Browse content similar to 14/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
This is BBC world news today, with me Philippa Thomas. Egyptians are | :00:09. | :00:16. | |
being urged to vote yes to a new constitution endorsed by the | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
military. We are watching the turnout and the turbulence, we will | :00:20. | :00:23. | |
have the latest from Cairo on day one of the vote. | :00:24. | :00:26. | |
When all the votes have been cast it looks certain to be approved by a | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
comfortable majority. But the key issue is the turnout. | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
President Hollande tells packed news conference this is not the place nor | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
the time to discuss his alleged affair, private means private says | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
the French President. Also coming up, how the booming | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
property market in London is directly affected by economic and | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
political crises from Spain to south Asia. We will talk to the man | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
charting the impact of global affairs on property prices in the UK | :00:54. | :01:00. | |
capital. Poor fellow shot dead lying in all directions. The horrors of | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
World War I, in the words of the soldiers themselves, now their | :01:06. | :01:06. | |
diaries are being published on-line. Hello and welcome, Egyptians are | :01:07. | :01:26. | |
voting on a new constitution which could pave the way for the head of | :01:27. | :01:35. | |
the army to run for President. This is the first vote Since the elected | :01:36. | :01:40. | |
President Mohammed Morsi was he overthrown in July. The Muslim | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
Brotherhood has been named a terrorist organisation since then | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
and its supporters are boycotting the referendum. Since voting nine | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
protestors have been killed. In central Cairo an eager queue before | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
the polls opened. This is the third constitutional referendum in as many | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
years. And many hope it will bring an end to turmoil and unrest. | :02:06. | :02:12. | |
This woman, a housewife, who was one of the first in line. She told us | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
she would have queued all night, because the constitution will help | :02:18. | :02:25. | |
Egypt overcome a crisis. I want to for all the people in Egypt to come | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
now and say yes and this is the best for our country. It is the first | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
time Egyptians have gone to the polls since their elected President, | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
Mohammed Morsi, was ousted last July. He was removed by the army in | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
a popular low-backed coup. The military wants this vote to endorse | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
his removal. There is steady team of people coming to cast their ballot | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
and more queueing to get in. The referendum is a key test for the | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
authorities. They say the constitution represents the new | :02:59. | :03:01. | |
democratic Egypt. Now when all the votes have been cast it looks | :03:02. | :03:04. | |
certain to be approved by a comfortable majority. But the key | :03:05. | :03:10. | |
issue is the turnout. Especially for the army chief, General Abdel Fattah | :03:11. | :03:17. | |
el-Sisi, barely visible in the throng as he inspected a polling | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
station. A convincing result in the referendum could kick-start a | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
presidential bid. He's already shaking hands like a politician. The | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
constitution bolsters the economic and political power of the military. | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
It allows military trials for civilians. But it also promises | :03:37. | :03:43. | |
improved human rights. People were arrested because of these posters. | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
Opponents say they have been silenced and harassed. Putting up | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
these posters calling for a "no" vote, has meant arrest and terrorism | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
charges for seven political activists. Moderate Islamists say | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
the authorities are giving voters no option. As long as they are pushing | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
to one direction, which is one choice only, only "yes", it is not a | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
referendum or not a democratic process at all. You won't vote? We | :04:10. | :04:17. | |
will not vote. And supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood are not voting | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
either, they have been protesting in several locations. The organisation, | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
now declared a terrorist group, has called for a boycott cott of the | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
vote, saying the constitution is stained with blood. If it is passed | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
as expected, it may harden the divisions here, not heel them. We | :04:35. | :04:44. | |
have a Middle East expert with the Brooksings Institution and the Royal | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
United Services Institute and he joins us via webcam from Cairo. | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
Thank you for being with us on world news today. We heard Orla there | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
talking about the turnout being key, what is your reading of the way the | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
turnout is looking and how high it would have to be for the general to | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
run for President? It is a little bit early to say what turnout | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
actually looks like, keeping in mind that most of the coverage we have | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
seen thus far is really on Cairo. It is not around the country. Polling | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
has stopped for today, it is 9.00, tomorrow is still another day, it | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
will be a full day and I suspect we won't really be able to tell what | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
turnout is like until tomorrow. Some people are comparing turnout at | :05:29. | :05:31. | |
