Browse content similar to 15/03/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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This is World News Today. One year on in the Syrian uprising | :00:15. | :00:20. | |
and the country is divide and in the midst of conflex. Rallies in | :00:20. | :00:25. | |
support of the government in Damascus, as a newspaper publishes | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
when it says are President Bashar al-Assad's personal e-mails. | :00:30. | :00:34. | |
As antiAmerican sentiment hardens, the Taliban suspends, talks with | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
the United States. One of China's best-known and flamboyant | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
politicians, is sacked suddenly from his post. What does this tell | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
us about China's future political direction? Also coming up in the | :00:46. | :00:54. | |
programme: Loss and grief in the Swiss Alps. As Belgium announces a | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
day of mourning, investigation noose the accident continue. And in | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
Greece, the potato sellers helping families squeezed by the debt | :01:03. | :01:13. | |
:01:13. | :01:19. | ||
Hello and welcome. I'm Zeinab Badawi. One year on and | :01:19. | :01:25. | |
the Arab Spring in Syria has been likened by some to an Arab autumn. | :01:25. | :01:30. | |
The leaves falling off a deeply embedded tree, as a metaphor for | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
the number of people killed in the Syrian uprising, while the Assad | :01:34. | :01:40. | |
government is solid. Many thousands have fled their | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
homes to escape the conflict. Yes this report. | :01:44. | :01:49. | |
Against the odds, Syria's rebels continue to fight back. | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
The pictures are difficult to very few. | :01:51. | :01:58. | |
This is thought to be in the central town of Hama. | :01:58. | :02:05. | |
They celebrate a small victory. But the Free Syrian Army is heavily | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
outgunned and outnumbered. In homss -- Homs, opposition activists | :02:11. | :02:18. | |
release film of security forces going house-to-house. Activists say | :02:18. | :02:23. | |
that the government is carrying out a scorched earth policy, destroying | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
everything of use to the opposition, but in Damascus, a mass rally in | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
support of President Bashar al- Assad, broadcast on state | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
television. It was spring, 2011 that saw the | :02:34. | :02:40. | |
first demonstrations. Starting in the southern town of | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
Deraa. The target of people's anger, | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
President Bashar al-Assad. His family have ruled Syria for | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
more than 40 years. As the protests spread, the | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
response of the security forces became increasingly violent. | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
Some members of the Syria army defected to fight for the | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
opposition, but not in big enough numbers to tip the balance. | :03:04. | :03:09. | |
The government has tried to deal with the situation with a | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
combination of miner concessions and brute force. In April, | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
President Bashar al-Assad promised a new constitution. Offering | :03:16. | :03:21. | |
multiparty elections. The government says it is facing an | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
armed insurgency and has blamed terrorist gangs for the violence. | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
But at the same time, the authorities have continued to use | :03:31. | :03:38. | |
force against unarmed protesters. Opposition strongholds like Homs | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
and Idlib have been besieged and bombarded. | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
There have been reports of troops going house-to-house in some areas, | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
killing civilians, including women and children. | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
Just as Syria has been divided, so has the international community. | :03:54. | :04:02. | |
The can I has been suspended from the Arab League, while the EU and | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
the Us have imsupposed sanctions, however, there has been no | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
agreement to call for the end to the violence, because of Russian | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
and Chinese objections. Hopes are now pinned on the new international | :04:15. | :04:20. | |
envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, but his push for a peace plan, which began | :04:20. | :04:26. | |
in Damascus, last weekend, has yet to yield any results. | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
While military intervention has been ruled out by Western nations, | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
there are calls by some Arab countries to arm the opposition. An | :04:34. | :04:42. | |
