i'm geeta guru-murthy with bbc world news. our top stories. assad calls his vote in the syrian presidential election he's expected to win comfortably. president barack obama arrives in poland with security talks. there are reports the pakistan party president has been arrested here in london. why millions around the world aren't getting access to powerful drugs which could ease the pain of dying.

hello. three years of brutal civil war, tens of thousands of people dead, near willy 3 million refugees. despite all that, syria is holding a presidential election today. president al-assad has cast his vote. these are images earlier. he's widely expected to win a third seven year term in office a. this is the first time in decades there's more than one candidate on the ballot. the bbc jeremy burn has more from the capital da mass kas. >> this is the heart of the old city. wherever you look there are

image as of the al-assad. his face is common here. there are also portraits of the president. at the moment there are thousands literally. that's because of the election. now, there are a couple of ways of looking at this election. there's the view you get from opposition and from western countries and from critics of what the regime here does. that is that it's a sham. it's a bad joke. the question asked is how can you hope to have a fair election in a country that's having a civil war? how can you have an election in a country that doesn't have any democratic institutions? now there's a defense against all those arguments which you hear in damascus which is that this is an election beginning. there are three names on the ballot and not just one.

previous votes have been referendums, haven't been contests. that's the argument. of course the official that said that said look, we all know who's going to win. there's a greater mood of confidence in the regime than six to nine months ago. the personality continues to grow. look at this store here at the market. you can get badges, these -- this is the logo, lebanese militia. the war has been crucial. you can get pendants, bracelets. the regime thinks it's on the way to winning the war and giving off more confidence than it used to as a result of that feeling it has. >> jeremy bow enin damascus. voting in the elections expected to take place in the areas controlled by the government. paul wood and fred scott have

been traveling through the province in the north to find opinion on the election and continuing fight against the regime. >> what kind of election is possible in this blasted landscape? none. everyone who might vote has fled from here. where we do find people, they want nothing to do with president assad's poll. >> what elections he says? the elections of a butcher. he means nothing to us. he would win even if no one voted for him. >> translator: there won't be a single ballot box in any of the areas. >> people remain defiant. war widows say the loss hasn't broke their spirit.

i'll sacrifice myself and my children for god, she says. this election is a mockery, says her friend. my husband and his three brothers didn't martyr themselves for people to go out and vote for bashar. >> some have been in this camp in italy since the uprising since this camp began three years ago. there's disbelief president assad last had the long. no one is prepared to see him stay in exchange for peace. in italy, the alternative to president assad is the islamic front group leader. there's is a religious watch. they say christian minorities have nothing to fear from the state they're fighting to

establish. >> translator: the west doesn't understand he says. it's not just a set of punishments. applied correctly, it insures liberty and justice. we won't boaforce it on people. we hope they command it. >> on previous trips we encountered weariness. we haven't on this trip. the men want to get rid of a assad no matter how long it takes. they have many supporters here. whether the future belongs to these men or president assad will be decided not in the polls but on the battlefield. bbc news italy. in other news, an extraordinary cabinet meet as good expected to get underway in spain to approve changes to the constitution to allow the king to abdicate in favor of his son

prince felipe. both are expected to be at the ceremony shortly. let's go to tom in the spanish capit capital. what are we expecting today? what's the mood of the press and public as far as you can tell? >> reporter: hi geeta. all eyes on the palace, just north of the spanish capital. this is close to the current king, the man that announced abdication yesterday. this is where his father is buried and all other kings and queens of spain are also buried. there's a military parade thought to be in the next half hour. the image is the image of two men, father and son, prince and king. side by side first time since the abdication of the king yesterday. >> of course we've been hearing about the protest. we're seeing pictures of the

prince and his wife, very young, popular, comfortable. this is not going to hold sway politically now? >> reporter: it's important to point out as the spanish anthem plays in the background, numbers last night at the protest in madrid were not huge. . several thousand people. this is more main stream than a country like britain. there are a lot of people in spain strongly pro the monarchy, proud of the history of the monarchy here in spain. carefully core graphed day as this happens not far from where we're standing toward the residence of the prime minister. he has been chairing a special cabinet meeting where his government will draft up a law. that's needed to make the

