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>> and now, "bbc world news." >> an iranian nuclear scientist is killed. authorities say it is the latest israeli-inspired assassination plot. the victim worked on the uranium enrichment project. is this part of a covert effort to undermine iran's nuclear ambitions? >> hello and welcome to gmt. i am george alagiah, with a world of news and opinion. also in the program -- mitt romney wins in new hampshire. next, a conservative south carolina, where his moderate past will be the focus. nigeria's oil workers consider a strike in the row over fuel subsidies. it could push the global price

for fuel upwards. it is midday in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington, and 3:30 in the afternoon in tehran, the assassination of a nuclear scientist threatens to ignite international tensions over iran's nuclear program. the target, mostafa ahmadi- roshan, was involved in the country's uranium enrichment program. it is giving rise to accusations from the government tehran that it is part of a covert program led by israel. the big question, will iran retaliate and how? james reynolds has more. >> mostafa ahmadi-roshan had been on his way to work at a university in northern tehran, but he never made it out of the carpet unidentified motorcyclists stuck a magnetic bomb to the side of his car. >> i told the driver to speed

up. later, someone told me that the person on the motorbike attached a bomb to a car, which caused the explosion. >> here is why was targeted -- why mostafa ahmadi-roshan was targeted. reports that he worked at a uranium enrichment plant in tehran. its latest in a series of covert attacks against iran's nuclear and military industries. two years ago, today, a physics professor was killed in tehran. in november that year, motorcyclists bond two prominent nuclear scientists -- motorcyclists mobmed two from the nuclear scientists. its armed forces tested the missiles in the gulf. the west is planning to impose

sanctions against its bible oil experts -- its valuable oil exports. now, iran's government faces the loss of another figure from its nuclear program. iran says israel is to blame for the killing of mostafa ahmadi- roshan and warns that his death will not affect the progress of iran's peaceful nuclear program. james reynolds, bbc news. >> mohsen asgari joins me from iran. >> we have heard from all the parliamentarians in tehran that they are condemning the assassination and they have blamed the attacks on israel, and accused israel of being afraid of it is midday in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington, an --

accuse israel of being afraid of iran's nuclear program. [inaudible] >> i think we lost mohsen. can you hear me? >> i can hear you. >> can you just remind our viewers. he is not the first scientist to be targeted or killed. >> no, he is not the first person. two years ago, a nuclear scientist was killed with the same mechanism. an iranian scientists was killed on his way to work. motorcyclists attached a bomb to his car. we have heard [inaudible]

>> we will leave it there. thank you very much. apologies for that line there. now to some of the other stories making headlines around the world. now, a story that is emerging in the last half an hour or so. tensions between pakistan's government and the military have ratcheted up over the second of the country's defense ministry. officials say the prime minister fired the retired left -- retired lieutenant. aleem, it is rather worrying. there appears to be a rift. in a country like pakistan, that is bad news. >> yes, and it seems to be getting worse and worse. every day, it seems to bring more news bringing this confrontation to crisis

points. the news is -- the defense secretary has been sacked by the prime minister. the retired general was essentially an army man within the government. he was recommended by the army chief. he is someone who also said on record recently that the government has no jurisdiction over pakistan's army operations. that is something that has angered and worry people within the government. this is just the end of a long line of incidents. the prime minister spoke of of evidence that the military was preparing for a coup. there was a purported memo discussed in the united states that appears to show the pakistani government asking for american support to weaken the pakistani army. this is worrying.

once again, as this has happened so many times in pakistan's history, the competition between the military and civilian government appears to be bringing the country to crisis. >> what are the implications? >> certainly, the army is going to be upset about this. this is a man was recommended by the current army chief, general kayani. many have speculated that the army does not want to rest until the government falls. similarly, the current government and the prime minister have been perhaps more open and any civilian government about the threat it faces from its own military privet want to stand their ground, as well. >> the former governor of

massachusetts, mitt romney, has taken a step closer to the republican party nomination after claiming victory in the new hampshire primary, as focus now shifts to south carolina. mitt romney is widely considered as the man to be to take the republican nomination and face president obama in november's election. >> mitt romney is rarely seen without a smile, but never did it seem so genuine. >> thank you, new hampshire. tonight, we made history. >> on tuesday night, he won big time, but he wasted no time with a speech that made him sound as if he had already won the republican nomination. >> this is an election between two very different destinies. president obama wants to fundamentally transform america

appeared we want to restore america to what made it great. >> second place went to texas congressman ron paul. his youthful and energetic supporters have turned the election campaign into something of a political insurgency. >> i sort of have to chuckle when they describe you and me as being dangerous. [applause] >> he a loving -- he is loving it. >> the man who did so well last week in iowa, rick santorum, trails badly. right now, he looks like a one week wonder. with only a few votes more, newt gingrich, former speaker of the house of representatives, who will soldier on, but sounded distinctly dow i believe we cant and we can create a majority that will shock the country. it is doable. it is a daunting challenge.

>> mitt romney has two reasons to celebrate. he had a very good night and his opposition is divided and disorganized. if he can win in the next day, south carolina, he will be very hard to beat. >> u.s. treasury secretary tim geithner has been meeting with chinese leaders in beijing durin. he appealed for help in washington's efforts to toughen sanctions on iran over its nuclear program. china relies heavily on iran for its oil supplies. a former member of the arab league observer mission to syria says the situation is a farce and he describes the situation as a humanitarian disaster. anwar malek told al-jazeera television that he resigned because of what he witnessed in syria. three crew members are thought to of died on the south korean fishing boat after it caught fire in antarctica.

another 37 fishermen were rescued after two other south korean vessels made a distress call. seven other members are being treated for burn injuries. monday, she had a visit from president sir's, and today angela merkel has -- from president sarkozy and today angela merkel will be meeting with monti. steve evans, our correspondent there. mario monti is to come to berlin with somewhat of a threat -- help us. >> he has come with two phrases. we promised. ouwhat

secondly, if you make us tighten our belts too much, just remember that there will be protest on the streets. there's a message to chancellor merkel that austerity has consequences and there are real politics on the ground. that is the message to give to italian journalists, for example, before he left. he is saying, we are doing it, but don't forget that these things can go too far. >> what is he expecting angela merkel to do then? it is all very well for him to say that we could have protests. what does angela merkel have in her power to do? >> i think they want some kind of recognition from chancellor merkel in particular, who has a particularly german view of austerity and a very strict view of austerity in terms of budgets. they want some -- he wants some

recognition that there are limits to this. if you impose cuts in public spending too much on countries where demand is already falling, you run the risk of making the situation worse. if you have a recession on the way and you cut public spending, that may make the recession worse. that may decrease your tax revenue. again, that increases the deficit. i think there is this message from an economist, a pretty dry, technocratic economist, that these things are not black and white in terms of budget deficits and simply imposing rules. >> thank you very much. in a couple of minutes, we will focus on the german economy. it has had some decent growth in the past year, but can it keep the momentum up in the current eurozone? ?

>> you would think people of alaska would be used to snow, but not this much. in fact, a state of emergency has been declared in the town of cordova, now covered in 5 meters of snow. another coastal city is cut off by ice and is running short on fuel. >> alaska is used to snow, but not this much. this winter wonderland has turned into a living nightmare for the 2,200 people of cordova. they have not seen it this bad since the 1970's. >> welcome. i would love some help. >> many houses in this isolated coastal town are completely buried under the giant snowdrift. in some cases, workers are trying to remove almost two meters of snow from worrooftops. >> since november 1, we've had 177 inches of snowfall. all that has pretty much stayed on the ground.

accumulation on rooftops is causing structures to collapse and safety hazards. roads have been closed. we just had 50 national guard, and with shoveling. >> 1,000 kiloliters to the northwest, the town is in and running out of fuel. a russian tanker of heating oil is struggling to reach the area. >> conditions are two or 3 feet of ice. considerable pressure today. the wind is blowing. there is a light snow cover. a little bit more of a difficult time than yesterday. >> the national guard says a high risk of avalanches in the mountains around cordova. weather forecasters are warning the people to brace themselves for another storm in the next few days. bbc news.

>> this is gmt from "bbc world news." i am george alagiah. a scientist working at a nuclear plant in iran has been killed by a bomb attached to his car. mitt romney wins in the new hampshire primary, taking him a step closer to securing the republican presidential nomination. time now for the business news. aaron is here. get onto this thing on the desk. the german economy posted growth. the >> the core of the eurozone grew by 3% last year. these are preliminary numbers. not as good as the 3.7% growth in 2010. george, we are focused on the last three months of last year,

where it suggest the german economy contracted by a quarter of 1%. no doubt that the eurozone crisis is hitting the german door basically. going forward, it does not bode well. the forward looking orders are suggesting -- if germany's economy falls again, technically, it is in a recession again. experts are quick to remind us we're still talking about europe's strongest economy. >> let's not forget where germany is at the moment. germany has had 3% growth. its economy is about where it peaked in 2008. it is still firing on all cylinders. the difference is that it is now seen its growth slowing. i think that will continue into next year. >> what are you trying to do to my program? [laughter] >> let me tell you. serious business. the price of the u.s. orange

juice trade has skyrocketed. last night, up over 11% bid this year alone, up 25%, an all-time high. i should remind everybody that the u.s. is the largest market in the world for orange juice. there are only two major producers. one is brazil. brazil provides 2/3 of the world's orange juice. the second-biggest market is the u.s., in particular, florida. there's a fungicide in brazilian oranges. in florida, an oil spill hit production. the market is relatively small. there are only two producers. here is the worry. commodity traders have been telling me that if you take brazilian orange juice out of the market, we're entering uncharted waters. >> the fda says it will only be

and where it can find this fungicide. is not banning all -- it is not banning all. for the big makers, they buy an awful lot of orange juice. clearly, for those companies, they will be getting worried about the squeeze on their margins, the increased price. a very important part of that. for those companies involved, it must be worrying times. >> she mentioned the squeeze on the prices. [laughter] see what she did. >> thank you. >> the third day of national strikes are under way in nigeria over the removal of a fuel subsidy that sent petrol prices to a record high. the government has told public workers that they will now be paid if they do not return to work. nigeria's biggest oil trade unions said it would consider whether to shut down output as part of the ongoing process.

i'm joined from nigeria's largest city, lagos. if oil workers go on strike, this moves the whole process into another dimension entirely. >> many say oil is the deal breaker. if oil production was to stop, it would impact the government quite a lot. it would impact members of the government quite a lot, as well. that could win this dispute. this is a significant step. bear in mind that the unions that are thinking about going on strike -- they're mainly workers that work on shore. the offshore workers, they do not have access oto these rallies. the oil fields are based in the niger delta. there were lots of kidnappings in the niger delta that forced big companies to start automating their processes

there. this group going on strike would not stop any production, but it could create a new focus point for the protesters for maybe more and bigger disruptions later. if they did that, oil would be a deal breaker. >> president goodluck jonathan has a problem with the fuel subsidies. he could also have a bigger problem with this islamist extremist groups, and i gather there's a new video from them. >> the danger is quite extraordinary. you have to bear in mind that he's coming across as a leader on screen. in fact, boko haram is broken too many factions. boko haram was the name assigned

to the group. he says his forces are stronger than the military in nigeria. this is his first appearance since the christmas bombings, of course. there have been lots of audio and video messages from him. boko haram had dictated the security agenda. this also confirms, in a way, what good luck jonathan -- what goodluck jonathan was saying, that he could not do it by himself. >> mark lobel in lagos, thank you. >> japan's population is in decline. to try to boost the birthrates, payments have been introduced for parents and efforts are being made to improve access to child care. a government survey has revealed a big problem. over 1/3 of young men and more young woman have no interest in

sex or even say they have in a -- haveon 2 it an aversion to it. >> big crowds. there seems to be no shortage of people. japan's population is shrinking. the birthrate is among the lowest in the world. the expense of raising children, the pressure of work -- all kinds of things have been planned. recent government survey has found there may be a more fundamental reason. young japanese are turning their backs on relationships. the anime film on the television is all about romance. he admits there is little of that in his life. more than 1/3 of japanese men said they had no interest in sex, a figure that has doubled in the last two years. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> building a relationship seems like too much effort. to get her to let me and for me to like her, i would have to give up everything i do on the weekends for her. i don't want to do that. >> fertility experts are worried. without relationships, government handouts to encourage people to have more children are bound to fail. >> mitt ro [speaking foreign language] >> we offer medical care and the cost of delivering babies is free. they are still reluctant to do so. >> many in japan feel young women are getting stronger, even as men become more passive. this group of joggers meets every weekend to dewlaps of the imperial palace -- to do laps of the imperial palace. >> [speaking foreign language] >> sometimes people tell me i'm

too bubbly. maybe we are getting too strong. i'm just living my life in the way i like. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i speak to women, they're thinking about the future and very positive. when i speak to men, their very negative. -- they are very negative. >> falling in love with each other seems increasingly difficult for japan's young, a worrying sign for a country already on the brink of a demographic crisis. bbc news, tokyo. >> a unique problem in japan. a reminder of our top story on gmt. a scientist working at the nuclear plant in iran has been killed by bomb attacks to his car. iranian officials have blamed the united states and israeli intelligence. that is all for the moment. stay with us here on "bbc world news." we will have plenty more to

come. >> make sense of international news. 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. >> you are no longer in the service. only an outsider can find the double agent. >> i'll do my utmost. >> from the bestseller by john le carre -- >> all i want from you is one code name. >> it will take a master spy -- >> you are alone. >> you can't mention me. >> to catch a spy. >> you have to assume they're watching you. >> what the hell are you doing up here? >> things aren't always what

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