:00:12. > :00:16.This is BBC World News Today with Kirsty Lang. The big prisoners what
:00:16. > :00:20.has taken place in the Middle East. Darryl emotional scenes in Israel
:00:20. > :00:28.as Gilad Shalit returns home after being held captive in Gaza for five
:00:28. > :00:34.years. I always believed that the day would come when I will find
:00:34. > :00:39.myself outside prison. In return, 500 Palestinians are welcomed home
:00:39. > :00:44.to garner has -- Gaza. More will be released over the coming weeks.
:00:44. > :00:48.The disturbing tale of four disabled people in prisons in the -
:00:48. > :00:53.- a basement in the United States in a plot to steal their social
:00:53. > :00:56.security checks. Also coming up, we report from
:00:56. > :01:00.inside Bahrain. What really happened to protesters when they
:01:00. > :01:05.tried to bring the Arab Spring to their kingdom.
:01:05. > :01:15.And six authors compete for the Man Booker Prize. Perhaps this award
:01:15. > :01:27.
:01:27. > :01:30.Hello. Welcome home at last. One Israeli soldier and nearly 500
:01:30. > :01:35.Palestinians are enjoying their first day of freedom after a
:01:35. > :01:39.historic exchange of prisoners between Israel and Hamas. Gilad
:01:39. > :01:43.Shalit emerged from five long years in a cellar to be greeted by an
:01:43. > :01:47.ecstatic crowd of friends and supporters in his hometown in
:01:47. > :01:51.Israel. A huge celebration was laid on in Gaza as families there
:01:51. > :02:00.welcomed their sons and daughters home, some of whom have been
:02:00. > :02:03.imprisoned for 20 years. From dawn, Palestinians were
:02:03. > :02:07.gathering for the welcome home. Prisoners who took arms against
:02:08. > :02:12.Israel are exulted in Palestinian society, their actions seem as
:02:12. > :02:17.heroic. Israelis regard them as killers and accessory to murder.
:02:17. > :02:21.His 11 year-olds is waiting for her mother, imprisoned for 10 years for
:02:21. > :02:27.helping suicide bombers reach their targets. Her father was not being
:02:27. > :02:34.released. In northern Israel, the Shalit family, after five years of
:02:34. > :02:43.campaigning, was picked up from their home for the Newry Union.
:02:43. > :02:49.Gilad Shalit, pale and thin, was released. He gave an interview.
:02:49. > :02:55.TRANSLATION: Of course I have missed my family. He hoped the deal
:02:55. > :03:03.would end wars between Israel and the Palestinians. He was flown to
:03:03. > :03:08.meet his family. The Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu needed him first.
:03:08. > :03:13.Then he had a reunion with his father, who led a tenacious
:03:13. > :03:17.campaign for freedom. In Gaza, a big welcome is being prepared for
:03:17. > :03:26.the Palestinian prisoners who were released as soon as is rare had
:03:27. > :03:30.Gary Shalit back. This is a victory for Hamas. On the West Bank,
:03:31. > :03:36.clashes started when the release took longer. There was no sign of
:03:37. > :03:42.any new positive atmosphere, just the old one. Stones, tear-gas and
:03:42. > :03:47.canons is shooting water. The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,
:03:47. > :03:52.the political rival of a mass -- Hamas, welcomed the prisoners back.
:03:52. > :04:00.He has asked his rare many times to release them. Everyone in the crowd
:04:00. > :04:05.knew that Hamas had succeeded where President amass had failed. These
:04:05. > :04:09.men are being treated as conquering heroes. What freed them was a
:04:09. > :04:12.transaction between Hamas and the Israelis. It has not get them
:04:12. > :04:19.closer to a peace agreement, because there are still the big
:04:19. > :04:25.issues of war and peace and the future of this land that remain.
:04:25. > :04:29.By the evening, Gilad Shalit was back home. His last five years must
:04:30. > :04:39.have been desperately lonely. His country and its Palestinian
:04:40. > :04:40.
