14/01/2014

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:00:09. > :00:16.This is BBC world news today, with me Philippa Thomas. Egyptians are

:00:17. > :00:19.being urged to vote yes to a new constitution endorsed by the

:00:20. > :00:23.military. We are watching the turnout and the turbulence, we will

:00:24. > :00:26.have the latest from Cairo on day one of the vote.

:00:27. > :00:29.When all the votes have been cast it looks certain to be approved by a

:00:30. > :00:33.comfortable majority. But the key issue is the turnout.

:00:34. > :00:38.President Hollande tells packed news conference this is not the place nor

:00:39. > :00:41.the time to discuss his alleged affair, private means private says

:00:42. > :00:45.the French President. Also coming up, how the booming

:00:46. > :00:49.property market in London is directly affected by economic and

:00:50. > :00:53.political crises from Spain to south Asia. We will talk to the man

:00:54. > :01:00.charting the impact of global affairs on property prices in the UK

:01:01. > :01:05.capital. Poor fellow shot dead lying in all directions. The horrors of

:01:06. > :01:06.World War I, in the words of the soldiers themselves, now their

:01:07. > :01:26.diaries are being published on-line. Hello and welcome, Egyptians are

:01:27. > :01:35.voting on a new constitution which could pave the way for the head of

:01:36. > :01:40.the army to run for President. This is the first vote Since the elected

:01:41. > :01:45.President Mohammed Morsi was he overthrown in July. The Muslim

:01:46. > :01:49.Brotherhood has been named a terrorist organisation since then

:01:50. > :01:55.and its supporters are boycotting the referendum. Since voting nine

:01:56. > :02:01.protestors have been killed. In central Cairo an eager queue before

:02:02. > :02:05.the polls opened. This is the third constitutional referendum in as many

:02:06. > :02:12.years. And many hope it will bring an end to turmoil and unrest.

:02:13. > :02:17.This woman, a housewife, who was one of the first in line. She told us

:02:18. > :02:25.she would have queued all night, because the constitution will help

:02:26. > :02:29.Egypt overcome a crisis. I want to for all the people in Egypt to come

:02:30. > :02:34.now and say yes and this is the best for our country. It is the first

:02:35. > :02:37.time Egyptians have gone to the polls since their elected President,

:02:38. > :02:44.Mohammed Morsi, was ousted last July. He was removed by the army in

:02:45. > :02:49.a popular low-backed coup. The military wants this vote to endorse

:02:50. > :02:53.his removal. There is steady team of people coming to cast their ballot

:02:54. > :02:58.and more queueing to get in. The referendum is a key test for the

:02:59. > :03:01.authorities. They say the constitution represents the new

:03:02. > :03:04.democratic Egypt. Now when all the votes have been cast it looks

:03:05. > :03:10.certain to be approved by a comfortable majority. But the key

:03:11. > :03:17.issue is the turnout. Especially for the army chief, General Abdel Fattah

:03:18. > :03:21.el-Sisi, barely visible in the throng as he inspected a polling

:03:22. > :03:25.station. A convincing result in the referendum could kick-start a

:03:26. > :03:31.presidential bid. He's already shaking hands like a politician. The

:03:32. > :03:36.constitution bolsters the economic and political power of the military.

:03:37. > :03:43.It allows military trials for civilians. But it also promises

:03:44. > :03:47.improved human rights. People were arrested because of these posters.

:03:48. > :03:51.Opponents say they have been silenced and harassed. Putting up

:03:52. > :03:55.these posters calling for a "no" vote, has meant arrest and terrorism

:03:56. > :04:01.charges for seven political activists. Moderate Islamists say

:04:02. > :04:05.the authorities are giving voters no option. As long as they are pushing

:04:06. > :04:09.to one direction, which is one choice only, only "yes", it is not a

:04:10. > :04:17.referendum or not a democratic process at all. You won't vote? We

:04:18. > :04:21.will not vote. And supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood are not voting

:04:22. > :04:25.either, they have been protesting in several locations. The organisation,

:04:26. > :04:29.now declared a terrorist group, has called for a boycott cott of the

:04:30. > :04:34.vote, saying the constitution is stained with blood. If it is passed

:04:35. > :04:44.as expected, it may harden the divisions here, not heel them. We

:04:45. > :04:48.have a Middle East expert with the Brooksings Institution and the Royal

:04:49. > :04:53.United Services Institute and he joins us via webcam from Cairo.

