:00:07. > :00:13.This is BBC World News Today with me Philippa Thomas. An epidemic of
:00:14. > :00:19.child abuse, online and to order. Our report uncovers widespread sex
:00:20. > :00:24.abuse and the Philippines. It is an industry driven by poverty and the
:00:25. > :00:27.local police say the abusers in the Philippines are often the victim's
:00:28. > :00:37.families, working for paedophiles abroad. The pattern from the other
:00:38. > :00:41.side of the world gives the orders. More than $2 billion was raised to
:00:42. > :00:45.help Syrian refugees at an international donor conference.
:00:46. > :00:48.There are warnings much more help is needed.
:00:49. > :00:53.They say they will stay put until the Prime Minister goes. The
:00:54. > :00:58.continued protests in Thailand. The government say the general election
:00:59. > :01:17.will go ahead as planned. And should the trike's artworks be sold? --
:01:18. > :01:21.Detroit's. Hello and welcome.
:01:22. > :01:24.We begin with a special investigation into webcam sex
:01:25. > :01:32.tourism which reveals shocking details about the skill of the
:01:33. > :01:36.industry. Last year the BBC's Angus Crawford reported on a sting
:01:37. > :01:40.operation in which a computer-generated image of a child
:01:41. > :01:44.in the Philippines, and image cold-macro one, was used to expose
:01:45. > :01:52.thousands of paedophiles. No Angus reports from the Philippines were
:01:53. > :01:56.real children are being abused. You may find some of his report
:01:57. > :02:03.disturbing. This street holds a secret. It
:02:04. > :02:11.children were sexually abused and raped by their own family. The
:02:12. > :02:16.children were -- room where police say the abuse was broadcast by
:02:17. > :02:22.webcam to foreign paedophiles. This British man, Timothy Ford, directed
:02:23. > :02:27.the abuse from his home in the UK. The police raid in the Philippines
:02:28. > :02:34.last year sparked by what was found on Timothy Ford's computer. He was
:02:35. > :02:39.sent to prison for 8.5 years. 12 children, the youngest to survive,
:02:40. > :02:43.were taken into care. Some of the children are now back in the
:02:44. > :02:51.community. Her parents are still in jail. -- the youngest, just five.
:02:52. > :02:59.Ford plan to buy a house and open Internet cafe here, for him and
:03:00. > :03:06.other paedophiles to use. But we have discovered that Ford is just
:03:07. > :03:11.one of thousands. They call it cybersex. We travelled across the
:03:12. > :03:14.Philippines and found some neighbourhoods have been virtually
:03:15. > :03:22.taken over by it. The abuse of children online has become an
:03:23. > :03:23.industry, driven by poverty. The families are involved in this
:03:24. > :03:40.business. This is in the south of the country.
:03:41. > :03:45.It has become notorious for this kind of crime. This is, in effect,
:03:46. > :03:51.the epicentre of the cybersex industry. It takes place in rooms,
:03:52. > :03:57.in houses around here, undercover. All they need is a laptop and a
:03:58. > :04:03.USB. One recent survey showed that 80 houses were involved here with
:04:04. > :04:07.the families check -- selling their children for sex online. This kind
:04:08. > :04:11.of webcam abuse has become rooted in the culture here and local charities
:04:12. > :04:16.find it difficult to convince families of the harm it causes. The
:04:17. > :04:21.client from the other part of the globe gives the instruction to touch
:04:22. > :04:27.this and touched that, kids this and gives that. And even send sex toys
:04:28. > :04:34.to these children so that they can use them. It is amiss -- a myth that
:04:35. > :04:38.there is no touching. Some of the birds are relatives are the ones
:04:39. > :04:45.touching them. A couple of streets away another home raided an entity.
:04:46. > :04:50.A two-year-old was rescued here. But some -- it is something no one wants
:04:51. > :04:54.to talk about. How do I know when their house is closed? I did not get
:04:55. > :05:01.inside their house and see what they were doing. This is where our
:05:02. > :05:06.children live. Some children to escape the abuse. Here to a shelter
:05:07. > :05:10.where they can start to recover. They feel small and dirty about
:05:11. > :05:18.themselves. Many are deeply traumatised, some of -- talk of
:05:19. > :05:22.seeing on the computer screen, the man paying them to be touched.
:05:23. > :05:25.Thousands of children are thought to be victims of online sexual
:05:26. > :05:29.exploitation. At least now police here and around the world are
:05:30. > :05:43.tackling what charities call an epidemic of abuse.
:05:44. > :05:49.We've got a Dutch charity who exposed sex tourism on computers.
