hello. you're watching "gmt" on bbc world news. our top stories, don't blame me for the crisis in ukraine. it's the west's fault. president putin's promise to end the conflict continues. but so does the fighting. we report from the town of vuhlehirsk, now held by pro-russian rebels and where life is hard for anyone trying to survive there. >> translator: this is my country. my father is russian and my mother is ukrainian. someone started this whole thing and now can't stop it. they're idiots, i would say.

anger in egypt as the latest clashes between police and football fans leave nearly 20 dead. also on "gmt," reports of the former taliban commander turned islamic state deputy leader has been killed in a drone attack in afghanistan. also in the program, aaron is here and tax evasion accusations. >> the bank right here hsbc is accused of helping clients avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes. according to leaked documents, the bank helped out film stars, royals and millionaires avoid tax. but will it ever be enough to make this murky banking world change its ways? hello, welcome. it is a crisis that has left nearly 5 1/2,000 people dead and

it is exposing divisions between europe and the united states by the day. more major diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in eastern ukraine are underway and what is being seen now as a crucial time in the conflict. germany, france russia and ukraine have agreed to hold face-to-face talks in minsk on wednesday. it's the latest push to end the bloodshed. president putin said the united states and its allies met russia after being blamed for the conflict. european union foreign ministers meeting in brussels at the moment are expected to formally approve new additions to sanctions on moscow. the talks in minsk will focus on a new peace plan calling for pro-russian rebels and government forces to accept a cease-fire and pull back to a dividing line agreed last year. but all the while, the fighting continues. our correspondent, james reynolds, has been down to the town of vuhlehirsk which has fallen to the rebels in the past few days.

>> reporter: the rebels of eastern ukraine took vuhlehirsk on wednesday after a brutal fight. they're now enjoying their victory. "hi, mom, we're fighting for our land," this rebel says to our camera. another quickly puts down a stray cat when he sees he's being filmed. they've won a town no one can live in. in the 40 minutes we spent here, we see only two civilians. first, 63-year-old slavic finds nothing to celebrate. >> this is my country. my father is russian and my mother is ukrainian. someone started this whole thing and now can't stop it. they're idiots, i would say.

>> reporter: the second civilian, wearing a white armband, rescues some of his belongings. he doesn't want to talk. the rebels have relied on russia's help to take this town. and they want to keep it. they're not interested in any kind of deal which would make them give up this ground to kiev. and they haven't yet finished. their next target is debaltseve, the government-held town a few miles down the road. >> we need to liberate it. we'll go and liberate everything up to the borders of the donbass region, completely, then we'll see. >> reporter: taking the entire donbass region would mean the rebels more than doubling the land they already hold. they may not get there, but their ambition complicates the conflict. james reynolds, bbc news.

vuhlehirsk. >> well the german chancellor angela merkel and president obama are meeting at the white house later to discuss situation on ukraine. we'll be live in washington later with more on that. on other news, the chinese authorities have executeded a former mining tycoon with reported ties to the country's former domestic security chief. yoohan was the president of a huge company and he was executed with four associates after being convicted of murder and organized crime last year. south korea's former finance chief has been jailed. won sei-hoon was sentenced to three years for his part in an online smear campaign which was carried out by his subordinated directed at candidates running against the then ruling party hopeful.

two bomb blasts in baghdad has killed at least 15 people and wounded in more. one explosion was during rush hour in a mainly shia district of the city. the attack happened after a long-standing nighttime curfew was lifted in the iraqi capital. police in marseille say gunmen have fired automatic weapons at the edge of a housing project the same day of a planned visit by the prime minister manuel valls. the project is rife with drug gangs and violence. no injuries, though, have been reported. the egyptian president has expressed his great sorrow over the death of at least 19 football fans in a stadium in cairo. football has been suspended indefinitely after a clash between thousands of spectators and authorities. an arrest warrant has been issued for the supporters of the

zamalek group. >> reporter: this at a doorsteps of a stadium in eastern cairo. thousands of zmelzamallek club supporters were killed. eyewitnesss say huge numbers were allowed into a very narrow corridor when security forces fired tear gas and gunshot pellets. >> we were happy and singing. we were even trying to help the police to organize the people coming in. but suddenly, we saw tear gas fired and people died. >> translator: people were falling under the closed gates and diagnose. the police were standing by not helping. they even stomped on people without caring. >> reporter: there has been a long history of mistrust between the police and football fan

