29/01/2016 World News Today

portion of that low. He watching the weather forecast, we will update you

-- keep watching the weather forecast.

This is BBC World News Today with me Tim Willcox.

The Headlines - A potential breakthrough at the Syrian peace

A representative of President Assad is at the UN organised talks

in Geneva - and in the last few moments a main Syrian opposition

group - which had earlier refused to attend -

A mother who took her son to Syria becomes the first British woman

to be convicted of joining self-styled Islamic State.

She denied ever encouraging terrorism.

It was never my intention to enter into Syria.

Economic growth slows sharply in the United States as consumers

And we'll be covering all the angles on the revelation that ancient

babylonians were the first to use geometry 1400 years before

Astronaut Tim Peake asks students to give him a hand with his

experiments. We start with what appears to be

a potential breakthrough at the first Syria peace talks

for two years. A main opposition group -

the "High Negotiation Committee" - which had refused to attend -

now says it will take part. The HNC says it has received

assurances from the US Representatives

of President Assad's regime have The group - led by Syria's

ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al Jaafari is now meeting UN

special envoy Staffan de Mistura. The aim is to bring peace

to a country where at least a quarter of a million people have

been killed, and more than 11 We still do not know the

negotiations. We know that -- we do not know when they will arrive and

meet with the UN special envoy, but that is a good start for an already

speculated and failed negotiations. There are other glaring omissions

aren't there. Where are the Kurdish groups? The nonrepresentational of

the Kurds inside the high negotiation committee... But there

is a team who the Turks consider a terrorist group and they have made

it clear they should not take part. They were not included in this

negotiation, however the special envoy considered many members of the

opposition as consultants since they were not represented in the Riyadh

meetings last month. Mistura knows it will be the most difficult task,

but he has put a time frame of six months on this. He made it clear it

would be proximity talks, they will be face-to-face. He already said it

will take a long time, six months is the announcement. It may be more

than that given the difficulties these talks are facing, but it is

just one step in 1000 mile road ahead. We have more on what lies

behind the U-turn. The opposition found itself in a situation quite

similar to that before the second Geneva conference two years ago. A

lot of pressure to go, very difficult to show for it, very

little to tell their supporters, to promise their supporters in terms of

gains from these negotiations. They finally seem to have yielded to this

pressure. They got promises from the UN and also from the American US

Secretary of State John Kerry that there will be a full implantation of

Security Council resolutions including humanitarian aspects of

those resolutions. But even after the announcement came that they

would be heading to Geneva, some members of the opposition were still

suggesting that this does not mean they are participating in the Geneva

negotiations or talks, they may just go to Geneva and wait until

something concrete happens on the ground in terms of the promises

given to them. That is just one statement coming out of one of the

opposition members. The first few hours perhaps of Saturday will show

whether this is a clear commitment to take part in the talks or whether

the opposition is still trying to see whether anything will happen on

the ground. Stay with us for more on this. In a few minutes we will be

speaking to a spokesperson from the Syrian Society in Washington. He is

about to head to the talks in Geneva.

A young mother has become the first British woman to be convicted

of travelling to Syria to join the Islamic state group.

26 year old Tareena Shakil - a former health worker -

ran away with her toddler in October 2014.

She was arrested when she returned to the UK four months later.

The jury at Birmingham crown court also found her guilty of encouraging

Our correspondent Sian Lloyd reports.

Tareena Shakil, a British mother convicted today of being a member

The banned terror group notorious for its violence and brutality.

She took her toddler son to Raqqa in Syria,

The court was shown this picture, her child

She dressed him in IS clothing and wore a similar balaclava herself.

She urged others to join her in Syria.

The court has been clear, they have found her guilty

At the moment she should be treated as a dangerous individual.

Tareena Shakil was arrested when she arrived back

She told police she was kidnapped by a man she met on holiday in Turkey.

It was never my intention to enter into Syria.

Whilst being on holiday I happened to meet a young Turkish man.

I liked him, and we developed somewhat of a relationship.

This image shows the former health worker at East Midlands airport.

The journey was planned not as a holiday, but her route

During the summer of 2014, Tareena Shakil became increasingly

interested in extremist material, searching for it on the internet.

But she went further and began encouraging others on social media

Tareena Shakil told the court she went to Syria only to live under

the rule of Sharia Law, and denied joining IS.

She said she had made a mistake and wanted to come home,

describing her escape in a taxi as she made for the Turkish border,

carrying her son and his bag of nappies in her arms.

I threw 9000 Syrian dollars at him, grabbed my Pampers, everything,

this bag, the blanket, and I just ran.

The jury was unanimous in finding her guilty.

Chinese state TV has reported that all four surviving miners trapped

after the 25th December mine collapse in Shandong

The men had spent 36 days trapped underground.

The gypsum mine in eastern China's Shandong province collapsed

A suicide bomber has attacked a market in northeastern Nigeria.

Police say at least three people were confirmed dead in the town

of Gombi in Adamawa state - a resident said he saw

Government troops recaptured Gombi from Boko Haram in 2014

but the insurgents have since made several attempts to retake

Police in south-west Germany say a grenade has been thrown

The device didn't explode and was found by a security guard

near buildings which house one hundred and 70 people.

