16/10/2013 World News Today

This is BBC World News today, with me Philippa Thomas.

WHITE The US Congress edges closer to a deal that could stave off a

massive debt default and end the partial government shutdown.

WHITE The Senate has agreed, but will the more sharply-divided House

of Representatives follow suit? And a history Will Iran soon allow

greater inspections of its nuclear facilities? Was Top-level

negotiations in Geneva end with renewed optimism. The moment a

massive earthquake rocked the Philippines. We now know more than

140 people have been killed. And we speak to the youngest-ever winner of

the Man Booker prize. New Zealand author Eleanor Catton wins the

prestigious literary award for her novel, The Luminaries. Hello and

welcome. It is all still all in the balance in Washington and, by all, I

mean the vote in the House of Representatives, the United States'

good standing, or otherwise, as a debtor and the reaction of markets

around the world. Politicians on Capitol Hill have reached a deal to

avert a massive debt default, Thus far, a deal has been agreed only in

the Senate, but it is a start. Let us hear what has been said by

Democrat and Republican leaders in the Upper House. It is another easy

for two sides to reach a consensus. It has been really hard. But after

weeks facing off across the divide, our country came back from the brink

of disaster. In the end, adverse arrays settle the differences to a

fear that disaster. We began a series of conversations about the

way we had to get real to prevent default. I am confident we will be

able to do these things. Crucially, I am also confident that we will be

able to protect our spending reduction, as a result of the budget

control pact. But getting a deal in the Senate was always the easier

half of this equation. It is the House of Representatives where

President Obama's most fiery Conservative opponents have been

making their stand. Katty Kay always knows what is happening behind the

scenes. What is the latest? The question is going to be whether the

Speaker of the House can look on these tea party Republicans today

and say, I did everything I could. We tried to give you the deal you

wanted, but it did not happen. If you've fought against this, we will

face default and he will paint a picture of Armageddon. He will have

to hope he can carry enough of them along, along with the Democrats to

push this through. There have been some was it of science. The Texas

senator in the vanguard against this finally came around today and said,

clearly enough, I will not block the deal which has been done in the

Senate. Senate Republicans united, as they had united with the

Republicans from the House of Representatives, it would have been

a very different outcome. However, that did not happen. I hope the

Senate begins to listen to the American people. A lot of people in

Washington loved to focus on the politics. It is the game of this

town. But what matters more than any politician, is all the people in

this country who are hurting at the moment. Do you think we may get to

the point today via the House of Representatives works out its own

deal, or is this simply too optimistic? I think there is

optimism. I think the House and the Senate will go ahead and agreed to

this and it will then go to the President 's desk and pass into law.

We have seen the financial markets up 100 points today because they are

up to mistake about it deal being done today. I hate to rain on the

parade, but I do worry if it is rather too much short-term

optimism. The fundamentals of the finances of the Government have been

exposed over the past 16 days. Agreement cannot be reached on the

important matters are now we have done here today is pushed the

problem down the road. This will come back again in the middle of

January and on the seventh of them but temporary, we have the debt

ceiling which has been raised will run out again. It has not solve the

underlying problems. There is a sigh of relief today, S New Year freer we

are to see whether this is a valid prediction of where we are. This

problem goes down to the fact that the grassroots, many members of the

Congress, are tied because they are looking for re-election in the next

two years. Yes, they are not worried about the fact that it maybe looks

as if the Republican party have suffered over this. They are worried

about the opinion polls in the individual districts. They are

worried about getting the elected Conservative parts of the country.

