tv BBC World News BBC America February 12, 2015 10:00am-11:01am EST
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hello. you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news" with me david eades. our top stories, hope for ukraine. a cease-fire deal is agreed by leaders after 17 hours of negotiations. president putin says the deal covers the withdrawal of heavy weapons by both sides once the cease-fire's in place. president poroshenko of ukraine admits there are still no deal though on the status of separatist regions within the country. a court in egypt orders the release on bail of two al jazeera journalists, convicted of aiding the outlawed muslim brotherhood. also in the program is the
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price to pay for petulance, a year in jail for the korean airline executive, who caused a scene over the way she was served nuts on a flight. also on the program, aaron's here, of course. those emergency talks between greece and the eu. >> david, they could hardly agree to disagree. they couldn't even agree on the wording for a statement. but boy, let me tell you, the clock is ticking. greece has just over two weeks before it could run out of money. and now one in four economists say they believe that greece will be forced to exit the euro zone. hello. a cease-fire has been agreed in eastern ukraine. it comes after months of fighting of course which has left more than 5,000 people dead in and large areas in ruins. the agreement which comes into
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effect on midnight on saturday night was reached between the leaders of russia ukraine, germany, and france in minsk, the capital of belarus. but there are already questions over whether it will stick. one rebel field commander has told the bbc, we won't stop fighting. that's despite the deal being welcomed we some of the rebel leadership. let's give you the bare bones of that deal. the cease-fire itself is due to kick in as i said at midnight on saturday. and this is the area which is being fought over currently. heavy weaponry will be pulled back by both sides in the conflict and all prisoners will be released by both sides. whilst these details aim to stop the fighting in the short-term there are, of course longer term considerations for the leader who is reached the agreement. >> the global resolution will cover issues ranging from the cease-fire to the control of borders and obviously withdraw of heavy weapons, as well as the
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resumption of economic relations. all quez were covered in this agreement, which was signed by the compact group and the separatists. the chancellor and i, alongside president poroshenko and putin are committed to verify the implementation of the cease-fire. cease-fire. >> in terms of a long-term political settlement, there are a few important additions. the first is constitutional reform, where the legal rights of people who live in the territory of donbass should be taken into account. then we have issues concerning border problems and an agreement with the separatist and the militia in the donbass. humanitarian issues implementation of the previously accepted law about the special status of these areas of donetsk and luhansk. >> the leaders talking there in minsk. and our chief international correspondent elise is there. given all the buildup and uncertainty and angst about this, any deal is quite a deal
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isn't it? but how rocky does it feel from where you are in minsk? >> very rocky. not, of course just here in minsk after this eerie calm after the building has been emptied, after the 17 hours of marathon discussions, but now it returns to where it really matters, to the ground and where there has been an escalation in recent weeks. the stakes are very high. and as you said the rebel groups some of the rebel fighters on the ground have said why should we give up what we spilled blood for, we lots lives, we lost families for. we have declared self-declared people's republics there. those are going to be the very, very difficult issues. but for the moment there is some relief here that a cease-fire has been announced. and that will give them some breathing space, to try to work out some of the logistics of that. and of course, it's not just the immediate issue. the immediate cease-fire will only hold if there are some longer term issues. the constitutional, the economic issues. and those are going to take a
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long time to wrestle with. and there could be more steps back before it moves forward. >> elise, stay with us for a moment. i want to turn to moscow where our bridgette kendall is there for us. bridgette, obviously, president putin very much taking center stage. the first one to come out and say, yes, a deal is being done. what do you think, for him now, are going to be the biggest challenges there in terms of mapping out this deal? >> well russia has played a very particular role in this conflict, because in the west it seems the prime player. president putin, the key man at these negotiations president hollande saw that after it ended it was his pressure on rebel representatives there, that brought them to sign this document about a cease-fire. but president putin displays himself more as someone on the sidelines, a country which would like to see peace in ukraine and a dispute which has to be solved between the ukrainian government and the rebels. and so he isn't portraying himself as someone who would be
