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>> and now, "bbc world news." >> activists in syria say the assault on the city of homs is the heaviest yet and that 18 premature babies are among the latest victims. tanks are going through the streets amongst heavy gunfire. rick santorum wins big over mitt romney in the republican race in the latest round of voting. argentina will make a formal complaint to the u.n. about britain's militarization around the falkland islands. welcome to "bbc world news." i am david eades. was tuesday;s change of leader in the maldives a coup. his successor is accused of

trying to overthrow him. and some seeking better regulations. the worst day so far. that is the word coming from residents of the city of homs where the syrian government forces are in their fifth day of bombardment. activists say at least 18 premature babies are among those who have lost their lives because of power outages, which meant incubator's failed. there was mortar fire and rockets. these pictures suggest tanks are on the move again with ground forces headed toward opposition- held districts. the government says the drive will go on until all armed opposition is eliminated. at least 40 people have been killed so far today according to

the reports coming out of the city. we will get more details in a moment on the deaths of the premature babies. first, the bbc's paul wood is one of the few overseas journalists still reporting from homs. he spoke to us a short time ago from the outskirts of the city. >> it's very bad at the moment. managed to get out last night during the bombardment. it is heavier now over the past couple hours than at any time over the past several days, the people say. it is the worst so far. high numbers of casualties reported. incredibly brave people to be there every single debt. -- day. they say it is to dangero arresous.

>> this is 5 days we are going into. what is the state of the city in terms of levels of deterioration over these five days? >> [unintelligible] you drive around and see a lot of holes. sometimes they're not using heavy shells. sometimes they're using air mortars causing the biggest casualties. it's not clear what they are aiming at. >> the free the free army is not very strong. there are civilians bearing the brunt of this. people fear a ground invasion. that does not seem to be happening at the moment, but the ground forces are very close by. there were tanks intraday 800 meters away.

and 400 meters away at another point. not moving forward, but using heavy machine guns to pour fire into those areas. we heard that several hours during the day yesterday. >> what the military might be planning to do day-by-day is anyone's guess. so you think that the snipers in the center of the city are having any impact in terms of keeping the military at bay? >> it is pretty futile. we heard a lot of fire when the attack started. there was a gesture of defiance. then the leader of the free army told them to preserve their ammunition.

yesterday i spoke with a full colonel who defected a week ago who says their strategy is to hope that the army will crumble from the inside. people know that they are killing civilians and they want the blood bath to stop. >> the impression we are getting is that the army is moving in with tanks at the moment into some of those pockets within homos. we will develop the story as it comes to us. -- pockets within homos. we have more details on pay debts of up to 18 dimeter babies -- the deaths. >> electricity was cut all over the city and that meant incubator's failed at hospitals. 18 premature babies died as a result of that failure.

we cannot confirm that, but it is the kind of thing that has been happening. i have been watching footage on youtube showing of a young child of about two years old of a terrible brain injury being rushed through the streets in a great panic. there was some noises that came from youtube footage that were posted a short time ago. [bombs blasting] >> you can imagine what it's like being in the house that gets hit by a shell like that. activists on the ground say that well over 40 people killed already in the city of homs as the assault goes on. there's been footage posted in the last few minutes showing tanks moving in. in some areas there is a ground assault going on, as well as

shell-fired rockets >> . we will move on to other stores for now. the situation in the united states, it seems that mitt romney still has not persuaded republicans that is the best man for the job. the presidential hopeful, leading the race to challenge barack obama has just been beaten in three states. they were all taken by the outsider rick santorum. >> rick santorum savers victory. he is a former senator and claims to be the standard bearer of american social and religious conservatism, the man who should challenge president obama in november. missouri, minnesota, and colorado agreed with him. >> your votes today were not just heard loud across the state of missouri and minnesota, but all were heard loud and cleer

across the country. >> he likes money and organization, but he has won some real momentum. for the front runner mitt romney, a former massachusetts governor, this has been a worrisome turn of events. >> i wish santorum the best. we will keep campaigning that down the road, but i expect to become your nominee. >> mr. romney has wealth and a powerful campaign machine, but he is struggling to win the affection of the republican party. after his speech, this -- someone tried to a collector all over him. -- to throw glitter. republicans are divided on who they want their president to be. social and religious conservatives don't like the look of romney. there are still many contest to go before the nomination is

settled. voters seem to be telling up.ey's rivals don't give >> security officials in pakistan say that an air strike by an american drone is killed at least eight people in north waziristan near the afghan border. several people also injured when the drones fired missiles at a house in a village. a u.s. court has ruled that a ban on same-sex marriage in california is unconstitutional. that's the latest rage of a long-running court battle between proponents and supporters. it is likely to go to the supreme court. coalition party leaders in greece have reached agreement on an austerity measures. 20% ifkely to include a not more reduction in the minimum wage, pension cuts, 15,000 job losses as well in the civil service.

