:00:09. > :00:15.This is BBC World News Today with me Zeinab Badawi. Another severe
:00:15. > :00:18.food crisis in West Africa looms yet again. We're in the worst
:00:18. > :00:28.affected country Niger, to report on those doing what they can to
:00:28. > :00:30.
:00:30. > :00:35.stave off disaster. 2012 will be particularly tough. Harvest have
:00:35. > :00:38.failed, prices are shooting up, there is growing
:00:38. > :00:40.But a leading development agency tells us such food shortages are
:00:40. > :00:43.entirely avoidable - so why do they keep on happening?
:00:43. > :00:47.North Korea's nuclear ambitions hijack talks between major world
:00:47. > :00:50.powers on nuclear terrorism at a summit in Seoul.
:00:50. > :00:56.Guess who's coming to dinner? The row over the political donors who
:00:56. > :01:00.are given access to the Prime Minister David Cameron.
:01:00. > :01:09.Also coming up in the programme: The director of the hit movie
:01:09. > :01:19.Titanic, hits rock bottom. James Cameron returns from the
:01:19. > :01:26.
:01:26. > :01:28.deepest place on earth at the Hello and welcome: 'It's hunger
:01:28. > :01:34.season again' - that's how the BBC's Andrew Harding has described
:01:34. > :01:38.the food shortage that's affecting the Sahel region of West Africa.
:01:38. > :01:41.The spectre of a major food crisis is once again casting its shadow.
:01:41. > :01:46.The UN and international aid agencies are warning of severe food
:01:46. > :01:49.shortages that are threatening the lives of the most vulnerable.
:01:49. > :01:52.The BBC's Andrew Harding has travelled to the Sahel region and
:01:52. > :02:02.sent this report from one of the affected villages in Niger, a short
:02:02. > :02:08.
:02:08. > :02:18.distance from the capital Niamey. We need an armed escort to venture
:02:18. > :02:18.
:02:18. > :02:26.a. Islamist militants are a growing threat. Saw his hunger. In this
:02:26. > :02:34.tiny village this 50-year-old woman threshes grain. In recent years she
:02:34. > :02:40.has lost her husband and children to disease and poverty. This
:02:40. > :02:44.pitiful crop will only feed what is left of the family for one week.
:02:44. > :02:51.course we are hungry. The rain did not come. It has been getting worse
:02:51. > :02:55.for years. There are almost no men left in the village. All have gone
:02:55. > :03:00.abroad in search of work. There is a food crisis nearly every year in
:03:01. > :03:04.this village and 2012 will be particularly tough. Prices are
:03:04. > :03:11.shooting up, have also failed, and there is growing insecurity across
:03:11. > :03:15.the region. The familiar warning signs. 10 are
:03:15. > :03:21.severely malnourished children arrived in the clinic this week.
:03:22. > :03:30.The UN fears 400,000 children could be in this condition within months.
:03:30. > :03:40.One in 10 is likely to die. It is much worse already this year it
:03:40. > :03:43.
:03:43. > :03:51.says this nurse. Yet in Niger is not without hope.
:03:51. > :03:55.In his village there is a scheme to trap rainwater.
:03:55. > :04:02.The democratic government is acknowledging the crisis and co-
:04:02. > :04:10.operating with the outside world. As women get a small wage from the
:04:10. > :04:14.UN. Because of this work we can feed our families, she says. Maybe
:04:14. > :04:19.in the future these fields will recover.
:04:19. > :04:23.That does not change the fact that the village well is drying up.
:04:23. > :04:33.Along the road is needed each year. As a child she remembers life was
:04:33. > :04:35.
:04:35. > :04:38.wonderful here. Not any more. A little earlier Deborah Doane from
:04:38. > :04:44.the World Development Movement told us that she believed this food
:04:44. > :04:48.crisis is entirely avoidable. Famines are entirely avoidable.
:04:48. > :04:52.They are man-made. What is happening in the Sahel is based on
:04:52. > :04:58.the poor planning, poor structures, and policies that have been going
:04:58. > :05:07.on for many years. Who is to blame? It is not down to one particular
:05:07. > :05:10.thing. In the 1990s there were a series of policies from the IMF and
:05:10. > :05:16.the World Bank which forced that removal of price controls which led
:05:16. > :05:21.to the loss of investment in agriculture over the past 15 years.
