04/08/2011 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today, with me, David Eades.

30 years and at least $1 billion, there UN lays out the cost of

cleaning up oil pollution in the Niger delta as Shell admits

liability to two major spills. Europe's instability is spilling,

global markets plummet. More gloom at the International

Monetary Fund, its new head faces investigation in France for abuse

of authority. Turkey's Armed Forces Day up a

silent civilian shake-up. Can the government keeping up haunt -- keep

the upper hand over the military? And you can hear it, you can play

it, but you cannot touch it. A celebration of the electronic

instrument invented nearly 100 and it -- a 100 years ago.

Welcome. The United Nations has called for a $1 billion fund to

clean up 50 years of oil pollution in the delta region of Nigeria. It

comes as the oil giant Shell has accepted liability for two oil

spills in the region and now faces compensation claims running into

hundreds of millions of dollars. The report by the Environment

Programme in the UN said contamination levels were far worse

than previously thought and would take 30 years to clean up. Local

people were also blamed for breaking into pipelines to steal

oil. In this report is a forensic

examination of how oil has brought pollution and run into a small part

of Nigeria. For decades, oil was pumped from Ogoniland, but it came

at a terrible cost. At least 10 of the communities surveyed now

Drinkwater so contaminated it poses a public health risk. Land was

sampled as well and the results show for the first time that years

of pollution have sunk deep down into the soil, five metres down in

some places. This is primarily -- primarily a report about the impact

of the pollution which it is thought will now take between 25

and 30 years to clear up. Oil giant Shell was criticised for failing to

maintain the infrastructure in the area, which directly led to leaks.

The local community' s attempts to steal the oil lead to problems as

well. We were surprised to be here that the oil industry is not

implementing its own standards. That is pretty serious. We have

also discovered that the government, the regulators, are not

implementing their own rules and guidelines. This is putting

communities at risk. Earlier this week, a shell accepted

responsibility for two macros spills in Ogoniland in which oil

flowed unchecked possible once. The UN has recommended that a $1

billion fund be set up for what it is calling the most wide-ranging

and long-term team operation the world has ever seen. It has asked

oil companies and the Nigerian government to come up with the

money. This is the United Nations report, it is a fairly hefty

scientific reports and it is being looked that by the Nigerian

President and the big oil companies. The question is, having made

billions of dollars by exploiting the oil of the Ogoniland, whether

the cash can now be found to begin the process of clearing up the

pollution. I am joined by Ben Amunwa from its

oil industry watchdog Platform. Thank you for joining us. Quite a

weighty tome, I do not expect to to have read all of it, essentially

does the UN assessment meet your own? The report essentially tells

us what we already knew, at which is that Ogoniland in particular has

suffered extensive in Rome until damage. Their report looks into the

scientific extends of the damage -- extensive environmental damage.

What is needed, rather than more studies commissioned by oil

companies, is immediate and effective action on cleaning up the

7000 oil spills. There are propositions hear about the fund,

$1 billion to go towards the clean up, we have had also shell

acknowledging liability for two Major spells. Does this represent a

a turning point, is this a turning point? It could be. The cases that

Shell has admitted liability for two Oil spills, that is a welcome

step forward for the campaign to hold corporations like Shell

accountable for their human rights abort -- aboard. It has been

welcome in Nigeria, this is the people who rely on the health of

the environment for their livelihood, their basic human

rights to food and water have been violated. It is worth pointing out

that a lot of this has been seen by the UN as well, there is sabotage

involved, there have been efforts to tap into the oil wines. It

cannot all be blamed for the oil companies. Shell is to blame for

some of the spills, and some of the Community's tried to get

compensation. We have to realise that bringing a case in London is

the last resort for these communities. They tried to get

compensation from Shell within Nigeria, but were denied access to

justice. What they offered were �3,500, plus bags of rice and sugar,

which is vastly inadequate which is considering there are 369 people --

369,000 people in the area. This is the last resort, it -- is it the

best resort? It could be. Shell and it investors could be concerned

that the company is sitting on a mountain of claims in the Niger

delta, where they have been over 9 million barrels of oil spilled in

the last 50 years. Twice the amount that was spilled in the Deepwater

Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, that BP caused. In the Gulf

of Mexico, 20 billion was mobilised within weeks to clean it up. In the

Niger Delta, we have not seen that. 50 years of this going on, the UN

report talks about another 30 you to clean it up properly.

