Transcripts For BBCAMERICA BBC World News 20141217

Washroom. Sharif is giving a News Conference now. Well take you there live. In other news, dalai llama tells he may be the last to hold the title. Disgraced himself. Also on the program, a look at whats happening in russia today. Ben . Desperate days for rouble. Russian leaders say not to pani panic. Its midday here in london, 7 00 a. M. Washington and 5 00 p. M. In pakistan where a nation is still struggling thes with ot days. 132 children and nine Staff Members were killed. Its called the worst tragedy in the countrys history. Mass services are held today for the victims. Now theyre declaring three days of morning. A press conference now is in the city of peshawar. Hes been meeting with other political leaders to discuss the governments response. One of the things sharif has said today, he has promised to rid his country of terrorism. He has been speaking as i mentioned to many of the countrys political leaders. He has said the country was united now to insure this kind of tragedy never happens again. He does not want the sacrifice of these childrens lives to be wasted. Now we are monitoring that press conference in peshawar. Well bring you more if he says anything significant. For now, the first journalist to see the devastation inside. We have a warning for you, there are disturbing details in her account. Reporter so they were shooting from the stage . Yeah. They were shooting from the stage. Then they also came to the seat rows. You will see the students were trying to get out of the rows and some of the main aisle. Thats where you see most of the blood from either side of the seats. Reporter okay. So were walking towards an area thats clearly been the scene of a significant gun battle. Theres debris all over the ground. Scattered school books and offices. This is administrative block. There was members of the staff and principal that died in this room. There are a lot of people rescued from here. Members of staff and a lot of children as well. Reporter the walls are covered in bullet holes. You can see all the bullets on the walls. Then this is the room of the principal. One of the suiciders exploded himself or was shot here from outside. He exploded here. The principal was in the washroom. The bomb was locked inside. Thats where she died. Reporter explosives were set off in this room. She died from the blast . Actually she died in the washroom. Body was recover ed from the washroom. They locked the grenade in the washroom. One of the suicide bombers was shot here in this room. Thats where you see the impact of the explosion here. Reporter were they all wearing suicide vests . They were. Reporter there were seven of them . There were seven is. Reporter you recovered all their bodies . Yeah. Reporter had they all managed to set off explosives before they were killed . Actually what happened, two of them got killed there. Any suicide bomber when hit will also explode. We are not sure how many set explosives themselves and how many were shot and then exploded. Reporter its a scene of utter devastation. Bbc there inside the school. We are going to take you outside the school. Another of our correspondents is there. First we wanted to listen to the press conference given at the moment by the Prime Minister sharif. He has been meeting main Political Parties today in peshawar. Lets see what he has to say. [ inaudible [ inaudible ] translator we are also working on how to enhance the Intelligence Network and make them more effective. Were also working to make the center to control everything. We have discussed how to deal with this terrorism at every level at every scale and every forum. Pakistans Prime Minister taking questions from the press. This is a very Important Press conference for him. He has been meeting with all the main Political Parties in peshawar trying to present the united front politically. One of the things he has said throughout the day is not only is this pakistans worst ever tragedy, but he is promising pakistanis he will rid this country of terrorism. What he has just said there to the press is that theyre going to enhance the Intelligence Network at every level, scale, forum. They have discussed with those political leaders how to deal with with terrorism. Lets bring in the bbc service here. Youre listening to what the Prime Minister has to say. Hes under enormous pressure to deal with the taliban. Of course he is under pressure from the public, media, International Community and also from the army. Thats a living example of this time. How to deal with it, hes doing his best. Political party support, hes getting gradually. For the first time i have heard him. We will increase the security on every level and do everything to enhance the security. Do you think hes now going to get Public Opinion behind him or other political leaders to address the taliban head on . I dont think there was a better time to have the massive support for what is now. There were two incidents in this country. The first is the death and now 100 more so childrens deaths has unified the country. Political parties are behind him. For the first time i see the government and army upon one page. If he has the will and guts and determination and tenacity to do it, theres never a better time. People are