:00:00. > :00:10.Hello. This is BBC World News. Our top stories: Interpol have named two
:00:11. > :00:14.passengers who boarded a missing Malaysian airliner using stolen
:00:15. > :00:27.passports. Both were Iranian nationals. Neither of these
:00:28. > :00:31.passports were reported stolen on listed in Interpol's databases.
:00:32. > :00:34.Crimea will ask to join Russia if this weekend's referendum decides
:00:35. > :00:37.for independence. European and American officials will
:00:38. > :00:41.meet in London to discuss possible sanctions against Russia.
:00:42. > :00:50.Ukraine's ousted leader, Viktor Yanukovych, says he's still in
:00:51. > :00:57.charge. As soon as the circumstances allow me, I'm sure it will not be
:00:58. > :01:00.long, I will be back in Kiev. People in Iran are hoping the Persian New
:01:01. > :01:21.Year will herald a time of change. Hello. Interpol has named two men
:01:22. > :01:27.who boarded the missing Malaysian airliner using stolen passports.
:01:28. > :01:33.Both the men, whose pictures have also been released, were Iranian
:01:34. > :01:40.nationals - one a 19-year-old, the other aged 29. The younger man was
:01:41. > :01:49.thought to be trying to me a -- migrate to Germany. The search has
:01:50. > :01:53.been widened to include the Straits of Malucca, west of the Malay
:01:54. > :02:03.peninsula, as well as the South China Sea, the last known location
:02:04. > :02:06.of the plane. Interpol's head, General Ronald Noble, says the pair
:02:07. > :02:09.were unlikely to have links to terrorism, but that people
:02:10. > :02:12.travelling on stolen passports is still concerning. There has been
:02:13. > :02:20.great, great speculation ever since it was revealed that two passport
:02:21. > :02:27.holders were carrying passports that were lost or stolen. There has been
:02:28. > :02:30.speculation over whether this was a terrorist attack and suddenly people
:02:31. > :02:36.seem to be concerned for the first time over whether it is good or bad
:02:37. > :02:41.that people are travelling the world using stolen passports. People have
:02:42. > :02:47.understood how dangerous it is. Already in the last 24 hours you see
:02:48. > :02:53.the story changing, as the belief becomes more certain that these two
:02:54. > :02:59.individuals were probably not terrorists. The interest seems to be
:03:00. > :03:04.dying down because they might just be people who were being smuggled or
:03:05. > :03:18.trafficked. From Interpol's perspective is -- the fear is that
:03:19. > :03:23.people are travelling without having passports in our database. With me
:03:24. > :03:39.is security correspondent Frank Gardner. We have the names of these
:03:40. > :03:45.two men - Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Seyed
:03:46. > :03:50.Mohammadreza, and an appeal for information. Yes, the flurry of
:03:51. > :03:55.interest over these two passengers, what were they up to, why did they
:03:56. > :04:01.have stolen passports, we now know the reason. They flew to Kuala
:04:02. > :04:06.Lumpur on their own genuine passports and once they were there
:04:07. > :04:09.they used stolen passports, an Italian and an Austrian passport,
:04:10. > :04:18.with the intention, it is believed, of seeking asylum, essentially,
:04:19. > :04:22.economic asylum in probably Germany and Denmark. That explains what they
:04:23. > :04:26.were doing. He used the press conference to say that this is a
:04:27. > :04:30.wake-up call to the rest of the world about people travelling around
:04:31. > :04:37.the world. Four out of ten passengers, he said, are using
:04:38. > :04:42.stolen or lost documents. He pointed out that in the first World Trade
:04:43. > :04:47.Center bombing, the bomber got into the United States using a stolen
:04:48. > :04:55.passport. The so-called white widow, the widow of one of the 7/7
:04:56. > :05:00.London bombers who went missing in Kenya two years ago, she managed to
:05:01. > :05:06.escape capture because she was using a stolen South African passport, and
:05:07. > :05:12.there are plenty of other instances. He is saying, we have this huge
:05:13. > :05:18.database, and it takes a short time to scan a passport through
:05:19. > :05:25.departures against that database, and he said please do it. Some are
:05:26. > :05:32.questioning whether there is a cost to doing that. Their resentment. One
:05:33. > :05:35.other question because we have the Malaysian police giving a press
:05:36. > :05:41.conference earlier, and they said they were looking at sabotage,
:05:42. > :05:44.hijacking, personal problems or psychological problems with the
:05:45. > :05:51.passengers. When asked to explain, they said, imagine there is someone
:05:52. > :06:03.on board who has a lot of money to leave to family members, a slightly
:06:04. > :06:07.unusual explanation. I cannot read inside the mind of investigators.
