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>> and now "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world news america," reporting from washington. i am single brand. the search for survivors off the coast of italy is suspended as the costa concordia sinks further. relatives o fthe miss -- of the missing still hope for new. >> let's see what happens. let's see how things are. >> facing a food crisis in west africa, the region's troubles grow and the younger victims suffer the consequences. protesting legislation, some

popular web sites -- websites keep users offline. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. italian rescue workers suspended their search today of the francesco schettino costa concordithe costa concordia afte ship sunk further. after five days, hope is fading that more survivors will be found. the captain remains under house arrest tonight. he has told investigators that he fell into a lifeboat. the bbc is on the scene and filed this report. >> it is slow going inside the ship. moving through the floating debris of a once-luxury liner, along corridors turned on their side. specialist divers are searching

for survivors. they know it is more likely they will only find a dead -- the dead. this is how they have been entering the ship, through the top deck, now on the waterline. >> at one point, the glass door of the shop was above me with the contents pressing down. it could have shattered at any moment. >> the rest was put on hold today as the ship began to move slightly -- the rescue was put on hold today as the ship began to move slightly, making it too dangerous to search for the missing. among them, this waiter. his brother came to the island and saw the wreck of the costa concordia for the first time. does he think his brother can possibly be alive? >> it is a logical question that people ask, making an assumption -- five days, what can happen.

>> on the mainland, the captain's wife was mobbed by journalists. he is enemy number one here, criticized for abandon ship. he is reported as saying he's lived by mistake into departing light show -- departing lifeboat. the captain is deeply shaken by what happened. the sister of another missing crew member has no sympathy. >> it is outrageous to have him under house arrest. it is like he is a free man. the search is taking too long. of the salvage operation is ready to go -- >> this of the operation is ready to go. large numbers of -- the salvage operation is ready to go. large numbers of crew have been brought in. this will be a mammoth task. the long days are taking their

toll on the rescuers. one collapsed, exhausted. a satellite picks up this image of the ship, lying peacefully against the island. down on the shore, kevin waits for his brother. >> for more on the events unfolding off giglio, i spoke to matthew. how serious is this holdup? for the families, it must be absolutely unbearable. >> relatives arrived on the island today. it arrived with the news that the rescue attempts, the rescue efforts had to be postponed because the ship had moved slightly. for them, that would have been devastating news, of course. i think the assumption is that there will be no more survivors from inside the ship. of course, if you are a relative of the victims, that is little comfort. you want the efforts to continue as long as possible.

>> there are environmental implications because of the amount of oil still on board. >> there are, although it remains the case that the fuel which is in 17 different tanks -- it is not as if one big tank gets pierced, there will be an interim -- an environmental catastrophe. they are in double skins, which are, at this stage, intact. i was talking to one contractor who will be involved in the recovery effort and he said there is no danger of the fuel getting into the water. >> we saw pictures of the captain's wife being protected by police, it seemed. the evidence against him appears to be increasingly damning. >> the reports in the italian media. to be increasingly damning -- italian media appear to be

increasingly damning. it is clear that his early account that he did not leave the ship before most people are off now conflicts with his account -- most people were off now conflicts with his account that he slipped. it certainly conflicts with what the port official said in the phone conversation. the captain was being evasive. he is certainly the number one enemy in italy at the moment. he defends himself, yet the finger is pointing pretty squarely at him. >> any idea when there might be a possible trial date? >> there is not. an italian justice -- italian justice can take quite a long time. he is under house arrest. he has been taken away from this

area. prosecutor was questioning that decision, saying he is a -- the prosecutor was questioning that decision, saying he is a flight risk. prosecutor fears that he might run away from house arrest. he wants him back in jail. there is no sign of that happening yet. >> thank you for joining us. now to east africa, where two leading aid agencies say that thousands of lives were needlessly lost to famine last year. they argued that the international community did not take heed of warnings seriously. there are growing signs that there is a new, impending hundred crisis in the west africa -- hunger crisis in the west africa. -- in west africa. >> the mothers are waiting. the children need treatment for severe malnutrition.

it is 11-month-old -- this 11- month-old's first visit. \she is showing progress -- she is showing progress. many other children are in need of help. they return to their village nearby. the last rain stopped early. pest's did much damage to crops -- pests did much damage to crops in the region, supposedly one of the country's breadbaskets. the harvest gave us only 10% of the food that we need. my husband went to nigeria to work. the money went quickly. he has gone back there again. i have to fetch a wood and water -- fetch wood and water. there is grain on sale in the market in the nearest town.