certain polling stations and parts of Cairo today, with what it was in | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
2012, but there are different numbers of polling stations this | :05:36. | :05:38. | |
year as well. So I think it is early for us to start talking about | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
turnout. In terms of what is required I don't really know if | :05:44. | :05:46. | |
that's the correct question. Regardless of turnout over the next | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
couple of days, I think that General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has made his | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
calculation and will follow through with it regardless of the turnout. | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
It has been hard to put it mildly, to campaign for a "no" vote, there | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
has been repression of that campaign? Absolutely. This is | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
something that people need to be very aware of, that while there | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
isn't any evidence of ballot box stuffing and things like that a fair | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
vote, this definitely is not. The last few days has seen people get | :06:19. | :06:24. | |
arrested for campaigning for a "no" vote, and being released eventually, | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
but still being arrested for campaigning in that fashion. The | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
apparatus, state TV and private TV has been very, very clear about its | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
only presenting one side of the argument, which is to vote for a | :06:41. | :06:47. | |
"yes" vote as opposed to a "no", a "fair" referendum it can't be | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
called. Do you have a view on whether this constitution is better | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
for the people of Egypt than the last one they were presented with? | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
There is some marginal differences there are some points about rights | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
that are in this new constitutional draft that weren't there in 2012, | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
the military has at least the same amount of protection and autonomous | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
position that it had in 2012 as well. That is not particularly | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
different. There are a couple of adjustments there, I don't think | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
much in the way of that either. You still have military trials for | :07:21. | :07:24. | |
civilian, you still have basic autonomy for the military, from the | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
executive and so on. And the articles are not really the issue | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
here. For me the process is far more important, and incidentally people | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
are not voting on this constitution, yes, no or boycott, on the basis of | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
the articles. That accounts I think for a small proportion of the | :07:44. | :07:46. | |
Egyptian population. People who are boycotting and generally boycotting | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
because either they don't recognise the legitimacy of the process that | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
brought the vote forward in the first place, that accounts for the | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
brotherhood and their allies, or they are voting "yes" as a sign that | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
they support the military and they oppose the Muslim Brotherhood and | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
looking for a more stable situation in Egypt. There hasn't been a | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
referendum in Egypt over the past three years it has come near a "no" | :08:11. | :08:17. | |
vote. "Yes "presented as the next stage of doability. Over the last | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
few years a huge number of voters want exactly that. Thank you very | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
much for joining us. Thank you. The French President, Francois Hollande, | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
has faced hundreds of journalists at his first news conference since a | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
magazine accused him of having a secret affair with an actress. But | :08:35. | :08:37. | |
that is not quite the situation it seems. This was his annual | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
conference in which he spoke in great detail about the French | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
economy and the Press Pack chose to pose just a single question, on | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
whether his official partner remains the French First Lady. The glamour | :08:51. | :08:58. | |
of the big screen, Julie Gayet, the French actress who has stolen the | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
heart of the President. Cast in this drama as the femme F atale. Today it | :09:04. | :09:11. | |
was Mr Hollande's turn in the spotlight with the annual meeting | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
with the press. The official subject was the economy, cuts of 50 billion | :09:16. | :09:21. | |
years in public spending -- euros in public spending. But the big | :09:22. | :09:26. | |
question, what will become of the First Lady, Valerie Trierweiler. | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
TRANSLATION: Everyone in their private life goes through difficult | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
periods. It is true, these are difficult moments, but I have one | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
principle, private matters should be dealt with privately, that's the | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
same for everyone concerned. So this is not the place nor the time to | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
discuss it. But so long as the confusion surrounds the First Lady's | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
position it is likely these questions will continue. Valerie | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
Trierweiler is still in hospital, still "resting". We don't know how | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
many of these secret nights there were, but photographers who tailed | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
Mr Hollande, on his moped, say no-one ever tried to stop them. | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
TRANSLATION: We were there every night, the President was in an | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
apartment without any security. Even outside. I even saw the President | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
walk around the block. The public and the private, boundaries blurred | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