In the Philippines, the death toll over the earthquake has risen to

144. These pictures show the moment part of the oldest church in the

Philippines collapsed. The bell tower of the centuries-old Basilica

Minore the Santo Nino was reduced to rubble within minutes. With more,

here is the BBC's South East Asia correspondent. The so many buildings

to damage to sleep in, this is where many occupants spent the night after

the earthquake, many of them thankful just to be alive. There is

no sudden helper hand. At the epicentre, the damage was much

worse. This was the home of Daniel. We have been calling out for him,

said his daughter. This is so hard for us. Retrieving the bodies is

taking many hours of toil. This is what a fusidic instead to the

historic churches in the region Great blocks of stone, built three

centuries ago, simply crumbled. The city Hall feared little better. The

tones have been reached and one of these was very heavily hacked. We

are extending our support to that town. They have already started the

clean-up, but to rebuild homes and lives will take much longer. Now to

Russia, where there has been another extraordinary twist in a court case

against the country's main opposition activist, Alexei Navalny.

In July, Mr Nalvany was jailed for an embezzlement conviction, but

later released, pending an appeal. A court has now upheld the conviction,

but suspended his jail sentence He has always denied the charges,

accusing the authorities of prosecuting him for political

reasons. While on bail, he stood for mayor of Moscow, coming second and

nearly managing to force the Kremlin's candidate into a run-off.

Let us go via webcam to Moscow. Natalia Pelevina is a spokesperson

for Alexei Navalny. So he has walked free? He is, luckily. But even he

does not have to go to jail tonight, the suspended sentence means he will

not be able to run for office and, that of course, is very

disappointing for both him and all of us who support and work with

them. That means he cannot stand in the next presidential elections

Exactly, that is what the authorities are trying to achieve.

Unfortunately that is what they got. That is not to say he will not

take part in political life. He will contribute as much as deeply

recently dead. Unfortunately, he will not be able to run for city

elections, but he will still play a huge part in these elections. How is

he going to lead then if he is not the figurehead standing for

election? What policies or alias does he want to draw public

attention to? How much will we see him out there? He will be

campaigning a lot for all of the candidates. He is a Leader of the

Opposition movement and will remain a leader. He will set the tone. He

will continue to support the candidates who will be running for

office as year from now. He will be out there and as open and outspoken

as he has always been. He does not want to compromise that. His name

not be on the ballot paper, but he will still be Weathers. He has a

suspended sentence, so that is always the danger that he could be

tried once more under other charges. He will be a way he is not entirely

free? Yes, they are is the possibility of that. He was charged

twice already. This could very well be the case, unfortunately. In this

regime, the Assembly is no telling what will happen. We are very lucky

that he is not in jail now. But we do not know what to expect. We will

work as hard as we have been doing and stay at the front. Thank you

very much for joining us. Now, the latest on the fight against

preventable deaths among children being waged by doctors around the

world. The World Health Organisation says there has been huge progress in

the past decade. Measles deaths have been cut by 70%, polio is close to

eradication and global child mortality has fallen by nearly half

since 1990, despite the population growing. But as our medical

correspondent Fergus Walsh reports, millions of children are still

missing out on basic vaccines. Giving every child the chance of

life. Children have now got a healthier chants of staying healthy

than at any time and the Passat 50 years ago, things were very

different, even in Britain. Even better than children faced many

diseases which have now disappeared. Smallpox only disappeared in 19 0.

