07/11/2013 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Philippa Thomas.

Britain's three spy chiefs make an unprecedented televised appearance

together in public. The heads of MI5, MI6 and the eavesdropping

agency GCHQ say the revelations about electronic spying techniques

have been deeply damaging to their work. Our adversaries are rubbing

their hands with glee. Al-Qaeda is lapping it up.

Twitter shares go sky high after going public on the New York Stock

Exchange. But how will the microblogging site move into profit?

Also coming up - We take you inside the crippled Fukushima power station

where engineers are attempting to remove hundreds of nuclear fuel

rods. We have to get these rods out into

storage. And a new battle for the mayor of Toronto.

Hello and welcome. Britain's three spy chiefs have appeared together in

public - in front of politicians and the cameras - for the first time.

The heads of MI6, GCHQ and MI5 were questioned about whether they

intrude too far into our private communications. They, in turn,

declared that terrorist networks were "rubbing their hands with glee"

over the recent revelations from American analyst Edward Snowden Her

security correspondent was watching. Not long ago the identity of these

three men would have been secret. Their job to spy for Britain and run

its three intelligence agencies Andrew Parker is the head of MI ,

dealing with domestic threats like terrorism. Sir John Sawers is the

chief of MI6, collecting intelligence abroad. Sir Iain Lobban

is the director of GCHQ which monitors global communications. All

three warned of the threats they see, especially from terrorism. More

British citizens have been killed overseas in 2013 then the previous

years combined. Our job is hard and it is getting harder. There have

been 34 plots towards terrorism which had been disrupted in this

country. GCHQ has been in the spot light recently with questions over

whether there been using surveillance capability against

ordinary people and just terrorists. The head of agency said

it was not listening to every phonecalls, leading to a question

from Sir Malcolm Rifkind. The British public are not entitled to

hear what you have shared with the committee today? I believe certain

methods should remain secret. I do not think secret means sinister The

concerns came as a result of weeks from former Americans by Edward

Snowden. The chiefs said they had seen terrorist groups in the Middle

East and closer to home trying to learn from his revelations and

security had been undermined. The leaks from Snowden have been very

damaging. They have put our operations at risk. It is clear that

our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee. Al-Qaeda Israelite

thing it up. -- Al-Qaeda is lapping it up. Syria is a major concern with

what is called terrorism tourism. We have seen hundreds of people from

this country go to Syria and come back, other large lubbers are still

there and get involved in the fighting. An hour and a half and the

public appearance was over. It was not a grilling. No secrets got

spilled. Those of up there and the public at large got a glimpse at

what Britain's spies are really like. Most of what they do will

however continue to be secret. Joining me now from Westminster is

Lord Reid. He's a former Labour Home Secretary and Defence Secretary and

now a Principal at the Chertoff Group. Thank you for joining us

Where you satisfied with the justification today for the scale

and surveillance we now know we are all under? Yes, I think a lot of

people will have learned from the hearing as well. There was a time

when communication between terrorists or International Criminal

Court took place between a and B along a wire which could be tapped.

The world has changed. It is not the objective of the agencies or the

legal framework, but the world has changed. People now communicate by

text, over the internets, through web pages and the key thing about

all of them is they are transnational. They are global and

go round the world, just the same way this interview can go all round

the world. The task is infinitely harder for the intelligence services

and they have to have some degree of coverage. Secondly, most of the

international plot against citizens in this country cover more than one

country. When I was Home secretary, almost every plot we tried to

investigate and prevents involve people in at least two countries and

in one case actors in 20 countries. The hearings today give an

indication of the scale and challenge which has faced by the

intelligence services and an excellent nation of why they are

doing what they are doing. It is such a change world, but the last

major piece of legislation about the way in which surveillance can be

carried out was passed in 2000, time for an update? These things have to

be kept under constant review. The fundamentals of the legislation are

still relevant. They are that if you want to discover who is in contact

with whom, when you are following a terrorist suspect, I do not mean

listening to the content of their calls, there is a ready framework

for doing that. If you want to go further and read the messages or go

into the phone call and listen to it, you have to have personal

authority from the home secretary and one other Secretary of State. We

have been assured by the Forum secretary that those two elements of

law are still applicable. They are still fundamentally principal legal

basis, despite the fact that the scale of the challenge and

operations has been enlarged. I ll means keep it under review, but

under mentally everyone is still operating under the rule of law

Remember, they are also under the scrutiny not only of the

intelligence committee, but the scrutiny of ministers because they

have to sign warrant and under the information Commissioner who can

review what the secretaries of State and the agencies are doing. And of

course now in public. There is a wide gamut of scrutiny and

accountability. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you.

One new target for security agencies will be the new leader of the

Pakistan Taliban. He's been named as Mullah Fazlullah, a hardline

commander from the Swat area and the man who planned the attack on

teenage activist Malala Yousafzai. His predecessor Hakimullah Mehsud

was killed in a drone attack last Friday.

This is the man apparently now in control of the Pakistan Taliban

Mullah Fazlullah is regarded as being even more brutal than his

predecessor. One of his more recent targets was this army general. He

was visiting troops along the Pakistan, Afghan border in

September. He and two other soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb.

