:00:00. > :00:08.This is BBC World News Today, with me, Zeinab Badawi.
:00:09. > :00:13.President Putin has signed into law his annexation of Crimea. As far as
:00:14. > :00:17.Moscow is concerned, it is now formally part of Russia.
:00:18. > :00:21.Celebrations and fireworks in Red Square and Crimea itself after the
:00:22. > :00:38.signing ceremony is over. Earlier, Moscow had dismissed further Western
:00:39. > :00:41.sanctions against it. In Brussels, the interim Ukrainian
:00:42. > :00:44.Prime Minister puts his signature to a deal bringing his country closer
:00:45. > :00:47.to the European Union. Two weeks after the disappearance of
:00:48. > :00:50.a Malaysian passenger plane, dozens of ships and aircraft search the
:00:51. > :00:53.Southern Indian Ocean, but nothing has been found.
:00:54. > :00:56.Also coming up: Turkey's Twitter row - President Gul tweets that Prime
:00:57. > :00:59.Minister Erdogan's move to ban Twitter is illegal. What does this
:01:00. > :01:01.tell us about the political balance of power in Turkey?
:01:02. > :01:04.Pub landlords, debt collectors and construction workers come out as
:01:05. > :01:05.Britain's most miserable workers, but what jobs make people happiest?
:01:06. > :01:25.Stay with us. Hello and welcome.
:01:26. > :01:28.As far as Russia is concerned, the legal formalities are over. The
:01:29. > :01:33.Black Sea Peninsula of Crimea is now part of the Russian Federation.
:01:34. > :01:36.Fireworks and a rock concert light up Moscow skyline tonight in
:01:37. > :01:39.celebration of the annexation of the region. Similar festivities are
:01:40. > :01:47.taking place in the Crimean cities of Simferopol and Sebastapol.
:01:48. > :01:52.Earlier today, President Putin signed into law the official
:01:53. > :01:55.incorporation of Crimea into Russia. Moscow says the move reflects the
:01:56. > :02:00.will of the people of Crimea, but it has led to more sanctions against
:02:01. > :02:03.Russia by the EU. The EU has today signed a co-operation agreement with
:02:04. > :02:07.Ukraine in a sign that Kiev is turning more towards the West. In a
:02:08. > :02:10.moment, we will be assessing what the impact of today's developments
:02:11. > :02:20.are on Moscow. First, Gavin Hewitt reports.
:02:21. > :02:26.A day of signings, two worlds, East versus West. In Moscow, President
:02:27. > :02:30.Putin sealed the absorption of Crimea into Russia by signing the
:02:31. > :02:35.documents. The Russian president saluted what he called a serious,
:02:36. > :02:46.momentous event. The Russian anthem played.
:02:47. > :02:50.1400 miles away in Brussels, very different signing. The EU took this
:02:51. > :02:55.ball at first step of signing an agreement with Ukraine, bringing the
:02:56. > :03:02.nation of 46 million people closer to the heart of Europe. No anthem
:03:03. > :03:06.here, just a ripple of applause. At a summit in Brussels, Europe's
:03:07. > :03:12.leaders adopted new sanctions against 12 Russian officials,
:03:13. > :03:17.including the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, after the referendum in
:03:18. > :03:22.Crimea. Since we last met as sham and illegal referendum has taken
:03:23. > :03:26.place at the barrel of a Kalashnikov. This is a flagrant
:03:27. > :03:33.breach of international law and something we will not recognise.
:03:34. > :03:40.After this summer, 33 Crimean sand Russian is now face travel
:03:41. > :03:45.restrictions. The summit agreed that if the crisis escalates, they are
:03:46. > :03:48.prepared to move to some kind of economic sanctions and the
:03:49. > :03:55.commission has been tasked with exploring potential targets. The
:03:56. > :04:00.atmosphere was spiced with warnings about Russian intentions. This was
:04:01. > :04:10.the Ukrainian Prime Minister. What is happening in the world today?
:04:11. > :04:15.Russia decided to impose a new post world War order, revise the results
:04:16. > :04:24.of the Second World War. This is the truth! This is the president of
:04:25. > :04:30.Lithuania. We are facing the largest security threats since the Second
:04:31. > :04:34.World War. So, amid such warnings, European leaders agreed to
:04:35. > :04:39.accelerate reducing their dependency on Russian energy.
