27/05/2014 BBC World News


27/05/2014

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Hello. This is BBC World News. Our top stories:

:00:00.:00:10.

After big election gains by anti-integration parties,

:00:11.:00:14.

the leader of the French far right demands an end to some of the EU's

:00:15.:00:17.

most high-profile policies. Our objective is to block all ideas

:00:18.:00:25.

and projects against our objectives. most high-profile policies.

:00:26.:00:36.

Ukraine's government says it's recaptured Donetsk airport, killing

:00:37.:00:40.

many of the pro-Russian separatists who had seized the base.

:00:41.:00:43.

Nigeria's highest ranking army officer says he knows the location

:00:44.:00:46.

of 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, but won't run the risk of intervening.

:00:47.:00:52.

We know where they are but we cannot tell you. Just leave us alone.

:00:53.:01:07.

won't run the risk of intervening. India's new Prime Minister, Narendra

:01:08.:01:10.

Modi, holds talks with his Pakistani counterpart - we ask whether

:01:11.:01:11.

a thawing of relations is under way. Hello, thanks very much for

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watching. Remote, incomprehensible and

:01:28.:01:35.

in need of urgent reform. Calls are growing

:01:36.:01:39.

for a fundamental re-think of the European Union, following

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sweeping gains for anti integration parties in the weekend's elections

:01:44.:01:46.

for the European parliament. France and Italy have already called

:01:47.:01:49.

for change of emphasis on the economy to boost growth and jobs.

:01:50.:01:58.

And within the past hour, one of the big winners in the weekend's polls,

:01:59.:02:02.

the leader of the French National Front, has called for an end to two

:02:03.:02:09.

of the EU's policies - freedom of movement and a common currency.

:02:10.:02:14.

Here she was a short while ago. It expressed solidarity of our

:02:15.:02:25.

conviction. It was a patriotic project, every day we expose the

:02:26.:02:32.

French people to the question of Europe, which is a genuine national

:02:33.:02:38.

project for the French, and that will be the basis for the next

:02:39.:02:48.

elections. A short while ago I spoke to our correspondent and put it to

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him that Marine Le Pen is flexing her muscles and has a mandate and an

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agenda. Absolutely, and it is important to listen to what she is

:02:59.:03:01.

saying because she represents a sizeable chunk of the electorate,

:03:02.:03:06.

and France's one of the key countries in the European Union. She

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talked in her press conference of blocking EU legislation when it is

:03:12.:03:15.

passing through the parliament. Bear in mind that she has some 25 MEPs in

:03:16.:03:22.

that parliament, and it is a parliament of 751, she will not be

:03:23.:03:26.

able to do it on her own and the bulk of the MEPs in that parliament

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are pro-European. There isn't going to be a sudden and massive

:03:33.:03:41.

Eurosceptic surge which will stop EU legislation dead in its tracks.

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Where her influence will be felt is in French domestic politics. We are

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seeing signs the French president is starting to talk about the need

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possibly to address some of the concerns that the voters have

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expressed in this election with regards to Brussels' relationship

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with Paris. Because France is such an important country in the EU, you

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would assume therefore that when you have people like the French coming

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into Brussels in two important summits, and indeed the British,

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David Cameron under pressure from the anti-EE you UKIP party, when you

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have two leaders of two such important countries in the EU

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expressing some concerns about the power of Brussels, it is bound to

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have an impact on the agenda. We will have more on the aftermath of

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the European elections later in this programme.

