:00:00. > :00:00.This is BBC World News Today with me, Tim Willcox.
:00:07. > :00:09.A potential breakthrough at the Syrian peace
:00:10. > :00:15.A representative of President Assad is at the UN organised talks
:00:16. > :00:18.in Geneva - and in the last few moments a main Syrian opposition
:00:19. > :00:20.group - which had earlier refused to attend -
:00:21. > :00:26.A mother who took her son to Syria becomes the first British woman
:00:27. > :00:28.to be convicted of joining so-called Islamic State.
:00:29. > :00:39.She denied ever encouraging terrorism.
:00:40. > :00:42.It was never my intention to enter into Syria.
:00:43. > :00:44.Economic growth slows sharply in the United States as consumers
:00:45. > :00:49.And we'll be covering all the angles on the revelation that
:00:50. > :00:52.Ancient Babylonians were the first to use geometry 1400 years
:00:53. > :01:18.We start with what appears to be a potential breakthrough
:01:19. > :01:20.at the first Syria peace talks for two years.
:01:21. > :01:23.A main opposition group, the HNC, which had refused to attend now says
:01:24. > :01:29.The "Higher Negotiation Committee" says it has now received assurances
:01:30. > :01:35.Representatives of President Assad's regime have arrived.
:01:36. > :01:40.The group, led by Syria's ambassador to the United Nations,
:01:41. > :01:43.Bashar al Jaafari is now meeting UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura.
:01:44. > :01:46.The aim is to bring peace to a country where at least
:01:47. > :01:48.a quarter of a million people have been killed,
:01:49. > :01:51.and more than 11 million forced from their homes.
:01:52. > :02:02.Here's our diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.
:02:03. > :02:05.Making peace is always most difficult when no side in a war
:02:06. > :02:09.Despite all the bombing, even more intense since Russia
:02:10. > :02:10.started massive aerial attacks in support of
:02:11. > :02:13.President Assad last September, the battles for Syrian territory ebb
:02:14. > :02:15.and flow with no one scoring a knockout
:02:16. > :02:17.Recently, Syrian government forces have claimed significant
:02:18. > :02:21.advances including in the province of Latakia.
:02:22. > :02:24.But the large number of different forces preached against them,
:02:25. > :02:26.both rebel forces backed by Western and some Arab powers,
:02:27. > :02:29.as well as the outlawed extremists including so-called Islamic State,
:02:30. > :02:37.make the search for negotiated peace even harder.
:02:38. > :02:39.So, who will be at the Geneva peace talks?
:02:40. > :02:41.Well, the Syrian government has promised to send a team,
:02:42. > :02:47.although it still brands or opposition rebels as terrorists.
:02:48. > :02:49.The opposition side and its international backers
:02:50. > :02:55.Who will appear for them and when exactly?
:02:56. > :02:57.There has been much opposition talk of boycotting
:02:58. > :03:03.Deep disagreements involving Turkey that
:03:04. > :03:05.insists that Kurdish representatives be excluded from the talks,
:03:06. > :03:07.and Saudi Arabia, which wants only its
:03:08. > :03:09.nominated list of organisations recognised, as well as Russian
:03:10. > :03:11.and Syrian government demands, mean that
:03:12. > :03:16.face-to-face talks remain a distant prospect.
:03:17. > :03:20.Finding a way to move to a ceasefire, political settlement
:03:21. > :03:22.and eventual peace looks even harder than in previous peace talks
:03:23. > :03:46.Presumably good news that the HNC are attending. What is the latest?
:03:47. > :03:51.Basically there were expectations that they would take part in
:03:52. > :03:55.negotiations but they were trying to pressure for some guarantees and
:03:56. > :04:00.apparently they got those guarantees. From the US and the UN.