:04:40. > :04:52.With me is Alexander Nekrassov, a former adviser to Boris Yeltsin.
:04:53. > :04:56.Let stock about Russian energy. Europe depends on Russian gas, but
:04:57. > :05:02.you need to sell your gas to somebody. You can't really afford to
:05:03. > :05:07.upset the Europeans. First of all, it would take years for the European
:05:08. > :05:13.Union to change its supplies. China is basically banging on Russian
:05:14. > :05:20.doors demanding more oil and gas. The issue is how will this be
:05:21. > :05:24.resolved? How long will these sanctions last? The interesting
:05:25. > :05:28.thing I have noticed is that the markets all this week have not
:05:29. > :05:37.really panicked. Russian stock markets have gone down three or 4%.
:05:38. > :05:42.The Russian market will bounce back. The markets in the West, they
:05:43. > :05:47.realise that the sanctions, the real ones, will not be implemented. These
:05:48. > :05:52.people have to trust their judgement. They see it as a game. It
:05:53. > :05:57.is probably time to stop the game and start talking. Do you think it
:05:58. > :06:05.is a game when the Ukraine signs this first step of agreement with
:06:06. > :06:11.the European Union? They might join the EU, maybe even NATO. It was
:06:12. > :06:19.signed by an interim regime. It was only signed on the political side,
:06:20. > :06:24.not the economic side. The moment it does that, it will hit its industry
:06:25. > :06:29.very hard. I don't think the interim regime dares to do that. You are
:06:30. > :06:33.looking at what is happening today, but I am putting it to you that we
:06:34. > :06:37.are starting to see a shift in alliances which could come in due
:06:38. > :06:50.course, operate to the detriment of Russia. It would have happened
:06:51. > :06:58.anyway. The western side was stonethrowing thugs. Anything can
:06:59. > :07:01.happen. At the moment I think the danger is this, Ukraine can split
:07:02. > :07:08.into two parts. It is time for diplomacy. The West, there will be a
:07:09. > :07:16.G-7 meeting in London on Monday and they not inviting Russia. That is a
:07:17. > :07:21.bad idea. It is time to talk rather than play those games.
:07:22. > :07:24.We have to leave it there. Thank you for talking to us.
:07:25. > :07:29.It is exactly two weeks today since the missing Malaysian airliner
:07:30. > :07:32.disappeared. The second day of an international search in the Southern
:07:33. > :07:35.Indian Ocean for the missing plane has come to a close. The plane
:07:36. > :07:39.disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur and still there is no clear
:07:40. > :07:42.understanding of what happened to it and the 239 passengers on board.
:07:43. > :07:45.Hi-tech search aircraft and ships are being despatched to an area
:07:46. > :07:48.where satellite images picked up some possible debris, but nothing
:07:49. > :08:01.has been found. Jonathan Head has the latest.
:08:02. > :08:05.After ten hours, this is truly an aircraft comes to its base in
:08:06. > :08:09.Western Australia. It is one of five to make the long journey today, I'd
:08:10. > :08:16.do the search site in the southern Indian Ocean. They are using every
:08:17. > :08:22.moment of daylight descends mission to from this space. Yet, the stretch
:08:23. > :08:26.of ocean they have to cover is so vast it is only a matter of luck as
:08:27. > :08:33.to whether they find any of the missing airliner. Of all the many
:08:34. > :08:37.kinds of planes and vessels thrown into this remarkable operation, this
:08:38. > :08:41.aircraft is among the most effect. Yet, for all its sensitive
:08:42. > :08:48.technology, the crew are overwhelmed by the size of the task. Journalists
:08:49. > :08:53.crowd around the young pilot, eager for any news of the Malaysia
:08:54. > :08:56.airliner. We had really good weather today, compared to what we saw
:08:57. > :09:05.yesterday. The visibility was great. There was no reason. We had a
:09:06. > :09:12.really good opportunity to see anything visually out there. We have
:09:13. > :09:17.a lot of hope. If the commission 's -- conditions remain as they are,
:09:18. > :09:21.we, hopefully, we'll find something soon. This satellite pictures shows
:09:22. > :09:27.what looks like something large close to the surface of the sea. The
:09:28. > :09:29.photographs are five days old, so they are expanding the search to
:09:30. > :09:36.where the powerful currents might have carried it. Although the search
:09:37. > :09:39.area is much smaller than we started with, it is a big area when you're
:09:40. > :09:48.looking at the window and trying to see something. We may have to do
:09:49. > :09:54.this a few times to be confident about the coverage of research area.