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of movement and a common currency. Reports from Ukraine say government

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forces have retaken control of Donestk airport,

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following 24 hours of fighting. We've had no independent

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confirmation of that. Pro-Russian separatists say

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at least 30 rebels were killed on Monday in fighting

:05:12.:05:14.

in the eastern city of Donestk. The Ukrainian government deployed

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helicopter gunships and fighter jets in an operation to

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retake the city's airport. Our correspondent visited the place

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which has come under attack. You can see the aftermath of that intense

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firefight around the airport yesterday. This truck completely

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burnt out, the windows full of bullet holes, and around the base of

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the truck there is too much we cannot show you because it is too

:05:38.:05:43.

graphic. There are body parts and a lot of debris from the fighting that

:05:44.:05:48.

took place yesterday. We have been here this morning, where there have

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been some gunshots that have run out from the airport, but not the same

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intensity as yesterday. There was sporadic gunfire coming from the

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airport compound. We understand the Ukrainian troops are largely in

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control of the airport base but it seems there was some kind of clear

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out operation to try to flush out the last elements of rebel control

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from the airport, clearly Kiev determined that the airport does not

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fall to the insurgents, or the terrorists as they put it, because

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it would really give the separatist groups here a real advantage in

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trying to access this region. There is the Crimea factor as well, but

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back in February there was the annexation of Moscow. When they took

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the airport, that was the first key installation that they took control

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of so the Ukrainian government is determined to clamp down on that.

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Petro Poroshenko, newly elected, gave a speech yesterday saying that

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he would not negotiate with terrorists, as he put it.

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retake the city's airport. Nigeria's military has said for the

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first time that it knows where more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by

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Boko Haram are being held. It's now nearly six weeks since the teenagers

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were driven away at gunpoint from their boarding school in the remote

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town of Chibok. They've been the focus of a campaign around the world

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with the slogan "bring back our girls". Will Ross reports from the

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Nigerian capital, Abuja. We know where they are, is the

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message from the military. It is welcome news for the desperate

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parents of the more than 200 missing girls. Locating them is one thing,

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getting them out safely will be even harder. The Chief of defence staff

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warned, we cannot kill our girls in the name of getting them back. We

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know where they are but we cannot tell you. Just leave us alone, we

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are working. We will get them back. Recently a negotiated deal was

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almost accepted to release some girls but at the 11th hour the

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Nigerian government pulled out. All along there have been people who

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felt that rather than use military force to rescue the girls, it would

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be preferable to try to negotiate their release and there have been

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calls for religious leaders to play a more active role. These girls are

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not only hostages, they exist as human shields. You cannot fire any

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shots at the insurgents without getting at the girls. Really what

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you are saying is that to get them out, negotiation would work but use

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of force is more likely to lead to some of them dying? The insurgents

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will not listen to government officials, they will not listen to

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security personnel. They are most likely to listen to Islamic

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religious leaders. With the girls still missing and the attacks

:09:26.:09:29.

against civilians ongoing, Christians and Muslims can do little

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else but pray. After prayers this Muslim scholar told me his niece was

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killed last week by Boko Haram. She was pulled out of a car and shot

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dead. What crime has she committed? She was a very brilliant student.

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How do you feel when Boko Haram speak out against girls and women

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getting an education? We believe this can not be an Islamic movement

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because Islam encourages knowledge. They keep praying for peace, but

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since the schoolgirls were seized, more than 150 people have been

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killed by Boko Haram in bomb attacks and raids on villages. The calls to

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bring back our girls alive will continue.

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Nigerian capital, Abuja. Historic talks in Delhi today

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between India's newly elected prime minister Narendra Modi and his

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Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif was in Delhi to attend

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Mr Modi's inauguration on Monday. Relations between India and Pakistan

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took a nose-dive after a terror attack in Mumbai in 2008,

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in which 166 people were killed. No details have been given about

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what the two men have discussed. With me Dr Rudra Chaudhuri.