abdication of the king possible so felipe, his son, can become felipe vi of spain in weeks. >> he becomes the third monarch. we have the pope switching and standing down. does this feel like this is part of a new trend, something britain should follow? >> reporter: i think it's interesting six months ago i was at a briefing at the residence of the king not far from here. officials were writing off the idea of abdication saying it wasn't on the cards. back then, although pressure in the spanish media, the household was doing its best to say this wasn't happening. a lot of pressure in spain's media has died down in months. perhaps the king thought he could come up with the announcement and decision would be more his, a personal decision. so yeah things have changed

quite quickly in spain. of course there has been all the pressure. in the polls, the popularity of the king and monarchy has been falling. same time the popularity of the prince felipe has been on the hopes. many are hoping felipe pay is a younger plan that can relate to younger spaniards, those particularly dissatisfied with the monarchy in spain. >> all those hello magazine readers no doubt will be delighted. speak to you soon. thank you. president barack obama has unveiled a billion plan to strengthen the military across europe. the crisis in ukraine show nos sign of easing up. he just arrived for a four day tour of europe. these pictures came in a little while ago. our correspondent spoke to me as the news broke. >> the presidents together, they stood side by side. president barack obama said

words welcome not just poland but the whole of the region that the security of the u.s.' allies in eastern ukraine is sack row sense. that's what they want to hear in the region. these countries have decades of experience of being under the dominance of moscow and 25 years ago we're celebrating liberation from that dominance. as you mentioned president barack obama today will meet with a host of leaders from across central and eastern europe to discuss ways nato and u.s. can perhaps increase security of countries and do more to reassure countries that nato and the u.s. will live up to security commitments. they'll be talking about potentially increasing numbers of troops, military hardware in this region. this is what the leaders in this

region want. particularly poland for example would like to see a permanent presence of u.s. on nato troops on the ground here. also in the baltic state as where they have large russian minority, they feel acutely what's happening in ukraine, annexation by russia. they would like to see a u.s. presence. there will be questions about what concrete actions are taken about that. >> sorry to interrupt. there's a delay on this line. it is reported president barack obama will call for a initiative up to $1 billion to increase u.s. military rotations in europe. it won't be at the expense of the so called pivot to asia. is that what we're expecting to get? >> so far we haven't had concrete details. that's the first information i've heard about on this. certainly will be welcome news

in the region they have felt for year the u.s. neglected the region because of the pivot to asia. >> live pictures coming from warsaw where we're expecting president barack obama to hold a news conference in the next few minutes. could be any time in the next five to 20 minutes. we are expecting him and will go live to that as soon as we can. to other news. ukraine dominating the concerns for the those talks and the interior ministry in ukraine says fighting is taking place on the edge of sloviansk. local residents are reporting heavy artillery. pro russian separatists say they've shot down a government helicopter. this has been denied by the ukrainian military. portuguese police are searching for a second day in the pride land where the little

girl madeleine mccann disappeared seven years ago. sniffer dogs and ground radar equipment are looking for disturbed earth. thailand's ruler will lift restrictions on areas. the curfew from midnight to 4:00 a.m. was imposed when the military took coup two weeks act. it's one of the certainties in life that eventually it will end. the hope is when we die it will be peaceful and quick. 18 million people around the world died in unnecessary pain in 2012. in many country, access to pain relief drugs like morphine is difficult. our correspondent examines the issues starting in central uganda. >> death is an everyday business here. coffin shops are nestled in

streets to the main hospital. life expectancy is just 57 years. betty was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. she couldn't afford treatments. the tumor grew to the size of a football. she was in agony for a year until she was found by a volunteer from hospice africa uganda. >> translator: the pain was too much when i wasn't getting medicine. it was excruciating. i had given up on life. i wished i was dead. >> the charity arranged free chemo therapy and access to the painkiller morphine. betty says her suffering is now manageable. that morphine is homemade by the hospice here using cheap kitchen utensils and a simple mix of

