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>> israel hands over the bodies of dozens of palestinian militants. it says it's a goodwill jess tchour help the peace process. and they will be buried as martyrs to the cause. hello, and welcome to g.m.t. i'm george with world news and opinion. also in the program, the u.n. chief warns syria could be plunged into a catastrophic civil war. we'll be asking if there's any life left in the peace plan. and a special report on the

militant group in nigeria that could prove more deadly than thought. >> it's 2:00 in the match in ramallah where the bodies of palestinian militants have arrived from is israel. there will be ceremonies in gaza to mark those whom palestinians regard as martyrs. they include those who died as far back as 1975. they help the handover will help restore peace talks. john? >> well, we understand that 91 bodies have now been handed over to the palestinians. and here in ramallah, the relatives and friends of some of those militants who have been killed over the last three decades have been gathering. now, this deal has been brewing for the last couple of days.

is israel has been digging up the bodies, some of them burried for more than 30 years. it's an emotional issue for both israelis and palace. >> the transfer began soon after dawn. carrying bodies which israel has recently dug up. some of them have been dead for more than 30 years. that i include suicide bombers up until now buried in unmarked secret graves inside israel. by mid-morning they were in ramallah laying out at president mahmoud abbas' compound. for palace, these were marters fighting to end israel's occupation. this woman's husband blew himself up killing eight israelis. she said the transfer will change her life and give her a chance to visit his grave. for israelis, though, he was a

terrorist who murdered victims. >> somehow it's become a political issue. we are against it. we think it builds more terrorism. the terror payoff. and this is another step in that fight, in that confrontation between the free society, the innocent people, the victims, and the terrorist element. >> over decades of middle east conflict, the repatriation of bodies has been the subject of long negotiations. they remain -- their remains used as bargaining chips. israel said it was a gesture aimed at building confidence. such confidence is in short supply. >> well, john, i know you've just said this was meant to be

a confidence-building measure and in short supply. what do you think is a real assessment as to what part this can play in a revised peace process? >> well, i don't think you will find many people here thinking that peace process is going to -- anytime soon. there's skepticism from both sides when you talk to them privately. israel says it is ready to return to negotiations without any preconditions but palace say they don't twoonket back to the table until there's a complete freeze on the expansion of settlements in western jerusalem. you don't get the sense this is a priority for america and frankly you don't meet any people here who are at all optimistic about there being a deal anytime soon. >> and john, you mention the

ceremonies to come. no doubt -- you sort of touched on this in your report. these will be highly emotional events. >> it is emotional. and we heard from some of the relatives. they are gathering now in ramallah. for them, they this will allow them to grieve. they regard their family members as heroes. some people fighting for freedom. but the view in israel is totally different. and these people, many of them were suicide bombers, and they killed scores of civilians inside of israel over the last three decades. so as is so often in the conflict, depending on where you're sitting, you get an entirely different point of view. >> all right. john. thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. behnke moon said massacres of

many in syria could plunge the country into a catastrophic civil war. more than 100 people, many of them children, were killed in the town of hula over the weekend. provoking international outrage. 13 people were discovered shot dead near the city and in neighboring turkey, behnke moon said syria may never recover from a civil war. >> kofi annan has expressed his concerns that we may have reached a tipping point in syria at the massacre of civilians seen last weekend. it will plunge syria into catastrophe and civil war from which the country would never recover. i deand in government of syria act on the kofi annan peace plan. >> the secretary general behnke

moonthere. now our correspondent is now in neighboring beirut saying rebel forces are under increasing pressure. >> we went for about 3 1/2 weeks in a place about 0 miles west of hula,, the site of the massacre. and on syrian's border of lebanon and had try days of filming and three weeks of hiding because there were so many troops out and so much movement by the syrian forces and the activists and fighters felt under constant pressure. but in places like here, they are hanging on and managed to remove the last check point from that place about a couple of weeks ago. the other general impression i have is this is a place a hair's breath away from all-out civil war. going to that part of syria

since november and every time i go i say is there going to be a sectarian war? and people say that's not the tradition we have here. we don't have this an most based upon sectarian lines, but there's not plans for all out civil war. but this time people said they will look back at may and say this was the month the civil war started. >> our paul woods reflecting on the three or to the so weeks undercover in syria. villages found the flight data recorder from a zwhreat slammed into a mountain. 45 people were killed on a demonstrational flight after the flight crashed.

