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>> the man who discovered the sex pistols has died in new york. a very warm welcome to bbc world news. . could this be the missing link, the skeleton found by a schoolboy in south africa that could be a new species of human. europe launches a satellite to map the polar ice caps. >> they know that the satellite is on track. they want to make sure that it can measure the state of the polar ice.

the top line is that the american and russian presidents have signed a treaty committing to the biggest cuts in nuclear weapons since the cold war ended. for many, the significance is not in the numbers but in the new start. both leaders say that it is a warning to any nations seeking nuclear weapons. there is also increased support for the pressure on iran. >> in prague, a day of history. the motorcades of 80 cold war adversaries and drive through the streets. -- of two cold war adversaries drive through the streets. in the ornate surroundings of the castle, they signed a treaty that will reduce their nuclear

arsenals by a third. verifications' will be stepped up. there was no mistaking the warmth between these two men. president obama had promised to reset the relations with russia. that has clearly happened. >> i want to thank my friend and partner, prez's medvedev us. >> the american president says that this sent a nuclear signal. >> this demonstrates the determination of the united states and russia, the two nations that hold over 90% of the nuclear weapons, to pursue depaul university leadership. >> this was a historic moment. >> the most important thing is that there are no winners or losers. it is clear what has happened. both sides have won. >> the message from here to

iran which is expected of seeking weapons, sanctions might be on the way. >> my expectation is that we will be able to secure a strong and tough sanctions on iran this spring. >> on one level, to day changes very level -- little. america and russia will still be able to wipe each other out several times over. it does help president obama's ambitions for a nuclear-free world. it might discourage others from joining. >> the pakistani assembly has passed a reform transferring important powers from the president did the prime minister and parliament. this takes away the right to dissolve parliament. five suspected taliban militants were arrested.

officials say the men armed with guns and vests were stopped trying to drive into the capital. a landslide triggered by it rains in rio the janeiro has buried 200 people. rescuers say it is unlikely anyone survived. a day after a bloody clashes in kurdistan -- kazakhstan -- kyrgyzstan, the president refused to accept defeat. >> vigilantes', born of the revolution push onlookers away from the government building in the capital. this is only so looters and side can carry on their work.

the city remains a dangerous place filled with people furious with president bakiyev. in the power vacuum, the looting also spread to the shops. >> this is an obvious target. the fact that it has been so systematically looted shows how lawless the city has become. so far, no let up in the violence. there was protesters on the streets to topple the regime. the forces opened fire. a few kilometers away, this american air base. the u.s. military considers this a vital hub for transporting soldiers and supplies to afghanistan.

today, opposition leaders tried to calm fears about instability. they have said they are in control. they are worried president bakiyev is still at large. these are days of great uncertainty for the people of kyrgyzstan. they are waiting to hear if their fallen president will admit defeat or try to fight back. >> people in sri lanka have been voting in the first parliamentary elections since the end of the civil war. the country is officially reunified after decades of bloodshed. the government has benefited from the defeated presidential candidate from the scene. >> it was early in the day that the president turned out to

vote. this was in his southern home province, a place where his family is highly influential. his party is likely to do well here. >> what i want is a strong government. we ended terrorism and now we need to amend the country through development. >> voters seemed enthusiastic but there was not a sense of anticipation that there was in january. the former army chief challenged the president for the presidency. he has been locked up and charged with the regular behavior while still in uniform. he is a candidate for parliament. voters like these give the government to slash three, they will be able to change the constitution. the president says that kind of firm parliament is needed. the opposition says it will give the government too much

unfettered power. for northern sri lanka, this was the first election in decades without the shadow or war. for at least 80,000 displaced people still in camps and others trying to resettle, life is far from normal. as polls closed, monitoring groups said that there was hundreds of complaints of misconduct including the threatening and chasing of voters and the staffing of ballot boxes. most incidents were blamed on the government coalition. >> the militant islamist group in somalia has forcibly taken over a united nations compound. they disarmed u u.n. staff. -- they disarmed u.n. staff. financial markets have been by fears of the state of decrease

