hello you're watching bbc world news. i'm adnan nawaz. our top story this hour: he is the boss of samsung — it's one of the world's biggest electronics companies — goes on trial. jay y lee is accused of paying bribes to gain political support. we look at how the case is tied to the embattled and now impeached president park geun—hye. welcome to the programme. our other main stories this hour: australian police warnjustin bieber fans to be on their guard, after an alleged imposter is charged with hundreds of online child abuse offences. mission impossible became mission accomplished. one of the all—time greatest sporting comebacks — barcelona score six goals, three in the last seven minutes in the champions league — leaving fans and players elated. in nine months time from now, people will make love a lot tonight. ——

they will need more nurses in nine months time. i'm sally bundock. in business: on trial — the crown prince of samsung. at stake — the reputation of asia's richest family — and one of its most successful companies. plus, attracting the high flyers — airlines show their business class at the berlin travel show. hello again. the trial of the billionaire boss of one of the world's biggest companies begins today. the south korean business conglomerate samsung, and its boss, jay y lee, are accused of paying bribes to gain political backing for the company. it's alleged samsung paid more than $37 million to the country's impeached president park geun—hye in exchange for the government's support on a merger. the company admits donating money but denies seeking any favours in return. steve, we know it happened, and we

know the merger occurred. but this case is something else. it is. it goes to the top of the country. in credit for hours, the president could be kicked out of the presidency, and shortly after fighters of accused of serious crime, corruption. because it goes to the very top of one of the biggest companies in the world. the central allegation is that the head of samsung, the acting head of samsung, jay y lee, met the president of this country, one on one, only the two of them they are, and they agreed, it is alleged, that samsung gave many millions of dollars to the best friend of the president in return for the national pension fund, one of the biggest in the world, to put its weight behind an internal restructuring. if present parties impeached tomorrow, she will be the first president of

south korea to be sacked while in office. —— president park. ifjay y lee is found guilty in the trial, which starts about now, then he could easily face a period, a substantial period in jail. could easily face a period, a substantial period injail. so could easily face a period, a substantial period in jail. so the sta kes a re substantial period in jail. so the stakes are very high. but in a way, what is also on trial is the way in which the opponents who go on the streets every saturday say it is a way of doing business and government in this country. they say that companies, the big conglomerates, they are far too close to government, that there is mutual backslapping, which, according to prosecutor in this case, amounts to corruption. and that is one of the keys to this case, isn't it, stephen? because in some countries, your connections, the depth of your pockets, may well be to your advantage when it comes to you being in court. what about in south korea?

what is history tell us about important people being on trial? the history of the very top people being on trial is that they are often found guilty. and they are often then pardoned by the president of then pardoned by the president of the day, including jay y lee's father, it has happened twice to him. if it happens —— if you look at the people who run the chaebols in this country, a surprising number of them have fallen afoul of the law. and they have found themselves sentenced to prison, and then often not done time. now, a lot of people think that this time it will be different. and that is because there are questions about the economy and about how this economy can function with that kind of old way of doing business that stemmed from the way that this country was created from a military dictatorship. a lot of people said that was the way this country grew it economy, but it is not the obvious way to take the economy forward. thank you for

joining us, steve evans. it would be a busy few days for him with the announcement tomorrow on president park. and sally is here with all the business news. yes thanks adnan. samsung has had a torrid year. don't forget the torrid drummer with the galaxy note 7. it has been a torrid time for them. we are also covering what is being described as the trial of the century in south korea. the company may be a household name worldwide, but the boss is not. so what do we know about him? well, jay y lee is vice—chairman of the company, but he is known in south korean media as the "crown prince of samsung". and that is because he is the only son of the chairman lee kun—hee who was convicted of rabri

and tax evasion himself. but he was pardoned. jay y lee has been in charge since his father had a heart attack in 2014. so he has been the de facto bosses then. now, the lee family are phenomenally wealthy. forbes magazine rank them as the richest family in asia for the second year in a row. you can see how much they are valued at. almost $30 billion. and it puts jay y lee's personal wealth at some $6 billion. samsung is incredibly important for south korea. as steve was just outlining, it has been key to the country's economic rise from one of the world's porras are the world war ii, to one of the ridges. it has group sales of $240 billion, and it accou nts group sales of $240 billion, and it accounts for about a fifth of south korea's exports. —— poorest. it

