12/04/2016 World News Today

The IMF warns that the world is increasingly exposed

The Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, accuses her

Vice President of being one of the leaders of a plot

Reaching for the stars - why Stephen Hawking is backing

a journey to another solar system - 25 TRILLION miles away.

If we are to survive as a species, we must ultimately spread to the

stars. Too slow for too long -

that's the International Monetary Fund's assessment of the global

economy for 2016. For the second time this year it has

downgraded its forecast for growth, raising fears of another

global recession. This time, the IMF has

forecast growth of 3.2% - Crashing oil prices have

badly affected Nigeria, The IMF says the economies of Brazil

and Russia will shrink this year. Elsewhere, China's growth

figures have actually been revised up slightly -

to 6.5 per cent - but there is still long-term concern about

whether its economy can diversify. Maurice Obstfeld, the IMF's chief

economist, told the BBC how different the picture looks

around the world. It's an incredibly diverse picture

if you look at it. Some are doing really well, India is growing over

7% and benefiting from these low commodity prices that are precisely

the cause of the very slow growth, if not crises, in other economies.

Survey we see a lot of diversity. The headwinds in the commodity

exporters are severe, longer term they have to find new growth models

with Maud diverse export bases and that won't happen overnight.

Financial markets of course react to that. So hopefully be is the report?

Over the last couple of years there has been a gradual change in the

town from the IMF, increasing concern that the recovery after the

financial crisis, which was back in 2008, it is never really got a head

of steam going. Increasingly they are concerned that there is this

vulnerability to shocks, that an economy that is growing strongly

might be able to take it in its stride but there is a real concern

that unexpected or even expected adverse effects, if we look at the

geopolitical issues around the world, could lead to the world

economy stalling and going into what they call a period of protracted

stagnation. Eurozone first of all, what in particular didn't have to

say about Greece? On Greece, it does expect the economy to contract a

can, it's one of the small number of countries which is actually looking

at contraction this year. Having said that, Greece in particular

wasn't quite as bad as when the IMF last forecast, and I have heard

people suggest that what the IMF are trying to do with Greece is painted

downbeat picture to encourage the likes of Germany to cooperate more.

Within the Eurozone still, what does it have to say about the issue of

the British exit with a referendum on the possible British exit? The

IMF does have a concern that it could lead to what is called severe

regional and global economic damage, disrupting established patterns of

trade, worries it might affect confidence and investment in

Britain, and trading with the UK. It has to be said this is very much a

judgment of the IMF's on economists, one of the campaign groups seeking

to persuade the British to leave the EU has said the IMF has talked down

the British economy before and has been proved wrong. And some for up

and coming stars, particularly Brazil and Russia, singled out?

Puzzle is looking at the contraction this year of frequent 8%, same as

last day, that is a dismal picture? Brazil is looking. There is also

commodity prices, result is a big exporter of Soria beans, that has

been a factor, as has been the slowdown in China, which is a big

trading partner for Brazil. As for Russia, it is also to do with the

international sanctions that have been put in place as a result of the

crisis in Ukraine. Russia is probably also going to contract this

year but not as sharply as Brazil. Any good news in this report? I

suppose that there is still growth, just not as we would like to see it.

Brazil's president Dilma Rouseff, who is facing impeachment,

has accused her second in command of conspiring to overthrow her.

Brazil's Vice President, Michel Temer, accidentally released

an audio message of himself rehearsing a speech in which he

speaks as if the impeachment has already happened.

TRANSLATION: As below house of Congress decides with the

significant number of votes to open impeachment proceedings, many people

sought me out so I would give at least some preliminary remarks to

the Brazilian nation, which I'm doing with modesty, caution and

moderation but also as a vice president, and natural substitute of

the president. Let's go over to our correspondent in Rio where a hugely

angry Dilma Rousseff was. It's not the first time she has alleged what

is happening against her is a coup against a democratically elected

government, but as the week progresses, as that big boat before

the full house of Congress at the end of the week comes close, the

division lines are becoming clearer between was going to support Dilma

Rousseff and who is against her. Michel Temer still is vice president

in our government but his party has withdrawn from government, so from

being a close ally of the president, she has now accused him of being one

of the main plotters, of being part of this can attempt against the

government. -- coup attempt. For her, proof of the pudding was

yesterday in which this audio tape was released, in which Michel Temer

appears presidential himself, reluctantly taking on the Brazilian

presidency as Dilma Rousseff is temporarily suspended. That

impeachment vote hasn't actually happened yet so this was either a

silly mistake by Michel Temer or as Dilma Rousseff would see it, part of

a plot to weaken her position, as we await this crucial vote. Where are

we with this proceeding against Dilma Rousseff and how likely is it

thought that she will face impeachment proceedings? Momentum

certainly against the president. A congressional committee yesterday

voted by a simple majority to advance the impeachment proceedings

further. That goes to the full house of Congress at the weekend. The

problem for the opposition is they need a two thirds majority to force

this removal of Dilma Rousseff from office for the impeachment trial

takes place. Getting that majority won't be easy. It will have to be

very close. That is what the release of this tape by Michel Temer, the

position of the medium-sized and small parties in Congress, will be

crucial. One thing that Dilma Rousseff says is that many of those

who are against her are accused of far more serious crimes that she is.

