27/03/2014 BBC World News

Hello. Our top stories... After a warm welcome, a gentle goodbye, as

Pope Francis met President Obama at the Vatican. Could these satellite

images show the debris of the missing Malaysian airliner? Up to

300 objects are found floating in the southern Indian Ocean. After 46

years on Death Row, why this Japanese man has finally been

granted a retrial. The man who ousted President Morse he makes his

pitch to run the country. -- Morsi. A moment of history in the Vatican

this morning. President Obama has met Pope Francis for the first time.

It's only a year since the Pope took office. Two of the most powerful and

influential men in the world shook hands in the Vatican's Apostolic

Palace before heading into a meeting which lasted an hour. Although they

disagree on many issues including abortion and gay marriage, they do

have some common ground, when it comes to the fight against global

poverty. The BBC's Alan Johnston is in Rome and he watched the meeting

as it happened. Just a warning that these images contain flash

photography. We saw President Obama gets delivered by motorcade into the

courtyard in the heart of the papal palace. He eventually processed

through the magnificent marbled corridors of the papal palace,

eventually meeting Pope Francis in a room outside the papal library and

then the two of them went into the small throne room, where they were

to have a meeting. The atmosphere, the body language, seemed as good as

it could be. Mr Obama famously relaxed and easy. The Pope, not a

man who stands on any ceremony, the two of them chatted. We know that

President Obama said he was great at my of the Pope. He thanked him for

the audience. -- great admirer. We know President Obama is an admirer

of President Francis. There was an interview in a newspaper in which

President Obama could not have been more generous in his praise of the

Pope. He did not just preach the gospel, he lived it. He said the

Pope is right to focus on global poverty around the world. He was

right to say too many people have been left behind in the process of

globalisation. He has said it is too ready to accept the gross

inequalities we see around us in so many countries. President Obama

clearly sees this as his fight. He's confronting the same issues of

inequality back home in the United States. He hopes that in Pope

Francis he can build an alliance around this crucial issue of shared

concern over efforts to build perhaps slightly fairer world. The

lofty ambitions and lofty ideals. Away from the great photo

opportunity and warm words, what are the politics of this? Can the

influence each other? Varies, perhaps, a huge amount of symbolism.

You might say, less substance to this. Certainly, the Vatican is

happy to see a man of this standing with the president of the United

States coming to their door. It shows the president is listening.

You get a sense this Pope is making a real impact. If you want to talk

about some of the lower-level politics on the American side, then

of course it is -- he is a very popular Pope. The president is

struggling just before mid-term elections. This is a photo

opportunity that will do no harm at all, particularly with those many

Hispanic voters, most of them, of course, Catholic, who missed the

Bama looks to come election day. -- President Obama. Thailand says its

satellites have spotted up to 300 objects, which may be debris from

the Malaysian Airlines passenger plane which disappeared nearly three

weeks ago. This grainy satellite image shows the objects which

measure between two and 15 metres in length. They were spotted 200

kilometres south of the area in which French satellite photos

indicated more than 100 objects could be floating in the sea. As for

the search itself, bad weather and near zero visibility have forced all

planes to pull out of the area, deep in the southern Indian Ocean. The

purple boxes, that you can see here, are where the Australian-led search

team was concentrating its efforts before heading back to Perth. So

far, no debris at all has been recovered and there's been no sign

of the so called black box flight recorder which might unravel the

mystery of what happened to flight MH370. Our correspondent, Jonathan

Head, is in Perth. I have almost lost count of the number of times I

have watched these aircraft coming back from their long missions over

the Indian Ocean, only to report that they have seen almost nothing

at all. We are standing here at the airbase. It is hard to imagine rough

conditions can get over the open ocean. We are approaching the

Southern Hemisphere winter. The weather can deteriorate very quickly

to the point, like today, where any kind of searching by these aircraft

is almost completely impossible. Remember, even when they are able to

stay out there for maybe two or three hours, finding anything at all

amid the waves is extremely difficult and requires intense

concentration and a great deal of luck. That tells you how tough this

operation is. It is not for nothing that aviation experts are saying it

is probably the most difficult search in modern aviation history.

