:00:00. > :00:08.This is BBC World News Today, with me, Philippa Thomas. A bold message
:00:09. > :00:19.from America's Joe Biden to China, on its own soil. Challenge the
:00:20. > :00:26.government, challenge your teachers, challenge religious leaders.
:00:27. > :00:29.The US vice-president is there to help ease regional tensions - but
:00:30. > :00:32.how would THAT advice to China's people go down with the Beijing
:00:33. > :00:35.authorities? Assassination in Lebanon - A senior Hezbollah
:00:36. > :00:37.commander is shot dead outside his home.
:00:38. > :00:43.Israel denies involvement. Who else could have been behind the attack?
:00:44. > :00:47.Also coming up: Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson tells a court that
:00:48. > :00:49.she's taken cocaine, but she denies being an addict.
:00:50. > :00:51.And extraordinary images of abandoned glory - how two
:00:52. > :00:53.photographers, who call themselves urban explorers, capture images by
:00:54. > :01:12.trespass. Hello and welcome.
:01:13. > :01:15.The US Vice-President Joe Biden has begun a trip to China by encouraging
:01:16. > :01:19.people to "challenge the government". He told an audience in
:01:20. > :01:23.Beijing that children in America are rewarded, not punished, for
:01:24. > :01:26.challenging the status quo. Interesting remarks at a time when
:01:27. > :01:29.Mr Biden is attempting to smooth tensions between China and its
:01:30. > :01:34.neighbours over Beijing's newly declared air defence zone over the
:01:35. > :01:37.East China Sea. Our Beijing correspondent Damian Grammaticus has
:01:38. > :01:47.this special report on what is at stake.
:01:48. > :01:53.In Asia, a rising China is asserting itself. And America is responding.
:01:54. > :02:00.Red lines are being tested by Beijing. In some have suggested the
:02:01. > :02:05.US weekend economic Lee is in decline. -- weekend. America remains
:02:06. > :02:11.the sole superpower. Joe Biden's first stop was to meet the many
:02:12. > :02:16.Chinese hoping to get US frees us. Challenge the government, challenge
:02:17. > :02:26.your teachers, challenge religious leaders. Letting China's altering
:02:27. > :02:31.the status quo in Asia is not something America will let happen.
:02:32. > :02:38.You are candid and construct of, developing this new relationship,
:02:39. > :02:44.both qualities are sorely needed. China's leaders in bold by economic
:02:45. > :02:48.strength at adopting and more nationalistic tone. This is the
:02:49. > :02:56.issue they have chosen, these islands controlled by Japan and
:02:57. > :03:02.claimed by China. For months, China has been sending ships to probe
:03:03. > :03:06.Japan's resolve, flexing the new naval forces it is building. The
:03:07. > :03:10.islands lie far to the south-west of Japan. For decades it has had an ear
:03:11. > :03:20.defence own covering the area. In the last week China announced its
:03:21. > :03:27.own is own overlapping Japan's. Ignoring China's move, America said
:03:28. > :03:35.-- sent unarmed bombers through the zone. Unwilling to lose face, China
:03:36. > :03:39.responded by scrambling fighters. The risk of a midair collision
:03:40. > :03:44.rising. America is concerned about growing pattern of behaviour by
:03:45. > :03:50.China which is stirring up tensions in Asia. One small incident over
:03:51. > :03:54.these disputed islands could trigger a far wider crisis drawing in chain
:03:55. > :04:01.on the one side and America on the other. -- China. China says other
:04:02. > :04:04.nations have their defence also it should have one as well.
:04:05. > :04:17.Why has China decided to take this action now? TRANSLATION: It is a
:04:18. > :04:24.zone for protection. Japan is the one that is Bass -- dispatched
:04:25. > :04:32.planes and ships. That is jewel Biden's problem. -- Joe Biden's.
:04:33. > :04:38.What is happened is warning, disputes over in Ireland you have
:04:39. > :04:47.never heard of could lead America, Japan and China into a difficult
:04:48. > :04:49.situation. A Hezbollah commander has been killed outside his home in
:04:50. > :04:52.Lebanon. The group said Hassan al-Lakkis was
:04:53. > :04:55.assassinated as he returned from work late last night. The Islamist
:04:56. > :04:58.group blamed Israel, which says it wasn't involved. Our correspondent
:04:59. > :05:04.in Beirut Jim Muir sent this report from the scene of the killing.
