29/07/2016 World News Today

Save the Children says a maternity hospital in Syria has been bombed.

The air strikes happened in a rebel-held district of Idlib in the

north-west. At least two people are reported dead.

The staff at the hospital contacted us and they confirmed that the town

where the hospital is based has been hit by seven air strikes. There

Florida confirms its first cases of the Zika virus contracted by local

moss key toes. And, the day after the night before, Hillary Clinton

gets down to work as the race for the White House begins for real.

We start in Syria where a maternity hospital has been hit

by an airstrike according to the charity Save the Children

Two people are reported to have died and a number of patients and staff

were injured in the bombing which happened in a rebel-held

Meanwhile, the United Nations' Syrian envoy has backed Russian

proposals for humanitarian corridors to be set up to allow civilians

in the besieged city of Aleppo to leave.

Footage shows the forces trying to take control of the city.

Russia has been an allie in this fight. Now it says it wants to give

people a way out of rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

Leaflets were dropped showing a map of corridors for civilians to leave.

TRANSLATION: I'm not sure I will go out. The Government's directions of

surrender are humiliating as it is. If they are already humiliating us,

how about when we actually arrive to the areas that they control?

Russia's said it also plans to allow rebel fighters to leave.

Two days ago, the Syrian Government had said all supply lines to rebel

held areas had been cut off. Around a quarter of a million civilians

lived there. Hospitals have been bombed and the UN's warned that food

stocks will only last three weeks. The UN wants to be involved in

Russia's plan. Our suggestion is to Russia to

actually leave the corridors being established at their initiative to

us. The UN and the humanitarian

partners, as you know, know what to do. They have an experience. That's

our job. The UN's also asked for a ceasefire

to give people a chance for a safe exit. For four years, Aleppo has

seen bloodshed and violence. Whether or not people choose to leave the

city if they are given a way out will depend on how the plan will

work. Perhaps just as important is how quickly can it all be carried

out because, for hundreds of thousands of people in rebel-held

areas off Aleppo, each day is a struggle to survive.

A doctor working with Save the Children who has visited

the maternity hospital in the past said equipment and generators

The staff of the hospital contacted us and confirmed that the town where

the hospital is based has been hit by seven air strikes. Three of these

hit the surrounding area of the hospital while one air strike hit

the entrance of the hospital killing at least two people and one another

injured person, he's in a serious condition. For other people we don't

have the exact information about the number of injuries, but the hospital

staff are talking about at least ten people that have got injured. The

medical staff in the facilities went to the ground floor, so all the

medical staff they are safe except for one midwife. She was doing a

delivery at that point and she got injured because of the damage caused

by this air strike. The hospital itself was affected badly because

some equipment was being damaged by this air strike, including the

generators running through the city and this hospital because in Syria

now there's no stable electricity and some other equipment, including

the incubators for newborns. Florida has confirmed its first

cases of the Zika infection that were most likely contracted

from local mosquitos. The state governor has said two

sites were responsible for four cases, but that no one had been

admitted to hospital. The Florida cases raise the chance

that US mosquitoes can So far, cases outside

of Latin America and the Caribbean have been spread by travel to that

region or sexual transmission. It's causing concern but it's not

entirely unexpected. The Centre for Disease control and others have been

warning for several months now that the possibility of locally borne

Zika transmitting in the United States is very high. Now, there have

been 1600 cases in the States alone, most of them from people travelling

to infected areas and coming back. As you mentioned, this is the first

time it's come from a mosquito itself. Now, it is in a very small

area, about two kilometres squared and the mosquito which transmits

this virus can only travel a small area. So that is where they're

concentrating on in that area of Miami at the moment to look and see

what they can do. I've just been listening to a call from the Centre

for Disease control and they say they're very impressd by the

measures being taken in Florida, they include getting rid of stagnant

water where mosquitoes might be born. They are also spraying any

areas where they are prevalent and they are also ensuring and telling

local women especially to cover up during the night when those areas

mosquitoes could be biting. Let's take a look at

some other stories. Criminal charges have been filed

against six state employees in Michigan over the contamination of

drinking water in the city of Flint. The em-Politics Show eyes at the

environmental departments are accused of misconduct in office,

neglect and conspiracy disturbance - employees.