morphine powder and water. 1500 bottles are packed in boxes and put in the ministry taken outside to be take ton community centers and hospitals all around the country. morphine is a controlled drug which is also used to make heroin. doctors say exaggerated fears over addiction in patients means governments are wrongly restricting medical access to them. >> we need balance in access to medicines. we don't want them misused. the fact they're not available has even been thought of as responsibility of government to provide medicines. if they don't, it is torture. >> 4,000 miles from here, she is dieing from a rare form of lung cancer. >> i've talked over the end

stage with my beautiful doctor at hospice who is the source of great comfort. he described what was a usual way for people with my condition to go. we get sleepier and sleepier. in one of the sleepy times i will fall into unconsciousness. in one of the unconsciousnesses i'll stop breathing. that will be that. >> the uk has one of the best care systems. she deals with her pain like betty using morphine and also like betty says she wants to spend her final days with family. >> i never get fed up looking at them. >> both passed away within a few weeks of our interviews. they were given medical and psychological support at the end of their lives, something they said everyone in their situation

deserves. bbc news. stay with us here on bbc world news. there's much more to come. we'll hear from the cofounder of wikipedia as he takes up the advisor to google. we asked the balance between privacy and freedom on the web. , 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes. our passion to make it real. ♪

relish... the sweet pleasure of fruity drinks... delivered straight to your face... in accomodation paradise. ♪ booking.com booking.yeah! ♪ show 'em the curve. it's beautiful. it's more than that... ...it's perfect. introducing curved ultra high definition television from samsung.

this is bbc world news. i'm geeta guru-murthy with the top stories this hour. syria's president assad casts hitz his vote in the election expected to give him a third term in office. president barack obama arrives in poland where he's expected to announce extra military spending in europe. some breaking news this hour. police here in london have arrested the leader of pakistan's mqm party altaf

hussain. who is he? why has he been arrested? >> he's the leader of mqm party who has strong support in the biggest city and urban centers in the province. he's been living inland past 22 years. he controlled the party from there. now his party is seen as a victim as well as perpetrator of violence in the city. it has dominated the city's politics three decades, won every election contested in last three decades. mr. hussain was facing money laundering in london. there are reports he's been arrested. london police want to know the source of his income. he doesn't really work. they want to know how his party has built properties in uk.

huge sums of money in bank accounts. that's the charge he's facing now. >> the pakistani authorities have apparently been worried in the past any sort of arrest could spark problems. has there been reaction yet? >> yes. within the last couple of hours. there's tension in the city, panic, shops and businesses started to shut down. people are heading home. there are reports of massive traffic jams in the city. shootings reported from other cities in the province that mqm has support. this kind of violent reaction was feared by many people. the mqm leadership is meeting in karachi at headquarters. they're expected to address a news conference to decide their future course of action. so far there's panic. not many reports of violence

yet. clearly people of karachi know when something like this happens, it's safer for them to head home. >> why are people panicking? what do they fear? >> i was saying earlier mqm is a party which claims to represent middle class educated people in karachi especially descendents of migrants from india at the time of partition in 1947. the party is also accused of militant activity, consoling the city through fear, terror. its for that reason people fear the party or its elements could result to violence. >> we'll be keeping a watch across. for now, thanks a lot. thousands of people across europe have taken the first steps to exercise their rights to forgotten. embarrassing or outdated

information can be requested to be removed from online searches. since google put a forum online, it received 12,000 requests across europe in a few days. it's up to regulators and internet companies to try to strike a balance between privacy and freedom of information. the cofounder of wikipedia says this has created problems for companies like google. >> people keep talking about the balance between privacy and freedom of expression but in this case the court ordered kbo google to take a story legally published as true by a court about a matter of clear public interest. this means google is in a difficult position of figuring out how they can possibly know when something should be deleted or not. >> you're talking about the spaniard gonzalez who had debt