:04:54. > :04:57.Thank you for being with us on world news today. We heard Orla there

:04:58. > :05:01.talking about the turnout being key, what is your reading of the way the

:05:02. > :05:06.turnout is looking and how high it would have to be for the general to

:05:07. > :05:10.run for President? It is a little bit early to say what turnout

:05:11. > :05:14.actually looks like, keeping in mind that most of the coverage we have

:05:15. > :05:20.seen thus far is really on Cairo. It is not around the country. Polling

:05:21. > :05:24.has stopped for today, it is 9.00, tomorrow is still another day, it

:05:25. > :05:28.will be a full day and I suspect we won't really be able to tell what

:05:29. > :05:31.turnout is like until tomorrow. Some people are comparing turnout at

:05:32. > :05:35.certain polling stations and parts of Cairo today, with what it was in

:05:36. > :05:38.2012, but there are different numbers of polling stations this

:05:39. > :05:43.year as well. So I think it is early for us to start talking about

:05:44. > :05:46.turnout. In terms of what is required I don't really know if

:05:47. > :05:51.that's the correct question. Regardless of turnout over the next

:05:52. > :05:54.couple of days, I think that General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has made his

:05:55. > :06:00.calculation and will follow through with it regardless of the turnout.

:06:01. > :06:05.It has been hard to put it mildly, to campaign for a "no" vote, there

:06:06. > :06:09.has been repression of that campaign? Absolutely. This is

:06:10. > :06:13.something that people need to be very aware of, that while there

:06:14. > :06:18.isn't any evidence of ballot box stuffing and things like that a fair

:06:19. > :06:24.vote, this definitely is not. The last few days has seen people get

:06:25. > :06:28.arrested for campaigning for a "no" vote, and being released eventually,

:06:29. > :06:34.but still being arrested for campaigning in that fashion. The

:06:35. > :06:40.apparatus, state TV and private TV has been very, very clear about its

:06:41. > :06:47.only presenting one side of the argument, which is to vote for a

:06:48. > :06:50."yes" vote as opposed to a "no", a "fair" referendum it can't be

:06:51. > :06:53.called. Do you have a view on whether this constitution is better

:06:54. > :06:59.for the people of Egypt than the last one they were presented with?

:07:00. > :07:04.There is some marginal differences there are some points about rights

:07:05. > :07:09.that are in this new constitutional draft that weren't there in 2012,

:07:10. > :07:13.the military has at least the same amount of protection and autonomous

:07:14. > :07:17.position that it had in 2012 as well. That is not particularly

:07:18. > :07:20.different. There are a couple of adjustments there, I don't think

:07:21. > :07:24.much in the way of that either. You still have military trials for

:07:25. > :07:29.civilian, you still have basic autonomy for the military, from the

:07:30. > :07:33.executive and so on. And the articles are not really the issue

:07:34. > :07:38.here. For me the process is far more important, and incidentally people

:07:39. > :07:43.are not voting on this constitution, yes, no or boycott, on the basis of

:07:44. > :07:46.the articles. That accounts I think for a small proportion of the

:07:47. > :07:50.Egyptian population. People who are boycotting and generally boycotting

:07:51. > :07:53.because either they don't recognise the legitimacy of the process that

:07:54. > :07:56.brought the vote forward in the first place, that accounts for the

:07:57. > :08:01.brotherhood and their allies, or they are voting "yes" as a sign that

:08:02. > :08:05.they support the military and they oppose the Muslim Brotherhood and

:08:06. > :08:10.looking for a more stable situation in Egypt. There hasn't been a

:08:11. > :08:17.referendum in Egypt over the past three years it has come near a "no"

:08:18. > :08:22.vote. "Yes "presented as the next stage of doability. Over the last

:08:23. > :08:27.few years a huge number of voters want exactly that. Thank you very

:08:28. > :08:30.much for joining us. Thank you. The French President, Francois Hollande,

:08:31. > :08:34.has faced hundreds of journalists at his first news conference since a

:08:35. > :08:37.magazine accused him of having a secret affair with an actress. But

:08:38. > :08:40.that is not quite the situation it seems. This was his annual

:08:41. > :08:44.conference in which he spoke in great detail about the French

:08:45. > :08:50.economy and the Press Pack chose to pose just a single question, on

:08:51. > :08:58.whether his official partner remains the French First Lady. The glamour

:08:59. > :09:03.of the big screen, Julie Gayet, the French actress who has stolen the

:09:04. > :09:11.heart of the President. Cast in this drama as the femme F atale. Today it

:09:12. > :09:15.was Mr Hollande's turn in the spotlight with the annual meeting

:09:16. > :09:21.with the press. The official subject was the economy, cuts of 50 billion

:09:22. > :09:26.years in public spending -- euros in public spending. But the big

:09:27. > :09:29.question, what will become of the First Lady, Valerie Trierweiler.

