06/05/2017 World News Today

On the eve of election day in France, hackers release a trove

of documents targeting Emmanuel Macron's team.

New protests in Venezuela as US officials meet with the Leader

So near and yet so far - Kenya's Kipchoge runs the fastest

marathon in history, but WON'T get into the record books.

And - it's something the fashion world has been criticised

for time and time again - thin models.

Hello and welcome to World News Today.

With less than 12 hours to go before voting starts,

France's Election Authority - has warned the media

against spreading information hacked from the campaign of the centrist

Aides to Mr Macron say the hacking attack was intended

James Reynolds has sent this report.

Emmanuel Macron arrived last night for his final interview,

assuming that his campaign was basically done.

But whilst he was speaking, documents stolen from his team were

Coming in the last hour, his team said this

intervention is an attempt to destabilise democracy, as happened

In the past, Emmanuel Macron said that

Russian-backed hackers were out to get him.

One cyber expert said this hack looks different.

It is very low-level, compared with what they

That was a highly creative and high-end information war

What we are witnessing now is very low-end, very amateurish.

But many French people braving the Saturday drizzle do not know

On this, the day before the vote, the French media is

banned from doing any in-depth political reporting.

It shows Emanuel Macron has capable enemies.

It may not change the course of this election.

Many French people have already decided which way they will vote.

And some have already cast their ballots.

These French citizens in Canada have made an early start.

47 million voters here in France will soon follow.

So how is that data leak affecting the mood in France?

Our correspondent Karin Gianone is in Paris.

Already this election had been an extraordinary one.

Who in France would have imagined that on the eve of the second

round of its presidential election we could have ended up

with these two candidates, the far right Marine Le Pen,

and Emmanuel Macron, the centrist candidate,

who only set up his campaign in the last few months?

But in the very last hours, at this latest twist came. This massive dump

of date her. I have been talking

about this with my guest, Tristan Mendes France,

an expert in social media at As far as we know, there was a leak

on a forum last night at 8:30pm, and those documents became viral

half an hour later on social media. Today there is a hashtag

called #Macronleaks, As for the timing,

it is rather strange. It came hours before

all the restrictions about what you can say

about the election came into force. It means that neither candidate can

comment on the content of this. Nobody understands why,

just two days before the presidential election,

it has come out. There is supposedly

a huge amount of data. It cannot be processed in 48 hours,

so it's impossible for anybody to estimate the damage that

could come out of it. I don't think it will impact

tomorrow's election, but it might impact later,

specifically in a month, for the election of the members of

Parliament. So perhaps it's too late

to do anything tangible for the presidential election

tomorrow, but in six weeks' time, we have this key vote that

Emmanuel Macron is counting You think that could

make a difference? There could be one month

of smear campaign, extracted from the information in those

documents that have linked, and that could be problematic

for Macron if he becomes elected. If he doesn't get a majority,

how will he implement his policy? In terms of the origin of this

attack, there have been allegations against Kremlin-backed agents

previously targeting Everybody is looking

towards the Kremlin, Nobody will ever have

absolute proof, only hints. The French Electoral Commission has

come out very strongly, telling the media and people

using social media that they mustn't It's a question of legality,

but it's pointless today. The environment online

has no frontier. Even French-speaking media

in Belgium are able to speak about this horrible story,

so I understand the French position, That was Tristan Mendes France,

from the Sorbonne's School That was Tristan Mendes France, from

the Sorbonne's School of Journalism. Just to remind you, as we go

into Sunday's final vote, An IPSOS poll published

in Le Monde newspaper puts Emmanuel Macron,

the centrist, on 63%. He is the clear favourite in this

presidential election. We will be bringing you special

coverage on the BBC of the results as they come out late on Sunday. We

will be bring you a special programme presented by Christian

Fraser from 7:30pm GMT. Thousands of women have led

a march in Venezuela's capital of Caracas in

the latest anti-government At least 36 people have been killed

and hundreds injured It comes as Donald Trump's national

security adviser met with Venezuela's Leader

of the Opposition on how to bring The daily wave of protests against

the government of Nicolas Maduro continues across Venezuela. In the

capital Caracas thousands of women marched on the Defence Ministry,

dressed symbolically in white, urging the government to end what

they said was the brutal oppression of its opponents and free hundreds

of political prisoners. Some of these protesters have husbands and

family members in jail, they say in prison for opposing a corrupt

regime. But the government and the Armed forces, which remain loyal so

far, are not backing off. More than 30 people have been killed in a

month of demonstrations. President Maduro has vowed to ride out the

storm, accusing Venezuelan's enemies abroad and what he says our business

elites at home, waging a campaign of destabilisation. But what should be

Latin America's wealthiest and most stable nation is punch-drunk from

years of instability. Many young people say they have no future here.

