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tv   BBC World News  WHUT  January 30, 2013 7:00am-7:30am EST

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>> 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
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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." >> hello, you are watching "gmt ," on bbc world news. our top stories, french and molly soldiers are -- sorry, that is not the top story. the top story is more evidence of the violence in syria that has reached unprecedented levels according to the u.n. envoy. our correspondent has more on this. >> how can you guarantee that innocent men, women, and children will not get killed?
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>> there were bombs on the edge of rebel control. >> shell says they're happy after being cleared in a dutch court of massive oil spills in nigeria. campaigners say that they will fight on. shot by the taliban, she is recovering well after another operation on her face. also in the program, aaron has the business news. blackberry is fighting back today? >> it does not get bigger than this. it is make or break for the company behind blackberry. today they unveil this beauty. for the company that has lost 90% of its value in the last few years, is this enough to turn around the fortunes?
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>> is 12 noon in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington, 2:00 in the afternoon in syria. government forces operating on an unprecedented action. rebels are also fighting back with evidence of how -- with evidence uncovered by the bbc. they are constructing homemade bombs. the rebels claim they are -- that are contributing to the success of their mission and to deny that civilians are at risk. james, tell me some more about what you have uncovered. >> we have a look at bomb making with the rebels. following quite a long process in their workshop. the rebels want to show that
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they can make use of whatever resources they can and that they can get the ingredients to make serious bombs. at night, my colleagues and i were invited by a group of rebels to look at their bomb making workshop. >> somewhere near the syrian border, the free syrian army is trying to get its chemistry exactly right. with the help of a bit of old- fashioned force. here the bomb makers mix the early stages of nitroglycerine using ingredients they have made themselves. the rebels insist that we not reveal exactly where they are. their main expert has already been arrested three times. homemade explosives are important weapon in the fight
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against the syrian government. these bomb makers live in their workshop and assemble bombs here, taking the explosives across the border, into syria. they wanted to show us exactly how the explosives work, so they gave us these pictures of their tests conducted on a building instead of syria. the bomb detonated as planned. to their very obvious delight. auk met used to study business at university in syria. he has one month in this workshop to learn to become an expert bomb maker. >> when you plant a bomb, how can you guarantee that innocent men, women, and children will
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not be killed? >> we plant bombs on the edge of villages under rebel control. officers have strict control over detonators. we do not let the civilians come close. we put the dangers down side doors civilians, to stay away. >> you are making homemade bombs here. bashar alighting but sharr assad. can you defeat his government with these weapons? >> it is not enough and we hope to get step -- hope to get help from outside syria, god willing. >> the steps began in this workshop. rebels want heavier weapons from countries that support their cause. but there is the way rudimentary flight and there bomb making begins in jam jars. >> we can go live to james on
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the border. the>> violence goes on and on. the international on voice as the the fighting in syria has destroyed them, bit by bit. >> an extremely accurate assessment since he took that job as a piece on boy a few months ago, he has had nothing but bad news to report. he has not been able to put together any kind of peace process or persuade the president to any kind of transition or stepping down and the rebels feel there is little point in dealing with any kind of talks. they feel they can win the fight. they are taking the resources they can to bring the fight to his government. >> that border there has seen a flood of refugees coming from syria and turkey, playing host to hundreds and thousands of them. today the international
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community is being asked by the united nations to dig deep into their pockets. >> the united nations is asking for up to $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance for the syrians affected by the war. 200,000 of them are here in southern turkey. others have just about enough money to pay for apartments for themselves. those in the worst conditions are actually in syria themselves, internally displaced refugees who have not been able to leave the country, they are the ones the united nations is the most concerned about. >> james, thank you very much. a court in the netherlands has rejected most of the allegations against the oil giant, shell, related to oil spills in nigeria.