option that would surely see the country slip further into Civil War. | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
Well, one year on and some intriguing details about President | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
Bashar al-Assad in the midst of the uprising have epercentaged. More | :04:50. | :04:55. | |
than 3,000 of his personal e-mails have apparently been leaked by | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
Syrian opposition figures to the British newspaper, the Guardian. | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
They shed light on his private life and reveal advice given by | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
individuals, including officials from Iran on how to respond to the | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
opposition. We cannot verify the e-mail's | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
authenticity, but it is believed they are genuine. In one e-mail, | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
President Bashar al-Assad jokes about reforms in a message to his | :05:21. | :05:29. | |
wife and refers to:, "The rubbish laws of parties, elections and | :05:29. | :05:35. | |
media. Later, President Bashar al- Assad is advised to take a hard | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
line against the opposition in an e-mail from Hamza Al-Khatib. | :05:41. | :05:51. | |
:05:51. | :05:54. | ||
The e-mail seems to confirm the strong bond between President | :05:54. | :06:00. | |
Bashar al-Assad and his British- born wife, Asma. | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
The Syrian government has denied these were President Bashar al- | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
Assad's personal e-mails. Well, a taste there of what was | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
contained in some of the e-mails. Now, Hamid Karzai has called for | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
NATO-led forces to pull back to their bases and end patrols in | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
Afghan villages. The remarks come after the killing of 16 civilians | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
by an American soldier last weekend. In a separate development, there | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
has been a setback for peace talks before they even started. The | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
Taliban suspending negotiations as they objected to the involvement of | :06:35. | :06:41. | |
the Afghan government. Lyse Doucet told us what is known about the | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
reasons for the Taliban's opposition. | :06:44. | :06:49. | |
Even though the Taliban have been trying to capitalise on the late's | :06:49. | :06:55. | |
violence in the country, including the killing of Afghan civilians, 16, | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
this has less to do with that, than the tentative process of dialogue | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
with the Americans. It was a significant achievement that the | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
Taliban had agreed to open a political office in Qatar, had | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
agreed to talk to the Americans about getting their prisoners out | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
of Guantanamo Bay and other detention centres, given the gap of | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
confidence between the two sides and the fact that they are still | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
attacking each other, but what is also clear is that they have | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
different ideas about where the dialogue goes next. They say they | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
want to talk about their prisoners and only to talk to the Americans | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
about that, not to Hamid Karzai. Where as the Americans were told, | :07:36. | :07:44. | |
had made it clear to their Taliban interlock terse, that the next step | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
was to bring in the Afghan government. | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
Now let's take a look at some of the day's other nis. In Egypt, | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
prosecutors have charged 75 people in connection with last month's | :07:58. | :08:06. | |
football rioting in which more than 70 people were killed. The writhe | :08:06. | :08:12. | |
happened in Port Said. Days of protest followed the writhe, with | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
thousands holding the governing Military Council responsible. | :08:15. | :08:21. | |
Evidence emerges shows that another 7,000 women in the UK I may have | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
received faulty breast implants from PIP. This brings to 47,000 the | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
number of women affected. The Department of Health has advised | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
those with worries to see their doctors. | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
David Cameron has visited Ground Zero in New York on the last leg of | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
his official visit to the United States. | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
Last night he and President Obama paid tribute to each other at a | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