Mullah Fazlullah accuses the Pakistan army, intelligence agencies

and the politicians of taking orders from what he calls infidels, another

worse the West. In 2007, his fighters took control of the swat

Valley and imposed an extremely harsh regime. Punishments from

flogging is to be were carried out in public. He and his fighters were

eventually pushed out by the army. The attacks since what still

continue. The teenager Malala Yousafzai was amongst the victims,

shot in the head for promoting education for girls. She survived

after treatment in Britain. The announcement today that Mullah

Fazlullah is to become the new leader of the Pakistan Taliban will

be greeted with dismay by the vast majority of people here. Not least

because the militants have also announced they now reject the

government's tentative proposals for peace stocks.

-- piece box. == peace talks. It was one of the year's most keenly

anticipated stock market flotations and Twitter today exceeded

expectations - its shares opening on the New York Stock Exchange almost

73% above the price set ahead of its trading debut. It's the biggest

market launch for a technology firm since Facebook went public in May

last year. Our technology correspondent Rory Cellan Jones

reports. Twitter takes flight on the New York stock exchange. Top actors

signalled the start of trading. On the floor of the exchange, one of

the founders of Twitter captures the excitement. Tweeting a video as the

share price soldiers. It is such a simple tool yet people have done so

many amazing things with that will stop the Twitter team has spent the

last few weeks explaining to investors why a company which has

yet to make a profit will be a great bet. It all began in 2006 with his

tweet from one of the founders of Twitter in now has more than 25

million users, ranging from presidents to celebrities. Twitter

even tweeted the details of its own shares feel. Now it has to prove it

is a serious business. Investors are already showing great faith that

Twitter can start making big profits. That means users could soon

find plenty of adverts amongst their tweets. With me is Lea Simpson,

Strategy Director of THINK - a digital agency that consults on

technology and social media. Are you as excited as the market is with

this share price shooting up their smack I am excited. I'm a little bit

disappointed that I did not buy shares myself. Especially when you

contrast it with Facebook. Why is the valuation is so high when there

are not yet making a profit as a company? I think the issue every

chance of making a profit. Their early days of growth is probably

what has driven the price up, their glory days are ahead of them. This

book was making a profit. So it is all about potential, what they can

do. What strategy do you think they have in mind to make revenue?

Advertising is still the biggest revenue source for Twitter. There

are lots of things they can do to make a more targeted and local.

Aside from that, they can make data please towards commerce. There is

the programme underway with American Express. Content distribution is

another way to make money. Mobile phone advertising is a rapid growth

area of residence. It is. This year shopping on mobiles overtook

shopping on computers. Exciting times for them in commerce I

imagine. There was a report this week in America which said, look at

the demographic, people who use Twitter tend to be younger and

better educated than those who use Facebook, that is a massive

generalisation of mine, but potentially there is a lot of money

on it? Yes, they are potentially more upwardly mobile. That is what

advertisers are looking for. There are opportunities still to be

capped. Ironically, they say there are more users on Facebook. At the

types of user on Twitter is more valuable perhaps in the long run. I

use Twitter, if you get promoted tweets, you think of it as a

community, not a consumer on it That is a danger all social media

can alienate their users by pushing commerce out there. Yes, the biggest

challenge for the management team will be how they balance the drive

to commercial value with their user experience and the integrity of

their platform. I talk to clients about thinking about how to promote

tweets. I wonder if Twitter could turn that into an advantage for

them. There could be a revenue opportunity where you can pay to

take adverts out of your Twitter stream. So that could be a revenue

stream as well. Thank you very much for joining us. The embattled Mayor

of Toronto, Rob Ford, faces fresh embarrassment, days after admitting

crack cocaine whilst on a drunken binge. Another recording has emerged

within the last few hours showing a mere world in an apparently agitated

state staggering and making threats. Here's an extract in which we have

edited out swearing. No holds barred! He dies I did! I'll

claw his eyes out. Make sure he is dead. It will be over in five

minutes. After that was published he had to

come out and face the media outside his office. I wanted to tell you

that I saw the video. It is extremely embarrassing. The whole

world will see it. I don't have a problem with that, but it is

extremely embarrassing. Obviously I was extremely, extremely inebriated.

That is all I have to say. We can speak to the BBC

correspondent in Toronto. You were at that news conference. I surprised

he is still the mayor. What are the people of the city seeing? Everybody

I have spoken to is surprised he is still the mayor.

