>> 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 help you 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." >> the u.s. strikes out of one of the world's biggest internet file sharing companies. four arrests in new zealand as megaupload is accused of copyright infringement and its boss is facing extradition. welcome. coming up in the program, france suspend military training in afghanistan after an afghan soldier killed four french troops. more dangers faced in italy with rescue operations stand still. it is midday here in england, 7:00 a.m. in washington, and one

in the morning -- but 1:00 in the morning where the suspects are facing extradition hanging over them. is all about -- file sharing, a big business for megynupload, with 150 million users accessing their side to do just that. the trouble is, the u.s. says the business is illegal, that they're making money from pirated films and music. here is this report. >> megaupload have 150 million users and 50 million hits per day on its website. it allowed access to television, shows, movies and music. people around the world access to it. this is where the new zealand police carried out their raid

when megaupload or shut down in the u.s. three arrests were made here, and another nearby. a total of 18 luxury vehicles were taken away from the put -- by the police, including this cadillac. >> we have seized over $10 million in cash from finance companies. >> the mega upload website is now accessible. -- is not accessible. the charges include conspiracy to commit racketeering, copyright infringement, and money laundering. >> this particular type of copyright infringement is years in new zealand. -- fierce in new zealand. >> and these are the men who were brought to court in new

zealand. the founder calls himself kim dotcom. they claim the allegations are grotesquely overblown. >> france is suspending its training programs immediately for the afghan military after a four troops -- and french troops were killed, another 16 wounded in bobbi in the incident with an afghan souljah. -- an afghan soldier. a nato spokesman said initial reports indicate no concerted activity at the time of this crash. the number of dead are not known on that. quentin, the french response has been pretty much immediately here. it is obviously a big deal for them. can you give us a bit of

background as to what happened? >> what we think happened is that there was a joint exercise on a patrol of french soldiers and afghan national army soldiers. at some point, and individual wearing in afghan army uniform -- we do not know if he was a soldier. he could have been nice -- an insurgent. he opened fire on those troops. they have him in custody. 16 people injured, four people killed. this is not just the french troops, too. foreign legion troops were killed as well. it does seem there is a growing regularity to these attacks when afghan police and afghan soldiers turn their guns on the soldiers serving along side them. >> how significant is this

french decision? in terms of the nato effort and the french presence in afghanistan? gretzky enormously significant, david. -- >> enormously significant, david. there are only 10 countries with over 1000 troops. the french are vital to the training mission and to the war that is going on against the taliban. they are fighting in some of the most dangerous areas in afghanistan. and over the past few months they have pretty much been confined to barracks, the french, in many areas because of the controversy back home because of a number of debts they have suffered here in afghanistan. -- the number of deaths they have suffered in afghanistan. it is a big deal if they withdraw. they are a vital part of the mission in afghanistan. >> france is seeking credible

assurances about afghan recruits. government forces in somalia together with african union soldiers moved against al- shabab. the operation focused on clearing militants from mogadishu and the outskirts of the city. al-shabab said it would strike back. two foreign aid workers have been kidnapped in afghanistan. there are been no claims of a responsibility for those objections. there is a brush fire near the city of reno, nevada. thousands have been evacuated. it in recent months, there have been several spectacular attacks in nigeria by boko arm.

among the deadly activities claimed by the group are the bombing of the u.n. building in abuja, also of an attack on a collision -- a christian church on christmas day. what is causing this religious tension? >> the most powerful religious leader in northern nigeria. in southern nigeria, traditional christian kings play a similar role. here in the north, for hundreds of years, traditional islamic rulers have maintained a huge influence. christians living in the north. a moslem cleric has come to their church. he explained that jesus and mary are in the koran, too.

>> the koran mentions jesus, the son of mary. >> thanks to initiatives like this, the capital of the north is largely peaceful. >> there is a big issue between christians and muslims here in nigeria, which has often led to the historic split between the country between the north and south. but these days, there is a potentially even more dangerous separation between the conservative islamic authorities here in nigeria, and the morada -- the more radical groups. >> the islamist boko harem group claimed this bombing of a church. 38 people were killed here and there have been many other attacks. the emir of, -- of kamo granted

a rare interview. i asked him if the existence of an islamist extremist groups in nigeria means his power is eroding. >> the tenants of islam does not allow doing anything bad to anybody. we are ordering are subject to make peace with one another. >> the vast majority of nigerians, christian and muslim, say they want peace, too. but religion and politics often get in their way. bbc news, northern nigeria. >> and still to come, tales of tax returns and infidelity top the build. -- a top the bill in the

