:00:09. > :00:18.Hello. This is BBC World News. Fears of a mega blaze near Sydney, as
:00:19. > :00:22.bushfires burning New South Wales. The flames could spread across
:00:23. > :00:28.hundreds of kilometres. Outrage in France as the latest leak
:00:29. > :00:30.from Edward Snowden alleges the American National Security Agency
:00:31. > :00:35.recorded millions of French telephone calls.
:00:36. > :00:39.The infamous massacre of polls by Soviet secret police during World
:00:40. > :00:43.War Two. The European Court says it isn't competent to rule whether the
:00:44. > :00:47.Russian investigation was adequate. And six authors take on the
:00:48. > :01:07.challenge of updating Jane Austen's classics into modern works.
:01:08. > :01:14.A state of emergency is in place in southeastern Australia, as bushfires
:01:15. > :01:20.sweep across New South Wales. Firefighters fear the fires could
:01:21. > :01:27.merge into one huge blaze, spanning hundreds of kilometres. Steve
:01:28. > :01:31.Warrington is the Acting Chief Fire Officer of Victoria. He has been
:01:32. > :01:36.telling us what his estate has been doing to help. The sheer size of it
:01:37. > :01:43.that people have got to come to grips with - one of it -- one of the
:01:44. > :01:48.fires has a 300 kilometres front. It isn't like a house fire or a factory
:01:49. > :01:52.fire that is stationary and doesn't go anywhere. This is literally in
:01:53. > :01:58.the lap of the gods and can go anywhere. It is dynamic, quite
:01:59. > :02:03.intensive, and the logistics if you have upwards of 4000 people on the
:02:04. > :02:10.ground, you have got to feed them, fuelled, and make sure they are safe
:02:11. > :02:14.and their safety is not compromised. It is a huge logistical effort just
:02:15. > :02:20.to get the trucks there. Then you have got to get the workforce and
:02:21. > :02:23.the management teams to make sure we are managing the fires as
:02:24. > :02:29.effectively as possible, and make sure we limit the amount of life
:02:30. > :02:35.lost and the amount of houses lost. In 2009, we lost 2000 homes, and
:02:36. > :02:39.already over 200 homes have been lost in New South Wales. It is a
:02:40. > :02:46.mighty effort just to slow the fires down. Steve Warrington and there, a
:02:47. > :02:52.chief fire officer. Hundreds of families have already lost their
:02:53. > :02:56.homes in these fires. Firefighters and weather forecasters saying there
:02:57. > :03:01.must be a risk of worse to come. The aerial pictures show the extent of
:03:02. > :03:06.the devastation. Helicopters have been dumping water on the fires for
:03:07. > :03:09.many days now, but with high temperatures and strong winds
:03:10. > :03:13.expected later in the week, there are now those warnings that we are
:03:14. > :03:18.hearing that some of those fires will merge into a mega fire. The
:03:19. > :03:24.fires cover a huge area of New South Wales. They have reached the
:03:25. > :03:31.outskirts of Sydney already, Australia's biggest city. The area
:03:32. > :03:34.around the Blue Mountains is the worst affected. So far, only one
:03:35. > :03:37.person is thought to have died, but the destruction the fire has caused
:03:38. > :03:42.will affect thousands of people for many years. Our correspondent has
:03:43. > :03:49.been telling what the situation is like in the Blue Mountains. I have
:03:50. > :03:54.just been for a drive up the street. Katoomba is the main town in the
:03:55. > :03:58.Blue Mountains, and it is totally empty of people. The restaurants are
:03:59. > :04:04.empty, there is hardly anybody out and about. It is as if people are at
:04:05. > :04:08.home packing or have already decided to leave. It is difficult to work
:04:09. > :04:14.out how many people live there from where we are. Is this a common area
:04:15. > :04:19.for wildfire risk? Is so, why are people building how was there?