She is being impeached over a relatively minor fiscal

misdemeanour, yet many of the people in Congress who are sitting in

judgment on her are accused of much more serious crimes. We just heard

from the IMF, Brazil in particular mentioned with a rather negative

outlook, particularly in light of the political instability we are

seeing. That is a huge problem, the country is in recession, we have 10%

inflation here, all of this after a decade of Stella economic growth.

The big problem right now is while everybody's attention is focused on

the corruption crisis and political crisis, nobody is focusing on the

economy. One of those problems you pointed out, are still there. -- all

of those problems. This impeachment process could last until the end of

the year. So the economic crisis isn't going to get better any time

soon, all of those issues like commodity prices, the falling price

of oil, are real factors here but nobody is talking about that right

now. Prince Harry and the David Cameron

have joined the families of British victims of last year's terror

attacks in Tunisia for a memorial service

at Westminster Abbey. Candles, representing the life

of each of those killed in the attacks on a tourist beach

in Sousse and a museum in Tunis, A Lebanese court has charged

an Australian mother and four Australian television journalists

with abducting the woman's two The incident was caught

on these CCTV pictures. The team was following the story

of the woman, Sally Faulkner, who was trying to get back her

children from her ex-husband, Belgian authorities have charged

a further two men with terrorist offences, over last month's

attacks on Brussels airport The men - identified only

as "Smail F" and "Ibrahim F" - are suspected of helping to rent

an apartment, that served as a safe 32 people were killed

in the attacks. David Gest, the American music

producer, who became a reality television star in Britain, has been

found dead in a London hotel. Gest was briefly married

to the actress and singer A childhood friend of

Michael Jackson, in 2001 Gest produced a highly successful show

featuring the star. Imagine a journey far

beyond our solar system. Scientists have already sent

satellites billions of miles into deep space, but now there's

a new project that could see spacecraft the size of a thumbnail

travelling to another star The interstellar mission

has the backing of Professor Stephen Hawking,

as our science correspondent For thousands of years,

people have dreamt of one day The world's most famous scientist,

Stephen Hawking, thinks that that Astronomers believe there

is a reasonable chance of an earth-like planet orbiting one

of the stars in the Alpha Centauri system, but we'll know more

in the next two decades Technological developments

in the last two decades and in the future make it,

in principle, possible Already a probe has been

sent to Pluto. That is seven-and-a-half

billion miles away. And Voyager I has reached the edge

of our solar system. The plan is to send a spacecraft

to a star in another solar system. That's a staggering 25

trillion miles away. Using current technology,

it would take a spacecraft 30,000 years to get to to our closest star,

but by making them smaller, Over the years, the size of

spacecraft have shrunk dramatically. In the 1980s this microsatellite

was used for earth observation. In the 1990s, this nano-satellite

was launched for communications. The ultimate aim of the new research

programme is to make them even smaller, to cram all the cameras

and instruments you have in these The idea is to launch

these mini-spacecraft A giant laser on earth would give

each one a powerful push, sending it on its way, reaching

a speed of 100 miles per second. Life on earth faces dangers

from astronomical events likes astroids and supernovas,

another danger from ourselves. If we are to survive

as a species, we must ultimately Here in Surrey where they pioneered

the development of minisatellites 30 years ago, scientists believe it

will be possible. What we did back in the 1980s

was considered very wacky, and now small satellites

are all the fashion. This is currently a wacky-sounding

idea, but technologies have moved There is still a lot of work needed

to develop the technology, but scientists believe that

although it will be difficult, What was once a distant dream

could very soon become reality. Dr Matteo Ceriotti is a Lecturer

in space systems engineering I suppose the question many will be

wondering about is, is it really possible? What do you say? Well,

it's very, very ambitious, definitely, but this doesn't mean we

shouldn't sit a timeline and set up a framework to work towards, to

achieve this goal within the next hundred years. 100 years, you think

is the realistic timescale? Yes, this is what they are proposing, and

the budget is estimated in about $100 million, it's quite a big

budget, white bread, in the relatively near future. Just talk us

through what we saw in the report about the technology you would use

to get something to travel in say, 30 years, rather than 30,000 years

that it would take at present. It would need a radically different

propulsion system. At the moment spacecraft travelling using rockets,

we need to propulsion mass, we could reach relatively low speeds, so 17

kilometres per second, we need a disruptive technology and this is

what they are suggesting, using laser pumped solar seeds, miniature

right spacecraft that deploy a reflective surface, which would be

fired upon from a massive later on earth and by reflecting the laser

would receive a force that would eventually boost the spacecraft to

speeds that have never been reached before by anything built by human

beings. We are talking about something really tiny, possibly as

small as a thumbnail, but what can that do when it eventually arrives

at its destination? Definitely miniaturisation of electronics is

one of the challenges but this is what is needed, we need the

spacecraft mass extra low if we wanted to accelerate to such speeds,

so electronics and the need as well as the engineering of lightweight

materials. And what is behind this project, is it to find

extraterrestrials are? That is definitely one of the aims, another

one is to look outside of the solar system, we have never done that, we

want to see the solar system from the outside. So you think this is