:04:01. > :04:06.They just announced they are taking part, we still don't know who the
:04:07. > :04:11.delegation represented are. We do have a negotiation team. We still
:04:12. > :04:16.don't know when they are arriving, when they are going to meet with the
:04:17. > :04:24.UN special envoy but it is a good start for an already speculated
:04:25. > :04:29.failed negotiations. Yes, Staffan de Mistura is hoping to speak to them
:04:30. > :04:35.on Sunday. There are other glaring omissions, aren't there? Where are
:04:36. > :04:47.the Kurdish groups, for example? There are Kurds in the high
:04:48. > :04:51.negotiating committee. But some the Turks consider a terrorist group and
:04:52. > :04:57.made it clear they should not take part. They were not included in this
:04:58. > :05:01.negotiation. However, the special envoy considered many members of the
:05:02. > :05:09.opposition as consultants since they were not represented in the Riyadh
:05:10. > :05:13.meetings last month. Staffan de Mistura knows it will be the most
:05:14. > :05:20.difficult task but he has put a time frame of six months on this. Hasn't
:05:21. > :05:26.he? Yes, he made it clear this will be proximity talks. They won't be
:05:27. > :05:30.face to face, inside the same room between opposition and government.
:05:31. > :05:34.He said it will take a long time. Six months is the announcement, it
:05:35. > :05:39.may be more than that given the difficulty these talks are facing.
:05:40. > :05:44.But it is one step on 1000 mile road ahead. Thank you very much.
:05:45. > :05:47.A young mother has become the first British woman to be convicted
:05:48. > :05:49.of travelling to Syria to join the Islamic state group.
:05:50. > :05:51.26 year old Tareena Shakil, a former health worker,
:05:52. > :05:53.ran away with her toddler in October 2014.
:05:54. > :05:56.She was arrested when she returned to the UK four months later.
:05:57. > :05:59.The jury at Birmingham Crown Court also found her guilty of encouraging
:06:00. > :06:05.Our correspondent Sian Lloyd reports.
:06:06. > :06:12.Tareena Shakil, a British mother convicted today of being a member
:06:13. > :06:14.of so-called Islamic state, the banned terror group.
:06:15. > :06:16.Notorious for its violence and brutality.
:06:17. > :06:24.She took her toddler son to Raqqa in Syria.
:06:25. > :06:28.The court was shown in this picture, her child playing next to a gun.
:06:29. > :06:30.She dressed him in IS clothing and wore
:06:31. > :06:35.She urged others to join her in Syria,
:06:36. > :06:40.The court has been really clear, they found her guilty
:06:41. > :06:46.IS are really a dangerous organisation and at the moment
:06:47. > :06:48.she should be treated as a dangerous individual.
:06:49. > :06:50.Tareena Shakil was arrested the moment she arrived
:06:51. > :06:55.When interviewed, she lied, telling police she was kidnapped
:06:56. > :07:01.by a man she met on holiday in Turkey.
:07:02. > :07:06.It was never my intention to go into Syria.
:07:07. > :07:09.Whilst being on holiday, I happened to meet a young
:07:10. > :07:18.I liked him and we developed somewhat of a relationship.
:07:19. > :07:24.This image shows the former health worker at East
:07:25. > :07:33.The journey was planned not as a holiday but a route
:07:34. > :07:36.During the summer of 2014, Tareena Shakil
:07:37. > :07:38.became increasingly interested in extremist material,
:07:39. > :07:43.But she went further and began encouraging others
:07:44. > :07:49.on social media to get involved in terrorism.
:07:50. > :07:54.Tareena Shakil told the court she went to Syria only to live
:07:55. > :07:57.under the rule of sharia law, she denies joining IS.
:07:58. > :08:00.She said she had made a mistake and wanted to come
:08:01. > :08:03.home, describing her escape in a taxi and the dash she made
:08:04. > :08:05.for the Turkish border carrying her son and
:08:06. > :08:14.I threw 9000 Syrian dollars at him, which is $15,
:08:15. > :08:18.wrapped my Pampers, everything, this bag, grabbed the blanket
:08:19. > :08:29.The jury was unanimous in finding Tareena Shakil
:08:30. > :08:45.Fresh data on the health of the US economy is out,
:08:46. > :08:49.Growth is slowing down - and in the 4th quarter of 2015
:08:50. > :08:52.was at just 0.7%, compared with the same period a year before.
