29/02/2016 World News Today


29/02/2016

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 29/02/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

This is BBC World News Today with me Karin Giannone.

:00:00.:00:08.

The headlines: Europe's migrant crisis turns violent as security

:00:09.:00:10.

Now on the Greek-Macedonian border, police fire tear gas on a group

:00:11.:00:16.

of migrants, including children, as they try to break

:00:17.:00:18.

They don't open the borders, Macedonia, they don't open

:00:19.:00:27.

the borders and the people are coming more and more.

:00:28.:00:31.

Clashes in Calais as French demolition teams move

:00:32.:00:33.

in to dismantle parts of the migrant camp known as the Jungle.

:00:34.:00:37.

Also coming up: Day three of a fragile truce in Syria

:00:38.:00:39.

and the UN begins a major aid operation to get into towns

:00:40.:00:42.

Leonardo DiCaprio! CHEERING

:00:43.:00:59.

. 20 years after his first nomination,

:01:00.:01:00.

Leonardo DiCaprio finally We start with violent clashes

:01:01.:01:02.

at opposite ends of the European continent, as it wrestles

:01:03.:01:16.

with the mass influx of migrants. Macedonian police fired tear gas

:01:17.:01:18.

as a crowd tried to crash through a barbed wire fence

:01:19.:01:24.

on the border with Greece. Tear gas has also been used by riot

:01:25.:01:26.

police in the French port of Calais, as rock-throwing protesters tried

:01:27.:01:30.

to disrupt the demolition of part We'll hear from our correspondent

:01:31.:01:33.

in Calais shortly. But first, let's turn

:01:34.:01:38.

to the Greek town of Idomeni, on the border with Macedonia,

:01:39.:01:44.

where about 7,000 people have been stuck for days

:01:45.:01:46.

in squalid conditions. This is how it looks on Greece's

:01:47.:01:48.

border with Macedonia. After a night out in the open,

:01:49.:01:52.

children join a long line with their parents,

:01:53.:01:57.

waiting for food. At the end of the line they get

:01:58.:02:00.

a bag of bread to last the day. Babies bottles are held up,

:02:01.:02:04.

hoping to be filled. Macedonia only allows a handful

:02:05.:02:07.

to cross the border every day, so the numbers keep

:02:08.:02:14.

building. You have to wait for a long

:02:15.:02:18.

time for food, toilets, Hundreds of them have decided

:02:19.:02:21.

to force open the gate. This is the result of

:02:22.:02:33.

the tension that has been As they push at the border,

:02:34.:02:35.

the crush begins This is how it looked

:02:36.:02:43.

on the Macedonian side Suddenly, the border is breached,

:02:44.:02:49.

triggering panic among the police. A guard fires tear gas

:02:50.:02:57.

directly at the migrants. On the other side of the fence,

:02:58.:03:01.

the man in the blue jacket is hit Cue panic, as tear gas

:03:02.:03:04.

explodes all around them. Men, women, and children,

:03:05.:03:13.

run for safety. A boy staggers from the crush,

:03:14.:03:21.

retching from the gas. Others are too dazed to stand,

:03:22.:03:23.

their eyes and lungs burning. Today, on a European border,

:03:24.:03:31.

children were tear-gassed. It is quite a while since the tear

:03:32.:03:35.

gas was fired but you can still smell it and taste

:03:36.:03:39.

it in the air as well. As this stand-off continues,

:03:40.:03:43.

with several hundred people still here

:03:44.:03:45.

at the border gate. The violence will continue as well

:03:46.:03:47.

if the numbers here keep growing and people keep

:03:48.:03:51.

getting frustrated. Those who have worked

:03:52.:03:54.

here for months say it has never They are worried the border

:03:55.:03:57.

will not open at all. They saw how quickly restrictions

:03:58.:04:04.

were implemented for the Afghanis. There is a real sense among Syrians

:04:05.:04:07.

and Iraqis that at any time it Late this afternoon,

:04:08.:04:10.

