15/02/2016 World News Today


15/02/2016

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 15/02/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

We start with Syria, where the chaos of its five-year

:01:16.:01:18.

civil war continues to have devastating consequences

:01:19.:01:19.

The UN says at least five medical facilities and two schools

:01:20.:01:26.

in northern Syria have been hit by missiles,

:01:27.:01:28.

killing up to 50 people, including children.

:01:29.:01:30.

At least two hospitals were hit in Idlib province,

:01:31.:01:46.

both in the town of Maarat al-Numan - which has been facing air strikes

:01:47.:01:50.

from Russian and Syrian regime planes after rebels

:01:51.:01:51.

A children's hospital was partially destroyed near another rebel-held

:01:52.:01:55.

town of Azaz, in Aleppo province, close to the Turkish border.

:01:56.:01:57.

MSF has blamed the Syrian regime, while Turkey has blamed Russia.

:01:58.:02:00.

But it comes just days after an apparent international

:02:01.:02:02.

agreement for a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria.

:02:03.:02:04.

Our diplomatic correspondent James Robbins has more.

:02:05.:02:06.

Rescue workers scramble over the rubble of a hospital hit

:02:07.:02:09.

by missiles, to rescue any survivors they can find.

:02:10.:02:11.

It has been bombing intensively to try to win the area back

:02:12.:02:16.

We have had at least seven deaths among personnel and patients

:02:17.:02:24.

and at least eight people have disappeared.

:02:25.:02:31.

Further north, missiles hit a children's hospital and a school

:02:32.:02:34.

apparently sheltering refugees fleeing the joint Russian

:02:35.:02:37.

This is only a few miles from the border with Turkey

:02:38.:02:55.

which is opposed to the action.

:02:56.:02:58.

All the talk over the weekend in Munich involving Russia

:02:59.:03:00.

and the United States was about achieving

:03:01.:03:02.

A cessation does not apply to their bombing campaigns.

:03:03.:03:14.

Moscow sees pretty much anyone fighting against Syria's President

:03:15.:03:18.

Assad as a legitimate target, no distinction is drawn

:03:19.:03:23.

in the Kremlin between fighters for so-called Islamic State

:03:24.:03:28.

and these anti-Assad rebels who are supported by the West,

:03:29.:03:34.

so it is hard to see the five year war being anywhere

:03:35.:03:37.

The Russians can end this if they want to.

:03:38.:03:41.

They can make this work by scaling back their bombing and redirecting

:03:42.:03:43.

it against the real terrorists rather than bombing

:03:44.:03:45.

Russia shows no sign of changing course and is embroiled in a hotter

:03:46.:03:50.

and hotter war of words with Syria's neighbour Turkey.

:03:51.:03:54.

Washington is urging cooler heads but on theground there is nothing

:03:55.:03:56.

In the last few hours we've heard that the UN peace envoy

:03:57.:04:08.

for Syria, Steffan de Mistura, is making a surprise

:04:09.:04:10.

I spoke earlier to BBC Arabic's Lina Sinjab in neighbouring

:04:11.:04:14.

Yes, I have spoken to some sources in Damascus and they have confirmed

:04:15.:04:25.

that he will be there tomorrow morning it is a short cut 24 hours

:04:26.:04:32.

trip to that area. It seems that is only because of the recent

:04:33.:04:36.

developments and escalations. We are not sure about the agenda, we know

:04:37.:04:41.

that he will meet senior Syrian officials, but we do not yet know

:04:42.:04:44.

much detail about what those discussions will be about. We assume

:04:45.:04:50.

the special in what will raise the issues of the attacks today about

:04:51.:04:57.

hospitals and by mainly the Russian and government warplanes.

:04:58.:05:02.

At the moment we do not have anyone accepting responsibility on the

:05:03.:05:07.

strikes at the hospital facilities. Yes, there are some details about

:05:08.:05:14.

the amount of people that were targeted, we know that at least ten

:05:15.:05:19.

people were killed any hospitals in Idlib and another dozen as well and

:05:20.:05:24.

another hospital. Neither the Russians nor the Syrian government

:05:25.:05:27.

have claimed responsibility for the attack but we know for sure that in

:05:28.:05:33.

that area of Syria in Idlib and then Aleppo, it is only the Syrian

:05:34.:05:39.

government and the Russian warplanes that are in operation, so there is

:05:40.:05:43.

no third-party to blame for these attacks.