by the unnecessary risks Mr Hollande is said to have taken. Right now it | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
is the President's judgment that is being debated, not his choice in | :10:30. | :10:37. | |
women. Now also in Paris for us, the French cultural commentator. Thank | :10:38. | :10:45. | |
you for joining us, when President Hollande gave his non-answer, | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
answer, at the news conference, was that appropriate to French ears? It | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
was certainly not surprising. We didn't expect him to suddenly open | :10:56. | :11:05. | |
his heart to the French people. We did expect, perhaps a statement, | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
before the press conference, just to clear the way, a way to clarify his | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
position. But because his partner, Valerie Trierweiler, is still in | :11:16. | :11:18. | |
hospital, that was deemed not the right moment to actually issue that | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
statement. It did, however, and that's probably the most interesting | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
point on that topic, during his two-and-a-half hours of press | :11:28. | :11:35. | |
conference, that he would clarify his personal situation before going | :11:36. | :11:38. | |
on an official visit to Washington. That is in three weeks time. We | :11:39. | :11:44. | |
should know very soon if indeed Valerie Trierweiler remains France's | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
First Lady. Will the public mind or care whether he goes alone to | :11:51. | :11:56. | |
Washington? No, of course not. And perhaps, you know, perhaps he | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
regrets having introduced his partner to the nation at large. She | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
could, probably should have remained in the shadows. It would be easier | :12:07. | :12:16. | |
for him, also don't forget that the concept of First Lady is viewed as | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
an American concept in France, and doesn't have any clear status and is | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
a very ill-defined position. It depends on the President in exercise | :12:28. | :12:38. | |
whether to give the first partner any staff or any public function. | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
And yes, let's get to the issue that may well matter more to the French | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
people themselves, much of this lengthy news conference was about | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
the economic programme for the country and we're talking about cuts | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
in public spending, cuts in taxes, is this what was expected or does | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
that come as something of a shock? I'm very glad you mentioned the most | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
important part of his press conference. Because he had prepared | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
a lot for the third press conference of his presidency. And yes, he did | :13:08. | :13:15. | |
announce some interesting policies. You know, there has been talk that | :13:16. | :13:21. | |
for a long time that he's not a socialist really, but a social | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
democrat. I think that was the first policies, Social Democratic policies | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
that he was announcing for the first time since being elected to power. | :13:30. | :13:37. | |
Indeed he has announced 15 billion euros of cuts in public spending. | :13:38. | :13:44. | |
But also a big chunk of social charges that are quite hefty in | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
France and paid by employers that would be simply scrapped. So a lot | :13:51. | :13:57. | |
of things. He also talked about Europe, he talked about | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
unemployment, about anti-semitism in France and also about military | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
operations in Mali and Central African Republic. Let's give you a | :14:09. | :14:15. | |
brief look at some of the day's other news. Reports from south Sudan | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
say at least 200 people have died in a ferry accident. They boarded the | :14:21. | :14:24. | |
overcrowded boat while trying to escape fighting in the city. Rebels | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
loyal to the former deputy President claim they have since captured | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
Malakal from Government forces. A new survey of lions has found they | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
could face extinction in west Africa, fewer than 400 are left in | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
the region. The research was carried out in 17 countries, from Senegal to | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
Nigeria, taking more than six years. With fewer than 250 lions of | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
breeding age left, there are concerns the entire population could | :14:53. | :15:01. | |
disappear. A doctor in northern China has been given a suspended | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
death sentence for stealing new born babies and selling them to child | :15:06. | :15:08. | |
traffickers. The obstetrician convinced the parents that their | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
babies had serious health problems and should be cared for by the | :15:12. | :15:22. | |
state. Paraded in front of a courtroom, Dr Zhang Shuxia was | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
convicted of selling seven infants to a child trafficking ring. She | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
received a suspended death prison, usually changed to life in prison | :15:33. | :15:35. | |
after two years of good behaviour. It was at this hospital where the | :15:36. | :15:38. | |
respected obstetrician had lied to new parents, telling them their new | :15:39. | :15:41. | |
borns were seriously ill. If they handed their children over to the | :15:42. | :15:44. | |
state, families were told, the babies would receive the expensive | :15:45. | :15:48. | |
medical care they needed. When police broke up the ring, seven | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
healthy new borns had already been sold, leading to multiple arrests. | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
And several triumphant home Cummings, as police returned the | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
abducted children to their rightful parents. All except one child, sold | :16:03. | :16:10. | |
for just $165, abandoned by the traffickers. Some outraged Chinese | :16:11. | :16:15. | |
citizens argued that the doctor should die for her crimes. In this | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
country where child trafficking is relatively common, a suspended death | :16:20. | :16:25. | |