:04:20. > :04:25.Katoomba is not an area traditionally associated with major
:04:26. > :04:28.fire problems. Far from it. It is usually other communities within the
:04:29. > :04:33.Blue Mountains that are more remote. In the Blue Mountains, we have many,
:04:34. > :04:49.many millions of trees. The Blue Mountains is a city within a
:04:50. > :04:51.National Park, so it is a very beautiful place to live and bring up
:04:52. > :04:54.children. This is a very rare occurrence we are seeing here in the
:04:55. > :04:57.Blue Mountains right now. The scale and the speed of the fire this week
:04:58. > :05:00.took everybody by surprise, when we lost around 200 homes. That was very
:05:01. > :05:07.unexpected. What about your own home and family? What precautions have
:05:08. > :05:11.you taken? We are very worried. We are packed and ready to go at this
:05:12. > :05:15.end. We have been trying to fireproof the house, getting things
:05:16. > :05:20.like leaves and twigs out of the gutters around the roof area around
:05:21. > :05:24.the house. We have been cutting back trees and shrubs overhanging the
:05:25. > :05:30.house itself, and given the notice we have had, we have made sure any
:05:31. > :05:34.thing that has special value to us is packed and taken elsewhere.
:05:35. > :05:42.Obviously, we are ready to go at a moment's notice if the police or the
:05:43. > :05:47.fire service say we are to evacuate. Do you have confidence that
:05:48. > :05:52.firefighters are going to get this under control? You can't have
:05:53. > :05:58.confidence. The scale of the fire on two fronts up here in the mountains
:05:59. > :06:03.means that everyone is totally stretched to the limit. Also, the
:06:04. > :06:08.concern amongst locals here is whether there is enough aerial
:06:09. > :06:12.appliance to -- aerial appliances to drop water on fire this big. The
:06:13. > :06:17.weather conditions are predicted to change, such as the wind direction.
:06:18. > :06:21.If we end up having a fire on the third front, then that is a real
:06:22. > :06:28.concern for people living in Katoomba. That is when people here
:06:29. > :06:32.will start to look to move somewhere safer.
:06:33. > :06:36.Thank you. More revelations from the documents leaked by the former
:06:37. > :06:42.American intelligence analyst, Edward Snowden. The French
:06:43. > :06:45.newspaper, Le Monde, alleges that the US National Security Agency
:06:46. > :06:50.secretly recorded thousands of phone calls in France. The Interior
:06:51. > :06:56.Minister described these allegations as shocking. I asked whether this
:06:57. > :06:59.really came as a surprise to the French government. The French do
:07:00. > :07:04.know this sort of thing goes on. They have a similar system
:07:05. > :07:08.themselves. Le Monde ran a report last year saying that the foreign
:07:09. > :07:13.intelligence service in France was recording millions of phone calls,
:07:14. > :07:18.e-mails and text messages, to try and pinpoint terrorist cells. As the
:07:19. > :07:23.Interior Minister said today, what is really needed is some sort of
:07:24. > :07:34.control over this new expanding technology. No doubt the indignant
:07:35. > :07:36.is we are seeing in France today is for public consumption, because this
:07:37. > :07:39.programme had recorded some 70 million French phone calls, text
:07:40. > :07:44.messages and e-mails. We have just had some comment from Laurel
:07:45. > :07:50.fabulous, who said he had summoned the French Minister -- the American
:07:51. > :07:54.minister for an explanation. TRANSLATION: We had been alerted to
:07:55. > :08:00.this in June, and we reacted strongly. But it seems we have to go
:08:01. > :08:03.further. This was an attack on privacy and is totally
:08:04. > :08:08.unacceptable. We need to be assured very quickly that this is no longer
:08:09. > :08:11.practised. Embarrassing for the US, because
:08:12. > :08:18.this is not the first time this has happened. Le Monde reported last
:08:19. > :08:23.year that they had introduced an operation into the work of the
:08:24. > :08:27.Elysee Palace. The US ambassador was indignant and said it was not the US
:08:28. > :08:31.responsible, but it had the power to find files and even to turn on the
:08:32. > :08:38.microphones of the Elysee Palace you to is. This coincides with a report
:08:39. > :08:42.in a weekly German magazine that also hacked into the e-mails of the
:08:43. > :08:48.former Mexican President Felipe Calderon, not only looking into his
:08:49. > :08:56.personal account, but also accounts of state security. The US will have
:08:57. > :08:57.to respond today, and we await that response.
