:00:22. > :00:30.This is BBC World News Today with me Zeinab Badawi. The shelling the
:00:30. > :00:35.in Homs goes on and Valerie Amos says she still does not know enough
:00:35. > :00:38.of what is going on in the country. We still need a more robust
:00:38. > :00:47.engagement that will enable us to have more information about what is
:00:47. > :00:50.happening. New pictures of the house where the British and Italian
:00:50. > :00:52.men held hostage in Nigeria died. Italy wants answers from Britain
:00:52. > :00:55.why they weren't told about the failed operation.
:00:55. > :00:58.13 million people in Africa's Sahel region could just be months away
:00:58. > :01:00.from a full blown food emergency. Also coming up in the programme:
:01:00. > :01:02.New research uncovers a controversial remedy. Could
:01:02. > :01:10.psychedelia's drug of choice, LSD, be a treatment for alcohol
:01:10. > :01:14.addiction? Hollywood's voiceover artistes.
:01:15. > :01:24.They sell us the promise of a great film, but do the voices have to be
:01:25. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:32.Hello and welcome. The United Nations Humanitarian Envoy, Valerie
:01:32. > :01:35.Amos, who's just visited Syria, says the Syrian authorities have
:01:35. > :01:42.agreed to join UN agencies in making a limited assessment of the
:01:42. > :01:52.situation in the country. Speaking in Turkey, Baroness Amos repeated
:01:52. > :02:14.
:02:14. > :02:24.her call for unhindered humanitarian access to Syria. This
:02:24. > :02:25.
:02:25. > :02:30.a video claims to show shelling in Homs. A cameraman says that the
:02:30. > :02:40.minarets bore the brunt of the bombardment. We cannot verify these
:02:40. > :02:41.
:02:41. > :02:48.pictures independently. These pictures from Damascus to show an
:02:48. > :02:55.anti-government demonstration. Here, protesters burn the pictures of
:02:55. > :02:59.President Assad's predecessor, his father. The UN's humanitarian chief,
:02:59. > :03:04.Valerie Amos, visited Syria earlier this week. She is now in Turkey and
:03:04. > :03:10.has called on the Syrian government to provide free access to those
:03:10. > :03:16.areas worst hit by fighting. government have agreed to a limited
:03:16. > :03:20.assessment exercise to be conducted by UN agencies and the Syrian
:03:20. > :03:26.authorities. This would give us some information about what is
:03:26. > :03:30.happening in the country. We continue to need a more robust
:03:30. > :03:36.engagement that would enable us to have more information about what is
:03:36. > :03:42.happening. What to do about Syria is a topic for the EU foreign
:03:42. > :03:49.ministers here it meeting for talks in Copenhagen. Ministers reject
:03:49. > :03:56.calls for foreign military action. The first goal is to stop violence.
:03:56. > :04:02.The second is to bring in humanitarian aid. And the third is
:04:02. > :04:07.a peaceful transition and this is what we want to reach. The UN's en
:04:07. > :04:17.voyage is due to arrive in Syria on Saturday. He has called for a
:04:17. > :04:24.
:04:24. > :04:27.political settlement to the crisis. The UN humanitarian she has been
:04:27. > :04:35.talking on the telephone to the BBC after her visit. She told us that
:04:35. > :04:42.not enough aid is reaching the people. Homs itself, the part so
:04:42. > :04:45.visited, are extremely quiet, shops are not open. There are one or two
:04:45. > :04:50.neighbourhoods where shops are open and there are more people. There
:04:50. > :04:59.are estimates that only about 50 % of those who live in Homs are still
:04:59. > :05:03.there. The neighbourhood in Homs is completely devastated, destroyed.
