16/03/2018 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today.

I'm Kasia Madera.

Our top stories...

Britain's anti-terror police launch

a murder inquiry into the death

of a Russian exile living in the UK.

Nikolai Glushkov was

found dead at his home

near London on Monday -

he had been a critic

of Vladimir Putin.

In a separate development,

the British Foreign Secretary

accuses President Putin

of being behind the recent nerve

agent attack in the UK.

Our quarrel is with Putin's Kremlin

and with his decision,

and we think it overwhelmingly

is likely that it was his decision

to direct the use of a nerve agent

on the streets of the UK,

on the streets of Europe,

for the first time since

the Second World War.

Tens of thousand of people

are forced to flee from Syria

following two separate offensives

against rebel forces.

And coming up -

pictures of the first polar bear

to be born in the UK in 25 years.

Hello and welcome

to World News Today.

We start with the news that UK

counter-terrorism police

are treating the death of a Russian

businessman on Monday as murder.

It comes as a war of words

between London and Moscow continues

over the use of a nerve agent

to poison former Russian double

agent Sergei Skripal

and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury

nearly two weeks ago.

Police now say that

Nikolai Glushkov, whose body

was found in his London home,

died from a "compression

to the neck".

However, at this stage,

they say there is no evidence

linking his death to the attempted

murders two weeks ago.

Naomi Grimley reports.

A dramatic new twist.

The Met Police have a new

investigation on their hands,

this time into the murder

of 68-year-old Nikolai Glushkov.

Officers have been investigating his

death carefully since he was found

at home in New Malden on Monday.

But a postmortem has

now found he died from

compression to the neck.

In the 1990s, Glushkov

was a director of the state

airline Aeroflot.

He was charged with money laundering

and fraud and spent some

time in jail in Russia.

Glushkov was a close

friend of the Russian

tycoon Boris Berezovsky,

and, like his friend,

he fled to the UK and was granted

political asylum here.

In 2013, Berezovsky

himself was found dead.

The police said it was suicide,

but Glushkov was convinced his

friend had been killed.

As for the diplomatic fallout

from the two attempted

murders in Salisbury,

British diplomats in Moscow

are still braced for tit-for-tat

reprisals after Britain announced

the expulsion of 23

Russian officials.

There is no word on that yet,

but Russia says it has stopped

listening to the long list

of allegations from the West.

TRANSLATION:

There's investigations,

hearings, but not a single piece

of evidence has been presented

to the public.

The lack of facts is instead

being compensated for by more

and more waves of sanctions.

At RAF Northolt, Boris Johnson

was standing shoulder to shoulder

with his Polish counterpart,

making it clear that President Putin

is the man he wants to see punished,

not Russians in general.

Our quarrel is with Putin's Kremlin

and with his decision,

and we think it overwhelmingly

is likely that it was his decision

to direct the use of a nerve agent

on the streets of the UK,

on the streets of Europe,

for the first time since

the Second World War.

The Russians gave an immediate

response to that remark, saying

it was shocking and unforgivable.

In Salisbury last night,

specialist police teams

were still at the graveside

of Sergei Skripal's wife and son.

131 people in this quintessentially

English city are believed to have

had possible contact

with the deadly nerve agent.

They may not be in hospital,

but the anxiety caused

to them is trouble enough.

Naomi Grimley, BBC News.

We will have an update on that story

from the home of Nikolai Glushkov

shortly, so stay with us.

Police say the focus of the Miami

bridge operation has switched

from rescue to recovery,

as hopes fade of finding more

survivors in the rubble.

At least six people were killed

when the footbridge near

Florida International University

collapsed on to a

freeway on Thursday.

BBC Mundo's Patricia Sulbaran has

the latest from the scene.

They are trying to recover the

remaining victims that are trapped

underneath the rubble. Yesterday

this bridge collapsed, crashing at

least eight vehicles and now the

rescuers are trying day and night

just to recover these victims. They

have said that there are no

survivors, unfortunately. This

bridge was supposed to bring safety

to the students at the University of

Florida because it was meant to

cross a heavily travelled highway.

However, had collapsed yesterday but

what we know is that there was

testing performed on the same day,

but we do not yet know the results

of the collapse of this bridge, any

investigation could take days. We

know that it was put up on Saturday

in a matter of six hours because it

was a bridge that was constructed in

an accelerated fashion. But the

authorities are being cautious and

are not getting any conclusions and

they have said that they will have a

thorough investigation into what

caused this tragedy.

Let's take a look

at some of the other

stories making the news...

