:00:00. > :00:13.warm with nine to 15 Celsius. Hello, I'm Nik Gowing, with BBC
:00:14. > :00:17.World News. Our top stories: Death in the desert - survivor tells us of
:00:18. > :00:23.the migrant convoy which broke down in the Sahara desert, leaving more
:00:24. > :00:28.than 90 dead. After a day, my second sister died. On the third day, my
:00:29. > :00:31.mother died. I buried all of them myself.
:00:32. > :00:35.Doubts over the Syria peace conference - the international envoy
:00:36. > :00:41.tells the BBC it is not certain that it will take place let this month.
:00:42. > :00:50.We are making progress. Whether that will be enough for the conference to
:00:51. > :00:53.take place soon is not certain. The fugitive intelligence contract
:00:54. > :00:58.Edward Snowden offers to travel from Russia to Berlin to help investigate
:00:59. > :01:02.allegations that the US armed Angela Merkel's mobile phone.
:01:03. > :01:05.And obesity becomes a worldwide epidemic. The authorities are
:01:06. > :01:24.increasingly looking at taxing sugary drinks.
:01:25. > :01:30.Three days of national mourning have been declared in Niger after the
:01:31. > :01:34.bodies of more than 90 migrants were found in the Sahara earlier this
:01:35. > :01:38.week. The group, mainly women and children, died of thirst when the
:01:39. > :01:43.convoy they were travelling in broke down in the desert. But against the
:01:44. > :01:50.odds, some migrants survived. Our reporter in Dakar in Senegal has
:01:51. > :01:53.been hearing their stories. The local authorities and rescue
:01:54. > :01:59.workers are still trying to pin down exactly what happened in the past
:02:00. > :02:05.few weeks for these migrants, who went across the Sahara desert to
:02:06. > :02:11.reach Nigeria. We have the account of one of the survivors. She is 18
:02:12. > :02:18.age, a 14-year-old -- Shias a teenager. TRANSLATION: We waited in
:02:19. > :02:24.the desert. No food, no water, before we decided to start walking.
:02:25. > :02:31.Some vehicles passed us. We tried to stop them, but no one would stop. We
:02:32. > :02:34.sat under a tree, and that was when one of my sisters died. We buried
:02:35. > :02:40.her there. Then we continued walking, and after a day, my second
:02:41. > :02:49.sister died. On the third day, my mother died. I buried all of them
:02:50. > :02:53.myself. I am living with my aunt. I heard that only myself and a little
:02:54. > :03:05.girl and 18 men survived the journey out of more than 100 of us. So
:03:06. > :03:13.horrific account from a 14-year-old who survived this ordeal in the
:03:14. > :03:22.Sahara desert. They could not find any water. We were told she has now
:03:23. > :03:27.been sent back home to her village in the south of Niger.
:03:28. > :03:33.What about what this reveals about the scale of this migrant path
:03:34. > :03:39.across various parts of the desert, the number of people taking the risk
:03:40. > :03:49.who do get through, or others who don't? We are told by those who took
:03:50. > :03:54.part in the rescue operation that they had never seen anything on this
:03:55. > :04:02.scale, especially the fact that more than half of the 92 people who were
:04:03. > :04:06.found dead were children. They said they do find dead bodies here and
:04:07. > :04:14.there sometimes, but they had never found that many. So clearly, this is
:04:15. > :04:17.a real tragedy. Hundreds of thousands go across the Sahara
:04:18. > :04:22.desert each year through northern Niger, either into Libya or Algeria,
:04:23. > :04:26.hoping to reach the North Africa and Coast and perhaps get on a boat
:04:27. > :04:34.across the Mediterranean Sea and then reach the gateway to Europe,
:04:35. > :04:38.hoping for a better life. Now to Syria. The UN and Arab
:04:39. > :04:42.League's special envoy to Syria has told the BBC that progress is being
:04:43. > :04:45.made towards a peace conference. But Lakhdar Brahimi says he's not
:04:46. > :04:49.certain whether the talks as Geneva two will take place as planned in
