:00:00. > :00:09.This is BBC World News Today with me, Zeinab Badawi. Russia ratchets
:00:10. > :00:14.up the pressure on Ukraine and warns Kiev it will cut off its gas soon if
:00:15. > :00:17.it doesn't pay its bills. In Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, riot
:00:18. > :00:22.police regain control of the government headquarters from
:00:23. > :00:25.pro-Russia protestors. Meanwhile, in the Russia Black Sea
:00:26. > :00:29.resort of Sochi, the Paralympic Games open. President Putin says he
:00:30. > :00:33.hopes the games will bring down the temperature on the Ukraine crisis.
:00:34. > :00:36.Also coming up, Congolese warlord Germain Katanga is found guilty of
:00:37. > :00:42.crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
:00:43. > :00:43.And trenches where First World War's soldiers were trained for battle are
:00:44. > :01:04.discovered in a British field. Hello and welcome. Russia's
:01:05. > :01:07.President Vladimir Putin has given a statement saying he hopes some
:01:08. > :01:11.common ground can be found with western powers over Ukraine, and
:01:12. > :01:16.that the crisis won't lead to a new Cold War. But in a new chapter in
:01:17. > :01:19.the gas wars between Ukraine and Russia, Moscow's state-run oil and
:01:20. > :01:25.gas giant Gazprom is threatening to cut off Ukraine's gas. And tensions
:01:26. > :01:28.remain on the ground. A 40-strong team from the OSCE, the Organisation
:01:29. > :01:31.for Security and Co-operation was prevented from going into Crimea for
:01:32. > :01:43.the second day running to monitor what is going on there. Well, my
:01:44. > :01:51.colleague, Ben Brown is in Crimea in the town of Sevastapol and he joins
:01:52. > :01:59.us now live. The OSCE monitoring mission denied again? They have been
:02:00. > :02:05.turned away twice in the two base, a slap in the face for the OSCE and
:02:06. > :02:12.for the international community as well, and another sign of a Russian
:02:13. > :02:17.defiance. It has been another day of interesting and fast-moving
:02:18. > :02:20.developments. Ukraine's new prime minister has said that no one in the
:02:21. > :02:28.civilised world will recognise the referendum that will take place here
:02:29. > :02:34.in nine days' time. That is not how many ethnic Russians see it and they
:02:35. > :02:38.are delighted to have a vote for their future. The question will be
:02:39. > :02:44.whether to join a past Ukraine or whether they are part of Russia, and
:02:45. > :02:48.many we have been speaking to have said they will vote overwhelmingly
:02:49. > :02:53.to be part of Russia. The delegation from the Crimean parliament went to
:02:54. > :03:04.the Russian parliament today and got a standing ovation.
:03:05. > :03:12.It is another Sochi Olympics but the Crimea is already casting a shadow.
:03:13. > :03:17.The Ukrainian team at the opening ceremony was represented by a single
:03:18. > :03:23.flag bearer. The other participants refused to take part in the parade.
:03:24. > :03:31.The head of Ukraine's Paralympic team warned Russia not to escalate
:03:32. > :03:39.the conflict. If we see any steps that are escalating the conflict, or
:03:40. > :03:50.maybe, my God, somebody will be killed, we will leave these games.
:03:51. > :03:56.It is absolute, no other way. These are no games. America has said six
:03:57. > :04:03.F-16 fighter jets from Suffolk to the Baltics to boost air patrols, a
:04:04. > :04:08.show of strength on Russia's doorstep. Part of the West's
:04:09. > :04:15.response to Russian actions in the Ukraine. Western leaders have
:04:16. > :04:21.accused Russia of invading the Crimea. The Kremlin's response is
:04:22. > :04:29.that sanctions will have you just as much as they an so far Moscow is
:04:30. > :04:34.refusing to back down. Quite the opposite. In Moscow today, there was
:04:35. > :04:42.a warm welcome and strong political support for this delegation of
:04:43. > :04:45.pro-Moscow Crimean MPs. The head of Russia's upper house said that if
:04:46. > :04:50.the Crimea aborted to break away from Ukraine and join Russia,
:04:51. > :04:56.Russia's parliament would support that. To show that the Russian
:04:57. > :05:01.people would as well, the seasoning the Kremlin organised a rally near
:05:02. > :05:07.red Square. Everyone we spoke to was excited at the thought the Crimea
:05:08. > :05:11.would become part of their country again. Historically it was always
:05:12. > :05:18.our land. We want to be together again. What's more, criticism from
:05:19. > :05:28.Kiev and threats of sanctions just seemed to fuel the patriotism.
