22/01/2016 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today, broadcasting in the UK and around

the world. The top story: a huge snowstorm starts to

hit the east coast of the United States. 50 million people are

expected to be affected by the blizzard and state of emergency is

declared in some areas. This is a city in shutdown. People have been

told to stay at home as this potentially crippling storm hits the

nation 's capital. Satellite images

reveal the first evidence of a growing US presence

in northern Syria. More than 40

migrants drown as two boats sink, And the Oscars race row. The Academy

pledges to double the members of women and minorities.

Hello and welcome to the problem. A powerful snowstorm has just reached

the east coast of the United States, with some forecasters predicting

Snow-mageddon, the heaviest snowfall in 100 years. The extreme weather

has led to a state of emergency in Washington, DC, the federal

government is shutdown and the transport system closed. More than

3,000 flights have been cancelled across America, at least eight

people have died in traffic accidents. Members of the public are

being advised not to travel where possible. Six states have declared a

state of emergency. The National Weather Service said the storm could

affect well over people. Our North American editor Jon Sopel reports.

A massive blizzard takes aim at 75 million Americans.

The north-eastern seaboard of the United States is bracing

itself for a once in a hundred years event.

Washington, DC is bracing itself for a combination of epic snowfall,

A state of emergency is in place and the public transport network

is shutting down and apocalyptic warnings are being given.

I want to be very clear with everybody, we see this

It has life and death implications and all of the residents

of the District of Columbia should treat it that way.

Folks need to understand that this is a life-threatening storm.

If you do not need to be out, we are asking folks to,

by three o'clock today, be where they are going to be

People are taking heed, if the lines in shops are anything

to go by, by yesterday afternoon the supermarket in Washington had

Hardware shops too have been doing a roaring trade.

It is crazy, there is no bread and no milk.

It is like Snowmageddon from a couple of years ago

A little snow did fall on Wednesday, and it caused total chaos

No one was exempt, not even a passenger on this flight,

the President returned from Detroit only to find his armoured limo

and the rest of the motorcade caught in the gridlock

Two feet is forecast to fall over the next 36 hours.

Let's go to Washington and speak to Laura Bicker, who is outside in the

snow. Are people following the advice to get home? There seems to

be a lot of people who have heeded the warnings and certainly, this

forecast has been in place for several days now. I think some

people thought, is it too much? Are these apocalyptic warnings going too

far? Well, it does seem now that the forecasters are fairly confident

they have it right. People have been heading home, these are the

tail-enders of traffic of people heading home from work. People

already out trying to clear roads and pavements but it is expected, as

the snow continues to fall, and certainly into the early hours of

Saturday, the snowploughs and shovels will not be able to keep up.

There is a warning that perhaps over 20 inches of snow could fall in

parts of Washington, DC. The previous record was in 1922, 20

eight inches of snow, so that could be near, or there are fears it could

be surpassed -- 28 inches. People are hunkering down, including

President Obama, who said he will be hunkering down in the White House

for the duration of the storm, which could last up to 36 hours and

already, the snow is beginning to fall. This is just the edge of it.

It has tracked north, so there have been several inches of snow in

Kentucky, Arkansas, also in Tennessee, and it is expected by the

end of this storm that one in seven of Americans could have up to a foot

of snow outside their front door. What about looking after the more

vulnerable members of the society? Are the National Guard out, for

example? Certainly in Virginia, 300 members of the National Guard have

been called in to help. Other places, as you have heard, a state

of emergency has been declared, which allows them to access funds to

get extra help. There are people mobilising and getting ready for

early tomorrow morning, because they are expecting that by the early

hours of Saturday morning, the snow will begin to fall and be at its

heaviest, so certainly that is when you will see most of the cruise

mobilising. But when it comes to empty shells, if you haven't got

food by now, you could be struggling to get it. Get back inside into the

warm, Laura, thank you very much. Washington isn't the only city in

the world which experiences heavy snowfall at this time of the year.

The BBC International correspondence have been looking at the winter

weather where they are and have sent this message.

We have watched with mounting concern as that monster storm has

barrelled towards you. So reassurance from cities around the

world. About how they cope, or don't cope, with snow.

This time of the year, in Kabul, it used to be pretty cold, -5, on

average, but this year, it feels very warm, it feels like spring.

In January, it snowed in Moscow, as for most of this week but for us,

even the heaviest of snow is not a problem, but for those who drive,

heavy snow can become a big issue if the authorities decide to send

10,000 sweepers all-out at once. Hello, DC. Here in Geneva, we

haven't had too much snow yet but we certainly are prepared. This is

Switzerland, after all. And we have got more snow coping tools that the

Swiss Army knife. -- can pay. Hello. So, when it snows in London, it is

on the front pages of all the newspapers, we love taking pictures

of the snow, but the trains get delayed, the buses are stopped and

cars start crawling along the roads. Some of us can't even make it into

work, so we are not very good when it comes to dealing with snow.

Still hasn't arrived here yet in London. Moving on.

by the international intelligence consultancy Stratfor indicates

that the United States is extending an airstrip in the north

This shows the lengthening of the runway from 700 metres to over 1300.

That's enough to land a Hercules aircraft.

The site is located near to the town of Rmeilan.

American airpower has been used to help a Kurdish alliance trying

to repel the forces of the so called Islamic State.

But there are claims the US operation in the area could become

a lot more substantial, involving troops and helicopters.

Sim Tack works as a military analyst for Stratfor and says

The Obama administration may be changing strategy.

The significance of this is that this would be an important,

qualitative step for the US to take in its support for the SDF,

the Syrian Defence Forces, which is one of the branches

of its strategy against Islamic State in Syria.

By supporting this group, they are guaranteeing some sort

of ground force that can push IS back.

They have been supporting YPG in the past through air drops

and that's fairly limited, so in terms of putting an actual

presence on the ground or using that runway for logistical support

of them, that really increases the ability of the US to push

Murad Shishani, a correspondent with the BBC World

I spoke to him earlier and he said it might be a riposte to Moscow's

greater involvement in the Syrian conflict. This is one of the biggest

challenges or more deep in the conflict in the Middle East as we

can see. Russians have their own bases, even concentrating on air

strikes and military experts and on the other side, Americans, always

banking, relying on the Kurds and taking the front lines in fighting

against the Islamic State. We have seen that with the Peshmerga. But

now they are going into north-eastern Syria, which means

Ankara, as we said in the introduction, but will they take

this part, because it is very close. It is very close to Raqqa, which is

a supply route to Mosul. And the Americans with air strikes, trying

to stop the flow of weapons and manpower for Islamic State in this

area, it could be very important, because they have places beyond

Raqqa which is one of the major routes for support for Islamic

State, but if we look at this development in north-eastern Syria,

that is the plan for the Americans as I can see it. If airdrops were

already taking place, why would they need to extend the runway like this,

bearing in mind that I think the various supported forces have

already retrieved a significant amount of land from Islamic State.

It seems to me that they want to boost support and logistics.

Many observers say, they downplay the ideal routes on the ground one

Many observers say, they downplay the idea of boots on the ground one

But, now, in this case in Syria, for all the region.

American special forces overseeing it, or would

From local sources, in the last few days they were talking

They control the large area to expand the runway.

We don't know who is exactly going to be behind it.

Greek and Turkish coastguards have recovered the bodies of more than 40

migrants, including 20 children, whose boat ran into trouble in the

Mediterranean. Dozens of other people

remain unaccounted for. This latest tragedy comes

as the Turkish and German governments held a special meeting

in Berlin to discuss Afterwards, a communique was signed

by both countries in which Turkey promised to do more to stem

the migrant flow into the EU. These people were trying

to reach Greece. In the last 24 hours,

more than 40 have died This baby was rushed

to intensive care. Europe's leaders barely

agreed on how to help. Today the German Chancellor met

the Turkish Prime Minister TRANSLATION: Deep inside,

I am convinced that the problem of illegal migration can only be

solved if we work together in fighting the root causes

of the refugee crisis. Europe's leaders have yet to fully

implement a controversial quota system to relocate 120,000 refugees

and migrants across Europe. They are setting up so-called

hotspots, special reception centres in Italy and Greece

from which migrants can be sent on to other countries

or turned away. And they offered Turkey more

than ?2 billion in return TRANSLATION: I want to tell people

in Germany and the EU that this is not a German crisis,

or a European crisis, We can't just pass this

crisis onto each other. We have to solve it

in Syria and in Iraq. Germany was the promised

land of Europe. These people told us they have

waited here for days and need money, but they couldn't manage these

people in Germany and they can't. Across Europe,

attitudes are hardening. Germany, after the sex

attacks, is divided. Germany has it half right and half

wrong. We have to help refugees

by all means but not by opening the gates and allowing

millions to come. You cannot plan when war

is in a country, so I think we're But Europe's doors are closing,

there will be border checks, fences, limits.

Politically, the refugee crisis has exposed fault lines running

through Europe as one by one, member states prioritise national

interest over European responsibility.

There is now a fear at the highest level.

The German President, the French Prime Minister,

that the crisis as instantly testing Europe, but that it could destroy

that the crisis isn't simply testing Europe,

but that it could destroy it all together.

Stay with us here, still to come, we live in Los Angeles for the latest

on the Oscars race row. The Academy has just announced drastic changes

to try and increase diversity. A woman from East London who was

sentenced to three and a half years in prison for killing a convicted

paedophile has had her sentence more than doubled. Sarah Sands, a mother

of five, stabbed her neighbour, Michael Pleastad in November 2014

after learning he had been charged with sexually assaulting young boys.

He was stabbed eight times and bled to death. Appeal Court judges ruled

the original sentence given was too lenient. The Scottish Government is

considering adding folic acid to flour to prevent brain and spinal

disorders in babies. The US has been fortifying flour for years but

successive UK governments have chosen not to. The substance has

been shown to reduce the incidents in some babies if women take it

before and during pregnancy. It occurs naturally in green, leafy

vegetables but many women don't get enough. Experts say 2,000 birth

anomalies could have been avoided if flour had been fortified since 1998.

This is BBC World News today. The latest headlines: a huge blizzard

has begun to hit the United States east coast, and is expected to bring

near record levels of snow. Satellite imagery obtained by a

private security forum Matthew Wade firm indicates the United states is

extending an airstrip in northern Syria -- obtained by other private

security for academic firm. Now developments over the row for the

Oscars. The Academy has announced they will be doubling the number of

female and non-white members by 2020, in response to the race

controversy and a number of Hollywood stars, including Spike Lee

and Will Smith, boycotting next month's ceremony in protest against

the lack of racial diversity in this year's nominations. All of the

actors nominated for the Oscars are white for the second consecutive

year. Let's go to our Los Angeles correspondent James Cook. The chair

of the Academy promised radical action, is this going to do enough,

do you think? Well, I think it is significant. It does sound like the

Academy is actually determined to make significant changes. The

president of the Academy is its first-ever black president and said

she was heartbroken about the Oscar nominees when, as you say, for the

second year in a row, all 20 of the actors and actresses in the

performing categories were white and there was a notable absence for one

film in particular, which many felt deserved the best picture

nomination, Straight Outta Compton. So the measures announced do go some

way to addressing the problem. The problem, in a sense, is about the

Academy's membership and in the wider industry than about individual

performances this year. To explain how it works, the Academy is made up

of around 6,000 or so voting members and that group is overwhelmingly in

itself white, male and over the age of 50, hence this move to try and

get far more diversity into that group in the next few years, and

they are going to do that by stripping the voting rights from

some of those members, not anyone that has ever been nominated for an

Oscar and not anyone who has been in the industry for very long time, but

those who have not been active for the last ten years will not be

allowed to vote in future and they will launch a recruiting drive to

more people in. You have also got some fairly big name actors getting

involved in this debate now. I'm thinking of Charlotte Rampling and

Michael Caine. Yes, they are getting involved almost on the other side.

We have seen actors such as Will Smith, saying they thought the

situation was an acceptable. Michael Cain and Charlotte Rampling sound

less sure. Charlotte Rampling, nominated this year for her

prominent performance in 45 Years is more cautious, suggesting the danger

of this is that it pushes people into categories, that people begin

to think of actors and, indeed, people generally, as being either

black or white or of a different race or ethnicity, rather than

focusing on the performance. She said is it not possible the

performances these actors gave in this particular year weren't good

enough? But many other people take the opposing view, or agree with her

to a certain extent but think, maybe or maybe not, but it isn't really

the point, the point is that the industry does not accurately

represent the United States of America and indeed the wider world.

James, thank you very much. You are watching BBC World News today, still

to come, the sport. We will start with tennis and it was

a day when form one out at the Australian open, with wins for top

seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, and a landmark victory for

former champion Roger Federer. The first man to reach 300 wins in Grand

Slam single matches. No greater celebration from Roger Federer, he

is 67 wins clear of number two Jimmy Connors. The Swiss player reached

the milestone at rob Labour arena with a victory over a player a

decade younger, Grigor Dimitrov, the man to fall. It is very special and

you look deeper into it, where it has all happened and how and, it is

very nice, I'm very happy. Maria Sharapova was made to work hard for

the 600th win of her career, as the Russian booked her place in the last

16. The 2008 Australian Open champion pushed hard against Lauren

Davis. A spoonful of almond butter was the stack of choice for the

American, having edged the second set. That but a boost was not enough

against a four-time finalist. The win for Sharapova sets up a meeting

against Belen Church. No issues for the world 11. Serena Williams is

looking unstoppable. She is now fast heading for a matchup in the

quarters against Sharapova. No time troubles either for the men's world

number one. Novak Djokovic is speeding towards a sixth title in

Melbourne. He dispatched Italian Andreas Seppi. Matches begin in

Melbourne in just under three hours' time. Muguruza is third act on it

first on the Rod Laver. Victoria Azarenka is next up. Then it is

2014's men champion -- men's champion Stan Wawrinka. Andy Murray

plays jazz Sousa of Portugal. The South African batsmen have moved

them into a strong position on the first day of the fourth and final

test against England in Centurion. Amla and Stephen Cook made

centuries. Although South Africa endured a mini collapse, Quinton De

Kock held an unbroken stand of 76 to guide South Africa to 329-5.

Ackerman, a legend to South Africa, said to me that for too many people,

the dream to play the South Africa is the end goal and you don't think

of thereafter. The end goal should be to get 104 South Africa and if

more people had that attitude, they would be more successful, so a

massive thank you to Ackerman for that piece of advice and that really

stuck by me through the times when things were tough, when you think

maybe the dream won't come true. We pride ourselves on the way we

approach the game in the first two hours and we weren't probably at our

best, if we are being really honest, but the way we applied ourselves and

came back in the last session was a fantastic effort from the whole team

and from the bowlers in particular. French diver Sebastien Auge remains

on course for a third consecutive win in Monte Carlo. The three-time

world champion made light of difficult conditions to take a 1.5

second lead. It caused problems for many drivers, including Koubek. He

lost control on the ice, and that proved costly, Koubek is now down in

50th place. Let's stay with sport and if you

watch International rugby, you will be familiar with the haka. Now it

has gone viral. This is from a wedding video, it was posted on

social media and it has been watched by millions. That is it so far, stay

with us, plenty more. Hello. We will be coming back to

look at the European weather seen in a couple of minutes but with good

reason I want to take you straightaway over to the eastern

side of the States, where you may remember, you were