:09:55. > :09:59.It is exhausting, repetitive work. But they have to keep going. Each
:10:00. > :10:02.day without any sign of where the airliner went down makes the
:10:03. > :10:08.likelihood of finding it more removed.
:10:09. > :10:13.With each passing day, the families of those on board have little to do
:10:14. > :10:16.but hope and wait. Jennifer Pak has been to a shopping centre in Kuala
:10:17. > :10:25.Lumpar, where people have been sharing their prayers and messages
:10:26. > :10:30.of support. This is the wall of hope, set up in the shopping centre
:10:31. > :10:36.in downtown Kuala Lumpur are. It is set up so people can ) is an
:10:37. > :10:45.well-wishers to people on board the flight. The messages are in English,
:10:46. > :10:50.Malay, Chinese. This one says there are too many rumours about the
:10:51. > :10:58.flight, but we don't know which is true. Look at the number of messages
:10:59. > :11:02.that have been put up. The disappearance of this flight is
:11:03. > :11:07.affecting a lot of people. It is making us feel sad. Many people
:11:08. > :11:15.can't sleep because they are thinking about the people. Did you
:11:16. > :11:19.know anyone on the flight? My colleague has an uncle that was on
:11:20. > :11:28.the flight. He is still trying his best to be positive. If they are no
:11:29. > :11:33.longer here if you know what I mean, I hope the families will have the
:11:34. > :11:39.opportunity to get the bodies back so they can pay their last. Militia
:11:40. > :11:42.officials are still saying this is a search and rescue effort, but so
:11:43. > :11:47.many days have passed without any concrete information of where this
:11:48. > :11:52.team could be. A lot of the messages here choose to remain hopeful. This
:11:53. > :11:58.one, in Chinese, says, come home soon.
:11:59. > :12:01.The row over Twitter in Turkey is now showing the splits at the heart
:12:02. > :12:05.of the government. President Abdullah Gul has challenged a block
:12:06. > :12:08.on Twitter imposed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr Gul tweeted
:12:09. > :12:11.that the complete shutdown of social media platforms was unacceptable. He
:12:12. > :12:19.said only individual internet pages should be blocked, if courts found
:12:20. > :12:22.they had violated personal privacy. Mr Erdogan had promised to wipe
:12:23. > :12:25.Twitter out after it was used to spread allegations of corruption and
:12:26. > :12:29.alleged recordings of his private conversations. Some internet users
:12:30. > :12:36.in Turkey, where Twitter is very popular, have managed to get round
:12:37. > :12:39.the block. With me is Serkan Demitas, a columnist at Hurriyet
:12:40. > :12:48.Daily News, the English language section of one Turkey's biggest
:12:49. > :12:54.newspapers. This isn't really about Twitter, is
:12:55. > :12:58.it? This is about Prime Minister Erdogan feeling a bit under
:12:59. > :13:02.pressure. It is about politics, not twitter. In Turkey, Prime Minister
:13:03. > :13:14.Erdogan has continued his efforts to control media of four years. Social
:13:15. > :13:24.media seem to be a great vehicle for the Internet savvy in Turkey. What
:13:25. > :13:30.we have seen yesterday is another blow from Prime Minister Erdogan on
:13:31. > :13:35.the freedom of expression. Does he realise how difficult that is going
:13:36. > :13:40.to be to do? It is virtually impossible. Even the president
:13:41. > :13:48.managed to get round it! Of course. We have seen that this blocking has
:13:49. > :13:57.been very unsuccessful. People could circumvent the blocking through
:13:58. > :14:05.adjusting their settings. Does that show you that the Prime Minister is
:14:06. > :14:09.a bit out of touch with reality? This is one of the most important
:14:10. > :14:14.questions we are asking! If you are talking about politics, Prime
:14:15. > :14:21.Minister Erdogan is running for elections. There is just over a week
:14:22. > :14:27.left for elections. He knows that the leakages of his conversations or
:14:28. > :14:35.documents, allegedly linking him with the corruption network, that is
:14:36. > :14:42.coming from twitter. Or other social media. What does it tell you when
:14:43. > :14:50.the President, President Abdullah Gul, says I am going to keep on
