13/11/2013 BBC World News

Hello. I'm Nik Gowing with BBC World News. Our top stories: The

increasing desperation of typhoon survivors.

A huge crowd storm a rice warehouse. Eight are killed by a collapsing

wall. Please, come to my city. We need

you. We need help. We need help, very badly.

Concerns grow over likely outbreaks of typhoid and hepatitis from

contaminated water. Deadly attacks closer to the heart

of the Syrian capital Damascus. Four children die in a mortar attack on a

school bus. A special report on the conflict's youngest victims. And

Hawaii legalises same-sex marriage. Could the move bring millions of

dollars in revenue from gay couples seeking a Pacific island wedding?

Hello everyone. In the Philippines, tens of thousands of survivors of

Typhoon Haiyan are showing signs of increasing desperation for food and

water. Eight people were crushed to death when a huge crowd stormed a

rice warehouse in Alangalang on Leyte island, taking everything. A

local congressman has told the BBC the city of Tacloban is like ground

zero after a nuclear bomb explosion. Across the country, over a half a

million people have been displaced by the disaster. The island of Cebu

is 45 minutes flying from Tacloban. Christine Atillo-Villero has

returned there from Tacloban where her parents live. They survived

Typhoon Haiyan. I asked her what she found around her parents' home.

It is really terrible. People are going hungry. You are there trying

to survive each day with no food and no water. There are bodies on the

street. It is a health hazard. There are reports of rebels coming and

going into houses. I want my family out. Christine, could you tell us

how your parents survived the typhoon, and what conditions they

are in? They were lucky that our house is mainly concrete. The House

is intact. They managed to go up to the second floor, and ten of our

neighbours swam into the House. They were there for four hours luckily

they managed to survive. But many of their possessions were washed away.

And how will they get on now? They have stocks of food? There was a

warning over several days of what was likely to happen. They have a

water supply, but they weren't aware that they were going to need so

much. It was not expected for this typhoon to be so bad. The water had

a height of 16 feet or so, and it ran into the city. They didn't

expect that it would be that terrible. Christine, finally, you

have chosen to return home to Cebu from Tacloban. What is the community

spirit in the neighbourhood where your parents are living? People are

surviving, they are walking around. Hopefully help will come. I know

help is coming, but I think the government should act really fast.

The roads are impassable. Why not do a aerial drops of food? The people

really need help. I don't know how long it has been. My father has a

medical condition. I don't know how he will get his medicine. Christine

there, having seen her parents in Tacloban.

As victims of the typhoon become angry at the lack of food, shelter

and medicine, the Philippines government has pledged to leave "not

one living person behind", no matter where they are. The UN confirms

there is desperate need for food, water, medical supplies and shelter.

The BBC's Jon Donnison in Tacloban has met some of the many who have

lost everything. This place is called the Astrodome,

a sports centre and convention centre. It is right next to the

ocean and took the full brunt of the typhoon. Thousands of people flocked

here to seek shelter, and it has now become a refugee camp for hundreds

of desperate families. With me is Jose, who lived just down the road.

Your house is washed out? Like most people here, we are looking for

shelter, looking for food, for water, maybe for medicines. Have you

had any help at all? Not very much. It has been five days since the

storm, and the aid has come only in trickles. 80% have no homes right

now. Inside the convention hall you have got people packed in at night,

many out during the day looking for food. They are scavenging for food

outside during the day, and sleep here during the night, or wherever

they can find refuge. And what about sanitation, toilets? Please don't

ask me about it. It is worse. They don't find it anywhere. And a risk

of disease? Yes, and hundreds of dead wadis still floating around

under the debris. This morning we saw many people heading out of town.

They are still here, but they are just going to places where they

think they can find food. And we have seen very little of the

Philippines government here doing anything. What do you think of

various bonds? I think the government is paralysed, the

provincial government is paralysed. The army came over here yesterday

just to maintain peace and order. We need massive international relief

aid here, now. The situation is so desperate, we need aid now, because

if nothing else, nothing else done in the next few days, hundreds of

people more will die. More people will be violent, they will run riot

around the city. I don't know. I was born here, I love the city, but it

is a total wreck right now. People of the world, come to my city. We

need you. Please, come to my city. We need you. We need help. We need

help, very badly. Tacloban needs help very badly, and

much of it could come in through a small regional airport. At the

moment it is pretty clogged, with the small number of planes that can

arrive, and US command have said they are going to take over the

airport and run it 20 47, including night flying as well. -- they are

going to run it 24/7. We are going to transition from

medium aircraft to larger aircraft. We just did a proof of the runway.

Now we can bring in Australians and Canadians with big aeroplanes with

heavy equipment. That will help us build up our ability to supply. And

what about the use of your heavy-lift choppers, your Ospreys?