:05:50. > :05:55.They identified 1000 paedophiles. Looking at this report, what is it
:05:56. > :06:00.about the Philippines, do you think, that has allowed this to take hold?
:06:01. > :06:04.It started about a couple of years ago. We noticed that the children
:06:05. > :06:13.were working from Internet cafes, not so much hotels and cafes any
:06:14. > :06:17.longer. What contributes as the poverty and that English is a second
:06:18. > :06:22.language. It is easy for them to communicate with Westerners. And
:06:23. > :06:27.thirdly the Internet coverage which is easily accessible, not just in
:06:28. > :06:31.cities, but in rural areas. That makes the Villa team so important
:06:32. > :06:38.for this particular crime to stop you looked at this issue across
:06:39. > :06:44.Asia. That is correct. We have been working there for more than a
:06:45. > :06:47.decade. As far as we can tell it has not been introduced in other
:06:48. > :06:51.countries yet. But there is no reason to believe it will be
:06:52. > :06:56.restricted to the Philippines only. We are worried that, given the
:06:57. > :07:01.enormous demand of Westerners to engage children in sexual activity,
:07:02. > :07:06.that this for nominal and will take place in other places. The most
:07:07. > :07:12.shocking detail, I think is that families enabling and sometimes put
:07:13. > :07:18.as a beating and abuse. Did that surprise you? Not really. Most of
:07:19. > :07:25.the time these people are desperate to get out of their poverty traps.
:07:26. > :07:29.-- and participating. It is not unusual for Filipinos because the
:07:30. > :07:32.family ties are very strong, that the Asp family members to sacrifice
:07:33. > :07:42.themselves for the greater good of the family. -- Aske. This goes
:07:43. > :07:50.really far and I am sure that families do not want to do it, but
:07:51. > :07:55.they cannot see a way out of their poverty. When we started to
:07:56. > :08:01.investigate this issue a few years ago, we were estimating a couple of
:08:02. > :08:06.hundred in Manila and the other major city in the Philippines. Now
:08:07. > :08:12.according to latest estimates were talking about thousands of children.
:08:13. > :08:16.So it is taking on epidemic proportions. The only way to put a
:08:17. > :08:22.stop to this is to do something about the demand, make it more
:08:23. > :08:27.complicated for men to get access. You with Sweetie, the sting
:08:28. > :08:31.operation, managed to identify 1000 paedophiles. There have been
:08:32. > :08:38.prosecutions proving there can be something done about this? Our main
:08:39. > :08:41.objective was to demonstrate how widespread this for nominal and has
:08:42. > :08:50.become in a short period of time, in 2.5 years. The second point was it
:08:51. > :08:58.is so easy to identify victims. That is as far as we can go. Police and
:08:59. > :09:03.law enforcement can go beyond. It is easy to identify perpetrators and
:09:04. > :09:07.scare them off. Where has that been taken particularly serious? In the
:09:08. > :09:14.UK the authorities are alert to the problem. The Sweetie project has
:09:15. > :09:17.contributed to more awareness. Everywhere as far as we can tell all
:09:18. > :09:21.of the world governments and law enforcement are now looking again at
:09:22. > :09:25.this particular phenomenon and seeing what possibilities they
:09:26. > :09:30.have, what kind of mandate is required to tackle this problem.
:09:31. > :09:36.Thank you very much. You can see more detail from Angus Crawford's
:09:37. > :09:39.investigation and more background on the BBC website. You can get in
:09:40. > :09:45.touch with me about this and other news stories on Twitter.
:09:46. > :09:49.One simple figure today highlights the impact of the conflict in Syria.
:09:50. > :09:53.The United Nations now says that more than half the population
:09:54. > :09:56.urgently needs demand to help. It has launched its biggest ever appeal
:09:57. > :10:06.for a single crisis at a donor conference in Kuwait. It is asking
:10:07. > :10:10.for a $6.5 billion. Syria's growing desperation has
:10:11. > :10:15.brought these Foreign Minister is to Kuwait. They came to pledge aid a
:10:16. > :10:18.year ago. Now the humanitarian crisis has escalated and much more
:10:19. > :10:23.money is needed. We are bit frustrated because they need on the
:10:24. > :10:27.ground is much greater than the response from the international
:10:28. > :10:30.committee. We knew that during this conference there would be some
:10:31. > :10:40.response and more money will comment. -- come in. Semipermanent
:10:41. > :10:45.tent cities have grown up outside Syria for the country's refugees.