But he is. He is working in his office right now behind me. As you

showed that footage, that scrum outside of his office, he came out

not for very long and responded to the video, quite quickly after it

was published. It was published by a newspaper here. That was all he had

to say. It was only other in the week that he was at a news

conference conflating that he smoked crack McCain. -- confessing that he

smoked crack cocaine. Yasser Arafat's widow has told the

BBC that the latest scientific report on his death proves that he

was assassinated. Swiss scientists concluded that samples from the late

Palestinian leader's remains showed a level of the radioactive substance

polonium 210, 18 times higher than normal. Among Palestinians, rumours

have persisted about how exactly you some of died nine years ago. --

Yasser Arafat. So little surprise at the findings by Swiss scientist that

they say moderately sub bought the idea he was poisoned with a

radioactive substance. -- moderately support. This kind of thing has

happened in the past. Whether by helicopter attacks, Apache attacks,

or poisoning. If the experts say that, why disbelieve it? It makes

even more sense. Nobody is surprised. We blame Israel, of

course. Back in 2004 it was towards the end of the second Palestinian

uprising, Israeli forces had surrounded and partly destroyed this

building when the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, suddenly fell

ill. Israel has always denied any involvement in his death. But one

year ago amidst new reports that he might have him killed, his body was

exuding and samples were taken away for tests. Palestinian officials are

not yet commenting on the results of the latest research. They say they

will release the results of their own investigation very soon.

Professor Malcolm Sperrin is Director of Medical Physics at the

Royal Berkshire Hospital and an expert on polonium. I should ask you

first, what is the lethal dose? The lethal dose of polonium is very

very small. A sub microgram. About 250,000 times more toxic than

cyanide. The lethal dose would be something comparable to a small

grain of table salt. Extremely toxic. Could the symptoms be

mistaken for something else? The symptoms, you would have to look

back and see what he was suffering from at the time. But what you would

expect from polonium, it the case with an half-life of 130 days. - it

decays with a half-life. When tests well done you we would be looking

and very much less than 1,000,0 0th of the amount of polonium if in fact

it was Kevin. Was given. There are obviously very many sources of

lead, which polonium decays to. It comes very difficult to extrapolate

back and come up with an unambiguous answer. In the Lehmans terms, it

sounds as if what you are seeing is that a suspect may have been found,

a small amount. -- is Beck -- spec. It can be found in very small

amounts. I don't doubt that has been found but it may have other origins.

There are other possibilities. They need to be taken into account. Which

is why I suggest the forensic scientist are putting caution over

this particular conclusion. It sounds like it will be hard to have

a definitive conclusion. If you were able to question these experts, what

questions would you ask? I would like to see the data they have got.

I don't suppose I will. But I would like to. Just to discuss what other

possibilities are the aha. Without being too gruesome about it, in

eight years, a body will DK substantially. -- decay. If a degree

of that has occurred, you lose that evidence. On balance of probability,

polonium poisoning, idea as it is one possibility. But there will be

others. -- I dare say. Now a look at some of the days other

news. Gay people who think they might be imprisoned in their home

country because of their sexuality have been told they can seek asylum

in Europe. The European Court of Justice made the ruling after it was

asked for clarification by the Netherlands, where three gay men

from Africa have applied for asylum. The most powerful typhoon of the

year is fast-approaching the central Philippines as thousands of people

evacuate from villages. Super typhoon Haiyan is generating gusts

of 330 kilometres an hour and it's full force will be felt on Friday.

President Aquino is warning people to leave high-risk areas, including

100 coastal communities where forecasters said the storm surge

could reach up to seven metres. It is going to be a task of

extraordinary delicacy and danger, but engineers at Japan's Fukushima

nuclear plant are beginning a key step to finally stabilise the first

of the damaged reactors. There are more than 1000 nuclear rods. No one

knows their condition or how stable they are. Each rod is a four

metre-long tube containing uranium pellets. It's essential these tubes

remain immersed in water inside casks as they are moved. The fear is

some, or many, are damaged. Removing each batch of rods will take 7- 0

days. They'll be placed in a newly built pool which has a cooling

system. Our correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes is one of a small

group of journalists allowed inside reactor building four - for the

first time since the disaster. This is really why we have been brought.

I am standing on what used to be reactor number four. It was blown

apart by a huge explosion after the sin nanny. -- tsunami. But still a

vast amount of nuclear fuel down there. Those fuel rods have to come

out. This whole building is still not entirely stable, so they have

got to get them out, into safe storage. The machine they are going

to use is currently being built Over behind this white tank. It is a

very complicated use of machinery. It has to do a very delicate task,

getting these fuel rods out. They will be lifted on the screen, built

over the top. -- this train. All of this has been built in the last six

months. The reason they can do this job is because the radiation levels

in this building are relatively low. They are essentially doing the job

that they can do to decommission this reactor. But the others, the

radiation levels are still far too high for people to even go inside.

They still don't know how they will decommission those three reactors.

When we were inside reactor number four my monitor was reading about

250 counts her second. This behind me as reactor number three. As we

drove past that the radiation readings shot up to more than 2 00

counts of a second. That is the problem. Those reactors are still

too radioactive for anybody to go inside and start decommissioning.

Thank you very much. Good evening. We have a chilly night ahead.

Further showers around. Sunshine on the way tomorrow. Let's look at the

big picture. Quite a brisk wind coming in from the west. Picking

lots of moisture and producing these showers. They will increase in

frequency overnight. Some will affect southern areas. Tomorrow a

more persistent area of rain coming into south-east England. 3pm in the

afternoon, some of the rain looks heavy, just in time for the evening