>> rescue workers had been looking for the flight data recorder ever since the russian-made passenger jet crashed into the side of the mountain. earlier they just found cockpit flight recorder not the flight data recorder. it's hopeful now investigators will be able to peace together what happened. >> the device that we have been looking for, the flight data recorder has been found last night by our recovery and search team. >> the super jet 100 crashed into the side of this mountain on may 9. the pieces of the plane strewn all over the side of this cliff. experts say without the black box, there's no way of telling whether it was the pilot that caused the crash or whether there was something wrong with the plane. this was a huge tragedy for indonesia. most of the people onboard were indonesians. the flight was supposed to be in the air for less than an

hour. a quick joy tried show off the plane to potential buyers and journalists, almost a month from the crash, and it's still not clear what caused a brand-new plane to fall out of the sky and explode on impact, killing everybody onboard. reporting from jakarta. >> at least five people have been killed on a bomb attack in southern afghanistan. the suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into the police station in kandahar province. another six police officers were wounded in the attack. the british culture secretary hunt defended his handling news corp's takeover into b.y.b. he said he was sympathetic to the bid made by rupert murdoch but it didn't make him unsuitable to rule on it. the aircraft is on its way back

to earth after its landmark mission to the international space station. the first privately-owned shuttle was released by a robotic arm. it is due 16:00 g.m.t. now a massive mann hunt is under way in canada after human body parts were sent in the post to two political parties. 29-year-old luca has been named by police in montreal as their main suspect. one of the blood-soaked packages containing a human foot was sent to the offices of canada's governing conservative parties. we report. >> luca has a long and controversial profile on the internet under several on a

demonstrational flight after the flight crashed. >> rescue workers had been looking for the flight data recorder ever since the russian-made passenger jet crashed into the side of the mountain. earlier they just found cockpit flight recorder not the flight data recorder. it's hopeful now investigators will be able to peace together what happened. >> the device that we have been

looking for, the flight data recorder has been found last night by our recovery and search team. >> the super jet 100 crashed into the side of this mountain on may 9. the pieces of the plane strewn all over the side of this cliff. experts say without the black box, there's no way of telling whether it was the pilot that caused the crash or whether there was something wrong with the plane. this was a huge tragedy for indonesia. most of the people onboard were indonesians. the flight was supposed to be in the air for less than an hour. a quick joy tried show off the plane to potential buyers and journalists, almost a month from the crash, and it's still not clear what caused a brand-new plane to fall out of the sky and explode on impact, killing everybody onboard. reporting from jakarta. >> at least five people have been killed on a bomb attack in southern afghanistan. the suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into the police station in kandahar province. another six police officers were wounded in the attack. the british culture secretary hunt defended his handling news corp's takeover into b.y.b. he said he was sympathetic to the bid made by rupert murdoch but it didn't make him unsuitable to rule on it. the aircraft is on its way back to earth after its landmark mission to the international space station. the first privately-owned shuttle was released by a robotic arm. it is due 16:00 g.m.t. now a massive mann hunt is under way in canada after human body parts were sent in the post to two political parties. 29-year-old luca has been named by police in montreal as their main suspect. one of the blood-soaked packages containing a human foot was sent to the offices of canada's governing conservative

parties. we report. >> luca has a long and controversial profile on the internet under several different guises as partner star, model and blogger. videos of saidism and animal cruelty have also been attributed to him. it was in this blood-stained apartment that the murder and dismemberment of a man took place, a man known to his killer. montreal's police chief says his office has been shocked at what they found. >> for most of the officers that have been there all >> it was behind the apartment building in ottawa began opening -- >> someone decided a political party was worthy target for that particular body part. i mean, who knows where the other body parts were intended to be sent or if there were others out there. >> police say parsals containing the victims' other limbs are likely to have been posted to other places across the country. canada has dealt with other grizzly murder cases before, but perhaps nothing quite as bizarre as this one. lee carter, "bbc world news," toronto. >> and still to come on gmt. inflation takes its toll. figures far worse than expected. he's a comic book character refound in for his crime fighting skills. now memorabilia is about to go under the hammer in paris with a rare recover drawn by the author himself expected to fetch a record 1 million euros. russell reports. >> here in paris they are putting the final touches to tin-tin's latest ezz can a paid. adventures as well as pictures, toys and post cards are about to be auctioned off. but also going under the hammer will be an original 1932 cover of tin tin in america. it could be worth up to a million euros. >> these are images that have been etched in our memories and

the collectors buy back at a priceless amount what as children they would have thrown away. >> a boy refound in for his blue jumper and dog. he captured the attention of young kids across the world. russell, "bbc news." >> now in china, state television has been showing dramatic footage of the heart -stopping footage as the motorcyclist who had four passengers with him tried to cross the intersection. the incident in eastern china was captured by traffic surveillance cameras. police were investigating whether the motor bike crossed on a red light. thankfully all five passengers survived and injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. >> this is gmt from "bbc world news."