should be worth mentioning that the shares have been wobbling a little bit, but hit an all—time high recently. so much to discuss. we will have another expert to tell to us will have another expert to tell to us about that in world business report. also, we will be hearing from tanya beckett. she is at the itb travel show in berlin. the world's premium airlines are competing for the attention of the business traveller, with the very latest in cabin comfort. you can see her testing it out there. corporate passengers are lucrative for the airlines — but growth is sluggish, with more people travelling for pleasure than for business, and less need for face—to—face meetings thanks to internet conferencing. it isa it is a jampacked show. we will see you in about 20 minutes. a fire at a government—run care home in guatemala has killed at least 20 teenage girls. many others were injured. it's not clear what caused the fire, but there are reports suggesting it may have been started deliberately. the home shelters about

500 children who've been victims of violence. caroline davies reports. desperate for answers. desperate for their children. families gathered outside the gates of the virgen de asuncion shelter, a care home in guatemala, after teenage girls living there were killed in a fire that raged through the building. translation: they haven't given us explanation, and they don't let us go in. police were called to a riot here, last night. the blaze started after somebody set fire to a mattress in one of the dormitories. although this is a children's home, it was thought that it was doubling up as a juvenile detention centre. it's caused shock in guatemala. three days of national mourning have been declared. translation: we treasure life. we are the ones most interested in guaranteeing the life of adolescence. unfortunately, today, at about 9am, a tragic accident occurred

that we very much lament. as well as those killed, the police department said tens of people were injuried, some in a series condition, with severe burns. the care home has a poor reputation in guatemala. reports on exactly how many children were inside vary, but it was thought to be hugely overcrowded. there were not enough staff, understaffed. and yes, we've heard, and we know, that there were cases of abuse. that is why unicef have been advocating with goverment officials for the closure of the shelter. as the rubble is cleared an investigation continues, families and a country wait for some explanation. caroline davies, bbc news. police in australia are warning

justin bieber fans — and their parents — to be vigilant of people posing as the singer on the internet and asking for indecent images of children. it follows an investigation into a 42—year—old man from queensland who's been charged with over 900 child sex offences, after allegedly posing as the popstar on social media platforms. how long was this going on, and how was the man caught? the police say that the offences go back to 2007. almost a decade, he was using the internet to groom young children across the world. and that, they say, by posing asjustin bieber. they say he used different social media platforms, facebook and skype, in order to initially contact and then when the trust of young children. obviously, making them believe he was a celebrity. tragically, this resulted, they say, and 157 victims across the world, including some 50 in the us, being

fooled or brought into sexual acts. the man has been charged with, as you say, over nine and offences. and this is on top of previous offences he was charged with back in november. he was caught, apparently, as part of an international sting. we believe that involved police officers in the us and germany, as well as is dreadful duping a child would be one thing. presumably, there may have been some adults involved that he could afford into thinking he wasjustin bieber. if that was the case, what happens to those people that were sending this person the alleged criminal these pictures? well, he is accused of multiple different offences, because of their nature, we are not given the breakdown of the ages of the victims. although we understand they are primarily young victims. but i suppose the abuse is the same in as

much that he has falsely won the trust of people and entice them, solicited explicit images from them. but the police's the bigger concern is about young people on the internet. and how much education is needed from parents and from society to help people, young people, realise that when they go online, anonymity can become a very dangerous thing. sometimes. and they should always be careful in who they trust. hywel griffith, thank you for joining us from sydney. the american spy agency, the cia, has accused wikileaks of endangering americans by publishing what the website says are top—secret hacking tools the agency uses. the cia did not confirm the authenticity of the documents, but said the american public should be deeply troubled by such disclosures. through it's spokesman sean spicer, the white house also accused wikileaks of threatening national security. i think he's very concerned about the allegation that are out there in terms of what may or not have happened. it is allegation and something

we aren't going to confirm at this time, but as you can imagine from the president's previous comments he is extremely concerned about this, about these allegations, about the potential that something, if this were true, would have on our national security. make no mistake about it, i think the president has said before that anyone who leaks classified information will be held to the highest degree of law. some news in brief. peru is struggling to cope with flash floods that have hit an area south of the capital lima.

