>> 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 understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you?

>> and now, bbc world news. >> a further government assault on the syrian city of homs. this ises scene live. our correspondent will report from inside the city, where 50 people are now reported dead. >> syrian troops appear to have moved up to the perimeter. it doesn't appear to be an invasion at the moment. it is a pretty constant stream of artillery fire. there's been at least 10 killed, probably more. >> a three-story factory in the pakistani city of lahore collapses, killing several people, trapping many others. the prime minister much romania resigns after continuing protests against the government's austerity program. welcome to "bbc world news." i'm david eades. also coming up in the program -- >> no one knew then that the girl would arrive here as

princess elizabeth, would leave again five days later as queen. >> an anniversary to. we report from the kenyan holiday spot, where elizabeth ii succeeded to the throne 60 years ago today. >> hello. thanks very much for being with us. syrian forces have intensified their bombardment of the city of homs, which has been the main center of the protest against president assad's regime. heavy artillery power has been pounding the city since early morning. local activists say a field hospital has been hit. there are reports of an explosion at a oil pipeline feeding a main refinery in the city. just want to bring you that live shot once again of homs. this is the picture at the moment. the opposition syrian national council says up to 50 people

have been killed. it accuses the regime of encircling the city of tanks with what it's calling a major offensive and urging the international community to act quickly to prevent a new massacre. the bbc's paul wood managed to travel to homs. very difficult to report from there at the moment, but did he bring us up this update. >> it's been pretty constant shelling since about 6:00 a.m. local time, about two hours ago. it sounded like mortars at the beginning, but local people are saying that multiple rocket launchers are now being used against the city. i'm speaking to you now from inside a building, like most people here, we've tried to put as many blocks between us and the street as possible. doesn't appear to be an invasion at the moment. it is a pretty constant stream of artillery fire. there's been at least 10 killed and probably more. this is the sound of the rebel fighters, the free army as they call themselves, replying to

heavy artillery with kalashnikov fire, and that is pretty much futile. when the attack started, some people went out on the streets and balconies to start shouting god is great, and free army, as they call themselves, started firing back with small arms. but really, there's absolutely nothing that this part of homs can do about it except take to the stairwells and find as much shelter as possible. >> that's paul wood right there in the thick of it in homs. jim muir is monitoring developments across syria from beirut, and he's in neighboring lebanon. he talks about the role russia wishes to play. >> the russians are under pressure. their foreign minister is arriving on tuesday in damascus, and he will be seeing the staff, and he's bringing with him the russian head -- the head of the c.i.a., basically, and they will

presume be trying to urge restraint, although the government does seem certainly reflected in its papers to be regarding the u.n. veto by the russian and chinese as a carte blanche to go ahead on the ground and try to finish off the resistance. while the russians are talking approximate a political solution, they would like to get the protested reforms that mr. assad has supposedly launched and sped up and made more real. they would also like some kind of dialogue going with the opposition, but they're not at all well placed to preside over that, because the relations with the opposition were already bad, and they've been made worse by the veto on saturday at the security council. >> now, a factory in the pakistani city of lahore has collapsed, killing several people, we understand, but trapping dozens more as well. the gas explosion caused the three-story building to collapse in a residential area. there's still around 60 people thought to be trapped inside. this is in lahore.

it manufactured medicine. we'll be speaking to our correspondent a little bit later in the bulletin for more on that story. police in egypt have demonstrators outside the interior ministry in cairo. protesters have been demanding a swift presidential election and for an early handover of power by the army. this is finland's former finance minister, who has won the country's presidential election. the conservative politician is an openly gay environmentalists in the runoff, taking more than 60% of the vote. he's finland's first conservative head of state in more than half a century and is supportive of the country's continued membership in the european union. going to switch attention to greece now, as leaders there are resuming talks on a new package of austerity measures. this is after failing to reach agreement over the weekend. it's becoming a common enough

occurrence. they're discussing reforms demanded by the european union and the i.m.f. as a condition of receiving the bailout package, which in total amounts to some 130 billion euros, leading to be in place in mid-march if athens is to avoid a debt default. aaron is following this very closely, with good reason. another huge cause of concern,. >> yes, deja vu, right? here we go again for greece. you were giving some of the details, but this is critical again. we talk about it, but it's very critical. come march 20, march 19, greece has to pay off about $19 billion of debt. if it doesn't get this bailout, it can't pay off that debt, thus a default. the situation just seems to get worse for greece, because hot off the press, that's why i was late coming in, hot off the press is from the e.u. statistics office, says that greek debt continues to spiral upwards. greek debt now stands at 159.1%