Nonetheless, do you draw some confidence that even the notion all

the recommendations for or $1 billion fund, and the sense,

perhaps, let us not forget that this was funded by Shelf. I think

for communities in the delta, this will be cold comfort. So many

people have been impacted, had their human rights violated by a

oil spills over the last 50 years. This compensation is just 4 two oil

spills. Shell continues to refuse liability in other cases. There is

an ongoing litigation in the Hague where they are denying

responsibility for the oil spills. What is important is that the

clean-up is effective. One of the findings of the report today is

that Shell has covered up the full extent of the pollution in

Ogoniland by labelling or will cite as clean when they are in fact

highly contaminated. -- labelling will excite as clean. The whole

process has to be rigorously monitored by international

organisations to insure that Shall cleaned up its act.

The eurozone is back in deep trouble, and even did present of

the European Commission is admitting it. Jose Manuel Barroso

it admitted that measures agreed by the EU last month have failed to

spread the debt crisis. He said it is no longer restricted to the

periphery of the council -- countries that use the euro.

Reflecting that anxiety, the European Central Bank has started

to buy bonds in countries such as Spain to protect against the yields

reaching a manageable levels. Two weeks ago today, at their

opting emergency summit, eurozone leaders said they had finally taken

tough decisions and the future of the euro was safe. Someone stopped

-- someone forgot to tell financial markets. A couple of weeks ago,

markets anticipated that the ECB and the players had got together

and found a solution. When you dig into the detail that lies behind

the grand statements, it is very clear that there is not a lot of

money on the table. There is no real political will to sort out the

problems. Once again it is Italy and Spain paying a price for

investor's doubt. A year ago, the Spanish government was borrowing at

4.4%, but a few weeks ago, it had gone up to 6.3%. It is now back

very close to that level. Italy is paying nearly as much. The higher

the interest rate they pay, the more difficult it will be for these

countries to get on top of their debts. That is the fear

concentrating minds in Brussels, but they are running out of ways to

respond. The European Commission President said today -- today cent

has turned left -- a stern letter to European governments. He said

the crisis have now extended well be on the periphery of the eurozone.

He said they should push ahead with what they had already agreed, and

urged a rapid reassessment of what more could be done. The European

Central Bank did take action today, announcing it to step in to support

government under pressure by buying their bombs. Something it has not

done since March. The bank's President also had stern words for

national politicians. The key for everything is government, ahead of

the curve. In both their fiscal policy and there reforms,

structural reforms. They are absolutely of the essence, a

structural reforms. I know they are difficult here and there. They

might be politically difficult in democracies. They are paying off.

Of course, the UK did get ahead of the curve on cutting its deficit,

the opposition would say too far ahead. But bank stocks fell sharply

today on fears that Britain's banks and our fragile recovery could be

blown off course by the crisis across the Channel. Everyone can

agree it is about time for Europe's leaders to be heading for the Beach.

-- it is a bad time for you's need is to be heading for the Beach.

Also trouble at the top for the International Monetary Fund foot --

whose successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn is facing

investigation. Christine Lagarde denies any Liskeard -- has come up.

Among Christine Lagarde's first day training, was training. The IMF

wrote tough new guidelines into her contract. Today's decision by

French judges will come harshly. The prosecution allege she abused

her position as finance minister. She approved of 400 billion dollar

payment in conversation to this man, to settle his claim that the former

state owned bank had defrauded him in 1993 when he stalled -- sold his

stake in the sports company Adidas. The former left-wing minister had

switched sides in 2007 to support Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential

campaign. Some months earlier, he had lost his case in the highest

court in France and was appealing his decision when his friend,

Nicolas Sarkozy, took power. Today, Ms Lagarde's lawyers said she

welcomed the opportunity to take her -- clear her name. She is

perfectly, but all of this. Just because an investigation has been

launched does not mean she feels weak or worried. She is not worried

in the least, and neither am I. IMF new Christine Lagarde was

facing his investigation when they appointed her, but still appointed

have. Nevertheless, it is damaging, particularly given the

circumstances in which she got these jobs.

Virginia Tech University, the sight of the worst compass shooting in

American history, it remains under lockdown after reported sightings

of a gunman. The university issued an alert telling all students and

staff to stay indoors after three youths reported seeing a man

holding what may have been a handgun.

