23/02/2018 World News Today

I'm Geeta Guru Murthy.

Our top stories...

In the wake of the Florida school

shooting, Donald Trump makes

the case for arming teachers to stop

attackers.

It's concealed, so this crazy man

who walked in wouldn't even know

who it is that has it.

That's good.

That's not bad, that's good.

And a teacher would have shot

the hell out of him before

he knew what happened.

The UN Security Council prepares to

vote on a new ceasefire in Syria -

just as Government forces continue

to target eastern Ghouta -

where hundreds have died.

Were you the mastermind that

cheated the Olympics?

The man who revealed Russian doping,

now in fear for his life,

says Russia should not be

allowed at the closing

of the Winter Olympics.

And how lemon and other acidic food

can damage your teeth.

Scientists warn it's not just

about what we eat, but when and how.

Hello and welcome

to World News Today.

After last week's school shooting

in Florida in which 17 people

were killed, President Trump has

called for some teachers to carry

concealed weapons in schools.

He was speaking to the Conservative

Political Action Conference.

Maybe 10% or 20% of

the population of teachers, etc.

It's not all of them,

but you would have a lot,

and you would tell people

that they are inside.

And the beauty it's concealed.

No-one would ever see it

unless they needed it.

It's concealed, so this crazy man

who walked in wouldn't even know

who it is that has it.

That's good.

That's not bad, that's good.

And the teacher would have shot

the hell out of him before

he knew what happened.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

They love their students.

They love those students,

folks, remember that.

Donald Trump there. Let's go live to

Maryland at the conference. Tell us

a bit more about what President

Trump said and what the reaction has

been.

In terms of

been.

In terms of the shooting, you had

the vital that there is that went

down pretty well with this audience.

I wouldn't say they were overwhelmed

with the idea of arming teachers but

they certainly liked highs robust

support for the second in general.

But the amendment that Americans use

to protect their right to own guns

and weapons more generally.

Interestingly, highs idea about

arming teachers has not exactly gone

down well with some teaching unions

but also the governor of Florida, a

Republican. He is not too keen on

that either, he proposing raising

the age at which you can buy an

assault weapon in Florida to the age

of 21, which of course would have

prevented the killer with getting

the weapon he used last week. But

the debate is on this teacher arming

business and I think that will

divide people significantly because

only one hand, Donald Trump says it

will make schools safer and on the

other, then people will say the last

thing America needs to combat a gun

problem is more guns.

And if I can just turn to one other

piece of news that were just getting

in on the news agencies, the United

States will apparently open a new

embassy injuries of an inmate to

coincide with Israel's 70th

anniversary. We knew this move was

coming but confirmation now of the

timing.

That is interesting and Donald Trump

referred to Jerusalem this morning

in highs speech and the moving of

the embassy there and that got an

enormous cheer. It's surprising that

they are doing it quite so quickly

because obviously they will have to

be some pretty heavy security

arrangements for that building

injuries along. I think they do have

a culture that there are already so

that might be partly it. He will

stay fulfilling a campaign promise,

there will be many people in the

republican movement, particularly

the Christian Right, who will

welcome this enormously, but in

European capitals and in other parts

of the world where they have been

dry for years to help edge on some

sort of peace process, there will be

a lot of anxiety about this move. A

lot of America's allies do not

support the idea and of course, the

Palestinians are utterly opposed to

it in its current form. It is going

to cause a row, there's no doubt

about that.

Just to let you know that it is

reported the building will be moving

to a separate annex by the end of

2019. It is a permanent embassy,

according to Reuters. We will

confirm that as soon as we can.

The United Nations Security Council

is due to vote in the next hour

on a draft resolution calling

for a humanitarian

ceasefire in Syria.

So far, Russia has blocked attempts

to impose a 30-day nationwide truce.

Almost 400,000 people are trapped

in Eastern Ghouta and under

constant bombardment

by President Assad's forces.

The rebel-held area

is on the outskirts of the capital,

and has been under Government

siege since 2013.

Opposition activists accuse Assad's

forces of killing about 400 people

in six days of attacks.

The UN is warning of a massacre.

Martin Patience reports

from neighbouring Lebanon.

Another frantic

search for survivors.

An airstrike has just hit.

A child is brought out

of the burning building.

But a woman is trapped inside.

They're struggling to find her.

Come down, come down, they shout.

They've found her.

In another home, another rescue.

But for the dead,

there is no peace here.

