03/12/2017 World News Today

Hello this is BBC World News today,

I'm Ben Bland. The top stories.

A new war of words between North

Korea and the US on the eve of the

biggest ever US- South Korean air

drills. Crazy to send spouses and

children to South Korea given the

provocation of North Korea, I want

them to stop sending dependence.

Egyptian presidential hopeful Ahmad

Shafiq denies being kidnapped after

turning up in the capital. On the

eve of crucial talks in Brussels

domestic pressure mounts on UK Prime

Minister Theresa May to demand

guarantees before any divorce bill

is paid and skywatchers get their

first glimpse of a larger and

brighter looking moon as it reaches

its closest point to earth.

Welcome to BBC World News, North

Korea has accused the United States

of being a warmonger on the eve of

joint military exercises between the

US and South Korea, Monday struggles

of the largest ever involving US and

South Korean troops. President

Trump's National Security adviser

has said the US and its allies are

in a race to tackle the problem of

North Korea before the secretive

state achieves its nuclear

ambitions. This report.

American military might on display

near the Korean peninsula.

Here, a rare sight.

Three US aircraft carriers,

so-called super carriers,

brought together last month

for the first time in a decade.

And now the US decision to hold

another round of air exercises has

raised tensions again.

On Monday five days of air drills

will begin, the largest ever

joint drills with US

and South Korean forces.

They will simulate air strikes

on mock North Korean nuclear

and missile targets.

This comes as President Trump's

national security adviser warns

the possibility of war

with Pyongyang is

increasing by the day.

The greatest immediate threat

to the United States,

and to the world, is the threat

posed by the rogue regime

in North Korea, and his

continued efforts to develop

a long-range nuclear capability.

There are ways to address this

problem, short of armed

conflict, but it is a race,

because he is getting closer

and closer, and there's

not much time left.

In North Korea news of the military

exercises drew dire warnings.

TRANSLATION:

If the Korean peninsula

and the world are embroiled

in the crucible of a nuclear war,

because of the reckless nuclear war

mania of the United States,

the US must take full

responsibility for it.

On Friday North Korea held a mass

event celebrating the success

of recent weapons tests.

The latest one sent a missile

higher than ever before,

putting the continental

United States in striking range.

Now Pyongyang is rushing

to perfect its weapons technology,

including the development

of a nuclear warhead that

can fit on a missile.

Kim Jong-un is getting closer

to his nuclear ambitions.

Here he inspects a factory making

tyres for missile launch vehicles.

Some are quick to brush off

the exchange of threats

between Kim Jong-un and the Trump

administration, dismissing

them as bluster.

But as the US and North Korea ramp

up their military capabilities,

making no secret the other

is the target, it raises

the prospect that one misstep

and one miscalculation could ignite

a sudden military confrontation,

claiming hundreds of thousands,

if not millions, of lives.

Celia Hatton, BBC News.

Donald Trump has spent a second day

fiercely defending himself

after one of his most senior former

aides pleaded guilty

to lying to the FBI.

Michael Flynn, former national

security adviser, admitted lying

to the intelligence agency

about conversations he'd had

with Russian officials.

In a tweet on Sunday the president

lashed out at the FBI,

saying its reputation

was "in tatters".

And that's not all the US

President tweeted about -

as Laura Bicker explains.

he was tweeting about James Comey,

he denied he had asked the former

head of the FBI to drop an

investigation

head of the FBI to drop an

investigation into Michael Flynn.

Why is this important? Because the

tweet sent out yesterday from the

President's account seemed to imply

that President Trump new his

national security adviser had lied

to the FBI. If he had had that

knowledge and pressured the FBI to

let his adviser go that could

consist of an obstruction of

knowledge, then we received more

information on this tale, another

twist. The tweet that was a

controversial was not sent by the

president but by his lawyer, John

Dowd. He sent out a note this

morning saying, I am out of the

tweeting business, I did not mean to

break news. What they are saying is

that it was a mistake. It raises the

question, did President Trump know

that his national security adviser

lied when he tried to pressure James

Comey into

dropping the investigation. Of

course now President Trump says he

didn't say that at all. This is

becoming very much a game of he

says, she says.

It must be

frustrating for President Trump and

the White House because this should

have been a weekend when they were

celebrating the passage of the tax

reform bill through the Senate yet

they don't seem to be doing

themselves any favours in terms of

moving the agenda on.