Human rights groups and lawyers in Britain have withdrawn from a

planned inquiry into allegations that British security services knew

about or colluded in the torture and mistreatment of suspected

terrorists held a board. They claim proceedings will not be a good

enough to establish the truth of a dog and unemployed Swedish man who

was arrested after it spread -- experimenting with nuclear

materials in his kitchen said he was trying to build a nuclear

reactor as a hobby. Ogoniland was detained for

unauthorised material. He said he bought some of the material from

the date -- back -- Richard Handl bought the material from eBay.

30 people have been killed, some people say, as troops backed by

tanks we took the main square in Syria. Foreign journalists are

With no independent reporting at all, communications cut and the

impossibility of terrifying footage light is on the internet, the bug

has been left to guess what has been happening in Hama after the

troops and the tanks moved in. -- the world. But residents who were

able to be contacted after they fled the city said water and

electricity was cut off and food and medicines were running low.

They spoke of random firing by a regime militia men at anything that

moved. One said the city looked like a battlefield in Gaza or Iraq.

He scorned the new political party and election laws decreed by

President Assad in a bid to defuse the crisis. After killing so many

people and invading cities and burning buildings and houses and

raping people and putting people in jail, what kind of flaws will he

make for us now a? It is too late. Despite the punishment meted out at

Hama and elsewhere, defiance has continued in many parts of the

country. It has gone beyond the point of reconciliation with the

regime. They chant slogans saying, it has to go. Many of the night

time demonstrations now being held in different places after Ramadan

prayers are in solidarity with the people of Hama. It has emerged as

the key flashpoint for the moment, but there are many others in

different parts of the country. Jim Muir, from Beirut.

A new military high command has been appointed in Turkey less than

a week after the previous one resigned en masse. Tensions have

been growing between the military and the Government over the arrest

of forces personnel accused of plotting a coup. The Turkish

military is the second-biggest in NATO and has brought Stan four

governments in the past. But the Prime Minister appears to have

forced them to accept civilian supremacy. Some things in Turkey

never change, like the Somme visits the prime minister has made to the

mausoleum of the country's founding father Ataturk. That used to be

through by the military as well. Every year the top brass got to

decide who would be promoted, Prime Minister has just rubber-stamped

their tries. But look at the seating arrangements this year. The

Prime Minister is alone in the chair. His choice to command the

military sitting meekly on his right. For years Mr Erdogan has

been pushing the soldiers back from the privileged perch from which

they had unseated four previous governments. Now after a third

successive election victory, he has forced them to accept civilian

supremacy. That will not end the tension. The detention and

prolonged trials of 250 serving officers have been a humiliation

for a once and touch -- untouchable institution. The Government says

they have real charges to answer of anti- Government plotting. Others

say it is a judicial witch hunt. More changes are likely to follow

this week. The police have been asked to take on many of the Army's

roles in combating insurgency and terrorism. But there are questions

about a largely conscript force. It remains an important part of

Turkish life and an essential asset for the NATO alliance. Even its

critics will want to see it recover its pride and prestige.