Even those burying a victim

are running for cover.

More than a million Syrians have

fled over the mountains

into neighbouring Lebanon.

We spoke to one couple

from eastern Ghouta.

He and his wife didn't

want their faces shown,

fearing reprisals from

the Syrian Government.

TRANSLATION:

I last spoke

to my cousin three days ago.

It was terrible.

He told me that they

were waiting to die.

He asked me to forgive him

if I never heard from him again.

His little boy was killed.

He was just three and a half.

I have not heard

from my cousin since.

He plays me the last message

he got from his cousin.

They are destroying Ghouta, he says.

Please pray for us.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news.

There have been two large explosions

in the Somali capital Mogadishu,

killing 18 people and injuring 20.

The police say a suicide bomber blew

up a car near the presidential

palace and a second blast was close

to the national intelligence agency.

Both were followed by heavy gunfire.

A former adviser to Donald Trump's

is expected to plead guilty today.

He is said to be co-op rating with

the investigation and could further

implicate members of Tron's 2016

election campaign team. Complaints

were filed on Thursday.

A painting by the French artist

Edgar Degas, which was stolen

from a museum in Marseille in 2009,

has been found on a bus

near Paris.The artwork

was discovered in the luggage

compartment of the vehicle

at a motorway service station.

Experts confirmed that it's

"The Chorus Singers" -

a pastel painting said to be worth

nearly a million dollars.

The man who exposed the Russian

doping scandal has given his first

international broadcast interview

to the BBC.

Evidence from whistle-blower

Dr Grigory Rodchenkov

on state-sponsored doping saw Russia

banned from the Winter Olympics -

and the fallout from the testimony

forced him into hiding and in fear

of his life.

Now living in the United States,

we interviewed Dr Rodchenkov

from a secret location

where he said if he hadn't fled

Russia he'd now be dead.

Two Russian athletes at the winter

olympics have tested

positive for doping.

This exclusive report

is by our sports editor, Dan Roan.

It is one of sport's

greatest scandals.

Russian cheating reached its height

at the last Winter Games in Sochi.

The mastermind,

Dr Grigory Rodchenkov.

In 2015, the former head

of Moscow's anti-doping lab

turned whistle-blower,

fleeing to the west.

Ever since, he's been

in FBI witness protection.

But we are on the way to meet him.

For more than two years now,

the man at the very heart

of Russia's doping scandal has been

living in hiding here somewhere

in the United States.

Finally, he's agreed to speak to us,

but such are the security concerns

surrounding him we've not even been

told where we have to go.

After hours on the road,

we are taken to a location

that we are told has to remain

a secret along with

Rodchenkov's new identity.

If you had not left Russia,

where would you be now?

You'd be dead.

I would be done.

Rodchenkov's role in Russia's

remarkable doping programme

became the subject of

an Oscar-nominated film.

Were you the mastermind that

cheated the Olympics?

Yes.

Yes.

He said the conspiracy went right

to the top and that

London 2012 was also targeted.

So what does he say to British

athletes whose Games were tainted?

I am very sorry that your career,

your biography was simply broken

because of the systematic and

widespread cheating that was

practised in the Russian national

team before the London Games. That's

why I'm sitting here and telling you

the truth about what happened at

that time.

The Russian Government says you are

lying.

You were cheating.

It wasn't them, it was you.

Russia is a country and lighting and

denying, especially in sport. I give

you only truth.

I give you only truth.

Does British sport have a problem

with cheating, do you think?

Honestly? Yes. I have some, several

extremely suspicious cases in

British sport.

Despite Russian claims he is part

of a western conspiracy,

Rodchenkov's information led

to a ban from the Winter Olympics.

168 of the country's athletes

competed as neutrals but they may

now be allowed to march

under their national flag

at the closing ceremony.

The Olympic Athletes of Russia team.

Only clean Russians were meant

to be in Pyeongchang,

but today a second of its athletes

at these Games, Nadezhda Sergeeva,

failed a drugs test.

Moving forward from sport's biggest

crisis is no easy task.

The World Health Organization has

told the BBC it's investigating

a number of harassment claims

within the agency.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says

the recent revelations around abuse

and harassment within aid agencies

are "shocking" but that there should

be a "measured response".

He's been speaking to our global

health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar

at a Patient Safety Summit

in London.

We're here at the Global Patient

Safety Summit where health leaders

have been meeting to discuss how

to cut the avoidable deaths

due to medical errors

all around the world.