:10:46. > :10:48.This one is in Jordan. The US and Kuwait have announced more large
:10:49. > :10:54.donations and the UK promised another $160 million. In some
:10:55. > :10:59.besieged areas inside Syria, people are thought to be dying of
:11:00. > :11:02.malnutrition. Delivering aid to them is almost impossible so cease-fires
:11:03. > :11:08.as well as money are urgently needed. One UN official described
:11:09. > :11:14.how hard it is foreign aid convoy to reach a refugee camp near Damascus.
:11:15. > :11:21.We were given at Gould dies -- bulldozer to go in front to move
:11:22. > :11:30.deeply. There was water that landed nearby, machine-gun fire, the convoy
:11:31. > :11:34.had to turn round and comeback. 10,000 polio vaccinations and ten
:11:35. > :11:37.trucks of food aid had to go back. Western governments have long
:11:38. > :11:42.condemned the Syrian regime, but in a new development, it appears
:11:43. > :11:50.Western intelligence agencies have visited Damascus to discuss radical
:11:51. > :11:56.Islamist groups. When these countries as this for security
:11:57. > :12:05.cooperation it seems to me there is seclusion between the leaderships.
:12:06. > :12:13.The main Syrian opposition groups sees itself as the conduit to fight
:12:14. > :12:16.jihad e-groups. It is dismayed that Western governments may be
:12:17. > :12:21.cooperating with President Assad who they believe is secretly in league
:12:22. > :12:24.with the extremists. Unfortunately if these reports are true,
:12:25. > :12:29.intelligence is going to the wrong place. They are going to the Assad
:12:30. > :12:36.regime trying to get more information. It is a creation of the
:12:37. > :12:40.Assad regime. This row undermines trust was Syria's opposition at a
:12:41. > :12:47.crucial time, with key peace talks due next week.
:12:48. > :12:51.Let's take a beef look at some of the day's other news. At least 75
:12:52. > :12:55.people have been killed in a series of bombings in central Iraq
:12:56. > :12:59.according to police and medical officials. 16 died on an attack for
:13:00. > :13:12.a funeral for approval government 's in the official. -- pro-government.
:13:13. > :13:15.In Egypt, the polls have just closed after two days of voting in a
:13:16. > :13:22.referendum on a new constitution. The document was drawn up following
:13:23. > :13:26.the ousting of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The Muslim
:13:27. > :13:29.Brotherhood has been boycotting the referendum but it is thought the
:13:30. > :13:33.Army will get the yes vote it desires, a move that could lead to
:13:34. > :13:39.elections later this year. The American technology company
:13:40. > :13:46.Apple, has agreed to pay more than $32 billion back to his customers
:13:47. > :13:51.due to it being used by children without the knowledge of their
:13:52. > :13:54.parents. There have been tens of thousands of complaints and as part
:13:55. > :14:00.of the settlement, Apple will have to change as billing procedures.
:14:01. > :14:02.George Osborne has urged the European Union to become more
:14:03. > :14:10.competitive and to cut welfare spending. The chief finance minister
:14:11. > :14:19.said the treaty's -- treaties underpinning the EU are no longer
:14:20. > :14:23.fit for purpose. The promised to change the relationship with the EU
:14:24. > :14:26.was supposed to calm rows in the Conservative party but some Tories
:14:27. > :14:30.are impatient but change and the tone of the debate has riled senior
:14:31. > :14:36.figures in Brussels. The right of citizens to move freely is a
:14:37. > :14:40.contentious area. The government tightened the rules on migrants
:14:41. > :14:45.claiming benefits but today politicians were warned not to
:14:46. > :14:51.inflame tensions. Let us not use stereotypes. Let's have a rational
:14:52. > :14:57.debate. Let's not give into scaremongering. Conservatives hit
:14:58. > :15:00.back, saying they were not out to stigmatise any nationality. He
:15:01. > :15:07.should be careful not to join others to write the debate down and
:15:08. > :15:11.accusing people of saying things we have not said. The Bulgarian Foreign
:15:12. > :15:21.Minister said that offence had been caused. The campaign going on,
:15:22. > :15:25.especially last year, was, I would say, a bit unpleasant. This
:15:26. > :15:32.situation, the signals coming from the UK, will be changed and I expect
:15:33. > :15:37.more positive signals. Almost 100 Conservative MPs called for the UK
:15:38. > :15:42.Parliament to have a veto overall European Union laws. The Chancellor
:15:43. > :15:47.did outline a case for reform, but it certainly did not go that far.