where tear-gassed wafted earlier, There is growing desperation

:04:11.:04:13.

on this European frontier. Now to clashes in the French port

:04:14.:04:28.

of Calais where demolition teams are trying to clear parts

:04:29.:04:30.

of the migrant camp known The authorities want to move people

:04:31.:04:35.

to converted shipping containers They came in at breakfast time,

:04:36.:04:44.

a soft invasion of the state One by one, migrants still clinging

:04:45.:04:55.

to this southern part of the camp were told they had an hour

:04:56.:04:59.

to pack their things and leave. Some heeded the warning,

:05:00.:05:02.

heading north into the Jungle's The police just gave

:05:03.:05:04.

a fire, we are out. A fire at one of the empty shelters

:05:05.:05:11.

sent riot police against those Among them, activists,

:05:12.:05:14.

who have been urging residents What was meant to be a gentle

:05:15.:05:20.

eviction through encouragement and information became a blunt

:05:21.:05:26.

exchange of tear gas and rocks Just a few hours in,

:05:27.:05:28.

and already the plan for eviction The question here is

:05:29.:05:33.

who the police are fighting - the migrants themselves

:05:34.:05:41.

or the activists who say By dusk, the battle was underway

:05:42.:05:43.

again, a second fire in the place The water cannon was brought in this

:05:44.:05:50.

time, not for the fire, but for the arsonists and anyone

:05:51.:05:58.

else still standing nearby. TRANSLATION: The north border

:05:59.:06:03.

activists set fire to the tents That is not acceptable

:06:04.:06:05.

and it is normal that we have 18 months ago, migrants were moved

:06:06.:06:10.

here from their old makeshift Now the ring around this one

:06:11.:06:18.

is being pulled tighter as pressure But many people here have spent

:06:19.:06:23.

years moving from place to place in a bid to reach England

:06:24.:06:29.

and that will not change, they say, just because "one more

:06:30.:06:32.

time we have to go". Leonard Doyle's Head

:06:33.:06:34.

of Communications at the International

:06:35.:06:58.

Organisation for Migration. He told me what he made

:06:59.:06:59.

of today scenes. These images show children being hit

:07:00.:07:13.

with tear gas. It is very disturbing. Plans have been made to

:07:14.:07:16.

try and ensure that the refugees and the migrants are looked after, but

:07:17.:07:21.

unfortunately, political disunity is at the heart of the problems. There

:07:22.:07:26.

is a huge pressure on governments, but there is a lack of stability in

:07:27.:07:29.

dealing with the pressure. Part of that problem is countries

:07:30.:07:34.

putting up their own border controls. We have heard of Anglo

:07:35.:07:39.

America will speak idea of the European solution, is that dead in

:07:40.:07:44.

the water, is there any hope at all? The Germans have shown great courage

:07:45.:07:49.

in the face of a lacklustre support from other member states, but it is

:07:50.:07:54.

very difficult because the burden is being cheered disproportionately. We

:07:55.:07:57.

have seen that even when there is not great work is in the case of

:07:58.:08:03.

Calais, we are talking about 20,000 people, the reactions have been

:08:04.:08:06.

disproportionate. Whereas the Germans have taken over one million

:08:07.:08:10.

and the Swedes have taken very large numbers as well. But what is needed

:08:11.:08:15.

is some Hard Talk between either be member states and resolve this

:08:16.:08:20.

problem before their own reputation as further damaged. There are

:08:21.:08:26.

obligations under various new entreaties, humanitarian obligations

:08:27.:08:29.

to look after, let us not forget, refugees and asylum seekers. They

:08:30.:08:35.

might be migrants but in the large they are coming from refugee

:08:36.:08:39.

producing countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. There

:08:40.:08:42.

is an obligation to support them, not to hit them with water cannons.

:08:43.:08:46.