:05:05. > :05:11.Celebrated in death, virtually unknown publicly through this life.
:05:12. > :05:19.The funeral of Hassan al-Lakkis drew a huge crowd of supporters. He has
:05:20. > :05:25.been a major threat to -- person in the campaign. He had been with the
:05:26. > :05:30.movement from the beginning and was with -- one of the leaders. This is
:05:31. > :05:37.where he died, a very ordinary, quiet residential area. He was
:05:38. > :05:45.getting out of his car in the night when he was shot at close range in
:05:46. > :05:47.the head. Hezbollah immediately accused Israel of carrying out the
:05:48. > :05:53.killing, something the Israelis immediately denied. In past cases
:05:54. > :05:56.where Israel is believed to have carried out assassinations like
:05:57. > :06:00.this, their policy has been to say nothing at all, and there have been
:06:01. > :06:07.plenty of cases like that. Israel has never denied it had a hand in
:06:08. > :06:14.this man's assassination. He was killed by a car bomb explosion in
:06:15. > :06:17.2008. Some reports said Hassan al-Lakkis worked with them. The
:06:18. > :06:25.Israelis also admit the Hannah -- Helen Garner -- helicopter gunships
:06:26. > :06:30.also killed as man. His successor very rarely appears in public for
:06:31. > :06:33.that reason. In recent months he has admitted his fighters are actively
:06:34. > :06:50.engaged in now or in Syria, alongside regime forces battling
:06:51. > :06:53.rebels Sony --. Israeli leaders are putting the death of Hassan
:06:54. > :06:59.al-Lakkis in that context, while Hezbollah, Syria and Iran insisted
:07:00. > :07:03.it was Israel. The full truth may never be known. For Hezbollah,
:07:04. > :07:09.Hassan al-Lakkis is yet another martyr, a man who already give one
:07:10. > :07:19.of his own sons who died in the war with Israel in 2006.
:07:20. > :07:22.Should you as a member of the public get more advice about the pitfalls
:07:23. > :07:24.of chatting about criminal cases on social media?
:07:25. > :07:26.Yes according to the British government's chief legal adviser,
:07:27. > :07:30.the Attorney General Dominic Grieve. He's said today that blogs and sites
:07:31. > :07:33.like Twitter and Facebook allow casual comments to be seen by
:07:34. > :07:36.thousands of people, with the risk that trials can be prejudiced. So
:07:37. > :07:39.his department is to start publishing advice, not just to
:07:40. > :07:44.journalists covering the cases, but also to the general public.
:07:45. > :07:54.With me is the media lawyer Dan Hyde. First, do you think the
:07:55. > :07:59.Department is ahead of other countries and Jude restriction in
:08:00. > :08:21.giving this advice? It is a unique approach. -- Jude restriction. --
:08:22. > :08:27.jurisdiction. Twitter is getting popular, cases of prejudice at as
:08:28. > :08:32.well? I think there is a couple of reasons. It it is laudable, it is
:08:33. > :08:40.trying to inform people so that rather than typing something out,
:08:41. > :08:45.they have some idea that they may be stepping over the line and could be
:08:46. > :08:53.having an impact. If the content is unlawful, there could be
:08:54. > :09:01.consequences. Twitter is seen as something as a stream or Facebook
:09:02. > :09:09.like other social media sites. If you treat or publish something that
:09:10. > :09:17.seriously peeps or -- impedes or affects a trial, you are caught by
:09:18. > :09:22.that. From that perspective it has to be a good thing. My concern would
:09:23. > :09:37.be two things, one will it make a massive difference? If something
:09:38. > :09:41.is... If someone is charged with contempt and they go to court, if
:09:42. > :09:44.they plead ignorance, they may be told this information is readily
:09:45. > :09:52.available, you could have got it from the Twitter feeds. I wonder. We
:09:53. > :09:58.will see what impact it has. But it is done with the best of intentions,
:09:59. > :10:04.let's say. Well-meaning, innovative but we will wait and see. The
:10:05. > :10:08.celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has admitted in court that she has taken
:10:09. > :10:11.cocaine, but denied being an addict. She said it happened during very
:10:12. > :10:15.difficult times, when her first husband was dying, and when - as she
:10:16. > :10:17.describes it - she was under great pressure from her second husband,
:10:18. > :10:20.the multi-millionaire art collector Charles Saatchi. Nigella Lawson was
:10:21. > :10:30.giving evidence in the fraud trial of two of her personal assistants.