leagues, who took part in the revolution. some officials, including the head of the zamalek club described yesterday's crowd of supporters of the now banned muslim brotherhood group who wanted to ruin the sport event. this is the second worst sports incident in recent years in egypt. in 2012, more than 70 people were killed after clashes erupted between the fans of two football clubs in the coastal city of port sayyed. up to now, nobody is exactly sure about what happened then. and similarly, yesterday's clashes may remain a mystery for some time. selena bieb, bbc news, cairo. >> let's speak to an associate fellow many international securities at london's world united surfaces institute. thanks for joining us. is this just poor crowd control

or are there many deeper political reasons behind this? >> some of the issue of security sector reform in egypt has been one that has been brought up many times in the past five years, but different political forces. but unfortunately, it's an issue that the authorities in egypt, under any regime over the past five years, whether it's mubarak or morsi, whether it's sisi on every level, the issue of security and secular reform has been left by the wayside. this is a very serious structural problem, that if not addressed, particularly around issues of accountability but also reform within the security sector, you see things like this happening. and unfortunately, will continue to happen. and we're seeing quite a few instances like this in the past four years. >> is it always the case though, that security at football matches, where obviously tens of thousands of fans attend will be armed with live ammunition?

>> doctor i'm sorry, i think we seem to have just lost our connection with you there. we'll try and get back to him, if we can. stay with us here on the "bbc world news," because still to come, if you like seeing your waiters float silently around you in restaurants, how would you feel if you were served by a drone? well, in singapore, you can. look at that. don't spill the soup. female vo: i actually have a whole lot of unused vacation days, but where am i gonna go? i just don't have the money to travel right now. i usually just go back home to see my parents so i can't exactly go globe-trotting. if i had friends to go with i'd go but i don't want to travel by myself. someday. male vo: there are no more excuses. find the hotel you want, and the flight you want, and we'll find the savings to get you there.

at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda.

hello. i'm tim willcox. you're watching "gmt." our top story this hour angela merkel prepares for talks with president obama on ukraine, with no sign of an ending though in the east of the country. >> stay with us for angela

merkel arriving in washington for those talks with president obama. also meetings being held in brussels and in german as well. in brussels foreign ministers are gathering to does four sanctions ahead of that meeting planned for minsk on wednesday, when petrov know shenporoshenko will be sitting down with them. fear or division that pressure needs to be kept on for president putin, but doesn't want to derail things further ahead of these talks on wednesday. >> yes that was the message delivered by if you like the more sort of hawkish prime ministers going into the meeting here, which is now happening. so those foreign ministers sitting around the table, discussing what their position would be what their common position will be. the british foreign minister, he said, we have to keep up the pressure on russia. until we see not just words on

paper, but deeds on the ground. and what he meant there, he said he explained was russia withdrawing troops withdrawing artillery, withdrawing heavy weaponry, and ensuring that there was a cease-fire in place. now, other foreign ministers, they said that they were fully behind the diplomatic push and that's what they want to see. they want to see this meeting possibly in belarus, although from what we understand here it's not clear that this is yet 100% sure that that's going to go ahead. they want to see that and see that deliver some sort of change on the ground. >> david i'm just getting this through, that the eu according to the french prime minister is expected to postpone the implementation of new individual sanctions against russia to see how that is in one state. so that news has just come

through. what are the economic pressures affecting european nations, as well, though. obviously, this is having an impact on russia. but how painful is it for certain europeans putting these sanctions in place? >> well we had a hint of that yes. the foreign ministers went in for the first time we had a figure given. this was by the spanish foreign minister. he talked about 21 billion euros worth of exports, that have been lost to russia. that's about 200 billionish euros worth of exports every year. a pretty sizable chunk hitting some countries more than others. >> okay. damien from brussels thank you very much indeed. well the conflict in eastern ukraine is also likely to dominate talks between the german chancellor angela merkel, and president obama at the white house later. well, mrs. merkel's efforts to restart the stalled minsk peace

process, she has strongly opposed growing american calls for weapons to be support to ukrainian government forces fighting the russian-bakdcked rebels. but there have also been questions over the chancellor's part in allowing the conflict to flourish over the past year and whether germany should have acted more decisively. mark is a correspondent in washington, and he joins us now. bo being pushed very heavily by hawks, isn't he to arm the ukrainian government forces. what chance do you think angela merkel has of persuading him not to? >> well i guess, personally mr. obama, he's not a hawk and he certainly didn't come up with the idea to send arms to the ukrainian government in order to fight the russian-backed rebels.

