:00:00. > :00:00.This is BBC World News Today with me Karin Giannone.
:00:00. > :00:08.Our top story: tributes for one of the most influential artists
:00:09. > :00:34.David Bowie - icon and innovator - dies of cancer, at the of 69.
:00:35. > :00:37.In a career which spanned 6 decades, he kept re-shaping his music
:00:38. > :00:43.An aid convoy enters the besieged Syrian town of Madaya where forty
:00:44. > :00:48.thousand people were facing starvation.
:00:49. > :00:50.Also coming up, a legal first in Spain, as Princess Cristina
:00:51. > :01:12.The death of David Bowie has come as a shock to all but those
:01:13. > :01:20.For 18 months he was struggling with cancer.
:01:21. > :01:25.His death brings to an end the life of one of the most inspirational
:01:26. > :01:28.music performers of the last 50 years.
:01:29. > :01:30.He didn't tend to describe himself as a musician -
:01:31. > :01:38.As he proved through video, film, fashion and of course, his songs.
:01:39. > :01:41.In the first of our reports tonight our Arts Editor Will Gompertz looks
:01:42. > :02:03.Here is a special man. Screwed up eyes, and screwed down her style.
:02:04. > :02:11.David Bowie, 1972, and his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust.
:02:12. > :02:16.I am only using rock 'n' roll as a medium. I don't think it had been
:02:17. > :02:21.voiced before. I wanted to be the instigator of new ideas. Turn people
:02:22. > :02:31.on to new things, new perspectives, to be a catalyst.
:02:32. > :02:36.Born David Jones and brought up in the suburban London, he restyled
:02:37. > :02:47.himself and in 1969% at his strange world of alienation and ambiguity.
:02:48. > :02:57.The older generation will be amused. And rock fans dismissive. But
:02:58. > :03:06.teenagers in bedrooms were transfixed. At last, somebody who
:03:07. > :03:12.understood them. He would try things. People laughed
:03:13. > :03:18.about his cross dressing, but he wanted to know what it was like. I
:03:19. > :03:24.had so much admiration for him. And he had that very clever thing of
:03:25. > :03:27.creating a persona on stage, it was fantastic, because when he had had
:03:28. > :03:33.enough of that person he could bring another one on board.
:03:34. > :03:47.He made plain his artistic modus operandi in 1971, with Changes.
:03:48. > :03:51.It is like looking at an actor's films and taking clippings and
:03:52. > :03:56.saying, here he is. That is different from most rock
:03:57. > :04:01.stars. I am not a rock star. I am not in
:04:02. > :04:04.rock and roll. A performance artist, he became
:04:05. > :04:13.transfixed with the idea of creating character actor character. Ziggy
:04:14. > :04:19.Stardust, becoming the Thin White Duke. A number one in America
:04:20. > :04:27.followed, and transatlantic success for a bizarre British export.
:04:28. > :04:32.You get the strangest reactions. Some people said I would be scared
:04:33. > :04:36.sitting talking to you, that you would bite my neck, a very peculiar
:04:37. > :04:42.thing. It is what you want I suppose. And
:04:43. > :04:51.what do I see my? A working actor.
:04:52. > :04:54.That's right, and it is very good. Nothing will prepare you for the
:04:55. > :05:00.impact of his first, to performance in the man who fell to Earth...
:05:01. > :05:08.He was an actor who started out as a mime artist. In 1976 he took the
:05:09. > :05:11.starring role in an arthouse film. He moved to Berlin and made a
:05:12. > :05:30.trilogy of critically acclaimed albums with Brian Eno.
:05:31. > :05:41.# Ashes to ashes... He was often at the forefront of
:05:42. > :05:59.change, from raising gender issues, to the video age. A new decade, and
:06:00. > :06:04.a new romantic look. Let's Dance, a massive international success, but
:06:05. > :06:08.he was not happy. Artistically, it was my lowest
:06:09. > :06:12.point. Over the past decade he retreated
:06:13. > :06:20.from public life but continued to make records and pursued creative
:06:21. > :06:31.collaborations. He released his final album, Blackstar, last week,
:06:32. > :06:37.on his 69th birthday. Innovative, surprising, and, in anticipating his
:06:38. > :06:40.own death, visionary. He was a truly great artist, to the very end.
