enengulfed by the flames. In Riverside County, 140kms

east of loss anggless. Strong winds are pushing it west, towards

unpopulated areas in the mountains. Homes further south are not out of

danger. It has been reported that one building has been destroyed.

Helicopters and planes are being used to drop water and fire

retardant water on to the land. 400 firefighters are trying to get this

blaze under control. The condition are making their task extremely

difficult. High winds, low humidity and heat are allowing this fire to

spread quickly. Firefighters say it is drier than normal and they would

not expect conditions like this until June. The emergency services

say they are fighting 60% more wildfires now than at the same time

last year. The worry is that if these weather conditions continue,

California could be in for a very busy fire season.

Clothing factories in Bangladesh have re-opened for the first time

since the collapse of a factory complex last week. It is clear at

least 427 people died in the wreckage of the ran that pla is a -

- Rana Plaza building. It has some of the most beautiful

beaches in the world, but it is home to a thriving colony of Great

White sharks. After a series of attacks on swimmers, South ka's

Western Cape is investing thousands of dollars in a scheme to keep

humans and sharks apart. Spectacular - isn't it? Teeming

with marine life, it is this that makes the Western Cape so popular.

Beneath the surface lurks the most feared predator of the deep - the

Great White shark. Attracted by plentiful stocks of water and deep

inshore waters. Despite shark-spotters up high on

the hill, five people have been killed here in a little over a

decade. These are some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

Now, after years of resistance by conservationists, they are finally

deploying nets, especially designed to protect swimmers, but not to

harm sharks. The sharks come in very close and rarely inhabit the

area people use for recreation. Our concern is that the spotters would

not get the people out of the waters quickly enough. It is a

world first A thin mesh barrier hangs to the sea bed. Deployed in

the morning and moved at night, it is a �50,000 compromise, after one

too many horror stories. These pictures capture moments after a

British bather was attacked here. There is the suggestion that

barrier nets may have offered protection. The Mansur vieveed and

so did this sur-- the man survived and so did this surfer. The ski was

pulled back under the water. When I floated up between the ski and the

shark, I felt the shark next to me, but the first thing I thought of

was to get back on to the boat and out of the water. Such terrifying

tales have taken their toll on Cape Town's tourist trade. Sharks play a

vital role in the maritime ecology here. Humans are more of a threat

to sharks than the other way around. More sharks die than people

attacked. It is a thought worth bearing in mind when one is staring

you in the eye. With a cage, the only protection,

you quickly get to respect these massive creatures. 600 sharks are

killed in other parts of South Africa every year. Entangled in

nets designed to trap. That is why there has been such fierce

resistance to using them here. These are barrier nets, removed at

night, expensive to deploy, but a price they are prepared to pay to

allow sharks and humans to co-exist. Well, sticking with the theme of

aquatic creatures, have a look at this! This is perhaps the world's

biggest bath toy. Well, he, I suppose we can call him Giant Duck,

he has arrived in Hong Kong. This is the work of a Dutch artist, who

have taken Giant Duck around the world. I don't know how long he'll