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He is from King's College London. These are hostile nations, aren't

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they? It is an unprecedented initiative from the Prime Minister,

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but also as far as Narendra Modi is concerned it allows him to

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personalise his relations with Pakistan. His approach is

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personality driven, he normally bypass its institutions and I

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believe he will not be placing his foreign policy imperatives on

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institutions but rather will take control of what he thinks is one of

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the most important relations in the neighbourhood. His predecessor did

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not really go for that brand of personality politics, did he? That's

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right, he did not have the kind of mandate that Narendra Modi has. In

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the 15 minute but both of the Prime ministers this morning in New Delhi,

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they were trying to implement a structured to deal with each other

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in the future. The hope is that they will appoint a back channel dialogue

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much like in 2008. On the reason that Narendra Modi chose to go to

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Pakistan first, the whole campaign was dogged by these accusations that

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Narendra Modi was anti-Muslim so do you think there is an element of

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symbolism as well? Yes, but there was also an element of divorcing

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domestic politics from his foreign policy imperatives. He is a

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pragmatic leader. The issues discussed most with Pakistan were

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terror and trade and this will give the kind of impetus for discussions

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around trade and to the Mumbai terror court trials within Pakistan.

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It sounds like you are optimistic about Narendra Modi's premiership

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and this relationship. Given the mandate that Narendra Modi has, the

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responsibility now all eyes on him to take this foreign policy

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direction forward. This party has criticised them for the last ten

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years so now the imperative remains on him to see what he can do, given

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that he has a much larger mandate than the Congress had over the last

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ten years. Thank you. Still to come: Pope Francis compares the

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sexual abuse of children to devil worship and vows a zero tolerance

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approach. And is Japan losing its appetite for sumo wrestling? Why

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foreign competition is pushing out the home-grown talent.

:13:57.:14:05.

You might normally expect to find peat bogs in Ireland or the UK, but

:14:06.:14:11.

scientists have discovered a massive tropical peat bog in the remote part

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of the Republic of Congo. On a journey into the heart of the

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Congo basin, this expedition is heading to an area so remote it is

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only accessible for a couple of months of the year. But inside this

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waterlogged swamp lies a surprising discovery, a colossal peat bog.

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Hidden beneath dense jungle, it is up to 2000 square kilometres in size

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and holds billions of tonnes of peat.

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The team spent three weeks exploring the boggy area. By taking samples

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they found the peat reached seven metres below the ground. There so

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much of this ancient partially decayed vegetation it means the area

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is a vast store of carbon. Analysing this material, which is

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10,000 years old will shed light on its past and present role in the

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global climate. To me it was incredibly surprising

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to find an area, the size of England, that was unchartered, so we

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went there, knowing almost nothing about it, apart from what ewe could

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see from satellites. When we walked into the swamp land we discovered it

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was all peatland so it is a big discovery.

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The find comes at a time when many of the world's peatland are under

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threat. They are being drained to make way for agriculture, but this

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bog is so remote the team believes the Congo's ancient peat is probably

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safe for now. This is BBC World News.

:15:50.:16:12.

These are the latest headline. After dramatic gains in EU elections

:16:13.:16:15.

Marine Le Pen of the French National Front says she wants an end to some

:16:16.:16:20.

of the EU's most high profile policies.

:16:21.:16:25.

The Ukrainian Government says it has recaptured Donetsk airport, killing

:16:26.:16:29.

many of the pro-Russian separatists who seized the base. Russia has

:16:30.:16:31.

called for an immediate end to the fighting.

:16:32.:16:37.

Now, Pope Francis says that he will take a zero tolerance approach to

:16:38.:16:41.

the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, he compared it to

:16:42.:16:44.

devil worship. She was speaking to reporters on the flight back to the

:16:45.:16:48.

Vatican, after visiting the Middle East. He played down the possibility

:16:49.:16:53.

of helping to bring peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Our

:16:54.:16:56.

Middle East editor was onboard and sent this report.

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Well, the Pope is back here at the Vatican in Rome, after hishis Middle

:17:02.:17:06.