:06:41. > :06:43.David Bowie was born in Brixton, south London and today fans have
:06:44. > :06:46.been leaving flowers and lighting candles next to a mural
:06:47. > :06:49.Whether it's New York, where Bowie lived or Berlin,
:06:50. > :06:52.where he wrote some of his most famous tracks, people have been
:06:53. > :06:53.talking about how he influenced their lives.
:06:54. > :06:56.Our Arts Correspondent David Sillito has been listening to reaction
:06:57. > :07:32.# To the girl with the mousey hair... I just loved his music. I
:07:33. > :07:39.loved him. He was more than an artist. He
:07:40. > :07:46.superseded that. He was a real person, creative. Brixton, his
:07:47. > :07:57.birthplace, Berlin, his creative escape. And this, the place made
:07:58. > :08:05.famous by a legendary album cover. This is the spot, isn't it? You can
:08:06. > :08:12.still see the gaslamp. And for most of us, this is as close as you ever
:08:13. > :08:16.really got to David Bowie. But for his fans, these images, the words,
:08:17. > :08:21.to be played at maximum volume, he was like an alien that arrived in
:08:22. > :08:25.strange clothes, was an even stranger sexuality. And what he did
:08:26. > :08:34.was sort of give people a mission to live life differently.
:08:35. > :08:42.He probably saved my life. Just through his lyrics and songs and
:08:43. > :08:49.attitude. I was a troubled teenager. I actually appear on this record. He
:08:50. > :08:52.has been part of my life since meeting him in 1967. So it feels as
:08:53. > :09:09.if a major been -- meeting him in 1967. So it feels as
:09:10. > :09:11.knocked away. Among the tributes, Paul McCartney, and the man who
:09:12. > :09:13.helped create some of his Paul McCartney, and the man who
:09:14. > :09:18.mind you now, he said, I Paul McCartney, and the man who
:09:19. > :09:20.note seven days ago, it said, thank you for the good times, Brian. I
:09:21. > :09:30.realise now, he was saying goodbye. Our North America correspondent
:09:31. > :09:51.is live in New York David Bowie How people took the news?
:09:52. > :09:54.It was as the Golden globes were winding down and the after parties
:09:55. > :10:09.getting under way. Then they heard about the death of David Bowie,
:10:10. > :10:15.Ricky Gervais was amongst the first to say that he lost a hero. One of
:10:16. > :10:22.the DJs responded by simply playing back-to-back David Bowie music.
:10:23. > :10:26.Celebrities were sharing their forts all night. And fans responded
:10:27. > :10:41.spontaneously, in some cases by heading to Hollywood love --
:10:42. > :10:48.boulevard, which has become a makeshift memorial, taking flowers,
:10:49. > :10:56.lighting candles, leaving, in one case, a little pink alien toy. Lots
:10:57. > :11:00.of glitter is scattered around the ground, there are even a couple of
:11:01. > :11:03.miniature whiskey bottles and some lighters. Celebrities have been
:11:04. > :11:06.saying things like... Well, the music industry responding. One of
:11:07. > :11:18.the great producers of today said that he was a great innovator, truly
:11:19. > :11:26.creative. Kanye West, David Bowie was one of my inspirations, he gave
:11:27. > :11:29.us magic for a lifetime, and Cher, briefly, saying she was devastated,
:11:30. > :11:34.she had a little symbol of a broken heart and said, the legend is gone.