It showed that vaccines have transformed health care. They

prevent many diseases. There was a list of the basic vaccines that

every child should get. Just one in 20 of the world 's children is fully

immunised, getting all the required dozers and most of those are in

healthier countries. Letters have a look at these. Fewer than ten in 20

get these vaccines. For those which prevent diphtheria, tetanus and

whooping cough, 16 in 20 are provided for. But that means 20

million children do now get fully in median eyes. That has a huge human

cost. There are one and a half million deaths from preventable

diseases. The first vaccines for them were introduced less than a

decade ago. Dozens of developing countries are beginning to use them,

but there's a long way to go. Health services in developing countries are

overstretched that there are not enough medical staff to carry out

immunisation. Vaccines must be kept cold or the parish and it can be

difficult to get them to remote communities. Closing the

immunisation gap between pure and healthier nations remains a key

target for the World Health Organisation. Letters bring you more

on the top story about the possibility of a deal

Weekender to capitol Hill now. Do you think they could be a deal with

the house tonight? Insurer appears that a Bill is coming over from the

Senate. I would like to read that and see what is in it. Let us

remember it is a temporary fix. It is for a few months. We need to get

into the real issue on the table. That issue is a 17 trillion dollar

debt in the country. There are 6 trillion dollars of unfounded

mandates that they cannot account for how we will pay. If you are

taking into 0.5 trillion dollars and spending three trillion dollars,

you have a problem, that is why we have a debt ceiling increase that

needs to be addressed. Hopefully in these three months we will have

time to took get with the Democrats and I am something out to bring our

country back into real fiscal accountability for the future. From

your point of view, at the house, or Republicans in the house, might

be prepared to do the deal now and say that the US financial system --

saved then US financial system from a disastrous default. The Speaker

has made it very clear in this process that if we raised the deck

feeling we could create instability in the markets here and globally so

we are committing to that. The real issue is that President Barack

Obama must give leadership where he has not in the past. He has not

addressed our debt or the spending trajectory that we are on. Yet, his

own former budget writer and their budget right to have all stated

that we could collapse just like Greece. This have to be central and

get on the radar screen in America and we need to address the problem.

I just want to clarify. You said you wanted to avoid default in the

short term, are you speaking for the poll caulkers, do you think all

Republicans will come together on that? I cannot speak to everyone

but I think it is important for us to have some time and hopefully I

in these issues out. We have had months to do it. We have had a

budget plan that would balance our budget in 10 years. It is horrible

and reckless that we have not had that type of Budget commitment

today. The President, frankly I gave a speech in the last week, a

speech that he gave in March 20 6, where he lambasted President Bush

for failed leadership and having a five trillion dollars of debt and

is said it was irresponsible. Let us do what we have to do today. Let

us come together with reasonable minds and plan the future of

America so that we can have a growing economy that creates jobs

and will have a positive impact on the entire world. You are a very

busy man and we thank you for your time.

Now in Geneva two days of negotiation over run's Mutual -

nuclear plant have ended positively. The talks are said to have been the

most detailed they have had yet and more talks are planned. We heard

from a Catholic who was representing the EU but she did not

give much away. -- Cathy Ashton She declined very politely to get

into the detail of water run discussed. Another official told me

and told a number of journalists that we shouldn't take it as a bad

sign. It is a positive sign because real negotiations are not leak in

public, they are done in public -- private. When calves are kept close

to the chest it is easier to reach an agreement. We can provide a lot

of information about how long John Dennis Vieira de Freitas and Mark

Phillip Gomes Pires for and the atmospherics of the meeting but we

cannot describe to you what went on but we know the two sides are at

the start of a process and we don't know when it might end. You said

that at the beginning of the talks the bigger stumbling block was

trust. Has the third will be lowered?

Clearly a need to chip away, not just a decade of mistrust about the

nuclear programme but a decade of mistrust as a whole. In the last

few days Iran and the United States have made some progress with their

particular relationship. The two sides met one on one last night

with no intermediaries. It was described as useful. Here is the

key point, meetings with a run and the United States are becoming a

habit. They are meeting regularly and directly and that could be the

quarter resolving the issue in the long run, those two countries and

their relationship. Now a look at some of the day's

other news. A passenger plane has crashed into

the Mekong river in southern Laos. Officials say that all 49 people of

eight different nationalities on board were killed. The Lao Airlines

plane was on an internal flight from the capital, Vientiane, to the

south of the country when it crashed in bad weather.