star-studded banquet at the White House in Washington. | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
Now one of China's most flamboyant politicians, Bo Xilai, has been | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
sacked as the Communist Party boss in the city of Chongqing. Bo Xilai | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
had been a contender for promotion to China's top leadership, but he | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
is thought to have upset some with his high-profile campaign against | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
corruption and a revival of Maoist ideology. | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
We look at what went wrong with this politician. | :09:13. | :09:19. | |
He is one of China's most high- profile politicians. | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
Bo Xilai is comfortable in the limelight. He had been tipped for a | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
top position dure this year's leadership change. | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
He made his name launching a campaign against organised crime in | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
Chongqing, where he was the party chief, but since last month, there | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
has been intense speculation over his future. | :09:42. | :09:48. | |
His police chief, shown here on the right, apparently tried to defect | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
at a US Consulate. Bo Xilai's close associate is now under | :09:53. | :09:55. | |
investigation. It was this extraordinary political scandal | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
that now appears to have claimed Bo Xilai. | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
On Wednesday, Premier Wen took the highly unusual step of critising | :10:05. | :10:13. | |
his colleague in public. TRANSLATION: The present Chongqing | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
municipal party Committee and government must reflect seriously | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
on this incident. Bo Xilai appeared withdrawn at this | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
year's Parliamentary session. He may have already known that his | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
days were numbered. Later this year, a new generation | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
of leaders will start assuming power in China. Bo Xilai was | :10:35. | :10:40. | |
expected to be among them, but with his career now over, he's become a | :10:40. | :10:48. | |
casualty in a struggle at the very top of Chinese politics. | :10:48. | :10:57. | |
I've been joined in the studio by Rod Wye. He was a senior officer in | :10:57. | :11:03. | |
Beijing, and head of the Group of Research of Beijing. The write was | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
on the wall for Bo Xilai, but why did he have to go sooner, rather | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
than later, do you think? I think that the pressure got too much. | :11:10. | :11:19. | |
It was clear, you are right, that at the beginning of this month when | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
there was the disappearance of his right-hand man, that nothing good | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
could come of this. There after it was a matter of time before he was | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
formerly removed. Does this suggest that there is | :11:31. | :11:37. | |
some kind of a struggle at the top of the power, the hierarchy in | :11:37. | :11:43. | |
China? Does it mean that one faction is triumphant with his | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
sacking? Well it is played out, obviously, against the background | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
of the forthcoming party Congress, when a new leadership is to be | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
established. That leadership could last ten years. So the stakes are | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
high. Bo Xilai has been campaigning hard to become a member of the | :12:02. | :12:05. | |
Politburo standing Committee, but something went seriously wrong. | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
Quite what that is, we don't know. We know about the deforeign | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
exchange, or the attempted deforeign exchange of Wang Lijun, | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
but what was deeper behind that, we don't know it is not clear. We | :12:19. | :12:27. | |
don't know who has won. But outgoing prem aire wen, to make | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
a criticism like this, when he says something like we don't want to see | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
a return to the cultural revolution, the revival of Maoist ideology, | :12:37. | :12:45. | |
what does that tell us about where China is heading -- Premier Wen. | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
Premier Wen was stronger on reform than he had been previously. I | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
think that the question of the cultural revolution is no so much a | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
veiled criticism of Bo Xilai and his Red Songs. There is a warning | :12:59. | :13:04. | |
that unless reforms were pushed through, China faced really serious | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