:06:08. > :06:12.Several agencies are investigating this, and one thing Mr Noble pointed
:06:13. > :06:16.out was the good level of cooperation they have heart from the
:06:17. > :06:25.Chinese authorities who have shared all of the intelligence they had.
:06:26. > :06:30.They haven't completely ruled it out, as far as I know, but it is
:06:31. > :06:39.looking very unlikely. The way the investigation is leaning is toward
:06:40. > :06:45.some mechanical problem. The nearest parallel I can think of was the Air
:06:46. > :06:51.France passenger plane disappeared over the Atlantic five years ago. It
:06:52. > :06:55.went down due to a catastrophic thunderstorm at high altitude, it
:06:56. > :07:02.went down in a place without radar coverage, but then several days
:07:03. > :07:06.later debris started to appear. The recorder was recovered from the
:07:07. > :07:13.bottom of the ocean, it was incredible that they found it. On
:07:14. > :07:18.the map we saw earlier, they have shifted or expanded the search box
:07:19. > :07:23.to include a completely different part of south Asia which shows how
:07:24. > :07:33.desperate they are. Are you being told it is possible for a plane to
:07:34. > :07:40.go missing like this? I don't know, but it is a good question to put to
:07:41. > :07:47.Edward Snowden! Thank you. We have now got our correspondent in Kuala
:07:48. > :07:53.Lumpur on the line. Jennifer, I don't know if you can't tell us
:07:54. > :07:57.whether there has been much reaction over there to this press conference
:07:58. > :08:01.that we had from Interpol, where we saw pictures and the names released
:08:02. > :08:11.of the two people travelling on stolen passports, but a clear steer
:08:12. > :08:14.away from terrorism motive? Malaysian officials have already
:08:15. > :08:20.identified one of the passengers that got on with a stolen European
:08:21. > :08:24.passport and they say they believe he doesn't have links to terrorism.
:08:25. > :08:29.They have not identified the other person but a lot of people here are
:08:30. > :08:34.too busy trying to verify information. It has been chaotic
:08:35. > :08:38.because at times Malaysian officials have been giving information but not
:08:39. > :08:43.expanding on it. Today they have expanded the surge from the South
:08:44. > :08:53.China Sea further out west, further than there -- they originally
:08:54. > :09:02.thought. It is understood the plane was trying to turn back. They were
:09:03. > :09:07.not able to explain further why that is. Information is trickling down,
:09:08. > :09:11.it has been frustrating trying to piece things together and figure out
:09:12. > :09:16.what it means. Officials have said they have narrowed it down and they
:09:17. > :09:21.are looking at possibilities of reasons why the aircraft has
:09:22. > :09:26.disappeared, including that it was hijacked, it was sabotaged, and also
:09:27. > :09:31.that as they put it, people on board might have had psychological or
:09:32. > :09:41.personal problems that caused the plane to veer off course. There was
:09:42. > :09:48.a report that radar had detected something in the waters. Any
:09:49. > :09:51.information on that? We do not have confirmation and we are trying, but
:09:52. > :09:57.Malaysian officials have restricted the access in the terms of they are
:09:58. > :10:02.only allowing journalists to get information from officials and any
:10:03. > :10:05.kind of government department through this centre so that they can
:10:06. > :10:12.centralise the information, through the army, the Navy, Malaysia
:10:13. > :10:17.Airlines, so that everyone can get the same information. That means you
:10:18. > :10:21.have an unnamed resources like the Reuters report giving out details,
:10:22. > :10:27.but officials here not willing to say much. As of today we will not be
:10:28. > :10:33.having any more press conferences and the next one will be tomorrow.
:10:34. > :10:38.There have been a lot of reports in general about sightings of the
:10:39. > :10:41.aircraft, pieces of debris, and officials have said it was not true
:10:42. > :11:03.and they have cautioned the rest. Thank you. The Crimean
:11:04. > :11:06.parliament has decided to declare independence if its residents vote
:11:07. > :11:23.in a referendum on Sunday to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.
