>> 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 and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business. offering specialized solutions and capital to meet your growth objectives, we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you?

>> and now, "bbc world news." >> eurozone crisis deepens as france loses its aaa rating and other countries are also downgraded. >> this is a very very big blow for sarkozy and his party. 100 days from the election, this is very bad news. >> elsewhere, talks of the greek debt are in danger of collapse. taiwan goes to the polls to elect a new president. how will this affect relations with china? welcome to "bbc world news." new tests for the man that killed 77 people last july in norway. back to earth with a bang, the russian satellite is due to crash land this weekend and no

one knows where. >> standard and poor's has downgraded france's aaa credit rating. the decision could affect the country's borrowing rights and it deepens the eurozone crisis. 8 other countries have their work and ratings -- had their ratings downgraded. >> the french evening news tonight and the moment france learned that it had been stripped of its top aaa credit rating. facing an election, this had been president sarkozy's big fear. it was only the verdict of one's ratings agency but his opponents say it represents a failure of his policies. it was left to the french

finance minister to make this announcement. >> it is not good news. this is not a catastrophe. the ratings agencies don't control the politics of france, we do. >> at the palace, and the president gathered together his top advisers. what the downgrade will mean is an increase in french borrowing costs. the debt is set to reach 90% of its output this year. they have to raise $290 billion -- they have to raise 290 billion euros to pay off what they currently have. the figure could increase. >> potentially in the future, the borrowing costs will rise. that is bad for friends of potentially bad for the eurozone off. >> for the president and chancellor merkel, this means a decrease of the main bailout

fund which is linked to the credibility of the nations that back it. there was a protest outside of the rating agency's office in paris calling the decision a declaration of war against france. most people say the downgrade has the potential to damage president sarkozy. >> this is a very very big blow. this is for sarkozy and his party. 100 days from the election, this is bad news. >> italy was significantly downgraded tonight. spain sought its credit ratings cut and austria lost its aaa rating. other european countries were also said to be downgraded. the downgraded discussed here at the palace tonight and and other affected european capitals was not the only bad news for the eurozone today. talks aimed at reducing kris's

debt burden has now run into difficulties. protests against spending cuts have continued. greece needs to do a new negotiation. there is the prospect of a greek default. >> it is 99% certain that they will be part of the debt. when you look at the greek economy and the rate it is contracting. >> friend's account support from germany saying that the judgment of the ratings agency should not be overestimated. the eurozone crisis was threatening once again. reaction fromome some of our other correspondents across europe. we begin first with the french capital. >> sarkozy is a prisoner of his

own rhetoric. he spent much of last year promising to safeguard the aaa and now he probably regrets that because he had to back pedal fast and say it does not matter quite so much, it is only one agency after three and in any case, who believes what the agencies say anyway. this is a huge embarrassment to him because he has put stock in this. he is the man who lost the triple a rating which he said was so important. >> france is one of the richest economies in europe but it is very linked to the economies of both italy and hungary and other eastern european countries. italy, which is in trouble at the moment, is the second- biggest trading partner. the big thing that a lot of people think led to this decision is the fact that austrian banks have lent very heavily to eastern europe.

they are the biggest lenders to hungary. it is estimated that the exposures amount to over $40 billion. this is a big amount of money and this is causing a concern. >> the eurozone crisis is not just a debt crisis, this is also a crisis of conference -- crisis of confidence. reading what the s&p put into their report will not make investors feel any better. yes, we have to reiterate that it is only the opinion of one ratings agency and only the opinion of a ratings agency. the french government and others have different opinions. s&p has said that essentially europe's leaders have got it wrong in their analysis of what the problem is and how they are trying to tackle it. the s&p say that they are only tackling one half of the

problem, they are focused on the overspending of the peripheral countries and they have said that until europe also tries to tackle the imbalances that exist between the booming economies like germany and the impoverished economies like greece, portugal, ireland, then there cannot be a solution and they say that so far that the policy decisions made by europe's's leaders give them no confidence that the debt crisis itself can be tackled. >> millions of voters in taiwan are heading to the polls on saturday to elect a president. the closely fought race to change the relationship between the island and its rival, china. president anders behring breivik -- the president ma ying-jeou is facing tough opposition. it was 1949 after the chinese

civil war leaders fled to taiwan. callous about this kind of effect on these elections. >> -- tell us about the china affect on these elections. >> taiwan is at a crossroads. president ma ying-jeou has taken relations with china to the best level they have been and now he wants four more years in office to improve relations further and possibly sign a peace treaty. there are many voters who are worried. many have pointed out that he is going too fast and is paving the way for unification with china and this could hurt taiwan's sovereignty. >> a report of 300,000 taiwanese who live in china are coming back to vote in this election.

they will surely back him, won't they? >> yes, many of these and china- based taiwanese business people have flown in and many of them support him. there is millions of dollars invested in china and they want him to be reelected because they want him to further allow the opening of these markets in taiwan. at the same time, ordinary people believe that the policies have mainly benefits -- mainly benefited big businesses. >> what about that third candidate that we have mentioned? could he possibly take away some folks from one of the other two? >> he came from mr. ma's party. there are estimates he could take about 8% of the vote to.

he could help them win more votes and help tsai ing-wen become the first female president in taiwan. >> the u.s. has described the release of releasing political prisoners in burma as a movement towards reform. they will start the process and exchange ambassadors with burma. >> snapshots of freedom, and gallery of dissident activists in prison for their beliefs. now, but close as if they might be wrenched away again at any moment. among them is the prominent leader of the failed student uprising. outside of the prisons, the crowd and the expectations grew. former inmates struggling to make their way through.

there has been amnesty before but none as far reaching as this. and some of those released today spent more than a decade behind bars. among those set free, monks and it took part in these street protests in 2007 and some of the video journalists who shot the pictures. and man who once served on the other side. in the middle of the crowd, the former prime minister and intelligence chief purged by the old military regime in 2004 and placed under house arrest. now he, and those that serve under him, are free. so, too, members of burma's ethnic minority group including one of the most senior political leaders. he called on the government to reach agreements with all of the people. he cannot make peace with one

ethnic group and fight with another, he says. these scenes repeated outside of prisons the length and breadth of burma. they represent a major concession on the part of the government. a major step towards meeting a demand of western nations. will it be enough to warrant roared -- reward? >> a court in norway has called for a new psychological evaluation of anders behring breivik who was found to be legally insane after carrying out a bomb attack and a mass shooting. the sensitive nature of the case shows that the issue has to be studied more closely. >> it has been two months since hisrs behring breivik homade first court appearance. some of the survivors were in

attendance. so were some other relatives of those who died. the psychiatrists declared that he was insane at the time of the attack, a verdict which upset many people. that is why a judge decided on friday to ask for a second opinion. >> the court believes that the very serious nature of the case dictates that the question of accountability should be examined further. >> having visited his client in the prison where he is being held, his lawyer gave this reaction. >> we have had a very long and thorough talk with him. he does not want to talk with the new experts. he says 80% of the first verdict was not accurate. >> anders behring breivik has confessed to carry out the attacks. first, he killed and nine by bombing government buildings in oslo. then here at the summer camp for young labor party members, nearly 70 people were shot dead.

these people survived the shootings. now, they welcome the review. >> they say that he is a paranoid schizophrenic. i am no expert so i don't know but i don't think he would be able to carry out what he did if he was insane. >> after months of morning, relatives of those who died anxiously await the results of the new psychiatric tests and the trial of breivik due to start in april. then, they might get some closure. >> there are unconfirmed reports that three people died after a cruise ship ran aground off the coast of italy. the ship had set off from rome. this was on in the trading crews. the passengers said they heard a large boom and they were told it

was an electrical problem. then the ship started to lean dangerously. then it headed to a small island where it seems to have run aground. it is listing over the harbour wall. i have briefly been speaking to local boatman who have been helping with the local operation and they have confirmed that there were people in the water who needed rescuing and there are many languages being spoken, not just italian. 3000 passengers, plus the 1000 strong crew. still some people, i have been told by local authorities are being rescued. the operation there continues. if the local mayor said that he feared even more deaths. five we go behind the scenes as the world academy unveils a major exhibition.