:05:29. > :05:36.This battle between Ukraine and Russia is not just about Crimea but
:05:37. > :05:42.about several different cities that have large Russian populations, such
:05:43. > :05:46.as Donetsk, and many people there that are part of the Russian
:05:47. > :05:54.community say they want a referendum on whether or not to be part of
:05:55. > :06:01.Russia. At the government headquarters, the
:06:02. > :06:06.shift change brings relief. The riot police face a long and cold they,
:06:07. > :06:14.but Ukraine's government has its building back. In the centre of
:06:15. > :06:19.town, pro-Russian demonstrators now meet under their most familiar
:06:20. > :06:26.symbols. Ukraine's new authorities are fighting back. They have banned
:06:27. > :06:30.large-scale demonstrations and are trying to consign demonstrators to
:06:31. > :06:36.small spaces, and they are also going after the leader of the
:06:37. > :06:42.pro-Russian movement. He is a businessman and called himself the
:06:43. > :06:52.people's governor. His virtual regime lasted less than a week. Here
:06:53. > :06:58.is the moment it ended. The police came for him as he prepared to speak
:06:59. > :07:03.to the BBC. I will charge you were attempting to the zest, the
:07:04. > :07:10.investigator warns a supporter. -- attempting to retest. It is a
:07:11. > :07:22.setback top by officers in balaclavas on the stairs. These are
:07:23. > :07:27.uncertain times. The city's new, real governor is leading the
:07:28. > :07:36.crackdown. Kiev is appointing oligarchs to control its regions. It
:07:37. > :07:43.is under complete control. The authorities control the situation.
:07:44. > :07:52.Our best people are on it. Right now in Donetsk, there are no commuters
:07:53. > :07:59.-- more commuters than protesters. The bus here is full. As the protest
:08:00. > :08:06.is representative of the majority of people here? I do not think so.
:08:07. > :08:12.First of all, during 20 years of independence, people did not stop
:08:13. > :08:18.loving Russia but we still feel that we are independent and there is a
:08:19. > :08:24.generation of young people who were born understanding themselves as
:08:25. > :08:30.citizens of Ukraine. Getting to work may be more important than breaking
:08:31. > :08:37.away. Uncertain times in Donetsk and
:08:38. > :08:44.certainly here in the Crimea. We have been up the road this afternoon
:08:45. > :08:50.we are one of the Ukrainian military bases, effectively under siege from
:08:51. > :08:55.Russian forces, has a naval signals intelligence base and they were
:08:56. > :09:01.unidentified Russian troops around the base, also some Russian Cossacks
:09:02. > :09:07.as well, but they would not say exactly who they were. They were
:09:08. > :09:10.laying siege and we managed to get inside the base and speak to the
:09:11. > :09:17.commander who said that these Russians had arrived several days
:09:18. > :09:19.ago and asked the Ukrainians to effectively surrender their weapons
:09:20. > :09:25.and put them into a locked store room, and the Ukrainians have
:09:26. > :09:28.refused and have still said they will only take orders from the
:09:29. > :09:34.Ukrainian high command, not from the Russians. That stand-off continues
:09:35. > :09:39.at that pace and many other bases around the Crimea. Still a very
:09:40. > :09:49.tense time in the run-up to this crucial referendum. Let's discuss
:09:50. > :09:52.all this is a bit more. And now I'm joined from Washington by David
:09:53. > :09:55.Kramer, he's a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for
:09:56. > :09:59.European and Eurasian Affairs, where he focused on US foreign policy in
:10:00. > :10:08.Ukraine and Russia from 2005 to 2008. He is now president of Freedom
:10:09. > :10:13.House. You have been a bit critical of Barack Obama's policy towards
:10:14. > :10:19.this whole business, why do you say he has not been strong enough? He
:10:20. > :10:24.has significantly improved his position in the last 48 hours. Last
:10:25. > :10:28.weekend, the administration was too small to understand and realise the
:10:29. > :10:37.magnitude of the problem with Russian forces invading the Ukraine.