:11:35. > :11:36.We can see on the screen those tributes being laid. Peter, thank
:11:37. > :11:43.you very much. Bowie spent a number of years
:11:44. > :11:46.in the '70s living in Berlin - he also created a number
:11:47. > :11:48.of albums while he was there. Today, the German foreign ministry
:11:49. > :11:51.credited Bowie with helping to bring Our correspondent Damien
:11:52. > :12:03.McGuinness is there now. The reason that was said is because
:12:04. > :12:12.the anthem of Berlin, effectively, as the song, Heroes, he wrote it in
:12:13. > :12:16.a studio right beside the Berlin Wall, it is the story of a couple
:12:17. > :12:22.who are beside the wall, he played in that song ten years later in
:12:23. > :12:27.1987, when Berlin was still divided, to a concert of 70,000 West Germans,
:12:28. > :12:31.right by the wall. On the other side, hundreds of east Germans
:12:32. > :12:38.gathered together, shouting, tear down this wall. Within two years, as
:12:39. > :12:43.we know, the wall had come down, and Germany was reunified. So the song
:12:44. > :12:46.became the anthem of the city. Behind me you can see hundreds of
:12:47. > :12:54.locals gathering in front of the flat where he once lived. He shared
:12:55. > :12:59.the flat with Iggy pop, just imagine that flat share. For him, Berlin was
:13:00. > :13:07.creatively very important. It was a transition period from Glam rock,
:13:08. > :13:11.make-up, wigs, to something more serious, and for critics, more
:13:12. > :13:16.musically credible. As you quite rightly said, it was here in Berlin
:13:17. > :13:20.that he wrote and produced his three, probably, most respected
:13:21. > :13:25.albums. The Berlin Trilogy. That is why he is so close to the hearts of
:13:26. > :13:32.many here. One woman I spoke to said she was devastated and said that
:13:33. > :13:35.David Bowie is Berlin. And I suppose, like all the places
:13:36. > :13:42.this news has been received, the shock. Nobody knew was coming.
:13:43. > :13:45.That is right. I spoke to loads of people this morning just outside the
:13:46. > :13:51.flat who said they had no idea, they were really tearful. People who had
:13:52. > :13:55.grown up with his songs. Younger people who felt inspired. Because
:13:56. > :14:00.this is not just a retro- style just thing. You have so many young,
:14:01. > :14:05.creative musicians who come to Berlin today still thinking about
:14:06. > :14:12.David Bowie, he has this magical attraction towards Berlin, and
:14:13. > :14:15.there's this myth around the city as a creative, decadent place, he was
:14:16. > :14:19.very much a part of that and is still a part of what rings young
:14:20. > :14:22.creatives to Berlin, especially musicians.
:14:23. > :14:23.Thank you very much. One of the most famous
:14:24. > :14:26.tributes to David Bowie - when he was still alive -
:14:27. > :14:28.came nearly three years ago from the International Space
:14:29. > :14:30.Station, from Commander Chris Hadfield, with his own version
:14:31. > :14:33.of Bowie's "A Space Oddity." I got the reaction of Commander
:14:34. > :14:47.Hadfield to the death of Bowie. I was so sad this morning to wake up
:14:48. > :14:54.to that being the first piece of news I read when I looked at what
:14:55. > :14:58.has happened overnight. To have celebrated his creativity, his whole
:14:59. > :15:02.life, a sickly, the whole span of my adult life I was listening to his
:15:03. > :15:08.music, so it is an irretrievable loss. I'm just delighted that I got
:15:09. > :15:17.to be a little part of everything he has done.
:15:18. > :15:26.You said that many people were moved by the words, goodbye, Starman. How
:15:27. > :15:30.did he inspire you? He recently had a travelling exhibit
:15:31. > :15:37.that all the way around the world. I am from Toronto. He was in Toronto.