following a severe drought, the matagente rivere burst its banks, and forced thousands to leave their homes. floods have already killed 43 people across 24 regions — prompting last month's deciusion by the government to declare a state of emergency for 60 days. the veteran french rocker, johnny hallyday, is being treated for cancer, but he's said in a twitter message that his life is not in danger and that he's in good physical condition. he's 73, and often described as the french elvis. a magazine article has described his condition as giving serious concern. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: accusations of ethnic cleansing in south sudan — the un blames government forces and their militia allies, warning the country is approaching genocide. the number of dead and wounded defied belief. the worst atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 24 hours the soviet union lost an elderly sikh leader and replaced in with a dynamic figure 20 years hisjunior. we heard these gunshots.

then they started firing at our huts and we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he is 90. he travelled from memphisjail to nashville prison in an eight car convoy. paul, what's it feel like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. will it change your life much, do you think? i don't know, really, i've never been married before. this is bbc world news. i'm adnan nawaz. the latest headlines: the trial of the samsung boss begins today. jay y lee and the company are accused of paying more than 37 million dollars in bribes to south korea's impeached president park geun—hye. police in australia have charged a man with more than 900 child sex offences.

he's alleged to have posed online as the popstarjustin bieber and asked people for explicit images of children. a united nations report has described south sudan as edging closer to genocide. the un commission on human rights accuses government forces and militia allied to them of ethnically—motivated attacks on civilians, using the civil war as a smokescreen. the government in south sudan denies it is carrying out ethnic cleansing. this report from our africa correspondent alistair leithead, who's been to the southwestern town of yei. crying the grief of a mother. the death of a son. she'd travelled through the night when she'd heard what happened. isaac's body was found dumped in the river, his ankles tied, a metal wire tight around his neck. translation: my son was fishing and saw the body.

i don't know who did it or why they did it. does this happen a lot? translation: it happens. government forces are in charge of yei town. the civil war recently spread to this part of the country where different ethnic groups peacefully lived side by side. we're just a short drive from the centre of yei town, but this is pretty much the limit of where the army forces are prepared to go on foot because the rebels control areas just up the road. houses and buildings in this deserted neighbourhood have been burned. the soldiers blame wildfires or accidents. it's our mandate to make sure civilians are safe. it might be the rule, but it's not the reality, or at least not the reality we heard from those who would talk, we're protecting their identities. even my neighbour there...

this man's sister was assaulted by three soldiers. who raped her? the soldier. government soldiers, yeah. she's sure that they're government soldiers? yeah. is this happening a lot in yei? yeah, it is a lot. rape is there, killing is there... another witness described ten young men being dragged out of their family homes, chained together and then shot one by one. this woman was attacked in her house by soldiers in uniform. he took this here iron, he started to beat me. he beat me here. it was painful. he was going to beat me on my head, but i put my hands like that. i thought was going to rape me. i said he could do what he want. i pray to god. even though both sides in this war have been implicated in atrocities,

these allegations were all against government forces. "there's no killing or raping", said the senior commander, "any soldier who does is arrested. "the only people we fight are the rebels", he said. "this is when the killing occurs. the survivors then claim civilians were killed by the army, but we don't kill our own civilians in our own country. " so there are no renegade troops? no troops, at — not a single case? no. but still, people are leaving yei. in eight months, half a million people have fled the country rather than live here under the army. everywhere you go in this area, it's the same, villages that have been abandoned. people have closed up and taken what they can with them. hundreds of thousands of people have crossed from here into uganda. others in the bush because of the fighting. everywhere, village after village. and there's a deeply disturbing

ethnic element underlying the deaths, that people are being killed because of their ethnicity. that's why the un has warned this could end in genocide. alastair leithead, bbc news, yei, south sudan. germany's foreign minister has warned turkey against comparing the cancellation of recent political rallies in germany to the practices of the nazis. sigmar gabriel met his turkish counterpart in berlin on wednesday as a diplomatic row between the countries continues ahead of a turkish referendum on its constitution next week. our berlin correspondent jenny hill has more. turkish voices in the heart of germany. 3 million turks live here. in effect it is turkey's fourth largest electoral district. so the president needs their support if he is to change the constitution and

extend his powers. not everyone will dance to his tune. translation: president erdogan is provocative and does it to strengthen national sentiment in turkey. he wants us to believe it is western powers against turkey. actually, there is a huge opposition to the regime in turkish community but that hardly any coverage in the media, the germans think every turkish person is an erdogan supporter, which is not the case. but there is significant support for erdogan as his foreign minister found in hamburg. but the german authorities stop other rallies, citing security problems. a furious president likened to the nazis. translation: of course he benefits from the controversy. it is his intention. it is germany as a colony and improve that when he said

