newman's own foundation, and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation and union bank.] >> 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 now, "world news." >> relief at last. aid reaches the besieged naked of the syrian barrier. presidents a sad will be held to account. >> i have a clear message for those in authority in syria. make a choice. turn your back on this criminal regime or face justice for the blood that is on your hands. >> also in the program, iran's president and supreme leader in an electoral trial of strength. where are the reformers? being born just a few weeks

early may heighten health risks. new researches of prematurity. >> it's 2:00 in the city of homs where red cross and red crescent workers are for the first time in weeks willing allowed to the baba amr neighborhood. rebelers pulled out sustained syrian army bombardment. supplies of water and electricity have been cut. food is short. and there are fears for the safety of remaining civilians as the syrian army moves through the neighborhood. our correspondent reports from beirut. >> the baba amr quarter have been battered for nearly a month with thousands of troops pressing in, bombarding heavily with rocket fire. situation changed seriously and

what they called tactical withdraw. now, relief can get in. the first job of the red cross and the syrian red crescent will be to assess and prioritize the needs of those who are trapped in the siege. at the moment, nobody knows how many civilians are still there. what is known is that for those who stayed, conditions are dire. but water and electricity cut, little food or medical supplies, and no fuel for heating against the bitter cold. evacuating the sick and wound left hand be an immediate priority. the change at baba amr has made it possible for the syrian authority retrieve the bodies of the sunday times correspondent marie colvin and a french photographer. also coroners' reports they whether has beened to embassy in damascus. one was smugged back to lebanon by activists with her colleague william daniels. she was taken to a hospital in

beirut for a medical assessment before being flown to france in a government plane. syria's top of the agenda at the meeting in brussels. britain closed its embassy. it's taking a tough stand. , what i think matter is building the evidence and in the picture so we hold this criminal regime to account and to make sure it is held into account for its crime that it is committing against its people and there will be a day of reckoning for this dreadful regime. >> the free syrian army may have pulled out of baba amr before when it found itself pinned down but defiance continues. jim muir, bbc news, beirut. >> we will have more in two hours.

we will have an interview with one of the last journalists to leave baba amr. now let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. iranians go to the poll in a parliamentary election which has become a trial of strength between mahmoud ahmadinejad and iran's supreme religious leader. it is the first national election since the controversial 2009 presidential vote which led to claims of widespread fraud in complafere of president ahmadinejad. iranian leaders are looking for a turnout to confound what they call enemies. but will they get it? >> this may be an election. but the voters of iran don't have much of a choice. the ruling conservatives have the ballot to themselves. the opposition green movement

isn't standing. its leaders are under house arrest. and some iranians have decided to stay at home. >> i've decided not part. i have no interest in take part in these elections. voted once in 2009 but this time, i have no interest in participating in the elections. >> iran's supreme leader cast his ballot early on. the higher the turnout, the better it is for the country, he said. in this election, the ayotollah holds all the cards. and that means a tough time for the leaders' conservative rival, the president mahmoud ahmadinejad. the ayotollah has banned some of the president's favorite candidates from standing in this election. and here's the subject that most worries many voters in iran. over the last year, the price of day-to-day goods has gone up dramatically. >> i think the economic situation has become a large part of people's daily lives.

the elections have lost their color because of high prices. >> and no one expect this vote to bring any surprises. ayotollah and his allies rule iran today and they will continue to do so after this election is over. james reynolds, bbc news. >> the president of argentina christina fernandez says he wants to negotiate a deal with britain to allow direct flights between argentina and the forkland islands. she demanded the u.k. discuss the sovereignty of the forklands and excused britain of militarizing the south atlantic. flooding has continued to affect large parts of australia with thousands of people in the state offense new south wales and victoria bracing themselves for more floods after heavy rain storms. the army has brought in to help ferry sandbags and water to stricken residents the much loved cathedral in christ church in new zealand were to be

demolished after a series of earthquakes. the 131 building, a symbol coun collapsed in the february 2011 quake that killed 185 people. now, the pakistan senate is retiring and elections are being head to decide who will take their place. it will take place and each senate seat comes with a six-year term. the governing p.p.p. is the emerging party. the bbc's eileen macbou is monitoring events in islamabad. >> today is a day of celebration for the president and his pakistan people's party in spite of all the predictions over the last four years and all the criticism of his party's handling of various crises that pakistan has faced, they have

managed to get to this significant milestone. its current paurl men containers have voted for the senators and it increase its influence in the senate and that has influence for the coming years. that's not going help the prime minister necessarily in his survival battle of the supreme court, and it's not going to help if one day in the future, this army decides it's time to take over but what it does illustrate is the president's greatest achievement and that has been to survive and that in itself in pakistani politics is a rarity. >> two men have been convicted of stealing from injured malaysian students last year in the london riots. the footage show one of defendants pretending to help the victim before taking items from his backpack. he was found guilty of robbery and a 24-year-old was convicted of theft. both were found guilty of violent disorder.