:08:58. > :09:02.The European Court of Human Rights says it is unable to rule on whether
:09:03. > :09:06.Russia carried out an adequate investigation into a massacre which
:09:07. > :09:10.claimed the lives of more than 21,000 Polish prisoners during World
:09:11. > :09:15.War Two. The court says it cannot rule on the case because Russia only
:09:16. > :09:23.signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights on 1998, eight years
:09:24. > :09:26.after the investigation began. Our correspondent has been following the
:09:27. > :09:31.story. This is very confusing to most of us. How can the courts say
:09:32. > :09:36.it cannot rule? First of all, they do not have enough documents. The
:09:37. > :09:42.Russians have not released many. Just six documents have been
:09:43. > :09:45.released since 1990. The term of confidentiality of the document is
:09:46. > :09:50.30 years, but the documents are still not released. As many times as
:09:51. > :09:54.Polish families have requested the release of documents connected to be
:09:55. > :09:59.as massacre, they haven't been released. The Russian prosecutor 's
:10:00. > :10:02.office has closed the investigation on the premise that the victims are
:10:03. > :10:08.deceased, so there is nothing to investigate any more. We are hearing
:10:09. > :10:14.from our correspondent in Warsaw that this is to do with dates, but
:10:15. > :10:18.this is very politically sensitive. Yes, extremely. It is the most
:10:19. > :10:23.controversial issue in relations between Poland and Russia, because
:10:24. > :10:26.Polish authorities have insisted that the investigation goes on and
:10:27. > :10:31.the documents are released. The Russians are finding all sorts of
:10:32. > :10:41.excuses not to do that. The tragedy in 2010, in April, was that dozens
:10:42. > :10:47.of top Polish officials were killed in a plane that crashed in -- that
:10:48. > :10:53.crashed in Russia when they were on their way to a memorial service.
:10:54. > :10:57.They added to it. The Russians investigated the crash very, very
:10:58. > :11:02.well, but relations are still soured by this massacre issue, because it
:11:03. > :11:06.has not been put to rest. There is no final decision made. The Russians
:11:07. > :11:11.admitted that the Soviet authorities are to blame for the controversy.
:11:12. > :11:15.Who gave the direct order? Was it Joseph Stalin? Was it the head of
:11:16. > :11:20.the Russian secret police at the time? Joseph Stalin's grandson
:11:21. > :11:24.insisted that his father had nothing to do with it, but you have to see
:11:25. > :11:31.the documents, and the documents are not released. Does it end here? Do
:11:32. > :11:37.the nuances of this go beyond Russia and Poland, or is it confined to
:11:38. > :11:41.them? It will also affect the political atmosphere in Russia as
:11:42. > :11:48.well, because the archives and the loss of documents regarding the
:11:49. > :11:54.Soviet and Russian past, the near past and the far past, people want
:11:55. > :12:03.to know what happened. Thank you. Some breaking news from Russia,
:12:04. > :12:07.there has been an explosion on a bus in the southern Russian city of
:12:08. > :12:14.Volgograd, and four people have been killed. That has been reported by
:12:15. > :12:21.Interfax. An explosion on a bus in Volvo grad, with four people being
:12:22. > :12:31.killed. -- in Volgograd. We will update you on that and the number of
:12:32. > :12:36.injuries as soon as we can. Germany is a step closer to forming
:12:37. > :12:40.a coalition government after the Social Democratic Party agreed a
:12:41. > :12:44.series of economic concessions with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Talks
:12:45. > :12:48.between the parties are due to start on Wednesday. The Christian
:12:49. > :12:52.Democrats won the elections but fell short of a majority.