:05:44.:05:45.

Separately, we are hearing that military exercises have been taking

:05:46.:05:50.

place today between the Turkish air force and Saudi Arabia, what extent

:05:51.:05:55.

of military involvement do we expect from Saudi Arabia?

:05:56.:06:00.

Basically, we heard an announcement from Saudi Arabia that they are

:06:01.:06:03.

willing to send in ground troops to Syria. We know that they are sending

:06:04.:06:10.

some warplanes as well to operate with the Turkish forces. That is

:06:11.:06:15.

another addition to the competition. Saudi Arabia strongly opposes

:06:16.:06:21.

President Bashar al-Assad and they do not see a future with him in

:06:22.:06:27.

power. Sending troops to Syria now to fight Islamic State might be seen

:06:28.:06:34.

as more problematic by the rebels, who are supported by Saudi Arabia,

:06:35.:06:39.

so the focus is now shifting to fight Islamic State rather than

:06:40.:06:45.

fighting President Assad's forces. My correspondent in Beirut.

:06:46.:06:49.

Now to a fascinating glimpse into the world of Pope John Paul II.

:06:50.:06:52.

Hundreds of personal letters uncovered by the BBC between him

:06:53.:06:55.

and a married woman over a 30-year period reveal a close friendship.

:06:56.:06:58.

The documents were hidden away in the National Library of Poland,

:06:59.:07:00.

along with dozens of photographs showing the pair together.

:07:01.:07:02.

Our religious affairs correspondent, Caroline Wyatt, reports.

:07:03.:07:09.

This is the story of the Pope's letters to his closest

:07:10.:07:12.

Pope John Paul II was writing to a married woman,

:07:13.:07:17.

Professor Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, a philosopher and fellow Pole.

:07:18.:07:21.

When you've got a strongly heterosexual man and an attractive

:07:22.:07:28.

woman in a very intense relationship that is cultivated and which engages

:07:29.:07:33.

mind at a high level of intensity, there's danger everywhere.

:07:34.:07:40.

The letters have been hidden away in the national library of Poland.

:07:41.:07:44.

Pope John Paul let their friendship grow, writing "God gave you to me

:07:45.:07:47.

The future Pope invited Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka to join him

:07:48.:07:53.

and others on country walks, skiing holidays, even camping trips.

:07:54.:07:58.

Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka invited the then cardinal to stay

:07:59.:08:00.

with her family at their country home in New England in 1976.

:08:01.:08:05.

After the trip, his letters suggest a man struggling to make sense

:08:06.:08:08.

of their friendship in Christian terms.

:08:09.:08:11.

One from 1976 says, "my dear Teresa, I have received all three letters.

:08:12.:08:15.

You write about being torn apart but I could find no answer

:08:16.:08:18.

Later, his letters looked back to that trip to New England

:08:19.:08:26.

like this one, saying, "I'm thinking about you and in my thoughts I..."

:08:27.:08:33.

Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka's letters are not publicly available.

:08:34.:08:37.

I do believe she completely fell in love with him during the first

:08:38.:08:40.

I think it's completely reflectd in the correspondence.

:08:41.:08:47.

John Paul II died in 2005 and the extent of Anna-Teresa

:08:48.:08:51.

Tymieniecka's role in his life has until now remained largely hidden.

:08:52.:08:57.

There is no suggestion that the Pope, now Saint John Paul

:08:58.:09:00.

II, broke any vow of celebacy, but the letters show the human side

:09:01.:09:03.

of a much-loved Pope, doing one of the loneliest

:09:04.:09:05.

Reverend James Martin is editor at large of the Jesuit magazine,

:09:06.:09:19.

Thank you for joining us, what you make of these revelations?

:09:20.:09:29.

