:00:00. > :00:08.This is BBC World News Today with me Zeinab Badawi. Deadlock at the
:00:09. > :00:12.Geneva peace talks that are trying to end the conflict in Syria - the
:00:13. > :00:16.warring sides blame each other for the impasse.
:00:17. > :00:19.We have a special report from our correspondent, who's just been
:00:20. > :00:23.inside the besieged city of Homs and seen the evacuations first-hand.
:00:24. > :00:35.The grim reality of cancer for some of the families are worried
:00:36. > :00:44.that when the United Nations leave, there will be issues. We are not
:00:45. > :00:48.leaving. He grim reality of cancer for men - new statistics show that,
:00:49. > :00:52.globally, men are twice as likely to die of cancer than women, except in
:00:53. > :00:54.East Africa. ??NELWINE Also coming up... In Indonesia, tens of
:00:55. > :00:58.thousands are evacuated from their homes on the island of Java after a
:00:59. > :01:00.volcano eruption. Three people were killed.
:01:01. > :01:08.Fancy a visit to the Taj Mahal in India without leaving your own
:01:09. > :01:11.living room? The boom in virtual reality experiences and why some
:01:12. > :01:20.believe this kind of technology can transform lives.
:01:21. > :01:23.Hello and welcome. The irony is that the casualties in the Syrian
:01:24. > :01:30.conflict have risen ever since the talks in Geneva began a month ago.
:01:31. > :01:33.Now it seems that those talks end the week in deadlock over the key
:01:34. > :01:35.issue of a transitional government. Meanwhile, on the humanitarian
:01:36. > :01:38.front, our Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, has been
:01:39. > :01:41.in the besieged city of Homs and witnessed the evacuations that have
:01:42. > :01:44.taken place during the temporary cease-fire this week. She's just
:01:45. > :01:58.gone back to the capital, Damascus, and filed this report. The injured,
:01:59. > :02:04.the ill and the elderly. 1400 people in all escaped a punishing siege
:02:05. > :02:12.this week. The mission has been hailed as a ray of light in a
:02:13. > :02:19.devastating war. But millions of Syrians are living in poverty across
:02:20. > :02:24.the country. World powers are failing to agree a resolution to
:02:25. > :02:31.help them. People who are now week, traumatised, have run out of all of
:02:32. > :02:34.their coping mechanisms and are looking to members of the Security
:02:35. > :02:38.Council and are looking to us as a world community to do something to
:02:39. > :02:46.stop the horror, to stop the violence. Jarring this temporary
:02:47. > :02:49.truce in a rebel held area of Homs, hundreds of young men also came out.
:02:50. > :03:00.We filmed Syrian soldiers taking pictures of them as they arrived at
:03:01. > :03:04.the reception centre. The governor of Homs intervened. He called in all
:03:05. > :03:09.troops in uniform with weapons to leave this area. There is growing
:03:10. > :03:16.concern about possible reprise oars. All men between the age of 15 and 55
:03:17. > :03:20.are being questioned. This man told us he feared for his future. Some
:03:21. > :03:32.had been released, some are being held. UN officials say they are
:03:33. > :03:40.keeping an eye on the situation. We need to ensure this situation is
:03:41. > :03:43.seen as not an interrogation and nothing beyond that. This will send
:03:44. > :03:47.a good message and it will build confidence will stop some of the
:03:48. > :03:50.family say they are worried that once a United Nations lead, the
:03:51. > :03:57.conditions could be different. The United Nations are not leaving, we
:03:58. > :04:01.are here. Many are concerned about the fate of the young men. The
:04:02. > :04:05.longer the operation here in Homs goes on, the more sensitive it
:04:06. > :04:12.becomes. Even this you man Terry and mission to help civilians can not
:04:13. > :04:14.help escape the conflict in this war.