:04:40. > :04:48.neighbours will have to wait longer. Our correspondent is in Gilad
:04:48. > :04:51.Shalit home. Tell us about the scenes there.
:04:51. > :04:56.scenes there. They have been extraordinary scenes.
:04:56. > :05:00.The crowds have mostly melted away, but the helicopter touched down
:05:00. > :05:05.here late afternoon, and then Gilad Shalit was taken in a convoy of
:05:05. > :05:09.cars from the landing pad and brought here through the village.
:05:09. > :05:13.It huge number of people had turned out to line the roads. They were
:05:13. > :05:20.throwing flowers at the car and opening bottles of champagne and
:05:20. > :05:24.spraying it over the car. They were dancing and singing. Really, very
:05:24. > :05:28.significant and moving scenes here. One person was saying to me that
:05:28. > :05:32.this is the happiest day they have had over the past five years.
:05:32. > :05:39.Anstey most of the people in this crowd think it was a price worth
:05:39. > :05:43.paying? Yes, they do. But as everybody has been saying, there
:05:43. > :05:48.are mixed feelings. There is the concern, even amongst the people
:05:48. > :05:53.here, about the price which has been paid, which is the fact that
:05:53. > :05:59.more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners will be released. Half of
:05:59. > :06:02.them have been released today, and another 500 or so within the next
:06:02. > :06:05.couple of months. People are concerned that some of those who
:06:05. > :06:10.are to be released have been involved in some of the most
:06:10. > :06:17.serious attacks on Israeli soil over the past few decades. The
:06:17. > :06:25.concern is that they've -- there will be an upsurge in violence.
:06:25. > :06:31.There are mixed emotions even here in the Shalit East home town.
:06:31. > :06:34.Our correspondent has been amongst the thousands of celebrating
:06:34. > :06:38.Palestinians in Gaza City. He says they are claiming a victory of
:06:38. > :06:42.Israel. It is pretty defined and
:06:42. > :06:47.celebratory, really. I can hear fireworks at the moment to my left,
:06:47. > :06:52.and what sounds like gunfire, celebratory gunfire, to my right.
:06:52. > :06:56.There was a mass rally in the square behind me in Gaza City. I
:06:56. > :07:03.would save over 100,000 people were waving green Hamas flags and
:07:03. > :07:10.listening to an address by it is now Haniya, the Hamas Prime
:07:10. > :07:18.Minister, alongside hundreds of the released prisoners. They have
:07:18. > :07:23.traded thousands of Brit -- 1000 prisoners for one man.
:07:23. > :07:26.A bit later in this programme, we will be discussing a what the
:07:26. > :07:30.Exchange means for peace in the Middle East. Now let us take a look
:07:30. > :07:34.at some of the day's other news. If there has been a greater than
:07:34. > :07:39.expected rise in inflation in Britain, adding to pressures on
:07:39. > :07:42.living standards, due partly to shop increases in gas and
:07:42. > :07:48.electricity. Inflation now stands at 5.2%, the highest in the last
:07:48. > :07:53.three years. Unemployment is high and a economic growth is slow.
:07:53. > :08:00.He European Court of Justice has banned the issuing of patents for
:08:00. > :08:04.medical treatments using stands cells extracted from human embryos.
:08:04. > :08:08.The ruling is based on ethical grounds and was criticised by some
:08:08. > :08:12.scientists. Two British teenagers have been
:08:12. > :08:16.arrested in Kenya on suspicion of having links with other Islamist
:08:16. > :08:22.group in Somalia. The men were picked up close to the border with
:08:22. > :08:28.Somalia. The fathers of the boys travelled to Kenya to try to find
:08:28. > :08:32.their sons. We had this week the appalling case
:08:32. > :08:37.of four mentally disabled adults locked in a squalid basement in
:08:37. > :08:41.Philadelphia, while their captors cashed their social security checks.