East tour. I think he can look back on what happened and be satisfied

:17:07.:17:11.

with what he did. He is probably I suspect wiser about the

:17:12.:17:17.

complications of a very difficult situation, which he has now inserted

:17:18.:17:23.

himself in by inviting the Palestinian President, and Israeli

:17:24.:17:28.

counterpart here to Rome for a meeting of prayer. He tried, I

:17:29.:17:33.

think, to dampen expectations when he was talking to us journalists on

:17:34.:17:40.

the plane coming back from tell a vief, saying it was about mediation,

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he wasn't qualified to be a new diplomatic envoy, whether he wants

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to by opening his mouth, getting involved he has become something of

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a player in that situation. Not least because there is no diplomatic

:17:55.:17:58.

process going on at the moment, and therefore, I think people are

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looking for some kind of new idea. Now, while he was talking to the

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journalists he dealt with specific issues concerning the Catholic

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Church. On the subject of the sex scandals which have caused enormous

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damage to Catholicism, he said the abuse of children by priests

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specifically was as bad as a Satanic ritual, conducting a black mass.

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TRANSLATION: It is a horrible crime. We know it is a terrible crime under

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any circumstances, but I am interested in the church, because a

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priest who does this betrays the body of the Lord. A priest needs to

:18:42.:18:48.

lead children to sanctity but instead of leading them to sanctity

:18:49.:18:54.

he abuses then. This is terrible. I will make a comparison. It is like a

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Satanic mass. Secular people may say that paedophilia is a lot worse than

:19:00.:19:06.

a black mass, but for a Pope, for a religious leader to compare anything

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to the worship of the devil is, for him, strong language.

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I want to take you back to one of our top stories, that of the 200,

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more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram some six weeks now. Now

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an army officer says he knows where the girls are but he won't run the

:19:30.:19:38.

risk of intervening. What do you think the reaction is, what is the

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reaccuse sun to this latest statement, that the army knows where

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the girls are? Well, this statement -- reaction It comes from the

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highest ranking military officer in Nigeria. Many people would see this

:19:52.:19:58.

ideally as a genuine statement, with authenticity, but the problem is,

:19:59.:20:02.

the Nigerian Government and the military, they have the, the way

:20:03.:20:07.

they have been dealing with the whole Boko Haram situation, and the

:20:08.:20:12.

girls in particular, with that experience in mind, many Nigerians

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will be very sceptical about this statement, and will consider it as

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just part of the ongoing statement coming out from different Government

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officials and security agencies is across the country. So rather than

:20:26.:20:30.

giving relatives hope, they are just becoming cynical ability any

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pronouncements coming out from the authorities? Definitely. The

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remember the military had in the past two days the after the

:20:38.:20:42.

abduction of the girl, they said we managed to rescue more than 90% of

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them but it turned out to be untrue, and they had to retract that

:20:48.:20:53.

statement after complaint from families and Local Authorities. So I

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don't think many Nigerians will, they will hope this is true, and if

:20:58.:21:02.

it is true, it is going to be a good news for Nigerian, particularly the

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families, relatives of the girls but I think many Nigerians are sceptical

:21:08.:21:12.

about this statement. Even if it is true, the army officer is saying #4e

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won't run the risk of intervening because it is too dangerous, what do

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you make of that? Definitely, think that is true, because the militants

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are howling these girls as human shields and they are holding them

:21:25.:21:30.

as, so they are trying to use them to get what they want. Remember,

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this statement came out hours after the BBC learned there was a deal

:21:35.:21:39.

that was meant to get these girls released, but the Government put out

:21:40.:21:44.

at -- pulled out at the 11th hour. It means the militants are not happy

:21:45.:21:48.

with what the Government did. So I think that will be put the lives of

:21:49.:21:53.

the girls in danger. They are already in danger, but this, the

:21:54.:21:57.

latest action from the Government would put them in more risk, I

:21:58.:22:03.

think. What of the ordeal for the families? This pun bearable for

:22:04.:22:13.

them? Definitely. We heard one parent, one of the mothers had lost

:22:14.:22:19.

her life because of high blood pressure, definitely because of what

:22:20.:22:23.

happened, so I think they are still waiting and what that want, I think

:22:24.:22:27.

from the Government -- they want, I think from the Government, to do

:22:28.:22:33.

whatever possibility to get the girls, through whatever mean, the

:22:34.:22:38.

only options the Government have at the moment is whether to negotiate

:22:39.:22:43.

with the militants or to use force, which I think will has the danger.