:10:31. > :10:33.Sangita Myska reports. Nigella Lawson today looked
:10:34. > :10:38.confident as she walked past a frenzied media scrum. She was at
:10:39. > :10:42.court to face tough questions about the breakdown of her marriage to
:10:43. > :10:44.Charles Saatchi and he claims that she was a habitual drug user. She
:10:45. > :10:57.told the court... She also talked about smoking
:10:58. > :11:09.cannabis during her marriage to Mr Saatchi.
:11:10. > :11:15.Nigella Lawson and ex-husband Charles Saatchi, a multimillionaire
:11:16. > :11:20.at collector, were often photographed it in public. Then in
:11:21. > :11:26.the summer, these photographs were published in which Mr Saatchi had us
:11:27. > :11:30.and around Miss Lawson's neck. The couple divorced shortly afterwards.
:11:31. > :11:33.In court, Miss Lawson alleged Mr Saatchi had threatened her by
:11:34. > :11:40.saying, if you don't come back to me and clear my name, I will destroy
:11:41. > :11:42.you buy, she said, spreading false allegations of drug use. She
:11:43. > :11:52.finished by saying... Nigella Lawson is one of Britain's
:11:53. > :11:56.most celebrated television looks. Today she is giving evidence in the
:11:57. > :12:03.trial of two of the couple's former personal assistant is, Elizabeth and
:12:04. > :12:07.Francesca Grillo at accused of dishonestly spending over half ?1
:12:08. > :12:11.million on a company credit card. It was here that at the family home
:12:12. > :12:15.that Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi formed a close relationship
:12:16. > :12:20.with the Grillo sisters. The women were in charge of household duties,
:12:21. > :12:25.including organising the laundry and looking after the children. It is
:12:26. > :12:27.here that the claim that they came to a tacit understanding with
:12:28. > :12:32.Nigella Lawson that they could spend thousands of pounds on the company
:12:33. > :12:36.credit card if they did not reveal her alleged use of class a and Class
:12:37. > :12:42.B drugs to Mr Saatchi. The jury heard that Miss Lawson gave the
:12:43. > :12:47.Grillos thousands of pounds worth of guests and I felt let down by
:12:48. > :12:52.Elizabeth Avenue. I love her. My children love her. She came to me at
:12:53. > :12:56.a difficult time, she was a rock full top I would have done anything
:12:57. > :13:01.for her. She earlier told the court that she felt it was her that was
:13:02. > :13:08.now on trial when the world's media. Her former personal assistant is
:13:09. > :13:23.denied the charges. Moving onto the central African
:13:24. > :13:26.republic. The violence gripping the Central African Republic is getting
:13:27. > :13:29.worse. Fighters from the mainly-Muslim Seleka group are being
:13:30. > :13:40.blamed for a series of attacks on the Christian majority. The
:13:41. > :13:43.sectarian and sexual violence gripping the Central African
:13:44. > :13:45.Republic is now the worst it's ever been. Fighters from the
:13:46. > :13:55.mainly-Muslim Seleka group are being blamed for a series of attacks on
:13:56. > :13:58.the Christian majority. French and US officials have warned that a
:13:59. > :14:01.genocide could be in the making. Since the rebels overthrew the
:14:02. > :14:03.president in March around 400,000 people have fled their homes in
:14:04. > :14:07.fear. Our Africa Correspondent Andrew Harding has been to meet some
:14:08. > :14:10.of them. The silence is hunting. The eerie sense of a nation in hiding.