:11:24. > :11:26.Olexiy Solohubenko is the former head of the BBC Ukrainian service
:11:27. > :11:30.and still a senior editor here and he joins me now in the studio. We
:11:31. > :11:34.have had a number of pieces of information coming in during the
:11:35. > :11:40.last hour, but essentially the Crimean vote goes ahead on Sunday,
:11:41. > :11:46.Crimean joins Russia, what then? Is the west able to do anything about
:11:47. > :11:52.it, or should they? There is a meeting on Monday trying to address
:11:53. > :11:58.exactly that issue. How effective that will be, the list of
:11:59. > :12:03.sanctions, asset arrests, or things like this, some of the Ukrainian
:12:04. > :12:09.officials may be on the list, how effective that would be is too early
:12:10. > :12:14.to say. What is going on in Crimea is interesting because there doesn't
:12:15. > :12:18.seem to be any letup of this frenetic activity about declaring
:12:19. > :12:22.independence, putting the referendum together. The questions that are
:12:23. > :12:26.offered to the voters in Crimean don't really give them any choice.
:12:27. > :12:37.There are two questions and whichever they answer, that will
:12:38. > :12:42.result in Crimea being independent. It is not a yes no vote? Know,
:12:43. > :12:51.either of the questions does not believe people to keep the status
:12:52. > :12:57.quo. Observers have been trying to reach Crimea three times, each time
:12:58. > :13:00.they have been stopped. Now the Crimean authorities are saying they
:13:01. > :13:07.will invite genuine observers, who they are we don't know. There will
:13:08. > :13:12.be a big must and Russian delegation to observe the vote. Has there been
:13:13. > :13:22.any activity in eastern Ukraine? There have been demonstrations but
:13:23. > :13:32.so far the situation seems to be under control of the central Kiev
:13:33. > :13:36.authorities. Today Viktor Yanukovych said he will be back in Ukraine when
:13:37. > :13:47.the conditions are right, he didn't say exactly what that means. With
:13:48. > :13:52.Putin's sanctioning? He didn't say, he just repeated a lot of things
:13:53. > :13:56.that were coming out of Kremlin earlier, I am the legitimate
:13:57. > :14:08.president and everyone should agree with me. Thanks for joining us. The
:14:09. > :14:11.seventh day of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial is underway in
:14:12. > :14:14.Pretoria. The court has heard more evidence from Reeva Steenkamp's
:14:15. > :14:24.postmortem report, after deciding to ban live broadcasting of it
:14:25. > :14:28.yesterday. Oscar Pistorius denies intentionally killing his
:14:29. > :14:36.girlfriend. What has happened today? Despite the constant grilling
:14:37. > :14:41.from defence, the pathologist was adamant that Reeva Steenkamp had
:14:42. > :14:45.something to eat two hours before she died. That contradicts the
:14:46. > :14:50.statement that Oscar Pistorius made when he was applying for bail and
:14:51. > :14:54.that works in the favour of the prosecution because that is quite
:14:55. > :15:01.crucial because it contradicts that statement. After that, we heard from
:15:02. > :15:08.character witness brought in by the prosecution, a friend of Oscar
:15:09. > :15:14.Pistorius. He told the court that he was with Oscar Pistorius when shots
:15:15. > :15:19.were fired at the restaurant, in a restaurant two months before Reeva
:15:20. > :15:22.Steenkamp was shot, and also another incident when Oscar Pistorius
:15:23. > :15:26.allegedly fired a shot through the sunroof of a car because he was
:15:27. > :15:34.angry that a police officer have stopped him and asked him to put his
:15:35. > :15:41.gun away. The kind of evidence Fresco is telling the court portrays
:15:42. > :15:45.Oscar Pistorius is a man who uses guns recklessly and would go as far
:15:46. > :15:51.as making up lies to protect himself. He said after the gun was
:15:52. > :15:54.fired at the restaurant, Oscar Pistorius asked him to take the
:15:55. > :16:03.blame because there was too much media attention on him. Is still a
:16:04. > :16:10.lot of public attention focused on this trial? -- is there still?
:16:11. > :16:14.Definitely so. Simply because yesterday we saw a very emotional
:16:15. > :16:18.Oscar Pistorius, like we have never seen him before, when the state
:16:19. > :16:28.apologist was giving graphic details of the injuries that Reeva Steenkamp
:16:29. > :16:33.injury. Many thanks. -- ensured. Stay with us on BBC World News.
:16:34. > :16:38.Still to come... UNICEF says the last 12 months of this early and war
:16:39. > :16:46.have been the worst for children. -- the Syrian war. There's confusion in
:16:47. > :16:50.Libya over the fate of a North Korean-flagged oil tanker that
:16:51. > :16:53.docked at a port in the east to buy oil from former rebels occupying it.