:04:50. > :04:57.just over three weeks. Lakhdar Brahimi has been on his first visit
:04:58. > :05:00.to Damascus in nearly a year. He met President Assad. The BBC's
:05:01. > :05:06.correspondent is also in Damascus. She asked him how successful his
:05:07. > :05:10.visit had been. We are making progress. Whether that will be
:05:11. > :05:25.enough for the conference to take place soon is not certain. But we
:05:26. > :05:29.are having meetings in Geneva to prepare. Meanwhile, a US official
:05:30. > :05:34.has confirmed to the BBC that Israel used its warplanes to attack a
:05:35. > :05:38.military base in the Syrian city of Latakia. The area is a stronghold of
:05:39. > :05:43.President Assad's Alawites community. It is believed the target
:05:44. > :05:45.was a consignment of Russian-made surface-to-air missiles being
:05:46. > :05:53.shipped to the militant Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah. So what
:05:54. > :05:57.is the view from Lebanon and Israel? Jim Muir in Beirut, what is known
:05:58. > :06:02.about events in Latakia? The Syrians are saying nothing. The Israelis, as
:06:03. > :06:07.always, are completely mute on their actions outside their borders. So
:06:08. > :06:13.nothing official. All we have is the word from American officials and
:06:14. > :06:17.some information circulating on Arabic satellite stations and some
:06:18. > :06:25.activist groups, indicating that there was some kind of strike near
:06:26. > :06:27.Latakia at a Syrian air base. The assumption is that anti-aircraft
:06:28. > :06:43.missiles, possibly on the way to Hezbollah, which was the target. It
:06:44. > :06:48.may have been an Israeli strike into Syria. Not on the same scale as the
:06:49. > :06:53.most spectacular one inmate, when the whole sky around Damascus was
:06:54. > :06:56.lit up by a massive explosion which shook the capital, which the Syrian
:06:57. > :07:03.regime had to acknowledge and threaten reprisal for, should it
:07:04. > :07:06.happen again. This time, it is not on that scale. It has gone
:07:07. > :07:11.completely unannounced by either side, which means the repercussions
:07:12. > :07:15.may be less unless there is something we don't know. Kevin
:07:16. > :07:24.Connelly injuries shall, anything from the Israeli government?
:07:25. > :07:29.Nothing. It is of course Israel's long-standing policy not to give any
:07:30. > :07:33.running commentary on specific operations. We do know that in
:07:34. > :07:41.general, Israel is comfortable with the idea that its capabilities to
:07:42. > :07:45.carry out these operations are clear to its enemies . and Israel also has
:07:46. > :07:49.what it calls a red line. It has said repeatedly that it will not
:07:50. > :07:56.allow the Assad regime in Damascus to transfer dangerous weaponry to
:07:57. > :08:01.Hezbollah, the Shia militia in southern Lebanon, which is the Assad
:08:02. > :08:08.regime's Allied and has the capacity to target cities in Israel. The
:08:09. > :08:16.speculation here is that the operation was designed with that
:08:17. > :08:20.goal in mind. But as Jim was saying, this all takes place in what I have
:08:21. > :08:25.heard described as a zone of deniability. It has become a strange
:08:26. > :08:29.sub bot of the Syrian war that Israel carries out these attacks
:08:30. > :08:32.without saying it has done so. And generally, Syria absorbed the
:08:33. > :08:37.attacks without saying that Israel has done so either so that it does
:08:38. > :08:41.not feel so obligated to respond, because Syria of course does not
:08:42. > :08:45.have the capacity while fighting a civil war to engage in any kind of
:08:46. > :08:52.confrontation with Israel. Jim, let me pick up on what we heard from
:08:53. > :08:56.Lakhdar Brahimi saying in Damascus. Mr Brahimi has been in Damascus for
:08:57. > :08:59.the last couple of days. He saw President Assad. What is your
:09:00. > :09:06.reading of his language to Lyse Doucet? He has confirmed a trend we
:09:07. > :09:16.have picked up on, which is that the Geneva talks, which were possibly