but he's facing strong pressure from the people of the state department, from his own parties, like hillary clinton on many of the senators so he has to negotiate within washington and then have to face a stand against angela merkel who's clearly leading the party of mum hawks in europe saying it doesn't make any sense to send arms to the ukrainians. that would only escalate the situation. and we cannot send enough arms to kiev in order to somehow make an impression on mr. putin. >> angela merkel historically has a good relationship with president putin. they speak in russian together. how much criticism is she facing for perhaps not acting more decisive decisively, more quickly?

>> well i can tell you, within germany, from the german people she's almost not facing any criticism at all. it seems that the population in germany is pretty happy about her course. there's a really high amount of fear that the situation could escalate that there could be another war. so from the general perspective, she's -- her course is just fine. but the criticism she's certainly facing here in washington and when you had them here on the security conference in munich over the last weekend, behind the scenes you could clearly hear american officials being upset about the course angela merkel is taking and the deputy secretary of state, victoria newland obviously,

talked about the merkel bull -- were referring to her journey in moscow in order to negotiate last friday. >> all right, okay. marcus, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us on the program. well talks from afghanistan say a militant leader affiliated with the islamic state group is being killed in a drone strike. mullah abdul rauf defected from the taliban and pledged allegiance to islamic state last month. david loyn joins us live from kabul. this is a former inmate at guantanamo bay. what is the latest information you've got on this david? >> well he was the first confirmed commander of islamic state in afghanistan, and now the first that we know has been killed by a joint operation between afghan forces and nato forces. intriguing, this is actually the first known nato air strike under their new mandate, the beginning of this year you'll remember the combat operations ended at the end of last year

but right at the last minute president obama said no nato forces could be involved in some air strikes in support of afghan troops, when they needed to do in extreme circumstances, and this was clearly said to be one of those circumstances. mullah rauf, with a group of his comrades, were traveling across the desert in a vehicle. local elders said that the vehicle was on its own in the desert. the air strike hit it. it was also carrying ammunition and there was a huge explosion, killing all of the people inside. >> i think this was in helmand province, as well. what is the relationship generally, though, between islamic state and the taliban? i mean is it always that easy in terms of a transition? or are they actually fighting each other? >> well there are a whole series of questions about islamic state in afghanistan. whether mullah rauf and some of the other individuals who emerged are opportunities. we know that he's fallen out with his former friends in the taliban a couple of years ago. he's been arguing them.

mullah omar the leader of the taliban, put out a death warrant against him last year. and then at the beginning of this year he started flying the black flag. a couple of weeks later, the islamic state leadership in syria named him as their deputy commander in the region. now, did they do that because they'd already had a direction with him or was it just opportunism on both sides? but, yes, there's also been fighting between his troops and taliban troops in the area that he was in in northern helmand. he was trying to recruit followers, saying that the taliban was finished. local elders said there were those battles. and the two organizations had, of course this one huge problem for leadership, which is that the leadership of i.s. baghdadi declares himself the caliph, the leader of all muslims, and that's just what mullah omar,ed the leader of the taliban, did in 1994. as far as afghans are concerned,

he is the leader of all the faithful. so there is this conceptual difference. but there have been some ep voinvoys working among the two, because they have a common enemy in the americans. well prime minister tony abbott has survived a vote taken by his own mps about whether he should be replaced as their leader. the meeting the took only a quarter of an hour to come to decision, which saw mr. abbott win by 61 votes to 39. >> reporter: tony abbott arrived at parliament like a prize fighter, flanked by his entourage. the meeting lasted just 15 minutes. the prime minister was left just about still standing with mps rejecting a motion to toss the

