15/10/2013 BBC World News

Hello. Our top stories: A powerful earthquake hits the central

Philippines. At least 72 people have been killed. A key ally of the

Afghan president has been killed. A court in Russia have been expelled

for another member of the Greenpeace crew. And, before and

after. We examine airbrushing and the myth of perfection. How

damaging is it to our self-esteem? There has been a powerful

earthquake in the Philippines. Witnesses describe hearing a sound

like a huge truck approaching, as the quake struck at 8am, causing

buildings to collapse and people to stampede into the streets. The

quake happened deep below the island of Bohol, at the start of a

national holiday. Several historic churches collapsed in Bohol. And in

the nearby city of Cebu, a market roof fell in. The tremors and

aftershocks could be felt up to 100 kilometres away. At least people

are confirmed dead so far but it is feared that number could rise

sharply. A short while ago, the BBC's Jonathan Head told me about

the devastation caused by the quake: People say when they came up

out of buildings, they found it difficult to stand up. As a result,

buildings have collapsed over quite a wide area. Most of the damage

recorded was in the second biggest city in the Philippines. Nearly 100

kilometres away from the peppers sector. -- the epicentre. Some

other people were killed when a fish market collapsed. On the

island to bow hole itself commit no big cities and only small towns. It

has taken a long time to get around all the different villages and

towns and all the areas affected. They are trying to find out how

many buildings have collapsed and whether people are trapped

underneath them. It is a difficult job for authorities to get a full

sense over how bad the damages and over how wide an area. What about

the aftershocks? They have continued - they have been very

strong indeed. That has made it difficult to deal with buildings

that might already have been damaged. People have to stay away

from a lot of public buildings. There is concern about landslide.

It is a mountainous area. There have been problems with landslides

in the past. They have declared a state of calamity and the Red Cross

is involved and that the pins government is involved. They are

trying to help the very large numbers of people who have problems

with power supplies and damaged buildings. The governor of

Afghanistan's Logar province has been killed in a bomb attack on a

mosque, during prayers for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

Arsala Jamal, a close ally of President Karzai, was standing at

the front of the mosque greeting worshippers when a bomb hidden

under a table went off. The attack took place in the Logar province,

which is south of the capital, Kabul, and the Taliban have

increased their control over this area. Previously he was governor of

another eastern province, Khost. A high-profile target, the 47-year-

old, was a Canadian citizen who returned to Afghanistan to serve in

several key positions. He was President Karzai's campaign manager

during the 2009 presidential elections. He studied in Malaysia

and got a degree in Economics from the University of Malaya. He worked

for foreign NGOs, such as Care International, using his expertise

in rural development. Arsala's killing marks one of the most high-

profile assassinations this year. He had survived a number of

assassination attempts in the past, including suicide bombings. Our

correspondent in Kabul has more on the attack. It was right at the end

of the morning prayers for the first day of the festival that

families really look forward to at this time of year. After prayers

had finished, the Governor was at the front. He was greeting people

and making a speech when a bomb exploded, we understand, that had

been planted under the podium he was speaking from, killing him and

injuring a number of people close by. There was of is the chaos

afterwards. Reports coming in of how many casualties there were. --

there was obviously chaos afterwards. Afghanistan is

celebrating this important holiday. Another member of the Greenpeace

crew arrested in Russia for staging an Arctic oil drilling protest has

had his bail application rejected. Briton Frank Hewetson was the

logistics co-ordinator on the Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise.

The crew of 30 face piracy charges, which carry a maximum prison

sentence of 15 years. Daniel Sandford is following events in

Murmansk. What has happened on this latest hearing? We have got through

10 of the 30 protesters that are being detained. Winter has come

early here. We are north of the Arctic Circle and winter is well

under way. This morning we sat through the 10th hearing - a

British activist from London. The same arguments were made in his

case as the cases we sat through yesterday. The principal argument

is that they cannot be pirates because they were not attacking a

ship or seeking financial gain. The charges against them are incorrect.