:04:15. > :04:17.At the talks in Geneva, the Syrian opposition spokesman has said
:04:18. > :04:22.there's no point in continuing to negotiate with the current
:04:23. > :04:24.government delegates. Louay al-Safi says they've proven inflexible over
:04:25. > :04:28.the possibility of creating a transitional governing body. And
:04:29. > :04:38.he's urged the international community to push forward the peace
:04:39. > :04:43.process. I appeal to the international community, those
:04:44. > :04:54.countries and nations who can make a difference can push this process
:04:55. > :04:59.forward. The friends of Syria, these countries can play a very positive
:05:00. > :05:03.role. We hope that they will do that because Syrians have suffered so
:05:04. > :05:09.much, too much. We have to stop it and we have to find peace with the
:05:10. > :05:11.freedom and dignity. Syria's deputy foreign minister,
:05:12. > :05:17.Faisal Mekdad, reponded by saying the opposition is backing what he
:05:18. > :05:20.described as "terrorists". But he claimed the Government is still
:05:21. > :05:26.committed to working towards peace for Syria. Those who carry arms
:05:27. > :05:35.against their own people and against their government are terrorists. We
:05:36. > :05:42.are now in a process that will re-establish peace and furnish the
:05:43. > :05:53.way for restoring normality into Syria and in this crisis by peaceful
:05:54. > :05:56.means. This is what we are here for. A video has been posted online
:05:57. > :05:59.showing Abdul Waheed Majeed, the first British suicide bomber to blow
:06:00. > :06:02.himself up in Syria. The 43-minute video clearly shows Mr Majeed
:06:03. > :06:06.dressed in white. Other footage showed the large armoured truck bomb
:06:07. > :06:09.which was driven into the walls of Aleppo prison on February the 6th.
:06:10. > :06:20.His family said they believed he was in Syria for humanitarian purposes.
:06:21. > :06:23.We hope to bring you more on that Syria story later in the programme.
:06:24. > :06:25.The South African Paralympic sprint champion, Oscar Pistorius, has
:06:26. > :06:28.issued a statement expressing "sorrow" over the shooting of his
:06:29. > :06:33.girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on the first anniversary of her death. In
:06:34. > :06:37.the statement, he calls it a "devastating accident." Oscar
:06:38. > :06:42.Pistorius goes on trial in Pretoria next month for her murder. He says
:06:43. > :06:45.he shot her at his home because he mistook her for a burglar.
:06:46. > :06:54.Prosecutors say he killed her after a row.
:06:55. > :07:03.One year on and the death of Reeva Steenkamp still stirs up passion in
:07:04. > :07:10.South Africa. The ANC women's league joined many in marking the
:07:11. > :07:13.anniversary of her brutal death. She died here in Oscar Pistorius' home
:07:14. > :07:19.in the early hours of Valentine's Day last year. Despite having
:07:20. > :07:24.fatally shot her, the athlete has always maintained that her death was
:07:25. > :07:28.an accident. Oscar Pistorius told police he killed his girlfriend
:07:29. > :07:32.after mistaking her for an intruder. State prosecutors argued that was a
:07:33. > :07:37.premeditated murder that Oscar Pistorius took time to put on his
:07:38. > :07:43.artificial legs and follow his girlfriend from the bedroom before
:07:44. > :07:49.firing multiple shots through the door, killing her. Today, Oscar
:07:50. > :07:54.Pistorius spoke out publicly on his girlfriend's death. He released a
:07:55. > :08:00.statement on his website, describing the shooting as a devastating
:08:01. > :08:09.accident. Reeva Steenkamp's family placed newspaper adverts and held a
:08:10. > :08:16.private memorial in her hometown. There are calls for justice. We want
:08:17. > :08:23.them to ensure that the Justice system happens where everyone can
:08:24. > :08:29.see it. Once again, the spotlight will be back on Mr Pistorius when he
:08:30. > :08:38.goes on trial in March will stop if found guilty, he could face a life
:08:39. > :08:42.sentence in prison. Now back to our top story. We had that report from
:08:43. > :08:47.Lyse Doucet about the evacuation is taking place this week from the
:08:48. > :08:51.besieged city of Homs. We also have reported on how both warring sides
:08:52. > :09:03.at the peace talks are blaming each other for the stalemate, which is
:09:04. > :09:06.over the issue of a governing body. The BBC's Paul Wood has been