:14:11. > :14:18.Finally we spot three nervous ghostlike figures. On the right,
:14:19. > :14:25.this boy said we thought you were the rebels. He says his family of
:14:26. > :14:28.six kids and the rest of the village are hiding out here in the villages,
:14:29. > :14:35.too scared to come out towards the road. We are going to see them now.
:14:36. > :14:42.As word spreads, others cautiously approach us. Months of conflict in
:14:43. > :14:46.the Central African Republic have forced perhaps 400,000 people to run
:14:47. > :14:52.for their lives. They are stranded, increasingly desperate and far from
:14:53. > :15:04.help. Disease killed this woman's youngest daughter last week. We live
:15:05. > :15:11.like animals here, says the local teacher, no clean water, no food.
:15:12. > :15:24.Back on the road, and far to the south, we run into the team-macro
:15:25. > :15:28.rebels. -- Seleka. They are mostly Muslim, some foreign. They are
:15:29. > :15:33.rebellion has collapsed into a murderous free for all. Now, it
:15:34. > :15:41.seems, no one is in charge. And the violence is surging.
:15:42. > :15:51.Suddenly, we stumble across the latest bloodshed.
:15:52. > :15:56.They bring out their dead. Seleka fighters attacked a few hours ago a
:15:57. > :16:01.young Christian farmer, one of five killed here, religion now fuelling
:16:02. > :16:06.the violence. The international community, the French, must protect
:16:07. > :16:11.us, he says. The Muslims are terrorising us.
:16:12. > :16:19.And now the Christians are hitting back. Nearby, we meet members of
:16:20. > :16:24.self defence militia. The weapons are home made. The desire for
:16:25. > :16:32.vengeance, growing. These groups have already carried out brutal
:16:33. > :16:38.reprise all is against Muslims. -- reprisals. In the middle of the
:16:39. > :16:44.mayhem, streetsmart children find sanctuary in a church compound in
:16:45. > :16:49.this town. He ran from his village when the Seleka came last month and
:16:50. > :16:51.left him as an orphan. 40,000 people have now joined him
:16:52. > :17:07.here. He fights back the tears. They killed my father, he says, and
:17:08. > :17:18.took his body. I don't know what will happen to me now.
:17:19. > :17:23.It is fear that is trapping tens of thousands of people in this one
:17:24. > :17:29.spot, and that is not going to change until people are sure it is
:17:30. > :17:32.safe to go home. But French and African forces are poised to arrive
:17:33. > :17:36.here in the next week or so, and things could change, could improve
:17:37. > :17:44.quite quickly. What can they protect everyone? And for how long? This is
:17:45. > :17:50.a chronically unstable nation. All trust, absent, the only currency
:17:51. > :17:55.that counts is fear. And things have never been this bad. Andrew
:17:56. > :18:00.Harding, BBC News in the Central African Republic.
:18:01. > :18:05.Now a brief look at some of the day's other news. New research
:18:06. > :18:11.suggests up to 30,000 Eritreans have been ten -- kidnapped and tortured
:18:12. > :18:16.in the signing -- Sinai Desert. The report, compiled by a team of
:18:17. > :18:21.academics and activists from Sweden and the Netherlands accuses senior
:18:22. > :18:25.military officers of kidnapping people and selling them to human
:18:26. > :18:28.traffickers. The ailing former South African President North and Mandela
:18:29. > :18:31.is continuing to put up a courageous fight, according to one of his
:18:32. > :18:36.daughters. She said her father remained strong.
:18:37. > :18:40.He has been receiving medical care at home since been discharged from
:18:41. > :18:44.hospital in September. Ukraine's three previous post Soviet
:18:45. > :18:48.residents have issued a statement giving support to anti-government
:18:49. > :18:53.protesters on the freezing streets of Kiev now for the 14th night on a
:18:54. > :18:57.roll. Tens of thousands have suffered -- surrendered government
:18:58. > :19:01.buildings in the capital angry at the government's decision not to
:19:02. > :19:05.sign an association deal with the EU. In what is thought to be a legal
:19:06. > :19:11.first, a US animal rights group is calling on you -- New York court to
:19:12. > :19:13.recognise a chimpanzee as a legal person.
