very difficult conversation in the presence of many parliamentarians of the european council was the hague tribunal will exist until the situation of the world

improve our interaction on every subject and i think my country forty now give the floor to william hague. well thank you very much should you sit here with farmers the laughter of today and indeed to be one of the first to congratulate him on his reappointment as foreign minister and i think this visit comes at an important time in a relationship with the inauguration of an new president here in russia a fortnight ago and the formation of a new ministerial team a week ago. russia is a strategic partner of the united kingdom on the world stage and we look forward to close cooperation on many issues in the coming months that is why i'm pleased we've been able to sign this morning as you've seen a structured foreign policy dialogue on foreign policy issues and this is particularly relevant at a time when we are coming up to the united kingdom chairing the g. eight in two thousand and thirteen at the same time as russia will be chairing the g twenty so a strong dialogue on foreign policy issues is particularly important over the coming year as this of course sees the london olympics we've be

in the hague, where the trial of former bosnian serb army commander ratko mladic has begun. he stands accused of europe's worst war crimes since the second world war, including the massacre of more than 7000 men and boys that srebrenica in 1995. this is likely to be the last major trial drawn up by the bosnian war. >> 20 years after the ethnic cleansing of bosnian towns and villages began, former bosnian serb army commander ratko mladic arriving at the u.n. war crimes tribunal. he evaded arrest for 15 years of the league was captured in serbia last may and brought to the hague. the prosecutors say ratko mladic was involved in implementing a plan to exterminate non-serbs in the former yugoslavia. >> civilians who were targeted for no other reason than they were in ethnicity other than serb. their land, their lives, their dignity coordinated in an attacarefully coordinated manne. it rose to the level of genocide. >> today he appeared to be focusing intently on the prosecution goes the opening statement. >> he assumed the mantle of realizing through military might the criminal

at the hague. what's going on in the hague is not the only prominent case being held there. charles taylor is expected to address the international criminal court which recently found him guilty of war crimes in the neighboring sierraly-on-, the first to be convicted there and his last to have his say before he is sentenced later this month. france and germany have pledged to work together on solving the european debt crisis despite beinged a odds on how to do it. with fresh elections in greece likely to be on the way. >> for 10 days greece's president has tried and failed to get the party leaders to do a deal. that the latest meeting he told them greece's latest stability has caused people to withdraw 700 million euros from the banks and there's great fear, and that fear could turn into panic. but his warning wasn't enough to stave off another election next month. the state of banks is not the only thing causing alarm. they say it's time to get ready for the country leaving the euro, and that that would be quite messy. >> we certainly don't hope so. but we have to be prepar

another is also on trial here at the hague. one of the reasons they are trying to speed up the process of getting ratko mladic's trial underway is because of what happened to slobodan milosevic who was here. four years into his trial, he died in custody, so for many of their victims, they never saw justice. so they are looking at this trial as a possibly of him getting justice. >> now thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be prevented if the cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statens were more widely prescribed. that's the new research published in the report. they say statens provide protection even for those at low risk and relaxing the current guidelines would save lives. staying on a medical issue, donating a kidney to someone who needs it more than you is a kind act. the 83-year-old did it and became the oldest kid any donation. why doctors thought his kidney at the age of 83 would be good for donation. >> i had to pay 14 or 15 visits to the hospital to find out if it was suitable. and they had to determine whether i w

ratko mladic, one of the world's most wanted men goes on trial in the hague. president assad goes on russian tv to defend the syrian president, calling his opponents terrorists. beijing basked in the olympic spotlight four years ago. today, the legacy of those games is controversial. >> china promised the games would transform the lives of ordinary people here. four years on, there are serious doubts as to whether anything has changed at all. >> welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and also around the globe. the man who once held the terrified residents of sarajevo in the palm of his and stood in a dark -- stood in the hague today, accused of 11 counts of genocide and war crimes. it was a war that killed 100,000 people. it has taken almost 20 years to bring him to trial. the bbc reported from the conflict in bosnia. we were in the court today. >> living came to seek justice on behalf of the dead. ratko mladic has evaded the court for 20 years. he has aged visibly, but he seems no less defiant, no less sure that he did no wrong. mladic commanded the bosnian

