>> 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 use their expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global network to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you?

>> and the now "bbc world news." >> welcome to "news the" on the bbc. >> the -- "newsday" on the bbc. as there is a crackdown in homs, there are concerns about a humanitarian crisis. >> a small chinese village that is making a big political statement. >> [singing] please release me, let me go. >> find out how this legendary crooner will be flying the flag for britain. >> broadcasting to our viewers

on pbs in america and around the globe, this is "newsday." they have held out for four weeks, the syrian oppositions are currently withdrawing from the besieged city of homs. there is growing concern about civilians trapped there. the international red cross hopes to be allowed in. this cannot come a moment too soon. >> the advance of syrian armor means that the fall of an important symbol of resistance. it does not mean the end of the rebellion which has increasing support from abroad. with civilians in the area of putting out buckets to catch snow, the most immediate concern

is to deal with the humanitarian crisis. >> the members of the security council call upon the syrian authorities to allow full and unimpeded access if humanitarian personnel to all populations that need assistance in accordance with international law and the guiding principles of humanitarian assistance. >> in homs, the resistance held territory. the regime has been determined to recapture it. president assad has genuine support from some syrians and a victory to claim in homs. things could be worse for him. he has diplomatic cover from the russians. while they are supporting him, he can close his ears to the growing international anger.

>> syrian television cameras toward areas and reported the huge devastation caused by the armed terrorist groups who committed horrific crimes against civilians there. >> the fighting continues in some other parts of the country. assessing the growing conflict would be hard enough for britain as its diplomats have been pulled out for security reasons. what is clear is that the violence to be getting worse. >> the french government says that two journalists that were trapped are safely out. one of them was wounded in the heavy shelling last week. the french officials say sheet and a photographer or brought across the border and are now in lebanon. a court in britain has found a couple guilty of a murder they

believed was using witchcraft. the boy, kristy bamu , was attacked while on vacation. the report does contain images from the crime scene. >> light in this east london tower block, a boy far from home face a most brutal death appeared to this video gives an idea of what greeted police. -- height in this east london tower block, a boy far from home face a most brutal death. this video gives an idea of what we did police. this hammer and ninth hints at the days of torture. kristy had more than 100 injuries to his body. today, his system was found

guilty of his murdered along with his boyfriend -- along with her boyfriend. >> it was horrific injuries to a young man who came over to visit his sister during the festive season of christmas. he had no one to turn to. he knew nobody here. >> kristy and four siblings a ride from paris for the holiday. eric bikubi tried to drive the spirits out of them through beatins. the children's parents received numerous phone calls. the father as many regrets. he even said, if you don't collect me, on will eric is going to kill me -- uncle eric

is going to kill me. >> i could not hear any distress in his voice. >> they planned to travel to england on boxing day but why didn't they call the police? >> it was not me you had a problem with someone, it was eric who had a problem with kristy. >> how can a belief in witchcraft lead to the deaths of kristy a world away? in the african countries where this is a widely held belief, churches hold exorcisms involve grain and fasting but the court that was told in this case that this was utterly feral.

six years ago, a woman's murders said that they were reading her of evil spirits. professionals and community leaders need to work together to make sure that children are protected. >> in our culture, we should protect the child. going forward in this case here, the rights of the child to be protected should be paramount. father feels betrayed by the people that he trusted. the fact that one of them was his daughter makes it worse. >> you have a story from china. >> that's right. three months ago, a little village in southern china made a big statement when they staged an extraordinary revolt. communist party officials fled and thousands of protesters took to the streets and clashed

with riot police. they accused officials of unfairly selling their lands to developers. >> the rhythms of daily life have returned. it's men bring in the morning catch. locals haggle over the price. three months ago, they were in open revolt. villagers were furious after a government land grab but instead of cracking down, the authorities made concessions and that includes holding fresh elections to replace local officials who villagers say sold them out. these are the very people who led the revolt against the local authority. they are campaigning to become