:09:17. > :09:24.set the 23rd of month, look likely to slide. It is not in Damascus that
:09:25. > :09:28.he will get a breakthrough on that front. The real problem is with the
:09:29. > :09:33.Syrian opposition, as he indicated. Even if they could assemble a
:09:34. > :09:36.delegation, how credible would it be and could it deliver in a situation
:09:37. > :09:41.where the bulk of the fighting forces on the ground say that
:09:42. > :09:45.anybody who goes to Geneva is a traitor, and they don't want to
:09:46. > :09:50.negotiate with the regime? It is a very tricky situation, and how you
:09:51. > :09:54.assemble a credible opposition delegation at this stage is very
:09:55. > :09:58.hard to see, especially when you have all these fundamentalist groups
:09:59. > :10:02.who do not believe in democracy, don't want to negotiate at all,
:10:03. > :10:08.apart from the mainstream ones, which also have reservations about
:10:09. > :10:12.Geneva. Now to Thailand, which has taken the
:10:13. > :10:15.first steps towards a political amnesty. It could pave the way for
:10:16. > :10:19.the former prime minister Paxson should know what to return from
:10:20. > :10:23.exile. He was deposed in a military coup seven years ago and charged
:10:24. > :10:27.with abuse of power. Critics fear that the amnesty will let him return
:10:28. > :10:31.to Thailand without serving a two-year jail sentence. Our reporter
:10:32. > :10:37.is in Bangkok. I asked him, what is the origin of this amnesty? They
:10:38. > :10:41.have been talking about this ever since the terrible events here in
:10:42. > :10:47.2010, when we saw more than 90 people killed in clashes between
:10:48. > :10:55.government troops and pro-president demonstrators. Ever since he was
:10:56. > :11:02.ousted by a coup in 2006, the idea of an amnesty is that a lot of
:11:03. > :11:06.ordinary street protest have spent time in jail and it would be helpful
:11:07. > :11:11.in the process of reconciliation. It started off as a modest ill that
:11:12. > :11:16.would only have affect did ordinary people, but was suddenly expanded
:11:17. > :11:23.two weeks ago to include anybody who was investigated by bodies set up
:11:24. > :11:27.after that coup in 2006. That would include the former president, the
:11:28. > :11:30.figure at the very heart of Thailand's divide. It would
:11:31. > :11:36.potentially invalidate the conviction against him in 2008 and
:11:37. > :11:40.would allow him to come back from five years in exile. But it is a
:11:41. > :11:45.whole different ball game, and has sparked off furious opposition from
:11:46. > :11:49.the main Democrat party, who are determined that he should not come
:11:50. > :11:52.back, and other groups as well. Many say a blanket amnesty simply
:11:53. > :11:57.whitewashes all the things that are happening, including some of Thaksin
:11:58. > :12:00.Shinawatra's supporters, who were killed. It is a controversial
:12:01. > :12:05.proposal. It has gone through Parliament. The next age is the
:12:06. > :12:10.Senate. They will start considering it extra week. It is possible that
:12:11. > :12:13.this bill could go through in the next few weeks.
:12:14. > :12:16.Now to Germany, where a member of the Bundestag, the German
:12:17. > :12:19.parliament, says the fugitive intelligence contract Edward Snowden
:12:20. > :12:24.is willing to help investigations into claims that Angela Merkel's
:12:25. > :12:30.mobile phone was monitored by US intelligence. The Green Party MP is
:12:31. > :12:34.at this moment giving a briefing in Berlin. He is speaking after
:12:35. > :12:40.travelling to Russia to meet Mr Snowden. He says the former NSA
:12:41. > :12:45.contract is even willing to travel to Germany, at his lawyer has told
:12:46. > :12:49.the BBC Mr Snowden would not be able to leave Russia because it would be
:12:50. > :12:58.a breach of his temporary political asylum status. Let's go to the
:12:59. > :13:07.BBC's Steve Evans. What is the Green MP saying? Some interesting things.