struggling around the world to understand how people could do this. How they could literally go into a school and fire indiscriminately against children. Theyre making contact with correspondents. They took the responsibility, yes, we did it. Theyre saying this is arranged. We wanted to take a lesson to the army. This is not the way. The whole International Community is condemning it. Pakistan, india we understand condemning it. Mind you, who are these taliban . What is the area . The army was doing the operation start since june, almost six months. Army never to my knowledge treated children, other families, other women this way. The taliban allege that the military have used drone strikes that have killed their children and women. They say we wanted military families to feel the same pain we have. What is the armys policy . Was there a stand in the region about how they conduct military operations . No. Its a complicated question. It had to be answered in a sy p simple way not 150,000 Army Personnel against a few hundred or few thousand. Those taliban are not there to our reports. Cannot be far because journalists cannot go there freely and openly. They have gone to other neighboring countries and places. The area where the army is conducting operation, they informed the people. After that they search and do house to house and other use of means to wipe them out. This is how they do it. Thank you very much for being with us. Lets briefly take you back to peshawar. We see the Prime Minister sharif giving the press conference there talking about how he intends to rid the country of terrorism. Thats his promise. He has been saying this is the countrys worst ever tragedy. He has been meeting with the other main Political Parties in the city. You can see them there at the line of political leaders. One of the things he has been talking about is just how to enhance security at every level. The other main piece of news coming out of the Prime Ministers office today is that the government decided to lift the moratorium on the Death Penalty on terrorists that a has been in place for years. Thats been lifted today. Lets bring in a commentator on pakistans political matters. Talking about the minister. How important is khans role now . Most important of all in pakistan. Up to this point and issue, sadly he has been part of the problem rather than the solution. Hes battled persistently the line that taliban, you cant fight then. You have to talk to them, and theyre only responding to attacks against them. Talk to them. This is the sort of line that has fracture the political response to the situation. No army effectively act if it does not have complete and unqualified political support. It never has. Have they been able to tap into the anger over the use of drones and the fact civilians have been killed in drone attacks . Civilians have been killed in drone attacks but not targeted. Yes, they have been killed in Army Situation but not killed by the army. The reaction of militants is draw a model equivalence between the two which i think is utter non sense. The army is legitimately and legally entitled to use force. The taliban is not legitimately and legally entitled to tear up pakistans constitution, code of conduct. Weve been hearing about Public Opinion being crucial at the moment. Seems the country is uniting at moment. One of the things we know about political life in pakistan, always that big parties feud. Do you think theyll be able to unite . I hope so. Some of the smaller religious party who is probably never completely come on board for the sake of military action, the crucial person here is khan and the pakistan party. I think today they are the party that command the greatest support at grass root level. If this doesnt turn them around, im afraid nothing will. Thank you for that. Going to return to peshawar to hear pakistans Prime Minister. [ speaking Foreign Language ] translator we have to discuss many things in light of the Supreme Court decision. Ive also invited him and wish to sit together and we can possibly find a solution and solutions can easily be found. The resolution must be according to his satisfaction and also the satisfaction of other political leaders. Nawaz sharif there at the press conference. Were listening and will bring you more as we hear things that are relevant. The Prime Minister talking about how he plans to rid pakistan of terrorism and plans to work with other political leaders to enhance the Security Service in the country and talking of lifting moratorium of the Death Penalty. We are covering this pully on our website. See our live reporting page with the latest on the story including tweets and photos. Do log on bbc. Com news. As i mentioned, well return to pakistan as soon as we have more to bring you. Do stay with us. Still to come. The exile of the leader holiness da lay llama tells us about his future. Wellllll. Earlyfit latefit risefit fallfit ballfit wallfit pingfit pongfit pingfit pongfit rowfit throwfit slowfit olliefit oopsfit otisfit thiswayfit thatwayfit daddyfit pappyfit datefit weightfit goalfit gooooooalfit stepfit stairfit smartfit heartfit spinfit bikefit hikefit yikesfit wheeeeefit wowfit whoafit findyourfit its all fitbit the exile of the spiritual leader of da la llama says he might be the last to