problems. he complained every time he put his name in google the debt problems came back. if you want to start a new business, it was hampering hip. is that fair enough? >> no. the first request i got after this came out was from a serial convicted fraudster. there's a strong public interest in knowing about people particularly if they're holding themselves out to do business, attorney or something. it's important. if he wanted to respond, he has ample opportunities to respond to that a. the more difficult question is whether we should be asking google to make these determinations. whether if something is legally published you're though the allowed to link to it et cetera. there's a lot of huge issues that nobody seemed to have thought about before they passed the ruling. >> jimmy wales speaking to me earlier today. want to talk to you about our

top story. voting underway in syria's presidential election. these pictures came in with president assad with his wife casting his vote earlier. it will give him a third term in office lasting seven years. this is bbc world news. we're back very soon. stay with us if you can. the eyes may be the windows to the soul. but in the case of the lexus ls... ...which eyes? eyes that pivot with the road... ...that can see what light misses...

...eyes designed to warn when yours wander... or ones that can automatically bring the ls to a complete stop. all help make the unseen... ...seen. and make the ls perhaps the most visionary vehicle on the road. this is the pursuit of perfection. you need to see this. show 'em the curve. ♪ do you know what this means? the greater the curvature, the bigger the difference. [sci-fi tractor beam sound] ...sucked me right in... it's beautiful. gotta admit one thing... ...can't beat the view. ♪ introducing the world's first curved ultra high definition television from samsung. still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day? when i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories.

two full servings of vegetables i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

♪ "first day of my life" by bright eyes ♪ you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. when you didn't dread when youbedtime becausenner with anticipaof heartburn.itation. when damage to your esophagus caused by acid reflux disease wasn't always on your mind. that's when you knew nexium was the prescription medication for you. because for over a decade nexium has provided many just like you with 24-hour relief from heartburn and helped heal acid-related erosions in the lining of the esophagus. and now the prescription nexium you know can be delivered directly to your door with nexium direct. talk to your doctor to see if nexium is right for you. there is risk of bone fracture and low magnesium levels. side effects may include headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

if you have persistent diarrhea, contact your doctor right away. other serious stomach conditions may exist. avoid if you take clopidogrel. for 24 hour support, automatic refills, and free home delivery, enroll at purplepill.com. it's the nexium you know, now delivered. world news with me geeta guru-murthy. we're bringing you specialty coverage of the press conference with the polish president speaking with president obama who announced a billion-dollar security initiative for europe to increase troops in eastern europe and around the baltic state. we are just waiting for president obama to speak. we haven't got polish translation here. mr. obama is meeting on the europe leaders of central and

eastern european countries. top of the agenda is crisis in ukraine and annexation of crimea. that sparked this announcement by the united states of a billion dollars to be spent on bolstering troop equipment for europe. jo jonathan is with me. are people going to say this is enough? >> they probably -- you know, they are the ones that want to see reinsurance. particularly the baltic states. i was there at one of the military exercises where british troops were sent over. tom countries want a permanent nato military presence in their country. >> that comes at a huge cost doesn't it? >> it comes at a huge cost.

also when america has talked about a pivot ease. that's the contrast. >> the white house said the billion will not come at the expense of the asian pacific -- >> something is going to have to give. defense budgets are cut. >> let's listen to president obama speaking now. >> to you and polish people, i want to thank you for welcoming me back to poland today. it is an honor to be here to celebrate 25 years of freedom. mr. president on my last visit you said dreams come true when apart from dreams we have courage and determination. thanks to courage and determination of you and so many over the decades, thought of free and prosperous poland is not a dream. it is a reality. obvious american people have deep connections to poland. my hometown of chicago has especially deep connections to

poland. it makes it that much more special for me to be a part of this moment. i also want to thank you for welcoming me on the eve of your birthday. let me say-i've come here first and foremost to confirm the commitment of the united states to security of poland. as nato allies we have a duty to our collective defense. as president i've made sure the united states is upholding that commitment. we're on track with our missile defense program including intercepter sites in poland. we saw this morning our american aviation detachment, here the first regular presence of u.s. forces in poland. we continuously rotate additional personnel and aircraft in poland and baltics. i want to commend poland for contributions to nato air patrols over the baltics. today i'm announcing a new

initiative to bolster the security of allies in europe under this effort and with support of congress. united states will preposition more equipment in europe. we will be expanding exercise with alleys to increase readiness of our forces. i know this is a champion of the effort to modernize the polish military. we welcome the announcement he made about the greater commitment. we'll increases the number of american personnel army and air force units rotating through central and eastern europe. we'll step up partnerships with ukraine, georgia as they provide for their own defense. i'm calling on congress to approve up to $1 billion to support this effort which will be powerful demonstration of america's unshakable commitment to nato allies. poland to its credit is a leader in the alliance when it comes to

collecting in our defense. we've seen that today. poland's resolve and initiative i'm proposing today is reminder every ally needs to carry their share and truly invest in the capabilities of their alliance that are needed for the future. of course the president and i focused mostly on the situation in ukraine and perhaps because they know better how precious freedom is your president has displayed outstanding leadership in months. provocation will be met for urth further costs for russia includes additional sanctions. destructively with the government in kiev to prevent the flow of militants and weapons into eastern ukraine. russia also needs to use influence with armed separatists to convince them to stop attack it can ukrainian security

forces. leave buildings they've seized, lay down arms and enter the political process. meanwhile the united states and poland will continue to support ukrainians as they embark on political and economic reforms. we're prepared to help facilitate dialogue between the ukrainian government and representatives of regions. i look forward to talking about this with president poroshenko tomorrow. we have talked about issues compared prosperity including the transatlantic trade program including facilitating potential energy, exports from the united states into europe. we agreed there are more steps to be take ton diversify europe's energy sources. that's important for europe's economy and also for its security. that's the topic that i'll focus on later today when we meet with

other central and eastern european presidents. so thank you mr. president again for your partnership and hospitality. i could not be more grateful to have the opportunity to share tomorrow's celebration in the square and chance to address the polish people. >> well with me is jonathan, our defense correspondent. just confirmation by president obama that he's going to be asking congress for up to $1 billion in funding. he mentioned a few countries, ukraine, molldova and georgia. i'm listening to see if we'll get questions in english. sorry.

>> translator: firstly, thank you very much for my birthday wishing from the president. thanks to my mom rather than me. one thing is for certain, poland achieved freedom 25 years ago tomorrow. when it comes to the question about relationship with russia, what i can say is that the whole western world, as well as poland, are very interested in creating the best relationship with russia and continue working with russia. poland is very interested in continuing an easy process and also unifying the painful history, bloody history of the countries. in order to make this work, in order to work together so that we can work with russia, it is

essential today for russia to stop using force with its work -- using force against its neighbors. it needs to respect its other countries. we are expecting a full working relationship with the full free ukraine and accepting the presidential election results and we are a waiting discussions about better relations between russia and the ukraine. >> your president about the importance of maintaining good relations with russia but not sacrificing principle in pursuit

of good relations. the fact of the matter is that russia say significant country with incredibly gifted people, resources, enormous land mass. they rightfully play an important role on the world stage and in the region. what we have learned from our history -- and nobody understands that better than poland -- is that basic principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty and freedom, the ability for people to make their own determinations about their country's future is the corner stone of the peace and security that we've seen in europe over the last several decades. that is threatened by russian actions in crimea and now

russian activity in eastern ukraine. so we have said consistently not only do we seek good relations with russia but we expect ukraine to have strong relations with russia. we don't believe ukraine has to choose between good relations with europe and good relations with russia. we believe ukraine should make decisions about their future of the country without interfering or armed militias being from the outside trying to disrupt the effort of ukrainians to reform themselves, to strengthen their democracy and improve their economy. as a consequence we'll continue to support ukrainian efforts, the fact there's been an election on may 25th and we have now a president elect i think gives us momentum to build on as

we move forward. the president elect of ukraine indicated his willingness to work with all regions of ukraine to create a constitutional order that is representative of all people. he has said he's interested in pursuing good relations with russia. what he said and right to say is that the sovereignty of ukraine should not be sacrificed in that effort. we fully support him in that. nato's relationship with russia will be one in which if russia is observing basic international law and principles, there should be cooperation between russia and nato. where russia violates international law and international principle, nato will stand firm in asserting those principles.

