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strength to work for a wide range of companies from small businesses to major corps. what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news." >> an emergency landing for a380 super jumbos. checks ordered for the planes. warnings were issued three months ago. best and worst countries to live and why some of the poorest nations are rising the fastest. we go undercover inside burma on the eastbound of the first elections in 20 years, does the vote offer the prospect of real change? welcome to "bbc world news" also around the globe. coming up later for you. from inside, pakistani minister, we report on the militancy without end. and acdc equals mc squared how

electrifying the brain could improve your math ability. >> hello to the big question, is it a runoff or serious worldwide problem? the first major safety incident involving an airbus 380 and prompted the engine maker to order checks on all its jet engines. qantas 380 failed today in mid flight. the plane with 459 people on board made a safe emergency landing in singapore. 20 engines are in use and it was officially identified three months ago as potentially unsafe. >> we have a technical shoe with number two engine. >> it's what every passenger

dreds, thousands of feet up. a tear in the wing clearly film had from inside the plane just 15 minutes from singapore en route to sydney. the a380, biggest passenger plane in the world was caught on film from the ground in indonesia and it flew over battam island. parts of the engine had fall yen to the ground. at first, they thought it had crashed. but after dumping its fuel, the aircraft prepared to make an emergency landing. it went smoothly and calmly. all 433 passengers and 26 crew were safe. it left questioning what went wrong when they arrived back in singapore. >> i was sitting behind the wing

and heard this loud bang. everybody was shake yen by it. >> part of the engine fell off and the engine wept dead. >> on closer inspection, the extent of the damage was clear that these planes are designed to fly with one or even two engine failures. >> it looks like it is an uncontained engine failure but too early to speculate and will involve a detailed investigation with the manufacturer airbus and the manufacturer of the engine rolls royce. >> tonight, qantas has grouped had its six a380 planes and singapore is delaying its flights. they have rolls royce engines. the crucial question for investigators tonight and for those flying in from around the world is what caused this engine to fail while in mid-air.

what was it just an isolated incident or could it affect all a380 engines all over the world. >> some of the poorest countries in the world, latest report from the u.n. making the fastest progress? bangladesh and india has seen more progress. norway remains the best country to live in and zimbabwe is class feed as -- classified as least desirable. >> the figure is 85%. kind of statistic which the u.n. puts into their number crunch as they try to measure progress. >> countries for example where 20, 30 years ago, only one or two out of 10 kids were able to go to school when they reach four, five years of age.

even now, we see that going up to 80%. especially for girl. >> the report is positive about progress in some of the poorest countries in the world. the human development index is not just a measure of economic wealth, but access to education, health-care, equality between the sexes and so on. in kenya, ruth says things are much better now because they have access to much better doctors. aid works, but after 20 years, they can't point to any one system of government that is better than another for development. there is more than one way out of poverty. >> it's an john going part of global economic, social and political battles. that's the way to judge rather than how particular government's policies are. >> in bangladesh, cheap credit

and access to mobile phones have transformed lives showing that progress for the poor has been better than neighboring india, although economic growth is higher in india, the surprising conclusion that you get with the human development index. >> ireland has announce had plans to save 6 billion euros next year to reduce its record deficit. the savings announce had by the finance minister will come through spending cuts. the government hopes they will calm investors facing highest boring costs. >> can't go beyond 6 billion because it would inflict damage on the economy. last year, we made an adjustment of more than 4 billion and the economy still saw some growth this year. again, we have to be careful to protect economic prospects, but we have to ensure that we are credible in terms of our boring.

>> people in burma go to the polls for the first time in 20 years. in 1990, the vast majority voted for the country's party. but the country imprisoned her. now they are offering what they call a road map to democracy. many see that as a sham. world journalists aren't being allowed in, but the bbc sue roberts got in as a tourist. >> content had and orderly, a far cry from the uprising three years ago when angry monks left people in a nationwide protest against the government. to prove to the outside world that the rebel i don't know is in the past, the generals are holding an election. but i found the people inside

the country somewhat underwhelmed. i have to go work in the patty field. 20 years ago, the people of burma flocked to the polls and voted for democracy. the generals are not going to allow that to happen again. this time, the generals have organized the elections according to the new constitution to ensure however people vote, they remain in control. the constitution guarantees the burmese military a leading role in the new parliament with veto overall legislation. the party who one the election is under house arrest again until after the election. she called on the people of burma to boycott the poll.