I knew him for nine years, says this girl who has just buried her friend

and fellow youth orchestra member. It hurts me so much to see him taken

in the bloom of his life, just 18 years old. Venezuelan has the

world's second largest oil reserves, yet in cities across the country,

people are so poor and hungry, they are looting shops for food, even

when there is nothing there for sale. With an inflation rate of

900%, Venezuelans are used to queueing for basic goods at

subsidised government markets. But food and medicine is scarce. Hugo

Chavez's socialist revolution failing the very people who

supported it. Thousands remain loyal, and chav is's success in

Nicolas Maduro has rejected calls for the release of political

prisoners. After a week of increasingly violent protests,

opposition leaders met senior members of the Trump administration,

Washington accusing Mr Maduro of disregarding the rights of his own

people. Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news... The former head of the Palestinian

militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh,

has been elected as He succeeds Khaled Meshaal,

who has led the movement The election took place

using a video link between The British Prime Minster Theresa

May says she's grateful for the support her Conservative

party received in the local elections, but she says she's taking

nothing for granted ahead The Leader of the Opposition Labour

party, Jeremy Corbyn, has admitted Tens of thousands of Polish

opposition supporters have taken taking part what they called

a Freedom March through Warsaw, to protest against what they see

as curbs on democracy imposed The opposition has accused

the governing party of trying to stack the constitutional tribunal

with sympathetic judges and of manipulating radio

and television coverage. Pupils from two girls' schools

in the Indian capital, Delhi, have been taken to hospital

for treatment after a chemical The substance, which is thought

to have been used in pesticides, caused eye and throat irritations -

as well as breathing difficulties. Police say they'll be

taking legal action Our South Asia regional

editor, Charles Haviland Details emerged rather slowly

throughout Saturday. First we had reports of a few dozen schoolgirls

being admitted to hospital for treatment, but later in the day, the

official Indian news agency said more than 300 had been admitted,

from two schools, and several teachers needing treatment. The

symptoms were problems with their eyes, throats, and breathing

problems, from this leakage from a container truck at some kind of

storage depot in Tughlakabad in the south of Delhi. It appears these

were chemicals imported from China for use in pesticides. Do we know

how some of the victims are? The doctors have been saying from the

start that they are OK and no one is in danger. What we heard towards the

end of Saturday was that people are being discharged and going home to

their families. That seems to be the situation. That said, we have had

some people saying they are out of danger, and others simply saying

they are stable, which sounds less certain. The Indian media have not

given a very full account of what has happened, and haven't prioritise

the story very much. These sorts of leagues are not actually unusual in

India, are they? They do happen from time to time. There was one of three

years ago in Chhattisgarh, with a smaller number of people being

affected. There is an issue in India with supervision. The police have

said that legal action will be taken in this case because Hazard

materials were not being stored responsibly. Others are saying that

this material should not be close to these schools at all.

Stay with us on BBC World News, still to come...

Models who are extremely thin are to be banned

from the catwalk in France - but will it work?

We'll get the view of a fashion editor.

computer hackers release a huge cache of documents which they say

New protests in Venezuela as US officials meet with the Leader

There's been a reduction in fighting in Syria since a Russian-led

initiative took effect - to halt the country's six-year war.

The Russian defence ministry says it has registered 15 violations

Also, Russia and the United States have agreed to resume the operation

of a bilateral memorandum to prevent mid-air clashes in

Syrian government aircraft in action. There are reports of

shelling and gunfire elsewhere in the country, but the violence has

eased following the international plan to create for de-escalates a

Sion Jones inside Syria. Russian and US staff have... In a phone call,

representatives agreed to work on additional measures. Russia says a

new initiative to create demilitarised areas in Syria can

pave the way towards more substantive negotiations.

TRANSLATION: The most important thing is that the implementation of

the memorandum can help cease the military action and therefore end

the Syrian crisis at a practical level. The initiative is of

significant meaning to the political process in Syria. The deal to create

de-escalation zones in the major areas of conflict in Syria took

effect in midnight on Friday. The initiative was proposed by Russia,

President Bashar al-Assad's most powerful ally. It is backed by

Turkey and Iran. With the deal coming from two strong back backers

of the regime, some say they are not too confident about it.

TRANSLATION: The revolution is very damaged. It is strangled, and the

Syrian people are killed in these so-called de-escalation zones. The

regime and the Russians are the only beneficiaries. Failure of peace

efforts are familiar story in this conflict that has claimed 300,000

lives since 2012. So how effective the current plan will prove to be is

highly uncertain. The Nigerian government says 82

girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria have been released.

