25/07/2013 BBC World News

Hello. This is BBC World News. Our top stories: Spain's Prime Minister

visits the scene of the country's worst rail crash in 40 years. 78

people are now confirmed dead and 144 injured. Rescuers say they

don't expect any more survivors. This is the scene live in Santiago

de Compostela where investigators are trying to establish what caused

the disaster. Once a Chinese communist party

high-flyer - now Bo Xilai, is Spain's Prime Minister has been

surveying the scene of the country's worst train crash in more

than 40 years. At least 78 people died and 140 were pulled from the

wreckage. The emergency services say they believe all those trapped

have now been rescued, after all eight carriages derailed. The

accident came as the train approached the station at Santiago

de Compostela in the north-western region of Galicia. The high-speed

intercity service was travelling from Madrid to Ferrol. It is a

holiday week of national celebrations in the reason --

region. The state railway company Renfe says the train did not have

any technical problems and had been inspected just hours earlier. It

says it's too early to say what caused the accident. The BBC's Tom

Burridge is at the scene. It is a chaotic scene here. There is

luggage from passengers strewn around. Some of the carriages have

been extremely badly damaged. This is clearly the worst rail disaster

in this country for the last 40 years. The death toll has risen

throughout the night. The number of dead is now in the late 70s.

This morning, emergency teams started moving the smashed

carriages away from the railway tracks. Some have rolled over

several times in a high-speed crash later on Wednesday evening. Rescue

workers are still searching the other carriages, and have been

removing more bodies. The death toll, already making this the worst

train accidents in Spain for more than 40 years. This man, who lives

near by says local people were really frightened. They didn't know

if it was some kind of an attack, he says, it is shocking. The Prime

Minister, came to visit the site, he was born in this region. He did

not make any statement, but ceremonies for a religious festival

near by have been cancelled. This was the scene just after the train

came off the rails, on a bend near the regional capital of Galicia.

Government officials have been quoted as saying it was not a

terrorist attack. Instead, the focus is now on how fast the train

was travelling at the time on what is a section of high-speed rail

track. To rub the night, bodies arrived at the local morgue and it

is possible the number of dead will increase. The families of the

missing waited anxiously for news. For some, it was what they most

feared. This woman said she had lost her knees. We are has broken

as you could imagine, she said. -- niece. For those now in mourning,

understanding what caused this accident it will be so important.

This is holiday season in Spain and a lot of people were starting their

summer holidays. A lot of people were travelling from Madrid to

areas like Galicia, for the summer holidays. This is the shot now down

on the tracks. Complete devastation. Carriages completely removed from

the tracks. Local residents spoke of hearing bangs and one residents

spoke to me thinking it was an earthquake. Some of the luggage

sadly been recovered today. Let's get the reaction from some local

residents who heard the bang last night.

TRANSLATION: It felt like a thunderstorm, like an earthquake,

with rocks falling, a very strong blow. We ran here after we called

for help. We open the back of the wagon and started to help people to

get out and move the dead bodies. Then police and ambulances came and

we helped. We gave people water and held their drips.

TRANSLATION: I was at home when I heard what sounded like a

thunderstorm. I saw fire, a lot of smoke. My daughter said, something

has happened to the train. We came here and the train was of the

tracks and there were people lying on the ground, every word.

Dramatic accounts of this accident last night. It is a national

tragedy. It was supposed to be a day of regional celebration in

Galicia. A local bank holiday for people here, it has been completely

called off. You can see this crane that seems to have taken one of the

carriages up from the tracks below. I believe that process will

continue over the next period, as the carriages are essentially

recovered from the tracks. I think we are now into the recovery phase

of this operations. All of the bodies, all of the survivors have

been recovered from the train. But the body count rose very quickly

last night. I remember at about 7pm, 9:00pm, 10:00pm local time, the

death toll was around 10 but quickly that Rose. We are now sadly

into the high 70s. Taking you back to the live shot down on the track,

clearly this is one of the worst disasters for this country in rail

terms, in recent decades. The Prime Minister was here recently. He was

born in Santiago de Compostela, he knows this region very well. He

came to see the damage for himself. It is a day for reflection, for

commiseration. The celebration that was planned in as part of Spain is

over. This is a very difficult time for the relatives. The regional

Government has appealed for people to donate blood. I've been it gives

you a scale of the tragedy, a scale of this disaster, which is still

coming to light. Who has been -- leads go live to Galicia where the

Prime Minister is speaking to officials.

