14/05/2013 BBC World News

reveals she has had both her breasts removed to minimise her high risk of

breast cancer. Shocking video of cannibalism in the Syrian city of

Homs is posted on the Internet. Three astronauts, among them a

Canadian who has been tweeting to a huge audience, have safely returned

explaining what led her to have an operation to remove both her

breasts. The 37-year-old Oscar winner, married to Brad Pitt, says

doctors have told her that her chances of getting breast cancer are

nearly 90%. She has inherited a faulty gene which committed the

increases her chances of getting both breast ovarian cancer. Alastair

Leithead has more. Angelina Jolie revealed she had had a double

mastectomy in an article written in the New York Times. The 37-year-old

said she had decided to act after doctors told her she had an 87%

chance of contracting breast cancer, the disease that killed her mother

at 56. She said concern from her children over whether the same thing

could happen to her had opted the preventative surgery. Describing the

procedure in detail, she paid tribute to her loving and supportive

partner Brad Pitt, who was with her for every moment of surgery - the

removal of breast tissue and then reconstructive surgery, over three

months of treatment. A faulty gene meant the chances were very, but

following the operations, there is now only a 5% chance of contracting

the disease. She is also at risk of a variant cancer. Angelina Jolie

said she hoped other women could benefit from her experience and go

for gene testing, so they could reduce their chances of breast

cancer. With me now is Dr Julia Wilson, head of research at the

charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Thanks for joining us. How much is

known at the moment about all of this, and is there a need for more?

Well, we know that one in 20 breast cancers are caused by this faulty

gene, but we know that about 1% of the population carry this gene, but

it does carry an enormous risk of developing breast and a variant

cancer. Why is that?It just means the breast tissue is predisposed to

developing cancer, and as we have heard, it is about a 90% chance.

the ovarian cancer would need a hysterectomy, is that right? You can

simply remove the ovaries, which has a different main, but as far as we

know, Angelina has not opted for that at the moment. If people are

worried, what should they do? should not be only one in 20 breast

cancers is caused by this faulty, inherited gene. But if women are

worried, and if they believe they have a family history of breast

cancer, then they should go and see their GP, and they may be offered a

genetic test to see if they carry this gene. What do you make of the

fact that she has come out so publicly? She is a campaigner on so

many issues... It is great. It really raises breast awareness. I

hope it encourages women to be breast aware. Most cancers are not

caused by these faulty genes, so there is not that women can do to

reduce their risk. -- there is lots. Being a healthy weight, reducing

alcohol intake are among those things. What we search is currently

going on in this area? At the moment, there is lots of research

going on. Just I doing research, we know that these faulty genes cause

breast cancer. Then, women can have options to reduce their risk. We are

also working to develop new treatments for breast cancer, but

the ultimate aim would be to start to prevent all types of breast

cancer, which is why the research into breast cancer is so necessary.

Angelina Jolie has also gone for a pretty radical procedure, but how

difficult is it for women to make that decision and then live with it?

It is a very, very difficult and personal decision. Each woman will

be very different. There are options available, some women opt for a

mastectomy, like Angelina Jolie, other women opt for more regular

screening and being breast aware. So, it is a very, very personal

choice between a woman and her clinical team. Now, more than 50

people are feared drowned as one of a convoy of boats has capsised off

Western Burma. All of the dead are thought to be Rohingya Moslem

refugees. They were trying to get out of the path of a tropical storm.

The United Nations says just over 40 people are known to have survived.

