21/01/2014 BBC World News

Hello. I'm Geeta Guru-Murthy with BBC World News.

Our top stories: On the eve of Syrian peace talks, President

Assad's government accused of systematically torturing and

executing thousands. A car bomb blast in the Lebanese

capital Beirut. At least four are feared dead in a stronghold of the

Shia Hezbollah movement. A suicide bomber detonated himself, causing

the vehicle to be completely wrecked.

Anti-government protesters continue their stand-off in Ukraine as Russia

warns the situation could get out of control.

Hello and welcome. With just one day before the start of peace talks on

Syria, a team of international war crimes prosecutors and forensic

scientists says it's seen direct evidence of the systematic torture

and execution of detainees in Syrian government facilities. The experts

examined photographs of 11,000 people killed in just one location

since the start of the uprising. The images are said to document

starvation, beatings and strangulation. 55,000 photographs

were reportedly smuggled out of Syria by a defector. Damascus has

denied claims of abuse. The team was commissioned to examine the evidence

on the instructions of the government of Qatar, which supports

the Syrian rebels. I spoke to Sir Desmond De Silva, a former war

crimes prosecutor and one of the authors of this report. We first got

the defector whom we codenamed Caesar to give his own account,

which he did. Then he was questioned over a period of three days, and we

were meticulous to see whether he sought to exaggerate anything,

whether he sought to overplay anything, in fact it was the

reverse. He could have so easily lied and said, yes, I did see

executions, I did see beatings. What did he say? The position was that

people were held in different detention centres by different arms

of the state. They were killed in those detention centres, hideously,

many of them. They were brought to a central point, a military hospital.

I'm not going to tell you where the military hospital was, but I do

know, and there it fell to him to take photographs of these bodies. He

was somebody who had previously been in effect a photographer of crime

scenes, but after the onset of the Civil War there was a change in his

occupation, in the sense that all he had to do now, and was called upon

to do with his colleagues, was to photograph those who were killed,

who were brought to the central point when they were documented. The

reason for the documentation is the when a regime gave an order that

someone should be killed, they wanted photographs of the bodies to

ensure they have been. That's why this is a particularly significant

piece of evidence that takes the responsibility up the ladder.

Everything that fell from his lips, we felt, was truthful, honest, and

wholly in keeping with the scientific evidence to be seen

within the photographs. 11,000 people killed in just one place,

whether that was a city, or the scale of the area you cannot give,

this is over a three-year period. You have talked about the sense of

an industrial scale of killing. This will obviously draw parallels with

terrible historical abuses. Yes, the images I sort of starved bodies were

reminiscent of pictures one saw coming out of Auschwitz and Belsen

after the Second World War. They had been tortured as well, and it was

hideous to see the images, some people with eyes gouged out, others

strangulated and burned and so on and so forth. Beatings were so

regular that the vast number of the pictures revealed the terrible

beatings these people suffered. The report has come out just ahead of

the conference tomorrow which will discuss the future of Syria, and it

looks increasingly likely to go ahead as planned, that's following a

last-minute change of heart over whether Iran should take part. The

United Nations hastily withdrew its invitation to Iran after objections

from the Syrian opposition. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey

Lavrov has said that change of heart was a mistake. Iran is being

demanded to constant to the conditions -- concent to the

conditions. This is not very graceful, as I see it. If we take a

criteria stated in the Geneva communique, then several dozens of

countries should not be invited at all because all of them support the

regime change. This is how I see the situation. Another event thought to

be linked to events in Syria is in Lebanon, where a car bomb has

exploded in a busy suburb in the capital of Beirut. At least four

people are believed to have been killed. The attack happened in the

densely-populated Haret Hreik district which has been the target

of repeated car bombs in recent months, as tensions have risen over

the war in neighbouring Syria. Our correspondent in Beirut, Jim Muir,

is at the scene. This is the latest in a series of explosions here in

the southern suburbs of Beirut, an area largely controlled by Hezbollah

and other forms of aggression in the last few weeks. This is the latest

in many Sunni areas coming under attack, and nobody here will doubt

this is part of the spill-over from the war in neighbouring Syria.