economy. -- greek economy. the greek government cost of borrowing has risen to a record level. a swarm of locusts hasn't faded a town in queensland, australia -- has invaded a town in queensland, australia. this is the biggest want to hit the region in 30 years. they have devastated the crops there. one of the most important music managers of the punk era, malcolm mclaren, has died. he was the former manager of the sex pistols. he was diagnosed with cancer sometime ago. a lot of people as a certain age will feel a certain warmth inside at the mention of malcolm mclaren. can you separate the image from

the man? >> not really. all we ever knew of him was his image that he put across and successfully translated into parts of his life. british impact has had -- british culture has had a massive impact across the globe. hplonk was a big part of that. without malcolm mclaren, that might have never happened. -- punk was a big part of that. with the sex pistols, he made the music popular. he knew that the image was just as important if not more important than the music. in the week the queen was celebrating her silver jubilee, he organized a boat trip where the group performed "god save the queen."

that got him headlines all over the world. >> some of us live for those memories. thank you. it took 20 hospital staff working in shifts 14 hours. today the courcode joined twins have been separated. they have won the battle of their lives. >> for four months, these little boys have lived face to face with each other. today, they are part for the first time after a successful operation to separate them. these kind of twins are incredibly rare. initially it grows as a normal. what is still just a clump of cells tries to split in form twins. if it does not fully separate you get two distinct embryos growing while still connected.

the operation lasted 14 hours. it is a very delicate procedure. the word from a hospital is that it all went well. the children are in intensive care. they are stable. it will be a while before they can be shown to the cameras again. after the operation, their parents said that the sun was shining for their children. >> good to have you with this on bbc world news. we delve into the world of japanese dressing up to find out why certain air hostess uniforms are coveted by collectors. france ponce's first lady has dismissed as ridiculous the rumors that her presidenwill mae with the president is in trouble. -- france's first lady has

dismissed as ridiculous rumors that her marriage with the president is in trouble. they are hunting down the source of the rumors. >> the rumors have been swirling for weeks. claims that the president and his wife for each having extramarital affairs. now the first lady dismisses this as insignificant. >> rumors will always exist. one must live with them. it does not concern our private life. we know what our life is like. we live it every day. police have launched an investigation to determine the source of the rumors. the first lady does not blame the former justice minister who was once part of the president's inner circle. >> rumors, gossip on the private

lives of people are scandalous, she said. i am in directly implicated and that is a scandal as well. >> certainly they have presented a public show of unity as in washington last week. it is unusual for such stories to get exposure in france. initially much of the reporting was abroad and from the internet. mr. starr cozy is under pressure for political reasons. -- presidents are coznicolas sas under pressure for political reasons. >> president obama and president medvedev have signed a historic new treaty committing the u.s. and russia to cut their nuclear warheads by a third over the next seven years.

it is the biggest nuclear arms pact for 20 years since the cold war ended and it was signed in prague today by president obama and president at advest. how is this really seen in washington? >> we have seen this ceremony and the celebrations but how significant is the deal that was signed today? we are joined by the chair of global 0. you are the chief u.s. negotiator on the start 1 treaty. what is the most significant thing to you? >> what is most significant is not the treaty. it represents some modest progress in reducing the arsenals. they are modest reductions. most significant is the beginning of a new phase of on control. president obama made clear this morning that he would like to follow up this negotiation with a new negotiation focused on

much deeper cuts, a broader category of weapons, so-called tactical nuclear weapons deployed near the chinese border and in europe. he would like to count all warheads. >> can this be done within a time scale that might include an obama administration? >> it will be a difficult negotiation because the russians have laid down the law that they will have to focus on ballistic missile defenses. that is a complicating factor. i think that the president is able to get this treaty ratified and strong public support in the u.s. and europe. i think that it is possible to get a new treaty before he leaves the white house. there is another factor. this treaty comes with the administration is new nuclear posture. here he has made a very important argument. he has said that the goal of

nuclear weapons and the u.s. policy is no longer so much to deter a nuclear strike from russia or china but to focus on the problems in the spread of nuclear weapons and terrorism. this is another element that i think makes this treaty a very important part of a transformational approach to the role of nuclear weapons in american policy. >> there is a bigger problem for russia if you look at proliferation. >> this is a problem for both countries. osama bin laden is on the record so that he can kill americans. the russians have had an experience with terrorism in their own capital city of moscow in the underground. there is unrest in southern russia. there are thousands of nuclear weapons in russia, nuclear materials, there is a lot of russian know-how for sale.