of the former bosnian serb general rothko modish is to face the hague court he is accused of war crimes during the yugoslavia war in the one nine hundred ninety s. . next re speak to his son to find out why some serbs still think the former general is a hero. dark beachside over serbian military leader accused of war crimes in the former yugoslavia thank you very much for your time and for being with us today thank you for your father of. seventy as of now you more than once stated that he is in poor health one of the former serbian president slobodan milosevic died while being tried by the international criminal criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia in the hague will your father be able to stand the tribunals proceedings i cannot comment. a lot about this my father of course has some. issues regarding his health we are really quite certain about it and especially. based on the turban or. we're going to read the works of man hours. for an hour there is help. not only seventy years all of the. medical concerns of course. fox that some of the people that died. still more concern for

former serb former bosnian serb general ratko melodic faces the hague court he's accused of war crimes during the yugoslav war in the one nine hundred ninety s. . up next we hear from rod com a lot of his son darko to find out why some serbs still regard the former general as a hero stay with us. dark beach sun over serbian military leader accused of war crimes in the former yugoslavia thank you very much for your time and for being with us today thank you so your father of. seventy as of now you more than once stated that he is in poor health we know that former serbian president slobodan milosevic died while being tried by the international criminal criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia in the hague will your father be able to stand there tribunals proceedings i cannot comment. a lot about this my father of course has some. issues regarding his health we are already quite certain about that and especially. based on the turban or. we're going to read the works of man hours we feel is the need for help. since he is not only seventy years old the but has some medical concerns of c

very often that the hague tribunal is uncertain do you plan to continue the cooperation with the chinese be you know initiated by the democrats. i've been the team leader who defended voice live show and i struggled against carla del ponte a for many years even personally in strasbourg we had a very difficult conversation in the presence of many parliamentarians of the european council the hague tribunal will exist until the situation in the world changes and people have been convicted their people are dying there but the tribunals has the support of all countries and so far no one has launched a process to stop it anyway it will be closed soon because there are only a few processes left and it will close in a fairly negative way for the global justice system as the former president of serbia died in the hague of the presidents of croatia and bosnia have not been convicted yet it is discrimination of the serbian people began long ago and today nothing has changed in segregation continues or obviously it's not fair but the serbian government adopted a more on cooperation with the hague tr

a very difficult conversation in the presence of many parliamentarians of the european council the hague tribunal will exist until the situation in the world changes and people have been convicted their people are dying that but the tribunals has the support of all countries and so far no one has launched a process to stop it anyway it will be closed soon because there are only a few process you're left with and it will close in a fairly negative way for the global justice system as the former president of serbia died in the hague of course the presidents of croatia and bosnia have not been convicted yet it is discrimination of the serbian people began long ago and today nothing has changed in segregation continues to the obviously it's not fair but the serbian government adopted a more wrong cooperation with the hague tribunal and we have to respect that lauren stand boys like we've enjoyed many injustices in this world that i. thank you you thank . my parents really truly honestly believe that what had happened was as a result of my father's exposure to agent orange i was born with mul

ratko mladic goes on trial in the hague for atrocities in the bosnian war. president bashar al-assad goes on russian television to defend the syrian government. four years ago, and beijing basked in the olympic spotlight. the legacy of those games is still controversial. " china promised the games and would transform the lives of ordinary people. there are serious doubts as to whether anything has changed at all. >> welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. the man who once held the terrified residents sarajevo in the palm of his hand stood in the hague today accused of 11 counts of war crimes and genocide. ratko mladic was the much feared commander in a war that killed 100,000 people. it has taken 20 years to bring him to trial. >> the living on behalf of the dead came to the hague seeking justice. theirs has been a long wait. there was something of the old ratko mladic in court today. he seemed -- he did not speak, but he listened, focusing closely throughout. he commanded the bosnian serb army as it drove hundreds of thousands from th

today, he was inside the courtroom at the hague. michael dobbs, welcome. so this all goes back many years now. you were in the courtroom today. what was it like? what was the atmosphere? >> well, there were a lot of spectators in the courtroom who been victims of the war in bosnia. they were filling about half the courtroom. and there was some back-and-forecast, not orally but visually between them and ratko mladic. when mladic came into the court, he waved at these spectators, did a thumbs-up. some of them waved back. others cursed him. he seemed to relish being in the presence of people who could be described as his victims. >> brown: so, take us back in time to what this is all about. this was a horrific war in so many ways. what made srebrenica in particular stand out? >> well, seb neets aftershock the final episode in a horrific three-and-a-half-year war in bosnia, in europe itself. srebrenica was the worst massacre to occur in europe since world war ii. people had said after the holocaust "never again," and here it was happening on europe's own doors