leadership. >> ladies and gentlemen, the liberal party has met. we've lad a ballot. it was properly conducted. the result is very clear. nos, 61. yes, 39. there was one informal, one member away on maternity leave. that seems to me to resolve the matter. >> but that's hardly a ringing endorsement. with more than a third of his party's mps wants tony abbott gone. the prime minister has pleaded for unity. he emerged a relieved man. >> the liberal party has dealt and now this matter is behind us. >> john donson with this report. now, over-chatty and inefficient waiters, heavy food could be a thing of the past in singapore, at one restaurant, at least. meals here come by drones. ali moore finds out how they work. >> reporter: i've been to restaurants where the service is too slow. well, imagine if you didn't have

to wait for your waiter to come all the way from the kitchen to your table. i've ordered some food on this tablet and here it is. no leg work. the drone has done all the leg work for him. >> thank you. >> this is how it works, the order comes in here. the chef plates up the food it's placed on the drone, and off it goes. pre-programmed for the right table. but what happens when there are lots of customers and lots of drones? well one of the people who developed the technology is june juneyang woon. >> we have created so lots of drones can fly in the same environment without colliding into one another.

an analogy would be like birds flying in the sky, they form formations and. >> what about spillage for example, a bowl of soup? >> each drone has a jigyroscope unit in it that's able to balance itself and balance on the table it's on. >> reporter: thank you very much. it's hard to know whether or not drones are the way of the future in restaurants, because, of course, there's one thing a drone can't do. and that's clean up. it would seem that waiters or waitresses of the two-legged variety still have a very good future. ali moore, bbc news singapore. >> and do you have to tip drones? a new debate. you're watching "gmt." a quick reminder of our main developing news in the last few minutes, because the diplomatic push to try to end the conflict in eastern ukraine continues. there are meetings around europe and indeed in washington. angela merkel is in washington for talks with president obama. but in brussels in the last few minutes, eu foreign ministers have approved putting visa bans

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coming up in this half hour what next for the people of the nigeria? boca bocoko haram releases a new video. ahead of the outcome of his final appeal against the conviction for sodomy miss opposition leader tells the bbc he's optimistic but also torn about what to do. >> reading the classics again or re-reading shakespeare and spend

my time reflecting and thinking and of course believing. we're seeing a bunch of business in india. >> yeah jim, a bunch of numbers, but not without controversy. they have just reported growth similar to that of china. good news for prime minister modi's government. but there are skeptics. they say the new method used to calculate these numbers doesn't necessarily reflect what's going on in india's economy. so stay tuned. we'll go live to mumbai to get the latest. >> hello and welcome back to "gmt." the islamist group, boko haram, vowed in a new video the group will defeat a regional force fighting the militants in the northeast of the country. troops from nigeria have been joined now by soldiers from chad and cameroon in recent weeks,

because of increased concerns about boko haram's threats. niger's parliament is expected to vote on the deployment of troops to fight boko haram's. and nigeria's presidential elections have been postponed until march. the government says due to the security situation and fighting, boko haram. nigeria's correspondent, will ross joins us now from lagos. will what is the response of things materially changing on the ground in the northeast over the next six weeks? >> reporter: what's clear is the regional effort to fight against boko haram is being boosted. now, over the weekend, there was a pledge of almost 9,000 troops from the region. and as you mentioned in your introduction there, niger is going to be voting parliament there will vote on whether to send those troops to join this regional force. and to underline the need for

there to be more of a regional effort against boko haram. there's been another attack on the town in the south of niger. there was a attack on a prison that was repelled. that's the third attack in four days by boko haram. the regional effort is being woost boosted. as you mentioned, the leader of boko haram he's come out to say that they're going to take on this regional force, and as you said, your alliance will not achieve anything. so that's the message from the leader of boko haram. and of course this all plays into the election because the military is saying that it can completely change the boko haram insurgency over the next six weeks, before the election. that is the plan. but, of course many people here in nigeria are skeptical, this is not really a security issue, that's caused the delay. it's more of a political game going on.