:12:53. > :12:58.The Pakistani prime minister has held talks in Washington with the US
:12:59. > :13:02.Secretary of State, John Kerry. He will then meet President Obama on
:13:03. > :13:07.Wednesday. Among the issues being discussed is the contention issue of
:13:08. > :13:12.American drone strikes on Pakistani soil.
:13:13. > :13:18.The north-east of China, as you can see, has been hit by a huge rise in
:13:19. > :13:21.air pollution caused by a combination of weather conditions
:13:22. > :13:31.and an increase in the burning of coal in homes. The resulting smoke
:13:32. > :13:38.caused visibility to be reduced to very few metres. You can hardly see
:13:39. > :13:43.a thing there. Still to come, match-making with
:13:44. > :13:50.government support. India seeks to revive the rapidly diminishing Parsi
:13:51. > :13:55.community. In the Egyptian capital, gunmen have
:13:56. > :14:00.opened fire on a wedding party, killing three people, including an
:14:01. > :14:09.eight-year-old girl. Egypt's Coptic Christians community has been
:14:10. > :14:12.targeted by Islamist militants. Masked gunmen fired indiscriminately
:14:13. > :14:18.as people left the church on Sunday night. They had been at a wedding.
:14:19. > :14:24.Eyewitnesses say a motorbike and a car approached the crowd outside the
:14:25. > :14:31.Coptic Church in Cairo. The gunmen opened fire. Amongst the dead, and
:14:32. > :14:33.eight-year-old girl, according to the Interior Ministry.
:14:34. > :14:38.TRANSLATION: In the church we had a very loud sound, as if something was
:14:39. > :14:42.collapsing. Within seconds, one of our friends arrived and said there
:14:43. > :14:46.was gunfire in front of the church. We came running out, and I found a
:14:47. > :14:57.woman seated in a chair covered in blood with lots of bullet wins. Many
:14:58. > :14:59.other people had fallen around her, including a child. The Coptic
:15:00. > :15:02.Orthodox Church is one of Christianity's oldest. In Egypt,
:15:03. > :15:08.Christians make up at least 10% of the population. It is estimated that
:15:09. > :15:12.the Coptic Christians population could be anywhere between six
:15:13. > :15:16.million and 11 million people. According to some reports, there
:15:17. > :15:19.have been more than 50 attacks on Christian churches since the start
:15:20. > :15:25.of the military crackdown. The head of the Coptic Church appeared on
:15:26. > :15:30.television when it was announced that President Morsi had been
:15:31. > :15:35.removed. Since then, he has received death threats and several Christians
:15:36. > :15:40.have been killed. TRANSLATION: What is happening is
:15:41. > :15:46.targeting all of Egypt, not only the Christians. This is enough. People
:15:47. > :15:51.are getting sick and tired of this. Egypt has been in turmoil since the
:15:52. > :15:56.ousting of Mohammed Morsi. His supporters continue to demonstrate
:15:57. > :16:01.in Cairo for his reinstatement. Less than 20 kilometres from the Coptic
:16:02. > :16:06.Church, more violence in the city. Supporters clashed with police at a
:16:07. > :16:10.university, a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since the
:16:11. > :16:18.military crackdown, hundreds have died and thousands have been
:16:19. > :16:21.arrested. Now, the government has its way. Protests like this could
:16:22. > :16:29.soon be outlawed, with demonstrators facing heavy fines and even jail.
:16:30. > :16:38.Our main headlines... Fears that three large bushfires in New South
:16:39. > :16:49.Wales could combine into one large blaze have been raised.
:16:50. > :17:00.India is full of diverse religions and communities, but the Parsis, who
:17:01. > :17:02.boast the highest literacy rate in the country, as well as some
:17:03. > :17:14.well-known business families, have been dwindling.
:17:15. > :17:21.These two are excited and relieved. They are on course for having their
:17:22. > :17:24.first baby, for which they have been receiving fertility treatment for
:17:25. > :17:32.more than a year. The couple now wants to have more than one child.
