09/01/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Zeinab Badawi.

In South Sudan, thousands of civilians flee a key town as

government troops prepare to attack rebel soldiers in control of the

area. Many are crowding into the UN

compound in Bentiu in the oil-rich Unity State.

We look at the balance of power between government and rebel forces.

Create traffic mayhem to punish a political rival. New Jersey's

Governor Chris Christie says sorry for the actions last year of his

deputy chief of staff. IM embarrassed and humiliated by the

conduct of some of the people on my team.

And the reality behind the headlines of the young binge drinkers. Why the

rise of the young non-drinkers is making them seem pretty sober

compared to older people. And find out about the latest rising music

star in our list of movers and shakers, the ones to watch in 2014.

Hello and welcome. There doesn't seem to be much unity in Unity State

these days in South Sudan. Its capital Bentiu is the latest battle

ground in the vicious struggle for power between President Salva Kiir

and his rival, the former deputy president Riek Machar. Now

government troops are advancing towards Bentiu whilst the rebels

seem to have withdrawn from the front line, apparently destroying

ammunition they can't take with them. In a moment we'll be assessing

the balance of military strength on the ground between the two warring

sides with a former adviser on African affairs to the National

Security Council in the US. First, this report.

People in South Sudan know when trouble is coming. They have been

running from war for decades. This dusty town is the capital of a state

rich in oil and rebel held, but even the soldiers who have switched sides

know that the wind is changing. Thousands fled here to the safety of

the UN compound, where the town fell two weeks ago, when which tribe you

were from suddenly became a question of life or death. They come in our

home in the night. When we replied to the questions, they started

shooting. They have food and clean water, but supplies are short. It is

no place for a baby to be born. I am worried about fighting and I am

worried about staying here. How long will we stay here? And the fighting

is humming to Bentiu again. The front line suddenly shifted. We

thought the battle had begun all stop but this was the rebels,

destroying ammunition they could not retreat with. More people in need of

help. But with food running low here, the UN decided to take a risk.

A mission in the town, to fetch supplies from a warehouse, as

civilians continue to flee. This is a compound in the centre of Bentiu.

They came here to pick up food to take to the camp before fighting

started. Overnight, more than 1000 people came into this compound to

try and get shelter for the -- from the fighting, and now they have

become the priority. The UN is going to take these people and get them

out, hopefully before the fighting starts. With gunfire already heard

nearby, they have to move fast. There is never enough time when an

opportunity like this comes long, and they took what they could and

will return for the rest. They reached the camp safely, but a

mission for food brought only more people. The historical rift between

tribes has been reopened by this crisis. While talks about peace

going nowhere, the fear is that more fighting will come.

Cameron Hudson until recently advised the National Security

Council on Africa. He's now Policy Director at the Centre for the

Prevention of Genocide in Washington.

He joins us now. First of all, give us a brief overview of the relative

strength of the two warring factions, President Kiir and Riek

Machar. It is interesting, because we are seeing the forces of Riek

Machar being the forces of the government as well, forces that left

the government and align themselves with Riek Machar, so it is really

two parts of the same Army. Riek Machar has been augmented by rebel

forces of his ethnic group. There has been some forced conscription

and soldier virtue -- recruitment of children that we have heard about.

One side probably contains more heavy artillery will stop the

government -- artillery. The government probably has more

artillery and can reinforce their positions, whereas the rebels

cannot. The order of battle is roughly equivalent, which is why we

have seen certain key cities change hands in the course of the fighting

over the last three weeks. What about the discipline? You say Riek

Machar has got people from the Army, but can it operate as a disciplined

side? He has shown that he can and he has shown that he can take

territory and hold it, which suggests he has a certain degree of

command and control over those troops right now. I think the answer

is, yes, he can do that, but for how long? He has a difficult time

sustaining himself. It is not clear that he is getting outside support.

President Bashir came down this weekend I just support to Kiir, not

the rebels. If Riek Machar is cut off from outside assistance, there

is only so long his forces will be able to sustain this onslaught. A

characteristic of the conflict in South Sudan, and also other parts of

Africa that we have seen, is that civilians are terrorized as part of

the conflict. The competing ethnic groups. How far does that worry

you? It is terribly concerning. We have seen some reporting of gross

human rights abuses and allegations of crime against humanity and war

crimes being committed by both sides. One of the problems that the

international community faces right now is that we have a graduated 78

workers that would normally be able to bear witness to these kinds of

crimes. -- evacuated aid workers. We do not have a sense of what is going

on in these key cities where fighting is occurring. I think it

will be after the fact, when others are able to access these areas, that

we are really going to find out the true scale and scope of the

conflict. Do you think this battle can be won on the battlefield? You

feel too much blood has passed? I think that there will be a

negotiated solution at some point. The battlefield fighting going on

right now is, I think, a demonstration of a posturing that is

going on at peace talks that are happening right now. I think it will

take several more weeks of fighting. Unfortunately, the

international community has been weighing very heavily on both sides

to engage more heavily in the peace talks. There has been a loss of

posturing. Leaders right now are choosing to fight rather than talk.