:14:51. > :14:55.using twitter. This splits within the ruling party are coming out in
:14:56. > :14:58.the open, are they? President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister
:14:59. > :15:03.Erdogan have been on different pages for a long time. The president is
:15:04. > :15:06.much more keen in preserving democracy in Turkey. Prime Minister
:15:07. > :15:12.Erdogan is trying to strengthen his one-man party. We don't know if
:15:13. > :15:19.Prime Minister Erdogan wants to run for president in August. Could he
:15:20. > :15:25.really have any chance of standing and winning again? Has he and for
:15:26. > :15:29.the constituency in Turkey? He is trying to consolidate his 50%
:15:30. > :15:34.majority that he had in Parliamentary elections three years
:15:35. > :15:42.ago. He needs to have 50% to become president. We need to elect the
:15:43. > :15:48.president through popular vote, that means they need 50%. Prime Minister
:15:49. > :15:51.Erdogan is not really there, he is losing his popularity. His moves are
:15:52. > :16:02.dividing the nation. Thank you very much indeed.
:16:03. > :16:05.A doctor and another man have become the first people in Britain to be
:16:06. > :16:08.charged in connection with performing female genital
:16:09. > :16:13.mutilation. FGM has been banned in the UK since 1985. The World Health
:16:14. > :16:17.Organisation says more than a 125 million girls and women alive today
:16:18. > :16:22.have been cut in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where FGM
:16:23. > :16:25.is concentrated. In the UK, it's thought around 66,000 women have
:16:26. > :16:31.been mutilated and a further 23,000 girls are at risk every year from
:16:32. > :16:39.the practice. Matt Prodger has this report.
:16:40. > :16:48.Whittington Hospital in London, where a doctor, Dr Dhanoun
:16:49. > :16:52.Dharmasena, is alleged to have mutilated a woman's genitals after
:16:53. > :16:56.she gave birth. As acute as saying his defence was to allegedly restore
:16:57. > :17:01.a mutilation performed on the woman prior to her becoming pregnant.
:17:02. > :17:04.Another man is charged with encouraging the act. Female genital
:17:05. > :17:11.mutilation has been outlawed for 30 years, but today marks only the
:17:12. > :17:15.first prosecution. A lot of FGM will be young girls and will involve
:17:16. > :17:18.immediate members of their family, so they will not want to give
:17:19. > :17:22.evidence against them, will not want to make a complaint that could see
:17:23. > :17:26.members of their family go to prison. So we have had to look at
:17:27. > :17:30.other ways to get the evidence. We have looked at how to work with
:17:31. > :17:35.police around proactive operations, and there are other things we can
:17:36. > :17:46.look at, such as anonymity for victims. It is estimated 66,000
:17:47. > :17:48.women in the UK have been affected, and over 20,000 girls under 15 are
:17:49. > :17:56.thought at risk of the practice, classed as torture by the UN. The
:17:57. > :18:01.BBC discovered only this week that many patients have been treated in
:18:02. > :18:05.London alone. This is a crime, something that has been hidden for
:18:06. > :18:09.far too long, which is why the government has stepped up its
:18:10. > :18:14.response and stepped up some great understanding to take this crime out
:18:15. > :18:19.of the shadows and into the light. -- some greater understanding. Women
:18:20. > :18:25.are contacting helplines like this. For many years little known in the
:18:26. > :18:28.UK, FGM has been given greater attention thanks to the work of
:18:29. > :18:35.campaigners, who are delighted by today's news. Today is one of the
:18:36. > :18:40.best days of my life in campaigning. I feel like standing on top of the
:18:41. > :18:46.roof and shouting. That is how I feel about it. All eyes will be on
:18:47. > :18:50.the success, or failure, of these first prosecutions. The accused will
:18:51. > :18:55.appear in court next month. In France, social services have
:18:56. > :18:59.found four children kept in a flat. It seems the children hadn't left
:19:00. > :19:03.the apartment since they were born. The children are between two months
:19:04. > :19:12.and six years of age. Hugh Schofield in Paris has more on this.
