16/04/2017 World News Today

This is BBC World News, broadcasting in the UK

Yes campaigners in Turkey celebrate as they claim

President Erdogan says changes to the constitution will now go ahead.

TRANSLATION: Today, a decision made by the Turkish public

This is not an ordinary decision, it is not an ordinary day.

Just over 51% of voters agreed to sweeping new powers

The main opposition party says it will challenge the result.

The Trump administration has restated its determination to take

action against North Korea after it carries out another missile test.

68 children are amongst the dead in Syria after Saturday's bomb

attack on buses carrying evacuees from besieged towns.

The Premier League title race takes a twist, I lost to Manchester United

cuts Chelsea's lead to just four points.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is claiming victory

in the controversial referendum on expanding his powers.

With almost all the votes counted, the Yes campaign has

maintained a slim lead, with 51.3% in favour.

But the opposition is disputing the result, complaining of massive

Supporters of President Erdogan have been celebrating on the streets

They believe he now has a mandate for the biggest political reform

The President himself called it a historic move that'll make

the country stronger, but acknowledged the split

TRANSLATION: Today is really important, because we will now start

to reconstruct Turkey from tomorrow. We do not need a necessary

discussions, unnecessary talks and whatever, because it will not help

or benefit our country. We just have to create projects, we just have to

respect what the Turkish public have decided today, voted for today, and

we just have to work harder, including our struggle against

terror. We have to be stronger. We just have to wipe terror out of

Turkey. But the two main opposition parties,

the pro-Kurdish HDP and the Republican People's Party,

or CHP, say they want a recount This is what the deputy

chairman of the CHP TRANSLATION: There are problems

in the way the votes have been cast. We think there are also

problems with the way We are just trying to control

the situation at the moment, because at the moment in Istanbul,

Ankara, Izmir, the No vote is ahead. They are manipulating this

and saying that the Yes vote In all of those big cities,

the No campaign is ahead, but the public is being told

that the Yes campaign is leading. They are preparing the way

to steal the vote. Mark Lowen is outside the ruling

party's headquarters. Quite euphoric celebrations among

the President's supporters. This gives him more powers than any other

Turkish president in modern history. Yes, they believe he has got the

mandate to do that now. You could see the jubilant supporters behind

me, streaming into the governing party headquarters, where the Prime

Minister spoke about an hour ago. He claimed victory, he said it was a

victory for all the citizens of this country, and the president spoke in

Istanbul. His initial speech was muted, it was an indoor speech, he

said that this was a vote that must be respected by Turkey's

international partners and allies, and then he went on the balcony and

spoke to his supporters, and he was in rousing mood, he spoke about

bringing back the death penalty, he said they could be a referendum on

capital punishment, which gets support among his supporters, horror

among his opponents. He was in campaign mood again. After a much

more muted initial response. Huge euphoria here, but the opposition

believes it is not over. They say there are massive irregularities in

the voting process, that 1.5 million votes that were invalid were given

to the yes side. Some of the election observers were blocked from

Pollock stations in the south-east. They say they will challenge the

result at the supreme election board. We are in an unprecedented

situation. This side of the country believe they have won resoundingly,

the other side says it will not accept the result. In terms of the

country's stability, this is the worst possible result. If you can

hear me, what are the next steps from here? The opposition Republican

Party, the pro-Kurdish party, and the leader of the no campaign said

they would challenge it to the Supreme Court. They would try to

file complaints. But it will be an uphill struggle, because the state

machinery is so completely overwhelmingly dominated by the

governing party, the media is 80 or 90% pro-government, so they are

disability pitch headlines claiming victory will stop --. The opposition

believes they still have mileage. Whether or not they can push it, we

will see. The question will be whether Erdogan will have

legitimacy. In the eyes of half of the country, the answer is no. But

for him, getting more than 50% was enough to shoot the biggest

political change in modern medical history.

I'm joined by Irem Koker from the BBC's Turkish Service.

We heard the president talking about this not being an ordinary decision,

not being an ordinary day. He went on to address crowds outside after

the formal press statement that he gave. Yes, he went back to his more

euphoric and tough stance when he was speaking to his supporters

outside his residence in Istanbul. He said, this marks the beginning of

a new chapter in the Turkish history. This referendum ended a 200

year debate about how the country should be governed. Also, he

promised he would be taking the death penalty issue back to the

agenda, which is another promise he made during the campaign. He is

going back to his business as usual, and he will be pushing his own

agenda afterwards. Reminders, the extent of the powers that this

result now gives him as president. As a president, after this

referendum, the office of Prime Minister will be abolished. The

Cabinet ministers will be picked by the president himself. He will be

appointing some key Government officials. Also, he will be able to

call early elections, which will result in the dissolution of the

parliament. He will be able to decide on the budget as well. And he

will be appointing the dippy president, and the law does not say

how many deputies will be there. It gives sweeping powers to the

president was Mac office. When you look at the result and how close it

was, it just gives a flavour of how divided Turkey is. That is correct.