Anti-mafia police in Italy say they've captured two

of the country's most wanted fugitives at a mountain hideout

The two men Giuseppe Ferraro and Giuseppe Crea are high-level

members of a crime group that controls much of the

They'd been on the run for more than a decade,

and had been linked with a string of murders.

Fresh data on the health of the US economy is out,

Growth is slowing down - and in the 4th quarter of 2015

was at just 0.7%, compared with the same period a year before.

It is much slower than the previous quarter. It also included a

significant slowdown in the sale of durable goods. As the name suggests

they are Giroud ball, they last for three years, a sign of investment,

they were disastrous. There is a lack of confidence in the economy.

You have to remember there is a sharp hip of investment in mining

and the oil industry in the United States. The break even price is very

much higher than it is the Saudi Arabian producers. So they have put

up interest rates marginally, what will they do? They cannot put it

back down, that destroys credibility. You can delay the next

rate rise. The expectation was it would be March, that has been pushed

out to June. The problem they have is the bank of Japan, the European

Central Bank, both of those, they are in charge of large economies,

they are moving in the opposite direction into negative interest

rates. The big companies and countries are being charged Julie

thereby laid -- charged to leave their money. A strange situation.

That divergences rages raises questions in investors minds. --

raises questions. There is a variety of uncertainties which seem

difficult to measure. One is the fallout in the Chinese economy,

particularly the stock market and to what extent that is indicative of a

very bumpy transition to a more domestic consumption led economy.

The price of oil, there does not seem to be any prediction that would

be bad, you would think it would be good for inflation. India would be a

good example of that. Where it represents a sharp fall in

investment, that is where it is taking a hit. There is some fallout,

even countries that are not related. You meant shouldn't Japan. The

reason why the bank of Japan is doing this, this has always been a

problem in the Japanese economy, the rate of social reform is not fast

enough. It is an economy based on particularly large companies and

there has been a lot of intermingling between states and

companies. Japan was suffering from exactly the same problem that we may

find ourselves suffering from. They were doing what we were calling

pushing on a piece of string. You can lower interest rates as much as

you like, but the demand will not be stimulated and that is the fear.

Still to come bringing a bit of the scientific wonder of space back to

Earth. Why the British astronaut Tim Peake wants students to help with

his latest experiment. The British Royal Navy's state-of-the-art

destroyers keep on breaking down. It's billed as one of the most

advanced warships in the world. The Royal Navy's Type 45 Destroyer,

fitted with sophisticated Each ship costing

more than ?1 billion. But it has had one big problem

that The Ministry of Defence says that

the ships are still seaworthy. Plans are to add another engine. That will

not be easy or cheap with the engine department deep in the bowels of the

ship. The MOD will not say how much it will cost or who is to blame. You

watching BBC world News. Our main story. As peace talks aimed at

ending Syria's wars begin, the high negotiations committee agrees to

take part. The International Olympic Committee says the venues for the

real Olympics will be inspected daily in the lead up to the games to

minimise the risk of the zika virus. It says any puddles of stagnant

water, where mosquitos can breed, The mosquito-borne disease has been

linked to a surge in brain defects among new-born babies

in the Americas, where it's been Little is know about Zika,

but it was first discovered The BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga has

been there, and sent this report. This is zika forest. It is a

forgotten place. 70 years ago the monkeys here were found to harbour a

virus causing today's international health concern. As with so many

discoveries, the scientists working here almost 70 years ago were not

looking for this virus, they were looking for yellow fever. That is

when they came across a new microorganism which they named after

this forest. This doctor has studied zika the years. He says there have

only been two confirmed cases of the disease in Uganda. I asked him why

it is proving so dangerous in other parts of the world. One of the

reasons is because the virus has moved into new territory and in this

territory it is attacking people who have never been affected by viruses

which are similar to the zika virus. In which case their bodies are not

adapted or they do not have the immunity they would have if they had

been affected with viruses which were similar. These mosquitoes are

similar to those spreading zika in Latin America. Scientist hearsay

mosquitoes in Uganda are not good at transmitting the disease.

Nevertheless they are on the lookout especially as transmission is spread

around the world. We have base available system which is

continuous. It is doing the work of trying to find out which type of

mosquitoes we have in the country. We have the indigenous type, the

forest type, or we have also other types which have been imported into

the country. This is the only laboratory in Uganda that tests for

the zika virus. Blood samples are brought here from across the

country, they are tested, labelled and stored. Outbreaks of the disease

are not that common here. The last confirmed case with several views

ago. Another challenge for the scientists here are the fact that

people do not often report symptoms of the zika virus. They are either

not aware of it or they assume it is malaria. A new initiative is going

to start in April of this year to try to get a better sense of how

widespread the disease is in the country.