sentence is too lenient, they said. The Nigerian authorities say 30 | :16:26. | :16:29. | |
people have been killed by a bomb explosion in the north eastern city | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
of Maiduguri. The blast ripped through a packed market in t early | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
afternoon, causing panic as people tried to flee the scene on foot and | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
by car. Some reports suggest the bomb was planted in a motor Rick | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
saw, or a sack abandoned by a stall. The Islamist group, Boko Haram said | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
it carried out the attack. The British Government has ordered an | :16:54. | :16:55. | |
urgent investigation into whether the UK was involved in deadly raid | :16:56. | :17:03. | |
on a Sikh temple in the Indian city of Amritza in 1984. Recently | :17:04. | :17:08. | |
unclassified documents suggest that an SAS officer advised Indian | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
authorities prior to the storming of the Golden Temple where hundreds | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
died. The storming of the Golden Temple in the area angered Sikhs | :17:21. | :17:24. | |
around the world, who blamed Indian troops for violating their holyist | :17:25. | :17:31. | |
shrine. Now documents released under the 30-year rule, apparently show | :17:32. | :17:34. | |
the British were involved. One Foreign Office letter says "with the | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
Prime Minister's agreement, an SAD officer has visited India and drawn | :17:40. | :17:42. | |
up a plan, which has been approved by Mrs Gandhi". There appears to be | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
a typing error that should read SAS. The letter warns it could increase | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
violence in India and warns it might also therefore increase tension in | :17:53. | :17:56. | |
the Indian community here. Particularly if knowledge of the SAS | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
involvement were to become public. Some MPs believe all the evidence of | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
British involvement must now be released. I think there are further | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
documentation, what we want is a full, candid, disclosure of all | :18:10. | :18:16. | |
explanations so we can get to the bottom exactly what happened here. | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
Even after 30 years Sikhs here in Britain want to know the truth about | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
what happened at Amritza, we are told neither David Cameron or the | :18:26. | :18:28. | |
Foreign Secretary, William Hague, were aware of the documents | :18:29. | :18:30. | |
suggesting Britain's involvement until they were published. But that | :18:31. | :18:34. | |
they do understand the very legitimate concerns that will be | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
raised by the revelations. At the largest Sikh temple outside India, | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
in Southall west London a community leader welcomed the Prime Minister's | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
decision to ask the cabinet secretary to investigate. This is a | :18:47. | :18:55. | |
holy place. For any religion, it is a heart-breaking thing. These things | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
do not go out from your mind. It is not a small thing. That is why if | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
the truth has come out, at least people know. Last year David Cameron | :19:06. | :19:10. | |
became the first serving British Prime Minister to visit the Golden | :19:11. | :19:17. | |
Temple. He is keen to focus on the historic and cultural ties with | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
Sikh, but now he's under pressure to uncover more about Britain's role in | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
an event which is seared into their history. London is a property hot | :19:26. | :19:33. | |
spot, viewed by many around the world as a safe bet when it comes to | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
real estate, now a new study has found that conflicts, turmoil and | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
general instability outside the UK have a direct impact on the price | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
paid for bricks and mortar here in the British capital. The study was | :19:47. | :19:53. | |
put together by the Business Cool of the University of Oxford, they found | :19:54. | :20:01. | |
that property here recorded the largest increases. The same patterns | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
can be seen with troubles in Egypt and Greece, another part of their | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
research looks at London's wealthiest areas, places like | :20:10. | :20:12. | |
Knightsbridge, the study concluding that China had the biggest impact on | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
the city's highend real estate prices. Instability in Russia and | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
Libya also pushed prices up in London's premier property market. | :20:23. | :20:29. | |
With me is a representative from the Business School of the University of | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
Oxford. You co-authored the report, we know about the idea as property | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
as a safe haven and safe investment, you go beyond that don't you? That's | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
right, our launching off point is London is not a big non-know lithic | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
eptity but composed of many little region, because we all live in parts | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
of London, we don't live in the whole place. You can link and map | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
particular parts of London to particular foreign countries, either | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
by using things like the language, the principal language spoken in the | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
regions or the share of residents that originate from those countries. | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
That is our launching off point for this particular thing. Some of the | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
research that you have come up with, for example, looks at southern | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
Europe, Italy, Spain, Greece and normally people talk about maybe the | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
Chinese or Arab money, but southern Europe and the euro crisis features | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
highly? One of the ways to think about this is when political | :21:25. | :21:30. | |
uncertainty went up in Spain, the prices came up in London across the | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
board, but specifically regions linked to Spain, such as high-income | :21:35. | :21:41. | |