:09:07. > :09:10.following developments in Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon. He joins us
:09:11. > :09:14.live. Those talks, it does not inspire much hope that there will be
:09:15. > :09:22.progress. Talking to one senior diplomat on the inside of the talks,
:09:23. > :09:25.he says he is trying to move them from a psychology of war to a
:09:26. > :09:29.psychology of Contra mice. There is a huge gulf between the two sides
:09:30. > :09:33.over who will be the ruler of Syria, whether there will be regime change
:09:34. > :09:41.or not. There is an unbridgeable gulf. The idea was that there would
:09:42. > :09:49.be a series of localised cease-fires within Syria. There are cease-fires
:09:50. > :09:52.in some places. In others, the fighting continues more intensely
:09:53. > :09:58.than ever. That certainly has not been the effect, the hoped-for
:09:59. > :10:02.effect at Geneva. The process is very close to collapse, I think. So
:10:03. > :10:10.no word on whether they are going to go on talking in Geneva? That is the
:10:11. > :10:16.hope of Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special envoy. He has said all
:10:17. > :10:21.along, " we are facing a disaster." He always manages to bring it back
:10:22. > :10:34.from the brink. The question is do the two parties want to compromise
:10:35. > :10:38.or they pursuing their own aims? The latest battlefront is between Syria
:10:39. > :10:43.and Lebanon, 40,000 people trapped there by all accounts in the middle
:10:44. > :10:48.of an intense artillery bombardment and air. On the humanitarian front,
:10:49. > :10:52.the UN are saying it is too little on the too slow and other help for
:10:53. > :10:57.those civilians and trapped civilians in the besieged areas, not
:10:58. > :11:02.only in Homs. The UN's problem is it took 14 months to get aid into
:11:03. > :11:10.Homs. They welcome it but it is an obligation on all sides to allow
:11:11. > :11:14.Unitarian aid. It has taken a long time to achieve this. By some
:11:15. > :11:17.estimates, half of the Syrian population needs aid of one form or
:11:18. > :11:27.another and most of them possibly not getting it. Thank you very much.
:11:28. > :11:30.Now a look at some of the day's other news... The Italian president,
:11:31. > :11:32.Giorgio Napolitano, has accepted the resignation of the Prime Minister,
:11:33. > :11:35.Enrico Letta. Mr Letta formally submitted his resignation a day
:11:36. > :11:38.after his own Democratic Party voted to withdraw its backing for his
:11:39. > :11:41.coalition administration. The party's recently-elected leader,
:11:42. > :11:46.Matteo Renzi, is now likely to take his place. President Napolitano is
:11:47. > :11:50.expected to ask Mr Renzi to form a new administration.
:11:51. > :11:54.At least 18 people have lost their lives in a heavy snow storm that has
:11:55. > :11:56.swept across the east of the United States. Outside Philadelphia,
:11:57. > :12:00.slippery roads caused several traffic accidents on a highway.
:12:01. > :12:03.Thousands of flights have been cancelled and more than half a
:12:04. > :12:08.million homes and businesses are without power. Here in the UK, there
:12:09. > :12:12.are severe flood warnings across the country as winds of 80 miles an hour
:12:13. > :12:16.batter the south coast. 2,000 members of the armed forces are
:12:17. > :12:20.helping with flood defences - 3,000 more are standing by. More than
:12:21. > :12:23.1,000 homes have been evacuated and high winds are disrupting train
:12:24. > :12:26.services. Pope Francis invited more than
:12:27. > :12:30.10,000 couples from around the world to Rome to celebrate Saint
:12:31. > :12:34.Valentine's Day. The Pope answered questions sent in by Roman
:12:35. > :12:38.Catholics. He said that there was no such thing as a perfect husband and
:12:39. > :12:43.perfect wife, let alone - he added jokingly - a perfect mother-in-law.
:12:44. > :12:50.But he stressed couples should not be afraid to make lasting choices.
:12:51. > :12:54.There is quite a gender gap when it comes to cancer. According to new
:12:55. > :12:58.global statistics, men are 50% more likely to die from cancer than
:12:59. > :13:02.women. Data published by Cancer Research UK shows that more than 4.5
:13:03. > :13:07.million men die from the disease every year across the world. This
:13:08. > :13:12.compares to around 3.5 million women who die from the disease globally.
