14/05/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today, with me Philippa Thomas.

The death toll rises at the coal mine in Turkey which has suffered

More than 240 miners have died - rescuers have brought some out

alive, but hopes are fading for those men

Distress has turned to anger for some.

This violent protest broke out as Turkey's prime minister arrived

And, searching for the wreck of one of the most famous ships

in western history - could what's left of the flagship

of Christopher Columbus have been found, after more than 500 years?

And, as the movers and shakers from the film world strut

their stuff in Cannes, we'll be looking at this year's contenders

The death toll is rising - at least 240 miners are known have

died in an explosion at the Turkish coal mine in Soma.

The official car of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip

Erdogan, was shaken as protesters clashed with police in the town,

with reports of abuse being shouted and rocks being hurled as he visited

It's believed about 120 workers are still trapped

underground at the mine at Soma while relatives gather outside.

James Reynolds sent this report from the scene.

The earth of western Turkey gives up its survivors slowly. This morning,

rescuers saved if you miners from the fire below. It began when a

power unit exploded deep underground.

TRANSLATION: For the past 24 hours we have been waiting to get our

friends out alive. That is all that we wish.

At night, rescuers found the first bodies. Many of these miners choked

on carbon monoxide. More than 100 of their fellow workers may still be

trapped. This woman's husband is underground. "God help us", she

cries. She has joined dozens of families at Soma hospital. My son

was two months from retirement, this woman tells me. He planned to come

back home and settle. This family is waiting for news of this young boy

's father. Is he alive or dead? That is all I want to know. We need one

piece of hope. For these family members, this has become a vigil.

They are desperate to find out what has become to the miners still

trapped underground. There is nowhere else for them to go. Rescue

teams continue to look for the lost miners using all the technology they

can find. But they have yet to break through. The mines owners insist it

passed all of its safety checks. Words which will mean little to

those inspecting this overnight tomb.

We can show you live pictures from the scene now. You can see there are

mine workers, gathered waiting and the press and a lot of work for what

many will still hope is a rescue operation.

So, what more do we know about what caused the accident?

And how difficult will it be to reach the mine

Our science editor, David Shukman, has been looking at the options.

This is a disaster on an horrific scale and the battered figures

emerging from underground are the lucky ones. Amid the tears and the

morning and fragile hopes for better news is a mounting sense of anger

this was ever allowed to happen. Protests against the government

erupted in several parts of Turkey. There had been warning about safety

at the mine a few weeks ago. Feelings are running extremely high.

The mining company says it passed every recent inspection but right

now that is not helping. Thousands of people have gathered at the

entrance to the mine and they are hoping for any positive signs from

down below. The nightmare is that so many obstacles stand in the way of

rescuing any survivors. The mine is deep and no one can be sure where

people may be trapped. The explosion cut off the power supply putting

lifts and lights out of action and the ventilation system has stopped.

They are pumping in fresh air but oxygen levels have dropped because

freshly exposed coal sucks in oxygen. Lack of ventilation also

means carbon monoxide levels have been rising which is potentially

toxic and a build-up of smoke reduces instant -- visibility.

Mining experts say this could have been avoided. With recent

ventilation and measures to control coal dust, measures which are

well-known for decades, there is near -- there is no reason other

than incompetence to explain why this sort of death toll should

happen in this day and age. The mining company is adamant it

maintained high standards of safety. The investigation being

launched will put that to the test as the full scale of the horror

unfolds. Reports from north eastern Nigeria

say local people have formed a vigilante group that's killed dozens

of suspected Boko Haram militants. The violence occurred on Tuesday

in a district An eyewitness told the BBC that

the group of residents repelled The Prime Minister has rejected the

idea of a swap of Boko Haram prisoners for the girls. As the

search for the girls continues, their kidnapping has thrown a global

spotlight on the issue of education in northern Nigeria and how save

students are at school. I corresponded has been talking to

students and teachers in Abuja, the capital. A secondary school in the

Nigerian capital, Abuja. It is relatively safe here. The children's

thoughts are with the kidnapped girls. I feel really terrible

because they are girls like me. No one knows how they are. God protect

them. Nigeria is a very big country and

schools like this are part of the reality also. But the mass

kidnapping in the north-east has served to highlight a vicious war

taking place between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram. But Boko

Haram have attacked targets in Abuja as well so the head of this school

says she follows the government 's security advice, maintaining a

perimeter of walls and fencing around her charges. These schools

are fenced. Now, almost all schools are fenced and they have security

added to check in and out. Both students and parents and outsiders.