There are three areas that we are mostly concerned about. Obviously,

Tacloban. The island of some are -- Samar. They are just as devastated

in oral areas, and we can't get the aeroplanes in. So those two Ospreys

that you just saw land, they will go out to other airstrips, certify

them, and allow us to get aeroplanes in. They're not everything will have

to come through here. So that will increase our throughput. And then

they will be able to go on from there to smaller villages where

there are soccer fields that they can land on.

Brigadier General Paul Kennedy there at the S trip in Tacloban. You with

world News. Still to come: The islands of Hawaii hope they will

become a popular destination for gay weddings following their decision to

allow same-sex marriage is. The new World Trade Center tower in

New York has been declared the tallest building in the United

States by a panel of architects. The World Trade Center, which is

scheduled to open next year, had faced some stiff competition from

the Willis Tower in Chicago. The BBC's Katy Watson is in Chicago to

explain how it lost out by a needle. Chicago citizens are proud of their

architecture. The city invented architecture, and its pride and joy

is Willis Tower. It has held the title of America's tallest building.

America's tallest building when it completes next year will be one

World Trade Center. After a design change earlier this

year, the debate grew whether the tall structure on the top was a

spire or an antenna. The experts said it was a spire. The keyword

here is permanence. Never to be added to, never to be taken away. It

is a sensitive subject. One World Trade Center was ill to mark the

9/11 attacks. Chicago, looking for the positive, says it is not about

competition. This was never about pitting one building against

another. We understand the importance of rebuilding One World

Trade Center. The question of which building is the tallest was settled

years ago in terms of buildings in China and the Middle East. We know

that we will remain one of the most iconic structures in the world, and

in fact, the highest spot you can stand in North America in a

building. And tourists here didn't seem to

care. It doesn't matter to me. It is just semantics. It is just an

important piece of our country, and that is what matters. It is really

awesome. It is so high. I have never been in such a high building before.

Chicago may be losing the title of having America's tallest building,

but this still isn't bad. The view down below isn't too bad either.

This is BBC World News. I'm Nik Gowing. The latest headlines: Eight

people have been killed in the Philippines as a crowd of typhoon

survivors storm a rice warehouse to get food. Aid agencies warn that

contaminated water could cause outbreaks of typhoid and hepatitis.

As the agencies struggle to get aid to those affected by the typhoon in

the Philippines, their -- there is a conference in London on how to

protect women and girls in such emergencies. This meeting is how to

look at keeping women save from violence and rape. The situation in

the Philippines is uppermost in everyone's minds here. Let us talk

to the UK's International Development Secretary. Give us a

sense, do you think aid is now getting through to the remote

communities that need it? There is a real remaining challenge with access

that will be there for some time, until we managed to clear the roads.

UK's supplies are arriving, the first supply arrived overnight. This

is a huge typhoon, 300 miles wide, so we all recognise the challenges

of reaching everybody are absolutely immense. That is why we sent out

forklift trucks, earth moving vehicles, cutting equipment, also we

can make sure our teams on the ground start to be part of shifting

the debris, clearing the roads, so that we can get through to people.

We are also deploying a ship which will be able to move supplies

around, so we can reach people by water as well as road. A huge amount

of work going on, but a massive challenge which is being led by the

Philippine government and international aid agencies. There

has already been criticism that the government of the Philippines wasn't

nimble enough at responding to the disaster. Do you think that is

unfair? I think they've had a huge challenge. This was on an

unprecedented scale. The UK Government had worked with the

Philippine government in advance of this crisis, looking at how they

could improve their resilience and preparation. But, really, this storm

was so big it has proved a challenge for all the agencies involved. But

everybody is working together and eight is starting to get through.

But the scale of what we still need to do is immense. You will see more

support from the reddish government and the British people going out in

the coming hours, weeks and months. -- British government. The meeting

is still going on. People include the head of the world food

programme. An idea about the scale, the

enormity, of what the Philippines faces. It is day six and there is

that real desperation for water and food in the Philippines. Just look

at this appeal, scrawled on a shutter in the hope someone will see

it and respond before it is too late. "We need food and water". So

what does a pressing need to survive in such an extreme and desperate

environment? The UN says the number of people affected by the typhoon

has jumped to 11.3 million, including four million children. Any

person needs approximately 2.5 litres of water a day to survive in

emergency situations like this. 44 tonnes of high energy biscuits R.N.

Manila airport. This amount can be just 130,000 people in one day. That

is the equivalent to a third of a kilo of rice per day, that is the

basic needed for nutrition. Scale all that up to several million

people and the volume and weight of water and food needed is enormous.