:05:21. > :05:27.We can look at an over-reliance on an international system that takes
:05:27. > :05:31.the levers of control out of countries in that region. Rising
:05:31. > :05:37.food prices that we are seeing recently that were the result of
:05:37. > :05:42.the 2005 crisis, the 2010 crisis, those are down to the fact that
:05:42. > :05:46.there are too many people buying their local -- eyeing the global
:05:46. > :05:50.markets and not looking locally. many people see an anomaly. There
:05:51. > :05:54.is food available in these countries. The markets are well
:05:54. > :05:59.stocked. But a large number of people are simply unable to afford
:05:59. > :06:03.to buy food. That is precisely the problem that is happening in Niger
:06:04. > :06:08.and elsewhere in that the Sahel. If you are having a crop failure in a
:06:08. > :06:12.time of drought, exacerbated by climate change, you are buying and
:06:12. > :06:19.more of your food. You are buying in these. That is traded on global
:06:19. > :06:24.commodity market. We are seen a rise in maize prices since 2010 of
:06:24. > :06:27.75 %. When you are in are the poorest countries in the world and
:06:27. > :06:32.you cannot afford to buy food that is a fundamental problem. Is there
:06:32. > :06:39.are grounds for optimism? A lot of people are saying that high
:06:39. > :06:47.commodity prices as well as increasing democratisation in the
:06:47. > :06:51.Continent should promise a better future. If they are relying on
:06:51. > :06:57.exports of other commodities, primary commodities, you are still
:06:57. > :06:59.relying on food. The fundamental problem will be if they do not
:06:59. > :07:04.prioritise food security and how to produce the right crops for the
:07:04. > :07:08.right people locally. There are some signs of optimism. There is
:07:08. > :07:16.some research that looked at and the culture in the region.
:07:16. > :07:22.Investment in the local crops has proved to be quite good, but a lot
:07:22. > :07:26.more needs to be done to make sure that that is prioritise. If they
:07:26. > :07:29.are simply looking at exporting more of a primary commodities and
:07:29. > :07:39.bring in enough income to pay for the commodities, be will be in the
:07:39. > :07:46.
:07:46. > :07:51.same position in a few years' time. A rare moment of co-operation
:07:51. > :07:58.between China and the United States. Barack Obama at Hu Jintao met on
:07:58. > :08:01.the sidelines of a nuclear summit. Barack Obama reiterated the
:08:01. > :08:07.commitment of the United States and Russia to reduce their nuclear
:08:07. > :08:09.weapons. They cannot have been many
:08:10. > :08:13.surprises in the conversation between these two men today. Barack
:08:13. > :08:17.Obama began the meeting by reminding his Chinese counterpart
:08:17. > :08:22.they had already met 11 times before. The list of topics was
:08:22. > :08:26.familiar. At the top of that was North Korea and its nuclear
:08:26. > :08:29.programme. Non-Proliferation said Barack Obama was in their interests
:08:29. > :08:33.of both leaders. He has already criticised China for
:08:33. > :08:38.not being tough enough. Its approach to dealing with North
:08:38. > :08:45.Korea he said was not working. At a Korean university today he
:08:45. > :08:49.demonstrated the kind of message he wanted to be heard. This is a
:08:49. > :08:55.decision you must make. Today we say, have the courage to pursue
:08:55. > :08:59.peace and give a better light to the people of North Korea. America,
:08:59. > :09:03.he said, had no hostile intent towards North Korea. He said it was
:09:03. > :09:08.committed to reducing its own nuclear stockpile as well as
:09:08. > :09:13.pressuring others. I say this as President of the only nation ever
:09:13. > :09:19.to use nuclear weapons. I see it as a commander in chief finos that the
:09:19. > :09:24.nuclear codes are never far from my side. Most of all I see it as a
:09:24. > :09:28.father, who once might two young doctors to grow up in a world where
:09:28. > :09:32.everything they know and love can be instantly wiped out. Barack
:09:33. > :09:40.Obama's visit began on Sunday with his first glimpse inside the close,
:09:41. > :09:44.his state. Korea has dominated discussions ever since. China has
:09:44. > :09:50.reportedly urged fellow delegations not to be sidetracked by the sight
:09:50. > :09:54.of -- by the North Korean question. North Korea is not coming to the
:09:55. > :09:58.sum at. It is not even on the official agenda. This meeting is
:09:58. > :10:03.about preventing nuclear material from falling into the hands of
:10:03. > :10:08.terrorist groups, not about nuclear disarmament, but North Korea is
:10:08. > :10:15.just one hour's drive away from here. Barack Obama's speech and his
:10:15. > :10:18.schedule shows just how much part of the discussion this is.