these are just some of the conditions set by international leaders for the country to receive its next bailout. aaron has the business. let's move on. >> rbs is in the news, really leading the charge and the controversy about the bonus payments. interesting twist. the royal bank of scotland was bailed out by $6.5 billion during the financial crisis. the u.k. taxpayer owns 82%. in the last weeks there's been public and political i cry over the former boss. -- outcry. there was controversy and over whether he should except his bonus of $1.5 million.

they said he should not accept. he finally said that he would not accept his bonus and has been speaking to the bbc, his first public statements since this. he says that is not a robot, he came through a very bruised and battered and very depressing moment and even considered resigning, but thought it was n. dalton to resign. he called it the biggest timebomb in banking history, the mess that he came into, trying to turn the bank around and replacing top management. i will have a clip on what he had to say during the world business report. we will have all that in about 17 minutes. >> thank you very much indeed. the former president of maldives mohamed nasheed has accused his successor of organizing a coup to overthrow him. he stood down in a tv address on

tuesday following weeks of protest and mutiny by the police. the new president hassan has denied there was any organized plot. andrew north has traveled there and sends us this report. >> this is the capital of the paradise where tens of thousands of came from all over the world every year for holiday. less than 24 hours ago the main square was full of protesters who forced from office the country's first democratically elected president. life has pretty quickly got back to normal, as you can see. the new president, who was the former vice president, the democratic process will continue, there will be elections. he denies that there was a co up, despite appearances and suspicions of mini park. what has happened here raises big questions about the democratic transition.

only four years ago the maldives was still under dictatorship. some are wondering what will happen again now. for the moment the new government is insisting that this place is open for business and holidaymakers should carry on coming to enjoy a paradise. >> a look at sport. not quitting. >> not retiring. he did say that he would quit the sport if found guilty. we heard from him for the first time in the last day or so. very upset. his two-year ban from the court of arbitration for sport. the 2010 tour day france, he tested positive for a chemical. he can come back at the start of september later this year. but he is devastated. he still claims, that he got the

substance from infected meat and is considering whether to appeal. >> there's been speculation. one person says one thing and the next day another person says something else. it has been torture. the hardest thing has been the suffering of my family, my mother's, and my friends, accused of the accusations. the things they are accusing me of go against all the values instilled in me as a boy. justice, discipline, honesty. >> yesterday days to decide whether to make an appeal or not with his legal same. the others are happy and they say it's a good day for clean athletes all over the world. two very different views. >> thank you very much. you are watching "bbc world news." we have zombies, a cave, and a singer back from the day. a south african troops thousands of music fans -- tricked

thousands. one of the first opinion polls to be conducted in libya since the ousting of gaddafi last year suggest four out of five people there believe their country is dead in the right direction. many people who took part in the polls supported the military actions to remove the colonel. peter robinson and his deputy in northern ireland have appealed for prayers for the former first minister who remains in intensive care in hospital on the outskirts of belfast. he is 85 years old. he was taken ill and his almanza denied. his family is at his bedside. the first phase of polling for local elections is taking place in india pose the biggest state which sends more mp's to the national parliament than any other. the campaign for the party is being led by a potential future

prime minister of india, gonhan di. these are the headlines. syrian opposition activists say that 18 premature babies have died in the city of homs during the heaviest day of bombardment so far. tanks and ground forces may be moving forward into opposition- held districts of the city now. president fernandez of argentina says that she will make a complaint to the united nations of what she called british militarization around the falkland islands, known as the mall venvenas. to discuss the significance of her latest moves, we are joined

from our westminster studio by john hughes, the british ambassador to argentina during 2004 and 2008. thanks for joining us. how and anxious are british and argentine citizens in an increasing rift between the two countries? >> i don't think people should feel terribly concerned. it is very concerning for professional diplomats. it's very concerned for the people who live on the falklands, but it does not show anything violent. that's the first thing we need to say. to be fair, the president was at pains to emphasize that. her claim echoing john lennon was "to give peace a chance." we need to keep in perspective the fact that this is a diplomatic exchange on both sides. on boboth sides are using

