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>> at least 10 people are reported killed in fresh violence in homs even as arab league observers continue their visit to this city. an outpouring of grief on the streets of p'yongyang as north korea bids a former -- formal farewell to the leader. the u.s. says it will not tolerate iranian threats to stop shipping in the straits of hormuz. palestinian police moved in to break up a mass brawl between rival priests at the church of the nativity in bethlehem. meet the yeti crab and his friends discovered near underwater vents in the indian ocean.

at least 10 more dead have not been reported in surry despite the presence of an arab league observer team. they have gone through to some of the areas most affected by anti-government protests. syrian state television said that 770 people have been released. all of the protesters are meant to be free under a peace plan from the arab league. >> this is footage and posted on the internet by opposition activists who fear that the observers will not be able to see the true face of the syrian regime. we cannot be sure exactly where or when it was filmed but it appears to show the tragedy in

homs yesterday. peaceful demonstrations are supposed to be allowed. freed political prisoners are also part of the agreement. today, the syrian authorities say they have released 755. that is a small fraction of the thousands being held. human-rights watch says that as many as 600 might have been transferred to military sites to hide them. state run television shows the visit to homs. the observers are led by a sudanese general and are accompanied by the syrian authorities. there are only 60 of them at the moment. far too few for the crisis. >> they are attempting to do this with public relations purposes. are they there to be part of that regime, the public- relations apparatus.

at the moment, it is too close. >> the mission is to harm stem the bloodshed. the death toll is rising all the time. they are being treated in hospital just inside of lebanon. this woman has shrapnel in the head. she had to come here to be treated. with the violence apparently continuing today, the omens for the mission are not good. >> his funeral was marked by snow and tears. tens of thousands of north koreans turned up to pay respects to their late leader, kim jong il. his coffin was transported through the capital city and escorted by the man chosen to

succeed him, kim jong un. our world affairs editor reports from seoul south korea. >> the weeping announcer, the music, the slow movement of kim jong il's coffin. it was all carefully choreographed. this is a difficult moment for the north korea dictatorship. since the government demanded grief, the crowds provided it in a bucket loads. a bit of this might even be genuine but each one of these people knows it is what is expected of them. occasionally, you catch a glimpse of a soldier filming the crowd so they don't forget. a select few talk to camera but it does not sound spontaneous. snow is falling like tears, he says.

how can the heavens not cry when we have lost our general who is a great man from the heavens? down here in seoul, stuff like that sounds absurd. is any of the grief genuine? this man did time in a northern labor camp and then escaped to south korea. >> the people get more fuel and consumer goods and p'yongyang but of those in the countryside got nothing. >> the succession has passed peacefully to the third generation of the family business. kim jong un is so young and inexperienced, he will need back up. the man walking behind him here is his uncle. he will be a key player. still, kim jong un has the right credentials. if >> they know that they need

him. they need a kim jon il the ascendant. once they lose that, they lose it -- >> this year has not been a good year for dictators. we are being told that the ceremonies are not over yet. on thursday, there will be a three minute silence followed by the blowing of horns and sirens across north korea. there will be a huge demonstration that is completely voluntary, of course. >> speaking earlier from seoul, john simpson gave us his impressions of that ceremony in p'yongyang. >> cannot but be surprised and perhaps amused by the extraordinary nature of the

ceremonial, of the way in which it all happened. the way in which the authorities there feel that they can control people to the extent that they can make them weep openly and so forth. this is a pretty total regime. this reminds me of romania back in 1989 before it fell. it had that same feeling of unreality. it is not mean that i think that north korea is about to fall. it might be a long time before the change their but it does not feel terribly stable at all. it is too strong for that and no clear sign of any real support except among the army. >> the authorities in nigeria say that 90,000 people have left their homes as a result of

violence in the northeastern town of damaturu. memorial services have been held after a wave of killing in the country. the students were followed by bombing attacks on christmas day. -- shootings were followed by a bomb attacks on christmas day. ho hosni mubarak has been back to court in cairo. he rides in and do as before being carried in on a stretcher. he was overthrown and he is accused of complicity in the deaths of 800 protesters. -- the right in -- this plain operated by kyrgyzstan airlines was landing in thick fog when an accident happened. the airport authorities praised rescue teams for swiftly putting