Speaking on the stage earlier

was the relatively new head

of the World health Organisation,

Tedros Ghebreyesus, and I've been

speaking to him about the current

controversy engulfing

the aid sector.

How have you found these revelations

yourself personally?

It has been so shocking,

hearing what's been going on.

Of course it has.

It's very shocking.

But at the same time, it should

strengthen our resolve to fight it.

Clearly this is something that has

got people very upset as people

are already withdrawing money

from Oxfam and others.

they are so keen to what

you do on the ground,

are you worried that this

is going to impact what

you can do for people?

As long as we start instituting

radical measures to address it

in the future, I think we have

to see

the other side also.

Oxfam, for instance,

has done great things.

I know it myself, I'm

from a developing country

and I can give you many examples

where Oxfam have really done

incredible things to help the needy.

That is why this is so

troubling, isn't it?

Because that trust that was there

has now been damaged

possibly without being able

to recover from that.

We have to see the problem properly

and address it in a way

that we continue to do

the good things.

So there should be a balance.

And just to be clear,

are you doing a review

into WHO practices to make sure

that your staff are following strict

guidelines and protecting vulnerable

people on the ground?

That's what I said we have been

doing and there is always

room for improvement.

We identified, even last week

when we checked the policy issues,

there are some things

that we need to improve.

The most important

thing is commitment

to continuous improvement.

Make it an open organisation,

transparent one, prevent

things from happening,

that's the most important thing.

But detect as something wrong

happens and take a serious measure.

We are doing things

differently, as I told you.

For instance, for the first time

in WHO, the top management,

64% of the top management are women.

Are you investigating any complaint

against WHO staff at the moment?

Of course there are cases

that came from 2017

which are under investigation.

Most of them are harassment,

sexual, I think one place

which is still under investigation.

The most important thing,

I said earlier, is to

have an open organisation

and to focus on prevention.

And also to have mechanisms

for early detection and ways

to protect whistle-blowers,

which we have.

The Nigerian president,

Muhammadu Buhari, has described

the suspected kidnapping

of schoolgirls by Boko Haram

jihadists four days ago

as a national disaster.

He said more troops had been sent

to the town of Dapchi

to try to bring them to safety.

It is still not clear how many

students were taken,

but there are fears that it could be

as many as 100.

Nigeria's Information Minister,

Lai Mohammed, said Boko Haram

was just trying to make the Nigerian

government look bad.

Until students show,

all we hear from their parents that

they are with them, we cannot

say this is a number

of students we have.

Give us a few more days please.

These are the dying

days of Boko Haram.

However they tend to do

is to embarrass government.

Their power has gone completely.

Their oxygen is publicity.

We are going to go about our top

story, the vote and so a ceasefire

in Syria. What do we know about the

prospect of agreement?

prospect of agreement?

The mood in

the building is that it seems as

though leaders are close. The

Kuwaiti embarrasses they are close

to an agreement. We have also heard

from leaders overseas saying the

same thing so it seems we may have a

vote in favour of a draft resolution

on that ceasefire. This has been a

two-week long negotiation process.

It has been a long road to get the

parties together. First Russia said

the draft was unrealistic and they

needed more guarantees that the

rebels would abide by it and you

have accusations from the likes of

the United States who said they were

delaying for Assad to continue highs

military operation. But there is a

desperate need for the ceasefire to

provide relief to the civilians who

are there and need aid and to get

out, to seek medical attention, and

they may have that ceasefire today.

And how have they managed a

potentially bring Russia on size

given President Assad has said he is

fighting some jihadi groups?

That

was the kind of key proposal that

was wrapped into the Swedish and

Kuwaiti draft resolution, that RSS,

Al-Qaeda and even their associates

would not be included in the

ceasefire.

ceasefire. -- Isis. The Russians

offered several other types of

amendments that weren't included in

the draft and diplomats say they

still feel it is true to the

original goals that the and Kuwaiti

people put forward. This has been a

two-week long process, though the

vote has been delayed several times

for last-minute negotiations and it

seems they are willing to meet

Russia halfway to get a positive

thought.

Thanks very much. In the

last few minutes, the president of

the European Council

In the last few minutes,

the president of the European

Council, Donald Tusk,

has told reporters in Brussels that

London's position on Brexit

is based on 'pure illusion'.

He made the comment at the end

of a meeting of leaders

from 27 EU countries,

excluding Britain.