:13:08. > :13:12.He says Mr Snowden told him he would come to Germany, knowing that he
:13:13. > :13:17.could not go back to Russia, if he was sure that it was not then going
:13:18. > :13:23.to be extradited to the US. He also said Mr Snowden told him he would
:13:24. > :13:29.like to talk to the US Congress, clearly, that was not possible. So
:13:30. > :13:33.we are seeing an attempt by Mr Snowden to look at life beyond
:13:34. > :13:42.Russia, should his visa not be extended in June, and also to start
:13:43. > :13:48.becoming more public in his stance and start saying to people, that is
:13:49. > :13:55.what I did and I am prepared to talk about it. Do we know where he met Mr
:13:56. > :14:01.Snowden in Russia? We don't know. Mr Stroebele has described a long and
:14:02. > :14:06.tortuous journey. I don't mean days. He said he had had his bags
:14:07. > :14:13.packed for some months, waiting for permission to go. Then it suddenly
:14:14. > :14:18.came, and he stayed in a hotel in Moscow and then was taken in a car
:14:19. > :14:22.for some distance. It is not clear from listening to the German MP
:14:23. > :14:28.whether that meant a trip out of Moscow. It must be in the environs
:14:29. > :14:33.of Moscow, because we are talking about a few hours in a car. But
:14:34. > :14:40.whether it is the centre of Moscow is not clear. Finally, I have just
:14:41. > :14:48.received sight of the English letter from Mr Snowden, dated yesterday, in
:14:49. > :14:53.which he makes an appeal and says his position is clear about what he
:14:54. > :15:03.has done and what he would like to do next. That is right. He seems to
:15:04. > :15:10.be saying that the allegations that he has spilled treasonous secrets
:15:11. > :15:15.are not valid. He stands by his position as what you might call a
:15:16. > :15:26.noble whistle-blower, in that traditional reaching trust because
:15:27. > :15:32.of a greater good. Had been still to come: We preview the battle of the
:15:33. > :15:41.African giants of club football at Orlando Pirates prepare to take on
:15:42. > :15:45.the Egyptian side. What is the point of going to church
:15:46. > :15:49.if you don't believe in God? There is a new nonreligious church in
:15:50. > :15:58.Britain that thinks there is one. Aiming to attract former believers
:15:59. > :16:02.and no, sir tal Joint Intelligence Committee believers.
:16:03. > :16:06.-- nostalgic believers. They are meeting in a church and
:16:07. > :16:09.they have a choir. They also have moments of quiet
:16:10. > :16:14.contemplation. They even have a collection.
:16:15. > :16:26.The one thing they don't have, however is any reference to God or
:16:27. > :16:33.religion. Sanderson Jones is the cofounder of
:16:34. > :16:38.the Sunday Assembly Movement, so no surprise, the gatherings are
:16:39. > :16:41.peppered with humour, he is a comedian.
:16:42. > :16:44.Just because you are doing something serious, does not mean you can't
:16:45. > :16:51.have fun. We are changing the world. That is a big claim, changing the
:16:52. > :16:55.world, how? We started off with zero assemblyis in January, there are 35,
:16:56. > :17:01.there may be 40 by the end of the year. Imagine what could happen if
:17:02. > :17:05.30% of the people in Britain who are nonreligious and don't have a
:17:06. > :17:19.church, what happens if they get inspired to not only help each other
:17:20. > :17:25.but to help in the community? Do you class yourself as an atheist, a
:17:26. > :17:29.humanist or some other label? I don't think labels are helpful. We
:17:30. > :17:34.celebrate one thing we have in common, that is that we are alive.
:17:35. > :17:38.So, he is clear about why he is here but what about his first
:17:39. > :17:43.congregation. I think it would be nice to harness
:17:44. > :17:48.the goodness in people, without using religion to do it. I am hoping
:17:49. > :17:53.to find out what this is about and feel a bit of love.
:17:54. > :17:56.Now you may be asking, a congregation who do not believe in
:17:57. > :18:02.God, a service without religious content, so why choose a church for
:18:03. > :18:07.their inaugural meeting? Well, apparently this was the only space
:18:08. > :18:11.available tonight. However, they say, it is not the building that
:18:12. > :18:20.matters, more what goes on inside of it.