Time for us to catch up on all the sports news. We will start with the

FA Cup as Premier League Manchester United are taking on championship

side Derby County in the fourth round and here is the current state

of play at Stadium. Manchester United lead 2-1. Wayne Rooney got

them the lead. They are now in the second half, United have the lead

once again. 25 minutes to go. Andy Murray is through to his fifth

Australian open final, he battled the Canadian Milos Raonic in five

sets. He and Jamie Murray become the first brothers to reach the singles

and doubles finals of a grand slam event in the open era.

The Canadian is known to his service which can top 140 mph. He also

dazzled Andy Murray with his movement and touch in taking the

opening set. There was little between them as they pushed each

other hard, but the world number two eventually got back on level terms.

Andy Murray could not find momentum to take control and when the third

set went to a tie-break, Milos Raonic proved too powerful. The

match then swung on a twist of fate with Milos Raonic hampered by injury

and Andy Murray was able to take it to a deciding set. The frustration

was clear to see as hopes of becoming the first Canadian man to

reach a grandson final slipped away. -- grand slam. The result was now

inevitable and while there would be sympathy for Milos Raonic, Andy

Murray will be hoping that his luck class against Novak Djokovic in the

final. -- last. He definitely slowed

down in the fifth set for sure, that was

unfortunate for him. because he was struggling

with his movement and The fourth set,

I thought he was still moving pretty good towards the end,

but he obviously got a bit lucky You have to focus on your side

of the court as best as you can. Martini Hingis has written

another chapter in her Alongside doubles partner

Sania Mirza they clinched their first Australian

Open doubles title playing at the bottom

of your screen, beating Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie

Hradecka in straight sets. Having come out of retirement

in 2013 to return to doubles The pair nicknamed 'santina' adding

the title in Melbourne to their Wmbledon and US Open

doubles titles last year, a winning run stretching

back 36 matches. A member of the culture media

and sport select committee says the head of the IAAF - Lord Coe -

needs to clarify what he knew about allegations of bribery

surrounding the bidding process for the 2017 and 2019

World Athletics Championships. Lord Coe told a parliamentary select

committee in December that he'd never been offered a bribe or known

of someone being offered a bribe. It's since been reported that

Lord Coe had discussed rumours of bribes around the vote in 2011

with head of UK athletics Ed Warner. Damian Collins MP says this

raises fresh questions. He gave the impression that he had

never heard of bribery in athletics, but allegedly he was aware

that the Qatari bid team were handing out brown envelopes

to the IAAF members. He warned the head of the UK bid

for the World Championships. The key questions would be why did

he not tell the select committee, and did he take this

matter up with the IAAF Lord Coe denies any knowledge of any

bribes and denies making any such His spokesman says he has always

been consistent and re-iterated that he doesn't know of anyone who's

been offered money. That is all your sport. Just a

development in the Hillary Clinton e-mail story. The US State

Department says it will not allow the release of some of Hillary

Clinton's private e-mails because they contain information that it

considers top secret. There are seven e-mail chains in an unsecured

account used by Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. She has

come under close scrutiny over the e-mails in her campaign to run for

president. Here is what the State Department spokesman had to say.

I can confirm that as this investigation into the e-mails, the

State Department will be denying in full seven e-mail chains found in 22

documents representing 37 pages. The documents are being upgraded at the

request of the intelligence community because they contain a

category of top-secret information. These documents were not marked

classified at the time they were sent. These e-mails will be denied

in full meaning they will not be produced online. I do not need to

remind any of you that in a response to a formal request it is not

unusual to deny providing a document in full. I understand there is great

QB has achieved that I will put that out at the top, I will not speak to

the content of this e-mail traffic. -- rate curiosity, -- great

curiosity, but I will put that out at the top.

British astronaut Tim Peak has asked school children in Britain

to help him in one of his scientific experiments.

He wants pupils to plant seeds of rocket leaves that have been

Their growth will be compared with normal plants to help

researchers develop new varieties of crops that could be grown

This report by our Science Correspondent, Pallab Ghosh.

Ever since Tim Peake blasted off, his adventures in space

Now from the space station he is doing it again.

We are going to get a packet of these space seeds when Tim Peake

comes back down to earth, we're going to do some experiments

He is asking schoolchildren to help him with one

I'm looking after two kilograms of special space

seeds which is ready for our special mission,

Now that these seeds have been on the

International Space Station I will pack them up at the end

of their mission and send them back to earth

and when they arrive they will be sent to thousands of schools to grow

alongside the seeds that haven't been up here in space as part

of our special science experiment.

Once they plant the rocket seeds,

instead of the stem going up it will go down and the roots will grow

up instead, that's what I'm thinking!

I've been watching virtually every broadcast

he has done, I'm really excited, and my aim is to be like him.

I think it's incredible that all of our schools

in the country are going to be involved in something so important

The pupils at Walton High School in Stafford are among

children from 10,000 schools expected to help Tim in his project.

The experiment by pupils here could ultimately help

scientists develop crops that astronauts could grow

on the International Space Station and in the future it could enable

people to grow their own crops

Eating on the Space Station has never been straightforward.

That is all from me and the team, goodbye for now.

Thanks for joining me for some of the world weather headlines.

Australia