:10:38. > :10:41.The president issued a statement and the various statements were too mild
:10:42. > :10:46.and to temperate and it needed to be forceful right from the beginning.
:10:47. > :10:49.John Kerry has led that approach since including the announcement
:10:50. > :10:57.that the US was moving ahead with the imposition of sanctions, and I
:10:58. > :11:02.do think there will need to be some movement of US military ships to the
:11:03. > :11:06.Black Sea to demonstrate to Russia that the United States is very
:11:07. > :11:10.serious. You want him to go farther than he is indicating because the
:11:11. > :11:15.movement of melodic trips is not something that the White House has
:11:16. > :11:22.said explicitly they wish to do? -- military ships. I am not talking
:11:23. > :11:26.about American forces on the ground but the deployment of ships to the
:11:27. > :11:32.Black Sea which was done in 2008 with the Russian invasion of Georgia
:11:33. > :11:36.and the provision of humanitarian assistance provided back then. The
:11:37. > :11:40.same unfortunately is going to have to be done. How do you think that
:11:41. > :11:46.will go down with the American people? It would seem the
:11:47. > :11:53.President's more cautious approach chimes well with them? It is a
:11:54. > :11:58.matter of leadership and of the president explaining what is at
:11:59. > :12:02.stake, a country of 46 million people that straddles Europe and
:12:03. > :12:08.Russia. Even if no one has been killed, thank goodness, we are one
:12:09. > :12:14.drunken soldier away from firing a gun and causing a conflagration. The
:12:15. > :12:20.US has an interest and the Europeans have a major interest as well.
:12:21. > :12:25.Someone like Henry Kissinger writing in the Washington Post, you cannot
:12:26. > :12:30.see Ukraine is just another foreign country from Russia's point of view.
:12:31. > :12:39.Moreover he adds that he would not want to have Ukraine becoming a
:12:40. > :12:44.showdown between Russia and USA. In 1991 Ukraine became an independent
:12:45. > :12:48.country and it is not a satellite of Russia and Russia should not have
:12:49. > :12:57.veto authority over its membership of the European Union or membership
:12:58. > :13:03.in NATO. I do not think the United States and Russia should be deciding
:13:04. > :13:06.Ukraine's future and ruling out its membership of organisations. I am
:13:07. > :13:11.not saying they should join NATO right away but it is not helpful for
:13:12. > :13:17.Henry Kissinger or others to be speaking about what Ukraine could be
:13:18. > :13:22.doing down the road, closing down options is not what we should be up
:13:23. > :13:24.to. You want the United States to work closely with its European
:13:25. > :13:30.allies and you know the Europeans are much more cautious because they
:13:31. > :13:38.have more substantial and deep economic and financial ties. Almost
:13:39. > :13:42.ten times the amount of trade with Europe and Russia compared to the
:13:43. > :13:47.United States and Russia. No question about it, that is a factor,
:13:48. > :13:52.and the US leadership are working very closely with European allies.
:13:53. > :13:56.Germany are critical and the UK as well, and I think with the issue of
:13:57. > :14:02.US determination and leadership Europe will also come around.