From agencies on the ground, we have heard that 42 people have been

recovered from this accident, alive. They are still trying to assess how

many other people may or may not have made it to shore, and how many

others may be missing. But certainly, the number of dead you

gave just now gives a sense that this was a pretty bad accident. It

took face at nighttime, in the pitch dark. Only one of the boats had

power, was pulling the other two out into the very large river estuaries

in this part of Burma, moving away from a town which had been the scene

of severe sectarian clashes last year. The Rohingya population there

has been confined to a muddy camp in a very bleak and exposed almost like

a field, a very wet area. So, they know they are very vulnerable, and

they seem to have tried to organise their own evacuation ahead of this

cyclone. The Burmese authorities also say they are evacuating some

people from vulnerable spots, but they have only been able to move

about 13,000 so far out of 130,000. There is great concern, with this

cyclone due to strike in a couple of days time. Some of the Rohingya

communities are therefore organising their own evacuation is, and in this

case, it has gone horribly wrong. They have described it as the most

disturbing images to come out of two years of bloody conflict in Syria, a

video emerging on the Internet which appears to show a well-known rebel

commander cutting out the heart of a dead soldier and taking a bite from

it. The video cannot be independently verified. It has been

widely condemned. For obvious reasons, we are not going to be

showing it. Our Middle East correspondent, Jim Muir, says the

video makes harrowing viewing. have actually seen it and it does

not make pleasant viewing. I have seen thousands of videos since the

Syrian crisis began more than two years ago, and this is among the top

five, if not one of the very worst I have seen. It is of a particularly

gratuitous, bloodthirsty nature. This is a man basically exulting

over the body of a dead Syrian soldier, cutting his heart and liver

out, holding them up, dangling, and then appearing to take a bite. He

takes a bite but the video cuts at that point. You do not know whether

he has actually taken a mouthful or just given it a bite. But it is

extremely powerful, in the sense of being just gratuitously to

gratuitously revolting, but also, it amounts to sectarian incitement. He

is saying, we should be killing analytes and cutting out their

hearts and eating them. That is what he says. -- Alawites. And again,

this highlights the extent to which this situation has become so brutal,

violent and difficult... And so fragmented, on top of all of that.

This man, who appears to be the man in the video, he has appeared in

earlier videos, showing him firing of rockets into Lebanon, rather

randomly, at Shi'ite areas of Lebanon, because has Balan, from

Lebanon, is involved in fighting on the side of the government. --

Hezbollah. Also he is seen in videos exulting over the bodies of dead

Hezbollah fighters. The question is, is he in any way under the structure

of the Free Syrian Army, which itself is somewhat disparate? He

seems to be in charge of this group, which is an offshoot of the Farouq

Brigades, one of the FSA units which was fighting very strongly in Homs a

year ago. And he was known to be there. He seems to have split off

from them. Whether he has gone completely freelance or not, we do

not know. But the opposition Syrian coalition has strongly condemned

what happened, saying that whoever did this will be put on trial. But

that is a purely academic statement. As human rights watch said,

condemnation is not enough, people on the ground need to know that they

will be held to account for what are clearly warcrimes. As the violence

continues, over the past two years, more than 1 million Syrians have

fled abroad. At least 300,000 have ended up in Turkey. What sort of

life have they been able to build for themselves? Been to reports from

the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep. Haj Abed fled Syria with

his family and their recipes. He now runs a falafel restaurant in the

Turkish city of Gaziantep. He and his staff serve their fellow

refugees food from home. Their country's war is impossible to

forget. This photograph so shows Haj Abed's son, who was killed in

December in Aleppo. The family now takes care of his four-year-old son.

TRANSLATION: Before the revolution, I was just a regular person. The

reason we are here is known to everyone in the world. It does not

need expanding. For now, this is where the refugees must live, here,

in southern Turkey. Their home country is only an hour's drive

away. Many Syrian refugees prefer not to live in the official camps

set up by the Turkish gunman. Syrians who have money, or who have

friends here, live in local apartments. -- Turkish government.

They have turned this city, Gaziantep, into their new home.

Yasser Al Haji is a Syrian journalist and campaigner. He is

still getting used to living in Turkey. You get feeling about it.