:09:30. > :09:33.TRANSLATION: Everyone in their private life goes through difficult

:09:34. > :09:37.periods. It is true, these are difficult moments, but I have one

:09:38. > :09:41.principle, private matters should be dealt with privately, that's the

:09:42. > :09:47.same for everyone concerned. So this is not the place nor the time to

:09:48. > :09:51.discuss it. But so long as the confusion surrounds the First Lady's

:09:52. > :09:56.position it is likely these questions will continue. Valerie

:09:57. > :10:00.Trierweiler is still in hospital, still "resting". We don't know how

:10:01. > :10:05.many of these secret nights there were, but photographers who tailed

:10:06. > :10:10.Mr Hollande, on his moped, say no-one ever tried to stop them.

:10:11. > :10:14.TRANSLATION: We were there every night, the President was in an

:10:15. > :10:19.apartment without any security. Even outside. I even saw the President

:10:20. > :10:24.walk around the block. The public and the private, boundaries blurred

:10:25. > :10:29.by the unnecessary risks Mr Hollande is said to have taken. Right now it

:10:30. > :10:37.is the President's judgment that is being debated, not his choice in

:10:38. > :10:45.women. Now also in Paris for us, the French cultural commentator. Thank

:10:46. > :10:49.you for joining us, when President Hollande gave his non-answer,

:10:50. > :10:55.answer, at the news conference, was that appropriate to French ears? It

:10:56. > :11:05.was certainly not surprising. We didn't expect him to suddenly open

:11:06. > :11:09.his heart to the French people. We did expect, perhaps a statement,

:11:10. > :11:15.before the press conference, just to clear the way, a way to clarify his

:11:16. > :11:18.position. But because his partner, Valerie Trierweiler, is still in

:11:19. > :11:22.hospital, that was deemed not the right moment to actually issue that

:11:23. > :11:27.statement. It did, however, and that's probably the most interesting

:11:28. > :11:35.point on that topic, during his two-and-a-half hours of press

:11:36. > :11:38.conference, that he would clarify his personal situation before going

:11:39. > :11:44.on an official visit to Washington. That is in three weeks time. We

:11:45. > :11:50.should know very soon if indeed Valerie Trierweiler remains France's

:11:51. > :11:56.First Lady. Will the public mind or care whether he goes alone to

:11:57. > :12:00.Washington? No, of course not. And perhaps, you know, perhaps he

:12:01. > :12:06.regrets having introduced his partner to the nation at large. She

:12:07. > :12:16.could, probably should have remained in the shadows. It would be easier

:12:17. > :12:22.for him, also don't forget that the concept of First Lady is viewed as

:12:23. > :12:27.an American concept in France, and doesn't have any clear status and is

:12:28. > :12:38.a very ill-defined position. It depends on the President in exercise

:12:39. > :12:42.whether to give the first partner any staff or any public function.

:12:43. > :12:46.And yes, let's get to the issue that may well matter more to the French

:12:47. > :12:49.people themselves, much of this lengthy news conference was about

:12:50. > :12:54.the economic programme for the country and we're talking about cuts

:12:55. > :12:59.in public spending, cuts in taxes, is this what was expected or does

:13:00. > :13:03.that come as something of a shock? I'm very glad you mentioned the most

:13:04. > :13:07.important part of his press conference. Because he had prepared

:13:08. > :13:15.a lot for the third press conference of his presidency. And yes, he did

:13:16. > :13:21.announce some interesting policies. You know, there has been talk that

:13:22. > :13:26.for a long time that he's not a socialist really, but a social

:13:27. > :13:29.democrat. I think that was the first policies, Social Democratic policies

:13:30. > :13:37.that he was announcing for the first time since being elected to power.

:13:38. > :13:44.Indeed he has announced 15 billion euros of cuts in public spending.