German Chancellor

Angela Merkel is distancing

herself from comments

by the new Interior Minister,

who says Islam doesn't

belong to the country.

In a newspaper interview,

Horst Zayhoffer said Germany

was shaped by Christianity,

and shouldn't give

up its traditions.

Mr Seehofer, who heads

a Bavaria sister party

of Merkel's Conservatives,

has been a vocal critic

of her refugee policies.

Thousands of protestors

in Tokyo have gathered

in front of Parliament,

calling for the resignation

of the Japanese Prime

Minister, Shinzo Abe.

Mr Abe has been accused

of a suspected cover-up

linked to cronyism,

but denies any wrongdoing.

Two Israeli

soldiers have been killed

in what the Israeli military says

was a deliberate car-ramming.

Two other people were injured

in the incident in the West Bank

near the town of Jenin.

The driver, a Palestinian,

has been detained and is being

treated for injuries.

Zimbabwe's current leadership

is dismissing comments

by the former President,

Robert Mugabe, saying

he was ousted illegally.

Mr Mugabe is insisting that what he

calls "the disgrace" be undone.

But the country is looking

to move on from his decades

of rule, as Shingai Nyoka

reports from Harare.

He cut a lonely figure

as he emerged from seclusion,

still deeply embittered

by the events of last November.

This is how Zimbabweans

reacted to the news that

Robert Mugabe had resigned.

Under pressure from his own

party and the military,

he had finally relented.

He now says his successor assumed

power through a coup

and this must be undone.

We must undo this disgrace

which we have imposed on ourselves.

We don't deserve it.

Yes, we may have our shortcomings

here and there, but overall

we must obey the law.

He says he is not seeking to be

president again but is open

for dialogue to help

legitimise his successor.

Just four months ago Zimbabweans

witnessed some surreal

scenes at this very spot.

Soldiers, military tanks,

stationed here just a few

metres from where former

President Robert

Mugabe's office was.

And now with his re-emergence,

Zimbabweans are wondering

once again what role,

if any, he has to play

in their future.

He has had enough.

I think it is about time

he let others take over.

The current president is actually

doing better than what he was doing.

TRANSLATION:

During his time

he failed to deliver so now

there is nothing that he can fix.

TRANSLATION:

Yes, the coup

was illegal but we have had

one leader since 1980.

We don't want that anymore.

We need to change.

The man who never liked to lose has

now thrown his support behind

a new political party

of old Zanu PF members.

Some believe it could divide

the Zanu PF vote in what were his

stronghold provinces.

But President Mnangagwa appears

unfazed at the new developments.

In a statement he said Robert Mugabe

resigned according to the

Constitution and the

nation has moved on.

Isolated for now even by regional

peers, it seems the sun has

set on Robert Mugabe's old career.

But even now he seems determined

to carve out a new path.

Let us get the latest on our top

story. The murder of the businessmen

Nikolai Glushkov. Our reporter is

outside his home in south-west

London. Simon, police are treating

this now as a murder investigation.

Yes, I do a lot of activity at the

home as there has been throughout

the week, ever since the body was

discovered on Monday evening. The

amount of police activity suggested

right from the word go that this was

perhaps simply more than an

unexplained death as the police

labelled it at the start of the

week. It was Russian authorities

during the course of the afternoon

with their own investigations who

rebut this as a murder. That

prompted the Metropolitan Police in

London to issue further details

during the course of the afternoon,

they have said that they were

initially called here on Monday

evening when the body was

discovered. A postmortem

investigation was carried out and

that determine the cause of death

was compression to the neck. At that

point, the police were prepared to

declare that this was a murder. They

have said that there is nothing to

link this at the moment with the

events in Salsbury, with the nerve

agent poisoning. We have also said

there is nothing to suggest that

anyone has been poisoned here, they

are keeping an open mind about the

situation. But they have been

prepared to tell us that they do

believe this was murder. Of course,

a prominent former Russian

businessmen, it will raise great

concerns. This was a businessman who

had been jailed for fraud.

had been jailed for fraud. He came

to this country seeking asylum. He

was also a close associate of other

critics of President Putin, and that

is why there have been so many

questions about his death ever since

it became public knowledge in the

early part of this week.

Yes,

Nikolai Glushkov was wanted by the

Russian Federation and was on the

list of those they wanted

extradited. Two years ago the Home

Office Secretary refused that

extradition. It is someone that the

Russians want to speak to.