You are in a Turkish city, and you hear people speaking Arabic, or in a

Damascus accent. It is weird. I do not accept that fact, that we are

really here as refugees. It does not seem to me that I will stay here for

a long time. Khaled Mousa escaped in September last year and he has found

work in a hat shop. He shows off Free Syrian Army baseball caps. He

tells me that most customers are from Syria. Some come to Turkey with

nothing. He tries to help them find somewhere to live. Turkey may not be

fighting Syria's war, but the country actively supports the Syrian

opposition. This southern city is Turkish, but it has also become

Aleppo in X file. -- in X file. -- in exile. Following the collapse of

a building involved in the fashion industry in Bangladesh last month,

some parts of the industry have pledged to take action. Our

correspondent has the latest. Just behind me is the site where the nine

story building collapsed nearly three weeks ago. The site has now

been cleared and handed over to the civilian administration. The rescue

teams say there is nothing else to be found here. But there are still a

lot of people out there. Nearly 100 people are still missing, and many

people want answers. Already, attention is shifting to the future

of the garment industry here in Bangladesh. All Western companies,

including H&M and primer of the UK have now agreed to bring in special

funding to improve safety standards in garment factories here in

Bangladesh. But at least 100 factories in an area very close to

here have now shut down indefinitely after several protests by workers

over into working conditions and higher pay. It gives you a sense of

the tension that has been created in the aftermath of the building that

collapsed. Many people are now waiting to see if Bangladesh will

continue to produce cheap clothes for consumers in the Western world.

Stay with us here on BBC News - still to come, in the age of smart

phones and tablets, should schoolchildren still learn how to

write by hand? An American abortion doctor has been convicted of

murdering three babies at a clinic in Philadelphia. He was accused of

deliberately killing three babies which had been born alive following

late term abortions. A warning that this report has some disturbing

details. No response from the doctor at the centre of a case that has

provoked upset and fury. During his trial, the doctor was accused of

delivering three babies alive, and then severing their spinal-cord is

with a pair of scissors. His defence said there was no evidence the

babies were born alive, but accepted A raid on the clinic found filthy

conditions. The doctor was also found guilty of involuntary

manslaughter of a woman who died following a botched procedure. The

case has fuelled the highly emotive debate over abortion rights in the

US. The anti- camps say the case is evidence of cruelty which exist

across the entire practice. Supporters say this case is a

warning of what could happen if access to abortion is made more

difficult. A major survey of attitudes in Europe suggests

satisfaction with the European Union is at an all-time low. The

Washington-based Pew Research Centre spoke to more than 7,500

people in eight European countries in March. Large majorities in

France, Greece, Italy and Spain thought the Euro had weakened their

economies. However, there was little support for reverting to

national currencies. The US Justice Department has obtained two months

of phone records at the Associated Press -- Associated Press. There

was a story about a foiled terror plot in Yemen. They have called it

a massive and unprecedented intrusion. The news agency was told

the Justice Department had records of outgoing calls on more than 20

This is BBC World News. The headlines: Angelina Joanie has

revealed she has had both breasts removed to minimise her higher risk

of breast cancer. A graphic video is posted on the internet. Let's go

back to our main story - the news that the actress Angelina Jolie has

had both breasts removed, to reduce her risk of developing cancer. It

is an immensely difficult decision to go under the knife when you are

fit and well. Up Wendy Watson was the first person in the UK to have

the operation done 21 years ago. I asked her what effect the actress's

decision is likely to have on other women facing similar situations.

is actually marvellous she has come forward. It just shows the world's

most eligible - or not eligible - but most attractive man is their

supporting her. That is wonderful. To put a high profile like that is

great. Tell us what happened to you. I had to nine relatives with the

disease. I could not get anyone to agree it could be hereditary. To me,

it was obvious that nine relatives was a huge risk. And so I invented

having the surgery. There was no test at that point. It is that

right? There was no gene test. Our family was one that was used to

find the gene. I tried to find a way to prevent myself from

developing breast cancer and that seemed the most perfect way. It

would have killed me, as it did my mother. Was that completely your

idea? Had you heard of other women going through the process? Not at

all. The entire world thought I had gone bonkers. Everyone was

absolutely appalled and said, by which you have healthy tissue

removed when you might never get it? -- why would you have? I said,

nine added 10 relatives or my family have had breast cancer. Why

would I not want to do this before I get it to prevent it spreading?

