Transcripts For WHUT 20091201 : vimarsana.com

financial strength to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? and now bbc world news. president obama is to send 30,000 more troops to afghanistan, and he will set a time line. tens of thousands of sri lankan display is the tamils are allowed to leave camp, but they have to come back. arrangements f my own tests. [applause] setting an example, in the fight against hiv aids, president zuma invites africans to join him in taking a test. very warm welcome to bbc world news, broadcast for our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. coming up later for you global catastrophe or global hysteria? what climate change still divides public opinion. why climate change still divides public opinions. and throwing light on the dark ages. london showcases new medieval treasures. hello. after months of agonizing, is now clear president obama is about to announce a surge of extra erican troops for afghanistan. he will make its case live on prime-time tv, speaking directly to students at west point military academy will have to risk their lives to make his plans and reality. there will likely be another 30,000 u.s. troops, but also a time table. troops could begin leaving by july 2011. our north american editor has this report. the president looks relaxed enough, waiting for hillary clinton before briefing and top elected politicians on his decision. he agonized about it in chemlawn meetings. tonight he will tell the american people that he is sending 30,000 new troops to afghanistan in the next six months, bringing the total troop deployment to more than 100,000. if the troop numbers are not a surprise, the speed is significant. in a country where the word vietnam still has a resonance, the president the the word vietnam still has a resonance, the the president has a case to make. we are going to train the afghan national security force. police and army. we want to come as quickly as possible, transition security of the afghan people over to those national security forces in afghanistan. this cannot be nation-building. in the corridors on the hill in senate and congress, many members of mr. obama own party doubt this will work. that is the real worry. the afghans are going to be there forever. taliban and non-taliban. we are not. the president will lay out, i believe, an exit strategy, which will be welcome. but the bottom line is whether the policy itself of increasing the number of troops to 100,000 is a sustainable strategy. marines training allows no room for doubt or question in orders. here at paris island in south carolina, youngsters are rned into fighters. it is marines like them who will carry out this new mission. they are trained to talk about themselves at one remove and eager to go to afghanistan. you want to fight for your country. in all of this for krugman, in the actual training in boot camp, this is a way to serve your country. the united states is the largest foreign force in afghanistan by far. the crucial part of the new mission 9000 american marines will go to helmand province where british troops have faced some of the fiercest battles in the country. some of the 21,000 soldiers sent by the u.s. army will go to another province to protect afghanistan s second biggest city and the vital road link with the capital, kabul. troops spread across the country will help train the police and army. opinion polls suggest americans do not want more troops sent, but it is a narrow majority. you can hear both sides of the argument on the streets. i think it is a mistake. if you re trying to put an end to what is going on, why are we sending more troops? in afghanistan, there is no doubt. need to go full force to do it. i do not think there s any way for him not to do it. he will do it tonight. at west point, the cadets are getting ready to listen to their commander in chief. abc news, washington. did stay with us. we do have more later in the program. some really interesting stuff from a former afghan diplomat. sri lankans are telling the bbc of their relief to leave government camps, even temporarily. it is not freedom, but it is a big step toward closing the can set up when the tamil tiger rebels were put down in may. this report does include eyewitness accounts. free to go outside last, and do the basic things of life like getting on a bus. getting to go where you please, when you please. even in the most packed up conditions. independent media were not allowed to travel north to see the opening of the camps, but this was a special bag. huge numbers of displaced tamils had been confined for months or years in the hellish conditions of a war zone. now they are happy, but with reservations. we are going to bite household things. we are also planning to buy clothes for my son for his birthday. the authorities have given as a form. we have to tell them how long we want to stay away from the camps five days or more. we can even go to colombo and come back. we have been given an army identity card. we will be happy if they do release as. we are going out with our families. all this can go wherever we want to. we want to go with more freedom, but we really want to go back to our original home. if they let us leave the camps permanently, that would be wonderful. we do not know what they re going to do with us. they are issuing passes. it s a different outside, with the people and vehicles. this is the first time we have been allowed out in months. we can buy vegetables and other essential items. we re getting basic foods from the world food program, but there s a shortage of other things. people say they have permission to stay away for up to 15 days, but they cannot visit other camps. the military authorities tell the bbc that anyone trying to leave permanently will be tracked down. actual we settlements are being carefully planned. the tamil situation has taken on new political significance. a presidential election is due next month. the disaffected former armed forces chief is standing against the president. the general has launched his campaign, saying he sees it as his duty to ensure the welfare of tamils in the north. their votes are at stake. bbc news, colombo. some other top stories for you. in london, the foreign office has summoned iran s ambassador for details on the detention of five british yachtsmen. they apparently strayed into iranian waters and were detained six days ago. the world s no. 1 golfer will not face criminal charges stemming from the car crash in which he was injured last week. he will have to pay a fine and get points and his license for careless driving. the chief executive of general motors has announced he is stepping down in a surprise move. he was on the appointed back in march when he helped steer the firm out of bankruptcy protection. gm is still losing money and has been giving taxpayer cash to save it from collapse. the individual who threw shoes at president bush last year has a taste of his own medicine. the confrontation in paris did not stop there. he was chased and also had a shoe thrown at him. it is world aids day, at south africa s president jacob zuma has confirmed he will be taking an hiv test. that is a big step. he and his predecessor faced heavy condemnation for spreading confusion about hiv. 30% of his country is hiv- positive. and in the past, that has hurt soldiers careers. but that to be changing. we have this report. on the southern edge of the kalahari desert, south africans are training to defend their country. they will be sent abroad to places like darfur. 30% are estimated to have the aids virus. they are banned from serving abroad and are overlooked for promotions. but that is about to change. the south african military has been forced to review its position, balancing the individual rights of the soldier with the aids virus with the rights of the nation to expect a fit fighting force. in a move which pushes the frontiers of military practice, soldiers will no longer face a blanket ban if infected. but there are safeguards. if you are hiv and sec, clearly you will not be on the front line. if you are hiv and sick, you will clearly not be on the front line. if you are just hiv-positive, then your status will be minimized. aids testing in the military re is voluntary, but the reality is if you refuse, you will not be deployed. but the advances in a potent drugs and the new rules give infected soldiers of better chance. on the ground, we felt very little resistance to the changes. is not really a problem for the people i work with. we would really like to know. keeping in shape, this is a platoon sergeant in charge of 36 men. he is also hiv-positive. like thousands of others, he has been overlooked for promotions and foreign tourists, branded by his disease. and foreign tours, branded by his disease. you are keeping the peace. [unintelligible] in no way. they admit that. rejoining the war games, we spotted casualty s being infatuated. now the prospect of more hiv- positive troop deployments, questions about crossing sections. experts argue the additional risk is negligible. nearly 3000 stop africans are on peacekeeping operations. hiv is a reality the military has been forced to embrace. all the more remarkable for a country emerging from years of denial. bbc news, south africa. stay with us, if you can on bbc world news. still to come with president obama about confirm his plans for afghanistan, we will hear from a former afghan diplomat. what he thinks about the exit strategy. first though, serbia has called on the international court of justice to rule that s kosovo s declaration of independence broke international law. this is the first time a case like this has been brought before the court. in the center of belgrade, they stand the mangled shells of former state buildings, bombed by nato a decade ago. the goal to force the then- yugoslav government to withdraw from kosovo. agreed was a pressing and ethnic albanian insurgency there. belgrade was a pressing and ethnic albanian insurgency there. serbia calls the independence illegal. now on belgrade s request, the international court of justice will decide for the first time whether they broke international law. what is serbia trying to achieve? the president says it could end up providing opportunity for fresh negotiations. it is not about kosovo independence. this is about starting from the right page. starting from the beginning to talk, to achieve real compromise and sustainable solutions. the international court of justice will issue just an advisory opinion. it will not be legally binding. assembly could set a legal precedent for other cases of succession elsewhere in the world and the verdict is liky to affect whether kosovo gets wider recognition, something lgrade would like to avoid. many sbs will always see their cherished southern province as the cradle of serbian orthodoxy. for this conservative nation, the spiritual connection will be hard to extinguish. bbc news, belgrade. this is bbc world news. good to have you with us. one main headline president obama is about to announce 30,000 american troops will go to afghanistan. but the u.s. military will begin meeting within two years. the president will, of course, be talking to several audiences. an american public increasingly skeptical of this military mission, students at west point, and the people of afghanistan you are looking for long-term aid. a special correspondent, philippa thomas, sat down to talk about this with a former afghan diplomat. what do you and the people of afghanistaneed to hear tonight? the people of afghanistan are looking for continuity, a commitment from the international community, not forgetting afghanistan. this has happened before. when the red army withdrew and the u.s. brought assistance in 1989, u.s. aid opped overnight. that led to a period of time where the taliban rose. people believe people remember that. what do you think if president obama talks about an exit strategy, and there are signals that there are timeless, that might not face a while back there? this is important. the exit strategy issue. the present needs to speak to the following. he needs to say he will eventually drawdown of the troops, but ramp up extremely quickly the civilian aid, the massive economic aid, and the government aid. said that for the long term? this needs to start now. he needs to take over the engagement from nato at some point. but we need the troops now. is the taliban able to portray the united states as the alien occupier to a greater extent if there are more boots