It is not uprising in one sense. It has been talked about in another

:09:30.:09:34.

book. Celibate males and females have close relationships with people

:09:35.:09:38.

of the opposite sex, it is not really that unusual.

:09:39.:09:40.

But the start this friendship when he was a cardinal and continued

:09:41.:09:44.

whilst he was the Pope, is that not uprising?

:09:45.:09:48.

No, I have deep friendships with both women and men. Because you are

:09:49.:09:52.

celibate does not been that you stop having friendships with people.

:09:53.:09:55.

There might have been a love relationship but it sounds like they

:09:56.:09:59.

were both faithful to their files, so it is not uprising to me.

:10:00.:10:03.

Did you get any sense about how much was known about it at the time? How

:10:04.:10:09.

much freedom Bob John Paul II had private correspondences like this?

:10:10.:10:16.

As a cardinal and even as a Pope, I doubt it would be someone --

:10:17.:10:20.

something he would tell close friends about. Some people might

:10:21.:10:25.

have known about his affection for her, but it is important as someone

:10:26.:10:28.

who are celibate to have deep and intimate friendship with people of

:10:29.:10:31.

both sexes. Hope John-Paul, he was canonised

:10:32.:10:37.

very quickly, if this had emerged quicker, do you think that would

:10:38.:10:40.

have affected our process. -- Pope John-Paul.

:10:41.:10:46.

There is nothing wrong with having such a friendship, it works for a

:10:47.:10:51.

lot of people. Such a famously popular Pope, do you

:10:52.:10:54.

think this adds to his appeal, this showing of the human side, as it

:10:55.:10:59.

were? Yes, for some people the celibate

:11:00.:11:03.

lifestyle appears cold and distant, we have someone and we see someone

:11:04.:11:06.

who had deep relationships with people. But that someone like Pope

:11:07.:11:11.

Francis, I do not think anyone would accuse him of being a cold person.

:11:12.:11:16.

The human ices people and reminds us that celibate friendships, sometimes

:11:17.:11:18.

even intense friendships at times are required.

:11:19.:11:25.

You do not find this unsurprising or unsettling, but it has fascinated

:11:26.:11:31.

the world since it came out today. Yes, people have a total

:11:32.:11:33.

misunderstanding of what it means to be celibate, as if we cut ourselves

:11:34.:11:37.

off from all friendships. Sometimes people who are celibate fall in

:11:38.:11:40.

love, and perhaps the dead, but he was able to do with it and remain

:11:41.:11:44.

fearful to his promise of celibacy and hard are those of marriage.

:11:45.:11:51.

-- perhaps the dead. Thank you for joining us. My

:11:52.:11:52.

pleasure. -- they did.. Meanwhile, the current Pope Francis

:11:53.:12:08.

has asked Mexico's indigenous population for forgiveness over

:12:09.:12:11.

the social exclusion He led an open-air mass in native

:12:12.:12:12.

languages in the country's impoverished Chiapas state,

:12:13.:12:16.

where he called for greater appreciation of indigenous cultures

:12:17.:12:18.

and issued a warning over the human He told the crowd of around 100,000

:12:19.:12:20.

people that the world could learn from them how to interact

:12:21.:12:25.

harmoniously with nature. The service comes in the middle

:12:26.:12:26.

of a five-day trip that he's already used to speak out against

:12:27.:12:30.

crime and corruption. Now a look at some of

:12:31.:12:32.

the day's other news. Poland's government is to introduce

:12:33.:12:34.

a law making it illegal to assert that the country was responsible

:12:35.:12:37.

for Nazi atrocities Some of the most infamous sites

:12:38.:12:39.

of the Holocaust are on Polish soil, but Poland objects to the term

:12:40.:12:43.

"Polish death camps" to describe death camps set up under

:12:44.:12:46.