:19:14. > :19:18.It wants a chimp named Tommy to be granted what is known as legal
:19:19. > :19:24.personhood, so that he can be entitled to what is entitled as the
:19:25. > :19:28.-- described as the fundamental right of bodily liberty. With me is
:19:29. > :19:34.the founder and chairman of The Ape Alliance, an international coalition
:19:35. > :19:37.working for the welfare of apes. Ian Redmond, would you say you
:19:38. > :19:43.recognise this description of chimpanzees as people, as beings
:19:44. > :19:47.that you could regard as friends? Definitely, yes. Anyone who has had
:19:48. > :19:53.the good fortune to get to know great apes will see there is no
:19:54. > :20:00.question of it. They have the cognitive capacity to know who they
:20:01. > :20:03.themselves are. Give a chimpanzee and within a short time you will
:20:04. > :20:09.have self-directed behaviour, looking to see parts of their face
:20:10. > :20:15.they don't normally see. -- give a chimpanzee a mirror. I think there
:20:16. > :20:21.is a selective advantage in being able to understand your position in
:20:22. > :20:26.society, and it strikes me that our laws developed in countries where
:20:27. > :20:31.there are not great apes. We have exported those laws to countries
:20:32. > :20:34.where there are, but if you look at tradition in African countries come
:20:35. > :20:40.in Rwanda where I spent a lot of time, they have a word for wildlife,
:20:41. > :20:43.a word for people and a word for gorillas. Gorillas are not
:20:44. > :20:49.categorised amongst wildlife. They are seen as other tribes?
:20:50. > :20:54.Almost as another tribe. The translation of orangutan is
:20:55. > :20:58.usually translated as man of the forest but it is actually person of
:20:59. > :21:02.the forest. What would it mean to give this status to them?
:21:03. > :21:06.At the moment they have the same legal standing as a check, or any
:21:07. > :21:10.object, you can buy them or own them do not whatever you like with them,
:21:11. > :21:14.apart from cruelty. But cruelty laws do not keep them
:21:15. > :21:19.from being kept on their own like Tommy is in inadequate enclosures
:21:20. > :21:24.and without the company of other chimpanzees. I would say, yes, open
:21:25. > :21:28.-- we cannot see open all the cages, but care for them as you would any
:21:29. > :21:35.other being with special care. What is your answer to churches who say
:21:36. > :21:38.thinking of giving them this legal distinction somehow produces the
:21:39. > :21:42.link between man and God. If you believe that God created
:21:43. > :21:45.everything, then he created chimpanzees.
:21:46. > :21:49.I don't think God would approve of us torturing them or treating them
:21:50. > :21:54.in this terrible way. Respecting them, their intelligence and social
:21:55. > :21:57.complexity, I think it is difficult to do that and not give them legal
:21:58. > :22:05.standing other than an object. They are not objects, they are persons,
:22:06. > :22:07.non-human beings. We are not asking for human rights, but recognising
:22:08. > :22:11.that beings who may not be human have many of the criteria we think
:22:12. > :22:15.are important and deserve our respect. Why not have legislation
:22:16. > :22:21.that makes that more likely to follow?
:22:22. > :22:26.Ian Redmond of The Ape Alliance, thank you for speaking us.
