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>> and now, "bbc world news." >> defiant, fifa's president, sepp blatter, denies the governing body of football is in crisis. >> crisis? what is a crisis. if somebody would describe to me what this is a crisis, then i would answer. football is not in a crisis. >> south african president jacob zuma has met colonel qaddafi for talks, but is a diplomatic solution any nearer? and government forces in yemen are said to have killed 20 protestors camped out in taiz. welcome to "bbc world news" forecast to our viewerrers on pbs in america. lawyers from war crimes suspect ratko mladic file an appeal

against extradition to the hague and why those from silvio berlusconi's home town have rejected his candidacy for mayor. fifa president sepp blatter has rejected claims that the organization is in crisis amid allegations of corruption, and a dramatic solo news conference in zurich, he acknowledged that fifa was in difficulties, but said it could solve its problems by itself. our news editor has the latest developments. >> with the pressure growing all the time, sepp blatter knew today he would face the spotlight, but if anyone thought the head of world football was about to walk away, he had a clear message, fifa is not in crisis. >> crisis? what is the crisis? we are not in a crisis.

we are only in some difficulties. and these difficulties will be solved, will be solved inside our family. >> at times touchy, but defiant throughout, he dismissed new concerns over the decision to award qatar the world cup. >> i believe that the decision which we took for the world cup 2022 was done exactly in the same pattern and in the same environment we have made the decision on the 2018, and there was no problem for fifa. >> and on the future of fifa, he insisted that was a matter for football, no one else. >> if the government will try to intervene in fifa's organization, then something is wrong. i think that fifa is strong enough that we can deal with our problems inside the fifa. >> sepp blatter chose to face

the world alone today, one man defending fifa's honor and calling for world football to come together but he looked out of touch, avoiding all the difficult questions and dismissing new allegations about the way qatar won the world cup for 2022. >> good morning. >> this is the man at the center of the claims, mohammad bin hammam, accused of trying to buy votes in his bid for the presidency, now doubts over the qatari conduct during his country's world cup bid. the fifa general secretary, jerome valcke, writes -- "i never understood why he was running." valcke later played down his comments, saying he was simply referring to the size of qatar's

bid budget, while the qataris angrily dismissed what they called the latest attempt to drag their name through the mud. despite the possibility of more damaging revelations in the coming days, blatter is determined not to be blown off course. he looks set for four more years in charge. >> well, two of fifa's major sponsors expressed concerns about the allegations of corruption in the organization. coca-cola and adidas said the situation was damaging for fifa and for sports. joining me from washington, our correspondent. what more details do we know about the statement in full from the two fifa sponsors? >> what's interesting about coca-cola, is a week ago, coca-cola were not commenting about the allegations of

corruption surrounding fifa. now this statement, saying they believe the allegations of corruption about football's governing body are distressing and bad for the sport and the statement also says they expect and have every expectation that fifa will resolve the situation in an expedient and thorough manner. the word "thorough" is saying to fifa, we would like you to address the allegations. and the statement from adidas saying that the negative public debate surrounding fifa is neither good for football, fifa, and its partners and we can safely assume it's referring to the sponsors. the top tier sponsors, we understand coca-cola's deal from 2007 to 2012 is worth some $500 million to fifa so these are top tier sponsors with a lot of influence and their statements are strongly worded. they seem to be at odds with

sepp blatter's comments that there is no crisis at fifa. these statements seem to be they think there is a problem at fifa and they want it sorted out. >> neither company suggesting they will end their deals with fifa? >> that's right. in the statement, especially from adidas, the spokesman said that, no. no suggestion at the moment that either sponsor is considering ending its deal. the deals are lucrative for fifa and important for these companies and the fifa world cup has huge television audiences and theses deals are worth hundreds of millions of dollars to fifa so neither side really the deals are at risk but i think there is a sort of entrance into the public debate about fifa in the allegations by the sponsors which is quite interesting and probably putting the pressure much more on sepp blatter and fifa at this stage. >> thank you very much for that. the south african president,

jacob zuma, has held several hours of talks in the libyan capital with colonel qaddafi aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict, as another eight army officers announced in italy that they defected from the forces supporting the libyan leader. from tripoli, andrew north. >> it doesn't look as if president zuma has been able to achieve diplomatic breakthrough after his visit here and meeting with colonel qaddafi although it did produce the first television appearance by the libyan leader in almost two weeks. just before he left for south africa, president zuma said colonel qaddafi was prepared to sign up to an african union cease-fire proposal but we already knew that was colonel qaddafi's position and both nato and the rebels had rejected the african union plan on the grounds that it does not call on

colonel qaddafi to step aside. he rejects that idea so it looks like things are still deadlocked and many expect more nato strikes. tripoli is bracing itself for another bombardment. in what may be another sign, though, of the pressure on colonel qaddafi's military, it's been announced in italy that eight officers have defected as part of a group of 120 soldiers. but even though he is under increasing pressure militarily, diplomatically, colonel qaddafi has shown many times in the past his ability to survive and, though there's opposition in tripoli, you can hear it on the streets, they still haven't been able to gain the momentum to push him from power. the crisis here could still go on a long while yet. >> andrew north in tripoli. medical staff in the yemeni city of taiz say at least 20 have