areas, such as St John's Wood, would have appreciated. But areas like | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
King's Cross would have appreciated at the same time, they have also a | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
high share of Spanish residents. So it is an uncertainty, as you say, in | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
southern Europe, because it is a large factor in the real estate | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
prices. It is not just the real estate priority, looking at the | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
Shard in London, it is owned by Qatar, but you have also looked at | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
lower income areas, and they are still influenced by nationalities | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
who tend to cluster. Absolutely, that's right. You do see the usual | :22:12. | :22:14. | |
effects that you would have expected to see in Mayfair or Knightsbridge | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
or the popular areas and wealthy areas, but you also see effects in | :22:20. | :22:26. | |
areas which are also inhabited by clusters of regional communities. | :22:27. | :22:29. | |
One of the reassuring things of the research is we show the effects are | :22:30. | :22:32. | |
not permanent. One of the things people tend to think about safe | :22:33. | :22:35. | |
haven effects, that they push prices up and prices stay up forever. That | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
is not the case. When political uncertainty rises prices go up, when | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
the uncertainty dissipates prices go back down over one or two years. | :22:45. | :22:48. | |
That suggests a pattern of people moving their capital in and out of | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
London and not taking up residence in London. Which means you get back | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
to what Londoners say that a lot of homes are not actually homes? That I | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
suppose is a very true statement that you are making there. Another | :23:03. | :23:06. | |
way to sort of portray that, perhaps, is the fact that while | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
these effects are temporary on the prices of houses. It reaches the | :23:11. | :23:17. | |
local community which is the internationalisation of London, | :23:18. | :23:19. | |
which perhaps is a very nice thing about this. It is fascinating, | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
London is one of those global cities, thank you very much for | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
coming to talk it all through with me. | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
Now it was called the war to end all war, those who fought it lived | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
through brutality that was almost impossible for families back home to | :23:36. | :23:38. | |
imagine. But now, for the first time, many of the diaries written by | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
soldiers written on the frontline are being published by the National | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
Archives here. 300,000 pages of personal testimony released so far. | :23:49. | :24:00. | |
A picture of the war itself. "Here I sit outside our headquarters' trench | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
in the sun. All should be nice and peaceful and pretty what it actually | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
is, is beyond description. Trenches, ammunition tool, caps et cetera, et | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
cetera, everywhere, poor fells shot dead are lying in all directions." | :24:15. | :24:21. | |
Thousands of war diaries, 1. 5 million separate documents. Once the | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
fodder for authors and researchers, now they are available for the first | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
time at the click of a mouse. "The order to retire was at last given... | :24:32. | :24:37. | |
" These are the last days of the men in a giant army, the attacks, the | :24:38. | :24:43. | |
food, the horrific casualties, neatly typed on to official military | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
forms and stored away for decades. The names carved on to our local war | :24:49. | :24:53. | |
memorials are the most obvious reminders of the war, all of us will | :24:54. | :24:56. | |
have a direct connection with somebody who served in this | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
conflict. The hope is that these diaries released into the public | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
domain will give more and more people the opportunity to follow a | :25:03. | :25:11. | |
personal trail. This is Operation War Diary, under way at a school in | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
Southampton. Students reading the unseen documents are tagging names | :25:17. | :25:19. | |
and events, adding to their own knowledge and improving the | :25:20. | :25:23. | |
archive's search engine. They talk about their supplies from the battle | :25:24. | :25:29. | |
for their cooking. From the sounds of it they are getting quite annoyed | :25:30. | :25:32. | |
because their supplies aren't reaching all the way through. It | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
just shows you what happens behind the scenes and how these men | :25:37. | :25:39. | |
actually lived and what the quality of their lives were at that time. | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
You read it and you take it in but when you then have to specifically | :25:44. | :25:47. | |
point out things, it again just immerses you even more. Holes where | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
shells had struck, branches torn off trees by the explosion. Everywhere | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
the same hard, grim, pitiless sign of battle and war. I have had a | :25:59. | :26:04. | |
belly full of it. Ghastly, absolutely ghastly. | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
The eyewitnesses have left us, but they survive through the curling | :26:09. | :26:15. | |
pages of their final observations. Just time to remind you of our main | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
news, Egyptians are voting on a new constitution that could pave the way | :26:20. | :26:23. | |
for the head of the army to run for President. It is the first vote | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
since General El-Sisi overthrew Egypt's elected President, Mohammed | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
Morsi in July. Muslim Brotherhood supporters are boycotting the | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
referendum. And we have been reminded on the programme that it | :26:38. | :26:41. | |
has been very difficult for those opposed to the new constitution to | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
air their views in public. Thank you for joining me on World News Today. | :26:46. | :27:01. | |
Much more cloud across the country, outbreaks of rain for | :27:02. | :27:02. |