hold the title. He is ed the future of the institution is in the hands of the people. He added more effort is needed to counter discrimination on base and faith referring to recent demonstrations of Race Relations in america. While here you asked to meet with the pope. That was turned down. Wh why . The vatican says its a delicate situation with china for obvious reasons. Have you interpreted these reasons . Quite often. Do you know what it means . What does obvious reasons mean . China of course great nation. Economically also very important therefore at worst case this is i see christians in china. Large number of christians there. [ inaudible ] young British American australians, men and women, are going to the middle east to fight along side Islamic State and committing brutal acts. Are they beyond redemption . I think due to lack of holistic view and also think to lack of genuine faith. If they have genuine, they have love and forgiveness. How do they regain those, disinfected use that see this as a pretext to violence and killing . Once Human Emotion become out of control, they utilize human reason which is very different. You were recently in america. Again Race Relations has come at the forefront with the recent race riots. Did you get a sense of frustration while you were there . Although i love america, its a young nation about giving slave. Then civil right achieved. Now today obama originally from africa become president. So the system in america is wonderful, but still emotions levels and long term sort of habit of discrimination on the basis of color. We need more constant effort in order to reduce this sort of spontaneous discrimination on basis of color and similarly on basis is of faith. I think we need special effort continuously. We should not take for granted these things. Time passes greatly with change. We need more effort that i see. You said you potentially will be the last dalai lama. My death may come in next year or two years. I think my death may come after few years. Then circumstances is such that then is it no longer relevant, this institution . I have no worry. This concern the 15th might be controlled by china for example. Theres the concern out there . Thats a political matter of dalai institutions have the responsibility. Now that is known over there. Any way, the institution will cease one day. These man made institutions will cease, no guarantee. That is disgraced himself or herself. So much better than essentially old tradition at the time of quite popular dalai lama. He is there speaking to yelda. Shell have more coming up in 35 minutes time. The two were speaking in rome. Were going to take you there. Thousands of dancers are in the capital to mark the 78th birthday of pope francis near the vatican. Many attended the popes general audience in st. Peters scare. The pope said in the interview before he became pontiff he liked the tango, his countrys dance. It is expected to last two hours. What a gorgeous day in rome, present day to be out dancing. Lets bring you up to date from the press conference taking place with the Prime Minister sharif and other political leaders. You can see pictures today from one of the funerals taking place. More than 140 people of course were killed. Its said all united after this incident and terrorism is a national issue. Well have more from pakistan coming up on gmt. Stay with us. Right now, you can get a single line with 3 gigs for 65 a month. 3 gigs. Is that a lot . Thats about. 100 app downloads, 45 hours of streaming music, and 6 hours of video playing. singing and five golden rings ha, i see what you did. singing four calling birds. Three french hens. the guys starts to fizzle out two. Turtle. Doves. I really went for it there ya you did. You really, really did now get 3 gigs of data on one line for 65 a month. Switch to at t, buy a new smartphone and get 150 credit per line. Its part of a hersheys bar. We break it. We bite it. We sneak it. We smoosh it. We savor it. We love it. Hersheys is mine, yours, our chocolate. You drop 40 grand on a new set of wheels, then. Wham a minivan tbones you. Guess what your Insurance Company will only give you 37thousand to replace it. Depreciation they claim. How can my car depreciate before its first oil change . You ask. Maybe the better question is, why do you have that Insurance Company . With Liberty Mutual new car replacement, well replace the full value of your car. See Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Welcome to gmt on bbc world news. Im lucy hockings. In this half hour we continue our coverage of massacre of 140 people, mostly children, at a school if in pakistan. The attack is part of a wider trend of attacking soft targets not just pakistan but syria and nigeria too. Well have how schools and conflict zones can be better protected. A board the bbc games exclusive access to the south Korean Shipyard building the worlds biggest vessel. Ben looks at whats happening in the u. S. All eyes on the Federal Reserve that wraps up the latest meeting. Will there be a hint of when Interest Rates will start to rise . Well find out. Lets take you back to pakistan where mass funerals have been held the day after the massacre School Children in peshawar. 