of g.d.p., gross domestic product. a year earlier it was 138%. so it continues to spiral. comparison, italy has dropped a bit. its debt has dropped a bit, and the eurozone as a whole debt has dropped, but greece continuing to go upward. you just mentioned it, it's about 100 -- what is it? 130 billion euros. i was trying to get the dollar figure, $171 billion. it can't get that until parties agree to another round of tough austerity measures. it can also get the bailout -- it can't get the bailout unless it reaches a deal with creditors, and that doesn't look like it's going anywhere at the moment. >> just to make sure, you've also got something on china. >> yes, chinese authorities have actually officially declared on monday that they're banning the chinese airlines from paying this e.u. carbon tax, not permitting them to join the e.u. carbon scheme,

and that could trigger big problems, it could trigger trade wars, it could end up going to an international body like the world trade organization. so, look, i'll have a lot more, and we'll go live to beijing on this subject in about 20 minutes' time. >> aaron, thanks very much. europe's debt crisis, it's claimed another political life as well from a country which isn't in the eurozone. romania's prime minister, emil boc has resigned, saying he wants to defuse political and social tension in the country. he announced his resignation during a live broadcast of a cabinet meeting after days of street protest against his center right government for the pretty drastic use materiality measures, which are being put into place now. we we talk to our correspondent from budapest. was this inevitable? >> well, it was pretty much. emil boc's government, many people are surprised it lasted

almost its full mandate, four years. we were expecting parliamentary elections at the end of this year anyway. but the government has been looking very shaky indeed. support down to only about 20% in opinion polls compared to about 50%, the main leftist opposition bloc. he's been looking very weak in these protests, and that was the final straw. >> the protests tell their own story there, don't they? how much of this is actually electoral positioning, do you think? >> i don't think it is electoral positioning, so much as a feeling on the government side that they really didn't have the legitimacy to carry on. mr. boc has a very strong political ally in with the president, traian basescu, but they were popular other ways. a plan to introduce compulsory fees in the national health service, that was abolished in response to the protest.

but really, the protests radicalized. they were never particularly big, but they were very persistent despite the cold weather, and they were widespread. >> nick, thanks very much for that. nick folk was in budapest there. want to bring you up to date on the situation in pakistan and lahore, where a three-story factory in a residential area has collapsed. our correspondent is following the developments. he's in karachi. it was a gas explosion, we understand. >> well, that's what they're saying. there is an investigation going on. police officers are saying it appears to have been a gas explosion, but they will have to obviously dig through the debris and find out exactly what happened, and that may take time. >> how could there be a factory like this in the middle of a residential area? >> well, it's not uncommon, unfortunately. it happens not just in lahore, but in all major cities n. karachi, there are incidents

when factories have caught fire in residential areas, and then they have basically caused a lot of damage to the nearby area. it is illegal, but as we know, such things are allowed by the government illegally to go across pakistan. >> thank you very much indeed for bringing us the latest on that situation in lahore. ok, change of subject matter. when a great finish to the super bowl. >> well, indeed. >> as a neutral observer. >> indeed. for the armchair spectator, it was terrific enter tainlt. new york giants, an amazing performance again. it was a battle of the quarterbacks, eli manning for the giants, phenomenal. that was his four minutes to go. and what the giants are trying to do was run down the clock. they trailed by a couple of points at that time, but they actually scored almost accidentally, that decisive touchdown from bradshaw meant

that the patriots would have a final play for the last minute or so. they were worried about tom brady, the patriots quarterback, as you can see. that was his last chance to win the super bowl for his side. it didn't happen, so manning there with the trophy. and picking up the award as the super bowl m.v.p. he was very happy indeed. >> i'm excited to win a championship, excited for my teammates. we have a number of guys, this is their first one. obvious medical other ones who are getting their second, but just excited for them, excited for coach coughlin, all the coaches, the giants organization. you know, this isn't about one person. this is about a whole team coming together to get this win. i'm just proud of our guys, proud of the team, the way we fought all year, never got discouraged, kept our faith, kept our confidence, and just fought to the very end. >> that was manning talking about the second triumph since 2008 for the giants. >> very good. thanks a lot for that. let me bring some news.