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the judges dismissed four out of five cases that were brought. farmers claimed that the oil leaks had polluted land and waterways in the delta. in one case they ordered a subsidiary of shell to compensate a farmer for making it too easy for saboteurs to damage a pipeline. nick has more. >> the people of the delta have long protested against oil pollution, which they say has blighted their lives and livelihoods. the court case is being heard thousands of kilometers away, it would have been a potential landmark, holding a multinational company liable for the actions of a subsidiary and the events in a foreign land. friends of the earth supported them and it was not quite the verdict they had hoped for. they did of hold one case and ordered damages to be paid to
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one farmer. in their first reaction, shell says that they were happy with the verdict. that the cause was sabotage and theft and they had done their bit to clean up the mess. but it did not all go their way. >> shell is happy that it won four cases. the plaintiffs are happy that they 11, which is a landmark ruling on that point. so far western courts have not convicted multinational companies for damage caused a broad. -- abroad. >> shell is the largest gas company operating in nigeria and it accounts for half of the country's output. but part of the anchor for many of the region's 30 million inhabitants is that they remain impoverished.
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their farming and fishing was hit by the oil industry. as they reject the verdict from the netherlands, it looks like this is not the end of the affair. friends of the earth have already said that they will appeal. >> that long-awaited court verdict, there. in other news, it appears to be third time lucky for the south korea space program after they launched a satellite to collect data on climate. after two previously failed launches, space engineers were under pressure for the launch to be a success. the top american military commander in afghanistan says he is confident that afghan national security forces will be ready to defend the country by early next year, when all foreign combat troops are due to leave. general allan would not comment on how many american soldiers would stay on after 2014 in a
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supporting role. police in santa maria have released a video showing the damage done to a nightclub where 235 people died in a nightclub on sunday. they said that fireworks meant for outdoor use caused the blaze. and that insulating foam was ignited by a spark. alex rodriguez, who plays for the new york yankees, has denied new allegations that he took performance enhancing drugs. human growth hormones and other substances between 2012 and 2009. four years ago he did it to using banned steroids. i have been joined by aaron in the studio with business news.
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>> for the canadian company, research in motion, you could be one of the kings of the smart phone world, but it has been hammered of late by the likes of samsung and apple, so much so that the value of this company has fallen by 90% in the past few years. a big fall. let me explain in detail. it has been a while since blackberry generated this much buzz, at least a month -- at least amongst tech watchers. but the blackberry 10, the newest smart phone operating system, it comes with a new line of handsets. the manufacturers certainly hope that this will revive the company's fortunes with the newly appointed ceo looking to turn their future around.
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>> he needs to see this work well and needs to see consumers have some level of excitement. frankly, the bar for excitement and success is relatively low. we are not looking for them to overtake apple, but 5% market share would be a home run. >> set to be unveiled in the next few hours, let's talk about the latest update on the dream liner. two japanese airlines have confirmed that they found problems with the jet batteries months before there were forced to make an emergency landing. they said they had in fact notified boeing of the problem as early as october. >> we have learned that they change the batteries on their fleet 10 times in the last year.
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on three of their 787's, the change to them twice within one year. this seems extraordinarily frequent, given that the regime only expect some to be expect -- inspected once every three years. these problems go back long before these two meltdown fire events that cause the plane to be grounded. >> as you probably know, these problems have caused their fleet -- well, they are not flying, they have been banned. until those issues are sorted out, this is an important day for the aviation giant. the problems with the dream minor are not likely to affect those results, but it is what they had to say about those problems in the press conference.