:18:21. > :18:27.You are with BBC World News with me, Nik Going. The death in the desert.
:18:28. > :18:33.A teenage girl tells of the convoy that broke down in the Sahara
:18:34. > :18:41.desert, leaving more than 90 dead. There are doubts that a Syrian peace
:18:42. > :18:45.summit will take part later this month.
:18:46. > :18:50.Now to the ba thele of the African football giants, Orlando Pirates has
:18:51. > :18:58.once again reached the African Champions League final. Facing the
:18:59. > :19:05.legendary seven-time winners, the Egyptian side. Well Orlando Pirates
:19:06. > :19:09.have been visited by Milton Nkosi. He found there is only one story in
:19:10. > :19:13.town. Orlando Pirates, the players, they
:19:14. > :19:20.are put through their paces ahead of what is likely to be the biggest
:19:21. > :19:24.game of the careers for them. It is the African Champions League final.
:19:25. > :19:30.Their coach, a former goalkeeper for the national team. Told the BBC that
:19:31. > :19:34.the game is not just about the Orlando Pirates.
:19:35. > :19:38.It is nice for us to meet the Egyptians and others, it is the
:19:39. > :19:44.opportunity it has given us from the first go. We say to the players to
:19:45. > :19:48.measure ourselves, to see where we are against the so-called giants of
:19:49. > :19:52.African football. We can match them step for step. It is great that the
:19:53. > :19:58.players are starting to believe that there is a confidence in the squad.
:19:59. > :20:04.The Buccaneers have once won the title in 1995. For that, they end
:20:05. > :20:19.this championship star on the badge. Now they are chasing the second one.
:20:20. > :20:27.Seven-time African champions, who will it be? Africa's renowned sports
:20:28. > :20:31.caster, says that the stakes could not be higher.
:20:32. > :20:35.The Egyptians are coming here limping, with blue eyes, how do you
:20:36. > :20:40.take advantage of a person that is coming through as injured as they
:20:41. > :20:44.are? They want to prove a point. They have a reputation. They have
:20:45. > :20:50.the stars lined up to say that they have done this seven times.
:20:51. > :20:54.So, as you can see, the Buccaneers' training session is in full swing.
:20:55. > :20:58.They are going for gold, but what do South Africans on the streets think
:20:59. > :21:02.about the importance of this game? This particular game, it is not
:21:03. > :21:12.representing just the Pirates but South Africa as a hole. The
:21:13. > :21:19.Egyptians are strong but we know that the Pirates can win. If they
:21:20. > :21:24.lose, I don't know. The people have nailed their colours
:21:25. > :21:29.to the mast for the sea robbers but remember, the second leg of this
:21:30. > :21:34.final, will be played in Egypt, where the Red Defendant yells will
:21:35. > :21:38.be just as confidence. -- confident.
:21:39. > :21:42.Now more people in the world are looking like this, as the waist
:21:43. > :21:46.lines continue to expand. The world's population is getting larger
:21:47. > :21:53.and larger because of what people eat and drink. One option is to tax
:21:54. > :21:59.these, the fizzy drinks, those packed full of sugar or sweeteners.
:22:00. > :22:05.Here in Britain, let me give you the data, around one in four of the
:22:06. > :22:10.population is obese. The British Medical Journal says that a 20% tax
:22:11. > :22:17.would reduce sales of fizzy drinks by 15%. Cutting the number of obese
:22:18. > :22:22.and overweight adults by about 285,000.
:22:23. > :22:28.Mexico, has already approved a tax of 8 cents per litre on fizzy
:22:29. > :22:34.drinks. In New York, the Mayor, Michael bloomburg opposed a tax but
:22:35. > :22:39.the Supreme Court declared it illegal as it did not apply to all
:22:40. > :22:45.food establishments in the city. We asked some of you on Facebook in a
:22:46. > :22:50.tax like this could work in in your country? It has been said that it
:22:51. > :23:03.has been done in Portugal and seems to work.