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key for this deal to hold although from the point of view of the ukrainians of course he is. and one very important point, where we're not quite clear whether there is a proper agreement on the two sides, is what will happen to what kiev and western powers believe is russian heavy weaponry and russian soldiers who are in the ukrainian -- in the rebel-held areas. if there's a deal maybe it's not mentioned on paper, but is there a commitment that they will go back over the border and into russia? and is there some sort of real agreement, which is something that the president of ukraine can take to kiev which will be a commitment which will hold which will allow ukraine to take back control over that border to seal it and paycheck sure that russian military aid doesn't come across the border. this is part of the step-by-step complexity of this deal. there is a commitment in there that by the end of 2015 ukraine
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should take that border over under its control, if various other things are carried out. in that you can see that russia's role will be crucial, and it is a place it will become unraveled. >> let me pick up with you, elise, on that very point, about the border control. let's not pretend any elements of these talks have been remotely convivial, but did you get any sense from petrov poroshenko from ukraine's president, about a confidence in the direction that this could go, and that he could have enough to reestablish border control? >> all night, every time petrov poroshenko came or walked by the press or we had a glimpse of him or he gave a few words he was always talking about unacceptable, he always had a very grim look on his expression when he was forced to shake hands at president putin, he would glance at him and look away. the territorial integrity of
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ukraine has been his major objective. he wants control of that long border with russia. all the evidence shows that there are russian heavy weaponry and russian soldiers going across that border even though moscow continues to deny. but he also wants that territory back. he talks of decentralization. he recognizes that the people of that region need to have greater autonomy. but the problem is what they're talking about there is actually independence. they don't want to be under the control of kiev. and that is going to be the main sticking point going forward. >> right. that is absolutely the key. all right. what is the status of the regions of donbass and luhansk? we can go to donetsk now. james reynolds is there at the moment. james, a key issue, obviously, and no obvious resolution to that either at the moment but i want to ask you also about this cease-fire arrangement. what would you imagine is going to happen between now and the point at which the cease-fire kicks in given what you've seen
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in the last few days? >> reporter: very difficult to predict. of course one possibility is that rebel forces continue their sort of final attempts to take the town a piece of territory, the town of debaltseve, whether there's been heavy fighting in recent -- have made clear that it would help them connect that territory from the north to the south. a better road connection for them. so we haven't heard the kind of explosions in the distance that we have in recent days. so from where we stand, from our limited view here the intensity of the conflict has gone down in recent hours, even as the summit was going on. in terms of those rebel aims a number of them have spoken to us in the last -- they want to -- they don't feel they have achieved all their aims and they want to fight this memory and in honor of their comrades who have
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fallen. >> well, a bit of breaking up there from you, james. thank you very much, indeed. just worth making that point again, some separatists still saying they want to carry on the fighting. but for now, james in donetsk and lyse in minsk and bridgette kendall in moscow thank you all very much. well in about 20 minutes' time, we're going to bring you a bbc investigation into the shooting death of 50 anti-government protesters in kiev last february. of course, the moment i suppose, in many ways, which helped trigger this whole conflict. we'll have that for you as well as plenty more background and analysis for you to reflect on on the website. that's bbc.com/news. we've got detailed maps for you of the areas still being fought over as well. and there is the address on the page. a court in egypt has ordered the release on bail of two al jazeera journalists convicted of aiding the outlawed muslim brotherhood.