-- a lot of posturing. That won't happen until there is a decisive

shift of the military balance on the ground. I do not see that happening

in the immediate future. Thank you so much for joining us.

A senior Pakistani police official has been killed in a Taliban suicide

attempt in Karachi. He was well-known for campaigning against

Taliban militants and had survived several previous attempts on his

life. A car carrying explosives smashed into his convoy.

Two media's Islamist Prime Minister has announced he is stepping down to

hand over power to a caretaker administration. The interim

government will lead the country into fresh elections. His

resignation as part of a deal with the opposition to the country's

transition democracy back on track. A tycoon who is accused of

multibillion-dollar fraud is facing extradition from France, but it is

not yet clear where he will be sent. He is wanted by Patrick Stamm,

Russia and Ukraine and allegations that the stroll up to $6 billion

from his former bank, which operated in all three countries. -- that he

stole. For him at 75 years, a German war

planes layette the bottom of the sea of the south coast of England. --

late at. It is believed that the last remaining Dornier aircraft is

being restored. It looks like a crumpled wreck, but

gradually, every part of the last remaining Dornier bomber is being

brought back to life. The engine is beginning to look recognisable

again. The barnacles and seaweed washed away by citric acid, simple

lemon juice. Cleaning the aircraft is a labour-intensive job. The wreck

had been covered in tonnes of sand and Marine debris. It will be at

least two years before the craft can begin to be rebuilt. We put the

subject at that onto the metal. The problem is, it is like cement left

by the life, and that is stopping the liquid getting to the metal

surface. We are trying to mechanically remove it with a tool

that is softer than metal. It was lifted out of the English channel

six months ago, virtually intact. The winds were later removed for the

journey by road to the RAF Museum's conservation centre of top it is

thought the plane was shot down in 1940, when it went to hit the water

and it tipped onto its back before sinking on the Goodwin Sands of the

Kent coast. Two of the crew survived, to others died. The

Dornier 17 attacked British cities in the Battle of Britain. They went

out of service in the mid-1940s, and it was thought that none had

survived. The Dornier was nicknamed the flying principal -- Flying

Pencil, and when you are crunching inside it, you can see why. There

would have been four crew members crammed inside this narrow space.

Eventually, it will be rebuilt here inside the Museum's workshop, but

there is plenty of work ahead, and funding to be found, before the

plane will be ready to go on show at the RAF Museum in London.

As far as political embarrassments go, this must rank as one of the

more serious and improbable. The Governor Chris Christie has been

involved in a scandal involving traffic. Mr Christie said emails and

texts revealed that his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, had ordered

lane closures on the George Washington bridge between New Jersey

and New York causing severe tailbacks. Mr Christie said he felt

embarrassed and humiliated. All of the people who were affected

by this conduct deserved this apology. I need to apologise to them

for my failure as the governor of this state to understand the true

nature of this problem. I now understand the true nature of the

problem, and I have taken the following action as a result. This

morning, I have terminated the employment of Bridget Kelly,

effective immediately. I have terminated her employment because

she lied to me. That was Governor Chris Christie. Chris Christie is

one of the leading lights in the Republican camp. The heavy weight,

tough talking Republican governor burst onto the national scene in

2009. He unseated Democrat incumbent Jon Corzine in the deeply democratic

state of New Jersey. He was urged to enter the Republican race for

presidential candidate ahead of the 2012 election, but declined. It's

expected he may run for presidential candidate in 2016, but what will be

the impact of this scandal? Beth McLeod is in Washington. How

damaging is this to his to hopes for 2016? He did say that the buck

stopped with him. He apologised to the people of New Jersey for what

happened, but he maintained that he did not know anything about it. He

said he has taken strong action by finding one of his key aides,

Bridget Kelly. In terms of whether it affects him, it is difficult to

say. There are questions over how much... He is renowned for running a

pretty tight ship, for micromanaging. There are questions

over how much he knew. If he did not know anything, questions remain

about what sort of political culture he is presiding over and those

questions could come back to haunt him. He has always presented self as

a bipartisan candidate, the guy who appeals to everybody. Yes, and at a

time of huge partisan bickering in Washington, that is seen as

something which could be very appealing to voters. He won the

governorship in the democratic state of New Jersey. The fact that he was

seen to strip to the -- to a political vendetta will not go in

his favour. We've heard lots of reports about

binge-drinkers here in the UK. Well, now let us tell you about the rise

of the young non-drinkers. In fact, the number of young people who drink

has been on the decline for years. And drug-use figures are also going

down. We will be discussing this in a moment as well as looking at the

picture in Europe. First, BBC Asian Network presenter and non-drinker

Yasser Ranjha has been looking at the reasons behind the drop in

alcohol consumption. These are the images we are used to

seeing when it comes to young British drinkers. Statistics show a

growing group of young people are not drinking at all. In 2001, 20 6%

of young people said they had drunk in the last week. In 2011, that had

gone down to just 12%. There has also been a big reduction and the

number of them that have ever drunk. Ethnicity is also a factor in this.