:15:38. > :15:41.I had always had an inkling of his creativity and originality, but it
:15:42. > :15:44.was only when I walked through that exhibit, right from when he was a
:15:45. > :15:53.young teenager, right through his whole life, the fearlessness of his
:15:54. > :16:00.creativity, the relentless desire to create and to invent and to
:16:01. > :16:06.reanalyse things were in evidence right up until this last couple of
:16:07. > :16:16.weeks with the release of his last album. And just coincidently, over
:16:17. > :16:22.the holidays, I watched Lazarus, a song from the album, he knew he was
:16:23. > :16:28.dying, yet it is poignant, artistic, creative, original, and
:16:29. > :16:33.awe-inspiring. So I had great respect for him. And all the things
:16:34. > :16:37.that he did. The more you turn over the more usage is how deep a person
:16:38. > :16:47.he was. Then came this incredible fusion of
:16:48. > :16:52.Space Oddity and your real experience on the space station. Why
:16:53. > :16:56.did you make the video? Usually I would not have but with
:16:57. > :17:01.social media there was a clamour all around the world from people who
:17:02. > :17:05.heard that there was a musician recording in the space station, to
:17:06. > :17:09.make a version of that song. It is true it audacious, really, he is
:17:10. > :17:16.such an original force, to cover that... But I thought, well, I am
:17:17. > :17:22.here, this is unusual, it is new, I will just do a vocal cover. But
:17:23. > :17:29.before we walked on the moon he wrote Space Oddity, 1968. When I
:17:30. > :17:33.sang it and listen to my voice, it surprised me. Like somehow he had
:17:34. > :17:42.wrecked most what it was going to be like. -- he had a recognised. It was
:17:43. > :17:48.almost transcendent, I could feel what he had been thinking when I
:17:49. > :17:51.sang it in that race. That really brought home the event, I thought I
:17:52. > :17:53.would do my best to make a video of it. The response from around the
:17:54. > :17:57.world was amazing. medical supplies and blankets has
:17:58. > :18:00.arrived in the besieged Syrian town An international aid convoy carrying
:18:01. > :18:07.desperately-needed food, medical supplies and blankets has
:18:08. > :18:10.arrived in the besieged Syrian town Food distribution will continue
:18:11. > :18:16.throughout the night. 40,000 people there have endured
:18:17. > :18:18.a blockade by pro-government forces Aid is also being delivered
:18:19. > :18:22.to the villages of Foah and Kefraya - where 20,000 people have been
:18:23. > :18:24.trapped since March. Here's our chief international
:18:25. > :18:45.correspondent, Lyse Doucet. Aid finally arrived in Madaya, with
:18:46. > :18:51.thousands at the barrier of the entrance to this rebel held town.
:18:52. > :18:57.And this is why. Look at what we are eating, this woman cries will stop
:18:58. > :19:02.the cry for help was filmed by activists. We cannot verify it. At
:19:03. > :19:08.the UN says there are credible reports of people starving to death.
:19:09. > :19:12.Food, blankets, medicine, being unloaded in warehouses tonight. The
:19:13. > :19:19.same ocean is now under way in northern Syria. In two villages and
:19:20. > :19:23.the government control. That was the deal. In this conflict food is being
:19:24. > :19:31.used by all sides as a weapon of war, civilians paid a heavy price.
:19:32. > :19:37.Images said to be of Madaya's emaciated children raised alarm in
:19:38. > :19:41.many capitals last week. This is now the face of Syrian suffering. The
:19:42. > :19:46.aid will help ease the crisis but it is not enough.
:19:47. > :19:50.We know there are 40,000 people around the city urgently needing
:19:51. > :19:53.food assistance. We are taking in supplies that should last a month
:19:54. > :19:57.but what we really need is access to guarantee this situation does not
:19:58. > :20:00.happen again. The glories will keep moving if
:20:01. > :20:11.there are no more delays but missions like this are urgently
:20:12. > :20:15.needed across Serie A -- the lorries. For the half million live
:20:16. > :20:25.in desperate conditions currently getting no aid at all.
:20:26. > :20:38.News that is just in, Leo Messi as one world Player of the Year. -- has
:20:39. > :20:42.won. He finished ahead of Ronaldo and the Brazilian star Neymar, who
:20:43. > :20:46.also plays for Barcelona. The interior minister
:20:47. > :20:48.of the North Rhine-Westphalia state in Germany, Ralf Jaeger,
:20:49. > :20:51.said that recent arrivals in Germany were among the suspects
:20:52. > :20:53.in the New Year's Eve attacks by the cathedral and railway
:20:54. > :20:55.station in central Cologne. Police in Cologne say they believe
:20:56. > :20:58.further attacks which happened on Sunday, this time on six
:20:59. > :21:00.Pakistani men and a Syrian, may have been co-ordinated
:21:01. > :21:15.in advance on social media. I am joined by the chairwoman of an
:21:16. > :21:18.organisation countering far right extremism, I asked her what some of
:21:19. > :21:28.the repercussions of the attacks have nine for refugees.
:21:29. > :21:33.We had to deal with a problem that we have with those immigrants and
:21:34. > :21:40.the projection of the Society of the Germans, German society, or to
:21:41. > :21:44.refugees and immigrants in general. So we have to deal with the problem
:21:45. > :21:48.but we are not allowed to generalise what happened to every refugee that
:21:49. > :21:55.is in Germany. What are your thoughts on how you
:21:56. > :22:03.deal with this situation? I think that Germany has to learn
:22:04. > :22:09.how to handle conflict. This is a society where everybody likes to
:22:10. > :22:13.avoid conflict. Since the refugees came in and we have of the conflict
:22:14. > :22:19.on the table. We have to deal with it. Germans are not really good at
:22:20. > :22:30.dealing with conflict. We have to learn not to generalise, but to
:22:31. > :22:33.notice that we have... And it is possible to have problems with
:22:34. > :22:35.immigrants, not everybody is a good person.
:22:36. > :22:38.Princess Cristina - the sister of the King of Spain -
:22:39. > :22:41.has appeared in court on charges of tax fraud.
:22:42. > :22:44.The case centres on the business activities of her husband -
:22:45. > :22:45.who's accused of embezzling public funds.
:22:46. > :22:48.She is the first member of the Spanish royal family ever
:22:49. > :22:54.Our Europe correspondent Chris Morris reports from Mallorca.
:22:55. > :23:05.Arriving for her day in court, Princess Cristina, six in line to
:23:06. > :23:11.the Spanish throne, now charged with being an accomplice to tax fraud.
:23:12. > :23:14.Alongside her, her husband, a former Olympic handball player. His
:23:15. > :23:22.business activities lie at the heart of the case. Inside the courtroom,
:23:23. > :23:25.Princess Cristina is one of 18 defendants. Prosecutors say millions
:23:26. > :23:29.of euros in public funds were diverted from a charitable
:23:30. > :23:33.organisation into a firm owned jointly by the royal couple, they
:23:34. > :23:38.both firmly denied wrongdoing, but could end up in jail. The symbolism
:23:39. > :23:44.of putting a royal in the dock is hard to overstate. This trial may be
:23:45. > :23:49.a sign that the years of impunity for the powerful are coming to an
:23:50. > :23:53.end. And it is not just about what is happening here. Across Spain
:23:54. > :23:57.hundreds of politicians at various levels of government are under
:23:58. > :24:01.investigation for corruption. Many Spaniards feel that the system is
:24:02. > :24:07.rotten to the core. A small group of protesters outside court, but things
:24:08. > :24:13.will begin to change. Just this needs to be the same for
:24:14. > :24:18.everybody. Rinses or no princess. The money they stole, they have to
:24:19. > :24:23.give it back, because it is ours. It is all a long way from this, the
:24:24. > :24:30.royal wedding in 1997, at the height of Princess Cristina's popularity.
:24:31. > :24:36.Last year her brother, King Felipe, stripped her of her Duchess title
:24:37. > :24:39.when it was confirmed she would stand trial. For the next few
:24:40. > :24:44.months, the eyes of Spain will focus on what happens in this courtroom.
:24:45. > :24:47.Stay with BBC World News -- in a few moments we'll
:24:48. > :24:50.have a special BBC Programme looking at the life of David Bowie.
:24:51. > :25:07.For now we end this bulletin with some of his incredible work.
:25:08. > :26:13.HEROES MUSIC: HEROES. By David Bowie.
:26:14. > :26:14.Hello, the next few days will feel colder than of late. There will be a