:08:41. > :08:45.Police discovery has led to charges of false imprisonment and
:08:45. > :08:52.kidnapping, after the malnourished victims were found in a boiler room.
:08:52. > :08:57.Our correspondent reports. A grim-faced detective opens the
:08:57. > :09:02.door to a tiny, terrifying world. In this cramped underground space,
:09:02. > :09:06.foldable adults were kept prisoner without food, without lights and
:09:06. > :09:11.surrounded by their own waste. They barely had room to stand up. One of
:09:11. > :09:16.the men was changed to a boiler. They had been looked -- locked up
:09:16. > :09:19.with dogs and just a single bottle of drink. Here are three of the
:09:19. > :09:23.alleged victims giving local television a graphic account of
:09:23. > :09:27.their ordeal after being freed. They are painfully thin, and it is
:09:27. > :09:37.not just the physical scars that a shocking. They all have severe
:09:37. > :09:41.
:09:41. > :09:51.learning difficulties, making them I escaped one time to one of the
:09:51. > :09:53.
:09:53. > :09:58.houses that we used to love him. -- live in. They got me. 50-year-old
:09:58. > :10:04.woman is in -- charged with false imprisonment and kidnapping. She
:10:04. > :10:07.has a previous convicting -- conviction. It is alleged that she
:10:07. > :10:13.and two co-defendants preyed on the vulnerable to pocket their social
:10:13. > :10:19.security checks -- cheques. When you look at these conditions, it is
:10:19. > :10:26.something out of a dungeon. To know that you were taken at -- you were
:10:26. > :10:30.taking advantage of a fellow human hit being is that discussed in.
:10:30. > :10:34.incite the property, police found dozens of identification documents.
:10:34. > :10:42.The FBI is now looking at the woman's previous homes in Texas and
:10:42. > :10:46.Florida to see whether others may have suffered the same experience.
:10:46. > :10:49.An independent report into allegations of beatings, torture
:10:49. > :10:54.and murder in police custody in Bahrain will be published shortly.
:10:54. > :11:00.It was commissioned by the king of Bahrain, following criticism over
:11:00. > :11:10.how his government felt with the -- dealt with the failed Arab Spring
:11:10. > :11:11.
:11:11. > :11:14.uprising there. Morning. Visitors from the
:11:14. > :11:24.political majority protest at the killing of a teenager at a recent
:11:24. > :11:32.
:11:32. > :11:36.clash. It is part of a movement to give the sunny people more powerful
:11:36. > :11:40.stop to see the other side, I joined a patrol with the special
:11:40. > :11:45.security force. They are feared and hated by the
:11:45. > :11:47.protesters. This is what they do every night, going out to the
:11:47. > :11:57.villages and checking out the demonstrations, the protests, the
:11:57. > :11:58.
:11:58. > :12:03.road blocks. They confront a sporadic civil disobedience.
:12:03. > :12:09.Roadblocks and rock throwing by Shi'ite youth's, the Government
:12:09. > :12:14.supporters called traitors. Most people have no sympathy for these
:12:14. > :12:17.protests. In February, at the height of Bahrain's uprising, the
:12:17. > :12:22.security forces? Heavy-handed tactics caused international
:12:22. > :12:29.outrage. One of those attacked was his doctor, he gave the BBC a
:12:29. > :12:36.bedside interview at the time. beat me with sticks. I told them I
:12:36. > :12:45.am a doctor, but that -- I believe they are not listening. They
:12:45. > :12:53.started to beat me. They told me to get up, we will kill you and let
:12:53. > :12:55.you die. The king of Bahrain has responded to allegations by
:12:55. > :13:01.commissioning -- commissioning an international inquiry. The
:13:01. > :13:05.Government is on a charm offensive. There were abuses of human rights.