:10:18. > :10:24.Let us look at some of the other news.
:10:24. > :10:31.Coffee and man has said the crisis in Syria cannot be allowed to drag
:10:31. > :10:40.on indefinitely. More fighting and deaths have been reported in Syria
:10:40. > :10:46.today. After a meeting in Moscow Mr Coffey
:10:46. > :10:52.a man urged all parties to accept change. This cannot be allowed to
:10:52. > :11:00.drag on indefinitely. I have told the parties on the ground they
:11:00. > :11:09.cannot resist the transformation. They have to accept that reforms
:11:09. > :11:14.have to come, change has to come. The prospect of political deadlock
:11:14. > :11:18.in Senegal appears to have faded after the incumbent president said
:11:18. > :11:26.he had accepted defeat in the election. He had contested the
:11:26. > :11:30.ballot. He had already served two terms in office. The winner of the
:11:30. > :11:35.election said his victory marked a new year for Senegal.
:11:35. > :11:40.Savage teams have recovered five more bodies from the wreck of the
:11:40. > :11:44.Costa Concordia. 32 people are thought to have died when he the
:11:45. > :11:50.ship crashed into rocks. Pope Benedict is flying to Cuba
:11:51. > :11:54.following his visit to Mexico. He will spend three days in Santiago.
:11:54. > :11:59.Catholic leaders dared say they hoped his visit will help
:11:59. > :12:05.revitalise faith on the island. Reports say that the authorities
:12:05. > :12:10.have detained in dissidents prior to his arrival.
:12:10. > :12:15.Two British soldiers have been shot dead in southern Afghanistan by a
:12:15. > :12:21.man in Afghan army uniform. The attacker died when a Coalition
:12:21. > :12:24.forces returned fire. In the last hour it has been confirmed that
:12:24. > :12:28.another NATO service member has been shot in eastern Afghanistan by
:12:28. > :12:32.someone who was apparently part of the local Afghan police.
:12:32. > :12:36.A growing number of NATO troops are being killed by Afghans who are
:12:36. > :12:40.supposed to be their comrades and allies.
:12:40. > :12:44.This is a tough conflict at the best of times. For international
:12:44. > :12:49.troops the risk of being shot by the very men they are training is
:12:49. > :12:52.the hardest on the face. These two deaths bring to 15 the number of
:12:53. > :12:56.British troops who have died in this way.
:12:56. > :12:59.The news was announced in the Commons. Details of the incident
:12:59. > :13:05.are still emerging but it appears that a member of the Afghan
:13:05. > :13:09.National Army opened fire at entrance to their British
:13:09. > :13:17.headquarters killing two British personnel. The assailant was killed
:13:17. > :13:23.by return of fire. Afghan anger has followed stories of US soldiers
:13:23. > :13:27.urinating on enemy corpses, burning copies of the Koran, and then 17
:13:27. > :13:32.villagers were killed by one rogue US soldier. It is the background to
:13:32. > :13:36.the attacks by Afghan soldiers. In military jargon NATO is always
:13:36. > :13:42.blue, Afghan forces are always green. These attacks are known as
:13:42. > :13:49.Green on blue. A total of 13 troops have died this year at a hands of
:13:49. > :13:55.Afghan forces. Before the debt of the two British personnel, six
:13:55. > :14:00.American personnel were killed. One Albanian was killed. Fought French
:14:00. > :14:08.troops were killed by an Afghan soldier in February. We are taking
:14:08. > :14:12.measures to ensure that these are cadences are kept to a minimum.