:17:33. > :17:36.We want to kids, definitely. I understand finance and everything is
:17:37. > :17:53.an issue, but still, I think to kids in a family is a kids -- two kids is
:17:54. > :17:59.a must. The Parsis originally came from Persia more than 2000 years
:18:00. > :18:03.ago. They have produced some of India's best-known business leaders
:18:04. > :18:08.and entertainers, but the population is dwindling rapidly. Less than
:18:09. > :18:14.70,000 remain, and nearly a third are over the age of 60. Here, a
:18:15. > :18:21.group of Parsi men and women over the age of 35 have assembled to meet
:18:22. > :18:27.prospective life partners. Nearly a third are unmarried, and many marry
:18:28. > :18:32.outside the community, which has also contributed to the decline in
:18:33. > :18:37.the population. Events like these are organised, where unmarried men
:18:38. > :18:46.and women gets to meet each other. But so far, they have failed to
:18:47. > :18:50.reverse the trend. The basic reason for this declining population is low
:18:51. > :18:56.fertility. This is not biological infertility, it is infertility which
:18:57. > :19:05.is caused due to late marriages and late con ceiling of children. The
:19:06. > :19:09.government is to provide financial support to married couples for
:19:10. > :19:13.fertility treatment. The community leaders have welcomed the
:19:14. > :19:17.initiative, but the real success would be if this programme
:19:18. > :19:20.translates into more Parsi children, which would mean a much brighter
:19:21. > :19:31.future for one of India's most influential communities. I just want
:19:32. > :19:35.to let you know a little bit more about our breaking news this hour.
:19:36. > :19:42.There has been an explosion on a bus in the southern Russian city of
:19:43. > :19:47.Volvo grad. -- Volgograd. It will raise fears that this could be an
:19:48. > :19:55.attack linked to the internal politics of Russia. We will update
:19:56. > :19:58.you as soon as we can. A key witness in the case of a British family
:19:59. > :20:02.murdered in the French Alps last year has spoken publicly for the
:20:03. > :20:07.first time. The anonymous French forestry worker has told the BBC's
:20:08. > :20:08.Panorama programme that he saw a dark grey
:20:09. > :20:11.Panorama programme that he saw a numberplate heading towards the
:20:12. > :20:17.crime scene shortly before the attack. Three members of the family
:20:18. > :20:21.from Surrey are murdered in their car while on holiday, and a French
:20:22. > :20:27.cyclist is killed by what is thought to be an experienced hit man. Over a
:20:28. > :20:32.year later, only the brother, Zaid Al-Hilli, has ever been arrested. He
:20:33. > :20:36.remains on bail and denies arranging the killings. He has never been
:20:37. > :20:40.charged. Now, Panorama has tracked down a witness who has never spoken
:20:41. > :20:50.publicly before and does not want to be identified. A forestry worker, he
:20:51. > :20:55.seems he saw a British, grey BMW 4x4 shortly before the attack. And he
:20:56. > :20:58.saw a man dressed in black on a motorbike, thought to be the gunman.
:20:59. > :21:05.He says two of his colleagues also saw the bike ten minutes later.
:21:06. > :21:08.TRANSLATION: They passed the motorbike further up and they had
:21:09. > :21:12.words with him, because motor vehicles are not allowed. So, they
:21:13. > :21:19.asked him to drive down. They saw his face. He had a bit of a beard.
:21:20. > :21:23.It suggests the motorcyclist may have had an accomplice in the BMW,
:21:24. > :21:29.carrying out surveillance. In a row Mike has revisited the murder scene
:21:30. > :21:31.with a British cyclist who also saw the motorbike leaving just moments
:21:32. > :21:37.before he came across the people who had been killed. I was thinking, is
:21:38. > :21:42.there a hunter, or a sniper type of character, hiding in the trees, may
:21:43. > :21:46.be shooting from a cover position or something like that? I was thinking
:21:47. > :21:52.to myself, I wonder if this is going to be painful when I get shot.
