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>> >> silence in syria as reports suggest the u.n.-broke either cease-fire is holding. the shooting that caused a rage around the united states, a florida man is charged with second degree murder. why the north and south sudan, reports of a sudanese bombing raid. welcome to "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy. also in this program -- sony axes 10,000 jobs after warning it's on track to make a record loss for the year, and why pay with euros when you can barter? we visit a greek town trying out another solution to the economic crisis. >> hello and welcome. it's now been six hours since

the u.n. deadline for a complete cease-fire in syria came into force. with few independent journalists operating inside syria, it's hard to verify if the violence has halted or not, but so far there are no reports of any major bloodshed. both the opposition and the syrian government have promised to honor the cease-fire, but only if the other side does as well. it's thought that 9,000 people have died in the violence in the last 13 months. john andrew reports. >> this was a tranquil scene at the border this morning, these pictures taken shortly after the cease-fire began. in the days before, there had been fierce clashes in the city of homs. despite kofi annan's faith in his plan, he's had less than a warm welcome from the americans, who believe that syria's qualified agreement leaves the plan with little or no credibility. syria's ambassador to the u.n. said many of the rebel groups were being back road by other

groups. >> every drop of blood is a pity. we are extremely painful with this issue much this is why we declared our approval of the end of violence, because we would like to save our own people. >> the free syrian army say they can't get down to observe the cease-fire. >> i don't believe our forces will stop shooting, because the other side won't stop. if the other side stops, the syrian people would march on the president's pass on the same day. >> the real test of this cease-fire will come in the hours and days ahead. john andrews, bbc news. >> well, some footage has now started emerging by the internet from inside syria today. it is hard to verify, but we understand that this is a demonstration in islip after the cease-fire came in. the protesters are shouting, we

answer only to god's command. and these pictures are in the city of homs. you might be able to say, it's claiming to show a sniper taking up position. again, all taken place after the u.n. cease-fire deadline. and these pictures have come in from the city of hamas. you can see there are tanks still in the street. the person who filmed this says that tanks are still surrounding the location. well, earlier i spoke to the bbc's jim muir in beirut will about the cease-fire is holding. >> basically i think it is holding. normally by this time of day, we'd have a huge flow of reports from activists of the incidents here and now, but at the moment, there's very, very little. there are a few alleged incidents, but no fatalities or injuries reported. one thing that is happening, though, is that tanks and troops remain in towns and cities, and that, for the

opposition, is a breach of the annan peace plan, the complete withdrawal of those troops and tanks and heavy weapons, etc., was supposed to have happened by tuesday. so they will be looking for pressure on that front. also, of course, they'll be trying to carry out demonstrations, seeing how far they can push it before security forces react. so there are all kinds of ways in which things could -- tensions could start to build up. but at the moment, they're quiet but tense, and very little by way of infractions. >> of course, we we don't want to be premature, but if the cease-fire was to hold, what would be the next few tent sive steps? >> obviously that issue of the forces and heavy weapons is high on the agenda, but also the question of getting u.n. observers in there. now, the negativetors who were trying to agree with the syrian authorities on modalities for the u.n. team has apparently returned to geneva, having hit

snags over quite a profound nature. they did make progress on details, but there were substantive issues of difference between the two sides. so that is an area which will have to be looked at very swiftly. >> given there are very few independent journalists in the country now, are we basically reliant on hearing from the opposition as to whether there are any bouts of violence in the coming hours? >> i think they will be the natural sort, assuming that the breaches are coming from the government side. but if the boot is on the other foot, if some of the rebel groups start causing trouble, then obviously we would presumably hear about that fairly swiftly from the authorities. so it's a kind of situation where the two sides are monitoring each other, if you like, and we're likely to hear from one or the other if things do go well. >> yesterday it looked so precarious because the tuesday deadline seemed to come and go

without any action, then we saw kofi annan still saying, look, this can happen. what do you think has changed in the last few hours, 48 hours on the diplomatic front? >> my own view, and i'm guessing, but reading a lot of little signs, is the russians put massive pressure on the syrians. if you saw that press conference between the visiting syrian foreign minister and his russian counterpart a couple of days ago, their body language suggested to me there had been some pretty tough words exchanged behind the scenes. they both looked very grim and tense, and i think that is what has tilted the balance, the russians have twisted the syrian regime's arms to get them to agree to this. despite dragging the syrian regime, basically dragging its feet and being rather reluctant. now, whether that russian pressure that we're getting out, that i presume is there, will keep up throughout this process and where it will lead, what end game the russians have