out the fire and evacuate those people on board. 8 people had minor injuries. the u.s. navy has warned it will not tolerate any disruption of the international shipping through the strait of hormuz at the mouth of the persian gulf. this follows the iranian exercises close to the straits and statements from tehran that they would close it if the west imposes sanctions. we got more details from washington. >> the comment from the pentagon and the u.s. fleet followed the statement from the iranian vice- president that iran could close the strait of hormuz if sanctions were put on iranian oil output. it was a relatively measured statement from the pentagon. they would not tolerate any closure of the strait of hormuz. they found the rising temperature on tensions on

helpful -- unhelpful. they said there was no action against the u.s. fleet and they are aware that the iranians are carrying out exercises in the strait of hormuz. they said they would not tolerate any closure in the strait of hormuz and they lay down a fairly clear marker for iran. >> does the pentagon believe that they can close the strait and keep it close to? >> i am not sure that they would like to say what they believe about iran possibilities in the strait of hormuz. clearly, iran thinks that they can. but they would like to say believe about iran's in the strait of hormuz. all eyes on the question of

whether the u.s. and the eu will put sanctions on the iranian oil output. there has been five years of slowly tightening sanctions, most of them on the financial sector. in the next few months, the question will be on iranian oil output. iran has said that if you heard us like this, we will respond. the u.s. has said that you are not responding in international waters. >> something you don't expect to see in christmas time. the basilica in bethlehem was the scene where a priest came to blows over this year's orthodox celebration. >> cleaning up for christmas. greek and armenian orthodox priests had been preparing the church for orthodox celebrations in just over a week's time. the rival christian denominations each control sections of the church and

fiercely guard their turf. someone overstepped the line. what started as a sweep up and it as a pawn shop -- ended as a punchup. the broomstick was a weapon of choice. palestinian police eventually had to intervene. remarkably, scuffles among the priesthood in bethlehem are not unusual. most years they come to blows over territorial disputes within the church. the 1700 year old building, one of the holy sites in christianity, is and it does state of repair large the because the priests cannot agree who should pay for its of tikrit. -- it is in a state of repair largely because the priests cannot agree on who should pay

for it. >> i find out why the lawn mower is bad. -- find out why the lawn mower is bad. soldiers from ireland fought across europe in world war ii, landing on the beaches of normandy on d-day and fighting the battle of the bulge. when they came home, they were treated as traders and put on the government blacklist. those still alive are recognized as war heroes. >> once more, the people turned out for the parade of the heroes army on st. patrick's day. >> 1939, the leaders of the republic of ireland decided that their country should remain neutral. the next few years, more than 10% of the irish army deserted to join the fight against fascism. on their return, they were harshly punished for serving in

the armed forces of the old enemy, britain. dismissed without pay and pension, they were placed on a blacklist banning them from any job paid for by government funds. among them, men like this. >> i heard it on the wireless, the war was over. >> there's no heroes welcome at home. >> we recall traders but i knew in my heart we had done the right thing. we liberated the camps. i would never regret it. i would do it again. >> in the irish parliament, there is a demand for action. >> i believe that the government must act with urgency to resolve this matter. >> there is no mention here of ireland's national memorial.

the irish government says that they are considering a pardon but for those who survive, the time is fast running out. >> this is "bbc world news." the 10 people including two children are reported to have been killed in fresh violence in syria. the man who was said to rule north korea, kim jong in -- kim jong un has met with mourners in the state capital. the u.s. military officials say they might take disciplinary action over the nato attack which killed 24 pakistani soldiers. the incident proved disastrous for u.s.-pakistani relations in a year when trust between them dropped. we take a look at the 12 months

in which these two suppose it allies worst crisis to crisis. >> what a turbulent year for pakistani-american relations. in january, a cia contractor shot dead a key pakistani's on this very junction. there is a diplomatic route between islamabad and washington. this caused outrage against the u.s. here in pakistan. the fury was directed not only at the u.s. but the pakistani government for what many saw as a subservient relationship with washington. this would only intensify with the trauma that soon followed. >> i can report to the american people and to the world that the u.s. is conducting an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda.