:19:13. > :19:16.The family, of Indian origin, lived on the seventh floor of an apartment
:19:17. > :19:20.block in a poor part of northern Paris, three boys and a baby girl.
:19:21. > :19:26.The boys had never been to school or seen a doctor. The elder pair, five
:19:27. > :19:31.and six, could barely talk. Neighbours said they had no idea.
:19:32. > :19:34.TRANSLATION: They are our neighbours. When we were taking our
:19:35. > :19:40.children to school, we should have noticed something was wrong, but we
:19:41. > :19:45.didn't. I don't know anything about the mental state of the parents, but
:19:46. > :19:49.I think there is a problem. The alert was raised after the mother
:19:50. > :19:53.gave birth to her daughter in January. Staff could see that she
:19:54. > :19:57.has had no medical care during pregnancy and they sent social
:19:58. > :20:01.services to the flat. The parents were drawing state benefits but the
:20:02. > :20:06.situation had gone undetected. TRANSLATION: It is not up to the
:20:07. > :20:08.benefits office to monitor what happens to the benefits paid to
:20:09. > :20:15.families who have provided the documents required. The parents are
:20:16. > :20:16.now in custody facing charges for negligence. The children are in
:20:17. > :20:20.care. Now a look at some of the day's
:20:21. > :20:23.other news. Afghan authorities say that nine
:20:24. > :20:27.people are now known to have been killed in an attack by Taliban
:20:28. > :20:29.gunmen at a luxury hotel in the capital, Kabul, after previously
:20:30. > :20:33.saying there were no casualties. The dead include two Afghan children and
:20:34. > :20:36.four foreign nationals. Four teenagers with small pistols posed
:20:37. > :20:42.as diners before they opened fire on Thursday evening. They were killed
:20:43. > :20:46.by Afghan security forces. A court in the Indian city of Mumbai
:20:47. > :20:49.has sentenced four men to life in prison for gang raping an
:20:50. > :20:55.18-year-old telephone operator at a deserted textile mill last July.
:20:56. > :20:58.Three of the men had already been found guilty of gang raping a
:20:59. > :21:07.photographer a month later at the same spot.
:21:08. > :21:11.Those were the wrong pictures for that story. They were for this
:21:12. > :21:15.picture -- this story. The parliament in Kenya has passed a
:21:16. > :21:18.new marriage bill, changing it at the last moment to allow men to
:21:19. > :21:21.marry as many women as they want without consulting their existing
:21:22. > :21:24.wives. Female politicians stormed out in protest. The bill had
:21:25. > :21:27.previously allowed polygamy, but stated wives had to be consulted
:21:28. > :21:30.before their husbands could marry again.
:21:31. > :21:34.Michelle Obama has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife on
:21:35. > :21:39.the first full day of her week-long visit to China. The trip is being
:21:40. > :21:43.seen as an opportunity for soft diplomacy, to reinforce relations
:21:44. > :21:48.between the US and China. Mrs Obama is being accompanied by her mother
:21:49. > :21:51.and her two daughters. Today she also tried her hand at table tennis
:21:52. > :21:58.and was shown how to do Chinese calligraphy.
:21:59. > :22:04.Most of us have to work to earn a living but job satisfaction is also
:22:05. > :22:07.important. Well, research in the UK has ranked the life satisfaction, or
:22:08. > :22:12.general contentment, of people in different jobs. And it turns out
:22:13. > :22:17.that while pay levels are clearly a factor, it's not all about what you
:22:18. > :22:22.earn. At the top of the list, the happiest workers were clergy -
:22:23. > :22:25.vicars and priests. They were followed by chief executives and
:22:26. > :22:30.senior officials. Then came managers in farming and horticulture. But at
:22:31. > :22:34.the bottom of the list were workers in basic construction jobs, followed
:22:35. > :22:40.by debt and rent collectors. And the group with the lowest level of life
:22:41. > :22:43.satisfaction were pub landlords. The findings are part of a wider
:22:44. > :22:46.investigation into how much government decisions and policy
:22:47. > :22:50.should take account of the wellbeing and happiness of the population.