German occupation. The law would allow the government

:12:47.:12:47.

to take legal action against anyone using the phrase, and anyone

:12:48.:12:50.

breaking the law could be jailed Police have retaken control

:12:51.:12:53.

of a Mexican jail following last week's riot in which 49

:12:54.:12:57.

inmates were killed. Officials say officers had put

:12:58.:12:58.

an end to the self-government imposed by criminal

:12:59.:13:01.

leaders in collusion They've also dismantled

:13:02.:13:02.

what they call luxury cells, containing mini-bars,

:13:03.:13:05.

aquariums and saunas in the prison in the Topo Chico

:13:06.:13:07.

prison in Monterrey. Police in Australia have seized one

:13:08.:13:14.

of their biggest hauls They discovered hundreds of millions

:13:15.:13:16.

of pounds worth of liquid methamphetamine, concealed

:13:17.:13:20.

inside a consignment It was in late April,

:13:21.:13:21.

1999 that two teenagers went on a rampage in Columbine High

:13:22.:13:37.

School, in the US state of Colorado. They killed 13 people that day -

:13:38.:13:43.

shooting classmates and teachers mercilessly - and leaving explosive

:13:44.:13:46.

devices behind them. At the same time, they turned

:13:47.:13:48.

the name of their town into a byword for the phenomenon

:13:49.:13:51.

of school shootings. In the 17 years since,

:13:52.:13:52.

we've heard from survivors and the families of victims,

:13:53.:13:55.

but the killers' parents Now the mother of one,

:13:56.:13:57.

Sue Klebold, has written a book All of her proceeds will be donated

:13:58.:14:03.

to research and charitable foundations focusing

:14:04.:14:06.

on mental health issues. She's been speaking

:14:07.:14:08.

to the BBC's Kirsty Wark. Columbine High School lies 15 miles

:14:09.:14:28.

south of Denver in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. On the 20th of

:14:29.:14:32.

April 1999 its name became infamous around the world. That was when two

:14:33.:14:38.

students can withdraw their cars packed with explosives, guns and

:14:39.:14:43.

grenades into the parking lot of the school and set about destroying the

:14:44.:14:48.

school. This was not a moment of madness, it was a cold-blooded

:14:49.:14:51.

massacre, months and months in the planning.

:14:52.:14:57.

And your suburban high school turned into a killing field.

:14:58.:15:04.

I was crying and telling them not to shoot me. They shot the girl he shot

:15:05.:15:14.

her in the head in front of me. This was clearly the most

:15:15.:15:17.

devastating and formatting scene that I have ever seen. I hope never

:15:18.:15:26.

to see it again. -- dramatic scene. -- traumatic. I do not think that I

:15:27.:15:32.

knew anything until that evening. It was such a day of confusion, we had

:15:33.:15:37.

puppies come to our home, we were asked to leave our home and sit

:15:38.:15:40.

outside. We sat on the ground all day.

:15:41.:15:45.

At that stage, you must have thought it was more likely that your son was

:15:46.:15:48.

involved in the shooting as opposed to being shot?

:15:49.:15:52.

We could hear through the window, the television had been left on and

:15:53.:15:55.

at one point we heard 25 people were dead. At that point I remember

:15:56.:16:03.

thinking that Delyn is really doing this, he must stop and that was when

:16:04.:16:10.

I prayed for him to die. I thought, something must stop this, whatever

:16:11.:16:14.

it is that is going on. It took me a very long time to believe, months to

:16:15.:16:20.

believe that my son was actually responsible for killing and hurting

:16:21.:16:23.

people. Up until that point, I believe I was living in an extreme

:16:24.:16:28.

state of denial. It must have been a very strange

:16:29.:16:36.

thing to commute that between them, he and his friends were going to

:16:37.:16:39.

blow out that school. That was one of the most difficult

:16:40.:16:42.

moments of this entire process because I had to go to so many

:16:43.:16:51.

different phrases of accepting this and acknowledging that they were

:16:52.:16:54.

present and they had heart people and that it was planned, not

:16:55.:16:59.

impulsiveness, and then at the police reports to learn that the

:17:00.:17:03.

plan had to been to tell everyone in the school, but that the plan had

:17:04.:17:06.

failed, when I thought of that and thought of the magnitude, I've

:17:07.:17:12.

really did not think that I would live through it.

:17:13.:17:14.

Did you think there were certain signs that you missed?

:17:15.:17:21.

I think that there were, in particular, the fact that in his

:17:22.:17:25.

junior year, several things happened to him. We had all those issues in a

:17:26.:17:30.

row. He got arrested, he got into trouble at school. He had scratched

:17:31.:17:36.

a locker at school. I did not recognise that those things meant

:17:37.:17:41.

that there was a potential life and death situation. I did not recognise

:17:42.:17:47.

that these where possible signs of a mental condition. That is why I

:17:48.:17:50.

wrote this book because I wanted people to understand that when

:17:51.:17:57.

children act out or shall edit ability or anger, it may not be that

:17:58.:18:01.

they are just being difficult or needs to be lectured, it may mean

:18:02.:18:06.

that the article. Many people will read this book and

:18:07.:18:08.

in different ways because it will mean a lot to different groups, it

:18:09.:18:15.

will mean a lot to the victimsand the survivors, and so on. What would

:18:16.:18:23.

you say to them? What do you say to them now?

:18:24.:18:32.

I have this feeling of wanting to see over and over again, I am sorry,

:18:33.:18:40.

I am sorry, I am sorry. And I know that such a thing is so completely

:18:41.:18:46.

inadequate. I just so sorry for what my son that.

:18:47.:18:54.

That was the mother of one of the Columbine shootings speaking to

:18:55.:18:55.

Kirsty Wark. The heads of four central European

:18:56.:19:04.

nations want stronger border controls to stem the flow

:19:05.:19:06.

of migrants and refugees Hungary, Poland, Slovakia,

:19:07.:19:08.

and the Czech Republic - known as the Visegrad Group -

:19:09.:19:11.

are working out how to deal with the thousands that cross

:19:12.:19:14.

through their countries every day. They have criticised Greece's

:19:15.:19:17.

response and could help Macedonia Our correspondent is present there.

:19:18.:19:22.

What have we been hearing? We had been led to expect there

:19:23.:19:25.

would be a rebellion in Prague today, a major act of defiance

:19:26.:19:29.

against the European Union 's and in particular, Angela Merkel of

:19:30.:19:34.

Germany. That did not happen. All four leaders appeared on the stage

:19:35.:19:37.

behind me and said that the preferred a pan European solution to

:19:38.:19:42.

the European problem and for now, they are not willing to introduce

:19:43.:19:47.

something on their own. Having said that, one of the words you can

:19:48.:19:51.

probably see on the screen behind me is the what trust. That is the

:19:52.:19:56.

slogan of the Czech presidency. It is in short supply in Central Europe

:19:57.:20:00.

at the moment. These countries do not believe that Turkey and Greece

:20:01.:20:04.

are capable of holding back large numbers of refugees and migrants

:20:05.:20:07.

that are making their way northwards into Western Europe and they have

:20:08.:20:12.

said that it is time for a line be if, in fact, those countries feel.

:20:13.:20:16.

If individual countries to take their own measures, I suppose it is

:20:17.:20:20.

looking ever less like unified European response to the migrant

:20:21.:20:24.

crisis. Very much so. That is quite clear

:20:25.:20:29.

that there are differing approaches across Europe and of course the

:20:30.:20:33.

countries of Central Europe have long argued for a much more robust

:20:34.:20:38.

defence of the European Union's suburban flight and in fact, the

:20:39.:20:42.

Slovak Prime Minister said today that if there are huge numbers of

:20:43.:20:46.

people are arriving, once again, they wanted to send hundreds of

:20:47.:20:50.

policemen to essentially close the border between Macedonia and Greece,

:20:51.:20:55.

to stop those flows of migrants and a mouth like that would be very

:20:56.:20:59.

unpopular, I think, in Berlin and Brussels because it would isolate

:21:00.:21:04.

Greece and perhaps even destabilise that country, which is already

:21:05.:21:06.

trying to deal with the flow of migrants.

:21:07.:21:10.

Rob Cameron, thank you very much for that. Rob Cameron in Prague.

:21:11.:21:25.