We saw a similar Turkey map with the previous elections in the past. The

coastal areas, the people are more educated and have higher income,

they voted for no, and the heartland, where more Conservative

people live, voted for yes. But what is more interesting is that for the

first time Erdogan and his party lost Ankara and Istanbul, which is

significant. That affected the low margin between yes and no.

Furthermore, Turkey is highly polarised, we will see the leader of

the main opposition party talking about irregularities and how they

will react from this point on. We will see how's what he will say. We

have reports of protests in Istanbul and Ankara.

We will come back to that story later in the programme.

The Trump administration has reiterated its determination to take

action against North Korea amid rising tensions over

The US National Security Advisor General HR McMaster says

the President is working on a "range of options" with America's

North Korea's latest test resulted in what's thought to be

a medium-range missile, blowing up shortly after take-off.

It was launched from the east-coast port of Shinpo,

On his arrival in Seoul shortly afterwards, the US

Vice President Mike Pence described the test as a provocation

and told his hosts that America's commitment to South Korea had

This flower show, like almost everything else in North Korea,

This is the stand of National Defence...

And this display is in honour of their abiding

Is it a little strange to have rockets and missiles

There are reports that there was a missile test this morning.

And some suggestions that it failed, have you heard these reports?

We will win and we will have greater successes in the future.

There has so far been no mention of the missile on North Korean TV.

Every launch, failure or not, takes the military one

The timing of the latest missile test is significant,

coming just a few hours before the US Vice President Mike Pence

arrived in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

It's a message of defiance from here in Pyongyang.

Its quest to become a fully-fledged nuclear power continues.

At its big military parade yesterday, it put some of its newest

The decades of threats and sanctions against North Korea have clearly

Mr Pence's talks will focus on trying to find something that

will work, including military options, according to officials.

Our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people

of South Korea has never been stronger and with your help

and with God's help, freedom will ever prevail.

At Pyongyang Zoo today there was a relaxed holiday atmosphere.

The looming crisis seems far from anyone's mind.

North Korea appears confident that President Trump's threats will turn

out to be hollow and that he'll conclude, like others before him,

Pope Francis celebrate Easter with a mass in front of people in St

Peter's Square. Yes campaigners in Turkey celebrate

as they claim victory in the referendum. The president says

changes to the court situation will go ahead.

Just over 51% of the voters agreed to new powers for the president. The

main opposition party says it will challenge the result.

Let's stay with the top scoring -- story.

Baybars Orsek joins us from our studio in Istanbul.

When you look at the stats from the outcome of this vote and the

breakdown, what is your take on it? It is a narrow victory for the

campaign. It looks like he thought about the nature and the healthiness

of this referendum will be on the table for a while. It is one of the

most important referendums in the Turkish history, and we will see the

implications in the coming days. When you were assessing the claims

by politicians during the referendum campaign, what was your good

illusion? -- conclusion? We have been fact checking the statements of

politicians for the last three years, this cycle has been a similar

effort from our side. We have checked more than 100 statements in

the referendum topics in this Constitution, and what we saw was

nothing different than the previous election cycles will stop the

truthfulness of the statements were something between 25% and 30%. It is

weird when it comes to the importance of informing the public,

especially before this kind of important public vote. You look at

fact checking around the world, how does Turkey compare on that front?

We are a part of the international fact checking network, and on

Branagh organisation. What we see, there is some sort of similarity in

terms of the scores of politicians, especially during the election

cycles. This is one of the highly debated topics in the American

elections as well. It is not surprising that people are still

voting based on their ideological and party based affiliations,

greater than sticking to the truth. This is one of the main challenges

of fact checking organisations, we are trying to tackle it. In terms of

this particular campaign, the referendum result has given sweeping

new powers to the Turkish president. Are you satisfied that the claims

that were made during the campaign led to people making an informed

decision about what they were doing? Especially in this referendum, we

saw lots of references to the concept of truth and lying from

different political actors, including the president, the Prime

Minister and the Leader of the Opposition and other representatives

of both sides. The leaders try to convince the constituencies by

blaming the opponent parties as people who are not seeking the truth

and misinforming the public. This has been one of the decisive factors

in terms of making people's opinions.

More than 100 people, more than half of them children,

are now thought to have died in Saturday's suicide-bomb

A convoy of coaches packed with evacuees in a pre-arranged

exchange between the Syrian government and a number of rebel

groups was targeted with the car bomb on the outskirts of Aleppo.

This report from our diplomatic correspondent James Landale contains

They were heading for what they thought was safety,

thousands of civilians from government-held villages had

been under siege by rebel forces for two years.

Just a short bus ride from Aleppo and a better life.

A vehicle supposedly carrying food, packed instead with explosives.

Devastating the convoy, buses and cars.

A potato truck, as they were hungry, comes and offers for the kids

So the kids who were very hungry, some of them left the buses,

went to the truck, and as soon as they approached

That's where it emerged today that among the 126 dead were 68 children.

According to British-based activists who monitor the conflict.

Hundreds of others injured in the attack were rushed

It is still not clear who was responsible for the attack

although local Islamist rebel groups have denied any involvement.