the likelihood of u.s. and russia nuclear war is declining but the likelihood of u.s. russia experiencing nuclear terrorism is growing. >> thank you for joining us. we will be bringing you more coverage from the summit in washington next week. >> thank you. this is a question you will have heard but could is this really be the legendary missing link? it seems to be a new species of human, perhaps 1.9 million years old. it was a chance find near johannesburg. >> here in this dramatic landscape is where it all began, the cradle of humankind. it is beneath the soil, the mysteries of our ancestors. now, and little boy, his father, and his dog had stumbled across an amazing find.

>> i tend to walk over and then i saw the collar bone. i did not know what it was. i thought it was an antelope. i called my father over. he started swearing. what did i do wrong? nothing, nothing, you found a common it. >> this is an early human. >> this is a small person that was a live 1.9 million years ago. >> just a few meters away in this case, they discovered the skeleton of an adult child -- adult and child. >> the second skeleton i found it right there. we would not find out that this child, it is just 50 centimeters. they were there to get there. they knew each other in life and died at the same time.

-- they were there together. >> now this extraordinary piece of detective work has revealed vital crews -- clues of the exact shape of the family tree. >> more of the species will be identified. >> safely at the university, this call up the child they found. >> this is at the point where we transition from the ape. we know that they don't look like other things that we have found from the same time. things like, have less, they have incredibly long arms. their hands are short and powerful like ours. >> soon, the entire skeleton will go on show. replicas are also being molded so that scientists can study

this new chapter in the study of human evolution. >> japanese women are well known for their sense of style from kitsch to the classy. one japanese trend might not kick off elsewhere, the air hostess uniform of the japanese airline aren't seriously high demand. >> they are a people who pride themselves on reserves, the japanese are remarkably willing to dress up. they can be seen inmates outfits inmatesin maid's -- maid's outfits. there are shops that specialize in uniforms. for a few thousand yen you can pretend to be someone else airline stewardesses is a popular choice. nothing can beat the glamour.

it is all about the -- little wonder that there is a black-market. shops around here, the genuine uniforms can change hands for thousands of dollars. japan airlines has volunteered for staff among the early- retirement. dealers hope there will be an increase in supply. this former stewardess has photos as reminders of her 18 years in the sky. shthey take great pains to stop their uniforms from falling in the wrong hands. >> they are very strict about returning what was supplied. there was a ceremony when i left. they counted each item of my uniform in front of my boss. they categorize every article. i had to give everything back.

>> she faces a long haul to restructure herself after the humiliation of filing for bankruptcy. -- jl faces a long haul to restructure themselves after bankruptcy. >> this could revolutionize our view of global warming. scientists say the test way to monitor the changes to the global ice sheets is from space. there is a satellite that will do that. >> it go for the launch. >> the europe's space control center in germany. this is one of the most important missions. it is to understand what is happening to the polar ice. a satellite to monitor the ice

sheets has been launched. the british professor dreamt up this project. the last attempt five years ago and blew up. here it goes again. he has waited 12 years for this. soon news comes through, the satellite is in orbit. [applause] there is relief all around. >> it is a very long wait. it is very nice to get it up. >> the satellite will fly over the arctic and the and arctic and radar should give the most accurate picture so far on how these regions are changing. here in mission control, they have picked up signals from the satellite of two ground stations. they know that it is on track. the next age is to find out that it can measure the state of the

polar ice. at a time when climate science is under pressure, this mission might demonstrate what is really happening. >> you will find much more on that and all of the international news and today's stories on bbc.com/news. you can get ahold of me and most of the team on twitter. you can also join our facebook page. thank you for being with us. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. the newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank.

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