He is expressing his condolences to the families. We know one of those

who died had been taken to hospital and died there. The Prime Minister

At the moment he is expressing his gratitude and francs to the workers

who have been helping since the disaster, just before 9pm and

yesterday evening outside Santiago Giving his gratitude to the firemen,

all the medical staff as well, and many who were off duty became in to

help. This is a time of national holiday. There was a celebration

gathering in Santiago that evening, and that is what everyone was

planning last night. You have the opening remarks of the Spanish

Prime Minister in Santiago de Compostela. We will give you more

details as he gives them later on. At caught trying a teenager in a

fatal gang rape case of a female student on a bus in Delhi has

deferred its verdict for 10 days. The court was due to pronounce its

verdict on the youngest of six people accused of the attack and

the subsequent death of a 23-year- old woman last December.

This is a case of that attracted massive attention. You can get a

sense of it are looking at the number of people and journalists

who have gathered here outside the juvenile court, where we were

expecting a verdict on the youngest of six people accused over the gang

rape and subsequent death of a young woman in Delhi. The court has

deferred its verdict until the 5th August. There is a petition being

heard, challenging the definition of what constitutes a juvenile. The

petition arguing a juvenile shouldn't be determined by his age,

but by the nature of the crime that they stand accused of. The parents

of the young woman who was attacked and who has died, were in the court,

and they have always campaigned for the juvenile to be treated as an

adult. He was just six runs short of his 18th birthday at the time of

the attack. But as it stands Coronet, if he is found guilty of

the charges, including rape and murder, he can be convicted for a

maximum of three years at a Correctional Facility, and that

includes the time he has already spent in custody.

Now to South America, to Brazil where Pope Francis has attacked

plans to legalise drugs in some Latin American countries. He said

that such a move wouldn't solve the problems of drug addicts. It

follows the first mass of his trip to Brazil and he warned the crowd

against the perceived of false idols, including money, power and

success. This man had been here before, as a

cardinal in 2007. But as Pope Francis, the crowd greeted him with

an uproar. Thousands braved rain outside to catch a glimpse of the

first pope from the Americas are returning to the shrine. Thousands

packed into the basilica. The Pope appealed for people not to be

seduced by femoral idols, such as power and money but nurture

Christian values of faith, paternity and generosity. It was a

special message for the new generations gathered in Brazil for

the World Youth Day. TRANSLATION: Young people are

powerful engine for the Church and society. They don't need material

things alone, they need to have held up to them, those non-material

values which are the heart of other people, the memory of other people.

The Pontiff also expressed his devotion to the Virgin Mary and

took a moment for a silent prayer before this small image. The

basilica is Brazil's most traditional pilgrimage site and

people have come from across the country. It is a very rainy day, it

is cold outside but people are here with their umbrellas and raincoats

as Pope Francis celebrates his first public Mass in the country.

But for many standing in the rain, the climax seemed to come after the

Mass, when the Pope Mobile approached. The leader of the Roman

Catholic Church, drove along the corridor of outstretched hands and

blessed be child that was raised towards him. Many manage to take

their own picture of the Pope. it was awesome. My hands started

shaking, I was a nervous. I could not stop taking pictures. Brazil

still has the world's largest Catholic population, but it has

seen a sharp decline in the past few decades. The Pope's we Kear is

seen as crucial to reconnect with the faithful and reinvigorate the

Church in Latin America. This is BBC World news.

Still to come: strutting and shaking, now it has been discovered

white peacocks attract a new mate, with this extraordinary display.

It is one of Africa's poorest countries. Half the population live

on just over a dollar a day and now some of the porous make their

growing -- living by growing potent strain of marijuana that is

in demand in South Africa. Deep in the forest, grandmothers growing it

are hardly drug king pins. This is this woman's only way of supporting

her seven grandchildren. The money goes a long way. I can buy clothes

and food and pay school fees. There is more money in this trade. I can

get $560 for a sack of this. A sack of corn gets me $20. Higher rates of

HIV and aids means many children are growing up with -- without their

parents. The country continues to be run as an absolute monarchy, the

last of its kind in Africa. The king has been widely criticised for

living a lavish life amid the rampant poverty in the country.

Children do not have mothers and fathers. You find they live with

their grannies or as children who are ahead of the households.

now, the growing of this lucrative crop remains illegal. Swaziland's it

fear of police raids and punishment but with this -- for this

50-year-old and many like her, providing for her family is the

priority and cultivating marijuana is a risk worth taking.

You are with BBC World News. The headlines: Spain's Prime Minister

Mariano Rajoy has been visiting the scene of the country's worst rail

crash in 40 years. 78 people have been confirmed dead

and 144 injured. Rescuers say all survivors have now been pulled from

the wreckage. More now on that story. We have just

been seeing in the last few minutes Mariano Rajoy, the Prime Minister.