This does not reflect well upon the European Union and will cause

:08:47.:08:51.

problems for the EU as it tries to project a broader aspect and asked

:08:52.:08:55.

other countries to behave any certain way. People can say to them,

:08:56.:08:59.

but at how you behave. Everybody at the British government,

:09:00.:09:02.

they would say that they would rather take people from the source

:09:03.:09:07.

of the problem, from the Middle East's refugees camps rather than

:09:08.:09:10.

accept people who have made a perilous journey through Europe and

:09:11.:09:14.

potentially encourage others to do the same?

:09:15.:09:18.

That is very high-minded and a noble approach, and it should be welcomed,

:09:19.:09:22.

unfortunately however, the numbers taking have been very small indeed.

:09:23.:09:27.

We have over 1 million people that have fled for the most part

:09:28.:09:31.

persecution, although there will be people gaining in the system and

:09:32.:09:36.

they have to be filtered out. But the numbers are very high and to

:09:37.:09:39.

simply say that we will only take people from the refugee camps

:09:40.:09:42.

because otherwise that would involve some moral hazard in taking those

:09:43.:09:46.

people who have made a life-threatening journey, it is

:09:47.:09:50.

probably a touch unfair on those who have made that choice, because they

:09:51.:09:52.

have had to do that because they have been attacked by Islamic State

:09:53.:09:54.

or any other persecution. A woman has been arrested in Moscow,

:09:55.:10:10.

near a metro station, She's thought to come

:10:11.:10:14.

from Central Asia and She's suspected of killing the child

:10:15.:10:17.

and setting fire to its parents' The headless body of a four-year-old

:10:18.:10:21.

child has been found there. Lech Walesa - who played a leading

:10:22.:10:30.

role in overthrowing communism in Poland - has denied

:10:31.:10:33.

being an informant for the Communist The former Polish president

:10:34.:10:36.

and leader of the Solidarity Union said the files on which

:10:37.:10:39.

the allegations were based were forgeries designed

:10:40.:10:41.

to destroy his reputation. Malaysia's former Prime Minister,

:10:42.:10:43.

Dr Mahatir Mohamad, has resigned from the ruling Umno Party,

:10:44.:10:45.

in protest against what he says Dr Mahatir said he could not be

:10:46.:10:48.

associated with a party that backed the actions of the current

:10:49.:10:52.

Prime Minister Najib Razak who's been embroiled

:10:53.:10:54.

in a financial scandal. In January, Mr Najib

:10:55.:10:56.

was cleared of corruption. In the United States the clock

:10:57.:10:58.

is ticking down for a flood of primaries crammed

:10:59.:11:01.

into a single day. Super Tuesday can be a day

:11:02.:11:02.

of reckoning for Democrats and Republicans hoping

:11:03.:11:05.

to become President. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump

:11:06.:11:07.

leads the Republican race. One of his policies is to build

:11:08.:11:10.

a wall along the US-Mexico border, We will have an older is nice and

:11:11.:11:28.

strong. We will build a wall. I am going to build a wall and Mexico

:11:29.:11:29.

will pay for it, OK? TRANSLATION: The Mexican president

:11:30.:11:45.

said they would not pay for the wall, I said that the Walter Scott

:11:46.:11:52.

ten foot higher. -- I said the wall just got ten foot

:11:53.:12:00.

higher. We have a tremendous deficit, we

:12:01.:12:03.

have a trade deficit with me to pay for the wall. They will be happy

:12:04.:12:09.

with that, believe me, I will talk to them.

:12:10.:12:21.

This is going to be a wall, this is not one of those deals where the

:12:22.:12:28.

bike rider and jump over it. This is a Donald Trump what! -- bye

:12:29.:12:47.

ladder-- buy a ladder. We need a wall, drugs are coming

:12:48.:13:02.

across. They will be thrilled to pay for the wall.

:13:03.:13:04.

Of course it's not just the Republican candidates battling

:13:05.:13:06.

Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will also compete across some 11

:13:07.:13:10.

states for the Democratic nomination.

:13:11.:13:11.

And you can watch full coverage here on BBC World News and online

:13:12.:13:14.