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mohamed fahmy and baher mohamed have been detained for more than a year with previous applications for bail having been rejected. they were sentenced up to ten years in prison along with their australian colleague, peter greste who is now released he was last week. let's get more now on this stunning appeal in cairo for us sally, can you just explain what the terms of this arrangement actually mean for these two? >> reporter: yes. the case has been adjourned until the 23rd of february. the defendants have been released, temporarily, baher mohamed has been bailed 250,000 egyptian pounds nearly $30,000. once the judge announced the verdict, everybody in court cheered. there is a high sense of hope, of optimism the attendance, the lawyers, the families they see this as a sign of hope, as a good sign this might lead to the very end for them to be released. baher mohamed even tweeted
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saying i am free! actually, there has been a request submitted by the lawyers at the beginning of this case asking the judge to release the defendants on bail. just before the verdict has been issued mohamed fahmy walks out of his cage and he gave a pretty emotional speech. he said that he didn't ask for renouncing his egyptian citizenship. he just received the call from a senior official who asked him to give away his egyptian citizenship for the case to be closed. he said i have no other option. i had no other option. if i want my freedom, i have to give away my egyptian nationality. according to fahmy the lawyer told him, egypt lives in your heart, not just on a piece of paper. he denied any kind of relation with the muslim brotherhood. he denied committing any acts of violence and he wondered why a couple of journalists would be charged with terrorism. he just said that we are happy for peter greste that he has been released but all of us should be treated equally.
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>> sally, thanks very much indeed bringing us right up to date as we heard those two journalists freed on bail i should say. the whole campaign, actually, regarding their detention and release has been a social media phenomenon, really and just in the last few minutes of the bail announcement, we got tweets from baher mohamed. which simply read, "i am free." peter greste also tweeted his support. "congratulations," he said "this is a huge step forward, not time to declare it over but at least you get to go home!" earlier he said his heart was in the cage with the two men. do stay with us here on bbc brks krrksc world news. still to come on "gmt," we'll be talking to the spokesperson of the international organization of migration on the fate of those migrants who are in danger when they cross the mediterranean sea. at least 300 diagnoseying in the last few days.
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the daughter of korean air's chairman has been sentenced to a year in jail after a now pretty notorious nut rage incident that triggered an uproar over the behavior of business families. the court found hyun-ah cho guilty of charging a plane to return to its gate after serving macadamia nuts in a bag rather than a bowl. >> cho hyun-ah, contrite but not contrite enough. the judge said he didn't think she was really sorry, so a heavy one-year sentence was needed. inside this plane, she had a megatantrum, because the nuts in first class were served in a bag, not a bowl. her father is the airline's head so she felt entitled to order the captain to turn back
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to the gate to have the offended purr purser put off. it started a debate about korea's family-owned firms called chevals. samsung is the biggest. you think electronics, but it's everything, from this amusement park to ships, to hospitals, to housing, to funeral homes. on land and sea, from cradle to grave. samsung's head was convicted of tax evasion. >> the chairman are often said to run the company or the group in an emperor-like way. that means they make decisions on their own, without any check or balance or monitoring by the board of the company. >> reporter: for the critics, that car park epitomizes the problem. hyundai motors has paid $10
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billion for the whole space, to build a glitzy new headquarters. the skeptics say, it's a vanity project to aggrandize a family firm. chevals do give back to the community, like here where employees hand out coal briquettes to the poor but the debate is whether the nepotism is the right way for the future. mrs. cho may ruminate on the question in her prison cell. stephen evans, bbc news, seoul. the european union's patrolling of the mediterranean is being seriously denounced today after hundreds of people try to cross from north africa into europe have died. the head of the u.n. refugee agency antonio gutierrez, has called it woefully inadequate. he says the top priority has to be to save lives. search and rescue not just
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border patrols of illegal sea crossings. and he's not on his own. the international organization for migration says the latest drownings could have been prevented, but the eu had done nothing to deter migrants to try to get to europe. survivors say they left the north african coast bound for europe on saturday. it's bound they left from libya, piled into four dinghies each carrying more than 100 people. human traffickers are being blamed for forcing them to travel in the bad weather, which has hit the area. on monday italian coast guards did pull 105 people out of the sea after one dingy overturned. not everyone survived though. another two dinghies were not discovered until wednesday. those migrants had spent days drifting without food or water. as for the fourth dingy, that has yet to be found. it's believed 300 migrants have died in this latest incident. some of the victims were as young as 12. survivors are now on the italian island of lampedusa.