They are arguing they were detained illegally in international orders.

They were not produced before a court within 48 hours of them being

detained because they were being towed on a ship. Just as in all the

previous hearings, the judge did not have much truck for any of the

arguments of the defence. Frank Kitson was sent back to the prison

which is only a few minutes away. The prison is only a few minutes

away. They have been claiming they were cold but conditions are

reasonably OK. They say they are being kept separately from each

other and are having to talk to Russian cell mates. What is the

expected length of the whole trial process? We can see the cameraman

wiping the screen. How much diplomatic action is going on

behind the scenes? There is a lot of diplomatic action - a lot of

members of consular staff. We have activists from many different

countries. The British consul in St Petersburg was in court this

morning was that yesterday we saw a member of the consular staff with

the captain of the ship. -- this morning. As yet, they do not seem

to be any results from that. It seems the Russian position is, we

cannot have activists protesting against our vital gas and oil

interests. They regard that as the next most important economic

benefit for all the country and they do not want to have protesters

out there. They do not want to regard them as pirates and they are

not paying much attention to the diplomatic action at the moment.

This trial process, going back to the first part of your question, I

have seen trials in Russia where this period of investigation has

lasted a year and then the trial would be some months after that.

These at this could be spending a long time in jail before any trial.

-- these activists. Talks over the Iranian nuclear programme are under

way at the moment in Geneva. The negotiators are from the US, Russia,

China, Britain, France and Germany. It is the first round of talks was

that they have the first formal international negotiations since

the Iranian President took office. -- they are the first round of

talks. Iran says reaction to those proposals have been bid. Here is

what the EU spokesman has been saying in an update on the talks in

the last hour. We have had two very productive days was that it will be

an opportunity to explore the proposals on the table. --

productive days. We have come here with a sense of cautious optimism

and a great sense of determination. We believe it is time for tangible

results. Sorry about the quality on that recording. The talks are

incredibly important. They are seen as a huge break through. The US has

said there will be no overnight progress. Our security

correspondent has been looking at the long road to negotiations. For

more than a decade, there has been an ongoing crisis over the Iranian

nuclear programme. But now there are some signs of a possible deal -

although no one is quite sure how realistic that possibility might be.

A central reason for the relative optimism is the new Iranian

President, Hassan Rouhani. At the UN General Assembly last month, he

and President Obama did not manage a handshake that they did speak on

the phone - the first direct contact between the two countries'

leaders since 1979. I do not believe this difficult history can

be overcome overnight. The suspicions run too deep. I do

believe that if we can resolve the issue of the Iranian nuclear

programme, that can serve as a major step down the long road

towards a different relationship. Getting beyond promising words will

involve hard negotiations. The issue is what the real purpose is.

The programme is spread between a number of sites to rout the country.

There is a heavy water plant that Iraq used as part of the nuclear

programme as well as a reactor, currently being built in the south.

There is a centrifuge facility. Here, thousands of centrifuges

spend enriched uranium. That can be used for nuclear reactor or weapons.

Iran was forced to reveal another secret enrichment facility in the

mountains, increasing suspicion in some western countries. It says the

purpose of the programme is peaceful. Others fear it is all a

cover to push on nuclear-weapons. Over the last decade, there have

been many attempts to defuse the crisis. There have been brief

suspensions in enrichment activity by Iran. There has been talk of

limiting how much it enriches uranium and moving some of

sensitive material out of the country. These have all broken

Durham. Iran -- broken down. Iran insists it is its right to have a

nuclear programmes. The new leader has signalled he wants to resolve

the crisis in the coming months. Whether a deal can be agreed will

depend on exact details put on the table and whether or not both sides

can compromise and trust each other. Stay with us on BBC World news.

