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>> and now bbc world news. >> north and south korean the most serious exchange of fire for more than 50 years. both sides blame each other for starting the fearing. two south korean soldiers are killed after dozens of shells land on an island near the border. >> it can never be tolerated. our military has immediately and strongly counteracted according to battle regulations against north korean provocations. >> welcome to gmt. in the program a royal wedding here in britain next spring. prince william and kate middleton to marry in westminster abbey in april. just how smart is your smart

phone? we show how it takes seconds to hack into your personal files. it is midday in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington and 9:00 in the evening on the tiny south south korean island of i don't think panic scene of one of the most serious border incidents between north and south since the ends of the korean war. north korea fired shells prompting an immediate response. but the north says the south fired first. >> the artillery striking i don't think panic exchanges of fire are not uncommon but this time the north was firing dozens of shells at an island with a population of more than 1,000. homes were set ablaze. the north koreans are claim being that the south korean military opened first and they were only responding after giving repeated warnings. but south korea holding

emergency meetings called it a clear armed provocation by north korea. the shelling of civilian targets unpardon believe and warned of stern retaliation against further provocation. south koreans gathered around televisions to watch the unfolding coverage. anxiety was evident. >> i feel like i might be called up as a reserve soldier this student says. i can feel war might break out seriously. i'm really scared. this priest says he thinks it is the most threatening cease-fire since the sees fire. >> north korean television reported a military communique' warning the north korean armed forces would continue taking merciless military action as what it described as provocation from the south. all this does follow a build-up of tension this year. a south korean warship was sunk near the sea border leading to

the death of 46 sailors. south korea blamed it on a new yorken torpedo. then revelations north korea a's to have taken further steps toward enriching uranium, a potential route to developing a nuclear bomb. concern about the latest development from japan. the prime minister said he was asking people to prepare for all eventualities. china's spokesman expressing concern saying china hopes the relevant parties will contribute their share to peace and stability on the korean peninsula. diplomatic efforts are focusing on how to prevent further escalation. >> we hope to go to seoul now and to our correspondent there. john, what is the latest? we heard there in the report lots of people pretty frightened. what is the reaction now? >> well, there certainly is a

great deal of concern here in south korea. the images of plumes of smoke rising from burning buildings in a civilian population is something that many people here would have thought they would never have to see again. there will be a lot of alarm. this will be seen as one of the if forth the most serious -- if not the most serious incident since the korean war. but in is no sense of wider panic. this lasted about an hour in terms of the exchange of shell fire, pretty self-contained and life has gone on as normal in the capital. the big question for the authorities will be what steps they take next. and it is very difficult to see what south korea is able to do. >> equally there must be pressure for they will to do something. they can't leave it as it is, can they? >> it is extremely difficult. we saw this same debate a few months ago when we had the

allegation that north korea had torpedoed and sank a south korean warship. an extraordinary act of provocation and aggression in peacetime on protocol in its own -- on patrol. yet north korea has denied the incident and despite south korea believing it had very strong evidence backed up by independent international experts there was little it could do. in this instance i think we will see something similar. >> the neighbors have expressed concern. japan is reported to be preparing for any eventuality and china and north korea have ruled talks with the north. let's go to beijing. china clearly has a huge amount of influence on the north. it is unlikely, isn't it, in these circumstances for anybody to listen to beijing's call for resuming talks? >> these comments were made by a

spokesman from the chinese foreign ministry and they were made as this incident was ongoing. the chinese spokesman called for calm in the korean peninsula but also called for a resumption of the six-party talks which had stalled since last year. china wants to see these talks resumed as does north korea. but the u.s. representative of the six-party talks is in the region and he has ruled that out. what we are seeing is a difference of opinions from washington and beijing as to how to progress on the north korean issue. >> but presuming beijing is fully aware, we have wherd that the japanese think that this has a regional dimension and any rise could not be good beijing. >> no, i don't think it is and they they will be worried activity is china that is north korea's main ally and if there is one country in the region