:14:03. > :14:08.In South Africa, the court in the trial of the athlete Oscar Pistorius
:14:09. > :14:12.has heard him described as an angry person by a former girlfriend. She
:14:13. > :14:16.also said that he always carried a firearm when they were dating. It is
:14:17. > :14:19.the fifth day of Oscar Pistorius' trial on the charge of murdering his
:14:20. > :14:33.girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.
:14:34. > :14:37.In court today, Oscar Pistorius character came under fire again from
:14:38. > :14:44.a former girlfriend. The witness, asked not to be filmed, cried
:14:45. > :14:47.frequently and described an incident in 2012, reconstructed here when her
:14:48. > :14:52.then boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius, fired his pistol through the sunroof
:14:53. > :14:58.after being pulled over for speeding. He was angry at the police
:14:59. > :15:04.after being stopped. Thereafter, when they wanted to fire a shot,
:15:05. > :15:12.they found it funny. They fired a shot and then they laughed. But will
:15:13. > :15:17.not help Oscar Pistorius. It is suggested he fired a shot on the
:15:18. > :15:24.night his girlfriend died. His girlfriend said he got angry with a
:15:25. > :15:32.lot of people. My sister, my best friend and another friend of ours.
:15:33. > :15:37.His name? His best friend, Alex. Samantha Taylor betrayed Oscar
:15:38. > :15:42.Pistorius as a man with a violent temper, who kept a pistol with him
:15:43. > :15:47.at all times. She was asked specifically about matters relating
:15:48. > :15:50.to the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed, where Oscar Pistorius slept
:15:51. > :15:58.in bed and what he sounded like when he screamed. If he screams and is
:15:59. > :16:02.anxious, he sounds like a woman? That is not true, he sounds like a
:16:03. > :16:07.man. Again, this is important because Oscar Pistorius defends
:16:08. > :16:12.argues he sounds like a woman when he screams but neighbours were
:16:13. > :16:16.mistaken when they thought it was his girlfriend 's grilling. When you
:16:17. > :16:22.heard him screaming, it was out of anger but not in a situation where
:16:23. > :16:29.he received his life to be threatened? No, my lady. Oscar
:16:30. > :16:33.Pistorius appeared to show no emotion as his former girlfriend
:16:34. > :16:37.stepped down and left the courtroom. Now a look at some of the day's
:16:38. > :16:40.other news. New allegations have surfaced in France accusing the
:16:41. > :16:44.former President Nicolas Sarkozy of attempting to tamper with the
:16:45. > :16:48.judicial system. The left-leaning newspaper Le Monde says Mr Sarkozy's
:16:49. > :16:50.phone has been tapped for the past year by investigators looking into
:16:51. > :16:55.alleged illegal funding of his presidential campaign. It says that
:16:56. > :16:57.a senior prosecutor in the country's highest court was feeding Mr Sarkozy
:16:58. > :17:00.confidential information about investigations affecting him and
:17:01. > :17:07.that Mr Sarkozy tried to reward the prosecutor with an official post in
:17:08. > :17:10.Monaco for his retirement. Mr Sarkozy denies the allegations and
:17:11. > :17:15.his lawyer says the phone taps were illegal.
:17:16. > :17:18.Saudi Arabia has designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist
:17:19. > :17:20.organisation. An Interior Ministry statement also designated two
:17:21. > :17:24.jihadist groups fighting on the rebel side in Syria, the Nusra Front
:17:25. > :17:29.and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant as terrorist groups. The
:17:30. > :17:34.statement gave Saudis fighting in Syria 15 days to return. The Muslim
:17:35. > :17:39.Brotherhood is already banned in Saudi Arabia.
:17:40. > :17:43.A Californian man who gambled away $500,000 in a single session at a
:17:44. > :17:47.casino in Las Vegas is suing the club's owners for failing to stop
:17:48. > :17:53.him. Mark Johnson played for 17 straight hours. He says he was
:17:54. > :17:56.served free drinks and loaned hundreds of thousands of dollars by
:17:57. > :17:58.the casino. Gaming regulations in Nevada prohibit casinos from
:17:59. > :18:06.allowing visibly drunk guests continuing to gamble.
