25/01/2016 World News Today

I'm Karin Giannone, this is BBC World News.

Warnings that the Zika virus will spread across most

The mosquito-borne disease is thought to cause devastating

birth defects, impairing brain development in the womb.

The explosive spread of Zika virus to new geographical areas with

little population immunity is another cause for concern.

The US Treasury accuses Russia's President Putin

of corruption, saying he's used his power to amass a secret

fortune - a special report coming up.

Officials in the eastern United States caution that days

of disruption lie ahead before life returns to normal.

And British explorer, Henry Worsley, dies after falling just short

of making an historic solo crossing of Antarctica.

The World Health Organisation is warning that the mosquito-borne

Zika virus - suspected of causing brain damage to thousands of babies

in Brazil - could spread to nearly all countries in the Americas.

Canada and Chile are the only countries thought to be safe.

There is no treatment or vaccine available,

and some countries have advised women not to get pregnant.

Wyre Davies sent this report from Rio de Janiero.

Cared for and loved as much as any other child.

But an increasing number of babies in Brazil are being born

with a condition that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

Microcephaly is driving fear into the hearts of thousands

In many cases, mothers may not be aware of it until the baby is born.

Gentle physiotherapy helps to stimulate developmental problems

While some physical effects, like smaller than average head size,

may be obvious, some specialists say it is just the tip of the iceberg.

IN PORTUGESE: Microcephaly and head abnormalities are just one extreme.

pregnancies in the seventh or eighth month, there can be other

consequences, such as visual or audio impairment,

or even cognitive challenges, which will only become

But I repeat, microcephaly is just one extreme.

Chief suspect is the Zika virus, spread by mosquitoes.

With the health system already under strain,

Brazil has the added pressure of preparing

for big set-piece global events, like this year's Olympic Games.

While some countries have issued very strict travel advice,

the real question is whether Brazil itself

This is a favela right on the edge of the Olympic Park,

with open sewers and lots of stagnant water, perfect

But all the authorities have said they might do is fumigate these

This house was demolished and now I am left with this standing pool

of water, risking Zika and dengue fever, says this woman who has lived

They haven't given us any information about how to prevent

Zika, except to put on insect repellent.

Brazil may not be at fault for the arrival of Zika,

nor its spread throughout the continent.

But with appalling levels of public citation and a critical year ahead,

--sanitation this is developing into a major public health crisis.

So what causes the devastating Zika virus, who's most at risk,

Here's our medical correspondent Fergus Walsh.

If infected with the Zika virus, it can pass it to humans

It is the same mosquito which also spreads

The Zika virus was identified way back in 1947 in Uganda.

But until a few months ago, the Zika virus was not thought to be

80% of those infected had no symptoms.

In the rest, it can cause a mild fever and

headaches, and a skin rash is common.

As is conjunctivitis - red, sore eyes.

Well, in less than a year, it has spread

from Mexico, the Caribbean, to South America.

There, doctors believe it represents a major health

threat to women infected in the early stages of pregnancy.

They think Zika may cause a normally rare

condition in infants born with unusually small heads

The only serious risk to public health is for pregnant women.

Pregnant women, if they get infected, they can get the virus.

So pregnant women should consider very seriously

whether to travel to places where there is a Zika

Zika is quite unlike the deadly Ebola virus which has killed more

Ebola is highly contagious, whereas Zika does not pass

This is not Ebola, this is a disease which is transmitted by mosquitoes.

So it will only be a problem in eras weather is this same mosquito

But like Ebola it is an infectious disease, and it is a crisis

It is too cold in the UK for the mosquito which carries

the Zika virus, so this is not a health risk here.

But global health officials believe that in time it will spread

to many more countries, including parts of the United States.

The US Treasury has told a BBC investigation that it considers

the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, to be corrupt.

Though the American Government has already imposed sanctions on Kremlin

insiders, it's thought to be the first time they've directly

private finances and spoke to those who say they have inside knowledge

Richard Bilton has this exclusive report.

Vladimir Putin's secrets can be found beyond Russia's borders. In

Estonia, there is a man who fled Russia after falling out with

Kremlin insiders. He says he helped Putin collect money from Russia's

super-rich. They thought it was for the nation's health care. So where

are these oligarchs affectively just paying tribute to Vladimir Putin?

I think this is exactly what they thought.

This man says some of the cash was diverted and ended up with Putin.

This is a recording of him talking to a Kremlin insider. They are

discussing $440 million of investment, belonging to Putin. They

refer to him using a nickname, Mikhail Ivanovich.

Then their's Britain's most famous Russian- Chelsea owner Roman

Abramovich. He allegedly gave Putin a $35 million yacht like this one.

High, Dmitri, I'm Richard. This man told me he helped to manage

the yacht. Dmitri was transferred to an offshore company, but the real

owner was President Putin. This yacht was maintained...

Why would that be kept secret? We asked Mr Abramovich about the

yacht, bit his lawyers dismissed creams about him as speculation and

rumours. The US Treasury has gone public with

its view about Putin, they claim he is corrupt.

He draws a salary or something like a dollars a year. That is not an

accurate statement of the man's well. He has long time training in

practices of how to mask his actual wealth.

It's like Putin corrupt? In our view, yes.

President Putin denies all the allegations of corruption. His

spokesman said the issues we had raised were pure fiction. But with

some of the world's most powerful men already linked to manager, use

also went to corruption on an extra ordinary scale.

You can see the full investigation on tonight's Panorama,

The clean up operation is well underway in America after one

of the most severe winter storms ever recorded.

More than 22 inches of snow paralysed Washington, while 20

inches fell in New York. Snowploughs have been working

to clear main roads. The authorities say it could take

days before they reach In Washington, government buildings

are still closed and in New York, although the ban on travel has been

lifted, most of schools remain shut. 1500 flights were

cancelled on Monday. Michael abuse in the capital.

It is Monday, the clearly not business as usual. I am in the deep

in snow, three days after the snow hit. According to advisers, it could

take several more days before the side roads are clear. The city is

still in a state of emergency. We are working very hard today to

get DC open for tomorrow. We would like to get our schools open. We

working very hard to understand what habitation will be available.

The roads are being cleared, but the promise would you put the snow? A

lot is being dumped in car parks, the river and on the local football

stadium down the road. But this here is going to have to stay put until

the temperatures rise and it melts. And that could take a very long

time. Even in the dead of winter, the

White House is usually packed. But today, you can't even get close.

White House is usually packed. But fact, most of the city's attractions

are completely closed. Although tourists seem to be making the most

of it. Just putting lots layers. I have

of it. 40 on, stockings underneath. --

thermal on. We had to sleigh ride down the

Lincoln Memorial steps, that was fun.

How long did you manage that for? We were there for about an hour.

Did they move on? No, we were there for about an hour.

It is not often you get the chance to walk down the middle

It is not often you get the chance city's Main Street. But although

this road is clear, no winners here to use it. The city is now asking

for major federal funding, extra cash, to bring the nation's capital

back online. The extreme weather is particularly

bad news for homeless people. David P Jones is president

of the homeless charity the Bowery Mission,

based in Manhattan. He says the bad weather has placed

big demands an existing services. The challenge of many more people

coming in, normally at 50% increase on the publishing we normally serve.

In the normal course we serve about 400,000 meals a year. It could be

upwards of 1000 a day. In the course of the last two max days, that

number has taped up per meal.

A 50% increase, are you able to cope without?

We have capacity, but it is all hands. One of the key factors is

that our cupboards soon become bare. So we are all looking for donations

of food and the like. So we were full up and preparing for the storm

with the large groups coming through.

So now we are trying to restock. It must have been a challenge to get

volunteers in the right places at the right times?

It is. We work with almost 6000 volunteers through the course of a

year. We have a lot of friends to call on, so we were able

year. We have a lot of friends to 18 to come in. So we had the

resources on the ground. To make it work smoothly.

You said more people were coming in for your services. I using it take

something best bad, and that people would have been on the streets

otherwise? It's interesting, we invite one and

all to come will stop we have overnight shelter capacity as well

as the meals we serve. The temperature drops below 40

Fahrenheit, we opened up all night long and happy drop-in centre during

the day. But when it is not blizzard conditions, we might see anywhere

around 100 people a day in the drop-in centre for overnight

shelter, 200 -ish for a particular meal. Suddenly, people that might

otherwise have stayed out come in. In a blizzard, we have literally 27

inches of snow on the ground, very dangerous to be out. And people were

thankfully coming in but would not otherwise have come in.

President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan has told the BBC

that the Islamic State militant group will be

A year on from the end of the Nato combat mission in Afghanstan,

so-called Islamic State has been taking swathes of territory

It has claimed them as a new province of what it calls

the "caliphate" that it has already declared in areas of Syria and Iraq.

Our South Asia Correspondent, Justin Rowlatt, reports

The propaganda images are all too familiar. But these pictures were

not shot in the Islamic state stronghold of Syria and Iraq. But

more than 1500 miles away in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. IS

has seized territory in three districts and has struck within an

hour of carpool. Carpool. The police acknowledge it is only a

matter of time before IS attacks the city and the threat is not just here

in Afghanistan. The Pentagon analysis is clear, it

says IS is openly fighting the Taliban to create a safe even in the

mountains in the east of the country, potentially a second

stronghold to launch attacks across the world.

So how serious a threat is IS in Afghanistan? To answer that, you

need to read Kabul. And I as commander has agreed to talk to an

Afghan colleague. The ragtag bunch of fighters he

meets isn't nearly as impressive as the propaganda videos.

This man struggles to assemble his AK-47. But they do talk the talk.

You must fight to the bitter end, he says.

These are disaffected former Taliban who now want to fight a global jihad

under the black light of IS. The commander says the plan more

attacks. At the moment we exist in three

provinces, but we only fight in one. In the others, we are awaiting

orders from our leader. Then we will fight.

We understand IS has hundreds, if not thousands, of fighters. It is

not a huge force, but enough to bring mayhem and misery -- hundreds,

not thousands. These are just a few of the hundreds

of families driven from their homes by IS. These people are now trying

to survive on a patch of wasteland outside the regional capital. They

tell stories of horrific violence. She says IS - Daesh, they call it

here- attacked her village. This girl says they took her house.

I don't know where my father is, they tell us. This man's brother was

one of more 100 men IS killed in the village.

At first we had no idea what happened to him, but three men were

released. Visit everyone was being held in a small room and IS was

torturing and killing them. He recognised his brother in an ice

as propaganda video. -- Isis propaganda video the video showed

him being led with nine other villagers to wear a row of bombs had

been buried. Each man was forced to sit on a

bomb. The bombs were then detonated. The Afghan army has struck back

against IS. It says IS has little support from locals, because it is

so barbaric. But, the defence minister warns, eliminating IS in

Afghanistan will require an international response.

The key question is that from where I be getting all this funding, and

how are they transferring that fund, and how are they putting that money

and everything else? Silat is why Afghanistan cannot deal with all

these challenges, because it is coming from outside stop it is based

on us from outside. This is not the first foreign

terrorist organisation to try and establish a base in the mountains of

eastern Afghanistan. The Tora Bora cave complex is in the province

where IS now operates. And Tora Bora is, of course, were Osama bin Laden.

While warning that Afghanistan stronghold

its president says the country will fight back against a group

Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet

talked to President Ghani about the emergence of Daesh.

I had warned about this in the very beginning of 2015. That, if Al-Qaeda

was version one, with all due permits to Microsoft, Daesh was

version five. We have, in particularly in the last

week, a very significant focused on Daesh and they have inflicted severe

damage on them. A BBC team has been into the local

capital. Again, because we had to fight a war

of survival, we could not focus as we had intended in the early stages.

Daesh has four stages, orient, organise, decides... We caught them

in this stage of decision. And that really puts them on the defensive.

Once we are fighting across the country, they had the opportunity.

The Taliban was able to penetrate the ring of steel around Kabul. What

stops Islamic State from penetrating that ring as well?

The difference is that Daesh is alienating the people. To a

remarkable degree. In Jalalabad 700 commanders have retired from the

army. Their atrocities, their pathological behaviour to capture

the news - Daesh is of course making the news and dominating headlines.

Of course we have honourable, because both new elements and old

elements in combination produce an environment that was full of

threats. What needs to be simultaneously understood is that

security forces, within a wrote of the short period, have managed to

reading the initiative and push them back.

A British adventurer who had been attempting to become the first

person to cross the Antarctic unsupported has died

after suffering complete organ failure.

55-year-old Henry Worsley, a former army officer from London,

was just 30 miles short of completing his 1000 mile trek.

He was attempting to complete Ernest Shackleton's unfinished

South Pole expedition of a century ago.

Nowhere on Earth is more hostile human life.

The icy, vast and dangerous continent of Antarctica.

And crossing it, alone and unaided was always going to be

So Henry Worsley was trying something no-one had

And even this veteran of the SAS and of polar exploration became ill

and exhausted, and near his destination he had to give up.

After a trek of 900 miles, with just 30 to go, he called

He was flown to Chile where doctors found an abdominal infection,

and after complete organ failure, he died.

Henry Worsley knew the dangers of the polar world.

Before a previous expedition he trained in Greenland and seemed

to remain calm no matter what happened.

Last year he told us what worried him most.

The biggest threat will be the weather, and possibly crevasses

on the final hundred miles as I come down the Shackleton glacier.

His hope was to follow in the footsteps of the great polar

explorer Ernest Shackleton, who tried and failed to cross

He was distantly related to the captain of

There is a reason why these things have not been done before.

And going solo, with no resuppy and being an assisted in all shapes

and forms, is the purest form, and the hardest form of travel.

--unassisted Quite possibly on the surface of the Earth.

Only a week ago, he believed he was still on course.

With a deadline to meet for a pick-up.

His friends, Princes William and Harry said he had

And he will be remembered for coming so close to making Antarctic

history. The explorer Henry

Worsley who has died. The explorer Henry

weather is coming next. From myself and the team though, bye-bye.

For the time being we have waved goodbye to cold weather, and it is

now the turn of the rain this week. Tomorrow things are turning very wet

and windy for many of us. The rain