01/10/2013 BBC World News

Thousands of US Government staff have been told to stay at home

because there is no money to pay them, as Congress fails to agree on

a budget. Congress has not fulfilled its responsibility, it has failed to

pass a budget, and as a result, much of our government must now shut down

until Congress funds it again. Time to put the chemical weapons deal to

the test, as an international team heads to Syria to start dismantling

Assad's arsenal. Members of a far right party in Greece have arrived

in court to answer charges including murder, assault and

money-laundering. We take a look at the Australian sports car which is

economical, fun to drive and powered by the sun.

At least 700,000 government employees across the United States

are getting an unexpected, and I should add, unpaid, day off, because

of political deadlock in Congress over a new budget. The president has

announced that nonessential services such as museums, visitor centres and

national parks have to close, as well as parts of the NASA space

programme. It is the culmination of a bitter political battle in which

Republicans said they would only support the budget if controversial

health care reforms were delayed. Katy Watson reports. Midnight came

and went and time ran out for politicians to reach an agreement on

the country's federal budget. The government is now in shut down. That

the country's federal budget. The means all nonessential services are

closed, as of today just tourists cannot visit attractions like these,

and other services such as tax offices could be affected. More than

700,000 federal government workers have been sent home with the

possibility of not being paid. We expect them to do the job that we

send them there for. As I see, they are acting like a bunch of

three-year-old children, it is who can hold their breath the longest.

This is ridiculous, we have got to find a way to work this out. The

Bulls lives depend on this and it is not that they cannot reach a

conclusion on this. Conservative Republicans hate the health care

law, they say, dilated one year, and then they will pass the budget bill.

I spoke to the president earlier tonight, but I am not going to

negotiate, we are not going to do this. This is not about me, and it

is not about Republicans here in Congress, it is about fairness for

the American people. But that is something the Democratic-controlled

Senate says no to, and President Obama is pretty clear as well. One

faction of one party in one house of Congress, in one branch of

government, does not get to shut down the entire government just to

fight the results of an election. So, is there anyway out of this? The

top Democrat in the House of Representatives gave her take on

it. We are saying to them, we are willing to accept your number for

the purpose of going to the table. Keep government open and go to the

table. They are saying, we are rejecting our own number because

that shuts down government, and only then will we go to the table. The

Congressmen and women have been sending the bill back and forth

between the House of Representatives and the Senate, with no agreement.

But the deadline to get the bill through has now passed, and the

government is in shut down. It happens next is the question

government is in shut down. It everybody is asking. -- what happens

next. A senior political leader in Bangladesh has been sentenced to

death for his part in the country's war of independence from Pakistan

back in 1971. It was found guilty of nine charges out of 23, among them

genocide and abduction. He is the first sitting member of Parliament

and the most senior figure in the opposition party in Bangladesh to be

convicted either tribunal. Our reporter is outside the court. He

convicted either tribunal. Our was found guilty of genocide and

crimes against humanity, committed during Bangladesh's war of

independence from Pakistan in 1971. The judges said that Mr Choudry was

directly and personally involved in murder, torture, abduction,

confinement and deportation by force, and all of these charges they

felt amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. Therefore, he was

charged on four charges, and he was sentenced to death, with various

other sentences on other charges. These events were more than 40 years

ago, so how passionately has this been followed within Bangladesh?

Bangladesh have long wanted justice for the atrocities emitted during

the 1971 war. There were a lot of casualties and deaths, and

Bangladeshis had felt for a long time that justice had escaped them

until this point. She the court itself and the international

tribunal has come under criticism from various human rights bodies,

saying that the proceedings of the court are flawed. For example, that

is according to human rights watch. But within Bangladesh there is broad

support for some kind of justice for the crimes committed in that

period. Other news now - two generals in the US Marine Corps have

been forced to retire for failing to defend an airbase in Afghanistan.

They were both boost our generals, in command when camp Bastian was

stormed by Taliban fighters wearing US military uniforms. Two Marines

died and millions of dollars worth of equipment was destroyed.

Venezuela says it is destroying diplomats accused of plotting

Venezuela says it is destroying sabotage the country's economy.