the jury is still considering a charge of robbery against donovan. now, more than four months after libya was officially liberated from the grip of quad i, militia group are still in real power. airports are controlled by brigades of former rebel fighters. the government in tripoli wants them back and given them until the end of the week to hand them over. that's not the first time suns such an ultimatum has been issued and as our correspondent now reports, in this battle of wills, it's the young man with the guns who have the upper hand. >> welcome to libya, a country run by a patchwork of militias. when tripoli fell, it was these men who raced in to capture the airport. they're fighters from a small town south of the capital. six months on, they're still here.

blib libya's fledging government is trying to assert itself but with little success. this man is the man many charge here. he said he and his fighters are still needed to secure libya's international gateway and to prevent it from falling back enter into the wrong hands. >> we will hand over control of everything once the country is back on its feet. but not before. we will never let the country fall back into the hands of opportunists up on behalf of all the former rebel forces, i say we will crush with an iron fist anyone who try to destroy the revolution. >> in the foothills of the mountains lies the town of zen tan. it's 50,000 or so inhabitants are proud of their history they remember the colonial period when they forefathers fought against the italians but it was during last year's revolt that

the country gained its current fears and reputation. >> it's a small town but because you know, it's in our blood. even our grandfathers. they were fighting for, you know. when you give your blood to libya and libyan people, you would be -- i'm happy for that. >> the town may be small but the power that diminish lilja men is forcing others to take note. colonel quad i is to sf the visitors like this one but this is a new lib cra and this country today, you will have your finger on the power. last weekend, the french defenseman vivid libya to pay his respects to the local commanders. the mood was upbheat. the french seemed pleased with the lunch and the talk of cooperation. the men of zintan control marne

the airport. banks, capitals and oil fields. and somewhere in this town, they're holding libya's most high profiled prisoner. there's little chance they will le quink wish any of that on monday. >> still to come on g.m.t., the oldest are still the best. well, that's the theory. we explain why britain is about to test the destruction. ♪ now it's time for our newspaper review and a brief look at some of the stories making headlines around the world. and we're going to start with the "times" here in london which has an exclusive interview with russia's prime minister vladimir putin. and he said the killingthere must stop. the gulf news details the

violence in the baba amr district of homs. the paper looks at the election in iran and so the ballot will be a hard fought contest between to opposing conservative camps. a discussion between the greek and german financemen delayed the approval of more than 130 billion euro. the "times" shows us the singer ingle bert who is going to represent the u.k. at the-your-vision song contest. i can hardly wait. this is g.m.t. from bbc world news. help at last for the embattled residents of homs. the international red cross is on its way to baba amr with food and medical supplies.

first, marion is here with all of the business news. i'm confused about oil prices. they've been spiking and now we've seen a littledy. what's going on? >> oil price has been very much in focus. yes, of course we've seen prices rising steadily since july of 2008. they've reached record highs, four-year highs, actually. why? because a lot of tension over iran, sanctions, of course against the iranians and of course a lot of tensions in in the wider middle east including libya. the problem is the markets are extremely vol time. any kind of news they don't like or worried about is going to set oil prices up or down. for example, yesterday, the iranian media, we've got story over the explosion out of -- at a saudi pipeline the saudis denied that. it meant the very speculative oil invested brought oil prices back down. so it's around $108 a barrel and u.s. crude to $125 a barrel.

the world market is very, very volatile right now. but the chances are the volatile si will continue. >> tell me also about the wide amount. they're affected by the oil prices but we've seen determined efforts in the u.s. dow and european markets hit highs for the last several years. what's going on there? >> very, very odd. we've seen basically today, we've seen two months of trading in 2012 and we've seen, you know, for example, nasdac up 11% since the beginning of the year. that is tech heavy american market. the london market flirting with a 6,000 barrier. the u.s. dow jones breaking for the first time in 2008. some investors worry this has more to do with the amount of liquidity or cash out there than anything else. yes, the market sentiment is strong and yesterday se we had a whole slew of negative economic

data including high unemployment figures and higher inflation. this kind of news hasn't impacted the market much that could because we've seen the european central banks flooding money into the markets and that's had an impact. let's have-a-thon what one analyst said to me earlier. >> they think the banking industry has been somewhat protected from a greece default or any other countries having significant problems. it's not the problem that's being soughted but the banks are so full of cheap money they are at least funded for the time being. so i think that money, the actions of the e.c.b. have really helped markets generally and the perception of risk. >> well, another thing that we want to talk about is volume, steven. one analyst i spoke to one of the reasons she believes that the markets are so strong right now is that they're not very high volume. what that means is there are not many shares strayeded.