:13:13. > :13:18.However, there is one exception - in East Africa women, are more likely
:13:19. > :13:21.to die of cancer than men are. With me is Jonathan Waxman,
:13:22. > :13:24.Professor of Oncology at Imperial College London. He has helped
:13:25. > :13:28.develop new treatments for cancer, which are now part of standard
:13:29. > :13:36.practice. Just explain to us, why is it men
:13:37. > :13:42.are more likely to die of cancer than women? It is an old story, and
:13:43. > :13:46.the old stories are always the good ones. It has been known since the
:13:47. > :13:52.1960s that men are more likely to die than women. There is nothing new
:13:53. > :13:56.in the statistics? It is an old story and a good one. It focuses on
:13:57. > :13:59.particular problems. It is to do with the fact that men do things
:14:00. > :14:03.that are more likely to give them cancer, they work in awful places,
:14:04. > :14:08.down in mind, they smoke more, they drink more and they are, as a
:14:09. > :14:18.result, more likely to get cancer. Is stress also a factor in this? Not
:14:19. > :14:26.even new newsreaders! There has been about one or two studies that have
:14:27. > :14:32.shown a link between psychological state and cancer, breast cancer. The
:14:33. > :14:36.indications are very slim. Are there types of cancer that are responsible
:14:37. > :14:38.for the high death rate in men? There are certain types of cancer
:14:39. > :14:43.that affect men more than women, lung cancer and liver cancer,
:14:44. > :14:51.stomach cancer and bowel cancer as well. The long conscience smoking,
:14:52. > :14:58.the liver from drinking and infections. It is a lifestyle thing.
:14:59. > :15:05.What about East African? It seems extraordinary that there is an
:15:06. > :15:09.exception there. You have to be careful about statistics. The BBC
:15:10. > :15:13.runs programmes on statistics and talks about the difficulties of
:15:14. > :15:17.interpreting them. Particularly when it comes to cancer, it is very
:15:18. > :15:22.difficult because you might find cancer statistics for a little bit
:15:23. > :15:29.of Ethiopian or a bit of Somalia applied to the whole country. We
:15:30. > :15:35.have fabulous statistics from the ONS. You'll BSE and it happened in
:15:36. > :15:39.France. We are good at collecting data and people in under
:15:40. > :15:44.industrialised parts of the world have got better things to do then
:15:45. > :15:54.collect information. So it is inadequate information? Can you give
:15:55. > :16:01.us a blast through those treatments you have developed? I developed a
:16:02. > :16:08.treatment for prostate cancer which is now generally applied. Is it
:16:09. > :16:13.actually making a difference? It used to be that men were castrated
:16:14. > :16:14.for prostate cancer, because it is a Elise that is dependent on the male
:16:15. > :16:36.hormones, -- it is a Elise. Professor Jonathan Waxman, thank you
:16:37. > :16:39.very much. In Indonesia, tens of thousands of people have been
:16:40. > :16:42.evacuated from their homes on the heavily populated island of Java
:16:43. > :16:45.after the volcano, Mount Kelud, erupted. Volcanic ash coated towns
:16:46. > :16:49.and villages as far as 500km away, and three main airports were closed
:16:50. > :16:51.because of a lack of visibility. Three people died when their homes
:16:52. > :17:00.collapsed under the weight of volcanic debris. Alice Budisatrio
:17:01. > :17:03.reports. Mount Kelud eruptions sent ash and gravel seven interlopers
:17:04. > :17:05.into the atmosphere when most people were sleeping. They work up to see
:17:06. > :17:12.homes and streets blanketed with thick layers of ash and the air
:17:13. > :17:17.filled with dust. The authorities raised the alert at the highest
:17:18. > :17:21.level, just one hour before the eruptions, giving people very little
:17:22. > :17:25.time to move to safety. We are leaving because the status is on
:17:26. > :17:30.high alert, so we have been told to evacuate from our village. This is
:17:31. > :17:36.the Jakarta airport, $300 metres away. Authorities were closed --
:17:37. > :17:39.forced to close the airport as volcanic ash covered the runway,
:17:40. > :17:44.blocking visibility and threatening to damage aircraft engines. A brief
:17:45. > :17:47.downpour washed away some of the ash, but with the tarmac muddy and
:17:48. > :17:53.slippery. Three other major airports were shut down. In cities and
:17:54. > :17:58.villages across Central and East Java, authorities are calling for
:17:59. > :18:03.volunteers to help clear streets of the debris. Indonesians are
:18:04. > :18:06.resilient in the face of natural disasters, which happen all too
:18:07. > :18:11.often. Many people are out cleaning the streets and sweeping their
:18:12. > :18:15.roost. The authority said the volcanic activity had decreased and
:18:16. > :18:21.that more major eruptions were unlikely. Residents closest to the
:18:22. > :18:25.volcano are still kept away as a precaution. It is unclear how long
:18:26. > :18:31.they will be kept in shelters, and when they are allowed to go, many
:18:32. > :18:39.may find their home is not the same way that they left it. It has been
:18:40. > :18:42.quite a week at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, with highs and lows for
:18:43. > :18:45.competitors and their countries. Today was another action-packed day.