i'm george al guya. the headlines. israel hands over the bodies of nearly 90 palestinians. they will be buried as marters to the cause. u.n. secretary behnke moon says syria could be headed for a civil war. let's catch up on the business news now. been looking at india and the growth figures there. 5.3% growth. most people in europe would love that kind of thing. but dire news for india. >> and these figures are a real reversal in the fortunes of a country, let's remind everybody before the financial crisis was seeing growth of 9%-plus every single year, and for a country that had rather big ambitions to challenge china to become the top world emerging economy, yet in the first three months of this year, many will say the

growth measured by g.d.p. really hit the skids. we are expecting more than 6%. but -- well, we haven't seen this kind of level since 2003. but here are two big problems for india. rising inflation. higher cost prices for goods on the ground, and a weakening currency. the currency has lost some 27 cents against the u.s. dollar. that means things on the ground for indians are very, very expensive. experts have also been telling me this is a make or break situation for the government, and in fact the government needs to step on the panic button. listen to this one. >> we have been advocating kind of a wake-up to the government for quite some time. because quite honestly, the issues are domestic and related

to the demand and supply. what clearly lax is the investment cycle, which has completely lost its momentum. >> should also say the investment cycle has last momentum but foreign investors have also lost much confidence with the government flip flopping on many things. >> yesterday we saw the british footballers are out and one with the people. but we realize today i gather from their salaries, they are actually quite different ordinary people. >> they are very different. this is coming from a football layman. this is coming from the 21st annual football finance review put together by the accounting form deloitte. many people have had their salaries frozen or cut but not for the football league,

because it was up by only 14%. but the actual combined spend on salaries? $2.5 billion. eye-watering sum. why? some say good revenues. 90% of seats have been sold. so they have been raking in the money and they have reached a combined revenue or income revenue of 3.5 billion. here's another big problem, though, because now clubs are having to spend 70% of their income on salary. just on salaries. and there's a lot of endebted clubs as we know. but we have new rules that will limit how much debt clubs can have. so experts are say this should help moderate some salaries. >> we think it's definitely a positive development. we're already seeing an impact on high clubs and negotiations.

it will take time to come through. but we think it will. >> and they will come through. still, i'll leave you with, a lot of money to kick a ball. >> they do kick it rather well. >> but they should kick it and pick it up and run with it. >> now voteing is under way in the republic of ireland on the referendum on the fiscal pact, the treaty aims to bring in tough rules to keep deficits low. we go to dublin. ruth, there's an awful lot riding on this, isn't there? >> certainly there is. and in ireland this has been the center of a great deal of debate. there's been a yes and a no campaign and they have had quite a while to put forth their stalls. this is a deficit-busting treaty. it aims to keep government deficits low and budgets nice and balanced and under control across europe.

certainly here in ireland there's been a lot of debate about very complex things, structural deficits, for example have been debated here and on television and radio. people are getting ready to vote and mulling over what they have heard. but ireland doesn't have a veto. that's very important. ireland had a vote in the lisbon treaty. but this only needs 12 of the 17 euro zone members to sign up to it in order for it to be ratified. so a no-vote here, if that happens, wouldn't derail the project. >> am i right that ireland is the only country putting this fiscal pact to a referendum? >> yes. and that's due to the fact that ireland has a written constitution and over the years

any piece of legislation coming from europe which was seen to be in conflict with the constitution or seen to have written ramifications was put to a vote. this is the ninth time ireland's voted on european issues, so i think you can say the irish pretty much have enormous this area. they are used to voting on european pieces of legislation and used to i suppose decoding rather complex pieces of european legislation. this is a campaign marked by a great deal of information. the governments have put out a great deal of election lists including sending every household in the country a copy of the treaty itself. one economist i was speaking to said one of the advantages of having this in ireland, the population is almost a population of amateur economists at this stage, so the irish are much more economy

literal than they were five years ago. so we bite the see how the that new knowledge impacts the vote. >> all right, ruth. thank you very much. preparations are under way in london for sunday's diamond jube lee passage nt where thousands of boats will travel down the river thames. and the all-important task of taking the royals from dry land to the vessel will fall to a man and boat brought out of retirement especially. we report. >> she traveled more than a million miles over 44 years. from state visits to family holidays. the royal yacht brie tanya held a special place in the queen's heart. the decommissioning of it was deeply felt. with that said, her role in the pageant awaits. >> the royal yacht herself will

not be taking part. she is mortarred here in this area. the queen and the duke will be transferred from the bank of the river thames on this, brie tanya's own royal barge. where brie tanya went, so her barge went, too. >> where i'm stood now is yours truly queen will be standing. what will be going through your mind when you're in control of this boat on the beginning of the jube lee passage snnt >> nice, steady movement. i would hate for anybody to fall over trying to sit down. make it steady and enjoyable start to the pageant. >> former crew members of the royal yacht are known as yachties. and each year they return to swap stories and reminisce. ♪ >> when you come back aboard, what's it feel like?

>> oh, it's really -- a little bit of shock. >> you know, a bit of -- >> why is that? >> making your own -- >> not the first tears to be shed over brie tanya. and with her barge being prepared for one final voyage, they are unlikely to be the last. tim, "bbc news." >> and a reminder of our top story on gmt before we go for a break. the bodies of palestinian militants have arrived from israel. 80 bodies have been wrapped in palestinian flags. a further 11 will be buried in gaza. well, that's just about it.

do stay with us on "bbc world news." 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?

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