:22:27. > :22:30.-- to us. When we think of photographs, they are not usually
:22:31. > :22:34.images of buildings abandoned, unloved and decaying, but two
:22:35. > :22:39.photographers who call themselves urban explorers are fascinated by
:22:40. > :22:42.what we tend to pass by. Daniel Marbaix and Danny Barter have
:22:43. > :22:45.published a book, States of Decay, based on their travels of the US,
:22:46. > :22:49.and they have often roamed the UK and Europe often getting arrested
:22:50. > :22:54.for trespassing. I have brought them together in one of the BBC's big
:22:55. > :22:58.screens asking Danny to guide us through one of the images. Tell us
:22:59. > :23:01.where you are. This is an underground of it Dorian
:23:02. > :23:05.Reservoir in London. It has featured in some quite
:23:06. > :23:10.prominent TV shows and films, but people will be able to figure that
:23:11. > :23:17.out. It is a beautiful piece of Victorian architecture I painted
:23:18. > :23:20.with light. You have had to like it and I again I suppose you were not
:23:21. > :23:23.intending to be there. No, we were not intending to be
:23:24. > :23:26.there. There were a few of us and it
:23:27. > :23:32.involves putting on your wellingtons and going underground until you find
:23:33. > :23:36.something you want to see. Daniel, this was an old manor house
:23:37. > :23:39.in the UK and you are looking at decay, crumbling before us. What
:23:40. > :23:45.keeps you going into these kinds of situations? Weekend of do it for the
:23:46. > :23:50.thrill of it, really. We almost started doing it for fun,
:23:51. > :23:53.really. You start one building, and then you go repeatedly and meet
:23:54. > :23:57.other people and meet up with them and going to other places. You call
:23:58. > :24:04.yourselves urban explorers. What do you mean?
:24:05. > :24:07.It basically means you are exploring the environment available to you, so
:24:08. > :24:11.it may be the rooftops of the cities, it may be sewers, it may be
:24:12. > :24:15.abandoned buildings. This is an image that you took Danny in
:24:16. > :24:20.Pennsylvania. These are workers who is from a call
:24:21. > :24:24.break that had been sitting there for about 40 years.
:24:25. > :24:35.You can find the documentation talking about their daily routine.
:24:36. > :24:38.Four. -- coal-breakers. There is an element of looking into
:24:39. > :24:41.the past and it is interactive and of the things that have been left
:24:42. > :24:47.behind, the small stories kept within these places.
:24:48. > :24:51.Tell me, Dan, about the differences between shooting in the US and in
:24:52. > :24:56.Europe. Certainly regarding the law it is different, isn't it?
:24:57. > :24:59.Yes, in the majority of Europe, trespassing is a civil offence so
:25:00. > :25:03.the older -- one of the building would have to press charges. The
:25:04. > :25:07.buildings are abandoned so there is no one to do that, whereas in
:25:08. > :25:10.America it is a criminal offence, so you can get time in county jail,
:25:11. > :25:15.fairly significant time, and deported. It is obviously important
:25:16. > :25:19.to you to get these images. Here we are looking at an American
:25:20. > :25:25.church, a flag, an altar, but you can see the decay. This was the
:25:26. > :25:29.cover of the same book and it is a little bit of a metaphor on American
:25:30. > :25:35.society and the place religion has come to having it, opposed to them
:25:36. > :25:37.as an industrial powerhouse, I suppose.
:25:38. > :25:41.It has a lot of stories to tell, some of those should be left to
:25:42. > :25:46.other people to figure out. This final image says, I had to leave my
:25:47. > :25:50.mark somewhere. This is really poignant, but also
:25:51. > :25:55.what you are doing, I guess. Yes, I saw it and it kind of made me smile.
:25:56. > :25:59.It was never intended to go into the book but it came out nicely with the
:26:00. > :26:02.decay around it. And is your work all about getting
:26:03. > :26:06.people to look again at what they have left behind? It is just showing
:26:07. > :26:09.the beautiful buildings that have been left to crumble, cause of
:26:10. > :26:14.money, generally. It is more expensive to refurbish
:26:15. > :26:18.the building than to knock it down and build a new one. Daniel Marbaix
:26:19. > :26:22.and Danny Barter speaking to me earlier.
:26:23. > :26:26.Just a reminder of the main news. US Vice President Joe burden is on a
:26:27. > :26:32.visit to Beijing hoping to ease tensions over China's controversial
:26:33. > :26:36.ear space identification zone. It has heightened tensions between
:26:37. > :26:40.the US and Japan over who owns a group of islands in the East China
:26:41. > :26:54.Sea. Thank you for being with us on World News Today.
:26:55. > :27:02.Good evening. It is that time of the year when we get occasionally
:27:03. > :27:08.battered by big storms and there is one heading our way tomorrow. The
:27:09. > :27:09.main problem will be the strength of the wind, pointing the Met Office