The boarding school attacked in north-eastern Nigeria where the

girls were taken away would have needed more than good fencing. It is

in the middle of a war zone. Group-macro means "Western education

is a sin" and... The way it happened is that they come from nowhere and

begin to shout. Teachers are their target because they educate us. They

are the ones and they don't want that. They want Arabic education,

nothing more, nothing less. So the teachers are the target and many

number one. It has come to this, parts of Nigeria are not safe for or

their cheap -- teachers. The number of Romanians and

Bulgarians working in the UK was predicted to rise dramatically once

employment restrictions were lifted in the UK in January. In fact, the

number has fallen by 4000 since then. A reduction that the Prime

Minister has described as noted -- notable. But there are more

Bulgarians and Romanians working here than this time last year and

the number of people from across the EU working in Britain has increased

overall prompting a fierce political row ahead of European elections one

week tomorrow. Do you remember the day when our

borders open to Romanians and Bulgarians? The day when Victor was

the first to arrive and was greeted by cameras and MPs. Do you remember

the warnings he would be the first of tens of thousands, perhaps more,

who would make Britain their home? Guess what. They didn't, or not yet

at least. The employment of Bulgarians and Romanians went down

in the first three months of this year. There are many working here,

140,000 the official statistics say. People like this restaurant

owner in Tottenham, but numbers fell by 4000 since the beginning of

January. I am not surprised. Who wanted to come before were already

here. One person you might expect to be surprised is Nigel Farage. If I

was able dairy and I would be packing my bags now wanting to come

to Britain. -- if I was from Bulgaria. With the control of blah

-- our borders at the centre of European elections... The figures

today should reassure people that the lifting of the transitional

controls did not result in a large influx of people. These figures are

very different from what some predicted and it shows the

importance of having a sensible debate. Not surprisingly, UKIP's

leader is having none of it. Regardless of where they come from,

the figures of people coming into this country are going up

year-on-year at a staggering pace. Where you are wrong with regard to

Bulgarians and Romanians? No. In the last few months there has been a big

increase in the number of other Europeans coming here, particularly

from Poland. How long have you been here? Eight years and my friends

seven months. Just come? So you needed to pick up the phone saying,

come on over. My mates need the work and I can get work for them here.

Why not? Ministers point out there are more jobs for Brits as well as

other Europeans and they have Nigel Farage in their sites also. He was

right to be concerned but he was wrong. What we have significantly

done is ensured that it is UK National is now getting the jobs.

But UKIP is right to say that you cannot stop the flow of people

coming from the rest of the EU and that is up. We are part of Europe.

Today's system -- statistics don't end the debate but they give it

another polish. Some of the day 's other news:

Beijing has expressed serious concern over protests in Vietnam

where several factories were burnt down by anti-China protesters. Up to

20,000 people took part in the protests which were about the

deployment of a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters. Authorities say

hundreds of protesters have been arrested. The murder trial of Oscars

Pistorius has been halted with a judge ruling he must undergo

psychiatric assessment. The prosecution asked for it after a

defence psychiatrist said he was suffering from an anxiety disorder.

The trial has been adjourned until Tuesday.

Stephen Sutton, who raised over ?3 million for charity, has died in

Birmingham. He aimed to raise ?10,000 but his campaign caught the

public imagination and went viral online. The British by Minister

joint tribute from around the world praising him for his incredible

efforts. The Swedish director has died at age

36. His film won the Oscar for best documentary last year. It told the

story of two South Africans searching for their musical hero,

Rodriguez. There were no further details but no crime, the police

said, was suspected. Now, more on our top story after the

explosion and fire in the coal mine in Turkey. Joining me from Geneva is

a mining specialist with the International Labour Organisation.

Thank you for joining us. We are hearing tragic news out of Turkey,

but given the nature of coal mining and the risks people take, there are

inevitable dangers, aren't they? There are major dangers inherent to

coal mining. Miners create there in -- environment while they worked.

The factory keeps changing all the time. In the case of coal mining,

factors come into play - me think gas, coal dust and things that can

easily lead to explosions. For this reason, a lot of precautions have to

be taken. As you watch what is happening in Turkey, does it seem to

you more precautions could have been taken or should have been taken? It

is difficult to say from this far away. We are all shocked from what

we have seen and the size of the tragedy. But I think, to make a

determination of what went wrong is something that needs to be done on

the ground by the Turkish government in context with the workers and the

company to determine what really happened and what the reasons were.

What can you say happens in best practice course -- best practice?

How can workers be protected once incidents have been -- have

occurred? Abe preventative health and safety culture should be

implemented where recognition of safe -- safety and health is

paramount. You need to make sure on a national level there is coherence

in policies and laws and regulations. Also, in each company

that a lot of work needs to be done both with management and workers to

achieve a good safety and health culture that works. Briefly, it also

needs a commitment to pay for it. These investments need to be focused

on these issues. Briefly, are their countries or industries you would

say our leaders in this field, in protecting coalminers? Some

countries have been good in making sure there are zero metallic teas.