:14:12. > :14:16.This is at terrible spate of attacks. Although all these attacks
:14:16. > :14:19.a relatively small in number the effect they have is Severe. Their
:14:19. > :14:25.aim is that Afghan forces will be ready to take on the fight against
:14:25. > :14:29.the Taliban for themselves by 2014. There is international resolve to
:14:29. > :14:34.stick to the plan, keep to the timetable of withdrawal by the end
:14:34. > :14:37.of 2014. However strong that maybe it is hard to see how there can be
:14:38. > :14:44.just on the ground between the soldiers of these such different
:14:44. > :14:53.nations. After the spate of violent killings. Flags will be flying at
:14:53. > :14:55.Here, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed that
:14:55. > :15:01.some of the leading Conservative party's biggest donors have been
:15:01. > :15:03.invited to private dinners at Number 10. It follows the emergence
:15:03. > :15:06.of secret filming in which the party's former treasurer said six-
:15:06. > :15:11.figure donations would buy access to the Prime Minister and his
:15:11. > :15:17.policy unit. Initially Downing Street refused to give the names of
:15:17. > :15:20.the guests, but there has been mounting pressure to do so. Mr
:15:20. > :15:28.Cameron has launched an internal party inquiry - but Labour says
:15:28. > :15:32.that is not enough. Here is our political Editor Nick Robinson. Not
:15:32. > :15:36.everyone can afford to have dinner in the flat over the shop, not
:15:36. > :15:41.least when the shop in question is Number Ten Downing Street and your
:15:41. > :15:47.host is the Prime Minister himself. To date came confirmation that
:15:47. > :15:53.David Cameron had, as claimed, hosted Doran parties for the very
:15:53. > :15:55.very rich. In the two years that I had been Prime Minister, there have
:15:56. > :16:01.been three occasions when it significant donors have come to
:16:01. > :16:06.dinner in my flat. They were not fund-raising dinners nor the paid
:16:06. > :16:09.for by the taxpayer. This is not what those attending a conference
:16:09. > :16:17.on dementia expected but David Cameron knew he had no choice but
:16:17. > :16:22.to reveal who had attended the demurs. Our bigger donors have been
:16:22. > :16:27.for dinner in Number Ten Downing Street, in the Prime Minister's
:16:27. > :16:33.private apartments. The guests at the parties hosted in the flat
:16:33. > :16:43.contributed nearly �10 million to the Conservative Party. Amongst the
:16:43. > :16:45.
:16:45. > :16:52.6th donors where Henry angriest - a Swiss-born banker. Like father - I
:16:52. > :16:57.hedge-fund trader. Ian Taylor, chief executor of an oil company.
:16:57. > :17:01.And Michael Spencer a billionaire businessman. At the end of the
:17:01. > :17:07.speech today, David Cameron left, refusing to take questions from
:17:07. > :17:12.reporters. And the Prime Minister was not in the Commons to answer
:17:12. > :17:18.questions in a statement on party funding. The Minister had come to
:17:18. > :17:24.talk about reforming party funding and was met with derision. As set
:17:24. > :17:32.out in the coalition government document, party funding in Britain
:17:32. > :17:36.needs to be reformed. LAUGHTER. shows utter contempt for this house
:17:36. > :17:43.that the Prime Minister can make a statement to the media just three
:17:43. > :17:48.hours ago and refuses to come here to face us. Ed Miliband condemned
:17:48. > :17:54.what he called the whitewash of an inquiry into the Conservative Party
:17:54. > :17:57.by the Conservative Party for the Conservative Party. This scandal
:17:57. > :18:00.speaks to the conduct and character of the prime minister and
:18:00. > :18:08.government. Anything short of an independent inquiry will leave a
:18:08. > :18:13.permanent stain on his government and this Prime Minister. -- this
:18:13. > :18:17.government. 0 of the a few weeks ago the Prime Minister told
:18:17. > :18:22.schoolchildren about his flat above the shop. I live in a very nice
:18:23. > :18:29.flat above Number 11 Downing Street, but what I get up to there is
:18:29. > :18:38.private. How he must wish what -- that that remained true. It is
:18:38. > :18:44.private no longer. Joining us now is our political correspondent.