:22:51. > :22:54.With me is Gus O'Donnell, former head of the UK civil service and the
:22:55. > :23:07.chair of the panel that wrote the report. Thank you for joining us.
:23:08. > :23:13.How, in the first place, do you measure happiness? It is quite a
:23:14. > :23:18.difficult thing to be objective about subjective emotions. Which is
:23:19. > :23:23.why we ask you. We ask for your feelings. For this study, we said to
:23:24. > :23:27.people, tell us, overall, how satisfied are you with your life and
:23:28. > :23:33.your job. We had that information. We know there is more to life than
:23:34. > :23:39.money, as you rightly said. We are tracking life satisfaction and
:23:40. > :23:41.income, with the idea that when people in careers service for
:23:42. > :23:44.schools, colleges and universities, when they are thinking about what
:23:45. > :23:48.job they should get, at the moment all that they know about is the
:23:49. > :23:52.money they will earn. We are saying there are other attributes you
:23:53. > :23:55.should be thinking about. If you do jobs where you are helping other
:23:56. > :23:59.people, you will be more satisfied, and maybe that is a consideration
:24:00. > :24:04.you should take into account when thinking about your career. To
:24:05. > :24:08.altruism, service to the community, that has to be balanced with pay,
:24:09. > :24:12.but pay is still important and you need a basic level in order to be
:24:13. > :24:17.content. The absence of a decent living wage is not something you
:24:18. > :24:22.recommend. Hugely important. When people say income does not matter
:24:23. > :24:26.for well-being, that is untrue. Particularly at low to medium
:24:27. > :24:30.levels. But it tails off. When you are at low income, and extra
:24:31. > :24:33.increased matters a lot. When you are a millionaire, if you extra
:24:34. > :24:40.hundred stores not make a difference to your well-being. It does not stop
:24:41. > :24:44.them chasing it. You are an economist with a lot of experience
:24:45. > :24:48.in government, the Treasury and economics and so on, but society as
:24:49. > :24:51.a whole does not recognise what you have said. Take a nurse, for
:24:52. > :24:56.instance, not very well paid, looking after the elderly, the sick
:24:57. > :25:00.and infirm, doing a real job serving the community. A hedge fund manager
:25:01. > :25:05.deals with finance, produces nothing and gets paid millions. Well, that
:25:06. > :25:10.is the market for you. I can't change that with this report. But I
:25:11. > :25:13.can tell people that what matters is that the hedge fund manager may have
:25:14. > :25:18.a lot of money but is he or she happy doing that job? I would say
:25:19. > :25:23.that the nurse is making a real difference, interacting. At the end
:25:24. > :25:28.of your life, do you want to say, I look back and I think I made a real
:25:29. > :25:33.difference? Why do you say what you have said? We know market forces are
:25:34. > :25:37.difficult to control, but surely government policy can redress that
:25:38. > :25:42.balance. I am not talking about the superstars and pop stars who have a
:25:43. > :25:45.unique talent and appeal, but just groups of people who really perform
:25:46. > :25:51.fundamental duties and services should be better paid. Well, there
:25:52. > :25:55.is only a certain amount that governments can afford. Many of
:25:56. > :25:59.these are public sector jobs. What we can do is show our appreciation
:26:00. > :26:02.for them. Lots of things that we do, in terms of the honour system and
:26:03. > :26:07.other things, do reward these people, and we have a progressive
:26:08. > :26:12.tax system which does tend to equalise. When we look at economics
:26:13. > :26:17.and element indicators, surely we need to put in happiness somehow,
:26:18. > :26:22.and not just look at GDP as the be all and end all. I couldn't agree
:26:23. > :26:26.more. There is more to life than money and we must move beyond GDP,
:26:27. > :26:31.which is a ridiculous way of measuring success. Very few
:26:32. > :26:35.countries only think about GDP. When we think about how successful we are
:26:36. > :26:38.as a society, or as individuals, we do not just think about money. We
:26:39. > :26:44.think about what we are achieving, whether we feel our life is
:26:45. > :26:51.worthwhile or satisfied. Do you have job satisfaction? Huge job
:26:52. > :26:53.satisfaction. That is it. Next, the