:00:00. > :00:11.This is BBC World News Today, with me, Philippa Thomas.
:00:12. > :00:15.Syrian rebel fighters leave the city they once called the capital of
:00:16. > :00:19.their revolution. The fighters head out of the Syrian
:00:20. > :00:21.city of Homs on UN buses after an internationally brokered truce with
:00:22. > :00:25.President Assad's forces - a retreat, though they say their war
:00:26. > :00:29.is not over. Is President Putin changing his tune
:00:30. > :00:32.on Ukraine? He urges rebels to shelve their local referendum plans,
:00:33. > :00:38.and backs Ukraine's scheduled national elections.
:00:39. > :00:50.Also coming up: how enthusiastic have voters in South Africa proved
:00:51. > :00:55.about today's elections? I am at a polling station just an hour before
:00:56. > :01:00.voting ends in the first elections since the death of Nelson Mandela.
:01:01. > :01:03.And is this how it all began? We'll show you NASA's stunning recreation
:01:04. > :01:05.of the story of the universe - condensing billions of years into
:01:06. > :01:22.just a few minutes. Hello and welcome.
:01:23. > :01:25.It was far from their vision of Syria's future, but after three
:01:26. > :01:28.years of fighting President Assad's forces, rebel fighters and their
:01:29. > :01:35.families have begun to leave Homs on UN buses, having torched what was
:01:36. > :01:38.left of their bases. Syria's third largest city was once at the centre
:01:39. > :01:41.of the uprising against President Assad. But now fighters are
:01:42. > :01:49.withdrawing from the Old City, which lies largely in ruins. One more
:01:50. > :01:52.district of Homs is still holding out - al-Wair - seen here. But we
:01:53. > :01:56.understand fighters there have also accepted a cease-fire and they will
:01:57. > :01:59.leave too, as soon as arrangements are made. Now, as the first group of
:02:00. > :02:02.evacuated fighters has arrived in the rebel-held towns of Talbisah and
:02:03. > :02:03.Dar al-Kabrira, the Old City is coming back under government
:02:04. > :02:15.control. Paul Wood reports. The uprising in Homs is over. Smoke
:02:16. > :02:19.hangs over the old city, signifying defeat for the rebels. They'd set
:02:20. > :02:25.fire to the buildings before they left them for the last time. The
:02:26. > :02:31.rebel fighters moved out, demoralised and hungry after two
:02:32. > :02:37.years of siege. Officers in President Assad's army called it
:02:38. > :02:42."surrender or starve". This is not, though, capitulation. Each fighter
:02:43. > :02:52.took a backpack and a rifle. They leave the countryside ready to
:02:53. > :02:56.continue the armed struggle. TRANSLATION: This is a victory for
:02:57. > :03:00.the rebels. We thank God for this. We are leaving with dignity but we
:03:01. > :03:04.will be back to Homs, and God willing we will liberate Homs.
:03:05. > :03:08.Alongside the bravado, there is bitterness. The rebels say they feel
:03:09. > :03:10.betrayed by the international community, by their own political
:03:11. > :03:19.leadership in Turkey, by other rebels who did not come to their
:03:20. > :03:25.aid. The opposition called Homs the capital of the revolution. As we saw
:03:26. > :03:28.in the siege of another enclave, Baba Amr, the government tried to
:03:29. > :03:35.crush resistance in Homs from the start. The shelling is constant now.
:03:36. > :03:39.We are hearing an impact every few seconds. And in reply you can also
:03:40. > :03:45.hear a little bit of Kalashnikov fire. It's a pretty futile gesture.
:03:46. > :03:49.Now they have finished the job in the Old City. It is a symbolic and
:03:50. > :03:55.strategic victory for President Assad. In places, the rebels are
:03:56. > :03:59.making gains, in Aleppo and Idlib over in the North, for example. This
:04:00. > :04:02.is not a simple picture. But President Assad is winning more than
:04:03. > :04:07.he is losing, and perhaps the real significance of Homs lies in what it
:04:08. > :04:10.tells you about the rebels' morale. For some, three years of blood and
:04:11. > :04:19.sacrifice, with little to show for it, is enough.