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it is a sorry tale from geneva. i'm joined by john millman, the spokesman for the international organization of migration. john millman, thank you so much for joining us. i u.s. >> wonder you made the point that these people could have been saved. what more could have been and should have been done? and how could they have done it? >> reporter: >> well, we know that the time from last november when the italian authorities programmed for patrolling the area was in effect, there was a much larger footprint, a much more aggressive patrolling a much larger boats. we would think that with larger crafts and more crafts out there, we would have seen a possibility that some more of these victims could have been rescued. you know, the ones who died that we reported on monday the 29 who died of hypothermia, all had been recovered by italian coast guard, but we don't know that the ship were large enough to accommodate them safely or that there were medical personnel or medical facilities on board. and sadly, 28 dies on that ship
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and another 29 died in the hospital. we would say it's very stark, patrolling larger ships and larger forces out in the sea, probably would have gotten to them sooner. >> is it a fact that there are more migrants out there trying to cross the water now, since the italian coast guard's operation ceased? >> i don't know if that's true. i know the numbers were absolutely enormous, through the sailing seas and what we sometimes call the people's smuggling seas. 26,000 attempted to cross, and were successful, because they were rescued by the italian navy, just in the month of september. whereas in january, it was only 3,500. that's a lot for january. that's many more than cross january 2013 or 2014. it's many less when it was in effect. we think weather has much more to do with it than the actual policy. but the countries in the world sending these migrants are in such turmoil, people will come regardless of the time of year and regardless what's waiting
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for them in the sea. they're quite desperate and they're going to come. >> clearly a desperately situation. no one could deny that. i suppose there is a question about how much responsibility the european union is expected to take from this. because clearly, it does cost a lot of money. there's no price you can put on a life but you can see that there is a dilemma here. >> absolutely. there are many dilemmas here. one of them of course that europe enjoys four centuries of history as a sender as a source nation of migrants. it's only recently become a destination. that's a tough adjustment. a lot of governments, a lot of voters, a lot of people are having a hard time accepting that, but the world accepts it. the world is coming to where they feel there's safety, there's dignity, there's employment for them, and they're leaving places where none of those things were available to them. it's europe's unfortunate position to be within only a few hundred miles of some of the worst conflicts on earth. but this is inevitable. this is not something you can decide shouldn't be or can be
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stopped. you have to embrace it this is the future for mankind and we've got to play a role. >> john millman, thank you very much for joining us. joel is speexokesman for the international organization of migration. prince charles is continuing his tour of the middle east with visits to qatar and abu dhabi. earlier, he visited archaeological sites in saudi arabia, seen by only a few westerners. he also met the new king of saudi arabia with whom he raised a case of the jailed blogger. >> reporter: deep in the desert of arainbarabia a prince going where not many visitors are able to go in this kingdom of tight restrictions. he was taken to the sites of ancient civilization dating from more than 2,000 years ago. >> very impressive sight. >> yes. >> reporter: at the places where important archaeological excavations are taking place, excavations which are seen by very few westerners.
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fascinating stuff for a man who's drawn to such things. but this visit has more two it than sightseeing. charles is meeting with saudi arabia's king salman for a demonstration of his value as a diplomatic asset. charles doesn't canvass on behalf of individual business projects for britain. he'd find that rather demeaning, but he does press the flesh to promote britain's wider interests. and particularly in gulf countries, he's able to raise sensitive matters of concern to britain. in this case he raised the case of the young saudi blogger, raf badawi, sent to prison and publicly lashed for defending saudi's religion. for prince charles, this was one intervention which appears to have gained him credit. his rather singular set of qualifications came into their own. >> it's been a visit which in a
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sense has played to the prince's strengths. his knowledge of islam, his long-standing relationship with the saudi royals and something that diplomats cherish. the ability to convey a difficult message without giving offense. >> reporter: so charles can leave saudi arabia in the knowledge that there are still places and situations in which a quiet word from a prince counts for something. let me just remind you of our main news and that is the deal for a cease-fire in ukraine agreed after 17 hours of negotiation. both president putin and president poroshenko of ukraine, of course, with angela merkel and francois hollande providing the support, if you like to get to this deal. that's not to say fighting is finished yet. the timing for that cease-fire is midnight saturday night. that is the plan at least, that
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it should come into play there. there will be a withdrawal of heavy armament from that point as well. we'll be live in brussels where the situation if ukraine is also being discussed and we'll take you back to how the conflict started as well. that's in "gmt" coming up shortly. you pay your auto insurance premium every month on the dot. you're like the poster child for paying on time. and then one day you tap the bumper of a station wagon. no big deal... until your insurance company jacks up your rates. you freak out. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? hey insurance companies, news flash. nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. there's no taste like twizzlers. there's no taste like twizzlers. there's no taste like twizzlers. (witch laughing) from movie classics to tv hits twizzlerize your entertainment with twizzlers. the twist you can't resist.