Staying with planes, and a Virgin Atlantic flight,

:21:26.:21:27.

carrying more than 250 people, had to abort its journey from London

:21:28.:21:30.

to New York, after a laser beam was pointed at the cockpit.

:21:31.:21:33.

A crew member reported a medical issue involving one of the pilots,

:21:34.:21:36.

shortly after take-off from Heathrow.

:21:37.:21:37.

It's the first time an airliner has had to abandon a flight

:21:38.:21:40.

There are flashing images in this report from Sophie Long.

:21:41.:21:43.

at JFK, not Heathrow. should have been resting

:21:44.:21:50.

It took off without incident, but shortly after the crew contacted

:21:51.:21:52.

air-traffic control and told them one of the pilots

:21:53.:21:55.

We have a medical issue with one of the pilots after a laser incident

:21:56.:21:59.

after take-off and we are going to return to Heathrow.

:22:00.:22:01.

The pilot's union said those targeting aircraft may not know how

:22:02.:22:04.

Initially, it is bright flashing and you can get shadows

:22:05.:22:07.

and you are obviously distracted, because you are not expecting it.

:22:08.:22:11.

These laser attacks are the same as being attacked with

:22:12.:22:13.

The distraction these can cause at the critical phase of flight,

:22:14.:22:19.

take-off and landing, could potentially lead

:22:20.:22:22.

Virgin Atlantic said the flight was brought back to Heathrow

:22:23.:22:29.

as a precaution, and the safety of the 252 passengers and crew

:22:30.:22:33.

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of such incidents.

:22:34.:22:39.

In 2006, eight laser attacks were reported to the Civil

:22:40.:22:43.

Balpa say that 50% of the 870 pilot surveyed last year said they had

:22:44.:22:56.

One reason for the surge is the greater availability

:22:57.:23:00.

Internally if these are used they become far too bright,

:23:01.:23:07.

the eyes are upset and people will look away.

:23:08.:23:10.

So there really is not an application internally for these.

:23:11.:23:18.

Outside, again, other than to try to deliberately blind

:23:19.:23:21.

someone if you are targeting people, there is no real application.

:23:22.:23:26.

It is an offence to shine a light at an aircraft

:23:27.:23:29.

Balpa are calling for it to be made more serious.

:23:30.:23:38.

plane is the same as possessing an offensive weapon and they want

:23:39.:23:41.

Sophie Long, BBC News, Heathrow.

:23:42.:23:50.

Tonight, the greats from the music world will gather in Los Angeles

:23:51.:23:52.

for the Grammy Awards, and right now, we have our own musical treat.

:23:53.:23:56.

Four-handed piano started as a way to take orchestral music

:23:57.:23:58.

into smaller venues, but it has turned into an art form.

:23:59.:24:01.

Twin sisters Hourshid and Mehrshid started playing together in Iran

:24:02.:24:03.

and currently are in Canada, where the BBC's Sam Farzaneh

:24:04.:24:05.

And I was playing a ballad with my sister.

:24:06.:24:32.

We started playing piano when we were eight years old,

:24:33.:24:34.

We started to play the classical music repertoire.

:24:35.:24:47.

Our grandfather played the tar, which is one of the main Iranian

:24:48.:24:49.

Our father also, he played the tar and at that time when we were young

:24:50.:24:55.

kids, we always listened to him playing and practising.

:24:56.:24:58.

On the other side, our mother listened to a lot of opera,

:24:59.:25:00.

we watched ballet, and we went also to concerts.

:25:01.:25:07.

Some people, they ask us if it is easier to play together

:25:08.:25:10.

in terms of communication and in terms of actually

:25:11.:25:12.

It is not perhaps a matter of being easier, sometimes we just

:25:13.:25:19.

have some special ways of looking or slight motions of the elbow

:25:20.:25:22.

If we don't have this fusion, then there will always be two

:25:23.:25:29.

persons playing, whereas the whole idea should be as if it is one

:25:30.:25:32.

person with two left hands and two right hands.

:25:33.:25:45.

You can get in touch with me and some of the team via Twitter -

:25:46.:25:49.

But for now, from all the team here, goodbye.

:25:50.:26:06.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS