hello. you're watching gmt on "bbc world news." i'm david eades. our top stories, can diplomacy bring russia and ukraine back from the brink. shuttling from capital to capital russian foreign minister says troops in crimea are not under direct moscow control. >> if these are the forces of self-defense that were created by the residents of crimea. we did not order them. they didn't get any orders from us. >> reporter: i'm tim willcox live in kiev on independence square. at the heart of this crisis in ukraine. also in the program, a third

of all women in europe have been physically or sexually abused. the most e tensive survey of its kind also reveals one in 20 women say they've been raped. the smog that's choking china, the country's prime minister blames it on inefficient and blind development. also in the program, aaron is here looking at more of those challenges facing beijing. >> it's all about steering the world's second largest economy in the right direction. leaders are talking a leaner, cleaner growth tackling everything from smoke to corruption. beijing is also throwing more money at its military making the chinese defense budget now the second biggest in the world. good to have you with us here on gmt. midday in london, 7:00 a.m. in london, 1:00 p.m. in paris where a face-to-face meeting between

russia's foreign minister and the american secretary of state is due to begin shortly. it should be a critically important rendezvous in the effort to bring some calm to the situation in ukraine. already the paris gathering looks fragile to say the least as initial hopes of a russia and ukrainian meeting has been dashed. the u.s. accused russia of an act of aggression. mr. lavrov said moscow wasn't in direct control of those forces. tim willcox is in the capital kiev. let's go over to tim. >> reporter: thanks very much indeed. you've joined me live on independence square. the demonstrators, the protest is have gone. still people coming to lay flowers there at the shrines to those people killed just under a fortnight ago. this particular student died, he was from kiev. what is striking, david, is all around this square there are

shrines to people all over ukraine, not just kiev or the west of this country but also from the east and from crimea itself. this was a revolution the people say from the whole of ukraine wanting a better, cleaner future. the diplomatic activity is the main focus today in paris as you say, u.s. secretary of state john kerry meeting russian counterpart sergei lavrov. let's catch up on all the developments and just before we do that, mention that financially this country is in huge difficulties. we heard about the americans, washington offering $1 billion in loan guarantees. we also heard the european commission saying they will be offering 11 billion euros over the next two years. the financial side being addressed by the international community as well as the military standoff in crimea. this report by nick chiles. >> reporter: the diplomatic big guns have been gathering in

paris for the biggest diplomatic push yet to try to defuse the ukraine crisis and the deep freeze in east-west relations. for the west, the key question, will moscow accept a direct dialogue with the knew ukrainian authorities. >> the prime minister and president obama have both made clear that there must be significant costs to russia of violating its international obligations in this way. now, of course, we would much prefer to make diplomatic progress, but in the absence of that progress, there will be costs to russia. >> reporter: but in spain on his way to paris, the russian foreign minister underlined again the perceptions over the crisis rejecting the direct criticism of moscow, but also possibly offering a glimmer of hope. >> translator: as our president said we will do everything not to let any bloodshed, not to any

attempt at life and security of those who live in the ukraine including, of course, the citizens of the russian federation. >> reporter: if there is no meeting of diplomatic minds on the ukraine crisis t west's options for leaning further on moscow look limited. they could include travel bans on russian officials, a squeeze on economic links and moves to isolate moscow diplomatically like turning the g8 group back into the g-7 excluding russia. there are differences across the atlantic and in europe on what to do. the americans have talked toughest on targeted sanctions. france has important military contracts with russia. germany is nervous about russian gas imports. britain and others are worried about the economic clout of russian investments. in crimea itself, the signs are of russian and pro russian forces consolidating their grip. even if a diplomatic dialogue takes hold, will it simply be to prevent a further escalation of

events or see these russian forces withdraw. nick chiles, bbc news. >> reporter: the national anthem being sung again here on independence square. let's turn our attention now to what is happening in crimea. sergei lavrov was saying the russian protesters there were not russian military but were self-defense militia, not answerable to moscow itself. ben brown has been having a look around crimea to see exactly who these forces are. >> reporter: we've come to the ukrainian naval headquarters here where there are volunteers from the self start russian defense force effectively besieging this base, along with unidentified russian soldiers as well. they won't even let us go from here the few yards to those gates to try to talk to or to interview the ukrainian naval staff who are inside there.

[ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: at first they didn't want us to film. a russian cossack pushed his whip into our camera. then he did agree to give us his point of view. the commanders came and told us they're loyal to the people seized power in kiev. here in crimea, we think viktor yanukovych is the legitimate president. behind the gates, the naval personnel here are refusing to switch allegiances, however much pressure they come under. their wives arrive to bring them food and fresh clothes, but the russians laying siege to this base refused to let them deliver their supplies. a retired naval commander who is pro ukrainian told me it is tense but peaceful. >> only one way, this is the peaceful co-existence could be, peaceful co-existence. that's it because it's like a barrel with powder. but right now everyone can

understand this war is not the case, the war is not the choice of people. >> reporter: no one doubts the very real dangers of this standoff, but it's beginning to look like a stalemate that could last for quite some time. here in the bay in sevastopol, >> reporter: that's the situation in crimea the last few hours, focusing on paris. just one line coming through as well. the osce, organization for security and cooperation in europe has announced it's sending 35 monitors to ukraine. let's go to paris and get more on these talks between sergei lavrov and u.s. secretary of state john kerry. hugh scoffield joins us. it had been hospital that the ukraine foreign minister would be involved as well. but that's not going to happen. >> reporter: we don't know. william hague, the british foreign secretary was speaking about a half hour ago. he said one of the tests of the

day would be to see if ukrainians and russians could start some dialogue. obviously from william hague's perspective, that would be a good thing. the implication that there is a chance of a hope that mr. lavrov and the new ukrainian foreign minister might be brought together at least in the same room to start a dialogue. we have no knowledge if that's going to happen. it will be a pointer were it to happen that something positive, some kind of deescalation might be in train. one has to say as a big caveat that up to now, the russians, mr. lavrov, have refused to recognize the government in kiev. it may well be that he simply says i don't recognize this person as a legitimate foreign minister so i'm not going to talk to him. obviously, if that is the case, then the signs, the omens will not be good at all from paris. >> hugh with the latest in paris, thank you very much indeed. but what is russia's game plan

here? it says it's come to protect russian nationals from forces of the revolutionary government here who have over thrown the legitimately elected president. let's go to moscow, we can spee to samuel char rob. what do you think is russia's motivation here by sending forces into crimea? >> i think the jury is still out. you could explain what's happened using one of two frames, and i think either are equally valid at this point. one would be that russia is reacting to events and perceived events on the ground and that fundamentally it's not driven by a strategic desire to carve up ukraine. another would be to see the events as, in fact, just that, an implementation of a long planned either land grab or occupation or something in between. i think we just at this point, it's too early to say.

but events are consistent with either explanation. >> reporter: but is this following usual russian foreign policy in terms of territorial influence, bearing in mind that crimea is a semi autonomous region anyway? >> if you want to look to precedence, perhaps the war between russia and georgia in 2008 is a good one. that's what makes these events particularly disturbing. in that case regardless of the proportionality of the russian response, there were russian citizens and soldiers killed. in this case you have nothing of the sort, and what -- even a plausible pretext for the invasion that we've seen doesn't exist. that is a very worrying sign. >> how fazed is president putin

by the threat of sanctions and travel bans for key figures? >> i think what he said yesterday is that these sanctions are -- go both ways because there will be a response, and it will be unpleasant for those countries sanctioning russia, and i think he does believe that. the u.s., which seems to be the most forward leaning on sanctions right now, i do think some pressure needs to be applied on russia to reverse what it has done -- that's my view. but i don't know that the sanctions that are on the table, particularly if they're just unilateral coming from the u.s. will have the desired effect. at the end of the day the u.s.-russia relationship especially in terms of trade and economics is just not as important to russia and what's happening in ukraine. now, if the europeans were to join the u.s. in that effort it would be story altogether. half of russia's foreign trade is with europe. it depends on energy sales to

europe for a large percentage of its state budget. it really depends on the the eu and u.s. are acting together here or if the u.s. is acting alone. >> thank you very much indeed, reporting also that as far as europe is concerned, russia supplies a quarter of all its energy needs, the oil and gas supplies, a lot of it through ukrainian pipelines as well. we will be covering all the developments here of course in this huge country of ukraine, all around ukraine. also those meetings in paris and those nato meetings with russian members as well in brussels a little later on today as well. all those developments, you can follow them on the bbc website, bbc.com/news, also twitter