Much more to come but not much time left. US Senate leaders say they

have made progress on a did to reopen the Government. -- a deal. A

bomb at a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk has killed at

least 11 people and injured many others. Police say the blast

happened as worshippers were leaving the Sunni mosque after

prayers marking the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. An alleged senior

Al-Qaeda figure is expected to appear in a New York court later

today. Abu Anas al Liby was captured in Tripoli and has now

been transferred to the United States. He is accused of having

links with Al-Qaeda as well as a connection to the 1998 bombings of

American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Accusations are still flying

over what caused a stampede on a bridge, in the Indian state of

Madhya Pradesh. 115 people are now thought to have died in the

disaster, near the Ratangarh temple. Hundreds of thousands had gathered,

for the Hindu festival of Navratra. Zubair Ahmed has more from Madhya

Pradesh. This bridge was the scene of the deadly stampede in central

India. More than 115 people were killed. Some were crushed under the

feet of fellow pilgrims. Others threw themselves on to this river.

Many did not survive. This was a remote area where access to

hospitals is not easy. I met some people who were still looking for

loved ones. TRANSLATION: I am trying to find my

husband. He has not called me since the incident. I came here to search.

I do not know what to do. I have left my three children back home.

And cannot find him anywhere. TRANSLATION: I have watched the

news and came running to find my son and daughter who are missing.

So many people have died and so many people are injured. I do not

know what happened to my children. Today, it is business as usual as

pilgrims are still coming in - chanting, dancing, singing and

beating drums. Today is the last day of one of the holiest festivals

in the Hindu calendar. After the devastation of cyclone

Phailin in India, rising flood waters have now left tens of

thousands of people cut off from the rest of the country. Officials say

as many as 100,000 people have been marooned by flooding in Orissa

state. Cyclone Phailin, which hit over the weekend, was the strongest

experienced in the This is BBC World News.

At least 32 people have died after a strong earthquake hit the central

Philippines. In fact, that number is now thought to be at least 70, and

the quake happened deep underground causing extensive damage on the

island. The governor of the Afghan province of Logar has been killed by

a bomb at a mosque. In the United States, Senate leaders

say they have made tremendous progress towards a deal which would

prevent the federal government defaulting on its debt within days.

Republican Senate leaders are due to meet later to theday to discuss the

plan but any deal would have to pass the House of Representatives, and

President Obama has warned there is still a good chance of default, so

what would that mean? Let's have a look at the timeline in numbers.

Just a look through some of the numbers. Hope you got that. We'll be

testing you later! The continuing political deadlock in Washington

means, of course, large parts of the federal government's operations have

been shut down. The tour on the US economy has so far been negligible

but for some, it's a matter of life and death. For two young people in

Maryland the consequences are heartbreaking. Jane O'Brien went to

meet them. Eight-year-old Chrissy can barely walk and finds it

increasingly difficult to breathe. She suffers from an extremely rare

genetic disease that's rapidly destroying her body and will

eventually kill her. Her only hope is a clinical trial to test a new

gene therapy, but the Government shutdown has halted the review of

signs terrific studies that must be completed before the trial can

start. I'm angry. I'm frustrated and bewildered as to how we can be so

close, so close to developing and administering a treatment that could

potentially save their lives and just be stopped without any

movement. Chrissy also struggles to talk because her vocal chords are

partially paralysed, but she's keenly aware of what's happening to

her. The disease is doubly devastating

because she has a three-year-old sister, Amanda, who has also

inherited the condition. Without a medical breakthrough, she

faces the same fate as Chrissy. The clinical trial is their best hope,

but until Congress passes a bill to fund the Government, the trial

cannot proceed. I really don't care who is at fault. I don't care who

did what. All I care about is letting the scientists get back to

work, letting them work on a life-saving cure for my children and

those with a disease like theirs. They're my girls. They are my life.

I put them ahead of everything in the whole universe. Across the

country, children like Chrissy and Amanda is losing the chance of

treatment. 200 people a week would usually enter clinical trials, but

almost all have been halted - even so, the family tries to continue

life as normal focussing on whatever future Chrissy has. You never do

anything perfectly, but we try to do our best, and we try to teach her

always do your best. We try to mimic that and give her good examples to

do it. Chrissy's decline is accelerating, and the damage is

irreversible. Without treatment, her body will shut down, and she'll

eventually lose the ability to eat and breathe. If the clinical trial

doesn't start soon, she may be too sick to take part.