With so much contaminated water, the other concern is to prevent the

outbreak of typhoid and hepatitis. What is the medication -- medical

situation in Tacloban? Well, this is the main government

hospital in the middle of Tacloban. It is near the sea front, it was

completely flooded during the storm surge. But they are getting it back

and running again. This is where the casualties come in when they are

first admitted. You can see this young girl was brought in half an

hour ago. She has a very serious cut on her head. It is typical of the

sort of laceration that has been left for a few days and is starting

to get septic. Behind me is where they bring the babies in. See this

little girl on this bed? She has a fever, diarrhoea -- again, typical

of the symptoms of what happens when babies are drinking dirty water. She

has a high fever and is on a drip, but they literally don't have enough

water to give her water to drink. There is medicine here, but it is

very basic. The doctors we've been talking to say they need more of

everything. Now, another crisis which cannot go

away. Syria. Four children and their bus driver

have been buried in Syria after two mortars struck the old city of

Damascus. The shells hit a school and a school bus in a mainly

Christian area on Monday. It confirms the growing frequency of

attacks in what had been the relatively safe centre of Damascus.

Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet reports

from the Syrian capital. You may find some of the images disturbing.

A mother's reef fills this ward in Damascus. -- grief. Her son drove

the school bus and died on the spot when the more Thailand. -- the

mortar landed. She said, I don't recognise him. He has no eyes, his

face is gone. In this more, for children, including eight-year-old

Vanessa. Our uncle has come for the body. She was a pure angel, he says,

she loved school and cried when she couldn't go. Grief is no longer

private here, not when both sides accuse the other of taking the lives

of the innocent. Another uncle says his last goodbye. Stand up, stand

up, my nephew. This is for you, Syria. They bring out the white

coffins one by one. Vanessa makes her last trip to her Armenian

church. This is one of Syria's many Christian faiths. They gather in the

old city to celebrate her life. This boy mourns his friend, supported by

his mother, who is devastated. What did they do to die like this? Please

tell America, please tell Britain, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, they

are bad people. A community comes together again to mourn. But, as

grief grows, so does anger, on both sides of this conflict. Both sides

blamed the other. As this war drags on, it becomes ever more difficult

to bring Syrians together again. The NASA's Coffin lies next to that of a

six-year-old child. -- Vanessa's coffin. In this city, nowhere feels

safe. Now, remember in 2010 how an ash

cloud hominis land volcano created airline chaos and grounded flights

across Europe for days? Well, easyJet has tested a system it hopes

could prevent chaos in the future. It has helped to develop a volcanic

ash detector for its aircraft. It flew a plane with the new technology

through an artificial ash cloud in the sky. The sensors alert pilots to

ash in the air which is otherwise difficult to detect.

Now to the US, where the State of Hawaii has passed a bill legalising

same-sex marriage. It is the 15th state in the US to legalise same-sex

unions. Analysts at the University of Hawaii say the move could make

the Pacific islands a popular destination for gay weddings,

bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue over the next few

years. With me now is Richard Lane from the gay and lesbian campaign

group Stonewall. Thank you for joining me. When the governor says

he looks forward to signing a significant piece of legislation to

provide marriage equity that early recognises and protects religious

freedom, is that how you see it? Absolutely. This is a huge step

forward. It was two decades ago the Supreme Court case in Hawaii brought

by a lesbian couple seeking marriage rights actually kicked off the

debate about gay marriage and ushered in an era where pet --

President Clinton signed the first step. Psychologically, what does

that mean that those who are gay, and the potential for what they can

do in Hawaii? It means they get to have their relationships recognised

in exactly the same way as their heterosexual friends and families.

That is hugely significant. Following the Supreme Court ruling

earlier, they will have access to hundreds and hundreds of federal

benefits to protect them and their families. What about the emotion and

pack to call side of flying to Hawaii? -- practical side. Is it

somewhere people will actively go to? I think many people have always

had their weddings in Hawaii. It is a beautiful paradise. This

legislation will certainly have had one eye on tapping into the

lucrative pink pound. $217 million worth of extra tourism revenue - are

they being overoptimistic, or practical? No, I think that is

completely realistic. Mayor Bloomberg said that after 12 months

of gay marriage in New York, that had brought in over $200 million to

the state. 15 states now, what is the message you are beginning to see

in the US and beyond? I think the message is that equality is starting

to be there for gay people in America. We've had more than a

doubling of the number of states allowing it in the last few years.

Credit should go to President Obama for his vocal support that has given

this the momentum. A painting by the British artist,

Francis Bacon, has sold at auction at Christie's in New York for $142

million. The price is the highest ever achieved at auction. The

painting is a triptych entitled "Three Studies of Lucian Freud", who

was Bacon's friend and fellow artist. It was painted in 1969, and

is considered one of Bacon's greatest masterpieces. Bidding went

far in excess of the estimate, which was $85 million. It eclipses the

$120-million price of Edvard Munch's The Scream, which sold at Sotheby's

last year. Christie's did not disclose the identity of the

successful buyer. It is said that it will probably end up in a gallery or

museum, because those are the any people who can board the insurance

policy. The main news: Survivors of the typhoon the Philippines are

becoming increasingly desperate at the lack of food, shelter and

medical supplies. Thank you for joining me. Goodbye.

I need five minutes of your time. When I say five minutes, I'm lying.

I've got to go and give a lecture. I've seen it. It's great.