According to the people here, this was the vehicle in which a suicide

bomber detonated himself, causing his own vehicle to be completely

wrecked, presumably blew himself to pieces, but a lot of superficial

damage here, water pipes being burst and fires being started. But so far

it seems the wider casualty toll seems to be fairly low compared with

some of the other apparently much bigger bombs that have happened here

recently. There is a psychosis of fear, there have been strict

security measures here for weeks and people will be asking how this could

have happened yet again. In other news today, in Ukraine,

riot police remain locked in a tense standoff with protesters after

violent clashes overnight in the capital Kiev. Demonstrators have

been throwing fireworks and petrol bombs, while the security forces

have been beating some of those they detain. Russia's foreign minister

Sergey Lavrov has warned the situation there could get out of

control. Duncan Crawford is in Kiev. He told me parts of Kiev looked like

a war zone following last night's clashes. I am in Independence Square

just overlooking it, you might be able to see the demonstrators in the

centre of the square, that is where they have been for the last two

months since these pro-EU demonstrations began. About a ten

minute walk away on a road towards the parliament, that is where we

have seen these violent clashes for the last two nights. There are a few

hundred or so demonstrators still in that square. Last night they were

throwing stones and fireworks at the riot police over this front line,

which is just burnt out vehicles, and the riot police were stationed

behind that line, riot police firing back with stun grenades and gas. At

the moment it appears to be peaceful. We are not seeing clashes

in that area at the moment but certainly there is potential for

more violence later on today. Broadly this is about whether the

government turns towards Russia or Europe politically, Sergey Lavrov

warning this could spiral out of control. Is that the view that is

shared there? There is a lot of concern things could spiral out of

control. We have seen from the clashes over the last two days,

parts of central Kiev looked like a war zone, but it is important to

point out that vast sections of this city are still functioning as

normal. How the rest of the country response to what is going on I think

will be key in what determines the future of the Ukraine. The Thai

government has imposed a 60-day state of emergency in Bangkok and

the surrounding area. Demonstrators have blockaded parts of the capital

for more than a week to try force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra

to resign. The new emergency decree gives security agencies the power to

impose curfews, detain suspects without charge, and ban political

gatherings of more than five people. In India, the newly elected Chief

Minister of Delhi has spent the night sleeping on the streets of the

capital in protest. Arvind Kejiriwal wants control over the city's police

force to be transferred from the federal government to his council so

he can root out corrupt officers. The BBC's Andrew North reports. With

this protest, the centre of Delhi has come to a standstill. Roads are

closed, the Metro has also been suspended in this area, and this is

less than a week before India holds its annual Republic Day parade when

there will be thousands of people coming through this area. His

critics are saying he is bringing anarchy to Delhi and Arvind

Kejiriwal himself says, yes, I am an anarchist. He is trying to use his

platform to bring change, to shake things up, and in the process wrong

footing almost the whole establishment. But right now, Delhi

is set for a showdown because the police say they need to clear this

area before the Republic Day parade. Stay with us, much more to come. On

the eve of Syrian peace talks, we will have a special report on the

effective US diplomacy on the Syrian people. On the eve of the latest

attempt to strike a peace deal, diplomacy is being given another

shot. There is little cause for optimism, and despite their

rhetoric, the US have failed to dislodge President Assad.