it's breaking news from paul wood, our correspondent in homs, just one of the only foreign reporters there. and in the past few minutes, he's told us that shelling is still going on in the area of homs that they are in. syrian fire has been pretty much over the city. the streets are empty of people, he says, and there are shells which have been fired into homs, which has proved particularly dangerous. at the moment, activists don't seem to think that syrian ground troops are to enter the area imminently at least. that's just come in to us from paul wood, our correspondent. thanks for being with us here on "bbc world news." we'll keep you abreast of all the developments in syria, of course, but also in this bulletin -- we're going to be joining a drug inspector of a raid of a pharmaceutical factory in pakistan following the drug scandal that caused the death of 100 people. the brazilian government has deployed the army in the

northeastern state, where a police strike has sparked a wave of violence. the murder rate has almost doubled in the state capital. police stopped work there on tuesday. this is all about better pay demand. salvador is brazil's third largest city, and it's also notably one of the venues for the football world cup in 2014. manuel noriega has been moved from his prison cell in panama city to a hospital. police said mr. noriega had hypertension and possibly suffered a stroke. he's 77-year-old. he's serving a 20-year prison sentence for the murder of two political opponents. the u.n. envoy to burma says the country's bielection in april will be a key test for the military-backed government commitment to reform. they welcomed reforms, but serious challenges remained, and it needed these elections to be free, fair, and inclusive.

thanks for being with us here on "bbc world news." i'm david eades much these are the headlines -- syrian government forces have stepped up their bombardment of the city of homs over the past few hours. the opposition says 50 people have been killed. a three-story factory in the pakistani city of lahore vs collapsed, killing several people, trapping many others. i want to bring some more on our coverage of events in syria, because i'm joined by the bbc arab affairs editor. thanks for joining us. just want to ask what you think in terms of diplomacy. we are now, because clearly the situation in the u.n. points to disarray, lack of compromise. can the russians take the lead now? >> well, they are taking the next step. the russian foreign minister is going to damascus on tuesday,

and he is expected to speak to president assad to try to put more perspective on him to push forward with the reform that president assad has been promising for a long time he's not expected necessarily to say anything more about pressure on mr. assad himself to step down, which, of course, was the u.n. resolution that the russians and the chinese vetoed. what the russians can actually do -- really, one doesn't know at the moment -- they have condemned the attacks on them by the u.k., by the u.s., by many other members of the u.n. security council, who said that the veto by the russians and chinese was giving the syrian government basically a license to kill, that their responsibility for the bloodshed would be on their heads, and the russians are saying that reaction is

hysterical. so they're playing a part like they've played before. they did it with iraq in 2003. they did it in the first iraq war in the 199 he's. in each case, they had high-profile missions to try to stave off a move perhaps towards military action. it didn't succeed in any way. of course, there's no sign from the other members of the u.n. security council, who voted for the u.n. security resolution, that they are contemplating any military intervention as things stand at the moment. but the arab league, the arabs who have taken a very strong part in trying to put pressure on president assad may start thinking about trying to give more arms, perhaps not openly, but informally to the opposition fighters, who at the moment are both in terms of numbers and in terms of their weapons, at a massive disadvantage to the government forces. >> right. that much is clear. what about the chinese? do they have any role to play at all? they're prepared to veto, but is that as far as it goes?

>> they've issued statements as well, saying there are two sides to what's going on. they're saying that the reason why they didn't accept the u.n. resolution was basically put all the blame on president assad. they're saying that these elements of fighting that are bringing the country into civil conflict, it's not just peaceful protests, which, of course, is what we are seeing. so they're saying that they wouldn't sign off to resolutions that was one-sided. they will probably take a much less obvious role than the russians, who are going clearly to try in public to show that they are endeavoring as much as they can to find some kind of resolution. the problem is, even if they do come out with statements from the foreign minister, from president assad saying they've agreement, you know, the reforms must work much more quickly, the opposition generally has rejected that. there's been reform before, and they've said that there's been too much bloodshed. they don't expect anything more

-- anything anymore from president assad. they onlyment his regime to fall. >> thanks very much for indeed for that. the latest news from syrian tv, which is broadcasting its own breaking news of explosive device prepared by terrorists went off, causing scores of dead and injured in homs. that is the strap on syrian tv. also talking of terrorists attacks in the mountain, killing three officers and kidnapping of a number of other officers. that is the line coming in syrian tv on obviously a very fast-moving situation in syria. we've got other breaking news for you actually, and this is the fatah leader, mahmoud abbas, accepting to lead an interim government, which will prepare for wide elections in the palestinian territories. these rival factions, fatah and hamas, reportedly discussed the position between talks mr. mr.

abbas and the leader, khaled meshaal. this is after two sides reached a reconciliation deal. but that's coming in that mahmoud abbas will lead an interim government. pakistan's lucrative pharmaceutical industry has tried to recover its reputation after a scandal in which more than 100 patients died from the effects of contaminated heart medicine. tests show that the pills contained a lethal dose of the anti-malaria. this focuses on the country's drug companies, but also fears that the recent tragedy could be repeated. aleem maqbool reports from lahore. >> we're with a drug inspector on a raid of a pharmaceutical factory. it's suspected that medicine supply from here have no active ingredient and little more use than sweets.

>> we'll never know how many patients have already taken the medicine, hoping to do some good, or how many may have been made even more sick, thanks to this drug manufacturer. while they might be carrying out raids now, pakistani authorities have been accused of not being good enough at regulating the drugs available in hospitals, condemnists, and markets. in this one area of lahore alone, we found dozens of small stores selling medicine. you can get whatever you want without a doctor's prescription, and you can even buy the components to make up your own drug. very few of these traders have been properly licensed, and very few of the medicine have been properly checked. checking would have prevented over 100 heart patients losing their lives recently. many more people have been hospitalized. the locally produced drugs they've been given by government doctors are contaminated.

>> the pharmaceutical business is booming in pakistan, but in this case, the companies did not check their medicines like they were supposed to do. the people who bought it, they should have checked those medicines before they brought it into the stors and then distributed it. >> so the government blames everyone else, but pakistan has recently got rid of its national ministry of health. confusion over who monitors pharmaceuticals, and because of that, many, even inside the industry, feel the recent tragedy was almost inevitable. >> i mean, this is i think the initial attack now what has happened. this was to be expected. i mean, controlling the quality, on which the life of the patient is dependent, you need to have this. >> until that happens, confidence in a pakistani

industry, which currently exports medicine still to 40 countries, could decline further. the worry for patients here is that without regulation, more lives will be lost. aleem maqbool, bbc news, lahore. >> on february 6, 1952, princess elizabeth found out that her father, king george vi, had died. at the time, she was staying at a treetop hotel in the foothills of mount kenya. the bbc has been back to that location to commemorate this historic event 60 years ago to the day. our east africa correspondent, will ross, is there. >> the royal visitor stepped off into the hot sunshine of nairobi. no one knew then what the girl would arrive here as princess elizabeth and would leave again five days later as queen. >> this place is extremely significant for the british royal family. of course, a lot has changed in the last 60 years. back in 1952, this was a

british colony. princess elizabeth and prince philip came here. they were stopping off on their way to australia. they came to see the animals. >> and from her car, the princess took many feet of film with her camera. >> they stayed in what was a very, very basic tree house, which stood right here. unfortunately, it's been destroyed. it was destroyed in 1954 during the rebellion, the rebellion against clonism that led to the independence of kenya. the very well known story is that, at night, princess elizabeth went up the ladder to sleep. during that night, her father, king george vi, died, so she went up the ladder a princess, and she came down in the morning a queen. just after arriving here, the princess and prince went to a viewing platform just in front of their tree house. they sat and looked at this water hole, a water hole that still today attracts elephants and buffaloes and rhinoceros and all sorts of antelopes. >> obviously a pretty big day

here in the u.k. as well. the queen, 60 years as monarch, going to be celebrated with a 41-gun salute in hyde park, and then a 60-gun salute at the tower of london. there are two photographs that have been released as well, the queen and the duke of edinburgh here, taken in the center room of buckingham palace. there's also a special message from the queen in which she promised, in her words, to dedicate myself anew to your service. that's a pledge that she first made at the age of 21. "bbc world news" will have special coverage of events marking the queen's diamond jubilee in june. and, of course, we have more for you on the website, bbc.com/news. on the diamond jubilee, on the celebration that is still to come, and it's going to be quite a year, but also, the main story, the situation in syria, where the government

appears to have stepped up the bombardment and shelling of the city of homs. we have the latest here for you. >> 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 understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries.

what can we do for you? >> bbc world news was presented by kcet los angeles.