:16:54. > :16:56.Libya's legislative body, the National Congress, claims the army
:16:57. > :17:00.and other forces loyal to them have seized it but the rebels deny that
:17:01. > :17:05.claim. The BBC's Rana Jawad reports from Tripoli. The military and the
:17:06. > :17:08.Libyan Congress are claiming they have intercepted the oil tanker
:17:09. > :17:12.carrying an illegal ship and of crude oil from Libya. They say the
:17:13. > :17:20.escorting to a state-controlled port. TRANSLATION: The oil tanker
:17:21. > :17:24.has been controlled and it will sail to one of the ports. Those on board
:17:25. > :17:29.will be detained and we are studying all of the options. The eastern oil
:17:30. > :17:34.port, blockaded since July by former rebels, described the latest claims
:17:35. > :17:40.to the BBC as government lies. They say the ship is still docked in the
:17:41. > :17:44.east of the country. Neither of the two claims can be independently
:17:45. > :17:48.verified. The Libyan Congress also announced it was forming a special
:17:49. > :17:53.military force that will lift the eight-month long blockade on both
:17:54. > :17:56.terminals in the eastern region. The stand-off twinkled sides escalated
:17:57. > :18:02.at the weekend when the rebels loaded a North Korean-flagged
:18:03. > :18:09.vehicle with crude oil and claimed they had sold their first shipment.
:18:10. > :18:15.The New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, wants a referendum to change
:18:16. > :18:18.the country's flag. He said it represents a colonial era that has
:18:19. > :18:21.passed. Supporters of change also say the flag is too similar to
:18:22. > :18:24.Australia. One popular alternative would be a silver fern against a
:18:25. > :18:33.black background - the national emblem used by the All Blacks rugby
:18:34. > :18:38.team. There has been a lot of discussion in New Zealand. Tell me
:18:39. > :18:52.what you think. You can get in touch on Twitter. We are also on Facebook.
:18:53. > :18:56.This is BBC World News. Interpol have named two passengers who
:18:57. > :19:02.boarded a missing vision airlines plane using stolen passports. Both
:19:03. > :19:04.were Iranian nationals. The Crimean parliament has voted to declare
:19:05. > :19:09.independence, saying it were asked to be part of Russia if the
:19:10. > :19:17.referendum approves breaking away from Ukraine. UNICEF says the last
:19:18. > :19:20.12 months of the Syrian war have been the worst for children. 5.5
:19:21. > :19:24.million are now in need of assistance - that's more than double
:19:25. > :19:27.the figure of last year. The UN agency warns the situation is worst
:19:28. > :19:32.for the one million children trapped in besieged areas. Juliette Touma is
:19:33. > :19:42.regional spokesperson for UNICEF. She joins us from Jordan. Children
:19:43. > :19:52.are the most vulnerable, how much worse hazard got? -- has it got? It
:19:53. > :19:56.has become pretty grim. The number of children killed, the number of
:19:57. > :20:02.Children in Need, has tremendously gone up and we are concerned about 1
:20:03. > :20:05.million children who are not just in areas under siege but in areas where
:20:06. > :20:13.it is three difficult for UNICEF to reach. Pretty grim, the report
:20:14. > :20:17.highlights the suffering of these children and it calls for an end to
:20:18. > :20:21.the suffering of these children. It is very important to remember that
:20:22. > :20:26.the report says that behind every statistic is an actual child. And
:20:27. > :20:34.they have the right to life and happiness. One of the shocking
:20:35. > :20:39.things is the x-ray vision of an embryo shop there by a sniper in the
:20:40. > :20:47.womb. The levels of barbarity we have seen are absolutely haunting.