South Korea has been staging what officials are calling its largest

military parade in a decade. Cruise missiles and torpedoes were among

military parade in a decade. Cruise the weapons put out on display in

the Armed Forces Day Parade. The country's president said the country

needed to build strong deterrents against North Korea. A team of

international disarmament experts is due to arrive in Damascus to begin

the job of dismantling Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. Their

mission is part of the deal reached between Russia and the United States

by the UN Security Council, which aims to take chemical weapons out of

the equation in Syria. Jim Muir is monitoring events from Beirut. They

are not quite there yet, but what is the timetable for them? Well, the

first thing they have to do is to sort out their logistics. They will

first thing they have to do is to be talking straight off with the

Foreign Ministry in Damascus, to talk about how to organise the

visits to the various sites. We are told that there are at least 19.

Some people thought there were more than 40. Some of them apparently are

in combat zones, so they may have to get UN help to negotiate local

cease-fires, so they can get to those sites. They are not there to

take risks. Then, they will visit the sites, they will assess them,

see what the problems are, and in practical terms, it in terms of the

actual dismantling or destruction, the first task will be to destroy or

disabled equipment used to put the chemicals together, into the toxic

menace that they are. So, they will be breaking up machinery and the

munitions used to deliver them. That is all supposed to be done this

month, by the end of October. And then they were get onto the bigger

task of taking away and destroying the chemical weapons themselves, the

original materials for them. It is hard to imagine this will not go

through without a few hiccups, and being granted unfettered access is a

big thing to demand, isn't it? Well, yes, especially in a country which

is very jealous of its sovereignty, like Syria. But they have agreed to

unfettered access. In practice they will need escorts from the Syrian

authorities. They cannot just pop on a bicycle and toddle off on their

own. So, they will require the active help of the authorities. But

my feeling is that because the Russians, Syria's strong ally, are

so deeply involved in this, and apparently will be taking part, I

would be surprised if there was obstruction is from the regime side.

Once the equipment has been destroyed for assembling the

weapons, those weapons will be out of the game. They have not played a

huge part in the conflict, as such. But of course, the war will

continue. 110,000 people have been killed by conventional weapons, and

that will, alas, go on. The flags have been flying in Greece, but not

for a happy reason. Four members of Parliament who belong to Greece's

far right Golden Dawn party have been in court in Athens, charged

with belonging to a criminal group. A senior Greek prosecutor says the

party is organised along the lines of the Nazis in prewar Germany.

Security services over the weekend carried out an unprecedented series

of raids. At the home of this man, the party leader, Nikolaos

Michaloliakos, the least say they found three pistols and ammunition,

along with thousands of euros. How much do we know about Golden Dawn?

This is when it started, 1985. Nikolaos Michaloliakos won a place

on the Atkins Council in 2010, but the real breakthrough for the party

came in the national elections last year -- fins -- when, out of

nowhere, they won 18 seats. -- fins. -- Athens. Our reporter has been

monitoring events from Greece. The arrested MPs will offer their

defence to charges that they belong to a criminal group. Some of the

charges include murder, assault and money-laundering. The party leader,

Nikolaos Michaloliakos, will appear before the same judge tomorrow,

Irving asked for an extension. His deputy will appear on Thursday. It

will then be decided whether they should be remanded in custody until

a trial. It comes almost a fortnight after a left-wing musician and

activist was killed allegedly by a member of Golden Dawn, something

which prompted a huge outcry on the streets, bringing thousands of

people out to protest against the neo-Nazi party. That point is very

interesting, in terms of galvanising the government. I see the Prime

Minister, Mr Samaras, has been talking about uprooting Golden Dawn,

and doing what ever it takes to remove it from the political scene,

but this is a judicial issue, so is there a danger of the muddying of

the waters? Only inasmuch as Golden Dawn has 18 MPs in Parliament, so

under the Greek constitution, if MPs are convicted of crimes, they would

lose their right to sit in Parliament, so those seats would

have to go to by-elections. The government is pretty confident it

would win the majority of those by-elections, and it feels it has

turned the tide against Golden Dawn. It will be interesting to see what

the action is to whip this test me which has come out, extraordinary

details, as to how Golden Dawn functions. -- to witness testimony.