in mind, we are, of course, left guessing. >> jim muir on what's going on now in pmc-sierra i can't. it took a civil rights campaign and an intervention from president obama, one of the most racially divided claims in recent years in america will be tried in court after all. a prosecutor in florida has now brought charges of second degree murder against george zimmerman, who shot dead an unarmed black teenager, trayvon martin. it overturns an earlier decision not to prosecute, which sparked angry protests. jonathan blake reports from washington. >> six weeks on from the night trayvon martin died, the man who confessed to killing his has been charged with his murder. since george zirmman shot the unarmed 17-year-old, the case has been widely scrutinized. there have been protests, calls for justice, and accusations of racism. but prosecutors claim it has taken time to establish the facts. >> let me emphasize that we do not prosecute by public

pressure or by petition. we prosecute based on the facts of any given case, as well as the laws of the state of florida. >> george zimmerman claims trayvon martin attacked him and that he killed in self-defense, legal under florida law. police said there was no evidence to prove that wasn't the case. from the outset, trayvon martin's family said all they wanted was an arrest. >> we wanted nothing more, nothing less. we just wanted an arrest, and we got it. and i say thank you. thank you, lord. thank you, jesus. >> george zimmerman is charged with second degree murder. lawyers must prove in shooting trayvon martin he intended to kill, but not that he planned to murder in advance. the 28-year-old's lawyer says he will plead not guilty. >> he's concerned about getting a fair trial and a fair presentation. there's obviously been a lot of information flowing.

i think a lot of it's been both premature and maybe inappropriate. >> george zirmman is being held at the county jail. if found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. his trial will bring more scrutiny of what happened the night trayvon martin died and perhaps for the first time a chance to hear george zirmman's side of the story. jonathan blake, bbc news, washington. >> we're going to take you to the west african nation of mali. these are live pictures of the interim president being sworn into office. this is the scene live from the capital. well, his government will have 40 days to organize democratic elections, but some observers think this deadline won't be met because the northern region has split from the rest of the country. and it was only a few weeks ago that the soldiers faced that coup. their leader agreed to hand over power, but the forces are

returning to power at some later point. he said the coup was a response to the government's poor handling of a conflict with tribesmen in the north, but he's still going on. but these are the ceremonial pictures coming in to us at the moment. zimbabwean president, robert mugabe, has returned home from singapore, defying ruremeds he was seriously ill. the 88-year-old was met at the main airport by senior government officials, including his potential successor, the vice president. mugabe didn't speak to reporters and was whisked away in his official presidential motorcade. sudanese aircraft reported to have attacked a south sudanese capital over an ongoing dispute over an oil field which was captured by the south on tuesday. five bombs are reported to have hit the town. the the rejection of calls to withdraw its troops from the

heglig oil field on its disputed border. sudan has pulled out of talks with south sudan, as dim macts efforts continue. earlier i spoke to the africa editor of the bbc's world service, and i asked him how serious this latest attack is. >> well, i think it's just similar block of what is going on between north and south sudan, because the relationship has now deteriorated to almost catastrophic level. the bombing has gone on before. there have been bombings along the border, but to bomb a town as big as this is really quite significant. >> there have been a lot of tensions basically almost since the split of south sudan last july. was that inevitable? questions like the division over the oil fields wasn't actually properly resolved. >> indeed. that is one of the major issues. i mean, you know, both countries get almost all their revenue from the oil. the south wanted to pay about

one or two dollars to transport the oil across sudan. the north were demanding $36 a barrel, so you can imagine there's a huge gap between those two figures. but the real question is where do these oil borders lie. do they lie in the north or the south? the international community seems to be backing the sudan ese case in this instance that heglig is in the north. but the north says until it was grabbed in 1985 and the president, the sudanese president then, it was always considered the south. there was an international aadjudication which placed this oil field probably in the south. so it's a very difficult and murky area. but the situation is very tense indeed now. >> martin there. aaron is right here today for us. sony, we had warning of this, 10,000 job losses. they have confirmed it. do we know where exactly? >> no, we don't, although i've been hearing a lot probably

