09/11/2015 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Philippa Thomas.

The headlines, the World Anti-Doping Agency calls

for Russia to be suspended from all athletics competitions.

That ban could include next year's Rio Olympics.

Investigators say there was widespread doping that must have

happened with the approval of the Russian authorities.

Our sport has to be clean, has to be seen to be clean at all times. You

do whatever you possibly can to do that.

The head of the German Football Association resigns

amid a widening scandal about the awarding of the 2006 World Cup.

Aung San Suu Kyi is confident of victory in Myanmar's

parliamentary elections after sweeping gains in early results.

A warning the climate is moving into unchartered territory

Hello and welcome. Our main news, the hard-hitting report from the

world anti-doping agency which found widespread doping abuses by Russian

athletes and inaction by the IAAF. The world anti-doping agency says

Russia should be suspended from athletics competition,

including next year's Olympics, It accuses the Russian government of

complicity in a state supported doping programme. The former British

athlete, Sebastian Kehl, who now leads the IAAF, says the process of

considering sanctions against Russia has started and he has given was go

until the end of the week to respond. Russian officials have

rejected the claims as baseless. Here's our sports correspondent

Richard Conway with more details. Investigators say that athletics is

in a deep crisis. Russian athletes were the subject of widespread,

state sponsored doping. It is worse than we thought. We found cover-ups,

we find destruction of samples and the Bora Bora trees, we found

payments of money to conceal doping tests. The panel say they found some

nasty surprises during the course of their investigation and make some

specific recommendations, such as calling for five athletes and five

coaches to get lifetime doping bans. The report also identifies systemic

failures that prevents an effective anti-doping programme. And it states

the London 2012 Olympics were sabotaged by the widespread in

action against Russian athletes. It is quite saddening to find out that

that is the level of doping that was going on but let's not take away

from the position that the IAAF and the accusation that people have been

compliant in allowing it to go on and may or may not have allegedly

taking bribes in order to turn a blind eye to what was going on. It's

incredibly disappointing. In addition, the commissioners say

Russian secret police infiltrated doping laboratories in Moscow and

that the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. Their report also details how

over 1400 lab samples were destroyed in Moscow, just three days prior to

an audit by the world anti-doping agency. Their recommendations they

believe now must be augmented if Russia is to be rehabilitated. Our

recommendation is that the Russian Federation be suspended. One of our

hopes is that they will volunteer that so they can undertake the

remedial work in time to make sure that Russian athletes can compete

under a new framework, if you like. If they don't, then it has to to

play itself out and the outcome may be that there are no Russian track

and field athletes in Rio. Journalists who have investigated

the country say medals may have been wrongly awarded. In August, we did

write about those files and they did show widespread cheating in

athletics, something like 55 gold medals were won at Olympics and

World Championships by athletes who were cheating. A lot of them were

Russian but there were all sorts of other nationalities as well. The

IAAF, which is already wrestling with allegations of a high-level

cover-up, will now consider what sanctions to take against Russia.

But they say the suspension of one of the world's athletic superpowers

could now be implemented. Let's bring you more with the president of

the IAAF. We have to go through a process and there is a legal process

as well. I sought the approval of my colleagues. I got that within

minutes this afternoon. I have asked the Russian Federation to report

within the next 24, 48 hours and by Friday, depending upon what they say

and on the basis that my council come together, then we will review

that. I think this is very swift. It's urgent. You told the BBC

yesterday that your preferred option was engagement rather than isolation

when it came to possible sanctions against countries. As your position

therefore shifted? No, my instinct is always about engagement rather

than isolation. I do genuinely believe you affect change by doing

that but I also have to accept that the allegations that have been made

today, the depth of those allegations and this is a 320 page

report, we didn't get that report until you guys did, afterwards, so

we are reviewing and absorbing that. If there are frailties within our

anti-doping systems, I will fix them. If there are corporate

governance is that should have been in place, particularly around

criminal allegations made at the beginning of the week, we will fix

those as well. What has been the reaction from

Russia? The Russian head of athletics

Association has already said that neither the International Olympic

Committee nor another group can suspend Russia from the real index.