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welcome to "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm david eades. hope for ukraine. a cease-fire deal is agreed by leaders after 17 hours of negotiations. amid the relief though much caution. all parties accepting there are many hurdles still to overcome including the status of ukraine's breakaway region. forget new york london paris, we visit a secondhand market in uganda has part of our richer world series and we follow the charity coastline. also on the program, aaron's back having a look at one company that has had a he can of a fall.
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>> to put it bluntly, you remember this game here farmville. six years ago, it was a smash hit on facebook, making the company behind it zynga, the biggest online game firm in the world. but for the past two years, it's been rough. its share price has fallen by some 82%. so we're going to find out what went wrong. oh, and can zynga make a comeback? hello, the russian president, vladimir putin, was the first to emerge from marathon peace talks in minsk to announce a new cease-fire deal in ukraine. it's set to come into effect at midnight on saturday fight, but there are still questions on whether ukraine and the pro-russian rebels can agree on the terms. the french president francois hollande will help to verify the course of the peace process.
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miss merkel herself was cautiously optimistic. >> translator: we now have a glimmer of hope. we have agreed on a comprehensive implementation of the minsk agreement, but, of course concrete steps have to be made and we will be facing big hurdles. on balance, i can say that what we've achieved today gives us more hope than if we hadn't achieved anything at all. >> all right. that was angela merkel as she and mr. hollande are on their way to brussels for an eu summit. they'll no doubt be outlining the terms of the deals to their eu colleagues there. our petrov poroshenko will also be traveling to brussels. he may be glad he does as well. my colleague, philippa thomas is in brussels. what would amount to a major financial boost to ukraine? >> reporter: a possible lifeline. early this morning in brussels, the imf, christine lagarde, announced a new package that is worth in all some $40 billion over four years, from the imf.
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it's $17.5 billion loan. now, she's announced this because ukraine's economy is really struggling. its currency has nosenose-dived. the production of coal has slumped. and the fight over debaltseve is not helping matters, because that is the rail hub where coal from the east gets out. a real problem. ukraine, in a nutshell needs a lot of cash and needs it quickly, hence christine lagarde made this announcement. she said there would have to be those continuing reforms. a lot of pressure now on the ukrainian government to continue those reforms. let's hear a little of what she had to say. >> they have agreed to continue the energy price increases, to bring it to market. therefore, eliminating a lot of unnecessary public spending. while at the same time putting in place and reinforcing the social safety net that is needed for the people who are in need.