from the manufacturing side in japan. japan, it's very expensive to manufacture, very expensive salaries, and the stronger yen really hurting these companies. let's talk about the man who's got one of the toughest jobs, kuzuo hirai, the new boss of sony. he's only been in the chair less than two weeks. he confirmed the job losses and big changes are afoot. they have to, because earlier this week we heard the company is losing close to $6.5 billion. so they're going to focus on phones, games, cameras, medical equipment, and try to make a big turnaround in the television side of the company. this is where they've been really suffering. it's part of the season that hasn't made a profit for eight years. they're going to slash the models they make by about 40%. but i tell you what, most of the experts that i've been speaking to say this is too little, too late, because the competition from the south korean samsung, apple really hammering these guys. >> yeah, absolutely.

also we're looking at google, number one today. >> it's important and probably fair, one of the most important companies in the world, because up to this point it has been typically the main gateway to the internet. but boy, geeta, how things change, because google really worried about advertising revenue. we saw a worrying drop at the end of last-year. we're seeing this drop because we're seeing a shift from consumers going from the traditional p.c.'s and laptops, which is why they make a lot of their advertising revenue from, to mobile devices. so the numbers come out after the bell, and they'll be watched very, very closely. i'll have all of this and a lot more on the world business report in about 20 minutes' time. >> you're watching bbc world news. for more than two decades, there's been an international ban on trade in ivory, but recently growing numbers have

been found slaughtered in africa for their tusks were stolen. an investigation has revealed that demand from asia, especially china, is fueling the illegal trade. it's putting an already endangered species even more at risk. >> here in kenya's region, elephants have traditionally thrived. but experts say there are now worrying signs of poaching. in the past three years, a quarter of the area's elephants have been lost. >> at the moment, we're having a poaching spike. it's worse than it's ever been before. if it got out of hand, it would threaten not only elephants, but also the communities around. >> poaches is at its worst where government and security are weak. in particular, central africa, where the long-term future of forest elephants is at risk. when the democratic repep of congo, secret filming by panorama found poached ivory openly on sale in the market.

>> how much is this one? >> oh, this one. >> $10,000. >> conservationists and governments trying to tackle poaching in africa say the trade is being driven by demand from china. four years ago, the body which oversees the wildlife trade, lifted the ban to allow poor southern african countries to sell stockpiled ivory to china and japan. while there's no official link with increased poaching, some conservationists say that controversial decision has backfired. the chinese government it says is upholding its international obligations. but those trying to protect elephants see china's appetite for ivory as a long-term problem for africa. >> this is "bbc world news."

i'm geeta guru-murthy. the headlines -- a cease-fire between government forces and rebel fighters in syria appears to be holding in the vast majority of places much the man who controversially killed an unarmed black teenager in the u.s. state of florida has been arrested and charged with second degree murder. >> coming up in sport today in half an hour, a shock defeat for manchester united in the english premier league as they go down 1-0. and there's a stunning comeback from the philadelphia flyers against pittsburgh as they open the eastern conference playoffs in dramatic fashion. all that and more in sport today in half an hour. >> more on our top story this hour. the u.n. deadline for a cease-fire in syria. the issue came up when the british prime minister gave a news conference.

he said unless syria's president stepped down, the situation would escalate into a full-scale civil conflict. >> so where cries for reform are being resisted and where people are being repressed, just as they are today in syria, we must oppose the authoritarian leader. because the longer assad stays, the more dangerous things become for his people and the greater likelihood of a bloody civil war. >> well, our political correspondent joining me on the line. david cameron was in malaysia on this tour of the asia region. john told me what the prime minister has been saying also during the last few days. >> maybe the strongest words from david cameron that we've heard since that, an awful lot of skepticism, as you know, about the goodwill of president assad of syria and heeding the cease-fire.