>> there was a sense of shock that pakistan greeted the news that bin laden had been found not in a remote area of the mountains but in a garrison town, home to the military academy. the world heard he could have been living here for more than five years, many suspected pakistani collusion. >> this has brushed aside the whole record of pakistan fighting along the international community against al qaeda. the largest number of al qaeda operators ever captured in the world have been captured with pakistani help. >> the compound is still standing and it is still sealed off. there are many here who still did not believe that he was ever there and many people will not acknowledge that he was killed. much of the debate has not been

about bin laden at all the more how the americans cared to carry out the rate they did without asking pakistani permission. -- how the americans dared to carry out the raid they did without asking pakistani permission. >> the network acts as an arm of pakistan's internal services intelligence agency been bad. the operatives planned and conducted the truck bomb attack as well as the assault on our embassy. the >> 2011 ended with a serious blow to relations, 24 pakistani soldiers killed in a negative attack on a border post. the old cliche that both sides

need each other too much for the allies to break down is looking likely. the anti-american demonstrations were only getting bigger and the voices calling for a split, louder. >> an official chinese government report into the bullet train crash has blamed bad management and poor design. 200 other people when two trains collided. the report says 54 officials including a former railway official art partly to blame for the disaster. >> what the report said was that it was caused by design flaw and for management. it backed off earlier statement made by officials that one of the trains had stalled after

being struck by lightning. a second train travelling on the track rocket from behind following failure. if you are right in pointing out that more than 50 people are taking the blame. they may face punishment from the authorities. this is just a report, an investigation. it is likely that more than 50 people will be punished for this train crash. among them was the railways minister. he is an interesting case. he was actually fired before this. the reason was because of allegations of massive corruption. the suggestion was because of that corruption, some of the construction of this role word -- railway network and not been constructed properly. >> the margin of victory in the 680 mile race down the australian coast was three minutes after more than two days at sea. the race committee started an

investigation which claimed the winning boat had broken the rules. >> it was an epic finish to the famous 1,100 kilometer race down eastern australia from sydney to the island state of tasmania. just three minutes separated the challengers. the winning time was two days, six hours, 14 minutes, well outside of the records. the race committee has lodged a complaint against the winner alleging that they used an australian news helicopter to spy on its nearest rival and give the formation about the kind of sale there were using. if this is upheld, they could be disqualified. -- the winner allegedly used an australian news helicopter to spy on its nearest rival and

gives information about the kind of sale they were using. several boats were forced to retire. for those who soldiered on, it was a bumpy and stomach-turning ride. this is say notorious stretch of water that separates tasmania from the mainland, they had to contend with unpredictable wind. now the winners face a nervous wait to find out if they will be stripped from their -- stripped of their crown. >> a team of british scientists has captured images of a very rare species in inaccessible parts of the indian ocean. they found a remarkable amount of creatures living in the waters. they believe that some of them may be new to science. >> a dark and mysterious world almost 3,000 meters below the

surface of the indian ocean. these volcanic vents spewing out superheated water. this is inhospitable but rich in minerals. this is home to strange specially adapted creatures. researchers have been surveying an area in the south indian ridge, comparing it to other areas were life has been well documented. they say that some might be new to science. for example, this yeti crab. they have been surprised by the diversity. >> this is a crossroads for marine life. our task is to understand how the creatures related to other species elsewhere in the world. by studying these animals, we hope to better understand how animals disperse and evolve in the deep ocean. >> these chains rely on chemical

energy rather than sunlight. creatures must be able to move between defense and order to survive. there are many secrets to unlock. -- creatures must people to move between -- creatures must be able to move between the vents in order to survive. >> an example of why it is never a good idea to mix it tools and large hungry reptiles. this is what happens when elvis the alligator attempted to mow the lawn and his own pen. elvis has the reputation of being a mischief maker. he lost two teeth in the process. >> the teeth came out when he

bit the mower. they are abnormally large. sodon't know why they are big. look at that lead to an arm. -- next to an arm. >> you can tell that he is very proud of the crocodile. a crocodile in need of dental work. the mower was also rescued. this could make for interesting insurance claim, we reckon. you can find more on all of our stories on our website, bbc.com /news. you will find analysis from our correspondents on the hopes and fears of the arab league mission.

>> make sense of international news. bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu newman's own foundation and union bank. >> you are no longer in the service. only an outsider can find the double agent. >> i'll do my utmost. >> from the bestseller by john le carre -- >> all i want from you is one code name. >> it will take a master spy -- >> you are alone. >> you can't mention me. >> to catch a spy. >> you have to assume they're watching you. >> what the hell are you doing up here? >> things aren't always what they seem. >> "tinker tailor soldier spy." >> rated r. >> "bbc world news" was

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