:18:07. > :18:09.The International Criminal Court, the ICC, has convicted a Congolese
:18:10. > :18:21.warlord of war crimes and crimes against unity. Germain Katanga was
:18:22. > :18:24.found guilty of being an accessory to crimes, including murder and
:18:25. > :18:27.pillage, during an attack on a village in the east of the
:18:28. > :18:33.Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003.
:18:34. > :18:40.This was Germain Katanga's moment of judgement. This is what the former
:18:41. > :18:47.warlord had left behind in 11 years ago. His militia rampaged through
:18:48. > :18:52.the village. It was in the early hours of the morning and families
:18:53. > :18:54.were shot as they slept. Some were cut up with machetes in what
:18:55. > :19:01.prosecutors said was an effort to save alerts. More than 200 people
:19:02. > :19:06.were killed. Germain Katanga's trial has been going on since 2009. His
:19:07. > :19:10.co-accused has already been acquitted. The former man's lawyer
:19:11. > :19:16.organised the attack was legitimately targeting a rival army.
:19:17. > :19:22.The judges noted that most of the village had been wiped out. The
:19:23. > :19:25.prosecution argued that many of the women were raped or kept as sex
:19:26. > :19:31.slaves but they failed to provide sufficient evidence to convince the
:19:32. > :19:35.judge it was Germain Katanga's fault. So he was acquitted of all
:19:36. > :19:41.sexual crimes and cleared of using child soldiers will stop despite
:19:42. > :19:46.this, the prosecutor told us the verdict was a victory for justice.
:19:47. > :19:51.We hope Germain Katanga's conviction today will bring a measure of
:19:52. > :19:58.closure for victims. The victims of this brutal attack in the village.
:19:59. > :20:02.The memory of those who died and also the memory of those who
:20:03. > :20:07.survived, by bringing to account those responsible for mass crimes,
:20:08. > :20:10.we hope to prevent other crimes and save others from the same fate.
:20:11. > :20:17.Germain Katanga was driven from court through his electric wire
:20:18. > :20:20.coated gates. It could be weeks now before judges here at the ICC decide
:20:21. > :20:27.how long the man who was once known to his supporters as the lion should
:20:28. > :20:31.be locked up behind bars. But the sides are expected to appeal.
:20:32. > :20:36.To another country where there are worries about human rights abuses,
:20:37. > :20:39.South Sudan. The African Union has established a commission of enquiry
:20:40. > :20:42.into human rights abuses inside South Sudan where government troops
:20:43. > :20:46.and rebels loyal to the former vice President, Riek Machar, are
:20:47. > :20:51.fighting. The five-member commission will be headed by the Nigerian
:20:52. > :20:54.former President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Thousands of people have been killed
:20:55. > :20:58.and hundreds of thousands displaced in the conflict since December. The
:20:59. > :21:02.BBC's former Sudan correspondent James Copnall has just written a
:21:03. > :21:05.book called A Poisonous Thorn In Our Hearts, about the background to
:21:06. > :21:18.their secession of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011. He joins me now. For
:21:19. > :21:22.people like you looking at what was going on in South Sudan, the signs
:21:23. > :21:28.were there that explain the subsequent violence that erupted?