:20:48. > :20:51.Indeed. This is a war that is claiming the lives of children even
:20:52. > :20:55.before they are born. We had conversations with doctors who
:20:56. > :21:02.confirmed that snipers have indeed been targeting children, pregnant
:21:03. > :21:08.mothers and children are paying the heaviest price with their lives. We
:21:09. > :21:15.have 10,000 children who have been killed but also children who are
:21:16. > :21:19.falling ill, polio is returning to Syria after disappearing for 40
:21:20. > :21:25.years. 3 million children out of school. It is a grim picture but
:21:26. > :21:29.amid all of that, it is important to note that the children we
:21:30. > :21:34.interviewed for this report showed a great amount of resilience. Even
:21:35. > :21:41.children who have been injured, for example a girl that we interviewed
:21:42. > :21:46.in the camp in Jordan who was injured because her house was
:21:47. > :21:50.bombed, and she was carried in her father's arms across the border
:21:51. > :21:57.between Syria and Jordan and she is learning to walk on crutches and she
:21:58. > :22:02.is back in school. That is great news to see any progress and of
:22:03. > :22:08.people watching the say they want to help, I'm not interested in
:22:09. > :22:16.politics, UNICEF has raised only 8% of the funding it needs, so what can
:22:17. > :22:23.people do? People can donate on the website. And they can help us to
:22:24. > :22:26.vaccinate children but we want to vaccinate and put children in
:22:27. > :22:31.schools and provide families with clean water. This is the least we
:22:32. > :22:35.can do, to help these children and help us to collectively put pressure
:22:36. > :22:41.on the parties in the conflict, on member states, to put an end to this
:22:42. > :22:46.violence and make 2014 the last year of suffering for the sake of the
:22:47. > :22:53.children in Syria and the region. Many thanks. People in Iran are
:22:54. > :22:56.preparing for the start of the Persian New Year, Nawroz, on the
:22:57. > :23:02.21st of March. Years of crippling sanctions are affecting most
:23:03. > :23:05.people's lives. But Iranians are still hoping the New Year will bring
:23:06. > :23:09.change. The BBC's Chief International Correspondent, Lyse
:23:10. > :23:13.Doucet, is in Tehran. Iranian markers are such a visual treat,
:23:14. > :23:18.just look at the colours that are on sale in this fruit and vegetable
:23:19. > :23:22.market. Part of the traditional bazaar in North Carolina. The
:23:23. > :23:31.fragrances are wonderful. Herbs and spices. -- Tehran. They look good
:23:32. > :23:35.but the prices have tripled in the years that Iran has lived under
:23:36. > :23:43.sections so a lot of people tell us they have to make do with the little
:23:44. > :23:49.they have. How are you? Very good. Your buying this fish, this is a
:23:50. > :23:54.good luck symbol? Every year they have new stuff coming up and stop
:23:55. > :24:00.explain to us all of these things. We can see a song sale, candles?
:24:01. > :24:08.Exactly. We have a tradition to put different things together for the
:24:09. > :24:15.New Year so that we have fish, goldfish, eggs, every single thing
:24:16. > :24:24.is a symbol for us. For the coming New Year. To have happiness, love,
:24:25. > :24:29.goodwill for everybody. Is this a time of happiness in Iran? I hope
:24:30. > :24:36.so, I think so. We are hopeful. What gives you hope? When Iran is talking
:24:37. > :24:40.to the West about a nuclear deal and greater engagement? Of course, this
:24:41. > :24:47.is a new beginning for us. We are all positive towards this change.
:24:48. > :25:00.How do you want your own life to change? Our own lives, we have a lot
:25:01. > :25:04.of new hope and we have a lot of hope for our children. We emphasise
:25:05. > :25:09.a lot for the education of the new generation. For the children, we
:25:10. > :25:17.want them to have good jobs, good opportunities. Are you worried for
:25:18. > :25:23.your children? They are doing OK. We hope everything will be fine. We
:25:24. > :25:35.hope so also. Have a good time. Thank you. Come here and we can show
:25:36. > :25:44.you some of the Nawroz shopping. You are happy? Happy as well? Very good,
:25:45. > :25:50.very good. We can see so many things over here. You can see such a
:25:51. > :25:55.mixture of modern things, objects are making to celebrate Nawroz.
:25:56. > :26:06.Mixing with traditional. They have this ceremony, we can see the
:26:07. > :26:10.garlic, this traditional spice, beautiful display. And this is meant
:26:11. > :26:14.to symbolise the beginning of something new. You hear it from Sony
:26:15. > :26:20.people here, they want to start something new. But when life is
:26:21. > :26:24.difficult, some fear it will not get better any time soon. This is
:26:25. > :26:35.tempered with the realism that this is what life is like. But that does
:26:36. > :26:41.not mean they will not celebrate. A reminder of our top story. Interpol
:26:42. > :26:44.have shown and named two passengers who boarded the missing Malaysian
:26:45. > :26:46.Airlines plane using stolen passports. Both were Iranian
:26:47. > :26:49.nationals, one aged 18, the other 29, and they entered Malaysia on
:26:50. > :26:52.Iranian passports. Malaysian police have said they believe one was
:26:53. > :26:56.trying to migrate to Germany. They say this makes it less likely that
:26:57. > :26:59.the plane's disappearance was a terrorist incident. Goodbye.