:13:45. > :13:50.But also a big chunk of social charges that are quite hefty in

:13:51. > :13:57.France and paid by employers that would be simply scrapped. So a lot

:13:58. > :14:02.of things. He also talked about Europe, he talked about

:14:03. > :14:08.unemployment, about anti-semitism in France and also about military

:14:09. > :14:15.operations in Mali and Central African Republic. Let's give you a

:14:16. > :14:20.brief look at some of the day's other news. Reports from south Sudan

:14:21. > :14:24.say at least 200 people have died in a ferry accident. They boarded the

:14:25. > :14:29.overcrowded boat while trying to escape fighting in the city. Rebels

:14:30. > :14:34.loyal to the former deputy President claim they have since captured

:14:35. > :14:39.Malakal from Government forces. A new survey of lions has found they

:14:40. > :14:43.could face extinction in west Africa, fewer than 400 are left in

:14:44. > :14:48.the region. The research was carried out in 17 countries, from Senegal to

:14:49. > :14:52.Nigeria, taking more than six years. With fewer than 250 lions of

:14:53. > :15:01.breeding age left, there are concerns the entire population could

:15:02. > :15:05.disappear. A doctor in northern China has been given a suspended

:15:06. > :15:08.death sentence for stealing new born babies and selling them to child

:15:09. > :15:11.traffickers. The obstetrician convinced the parents that their

:15:12. > :15:22.babies had serious health problems and should be cared for by the

:15:23. > :15:27.state. Paraded in front of a courtroom, Dr Zhang Shuxia was

:15:28. > :15:32.convicted of selling seven infants to a child trafficking ring. She

:15:33. > :15:35.received a suspended death prison, usually changed to life in prison

:15:36. > :15:38.after two years of good behaviour. It was at this hospital where the

:15:39. > :15:41.respected obstetrician had lied to new parents, telling them their new

:15:42. > :15:44.borns were seriously ill. If they handed their children over to the

:15:45. > :15:48.state, families were told, the babies would receive the expensive

:15:49. > :15:52.medical care they needed. When police broke up the ring, seven

:15:53. > :15:57.healthy new borns had already been sold, leading to multiple arrests.

:15:58. > :16:02.And several triumphant home Cummings, as police returned the

:16:03. > :16:10.abducted children to their rightful parents. All except one child, sold

:16:11. > :16:15.for just $165, abandoned by the traffickers. Some outraged Chinese

:16:16. > :16:19.citizens argued that the doctor should die for her crimes. In this

:16:20. > :16:25.country where child trafficking is relatively common, a suspended death

:16:26. > :16:29.sentence is too lenient, they said. The Nigerian authorities say 30

:16:30. > :16:33.people have been killed by a bomb explosion in the north eastern city

:16:34. > :16:38.of Maiduguri. The blast ripped through a packed market in t early

:16:39. > :16:43.afternoon, causing panic as people tried to flee the scene on foot and

:16:44. > :16:48.by car. Some reports suggest the bomb was planted in a motor Rick

:16:49. > :16:53.saw, or a sack abandoned by a stall. The Islamist group, Boko Haram said

:16:54. > :16:55.it carried out the attack. The British Government has ordered an

:16:56. > :17:03.urgent investigation into whether the UK was involved in deadly raid

:17:04. > :17:08.on a Sikh temple in the Indian city of Amritza in 1984. Recently

:17:09. > :17:13.unclassified documents suggest that an SAS officer advised Indian

:17:14. > :17:20.authorities prior to the storming of the Golden Temple where hundreds

:17:21. > :17:24.died. The storming of the Golden Temple in the area angered Sikhs

:17:25. > :17:31.around the world, who blamed Indian troops for violating their holyist

:17:32. > :17:34.shrine. Now documents released under the 30-year rule, apparently show

:17:35. > :17:39.the British were involved. One Foreign Office letter says "with the

:17:40. > :17:42.Prime Minister's agreement, an SAD officer has visited India and drawn

:17:43. > :17:48.up a plan, which has been approved by Mrs Gandhi". There appears to be

:17:49. > :17:52.a typing error that should read SAS. The letter warns it could increase

:17:53. > :17:56.violence in India and warns it might also therefore increase tension in

:17:57. > :18:00.the Indian community here. Particularly if knowledge of the SAS

:18:01. > :18:04.involvement were to become public. Some MPs believe all the evidence of

:18:05. > :18:09.British involvement must now be released. I think there are further

:18:10. > :18:16.documentation, what we want is a full, candid, disclosure of all

:18:17. > :18:20.explanations so we can get to the bottom exactly what happened here.