The Philippines has been facing another tropical storm - only two

months after the deadliest typhoon hit the country. Floods and

mudslides caused by Tropical Depression "Agaton" forced the

evacuation of thousands of families from the Southern Philippines. This

report is from Tim Neilson. Villages underwater. More than 100,000

families in the southern Philippines were evacuated after days of

continuous rains that resulted in flooding and mudslides. They forced

residents to flee to higher grounds, using schools and local

government buildings as evacuation centres. We're in a grave situation

with no food. It is wet everywhere and we have no place to sleep. It is

a stark reminder, says the United Nations, that more needed to be done

to help the millions of people living in shelters after being

displaced by Typhoon Haiyan. The country gets hit by an average of 20

storms and typhoons each year, along with frequent earthquakes. The UN

says temporary shelters given to survivors are not strong enough for

the extreme weather. In other news. Malaysia has begun a massive

operation to deport hundreds of thousands of suspected illegal

workers. More than 10,000 officers have begun checking businesses that

employ migrants from countries such as Indonesia and Nepal. Previous

efforts to deport illegal immigrants, who carry out low paid

jobs which are unpopular with most Malaysians, have not been

successful. A football club in chilly has been banned from playing

in a new shirt that has a number one shaped like a map of Palestine

before the foundation of Israel. The Chilean football federation told

Palestino, a team founded by Santiago's Palestinian community,

that the kit breaks anti-discrimination guidelines.

Scientists have successfully woken up a probe that's been in deep space

hibernation 800 million kilometres from Earth. The European Space

Agency hopes that the craft, called Rosetta, will carry out the first

ever landing on a comet. The probe sent the message "Hello, World" to

let mission control know it was ready for the final stage of its ten

year journey. President Assad's regime is accused

of the systematic torture and execution of thousands of detainees

in Syria. One of the leading international prosecutors behind the

report told the BBC the images he saw were "absolutely hideous". An

explosion has gone off in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese

capital. Four people are reported dead in what's thought to be a

suicide car bombing. The civil war in Syria, well into its third bloody

year, has resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people and left