I think I used

the phrase "Snatching defeat from

the jaws of victory". President

Trump could have the tax reform

bill, getting over the roadblock

that has halted the Republicans in

the last vision like months, is a

promise he made to his supporters

and it looks very much on the path

to becoming law. It could have been

a weekend when he was making the

most of that. Yet instead the focus

has been switched back to the rushed

investigation. But it is worth

pointing out that with these tweets

talking about the FBI in tatters and

trying to discredit James Comey he

also mentions Hillary Clinton. This

is fodder for his supporters, who

believe the FBI should have done

more to prosecute Hillary Clinton

for the misuse of the e-mails. They

also wonder if they didn't go after

Hillary Clinton why are they going

after the president. Donald Trump

has repeatedly called the

investigation into alleged Russian

meddling during the election

campaign a witchhunt. By undermining

the FBI in these tweets and saying

it needs to get better that is

something his supporters will take

to heart. Laura Bicker.

Egypt's former Prime Minister Ahmed

Shafik has given a phone interview

on television denying speculation

that he was kidnapped.

He went missing after arriving

in Cairo at the weekend.

Mr Shafik was deported

from the United Arab Emirates

to Egypt on Saturday,

just days after he announced he

intended to run for the Presidency.

His family raised the alarm

when they couldn't contact

him after he landed.

Sahar Aziz is a Law Professor

who was born in Egypt

and now Senior Fellow for the Centre

for Global Policy.

She joins me from Boston.

Good to see you. Take us back to

basics, and why was he in self

imposed exile and while Berger

concerns when his family could not

contact him.

Your viewers may know

that he was a finalist in the 2012

presidential elections and barely

lost to Mohammed Morsi who was

ousted in a military coup in July 20

13. So when he was no longer going

to be president there were fears he

would be prosecuted along with all

the other former Mubarak regime is

and he did have charges against him.

He fled to the United Arab Emirates

so he would not be subject to the

same fate as many of the Mubarak

officials because he used to be

minister of aviation and was a

former military general.

Do you

think his announcing his intention

to run for the presidency would have

been unsettling for the current

president? Would he have been a real

contender?

Yes, I think it is a

serious contender. For one reason.

In the last six years a growing

number of Egyptians are starting to

reminisce and have nostalgia for the

Mubarak era. They feel they are

poorer now, under much more economic

hardship. They don't see democracy,

they seek more political repression

rather than less and any of the

business elite would like to go back

to doing big business with the

borough officials and we don't know

how the military feels about the

president, on the outside they seem

to be in agreement but on the inside

there will be a camp that was more

aligned with the Mubarak regime and

major feat is part of that camp. So

there may well be people in the

military in the business elite who

have signalled or maybe explicitly

told Shafik, you should run and you

might have a real job of beating the

current leader as his presidency

wanes in the light of the economic

and security problems that Egypt is

facing as we saw with the massacre

of 300 Muslims at a mosque after

Friday prayers.

Given that are

snared Shafik has given an interview

disputing that he was kidnapped, it

looks as if he may be able to fulfil

his intention of running for the

presidency. Does that mean any cause

for concern has now gone away?

Is

taking on a dangerous endeavour. In

Egypt the stakes are high and it's

hard to predict the future. It is

possible that new charges could be

filed against Ahmed Shafik, criminal

charges. Already two lawyers have

filed charges against him on the

basis of one statement and another

kernel has said he wanted to run and

he has been jailed. So he is taking

a high risk path. However I think

he's betting on his allies in the

Gulf, his allies in the West and his

allies within the deep state to

protect him from the fate of a

serious contender. It'll be

interesting to see how this next

plays out, because the president

wants to create an appearance that

he was democratically elected,

particularly to his people who are

increasingly frustrated with the

lack of economic results produced.

But he doesn't want anyone who will

be a serious contender and Ahmed

Shafik could certainly be that

serious contender.

Many thanks

indeed for the analysis.

Here in Britain the Prime Minister

is coming under increasing pressure

to adopt a tougher line

during Brexit negotiations.

Theresa May is preparing to travel

to Brussels on Monday,

for talks with the President

of the European Commission.

An influential group of Brexit

supporters is urging

the Prime Minister to refuse

to settle the UK's so-called

'divorce bill,' unless Brussels

agrees to a series of new demands.

Here's our political

correspondent, Alex Forsyth.

They have met plenty of times

before, always appearing friendly,

but there is a lot riding

on their get-together tomorrow.

Whether EU leaders can

be persuaded to move

Brexit talks on later this month.

While back home, some of her MPs

have upped the pressure.

A handful of Brexit backing

Tories have written

to the Prime Minister,

laying down conditions they want

met, including a promise

that the European Court of

Justice will cease to have any

jurisdiction over the UK.

For some, this goes

to the heart of the Brexit

debate.

The European Court of Justice

is there to rule on all

matters to do with

the European Union.