:08:53. > :08:54.That's a sharp drop from the 2% growth recorded
:08:55. > :09:02.Tanya Beckett is with me to explain what's going on.
:09:03. > :09:12.A slowdown in the sale of durables. Durable goods, this is one of my
:09:13. > :09:16.favourites. You are right, it's a good indicator of what is going on.
:09:17. > :09:22.Sometimes you have to look behind the headlines. Durable goods are
:09:23. > :09:27.purchases of goods which are durable, as the name suggests. It is
:09:28. > :09:30.a sign of investment. It is an indication there is a lack of
:09:31. > :09:35.confidence in the economy but you have to remember there is now a
:09:36. > :09:39.sharp dip in investment in the mining and oil industry in the US
:09:40. > :09:45.because the break even price for oil producers is very much higher in the
:09:46. > :09:53.US and Saudi Arabia producers. Interest rates raised marginally.
:09:54. > :09:56.They don't have the option of putting them back down because it
:09:57. > :10:03.destroys credibility. What you can do is delay the next rise. It has
:10:04. > :10:08.been pushed out the little bits to June. The problem they had as the
:10:09. > :10:18.bank to plan, the European Central Bank are both moving in the opposite
:10:19. > :10:24.direction. Dutch Mac bank of Japan. Big companies are being charged to
:10:25. > :10:28.actually leave their money? Yes, a very peculiar situation. The Bank of
:10:29. > :10:36.England is showing no signs at all. That divergences raters questions in
:10:37. > :10:43.investors mind. -- raises. Is there anything positive? Yes, there may be
:10:44. > :10:48.bounced back in the second quarter of this year so it is not all doom
:10:49. > :10:54.and gloom. There are a variety of sciences uncertainties at the
:10:55. > :10:58.moment. One is the Chinese economy, particularly the stock market and
:10:59. > :11:03.how that is indicative of a bumpy transition to domestic consumption
:11:04. > :11:11.led economy. The price of oil, there doesn't seem to be any prediction
:11:12. > :11:14.that that will rebound. Where it represents a sharp fall in
:11:15. > :11:18.investment, that is where it is taking a hit so there are some
:11:19. > :11:27.fallout, even countries which are not oil-producing countries. You
:11:28. > :11:36.mention tank of Japan, -- bank of Japan. The reason the bank of Japan
:11:37. > :11:44.is doing this, is that the rate of reform simply isn't fast enough. It
:11:45. > :11:51.is a economy based on particularly large companies. This has been the
:11:52. > :11:55.case for a long time that Japan, of course, suffering from exactly the
:11:56. > :12:00.same problem that we might find ourselves suffering from, which is
:12:01. > :12:05.they are doing pushing on a piece of string. Lowering interest rates as
:12:06. > :12:07.much as you like that demand is not stimulated. Thank you.
:12:08. > :12:10.Chinese state TV has reported that all four surviving miners trapped
:12:11. > :12:12.after the 25th December mine collapse in Shandong
:12:13. > :12:18.The men had spent 36 days trapped underground.
:12:19. > :12:20.The gypsum mine in eastern China's Shandong province collapsed
:12:21. > :12:22.on Christmas Day, killing one and leaving 17 missing,
:12:23. > :12:28.In the days that followed, rescuers detected the four 200
:12:29. > :12:38.The International Olympic Committee says venues for the Rio Olympics
:12:39. > :12:40.will be inspected daily in the lead-up to the Games
:12:41. > :12:42.to minimise the risk of athletes and visitors contracting
:12:43. > :12:46.It says any puddles of stagnant water, where mosquitos can breed,
:12:47. > :12:51.The mosquito-borne disease has been linked to a surge in brain defects
:12:52. > :12:53.among new-born babies in the Americas, where it's been
:12:54. > :12:57.Little is know about Zika, but it was first discovered
:12:58. > :13:09.The BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga has been there, and sent this report.