:18:44. > :18:49.Downing Street moving fast to dispel this controversy? Absolutely,
:18:49. > :18:57.the key is to move quickly and try and limit the damage. And of course
:18:57. > :19:02.to blunt the story under amount of detail. Moving fast but the story
:19:02. > :19:10.has been given fresh momentum now because a former Downing Street
:19:10. > :19:17.aide who is now a lobbyist, has been caught in that Sting as well
:19:17. > :19:21.by the Sunday Times. A in terms of the face time, that is more
:19:21. > :19:31.difficult. It is not impossible. The Prime Minister is obviously
:19:31. > :19:32.
:19:32. > :19:37.very busy. There are certain ways of meeting. This cannot be seen in
:19:37. > :19:42.isolation, it leads into a wider and long lasting scandal about
:19:42. > :19:48.donors who give cash to political parties in order to gain access to
:19:48. > :19:52.political leaders? That is right. I do not think David Cameron or his
:19:52. > :19:56.closest advisers would describe this as anything other than a
:19:57. > :20:00.potentially dangerous political moment. That is why they have moved
:20:00. > :20:05.so quickly. The problem with this episode is that it feeds into a
:20:05. > :20:09.broader image and it reinforces that sense that we know the voters
:20:09. > :20:14.in Britain have of the Conservatives, as being a party of
:20:14. > :20:18.the rich and powerful, which is considered to be the party's
:20:18. > :20:24.greatest weakness. Do you think this has the potential to create
:20:24. > :20:29.awful damage to David Cameron and his party? I think it is too early
:20:29. > :20:34.to say. Downing Street is hoping that by releasing this detail, that
:20:34. > :20:39.will help to be the story but that will not stop journalists from
:20:39. > :20:44.continuing to Dec. It will not stop the opposition party, despite their
:20:44. > :20:50.troubles in power, at from continuing to think there is an
:20:50. > :20:52.opportunity here and to keep asking for an inquiry. Thank you very much.
:20:52. > :20:56.When the Hollywood film director, James Cameron was working on the
:20:56. > :20:59.abyss more than 20 years ago, he cannot have known that the plot for
:20:59. > :21:05.his film about a mission to the bottom of the ocean would become
:21:05. > :21:08.part of his own story. Earlier today, he returned from a four-hour
:21:08. > :21:11.expedition to the deepest place on Earth - 11 kilometres down to the
:21:11. > :21:14.Mariana Trench in the western Pacific. In his one man submersible,
:21:14. > :21:17.Mr Cameron has made history - becoming the first person to make
:21:17. > :21:26.the journey alone. Rebecca Morelle reports from the island of Guam -
:21:26. > :21:29.the nearest landmass to the dive site. Heading to the deep his place
:21:29. > :21:38.on earth, bad wetter threatened to scupper the mission but finally
:21:38. > :21:45.James Cameron was a way. -- bad weather. He was left alone and
:21:45. > :21:50.cramped in a tiny metal sphere. The descent took 2 1/2 hours. The
:21:51. > :21:55.pressure built to 1,000 at his fears. I did not see anything
:21:55. > :22:00.bigger than an inch long. I was hoping to get to rock outcrop
:22:00. > :22:04.things where I expected to see a different community there,
:22:04. > :22:14.unfortunately I ran out of power before I got that far. We will have
:22:14. > :22:16.
:22:16. > :22:23.to go back and do a different dived. This thing is beg. -- the Hague. It
:22:23. > :22:28.is 50 times the size of the Grand Canyon. This is a vast frontier
:22:28. > :22:32.down there. It will take us a while to understand. I after several
:22:32. > :22:41.hours of exploring, Mr Cameron resurfaced to the delight of his
:22:41. > :22:47.team. James Cameron is the first person to have journeyed to the
:22:47. > :22:51.Mariana Trench for half a century. He says he hopes to inspire a new
:22:51. > :22:56.era of deep-sea exploration. The ocean is the final frontier of the
:22:56. > :23:01.Earth, we know less about it than the planets. But now with the
:23:01. > :23:07.success of this mission, James Cameron hopes to inspire a new era
:23:07. > :23:14.of deep-sea exploration. To talk some more about this, we
:23:14. > :23:18.are joined by ate a marine biologist.