There is no doubt at all doubting the dedication of these crews. They

know how important their job is. Remember, unless they find

something, unless they spot debris, even if it was seen on a satellite

photograph days ago, they have to find it first before it was picked

up. There is no way the investigation into what happened for

flight MH370 can be completed unless these guys find something. They have

not had any luck that they have said they will keep going. So much

depends on the weather. Chinese insurance companies have started to

pay compensation to the families of passengers aboard the Malaysia

airlines plane. The Chinese state news agency says the families of

seven passengers have received almost $700,000 all up. The money

comes from one of the country 's largest insurance companies. Earlier

I asked our reporter what else they knew. We did have an announcement

very recently from the Malaysian government that the aircraft almost

certainly came down in the southern Indian Ocean. It does seem that has

probably triggered these payments. China Life has paid out $670,000 to

the families of passengers. It expects to make further pay-outs.

The overall pay-out will be $1.3 million. A number of other firms are

reportedly making pay-outs, including China Pacific and Sun Life

insurance. These are insurance payments on the lives of the

passengers who were on board. It would have been part of their

ticketing arrangements. It does not stop them receiving other

compensation. Passengers on any aircraft anywhere in the world are

covered by the Montreal Convention, an international agreement about how

much passengers should be compensated in the event of an

accident, or their relatives. Malaysian airlines has strict

liability of $175,000 per passenger. That is what they have to

pay out. Obviously, they could appeal for higher pay-outs. We will

talk about that in a moment. That cost will have to be met by the

Malaysian airlines in Shiraz. We just seeing a bit of news about some

sort of lawsuit out of the US. Tell us about that. This is an American

law firm which specialises in aviation accidents, among other

things. It says it is planning to file a lawsuit in an American court

against Malaysia airlines and Boeing, the manufacturer of the

aircraft. It seems speculative at this stage. The firm says it expects

to represent at least half the passengers on board and is working

on a theory that the plane was downed by mechanical failure, there

were some kind of problem with it which led to it going missing in the

southern Indian Ocean and ultimately it going into the water. They

believe one of the theories is that there was a failure in the cockpit

which may have caused a fire that rendered the crew unconscious. It

seems only to be talking about this speculation because we have not

found anything. There is no proof about what happened. The proof will

not be found until the flight data recorder is found. That is lying

somewhere under the ocean, probably about four kilometres down. We are a

lot closer to finding it today. There are images on satellites of

potential debris. Until one is found which is part of the aircraft, it is

impossible to narrow down the surface area so that we can find the

missing black boxes. German airports are being subjected to widespread

disruption as ground staff, baggage handlers and maintenance staff hold

a strike. Most of the country's major airports including Frankfurt,

Europe's third largest, are affected by the strike. Germany's biggest

airline, Lufthansa, has cancelled around 600 flights, a third of its

services. The strike is due to finish in around two hours. It's

been one of the worst kept secrets in the world. The head of the

Egyptian Army Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al Sisi has confirmed that he

will stand in Egypt's forthcoming presidential elections. He announced

his intention in a televised address, in which he also resigned

his military position. As I said, the worst kept secret in

the world. The timing is interesting. Since the ousting of

the Muslim brotherhood government in June of last year, he has managed to

ride a wave of nationalistic and anti-Islamist sentiment among

Egyptians, which put him in the position he is in now, in a place

where he is almost guaranteed to win the elections. He enjoys support

from a considerably large section of the Egyptian public but, of course,

on the other hand there is the pro-Muslim brotherhood supporters

who are vehemently against him. We're just watching the televised

address where he announced his intention to stand as president but

he also resigned from the monetary as well. What do you make of that?