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these two go together by the way. the second thing that they will be doing, as well in the front of the program, is bank restructuring. very much needed and that will be done. third, in-depth governance reformed of the state-owned enterprises. and in the medium term an in-depth reform in order to unbundle this energy sector of ukraine. >> all encouraging, in one sense, i suppose, philippa. but it will be important for the eu summit won't it to hear what merkel and hollande have to say about this minsk agreement. how optimistic or otherwise, i suppose they are, given that the eu is right in the forefront of many of the economic sticks at the moment? >> that's right. that's absolutely right. they'll be waiting here. we're already seeing some of the leaders arrive in brussels but they're waiting for angela
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merkel and francois hollande accompanied by president poroshenko of ukraine, to come back and debrief them. and the key is can they trust this? is this agreement worth the paper it's written on? we'll remember the september agreement of a cease-fire, a deal in the eastern ukraine, that never really got underway in my meaningful fashion. so i suppose the question is if angela merkel believes that president putin can be trusted to fix the deal then the eu will want to pull together and want to have a common front on this and do as much as they can to make sure the cease-fire takes hold and sticks. and to that end, what we are hearing from the eu's foreign policy chief this morning is she doesn't expect further sanctions on russia to be under discussion in today's informal summit. >> philippa thank you very much, indeed. philippa thomas in brussels for us. of course, the cease-fire is due to come into effect on the 15th of february. you could argue all this started
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on the 20th of february last year, where more than 50 anti-government protesters were shot dead in kiev's square. it prompted moscow then to an next crimea and it sparked a separatist war in the east. at the time riot police were blamed for the death, but they were not the only ones shooting that day. the bbc witnessed those shootings has been back to investigate. >> these are the scenes that triggered the breakup of ukraine. scenes that have brought the world to the brink of a new cold war. unarmed protesters guns down in the street by the riot police who were retreating from kiev's square. by the end of the day, more than 60 people were dead including three policemen. ukraine's new leaders maintain that responsibility for the shooting lies entirely on security forces acting on behalf of the previous government. our investigation suggests that's not the whole picture.
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[ gunfire ] only three people have been arrested over the killings. all of them members of this police unit seen firing here towards the protesters. that was after 9:00 in the morning, as government forces retreated from the square. but what's prompted the police to pull back? earlier that morning, andre, then an opposition politician and part of the movement had received a call from the police commander on the square. >> he calls me and he says someone is shooting at my guys and he said that the shooting was from the second floor, and please do something about that. because it's getting real. >> reporter: the building was under the control of the protesters.
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on the morning of the 20th, there were persistent reports of gunfire coming from there. now for the first time one of those gunmen has spoken on camera. he was part of the protest movement, he said and agreed to talk to us on the condition that we disguise his identity. we will call him sergey. >> i was shooting downwards at their feet. of course, i could have hit them in the arm or anywhere but i didn't shoot to kill. i also shot upwards, at the police who were on top of the shopping center. and that is why they retreated. >> reporter: sergey says he took up a position behind one of these pillars here and he mentions being able to see that clock over there on the far side of the bank, and the edge of the shopping center, which is the part of the square that was controlled by the riot police. so from here he had a bird's eye view right over the front line. >> reporter: amid the chaos, the man in charge of security at the
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protest camp sent his men to search the conservatory building. >> they went and checked all the floors. roughly half an hour later, they returned and told me there were no firing positions from the conservatory. >> reporter: the lawyers and prosecutors say their attempts to find out what really happened on that day are being blocked by the court. in the absence of a thorough and transparent investigation, conspiracy theories flourish. many ukrainians believe the shootings on the 20th were a provocation, planned and orchestrated by moscow ford to justify the annexation of crimea and spark a separatist movement in the east. russians counter that mydan was a cia-inspired coup. neither side offers credible evidence for its claim. mydan is overwhelmingly made up of peaceful citizens who demand
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a change to their corrupt government. there's much we still don't know about what happened that day, but it's clear that some of the shooting was coming from the protesters protesters' side. >> right. time to catch up with the business. aaron is here. what are these greeks up to aaron? >> the greeks and the europeans. they put it all on to the greek's side. we had that crisis. we weren't expecting, let's be frank, we weren't expecting any solid agreement, but we were expecting something. and we got nothing. thanks, david. hello, despite some seven hours of these crisis talks between the greek finance minister, yanis yanis, talks will resume on monday, stay tuned for that one.