We will have left the European Union

and therefore the

simple point is that we should not

therefore have to look to the

European Court of Justice or to have

judgments made by them,

bound directly back

here into the UK.

When it comes to the European Court

of Justice, Theresa May has

signalled it will have a role

during any transition

period, but not after.

Though some ardent Brexiteers

fear there could be

compromise as the EU wants

it to keep overseeing

citizens' rights.

Today the Government insisted

European law would not hold

sway over British law and had

a warning for backbenchers.

The Supreme Court

will decide what the

law of the country is in this

country, as voted on by Parliament.

That is the big thing that

Theresa May has achieved.

I think there is an even

bigger point here.

The choice we face now is not

between this Brexit or that

Brexit.

If we don't back Theresa May

we will have no Brexit.

But there are competing

views over several

aspects of these talks.

The island of Ireland will be

where the UK meets the EU.

All agree there should

be no hard border.

But today the Irish government

still was not convinced

as to how that can be achieved.

The Irish government

is not being unreasonable,

we are simply asking

questions that need

more credible answers

before we can allow

the

process to move on to phase two.

So tonight there is no

agreement in key areas

on the issues the EU said

it

wanted progress before

moving on to talk trade.

Tomorrow's meeting is a crucial

step in deciding whether

enough has been done.

The outcome is vital,

but far from certain.

Alex Forsyth, BBC News, Westminster.

Stay with us. Still to come. 20

years after an international ban on

landmines White is the number of

their victims on the rise? -- why?

It is clear that the main victims of

the poor people living in the slums

that have sprung up around the

factory.

Children are dying in front

of me and I can't do anything.

Half a metre of rock separated

Britain from France, and then they

were shaking hands and exchanging

flags with their opposite numbers.

This is BBC World News Today.

I'm Ben Bland.

The latest headlines.

A new war of words has broken out

between North Korea and the US

on the eve of the biggest-ever

US-South Korean air drills.

Egyptian presidential hopeful

Ahmed Shafik denies being kidnapped,

after turning up in

the capital, Cairo.

People living in the Yemeni capital,

Sanaa, are reporting fierce

fighting as Houthi rebels

try to defeat their former allies,

supporters of the ex-president

Ali Abdullah Saleh.

There are reports that the houses

of prominent figures connected

to Mr Saleh have been attacked

and blown up.

The Houthis say they've regained

most of the territory they had

earlier lost to Mr Saleh's

supporters, despite air strikes

by the Saudi-led coalition

targeting Houthi positions.

We asked the MSF head of Mission

to Yemen, June Besselink,

whether he'd witnessed

the coalition air strikes.

So far it is difficult to know

because I have been here one year

and these air strikes have been

continuous so to know if they are in

response to what is happening, I

don't know. For this moment we have

more than ten projects and we have

coordination teams in the capital.

At this moment we are not looking

into evacuation because it is not

safe to go outside your house. We

are continuously running programmes

on supporting hospitals here in the

capital, although these hospitals

are massively struggling patients

are having trouble getting to the

hospitals, ambulances can't move on

streets because they get shot at, we

had several supplies in warehouses

but we can't get to the hospitals

because it's too dangerous to go

out.

Today marks 20 years

since the international convention

banning anti-personnel landmines

was signed in Ottawa, Canada.

The convention has been

ratified by 162 countries.

But aid agencies warn that landmines

still pose a huge danger.

Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

Landmines need an instant to cause a

lifetime of damage. Landmine

injuries stop adults from being able

to work and children from being able

to go to school or able to play. The

ban on landmines, signed with such

hope 20 years ago, means that

Freddie few countries still use

them. Deaths and injuries have

fallen from 20,000 a year in 1997 to

6500 today. But now that figure is

rising again. Armies may not use

land mines, but armed groups do.

When Islamic State fighters were

driven out of Raqqa and Mosul, they

left home made devices behind.

The

big problem today is non-state

actors, which is, many of these

conflicts that we see on the news

and in the newspapers every day, we

see that much more improvised

landmines, home made minds are being

used that we are able to clear.

And

millions of landmines deployed

decades ago still contaminate

countries from Bosnia to Cambodia to

Zimbabwe. Many will miss the 2025

target set for clearance despite

overwhelming support for the band,

the deadly legacy of landmines will

be with us for many years to come.

Imogen Foulkes, BBC News, Geneva.

Now time to check on today's sport.

Thank you Ben. Starting with

football.

Manchester City have a chance

to break new ground

against their rivals

Manchester United at

Old Trafford next Sunday.