:18:46. > :18:48.Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes from the BBC Sports Desk in Salford near
:18:49. > :18:56.Manchester has been following events and joins us now to bring us news of
:18:57. > :18:59.a British gold. Still plenty of medal chances to come, but for the
:19:00. > :19:04.second successive Winter Olympics, great written has won the women's
:19:05. > :19:08.skeleton gold medal. Four years ago, any billions did it in Vancouver and
:19:09. > :19:16.inspired by that, Lizzy Yarnold is the Olympic skeleton champion. Noel
:19:17. > :19:21.Papas pace was second for the US. Russia took the bronze, but Lizzy
:19:22. > :19:26.Yarnold broke were records during their cracker mac ones they had, and
:19:27. > :19:30.has been hailed as one of the best ever skeleton sliders. She has a
:19:31. > :19:35.great physique for this sport. She held her nerve for a breathtaking
:19:36. > :19:41.fourth run. Everyone watching in Britain was desperate for not
:19:42. > :19:44.limited up, but she won in total time almost one second faster than
:19:45. > :19:57.her nearest rival. Away from the Winter Olympics, the full manager,
:19:58. > :20:06.Rene Meulensteen has been sacked and that Felix Magath of Bayern Munich
:20:07. > :20:10.will be taking over. The Taj Mahal is one of the world's most iconic
:20:11. > :20:18.buildings and probably India's most famous and most visited landmark.
:20:19. > :20:22.Well now if you can't afford the air fare, you can pay a visit to it
:20:23. > :20:25.online. India's Ministry of Culture is teaming up with Google to bring
:20:26. > :20:28.the Taj Mahal to Street View. But the technique will remain banned
:20:29. > :20:37.everywhere else in India. Shilpa Kannan reports. Dawn. At one of the
:20:38. > :20:43.rope was my greatest monuments, the Taj Mahal. Set on the banks of a
:20:44. > :20:50.river, the white marble complex is one of the world's most recognisable
:20:51. > :20:55.symbols of love. Now, the 360-year-old Taj Mahal is catching
:20:56. > :21:02.up with 21st-century technology, with the help of this, the Google
:21:03. > :21:06.tracker, an ambitious project to collect footage which will then be
:21:07. > :21:11.available online. This is how it works. It is a camera mounted on a
:21:12. > :21:21.back pack, so you put it on, it weighs about 40 lbs, and there are
:21:22. > :21:24.about 15 lens, pointing in different directions, constantly taking
:21:25. > :21:30.photographs, and then these are fed into a computer, where the images
:21:31. > :21:40.are stored so that the viewer can have a 360 degrees view of this
:21:41. > :21:43.monument. This is not Google's first attempt to bring this technology to
:21:44. > :21:48.India. Three years ago, it sent out its Google Street View cars to map
:21:49. > :21:52.the streets of Bangalore, but that project was called off after the
:21:53. > :21:58.police raised security concerns. This time, Google has tied up with
:21:59. > :22:04.the Indian government to fill only heritage sites. It is a visitor
:22:05. > :22:09.record of this monument and those records will live for ever. Not only
:22:10. > :22:12.for this generation but for many generations to come. A good way of
:22:13. > :22:16.capturing the culture of the country. What about the concerns
:22:17. > :22:22.about Google Street View, which is banned in India? This is the same
:22:23. > :22:25.technology. We're working with the Indian authorities to understand
:22:26. > :22:30.their concerns and address them. I am confident that we will be able to
:22:31. > :22:36.resolve them in due course. Not all the areas of the Taj Mahal are open
:22:37. > :22:43.to the public, but that tracker will be able to go where tourists cannot.