>> reporter: it's a fledgling democracy, a nation bursting with potential, but nigeria may have just taken a dangerous step backwards. just days before people were due to vote elections have been postponed. they've even given threats to the country's security. they're feared they could be canceled for good. the suspicion is that the military forced the day to help ensure this man stays in power. the president had been having a tough time. he's been lambasted more failing to stop the jihadist in the northeast and the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted last year are still in captivity. nigerians have been told the boko haram crisis is the reason the poll was postponed. the military said it can't spare any soldiers to help the security during the election. the challenge for the president

is coming from a man who has already tasted power. the general became head of state in the 1980s. the next year he was overthrown by another military regime. now he's back and angered by the postponement, but he urged people to remain calm. delaying the election is a highly contentious move. the boko haram crisis won't be ended in the next few weeks, so the excuse of insecurity can be used again to delay or even cancel the polls. worrying times for nigeria. and to show you just how controversial the delay is it's pretty clear that the opinions of the different political

parties are diametrically opposed. you have the governing party welcoming the delay and saying it's needed so the electoral commission can get ready, as well as the insecurity issues and the opposition condemning delay, and saying it's a very very worrying sign for nigeria's democracy. >> will ross there. >> let's find out more about nigeria's presidential contender and the current situation of the country, go to the website, bbc news.com. >> all right. in a few hours' time the malaysian opposition leader anwar ibrahim will find out whether he'll have to go back to prison. mr. anwar was imprisoned for six years on what he says are trumped up charges. since his release, he has organized three separate parties.

but he's been charged for a second time with breaking malaysia's law against sodomy. the verdict will be finalized on tuesday morning. our correspondent, speaking to mr. anwar and sent this report. >> reporter: he's been a fixture of malaysian politics for two decades. and for almost as long he's been battling the same charges. a politically motivated vendetta, say his supporters. 16 years after anwar ibrahim was first arrested sporting a famous black eye from a police beating, and igniting a pro-reform opposition movement he once again faces the prospect of a prison sentence. there's too much ever to consider putting me to jail. i'm innocent. but it's a political decision to putting me in jail. and i have served time as

government. eight years in prison. two years, and six years in prison. i'm, of course my age and my physical condition, no one want that. but this is the price i have to pay. >> reporter: at the last election two years ago, the coalition mr. anwar leads proved its strongest challenge yet to the government. but it still wasn't enough to dislodge the prime minister and his party, which has ruled unbroken since independence 58 years ago. the opposition movement is an uneasy partnership of conservative muslims, secular liberals, and ethnic chinese. anwar ibrahim's stature has held it together. so what will happen if he ends up behind bars? >> we are going to very turbulent times, religious parties over the islamic laws

in particular and we have to respect the fact that there will be some differences, as long as one party will not compel the rest to agree that all major policies must be reached through a consensus. >> 16 years ago, there was furious street clashes over mr. anwar's purge. today, such scenes are less likely. but malaysians also know that jailing this clever charismatic politician once again is unlikely to end his influence on this country's politics. jonathan head, bbc news kuala lumpur. >> talking about another breaking saga. evidence of how britain's biggest banks helped clients reduce their cash bills has been obtained by us the bbc, because the panorama program has seen documents showing how hsbc's private bank in switzerland

helped some clients evade taxes by hiding their income. now, client account details dating from 2007 were leaked by a whistle-blower. the hsbc is among a handful of banks to face fair criminal prosecution in recent years for its role in a swiss banking system that allowed clients to conceal income. the bank says it is now fundamentally changed its procedures, so let's take a look at this. because how has the law been broken? to answer that question we need to take a look at the difference between tax evasion and tax avoid avoidance. the distinction is importance. tax evasion is illegal. it avoids intentionally avoiding paying the taxes that are owed by not fully disclosing earnings and income. offshore bank accounts are often charged with tax evasion. if caught a tax evader can be fined and then sent to jail. tax avoidance, however, is

perfectly legal. individuals can give to charities, as well as invest in government-supported schemes that can legally reduce your taxable income and therefore, finally, your final tax bill. but is it morally right? that is a question that still needs to be answered. it's been debated all around the world. and richard bilton is the reporter who carried out this hsbc investigation for the bbc, and has all the details. >> reporter: it is the bank that helped clients break the law. now, hsbc's secrets are out. it starts with a leak. hsbc's private bank in switzerland deals with wealthy clients. now we know how. the stolen accounts were linked to the newspaper, "la monday." the journalists shared them with "panorama" and "the guardian" and they show widespread tax evasion.