:04:20. > :04:26.With me is our Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, who's
:04:27. > :04:32.been to Homs several times. It has been a desperate situation over the
:04:33. > :04:38.past few months? I was there a few weeks ago, I have never had so much
:04:39. > :04:43.intense mortar fire. We could hear small arms fire through the night.
:04:44. > :04:47.It was clear there were fierce battles going on. They were battle
:04:48. > :04:52.hardened fighters who did not want to leave, and there were others who
:04:53. > :05:02.were starved of weapons and food. Many of the civilians had left, and
:05:03. > :05:05.many ad stayed. For a lot of the fighters who left, it was
:05:06. > :05:11.bittersweet. They are exhausted, hungry. As we saw in the report,
:05:12. > :05:17.they have not given up. They are moving to the countryside and so the
:05:18. > :05:24.fighting will shift there. Where do you think the rebels stand now? The
:05:25. > :05:30.military strikes that the UN threatened against President Assad
:05:31. > :05:34.did not happen. We talk about the war in Syria and we talk about the
:05:35. > :05:40.rebels and the government side. In many places the war is being fought
:05:41. > :05:45.the village to village, city to city, Road to Lord, there are
:05:46. > :06:00.different rebel groups. Every day that patterns, there are different
:06:01. > :06:09.rebel groups developing. -- that passes. There were complex
:06:10. > :06:14.negotiations, but by and large the rebel movement is all fractured now,
:06:15. > :06:20.you have to top around what is happening around Homs and Damascus.
:06:21. > :06:24.Although today was a very important and symbolic victory for President
:06:25. > :06:28.Assad's forces, there is still intense fighting going on in the
:06:29. > :06:34.north. So the war itself is not over, it is still ruled by road,
:06:35. > :06:41.city by city. President Assad's forces are gaining ground. Thank
:06:42. > :06:43.you. President Putin has urged
:06:44. > :06:45.pro-Russian activists in southeastern Ukraine to call off a
:06:46. > :06:49.series of independence referendums planned for this weekend, in what
:06:50. > :06:52.looks like an attempt to calm the growing tension in Ukraine. The
:06:53. > :06:55.Russian president also claims to have pulled back his troops from the
:06:56. > :06:59.Ukrainian border, though both NATO and the White House have said they
:07:00. > :07:03.can see no sign of this. Daniel Sandford reports from Moscow.
:07:04. > :07:06.Moscow has been in military mood this week preparing to celebrate 69
:07:07. > :07:11.years since it defeated Nazi Germany. And all against the
:07:12. > :07:18.backdrop of Russia annexing Crimea less than two months ago and the
:07:19. > :07:21.fighting in eastern Ukraine. But in the Kremlin today, President Putin
:07:22. > :07:27.showed his first sign of wanting to de-escalate the tensions in Ukraine.
:07:28. > :07:30.In a meeting with the President of Switzerland, he insisted Russia had
:07:31. > :07:33.pulled back its troops from the border and then he called on the
:07:34. > :07:39.armed pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine to delay their
:07:40. > :07:43.controversial referendum. TRANSLATION: We call on the
:07:44. > :07:47.representatives of south-east Ukraine. On the supporters of the
:07:48. > :07:55.federisation of the country, to postpone the referendum scheduled
:07:56. > :07:58.for May 11th. It could be a significant
:07:59. > :08:01.breakthrough, though a source close to President Putin told me Russia
:08:02. > :08:04.would only support presidential elections in Ukraine this month, if
:08:05. > :08:10.the government in Kiev engaged in serious talks with the East. And the
:08:11. > :08:16.key question, as Mr Putin left the room, was whether the pro-Russia
:08:17. > :08:18.activists will do as he asks. It was a dramatic move by President Putin
:08:19. > :08:26.wrong-footing everyone just four days before the referendum was due
:08:27. > :08:28.to be held. So with the situation in Ukraine deteriorating by the day,
:08:29. > :08:38.President Putin may just have blinked, but if so, why? One answer
:08:39. > :08:42.could be the Russian economy. People's lives have been transformed
:08:43. > :08:48.in the last 15 years as oil money has paid for Western consumer goods.
:08:49. > :08:56.But it could all be put at risk by further sanctions. TRANSLATION: --
:08:57. > :09:00.The consequences could be dire. I would say that if Russia breaks
:09:01. > :09:04.down, it will break up, or it may break up. Spring is just arriving in
:09:05. > :09:08.Moscow, but it has been overshadowed by the fighting over the border.
:09:09. > :09:11.President Putin may have calculated that it is now time to consolidate
:09:12. > :09:12.his gains, rather than risk everything by going for broke in
:09:13. > :09:31.Ukraine. Let's go live to Daniel in Moscow.
:09:32. > :09:35.You said the big question there is why, I know the European Union
:09:36. > :09:46.governments have been discussing a possible expansion of sanctions.
:09:47. > :09:56.There is no doubt that Russia was about to enter into some difficult
:09:57. > :10:00.country. Russia was likely to be suffering some economic problems
:10:01. > :10:03.before this Ukrainian crisis and certainly sanctions will drive
:10:04. > :10:12.Russia further into recession. That is one factor. Another is that
:10:13. > :10:30.President Putin is watching the situation carefully and he will be
:10:31. > :10:36.trying to work out what will happen. If you take what he said today on
:10:37. > :10:44.face value, he has pull the rug from those in eastern Ukraine. The
:10:45. > :10:48.interesting thing will be whether tomorrow the agree with what he has
:10:49. > :10:53.asked them to do whether in fact they say, we do not listen to
:10:54. > :10:57.Moscow, and they carry on. If they listen to what he said, that would
:10:58. > :11:02.be a sign they have put some pressure on them, then Russia has
:11:03. > :11:10.decided it is time to head to the endgame. Remind us about the plans
:11:11. > :11:15.for the weekend. It was not one referendum, it was meant to be a
:11:16. > :11:18.series in the East? Different regions were talking about the
:11:19. > :11:23.possibility of holding referendums. The key one was the Donetsk region.
:11:24. > :11:28.That is the place where there have been the most number of buildings
:11:29. > :11:32.taken over and where they were most advanced in trying to organise a
:11:33. > :11:36.referendum. It did not look as if they would be all to use normal
:11:37. > :11:42.polling stations to stage the referendum. This was a referendum to
:11:43. > :11:47.effectively create much greater autonomy in Eastern Europe rain. It
:11:48. > :11:57.was seen as a route to them joining rush-hour. -- eastern Ukraine.
:11:58. > :12:00.South Africans have been voting today - with the governing ANC
:12:01. > :12:07.widely tipped for another victory - as the country marks 20 years since
:12:08. > :12:10.the end of apartheid. Let's join Zeinab Badawi again in Johannesburg,
:12:11. > :12:20.how has the turnout looked from there? How has that looked? In just
:12:21. > :12:27.under now hour now before voting ends in this election. This is just
:12:28. > :12:30.one of 22,000 polling stations up and down the country. The
:12:31. > :12:35.Independent electoral commission has said it is satisfied with the
:12:36. > :12:43.product of the voting situation saying it has been very smooth. This
:12:44. > :12:48.is in an affluent part of Johannesburg. Most people have been
:12:49. > :12:53.coming in in flashy cars, which those you one phase of South Africa.
:12:54. > :12:57.There is a great deal of wealth in the country, but the growing level
:12:58. > :13:03.of inequality has been a key issue in this campaign. My colleague has
:13:04. > :13:07.been looking at how there is growing frustration with the ruling ANC at
:13:08. > :13:13.its failure at delivering prosperity for all.
:13:14. > :13:19.They began queueing here even before dawn. Many still loyal and grateful
:13:20. > :13:22.to the party that helped liberate South Africa and has been in power
:13:23. > :13:25.ever since. Got freedom of speech, better roads, better facilities, and
:13:26. > :13:32.we are no longer treated like slaves, like they did treat us like
:13:33. > :13:37.slaves not long ago. So you will be voting today for? For the legacy of
:13:38. > :13:42.the old man. Of Nelson Mandela? For the ANC? No doubt about it. Which
:13:43. > :13:45.explains why President Jacob Zuma, voting here, will almost certainly
:13:46. > :13:49.keep his job, despite being accused of corruption. But the ANC is
:13:50. > :13:56.starting to lose ground, the Army brought in to this impoverished
:13:57. > :13:59.township after riots yesterday. In troubled communities like this one,
:14:00. > :14:01.the optimism of 20 years ago has evaporated to be replaced by
:14:02. > :14:10.cynicism, frustration and increasingly, by violence. These
:14:11. > :14:14.teenagers say they took part in yesterday's protests. Over half of
:14:15. > :14:22.all yougg South Africans, the so-called born frees, are struggling
:14:23. > :14:26.to find work. -- young South Africans. Since President Zuma, our
:14:27. > :14:30.new leader, he has done nothing but corruption. He spent a lot of money
:14:31. > :14:34.on upgrading his house and upgrading the lives of South Africans. So I do
:14:35. > :14:40.not think ANC should lead any longer. A new party should be given
:14:41. > :14:43.a chance to lead us. And there are plenty of parties vying for power,
:14:44. > :14:46.splitting the opposition vote. Some promise an end to corruption, others
:14:47. > :14:51.complain that too much of the economy remains in white hands. In
:14:52. > :14:57.this queue, we found plenty of frustrated ANC supporters who were
:14:58. > :15:02.considering a protest vote today. Me, by not voting for them today, I
:15:03. > :15:06.am sending a sign to them that I am your supporter, but the thing is, I
:15:07. > :15:11.am a bit frustrated with what you are doing to our people. And that's
:15:12. > :15:25.a common view here, that the ANC is losing its way, but may not be
:15:26. > :15:32.beyond redemption. What have you been hearing from the born frees,
:15:33. > :15:37.who did not go through the struggle for democracy? A great deal has been
:15:38. > :15:43.made of this generation who can vote for the first time. That they might
:15:44. > :15:48.be encumbered with ties of loyalty to the ANC as a party of liberation.
:15:49. > :16:00.They do not remember the years before the party. Only 12% of the
:16:01. > :16:08.born frees registered to vote, and we don't know how many of them even
:16:09. > :16:10.bother to turn out. I have been looking at the demographics in the
:16:11. > :16:17.queues for the polling stations and there were not many born frees in
:16:18. > :16:20.those queues as far as I could see. And what do you see is the biggest
:16:21. > :16:27.challenge in government again for the ANC? The ANC will get the most
:16:28. > :16:34.seats. As one leading commentators said, it has been a dictatorship of
:16:35. > :16:39.no alternative. And that is the point. The opposition is very
:16:40. > :16:44.splintered in South Africa with more than 20 parties standing in the
:16:45. > :16:51.selection and the official opposition only got 17% of the votes
:16:52. > :16:55.in 2009, the ANC got 66%. But, the ANC has experienced a wake-up call
:16:56. > :17:01.in this campaign with the kind of frustration that you heard in that
:17:02. > :17:05.report by Andrew. So, it cannot afford to say to people any more,
:17:06. > :17:09.look, it is only 20 years since we have been in power, you have got to
:17:10. > :17:13.be patient, wait a little bit more. People are saying that it is time
:17:14. > :17:19.that we did have a share in the wealth of this country, and I think
:17:20. > :17:22.that the ANC after this election is going to be discussing, what do we
:17:23. > :17:30.do with the next five years in office to try to ensure that there
:17:31. > :17:40.is a greater, and Sarah distribution of the country's well. -- fear
:17:41. > :17:43.distribution -- fairer. Several hundred people are now thought to
:17:44. > :17:46.have been killed in another Islamist attack in north-east Nigeria. The
:17:47. > :17:50.news has come through as Nigeria's government offered a reward of
:17:51. > :17:55.?175,000 to help find more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram.
:17:56. > :17:59.The Government is calling on both American and British military advice
:18:00. > :18:06.to help in the search for the girls. Here's our security correspondent,
:18:07. > :18:11.Gordon Corera. It is a campaign spreading around the world, of deep
:18:12. > :18:29.and growing concern to the fate of 200 but did Nigerian schoolgirls. --
:18:30. > :18:31.kidnapped schoolgirls. Campaigners, celebrities, Nigerians, on the
:18:32. > :18:35.streets and social media drawing attention to the plight of the girls
:18:36. > :18:38.and calling for them to be released. When asked about Nigeria today the
:18:39. > :18:42.Prime Minister said he shared the outrage. I am the father of two
:18:43. > :18:44.young daughters and five reaction is the same as every father or mother
:18:45. > :18:48.in this land. This is an act of pure evil, it has
:18:49. > :18:52.united people across the planet to stand with Nigeria to find them. The
:18:53. > :18:54.foreign office has been offering assistance and the Prime Minister
:18:55. > :18:58.called the Nigerian president. He accepted a small team of British
:18:59. > :19:04.officials could come out to help. It may include members of the military
:19:05. > :19:07.and intelligence services. The girls were taken by the violent Islamist
:19:08. > :19:11.group Boko Haram, whose leader said he intended to sell them. They were
:19:12. > :19:13.taken from the school three weeks ago, only three soldiers were
:19:14. > :19:17.guarding them despite warnings. A few of the girls escaped. A
:19:18. > :19:23.campaigner in touch with them told the BBC about their experiences.
:19:24. > :19:25.They went through a horrifying experience, they were terrorised,
:19:26. > :19:32.they were made to believe their family members would be killed, and
:19:33. > :19:35.they would not be returned back. Protesters are out on the street
:19:36. > :19:41.criticising the Government for doing too little, too late. The Nigerians
:19:42. > :19:44.did accept help from an American team and today offered a reward for
:19:45. > :19:55.information. Celebrity campaigners have also been joining in the cause
:19:56. > :19:59.for action. If the world does nothing and they get away with this
:20:00. > :20:01.we set a horrible precedent so it is extremely important something is
:20:02. > :20:05.done immediately to try to find these girls, bring them home, and
:20:06. > :20:13.God forbid we can't, we have two still bring these men to justice.
:20:14. > :20:15.With more than three weeks having passed since these girls were taken,
:20:16. > :20:19.even though the international campaign is now growing, hopes for
:20:20. > :20:24.their imminent release of fading. -- are fading. Thailand's prime
:20:25. > :20:27.minister Yingluck Shinawatra has had to resign, after being found guilty
:20:28. > :20:30.of abusing her power by the country's Constitutional Court. It
:20:31. > :20:34.said she had acted illegally when she transferred a senior civil
:20:35. > :20:39.servant to another job, to free up a post for one of her relatives. Nine
:20:40. > :20:42.out of ten people living in cities around the world are breathing air
:20:43. > :20:45.that fails to meet levels deemed safe by the World Health
:20:46. > :20:48.Organisation. Asia comes out the worst in the WHO's latest report,
:20:49. > :20:52.which is based on data recorded in 1,600 cities. Vietnamese naval ships
:20:53. > :20:56.and Chinese vessels have collided in the South China Sea. The incident
:20:57. > :21:00.happened as the Vietnamese navy was trying to prevent the Chinese from
:21:01. > :21:08.setting up an oil rig in an area that's claimed by both nations. A
:21:09. > :21:10.German art hoarder - whose collection of priceless works
:21:11. > :21:13.triggered an investigation into Nazi-looted art - has left his
:21:14. > :21:17.collection of paintings to a gallery in Switzerland. The Bern Art Museum
:21:18. > :21:20.now inherits more than 1,000 pictures hidden for decades by
:21:21. > :21:28.Cornelius Gurlitt, who died on Tuesday. From the food we eat to the
:21:29. > :21:33.toys children play with. How much those being part of the EU affect
:21:34. > :21:37.our daily lives? In two weeks' time, voters across the EU, including in
:21:38. > :21:41.Britain, will get the chance to choose their Euro MP. Matthew Price
:21:42. > :21:48.left Brussels for the day, and headed here to find out how EU rules
:21:49. > :21:55.affect us all in Europe. Out of Brussels, but not out of the EU.