@bbctimwillcoxs. pope francis has strongly defended the record of the catholic church. in a rare interview with an italian newspaper, the pope said no one had done more to root out pedophil pedophilia. last month it was claimed that they allowed systematic coverups. the bbc's alan johnston is in rome and joins us now. particularly given the u.n.'s recent remarks, this is pretty bold stuff, isn't it? >> reporter: it was a rebust defense of the catholic's position. the remarks of the sex abuse scandal what's capturing attention here and around the world. the pope beginning by saying -- making very clear that the abuse cases were, as we hut it, horrible, that they left very profound scars. but he also said his

predecessor, pope benedict, had been courageous in managing to change attitudes towards this issue within the church. he said pope benedict set apart to help lead the church out of it and the church had done a great deal, maybe even more than anyone, pope francis says. the catholic church is maybe the only public institution that moved with transparency and responsibility. no one else did more, francis says. even sew the church is the only one that is attacked in stark contrast, as you said, to really strong criticism just last month from the u.n. committee which said the vatican failed in many ways to address this major scandal in anything like a proper manner. >> alan, thanks very much. alan johnston in rome. stay with us on "bbc world news." still to come in gmt, we'll get the latest on day three in the oscar pistorius murder trial.

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the third day of the murder trial of south african athlete oscar pistorius has resumed in pretoria. earlier the witness charl peter johnson was questioned by the defense lawyer mr. roux. he suggested those two witnesses discussed their testimonies between themselves before giving evidence in court. my colleague karen giannone is live in pretoria. i noticed that first episode was feisty. it's moved on to oscar pistorius's history with guns really. >> reporter: it did. a fourth witness was called, david. a friend of oscar pistorius, kevin lerena, a boxer who had a meal with pistorius and friends in january '13. that's when a gun was passed under the table, a loaded gun which accidentally went off. that is the other charge that we

heard today, the witness was to do with that charge specifically. obviously the prosecution's tactics here trying to show oscar pistorius as somebody with a history of irresponsibility, recklessness, gung-ho with guns, and that adding to the burden of evidence that they want to prove the case. going back to how the day started, witness number three, you mentioned him charl peter johnson, the husband of the first witness who was undergoing such a grilling on days one and two, michelle berger. this is a little bit of what happened to him in court under cross examination by barry roux. >> you saw the gun being passed under the table. >> well, the movements, the actions. i didn't see the gun. >> you heard what he said. >> one up, one up. >> what do you understand by one up? >> that there's one loaded into the chamber. people that carry guns i suppose

carry one up. >> and what happened next? >> a shot went off. a shot went off in the restaurant and then there was complete silence. once the shot went off, i looked down, i was in shock, and i looked down on the floor and exactly where my foot was stationary, there was like a hole in the floor. >> reporter: okay. you'll have realized listening to that that was kevin lerena, witness four relating to the firearms charge. oscar pistorius is accused of discharge of a firearm in a public place, in a restaurant. obviously the court was hearing from the first witness we mentioned, charl johnson, the neighbor of oscar pistorius. now we're waiting for witness five to take the stand. there's just a witness over whether he can be identified or not. we'll keep you up to date. >> the latest there from pretoria. nothing new about smog

hanging over the big cities of china, but maybe there is a new drive by the government to do something about it. the prime minister told delegates in the great hall of the people that the smog hanging over many cities was nature's warning against inefficient and blind development. he was speaking at the start of the chinese parliament's annual congress in beijing. john sudworth is there. >> reporter: beijing's annual gathering is about pomp, political theater and, to some extent at least, real policy. the session began with a silent tribute to the 29 people killed in last weekend's attack on the city of kuhn ming. china says separatist terrorists were to blame. the chinese premier set out his vision for the year ahead, one he said would be fraught with difficulty. >> translator: we must be keenly aware of the many difficulties and problems of our world ahead, the foundation for maintaining steady grow is not yet firm and

the impetus for driving growth needs to be increased. >> reporter: to meet that challenge, he says china must continue on the path of economic reform. this year he said they would tackle government debt, further liberalize banking and interest rates and give urban residency rights to more migrant workers. and he promised action on a growing area of public concern, air pollution. china, he said, would reduce vehicle emissions and clean up its factories. >> translator: we would declare war against pollution and fight it with the same determination we fight poverty. we would change the way energy is produced and consumed. >> reporter: he also announced the proposed growth rate, 7.5%, the same as last year. that will troublesome observers suggesting this economy is not yet ready to wean itself off big infrastructure spending and borrowed money. but no one in this rubber stamp