local officials. among those standing is this man, he was detained during the demonstrations. now, he believes that politics is the best way to proceed. we need a democratic system that insures that the officials work on behalf of the village, he says. the face in the authorities is fragile here -- faith in the authorities is fragile here. this woman's father died in may demonstrations. the land dispute has yet to be resolved. >> we are prepared to protest again on the streets to get our land back. we cannot let our efforts go to waste. the land must be returned. >> rampant development is the main source of unrest in china's

countryside. the way wukan fought back has impressed other farmers. these men say that their land was also confiscated to sell to developers. >> the people are very courageous. they want to control their own fate. because of wukan, we are becoming more brave ourselves. >> the farmers are more determined to fight for their rights but in the struggle, it is not clear how much the authorities are willing to concede. >> how concerned are you about privacy on the web? google has rolled out a new policy of pooling the information from its users. they say that the new standards are easier to understand.

we have been weighing the arguments from all sides. >> it is the internet site that most of us use every day. now, the new privacy policy will help them to build a new detail data base of its user habits. until now, the information that you gave from the video on you to, or the e-mail that you send, is separate. now, it is being pooled. european regulators say that it may break european data protection rules. >> it is not given to anyone. that does not change. of course, if you don't want to distort it, you can not log in. you can use google search without signing into an account. >> we have been giving companies

information about our cells for years. if you use a loyalty card, they know what you purchase. google might learn a tremendous amount about our friends, our tastes. cell phone companies have been given over information about where we are and even handing over our entire address book. they say it helps for targeted advertising which is in your interest. once you handle your data, it could end up anywhere. >> all kinds of people might want to get hold of that or companies might use it in ways you did not expect or ways you don't find acceptable. it is really hard to get it destroyed. "you have a choice. you could curb your use of google and other sites, however

you would find it a lot more difficult to navigate. >> you are watching "newsday" on the bbc. iran goes to the polls but will be elections revealed a divided nation? >> eurovision is about to get the hump. time for our newspaper review, let's look at some of the stories making headlines around the world. vladimir putin says that moscow has no special relationship with syria. and there is a look at the elections in iran, this would

be between two opposing conservative camps. the "financial times" shows an animated discussion between the greek and the german finance ministers after there is a delay over the bailout for greece. "the times" shows us the singer engelbert humperdinck who is the surprise choice to represent the u.k. at this year's eurovision song contest. >> this is "newsday" on the bbc. >> these are the headlines. syrian opposition forces say that they were withdrawing from the deceased district in botched the besieged -- syrian opposition forces say that they're withdrawing from a

besieged district in homs. the chinese foreign minister is heading to seoul to meet his south korean counterpart. the agreement would be the big topic, however it is taking place against a background of rising tension over china's planned repatriation of up to 13 north koreans. there have been protests at the chinese embassy, strikes by officials at the u.n., and even the south korean president has spoken out. what is expected to come out of these talks? might this ease the tension we have seen in recent days? >> those topics are likely to come up at the top of the talks today. on the six party talks, this has been opened by this new agreement between north korea and the u.s.. both china and south korea say

they want to give back the talks but they disagree on what is needed before that happens. south korea needs much more guarantees than china does before it goes back to six party talks. this might be an opportunity for south korea to ask china to keep that process intact. on the issue of the protest, china and south korea are even further ahead. south korea sees north korea escaping through china as read fijis, china sees them as economic migrants. if they find them, they will be returned home. -- south korea sees north koreans escaping through china. >> what about the new regime of kim jong un? >> there was a rumor of a deal that was almost done before kim

jong il died. the rumor was that the north koreans and the u.s. were very close to a deal but it never happened. after kim jong un came to power, they met in china and everything seems to have taken off. the americans said there was a problem earlier in terms of what kind of food assistance they would give to north korea. north korea was asking for grains. they said, we will not give you this. we will give you nutritional assistance. the north koreans have accepted that that is what they will get. in some ways, you could see that as a sign that the new leader is flexible in his approach to negotiations. that is certainly one interpretation as is the speed with which this has happened. north korea is still officially in the morning for its leader.