The girls were among about 220 students abducted from a secondary

school in the north-east of the country in 2014. That story is

breaking at the moment, so we will bring you more details when we have

them. Now some sport. Here is James. Barcelona and Real Madrid are both

still battling it out Barcelona surged three points clear

of Real with a thumping 4-1 win Lionel Messi scored twice

and there was one each Real though look certain to go

back level on points - they're currently winning 4-0

at already relegated Granada. Swansea have moved out of the bottom

three in the Premier League after a 1-0 win over Everton

at the Liberty stadium Fernando Llorente got the crucial

goal in the 29th minute, It was the Spaniard's 13th league

goal of the season and it Swansea's win means that Hull drop

into the relegation zone - they lost 2-0 at home to already

relegated Sunderland. Billy Jones and Jermaine Defoe

scored for the Black Cats. It was Marco Silva's first

experience of a home defeat in three To lose our focus like we did in the

second half, and we conceded two goals and set pieces. That's our

problem. It's like you come to the past again. Our team in the past

conceded too many goals in set pieces, because they lost focus, and

that happened this afternoon. The second goal was offside again, and

the referee didn't see. That is football, and now is the moment to

rest, to analyse what happened, and prepare for the next.

Here are the rest of the day's Premier League scores.

Crystal Palace still aren't safe from relegation after being thrashed

City move up the third in the race for a Champions League place.

Tyson Fury has said he'd easily beat unified heavyweight champion

Anthony Joshua should the pair meet in the ring.

Fury has dealt with depression and lost his boxing

licence after beating Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015.

Fury says he'll be back fighting in July, on the undercard

at London's Copper Box Arena, IF his licence is reinstated

by the British Boxing Board of Control.

He clearly has scant regard for Joshua.

I can play with that body-builder like a cat playing with a ball of

wool. And if I get hit, I will be highly, highly disappointed. If you

can even land a blow on me. Never mind beat me.

An attempt to run the first sub-2 hour marathon has failed.

There were no spectators, just a small number of journalists,

allowed to attend the event on the Monza racetrack in Italy.

Only one of the three men taking part, Eliud Kipchoge,

the Olympic champion, came close to the two hour

mark, crossing the line in two hours 25 seconds.

And although it's the fastest marathon in history -

it won't be counted as an official record, because of the use

The name was to bring about 10 billion people, and knock out the

third set. 12 marathons in 12 hours is impossible. So to pass that

message is really important to me. That's why I was pushing to prove

that there is no human who has limitations. He is averaging 17

seconds that every 100 metres he runs. That is remarkable. That is

all the sport for now. A law in France banning the use

of extremely thin fashion models Models working there need to provide

a doctor's certificate attesting to their overall physical health,

with special regard Digitally altered photos will also

have to be labelled from October. Earlier I spoke to Debra Bourne

from the campaign group "all walks beyond the catwalk",

I asked her The important thing is the serious

message it sends out to the fashion industry. I don't know how they can

keep it. Will they send a police officer to every photographic studio

in Paris what is interesting is the doctors note. This would be valid

for two years, and as all women know, your weight fluctuates a lot

over two years. Yes. There's some real problems here in terms of the

actual strategy and day-to-day managing of this law. I don't know.

I don't know if it exists when French brands shoot outside of

London. Many campaigns are shot in New York, the Caribbean, London. But

the government has done something that is sending out a very clear

message. Paris has a reputation in the industry in terms of casting for

putting very skinny models on the catwalk, and that is serious. What

is your opinion on the labelling of digitally enhanced photos? I think

it's great. I was part of a government round table on body

confidence, and this is something we discussed in the UK about bringing

this in with a kite marking system. It makes it very clear to the

consumer that this is an animation, that photo is that they could think

were real have been enhanced and touched up and changed, and people's

body shapes have changed. I would like to see a world where that

doesn't happen at all, and where our imagery is far more real, but given

that we have to change things step-by-step, it is a fantastic move

forward. France is blazing a trail here with this policy, but isn't it

down to the individual models and a cultural shift within the industry

itself? It is, but the model in this picture looks like the most powerful

person in this planet, but in truth, these are teenage girls, young,

impressionable women, surrounded by people in the studio, trying to

adhere to a system they might not agree with, and scared to voice

change. So the models really need to be protected here.

An 85-year-old Nepalese man who was attempting to become

the oldest person to climb Everest, has died at Everest base camp.

The death of Min Bahadur Sherchan was confirmed by Nepal's

The former British army Gurkha soldier was trying

to reclaim the record from Japan's Yuichiro Miura, who

Our breaking news. The Nigerian government says that 82 girls

kidnapped by Boko Haram have been released. They were among around 220

students abducted in the north-east of the country in 2012. Don't forget

you can get in touch with me on Twitter. That's it from me and the

team. Goodbye for now.