parliament is likely to criticize. the people's congress has never voted against any proposal put forward by the government. in difficult economic times, the communist party needs to prove itself more adept than ever. further reform is coming, but some will wonder if it's fast and far-reaching enough. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. violence against women within the european union has reached some pretty extraordinary levels it seems. researchers for the eu's agency for fundamental rights interviewed more than 40,000 women across the 28 nations about physical, sexual and psychological violence. it's said to be the most comprehensive study of its kind. it found that one in every 20 women in europe has been raped. around a third have experienced physical or sexual violence. the women reported the highest number of incidences were denmark, norway and sweden, usually praised for their gender equality.

let's go to brussels. we speak to joanna goodie from the european agency for fundamental rights and co-author of this report. thank you very much for joining us. let's start on that extraordinary discrepancy between the figures you got from denmark and a country like poland, for example, more than 50% and less than 20%. how do you account for that? >> well, i think one thing we also need to make clear is even in countries where the rates are lower, is it acceptable that one in five women in countries like poland are reporting experiences of violence. >> agreed. it's not acceptable. but i just wonder where the discrepancies come in. >> yes. when we looked at the results we can see in the scandinavian countries in northwest europe where there are higher rates of gender equality it might be the case that women are more able to disclose incidents of violence against them and say these incidents are simply not

acceptable. that can be a factor. in the scandinavian countries they've been very proactive in addressing violence against women. this might not be the case, of course, in some other member states, particularly where gender equality is lower. >> did you find, also, there's a difference in perception as to what violence actually amounts to? >> in the survey we asked women about specific acts of violence. we describe specific acts. for example, were you slapped, kicked, punched, forced into sexual intercourse against your will. it's a survey about specific acts that have happened to you. we had the best trained interviewers, all female interview force who went out, they were well trained to ask women these questions. it's really trying to tell what are women experiences in the eu. and there are some differences perhaps in cultural reticence.

even in countries with lower rates, the rates are really very, very high. >> joanna goodey, thanks very much for joining us from brussels. that's just about it from this part of gmt. thanks for watching. a lot more to come here on "bbc world news." stay with us. you can't always see them. but it's our job to find them. the answers. the solutions. the innovations. all waiting to help us build something better. something more amazing. a safer, cleaner, brighter future. at boeing, that's what building something better is all about. ♪ [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas

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welcome to gmt on "bbc world news." i'm david eades. in this half hour is it time to make the blocking of humanitarian aid in syria a war crime? supplies to the palestinian district are halted as violence resumes there and nobody is held to account as a u.n. report. after a life spent escaping from north korea, what on earth would possess them to go back again? it's a tale of mixed receptions for you. also in the program aaron is back with 10 million reasons for one railway line to be happy.

>> euros. the channel train operator topped 10 million passengers in 2013. we hear from its big boss and also find out if new competition from germany will stop it in its tracks. now, if there is one line in the latest u.n. report in syria which sums up the frustrations of the international community and accounts for the horrors in the country is perhaps this, the warring parties do not fear being held accountable for their acts. that line falls in the summary of this human rights council report based on investigations up to the end of january. it says more than a quarter of a million people are besieged, subject to regular bombardment and shelling. one such area is a district of

damascus where the delivery of food parcells and other aid has been abruptly ended because the rebel forces are said to have moved back into that district. lyse doucet is with me here. lyse just back from syria. wheel talk about your experiences in just a moment. also with us, par low pinera, the chairman of the u.n.'s independent commission of inquiry on alleged human rights. thank you very much for joining us. obviously the report speaks for itself. it's a desperately awful picture, but it seems nothing changes. >> the changes in the aggravation of the practice of human rights violations and war crimes. for instance, we mentioned the sieges around villages. this has been practiced for the last two years. but they have been intensified,

and i have had horrific testimonies by people who escaped from these areas. >> you have obviously recommendations about how civilians should be protected. the bottom line is no one is listening to you. >> no. precisely. no party is respecting a rules of engagement. we think one of the reasons for that is because all these perpetrators they have full impunity. there is not on the horizon any perspective that they will be submitted to justice. >> the idea of making it a war crime effectively to block humanitarian aid -- goodness knows we've seen that happening enough -- that is rather fanciful, isn't it? because i can't see who is going to give you that support. >> in fact, we must -- with can