:05:03. > :05:08.There is evidence of heavy artillery having been used. There
:05:08. > :05:13.is not a single building in the area that I visited that had not
:05:13. > :05:18.had any impact of this. You can see large holes, you can see evidence
:05:19. > :05:26.of tanks having rolled through the neighbourhood in for a march on the
:05:26. > :05:30.road. It is a terrible situation to see. I spoke to a couple of
:05:30. > :05:35.families who had basically gone back to get what they could from
:05:35. > :05:40.their homes, to salvage what they could. There are few men on the
:05:40. > :05:45.streets who said that people were very fearful and that people had
:05:45. > :05:49.fled to family and friends. We are trying to negotiate with the
:05:49. > :05:55.opposition to see some people who I understood had been displaced, but
:05:55. > :05:58.eventually we had to give that up. We were not able to negotiate to
:05:58. > :06:00.get into that the opposition held area to see them.
:06:00. > :06:03.The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has expressed his anger
:06:03. > :06:06.with the UK. He said it is inexplicable that Britain had not
:06:06. > :06:12.informed Italy before it started a mission to free a British engineer
:06:12. > :06:15.and his Italian colleague held hostage in Nigeria. Both men died
:06:15. > :06:18.during the rescue attempt carried out on Thursday by British special
:06:18. > :06:27.forces and the Nigerian military. Here's our security correspondent
:06:27. > :06:33.Gordon Corera. The house in north-west Nigeria at
:06:33. > :06:39.the centre of yesterday's failed rescue attempt. Inside, evidence of
:06:39. > :06:44.a fierce gun battle. The battle ended with the news that the two
:06:44. > :06:50.hostages had died. Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara had been held
:06:50. > :06:57.for 10 months by a violent Al-Qaeda linked itself. Italy's President
:06:57. > :07:00.today asked why his government had not been consulted before the raid.
:07:00. > :07:04.The behaviour of the British government in not informing Italy
:07:04. > :07:08.is inexplicable. A political and diplomatic clarification is
:07:08. > :07:13.necessary. Officials at the Foreign Office say the decision to send in
:07:13. > :07:18.troops had to be made fast. So fast that the Italians could only be
:07:19. > :07:22.told after it had been made. So why did it happen so quickly? The
:07:22. > :07:26.Nigerians confirmed the hostages location after arresting a suspect
:07:26. > :07:31.in the last few days. But there were concerns that the kidnappers
:07:31. > :07:35.were alerted to a possible rescue and the hostages in danger of being
:07:35. > :07:40.moved or killed. Under pressure the Prime Minister authorised the raid
:07:40. > :07:43.yesterday morning. And then he informed the Italians. The British
:07:43. > :07:47.Special Boat Service went in first in a daylight raid, killing one
:07:47. > :07:51.gunman as they entered. But they then found the hostages had already
:07:51. > :07:55.been murdered by the time they reach them. We had to make a
:07:55. > :07:59.decision very quickly and we had to go ahead with this operation with a
:07:59. > :08:04.very limited time. That constrained how much we were able to consult
:08:04. > :08:10.others. We were able to inform the Italian government as the operation
:08:10. > :08:19.got under way. Today, Chris McManus's former colleagues paid
:08:19. > :08:23.tribute to the 28-year-old from Oldham. My reaction was devastation,
:08:23. > :08:30.Chris was a very good individual and a great team player. We were
:08:30. > :08:37.distraught. Chris McManus's family said that they believed everything
:08:37. > :08:40.that could be done had been done. But at this box a diplomatic row.
:08:40. > :08:42.Now a look at some of the days other news.
:08:42. > :08:45.Afghan and US military officials have signed an agreement on
:08:45. > :08:47.transferring control of the US-run detention facility at Bagram
:08:47. > :08:50.airbase to the Afghan authorities. At a formal signing-over ceremony
:08:50. > :08:53.US officials agreed that the Afghan government would take charge of
:08:53. > :08:56.about 500 prisoners over the next 45 days and assume full control of
:08:56. > :09:06.the facility in six months. A US drone killed at least eight
:09:06. > :09:19.
:09:19. > :09:22.militants in Pakistan. The latest job figures from the
:09:22. > :09:24.United States show that nearly a quarter of a million jobs were
:09:24. > :09:26.created last month. But the unemployment rate, which is based
:09:26. > :09:29.on a different survey, remains unchanged at 8.3%.
:09:29. > :09:32.Oxfam is warning the drought in the Sahel region of West Africa could
:09:32. > :09:37.turn into a humanitarian catastrophe if urgent action isn't
:09:37. > :09:40.taken. The aid agency says more than a million children are at risk
:09:40. > :09:46.of severe malnutrition in Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania,
:09:46. > :09:49.Niger and northern Senegal. As many as 13 million people could
:09:49. > :09:53.be affected in the Sahel, the semi- arid area bordered by the Sahara
:09:53. > :09:57.desert in the North and the wetter regions of equatorial Africa to the
:09:57. > :10:00.south. The situation has been compounded in some areas by a
:10:00. > :10:03.refugee problem, recent fighting between Tuareg rebels and the army
:10:03. > :10:10.in northern Mali has caused more than 100,000 people to flee their
:10:10. > :10:14.homes. I've been talking to Penny Lawrence from Oxfam, who's in the
:10:14. > :10:24.capital of Mali, Bamako. She set out the main reasons why there is a
:10:24. > :10:28.
:10:28. > :10:32.food crisis looming in this part of Africa: The rain fall has been very
:10:32. > :10:37.little and it was very little two years ago as well. People have not
:10:37. > :10:44.had a lot of time to recover from one drought. Food prices have
:10:44. > :10:47.increased greatly. In the north- west, food prices have doubled in
:10:47. > :10:52.their last six months. If you cannot grow enough food and you
:10:52. > :10:55.cannot buy it, you will have a real problem managing. When you have
:10:55. > :11:03.spoken to the authorities and all of these countries, do they say to
:11:03. > :11:06.you that they're in desperate need of help and they cannot manage?
:11:06. > :11:10.they do. They are doing everything they can that they are poor
:11:10. > :11:13.countries and poor governments. The international community also need
:11:13. > :11:20.to support them. It means governments giving money but it
:11:20. > :11:24.also means the public giving as well. We need to prevent this
:11:24. > :11:30.crisis turning into a terrible catastrophe. What are you looking
:11:30. > :11:33.for and what have you got? We are looking for �23 million to help the
:11:33. > :11:38.one million at most abjectly affected by this food crisis. At
:11:38. > :11:44.the moment, we have a significant gap on that. We are hoping that
:11:44. > :11:48.people will give generously. But it is not just these reasons you have
:11:48. > :11:53.set out. In Mali there is a conflict which means that people
:11:53. > :11:59.are fleeing their homes and they cannot plant any more. That is just
:11:59. > :12:03.up in the north. The food crisis affects a wide area. Yes, there is
:12:03. > :12:06.also a conflict. If you can imagine those people who have not any got a
:12:06. > :12:11.food crisis on their hands, but are also fleeing from fighting, too, it
:12:11. > :12:16.means that we need to double our efforts. We are working with some
:12:16. > :12:24.very brave local partners and we are able to get support to those
:12:24. > :12:28.people. What kind of time frame are you looking at? For the clock is
:12:28. > :12:33.ticking and we have two or three months in which to really make sure
:12:33. > :12:39.that we distribute food, distribute cash to help people over this
:12:39. > :12:41.difficult period otherwise we are facing a terrible catastrophe.
:12:41. > :12:45.The Greek finance minister Evangelos Venezelos has said it's a
:12:45. > :12:48.historic day for the Greeks. The deal reached with Greece's
:12:48. > :12:52.creditors today means the Greek debt mountain is reduced by more
:12:52. > :12:54.than 100 billion euros. But although this is the biggest ever
:12:54. > :12:57.restructuring of government debt, nothing much will change for
:12:57. > :13:05.ordinary Greeks. The country is still suffering from a lack of
:13:05. > :13:10.growth and productivity. Here's Mark Lowen in Athens.
:13:10. > :13:14.The last few months have been some of the darkest in Greek's modern
:13:14. > :13:19.history. The recession has deepened as has the despair and anger of the
:13:19. > :13:29.Greek people. Writing, poverty and loss of faith in leaders have
:13:29. > :13:30.
:13:30. > :13:40.pushed this country to the brink. Now, a rare glint of hope. The deal
:13:40. > :13:40.
:13:40. > :13:45.struck to less than Greece's burden. This agreement we have reached with
:13:45. > :13:49.the private sector is excellent. It is an historic day for Greece, for
:13:50. > :13:55.the Greek parliament, for the Greek people and for the national economy.
:13:55. > :13:59.This is the largest debt restructuring ever recorded. 107
:13:59. > :14:05.billion euros of debt will be written off as old bonds are
:14:05. > :14:10.exchanged for new. Over 80 % of bondholders have agreed to it.
:14:10. > :14:20.Securing the deal was essential for Greece to get its next bale-out,
:14:20. > :14:24.130 euros, that it needs within weeks to avoid bankruptcy. But the
:14:24. > :14:29.Greek crisis has not been resolved. The country just have an
:14:29. > :14:34.opportunity and it has got on the right path. Debt relief for the
:14:34. > :14:40.government, but among ordinary Greeks, few feel relieved.
:14:40. > :14:43.Austerity has pushed unemployment to record highs. With wages already
:14:43. > :14:53.slashed, some individual bondholders say they will not
:14:53. > :14:55.
:14:55. > :14:59.The fundamental problems here are still remain, a lack of growth and
:14:59. > :15:03.productivity, and without solving them, this country will struggle to
:15:03. > :15:07.pull itself out of the worst recession since the Second World
:15:07. > :15:13.War. Once again, Greece has teetered towards the edge. Once
:15:13. > :15:17.again, it has been saved. But when will the next crisis moment come,
:15:17. > :15:22.and will this exotic country have the strength to keep fighting? --
:15:22. > :15:27.exhausted country. In Japan, 100,000 people are still not been
:15:27. > :15:32.able to return to the homes they fled after the disaster at
:15:32. > :15:37.Fukushima. Thousands more are afraid to return to areas that have
:15:37. > :15:44.seen radiation levels increase. The Government has begun an operation
:15:44. > :15:49.to try to decontaminate thousands of kilometres of land. We have been
:15:49. > :15:54.back to see how the fall-out has transformed two communities close
:15:54. > :16:04.to the planned. Absorbed by the trees, the radiation threat is all
:16:04. > :16:10.around us. Everyone had to evacuate. This is where nobody was. A year
:16:10. > :16:16.ago, this was home to thousands of people, 25 miles from the the Vichy
:16:16. > :16:22.much power plant. Today it is to radioactive to live here. -- of the
:16:22. > :16:31.Fukushima power plant. There are thousands of square miles of
:16:31. > :16:36.contaminated land all around here. No one knows whether it can be made
:16:36. > :16:41.for humans to live in again. This professor has tried to work out how
:16:41. > :16:49.to remove the radiation that the disaster spewed out. It carried
:16:49. > :16:54.over and career twice the size -- it carried over an area twice the
:16:54. > :17:01.size. The government say they will decontaminate everywhere, but I do
:17:01. > :17:06.not think they can do it. It will cost a colossal about.
:17:06. > :17:15.Fukushima's reactors are still fragile, so many were still too
:17:15. > :17:20.fearful to live in the shadow of the nuclear cloud. Just miles away,
:17:20. > :17:25.Minamisoma is in an exclusion zone. 25,000 people who fled last year
:17:25. > :17:30.from here have not returned. Across the town, the top five centimetres
:17:30. > :17:37.of soil is being removed. More radioactive particles keep falling
:17:37. > :17:42.from the trees. At this nursery school, they now take radiation
:17:42. > :17:47.readings every day, and then swap the playground Queen -- clean
:17:47. > :17:52.before the children can go out to play. They all wear masks. The
:17:52. > :17:56.school is one of the few places that has been completely
:17:56. > :18:00.decontaminated. A counter installed on the playground shows that
:18:00. > :18:04.radiation is a little above normal but within safe limits. They have
:18:04. > :18:09.cleaned up our nursery and playground, that is all. We cannot
:18:09. > :18:14.even take the children out of the front gate. Our life is limited to
:18:14. > :18:19.these tiny spaces. So even when levels are low, many parents will
:18:19. > :18:27.not bring their children back here. Living with radiation is a risk
:18:27. > :18:32.they do not want to take. A year on in priggish enough.