:22:44.:22:54.

OK. Thank you very much. Now, can it really be possible? Sumo

:22:55.:23:01.

wrestling losing its charm for 2 Japan sneeze nit is a hard life --

:23:02.:23:06.

Japanese. Children no longer want to commit it to. More recruited are

:23:07.:23:11.

foreigners from Mongolia, Hawaii, Bulgaria or Russia. We have this

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report from Tokyo. Nothing about sumo is modern. These

:23:20.:23:24.

are the same moves they have been doing here for hundreds of years.

:23:25.:23:32.

However comic it may look this is hard. The temperature is just above

:23:33.:23:39.

freezing. But the sweat glistens off their bodies.

:23:40.:23:47.

This 19-year-old has come here to train from Hawaii.

:23:48.:23:53.

The man shouting at him is his uncle. Once a grand champion, and

:23:54.:23:58.

one of the most famous sumo wrestlers in Japan.

:23:59.:24:05.

Anyone who thinks sumo is just two fat men pushing each other round

:24:06.:24:09.

would be very wrong. The training is not only tough physically but it is

:24:10.:24:18.

tough mentally, if you don't have it up here, you have to be mentally

:24:19.:24:22.

tough. It is not just the strength, not just the body. You have to, you

:24:23.:24:26.

have to think that you can do it. You have to get the mentality that

:24:27.:24:32.

you can push harder and strive more. But fewer and fewer young men in

:24:33.:24:37.

Japan want to push hard and strive more on the hard packed clay. Sumo

:24:38.:24:45.

has existed for well over 1,000 years, but now Japan's most iconic

:24:46.:24:49.

sport is in deep trouble. Revenues are falling. Audiences are falling

:24:50.:24:54.

and there aren't that many young men who want to take on this gruelling

:24:55.:24:59.

existence. After training, it is time to cook.

:25:00.:25:07.

Chanko is the rich stew all wrestlers eat to keep their weight

:25:08.:25:14.

up. They have to eat a lot. When he came here sumo was dominated by

:25:15.:25:19.

Japanese wrestlers but now all the top wrestlers are foreign.

:25:20.:25:24.

They have never seen a Japanese grand champion in over ten years

:25:25.:25:29.

now. That is a problem? It is a problem, I think. We would rather

:25:30.:25:37.

have a Japanese, but you know, the foreign, the wrestlers from outside

:25:38.:25:40.

is more hungry than the Japanese wrestler, you know. That is the

:25:41.:25:46.

point. That is it. Sumo is not so much a sport as a

:25:47.:25:51.

priesthood. But this life requires a level of commitment few young

:25:52.:25:59.

Japanese men are willing to make. Fascinating insight into the culture

:26:00.:26:04.

of sumo there. I want to finish by bringing you some extraordinarily

:26:05.:26:09.

cute pictures. A cute alert for you. These come from Austria. Five rare

:26:10.:26:15.

white tiger cubs, unveiled at a zoo in the mountains south of Vienna.

:26:16.:26:20.

The zoo keeper says the cubs were born last month. He said it is

:26:21.:26:26.

unusual for such a large number of white tigers to be delivered alive

:26:27.:26:31.

and healthy in a single litter. He says the good health of the tigers

:26:32.:26:35.

is due to the fact they live in a big open air zoo. Listen to him!

:26:36.:26:41.

Located in the Austrian mountains where the animals can roam

:26:42.:26:44.

relatively freely. The tragedy is white tigers are so rare they are

:26:45.:26:50.

found almost exclusively in captivity -- captivity. They know a

:26:51.:26:57.

good piece of meat. You can message me or follow me on Twitter. Thank

:26:58.:26:59.

you for watching.

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