:21:53. > :22:15.French police admit they have got no evidence on who the hit man or his
:22:16. > :22:58.accomplices were, but say they will solve the mysteries of
:22:59. > :23:04.That is due to the representation of women in Egypt. Whilst 38% of
:23:05. > :23:09.Egyptian women attend university, they make up just 2% of the
:23:10. > :23:14.parliament. Let's compare that to be United States, where almost 50% more
:23:15. > :23:19.women than men attend university. With more ready access to education,
:23:20. > :23:21.you might expect a high level of participation in government, but up
:23:22. > :23:28.against other Western countries, this just is not the case. Only 17%
:23:29. > :23:32.of the US Government are women. Women in the United States face
:23:33. > :23:35.another barrier in their career progression - was mandated paid
:23:36. > :23:41.maternity leave has become standard across the developed world, the US
:23:42. > :23:46.lags behind, as employers have no legal obligation to pay staff on
:23:47. > :23:50.maternity leave. With comparatively falling fertility rates raising
:23:51. > :23:55.economic concerns, America will have to ask, can we afford not to pay our
:23:56. > :24:00.mothers? It is questions like this and many others that we will be
:24:01. > :24:05.addressing in our 100 Women series, here on BBC World News.
:24:06. > :24:08.You can of course keep up to date on Twitter if you want to follow what
:24:09. > :24:12.is happening with our 100 Women series. This is one inspiring woman,
:24:13. > :24:16.for sure, with a bit of a challenge, because if you take a classic
:24:17. > :24:19.English novel by one of the world's best loved authors and try to
:24:20. > :24:24.broaden its appeal, well, what are you going to get? The Jane Austen
:24:25. > :24:28.project has seen six well-known writers publishing their own version
:24:29. > :24:32.of a classic Jane Austen novel, but is meddling with a classic really a
:24:33. > :24:38.good idea? Tim Muffett has been finding out.
:24:39. > :24:42.She completed just six novels, but almost 200 years since her death,
:24:43. > :24:46.Jane Austen's classics still captivate. It is a truth universally
:24:47. > :24:52.acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be
:24:53. > :24:55.in want of a wife... EMac but can you update a classic and should you
:24:56. > :25:04.even try to Mike this is Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen's Gothic parody.
:25:05. > :25:07.There is nothing I would not do... And this is crime writer Val
:25:08. > :25:13.McDermid, who is rewriting it in a modern-day setting. I hope it will
:25:14. > :25:17.reawaken interest in the originals. People will be fascinated by how it
:25:18. > :25:20.translates to the present day. Human nature remains the same, I am sure
:25:21. > :25:25.there will be a lot of snipping is from purists, but I hope to confound
:25:26. > :25:30.them. Her Northanger Abbey will be published next spring. Meanwhile,
:25:31. > :25:36.Emma is to be reworked by Alexander McCall Smith. Pride And Prejudice
:25:37. > :25:38.will be rewritten by American author Curtis Sittenfield. Joanna
:25:39. > :25:44.Trollope's Sense And Sensibility is the first to be completed. The
:25:45. > :25:48.writers of Persuasion and Mansfield Park have not yet been revealed.
:25:49. > :25:52.Film and television adaptations are one thing, but rewriting Jane
:25:53. > :25:58.Austen? Well, that is something else. Joanna Trollope has placed
:25:59. > :26:02.Sense And Sensibility firmly in the 21st century. Social media features
:26:03. > :26:05.heavily in the story, so what did this south London Reading group make
:26:06. > :26:13.of it? I think it is brave, actually, to update what is a
:26:14. > :26:17.classic and put it in a modern-day setting. It is not my favourite kind
:26:18. > :26:20.of literature. I do not think I enjoyed it as much as the original,
:26:21. > :26:44.but I thought it was quite cleverly done.
:26:45. > :26:51.In the next hour or so, we are hoping to take you to Greece, where
:26:52. > :26:55.a Roma couple are in court on charges of abducting a four-year-old
:26:56. > :26:59.blonde girl who was found with them during a raid on a camp in Greece.
:27:00. > :27:03.Our correspondent is there. I am back tomorrow.