:18:32. > :18:36.Researchers in Norway have -- a year on in Fukushima. Researchers
:18:36. > :18:45.in a way have been studying result from a selection of trials
:18:45. > :18:52.undertaken in the 1960s regarding alcohol and other intoxicants.
:18:52. > :19:00.Without this man we may never have heard of LSD. In 1943, this Swiss
:19:00. > :19:10.scientist was working on a chemical, when he started feeling strange.
:19:10. > :19:13.
:19:13. > :19:19.kind of dream world appeared. A feeling of being one with the world.
:19:19. > :19:25.A very strange experience. Saying, LSD had been bottled up, and had
:19:25. > :19:32.found its way -- is soon, LSD had been bottled up and given to
:19:32. > :19:35.patients. This hospital even had its own LSD block. The CIA were
:19:35. > :19:42.conducting their own experiment to see whether the drug could be used
:19:42. > :19:51.to control minds, or as a weapon to spray on enemy troops. The
:19:51. > :20:01.recreational use of LSD soon became apparent. In 1955 a British MP was
:20:01. > :20:02.
:20:02. > :20:07.there and using the drug. -- was filmed at using the drug. The
:20:07. > :20:13.results were obvious, so much so that the film was not shown for
:20:13. > :20:19.another 30 years. Around the same time, a writer was beginning his
:20:19. > :20:24.experiments with LSD, culminating in his popular essays. It was not
:20:24. > :20:28.until the 1960s that LSD usage exploded, with a new generation
:20:28. > :20:33.looking to use the drug to free their minds and bodies. By this
:20:33. > :20:39.time, the negative affects had become apparent to many. The drug
:20:39. > :20:45.could cause extreme paranoia and leave its users exposed. They could
:20:45. > :20:51.also trigger a prolonged mental illness.
:20:51. > :20:56.We can speak to a professor who is also a psychiatrist who used to
:20:56. > :21:04.advise the Government on drugs policies. You have looked at this
:21:04. > :21:10.research. They apparently -- and apparently won a single dose up LSD
:21:10. > :21:19.can have an effect on alcoholics which can last month. Are you
:21:19. > :21:24.convinced? I think it is completely credible. We know that drugs like
:21:24. > :21:32.LSD induce very profound changes end in sight. Most of the great
:21:32. > :21:37.things we used to cure alcoholism are about changing inside. It is an
:21:37. > :21:44.understanding about life beyond alcohol. I think it is part of a
:21:44. > :21:49.psychotherapeutic intervention in a protective environment and that
:21:49. > :21:57.psychedelic drugs have quite a role in various therapies for various
:21:57. > :22:04.problems. We are beginning to do a research -- report on the effects
:22:04. > :22:10.on people with depression. How does this help combat alcoholism? We do
:22:10. > :22:16.not know exactly. The work on the projects stopped in the 1960s out
:22:16. > :22:26.of fear that young people were going to use it. We have not
:22:26. > :22:28.
:22:28. > :22:32.actually put LSD through a modern brain or imaging techniques. We
:22:32. > :22:37.have seen that the chemicals and LSD switch off parts of the great -
:22:37. > :22:42.- brain that are overactive when people get locked into thinking
:22:42. > :22:51.repeatedly about the press of plot or craving alcohol. What the
:22:51. > :22:57.chemicals deal -- repeatedly about depressive thoughts or craving
:22:57. > :23:04.alcohol. But people could go from alcohol to LSD. But people do not
:23:04. > :23:14.get addicted to LSD. It is not addictive. Eight pre-tax against
:23:14. > :23:21.
:23:21. > :23:28.addiction. -- eight pre-tax against addiction. Are you not worried
:23:28. > :23:33.about how harmful it can be? We can do a risk assessment. All I can say
:23:33. > :23:36.is that psychedelic drugs have a much greater role in the treatment
:23:36. > :23:41.of addiction is that we have allowed them to be tested for her.