This year's Oscars ceremony was as glittering as ever

:13:15.:13:23.

but unlike any in living memory it was dominated by protests over

:13:24.:13:26.

the lack of black and ethnic nominees.

:13:27.:13:28.

The comedian Chris Rock - who was hosting the event -

:13:29.:13:30.

As for the awards, Leonardo DiCaprio was finally named

:13:31.:13:34.

Best Actor, while Spotlight was voted Best Film.

:13:35.:13:36.

Lizo Mzimba reports from Los Angeles.

:13:37.:13:41.

Serious issues being talked about as much

:13:42.:13:47.

Well, I'm here at the Academy Awards.

:13:48.:13:50.

Otherwise known as the White People's Choice Awards!

:13:51.:13:56.

You realise if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job!

:13:57.:14:03.

A barbed attack from host Chris Rock was inevitable,

:14:04.:14:06.

as was the winner of Best Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio.

:14:07.:14:08.

I thank you all for this amazing award tonight.

:14:09.:14:15.

The film's director, Alejandro Inarritu, also won

:14:16.:14:24.

and continued the theme of substantial subjects

:14:25.:14:26.

Make sure, for once and forever, that the colour of our skin becomes

:14:27.:14:31.

as irrelevant as the length of our hair.

:14:32.:14:37.

To the surprise of a few, Best Film was won by...

:14:38.:14:40.

The Academy honouring the story of the Boston Globe's uncovering

:14:41.:14:44.

Brie Larson was named Best Actress for her performance

:14:45.:14:50.

in the heavyweight abduction drama Room.

:14:51.:14:52.

Thank you to the fans, thank you to the moviegoers,

:14:53.:14:54.

thank you for going to the theatre and seeing our film.

:14:55.:14:57.

British successes included Mark Rylance.

:14:58.:15:03.

The actor, who made his name on the stage, has now added

:15:04.:15:08.

a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Bridge of Spies to his Olivier

:15:09.:15:11.

As an actor, to win an Academy Award is something very unusual,

:15:12.:15:20.

And multiple Brit and Grammy award winner Sam Smith now has

:15:21.:15:31.

a Best Song Oscar too for his Bond theme, Writing's on the Wall.

:15:32.:15:34.

I stand here tonight as a proud gay man and I hope we can all stand

:15:35.:15:38.

While Lady Gaga spoke out musically against sexual abuse,

:15:39.:16:03.

at an Oscars where so many took the opportunity to make a statement

:16:04.:16:06.

to a global audience in the tens of millions.

:16:07.:16:08.

The fragile truce in Syria - brokered by the US and Russia -

:16:09.:16:11.

is in its third day and despite accusations

:16:12.:16:13.

of violations, appears to be holding.

:16:14.:16:14.

The United Nations is now taking advantage of the cessation

:16:15.:16:17.

of hostilities to help starving people by sending food,

:16:18.:16:19.

water and medicine to several besieged towns.

:16:20.:16:21.

It's hoped aid will reach around 150,000 Syrians over

:16:22.:16:23.

Amid the destruction of Syria's long civil war,

:16:24.:16:27.

there is now something new and different in some

:16:28.:16:30.

And that is a sense of calm and even just a little normality.

:16:31.:16:39.

Just last week, before the truce came into effect,

:16:40.:16:43.

the people in the besieged city of Douma were under heavy bombardment.

:16:44.:16:47.

But now with the truce in place in many parts of Syria,

:16:48.:16:50.

the UN is hoping to deliver emergency supplies of food

:16:51.:16:53.

and medicine to 1.7 billion people by the end of March.

:16:54.:16:59.

And it has a clear plan starting from today to reach some

:17:00.:17:02.

of the worst affected areas this week, where people have been under

:17:03.:17:05.

We have to test the limits of this ceasefire over the coming days

:17:06.:17:14.

and weeks to see how far we can go as a humanitarian community.

:17:15.:17:17.

There are about 18 cities besieged in Syria.

:17:18.:17:19.

And around half a million people living there.

:17:20.:17:21.

So we have to get food rapidly into those people.

:17:22.:17:30.