been killed after government forces opened fire in a protest camp. soldiers reportedly moved in to end a four-month-old sit-in late on sunday night, firing shots and setting fire to the camp. our correspondent reports from sana'a. in the southern city of taiz, bloodshed and vince violence against protestors. it is the second biggest group of anti-president saleh protests. their sit-in has been ongoing for four months and has now come under attack from government forces. here in sana'a, people are angry. they have gathered in the center of the capital to show their support for those whose lives have been lost. the protests have turned into a march of mourning, marching for the soul of their fellows killed in taiz. they say the killing is intended to drive the youth into violence, the very thing they want to distance themselves

from. for four months, protestors have been insisting it's a peaceful revolution. >> the regime is running out of solutions, running out of excuses. our plan is to continue our peaceful struggle. we are not moving out of the square. they with burn the square. they can burn us with the square. we're not moving. >> the authority says the protests were not peaceful, saying protestors have taken over government offices. >> what happened in taiz, it was agreed that all strikes of all kind of demonstrations should be peaceful. when people go to a government compound or to a police station and they want to go inside and get some people from those offices or from those police stations, it cannot happen that way. we're talking about a law and

system in yemen. some of these activities are unlawful and they do harm, really, and they do jeopardize the security and safety of the people. >> violence has also spread to the city of zinjibar, which the government says is a hub for al qaeda. but many doubt this is the case. >> a large part of al qaeda are run by the regime. many know that those who are killed al qaeda members are linked to the yemeni regime. >> people here are concerned that president saleh is creating his own reason to stay, leading to further violence in the country. >> protestors in syria say forces have killed at least 14 people in the central region of homs in the towns of

raftan and talbasea. our correspondent has more. >> defiant and determined, syria's protestors are in no mood to give up. the bbc hasn't been able to independently verify these pictures which have just emerged but they're thought to be of weekend demonstrations in homs, one of the nation's largest cities and a center of opposition to president assad. this is what the demonstrators are up against -- government tanks and armored vehicles advancing into central syria over the weekend. these unverified pictures are from the same area where protestors say 14 were killed after soldiers and tanks attacked local towns. the authorities insist they're just chasing terrorist gangs. syria's response has come under criticism here at the united nations human rights council. >> the brutality and magnitude

of measures taken by the in libya and now syria have been particularly shocking in their outright disregard for basic human rights. >> the u.n. wants syria to allow a fact-finding mission into the country but so far the government is saying nothing. foreign journalists are banned from entering syria so it's impossible verify many of the reports coming out of the country. is clear, though, is that this is the worst challenge to president assad in his 11 years in power. and with the protests into their third month, syria's popular uprising is far from over. >> you're watching bbc news. still ahead, in the middle ofay drought, cuba experiences a violent storm which destroys a number of towns and affects

farmers. in a major reverse of its policy, the german government announced had plans to shut down all of the country's nuclear power plants pie -- by 2022, following a review following the nuclear disaster in japan. >> ever since fukushima, the german government has been under pressure from the green movement. on the streets with countless demonstrations and in the polls. today, chancellor merkel made the change they want. >> we want the electricity of the future to be safe and at the same time reliable and economiccably viable and to get this,, we need a new structure for our energy supply chain. >> the eight atomic power stations on standby won't reopen and the other nine will close by the end of 2022. germany currently gets nearly a quarter of its energy from nuclear and 17% from renewable, like wind.

the plan is to double that to up for the loss of nuclear and to cut total energy use by making machines and buildings more energy efficient. but more wind power means more pylons and high-voltage cables. otherwise imports from french nuclear power stations could rise. >> we feel that the shares of coal will increase because nuclear needs to be substituted and the plan to create new coal power plants are already there. >> at the german parliament, one m.p. said, ending nuclear was as big a task as unifying east and west germany. after the politics comes the hard bit, the economics, reengineering this whole economy away from nuclear will be difficult and it will take money. nobody knows how much.

>> you're watching bbc news. the headlines this hour, fifa president sepp blatter has denied the world football governing body is in crisis despite allegations of corruption at the highest levels of the organization. and south africa's president, jacob zuma, says colonel qaddafi ready for a truce. let's get more on our top story. the state senator of south australia is calling on his country's football federation to try to recover money spent on the 2022 bid and for the bid to be reopened. he joins me on the line now. thank you very much for joining us on bbc news. how will you go about recalling the money? >> well, this is something -- australia spent $46 million on the bid.

at that stage, we were aware of allegations made in the house of commons, parliamentary committee, in terms of lord trison's allegations of corruption in regards to the bid. we now have further information that's come to light where the secretary general of fifa expressed concerns about the bid, as well. i think australia is entitled to ask for its money back as should other countries and i also think that the 2022 bid ought to be reopened given the serious allegations made. >> forgive me, though, i'm wondering how you would go about betting hold of that money given that we're in a situation where an investigation is pending. >> i think the first step is for the investigation to be done properly and thoroughly and i'm not confident that fifa's own processes in relation to an investigation are thorough enough and i'm completely underwhelmed by what sepp blatter said. he denies there's no crisis.