In Japan, at least 17 people have been killed and 40 are missing

after flooding and landslides triggered by one of the most

powerful storms in years. Typhoon Wee-pa narrowly missed the crippled

Fukushima nuclear plant. Its operator, Tepco, pumped rainwater

out of the facility to prevent further flooding. The Greek

Parliament has voted to lift the immunity from prosecution of six

politicians from the extreme right- wing party, Golden Dawn. It's part

of a crackdown on the group which is accused of operating as a

criminal gang. Three other top party members, including its leader,

are awaiting trial. This time yesterday, we were

waiting to discover who'd won this year's Man Booker Prize, one of the

world's most prestigious literary awards. Well, Eleanor Catton was

the youngest writer ever to scoop the prize, and The Luminaries is

the longest ever winner in the 5 year history of the Booker. It is

weighty in all senses. You can see the 28-year-old from New Zealand

getting the news and the award here. The Luminaries is her second book,

and on the face of it, it's an atmospheric Victorian murder

mystery set during the New Zealand gold rush of the 1860s.

Eleanor is with us now. I know you have had a busy date. It is great

to have you with both now. The book is huge. I have had questions from

our view was about the process. How long did it take to write this

book? About five years but only three of those years were sitting

down at a desk and writing. It takes me a long time to get going

when I start a project and the first few years were reading and

dreaming about what I wanted to do and following avenues of thought

from book to book and seeing what came up. You have got the up front

story about the murder and the mystery and the atmospherics of the

gold rush time but behind that you have an astrological structure. You

have to read more deeply. Yes, I was another of the idea when I

started writing the book of a fictional experience with two

hemispheres in the same way that the brain has to hemisphere's or

the globe. I wanted to write on the face of it a straight forward

plopped but behind that it almost a harmonic architecture or that the

music of the Spears was understood as being beautiful music that was

playing at all times, just beyond what we could hear. I know one of

the judges putted very beautifully and said it was like 15 gold in the

gold plan and you have to look very deeply into the novel, even though

it is 800 pages you have to read it a few times. I think the best

compliment anyone can receive is that a reader would want to read a

book more than once. Have already moved on to your next model? No I

only finish this one in January so the turnaround time was quite swift,

especially for a novel of this side. I have only been reading and

enjoying putting my feet up and not thinking about anything. When you

started the process of writing this you said you had dreams and

thoughts and strands going through your mind. By United to move on to

something very different of some in the same vein? I hope so. My

favourite writers are all people whose books look very different to

all of the ones that came before. I hope I will never repeat myself

over the course of my career and I am just waiting for an idea to take

root. Someone said today that reacting to your success, she is in

the vanguard of the evolution of the novel. But is a weight on your

shoulders. Yes, the world novel means new, doesn't it? It only

really makes sense if we keep trying to reinvent it as a form and

magic to the changing world. Our world is changing so swiftly and

the novel is such a supple and generous form that it can really

look like anything at all. I kind of like the idea that we are all at

the vanguard. I have to ask you as you well from New Zealand, the

second winner from New Zealand of the Booker, what do you make of it

going global? I think it is a really good idea. I can understand

a contrary point of view but for any nation to put their literature

up against the literature of another nation is a very

interesting thing because certain things come to light and you notice

certain similarities and differences. Ultimately it will

mean that American literature and British literature, chiefly, but

also Commonwealth literature at large, just speak to each other in

more of a conversation which will be a good thing. Thank you very

much for coming up. I will not let you leave the studio

without signing my copy so stay here while I reminded viewers of

our main news. US Democrat and Republican senators

seem to have reached a deal to avert a default and avert a partial

government shutdown. The plan must be approved by the House of

Representatives which is controlled by the Republicans.

Iran have and the world powers have ended their most detailed

negotiations about the nuclear programme amid optimism that a deal

can be reached. More talks are planned for early next week --

month. That's all from us today. Now for

the weather. Goodbye. Good evening. The day has turned

out to be a complete contrast. Some parts of the British Isles and rain

to start the day and then it was pleasantly warm in the sunshine

That is how it will be for many more people up on Thursday. There

is a mild feed of their coming from a long way south in the Atlantic,

pumping the mild air up and across parts of England and Wales. If you

are not plugged into their air supply and that goes for the

northern part of Scotland, it will have a distinctly cool the field to

the day. Plenty of sunshine around across a good part of England and

Wales, not without the possibility first game of head teacher was

running through the southern counties of England and Wales. The

residue still to be had in