So difficult has it been until now to get aid to the besieged areas,

:17:31.:17:33.

the UN resorted to a high altitude airdrop of food supplies that went

:17:34.:17:36.

But if the truce does hold, and it is a big if, the aim will be

:17:37.:17:41.

to get convoys of trucks like these to deliver supplies to those

:17:42.:17:44.

Many people are known to have starved to death already

:17:45.:17:54.

There is no doubt that fighting does continue in some parts of Syria,

:17:55.:18:02.

But there are now allegations that the Russian planes have

:18:03.:18:09.

targeted moderate opposition forces which would be in breach

:18:10.:18:11.

There is to be an urgent meeting about this later today.

:18:12.:18:16.

And for now, the UN remains hopeful the truce, which has brought some

:18:17.:18:19.

respite to the people of Syria since Saturday, will hold.

:18:20.:18:23.

And that means those who have been under siege for so long will finally

:18:24.:18:27.

One of the most powerful figures in the Vatican,

:18:28.:18:37.

Cardinal George Pell, is to give a second day of testimony

:18:38.:18:40.

to an Australian commission on child abuse.

:18:41.:18:44.

The cardinal, who is too frail to travel to Australia,

:18:45.:18:47.

is testifying via video link from Rome, from where

:18:48.:18:49.

These are the last few steps of a 10,000 mile journey. The survivors

:18:50.:19:01.

of child abuse in Australia raised money to come to this hotel in Rome

:19:02.:19:05.

to watch the cardinal testify in person.

:19:06.:19:12.

For more than three hours, the Cardinals gave evidence to the

:19:13.:19:17.

commission via video link. The church has made enormous

:19:18.:19:27.

mistakes and it is working to remedy those. The church in many places,

:19:28.:19:33.

certainly in Australia, has made a mess of things and let people down.

:19:34.:19:36.

I am not here to defend the indefensible.

:19:37.:19:40.

The cardinal told the commission that he had heard rumours of sexual

:19:41.:19:45.

abuse by fellow Australian priests in the 1970s but had no direct

:19:46.:19:50.

knowledge of their crimes. Victims and survivors will come back here to

:19:51.:19:56.

listen to at least two more nights of Cardinal George Pell's testimony.

:19:57.:20:01.

Victims of abuse in other countries will listen as well. The Catholic

:20:02.:20:06.

Church to take greater action. Peter Saunders from the duty was himself

:20:07.:20:12.

abused as a teenager. In 2014, Pope Francis made him a member of a

:20:13.:20:16.

Vatican commission designed to protect children from abuse. But

:20:17.:20:20.

earlier this month the commission suspended him from speaking out.

:20:21.:20:27.

The Vatican could take action now to protect children now. There are a

:20:28.:20:30.

lot of things going around in the world that the Pope could actually

:20:31.:20:35.

do something about in terms of children who are being raped and

:20:36.:20:39.

abused and I do not see any evidence that that is happening.

:20:40.:20:44.

Pope Francis seen here meeting children one week ago has made the

:20:45.:20:49.

protection of minors a priority. His BBC might be judged on whether or

:20:50.:20:53.

not he's a false this promise. James Reynolds, BBC News, Rome.

:20:54.:20:58.

Now, as I'm sure you've noticed, it's the twenty-ninth of February.

:20:59.:21:01.

Most of the time, a year is made up of 365 days.

:21:02.:21:04.

But this year, just like 2012, and four years before

:21:05.:21:06.

And that vital extra day, a leap day, is what keeps our calendars

:21:07.:21:15.

Well, I am joined by Carole Mundell, Professor of Extragalactic Astronomy

:21:16.:21:21.

and Head of Astrophysics at the University of Bath,

:21:22.:21:23.

Thank you for joining us. Perhaps an issue closer to home than you are

:21:24.:21:30.

used to dealing with. Tell us the science behind it, why?

:21:31.:21:37.