:21:56. > :22:01.Welcome to Banbury, where European laws govern daily life. It anywhere
:22:02. > :22:10.on the high street, I chose number 21, and a fry up. Enjoy. Everything
:22:11. > :22:16.you see on this plate is affected by EU rules. The pigs that produced the
:22:17. > :22:20.Bacon, the way that they are reared, to the meat content in the sausage,
:22:21. > :22:25.to the seeds used to grow the crops in the first place, EU legislation
:22:26. > :22:31.regulates how many hours the people who picked vegetables can work, in
:22:32. > :22:35.the fields. Quite often, British standards are higher than Brussels
:22:36. > :22:42.standards. With eggs, most of those bought in this country will be of a
:22:43. > :22:46.superior food safety quality. The EU has affected the people who serve
:22:47. > :22:57.us, like the Polish chef here, but not the currency we use. What about
:22:58. > :23:02.our children? Do you think that EU rules would have any impact on a
:23:03. > :23:08.place like this? No, I do not think so. You would be wrong. All toys in
:23:09. > :23:17.Britain have to meet EU safety standards. And carry this mark. I do
:23:18. > :23:24.not think you realise what would the the impact if it was the UK, Europe,
:23:25. > :23:28.it is entrusted with health and safety for your child, for food
:23:29. > :23:32.standards, for everything else. British women can have more
:23:33. > :23:36.maternity leave of than the minimum time set by Brussels. Outside town
:23:37. > :23:42.on this industrial estate, this company must comply with EU rules so
:23:43. > :23:49.that it can sell is metal detectors in European markets. We can trade
:23:50. > :23:53.easily in the EU, we can exhibit products there, but the downside is
:23:54. > :23:57.the costs associated with complying to some of the legislation that
:23:58. > :24:03.comes out of there, some of the red tape. Back to Brussels, where
:24:04. > :24:15.British MEPs and ministers help create EU laws, laws that affect
:24:16. > :24:20.everyone across this land. It's a view of the heavens as never seen
:24:21. > :24:23.before. NASA scientists have just released a stunning recreation of
:24:24. > :24:27.the evolution of the universe, from the formation of the first atoms, to
:24:28. > :24:29.the birth of stars and galaxies. It's based on the latest
:24:30. > :24:32.mathematical model, as our Science Correspondent Pallab Ghosh explains.
:24:33. > :24:36.This computer simulation compresses 14 billion years into two-and-a-half
:24:37. > :24:49.minutes. Watch how the universe unravels. First, strands of
:24:50. > :24:52.mysterious material in blue, called "dark matter", sprawl across the
:24:53. > :24:56.emptiness of space, like branches of a cosmic tree. Fast forward a couple
:24:57. > :24:59.of billion years and the pink glows show the seeds from which galaxies
:25:00. > :25:03.will one day form. Billions more years pass and there are cataclysmic
:25:04. > :25:08.explosions, from which, a little bit later, the universe as we know it
:25:09. > :25:17.begins to emerge. And around now, the Earth and our own Solar System
:25:18. > :25:21.begins to form. This simulation essentially tells us how the
:25:22. > :25:25.universe evolves in front of our own eyes and what we can see here is how
:25:26. > :25:30.gas and stars and eventually planets and us form in this universe. And
:25:31. > :25:33.the amazing thing about the simulation is that is really
:25:34. > :25:37.strikingly close to the real universe. This is a picture of the
:25:38. > :25:41.universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Now, compare it with the
:25:42. > :25:48.universe created in a computer, published in the journal Nature. It
:25:49. > :25:51.is hard to tell the difference. For hundreds of years, astronomers have
:25:52. > :25:59.used telescopes to see distant stars and galaxies. From what they saw,
:26:00. > :26:02.they developed their ideas of how the universe began and how it
:26:03. > :26:06.evolved. Now, for the first time, they are able to re-create the
:26:07. > :26:09.universe in a computer. That means they can test out new theories and
:26:10. > :26:16.really get to grips with how the cosmos works. It's a big step
:26:17. > :26:19.forward. It is going to be incredibly helpful to cosmologists
:26:20. > :26:22.like me to figure out fundamental properties of the universe. This
:26:23. > :26:33.simulation is the best estimate yet of how the universe evolved and how
:26:34. > :26:41.it may develop in the future. Extraordinary pictures. You can get
:26:42. > :26:43.in touch with us on Twitter about any of those stories. Thank you very
:26:44. > :27:00.much for being with us. Good evening. The are not that many
:27:01. > :27:07.places that managed to stay dry today. Tomorrow, we have to talk
:27:08. > :27:12.about some rain in the forecast. It can be a little bit different from
:27:13. > :27:15.one day to the next. Most of tomorrow's rain comes from this
:27:16. > :27:22.weather system coming in from the Atlantic. The rain itself will be a
:27:23. > :27:23.little bit patchy and hit and miss but not many places will miss it,