It is alleged that there is a very strict hierarchy in the party, talk

about its squad is going through the city on motorbikes assaulting

immigrants, talk about military training in assault weapons for

members of the party. So, you get the sense of an extremely violent,

according to the government, extremely dangerous, political

party, which it now feels it can crush. Two people have been killed

in a crash involving a petrol tanker, in a suburb of Sydney.

Witnesses reported multiple explosions after the tanker, which

had eight team thousands litres of fuel, drove through a roundabout,

and collided with a number of cars. -- 18,000. Still to come, protests

by thousands of Kurds, as long-awaited literal reforms are

unveiled in Turkey. Also, the development of the drone, this time

they are going underwater, hoping to uncover the deepest reaches of the

ocean. Researchers at South Africa's

Council For Scientific And Industrial Research have unveiled

the world 's first digital laser. It is a milestone for laser technology,

and it could transform anything from medical procedures to compute a

broadband technology. Mike Wooldridge reports.

On they are used in surgery, for scanning your shopping and in other

ways. Lasers have been used for half a

sentry, but scientists are trying to harness digital technology to make

lasers change the shape of their own beans and so more flexible. In this

South African laboratory, they have succeeded. We have our laser output

here. That has proved to be the breakthrough. The sign Dixon

experimented with using a liquid crystal display within the laser,

fed with images from a computer. Eventually, he created the world's

first digital laser. It was good to be able to have done it at the end

of the day. Some of our members gave up. A bit more than good, it must

have been exciting. It was. I kept quiet. I could see that it was true,

but I wanted to finalise everything. So I took the final

graph result to my supervisor. He was very happy. The team here claim

to have achieved a massive leap forward in the thinking about

lasers, which could, for example, help tackle one of the most pressing

challenges in communications, to increase bandwidth. The digital

laser could do so, passing its patterns of light down the optic

fibre. They put this African success story down to perseverance. We had

this mental barrier. Would it work? And when he brought this graph into

my office, I knew immediately that it works. It was a fantastic piece

of research. I hope in the years to come, we see many groups all over

the world building these devices. I am sure they will dream of

applications we have never thought of. They point out that the digital

laser will always probably be behind the scenes technology, but they

believe it will not be long before we all see its impact.

This is BBC World News. The latest headlines: The White House has

ordered federal agencies to begin closing down their operations after

Republicans and Democrats in Congress failed to agree a new

budget. A team of international disarmament

experts is due in Damascus to begin the job of dismantling Syria's

chemical weapons arsenal. More now on our main story, the

budget shop down in the US. Nonessential federal services are

being closed down because there is no money to pay for them. But that

does not apply to essential operations like the police or the

armed forces, as President Obama spelt out in this video message to

American troops. Hi, everybody. As President and as your

commander-in-chief, I have worked to make sure you have the strategy,

resources and support you need to complete the mission is our nation

asked of you. Every time, you have met your responsibilities and

performed with extraordinary professionalism, skill and courage.

Unfortunately, Congress has not fulfilled its responsibility. It has

failed to pass a budget, and as a result, much of our government must

now shut down until Congress funds it again. General Dempsey and your

commanders will have more information about how this affects

you and your families. Today I want to speak directly to you about what

happens next. Those of you in uniform will remain on your normal

duty status. The threats to our national-security have not changed,

and we need you to be ready for any contingency. Ongoing military

operations, like our efforts in Afghanistan, will continue. If you

are serving in harm's way, we will make sure you have what you need to

succeed in your missions. Congress has passed, and I am signing into

law, legislation to make sure you get your paycheques on time. We will

continue to work to address any impact this shutdown has on guide

your families. Floods in Cambodia have killed at

least 30 people and forced thousands to flee their homes. Cambodia is

experiencing severe flooding in nine provinces because of Typhoon Wutip.

Hundreds of schools and thousands of homes have damaged, and the

government is warning that the rains will continue for some time.