:23:04. > :23:10.Well, let's hear what the doctors say. Dr Mike Rayner is the director
:23:11. > :23:13.of British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group. He joins
:23:14. > :23:17.me from Oxford. Dr Mike Rayner, are you telling me that spending
:23:18. > :23:22.patterns, raising money and raising taxes will stop people drinking
:23:23. > :23:27.fizzy drinks or limit the consumption or not? Yes, basically,
:23:28. > :23:32.we are saying that, yes. Do you have evidence of that? There
:23:33. > :23:36.is lots of evidence. Evidence done in canteens, with vending machines,
:23:37. > :23:41.showing if you raise the price of food in those settings then people
:23:42. > :23:45.cut down on the food that you raise the prices on. There are studies
:23:46. > :23:49.from experiments done in Ireland, around the world, showing if you
:23:50. > :23:54.raise the price of foods through taxation, you can affect
:23:55. > :23:59.consumption, the greatest example is the Danish fat tax. And a study, one
:24:00. > :24:02.of which we have published today, bringing together a range of
:24:03. > :24:06.evidence from a range of sources to come to conclusions about what would
:24:07. > :24:11.happen if you raise the price of things like fizzy drinks.
:24:12. > :24:15.So, what you are saying, Dr Mike Rayner, that for medical conditions,
:24:16. > :24:21.pricing is critical, whether it is for fizzy drinks or three for two,
:24:22. > :24:25.in other words, pricing affects what people buy? Of course, yes. Ask
:24:26. > :24:30.anyone in the street that question, if they are affected by the price of
:24:31. > :24:35.booze, they will say yes. What about the implications of
:24:36. > :24:40.285,000 that could be saved from becoming obese. Is there that level
:24:41. > :24:46.of cause and effect between pricing and increasing obesity? Yes, when
:24:47. > :24:50.people have looked at the modelling studies and examined what happened
:24:51. > :24:54.in real life, this have come to the conclusion that the studies do were
:24:55. > :25:00.dekt what happens in real life. So the studies done around the Danish
:25:01. > :25:06.saturated fat tax predicted we could get about a 4% drop in saturated fat
:25:07. > :25:12.in Denmark and indeed they have that drop in saturated fat in Denmark.
:25:13. > :25:17.Finally, Dr Mike Rayner, how serious is this now? Is it really an
:25:18. > :25:21.epidemic? One in four in Britain, we are seeing it everywhere in the
:25:22. > :25:26.world? Yes, in Mexico it is really bad. In lots of developing countries
:25:27. > :25:30.obesity is rocketing. We have to do something about this. In the study
:25:31. > :25:34.we have published today, we are saying that this is one of the
:25:35. > :25:40.things you can do to prevent obesity. It is not the panacea. It
:25:41. > :25:46.will be one of all of the things we must do to combat the epidemic.
:25:47. > :25:48.Dr Mike Rayner from the British Heart Foundation Health Promotion
:25:49. > :25:50.Research Group, thank you very much for joining me on BBC World News
:25:51. > :25:53.from Oxford. Thank you.
:25:54. > :25:57.Finally, let me show you pictures from the US where ten children and a
:25:58. > :26:03.school bus driver were pulled to safety. That is after their school
:26:04. > :26:07.bus toppled into the water and landed half submerged on its side.
:26:08. > :26:12.The accident happened outside of a small town in Kansas. The children
:26:13. > :26:18.aged 13 and younger, clambered through a roof hatch to await for
:26:19. > :26:20.rescue it is unclear how the accident happened.
:26:21. > :26:24.And the main news: Three days of national mourning have been declared
:26:25. > :26:31.in West Africa, after the bodies of more than 9 o -- 90 migrants were
:26:32. > :26:35.found this week in the Sahara. The group died of thirs when the convoy
:26:36. > :26:46.that they were travelling in broke down in the desert. -- tlirs. Niger
:26:47. > :26:50.is a major migrant route between sub-Sahara and Africa and Europe.
:26:51. > :26:55.Also Lakhdar Brahimi has been in Damascus, he says that he doesn't
:26:56. > :27:00.see much chance of a national conference on Syria later this
:27:01. > :27:03.month. Thank you very much goodbye.