:18:21. > :18:25.Even after 30 years Sikhs here in Britain want to know the truth about

:18:26. > :18:28.what happened at Amritza, we are told neither David Cameron or the

:18:29. > :18:30.Foreign Secretary, William Hague, were aware of the documents

:18:31. > :18:34.suggesting Britain's involvement until they were published. But that

:18:35. > :18:38.they do understand the very legitimate concerns that will be

:18:39. > :18:42.raised by the revelations. At the largest Sikh temple outside India,

:18:43. > :18:46.in Southall west London a community leader welcomed the Prime Minister's

:18:47. > :18:55.decision to ask the cabinet secretary to investigate. This is a

:18:56. > :18:59.holy place. For any religion, it is a heart-breaking thing. These things

:19:00. > :19:05.do not go out from your mind. It is not a small thing. That is why if

:19:06. > :19:10.the truth has come out, at least people know. Last year David Cameron

:19:11. > :19:17.became the first serving British Prime Minister to visit the Golden

:19:18. > :19:21.Temple. He is keen to focus on the historic and cultural ties with

:19:22. > :19:25.Sikh, but now he's under pressure to uncover more about Britain's role in

:19:26. > :19:33.an event which is seared into their history. London is a property hot

:19:34. > :19:37.spot, viewed by many around the world as a safe bet when it comes to

:19:38. > :19:41.real estate, now a new study has found that conflicts, turmoil and

:19:42. > :19:46.general instability outside the UK have a direct impact on the price

:19:47. > :19:53.paid for bricks and mortar here in the British capital. The study was

:19:54. > :20:01.put together by the Business Cool of the University of Oxford, they found

:20:02. > :20:05.that property here recorded the largest increases. The same patterns

:20:06. > :20:09.can be seen with troubles in Egypt and Greece, another part of their

:20:10. > :20:12.research looks at London's wealthiest areas, places like

:20:13. > :20:17.Knightsbridge, the study concluding that China had the biggest impact on

:20:18. > :20:22.the city's highend real estate prices. Instability in Russia and

:20:23. > :20:29.Libya also pushed prices up in London's premier property market.

:20:30. > :20:33.With me is a representative from the Business School of the University of

:20:34. > :20:37.Oxford. You co-authored the report, we know about the idea as property

:20:38. > :20:42.as a safe haven and safe investment, you go beyond that don't you? That's

:20:43. > :20:46.right, our launching off point is London is not a big non-know lithic

:20:47. > :20:50.eptity but composed of many little region, because we all live in parts

:20:51. > :20:54.of London, we don't live in the whole place. You can link and map

:20:55. > :20:58.particular parts of London to particular foreign countries, either

:20:59. > :21:02.by using things like the language, the principal language spoken in the

:21:03. > :21:07.regions or the share of residents that originate from those countries.

:21:08. > :21:11.That is our launching off point for this particular thing. Some of the

:21:12. > :21:15.research that you have come up with, for example, looks at southern

:21:16. > :21:19.Europe, Italy, Spain, Greece and normally people talk about maybe the

:21:20. > :21:24.Chinese or Arab money, but southern Europe and the euro crisis features

:21:25. > :21:30.highly? One of the ways to think about this is when political

:21:31. > :21:34.uncertainty went up in Spain, the prices came up in London across the

:21:35. > :21:41.board, but specifically regions linked to Spain, such as high-income

:21:42. > :21:45.areas, such as St John's Wood, would have appreciated. But areas like

:21:46. > :21:49.King's Cross would have appreciated at the same time, they have also a

:21:50. > :21:54.high share of Spanish residents. So it is an uncertainty, as you say, in

:21:55. > :21:59.southern Europe, because it is a large factor in the real estate

:22:00. > :22:03.prices. It is not just the real estate priority, looking at the

:22:04. > :22:07.Shard in London, it is owned by Qatar, but you have also looked at

:22:08. > :22:11.lower income areas, and they are still influenced by nationalities

:22:12. > :22:14.who tend to cluster. Absolutely, that's right. You do see the usual

:22:15. > :22:19.effects that you would have expected to see in Mayfair or Knightsbridge

:22:20. > :22:26.or the popular areas and wealthy areas, but you also see effects in

:22:27. > :22:29.areas which are also inhabited by clusters of regional communities.