Yes, he

had been living here for two years

and neighbours have told us that

they did not realise his background,

they did not realise that he was

this former Russian businessmen, but

neighbours have said about how

shocked at the heart and it will be

those close associations with his

past in Russia, with his links with

the authorities, the fact that he

had been very critical of President

Putin, that will raise many

questions about whether or not there

was any more sinister involvement in

this. But for the moment the police

activity continues here and in the

last few minutes we have seen more

of go into one of the tents at the

house, the investigation is still

ongoing during the course of the

evening.

Simon Jones, from

south-west London outside the home

of Nikolai Glushkov, thank you.

South Africa's chief

prosecutor has announced

that the former president Jacob Zuma

will be prosecuted for

corruption, just weeks

after being ousted from power.

The charges relate to

a multi-billion dollar arms deal

before he took office.

Mr Zuma denies any wrongdoing.

The BBC's Milton Nkosi

reports from Johannesburg.

The call for Jacob Zuma to have his

day in court has been a long time

coming. He faces 16 charges of

corruption, including money

laundering, fraud and racketeering.

This was set aside nine years ago,

paving the way for Mr Zuma to become

president.

I have come to the

difficult conclusion that it is

neither possible, nor desirable to

continue with the prosecution of Mr

Zuma.

This case dates back to the

early 90s when the state purchased

fighter jets, patrol boats and other

arms any massive defence overall.

Now known as the arms deal. The

charges relate to allegations that

Mr Zuma solicited bribes for his

personal benefit from the French

arms company, through his financial

advisor.

advisor. He, the financial advisor,

was tried and found guilty of

corruption in 2005. But the former

president has always maintained his

innocence. This is what he told me

when I asked them about this

corruption allegations back in 2012.

There is nothing to clear my name

on. Absolutely. Nothing. I am sure

that is just politics more than

anything. It is nothing. There was

only one issue that was raised some

time ago, the arms deal issue. And I

was never involved in that process,

I was a provincial minister. So I

never got involved. There were

allegations. These allegations could

not stick. I have no corruption to

clear.

Mr Zuma is no stranger to

controversy. Two years ago, he was

ordered by the highest court in the

land to repay some of the public

money used for security upgrades at

his private residence. The current

charges he is facing have nothing to

do with his latest corruption

scandal, involving his relationship

with the controversial book the

family. The prosecuting authority

has said it has more than 200

witnesses lined up for this case.

This is going to be a long and

complicated trial. -- gripped her

family.

-- Gupta family.

North Korea's Foreign

Minister has made a surprise visit

to Sweden for talks,

prompting speculation that it

could prepare the groundwork

for a meeting between Donald Trump

and the North Korean

leader Kim Jong Un.

The Swedish Foreign Minister,

Margot Wallstrom, says Sweden

is happy to help with problems

on the Korean peninsula but that

it's up to the parties involved

to find a way forward.

Celia Hatton has more.

There has been speculation that

those talks could take place in

Sweden.

Of course, the security

situation on the train peninsula is

of interest to the whole world and

in the eyes of the world are on the

situation in North Korea and on the

Korean peninsula. We value this

opportunity to arrange a meeting. We

believe in dialogue and in the

political process.

But we are not

naive. The Swedish website SVT has

said that he could extend his trip

by two days to Sunday, possibly to

discuss the release of US citizens

from North Korean detention. Other

countries are eager to talk to North

Korea, too. The South Korean

government has said it would like to

set up a high-level summit of its

own ahead of a separate planned

meeting between the two Korean

leaders.

TRANSLATION: The preparation

committee would like to hold

high-level talks between North Korea

and South Korea in late March to

make way for the summit that is

coming up. We will propose these

talks to North Korea.

High-level summits normally take

months, not weeks to engineer, North

Korea's state media has yet to

confirm any talks meeting with the

US or South Korean leaders, leaving

outsiders to watch and wait at a

summit to date or place is

announced. Celia Hatton, BBC News.

And the White House says

President Trump and the South Korean

president Moon Jae-In have spoken

to discuss preparation for upcoming

engagements with North Korea.

And that they've both expressed

cautious optimism that - quote -

a brighter future is available

for North Korea if it

chooses the correct path.

There were taught that there would

be more changes at the White House

but we have heard that that is not

the case.

I have spoken to in number

of staff this morning, reassuring

them that the personnel changes,

there will be no immediate changes

at this time. People should not be

concerned, we should do exactly what

we do every day and that is come to

work and do the very best job that

we can't and that is exactly what

we're doing and what we are doing

and what we're focused on and many

of us have relate that to other

staffers that were not part of that

meeting.

Sarah Sanders, we will keep

you posted.

The Syrian Government has

appealed to civilians

to leave all remaining areas

of Eastern Ghouta

under rebel control.