Mostly, they say that they have not been wading for such massive

allegations and as the general secretary of the Russian athletics

Federation told us, it was quite a big surprise to hear such a massive

allegation and they need time to analyse all of these accusations.

Mostly, they say of course there could be blame upon some athletes.

The former president of the Federation as well but not the whole

team. They also saying the blame should be

shared with other countries? Russia is not alone in this?

Yes. Mostly, they say that it should be shared with the IAAF itself

because of the bribery allegations. There has been the rest of the

former president. Here also is from Federation, you know, there were

some changes in... There is a new head of the Federation and they say

there are changes and they are getting in a way of the anti-doping

enquiries. They are also hoping to support investigations which we held

after this report. The BBC's sports editor has been

watching events unfold from Geneva. I asked him, in terms of sporting

scandals, how big is this one? It is the worst doping scandal the

sport has ever seen. I don't say that lightly. Sport is no stranger

to controversy on scandal. If you think of Fever for example, the most

obvious example in recent times. -- Fifa. It has been brought to its

knees after years of corruption. Those allegations have been coming

for years and intensifying in recent months. We have seen doping scandals

in sport. High profile ones, systematic scandals like East

Germany in the Cold War, when there seemed to be states Don Stud doping

on a large scale. -- state-sponsored. Lance Armstrong as

well, more recently, who eventually confessed to doping and received a

life ban. That was another dreadful day for sport. The reason why this

perhaps is more serious than any of those in the past was because it

doesn't just involve cheating on a grand scale in Russia. The very

people at the top of the sport, athletics's world governing body,

the IAAF, stand accused of corruption and bribery. The

suspicion is they blackmailed cheating athletes and agreed to

cover up their doping in return for payment. I think it is that element

of it, the fact they may have manipulated results on the track,

they may have let down the very athletes, the clean competitors who

they are meant to be protecting, that makes this such a shocking

incident in sport and is surely the darkest day, that track and field,

the signature sport of the Olympics, has ever seen.

There have been a lot of reaction from high-profile athletes. Jenny

Meadows says, always suspected it but finally, confirmation that the

Russian athletics Federation have denied me of my finest moments of my

career. Dixon, a marathon runner, has said, hate liars. Hate cheats.

Hate dopers. Hate that my beautiful sport is being dragged through the

mud. And New Zealand middle-distance runner, Nick Willis, said this,

Russian athletes are not the sole perpetrators. Let's hope they

investigate all the major complaint is non-complicit in doping control.

Athletics isn't the only sport to be engulfed in scandal.