there could also be a willingness to open up on the part of the new leader but it could also indicate a desperation from north korea to get more food in the country. >> we will leave it there. just a few hours, iranians will go to the polls. they are voting for the seats that make up the legislature or the parliament and it is expected to be split between the supporters of mahmoud ahmadinejad and supporters of the supreme leader. not everyone is keen to mark their ballot paper. >> for the first time since 2009, iran goes to vote. not everyone will choose to do so. the opposition reformists are boycotting the polls. they say the government has made it impossible for this election to be fair. others will stay at home.

>> i have no interest in participating. i voted in 2009. however, this time i have no interest in participating. >> this election is a straight fight between rivals within the ruling conservative movement's. supporters of the supreme leader ayatollah, nay are against those loyal to ahmadinejad. -- supporters of the supreme leader khamenei and those loyal to mahmoud ahmadinejad. the price of day today goods has gone up. the economy is in trouble. >> i think the economic situation has become a large part of the daily life. be ast see how these will sensational as the previous round.

>> this is a national responsibility, including the increase in sanctions and economic issues. this is very important and vital. >> this is why the rest of the world is paying attention, iran's nuclear program worries western governments to but no one expects a change of policy followed in this election. the ayatollah will still have the final word. >> police in greece say a man who lost his job in a plastics factory and had taken two hostages in protests has surrendered after 12 hours. he shot and injured his former boss and one other worker before taking the hostages in the northern city. this has been one of the worst hit in a country where unemployment is running at 21% and rising.

the news that has surprised many in azerbaijan. >> many will be competing in the euro vision song contest. british music lovers will be putting their hopes on a man who was born before most of them. we are talking about the legendary singer, engelbert humperdinck. this is an event that is watched by millions of television viewers. >> his first hit was in 1967. engelbert humperdinck is still recording, touring, and flying the flag for britain. he has been crooing for decades. -- she has behr has been crooni

decades. his stage name comes from a 19th century german composer. >> i azerbaijan, the winner of the revision song contest. >> the uk has performed poorly in recent years. we will see if engelbert humperdinck is the man to pin our hopes on. >> a commentator who has covered the contest discussed the singer who is known as the king of romance. >> engelbert humperdinck is a

musical legend. he was born in india and has sold 150 million records worldwide. he was selling records would many of the people in pop or not even twinkles in the eyes of their grandparents. -- were not even twinkles in the eyes of their grandparents. >> and would he send that kind of stuff? that is kind of loss vegas lounge kind of music. >> if he was listening to you now, he would hit you on the head with his microphone. you have to look at this man and he has a lot of rubber on the road. he is singing a song that was written in part by a very successful songwriter. i think that you can expect a sort of valid but the bbc is keeping it under wraps.

-- i think that you can expect a sort of ballad. you could not make it up. while the rest of the world is wondering what is going on in europe, they are putting on sequins and old suits and singing in azerbaijani. this is the best story sense the world cup. >> when he agreed to take this challenge, because this is a huge challenge, would he have known of the u.k.'s recent record in the euro vision song contest? we have great pop songs but we don't have a great record in this. >> britain is known around the world for many good things and some bad. among the good things, a sense of humor and great music. we have a habit of losing both.

until we send rubbish and we lose our fabulous smile. engelbert humperdinck is a man who knows how to sing. by the time you have seen a lot of scampi scandinavian, you are looking forward to something different. office they are not guaranteed to win. they got cheeky opposition from ireland. this is like the plot of a bizarre novel and it is one that i want to read. >> you are not watching the engelbert humperdinck show, you are watching "newsday." >> saturday the 26 this may will be the grand final of the euro

vision song contest. >> 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 use their expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global network 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.