Hillary Clinton has been speaking at a rally in Philadelphia this

evening, following her closing speech at the Democratic National

She's made history by becoming the first female Presidential

candidate for the Democrats - but she divides party opinion

on whether she is the right person for the job.

And of course Donald Trump was a controversial choice

Laura Trevelyan is at the White House for us. Both are out on the

campaign trail today. Hillary Clinton is in Pennsylvania, a key

swing state, and Donald Trump himself is in Colorado, which

flipped from the Republican column last time. Good news from Mr Trump,

the audience for Hillary Clinton's speech last night in prime time

television was a few million less than the audience for his speech in

prime time a week ago, so I'm sure that he will make the most of that.

However, I should also say that the audiences overall for the democratic

convention night by night were higher than for the Republicans, so

make of that what you will and I'm sure both sides will have their own

take from that. Now it's all about the race for the White House, all

about the electoral map and there they are.

What sense did we get of what is the flavour of things to come? You can

see from Trump's convention that that was about what he sees is wrong

with America that, this is a difficult time that people are

scared about the threat of terrorism. They feel economically

insecure, they're worried about their jobs, they don't trust Hillary

Clinton. So his was definitely and his aide said it was a Nick Nixonian

campaign, based on appealing to people's fears saying he'll be the

strong man and make it better. Democrats, while taunting Mr Trump

at every possible turn it should be said, tried to be more positive and

strike the theme that America is great, trump au slogan is make

America great again. You have two extremely different views. In the

States where this election is going to be decided which is Ohio,

Pennsylvania, they're former manufacturing centres where the jobs

haven't been replaced by new jobs, the message is going to be about who

is going to bring our jobs back and how is that going to happen. Hillary

Clinton saying she'll do it through infrastructure and investment,

Donald Trump saying he'll renegotiate the Free Trade

Agreements. Pope Francis has walked in silence

around Auschwitz-Birkenau, as a mark of respect to the more

than one million people, mostly Jews, who were killed

at the Nazi death camp. Our correspondent

Tom Burridge reports. To a place which exposes

the inadequacy of words. Where more than one million,

mainly Jewish, people Pope Francis spoke with some

of the few who survived that horror. at the wall where Nazi firing

squads executed thousands. Then a prayer in a cell,

where a Catholic priest volunteered human beings were locked

up here like animals. Silence was the response

of the Catholic Church when Nazi Germany

demonised Jewish people and then attempted

to eradicate Jews from Europe. Another visit by a Pope reminds us

about the evil perpetrated But questions remain

for the Catholic Church about what it knew at the time

of the Nazi death camps and the systematic

programme of genocide. A psalm sung by a priest

from a Polish village Tom Burridge,

BBC News, in Auschwitz. Stay with us on BBC

World News, still to come: All the sports news, including, as

more athletes arrive in Rio, Russia's entire weightlifting team

is banned from the Olympics in the wake of the doping scandal.

NASA has ordered an investigation after confirmation that astronauts

were cleared to fly while drunk. The last foot patrol in south Armargh.

Once an every day part of the soldier's lot, drudgery and danger.

Now no more after almost four decades.

In a private house not doing any harm to anyone, I don't see why all

these people should wander in and say "you are doing something wrong".

Six rare white lion cubs are on the prowl and have been met with a roar

of approval by visitors. Really sweet and cute.

The headlines: An air strike hits a maternity hospital in north-western

Syria and reportedly kills two people, as well as wounding others.