>> president obama there making it clear that the united states is continuing to support ukraine and other countries in the east of europe. praising russia and people but saying that people must be free to make their own determination. that's a corner stone of peace and security, and if that is threatened that is a problem. that is the reason president obama is calling for $1 billion from congress to bolster security in europe. all reminiscent to the cold war tensions we thought we had left behind. that is the image from warsaw now. we'll keep that for you and let you know if anything significant comes from that press constitution. going to move on now to another part of the world in conflict. three years of brutal civil war, tens of thousands dead and three million refugees. syria is holding a presidential

election. president al-assad has cast his vote. these images came a few hours ago with his wife. he is widely expected to win the third seven year term in office. for the first time in decades there's more than one candidate on the bat lot. the opposition has dismissed the vote as a sham. we have more from damascus now. >> reporter: the buses have been coming and going all morning to this polling station. the vote that's at this particular place is the national water company. these men, all the ones i've spoken to, work for the water company. there are a few women as well. they get ushered straight in to vote. everyone i spoke to said he or she is going to vote for president bashar al-assad. this election has been criticized by those that have taken arms against the president and also by syrian politicians

who are in exile. it's criticized by western leaders. the british foreign secretary william hague called it parity of democracy. >> now the people i've sfoengpoo say this is democracy. look at this. people are voting in secret. here is a ballot paper, two candidates as well as president assad. and this is the promise of a better life. president assad does have general support. he would not have weathered everything he went through since war started without that support. they buy those arguments. as far as the president's concerned, this is good politics. >> jeremy bow enin the syrian capital. stay with us. much more to come. we'll hear from the cofounder of wikipedia jimmy wales as he

takes up a new role as an advisor to google. 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes. our passion to make it real. ♪ still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day? when i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories.

this is bbc world news. i'm geeta guru-murthy with the top stories this hour for you. president al-assad casted his vote in the election expected to give him third term in office a. president obama is in bow la poland with an extra billion promised to strengthen security in eastern europe. the cabinet meeting is taking place in spain to change the constitution to allow the king to abdicate in favor of his son crown prince felipe. the king and his heir have arrived in northwest of madrid for a military ceremony. king carlos announced yesterday he would step down after 40 years on the thrown.

he's widely credited with smoothing spain's transition to democracy in 1975. those are the pictures just coming in to us. police in london have arrested one of pakistan's most powerful politicians on suspicion of money laundering. he's been living in self-imposed exile many london for 22 years. we are in the pakistani capital of islamabad. >> he's the leader of the mqm party, which has strong support in the city of karachi as well as other centers in the province. he's been living in exile in london the past 22 years. he's controlled the party from there and now his party is seen as a victim as well as perpetrator of violence this the

city of karachi. it dominated the city's politics for three decades. it has won every election it has contested in last three decades. mr. hussain was facing money laundering in london. there are reports he's been arrested. london police want to know the source of his income because he doesn't work there. they want to know how his party has built properties in uk, huge sums of money in bank accounts. that is the charge he's facing now. >> the pakistani authorities have apparently been worried in the past any sort of arrest like this could spark problems in karachi. has there been reaction yet? >> yes, within the last couple of hours there's tension in the city, panic. shops and businesses have started to shut down. people are heading home. there are reports of massive traffic jams in the city of karachi.

shootings reported from other cities in the province that mqm has support. this kind of violent reaction was feared by many people. the mqm leadership is meeting in karachi at their headquarters. they are expected to address a news conference. so far there's panic. not many reports of violence yet. people of karachi know when something like this happens it's safer for them to head home. >> why are people panicking? what exactly do they fear? >> i was saying earlier mqm is a party which claims to represent middle class educated people in karachi. especially people descendents of migrants of the partition 1947. the party is accused of

controlling the city through fear and terror. people in karachi fear the party or elements could resort to violence. ukraine's interior ministry says fighting is taking place on the eastern edge of the city sloviansk. pro russian separatists say they have shot down a go. helicopter, but this is denied by the ukrainian military. thailand's ruling council says it will lift a curfew in the area including the beach resort. . the curfew was imposed after the military took a coup two weeks ago. now thousands of people across europe have taken the first steps to exercise their newfound right to be forgotten. an eu court ruling allows people to ask for online searches to be