One of the topics discussed at that

meeting was the bloc's joint stance

on ties with Britain after Brexit.

if the media reports are correct, I

am afraid that the UK's position

today is based on pure delusion.

It

looks like the cake philosophy is

still alive. From the very start, it

has been a key principle of the EU

27 that there can be no cherry

picking and now single market a la

carte. This will continue to be a

key principle, I have no doubt.

Let's speak to our correspondent

in Brussels, Adam Fleming.

How significant is this

intervention?

I think the first

thing to say is that he'll was

responding to reports of what the

British Government agreed as an

eight or log meeting of the Cabinet.

He doesn't know the British position

in detail. He will not know that

until he meets Theresa May in London

and he wants no until their Prime

Minister gives a speech detailing it

on Friday. But I think that was

on Friday. But I think that was a

pretty brutal put-down. When he

talks about the cake philosophy, he

is talking about the idea that the

EU has had all along, which is that

the UK cannot just pick bits of the

single market to stay in and leave

others to decide, it can't pick

which EU lows at once to follow and

then write its own lows for the

likes, which is the Brexit policy of

the EU and has been since last year

when talks started. And the way he

delivered the words as well, he

seems pretty glum. I wouldn't say he

was angry, but he was verging on

anger. I think this will be doubly

annoying for the British Government

because they think the big meeting

they had yesterday, with the Cabinet

who some of whom have different

views on Brexit, they think that

went very well, so I think those

comments from Donald Tusk will have

gone down very badly in London

tonight. This final meeting of the

27 leaders of the EU was meant to be

about Brexits, Donald Tusk has just

ensured that all the headlines

tomorrow about the meeting will be a

secular but Brexit.

Given as you say

we don't know what the British

Government position is, what do we

think the agreement was on the

question of Common Market, single

market access?

The phrase that is

doing the rounds at the moment is,

wait for it, ambitious, manage

divergences. I'm not entirely sure

what it means but I think what the

concepts are is that you have a

really close economic relationship

between the UK and the EU where the

UK starts off following most of the

EU's rolls and then over time moves

away from those roles. In some ways,

quite dramatically but you manage it

so that both sides manage how the

divergence happens to prevent any

problems. The Irish Taoiseach said

that it sounds like choosing which

parts of the single market you want

and which you want to reject, which

I was seeing, is one of the EU has

said is not possible all along.

An

interesting weekend. Thanks very

much.

Did you know that some fruit, fruit

teas and snacking between meals can

increase your chances

of tooth erosion?

Scientists at King's College London

found acidic food and drink

can wear teeth down -

especially if you snack continually.

The way we eat and drink is almost

as much of a factor in tooth

erosion as what we consume,

according to new research.

Here's more from our health

correspondent, Catherine Burns.

Just going to have a look...

Back in the dentist chair

even though she thought she looked

after her teeth well.

Rachel has erosive tooth wear.

It is when acid eats away at them

until they chip or get shorter.

It turns out Rachel has a bad habit

she didn't even know about.

When I drink normally, especially

if it's a kind of flavoured drink,

I just hold it in my mouth a bit

longer than the average person.

I think it might be the taste

or something like that.

I think again, that exposure

to my teeth and sitting in my mouth

longer than just swallowing it down.

As vices go, it doesn't

sound so terrible.

But researchers say it's bad

news for your teeth.

About one in six people

we found her habits like sitting

things really slowly or switching

the amount their mouths,

people tend to rinse things

around their mouths,

if you're doing these

behaviours on a daily basis

for years and years,

you can cause serious

damage to your teeth.

And that serious damage can mean

that your whole mouth

needs to be rebuilt.

It is preventable, mostly by cutting

back on acidic food and drink.

Some things, though,

like fruit, are generally seen

as the healthy option.

But from a dental point of view,

they can erode teeth.

This report mentions things

like adding a slice of lemon

or lime to your water,

sugar free soft drinks,

drinking fruit teas

and snacking on fruit.

Take these grapes for example,

if you were to eat ten or 20

of them in one sitting,

that would be one acid

attack on your teeth.

If you were to eat the same amount

on a longer period of time,

it would be a sustained attack.

So should people scrap their five

a day to protect their teeth?

The researchers say that's

the last thing they want.

But the advice is to be aware

of overall eating patterns

and to consider snacks that are less

acidic and high in calcium.

You can reach me on Twitter.

I'm @geetagurumurthy.

Thanks for watching.