he was talking about the need to get china and russia to tighten the noose, those were his words, around the neck of assad. he was talking about diplomatic pressure, but more easily said than done because there's been resistance from those countries towards stronger action and sanctions where syria is concerned. we may not move to the point where cameron seems to be convinced, but stronger diplomatic action is on the table. >> the nato secretary general is in kabul, where he's been meeting afghan special forces at a training catch, speaking at a press conference. he said he was confident that afghan security forces would still take over from nato troops as planned at the end of 2014. i'm here at a time where we can still report progress and good news. we are on track to reach the goal.

we're together with you, mr. president, set in lisbon when we met at the nato summit in november 2010. our goal is an afghanistan with afghans fully in charge of their own security by the end of 2014. that time table remains unchanged, and our commitment to our partnership with the afghan people beyond 2014 remains strong. >> well, the reuters news agency is reporting that the afghan president, hamid karzai, is saying he is mulling changes to that 2014 time table for national elections or the planned transition so that the country doesn't have massive change simultaneously, talking about bringing one or the other of those forward to the year 2013.

but says he hasn't made a final decision yet and it won't be soon. >> let's go to south korea. there's some flash photography coming up. south korea's governing new frontier party has won a narrow majority in the country's parliamentary elections. the party took 152 seats in the 300-member assembly, losing fewer seats to the opposition, democrat united party, than opinion polls had predicted. the bbc's lucy williamson in seoul explained what the election results mean for the country. >> the governing party has retained its majority, although a much reduced majority, and the headline of this election is really different than the subtext, if you like. the headline is the governing party has surprised everyone really by returning that majority. all the polls have suggested that the two parties would get roughly the same amount of votes and the parliament would be split. but the subtext of this is that while the opposition party has lost, it has gained a lot of

ground from where it was a couple of days ago, gained about 50% more seats than it has before, and also the governing party has really shifted to the left in order to hang onto the seats it has hung on to, tackling issues like welfare, the role of the big south korean companies, which many young people feel have too much power these days, really shifting to the left in order to try to win over some of those younger votes. so i think although this will be a big boost for the ruling party, it will help them in going into campaigning for presidential elections, which happen in december. there is a big shift afoot inside south korean politics. >> lucy williamson in south. north korea's new leader has been named to fill two key political posts held by his late father. mr. kim was made chairman of the central military commission and a standing member of the political bureau. the nation is also preparing to launch a rocket to mark the occasion, but washington says the event is a cover for a test

of missile technology. greece's future in the eurozone, of course, still remains very uncertain, but in one town at least, the euro is no longer being seen as the only currency of the future. traders have set up an alternative local system, which works through bartering and exchanging goods and services. our greece correspondent, mark lowen, went to see the idea in action. >> wander down to this mart, there's one thing you won't need in your pocket -- money. from crafts to food, everything here is for sale through tem, a new alternative currency. locals build up credit by offering goods or services. the value is recorded in a central computer network, allowing them to spend their tem on whatever they choose, however exotic. a traditional bartering system returning to today's greece. >> change money, it's great to

exchange with what i can offer. >> we have reached the bottom of our lives. in a different way. >> since it began, this network has built up over 800 members and is growing ever day, a grass roots initiative for people struggling to afford things with euros. it spawned other bartering and exchange systems around the country, as greeks look for new ways to beat the financial crisis. it's thrown this picturesque little place into the spotlight. they're suffering like many greek cities. industry collapsing and unemployment soaring. the alternative currency has re-energized a community searching for a glimmer of hope. the mayor has backed the project, but thinks the two currencies can coexist. >> we think it's a very good way out to the economics, to

the commercial and social crisis. but it's an initiative without supplements. >> but it is gaining pace. this is one of the local businesses now using the network, a cooperative which sells plants through at the m, giving fresh opportunities to the workers. >> we can buy bread and meat in exchange for our products, she says, and the girls can go to the hair lakers. i grew up in a village. this was how it used to work in the old days before money was involved. the next generation is benefiting too. parents who can no longer afford these workshops for their children can now pay in part with tem. the euro may not be forced out here, but there is now an alternative on which many are depending, a simple idea giving this community fresh optimism, a rare hint of color amidst the darkness of the financial

crisis. mark lowen, bbc news. >> 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. union bank. and shell. >> this is kim - about to feel one of his favorite sensations. at shell, were developing more efficient fuels in countries like malaysia that can help us get the most from our energy resources. lets use energy more efficiently. lets go.

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