he was helped so he can spend the cash without paying tax. i caught up with him at a game. >> was it all about tax? let me ask you a few questions. it's really helpful. were you a signature to that account? >> i don't know what account you're talking about. >> i think you do, sir. >> reporter: thankfully a few weeks later, mr. humphreys remembered that 147,000 pounds had been paid back to the tax man, but only after the files were leaked. then, there's the bank itself. the european savings directive was meant to tax hidden cash but hsbc showed clients how to get around it. the purpose of the new trust is to shelter the funds from the european savings directive.

>> i think they were a tax avoidance and tax evasion service. that's what they were offering. >> reporter: hsbc wouldn't do an interview, but told us it has fundamentally changed its private bank and has far fewer clients. it now puts compliance and tax transparency ahead of profitability. but has it really changed. shelly's job was to make sure the bank followed the rules. she said she was sacked after raising concerns but won a tribunal tribunal. they say that those days are gone? do you think that is true? >> from what i've seen no. verbal messages were great. in my view they weren't put into practice. >> reporter: steven green ran hsbc at the time, and oversaw the private banks that broke the

law. >> i, steven -- >> reporter: the government has seen the damning files, but still promoted him to the lords of the touring peer and made him a minister. when you were in charge of hsbc -- >> i have no comment. >> your bank was helping people dodge tax. why did you let them do that? >> i think i've explained, i'm not prepared to make any comments on hsbc's business past or present. >> but you have to. at the time you were earning millions of poindsunds and the taxpayer was missing out. >> i'm not prepared to make any comment on hsbc. >> reporter: no word but plenty of questions about what went on at hsbc. richard billton, bbc news. >> a lot more on that through the rest of the day. in the past half hour we had some breaking news from india. the economy there grew a staggering 7.5% for the last three months of 2014. that's compared to the same period a year ago. but 7.5% of course a pace

similar to that reported by china. but now economists warn that the figure needs to be treated with caution after statisticians changed the way the gdp is calculated. until last year, india had suffered its weakest growth rate since the 1980s. so is today's number a sign that president modi's strategy has helped improve growth? let's get over to samir. only a week or so ago, everyone was under the assumption we were still going to see india struggling to gather momentum and all of a sudden india changes its method and hey, we get a cracking number like this. why and how, the change. explain that to us. >> well the statistics have been working under a formula for the last two years. they set up a company to look

into how they can measure. because that part is done should be more under lying other global markets. just to give you an example, for the moment let's assume i'm a manufacturing and you are a shoe buyer, a customer. the earlier, the price that was taken into account was the producer's price, what the price i got when i sold that shoe to a shop keeper or a dealer. but now, the price that will be taken into account is the end consumer, the market price, what you pay to buy that shoe. so that's a significant change. the second one is that a lot of sectors were underrepresented. a lot of segments were underrepresented. for example, smartphones and conjunction in these segments have gone up significantly the last few years. and for all these changes have have been made, and just from they've, they've revised a lot of numbers.

for example, last year the economy grew. earlier, according to the old formula, it was 4.7%. that's a huge huge difference. >> it is a huge difference. and does that cause confusion? i'm just wondering, for example, for the finance minister who's drafting, you know the budget. things like that and not knowing, clearly, what sort of stimulus could be or would be needed for the economy. >> it's clearly baffling a lot of people here in india. just to give an example, the data the chief economic adviser of the country said that he's puzzled. the government the puzzled, the indian central bank is confused because all this while, as you were saying earlier, people thought that the indian economy was troubling. but now -- and we have a budget. the indian budget is expected to be announced at the end of this month. a lot of thinking has gone on how to revive the economy.