is to be introduced as evidence at mladic's trial at the hague war crimes tribunal.he end of the 1990's, crews have been examined bodies of the massacre victims from mass graves. specialists have been using dna evidence to identify the bodies. as this grisly work continues, mladic is finally to stand trial on numerous charges in connection with the bosnian war. >> please be seated. >> this cemetery's part of a memorial site in sbrebrenica for those whose family members were killed nearly 17 years ago. the pain of their losses as real today as it was then. they come here every day to grieve. for many of them, the bosnian war has never really ended. in sbrebrenica today, bosnian serbs and muslims live together in relative peace, but some serbs still said that the massacre did not happen. >> if you take a look of their referral numbers, i would say the muslims beat us. a lot more serbs than muslims died here. >> we do not talk about that. the serbs are avoiding the issue. they do not want to call it genocide. they say it was an accident. >> some people here actually mak

mark doyle, bbc news. >> now, our correspondent joins me from the hague. allen, this was about sentencing today but the judge going to great length to describe why this man is going to be put away for 50 years. >> absolutely. he went into great detail about the horrific crimes committed by the rebels in sierra leone. some just too gruesome to mention. among them, carving initials into the head so could not escape. the press is just ending. charles taylor's lawyer has been giving a press conference and also the chief prosecutor -- saying 50 years is not enough and they are also planning also to appeal against that sentenced to try to get closer to the maximum term of 80 years. >> presumably we can take it for granted that charles taylor's team will be appealing and we will see him back in court. >> yes, absolutely. he has been saying charles taylor never actually set foot in sierra leone during the course of the conflict, so it was really impossible for him to defend himself on that basis. they also mentioned the mitigating circumstances that they asked the

william hague, britain's foreign secretary, has repeatedly said in the past that really there can be no solution, which leaves president assad in power in syria. sergei lavrov very pointedly today emphasized that a stress on regime change at this particular time would be completely wrong, that the whole focus should be on implementing the kofi annan plan and ending the violence and everything was secondary. so you can see there's a real underlying strategic political tension there. on the other hand, the fact that there has been an agreed presidential statement from the security council backed by russia, as well as those that have always been more hostile to president assad and his continuing rule, emphasizes they recognize the scale and horror of what happened over the past few days and that they want at least in public to be seen acting together, even if their longer term interests are different. >> thanks very much. we're going to take you live to the inquiry. tony blair is giving evidence at the inquiry. let's listen in. >> and what is more, that interaction will always involve a

and with former bosnian serb general robert cone law this on trial in the hague for war crimes we ask his son why the defense sees the case as by its. own screaming on line twenty four hours a day seven days a week this is our team it's a tough road ahead for france and germany as the newly elected president francois hollande and chancellor angela merkel pledged to work together to battle the crisis however they don't exactly see eye to eye on how to do it with opposing views on belt tightening and how to punish overspenders are to spear all of ours in berlin. well there was no real political bombshells dropped at the meeting between francois hollande and angle or merkel but there was also no attempt to cover up that they too don't see eye to eye on every issue and emphasized his belief that the impetus for growth is needed in the. remains committed that austerity is the only way if the eurozone is to drag its way out of the current mire it finds itself in now on the subject of the fiscal treaty francois hollande was relatively noncommittal however he did say that he continued to say

well syria is definitely expected to dominate the talks william hague the british foreign minister is known to be a fuse critic of the assad regime he has been calling for the this stuff for a rose from the international community as specially after the recent massacre in the syrian town of houla and earlier mr hague said that he understood moscow's strong influence on syrian authorities and said he was going to try to talk surveil loughborough off into applying more pressure on president assad in order to comply with the coffee on a peace plan which is supported by both britain and russia but the relations between the two countries have been complicated including when it comes to syria london has been taking more of the sign of the opposition while moscow has been promoting a more balanced approach so whether or not mr hague will be able to talk to be allowed into this offer approach is yet to be seen previously the releases between britain and russia hit their lowest point but and now they all are starting to improve and among other issues which are going to be discussed at this mee