Accusations of corruption have enveloped world

The latest head to roll is that of the president German football

Although he insists he's done nothing wrong, Mr Niersbach says

he's taking what he called political responsibility for a $7 million

payment to Fifa, allegedly used to pay bribes for supporting Germany's

Damian McGuinness is in Berlin and has explained the background to

this. When this scandal first broke in

October, officials at the German football Association denied flat out

that there was any wrongdoing. They said there had been no illegal

payments, there was no slush fund. What then happened, over the last

week, we have seen new allegations emerging. It has now become clear

there have been payments which cannot be clarified. It is not clear

why so much money has been paid Fifa. To this was then said it was a

loan. Today, this man has now resigned, which effectively is an

admission that something was not right. He said he had no knowledge

of wrongdoing. He didn't know of any illegal payments. But that is not

the same thing as no illegal payments happen. The reason he set

down, he said, was because he wanted to make sure this is clarified. He

doesn't want the German football Association damaged. He says that he

is still not clear what exactly happened. There are a lot of

questions that have to be answered. The allegations have not been

confessed to. They haven't been proven. But there is certainly

something going on which we don't know about. This is why the

president has now resigned and an investigation will carry on. There

is an allegation that Germany bought votes in order to be able to host

the 2006 World Cup. It's a big allegation and a major one that they

need to get to the bottom of, if it is not going to damage the German

football industry. She was kept for 15 years under

house arrest, has won the Nobel Peace Prize and now Aung San Suu Kyi

may be about to make history. In Myanmar's first openly contested

national election for a quarter of a century, her party says it

expects to win by a landslide. It would be a remarkable feat

for a woman who became one of the world's most prominent political

prisoners, barred for so long from But even if, as is looking likely,

her party wins, Aung San Suuu Kyi will be prevented

from becoming president Only a small number of seats have

been declared but this is the headquarters of the political party,

the National League for democracy. People have been coming here to

celebrate. They think that they have won a decisive victory in this

election and everything that we have been able to find out in terms of

speaking to people at polling stations and the few declared

results that are coming through, do appear to suggest that it has won

decisively. Large numbers of people coming here throughout the day, to

dance and sing. Aung San Suu Kyi was also hear herself. It's pretty clear

that the NLD are going to win the largest number of seats. The big

question is whether they are going to get over the two thirds threshold

because with the Army holding a quarter of the seats in parliament,

they are going to need two thirds of all the contested seats

they are going to need two thirds of have control of the destiny of the

presidency. Certainly, then feeling amongst the people here is that they

will manage to do it. NLD! Do you think you are going to win a

majority? Yes. Totally. We are so happy. Not many results here but

still pretty confident here. It does certainly, from this biased

standpoint, that the NLD have done well. They have to wait a couple of

days to find out just how well that is.

The US has congratulated the people of my MR but George Ernest says more

work is needed to bring about effective democracy there. He said

it is too early to say whether US policy towards the country would

change. It's already clear that and sang Suji has had a powerful voice

in bringing about some much-needed reform and change to the political

system inside Burma. Ultimately, what set of official

responsibilities she will have will be the responsibility of the

Pyrenees people and the Burmese government to determine.

I'm joined now by Anna Roberts, Executive Director of

Burma Campaign UK, which works for human rights, democracy

How obviously, this is a day that you are celebrating but we should be

clear that this doesn't mean a clean sweeping away of the military in

power. They still hold a lot of influence. Of course it is a day to

celebrate what is an anticipated landslide victory for the NLD and

that is reason to celebrate but we do need to bear in mind and keep in

context, what this election is happening. There is a military draft

a constitution which means that the military will ultimately be more

powerful than any future NLD government. An NLT government will

be limited in what it is able to achieve. Very high expectations for

change but the reality is, the opportunities for change will be

limited for the future. That is if they are able to form a government.

Given that, what will be their priority? There has been so much

focus on and sang Cici get into power, having her voice. What

difference would it make? The top priority for the National League for

democracy has been to reform this constitution. This was brought in

and drafted by the military dictatorship. They were in a

situation where they wanted to have sanctions dropped, international

pressure dropped. They wanted to move from their pariah status and

they wanted to allow a hybrid form, with limited space for government

but where it still retains ultimate power. That is what we are seeing

today. Although the NLD government will want to amend the constitution,

within that constitution is a guaranteed veto for the military if

they don't want further change. It has been very clear so far that

these are the military if they don't want further change. It has been

very clear so far that these other red lines. The military does not

want further democratic reform so they are preferred to see an NLD

government with limited powers but the military will retain key powers.

It will directly control the police, the army, the judiciary. So, in

terms of human rights abuses, a future NLD government could find

themselves powerless to prevent some of the worst human rights abuses. We

could continue to see prisoners, attacks against ethnic people

because these are beyond the control of the civilian government. These

are issues where and sang Suji has been criticised, for example, not

prioritising the plight of the Muslims which has pushed so many of

them to take to water and to become refugees. She has come in for a lot

of criticism in terms of her silence with the plight of the red hinge,

who are an ethnic Muslim minority, suffering some of the worst human

rights abuses of any group in the world. They have been

disenfranchised from the selection. You have to remember there are

millions of people in Burma who are not celebrating because they were

not able to take part in the election this weekend. That includes

these Muslims but also ethnic minorities as well. It is important

to remember the group -- the root causes of who is causing these

abuses and that is the military. Any future government will be

constrained in terms of what they can do, if they have the will and

the history of and sang Suji has not been altogether positive.