:22:30. > :22:32.One of the reassuring things of the research is we show the effects are

:22:33. > :22:35.not permanent. One of the things people tend to think about safe

:22:36. > :22:39.haven effects, that they push prices up and prices stay up forever. That

:22:40. > :22:44.is not the case. When political uncertainty rises prices go up, when

:22:45. > :22:48.the uncertainty dissipates prices go back down over one or two years.

:22:49. > :22:54.That suggests a pattern of people moving their capital in and out of

:22:55. > :22:58.London and not taking up residence in London. Which means you get back

:22:59. > :23:02.to what Londoners say that a lot of homes are not actually homes? That I

:23:03. > :23:06.suppose is a very true statement that you are making there. Another

:23:07. > :23:10.way to sort of portray that, perhaps, is the fact that while

:23:11. > :23:17.these effects are temporary on the prices of houses. It reaches the

:23:18. > :23:19.local community which is the internationalisation of London,

:23:20. > :23:24.which perhaps is a very nice thing about this. It is fascinating,

:23:25. > :23:27.London is one of those global cities, thank you very much for

:23:28. > :23:31.coming to talk it all through with me.

:23:32. > :23:35.Now it was called the war to end all war, those who fought it lived

:23:36. > :23:38.through brutality that was almost impossible for families back home to

:23:39. > :23:43.imagine. But now, for the first time, many of the diaries written by

:23:44. > :23:48.soldiers written on the frontline are being published by the National

:23:49. > :24:00.Archives here. 300,000 pages of personal testimony released so far.

:24:01. > :24:04.A picture of the war itself. "Here I sit outside our headquarters' trench

:24:05. > :24:09.in the sun. All should be nice and peaceful and pretty what it actually

:24:10. > :24:14.is, is beyond description. Trenches, ammunition tool, caps et cetera, et

:24:15. > :24:21.cetera, everywhere, poor fells shot dead are lying in all directions."

:24:22. > :24:26.Thousands of war diaries, 1. 5 million separate documents. Once the

:24:27. > :24:31.fodder for authors and researchers, now they are available for the first

:24:32. > :24:37.time at the click of a mouse. "The order to retire was at last given...

:24:38. > :24:43." These are the last days of the men in a giant army, the attacks, the

:24:44. > :24:48.food, the horrific casualties, neatly typed on to official military

:24:49. > :24:53.forms and stored away for decades. The names carved on to our local war

:24:54. > :24:56.memorials are the most obvious reminders of the war, all of us will

:24:57. > :24:59.have a direct connection with somebody who served in this

:25:00. > :25:02.conflict. The hope is that these diaries released into the public

:25:03. > :25:11.domain will give more and more people the opportunity to follow a

:25:12. > :25:16.personal trail. This is Operation War Diary, under way at a school in

:25:17. > :25:19.Southampton. Students reading the unseen documents are tagging names

:25:20. > :25:23.and events, adding to their own knowledge and improving the

:25:24. > :25:29.archive's search engine. They talk about their supplies from the battle

:25:30. > :25:32.for their cooking. From the sounds of it they are getting quite annoyed

:25:33. > :25:36.because their supplies aren't reaching all the way through. It

:25:37. > :25:39.just shows you what happens behind the scenes and how these men

:25:40. > :25:43.actually lived and what the quality of their lives were at that time.

:25:44. > :25:47.You read it and you take it in but when you then have to specifically

:25:48. > :25:53.point out things, it again just immerses you even more. Holes where

:25:54. > :25:58.shells had struck, branches torn off trees by the explosion. Everywhere

:25:59. > :26:04.the same hard, grim, pitiless sign of battle and war. I have had a

:26:05. > :26:08.belly full of it. Ghastly, absolutely ghastly.

:26:09. > :26:15.The eyewitnesses have left us, but they survive through the curling

:26:16. > :26:19.pages of their final observations. Just time to remind you of our main

:26:20. > :26:23.news, Egyptians are voting on a new constitution that could pave the way

:26:24. > :26:27.for the head of the army to run for President. It is the first vote

:26:28. > :26:33.since General El-Sisi overthrew Egypt's elected President, Mohammed

:26:34. > :26:37.Morsi in July. Muslim Brotherhood supporters are boycotting the

:26:38. > :26:41.referendum. And we have been reminded on the programme that it

:26:42. > :26:45.has been very difficult for those opposed to the new constitution to

:26:46. > :27:01.air their views in public. Thank you for joining me on World News Today.

:27:02. > :27:02.Much more cloud across the country, outbreaks of rain for