political trouble. That is the way it is going to go? | :13:07. | :13:17. | |
:13:17. | :13:19. | ||
That is really on that path? It is not I rev -- I revkobl. I think | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
that the strikes high. I don't think that Bo Xilai's disappearance | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
is complete for one group nor the other. We don't know what group he | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
represented. Why? On the one hand he was pushing | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
Maoist ideology, but on the other hand his economic reforms were very | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
much in keeping with the kind of things that the leadership now want. | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
Is he simply down but not out? A popular politician that could yet | :13:45. | :13:51. | |
cause mischief? I think he's out. My goodness, you took me by | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
surprise, you were so brief. Thank you very much. You did not mince | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
your words, but he is out for the count. Thank you very much. | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
Now, to the top story, as we've been saying it's a year since the | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
Syrian uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and in that year | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
around 8,000 people are estimated to have died and thousands more | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
have fled to neighbouring countries like Turkey and Jordan. To talk a | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
little more about this anniversary, we are joined by the Syrian lawyer | :14:19. | :14:26. | |
and dissident, Katherine AlTully, what a difference a year has made. | :14:26. | :14:31. | |
A lot of deaths, but Assad is still in power, are you beginning to | :14:31. | :14:37. | |
think it is worth it? The last year was the dignity and the freedom | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
year to all of Syrian people. The Syrian people went out to the | :14:41. | :14:47. | |
streets for their freedom and their dignity and because they want this | :14:47. | :14:54. | |
Syrian regime to be a throw away. The Syrian people, when they went | :14:54. | :15:02. | |
to the streets, they were knowing that this regime is bloody, but | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
they decided to get their freedom and went to the streets for that | :15:07. | :15:13. | |
Of course, all want freedom and dignity and democracy deserve, even | :15:13. | :15:19. | |
if we pay our life for that, and Syrian people felt that and decided | :15:19. | :15:26. | |
to let the President Bashar al- Assad regime, go out from Syria. | :15:26. | :15:36. | |
:15:36. | :15:46. | ||
Up he is using tanks against the city. He has surrendered the city. | :15:46. | :15:56. | |
People are hungry and have no water. I want to ask, we have seen | :15:56. | :16:06. | |
:16:06. | :16:08. | ||
pictures of a massive brawl are sad rally. It is not controversial to | :16:08. | :16:16. | |
say Bashar al-Assad commands the support it in his area up. | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
Sectarian is sent to be rife in Syria. You have made mistakes, | :16:21. | :16:31. | |
:16:31. | :16:35. | ||
haven't you? All the Syrian people know that if we can say that a | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
group of people in the street. Security forces forced people who | :16:41. | :16:49. | |
have worked with the state and students are forced with guns to | :16:49. | :16:57. | |
sure the media that he still has support. We know all this is not a | :16:57. | :17:07. | |
:17:07. | :17:15. | ||
truce. Serbian opposition is not united. This is not a democracy. | :17:15. | :17:24. | |
All Serie a's opposition is United on wanting the Government to be | :17:24. | :17:34. | |
:17:34. | :17:36. | ||
overthrown. The opposition also support the people on the street | :17:36. | :17:45. | |
and we want it peacefully. All international laws and Syrian | :17:45. | :17:55. | |
losses say defending yourself is you're right. I am sorry to cut you | :17:55. | :18:02. | |
off. The families of the children killed | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
in a court should crash and Switzerland have attended a | :18:05. | :18:15. | |
:18:15. | :18:16. | ||
memorial service. Relatives and community members are more men the | :18:16. | :18:22. | |
children and adults killed in the trap. Two drivers were also killed | :18:22. | :18:32. | |
:18:32. | :18:32. | ||
in the crash. The last year of primary school and | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
Fortrose of the annual ski trip to the Alps. Incomprehensible that | :18:37. | :18:44. | |
such a holiday can end in this way. The mountain village has been | :18:44. | :18:54. | |
:18:54. | :18:58. | ||
welcoming this that -- group for years. Local mountain guide saw the | :18:58. | :19:04. | |
children on the last day of their holiday. TRANSLATION: they were | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
clattering through the village. In a small village like this, every | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
child feels like one of your own. It has been a brittle 24 hours or | :19:15. | :19:21. | |
parents. Today, they left the hotel for the grim task of identifying | :19:21. | :19:29. | |
the dead. Some wanted to see the crash site. The Belgian ambassador | :19:29. | :19:39. | |