Dozens of people have died

in renewed shelling of the enclave.

Thousands are being displaced

by fighting across the country.

It's one of two main

military operations

going on in Syria -

in Eastern Ghouta near

the capital Damascus

and the other in the north.

There, Turkish Armed forces

and their allies have almost

completely encircled

the city of Afrin.

Some 30,000 people

have fled the area.

The Syrian regime is also trying

to retake Eastern Ghouta,

where 20,000 people have

left their homes as the Syrian

Army gains territory.

The BBC has spoken to an American

teacher that is in Eastern Ghouta.

She has been living there for ten

years, she is the mother of eight

children and that describe what it

is like to live there day after day

under these bombardments.

Right now

the situation is very difficult. We

are being bombed on a daily basis.

We live every day under fire from

air strikes. From helicopters that

send barrel bombs. From surface to

surface missiles. From mortar

shells. We send our days and nights

in the basements. The basements are

not equipped, of course, for life to

live in. So we have to cook upstairs

and use the bathroom upstairs. That

makes things very difficult. Right

now, today, there is less bombing

than usual in the city that I am

currently in. But other cities have

experienced a terrible bombardment

today. There are more than 55 people

have died in one incident today from

a Russian air strike. More than 200

people were injured in that air

strike. Present al Assad's forces

are trying to stir up the people.

They are trying to make them leave.

They have no food or medicine. They

have no home because of the

destruction. -- President Bashar

al-Assad. I hope this does not

happen because there is a fire at

both ends. We are being killed here

and will be killed elsewhere

eventually. They will not leave the

people here. They will take revenge

on them. They will not leave them

alone to live their own lives. If it

is not now, it will be solely in the

future, they will pick them up from

the universities, from the schools,

from the places of work, that is how

they work, that is how the regime of

President Bashar al-Assad works.

That was us hearing from an American

teacher who has lived there for the

past ten years.

An Indian pop star has been

sentenced to two years in prison

for smuggling migrants abroad.

Daler Mehndi and six others

were accused of cheating people

of large sums of money by falsely

promising to take them

to Western countries.

Mehndi said he will appeal

the conviction in a higher court.

He was one of the most popular

Punjabi singers of the 1990s.

About a dozen people

are reported to have been injured

after a ski lift ran out of control,

in the Caucasus

mountains in Georgia.

Video footage of the incident

in the Gudauri ski resort shows

a chairlift apparently moving

in reverse, pulling skiers

back around the pulley

to the start of the lift.

As it malfunctions, the cable

doesn't stop and the chairs start

smashing into each other.

Several skiers try to jump

off the moving lift,

to avoid the pile-up.

A local mayor said the lift

stopped in a power cut,

and then started travelling

at speed in reverse.

Footage has been released of a polar

bear born in the Scottish Highlands,

just before Christmas.

Staff at the wildlife park

where the cub was born are yet

to find out whether the bear

is a boy or a girl but it is

proving to be a confident

and curious little character,

as our Scotland Correspondent Lorna

Gordon has been finding out.

The first tentative steps

outside for Britain's polar

bear cub in 25 years.

Emerging from its den

in the Highlands, its mum close by.

This is how I knew we had a polar

bear cub, you can hear the sound.

Keeper Vickie Larkin was the first

to find out that a cub had arrived.

I am super excited.

It is probably the most

exciting thing to happen

in my whole zoo career.

I am really excited seeing how

the cub grows, getting

to know its little character

and also just eventually sharing it

with the public as well.

It is just such an amazing

thing to happen.

The two male polar bears at the park

are kept in a separate enclosure,

well away from the female

and its new offspring.

Arktos, who you can just see

at the back will never meet his cub.

This replicates what would

happen in the wild.

The cub copies

everything its mum does.

It's learning and growing fast.

Inquisitive and, for

the most part, fearless.

Some conservationists question

whether these animals should ever

be bred in captivity,

but keepers here say diminishing sea

ice threatens the polar bear

population in the wild.

We try to give our animals the best

quality of life we can,

we have some of the biggest

enclosures in captivity.

The wild population is in trouble.

Whilst we may not be

able to do it right now,

it may be necessary to augment

the wild population from a captive

population in future.

The area the cub is

exploring is growing fast.

It is still being shielded from view

but this polar bear cub

is likely to be a big draw,

and people could get

to see it in the open

within the next few weeks.

Lorna Gordon, BBC News, at the

Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig.

Some super cute images to end the

programme. That is one of the most

viewed videos on our website. Have a

look on our website if you want to

see it again.

Don't forget you can get

in touch with me and some

of the team on Twitter.