he reminds me of the monty python character, the black knight, who lost his arms and legs and said it's just a flesh wound. >> there has been constant resistance from fifa for any governmental interference in the organization. are you hoping that international leaders and governments will take a closer look at fifa and their involvement with the organization? >> absolutely. there is hundreds of millions of dollars. is many millions of dollars being spent of taxpayers' funds to fund world cup bids. the money that governments put into building facilities in terms of world cup bids and also there are sponsors who spent literally hundreds of millions in terms of the rights. so i think that if governments, in sponsors got together and said to fev aenough is enough, we might see fundamental change. this organization has a stench to it that goes to its very

core. >> just very briefly, is blatter, in your opinion, the right man to lead fifa? >> i think sepp blatter should go off into the pasture somewhere. his behavior at the press conference recently was appalling and i've seen the commentary of that. this is a man who is either the world's greatest actor, deserves an oscar for it, or is completely in denial. he is monty python's black knight of sport. >> senator, thank you very much for joining us. the lawyer for the former bosnian serb army chief ratko mladic has filed an appeal against his extradition to the hague on war crimes. they say he's too ill to travel to face charges of genocide at the international tribunal. >> too young to understand the attention, too innocent to comprehend the alleged crimes. ratko mladic's grandchildren,

brought to his prison cell in belgrade. 10-year-old anastasia and 5-year-old stefan were led through dozens of journalists and t.v. crews to spend around an hour with their grandfather. it's five days since ratko mladic was arrested on charges that include genocide. his attempts to fight extradition are all but exhausted. his lawyers are starting to prepare him for the inevitable move to the international war crimes tribunal in the hague. >> we have begun to touch on the questions of who will defend him in the hague. mladic was giving us names of possible lawyers but we have to contact them to see if they want to defend him. >> and this is what awaits ratko mladic in the hague, trial like his former political ally raddovan caroovich.

>> mladic used huge fire power against mostly defenseless and civilian targets, not to mention three-year shelling of sarajevo. had doesn't require courage, just ruthlessness. >> the timing of ratko mladic's departure to the hague can probably now be measured in days it not hours. general mladic will probably be taken in the middle of the night in the operation to put him before the international panel of judges. duncan kennedy, bbc news in belgrade. >> the italian prime minister silvio berlusconi has suffered a setback in elections in milan. his party candidate for mayor was defeated by her opponent. >> in milan and naples and

several other big italian cities, voters snubbed mr. berlusconi's candidates for mayor and gave the job to left-wingers. it was a disastrous result for mr. berlusconi's freedom party. the weekend poll could mark a turning point in mr. berlusconi's political fortunes, after nearly two decades in and out of power. there were noisy celebrations in milan and naples by opposition supporters after the results were declared. it means that italy is going through what looks like a slow revolution. it's not egypt, not tahrir square, but it looks as if things are changing and the tide has certainly changed, whether it comes in and submerges berlusconi's period is still something which we'll have to wait for. >> mr. berlusconi's chief

coalition government ally, the northern league, is furious at the loss of milan, northern italy's financial and industrial hub. himself wasn't present to face the music. he was abroad on an official visit to romania. >> it's clear we have lost. sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. the important thing is not to lose your nerve. the government is determined and united. >> mr. berlusconi's popularity ratings have been on the decline after a sex scandal involving an underage moroccan escort. the prime will not be in court in milan today when his trial resumes on charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and trying to cover up the involvement. he denies any wrongdoing.

>> cuba is battling the worst drought in 50 years. crops have been destroyed and with strict water restrictions in place, farmers are beginning to lose their lively stock. >> there's been insufficient rain in cuba for the past three years and the caribbean's largest island is facing the worst drought in half a century. in central province of cammagua, vultures gather, waiting for weakened cattle to succumb to hunger. >> i'm had chickens die from hunger and sheep, too. it is very, very dry. it is a terrible drought. >> it isn't just the countryside suffering. according to the official newspaper, more than a million residents of havana are affected

the drought, nearly half the city's population. many rely on tankers to deliver much needed water. >> we are always careful not to waste water. at least we have tanks that can be filled. don't even have that. what happened to start off with, we had a boy who didn't want to go to school if he couldn't wash. >> may is meant to be the start of the rainy season but so far there have been few sustained showers of the sort needed to refill the resivawrs. when the heaven opened, it wasn't rain, but giant hail storms accompanied by winds. residents report ice balls the size of small oranges, destroying crops and blanketing the countryside. >> you're watching bbc.

>> hello and welcome. >> see the news unfold. get the top stories from around the globe and click to play video reports. go to bbc.com/news to experience the in-depth, expert reporting of bbc world news online. >> funding was made possible by the freman foundation of new york, stow vermont and honolulu, newman's own foundation, the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, and union bank. >> union bank has put its financial strength to work for a wide range of companies, from

small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.