Florida confirms its first cases of infection from Zika was contracted

from local mosquitoes. Russia's entire weightlifting

team has been barred from competing at the Rio Olympics

by the sport's governing body. Some of their ten possible

competitors had been named in a report which exposed

Russian state-sponsored doping. Only track and field has had

a similar blanket ban. The IOC gave governing bodies

the jurisdiction over whether to allow Russian competitors

in their discipline. Archery, triathlon, shooting

and table tennis are among those to have given the go-ahead,

while five sports are There's plenty of toing and froing

at the top of the leaderboard on day two of golf's final major

of the year the USPGA but the early clubhouse leader at Baltusrol

is the Open Champion Henrik Stenson. The Swede shot a 3-under par second

round of 67 including an eagle. He's alongside Overnight leader

Jimmy Walker on 6-under Patrick Reed is the big mover of the day so far

five under for his round alongside England's Andy Sullivan

and the Argentine Emiliano Grillo is out in front on 7-under midway

through his round. A full scorecard can be found

on the BBC Sport website. It's been fairly wet on day two

of the Women's British Open at Woburn as well, but not enough

to keep the layers off the course... South Korea's Mirim Lee hasn't

matched her course record ten-under yesterday,

struggled a bit this morning. She carded 71 in her

second round but remains German midfielder Bastian

Schweinsteiger could be the most high profile casualty

of Jose Mourinho's mass clearout of the Manchester United squad,

if the media speculation is anything Perhaps a coincidence,

but Schweinsteiger announced his retirement from international

football on Friday. It comes thre weeks after Germany

were knocked out of the Euros The 31-year-old World Cup winner

only joined United last year from Bayern Munich for a fee

of around $8.5 million Lewis Hamilton may be leading

the Formula One title race but his teammate Nico Rosberg sent

a timely reminder that he won't be easy to beat, by topping

the timesheets in both First and Second Practice ahead

of his home Grand Prix All eyes are on Rosberg ahead of the

German Grand Prix as we wait the see if he can stop the Lewis Hamilton

juggernaut. Hamilton's won five of the last six Grand Prix including

last weekend in Hungary and he's now leading the World Championship for

the first time. What has Rosberg got left in the tank? He has shown so

far today he's still fighting. He was fastest in both of today's

practise sessions including being 0. .4 of a second faster than Lewis

Hamilton. It's only in qualitifying tomorrow that we'll really find out

if his challenge has any depth to it. Off track, it's been been busy.

The race director clarified lots of issues today, including specifying

that the halo, the much-publicised head protection, is now not going to

be introduced in 2017, it's being delayed until 2018, also changes to

yellow flags, track limits and all sorts but none of that is going to

make any difference to the racing at the front. It's all about Rosberg v

Hamilton this weekend. They're way quicker than any other drivers here

at Hockenheim. Can Rosberg stop Hamilton?

Australia need 185 to win their first test against Sri Lanka

in Pellekele on what's been another weather affected day having bowled

Sri Lanka out for 353 earlier on Friday.

Kusal Mendis was finally dismissed for 176.

Australia were 83-3 when rain and bad light brought

The yank banking authority's published the results of its 2016

stress tests on 51 European banks, the Italian bank, that's the world's

oldest bank, been in business since 1472, by far the worst performer in

the test. The results seem to indicate that it would collapse

entirely if the stress tests were replicated in the real world. It,

along with other major yawn banks, including Deutsche Bank, RBS,

Barclays and the Bank of Ireland, was one of the worst responses to a

series of adviser scenarios, including a major fall in GDP. More

on that soon. Now, why are schools in Kenya being set on fire, it's the

question many are struggling to understand, as two more schools were

burnt overnegotiate. Kenya has been dealing with a wave of arson

attacks. We have been to central Kenya, one of the worst affected

regions. Scenes like this have become an

almost daily occurrence in Kenya. School after school going up in

flames at an unprecedented rate. On Friday morning, two more schools

were torched. This is the latest school to suffer the arson attacks.