They are almost takes 305 and a quarter days to make one full

:21:38.:21:40.

circuit around the sun and that circuit is what we call easier. Of

:21:41.:21:46.

course, the extra almost quarter of a day is a little tricky to handle

:21:47.:21:50.

in the calendar so each year we have a calendar that is the older than 65

:21:51.:21:54.

days long, but we have to account for that extra piece and we do that

:21:55.:22:02.

by adding an extra week here every four years. If we did not do that,

:22:03.:22:06.

then our seasons would slip by about 300 days every century and that

:22:07.:22:09.

would be noticeable. -- 300 as if they fight. This was

:22:10.:22:13.

what was noticeable about the time of Julius Caesar, the state started

:22:14.:22:19.

to move around? That is correct, that was the Roman

:22:20.:22:24.

calendar any time of Julius Caesar. It was decreed then that the BP

:22:25.:22:29.

should be added. That extra quarter is an exact number, it is 11 minute

:22:30.:22:34.

short of that, in the middle ages, Pope Gregory realise that actually

:22:35.:22:39.

we had been over estimating the length of the day by adding those

:22:40.:22:42.

repairs every four years. A correction had to be made. We now

:22:43.:22:48.

make that correction every century, so that ABP falls on a century year,

:22:49.:22:54.

we do not add the victory that they unless the year is the visible by

:22:55.:22:58.

four. So the last time we did that was

:22:59.:23:02.

when? The year 2000, it was a special one,

:23:03.:23:07.

in 1900 we would have added ABP. The Gregorian calendar is what lasts

:23:08.:23:12.

to this very day. That is an imprecise science as you have

:23:13.:23:15.

mentioned, how much longer can we continue with the current system?

:23:16.:23:18.

The Gregorian calendar is pretty good. Every year that we have to

:23:19.:23:25.

divide by 400, we have to correct, so correcting for those 11 minutes,

:23:26.:23:30.

it really is a good job for us, I think that the extra correction was

:23:31.:23:34.

not really noticed until the millennium and a half after Caesar.

:23:35.:23:38.

I think we are in good shape for a while.

:23:39.:23:39.

Do you do that same interview every four years?

:23:40.:23:44.

I have not done it before, but we will see in four years' time, we

:23:45.:23:49.

will know then. Thank you very much for joining us.

:23:50.:24:20.

Olle Ahnstrom, who's 96, has taken to the track once again

:24:21.:24:22.

at the national championship in Sweden.

:24:23.:24:24.

He started back in the 1940s, describing himself as a lover

:24:25.:24:26.

He competed when he was 47. This time he said he would go more

:24:27.:24:34.

slowly. Not that 100 mph! He built his first bike in his own repair

:24:35.:24:38.

shop and has never looked back. Even bringing his wife along as the

:24:39.:24:42.

mechanic. He said it is all about speed.

:24:43.:24:48.

TRANSLATION: I started in about 1947 on bikes I had booked myself.

:24:49.:24:52.

I have always been interested. I have driven on grass tracks and Hill

:24:53.:24:57.

tracts and nice. I think that Israel is the most fun.

:24:58.:25:01.

The sport uses steel wheels with reader -- razor sharp spikes. He

:25:02.:25:06.

described the ride is very enjoyable. He says he has no plans

:25:07.:25:11.

to quit the sport and hopes to still be driving when he reaches 100.

:25:12.:25:18.

In a Slovenian cave visited by a million tourists every year,

:25:19.:25:20.

a bizarre and rare amphibian is guarding a significant clutch

:25:21.:25:26.

of eggs that could become baby dragons.

:25:27.:25:28.

It's called an olm, it's a blind salamander found in cave rivers

:25:29.:25:31.

in the Balkans, and it's thought to live for more than a hundred

:25:32.:25:34.

years but reproduces just once or twice a decade.

:25:35.:25:40.

A female in an aquarium has laid 50-60 eggs -

:25:41.:25:44.

and three of them are now showing signs of growth.

:25:45.:25:52.

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

:25:53.:26:05.

But for now, from me Karin and the rest of the team, goodbye.

:26:06.:26:07.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS