>> this is "bbc world news." funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, 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?

>> and now, "bbc world >> syria requests an inquiry into the death of a 14 yeermed boy. -- 14-year-old boy. they say he was abducted and tortured by opposition forces. >> they say there is alleged abuse bied opposition. >> violence in yemen as fighting in the capital leaves 35 dead. >> welcome to "bbc news." coming up later for you, google says chinese hackers have tarringed e-mail accounts of 12 u.s. officials. >> a controversial damn in the brazilian amazon gets approval. opponents say it will destroy the ecosystem.

>> we begin in syria where a 13-year-old boy has become the symbol of anti-government protests. hamza al-khatib was abtucted and tortured to death by local security forces. this contains graphic images. >> uprisings often need a human face. this is the face of syrian's revolt. 13-year-old hamza al-khatib allegedly tortured to death by local security forces. images are impossible to verify. the body appears battered with gunshot wounds and signs of horriffic torture. at his few radical -- at his

funeral, his family was in no doubt. so what happened to the 13-year-old? it seems over a month ago hamza was picked up by security forces. fimely last week his body was returned. his family says they were threatened and told to stay silent. they found signs of torture. his neck broken and mutilation of his genitals. images spread fast on facebook and youtube. sensing the damage, syrian tv broadcast a lengthy denial of any torture. experts claim the signs of torture were simply decomposition and the blood was fake. whatever the facts, there is no

dow doubt that president al-ass. ad -- al-assad knows the pictures, especially a child, can enflame dissent. yars years ago -- years ago, the pictures of a boy went around the world, his father unable to protect him from gunfire. in tunisia, the fruit seller who set fire too himself, helped trigger the entire arab spring. >> one person, one victim, can launch a revolution if what happens to that victim is emblematic in people's minds of what happens to them every day. certainly hamza's image has had real weight.

women holding signs saying we are all the mothers of hamza al-khatib. we are joined by razan on the line from damascus. i think everyone can understand the anger. is this going to change anything as far as the opposition movement is concerned? >> the opposition movement is continuing. after the death of hamza everybody was shocked. the whole world was shocked. it broke our hearts, actually. for a child who was loved. a child who his family loved him, and hamza wasn't the first killed under torture in syria. this truth is clear. many others have been killed in the last two months in detension under torture. even today a prisoner was

delivered, a dead body to his family, in damascus. he was detained a few days ago. today his dead body was delivered to his family. he was killed under torture. this is happening every day in syria. such violations, and the crimes are committed every day in syria. >> nothing the government says or does seems to satisfy the opposition, this promise of an inquiry into hamza's death, the release of political prisoners, the setting up this -- up of this committee to start a national dialogue. does this show this is a zero sum game, there will be a definite winner and definite loser and compromise will not work anymore? >> how people can be satisfied with something done by the government when it says nothing. after hamza's death, new

prisoners got killed under torture in detension. what does that mean? that means that the government does nothing to solve the crimes against syrian people. while the government declares it forms a dialogue, the same day more than 40 people were killed in arrests in their homes. it is a massacre. how can people believe that there is a real community for dialogue where the syrian people being killed is continuing? >> razan in damascus, we appreciate your time. thank you. let's go to libya. there has been a large explosion in benghazi outside a hotel used by foreign diplomats and journalists. there are fresh reports of explosions in tripoli. earlier united nations paneled issued a report that both libyan

government troops and libyan forces have committed war crimes. here is dan griffeth. >> it is a war without end. libya's bloody conflict left thousands dead. now gaddafi's forces have been charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. they say rebels also carried out abuses. this will all be policy in international criminal reports. on wednesday, a rare attack. emergency vehicles head to the scene of a car bomb outside a hotel used by rebel leaders and foreign diplomats. so far no one has claimed responsibility. >> perhaps it's the supporters of the former regime. we can't execute until we find out what happened. >> they face a defection of

libya's oil minister. he's the latest to join the rebels. >> with this situation, which is unbearable, one cannot continue watching, and therefore i left the country. i decided to leave my job and go join in the choice of the libyan -- to create a constitutional state. >> the rebels have also got new recruits. these women are also among the latest to sign up. >> i feel today i am a free libyan woman, and i hope i can be with my brothers, the rebels. >> no amount of new fighters are likely to tip the balance. daniel griffeth, bbc news. >> troops and travel fighters

have been exchanging fire. u.s. secretary of state, hillary clinton, has called again for president salas to step down. >> flamse flames still burning. a sign peace is still some way off. overnight, fighting raged on. government forces determined to crush the power of the opposition. what amany civilians are being forced to face the consequences. >> they were attacking. i came here today, and two of the ones that came with me died. it is al-assad attacking.

>> some have been attacked by ali abdul-asal sawed's forces. >> people say they are fleeing the war. they are afraid of the neighboring war. some are blaming the chief of the biggest tribe, a sheik. others say the president's son fought. this is the square. fewer people are praying. those who remain are still defiant. >> they are now going ahead. they have no option, except they

have to get through. >> they have the support of the united states. still, tensions are rising. people are worried about the war. >> a group of prominent politicians, including the previous secretary general of the united nations has strongly criticized anti-drugs policies around the world. a report by the global commission on drug policy says the war on illegal drugs has failed. the former president of colombia, member of the commission, joins me on the line from his new york hotel where a live news conference will be held. thank you for your time. this commission is proposing a dramatic shift in the paradigm on drugs. tell us, what is going to come

out of that? >> basically, it is it is a disagreement. not too much on in-fighting. traffickers, but dealing with consumption. the problem is that the war on drugs for 30 years has been a failure. many poblingts possibilities of looking for domestic policies. it takes to much better use of the resources of the community.

there's a reason for everything. a health problem. >> there are suppliers to the united states -- of course colombia supplies the united states with many of its drugs. they say they should admit it is a problem of supply in north america and not necessarily latin america. >> well, they already recognize thafment the office of drugs already recognizes it is a problem of consumption. the problem for latin americans which are dealing with so much violence, particularly at this moment, mexico, and other times colombia, is that they are having zoo many people that in the -- having so many people

that the policies have failed. the u.s. recognizes the problem will not be solved in mexico, south america, colombia or bolivia. the real problem is, if they don't reduce consumption significantly, if they don't change policy and give an opportunity to prevention, information, use more resources, the policy of putting in jail everyone that uses drugs, no matter the age, drugs are hard or soft, is going to be a policy that's not working. >> thank you very much. >> you are watching bbc news. still ahead, a fourth foremen as the head of world football. >> activists in bahrain say there have been some

pro-democracy reforms. they poast videos and photos online which they say show protests in several villages outside the capital. at least 30 people have been killed since protests began in february. >> waiting for business, bahrain's formula one race track. site of this year's grand prix after the worst clashes in the country's history. now the government has lifted the state of emergency, and it is hoping to claw back lost revenues and show life is back to normal. but bahrain today is far from back to normal. checkpoints like these are going to remain. a reassurance to some. hundreds of troops called in in march are saying they have been guarding bahrain's key installation. but it has been a warning 40's

gulf states not to get involved. bahrain's protest, marked by events in tune eeshia started out -- tunisia started out peacefully. after protests turned deadly, protesters took over the streets. a state of emergency was declared in march. since thernings they have been detained without trial. four have died in custody. these wounds will take time to heal. >> we hope that the country goes back to how it was. but after all this violence and thousands leaving their jobs, all these people, how will they go back? >> in shiite villages like this one, the ruling family runs deep. if mass protests erupt again, bahrain may struggle to contain them, once again abusing human rights. frank gardner, "bwbc news."

>> this is "bbc news." the headlines. >> syria says it will investigate the death of a 13-year-old boy. >> google has said it believes chinese hackers have tried to access g-mail accounts of hundreds of users, including u.s. government officials and chinese journalists. the company said they will stop the hacking from taking place. google and other internet companies were targeted by hackers last year. the bbc's tom barage said they are still trying to determine where hackers were operating from. >> the white house said it is investigating this hacking scam with google and at this stage doesn't believe any of its official accounts have been hacked. how this works is basically the victims, the people being targeted by the hackers, were

sent an e-mail that appeared to be from a colleague. embedded in that e-mail was a link to a fake google log-in page. if you logged into that, the hackers would have your password to your g-mail account. this concept is called phishing. that is when someone pretentse tends to be someone else. most phishing is done to random users. these were targeted to specific people. if you look at the use of people. u.s. government officials, asian government officials, in particular south korea, chinese political activists, if you look at that list, it appears whoever was carrying out this hacking did have some form of political motivation because all those people have access to sensitive information. >> doesn't the u.s. have its own e-mail system? it seems odd they would use a

system that millions of people around the world also use? >> i'm pretty sure these were e-mail accounts of government officials. i don't think there is anyway that the official e-mail accounts or anyone who has attempted to actually, as we know, hack into the official e-mail accounts of the u.s. government. but google said this appeared to take place in eastern china, but halfway down china in a city there. there is no suggestion at this stage that the chinese government was directly involved. but there has been a scam in the past, as you mentioned in the introduction, that targeted google before, and google once again seemed to point the finger toward china. experts say it is difficult to pin point exactly where a hacking scam like this

originated from and who did it. >> brazil has asked for the license for a controversial dam in the am sonszon to begin. the brazilian government said this is essential to the country's growth. the environmentalists fear the impact on nate and indigenous populations. further legal challenges are possible. >> the last bureaucrat challenge has been -- now the full license of the construction. that will not be a problem. it is possible that legal challenges will come up in courts, but it is more likely that the government will manage to beat those challenges as the brazilian government has a strong resource to build this dam in spite of environmentalists and indigenous

groups in the area. >> what do activists say the environmentalist price will be? >> actually, environmentalists say two basic problems for dams. large areas will be flooded, and on the other hand the river will dry up. the government says that the consortium that will build this dam has guaranteed environmental safeguards and mitigating measures in place. they say problems will be managed and brazil will be able to go on with its growth and development without energy from the dam. >> were there alternative proposals that this dam and the energy it will produce? >> not really. and the question is also not only that there is this dam, but that there are nine other dams

planned for the amazon. so environmentalists say we have to look at conservational damage in this country. >> health officials in germany say 17 people are known to have died from a major outbreak of e-coli. nearly 500 are being treated for severe symptoms. >> it has been confirmed the former bozz anyian-serb -- bos nmplet ia -- bosnian-serb leader mladic will appear in court on friday. of. >> admissions to allegations of corruption and that the bidding process had tained fifa.

>> he tried to show a display of shock, but this was not an election. fifa did its belft to keep up the pretense, take -- best to keep up the pretense. he didn't take too long, and here's why -- just one name on the ballot paper. this was a different fifa president from the defensive figure of two days ago. following his election, he looked more sure footed promising reform and calling on football's structured family to reunite. >> i do ven expect anymore battles, why we should expect that. now we are going into a new period of the fifa transparancy and the fifa controlling system. >> but not everyone wanted him

to serve a fourth term. the head of english football asked for a postponement. >> the election has turned into a one-horse racism in -- race. in few of the football association, this should be avoided for the sake of fifa and the president it's sefment a coronation without an opponent provides a flawed mandate. >> that will response told you everything. but there was more to come. >> we will always have attacks from england, mostly with lies. >> what a beautiful english word "allegations." without most of the times, a single shred of truth. >> the mood left england more isolated than ever before. >> we think there are problems

and we think actually it would have been a positive step to defer today's decision until we have claret around allegations. i think we have ended up in a good place and we have a reform lend agenda to look like. >> why did england find it so hard? >> during his reign the president has taken the cup to new continents. he has overseen a tehran formation in fifa -- he has seen a transformation in fifa's financial strength. he has fought and won many battles. his biggest may be in front of him. >> to get more on this story and

more, go to bbc.com/news. >> 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 freeman foundation of new york, stowe, 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.