:22:44. > :22:49.Most visitors have left today, but plenty have memories. Now, with the
:22:50. > :22:50.help of technology, this iconic building will be available to many
:22:51. > :23:02.more people. As people increasingly experience
:23:03. > :23:05.the world in a virtual manner, we are going to discuss now whether
:23:06. > :23:08.this is a good thing with Patrick Tucker, who joins me from
:23:09. > :23:14.Washington. He's Editor at The Futurist magazine and author of "The
:23:15. > :23:21.Naked Future". Is it a good thing that people can go and visit the Taj
:23:22. > :23:26.Mahal online? I think it is absolutely a fantastic thing, that
:23:27. > :23:31.virtual reality, this sort of project, allows so many more people
:23:32. > :23:35.to experience the Taj Mahal for themselves. It is something that is
:23:36. > :23:41.going to be happening more in future. Virtual reality, we think of
:23:42. > :23:47.as being a relatively recent invention. The first virtual reality
:23:48. > :23:50.headset that allow people to experience reality outside of what
:23:51. > :23:57.they were presently experiencing was invented in 1968 by and MIT
:23:58. > :24:01.researcher called Ivan Sutherland. Computing power has enabled the
:24:02. > :24:05.project you have described, the collection of lots of visual data,
:24:06. > :24:08.and the experience of that data, through different headsets, or
:24:09. > :24:15.through laptops and desktop interfaces. We think of it in turns
:24:16. > :24:20.of leisure, if you cannot afford the airfare to India, you can still see
:24:21. > :24:22.the Taj Mahal, but there is a therapeutic use for this kind of
:24:23. > :24:31.thing. For people suffering from trauma, or who have fear of going
:24:32. > :24:33.out or that kind of thing. There are lots of therapeutic uses that we are
:24:34. > :24:40.beginning to discover. In California, Henry Jenkins is one of
:24:41. > :24:45.the co-founders of a project called robots for humanity. He is
:24:46. > :24:51.paraplegic. He steers a drone around his house sometimes and uses this
:24:52. > :24:57.virtual reality headset called the Oculus, to see what the drone seize
:24:58. > :25:00.and experience flying from his bed. There has been lots of research
:25:01. > :25:06.showing the therapeutic benefits of virtual reality for veterans or
:25:07. > :25:17.people suffering from Post a big stress disorder. There is a great
:25:18. > :25:24.book by a man called Robert McLay, called At War With PTSD. In this
:25:25. > :25:29.case, virtual reality headsets allow subjects to re-experience the
:25:30. > :25:33.somatic event in a safe environment in a different way and edit it, so
:25:34. > :25:38.that the brain learns how to recope with the memory. It is cutting edge
:25:39. > :25:44.stuff, and it is only possible now because virtual reality has reached
:25:45. > :25:55.the point where this is available to what's more people. -- lots more. In
:25:56. > :25:58.turns of tourism and leisure, you cannot say that the online
:25:59. > :26:01.experience will be similar to real contact with the building, with the
:26:02. > :26:06.human contact of the people around there, the smells and that kind of
:26:07. > :26:13.thing. It is no real substitute, is it? It is not a substitute, I would
:26:14. > :26:18.say, but it allows for a wider experience of a place that you are
:26:19. > :26:22.going to visit. Imagine being in a place like that, live, and
:26:23. > :26:26.interacting with it? You have now got an opportunity to share that
:26:27. > :26:31.with so many more people and such more credible level, and actually,
:26:32. > :26:36.part of the fun is not just experiencing this kind of thing
:26:37. > :26:40.remotely in arrests -- less realistic way, but being part of
:26:41. > :26:49.that budget that you can bring that experience to so many more people.
:26:50. > :26:51.That is part of the appeal. That's all from me and the team. Goodbye.