-- as the royal academy unveils a major exhibition. more analysis on the credit downgrade by standard and poor's. we explain more about the repercussions of the economy of the eurozone. >> 9 eurozone government had their credit ratings downgraded. france, portugal, spain had a there is downgraded by two notches. portugal is now categorized in the junk status, which means it is as bad as greece. those that have lent to portugal now face of defaults and serious losses. france has been downgraded by one notch and a number of other countries, nine in total. what i found really extraordinary is that this

affected all of the members of the eurozone. only one has a stable outlook. some will say that this is simply a statement of the obvious, that they have a financial crisis. it might exacerbate that crisis because it might make it harder for some of these countries, in particular portugal. i think one has to be worried about the fact that the economy is contracting so far. the other thing about today, friday the 13th is the talks between greece's creditors and the greek government broke down. that raises the risk of a default by greece. many people have probably said to you, we expected this default. actually, as and when it comes, it will do significant damage because the eurozone has still not put in place the bailout fund that would protect other

countries. >> this is "bbc news," these are the headlines. standard and poor's has downgraded france's aaa credit rating. 8 other countries including italy, spain, and austria were downgraded. there are new fears that breeze will default -- greece will default. it was supposed to be heading to mars to take samples from one of mars moons but it will come crashing back to earth. this is because of a serious malfunction. they're not sure where it will land. this has focused attention on the increasing danger of space exploration. >> a swarm of dots circling the

earth, some of them are working satellites. an orbiting rubbish dump operated after half a century of space travel. last september, a russian launch added yet another piece of debris. now the russians believe that their spacecraft will crash back into the indian ocean. no one can be sure. >> it is almost impossible at this stage to predict exactly when and where it will come in. you can only do that if you can control the space craft and they don't have control. >> what will happen to this strangely named spacecraft? this is orbiting every 90 minutes between 50 degrees north and 51 degrees south. it could land anywhere in between.

most of the spacecraft will burn up as it falls to earth but some components matter more than others. the tanks, filled with fuel, should a leak and burn off long before they reach the surface. the moment a european spacecraft blew up while falling to earth. this was meant to happen and generally there is very little risk to anyone on the ground. the bigger danger is space junk damaging satellites that we depend on. >> something as small as a cherry can be similar to the explosion of a hand grenade right next to your satellite. >> the russian spacecraft was designed to land on a moon of mars and it was to collect a sample and bring it back. that would have been a triumph of science. the world is still waiting for a crash.

>> the british royal navy has captured somali pirates in the indian ocean. they surrendered their vessel and shipping lanes off of the somali coast. a congressman and his brother had been shot dead in guatemala city a day before the new government is to take office. valentin leal caal was attacked by gunmen on a motorcycle as he was going through the city center. a longtime leader of the turkish cypriots was 87 years old and he has died. he suffered from ill health for a long time. he was a staunch defender of the interest of the turkish cypriots. he became the first president of the turkish republic of northern cyprus. the double oscar winner gene

hackman has been released from the hospital after an accident. he was hit from behind by a car and was airlifted to the hospital in miami. he was discharged after routine tests. he suffered just a minor bump. the royal academy is planning for a major exhibition of the british artist david hockney. this includes the lines, films, displayed on the banks of video screens. we went to meet david hockney and we heard his views on life and art. >> the new exhibition is called the bigger picture because the pictures get bigger. the artist would like us to step back and think about the bigger picture.

the majority is recent work and almost all of which is the same subjects, the landscape of ethiopia. >> you left los angeles for east york sure. why? >> it wasn't planned. i told my friends, well, i am on location. i began to realize that there was a very very good subject here. "how much of hollywood hills art in these paintings? >> california has a marvelous light. east yorkshire can have a nice light. >> are you concerned about planning? >> yes and no. there is beauty in everything,

even a wind farm. for instance, sometimes they don't rubbish. old refrigerators. sometimes i look at it and think, how could they do it. other times, this is good. this is rather absurd. there is a side of me that says it is not that bad. >> you all have the moniker of being britain paul's greatest living -- of britain's greatest living artist. >> it does not mean that much to me. i live in one place and i'm not very social. l.a. is not too bad. new york is a different culture. london i find difficult. i love the quiet.

>> first, there was turner, now david hockney is we imagine the way we look at the british landscape. >> a brief reminder of our breaking news. it comes from italy where news agencies are saying that six people have died after a cruise ship ran aground off the coast of italy. it had set off from a port near rome on friday. the local authorities have told us that there are still people on board and other passengers have had to be rescued from the water. it ran aground after hitting a reef. you can see this is just off of the tuscan coast. this is a very very small island. reports are that local

authorities are struggling to handle the numbers. this is "bbc news." >> make sense of international news at 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. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business. offering specialized solutions and capital to 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" was presented by kcet, los angeles.