that has leverage on north korea it is china. kim jong il has visited the country twice in the last year and china continues to supply food and fuel to the north korean regime and also supported economically as well as diplomatically. so you would think that china's words would carry weight in north korea. certainly that is what beijing wants to happen. but as we are seeing today sometimes north korea chooses not to listen to beijing. there is a daytona -- a debate in china as to whether north korea is a reliable enemy. china wants to be taken seriously on the international stage and many chinese see its continued support of north korea as something of an embarrassment. >> thank you, martin. let's look at some other stories making headlines around the world today. the cambodian prime minister announced a mourning following the deaths of almost 378 in a

stampede at a water festival. the announcement was made as officials continue to try to identify victims of the stampede in the capital phnom penh. rescue workers of the new zealand mine where 29 workers have been trapped underground since friday have released closed circuit television showing a powerful explosion inside the mine. police say the prospect of finding survivors are bleak but rescue operations continue. police in three european countries have detained 10 people suspected of crossing into personnel judge. the belgian prosecutor office says the operation is part of an inquiry into international jihadist terror brigade. no for the details. the but mess pro democracy leader aung san suu kyi released from house arrest has been reunited with her youngest son after a 10-year separation. kim aris met his mother at

rangoon airport after flying in from bang kbg. cock -- bangkok. here in london it has just been announced that the wedding between prince william and kate middleton is to take place in westminster abbey friday april 29. that is where most british monarchs have been crowned and where queen elizabeth ii was married and her father george vi. joining us is our correspondent from central london. westminster abbey has precedence for royal weddings. this is meant to be an attempt to have a slightly lower key. does the date and venue suggest that? >> you have to. for the royal couple because they have had real trouble choosing this date. it was rumored they wanted a wedding in march, but because of lent falling it was thought that wouldn't appropriate. so they are going to have to

wait until after easter. as you say, it will be friday the 29th of april, which david cameron has announced will be marked by a public holiday in england and wales. as to the venue, most people thought it probably with be westminster abby. kate middleton was snapped by photographers leaving there last week. in many ways it is the obvious place, the scene of royal coronations down the centuries and it is where the queen got married in november of 1947. so, an obvious choice in many ways. >> thank you, naomi. still to come, the smart phones left wide open to hacking. how easy it is to get into your personal fails. -- personal files.

>> 48 hours after being forced to accept a massive bailout from the european union and i.m.f. the irish prime minister is coming under increasing pressure from opposition parties to dissolve parliament and hold an election immediately. on monday the irish green party announced they would pull out of the government in january. here is our ireland correspondent mark simpson. >> he is still in the job but only just. the irish prime minister is not just trying to see if the irish economy but keep his government in power. he wants to implement a new budget. he doesn't want a pre-christmas election. >> nobody has pushed me into anything. what i'm simply saying is we are focused on an issue of great national importance and i'm saying that the biggest state of confidence that can be given by this country at this time is to

pass this budget. and this budget is the context in which we are having discussions to ensure that we have the next funding going forward. >> the prospect of more spending cuts and further tax rises has created anger in ireland. there have already been severe cutbacks and some believe another budget will simply make a bad situation worse. >> this government has no democratic mandate to implement this budget. and, really, there should be no budget delivered until there is a general election and open debate about the options that are available to us. certainly we will be saying to people this i.m.f. package should be resisted and the bailout is not a bailout for the irish people, it is a bailout for the bankers in germany, france, ireland and britain and we should not be bailing out the international financial system at the expense of vulnerable pensioners, students and working people in this country. >> but if ireland is going to

receive a huge international bailout, it has to be seen to be cutting costs at hole. people here are preparing themselves for economic pain, but there could soon be political change with an election more likely early in the new year. >> the european union's envoy to haiti has said sunday's general elections mug ahead despite a cholera epidemic. four of the 19 presidential candidates have appeal for the vote to be delayed so authorities can concentrate on tackling the disease. but the e.u. envoy said postponing the election could jeopardize political stability in haiti. if you have any views on this story or others today we would love to hear from you. we have our bbc world news face book and links to the b.b.c.

news website. >> this is g.m.t. from bbc world news. the headlines. north korea has fired dozens of shells at a south korean island killing two marines prompting an immediate retaliation by the south. pyongyang has accused the south of firing first. time now for the business news. >> we are looking at the reaction on the markets. let me show you. i don't know what side to stand but you see we must remind ourselves many of these markets were already close to closing when the shelling started. apart from hang seng you can see the impact. all eyes. what we are seeing is investors fleeing from this and going into the safe haven. dollar sun, swiss franc and gold

up. they get jittery on something like this. all eyes on the markets when they open tomorrow to see the impact. needless to say it is really the theme of the markets today is, well, a flee from these to the safe haven. that is something i put to james earlier. >> this north korea-south korea story is one to a plethora that are causing the action. you have the ireland bailout and tkpwraoebg extra bailout and f.b.i. looking into hedge funds and banking regulation all pointing to the fact that markets and traders want to get away from those more riskier assets. it is a likelihood to move into the safe havens which is why we're seek the move in the dollar and we will probably see moves in gold and other metal prices and commodities are starting to fall. equity markets are starting to fall and some are more risky currencies are on the way down.

our cliche that we say markets hate uncertainty and you couldn't get more uncertainty at the moment. >> let's talk about this because the australian airline qantas is putting the jumbo jets back in the skies after grounding them over engine problems. the carrier says it is comfortable with returning the aircraft to service despite those safety scares. we have the details. >> the a-380 is airbus's hope for the future carrying as many as 800 passengers. they claim it will transform aviation. but earlier this month the safety of the jet was in question after an engine disintegrated on a qantas flight. the australian airline grounded all six of the super jumbo jets. other airlines using the rolls royce trans-900 engines also grounded planes for safety checks. investigators say leaking oil caught fire in an engine mid

flight and the heated metal caused clunks to break off. 466 people on board escape what had could have been a catastrophic disaster. now qantas says after extensive checks with airbus and rolls royce it is comfortable with the operation of the aircraft. the first flight will be saturday from sydney to london via singapore. >> we are completely comfortable with the operation of the aircraft. the aircraft have been grounded 19 days and we believe it is appropriate that we start the services this week. >> qantas says the royals ross engines are being completely replaced or overhauled and initially two super jumbo jets will be eased back into service. although flights will resume between australia and the u.k. via singapore, the australia,carrier won't start using the a-38 # on the route to los angeles because that journey requires greater engine thrust.

>> i showed you asia shortly. this is a little earlier i should say what europe is doing today. but that is a triple whammy, tensions with north and south korea, eurozone debt worries that haven't gone anywhere, and the china soaring inflation. will china raise interest rates? everybody watching that. that is it, george. >> red all over the place. thank you. let's return to our main story. serious escalation in relations between north and south korea after dozens of shells were fired at an island killing two south korean soldiers. joining me is a corporate who just returned from south korea. thank you for being with us. let's get it right. there have been skirmishes in the past but this is on an entirely different level. >> it has been decades since north koreans fired artillery

shells at civilian targets in the south. over the past few months we have seen increasing frequency of this erratic and belligerent behavior by the north koreans. the sinking of the ship, firing across the demilitarized zone, revelations concerning uranium facilities, and now this escalation to artillery shooting against an island off the coast. >> you describe it as erratic behavior. does that suggest there is no plan involved or should we be looking at north korea saying hang on a minute, what are they trying to do? >> well, understanding of domestic politics in pyongyang is not great. the south korean intelligence community, the chinese intelligence community may have a better fix on it. but generally we don't know what is happening. now, there are a number of explanations as to why the north korea bes are behaving the way they do now. one is the favored one is that