Even new buildings reduced to shell an a stark reminder of the events

here in past days. This is the second dormitory to be

burnt down in this school in the space of one week. The fire is

believed to have been started at around that corner at seven at

night. The fire raged on and firefighters quickly came in, and

together with students, they desperately tried to save their

belongings. As you can see, there is not much left of all their personal

belongings and their bedding has been destroyed. We have tracked down

one of the students who were in the school when this started. He

requested to hide his identity for fear of being connected to those who

burnt his school. He's uncertain about his final examinations later

this year and worried. The banning of school started in

western Kenya and spread to other regions. So far, more than 100

schools have been affected -- the burning started. This is a worried

parent. Her daughter Wes supposed to sit her final exams this year, but

is now home after their school was closed following a failed attempt to

burn it down. I feel really, really bad. Looking for school fees is

hard. This butchering work is not easy. I'm very, very worried for

her. The reasons for the attacks remain very unclear. Teachers blame

the Government, the Government blames exam sheets. Teachers' unions

have threatened to go on a national strike if the Government doesn't

close all schools immediately to tackle the crisis. But the

Government has rejected the calls. There is no school that is going to

be closed. Learning must continue. All our children must be in school.

We will deal with the criminals and crooks that are working on

undermining the reforms that we are putting in place and trying to

blackmail Government. The burnling of schools is not a new phenomena,

but the sheer scale and frequency of the attacks has now raised fears and

concerns about the uncertain future now facing thousands of students.

We told you about the results of the stress tests carried out on European

banks a few minutes ago. We were bringing you the results. Let's

discuss this more. Theo Legislate is here. What have we discoverd? The

European banking authority modelled a big economic shock something as

severe as we saw in 2008 to see how the banks would stoned when their

bad loans would rise and their profits would fall and whether they

had enough in the way of capital buffers, money set aside, to deal

with that. It's rigid scenarios that they have put in place. There's no

pass or fail, but it's clear some banks have come out of this exercise

a lot better than others. The world's oldest bank, Italy's third

largest bank, performed very badly indeed. It would basically be wiped

out, losing all its capital reserves if such a snarl grow were to happen,

now we know. Bank of Ireland, another Italian bank, Uni Credit,

performed not particularly well -- scenario.

The situation for Italian banks is particularly acute. Given that Italy

is in the eurozone, how much worry does this cause the wider European

community? It's well known that there is a significant problem with

Italy's banks, not just the six that were inClauded in the stress tests

but a lot of smaller banks as well. Several of them have got into

trouble over the past year, some have been bailed out by the

Government. The Government was really anxious not to have to bail

out a big bank because in Italy many people who've bought bank bonds,

investors, are ordinary people and if the Government bails them out,

under Euro law, the investors lose their money. If you can imagine the

effect of tens of thousands of ordinary investors losing their

savings, what that would do to the Government in Italy would have

severe repercussions across the rest of Europe as well. We are seeing a

very concerted effort by the Italian government to get something in place

tonight or over the weekend to sew that they have the situation in

hand. Thank you.

Brazil's former President will face trial on charges of obstructing

justice. Documents seen in fedical reports in Brazil show he has been

charged along with six others. He's been under investigation as part of

so-called Operation car wash which is looking into a sprawling

corruption scandal focussed on the state-run oil company. The former

President denies the allegations. There are several lines coming in

from Turkey because the President has said the countries who worry

over the fate of the coup plotters instead of Turkey's democracy cannot

be its friend. The Turkish President says he'll withdraw all lawsuits for

insulting him as a one-off gesture. More lines comeling through after

that attempted coup two weeks exactly since we saw that attempted

coup take place in Turkey. Let's just go back to a reminder of the

main news: The charity Save the Children says a maternity hospital

it supports in rebel held area of the Syrian province of Idlib has

been sit by an air strike. We believe two people have been killed

and potentially staff and people in the hospital injured -- been hit by

an air strike. More on that as soon as we get it on BBC World News.

Thank you for watching. . Here we are always keeping a close

eye on the developing world weather stories. At