:23:18. > :23:25.Unlike in abyss, there are no aliens at the bottom of the Pacific,
:23:25. > :23:33.but what kind of things might James Cameron have encountered? He would
:23:33. > :23:38.probably see a lot of small at sea cucumbers. Possibly a lot of the
:23:38. > :23:47.things like shims. Probably nothing too conspicuous. Could he have
:23:47. > :23:54.spotted new species? At those kind of debt, spotting new species would
:23:54. > :23:59.be very difficult, you should really go more shallower than that.
:23:59. > :24:08.Tell us what kind of experience he would have had going down like
:24:08. > :24:13.that? 11 kilometres is a fantastic debt. It took him to add a have
:24:13. > :24:16.first to get down there, it is a long distance. The temperature
:24:16. > :24:21.would be colder than the more you got to the bottom. There is very
:24:21. > :24:26.little light there. He would have kicked up a lot of sediment and I
:24:26. > :24:33.would imagine it was an uncomfortable experience. By it
:24:33. > :24:37.sounds like an understatement! think it would be horrible. Was it
:24:38. > :24:42.quite danger is? He could have lost communication with the outside
:24:42. > :24:48.world for instance. That is always the risk you take with a
:24:48. > :24:56.submersible. If you employed, that is the worst thing that could
:24:56. > :25:01.happen. -- implode. It was a life- threatening adventure then? Yes,
:25:01. > :25:07.but he has put a lot of money and time and trainee into this. I am
:25:07. > :25:15.sure it is pretty safe, but it just looks very dangerous. Are you
:25:15. > :25:21.impressed or not? Absolutely. It is amazing, it raises the profile of
:25:21. > :25:26.deep-sea biology, it is fantastic. Does it take us anywhere apart from
:25:26. > :25:31.be exciting for Mr Cameron? I hope so. He commented that he was
:25:31. > :25:34.planning to go back. I was concerned they would just go once
:25:34. > :25:40.and that would be yet but it is nice to hear he plans to do some
:25:40. > :25:48.more. Going to the marionette branch is not necessarily
:25:48. > :25:54.representative of other take places. -- the Mariana Trench. The trenches
:25:54. > :25:57.are very isolated habitats and why happens one trench does not mess
:25:57. > :26:03.his family have been in other trenches, it is similar to
:26:04. > :26:09.mountains. Going to Mount Everest does not tell you about Mount
:26:09. > :26:14.Kilimanjaro. This is a good start and it has proved the technology.
:26:14. > :26:22.Is there any point in a human going down like this? Can they do more
:26:22. > :26:27.than machines? People would disagree. My feeling is that you
:26:27. > :26:33.can get more bottom time with a remote systems. You do not have the
:26:33. > :26:38.danger issue. There are a lot of arguments for and against. Let us
:26:38. > :26:41.hope James Cameron was not wasting his time with that life threatening
:26:41. > :26:43.exploration. Thank you very much. A reminder of our main news: A
:26:43. > :26:46.drought, chronic underdevelopment and political instability have
:26:46. > :26:54.created a landscape which has more than 60 million people in the Sahel
:26:54. > :27:02.Region of West Africa at risk of food shortages. That's it for now.
:27:02. > :27:03.Goodbye. Hello. On Monday afternoon we
:27:03. > :27:07.Hello. On Monday afternoon we continued with the warmth across
:27:07. > :27:12.many parts of the country, but tomorrow there is more of the same.
:27:12. > :27:15.We have sunshine and high temperatures for the end of March.
:27:15. > :27:20.Although we have the sunshine around, high pressure is keeping
:27:20. > :27:24.things in try which is not good news for those regions which need
:27:24. > :27:31.rain. No sign of significant rained throughout the week. Another dry
:27:31. > :27:35.day tomorrow, it begins cold with Matt -- with mist and fog. The
:27:35. > :27:41.sunshine will have temperatures by the afternoon. It is still cooler
:27:41. > :27:47.on the coast of East Anglia but come further inland, there will be
:27:47. > :27:52.temperatures of 18 Celsius. 21 tomorrow in London. 18 degrees in
:27:52. > :27:57.the south-west and breezy in Cornwall, but as the breeze travels
:27:57. > :28:02.up the north coast of Wales, we see the temperatures climbing up to 20
:28:02. > :28:08.degrees. For Northern Ireland, it is cooler towards the coast of
:28:08. > :28:14.Antrim but we will see temperatures up to 19 degrees on the north coast.