132 children were killed and nine Staff Members. The Prime Minister calls it the worst tragedy in the countrys history. With more, heres nick childs. Reporter the collection, everyday belongings of some of theic haves of this attack. The military patrolled around the devastated virtually desserted school. The city of peshawar is tries to come to terms with what happened. Schools are closed on the first of three days of national mourning. Translator what happened yesterday was terrible. They killed small kids. What did we do wrong . Were not from the army or taliban. Ive been to my school, but its closed. School children are singing the National Anthem as here and across pakistan they held prayers and vigils. Children have been targeted before this a country used to relentless violent attacks, but not like this on this scale. This girl speaks of her shock. Those martyred were brothers and sisters, future of our country. The shock and grief over the attack over the Pakistan Taliban that a left 130 School Children dead has been heard around the world. Now the Prime Minister sharif has held prayers and emergency talks with other political leaders. Translator were trying to eradicate terrorism from the region as he raises the moratorium for Death Penalty. Theyre divided here on taking on the threat. Some see use of the power struggles. Can they unite now in the face of this . What more can they do . Reporter government is now under tremendous pressure to go after all militants whether pakistani or iran. Pakistan would have to decide whether they can allow the taliban to hide in pakistan. Reporter as so many families believe over the loss of innocent young lives here t question persists as to whether this tragedy can become a turning point in this bloody struggle. Nick childs, bbc news. Tuesdays massacre in pakistan was an attempt to target the military as well. Schools and institutions around the world are routinely attacked. According to the refugee council, there were more than 838 attacks on schools in pakistan between 2009 and 2012. There have been more than 1,000 attacks on schools and educational institutions in other countries like somalia, columbia and syria as well. The former United Nations secretary general for Foreign Affairs has been leading this work and joins us now. Your report came out hours before this attack in pakistan. It must feel the work youve been doing is ever more relevant. It is indeed. I cannot in 30 years as a humanitarian worker remember a time where somebody cold bloodily killed more than 130 children at school. Thats why we have a Global Coalition of non governmental organizations, human rights organizations working for safe schools through guidelines that were presented in gennie va yesterday. It was sponsored by norway and argentina. Were going to have declaration for safe schools by governments next year. What does that mean . We heard sharif talking about enhancing security measures in pakistan. Im sure many feel its a matter of outing more security on targets like schools. Security is fine. Militarization of schools is very bad. Thats what happened in so many places from colombias west to afghanistan and pakistan in the east. Armies, military groups, they occupy schools. They use facilities and expose the children because they drag the schools into the war. The children into the crossfire. What were saying demilitaryize the schools. Children have nothing to do with the conflict. Seeing pictures from inside the school at the moment. I know youve released guidelines as part of this report. Tell us about the challenge you have now in convincing though the only government but armed groups to try and follow these guidelines. Well, it will be an uphill battle. There are many regular armies of Member States of the u. N. Who are all too happy today to use the schools for their barracks, where they put their arms, whether they use facilities and so on. In colombia, this is a rampart problem. Army takes over and schools are engulfed in conflict. Starting now, i hopefully maybe this can be a turning point not only in pakistan but elsewhere in saying schools are protected zones. Then we need to get the governments, armies, and organizations like geneva call specializing in reaching out to non state armed actors including the taliban. Get to them and say if your children are protected, well then the other sides children should also be protected. Theres reciprocity in this. We have pictures from nigeria. Boko haram has been attacking schools over the past few years. One of the things you hear from nigeria is how scared parents are to send their children to school. Is combatting that kind of fear part of the challenge as well . People are thinking around the world now after what theyve seen in pakistan, we can all sympathize. Sending your children to school should not be something youre scared of. Indeed. Its very much part of the problem. Nigeria is one of the three to four worst countries on earth now in terms of attacks against schools. I think we in western countries should recognize with all our fear of terror that terror is not concentrated in seven to eight countries. 