presidential race in america. living on the wrong side of the tracks in new york back in the 1930's and 1940's was pretty precarious. gangsters ruled, murders were features of everyday life. and being a witness was particularly dangerous. and that was the life for arthur phillip, nicknamed the luigi. >> murder made him famous. in his heyday, he said the insatiable appetite of the tabloids with gruesome killings and gang arrests in the new york underbelly. he had an apartment across the street from the police department and scooped other photographers by listening to the chilling radio communications. he adopted a confident, tough

exterior of his own. >> he created this hardboiled persona with a fedora pulled down over his eyes and his top talking captions that he would write. he was impervious to marching into a scene of a murder and casing it out and taking a very dramatic picture. he styled himself as a kind of photo detective. >> it was his knack of -- for capturing public emotion that really gave him the edge. and >> he was also looking for the human drama. if it was spectators, sometimes the humorous assigned that occurred in a frame of the picture, that was what he was going for to enliven the picture with human interest. >> an exhibition of his work, which includes a mockup of his office and some classic shots, opens on friday at the international center of photography in new york. bbc news.

>> the headlines. the u.s. has started extradition proceedings against four new zealand-based men who run the -- who run the megaupload co., accusing them of crimes. the french have withdrawn from afghanistan after four french were killed by an afghan soldier. let's go to mario monti's efforts to liberalize the italian economy. >> italy's new government today unveiling a raft of measures to basically open them up and make them more competitive. that is the absolute key. and to get the ball rolling, they are starting services such as pharmacies, the taxi sector,

but the public discontent among small-business owners -- i mean, they've already strike over this. but the alternative is so bad. and on top of that, the government has also acknowledged that they have no other tools or measures to try to stimulate growth. but having listened. listen.t's have a >> the government made very clear that policy cannot be used to make growth. actually, the other way around. it is a burden. if monetary policy and currency are not an option, then the stimulus can come from a private initiative, giving more power to the private sector, to the private initiative. and for example, to the young people. >> the experts are saying this has been long time coming, much

needed for italy. the italian economic story has been the lack of growth for the passport couple of decades. ordaz -- for the past couple of decades. and when they widen these reforms, that is when the big test of will come. trying to open up italian banks could be a problem. >> turning to china, it is all about to kick off, isn't it? >> monday starts the year of the dragon on the chinese calendar. i love this story. it is very interesting. on monday, a lot of the asian markets will be closed for the public holiday. asian investors will take a full week off on holiday. when they return, they could return to a roller-coaster ride on the markets if you believe the chinese words could occur -- experts. the -- the chinese horoscope experts. i ...a feng shui cattaragus x

probiotic who will tell us about 2012. listen to this. >> the first half will be lackluster, like 2011. the real turning point comes in august. one must remember when the dragon appears, it is considered a game changer, a watershed event. if you look at the previous five years of the dragon, on a matter if the markets are up or down, -- no matter if the markets are up or down, it is preceded by a sharp turning point. it is very dramatic in general. >> either ballistic or tumble. i could have guessed that. >> it takes a while for the dragon to warm up. >> i guess so. >> the italian cruise ship could slip further from its rocky birth of the tuscan coast, and by as much as 90 meters.

restores and once again had to halt their search. there are 20-rescuers once again had to halt their search. there are 21 still unaccounted for. here is keith dorschel. >> the waters off the italian coast are tranquil, but the goal of the cruise ship has shifted -- the bulk of the cruise ship has shifted. it has become too dangerous for divers, and once again, rescue efforts are suspended. this can increase the anxiety of those related to those still missing. this and a video showing the group telling passengers to return to their cabins. >> we currently ask you to return to your cabin.

>> [speaking italian] >> go back to your rooms where you will be seated and tranquil. everything is under control. >> a short time later, the ship capsized. and in this recording of a phone conversation with a port official, a crew member calmly talks about a buyout. just a few weeks ago, the captain was being applauded by his passengers. now under house arrest, he continues to plead his innocence, although it is reported he has admitted to making a navigational error. these pictures show the difficulty and the scale of the operation. 2000 people were on board. a love and are known to of daud with 21 still missing -- 11 are known to have died with 21 still missing. the relatives of the missing loved ones will have to wait.