but hundreds of pro-democracy candidates are defiling her call for a boycott. in why in >> have some kind of help to find alternative ways to have democracy. we will try to show the people how democracy works. >> but the government isn't making it easy for them. opposition candidates have to fund their own campaigns. they can't criticize the current government and they must get permission for a meeting of more than five people. those elected will come here to burma's new capital. it is not on the tourist map and taking pictures here without permission here is forbidden.

we film had eight-lane highways and modern town plangs seen no where else in the country. huge ministry buildings are separated from one another by acres of jungle plains. we took these pictures of the vast new parliament building where over 100 of the 450 seats are reserved for the military and many more will go to the government-approved party. there are those who led the people in protest years ago are unimpressed. >> this election should give us democracy, but it won't. it's just to legal eyes their constitution. the burmese people are between a rock and a hard place. it's bad to go forward like this, but we don't want to go back either. >> outside the ministries, the monks feed the hungry with their leftover. the majority of the people live

below the poverty line. few believe that the election will affect their lives. >> an earthquake in the midst of a cholera outbreak, haiti is bracing. tropical storm tomas is approaching. and they are preparing for the worst again. we are there. >> the storm is coming and they are securing everything they can . even the cholera hospital is coming down because it's not expected to withstand tropical storm tomas. the authorities are telling people to leave and stay with relatives in sturdy homes. 55,000 survivors of january's

earthquake live here in crowded conditions on the outskirts of haiti's capital. this camp is on the hillside and the rains that tomas is expected to bring could create mudslides. people are being advised to leave if they can, but most have no where to go. a mother of two knows the family's tent could be blown away by the storm. i would like to leave here away from the water, she tells me, but i don't have anywhere to go. the actor sean pen says it's not pricing that so few people are leaving despite the danger of staying. >> there is a history of forced evacuations and if they leave, they may be faced with guns. >> not only are they trying to recover from the earthquake and

prepare for a storm but they are dealing with a cholera epidemic and fear that the disease could expand to port awe prince. >> cholera increases tremendously and the spread can happen very quickly. >> they are worrying about that and everything else and has no where to flee to. makes me feel bad. everything that haiti has suffered, she says. the winds are picking up already. the sea could sewerage when tropical storm tomas strikes. an anxious 24 hours lies ahead. >> stay with us, still to come, give us a go at home. our special report on what passing a current through your brain might do for your math

ability. first the serbian president has apologized for the massacre of civilians during the war of the 1990's. at least 200 were murdered in 1991 and nearly 20 serbs are cr omp a tmp s. >> a short journey across the river for the president, but a big symbolic gesture. he came where he was met by the croatian president. this was the first time that a serbian leader had come to the village to lay a wreath at the site of one of the worst atropical storm ties that tore yugoslavia apart. in 1991, 200 were dragged from a hospital and execute had on this site, a former pig farm. serbia has apologized for this deed but no serbian leader has come in person to say sorry

until today. >> i came here today to vow to the victims to pay my respects to them, to spread our sympathy, vowing to the victims i came here to share words of apology to create the possibility of all people to open a new page in history. the city was bombed through a three-month siege and the city change had hands between the forces in blood yes fighting. hundreds were killed. less than 20 years on, grievances and anger remain very strong. but the ceremony will help in the slow process of improving relations between the neighbors. >> 20 people have died in a landslide in costa riska, a subject bush gave way. emergency teams are digging for

survivors. 1,000 people have been evacuate had. latest headlines for you on "bbc world news," rolls royce engine design failed and had been classified a few weeks ago as potentially unsafe by the safety authorities. the u.n. is saying the world's poorest nations are improving the quality of life for their people. now more now on the a380 landing and over the engine design. richard scott has been looking at the details. >> what do we know about this incident? >> the a380 superjumbo started from london and was on its second leg of its journey when attention reported hearing a loud bang from the engine. the pilot circled for around an hour-and-a-half to dump fuel

before landing back at singapore. at the heart of this is the engin begin -- engine, it suffered major damage with part of the casing missing, but at this stage, we don't know the cause. >> it looks from the picture it's the rear part of the engine, which means the combustion chambers of the tushbine. they have a lot of energy when they come out of the engine. >> and there have been concerns about this engine before. the european aviation safety agency put out a directive expressing concern over the engir wear, saying it was beyond engine limits and could present an unsafe condition and required changes to inspection regimes. we don't know whether the directive on this particular engine failure are link had. rolls royce says safety is their top priority and they are