the poor can ill afford the rising price. >> does he know -- >> a scheme to help the poor buy food while it is still available. visits by the eu's humanitarian aid commissioner. people are given cash to help them feed their families, increasingly seen as the quickest way to stave off malnutrition. the commissioner said it was now evident that this was a race against time. >> we see the hunger season coming much earlier, probably february or march, rather than may or june. we already see the scale of the problem being substantial. if we act quickly and early, we can prevent the cast of the -- we can prevent a catastrophe and we will. >> that place is even more importance on programs like

this, run by save the children, which show mothers how to save children when they become malnourished and sick. >> hundreds turned out to sea on sun city -- to see the leader of the party. she will run in polls. novemberreleased , 2010. protesters have lost a court battle. the high court judge ruled that the local authority has the right to leave it protesters because the damaging impact of their campsite on one of britain's most important public buildings. just a short time ago, president obama announced that he was rejecting a controversial application to build the keystone pipeline which would carry crude oil from canada to texas.

in his statement, the president blamed his republican opponents for imposing what he called an arbitrary deadline on the review and said his rejection was not on the merits of the pipeline itself. here in washington, political spats are part of the course. when legislation threatens to impact the internet, it is not surprising that it sparks an uproar. today, wikipedia's english- language website is being shut down for 24 hours in protest over a proposed law which would allow legal action against websites which infringe copyrights. opponents say it amounts to censorship. >> we have taken it for granted for so long now that any end to the free flow of information on telephones, tablets, and pc's seems impossible, but it has happened. one of the world's most popular web sites and a crib sheet for students everywhere has gone

dark. wikipedia has black out its side in protest of the threat of legislation from the u.s. -- its site in processes of the threat -- in protest of the threat of legislation from the u.s. congress. it would delist materials that house. materials -- that house pirated materials. it is not just wikipedia. a clutch of websites are taking a stand against what they say could damage the world wide web. >> a useful analogy might be, if you hear there is this great invention called the automobile. two years later, you find out is being used by bank robbers, the answer is not to regulate and ban automobiles. the answer is to deal with the problem directly. >> some people see this as a clash between new media and old. others as a battle between the creators of content, the people who make films or write songs,

and those who abrogate -- aggregate it search engine, like google. defendants of the bill say that piracy is threatening their intellectual property. with it, millions of american jobs. >> this bill does not shut down websites. it does not make websites illegal. it is simply focused on the web site that is engaged in criminal -- on websites that are engaged in criminal activity. if you are a legitimate sites like wikipedia, there is nothing to be concerned about. >> it is an unprecedented protest. american lawmakers will not be able to ignore it. bbc news, washington. >> for more on this internet protest and what it hopes to achieve, i am joined by the editor at large of cnet. thank you for joining me. let's talk about the nature of this protest. it is quite extraordinary, isn't it? you have this obscure piece of legislation that is the dinner-

table conversation. lobbyists would kill for that kind of impact. >> it was not the substance of the bill. most people were not even aware of this. the vast majority of internet users did not care about it until they went to wikipedia or one of the other sites doing these drastic actions today and said, with a minute, what is going on? there is some pain now. the scale is remarkable. wikipedia alone touches millions of people every day, every hour, more than likely. the scale that these sites have to get their message out, compared to any scale of megaphone on the other side, the proponent, is like night and day. >> hollywood is saying it is not a fair playing field. r google and wikipedia effectively abusing the tremendous influence they have -- aar and wikipe effective -re google and wikipea effectively abusing the tremendous influence they have?

>> one of them is dark. one has a huge, black box across its page today. just those too and, you can get any message out to the world -- just those two alone, you can get any message out to the world. wikipedia is not a commercial business. they are not trying to get out there and protect their commercial interests as much as their belief in free speech and an open internet. >> i think nobody would deny there is a piracy problem on the internet. the issue is, how do you go about tackling it, and is government legislation the way forward or is it the start of a slippery slope? >> this is largely a bill, when it becomes law, it is aimed at offshore sites. this is about u.s. content and copyright holders finding their material is being offered, served, sold, or marketed from sites outside the arm of u.s. law b. as a result, it is not just a legal solution to go after those kinds of sites, because they're

not as cohesive or advance a body of law to deal with the internet. internet innovation moves much faster than legislative innovation. as a result, proponents will tell you these relatively stringent measures -- and they are pretty heavy-handed in the eyes of many -- are necessary, because the law does not reach as far as it needs to. >> isn't part of the problem that there is just too much stuff out there? how can anybody -- government or industry -- effectively police it? >> this is an issue between going -- issue going between free content and rights management. what is the consumer going to take on as a role in this discussion? a lot of this becomes a consumer argument. the war on drugs, for example. do you go after the suppliers or the demand? it is important for consumers, if they are feeling pain from this debate, to comport their own behavior and not patronize -- from this today, to comport

their own behavior and not patronize sites that pirate material. >> thank you for bringing a very complex subject to like. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come, a flotilla fitting for the queen's jubilee -- queen's diamond jubilee. it will stretch 7 miles. these days, it seems like self service is the name of the game, from supermarkets to banks. we have become quite accustomed to interacting with machines instead of people. would that also held true for pubs -- what if that also held true for pubs. one landlord has installed a beer dispenser, which can be operated by the customer. will this be the end of the hired help?