90 of seven or eight countries. Its there we really need to help the civilian population to be protected against all sorts of attacks and children should be a first priority. From nigeria to pakistan to syria which is the worst place on earth now for this. We need to push government actors and all sorts of militia groups. Children should be safe. Civilians should be safe. Thank you for joining us. A wide ranging security review has been ordered by australias Prime Minister tony abbott in the aftermath of the siege in sydney. Two hostages were killed along with the gunman monis. Abbott says questions need to be answered why he was at large despite his very check of history and why he had fallen off the security watch list five years ago. Paul has more from sydney. Reporter sydney has been reflecting on one of its darkest hours. The ka thcathedral offers comfo to some. The iranian born gunman had a long criminal history and had allegations he conspired to murder his exwife. An urgent review is underway. We do need to know what this individual was doing with a gun license. We particularly need to know how someone with such a long record of violence, such a long record of mental instability was out on bail after his involvement in a particularly horrific crime. We do need to know why he seems to have fallen off our security agencys watch list in 2009. As the siege came to an end today, obrien ran for his life, a day that began with such ordinary circumstances that suddenly took a dramatic turn. All i was doing on that morning was going down for a quick coffee at the coffee shop. I had never felt so much relief as when i turned the corner and saw the armed police waiting for me. A short distance from the cafe, flowers are layed ed ila of those that died. Its hard to gauge the mood of the entire nation at a terrible time. Theres sorrow, anger, fear. One thing for certain, the sea of floral tributes shows theres great solidarity here. Australians are cyinsisting sha spirits wont buckle under the strain of this terrifying week. Martin place in sydney. Stay with us here on bbc world news. Still to come. Ill be reporting from south korea where theyre building the biggest vessel the world has ever seen. Im lucy hockings. Our top story this is hour. Pakistans Prime Minister nawaz sharif has promised to rid his country of terrorism after the shooting on tuesday that killed more than 140 people, mostly children. A mass funeral and prayer vigils for victims has been taking place across the country. With us now, a look at the business. Its interesting to watch the rouble at the moment. The trouble is continuing and getting worse. Thanks very much. Desperate times for the rouble. Its lost half of its value this year. Many fear russia is lurgoing towards a final crisis. A move this week raises Interest Rates from 10. 5 to a staggering 17 . Why is this important . Theres a drop in the price of crude thats hit russia hard. You see the fall does a match and practically parallel with the fall in oil prices over the past 12 months. It shows how interlinked they are. So far russia has spent 87 billion of reserves trying to prop up the the currency. The russian Prime Minister says the Exchange Rate is out of the comfort zone for the economy. The russia upper house said the worst thing to do is give into panic. This has to be viewed like bad weather which will pass. We cant oversimp fly the situation. We cant panic because that makes things worse. Our strategist has been following things closely. Hes in the newsroom. Welcome to gmt. A lot to discuss. The fall in the price or value of rouble does mirror the fall in oil prices and highlight how independent those two are. Absolutely. Oil is obviously the overriding factor here. Lets be clear. This has 1992 written all over it. Its a familiar tale. Its a well trotted path. Weve seen this in 1992 and in markets where theres a loss of confidence. Russian policy makers are basically throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the rouble. All to no a a veil really. Theres a dramatic loss of confidence in the central bank which is the key actor here. Whats the most is uncertainty about whats next, conduct of russian Monetary Policy and direction of Economic Policy as a hole. With capital controls, currency controls, Foreign Exchange controls is in the air. Lack of confidence in the federal bank and on authorities to do anything to rile the markets. Im looking at numbers here. Russia needs 100 for every barrel of oil. Its clearly significantly below that with no sign thats likely to change at any time. Absolutely. Without a fall in oil prices theres unlikely to be a fall for the rouble. Trying to conduct Monetary Policy amid the carnage caused by plunging oil prices. This is crucial for russian corpses and banks to finance their debt. What does it mean on daytoday basis for apples sales of lg . Weve seen people trying to off load roubles. Theyre frankly not worth as much if they is sell them a little later. Thats an excellent point. Obviously the fear here is of deposit flight, full fledged bank run that would obviously be a devastating situation. Parallels are drawn between now and 1998. There are huge differences which i think its very important for your viewers to know. Russia has a war chest of Foreign Exchange reserves. Thats clearly the next line of defense. I suspect that it will probably jack up Interest Rates higher if its forced to do so. There is a real risk now of a full blown financial crisis. Russia has clearly entered into one now. Thank you for explaining all that strategy. Plenty for you as we get it. Lets to the u. S. Central bank. The big question is will we or will we get hints from janet yellen of when Interest Rates will start to rise in the worlds biggest economy . We now have that report. The Federal Reserve has been the santa claus of the u. S. Economy with stimulus being the gift that keeps on giving. In this tale called Monetary Policy, the ending here remains uncertainty. Interest rates are now questioned. The mood in this Holiday Market matches the mood of the u. S. Economy. Its looking pretty cheery. There are improvements in the labor market, strong indications of spending for consumers and businesses and overall growth is looking pretty strong. When describing how long Interest Rates will stay near zero, head of Americas Central Bank janet yellen has used the phrase for a considerable time. Words now she is thinking about dropping all together. That language is designed to indicate thats going to wait a while before hiking Interest Rates. Theres a debate among officials how soon they should hike and how quickly once they get going. The idea of considerable time is were not in a rush. Were going to take our time. Congress has lingering effect of the financial crisis. We dont want to go too soon. Wed rather air on side of being too late. The challenge of course is what Financial Markets will hear. Will it be christmas cheer or will the season of gift giving finally come to an end. Bbc news, new york. Let he show what that has done to market numbers. Were frankly keeping an eye on index in moscow. Mirroring that decline we see crude below 60 a barrel. No signs it could stabilize. The difference in rouble and dollar are weighing on concerns there. Big question is can authorities do enough to reverse that decline . More on that a little later. Well keep watching that. Meanwhile, take a look at this. This is the biggest vessel the world has seen. I choose my words carefully. Its built at a shipyard in south korea. Its actually a Gas Processing platform for shale. Its called prelude. To give you more sense of vast structure, imagine the london beside it. It doesnt come close neither does the eiffel tower. Thats 300 meters high. Five football fields wouldnt stretch the length of this massive platform. Weve been given exclusive access. The launch looks tiny speeding a along the side of the towering cliff of steel. This giant vessel is called prelude and on a scale unlike anything built before. An army of construction workers arriving for the morning shift. To reach the main deck, the equivalent of ten stories high, we make the long journey by lift. To come on board, you need to wear the full range of safety equipment. What were seeing is really striking. Everything about this industry has always been on a vast scale. The size of this project takes things to a new extreme. This vessel is nearly half a kilometer long. Largest ever built anywhere in the world. Its job is to open up a new source of gas. The vessel will be off australia above a gas field more than 100 miles from the shore. It will be held in place with tethers running down to the seabed and pipes will bring the gas up to the surface. Looking in more detail, the gas will be purified with unwanted chemicals and water stripped out. It will then be chilled with the help of sea water down to miners 162 celsius. This urn thes the gas into liquid form shrinking it 600 times smaller. Ready to be loaded onto tankers and shipped away. A whole new way of getting gas to the global market. Whats the ability to access gas fields that were previously too difficult or simply too expensive to develop. Now we can access gas field on location as opposed to bringing the gas to land and then to market. Its clear. See it. That tiny gap. That was perfect. Not a movement. A tense moment for those in charge of installing the giant component weighing more than 5,000 tons. The most complex machinery is assembled on shore and then ferried to the vessel. When this massive structure comes online, it will be one of several major new sources of gas for the global market. Burning gas still gives off carbon dioxide. One of the enormous tanks that will store the liquified gas, climate Scientists Say a different approach is needed to tackle global warming. If you invest in large facilities that give access to lots of new gas fields, temptation will be to govern the gas, look for new resources and unfortunately it is not compatible with Climate Change targets we continue to develop new gas in the second half of this century. Thanks for being with us on gmt. Yelda is here next. Wellllll. Earlyfit latefit risefit fallfit ballfit wallfit pingfit pongfit pingfit pongfit rowfit throwfit slowfit olliefit oopsfit otisfit thiswayfit thatwayfit daddyfit pappyfit datefit weightfit goalfit gooooooalfit stepfit stairfit smartfit heartfit spinfit bikefit hikefit yikesfit wheeeeefit wowfit whoafit findyourfit its all fitbit doctors have been prescribingdecade, [u. S. Accent] new york, the city of a million stories. Half of them are true. The other half . Just havent happened yet. Statues, the man said. [ thunder rumbles, lightning crashes ] living statues that moved in the dark. So, will you take the case, mr. Garner . Sure. Why not . Because you dont believe me