I am joined now by Fadi Hakura, manager of the Turkey Project at

Chatham House. All this talk of potential military coup, this one

feels like a civilian Co on the military. Can they come back from

that? I do not foresee the military anytime soon were recovered his

power and privileges which it enjoyed in other decades. The

Government has shown that the civilian authority is in full

command of the military and it will stay that for a while. Is it

reasonable for the Turkish military to feel they are being politically

targeted by the AK Party? I think those feelings of injustice as

expressed by the previous chief of staff, in his resignation statement,

clearly showed the anxieties within the Turkish military that the

Government is targeting them deliberately, that the Government

is particularly targeting senior commanders of the military to try

to promote its own officers in the upper command. There are four new

people in positions of huge authority and responsibility and

they are new in the post. Does that have a destabilising effect on the

Army and the military? There is a serious risk that the

professionalism and meritocracy that governed the Turkish military

may begin to dissipate in favour of promoting officers who are seen as

closer to the Government. If that is the case, it has serious

implications for NATO, Europe and the US. How much is that concern

reflected within Turkey today? That this is as much as anything about

an essentially Muslim party pushing Muslim practices into a secular

world? It is still a minority opinion. It is only among the

certain intelligentsia of Turkish society, but the broad, popular

support in Turkey is with the Government, rather than the

military. In the midst of all this we are talking about the coup

allegations. I credible are they? It seems there is a germ of truth

to them, but there is a question over the conduct of the cases, had

the cases are proceeding, and the lack of due process in many

occasions, and some of the quality of the evidence that masks some

other cases. In the reports they were talking about the need for

Turkey to have a credible army and military and possibly a

counterbalance in Turkey is live. That will be difficult to achieve

again. It is healthy for Turkey to have a politics governed by

democratic pluralism rather than by having an autonomous military

acting as a supervisor of the system. Presumably people would

have to believe in the credibility of any justice meted out to

arrested generals, to believe this is a sensible and positive way

forward. Turkey has to go through these motions. Democracy is an ever

-- never a clean process and has its injustices, but it is more

healthy for the future of Turkish democracy to rely on civilian

politics rather than military interference. We have had four

governments overthrown in the past by the military. Can you foresee a

point anywhere in the future where we get back to those sorts of

times? I think the future likelihood of a military coup in

Turkey is becoming increasingly unlikely. The bigger danger to the

Government is less a military coup, than the state of the economy. The

economy is the number-one factors that governs how Turkish people

vote in the elections. Did you know there is a musical instrument you

can play hands-free, in fact hands of is the name of the festival and

symposiums celebrating the theremin, an electronic instrument invented

in the 1920s by the Russian musician and Engineer Leon Theremin.

The BBC's Russian Service has been to the festival for a rare

experience. It sounds spacial and futuristic,

music for a sci-fi films. But the theremin is nearly 100 years old,

but it still remains the domain of a chosen few. Its inventor, Leon

Theremin, had a longer and adventurous live with everything in

it, from fame and success in the US two years in the Gulag. He lived

and some 97 and handed over the legacy to his grand knees. I think

the theremin was probably invented a little bit too early for his age.

It was developed in the 1920s as electricity was just fresh born.

Since it became more popular, there are many thousands of instruments

in the world, but this is a question of who can play

professionally. You can still count them on your fingers. You play it

by moving your hands around the two and 10 A. The right one is the pits.

Modern players introduce new techniques. -- the pitch. It is a

monophonic instrument, but I can construct an orchestra with my loop

station. I am able to keep a note which I am playing live and I keep

it with the loop station and it makes a never ending loop. There

can be many layers and I can construct chord structures, so I

can play in harmonic structures. is so iconic and I think most

people will have heard the theremin even if they have not realised it.

It has influenced film music, effects. It is still a flexible

instrument and works in a classical context as well as a range of other

musical genres. And so at the theremin came to Scarborough, a

futuristic instrument in an old Yorkshire town. The music is taken

to places as distant as diverse as I still do not really understand it,

but there we are. Our main news: The United Nations says it could

take 30 years to clear up pollution from oil operations in the

Ogoniland region of Nigeria. A report by the UN Environment

Programme says oil spills have contaminated land, sea and air,

seriously threatening public health in some parts of the region. It

also said the oil giant Shell had not followed its own guidelines on

maintaining infrastructure, but it also said local people had

endangered lives by breaking into pipelines to steal oil. The head of

the European Commission has warned that saving grace was not enough

for the euro-zone to avert a financial crisis. Now Italy and

Spain are struggling with a loss of market confidence and that is

triggering a downfall in European and US stock markets. Jose Manuel

Barroso also added there was a fear or the problems were spreading

beyond the periphery of those countries using the euro. That is

about it for now. Next, the weather. Today's reign is clearing away. It

is going to bring a fresher feel and a more Cover to Barack Obama

for sleeping and a brighter day tomorrow with some spells of

sunshine. The warmest weather is across East Anglia and the south-

east of England. This area of low pressure brought the rain, some of

it quite heavy, especially in southern counties of England. On

Friday the cloud will come and go and there will be some spells of

sunshine with the odd, light shower. Some Sunny spells for the North of

England. Temperatures not that exciting, 19 or 20 degrees. It will

be warmer in the south-east, possibly getting as high as 25. It

will feel quite pleasant, actually. In the south-west it will not be

quite as warm. There will be cloud and a bit of sunshine in between.

In Wales temperatures could get as high as 21 degrees. Across Northern

Ireland there will be the odd shower around, but they will not be

as heavy as we have seen to date. One or two showers in western