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but let's remind ourselves, the 28th of february, that's when greece's current bailout deal it's finished. it runs out. greece needs a final $7 billion euro euro installment to make debt repayments in march and avoid defaulting and going bankrupt. but greece's new left-wing government is adamant it wants no more austerity, you know all that austerity, the conditions that came with the bailout. instead, greece the new government, is pushing for a bridging loan to stave off bankruptcy, something europe though, is not prepared to accept. so we've got this at the moment. also, one in four economists polled by reuters, now believe that greece will be forced to leave the euro zone. that's the most since the chaos before the first bailout, which was back in 2009. speaking from the heart of a greek fish market, our correspondent, mark lowen, says that they couldn't even agree to disagree. >> a lot of talks last night and they failed to reach a joint
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statement after those talks because they're coming at it from different angles. the greek government wants to end all that painful austerity, to swap greek debt for new bonds or mature ones. the germans and others say, look, you sign up for things we've given you $240 billion euros, you've got to stick to what you've agreed to. let me show you where we're broadcasting from today. this is a lovely fish mark in the heart of athens. lovely calamari sea bass there. a real life still going on in this city even though politics very much on their minds. so they didn't net a deal in brussels. tsipras, perhaps, will take the cake. we can go on with a bad pun. but a lot of people supporting their government believing they've given their government the mandate to renegotiate the government, and they'll be upset if he's forced to roll back on any re-election pledges.
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>> you're making us all hungry we're looking at that calamari salivating. what is next? it does seem like we're hearing more and more especially outside of europe about a greek exit. alan greenspan, the former boss of america's central bank the federal reserve, saying it's inevitable greeks will leave. canada's finance minister recently saying the world economy can handle a greek exit et cetera, et cetera. what's the talk there on the ground now? are they still most greeks do want to be in the euro right? >> they do. and the government believes that they can get the new negotiation, they can get a bridge loan they can sit down with the big euro zone and renegotiate the economic talks, yet still stay in the euro. the talk of exit greece leaving the euro is far less now than it was at the height of the financial crisis. if no compromise is agreed with the other euro zone partners greece could run out of money within weeks and it would lead
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to a default with its debt. but there is no desire either in greece or on the other side for this country to leave. it would mean economic disaster for greece and just remember aaron, as i said 240 billion euros in five years have been spent trying to save greece over the last few years. it's very unlikely that we'll try to let it go out of the euro zone now. but tough negotiations ahead of the summit today and another euro zone minister meeting next monday. >> mark lowen, talking to me earlier from a fish market in the center of athens. you may remember this virtual farming game farmville, was all the rage, big hit on facebook six years ago. the company behind it zynga, that helped it to become the biggest online games company in the world. but, boy, how things change. the last two years have seen an absolute collapse in its fortunes. later today, zynga will release its yearly numbers and they are likely to reveal further big
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losses. here's a number for you. take a look at this. it's coming it's coming. 82%. what is that? that is just how much zynga's shares have fallen since their peak back in march of 2012. so, what went wrong. and of course the other question, can zynga make a comeback. jeremy howell has this report. >> where will you play? >> reporter: launched in 2009 farmville became the game to play on facebook. millions of people spent their spare time doing farming chores and spending their real-world money buying imaginary cows in cyberspace. zynga made a fortune and helped build onlineaming into the $25 billion a year market it is today. >> games where you perform basic shores to build a city build a farm are very popular then. farmville was very good at that. but without the user base it doesn't matter how good the game is. you need to create users to make
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it that social experience. >> zynga went from fresh start-up to a list of corporations employing 3,000 staff. it started working on a big new market. games for mobile devices. but by 2012 it had become clear that it was losing its mass following. revenues fell and so did the zynga share price. it brought up rival companies and launched the games they had developed, with such words with friends and draw something. but none could reproduce the success of farmville. >> i think zynga was particularly unfortunate in that several of its acquisitions happened at a very high price for the company they were acquiring and just when that game that the company was owned was going off. >> reporter: mobile gamers are clash of clowns and candy crush is aga from kingdom.
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the debate amongst financial investors is whether singa is a spent force in this market or whether it can produce another winner from its new pipeline of games to get back in the race. jeremy howell bbc news. >> okay. we'll keep across those numbers. follow me on twitter tweet me, i'll tweet you back. you can get me @bbcaaron. those are the dangers of the one-hit wonder. >> thanks for being with us. stay with us here on "gmt" if you can. coming up in a moment, where do all our used clothes end up? our richer world season continues with a look at what happens to the 600 million dollars' worth of secondhand clothes donated here in the uk every year.