You went to a lot of battles to get to that process. When it came to

the day when you had to go into an operating theatre, how difficult

was that? I was nervous. Nobody goes under anaesthetic without

being nervous. Of course they do not. What was difficult was not to

show any nervousness to the medical profession. They would have been

too scared and backed out. Everyone was timid about doing the operation

in case I changed my mind and suit them, or something like that. I

want them to know I was in sound mind and this is what I wanted to

do. I was fully supported by my family. That was the tricky bit.

When I woke up, the following day, having had this operation, I felt

the most privileged person in the world. 29th other women or had had

surgery for suspected cancers. All I had got word two scars. How could

I feel anything but really lucky? Violent scenes have marred Paris

Saint Germain's celebrations after the club secured the French

football league title. PSG fans had to wait 19 years for the title but

after waiting over an hour for the club's players to appear at a

victory ceremony, supporters became restless. Disgruntled fans threw

stones at the police, who fired tear gas canisters in response.

Sporadic fighting between fans and police around the Trocadero near

the Eiffel Tower continued for two hours. Lonmin says an illegal

strike has halted production at all its platinum mines in South Africa.

Thousands of workers have gone on strike. Last August, 34 workers

were killed by police. The former president of the Philippines,

Joseph Estrada, has been elected mayor of the capital, Manila. Mr

Estrada was overthrown 12 years ago by a popular uprising against

corruption. He was jailed for life in 2007 but was freed just six

weeks later after receiving a presidential pardon. His critics

accused him of running the Philippines like a gangland boss.

He posted an unforgettable video of himself singing a David Bowie hit,

high above the earth, in the International Space Station. But

unlike Bowie's Major Tom, Colonel Chris Hadfield is now safely back

on earth, following nearly five months in orbit. His three-man crew

landed safely in Kazakhstan. Daniel Sandford says the astronaut is fast

becoming a celebrity. It was a fairly routine mission in space. He

used Twitter, videos on YouTube and a live broadcast to Canadian school

children. He has become a phenomenon. He ended his mission on

Sunday night by being a singing spaceman but this amazing recording

of Space Odyssey by David Parry. This morning, he has landed in a

very traditional London space way - floating down in the soil is

capsule, floating down with a parachute slowing it down. A cloud

of dust. The capsule was opened and he was carried out. They had been

in space for 146 days. The astronauts lose their strength and

ability to walk. Do we know any more about his future plans? We do

not. He is a very experienced at -- astronaut. He was involved in

building a very important robotic arm on the International Space

Station. Nobody paid much attention to him until his third mission into

space. He is a huge phenomenon. What you'll be doing over the next

year or so is using his experience in space and his renown from his

trip to space to educate people further about the benefits of the

International Space Station and the work that is being done. Lots of

technology experts are suggesting we should stop teaching handwriting

at schools. The schools are fighting back. Go ahead and try it

on your iPad Apple. Welcome to the classroom of the future. At this

elementary school, every pupil is equipped with a smartphone or

tablet. Interactive learning goes beyond raising a hand to answer a

question. You are learning about the human brain. Alongside the

technology, there is still room for traditional teaching. These eight-

year-olds are learning to write by hand. It looks like a whole bunch

of squiggles. It is a fun way to write letters. It turns out all

perfect and pretty. Of the principles so she wants the right

balance between computers and cursed. I think children are typing

a lot more. It is about understanding how to write cursive.

Lots of people look at this writing as an art. We do not want to see it

become a dying art. These are thank She is pushing a Bill in the state

legislature to formally bring penmanship back into the classroom.

Somewhere somebody decided we did not needed any more because we were

going more to the electronic and digital age. They did not realise

that lots of times when you cannot write it, you cannot read it. It

helps their self-esteem. Critics say such thinking is out of touch

and belongs in the past. It is being held on to out of nostalgia.

Instead of the things that really affect cognition. Students are

pursuing reading on their own. want to use your iPads to research

pictures of the brain. Pat is not convinced that computers have to be

the future. I could not care less about computers. I would not want

to learn it. Cursive writing I have used every day. I guess I would use

it until I die. The next generation seems equally at ease writing with