:15:48. > :15:54.Instead George Osborne said it was not about Britain's desires to pull
:15:55. > :15:58.back from Europe, but being more competitive in global markets. The
:15:59. > :16:03.biggest economic risks facing Europe does not come from those who want
:16:04. > :16:07.reform, it comes from a failure to reform. It is the status quo that
:16:08. > :16:13.condemns the people of Europe to an ongoing economic crisis and
:16:14. > :16:16.continuing decline. The immediate challenge for the Conservative
:16:17. > :16:24.leadership is to contain the party's disagreements over Europe.
:16:25. > :16:29.The government in Thailand said it will stick to a timetable for an
:16:30. > :16:31.election scheduled for next month, despite protests that have brought
:16:32. > :16:36.much of central Bangkok to a standstill. Demonstrators demand the
:16:37. > :16:46.prime ministers stop the election and resign.
:16:47. > :16:55.Bangkok, on day three of what is supposed to be a shutdown. Although
:16:56. > :17:03.it is only in the city centre that the protesters run the show. And
:17:04. > :17:08.where there'll leader still makes his triumphant marchers. But where
:17:09. > :17:11.is he leading them? You are pushing this country towards a dangerous
:17:12. > :17:19.conflict, are you worried about that? Not at all, we are fighting
:17:20. > :17:23.peacefully without weapons and we do not use violence, you concede that,
:17:24. > :17:28.we are here, with just our bare hands. -- you can see that. Nobody
:17:29. > :17:32.seems to concerned about what the other side thinks of the
:17:33. > :17:38.insurrection, but perhaps they should be. While this protest leader
:17:39. > :17:42.has Bangkok under his spell, the rest of the country, much of it,
:17:43. > :17:46.still supports the government. How will they reacted he achieves his
:17:47. > :17:56.goal and forces the Prime Minister from power? To find out, you do not
:17:57. > :18:02.have to travel far from the capital. Half an hour away is a stronghold of
:18:03. > :18:09.the pro-government redshirts. When hard-core protesters came here last
:18:10. > :18:17.Friday, this is what happened. GUNFIRE. Somebody pulled out of
:18:18. > :18:26.assault rifle. Customers of this shop cowered behind the tables. The
:18:27. > :18:33.shop is owned by this person. The shoot out has really on nerve to
:18:34. > :18:41.her. She said business is terrible now, people got hurt. My customers
:18:42. > :18:43.are worried it will happen again. The man who confronted the
:18:44. > :18:50.protesters is the local redshirts leader. He has erected a wall of
:18:51. > :18:56.steel plates to protect his roadside base from the now nightly gunfire.
:18:57. > :19:02.He brought out the weapons donated by supporters, he said, for self
:19:03. > :19:08.defence. For now, he has been ordered to stay put, do nothing. But
:19:09. > :19:16.if the government is forced out, he plans to use whatever he has two
:19:17. > :19:20.fight back. TRANSLATION: I will collect my people and we will try to
:19:21. > :19:27.fight in the open. If we cannot win now, we will go underground. One of
:19:28. > :19:32.his guards is lying in the local hospital, lucky to be alive after
:19:33. > :19:39.last week's shooting. There are similar casualties on the other
:19:40. > :19:45.side. That still has not deterred them. They like to call their
:19:46. > :19:53.uprising a peaceful one, but with so much at stake, more violence is
:19:54. > :19:58.probably unavoidable. The trial of four men accused of
:19:59. > :20:03.involvement in the attack on the Westgate Mall in Kenya has opened.
:20:04. > :20:07.Gunmen killed 67 people in September. The court heard testimony
:20:08. > :20:14.from a guard outside the shopping mall in Nairobi when the attack was
:20:15. > :20:19.launched. They are not the Westgate conmen,
:20:20. > :20:23.but they are as close as the authorities have got to establishing
:20:24. > :20:28.a possible network behind the attack. Four men of Somali origin in
:20:29. > :20:32.court and charged with helping it happen. They face charges such as
:20:33. > :20:40.harbouring the gunman, contacting them, and holding. Humans. Witnesses
:20:41. > :20:46.were called, both security guards. They told us what they saw that
:20:47. > :20:50.fateful day, the attackers arriving, plumes of smoke and explosions. 40
:20:51. > :20:54.witnesses will be called, and all defendants have pleaded not guilty
:20:55. > :21:00.in a trial that is likely to last a week. It is almost four months since
:21:01. > :21:05.Westgate, a favourite of high society, came under attack.