It was a 30 minute statement that was played on prime-time television

last night in Egypt. It was a very straightforward message. He made

some indications about wanting to restore respect to the Government

authority and that, you know, he does not have magical solutions but

he urges Egyptians to work very hard. That indicates he would not be

very willing to tolerate strikes and demonstrations in cities which have

been disrupting life for the past few years in eject. We're talking

about a presidential election. -- eejit. In terms of opponents, will

there be any? So far, we know of one candidate. He enjoys some popularity

but not as much popularity. He has the whole government media machine

backing him. I'd agree you are Egyptian, how do you think people

feel about the fact that another military man may resume power in

eejit? -- Egypt. Supporters see him as a saviour and somebody who was

the only person who has the power and the authority to transform the

country and return it into stability. On the other hand, if you

are somebody from the Muslim Brotherhood, they will say that he

killed their colleagues, jailed many thousands of people, and they are

the him and Lee and very strongly against them. Thank you for your

analysis. -- we look at the chances of Oscar

Pistorius giving his own testimony. Five days after a massive mudslide

engulfed the tiny American town of Oso near Seattle, rescue workers say

90 people are still missing. The number of missing had been

fluctuating, at one point reaching as high as 220. Scores of bodies are

thought to lie beneath the thick mountain mud. 24 people have been

confirmed dead. Platt to safety from a sea of mud. A

four-year-old boy who somehow managed to survive a massive

mudslide. Jacob Spillers was on the second floor when his home was hit

by a deadly tide of mud and rock. His father and three siblings were

downstairs and are still missing. A fellow survivor told me when she

came across him, he was scared and shivering. I stripped him down and

bundled him in a blanket and put him on my lap. I said, I am a grandma

and I am going to take care of you. We are going to find your mummy. I'd

searching continues apace. 90 bodies could lie buried only the wreckage.

We need to take a step back and look at the magnitude of what happened.

It is huge, complex and dangerous. I do not think we have a lot of

answers. All I can definitively say is we have a number that is 90 and

we will pursue it as much as we can. There are pockets of mud which 40

feet deep. Factor in the presence of toxic chemicals from crushed cars,

and it amounts to a difficult and dangerous recovery operation.

Rescuers biggest problem is the weather. It has been raining

constantly these past few days and that has not only hampered the

recovery operation, it has also raised the possibility of further

mud slides here. This is BBC World News. The latest

headlines, at a warm welcome, a gentle goodbye as Pope Francis met

President Obama at the Vatican. It is their first meeting and they

focused on global property. -- poverty. Investigators examined

satellite images appearing to show debris from the missing Malaysian

airliner. 300 objects work seen floating in the southerly Indian

Ocean. The family of a Japanese man who's spent 46 years on death row

are celebrating, after he was granted a retrial. Iwao Hakamada, a

former professional boxer, was convicted of murdering the boss of

the factory where he worked, and his family, including two children.

Whitney is our Asia editor. -- with me. But for I do, I think we have

just received these pictures of Iwao Hakamada being released. 46 years on

death row. Indeed. A judge earlier today ordered the release of Iwao

Hakamada and we're now seeing that he is walking from prison in Tokyo

to the celebration of his family and supporters, who have argued all

along that he was innocent. What happened was that in 1966, four

people died, Iwao Hakamada's boss, his boss's wife and their children.

They were found stabbed in their home in the home was set on fire.

Iwao Hakamada was accused of the crime and initially admitted to it

but later at his trial pleaded not guilty, saying that the confession

had been beaten out of him by police. Nevertheless, he was

convicted and sentenced to death. Over the decades, there been a

number of legal battles, knitting in this one, where an appeal court

judge ordered his release. He has been released and we now waiting to

see whether there will be a retrial. That was what the judge

initially ordered. In terms of him spending so much time on death row,

this might sound like a silly question but how was he on death row

for so many years? Had come the execution was never carried out? The

legal process just took so long. From the very beginning, he appealed

against it but it took a long time to go through. Years, decades even.

It was only in 2008 at another appeal was launched by his elderly

sister, who we can perhaps see in pictures, celebrating with

supporters at his release. It has been a long legal process and it

seems as though very few people since the Second World War have

successfully overturned a conviction in Japan. Just a handful of people.

The legal process they seems to move very slowly. But it appears to have

come up with a new verdict in this case. Pictures of people

celebrating. He has had a lot of supporters campaigning for him. And

they have never given up. You can see how pleased they were when they

got the news from the appeal Court that he had been granted a retrial.

An extraordinary story. Government officials in the former

Soviet state of Georgia have threatened to issue an international

arrest warrant for the former president Mikhail Saakashvili,

unless he returns to the country today. They want to question him in

several criminal investigations, including the suspicious death of a

former Prime Minister. Mr Saakashvili, who currently lives

abroad, claims there's been a political witch-hunt against him and

the previous government. One of Osama bin Laden's sons-in-law

has been found guilty in New York of conspiring to kill American

citizens. Suleiman Abu Ghaith is married to Bin-Laden's eldest

daughter, Fatima. He's the highest ranking Al-Qaeda figure to be

brought to trial on US soil for the September the Eleventh attacks. Nada

Tawfik reports from New York. The attacks of September at the 11th for

ever changed America. Almost 3000 people were killed that day and the

country's war on terror began. This is the man who led Al-Qaeda's began

the war. Some and hours after the attacks to a cave in Afghanistan and

told to deliver his message to the world. US officials say he was part

of Al-Qaeda's homicidal hierarchy, using the power of words to recruit

new members and incite hatred against America. In one video, the

Kuwaiti national promises no end to the storm of aeroplanes. He evaded

capture for years. In 2002, he fled Afghanistan for Iran, where he

remained for more than a decade. In February of 2013, he was arrested in

a hotel in the Turkish capital. And it was decided that he would be

deported to his home country, Kuwait. And on his way they are, he

was picked up by US agents in Jordan and flown to the United States.

Blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center, he faced trial

here in federal court. On Wednesday, he was convicted by a jury of

conspiring to kill Americans and providing support to Al-Qaeda after

a trial that lasted three. His lawyer says that they will appeal

the decision. It is not about words. It is not about association. There

are clear requirements under the law. If you want to turn around and

indict people for words, there are about 270 Congressman right now that

I've said some pretty incendiary things about a lot of things and

maybe we should start there. It is likely that Suleiman Abu Ghaith will

be sentenced to life in prison. The administration will certainly see

this as a legal victory. This case strengthens the President's argument

that it is possible to try high-profile terror suspects in

civilian court and that it is an alternative to detaining suspects in

Quant animal Bay. -- want animal Bay.

The government of the Philippines has signed an historic peace

agreement with the country's biggest Muslim rebel group -- in a move to

end one of Asia's longest and deadliest conflicts. Formal peace

talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front began

in 2001. The agreement grants largely Muslim areas of the southern

Mindanao region greater political autonomy in exchange for an end to

armed rebellion. Two firefighters have been killed

and 13 injured in the US city of Boston. Lieutenant Edward Walsh and

Firefighter Michael Kennedy were overcome by flames in the basement

of the three-storey block of flats. A number of residents were rescued

from the upper floors. The city's mayor has called it a sad day for

the city of Boston. An outspoken opposition legislator

in Venezuela who's been stripped of her job says she'll continue her

political activities. Speaking to hundreds of supporters on her return

to Caracas, Maria Corina Machado described her dismissal as illegal.

The National Assembly said she breached the constitution when spoke

at the Organisation of American States as a guest of Panama. Ms

Corina has repeatedly called for the removal of President Nicolas Maduro.

Lawyers for the South African paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius

will open the case for the defence in Pretoria on Friday. He's standing

trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on

Valentine's Day last year. But the big question is whether they will

put him into the witness box to give the court his first-hand account of

what happened. Karin Giannone looks at what we've learned so far from

his trial. Here in Pretorius where the killing that has gripped South

Africa took place in the luxury housing estate behind me, the

prosecution has finished putting its evidence before the court. They

tried to paint a picture of Oscar Pistorius as gun crazy, jealous of

his girlfriend. And neighbours from around here were among the first

witnesses to testify, telling the court what they heard in the early

hours of Valentine's Day last year. One witness told of being woken by a

woman's bloodcurdling scream. She says that the cries for help were

followed by gum charts. -- gunshots. Another neighbour heard

loud voices in the hours leading up to the murder. She thought that

people were fighting. But the defence says it is a case of

mistaken identity and that Oscar Pistorius was the only one to call

out for help. The toilet door which Pistorius fired through has also

made an appearance in court. A ballistics expert testified that

Reeva Steenkamp was standing up, facing the door when the first

bullet hit her right hip, suggesting there was enough time for her to

scream for being shot in the head. We have also heard character

evidence. Chris Boxer told the court that he was injured after Oscar

Pistorius accidentally set off a gun in a crowded restaurant. -- this

boxer. He says that Pistorius asked a friend to take the blame, the

opposition hoping to portray Pistorius as trigger-happy. If

firearms specialist later testified that the story is understood he was

only allowed to shoot if his life was in danger. -- a firearms

specialist. Messages between the couple have also been read out in

court. One from Reeva Steenkamp to Pistorius said: I am scared of you

sometimes. The prosecution says that Oscar Pistorius murdered Reeva

Steenkamp in a fit of rage. He says that he shot her thinking she was an

intruder in his bathroom. If convicted, he could face a life

sentence. Before we go, let's remind you on

our top story. President Obama has met Pope Francis for the first time,

only a year since he took office. They are two of the world's most

powerful and influential men and they shook hands in the apostolic

Palace at the Vatican. They disagree on many issues including abortion

and gay marriage, they do have some common ground when it comes to the

fight against global. That is it from me. Still plenty more to come.

-- global poor.