:13:05. > :13:09.We, the Government, address those mistakes. They were not just
:13:09. > :13:13.mistakes done by the Government. They were done by the demonstrators
:13:13. > :13:18.as well. Those issues have been faced. A but the demonstrators are
:13:18. > :13:26.not in charge. A Yes, so what I'm saying is that abuses happen from
:13:26. > :13:30.everyone. Were they systematic? No, they were not. They agreed to let
:13:30. > :13:34.me see inside a police detention centre. This is not the main prison,
:13:34. > :13:40.nor is it where most of the interrogations have taken place,
:13:40. > :13:44.but it was the first visit by the media. Most people said they were 1
:13:44. > :13:51.-- well-treated, although one and whispered that he had been beaten.
:13:51. > :13:53.This country harbours thousands of human rights allegations. How the
:13:53. > :14:02.Government reacts to the findings of an investigation will determine
:14:02. > :14:05.More now on our top story this hour - the prisoner exchange in the
:14:05. > :14:08.Middle East. Today's swap - the Israeli Gilat Shalit for more than
:14:08. > :14:11.400 Palestinian prisoners is just the latest in a long history of
:14:11. > :14:17.asymmetric exchanges between Israel and the Palestinians. But what will
:14:17. > :14:20.it mean for Middle East peace? Mouin Rabbani is a senior fellow
:14:20. > :14:25.with the Institute for Palestinian Studies and he joins me now from
:14:25. > :14:27.Cairo. Daniel Levy is a senior fellow and
:14:27. > :14:35.co-director of the Middle East Task Force for the New America
:14:35. > :14:38.Foundation and he joins me from New York.
:14:38. > :14:48.Mr Rabbani, a total of 1,000 Palestinians for one Israeli -
:14:48. > :14:55.that's a pretty good deal. It would be an even better deal if Israel
:14:55. > :15:01.did not have an additional 5000 or so Palestinians in its prisons. The
:15:01. > :15:07.explanation for this is that Israel was able to arrest Palestinians at
:15:07. > :15:14.will add to try them up in kangaroo courts at well I give them absurdly
:15:14. > :15:23.high sentences. Palestinians are not in a position to arrest Israeli
:15:23. > :15:29.soldiers or settlers guilty of crimes against Palestinians. I
:15:29. > :15:36.think that is the short answer to your question. Part of the deal is
:15:36. > :15:41.that they will not all go home to Gaza. What do you make of that?
:15:41. > :15:49.think if Palestinian public opinion is probably overwhelmingly and
:15:49. > :15:59.genuinely best tactic -- delighted. They did not expect to see so many
:15:59. > :15:59.
:16:00. > :16:03.prisoners see the light of day. But at the same time, the intention is
:16:03. > :16:13.that they will not be able to communicate with family in the West
:16:13. > :16:14.
:16:14. > :16:21.Bank. I should also add that as a matter of international law,
:16:21. > :16:26.deportation is a grave breach by the occupying powers, even if
:16:26. > :16:30.Palestinian negotiators and prisoners have agreed to it.
:16:30. > :16:35.David Levy, what will the political fall out be in Israel? Will this be
:16:35. > :16:42.seen as an act of weakness by Bejamin Netanyahu? I can tell you
:16:42. > :16:51.what an opinion poll in yesterday's newspaper said, which was that 79%
:16:51. > :16:55.of the public supported this. Binyamin Netanyahu has one of the
:16:55. > :17:05.issues raised against him that he does not make decisions, he is not
:17:05. > :17:06.
:17:07. > :17:10.a leader. He will win some support by having shown leadership. He will
:17:10. > :17:19.want to change the conversation when at the Parliament reconvenes
:17:19. > :17:25.next month. A where this could go wrong is if any of those released
:17:25. > :17:32.are implicated in any future action for fatalities against Israel. He
:17:32. > :17:42.won overwhelming support in his own Cabinet, but a monster those who
:17:42. > :17:55.
:17:55. > :18:04.-- but amongst those oppose the deal, who oppose the deal were
:18:04. > :18:07.possible contenders for his leadership.