coming in? that is exactly right. in the first phase, the population will see continually only troops. then we will lose that ability of the afghan people to still won the international presence there. indeed the taliban will use that as recruitments. that is correct. we have to be able to switch our international presence from just trips to other things. this is a real security we need to establish. we ought to do this. the president needs to talk about this in his speech, needs to promote it right after. that would be his preparation to actually also say to the american public that eventually the troops will withdraw from afghanistan. a former afghan diplomats speaking from watching him. just before the climate change summit in copenhagen, new evidence suggests sea levels could rise by 1.4 meters, a disaster for several countries. but new opinion polls are suggesting that people are unconvinced humans have an impact on all this. our correspondent tries to find out why. it could not be more remote the eyes of antarctica. most of it will stay frozen for centuries. but this one area is showing signs of breakingp, which could raise sea levels by 1.4 meters by the end of the century, the latest in a long line of warnings. but what are we to make of it? for most people, i saw in the polar region seems completely irrelevant. that is the case with quite a lot of climate change. but it is hard to grasp all greenhouse gase could have an impact in coming decades right across the planet. but today came a warning of what is at risk from the author of the highly influential government report on the costs of climate change. he says there are serious threats. because of failure the cost of failure is a destructive effect on the environment through inundation, hurricanes, changing the pattn of river flows that will leave hundreds of millions of people to mmiff. you are convinced that? yes. of 41% said they believed climate change was largely man- made, but 60% said it the case was not proven or happening. a lot of people find the signs confusing. they find is more remote than other problems in their lives. often, people who talk about the issues are more likely to be politicians who are skeptical and cynical. governments accept the science that greenhouse gases are changing the climate. but skeptics worry we re rushing into a costly overreaction. there has been discussion for many years about global warming. it has been too emotional and to politicize too politicized dimportant voices have been ignored. scientists in antarctica say that the planet is changing and we are involved. that is why there is pressure to act on global warming at the climate summit in copenhagen next week. the challenge is convincing the public it is worth it. bbc news. that could be the future. let s take you back a bit. the years after the fall of the roman empire used to be called the dark ages because western europe fell into decline. but i knew gallery in london proves that are described in that period. the museum is packed with artifacts that challenge all kinds of preconceptions. we took a look. a rebirth for long-held treasures. masterpieces are being shown in a new light, bringing new perspective to the renaissance. the showpiece is an italian- style central courtyard. we wanted to show it in a different way. we wanted to show a new story. that gives you a much broader and richard richer appreciation. the objects that have survived since the middle ages are often religious ones. this is one of the earliest, alter candlesticks. the beckett casket was inspired by the murder of the archbishop in canterbury cathedral in 1170. a colorful time, hazy in the popular memory. we do want to challenge some of the ideas that people have. it is interesting. people thought the medieval period was full of mud and rain, but with the renaissance, the sun now. we re trying to show that the medieval period was also a period of great learning and innovation. part of this is showing all artifacts were actually used. a lot of objects were buried on in the museum sellers and their now been resurrected, as it were, and put in their original context. the feel of this room is a bit like a church, built with religious pieces. but is not the same as visiting one. however well presented the objects of art, nothing quite compares to the atmosphere of a real, living, a medieval church. this is st. bartholomew the great, the oldest parish church in the city of london. it is also one of the most famous, featuring many tv series and movies. here you have a continuing fabric. this was built in the 12th century, built in 1123 and gradually expanded and gradually contracted. but sutton parts of the fabric have been here all but certain parts of the fabric have been here the whole time. there are gems like the tomb of the founding fryer and a medieval the founding friar and a medieval window. we have to point out these objects to people because they are not obvious. i am standing on the wine cellar, when i first came. when i opened it, i was quite surprised to find that it was actually put in here to show people how the monks and friars were buried. it is a sarcophagus? it is a slab of stone that is carved out. in shallow. this could be in what is now a cafe? it turned out that way. we are careful not to open it when people are eating. in the victoria and albert museum, it has taken seven years and millions of dollars to dust off some of the this beautiful objects in europe. but there are more to be found in the dark corners of our churches and cathedrals. bbc news. everyone should have such a seller. astronauts from the international space station have landed after six months away. it touched down in the grasslands of kazakhstan. there were scorch marks on the craft, but the official line is that everything went according to plan. the astronauts were given the all clear. the space shuttle is soon to be grounded. moron not at all the international news on bbc.com anytime you want it. thank you for being with us on bbc world news. 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. union bank has put its financial strength to work for a wide range of companies from small businesses to major corporations what can we do for you? 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