The people travelling in these buses were part of a deal

between government and opposition forces to evacuate civilians

They were attacked as they waited for another convoy to go

in the south, evacuating civilians from rebel-held areas.

But an attack like this that left so many dead will raise doubts

about whether there will be more evacuation deals in the future.

The remaining survivors in the convoy continued

their journey to Aleppo in relative safety.

The United Nations condemned the attack and urged all sides

But there are already fears that civilians in rebel-held areas may

The English Premier League title race has taken another twist

after Manchester United beat league leaders Chelsea 2-0 at Old Trafford.

Marcus Rashford put the hosts ahead after seven minutes before

Ander Herrera doubled that lead just after half-time with a deflected

shot for his first league goal in 14 months, cutting Chelsea's lead

at the top to just four points, with six games remaining.

Liverpool have moved back up to third after beating

Roberto Firmino with his third goal in six games on the stroke

of half-time decided the outcome at the Hawthorns.

A match between French Ligue Un sides Bastia and Lyon was abandoned

after home fans invaded the pitch in Corsica.

Kick-off was delayed by 55 minutes as Bastia fans tried to attack

visiting Lyon players during their warm-up, and was then

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel has won the Bahrain Grand Prix,

as Lewis Hamilton's hopes were hit by a penalty for gamesmanship.

The Brit was penalised five seconds for driving deliberately slowly

on pit entry and holding up Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

He was unable to claw back the deficit.

Vettel's win giving him a seven-point lead over Hamilton

in the championship, while his Mercedes team

mate Valterri Bottas completed the podium.

Five-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has said

he won't be bullied by World Snooker after winning his opening match

The 41-year-old started the afternoon session

He moved onto 7-5 with this break of 124, the highest

Wilson didn't make life easy for O'Sullivan, but he's safely

through to the second round, winning 10-7, although

he was visibly shaken when talking after the match

He has only replied to questions from the media by one or two word

answers. I phoned Barry up for weeks ago and

said, I have done with you and your board of people, I have a good

friend who said, just my lawyers deal with it. I would get involved,

I not being bullied I am not having people doing that to me ever again.

I am fortunate I have a good friend who has very good lawyers, and they

have got my back. I just want to play, I just want to have fun. I

like Barry, but I am not being intimidated or bullied anymore.

Pope Francis has celebrated Easter Mass in the Vatican.

He called on the world's leaders to find the courage to end

The Pope also delivered his traditional Urbi et Orbi message,

the blessing to Rome and the world, from St Peter's Basilica.

Rain didn't dampen the Easter message in Rome, where thousands

of pilgrims gathered to see Pope Francis celebrate Easter Mass

and lead the blessings in St Peter's Square in the Vatican.

Mass took place amidst tight security, a week after attacks

on two Coptic churches in Egypt left more than 40 people dead.

Pope Francis used his message to also condemn yesterday's bomb

attack on a crowded Syrian bus convoy that killed

TRANSLATION: May he sustain the efforts of all who are actively

engaged in bringing comfort and relief to the civil

population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow

horror and death, and yesterday the latest horrible attack

on refugees, which provoked many deaths and many wounded.

May he grant peace to the entire Middle East.

As the skies cleared, the Pope's message resonated

with the thousands who travelled from far and wide for

The Archbishop of Canterbury delivered his Easter message

He said today's terror, pain and despair should not

The Royal Family gathered at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

The Queen, who wore a spring-like shade of turquoise, was joined

by the Duke of Edinburgh and her children and

grandchildren for a traditional Easter Sunday service.

The referendum in Turkey. These are life pictures from Istanbul, where

crowds celebrating. Supporters of the result, those who voted yes to

giving the president sweeping new powers. According to the latest

figures, more than 51%, just over 51%, voting yes to the changes. The

main opposition parties say they will challenge the result, raising

doubts about 60% of the votes cast. More as we get it on BBC World News.

Expecting a bit more sunshine for Easter Monday. The is coming from

the north. Clear skies between the cloud. Unlike today. The thicker

cloud continues to move away through tonight. A bit of rain for East

Anglia and the south-east. It becomes dry, clear skies. The

temperatures could be low enough for a touch of Frost. High pressure to

the West will play a big part through this week. Low pressure to

the east, pulling in colder air. It leads to a cold start. Quite a bit

of sunshine around northern England, increasingly into Northern Ireland.

Sunny spells. Land, but showers pushing southwards. Sleek and hail

to lower levels. Northern England, the showers get going. We start with

cloud. Any rain will be light and patchy, most places will have a dry

day. More sunshine developing as we go through the day and into the

afternoon. Temperatures held back across the north-east. More sunshine

to the south West, lighter wind, it should feel pleasant. We finished

the evening with showers in northern England.

There could be an ice risk to go into Tuesday morning. You might

avoid a frost in East Anglia and the south-east. More trees, which could

shepherd in one or two isolated showers. The thickening cloud in the

Hebrides, but for most it will be dry and sunny. The temperatures

struggling after the cold start, but the sunshine should convert saved.

The weather fronts will skirt the North. High pressure dominates

foremost.