There are very real impacts of that political deadlock in Washington.

It used to be the case if you felt strongly about an issue here in

Britain, you would write a strongly worded letter, perhaps to a

newspaper or to your local MP, but unlike many other things, it's going

digital. It's already a year since the online petition site change.org

opened here. The site has already drawn in millions of activists and

achieve some real change. The website change.org - it's an

outlet for those disenfranchised by more traditional politics. It has

been going here for just over a year. It's shot in the arm for

democracy. Parliament needs to wake up to the digital world and get much

more in touch with what's happening online. Online petition sites have

had a series of successes, this probably the most high profile, to

have a woman on the back of a bank note. I just got angry, and I had

the tools at my disposal to be able to do something about it. Caroline

Perez, who started the petition, says she didn't even consider, for

example, contacting her MP. Why would I take this slow traditional

route of asking someone to act on my behalf when I can act for myself? I

think that is the beautiful thing - I am no-one. I am an ordinary

person. I can change something I really cared about. Are there

implications for Parliament, seen by some as ineffective, cumbersome,

irrelevant? Nicola Blackwood is a Tory MP. She's started an online

petition to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

Are these kinds of way ways of campaigning short circuiting

Parliament? Not at all. It has always been a mechanism of bringing

the public into parliamentary campaigning. Some of the petitions

online, like trying to stop Ben Affleck playing Batman are perhaps

frivolous. Others, like stopping Page 3 seem to have been ignored,

but as many people use them and more succeed, is power shifting from

institutions and corporations to ordinary people?

Now, throughout this month, we're running a special series on the

challenges facing women in the twenty first century. Later this

month 100 inspiring women from around the world will gather for a

unique event here at the BBC. In our latest report we're focusing on the

pressure to look perfect, whatever your age, shape or size. A British

charity says extreme airbrushing is having a dangerous effect on some

young people. There have been calls to ban digitally enhanced pictures

of models completely. Tulip Mazumder reports. The cam rap doesn't lie, or

does it? Great. We decided to find out just how different I could look

using some post-production magic. Airbrushing has been used in the

fashion and advertising industries for decades, but as the technology

has evolved to bring us more powerful cameras, capturing every

line and blemish, so has the post production that goes with it. That's

a worry for eating disorder charity BEAT. It's hosted a debate about

body image at the end of London fashion week looking at what it says

is the extreme using of post production. I know that the whole

notion of a hyper-perfect reality is damaging some young people's lives.

It doesn't cause an eating disorder by itself. They're much more complex

than that we know some people get trapped in their eating disorder

because of the way those images affect them. Plenty of young people

are now taking a similar approach to their own photos.

I can't see any of my, like, imperfections on there. You think

kind of not Photoshoping yourself is you... Pulled her stomach in there.

Advertisers has sent this pack to schools to help them understand how

post production works. A certain amount of it is about buying the

dream. If you're talking about cosmetics, you don't expect to look

like the most beautiful person in the world, but you associate with

that dream. Back in the edit suite, the new me... So this is before. And

then the after. Wow. That doesn't look like me anymore I don't think.

Doesn't look like you at all. Airbrushing cameras - we quite like

those I think! I am not supposed to say that, I know. But you can get

more on our website. Before we go, some dramatic pictures

from Brazil. Showing a motorcyclist being robbed at gunpoint. The

terrifying scene was caught on the victim's helmet mounted-camera s he

approached an inter-section in the city of Sao Paulo on Saturday. Two

gunmen on another motorbike pull up alongside, forcing him to stop. One

of them points a gun, threatening him and demanding he hands over his

motorbike. Before the man with the gun is able to ride off, another

man, reportedly an undercover policeman appears, and fires two

shots a