rhetoric to maintain their points and to maintain their principles. >> we have one side saying they are ours and the other side says the islands belong to us. and there's a man who perhaps one day will be king. >> there's military hardware going down there. there has been military hardware there since 1982. the ship that is going down is just replacing another ship that goes on the south the atlantic patrol. so there's no change in that. yes, there is more rhetoric and that has been ratcheted up. we are coming up to the 35th anniversary. the principle is we believe in self-determination. what has changed is that under this president and the former

president the argentine government changed the concept of cohabitation and collaboration in the south atlantic. they are democratically elected. they have their own priorities. they have every right to do that. but the british government's view is we would have preferred to maintain collaboration on fishing and natural resources. >> you mentioned natural resources. oil and gas are very critical valuable commodities. is that one of the reasons why tensions are rising? >> i think that is a very fair point. in order to understand this, one has to understand where the argentine's comes from on this. this is true for all of latin america. under their laws, what is under the surface of the land belongs to the state. that is true in chile as it is in mexico and throughout the

continent. from the argentine prospective, the thought that a foreign company working to a different government would have the right to take resources out of the ground, be they mineral, oil, gas, is something many argentines' find an acceptable. >> thank you for talking to us from our westminster studio. i want to bring in two contrasting views of the situation in syria. obviously, it is developing faster around homs in particular. these pictures are being streamed live across the internet from homs. smoke in the background. intimate and sound of shelling is coming in. reports of tanks moving through a district with residents describing it as the worst days of our of this offensive that began five days ago.

the other side of the corn would be an assyrian state television, which at the moment is broadcasting a very of homs, saying everything is calm in the city and there are accusations that protestors have been using mortar shells to blow up oil depots within the town itself. just giving you a flavor of the way in which we are getting different pictures as to exactly what is happening in this it of homs. -- in the city of palms. models in new york city and are calling for workplace standards in what is largely unregulated industry. the model alliance wants confidential advice on sexual- harassment, better conditions, and more privacy backstage. now a report from manhattan. >> models are glamorous,

unattainable faces of fashion. now they want to be heard. walking the runway is a sought- after job, but the work that goes into creating these images can be long and hard. >> we have drafted a models bill of rights. >> they found an alliance to look for better working conditions because of what this woman witnessed over 15 years. >> i saw firsthand how the industry sometimes disregards child labor laws, blacks financial transparency a, concurred is eating disorders, and even tolerate sexual abuse in the workplace -- encourages eating disorders. >> they cannot form a trade union because they are seen as independent contractors under u.s. law. expert saysaw they need. need >> a backstage policy practice

is so women changing don't end up with half naked photographs of themselves on the internet. policy to not hire young girls under 16. a policy that says there's a place you can call if something does happen at a photo shoot and you are uncomfortable. nobody could be opposed to that. >> fashion is a multibillion- dollar industry in new york. top models have become wealthy and dictate their own conditions. it's a lucrative, competitive field. can an alliance of models really make an impact? one chronicler of the fashion world wonders how you can regulate an industry which is so subjective. >> it's one of the few industries where someone can essentially say no to you based specifically on how you look and nothing else. it's very hard to say what is discriminatory and what is not when the entire industry is fond of discriminatory practice.

>> whatever the difficulties, she says what is right should extend to models too. >> the beautiful images that we create in our business should be backed up by some moral code of behavior so exportation does not occur. >> the public may see models as having it all, but many start out as teenagers in an adult world. the question is whether the fashion industry will take kindly to this push for better conditions. bbc news reporting from new york. >> the most unlikely musical comeback of all time. a south african singer dead for two years reemerging, claiming that he's been kept in a cave by zombies during his absence. seems too good to be true and it was. it turned out the man who claimed to be in late folksinger was in fact a complete stranger. he managed to fool just about everyone but has now been

arrested and is facing charges of fraud. i want to bring you some detail coming into us from athens of the greek prime minister's office telling the bbc that the meeting between the coalition party leaders, which we have been waiting for, and the prime minister, this is to sign off on the bailout. that includes a 20% cut in the minimum wage, for example. cuts to the pensions. 15th thousand jobs to be lost in the public sector. critical decisions being taken. that meeting has now been delayed until 1600 local time. it was due to be 1:00. they said don't set your clocks by this because it may be pushed back. it's not all going quite as smoothly as hoped. critical to get a deal there in order for the second bailout to be provided by the european union and the imf. we will keep on top of that here

and on the web site, bbc.com /news. thanks for watching. >> 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 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.