>> alan, i noticed the water is still pretty calm. it must be frustrating not to conclude this rescue operation. what is the forecast? >> we did have a forecast for worsening weather. the one piece of good news is that as you can see, the worsening weather seems to have held off, at least for now. we are having one of the best, warmus to days in the weeks since the wreck. that makes it doubly stressful for everyone here. some hours ago it was found that there were movements in iraq and it was unstable. when that is the case -- in the wreck and it was unstable. when that is the case, the rescue effort has to be suspended. how treacherous it would be if the ship were to lurched down on one of those men.

in the past few hours we have seen a helicopter hover over the wreck and deposit two or three men on board. maybe they're working to siphon off the fuel on board, or maybe they are rescue workers looking within the record. the crux -- within the of record. >> even the stoppage, the doing anything with that vessel is quite another thing, i presume. >> they're still in the assessment stage. the harbor has a large crane in it, a floating crane, which will play a major part in the first steps of the salvage proper. we see this dutch team of experts maneuvering around this pipe. they will go in and rolls into the many tanks, where thousands of tons of soffuel or stored. they will try to neutralize it

from being an environmental risk. >> we have seen many suggesting that the staff did not even themselves know the extent of the problem, the degree of catastrophe that they were faced with. and we have heard so much criticism of the captain. has that debate moderated at all, shifted in terms of what the staff were up against? >> every day, we seem to get more evidence and testimony and extraordinary tape-recorded conversation. all the time you get this build up of this picture of, at best, complacency on the part of the crew, and possibly criminal incompetence. as long as this picture builds up in that way, they will continue to be absolutely outraged here in italy and beyond at the conduct of the captain, at least. >> the latest coming from don johnson. going to american politics, the

republican race, four candidates remaining out. they clashed in a televised debate in south carolina, where there is a primary vote, a pretty crucial one, on saturday. it was one of the most eventful days in the primary season so far. texas gov. rick perry withdrew from their race and endorsed house speaker newt gingrich. and gingrich's, former wife accused him of infidelity. and mitt romney had a bad day when a revised account transformed what was his narrow victory in the iowa caucus to a narrow defeat. what are we to make of all of that? as far as winners and losers go, kim, who is winning and who is losing? >> mitt romney is still leading in the polls on a national level, but the gap between him

and newt gingrich is closing. newt gingrich is benefiting from the fact that rick perry dropped out of the race. he does very well in the debate and he did so against -- again yesterday. it will probably mean that instead of mitt romney emerging as the unbeatable man of this primary race, it will continue for a bit longer. it was a very interesting debate in charleston, south carolina. the four remaining candidates really have to go at each other. it got quite personal, very feisty -- very feisty. perhaps fittingly, it was posted in a sports arena. but mitt romney still emerge as the man to beat, while the other three had to go at each other and not try to make clear to the audience that they were the real conservative candidates

there. >> momentum seems to come and go so quickly, doesn't it? we have gone from a position of when mitt romney has been within a whisker of the hat trick. and then a landslide and who would not imagine that he would not triumph. he lost the first one in iowa, anyway. he got the second. will he win this one? can it be that simple? will we see the demise from here on in of mitt romney? >> it is very possible, but difficult to predict. that is why i think what most people predicted that this is going to be a long grace than expected. mitt romney is not simply going to -- a longer grace than expected. mitt romney is not of the going to emerged as the leader. that is, perhaps, a problem for the field of candidates, but it works to the advantage of mitt romney to some extent. if the others do not do better than him, then in the end, he

will still be merged as the winner. the other candidates, newt gingrich, rick santorum, and ron paul really have a go at each other. you had ron paul accusing newt gingrich of not even been cogent. you have newt gingrich accusing or enough ideas for these -- accusing rick santorum of not having a big enough ideas for these challenging times. if mitt romney can maintain his lead, then he will probably emerge as the overall winner. how much is riding on the allegations being thrown around -- >> how much is riding on the allegations being drawn around by newt gingrich,'s ex-wife. how is he coping with it? >> very angrily. it was one of the first questions he got in the debate from the moderator, and he replied with fury, saying this was not a question to be asked

at a presidential debate, and he accused the media of using those allegations in a way that is not in a fitting -- not befitting. but it really is quite damaging for him as he tries to portray himself and is constantly reminding himself -- of the public that he is the true conservative. in a state like south carolina, or other conservative states, those allegations by his wife will not go down well. and they will be used against him by rick santorum, for example, or by ron paul, who were both very keen to show that they were faithful to their wives and had a real christian values. >> thank you. we wait for saturday. that is about it for the moment. do stay with us on bbc world news, as there's plenty more to come.

>> 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 work hard to know your business, offering specialized solutions and capital to help you 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.