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i did have a guest on the blackberry phones who had won with him, and i have to say it is pretty swish. that is a non tech person saying that. [laughter] >> why not cast your mind back to malala yousufzai, a pakistani school girl who made global headlines, miraculously surviving after being shot in the head by the taliban. she is in england and doctors are optimistic that she will make a full recovery. >> in general terms she has been recovering very well. most of her treatments have been as an outpatient and supported obviously by a range of therapies. she has undergone further surgical procedures since we last spoke, which was to repair
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her left facial loeb. the facial nerve, as it comes under the year, one of our surgeons has reconnected its and managed to do that without having to graft the nerve. had it not been long enough, he would have used some from the leg. and he has managed to reroute it. malala yousufzai does have weakness in her face on the left side and there is a very good chance after this procedure that this will completely recover. >> that was the update on the condition of malala yousufzai from the queen elizabeth hospital in buckingham. stay with us, there is much more
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to come on "gmt," including the fungus that is threatening one- third of central america's coffee crops. we have a special report for guatemalans. the british, especially the men, are famously said to be very stoic or reluctant to display emotions. that stiff upper lip could help to explain why fewer people in the u.k. survive cancer than in other countries. a study suggests that people in
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the u.k. are more likely to languish, not wanting to waste a doctor's time, leading to late diagnosis and higher fatality rates. >> more than 2 million people in the u.k. are living with cancer and survival rates are improving, but we still lag behind other countries. researchers found that there was little difference in awareness of symptoms between countries, but people in the u.k. were more reluctant to receive help. in sweden few -- only one out of 10 worried about wasted -- wasting a doctor's time, but co, but people it was one out of three in england. researchers from king's college, london, believe that they know why this is. >> [indiscernible] people might say that they want to have children treated rather than themselves. >> variations in care are other factors that may play a part in
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the patchy cancer record in the u.k. researchers say the people can do a lot to help themselves as early diagnosis is a key factor in positive outcomes. >> you are watching "gmt," our top story this hour -- taking on the regime with homemade bombs, we uncover rebels. the conflict in syria is bound to be one of the most pressing problems awaiting john kerry, when he takes over as u.s. secretary of state. his colleagues overwhelmingly confirmed his landslide endorsement. so, it is the end of an era for
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hillary clinton and she has been giving her departing fox, speaking to our state department correspondent, who asked her if washington had done enough to stop the violence in syria. >> i believe the united states has played an indispensable role in working to help establish a coalition, something that is important to be found in libya. the united states played a much greater role in helping to bring that about. the president just announced more humanitarian aid, the highest toll in the world not only going through international organizations, rightly have to work with the regime, but it will be going directly to leadership council's. i think we have also been deeply involved in working with our
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turkish and jordanian counterparts in trying to help to train the opposition figures that are looking to engage in political activity. i have certainly spend an enormous amount of time trying to persuade the security council to take what i think would be the right actions, over the objections of the russians. >> you talk about the progress you have made, but some of your critics say the you have been inconsequential as secretary of state. that there is no signature achievement. your reaction? >> that is a very narrow and inaccurate view. as the president said the other night when we were interviewed together, my first responsibility was to restore american leadership, which had been tattered and damage. to rebut the very strong feelings that the economic
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crisis that we face upon his taking office was america's faults, that america was in decline and that there was no real future for the kind of value system and roll the replayed. so, that was one of the reasons i was out there each day. i think that we not only reversed that view, but he set the table for dealing with a lot of problems and seizing opportunities. >> monday, february 4, for the first time in 20 years you will be unemployed. are you going to sleep all day, watch television? >> i am waiting to find out. not just 20 years, i have had a job or been in school full time since i was 13 and i am really interested in seeing if i can get back to sleep or it is so ingrained in me that i will pop up wondering what i should do.
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>> i suggest that she get a big pile of d v e is -- dvds. many of us across the world need that cup of coffee in the morning to get going, but there is bad news for the coffee industry, central america is struggling to contain a coffee eating fungus. the head of the coffee growers association has warned of unrest as thousands of people may lose their jobs. humphrey foxley sends this report, from guatemala. >> de buzz family has grown coffee on this land for more than 100 years. never before has there been crop devastation like this. a fungus has swept through her plantation. half the harvest is ruined, the rest is damaged.
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>> there is an orange dust that we can see. it is the first step of a crisis for us. for the people that depend on us, it is a double crisis, because there will not have worked. that is a problem to the nation. >> as we moved through the coffee belt, we saw how plantation after plantation had been hit. it is blamed on climate change. two degrees of rise in temperature, higher rainfall, and humidity. this plant is even firing three months early. >> this is not a rich country and hundreds of thousands of lives depend upon the coffee industry. now those jobs are being put at risk. she employs 50 workers for harvest. they all dread that the news. nearly everyone around here works in coffee.
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>> these people live only for the coffee. if these people do not have coffee, they do not having come. >> but the fungus is shattering the whole of central america. poverty is widespread and coffee is an economic lifeblood. >> are you worried for yourselves and your families? >> yes, and for all the others who might suffer. >> about one-third of this year's crop has survived, but next year it is expected to be far worse. humphrey huxley, bbc news, in the coffee belt. >> let's bring you more on our top story. the un secretary general says
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the situation in syria is catastrophic and he has appealed to all sides to stop fighting. $1 billion in humanitarian aid has been raised for syria. that is it for the moment for me. >> make sense of international news at 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. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic
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decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? what can we do for you?
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