have some hope because the recently there was a resolution by the security council precisely that was approved by consensus, precisely reminding and compelling syria to respect the obligation that they have to give access to humanitarian aid including through cross-border. >> so just give me a sense then as to whether you believe there is any real chance of pushing that through? >> we'll see on march 25th because the secretary general s is -- was asked to give a report, how far this improvement in humanitarian aid was made possible. >> paulo pinheiro, thanks very

much. lyse doucet is just back. yar muck is one of the places you got to know with all the tragedies surrounding it. give us a flavor as to life there now. >> david, even wars have rules. starving a population in a time of war is a war crime. someone very senior in the international community said to me recently that when the war ends in syria, and some day it will end, what we will remember it for is its gross abuses of international humanitarian law by all sides. >> i suppose the problem with yar muk is that if they go back in, there's a clear argument for either side to say there's a conflict there. >> there's definitely a conflict there. when we were able to get in recently and the united nations has been delivering food parcels with difficulty since the end of january, it was because there was a truce agreed between the warring parties and the syrian

government and the palestinian factions. the statistics in syria can be numbing. but when you stand on that narrow crammed alley which is surrounded by the utter destruction of a small palestinian camp which has been bombarded or the brunt of fighting for more than a year, and when you see hundreds of people, people who show all of the pain and suffering of being -- not having enough food, not having enough medical assistance, the elderly, the anxious, the ill, the crying, you really feel for a moment what it is like to live under siege, and there is a portrait of a million people living like this. >> i suppose the trouble is, you started off by saying even wars have rule. there are fewer rules in this war than many, aren't there? as this report said, the warring parties don't feel they're accountable to anybody.

whether it's a war crime or not, it's not going to make any difference, is it? >> in a war where the warring parties -- and there's more than two sides now. there are many sides sadly in the syrian war, if it is regarded as an existential battle where everything has to be used in the battlefield, that means laying siege to populations, the massacres -- we've seen horrific massacres. it means not just women and children are, to use the expression caught in the crossfire. reports have shown that children as young as 1-year-old have been targeted, tortured, traumatized in such is the brutality of the syrian war. i'll quote britain's former foreign secretary david mill band who is head of the rescue committee who said if we can't bring an end to the war, let us bring humanity to the conduct of the war. >> lyse, thanks very much indeed. i should just say you can get more on the syrian crisis if

you go to our website. we have extensive and comprehensive coverage there, bbc.com/news. time to move on to the business news. aaron is here with a beijing recipe really, isn't it? >> that time of year -- once a year they gather and sort of steer the economy or try to steer it in the right direction. hi, lyse, by the way. lyse is in the house. love that lady. let's talk about the world's second largest economy, china's parliament started their annual congress in beijing. some 3,000 delegates will attend the national people's congress for the next ten days. in the first session delegates heard from president and the premier, there were a few key topics. in the opening remarks the leaders confirm that china's growth target will stay at 7.5%. they also said they want private companies to take a bigger role in the economy and they'll continue to open up state-owned

enterprises. now, the government has also increased its defense spend by another 12.2% to be precise, taking the total spend to well over $120 billion a year. i tell you what, that makes china, it now has the second biggest defense budget in the world. let's go straight over to linda yu, our chief business correspondent who is live in beijing. linda, great to see you. linda, a lot on the and en dachlt i keep reading the headlines, leaner, cleaner growth. it's interesting, when we talk about cleaner, not just talking up the smog, but cleaning up the corruption. >> very much so, aaron. that was certainly one of the things that the premier made in his speech that opened the congress. one of the reasons for that is, if you want the economy to be on a sounder footing, obviously corruption is something they've been talking about. at the mpc this year, no banquets for welcome receptions,

no farewell banquets and no gifts. aaron, the one thing i saw and i'll have to see if this really is the case is that the official speeches have to be limited to ten minutes each. people are banned from playing video games on their phones in order to make sure they paid attention to those speeches. that's certainly one of the issues. it's pointing to a new type of government which is what very much the new chinese leaders want to do. this is their first legislative session after their secret trip that they had last autumn which began to set up the new priorities for these chinese leaders who have just come into office. >> linda, basically, beijing wanting private companies to take a bigger role in the economy. how do they do that. >> reporter: by deregulating and beginning to break up some of the state monopolies. that's probably the single most important economic and business message that will come out of the national people's congress in additional to financial reform, of course. we're expecting that later on.

in order for china to grow after 30 years of growth, they have to be more efficient and productive. that's where private companies come in. whether the president of china and the premier can break some of the power and the control of state-owned enterprises in key sectors like telecoms, banking, that will go a long way in working out whether china can deliver sustainably 7.5% growth. if they can't do it that way, they'll rely on credit. that will be very risky. that's why i say financial reform will be the other key thing to watch as this npc rolls on until next thursday. >> ten days, we'll talk to you soon. linda yueh joining us from china. eurostar runs services between london, paris and brussels is reporting strong earnings for 2013. this is eurostar's 20th year of operations. for the very first time the company carried more than 10

million passengers in a single year. it does take the total number of passengers since they began operations to that. a lot of people love trains, 140 million. operating profits rose 3% to 54 million british pounds, that's $90 million. can these profits be sustained? that's the question. this year new competition is coming. the german state-owned rail operator doich ban announced plans to run a passenger service. the owner says he's not worried about any competition. >> one of the things with the high-speed rail link between the uk and the continent, a lot of potential to grow. the main issue is awareness and having more links. in way there's competition. i think it's good because it will create more awareness of the services and will grow the market for us. we've been preparing for the arrival for a long time now.

>> let's get more. our sewn simon cohler joins us. correct me if i'm wrong, the key to their success is simply this, and i think i'm a perfect example, why tackle with the hassles of airports and flying when you can jump on a train within moments before it departs and arrive in your destination in the heart of the city? >> that is exactly what has kept euro star going for the past 20 years and a lot of business travelers, specifically resentful that they have by far the biggest share of the market between western europe's two most important cities, london and paris, and also, of course, most of the market to brussels. it's great that there is competition coming in because that is going to start to deliver a better value one hopes for travelers. very interesting to note it's not just doich ban.

would you believe everyone thought air links between london and paris were declining, at the end of this month easyjet, the second busiest airline in europe is starting paris from gatwick to paris. that's the second airport in london. they're going to be charging fares of well under $100 return. as rail travelers will know, that's about the best you'll get between london and paris. easyjet thinks there's quite a market there already. what eurostar hasn't done is achieve the numbers that when the channel tunnel was first talked about, over 20 million passengers a year were anticipated. they didn't build in the rise of the low cost airlines and we've never had the kichbld of services beyond brussels and paris that travelers want. we are hopefully going to get trains to am der dam soon. >> the boss of eurostar saying he's not worried about competition. doich ban is a mighty operator

and they'll give stiff competition. >> in fact, if you look at the amount of capacity they're putting in, it's not going to be particularly huge, it will be centered on routes through brussels going deep into journey, it's great for travelers, particularly business travelers between germany and britain. eurostar makes the vast majority of its money on the london to paris run. they believe they'll continue to dominate that particular market. as we found in air travel, competition is a great thing for the travel ler and not bad for the operators either. >> simon, great stuff as always. simon calder. >> $9.00 profit per passenger. >> i'll do my sums now. you told us about super expensive cities yesterday. we're doing super rich cities today in a minute here on "bbc world news." stay with us for that. the global super rich, where

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welcome back, i'm david eades. the top story this hour, american secretary of state john kerry arrives in paris for high-level talks on the situation in ukraine, due to meet his russian counterpart sergei lavrov. the oscar pistorius trial has been adjourned for the day. the pair olympian accused of murder in the death of his girlfriend. you might have thought we were in a worldwide recession. it turns out the wealth of the global super rich has never stopped growing. the property consultant has just released its annual wealth

report. despite the nick downturn, people with net assets of more than $30 million rose by 3% to more than 160,000. the number of super rich has risen globally by 59% in just the last ten years, and it's more than doubled in the middle east, latin america, aus tral lash yeah and africa. london remain it is most popular city followed by new york and then singapore. with me is liam bailey. thanks for coming in. london is still top of the pile? >> we do a detailed survey. we revealed this year london is the top city for these global high net worth individuals. new york is very close to be fair. behind those two cities, the rest of the world cities lag quite far behind really. >> new york, in ten years' time would be expected to have the most super rich? >> our forecast is that new york