self service seems to be all the rage. you then use the cash machines -- you can use the cash machines at the bank and the vending machines instead of buying from a shopkeeper. this is a self-service beer machine. you can buy this wide card from the bar and then help yourself to a maximum of four pines until your credit rent out -- four pints until your credit runs out. >> it gets people to use it to more than anything. you do not want to be queuing up at the bar when you can just come and get it. >> to stop people taking advantage, it served the beer in half-pint measures. i am told it is particularly popular during televised football games, when the place can be packed.

to find out if the idea was a hit with drinkers, we went down the road. beers here are serve the old- fashioned way. they were not sure about the idea. >> if you go anywhere, you're going in to talk. >> the landlord says that the first of its kind in britain -- says that it is the first of its kind in britain, but he will not give up ithis day job just yet. >> russia's foreign minister has warned against any western attacks on iran. sergei lavrov said military action would pour fuel on the military -- fuel on the fire in the mideast. back in moscow, the political fire -- the fire of political activism just got even more

heated. the league of voters want future elections to be fair, following a controversial votes which saw thousands turned out in protest. >> as moscow emerged from its long winter break, the kremlin will be hoping that the movement -- the kremlin was hoping that the movement had lost its momentum. but activists have been working hard to keep a fledgling movement alive. at a press conference today, a group of russian writers and celebrities formally launched one of the initiatives -- and newly created legal voters -- a gue of reated leauge o voters. >> we want people to know that their vote will be counted. >> before the new year, moscow saw the three biggest protests of the vladimir putin era.

tens of thousands took to the street, furious over what they believed were fixed parliamentary elections. the protests inspired and gave hope to a new generation of activists. among them, this man, whose day job as editorial director of one of russia's biggest media empires -- the job is editorial director of one of russia's biggest media empires. >> now it woke up. i think it will be hard to stop. >> the internet is boiling with evidence of alleged election fraud. this was a raid on monday by a parliament -- on what appears to be a room full of people. the videos are fuelling the

anger of ordinary demonstrators, like this internet entrepreneur and part-time lecturer. she says her fury overcame her fear of attending her first protest. now she attends them all. >> i saw that. i called my parents. they said i should not go and that it was dangerous. but i saw that and there is no way not to stand up. >> in the weeks since protests began, the kremlin has made several concessions. there is still a huge gap between what the government is offering and a truly fair election that the demonstrators want. >> from elections to a celebration fitting of a queen's diamond jubilee. this june, britain pasqua and

elizabeth will be marking 60 years -- britain's queen elizabeth will be marking 60 years on the throne. our correspondent has the details. >> the queen has given 60 years of unwavering service to the country. what better way for her to see and be seen by as many people as possible that a patent on the handthames. 20,000 people on 1,000 boats forming one enormous flotilla around the royal barge. there are no recent president ands -- precedents for such an event. the organizers have gotten their inspiration from an art installation. >> the river will be transformed

with color, noise, shouting and cheering people. it is being reclaimed as a royal route. the barge -- >> the barge will look something like this. it will be glad and decorated in a secret location -- clad and decorated in a secret location. the queen will be here. her owner has -- for the occasion. >> the queen wanted to be seen by her subjects. this is a fantastic, elevated platform. we have 64 meters of platform to accommodate a lot of people. it can be seen from almost all sides. >> sending in a platoon with the royal barge will be votes of all shapes, sizes, and -- will be boats of all shapes and sizes. they will come from the u.k. and

from further afield. it will be a huge logistical challenge. a river rises and falls 7 meters twice a day -- the river rises and falls 7 meters twice a day. at least 1 million people are expected to watch the pageant from the river banks. it is the occasion of a lifetime. >> to a dual fit for any royal occasion -- to a jewel fit for any royal occasion, the world's largest emerald. it weighs roughly 11 kilograms. watch out for the price tag. it is hoped to fetch over $1 million at auction in british colombia later this month. that brings today's shows to a close. you can get constant updates on our web site. to find out what we're working on project out our facebook page. i am gillibrand -- i am jane

o'brien. see you back here tomorrow. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business, offering specialized solutions and capital to help you meet your growth objectives. we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations.

what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news america" was presented by kcet los angeles.