Abdullah Abdullah, the man who came second in Afghanistan's 2009

election, has entered next year's presidential race. The former

foreign minister pulled out of a second-round run-off four years ago

after collecting about 30% of the vote. That allowed President Hamid

Karzai to retain power in an election that was tainted by fraud

and violence. A series of long-awaited reforms

giving concessions to Turkey's Kurdish minority has been met by

protests on the streets. Turkey is planning to lift restrictions on the

use of the Kurdish language in schools and political campaigns. It

is also lifting restrictions on women wearing Islamic headscarves at

work. This was not the reaction he was

hoping for, but the Kurdish peace process has never been

straightforward. Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a

package of reforms designed to all its wheels. But thousands of Kurds

took to the streets to show that his highly anticipated speech fell short

of expectations. They flocked to the southeastern city of Diabaka to make

clear that this appointment. The prime minister's reforms include

changes to the electoral system to give pro-Kurdish parties a greater

chance of entering Parliament. He also moved to scrap restrictions on

the use of the Kurdish language and the wearing of headscarves. But

pro-Kurdish politicians say these proposals don't go far enough.

TRANSLATION: You have shown that the only reform package you recognise is

a status for Kurdistan and the freedom for our leader. The reforms

are seen as vital to efforts to end the 30 year conflict between Kurdish

rebels and the government. Rebels called a halt to hostilities in

March following peace talks, but last month, they suspended that

withdrawal from the country because they said the government had failed

to improve Kurdish rights. The reforms are key four began's on

political prospects. He faces elections next year. The peace

initiative has drawn strong public support, but is also attracting

criticism from nationalists over perceived concessions to militants.

Away from home, there has been a warm response to his proposals. We

welcome his reference to the guiding legislation of the EU. The

announcement holds out the prospects for progress on important issues.

Music to the ears of a prime minister strongly pushing for EU

membership. But at home, the Kurdish problem looms as large as ever.

membership. But at home, the Kurdish We are getting increasingly used to

the idea of unmanned drone planes flying in our skies, often related

to conflict zones, unfortunately. But scientists in France are now

working on a project to develop drones which can operate deep under

the sea. The idea sounds straightforward, but apparently, it

is easier to communicate with the moon than it is to find out what is

going on at the bottom of the ocean. We have sent plenty of unmanned

going on at the bottom of the ocean. explorers into space, but how much

do we know about what is beneath the surface of our oceans? Here we have

marine drones, on which scientists are testing the latest technology

for deep Sea research. They are unmanned drones, using artificial

intelligence that will give us our eyes on the darkest depths of the

sea bed that we have never before. They will be used monitor marine

life, pipelines, or ill spills. They will give us 3-D vision of the

deepest reaches of the ocean, and as the name drone suggests, they will

be used to defend ship 's, harbours and shipping lanes. Today we only

have knowledge of a small percentage of the Ocean sea floor, and there is

so much to discover. The key to the future of these drones and machines

is getting them to work as a team and semi-autonomously. For example,

in military terms, in a harbour like this, you might have on drone

identifying a mine and another disabling it. The trouble is that

the radio waves to command these disabling it. The trouble is that

machines don't travel well to sea water, which means marine drones

have to communicate by sound, or acoustic set all. In much the same

way as dolphins, these machines will be constantly chirping to each other

to swap commands and information. But at the moment, this is state of

the art in deep Sea research. This is the three-man submersible the

Nautile, which was used to dive on the wreck of the Titanic, all the

way back in the 1980s. This is still one of only six such submersibles in

the world. I contrast, the marine drones are smaller, more versatile

in the water and much cheaper. If the scientists can perfect the

technology, they can multiply the number of scientific explorations

they run, and the data they bring back will be unlike anything we have

seen before. Now, to own a sports car is every

petrol head's cream, but students at the University of New South Wales in

Australia built on that is powered by the sun.

EVe is the name of Australia's newest solar vehicle. It has two

doors, two seats, four wheels and a conventional steering wheel, but the

crucial thing is the solar panels. The battery pack should allow it to

do 500 kilometres at highway speeds in one charge without the sun. If we

add the sun to that, we get about 650 corners. Prestigious Italian

sports cars have been the inspiration for students at the

University of New South Wales, while unveiling their latest solar powered

creation. Engineers say this is the first step towards creating a

practical, everyday car. Solar panels are getting cheaper and more

efficient. Batteries are getting lighter, and higher capacity. It is

exciting for us to be working at the cutting-edge of technology. We hope

to keep pushing boundaries. The best for these university students will

be the World Solar Challenge, a 3000 kilometre journey through the heart

of Australia, from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the South.

There will be stiff competition from the United States, Britain, the

Netherlands and Japan. Only then will we see what this pioneering

solar car is really made of. Thanks