recently that if the german government stops them from campaigning here they will be confronted with an operating. this morning, crisis talks, that will change. ankara insists it will continue to campaign in germany and despite pressure from berlin a journalist for a german newspaper is still in a turkish jail. translation: people should have the right to campaign freely here, then voters can decide what's right or wrong. germans have to accept that. the relationship between berlin and ankara is often stormy, although seldom to this extent. and there's a lot at stake. remember, angela merkel was the main protector of that deal between eu and turkey. turkey holds back asylum seekers in return for billions of euros. arguably it is that tie which stops this relationship from falling apart. old music, new divisions and

apart. old music, new divisions and a bitter turn for ankara. germany, it warns, must decide whether it's a friend orfoe. barcelona have reached the quarter—finals of the champions league after what was possibly the greatest comeback in the history of european football. trailing paris st germain 4—0, they scored three goals in the last seven minutes of the second leg in barcelona, to go through 6—5 on aggregate. they got the winning goal in the 5th minute of extra—time. russell trott reports. a night of unbridled emotion. they were calling it in catalan ‘the come back‘, while the rest of the world simply thought it would be mission impossible. no team had ever come back from a 4—0 first leg deficit to win a european cup tie, and yet, as the dust settles the camp nou, celebrations continue throughout barcelona.

the catalan giants are through to the quarter—finals of the champions league after knocking out paris saint—germain on an extraordinary night. 3—0 up after 50 minutes and belief coursing through the barcelona veins, all seemed lost when psg made it 3—1 on the night. the parisiens seemingly home and dry. and, with two minutes left on the clock, three goals were still needed. but then arguably the craziest seven minutes ever witnessed in european football. first neymar delt in a freekick, then converted a dubious penalty before complete pandemonium, as sergi roberto wrote his name into the barca history books. translation: i think something like this never achieved before. we are talking about an odyssey. in nine months time the hospitals should get more nurses because people will make love a lot tonight. so, an incredible 6—5 aggregate victory and against all the odds

barcelona into the last eight of the champions league for a 10th year in a row. borussia dortmund are also through to the quarter—finals. pierre—emerick aubameyang scored a hat—trick, as dortmund beat benfica. man city didn't score. a goalless draw for them against stoke mean they are now third, although they are now level on points with totte n ha m are now level on points with tottenham hotspur. the prime minister of malta is in mourning for their famous azure window. there it is. it has collapsed. the landmark, featured on the popular tv series games of thrones, succumbed to erosion and nature. it has now gone. goodbye. good morning.

yesterday we had cloud topping and tailing the country and it brought outbreaks of rain. some of it a nuisance. it was damp and drizzly across southern england. sharp showers into the north. in northern england and northern ireland, the best of the sunshine. the weather front of all the cloud and drizzly rain still to clear away. still frequent showers into the north—west, but a slow improvement through the day. there is still the risk of our mix of drizzly rain lingering in the far south and some coastal and hill fog. some sharp showers across scotland over the next few hours. perhaps cold enough for snow to the tops of the mountains, a mild start down into the south—west. double digits already. here, through the aisles of silly and much of cornwall, it will stay cloudy and drizzly. —— isles of scilly. cloud should break up and we

have sunshine coming through. not a bad start into the north of england and much of wales. some sunny spells. pleasant enough and already miles. a beautiful morning into northern ireland. sunny spells in scotland. a little bit more of a breeze here. showers likely to continue, especially in the north—east through the afternoon. generally speaking a pleasant day, with sunshine coming through for all of us, and feeling pleasant. the only exception is the isles of scilly and maybe the channel isles staying drizzly. but with the sunshine we see temperatures perhaps speaking as high as 15— 16 degrees. central and eastern areas have the temperatures falling away. a touch of light frost. cloud and rain gathers in the west, an indication of what's to come as we move into friday. a different day, more cloud around, but big centrepieces of rain. poor visibility. around, but big centrepieces of rain. poorvisibility. coastal around, but big centrepieces of rain. poor visibility. coastal and hill fog. still on the mild side

until we move towards the weekend. the winds swing to a westerly, so that will bring a noticeable difference to the feel of the weather. it will push in cooler air of the atlantic. the breeze is still an issue. there will be dry weather to be found at the weekend. sunny spells and some rain at times and just feeling that little bit more fresh. you have been warned! take care. hello. you're watching bbc news. our main headlines: the boss of the giant south korean conglomerate, samsung has gone on trialfor corruption.