millions as refugees. Tomorrow, a long-awaited peace conference is

finally under way to discuss the future of the country. We look at

America's role in the crisis. It's time for Assad to get out of the

way. The only way to bring stability and peace to Syria is going to be

for Assad to step down. We condemn this indiscriminate killing. It is

just further evidence that Assad has to go. We sat by and did relatively

nothing, despite what the administration may claim. The

president, for perfectly understandable reasons, really has

wanted to keep this problem out arm's-length. He really has wanted

it to disappear. I've been crossing over this border into Syria for the

last two and a half years and seen hundreds of these refugee camps

bring up. In that time, what began as a largely peaceful protest

movement has descended into an appalling civil war that has killed

more than 130,000 people and displaced millions. On the eve of

the latest attempt to strike a peace deal, diplomacy has been given

another shot. There was little cause for optimism. Despite the rhetoric,

America and the West have failed to dislodge President Assad. August

2011, the uprising is five months old and the pressure to respond to

Syria's crackdown on protesters, President Obama says Bashar al-Assad

must go. One year later, as violence spirals, he draws a red line on

chemical weapons. June 2013, the White House says the red line has

been breached but there's no major response. Two months later, a

chemical attack in Damascus kills hundreds. Obama called on Congress

to vote for military action. The following month Syria agrees to

decommission the weapons, but Obama warns the US will still act if

diplomacy fails. When Barack Obama took office he tried to reset

America's relationship with the Islamic world. He was to be the

president who ended wars, and he promised a new beginning, backing

Democratic change in the Middle East. But Syria broke the mould. Its

ethnic and religious make-up was much more complex, the region more

flammable. Its governments had powerful allies and friends on the

UN Security Council. Critics describe a divided administration

led by a president whose focus was elsewhere. I don't think it was ever

his intention that Syria would be dissolved in a humanitarian

catastrophe. It was never his intention that Al-Qaeda, of all

things, should arise in the eastern part of the country. It was never

his intention that Syria would be sliding immeasurably into a peculiar

form of state failure, but all of these consequences, and intended as

may be, of the policy that has been pursued for the last 33 months. What

began as a peaceful protest movement was met with an iron fist. President

Obama, Cameron and the French and German leaders all said Assad must

step aside. Sanctions were imposed, embassies closed and limited aid was

given to rebel fighters. But efforts to support the opposition pressure

the Syrian regime and halt the violence reduced the results on the

ground. -- juice to few results on the ground. The rebels have now

moved up, because the government have been trying to push into this

area. It's a very confused situation. We know there are snipers

all around here because it's an urban area, the sound ring out. What

you can't tell is what direction they are coming from. When some in

the administration wanted to give weapons to the rebels, President

Obama was said to be disengaged, worried that America would be

embroiled in the region again. The president I do not believe

understand the importance of American exceptionalism. I don't

think he appreciates that if there is a vacuum because of a

withdrawal, an American withdrawal and lack of leadership, that that

vacuum can be filled by very, very bad people who do not hold the same

standards and values of international conduct that we do. In

foreign affairs he is persuaded that what the United States really needs

to do is spend a lot more sustained attention to Asia and China. Syria

has not figured in his sense of priorities, so he is really trying

to keep this problem out arm's-length and hope that somehow

it would solve itself. Opposition groups supported by the West had

little power on the ground, as the conflict intensified increasingly

radical fighters filled the vacuum. The bloodshed escalated. This is

simply appalling situation. The doctors have tried to revive this

young man and failed. He's just been pronounced dead. The situation

inside here is one of unbelievable chaos. When hundreds were killed in

a chemical attack last August, President Obama blamed the Syrian

government and authorise military force. A Senator and I had a long

meeting with the president in the Oval Office. This was after the

latest chemical attack by Assad. He said he wanted to do three things.

One, grade Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons capability, assess

the opposition and reverse the momentum on the battlefield against

Bashar al-Assad. So we went up and told... We were encouraged by what

the president had to say. Did you detect that the president was

looking for an alternative way out? Not just in the woods he was using

both in the way he presented the arguments to you? I may not have

thought that he was looking for a way out, but I certainly detected a

lack of enthusiasm. The president changed tack, asking a reluctant

Congress to vote on military action. When Syria agreed to disk --

decommission its chemical weapons, strikes were put on hold and the

vote called off. The president had to contend with a war weary public,

and the White House believes it successfully content President Assad

and brought Damascus to the negotiating table. I've spent the

last two years travelling inside northern Syria and essentially

witnessed its descent into chaos and what is in effect a failed state.

Critics of the administration will say that is partly as a result of a

lack of Western engagement. RSS and has been this. -- RSS meant. The

only prospect of keeping Syria together and keeping its

institutions intact and preventing a vacuum that is filled by forces that

in their own way could be as bad, if not worse, than Assad, is through

negotiated transition. There is one interesting development that has a

good side and a very bad side. The very bad side is the increasing

prominence of extremist groups inside of Syria, that clearly pose a

danger today and pose an even dangerous -- even greater danger in

future. But on the other hand what that has done has concentrate the

critical actors outside of Syria. If these talks actually happen then

America and Russia will have successfully brought parts of the

opposition and the government of Syria together for the first time,

and that will be an achievement. But those fighting on the other side of

the border won't be represented, and they are unlikely to be persuaded by

any deal. In effect, the lack of a cohesive policy and the interference

of outside powers has allowed the war and extremism to flourish, and

some fear it has diminished America's standing in the region.

And, crucially, the bloodshed and chaos inside Syria are unlikely to

abate. The English football Association has

charged West Bromwich Albion player Nicholas Anelka for making a gesture

widely thought to be anti-Semitic. He made the gesture, called the

Quinnell, an inverted Nazis allude, while celebrating a goal last

month. He looks to face a ban. John Lennon's widow has added her voice

to protest over the annual slaughter of dolphins by fishermen in western

Japan. Yoko Ono has a book written an open letter calling them to stop.

Some are killed for their meet, others are sold to marine parks or

released. President Assad's regime has been accused of a systematic

torture and execution of thousands of detainees, leading international

prosecutors said the evidence woods dammed up in a court of law. It

comes on the eve of peace talks. See you soon.

The average person moves home eight times during their life.