David Silva's 83rd-minute finish

against West Ham saw City win

a record-equalling 13th

Premier League match in a row

with victory over West Ham

at the Etihad Stadium.

They could be the first ever

Premier League team to win 14

in a row if they beat

Jose Mourinho's side next weekend.

Angelo Ogbonna put West Ham ahead

but Nicolas Otamendi equalised

before Silva pounced

with seven minutes left.

West Ham boss David Moyes has now

overseen three defeats and a draw

since taking over from Slaven Bilic.

His team sit 19th in the table.

In the second half it was quite

similar, when we were in the second

half I thought we were going to

school and win, but today it was a

little bit different, so it was

massive, no chances, because they

played ten players inside the box!

So it's almost impossible but we

didn't concede too much, and got the

victory.

For long periods I thought it would

be our day. We did not limit their

possession but we did limit their

chances, the keeper made a few

saves, but I always thought we were

a threat on the break and the

Pacific and score. We may be

arguably had the best chances in the

first half.

Was at a game plan that

in the first half worked spot-on?

It

was. Manchester City's positions

that they take up often change that

and we didn't do well enough when we

had the ball at times. But we stuck

at it and saw it through, the boys

did a really good job.

In Italy's Serie A, Benevento -

who've not won a league

game this season -

took their "first ever

top-flight point".

Thanks to an extraordinary moment

too - their goalkeeper -

Alberto Brignoli, on loan

from Juventus, scored

with a flying header -

deep into stoppage time -

to give them a 2-2 draw with Milan.

The visitors spent

more than $200 million

in the last transfer window -

compared to Benvento's

total of $20 million.

Milan "twice took the lead" -

but were pegged back

after Alessio Romagnoli was sent

off; a second booking

in the 75th minute.

The result was another

embarassment for Milan -

playing their first match under

new coach Gennaro Gattuso -

after sacking Vincenzo

Montella on Monday.

Now to cricket and Australia will be

hoping to continue their good form

when play starts on the third day

of their second Ashes Test

against England in Adelaide.

England will resume on 29-1

in their first innings -

still 413 runs behind the hosts -

who declared on 442 for eight.

Shaun Marsh made

an unbeaten century.

There were very few moments there,

probably when I got to 90 I began to

get a bit nervous but obviously

extremely happy to get a hundred for

my country and get a hundred in an

Ashes Test is pretty special.

American Rickie Fowler

has won Golf's HERO

World Challenge in the Bahamas

by four shots finishing on 18 under

with a destructive final round of 11

under sweeping away all others.

It set a new course and tournament

record in what was the lowest

round of his career.

Next best was his compatriot

Charley Hoffman on 14 under

while Tiger Woods, who hosted

the event in his latest comeback,

from injury fired a final

round of four under to finish tied

for ninth, ten shots behind Fowler.

Ronnie O'Sullivan seems

to be the man to beat

at snooker's UK Championship.

The defending champion Mark Selby

was knocked out on Saturday in York.

But there was no problem

for O'Sullivan, who's aiming

for a record-equalling

sixth UK title.

He wasn't at his best

against Michael Georgiou -

but still won by six frames to one.

The world number four

goes into round three.

He'll face either Michael White

or Matthew Selt in the third round.

And that's all the sport for now.

Thank you, see you soon.

Skygazers around the world

have been treated to

a spectacular sight -

with the moon appearing far bigger

and brighter than usual.

The supermoon - or "cold moon"

as it's traditionally named

in December, happens when the Earth

is closer than usual in its orbit.

While for some, the skies are too

cloudy to enjoy the phenomenon -

it has been spectacular in places

like Myanmar and Uganda.

Earlier I spoke to astronomer

Tom Kerss at the Royal

Observatory in Greenwich -

he says it's actually

all a trick of the eye.

The moon doesn't appear much bigger

than usual, that's the strange

thing. The changes actually subtle

but because the man's close approach

to the Earth, a point in the orbit

with the moon and the earth comes

closest each month, when that

happens to coincide with the full

moon we call this a supermoon. Not a

rigid term in the astronomical

community but a colloquial term for

what happens when the moon is

unusually close to the earth like

tonight and tomorrow morning. So we

will seek a supermoon and there is

some game in the apparent size and

brightness of the moon said makes

that approach and is fully

eliminated from our perspective by

the sun. Actually the differences

marginal. If you really want a

dramatic effect, if you go outside

and that any full moon rising or

setting your mind produces an

illusion which recalled the Moon

illusion, it makes the moon look

larger when it's on the horizon and

that fact can be more dramatic than

the so-called supermoon. So you

could see a supermoon almost every

time when the moon is rising if you

want to.

Don't forget you can get

in touch with me and some