:18:07. > :18:13.Mouin Rabbani, Hamas will gain from this deal, won't it, at the expense
:18:13. > :18:19.of President Abbas and Fatah? now have this bizarre reality where
:18:19. > :18:29.Israel has demonstrated that it is prepared to negotiate seriously,
:18:29. > :18:37.but with Hamas rather than the movement that wants to reach our
:18:37. > :18:46.comprehensive two state settlement. Talks and negotiations continue to
:18:46. > :18:54.be rejected between Hamas on behalf of his surreal while Israel is
:18:54. > :19:01.negotiating with Hamas. You are nodding during that. Do you agree
:19:01. > :19:08.that this is bad for any future peace process? I would not say that,
:19:09. > :19:16.because the peace process is at a dead end and negotiating with only
:19:16. > :19:23.one part of the Palestinian Party is not going to get us anywhere. It
:19:23. > :19:27.will now be ever more impossible to pursue that track. Binyamin
:19:27. > :19:31.Netanyahu has shown that is a real does respond, but only when there
:19:31. > :19:36.is pressure and the reason for responding. This undermines any
:19:36. > :19:46.sense that they are going to negotiate seriously with mud would
:19:46. > :19:46.
:19:46. > :19:53.have us. In the next few hours, the winner
:19:53. > :19:56.of the most prestigious literary prize will be announced. Critics
:19:56. > :19:59.say the Man Booker Prize has been dumbed down as the head of the
:19:59. > :20:02.judging panel says this year's finalists were chosen for their
:20:02. > :20:11.readability. The BBC's Gavin Esler is at the award ceremony in Central
:20:11. > :20:16.London. Yes, we will know with them a few hours who has won the price.
:20:16. > :20:26.-- with them back. There is a row about the short list, is it
:20:26. > :20:26.
:20:26. > :20:32.literary enough? Let's hear from the six authors of the short list.
:20:32. > :20:40.We live in time, it holds ask. But I have never understood it very
:20:40. > :20:45.well. It may exist elsewhere in parallel versions. It was so cold
:20:45. > :20:55.that there was nobody smoking in the streets. The traffic police had
:20:55. > :20:57.
:20:57. > :21:06.been issued with old fashioned to Boots. The expected the mettle to
:21:06. > :21:09.drop when a large spider fell to the ground on its back. My pulse
:21:09. > :21:14.was printing and I became weak headed because I am very much
:21:14. > :21:20.afraid of spiders and snakes and crawling things. When we came up
:21:20. > :21:30.blinking out on to the foreshore, there was a vision of beauty, a
:21:30. > :21:30.
:21:30. > :21:40.tall and local three-masted clapper blink t from India. -- Clipper
:21:40. > :21:49.bringing tea Edinburgh. He did not go to my school. He could have ride
:21:49. > :21:55.his bike with my hands. I said a prayer for him inside my head.
:21:55. > :22:05.Think about it. German and American children growing up in Paris
:22:05. > :22:08.
:22:08. > :22:12.between the wars making joyful music. The legend survives. That is
:22:12. > :22:22.just a flavour of the opposite reading from their work. To debate
:22:22. > :22:23.
:22:23. > :22:32.the bigger issues here I am joined by a former publisher. Is the fuss
:22:32. > :22:37.good for business? It is tremendous. Nothing stops you redeem the worm
:22:37. > :22:44.so it had been rejected from the short list. -- nothing stops you
:22:44. > :22:47.reading of the ones that have been rejected a from the short list. I
:22:47. > :22:57.think it is true to a certain extent that there are some
:22:57. > :22:58.
:22:58. > :23:08.surprises. Some wonderful authors and books did not make it to the
:23:08. > :23:08.
:23:08. > :23:16.short list. But in literature, we are always amazed at the choices of
:23:16. > :23:26.others. The debate was partly about readability, partly about genre.
:23:26. > :23:30.
:23:30. > :23:40.There is a thriller and a Western. You could go back to 1989 and ask
:23:40. > :23:42.
:23:42. > :23:48.for the run-up in that here was a crime novel. Nothing is bad, but
:23:48. > :23:58.thinking makes it so. What is a readable it depends on the
:23:58. > :23:58.
:23:58. > :24:06.individual. Some people prefer a more literary stuff. This opens up
:24:06. > :24:16.the prize to the most -- it to the widest audience. Julian Barnes is a
:24:16. > :24:19.
:24:19. > :24:23.big name on the list. He is famous for saying the whole system is...
:24:23. > :24:29.At the end, it will be the alchemy and their individual personalities
:24:29. > :24:38.of the judges which makes their choice. All six are fabulous books.
:24:38. > :24:42.But, yes, it is posh Bengal. Gisela is saying it is partly a lottery
:24:42. > :24:47.because on the night, none of them know what the who is going to win
:24:47. > :24:54.and it is awful to be in that position. They do look like circus
:24:54. > :24:59.animals almost. Julian Barnes has a fantastic pedigree and has a
:24:59. > :25:06.wonderful writer and has written a marvellous book. I do not see, with
:25:06. > :25:11.him on the list, how people can say that the list is terrible.
:25:11. > :25:17.Readability is not to do with that. People should pick the best books,
:25:17. > :25:22.whether they are readable or not is a secondary condition. What do your
:25:22. > :25:31.bit of the others, the less familiar names, Patrick deWitt I
:25:32. > :25:40.had never heard of before? These are super books. The fact that they
:25:40. > :25:50.are not known, ought known only end assure -- or only known in a small
:25:50. > :25:55.
:25:55. > :26:02.circle, that adds a certain because it. -- a certain element. In each
:26:02. > :26:10.year, there is a different panel of judges, and each panel adds his own
:26:10. > :26:13.character. This year, it has been much more open and accessible.
:26:13. > :26:20.choices they made for the short list have been more surprising than
:26:20. > :26:25.people have expected. The books are wider ranging. The Booker, because
:26:25. > :26:34.it picks books from that Commonwealth has always had a
:26:34. > :26:40.variety and has always picked books that people have not heard off. It
:26:40. > :26:45.is one way to discover brilliant writers. Ethic that is one of the
:26:45. > :26:51.appeals of the prize. The problem is partly about discovering writers
:26:51. > :26:54.and judging writers are on their books. In a way, your first book is
:26:54. > :27:03.going to be your best book because there is nothing to judge it
:27:03. > :27:09.against. After nine or 10 books, people could say that it is a good
:27:09. > :27:19.book, but not the best book so do not put it on the list. This could
:27:19. > :27:19.
:27:19. > :27:24.transform the lives of the authors. It could change it for them in
:27:24. > :27:29.terms of writing, film sales, it is an international praise and the
:27:29. > :27:36.most important one in the whole world. Thank you very much. We will
:27:36. > :27:39.know the winner very shortly. A reminder of our main news. The
:27:39. > :27:42.Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held captive in Gaza for more than five
:27:42. > :27:52.years, is now back at home after being released and reunited with
:27:52. > :28:01.
:28:01. > :28:04.his family in Israel. The colder weather has arrived with
:28:04. > :28:09.showers in the North and West that will continue over night. Clear
:28:09. > :28:14.spells elsewhere. Tomorrow, we start with the showers in the same
:28:14. > :28:19.area as but then the move south east. It was still be windy. The
:28:19. > :28:26.wind coming in from the north-west. High pressure coming in from
:28:26. > :28:29.Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, it is a cool start. The showers at
:28:29. > :28:36.moving into the south-east. But plenty of sunshine across northern
:28:36. > :28:41.England. The showers will move through the Midlands into East
:28:41. > :28:45.Anglia and the South East. Some of these could be on the heavy side.
:28:45. > :28:51.Just a 13 degrees in London and most of us will fall well short of
:28:51. > :28:58.that. Sunny spells through its south-west England, showers few and
:28:58. > :29:05.far between in Wales. Few were showers for the afternoon in
:29:05. > :29:09.Northern Ireland. Coastal showers in Scotland, some towards the north