It has to do with geology and a situation in a specific country but

Australia proves there is a lot that can be done and the same is true of

a lot of European countries. Also the US which has been quite involved

in this. "In fourteen hundred ninety-two,

Columbus sailed the ocean blue". So goes the song sung by American

school children. More than five centuries on,

it appears that the flagship of that famous expedition,

leading to the colonisation of the So far, we've only had pictures

of replicas to go on. But an American underwater

investigator says he believes he's found the actual wreck of the

Santa Maria. As the song has it, "He had

three ships and left from Spain. He sailed through sunshine,

wind and rain". And here's the route west the

Santa Maria took from Spain, The Italian explorer was aiming to

discover a new route to Asia, but instead he made landfall

in the Caribbean, where the Santa Maria ran aground on a reef

near Haiti on Christmas Day, 1492. Alexzandra Hildred is

a marine archaeologist with the Three decades ago, she helped to

salvage the Tudor warship, the Mary Rose, off the south coast

of Britain, and she joins me now Welcome to the programme. Does it

make your pulse quicken to hear news like this? Yes it does. It really

was an earth-shattering voyage. The fact that they may have found the

remains is wonderful. It makes me remember the early stages of Mary

Rose. There might not be much there. With the Mary Rose, you brought up

so much of the ship. Della Mike we don't know, but in searching for the

Mary Rose to begin with, it was varied. Their problem is, it's not

as buried as the Mary Rose was so there is less of the upper structure

we know because they took some of the head away to make affords. There

will definitely be less there, so the difficulty is of how you raise

it. You were a diver on the Mary Rhodes

projects. That was about 32 years ago. -- the Mary Rose project.

Just keep going, would be my advice. The most difficult thing is to prove

that it is the wreck of the Santa Maria. I know a lot of work has been

done to suggest that it is, but having physical proof would be ideal

because some things have already been stolen from the ship. If they

excavate it have to be to the highest standard because it is such

an iconic ship. Does it become an issue of who controls the operation?

It does because both Haiti and Spain signed an agreement for the

protection of cultural heritage, so they will be wanting to figure out

who has ownership. It will be run safely, I think it is safe to say.

Provided they can work together. It will be finding it that is

difficult. That'll be the difficult thing. And then deciding whether and

not we raised it or leave it where it is because that is considered the

best for the objects rather than to let them. When you left them, you

take them out of their environment and then you have to look after them

forever full top difficult questions. What kind of timescale we

looking at? If this is the wreckage for recovering and restoring it. It

depends whether they are going to restore it. Mary Rhodes was much

bigger. -- Mary Rose. It was a huge activation of four years will stop

it is still ongoing. We have only just opened a museum to put the ship

on show again, after 33 years of it being in conservation. Thank you.

Movers and shakers of the film world have arrived at the 67th

Cannes film festival for the 12-day party that also screens movies.

The Festival will open with Grace of Monaco.

Some of you ask, why did I leave Hollywood?

Well, I left because I fell in love with a charming prince.

The Festival will open with Grace of Monaco.

It stars Nicole Kidman as the American golden girl,

actress Grace Kelly, who married Prince Rainier of Monaco, but died

after crashing her car in 1982, on a road just east of Cannes.

Let's go live to Cannes and the writer Agnes Poirier,

who's an independent adviser to the film festival.

First, your independent opinion on the opening film, Grace of Monaco?

I have just seen it. It is a tradition that can should start with

a spectacular film. There a often, critics will tell you that usually

are spectacular -- spectacularly bad. I'm afraid Grace of Monaco is

one of those. It takes place in 1962, God no -- god knows why,

during a stand-off between France and Monaco. The French president

wins the argument. The problem with the film is that it is too stiff. It

is wooden and badly written. Nicole Kidman is a wonderful actress but

she pales in comparison to Grace Kelly. Oh dear! What a bad start. Is

it going to look up? What about the other films? What about Welcome to

New York? The good thing about the opening film is that things can only

look bright after it. Tomorrow morning, when the film industry

people will still be in bed, film critics like me will be writing. The

line-up is pretty exciting. One film which is not in tradition, Welcome

to New York, it is the take of a US director who is responsible for a

badly tenants. -- for Adds Lieutenancy. He was accused -- it

follows a man who was accused of raping a chambermaid. For a diffuse

them critics who have seen the film, it is a towering performance from

Gerard Depardieu. This film is very new and will be released on DVD from

Friday. We are all pretty excited to see it. We were quite afraid of what

it might be. We have a short time left. Have you any tips about films

we should look out for? Yes, an Argentinian film called Wild Tales.

We don't know much about it except that the film festival directors

said it would wake people up. I think it is a good thing. Thank you

very much. But for now from me and the rest

of the team, goodbye. Hello. It is a warming trend over

the next few days. It could be as high as the mid-20s by the weekend.

It will feel warm tomorrow to bite their being more cloud around,

particularly across England and Wales. Keeping it generally fine and

dry, pushing rain varying weather fronts up to the far