He has been giving a press briefing, most of which was paying tribute to

all of those who have been helping. It only lasted a few minutes and

several of his staff were in tears. Let's go to the region and to a

journalist at the newspaper in the region. Andrea, what is your

perspective of why this happened? The latest news says the driver of

the train declared she was driving at 190 kilometres an hour in a 70

kilometres zone, where there is a sharp and dangerous bend. That is

where the driver lost control of the train. I can see that information is

being reported by other news agencies. How do we know that?

driver declared this to the agencies. That is all we know.

about this track. Do you know it? Is this a place where there might be a

temptation to go much faster? I know the train was arriving late

to Santiago and right at the entrance where the sharp bend is

there is a small turn, the neighbours of the town tell us they

saw the train driving really fast. Can I ask you about the mood in

Galicia? Obviously very sombre. This is usually a time of national

celebration and many on the train will have been travelling to see

their families for the celebration. Yes. Galicia is now in a day of

mourning. It has been the worst human tragedy in our history. The

good thing is that everybody is helping. The solidarity is

everywhere. People actually are waiting in line at the hospitals to

donate blood and hotel owners offered rooms to the victims and the

relatives. Social networks are full, a lot of emotion. It has

shocked the whole community. Especially on a day when everybody

was going to celebrate our biggest and most important day of the year.

Andrea Martinez, thank you for joining us on BBC World News.

Relations between the US and Vietnam are much improved since US troops

left Vietnam forty years ago. But major issues remain. Vietnam is

still struggling to deal with the human impact of the war, especially

weaponry and chemical agents left behind. One project that both sides

are working on is aimed at bridging that gap. The BBC's Karishma Vaswani

reports from Danang, then airbase where US troops first landed to take

on the Vietcong. This woman always hoped she would be

looked after in her old age by her children but those dreams were

shattered after her first child was born 30 years ago. She was born with

cerebral palsy. She was born with this condition and I thought I would

just raise her like that. We thought it would get, . We took her to one

hospital after another but her condition was incurable. Like many

others here, she appeared to have been affected by a chemical

contaminant in the area's water supply. A deadly comp -- consequence

of the war which ended eight years before she was born. During the

Vietnam war, American forces sprayed the forests of Vietnam's with a

herbicide to deny the Army cover and to disrupt Google communities within

which the Communist forces enjoyed much support. This is the old part

of the airport. During the Vietnam war, it was a queue Vietnam's base

from where the aircraft took off. So much agent Orange was stored that it

leaked out, turning the area surrounding it into the most

contaminated hot spot in the country. Now a ground-breaking

project is trying to offer a solution. The contaminated soil is

being pushed into giant tanks, where it will be heated to 300 Celsius and

the toxins removed and destroyed. Whilst denying legal

responsibility, the US has provided scientific support for Vietnam to

tackle the problem of agent Orange. Now it is prepared to pay for a

fully fledged clean-up. Diplomatic relations started in 1995 and after

that, conversations have been looking to deepen the relationship

and go towards a Brighton future. It will cost $84 million to implement

-- brighter future. I am happy to say we are on schedule, 2016.

cleaning up the poison is only part of what needs to be done according

to those who support many of the 3 million Vietnamese thought to suffer

from the effects. TRANSLATION: It makes me angry

because not enough is being done to help. The US should not only

clean-up this place but also help families to live properly and give

them access to health care. This centre is trying to offer children a

normal life despite the serious health conditions linked to the

effect of agent Orange. 40 years after US troops left this country,

America is still under pressure to heal the wounds of the war.

The US house of representatives have voted to continue and electronic

surveillance programme that was exposed by Edward Snowden. They

rejected an amendment to a bill that would have limited the government's

ability to collect the phone records of hundreds of millions of

Americans. President Obama has delayed the delivery of IT planes to

Egypt. The Pentagon says it is not appropriate to proceed with the

delivery given the current situation -- fighter planes. Egypt's army

chief called for protests on Friday to give the military mandate to

confront what he called potential terrorism.

To one of the animal kingdom's most dramatic mating dances by peacocks.

Scientists in the US say they have solved the evolutionary mystery as

to why the peacock tail is so large and elaborate.

It is one of the animal kingdom's most domestic mating dances. During

the season, peacocks gather in clearings to obstruct and shake

their feathers at prospective mates. The scientists set out to understand

why the birds evolved like this. When they are not showing them off,

the heavy feathers slow them down. The researchers trained 12 birds to

wear these cameras that tracked their eye movements. The footage

showed the peacock's display from the viewpoint of a peahen. At one

point, this peahen is completely distracted by a passing squirrel.

The scientists say their research reveals just how challenging it is

for a peacock to keep the attention of a mate because when you share a

habitat with pythons and tigers, your life can depend on keeping a

constant lookout. The main news from north-west Spain.

Let's go live to Santiago de Compostela. Some of the eight

carriages have already been lifted. You can see what is left from one of

them. We saw earlier that Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. There he is

walking at the front. He has been talking to the police, the fire

brigade, the large number of people including the medical staff. 78

people are now confirmed dead. 144 people injured. 250 people were on

the train heading to Galicia for a national holiday, the holiday of

Saint James. There is the Prime Minister looking at the scene.

Within the last few minutes, he did announce there will now be three