has been here throughout. You feel the emotion. It is terrible. A | :19:39. | :19:46. | |
terrible accident in, all these young people. What can you say? | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
coach crashed at the end of or winding mountain road on a stretch | :19:50. | :19:57. | |
of water we. Because of the accident is still unknown. It has | :19:57. | :20:04. | |
focused on the driver. Here, the crash investigators are working | :20:04. | :20:09. | |
through the wreckage to try to find out why the boss swear it. At the | :20:09. | :20:15. | |
moment, there are more questions than answers. There was no other | :20:15. | :20:24. | |
vehicle and all that, 0 apiece. Did the driver have a heart attack? | :20:24. | :20:33. | |
TRANSLATION: the police told me they are conducting post-mortems. | :20:33. | :20:43. | |
:20:43. | :20:44. | ||
One fears that he was handling a DVD at the time. | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
As Greece sinks deeper into recession, ordinary Greeks are | :20:48. | :20:54. | |
struggling to call and are looking for ways to live cheaply. One | :20:54. | :21:03. | |
initiative has sprung up to sell basic products like potatoes. The | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
initiative started in northern Greece and has spread to Athens | :21:07. | :21:14. | |
with thousands are benefiting. They're calling it the potato | :21:14. | :21:19. | |
revolution. Ordinary Greeks squeezed by the recession waging | :21:19. | :21:29. | |
:21:29. | :21:31. | ||
war on prices they can no longer afford. A simple strategy with | :21:31. | :21:38. | |
simple product but it is drawing the crowds. Hundreds are taking | :21:38. | :21:47. | |
part forcing supermarkets to cut prices. The idea as a growing fast. | :21:47. | :21:57. | |
:21:57. | :21:59. | ||
Salary so. The taxes are high. We have to spend a lot of money to buy | :21:59. | :22:06. | |
the basic goods. All sides benefit. Farmers are no longer paying fees | :22:06. | :22:14. | |
to wholesalers. TRANSLATION: middle man exploits us. We want to help | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
the consumer in these difficult times. It sends the message that a | :22:19. | :22:25. | |
few people cannot profit from us. Greeks are coming up with new | :22:25. | :22:31. | |
wheeze and ideas of dealing with this recession. This is a positive | :22:31. | :22:41. | |
:22:41. | :22:47. | ||
by-product of the financial crisis. One buyer is this man. At home, he | :22:47. | :22:52. | |
and his wife tell a familiar tale, a family trying to lead a normal | :22:52. | :23:02. | |
:23:02. | :23:03. | ||
life. I have to Galway from Greece and find another country, a country | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
that can give me the right circumstances to have a better | :23:08. | :23:18. | |
:23:18. | :23:24. | ||
future. This is a movement with fur it -- far reaching implications. | :23:24. | :23:32. | |
To talk more about the social dimensions, we have a journalist | :23:32. | :23:37. | |
and novelist who has been loving in Greece for years. Their impact of | :23:37. | :23:47. | |
the crisis, it has taken its toll. I saw how people really wear. | :23:47. | :23:55. | |
has been a huge shock for people. It happens so suddenly. It tickets | :23:55. | :24:05. | |
:24:05. | :24:07. | ||
call extremely quickly. Salaries were slashed. One statistic was | :24:07. | :24:17. | |
:24:17. | :24:18. | ||
that the number of suicides in 2011 went up by 40 %. Yes, and younger | :24:18. | :24:28. | |
people, tragically. There is this terrible suffering. There is also | :24:28. | :24:35. | |
the other side witches solidarity among people. They have to group | :24:35. | :24:42. | |
together. For the last few years, there has been a sense of, where | :24:42. | :24:52. | |
:24:52. | :24:53. | ||
did this problem come from? People have done a lot of soul-searching. | :24:53. | :25:03. | |
:25:03. | :25:07. | ||
How did it come out of the blue? I think, I can see people have got | :25:07. | :25:13. | |
over the initial shock and or seeing how they can rebuild their | :25:13. | :25:23. | |
:25:23. | :25:24. | ||
lives. Our they are resourceful people? The Greek family is | :25:24. | :25:34. | |
:25:34. | :25:35. | ||
famously strong. If parents are finding a few children coming back, | :25:35. | :25:45. | |
:25:45. | :25:46. | ||
that is a strange, isn't it definitely. There is a set common | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
in Greece about adult children going back to live with their | :25:50. | :26:00. | |
:26:00. | :26:01. | ||
parents. You are a naturalised Greek. You are a descendant of | :26:01. | :26:11. | |
:26:11. | :26:13. | ||
Catherine the Great. Does it give you the advantage of being Annan's | :26:13. | :26:21. | |
-- outsider? I have published a novel which looks at present the | :26:21. | :26:28. | |
Athens but tries to go back to see below historical factors. Big deals | :26:28. | :26:38. | |
:26:38. | :26:43. | ||
with the riots of true 1008. -- 2008. They have a yearning for | :26:43. | :26:48. | |
freedom within them. For me, it was interesting to go back into the | :26:48. | :26:58. | |
:26:58. | :27:00. | ||
history. Do you think the crisis has irretrievably changed the | :27:00. | :27:10. | |
:27:10. | :27:14. | ||
Greeks IK? And nor, I don't. The Greeks are freighters. -- fighters. | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
There has been civil war, and Nazi occupation. The Greeks have come | :27:19. | :27:29. | |
:27:29. | :27:30. | ||
back from far worse. Thank you the first anniversary of the uprising | :27:30. | :27:36. |