There is a growing group of young people that do not drink for

cultural or religious reasons. Also, as a result of this trend, alcohol

free bar as are springing up across the UK. These young people are all

non-drinkers. They told me five. It is against my religion and I think

it is wrong in society. I am confident as a person so I do not

rely on alcohol. You do not need to be out of your mind to enjoy

yourself. We do things that do not involve alcohol. Nowadays, people go

out to hang out rather than to get drunk. It is the perception of a

previous generation. These statistics do not mean we could do

away with the generation of booze Britain. Every week, I am surrounded

by heavy drinking when I am working as a DJ.

With me is Andrew Brown. He's director of programmes with a

charity called Mentor which tries to protect young people from alcohol

and drugs. This is good news, but we cannot

afford to be complacent? Not at all. It is genuinely good news that young

people are drinking less. But if we look at Europe, a recent report from

the world health organisation found that we were amongst the top ten

countries in the OECD in terms of early drunkenness and we still drink

a huge amount. Children are drinking far too much. There is still a kind

of hard-core of young people who are still drinking a great deal?

Exactly. An average 15 -year-old, if they are drinking, they are likely

to drinking about a bottle of wine a week which is a huge amount. There

are figures for liver cirrhosis in young people and they seem to have

gone up by great deal. Yes, liver specialists I have spoken to are

really worried about young people's drinking. They do not necessarily

get to see the better news like this. Are there any other factors

involved? We know that price, availability and the marketing of it

makes a difference. For me, the things that seem to be changing our

parental involvement in young people's lives, we have seen bigger

increases in retailers being careful about who they sell alcohol to and

also the way that police deal with young drinkers.

We have been looking at alcohol figures, but this also says that

drug use has also gone down. Your charity tries to dissuade young

people from taking drugs and drinking. We are working in Scotland

with young prisoners, looking at how alcohol has affected their lives. We

work with them around what they will do when they are released and how

alcohol might affect their behaviour and make sure they are prepared for

that. We have done some work in London recently around the links

between young people and crime and alcohol.

And drugs, quite different, they are criminal act if you take illegal

drugs. Yes, although that does not seem to be the reason why people are

not taking drugs. I do not think they consider the law when making

those decisions. Other stuff must be going on. And it seems to be going

on across Western Europe as well as drug and alcohol use is broadly down

across Europe. Some exceptions, in France, it seems daunting by young

people is going up. But broadly speaking, a more optimistic

picture. And people like you setting a good example. I many teenagers do

you have? Just one at the minute. Thank you.

Now for more on our series of emerging artists from our Sound of

2014 new music list. The list of rising stars to watch in the year

ahead was compiled using tips from more than 170 music critics, DJs and

bloggers. This year's second place goes to 19-year-old singer

songwriter Ella Eyre. The Londoner is already known on the music scene

for her collaborations with Rudimental and Wiz Khalifa. She

released her EP Deeper at the end of 2013. BBC News caught up with her at

London Zoo to talk about music, nominations and lions.

It's quite -- It's nice to be here. Now I can

appreciate them. Me and a friend of mine, we used to come here a lot, it

was our favourite place. My mum always used to compare me to

a lion. I like to think of a lion as my

alter ego because when you think about lions, you think about

loyalty, fierceness, passion and pride. I guess that's how I would

like my music to be related to. In a way, my music is quite honest.

Everything I write about is personal experiences. It can be brutal. It's

passionate as well. And vulnerable as well. I wouldn't describe my

music as being in one particular genre. The best part about writing

and about experimental music is you can take influences from a lot of

places. I think it's soul based, but it's got influences of pop, R and

Motown. But it's quite loud and beefy.

I'm going to call that lion Eddie because it reminds me of my cat.

There's one that looks at me, like, what do you want? Everyone is quite

chilled out, like I do this for a living, it's cool.

I was actually a swimmer, a competitive swimmer, until I was 11.

Then I got into drama and singing happened naturally after that. But I

did not start taking it seriously till I was 16.

Performing is the best part of what I do. It's the part where I get to

be intimate with the audience and interact with them. I enjoy the

writing because it's a personal thing, like a counselling session.

I'm not very good at talking to people about my problems, so it is

easier to write them down. It's a scary industry. It's not something

you can get used to. I'm just learning about it now, in terms of

twitter and the things you can say without being screamed at by fans.

It's important to remember that if you do do well, you are a role model

for people. The American Jazz musician Herbie

Hancock has been named as a Professor of Poetry at Harvard

University. The position, which is awarded each year, will involve

delivering six lectures on the ethics of jazz. Among his topics,

the wisdom of Miles Davis. He says he wants to share his understanding

of the essential values in jazz and the values of Buddhism.

Cuba's former president, Fidel Castro, has appeared in public for

the first time in nine months. He attended the opening of an arts

studio on Wednesday night. That is all from the programme. Good night.