removed. today the regulators have a meeting to discuss what this means. since the forum was posted, there's been 12,000 requests across europe. it's up to regulators to strike a balance between privacy and right to information. cofounder says this is a big problem. >> if balance between privacy and freedom of expression. the court has osordered google e down a report that was legally true. google is now in a difficult position of figuring out how they can possibly know when something should be deleted or not. >> you're talking about the spaniard gonzalez who had debt problems and complained every

time he put his name into google, debt problems came back. if you want to start a new business it was hampering him s. that fair much? >> no. the first report i got was from a fraudster wo has good reason to want to be removed. there's a strong public interest knowing people. if they're holding themselves out to do business, an attorney, something like this. it's important. if he wants to respond to that, he had ample opportunities to respond. the more difficult question is whether we should ask google to make these kinds of determinations. if something is legally published you're not allowed to link to it et cetera. there's issues nobody seemed to have thought about before they passed the ruling. >> are you or other people involved in this trying to change this? >> that would be up to google. there's no direct legal challenge.

this is the final court. there's not much they can do about it. it was a shocker of a decision. i do think the next steps would be to say to the european parliament hey look, this is a real mess. this decision is confusing and clearly going to impact freedom of newspapers. now people are going to say you can't link to that article for whatever reasons. we need to look at questions about privacy and data in the modern world. we need to do it in a more modernized way. we're implementing 20-year-old implications in a world where freedom of expression is impacted. >> just saying we were watching that report on spain. people in the public eye are often misrepresented on the internet. that is unfair. surely you understand.

that. >> it is true. people are misrepresented in the newspapers and in all kinds of ways. >> people forget newspapers. that's the point. >> yeah. there is something that's fundamentally changed. people have access to information for a much longer period of time, much deeper. i think that we may want to go back and reconsider. do we really want in this case the spanish court ordering the publication of the notice of this debt issue and the debt is taken away however do we want to do this and make court proceedings private so it doesn't get out? there's real serious problems and challenges to our understanding about transparency and governments. i think a better approach would be to say actually we need to look at what are the penalties for leaking data if you're a company that's agreed to keep data private. we shouldn't start with let's start censoring the newspaper. >> jimmy wales, founder of

wikipedia talking to me a little while ago. just to remind you of breaking news this hour. pictures from warsaw, president obama with the polish president. president obama announced a $1 billion security deal for europe. cold war tensions still very much evident. i'm geeta guru-murthy. this is bbc world news. on how to take care of me and my baby. luckily, unitedhealthcare has a simple program that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get the right care and guidance-before and after the baby is born. simple is good right now. (anncr vo) innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day? when i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories. you don't try to catch... ...will get away. seize the summer with up to 40% off hotels from travelocity. ♪ 800,000 hours of supercomputing time, 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights.

whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes. our passion to make it real. ♪ when you didn't dread when youbedtime becausenner with anticipaof heartburn.itation. our passion to make it real. when damage to your esophagus caused by acid reflux disease wasn't always on your mind. that's when you knew nexium was the prescription medication for you. because for over a decade nexium has provided many just like you with 24-hour relief from heartburn and helped heal acid-related erosions in the lining of the esophagus. and now the prescription nexium you know can be delivered directly to your door with nexium direct. talk to your doctor to see if nexium is right for you. there is risk of bone fracture and low magnesium levels. side effects may include headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

if you have persistent diarrhea, contact your doctor right away. other serious stomach conditions may exist. avoid if you take clopidogrel. for 24 hour support, automatic refills, and free home delivery, enroll at purplepill.com. it's the nexium you know, now delivered. komorowski. you're watching "gmt" on bbc world news. i'm tim willcox. who do you think will win? the first presidential election in decades, al-assad seeks another term, rebels dismiss it. we are reaffirming support for poland and why president obama calls on congress to provide up to a billion worth of new military support. >> we'll increase the number of american personnel, army and air force unit, continuously rotating through al