but that really has put even the finance minister in a lot of doubt what step or what part should they pursue now. even the central bank. if you remember two weeks back they cut interest rates three weeks back. the reason why they did that was, the criticism was the rates are too high, and that's why india's not growing fast. but now if india's growing so fast, do you really need rate cuts? there are a lot of questions and i've spoken to a lot of economists who are privately telling me that they're really confused and they really don't know what to make out of this data. for the next few weeks, i think the ministry will have to explain and convince not only economists, but the government that this data is reliable. >> and foreign investors, as well. is a sameer, thank you! let me touch on a couple of other stories. hey, the greek prime minister alexis tsipras, says he's sticking to his guns. he will cut corruption as part

of his promise to end all that austerity. and he also ruled out any extension of greece's international bailout. and worrying news out of china today, with the latest trade numbers showing the biggest fall in imports since 2009. china's trade performance plunged in january with exports, everything they ship out, declining just over 3% on the previous year, while everything they ship in fell a hefty, staggering 20%. there you go. that's what's going on. follow me on twitter, tweet me i'll tweet you right back you can get me @bbcaaron. mr. willcox, what are you looking? >> interesting on those indian figures. >> yeah. >> and the change in collections. >> somebody said they haven't passed the smell test yet, so we'll wait and see. >> stay here on bbb world. still to come -- ♪ oh, won't you stay with me ♪

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hello. you're watching "gmt." i'm tim willcox. our main stories. angela merkel prepares more talks on ukraine with president obama, with no sign of an end to the fighting in the east of the country. and egypt suspends its football league indefinitely after 22 fans die in a crush at the stadium in cairo. the british singer sam smith, has full reason to celebrate after he was crowned king of the grammys in los angeles last night.

among his four awards were best new artist and song of the year and record of the year for "stay with me." last year he came top of the bbc's annual soundoff music poll. >> reporter: the grammys belonged to one man this year sam smith. ♪ oh, won't you stay with me ♪ >> reporter: it might have been his first year here but he took away best new artist best hot vocal album, song of the year and record of the year. >> reporter: i just want to say that before i made this record i was doing everything to try to get my music heard. i tried to lose weight and i was making awful music. and it was only until i started to be myself that the music started to flow and people started to listen. so thank you, guys for accepting me. thank you. >> reporter: four grammys. that's a lot of acceptance speeches, and a lot of thank

yous. >> just a quick one. i want to thank the man who this record is about, who i fell in love with last year, thank you so much for breaking my heart, because you got me four grammys! >> reporter: it's the record industry's big annual get-together, but it's also all about the show. ♪ got bad news talking this and that ♪ >> reporter: from pharrell williams sharing why he won best prop solo performance, to lady gaga and tony bennett, singing "cheek to cheek." ♪ dancing cheek to cheek ♪ >> reporter: and madonna, last year she wasn't wearing white. the other big winner of the night was american singer beck for album of the year and best rock album. the grammy is also about unlikely combinations. tom jones joined jessie james.

and paul mccartney shared a stage with rihanna and kanye west. ♪ they're used to seeing big breakout acts here at the grammys, but they haven't seen anything like the phenomenon sam smith for quite some time. his six nominations, mean he's mentioned in the same breath as pharrell williams and beyonce, and his success tonight is just has catapulted him even greater into national stardom. >> sam smith, catapulted into stardom in the past year. that is all from "gmt" for today. just before we come off, let's see what's coming up in a few minutes' time on "impact." >> tim, thank you very much. join me in a few minutes' time. we'll be looking at the high-profile execution of an oil tycoon in china. he was found guilty of running a

criminal gang with links to government officials. and live to taiwan as a memorial service gets underway to remember the victims of last week's plane crash. and more reaction from cairo after 22 football fans were killed trying to enter a stadium on sunday. "impact" is coming up with me in a few minutes' time. see you then. r years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends. three jobs. you're like "nothing can replace brad!" then liberty mutual calls. and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. introducing york minis. a bite size way to enjoy the full size sensation of peppermint and rich dark chocolate. york minis

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picard: captain's log, stardate 43489.2. we have arrived at angosia iii a planet that has expressed a strong desire for membership in the federation. prime minister nayrok has taken commander riker and me on a tour of the capital city. well, i'm greatly impressed with everything i've seen so far prime minister. then i hope it will reflect favorably in your report, captain. it's a tribute to your people that you were able to recover so rapidly from the tarsian war. it is indeed. we are not warriors. we believe reason should settle disputes but not every culture agrees with our position. an unfortunate reality. the development of the mind, cultivation of the intellect...