will probably take london. you've got a stronger domestic economy. london is slightly hobbled by the eurozone. london and new york really stand alone along the global city pack, as it were. >> getting a sort of explosion of super rich. one thing they can do is buy a beautiful property wretity much whenever they want and go and visit it whenever they want. even in london we've seen that. there aren't that many people who live in those properties? >> belgrade, they were built to be second home locations. most of these places were built for people that have houses in the country and houses in town. i think the reality, most investors buying in london or new york, they're buying as an investment, lent out to a local family in the market. >> it hasn't taken off in that regard then, not a lot of people around that area. nonetheless, let's look at other parts of the world as well. africa, i know it's growing

fast, but from a very low base. it's got a lot of super rich now. >> it has. i think the african story is -- ten years ago it was about chinese buying commodities and that's how the wealth began to be created. you again manufacturing and actually over time the base of wealth begins to broaden and dem october ties over a period. >> one of the very interesting elements you picked up on is the nature of travel as well. if the i want to have a lovely pad in sydney and i live in london, it takes a heck of a trek to get there. your view is that the space speed will change everyone's perceptions of that. >> we thought it was quite interesting. we found 70 billionaires investing in space travel, virgin galactic or astroid mining as well. they're very serious about this. it may be ten years away. the game plan is that virgin galactic will take people into orbit for a tourist trip.

two hours from london to sydney. >> extraordinary. how much does a million pounds get me in monaco? >> a nice bathroom. >> it's a start, isn't it? >> liam, thanks very much indeed. thanks for coming in. over the past two decades more than 25,000 people have risk pretty much everything to es keep the brutal regime in north korea. once in south korea they were guaranteed zts citizenship. a twist here, some of these new arrivals are going back home again. lucy williamson explains why. >> reporter: today's lessons at the heavenly dream boarding school in seoul, trust, self sufficiency and korean literature. the children here are all north korean defectors learning to speak the cultural language of the south. fitting in to south korea's highly competitive society is a struggle for many of them. with high unemployment and no direct contact with their

families back home. mr. son like all defectors received government support on arrival including this flat, but debt problems meant he lost his fridge and washing machine, and he now stores his meager food rations on the balcony. he's appealed to the government to allow him to go back to north korea, partly as a protest against the isolation many defectors feel. >> translator: over the years i've noticed political indifference towards those in the south and the circumstances they grapple with. there have been days where i ask myself why i chose to come here in the first place. anywhere a north korean defector goes, he could face difficulties and discrimination. the discrimination one faces from your own people can feel a lot colder. >> reporter: some have made it back to north korea, 13 of them

according to the south korean government, although activists say the real number is higher. each return is celebrated in pyongyang with a press conference. like that of kim guang ho and his family 18 months ago. mr. kim told them defectors like him who escape to south korea were the victims of human rights activists conspiring against the north korean state. except a few months later he came back to the south. the authorities here welcoming him a second time. mr. kim was hauled in front of this court behind me and asked to explain his erratic behavior. his lawyer cited financial difficulties in the north. other reports suggested he may have feared for his safety. either way the court was unamused and gave him a three-year jail sentence. in a letter sent from his prison cell, mr. kim told us he'd been

forced to take part in the press conference and that he was appealing his sentence. at the heavenly dream school the students have moved on to a class in barista skills, part of a plan to steer them towards jobs that don't require high levels of english, i.t. or social skills. life may be tough for defectors in the south, but the vast majority choose to stay and the challenge for south korea is less about preventing those that want to leave than integrating those who remain. lucy williamson, bbc news, seoul. >> fascinating tale. we're coming to the end of gmt for today. let me remind you of the main news. the european union, as tim willcox was telling us earlier, announced an aid package to ukraine, worth $11 billion over the next two years. international diplomacy intensifying around that crisis in crimea, and the interim government in kiev has been playing down the prospect of a

conflict with russia itself ahead of multilateral talks. sergei lavrov, the russian foreign minister is due in paris, meeting john kerry, the u.s. secretary of state. he's been dampening hopes of an immediate solution, and no talks yet between russia and ukraine. thanks for watching. lucy with "impact" next. introducing starbucks via latte. instant coffee lovers now have something new to love. what do you mean? your grass, man. it's famished! just two springtime feedings with scotts turf builder lawn food helps strengthen and protect your lawn from future problems. thanks scott. [ scott ] feed your lawn. feed it. you can't always see them. but it's our job to find them. the answers. the solutions. the innovations. all waiting to help us build something better. something more amazing.

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