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at ally bank no branches equalsreat 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. it's the candy bar that's too hot for tv in all its naked glory; stripped of chocolate, with nothing but salty roasted peanuts on soft sweet caramel. a payday bar will get you through your day. expose yourself to payday. m so glad we could be here for larry.
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hello and welcome back. i'm david eades. the top stories this hour. the leaders of russia ukraine, france and germany have agreed that a cease-fire will begin in eastern ukraine at saturday, midnight. a court in egypt has ordered the release on bail of two al jazeera journalists convicted of aiding the outlawed muslim brotherhood. that is our breaking news at the moment. the two journalists, baher mohamed and mohamed fahmy, have been told that they are being released released on bail. that is mohamed fahmy who has given up his egyptian citizenship and declares himself canadian now. he has been released on bail had to pay about $30,000 to do so so and his colleague baher mohamed, is being released with no financial bail conditions attached. we're not quite sure if they are
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going to get out today but there was a lot of celebration in court, as you might imagine. there is a reconvening of their case on february the 23rd. thousands of us donate our used clothing to charity, many in the beliefs that it will be given to those in need or sold in high must have street charity shops to raise funds. but most of what we hand over actually does end up getting shipped abroad. part of a $3.4 billion secondhand globe trade. we investigate the journey of our castoffs and follow one set of garments from donation to destination.
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in uganda secondhand clothes often have the best bargain. the trade in the capital is now so big, it's the hub for used clothes in east africa. katherine went to a secondhand clothes market to find out a bit more. >> reporter: welcome to the biggest market in uganda. if you're looking for some of the best designs, you can find them here. and the price won't make your eyes water. these secondhand clothes are shipped here in big sacks, mainly from the u.s. uk and south korea. prices in this market vary from a few cents to $20 for a designer dress in good condition. meet grace. she's always on the look for great fashion. her clients are some of the best dressed in kampala. many of grace's clients don't want to deal with the hustle of coming downtown or simply don't have the time.
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so she acts as a kind of personal shopper. >> i always look -- clothes, fashion. the people i dress, they love this cut. they like materials that are really, really nice. it's very very nice prepared to the person the clothes that are from china, malaysia. >> and it's not just ugandans here. traders from neighboring kenya, ewe wanda south suedan also make the trip. uganda is the place to be if you want secondhand clothes in east africa. they're much cheaper here because they're packed less and you can get them from all over the world. after a couple of hours of pushing, shoving, and haggling
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grace has found some bargains but back at her shop she sorts through the clothes. she'll deliver some to clients. others will be sold here. if any are torn or stained, she'll get them fixed up and washed. nothing goes to waste. she's off to meet one of her best clients. she is a tv anchor. her image is very important. grace has learned her style and what fits. >> she tries to off-load you know the hustle of me going down and to look for stuff like that. she brings good clothes up. it helps me manage my time it helps me you know, she does a good job. yeah. >> grace will make a $5 to $10 profit on each item. many give away clothes to help the poor. in uganda they're offering
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thousands of people like grace the opportunity to make a living and help support their families. >> and that brings us to the end of "gmt." just a moment "impact." thanks for watching bbc worlt news. you drop 40 grand on a new set of wheels, then... wham! a minivan t-bones you. guess what: your insurance company will only give you 37-thousand to replace it. "depreciation" they claim. "how can my car depreciate before it's first oil change?" you ask.
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picard: captain's log, stardate 43685.2. as part of an exchange program we are taking aboard a klingon officer to return the recent visit of commander riker to the cruiser pagh. we must take care that while he's with us, commander kurn is accorded all the rights and responsibilities due to a first officer on board this ship. if he should feel patronized in any way -- well, i'm sure we'd know. one does not patronize a klingon warrior. your experience on board the pagh will prove invaluable during the commander's tour. be sure the crew are prepared for any unusual orders. the klingons are very thorough. i'm sure commander kurn has studied for his assignment just as i did when i served with them. i understand he requested the enterprise specifically. co
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