:21:29. > :21:33.Yes, nothing was inevitable but definitely, the dangers were always
:21:34. > :21:36.there. This was an incredibly underdeveloped area that had faced
:21:37. > :21:41.decades of civil war. That had an impact on the mentality of people
:21:42. > :21:46.and their opportunities. It also create a political class that where
:21:47. > :21:53.rebel leaders and they suffered through the years of separation what
:21:54. > :21:57.is called the liberation curse. The qualities to achieve freedom are not
:21:58. > :22:03.best suited for conventional government so what happened was a
:22:04. > :22:15.failure in government and power struggles in the one party that had
:22:16. > :22:20.any power. Both sides, forces loyal to the former President probably
:22:21. > :22:27.responsible for the atrocities? Yes, and that is what the commission will
:22:28. > :22:35.look into. Supporters are accused of a lot of abuses at the start of the
:22:36. > :22:43.conflict and supporters of Riek Machar are accused of fighting later
:22:44. > :22:47.in the conflict. One of the five member team recently wrote an
:22:48. > :22:52.article saying that court cannot solve problems like this, a judicial
:22:53. > :22:57.approach punishing people for these kinds of situations is not the right
:22:58. > :23:09.way to go to end a crisis like that. Give us an update on where the
:23:10. > :23:16.talks are on Ethiopia? The fighting has not stopped, there is a pause in
:23:17. > :23:20.the talks right now. Monitoring groups are coming in to monitor the
:23:21. > :23:23.cease-fire. The fighting has to stop before any serious talking can
:23:24. > :23:31.begin. You have written this book which looks both at South Sudan and
:23:32. > :23:37.Sudan after the two countries split. Give us a brief outline about the
:23:38. > :23:42.key message? Essentially these are completed at countries with
:23:43. > :23:44.contributed conflicts but in the 30 year time after separation, the
:23:45. > :23:49.Capitals did everything they could to bring down the leadership in the
:23:50. > :23:53.other state. That relationship has got that are subsequently and that
:23:54. > :23:57.has brought benefits for both states but particularly the elites in both
:23:58. > :24:02.states. Both countries can only really be prosperous if they have a
:24:03. > :24:05.good relationship but that future will only come if there is
:24:06. > :24:15.substantial improvement in the way both leaderships govern their own
:24:16. > :24:21.countries. This year marks the centenary of the
:24:22. > :24:24.outbreak of the First World War. A set of trenches used as a practice
:24:25. > :24:28.battlefield for soldiers heading to the front line in the war have been
:24:29. > :24:31.discovered overgrown and forgotten in a British coastal town. The two
:24:32. > :24:34.ditches facing each other on England's south coast were once
:24:35. > :24:37.fully stocked with weapons and barbed wire. Now the trenches are
:24:38. > :24:51.being used to reveal how the First World War transformed Britain,
:24:52. > :24:55.physically as well as socially. Nowadays we call it pre-deployment
:24:56. > :24:59.training. Final rehearsals for the task ahead in an environment that is
:25:00. > :25:05.designed to be as realistic as possible. A century ago, another
:25:06. > :25:18.army was preparing for service overseas. This aerial photo of army
:25:19. > :25:23.land near Gosport should numerous traces of its use as a training area
:25:24. > :25:27.but an observant conservation officer noticed something else. The
:25:28. > :25:34.distinct shape up to trench systems identical scene to those in France
:25:35. > :25:38.and Belgium. This is a 1951 aerial photograph that the regional
:25:39. > :25:41.archaeologist was examining and as he was looking at it, he suddenly
:25:42. > :25:46.realised there was an absolutely typical first old war trench system
:25:47. > :25:53.and when he came and looked at the site, he realised this is almost
:25:54. > :25:58.certainly training trenches. This training area was intended to give
:25:59. > :26:02.soldiers an idea of what they would face on the battlefield. Reality, of
:26:03. > :26:07.course, was rather different. War games on the coast of Hampshire
:26:08. > :26:15.would soon be a distant memory as recruits faced the mud and the
:26:16. > :26:19.bloodshed. A reminder of our main news: Russian
:26:20. > :26:21.parliamentarians have given a standing ovation to a delegation of
:26:22. > :26:31.politicians from Crimea, promising support if they wanted to become
:26:32. > :26:34.part of Russia. The region, currently occupied by Russian
:26:35. > :26:42.troops, is due to hold a referendum on whether to join Russia or remain
:26:43. > :26:50.part of Ukraine. That's all from the programme. The weather is next.
:26:51. > :26:58.part of Ukraine. That's all from the programme. The weather is next.
:26:59. > :26:59.Saturday is set to get off to a gloomy