there is going to be a change in leadership. kim jong il being replaced by kim jong un and this is a way of the new leader demonstrating his strength, military prowess, maybe unite being the people. the alternative explanation is the north koreans, as they have done in the past, are rattling their cage to bring pressure to bear on the united states and south koreans in respect of the six-party nuclear talks. they may wish to get leverage over these parties. but the problem with this kind of escalator is beyou have two parties engaged in a tit for tat confrontation sometimes the escalation may be war even when both parties don't want war. that is why this is serious. >> if they are trying to get leverage and trying to push the six-party talks forward, we have already had a response from the americans who say they are not

going to reward bad behavior. >> well, the united states has commitments to south korea when these kinds of events happen and they fall firmly behind the south koreans. the problem we have now is if the north koreans -- the north koreans are claiming the south koreans fired first which i don't believe is true at all. but the north koreans are attacking the islands pause in this region there are maneuvers going on. the south koreans are engaging in military maneuvers and they have been going on for some days and they will go on another week. the south koreans can either back down, stop the maneuvers, in which case they will be seen to be cowering or they continue with the maneuvers in which case the borders -- the ball is in the north korean court and they may continue to escalate the situation. over the next few days will be enormous tension. the united states will remain firmly behind south korea. >> so it remains precarious.

thank you, martin. >> thank you. >> when it comes to computers we all know we need to keep pathologist words secret and watch the personal information we give out online. but it seems many of us are leaving the door wide open to hacking and identity theft through our smart phones. our technology correspondent is here to tell us more. how are they more in i suppose it is because they are trying to lock on to wi-fi networks and that kinds of thing? >> yes. a smart phone is like this going on the internet and maybe going on things like facebook and basically online a lot of time. and i took this very phone to a firm which specializes in protecting the phones of celebrities, high profile individuals from hacking and said bet you can't get into this. i'm afraid they could get in it. what they did is actually set up a spoof wi-fi network and trick

my phone into joining it and then we will have a look and see what happened next. >> all right. >> we set up a wireless network so your phone would connect automatically to us. >> you have given it a name which my phone and others may be familiar with. >> may be looking for. we can also see the networks you are looking for. >> you set up the network, my phone appears to have locked on. i'm going on facebook. you can't see that, can you? >> we can. the data you are sending through your wireless network is all sraoubl to us. on the screen we have the unique piece of information that you sent to facebook. facebook uses that to trust that you are the one logging on so we are stealing that from you. >> go ahead. then change my spaces. >> we are now in control of your facebook. if you go into a became that they provide, there is a whole list of a lot of your contacts. >> you now have my entire phone

book. you have access to all of my 1,700 contacts or something like that. >> well, it can't be a very smart phone if it is fooled by a name simply. >> this can happen to any smart phone or any mobile computer. anything with a wireless access facility. they are out there looking for public wi-fis. it is all about public wi-fi. somebody contacts me today and says the same thing is happening near hotels. they set up a wi-fi calling it the name of the hotel. and somebody says there is free wi-fi and let's log on and their traffic is intercepted. >> what are people like facebook to do? can they help subscribers? >> we have been you can th -- w have been talking to them and this is an issue with cookies which identify you on frequently

visited sites. it says i'm rory or i'll george. they are admitting that even issues with that and they are trying to see how they can make it more secure. but their advice is to be very careful about joining wireless networks that you don't know, even if you think you recognize the name. just be careful and in some cases it might be an idea to turn off wi-fi on devices like this when you leave home. >> thank you, rory. we will be back with more news very shortly. but let's look at what is coming up later on bbc world news america with matt frye. the security issue in the united states is a debate about praoeufpls sr. to substance free media storm. that is it. that is all for the moment. stay with us. there is plenty more on bbc world news.

see the news unfold. get the top stories from around the globe and take the video report. go to b pwfrbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. the newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank.

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