going to happen? This is definitely something we are going to see from

the realms of space fiction to reality? I definitely hope it's good

to happen and we should definitely pursue the project, yes. Thank you

very much. German prosecutors say an unnamed

rail dispatcher was using his mobile phone to play games,

shortly before two trains 11 people were killed

in the crash in February. Prosecutors say the dispatcher has

been arrested on suspicion In a statement, prosecutors said

the man was likely to have been distracted from his work,

leading him to give He then made a mistake sending

an emergency message, which The statement said that the man

admitted playing games on his phone, Art experts in front say they

believe a painting found in an attic two years ago is an authentic

Caravaggio. It could be worth over $130 million. The canvas is thought

to have been lying in the property in Toulouse for 150 years before its

discovery. The art specialist to retrieve the painting says it bears

all the hallmarks of the Italian Renaissance master. The owners of

this painting not know of the existence of the picture, they did

not know that they had this picture, because they found it in part of an

attic which they had never been. There was a leak in the roof so the

reach the roof, they had to go through the attic and to break the

door they had never opened at the end of the attic. Behind the door

was the picture. The England cricketer James Taylor

has been forced to retire due The 26-year-old has been

diagnosed with ARVC - which means one side of his heart

fails to pump blood around He posted this picture

from his hospital bed -he's due to have a heart

operation within days. He went on to say the diagnosis had

turned his world upside down. The former premier league

player Fabrice Muamba has His heart stopped beating

for 78 minutes during a match four years ago -

he came close to death but later Thank you for coming in. A very sad

thing for the career of one sport person but perhaps having this

diagnosed has averted a worse tragedy? It is a real shame for the

cricketer, but the positive is that a condition has been identified. We

know this particular condition is genetic with a propensity to be

inherited. Today is characterised by fibrous and fatty replacement of the

heart muscle which renders it more susceptible -- ARVC. That is

worsened by factors such as exercise,... So it could strike at

any time, if there was a factor like exertion? In particular it is during

exercise or often just after exercise, the heart becomes more

susceptible to surges, during exercise, the heart has the cope

with increased demand, stretching of the heart muscle and that can render

it more susceptible to potentially fatal arrhythmias. Lots of people

will be wondering if this could be latent in any of them, that this

could appear out of the blue? Could there have been any symptoms

previously in somebody's life? The thing to stress is that exercise has

a multitude of benefits and that should be pushed home. However in a

small proportion. Our experience shows that we find these conditions

in about one of 300 individuals, rendering them susceptible to a

potentially life-threatening arrhythmia. So in those cases yes,

there is a need to be cautious. So it is asymptomatic, their symptoms

in the past majority of cases. We are told exercise is good for our

heart but they say it is rare, they will always be the worry of people

exercising and this could potentially happen? The point is not

to scaremonger, exercise is very good, multifaceted benefits, but we

need to be looking actively for these conditions when appropriate in

a certain proportion of cases, especially athletes who are pushing

themselves beyond their own metabolic capabilities. Told me

about the screening being done and how it has improved and what it

enables you to do for a person when it has picked up? There are a

variety of sporting organisations that mandate that their athletes do

undergo screening, and an ECG, and electrical tracing of the heart,

that would detect cases of three macro in a 80% of cases, and

hypertrophic, in those cases, the ECG is sensitive in up to 95% of

cases. -- detect cases of ARVC. In some cases they would... But through

history of examination and an ECG, we would detect the majority of

cases which would potentially lead to a potentially fatal arrhythmia.

What might be the options for the wider population? There are a

variety of treatments available, if one is diagnosed, including

lifestyle modification, perhaps reducing the amount of exercise you

do, but if one wants to be screened, there is the Test cap M Heart

screening,. Thank you very much. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

have visited a charity working with street children in India

on the third day of They saw how the Salaam Baalak Trust

provides support for This report from our

Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell contains

some flash photography. In Delhi alone, there are thousands

of street children, at risk of abuse and exploitation. Could

you ask... Doctors and psychiatrists who treat the children, mental

health among children is an issue couple are keen to highlight, so

from William, the question. What can we do to help? Spread the word about

street children, they have a right to being in a safe space. The couple

joined the children in a hostel run by a charity. Kate sat on the ground

and did some sketching. The thing many of the children through was her

house, the thing none of them has. That is what Kate Crew, too, rather

English Home Counties sort of house. With you are a duchess or a street

kid, it seems the instinct is much the same. It was time to go. William

and Catherine had an appointment to see India's Prime Minister, from the

powerless to be powerful, their journey through India's extremes

continues. This week is an intense emotion in the many sides of India.

Tonight they are in the east, in Assam, the journey to see nature

conservation tomorrow. We are also on Facebook and on the

BBC News act. That is it from us. Next, the weather. From me and the

rest of the team, goodbye. We continue to see huge contrasts

from day-to-day and placed the place. Low pressure is in control of

our weather, that means the air is unstable, volatile, allowing areas

of rain to develop and we have certainly