:13:10. > :13:16.This is the Zika forest, a quiet, sleepy, much forgotten place.
:13:17. > :13:19.70 years ago, the monkeys here were found to harbour the virus
:13:20. > :13:26.causing today's international health concern.
:13:27. > :13:29.As with so many discoveries, the scientists working in nearly 70
:13:30. > :13:31.years ago were not actually looking for the Zika virus.
:13:32. > :13:35.They were doing research on yellow fever and that's when they came
:13:36. > :13:45.across the new micro-organism which they named after this forest.
:13:46. > :13:48.He says there have only been two confirmed cases of
:13:49. > :13:55.I asked him why it is proving so dangerous in other parts
:13:56. > :13:59.One of the reasons is because the virus has moved
:14:00. > :14:01.into new territory, and in this territory it's attacking people
:14:02. > :14:04.who have never been affected by viruses which are similar
:14:05. > :14:17.In which case, their bodies are not adapted, or they don't
:14:18. > :14:21.have the immunity they would have if they had been affected.
:14:22. > :14:22.These mosquitoes are similar to those
:14:23. > :14:32.But scientists here say mosquitoes in Uganda are not good
:14:33. > :14:35.Nevertheless, they are on the lookout, especially
:14:36. > :14:38.as transmission spreads around the world.
:14:39. > :14:42.We have a surveillance system which is continuous,
:14:43. > :14:46.and it is doing the work of trying to find out which type of mosquitoes
:14:47. > :14:53.We have indigenous type, the forest type or we have also
:14:54. > :14:59.other types which have come into the country.
:15:00. > :15:02.This is the only laboratory in Uganda that tests
:15:03. > :15:07.Blood samples are brought here from across the country.
:15:08. > :15:09.They are tested, labelled and stored.
:15:10. > :15:11.Outbreaks of the disease are not that common.
:15:12. > :15:18.The last confirmed case for several years ago.
:15:19. > :15:20.Another challenge for the scientists here is the fact that people don't
:15:21. > :15:26.often report symptoms of the Zika virus.
:15:27. > :15:29.They are either not aware of it, or they assume it's malaria,
:15:30. > :15:32.so a new initiative is going to start in April of this year
:15:33. > :15:35.to try and make better sense of how widespread the disease
:15:36. > :15:52.Officials in Saudi Arabia say at least two people have been killed
:15:53. > :15:54.in a gun attack during Friday prayers in a Shia mosque.
:15:55. > :15:58.This footage - that we can't verify - shows the moment of the attack
:15:59. > :16:02.The attack in the eastern town of Mehasin has also left
:16:03. > :16:08.One witness has said that worshippers stopped the attacker
:16:09. > :16:13.A suicide bomber has attacked a market in northeastern Nigeria.
:16:14. > :16:17.Police say at least three people were confirmed dead in the town
:16:18. > :16:19.of Gombi in Adamawa state - a resident said he saw
:16:20. > :16:25.Eye-witnesses say the bomber was disguised as a woman.
:16:26. > :16:28.Government troops recaptured Gombi from Boko Haram in 2014
:16:29. > :16:32.but the insurgents have since made several attempts to retake the town.
:16:33. > :16:34.Police in south-west Germany say a grenade has been thrown
:16:35. > :16:50.The device didn't explode and was found by a security guard
:16:51. > :16:52.near buildings which house 170 people.
:16:53. > :16:55.Last year there were more than one thousand attacks,
:16:56. > :16:57.five times the number reported the previous year.
:16:58. > :16:59.Anti-mafia police in Italy say they've captured two
:17:00. > :17:01.of the country's most wanted fugitives at a mountain hideout
:17:02. > :17:05.The two men Giuseppe Ferraro and Giuseppe Crea are high-level
:17:06. > :17:07.members of a crime group that controls much of
:17:08. > :17:10.They'd been on the run for more than a decade,
:17:11. > :17:13.and had been linked with a string of murders.
:17:14. > :17:15.Let's take you back to Ancient Babylon now.
:17:16. > :17:20.What is now Syria and Iraq, to the year 1800 BC,
:17:21. > :17:23.and what appears to be a far more sophisticated civilisation
:17:24. > :17:27.A new study has been published showing that they were using
:17:28. > :17:33.geometric calculations to track Jupiter across the night sky.
:17:34. > :17:35.It's a surprising revelation as it means, that branch of sophisticated
:17:36. > :17:38.mathematics was being used 1400 years earlier than previously
:17:39. > :17:48.Well I am joined by it's author via skype -
:17:49. > :17:50.Professor Mathieu Ossendrivjer, from the Humboldt University of
:17:51. > :17:54.This was a bit of a surprise discovery for you, wasn't it?
:17:55. > :18:05.Well, last year I received a new tablet which contained numbers and
:18:06. > :18:13.calculations that reminded me of a bunch of strange thing that deals
:18:14. > :18:16.with figures, and that is quite unusual in Babylonian astronomy. I
:18:17. > :18:20.was able to figure out what was happening with all these weird
:18:21. > :18:25.genetical tablets we're looking at one of these now will stop it looks
:18:26. > :18:32.like a piece of plastic bread. How on earth do you read that? You spent
:18:33. > :18:37.your in Tyre career doing that so it's not easy to explain the can you
:18:38. > :18:45.have a go? Yes. It's writing and its well understood is. There are a list
:18:46. > :18:48.of signs are able to decipher. The language is not a problem that the
:18:49. > :18:57.astronomy on it, that's what I'm really interested in. There are
:18:58. > :19:01.trapezoid is there, aren't there? That's a piece of John retreat. How
:19:02. > :19:09.did they use that to track velocity in movement, of Jupiter, wasn't it?
:19:10. > :19:13.So it turns out that this is like a modern graft. It shows you how the
:19:14. > :19:20.velocity of Jupiter changes over time. On the vertical axis, its
:19:21. > :19:26.velocity. So the velocity decreases with time. It unexpected with
:19:27. > :19:32.antiquity. We don't have it anywhere else there. We were savages compared
:19:33. > :19:39.to this lot, weren't we? Yes will stop we could say that, yes. This
:19:40. > :19:45.kind of raft was only reinvented much later in Europe. 14th century
:19:46. > :19:51.in Oxford. Sorry, Oxford. You didn't invent it for the first time. It was
:19:52. > :19:58.the Babylonians. Debate came -- come up with it from their own research,
:19:59. > :20:04.or do you think they got wind of the Babylonian tablets Rhys I think it
:20:05. > :20:09.was forgotten and invented for the second time. Can you tell us about
:20:10. > :20:17.Babylonian culture? What is now Syria and Iraq in 18th century BC,
:20:18. > :20:21.it's an extraordinary city, even though it's been badly rebuilt by
:20:22. > :20:26.Saddam Hussein. The culture was extremely sophisticated, wasn't it?
:20:27. > :20:30.. Extraordinary. They had highly developed mathematics and John
:20:31. > :20:36.retreat, though what we were doing much later in the fourth century was
:20:37. > :20:40.to reapply the dormitory in a totally new way. What did they use
:20:41. > :20:45.it for? Was it linked to their fascination of the planets, or was
:20:46. > :20:49.this... Did they understand the importance of the planets, and the
:20:50. > :20:56.earth, and the sun. What was needed for the production of food? They
:20:57. > :21:02.were obsessed with the planets computing emotion and it was because
:21:03. > :21:07.of astrology. They thought that by predicting the position of the
:21:08. > :21:09.planets they could predict market prices, river levels, the weather.
:21:10. > :21:15.They thought everything was connected to what happened in the
:21:16. > :21:23.sky. There's an element of truth in that of course. Yes, but it's a kind
:21:24. > :21:30.of astrology, but on these tablets you don't see anything of astrology.
:21:31. > :21:33.It's very technical. Astrology, we learned about from other tablets.
:21:34. > :21:44.What a fascinating breakthrough. Thank you for speaking to us. Thank
:21:45. > :21:48.you for having me. British astronaut Tim Peak has asked
:21:49. > :21:50.school children in Britain to help him in one of his
:21:51. > :21:53.scientific experiments. He wants pupils to plant seeds
:21:54. > :21:55.of rocket leaves that have been Their growth will be compared
:21:56. > :21:59.with normal plants to help researchers develop new varieties
:22:00. > :22:01.of crops that could be grown This report by our science
:22:02. > :22:06.correspondent, Pallab Ghosh. Ever since Tim Peake blasted off,
:22:07. > :22:11.his adventures in space Now, from the space station,
:22:12. > :22:17.he is doing it again. We are going to get a packet
:22:18. > :22:20.of these space seeds. When Tim Peake comes back down
:22:21. > :22:24.to earth, we're going to do some He is asking schoolchildren
:22:25. > :22:29.to help him with one I am looking after two
:22:30. > :22:34.kilograms of very special space seeds, which is
:22:35. > :22:36.ready for our special Now these seeds have been
:22:37. > :22:41.on the International Space Station, I will be packing them up
:22:42. > :22:44.at the end of their mission, When they arrive, they will be
:22:45. > :22:49.sent out to thousands of schools to grow alongside
:22:50. > :22:52.the seeds that have not been up here in space,
:22:53. > :22:54.as part of our special Once they plant the rocket seeds,
:22:55. > :23:03.instead of the stem going up, the stem will go down and the roots
:23:04. > :23:06.will come up instead. I have watched virtually every
:23:07. > :23:13.broadcast he has done and I'm really I think it is incredible
:23:14. > :23:19.that all our schools all over the country will be
:23:20. > :23:22.involved in something so important The pupils at Walton
:23:23. > :23:26.High School in Stafford are among children from 10,000
:23:27. > :23:29.schools expected to help him The experiment by pupils
:23:30. > :23:33.here could ultimately help scientists develop a crop that
:23:34. > :23:37.astronauts could grow In the future, it could enable
:23:38. > :23:42.people to grow their own crops Eating on the space station has
:23:43. > :23:50.never been straightforward. But their freeze-dried
:23:51. > :23:51.food could soon It is really cool
:23:52. > :23:57.seeing the Union Jack It has explored all over the world
:23:58. > :24:05.and now it has explored space. Tim's space walk made British
:24:06. > :24:07.schoolchildren realise one day it Even if they don't make it
:24:08. > :24:11.into space, his mission might inspire them to reach
:24:12. > :24:31.for the stars in their own way. Lets show you some pictures from
:24:32. > :24:41.Australia. This is from the sea bed off the coast of Sydney 's. Octopus
:24:42. > :24:46.are normally solitary creature, but you can see them fighting here which
:24:47. > :24:49.means they could possibly have more social interactions than first
:24:50. > :25:03.thought. This one showing a darker colour. The losing one. French film
:25:04. > :25:09.director Jacques Rivette one of the most influential figures in US
:25:10. > :25:20.cinema has died. He was 87. He received a critical acclaim for his
:25:21. > :25:26.challenging and imaginative films, including selenium Julie go boating
:25:27. > :25:30.and out one which lasted about 13 hours. The French president Francois
:25:31. > :25:34.Hollande called him one of the greatest film-makers over several
:25:35. > :25:39.generations. A reminder of our main news. A attentional breakthrough at
:25:40. > :25:43.the first Syria peace talks for two years. The main opposition group
:25:44. > :25:48.behind negotiation committee which had refused to attend now says it
:25:49. > :25:56.will take part. The agency says it's received assurances from the United
:25:57. > :25:59.Nations. We hope to speak to them on Sunday. That's it from me and the