:21:06. > :21:10.Governmental rampage, holding some hostage and executing others. Almost
:21:11. > :21:26.70 were killed, some trapped by collapsed floors. The Islamist
:21:27. > :21:32.militant group Al Shabana Shebab. Claimed responsibility. There were
:21:33. > :21:37.allegations of looting by soldiers. It was said the government had hired
:21:38. > :21:42.space in a shopping mall to prepare the attack. The question remains
:21:43. > :21:46.what happened to the gunman? The Kenyan government says they are
:21:47. > :21:49.likely to have died in the siege, but intelligence reports suggest
:21:50. > :21:55.they could have escaped. As one analyst put it to me, if they had
:21:56. > :21:58.perished, the authorities would have rushed to provide forensic evidence
:21:59. > :22:04.from the bodies, but, so far, there has been none.
:22:05. > :22:07.If you had a priceless art collection and were billions of
:22:08. > :22:13.dollars in debt, would you sell the pictures? That is what some think
:22:14. > :22:18.should happen in Detroit, which is $18 billion in debt. The story home
:22:19. > :22:22.of the American auto industry and Motown records now has the dubious
:22:23. > :22:26.distinction of being the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history
:22:27. > :22:34.and it is under emergency management. They are now looking to
:22:35. > :22:40.recoup cash at the Art Gallery, which is home to a collection valued
:22:41. > :22:44.between 400 million and $800 million. This week, foundations have
:22:45. > :22:49.stepped in with cash offers to save the art for the city. But they have
:22:50. > :22:54.fallen short of the figure and we think the museum's future is still
:22:55. > :23:02.up in the air. We can speak to the director of the Detroit Institute of
:23:03. > :23:07.arts. Can you remind us of some of the highlights of the collection
:23:08. > :23:16.that is so much more than a city Museum. We have four van Goghs, the
:23:17. > :23:24.self-portrait, the first van Gogh to enter the US public museum. Matisse.
:23:25. > :23:33.That was also the first in 1922. We have a second cast of Rodin. We have
:23:34. > :23:40.a Rembrandt, Picasso, almost all of the great names. How many of these
:23:41. > :23:48.pieces now risk being sold to help pay debt? It is a complicated
:23:49. > :23:54.situation. For reasons that have not been explained to me, but I can
:23:55. > :24:02.guess, the emergency manager asked Christie 's to evaluate those works
:24:03. > :24:07.of art that have as a credit title a city of Detroit purchase and those
:24:08. > :24:14.are the works, when you mentioned 600, 800 million, those are the
:24:15. > :24:20.works that constitutes that value. The total collection is 65,000
:24:21. > :24:24.pieces, which, of course, as with many American museums, nine tenths
:24:25. > :24:29.of the collections come as gifts is, rather than Museum purchases. Given
:24:30. > :24:33.that Detroit is in dire straits and basic services do not function in
:24:34. > :24:43.some neighbourhoods, why does it matter so much if it leaves
:24:44. > :24:49.Detroit? The Institute is one of the country's greatest collections,
:24:50. > :24:52.encyclopaedic museums. It is an extremely important factor in the
:24:53. > :24:57.cultural life of the region. For example, it is one of the things
:24:58. > :25:03.that could be cited when, as is always the case, individuals try to
:25:04. > :25:09.bring business to Detroit. It is a glorious collection. It belongs,
:25:10. > :25:14.really, to the people. The fact it is owned by the city of Detroit is
:25:15. > :25:24.almost a fluke of history. Our position is that it is in fact,
:25:25. > :25:29.non-league, it is a public trust and therefore cannot be liquidated to
:25:30. > :25:40.settle any debt. -- nominally. Have the people shown you they want the
:25:41. > :25:44.art to stay? Yes. We had a make over of the institute some years ago.
:25:45. > :25:49.There was a vote to tax themselves to keep it going because we operate
:25:50. > :25:52.as a private institution and not a city department. There was an
:25:53. > :25:59.opinion poll of residents of residence a few weeks ago, where 78%
:26:00. > :26:11.said they wanted to keep the art untouched. 70% said that
:26:12. > :26:15.pensioners. The museum, we know, people feel strongly about the
:26:16. > :26:23.collection. It is of deep significance for the city in this
:26:24. > :26:29.region. Thanks for joining us. You can talk to me on Twitter about
:26:30. > :26:34.this or any of the other stories. You can also read more on the BBC
:26:35. > :26:40.News website. For now, from B and the rest of the team, thanks for
:26:41. > :26:57.being with us on World News Today. -- from me.
:26:58. > :27:02.We have not seen much sunshine across the British Isles today but I
:27:03. > :27:11.am hopeful we will see more tomorrow. We are anticipating some
:27:12. > :27:12.showers as well, particularly to the south and west. This weather front
:27:13. > :27:14.behind