We have to leave it there. Global average temperatures are set

to cross a significant threshold this year,

rising by one degree Centigrade since the Industrial Revolution

according to the Met office. It says the Earth's climate is now

moving into uncharted territory. Icebergs in the waters off

Greenland. The Arctic is one of the fastest warming regions on the

planet. The first sign, according to scientists, of the sort of changes

climate change could bring. Today, news of another milestone. A news

conference in London confirmed that the global average temperature has

risen one Celsius over the past century. This is really forcing the

scientific conclusion that as we increase carbon dioxide

concentrations in the atmosphere, climate is going to warm. This is

another piece of evidence that is right now. These latest figures show

how much temperatures have risen since Victorian times and the heyday

of the industrial revolution. This graph from the Met office tracks the

global average from the period 1850 to 1900, sometimes at depths. More

recently, it has been rising and it is now on the point of reaching a

decrease of one Celsius. That is significant because it is halfway to

the first 2 degrees threshold of warming which is widely accepted as

safe. Even that will bring all kinds of impacts. More flooding is one

possible effect and researchers say even what sounds like mild warming

could prove very serious. A 2 degrees world would mean more

floods, more heat waves, less land available for crops, more water

stress and drying of areas we currently use for growing food. Even

2 degrees will impact hundreds of millions of people. Violent skies

earlier this year. Warm air can hold more moisture so rainstorms may well

become more intense in future. There are, of course, a lot of

uncertainties about how the climate may change. It feels like a long

time ago now, but last summer in Britain saw the hottest July day

ever. That doesn't prove anything on its own. Scientists say there is a

pattern of rising temperatures. Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu

say they have not given up on finding peace in the Middle East.

The Israeli prime ministers arrived at the White House today, with

protesters gathered outside. Both leaders were speaking for the first

time since relations between the two countries deteriorated.

Sierra Leone has been declared free of a bowler. Tying them for our

global health correspondence to look at the impact of the outbreak,

particularly on tourism which was just picking up after the Civil War

when Ebola struck. The first Sunday of Arne Bowler free

Sierra Leone. What better place to celebrate? This place is home to the

country's only surf school but it has fallen on hard times. We used to

get expat and international surfers but because of the Ebola, we don't

have anything, no customers. Its three difficult because we need

tourism and without tourism, there is no possibility for us to survive

and everything will shut down. But for the first time since the

outbreak started, the bus-load of intrepid travellers touring West

Africa by road rolls onto the beach. Our members are not as good as in

the past and I am sure the fear of a bowler is scaring a lot of people

off. Tourism of Africa has been affected, even in countries miles

from the outbreak. People really need tourists coming back because it

is being held for them. What would you say to people who are really

worried about coming here? They are still scared about a bowler. I would

say, honestly, it's such a beautiful place and the people are so

friendly. Hopefully it has passed for other now. From what I've seen,

said DiMaggio. Don't be scared. It's well worth a visit. The traders are

delighted to see tourists today but they know it will probably be a

while before they seem more. Every business here was hit hard by the

outbreak. These stalls have only just started opening again in the

last few months but it is mainly international aid workers who are

coming here. Soon, these people will leave and these market traders will

lose their livelihoods. And their livelihoods support this village.

Many here relied on money generated from tourism. This is the health

centre you are building. Yes, this is the health centre. Martha Normand

showed me what some of the cash had been being used for. I have not been

able to finish it because we have no many as yet. We don't have money to

complete it. No tourism. When people come to the beach, we will get some

money. Sierra Leone wants to be known for this, its dazzling

beaches, not a deadly disease. The Spanish Prime Minister has said

he is ready to use all powers at his disposal to stop Catalonia breaking

away from the rest of Spain. Speaking after Catalonia's regional

parliament in Barcelona approved a resolution declaring

independence, Mariano Rajoy said he would go to the Constitutional Court

to challenge the move. Infrared scans point to a possible

secret chamber behind the wall of Tutankhamen's team. The analysis

shows an area of the North Wall which is warmer than the rest and

that could suggest an open space. That is all. Thanks very much for

being with us.