:23:41. > :23:45.I think it is a disgrace that we have to wait 40 years to try this
:23:46. > :23:51.again. They could have revolutionised the treatment of
:23:51. > :23:55.disorders like alcoholism and save hundreds of thousands of lives. The
:23:56. > :24:01.reason we are not doing it is because we think that it will stop
:24:01. > :24:05.young people from doing it. Are you convinced or do you think there is
:24:05. > :24:12.more research to be done? We have to do this today. All of this
:24:12. > :24:18.research was done in the 1960s. We need to do trials now using the
:24:18. > :24:24.different side Alex in the proper way in a modern situation. --
:24:24. > :24:33.psychedelic us in the proper way. One of the last things in Hollywood
:24:33. > :24:38.that is a last fashion is was ever trailers. -- voice over trailers.
:24:38. > :24:43.Recently, a female voice over artists have been trying to get in
:24:43. > :24:51.to the act without much luck. We take a look inside the voice in the
:24:51. > :25:01.studio. In a world within our world, they created a world unlike any
:25:01. > :25:06.other world. But for these make believed Euros... -- make believe
:25:06. > :25:12.he rose... It is a male dominated field. They tend to go with man.
:25:13. > :25:21.There had been occasions where there have been women but it is
:25:21. > :25:25.rare. What is it about men? physicality of men's voices carry a
:25:25. > :25:35.presence, especially in a theatre where there are noises and special
:25:35. > :25:37.
:25:37. > :25:43.effects. Welcome... To paradise. Tasia Valenza is one of the few
:25:43. > :25:48.people who have -- who has voiced a trailer. She believes that the male
:25:48. > :25:56.voices can sell a movie but thinks that male voices -- male voices
:25:56. > :26:03.might be better for specific kinds. It is a specific to a type of the
:26:03. > :26:09.genre. When it comes to chick flicks or her romantic comedies, I
:26:09. > :26:16.think women do it very well. Opinion appears split. I think
:26:16. > :26:24.women should do voice-overs. It would be quite appealing. I think
:26:24. > :26:29.guys do it better. By a lot of people would disagree. Oh, well.
:26:29. > :26:34.Science has been used to justify excluding women from the business.
:26:34. > :26:40.While men and women like listening to female voices, they trust a
:26:41. > :26:45.man's voice more. Many believe that women's voices can do the job.
:26:45. > :26:53.evolves. I think it is the next frontier and I think women have
:26:54. > :26:58.that at their door front. But it is still a man's will? Yes. Experience
:26:58. > :27:02.the adventure of a lifetime. change is likely to be incremental.
:27:02. > :27:11.In the meantime, we will have to deal with the rich baritones
:27:11. > :27:16.beckoning us to future attractions. That is all from the programme. Was
:27:16. > :27:23.that deep enough for you? Thank goodness there are women
:27:23. > :27:28.presenters! From myself and the rest of the team, enjoy your
:27:28. > :27:31.rest of the team, enjoy your weekend.
:27:31. > :27:36.High pressure is going to get us find whether this weekend and
:27:36. > :27:40.through much of next week as well. A cloudy day today it will
:27:40. > :27:45.gradually brighten up tomorrow. Here is the big picture going into
:27:45. > :27:50.the weekend. As you can see, it is still quite breezy across northern
:27:50. > :27:56.areas, but elsewhere, like winds, and the pressure is suckling things
:27:56. > :28:05.down. Sunday morning starts out bash progress Saturday morning
:28:05. > :28:15.The cloud will thin and break as it rolls over into the east of the
:28:15. > :28:17.
:28:17. > :28:23.Pennines. The sun makes all up the difference. In London, we could see
:28:23. > :28:29.16 degrees. Into Wales, there will be some cloud and you might
:28:29. > :28:34.encounter some drizzle. North and east Wales will be getting some
:28:34. > :28:44.sunshine. Some brightness on the southeast of Northern Ireland.
:28:44. > :28:44.