-- traded. >> to see how sustainable prices these. myriam thank you. e.u. leaders have signed up on a fiscal fix to make sure they do not plunge into a debt cry siments it imposes stricter control budget to ensure that greeks cannot be repeated. countries that break the rules will be hit by tough sanctions. the treaties were signed by 25 e.u. countries. only britain and the czech republic rejected the deal. let's speak to our correspondent there. ian, europe's been waiting for this fix to be signed. there is a feeling of satisfaction or is it too late for that? >> i think a little bit of satisfaction but there's also quite a bit of trepidation. i've been following it for a longime but britain vetoed the treaty of 27 countries back in december. the further discussion of this

as special summit. 25 countries have signed the fiscal pact but that is not the end of the story. that's where the trepidation comes in. whether to ratify this into individual government, if the change of government in front and opinion polls suggests that is strong possibility in a couple of month's time and then the socialists want to rewrite the whole thing. they want to negotiate it. so debts and deficit are too restrictive. and i say britain and czech republic didn't sign. that was largely accepted but the other fundamental thing here is although the sign, the fiscal pact, the country is most debt. greece hasn't solved its problems. they have until march 9 to get people lending money to greece around the latest bailout fund is not, there's going to be a

further round of trouble with greece. there's going to be further negotiations in trying to get a stronger bailout fund together and possibly a special summit at the end of march or april. >> also we've seen david cameron suggesting there's way too much emphasis on this meeting on debt and not enough on growth. any real progress on delivering growth in europe? >> well, david cameron seems to think there is. he expressed the frustration and he and other cubs were not being listened to their arguments to boost jobs and it's got a lot do with deregulating the markets, listing e.u. regulations from small and medium size business but today he said real progress has been made. and he's goth got some timetable to lift some regulations by july 2014 and also to be a special discussion on trades. the official summit in july. so david cameron thinks progress

has been made but a lot more needs to be done at a time in chen individual country's budgets are contracting. >> thank you. babies born two or three weeks early are more likely to have health problems in their first few years of life and that is according to a research publiced in the british medical journalist. until now, it was thought being born earlier than the full term made little difference but the b.m.j. study suggests doctors may need keep a closer eye on the health of these particular children. >> some babies arrive early into the world before the usual 40 weeks growing inside their mum. neonatal units look after the frailer. doctors have always known really premature babies need extra care. they can have health problems after life. the babies born just a few weeks early are regarded as completely healthy. today's research is based on

14,000 babies and it suggests the picture is more complicated. >> we found that it's no longer appropriate if we have them previously to think of babies as either being born out to term or premature. because what we found is that there is a gradient of the increasing health risk with increasing prematurity but this risk stretches right up until the time that the baby should be born. >> this study you stated from babies follows up to the age of 5. of the babies born at 39-41 weeks, full term, 15% had asthma or wheezing as young children. of the babies born at 37-38 weeks, just a few weeks early, 17% had asthma or wheezing. they were also slightly more likely to go into hospital. experts say women with babies born a little early shouldn't

worry. it's a very small extra risk and not a serious illness but they think the information could be very useful for doctors. many babies are born just a couple of weeks early. to g.p.'s and hospital doctors may need to keep a closer eye on them. >> the furniture giant ikea has been accused of accessing police files to spy on customers and staff at stores in france. the swedish company alleged to have paid private security firms to carry out the checks on its customers and potential employees. >> it's a company with a stringent code of conduct for its suppliers, less stringent for the security companies it was ploying in france. the swede inbound giant is accused of accessing political files on a valley held database.

secret checks were carried out on customers and potential employees. france's newspaper printed i mails which suggests over 200 people investigated with request for criminal record and vehicle registration checks. this e-mail asked on one who made global san diego remarks someone who raised concerns internally of a terrorist attack. ikea's head of security is alleged to have authorized payments for up to $100 for each of the checks made. the information is used in deciding whether to fire staff members and resolving disputes with certain customers in response the company said we would like to shed all possible light on the situation. we decided to undertake all the checks knows know exactly what happened. we clearly and strenuously disapprove of all the illegal prack practices that damage value like respect of privacy. 10 employees plan to issue a formal demravent ministry of

interior said none have been received. >> as thousands of fans of the euro vision song contest, british pop music lovers will be putting their hope in a man that was born before almost all of them were around. the legendary crew with those sideburns and englebert humperdink, the grandfather of nine grandchildren will represent the u.k. in an event which will be watched by millions of viewers. here's andy moore. >> his first hit was in 1967. but englebert humperdink is still recording, still touringing and now flying the flag for britain. ♪ [applause] >> he's been crooning for decades. he also says he's collaborating with some of the biggest modern day producers. details of his song haven't yet been released.

he hails his trademark image, sideburns was copied by elvis. his stage name comes from a 19th century german composure. >> you can call me humpy but don't call me dinky. [laughter] >> the winners of-your-vision's 2011 -- >> last year's winners will host this year's competition in may. the u.k. has performed poorly in recent years. we'll have to wait and see if englebert humperdink this right man to release it from the round of bad luck. andy moore, bbc news. >> the oldies are the best. our top story before we go, the syrian red crescent and red cross are on -- if homs at the brink of baba amr about to deliver relief for that embattled neighborhood. that's all from g.m.t. thanks

for watching. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe vermont and honolulu, new man'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 extend global network to work for a wide range of companies from small businesses to major corporations.

what can we do for you? what can we do for you? >>