carrying out checks. how many planes is that? of the 37 in use, just over half are pour had by the rolls royce engine. the planes will not fly again until the engine checks have been carried out. >> i would be surprised if there were not further ramifications because it's just -- it's an unexpected serious incident with a reasonably new aircraft engine. >> qantas celebrated its 90th birthday this month and has one of the best safety records in the industry. but now all three of the airlines which use rolls royce engines have had some sort of problem. the incident is clearly bad news for rolls royce. its shares fell by 5% today. the company will be closely involved in the investigation, but it's the early stage at the moment. >> pakistani government is

saying it brought militancy in kashmir under control. pact and india have fought for 60 years over this territory which is currently split between them. on the indian side, at least 100 have died in protests against rule from delhi. there is a campaign to end control from islam bad. we have this from kashmir. >> in pakistani kashmir, the call for jihad still draws the crowds. in the middle of the day in one of the squares, its militant leader is urging new recruits to step forward to fight india. and they are doing it. this 25-year-old, whose identity was concealed was a university engineering student at the beginning of the year. now, he is a militant.

>> i started going to sermons give yen by preachers. and i joined the jihadi group and wept to a training camp with hundreds of others. now i'm ready to do whatever they ask me to free kashmir from the indians. >> he told us his relatives approved, but they all said the opposite and they didn't want him to die needlessly. there was a time when it was no secret that the pakistani authorities were directly behind the militancy in kashmir. islama bad says thanks to its monitoring, that is something that isn't happening any more. >> as a state and a government, there is no such policy of training any militant to send across. -- there might be some nonstate actors.

>> there are many who think the government isn't telling the whole story. >> they are supporting militant groups here and the government is completely aware. they will tell you there are no training camps, but there are. this has always been pact kashmir but it has damage had our cause. >> these people feel pact is -- pakistan is using the militants as a bar beganning chip in negotiations. they have now blocked the city and indian forces and pakistan yes forces and it seems to be growing. >> the shoe of kashmir has been a focal point of hatred between

india and pakistan. while people are united in their anger of human rights abuses, a sizeable proportion feels pakistan is playing a dangerous game with their home left hand. >> google and facebook face a crackdown by european watchdogs and say they will upstage their rules to see how firms collect and keep information about their users. the u.k. ruled that google acted illegally when it harvest had private data. a bomb in south yemen has killed two people and wounded at least 20. officials say it was in a car belonging to a police official. in california, police found a tunnel under the mexican border

containing a railway system to smuggle in drugs and they found 20 tons of marijuana. the tunnel equipped with ventilation and lighting connects warehouses in the u.s. and mexico. do not try this at home as they say. research just published suggests that passing an electric current through your brain can improve your ability in math. the team behind the study says it won't turn you into einstein. here's our report. >> do you struggle with sums? is math a miscellaneous -- mystery? a scientist might be able to help. >> i'm going to put it to the back of your head now. >> it means strapping this device to your head and passes an electrical current across the brain. a small group of volunteers had to learn a set of symbols and do a series of puzzles like the way

children learn math. the stimulation was passed across the brain which is known to be critical for the understanding of math. the tests showed if the current flowed from the right of the brain to left, it enhanced math abilities. if the current was reversed, it impeded learning so that add utilities performed no better than a six-year-old. the amount of like that passing through these are tiny, about -- you can't feel anything. we are stressing how you would like to enhance your child's ability to learn their times tables, you shouldn't attempt this at home. our main aim is to improve the life of those who suffer from math learning difficulties. it's another question if we want to enhance normal abilities with

math. i think this should be discussed by a scientist and policy maker. >> shocking or a spark of genius. how would students in the city of learning react? >> it's a very small amount of electrical current. could you see yourself using it if it came on the market? >> definitely. i have been thinking i would like to be better at math. >> i don't think it will help me. >> years more research is needed whether like that will help us do better in figures. >> just briefly, our top story, the first major safety incident involving an airbus a380 is ordering checks on all its jet engines. one failed today in mid flight. the plane with 459 people on board did make a safe but

emergency landing at singapore. but 20 of those engines are in use. much more john line and twitter and facebook. thanks very much for being with us. >> get the top stories from around the globe and video reports, go to bbc.com/news and get news john line. >> [funding for this presentation was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, the newman's own foundation and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, and union bank]

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