closed doors as i'm speaking right now of course syria is among the most important issues william hague the british foreign minister is known to be a fierce critic of the assad regime he's been calling on the international community to toughen its approach especially after the recent massacre in the syrian town of houla and earlier mr he said that he understood russia strong influence on the sea enough toadies and he said he is going to trying to talk syria lamoral into applying more pressure on syria in order to comply with the coffee on and peace plan which is supported by both great britain and russia but the relationship between the two countries is quite complicated especially when it comes to syria since britain has been taking more of the side of the opposition while russia has been promoting more of a balanced approach so. we are going to find out if mr hague was able to achieve his goals at this meeting just in a few minutes since we are waiting for the final media conference all for both foreign ministers in just a few moments. well as artie's are you right there are still to

very difficult conversation in the presence of many parliamentarians of the european council was the hague tribunal will exist until the situation in the world changes and with other people have been convicted that people are dying that often but the tribunals has the support of all countries and so far no one has launched a process to stop it anyway it will be closed soon because there are only a few president left and it will close in a fairly negative way for the global justice system open as the former president of serbia died in the house of president the presidents of ovation and balls and you have not been convicted obviously is discrimination of the serbian began long ago and today nothing has changed in segregation continues obviously it's not fair but the serbian government adopted the wrong co-operation with the hague tribunal a little we have to respect that norrin stand boys like we've enjoyed many injustices in this world with that a. thank you thank you. don .

was and obviously it's not fair but the serbian government adopted the wrong co-operation with the haguetribunal a little we have to respect that in order and stand boys like we've enjoyed many injustices in this world with that. thank you thank you. religion and education here are our inseparable. enlightenment isn't possible without. inner peace without hard work. and joy for the oppressor. suit.

to the obviously it's not fair but the serbian government adopted the wrong co-operation with the hague tribunal a little we have to respect that lower and stand boys like we've enjoyed many injustices in this world that i. thank you thank you. for sure is that so much of me is going to make a lot of people here you know nothing like a thinking the welfare state while attempting to save a struggling middle class are we reaching the point where society has ripped apart by socialist. sigrid laboratories to mccurry was able to build the world's most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't do.

the trial against the former paramilitary commander is opening in a few days in the hague. bosnians welcome the trial, but many say that the international community did not do enough to protect them. they're here in server needs of for the first time. this is where bosnian serbs massacred bosnian muslims in july 1995, before these two were even born. under command, 8000 boys and men were murded mplyecause they were muslims, like the pupils now visiting the site. today, the factory hall where it all began in 1995 is a museum. thousands of bosnian muslims sought protection from marauding serb paramilitary forces in a town the united nations had declared a safe zone. united nations peacekeeping troops did nothing to stop it when the troops came to separate the boys fornd thenrom their mothers d wives. >> i think they are to blame. they did not help us. they bear the entire responsibility that it happened. that is how it is. >> she and her schoolmates walk through the graveyard at the srebrenicia monument. the bodies were grudgingly exhumed from mass graves and identified by dn

we're taking you straight to the hague, live into the u.n. special court for the case of charles taylor, former prime minister -- president, sorry, of liberia, found guilty only last month of war crimes in relation to the civil war in sierra leone. this is the moment of which he will learn what his sentence is to be. prosecution calling for 80 years in prison, says no right to the death penalty, 80 years is the highest possible sentence. as the judge is prepared to deliberate, i'm joined now by mark doyle, international development correspondent. mark, obviously much ground background with sierra leone in particular and charles taylor's crimes. i suppose you'll be interested to know how close to that figure they get. >> 8 owe years is what the prosecution has asked for, because of the heinous nature of the crimes as they describe them. the prosecution now has court business to do before the judge actually passes the sentence. the defense has said that is disproportionate, they said a 64-year-old man to 80 years in jail means he'll die in jail

bbc news, the hague. >> and in other news from around the world come two days after the controversialeelection, the head of the main syrian opposition bloc is resigning. he has led the syrian national council by consensus rather than election since it was founded in october of last year. he was reelected in a vote held on tuesday. united states is suspending most sanctions against burma in response to reforms. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton will allow american companies to invest in burma, but an arms embargo will remain. and a chinese activist has given details of his torture and retribution they said they suffered at the hands of chinese authorities. the bbc has obtained the first interviews with his family members since he escaped from house arrest last month and fled to the american embassy in beijing, causing a diplomatic crisis. we have more from damascus. >> the human rights activist whose daring escape into the arms of american diplomats put china and america at loggerheads. for 15 days, he had been under guard at a beijing hospital. just how he managed to flee his il