hello, everyone. this is what is left above water of a ferry which capsized off the south korean coast. this is the bow. there were 476 passengers and crew onboard. many of them high school students. they were told to jump overboard as it started sinking. it's not yet known what happened to the ship. it was sailing from inchon in the north near seoul to jeju island when it got into difficulties. it capsized here. 295 people are now missing. three bodies have now been recovered. that's according to the coast guard, including one student. the u.s. navy has sent a ship to join the search and rescue operation in this area. this is the rescue center on the island of jindo. that's where survivors have been reunited with family members. nick childs has the latest. >> reporter: a disaster. the ferry already lifting at a crazy angle, desperate to rescue those aboard. as a flotilla of rescue boats arrive, others are pluckeded to safety off the coast waters of south korea's southern coast. in the air above helicopters hover. again, we see frightened survivors from the deck. but there were nearly 500 people aboard the stricken vessel. more than 300 of them high school students. the ship capsized completely, divers joined the search. the urgent question, how many people were still trapped in the submerged hull? more traumatize ed survivors grately reached dry lands. many jumped or plunged into the cold waters as the ship heeled over. there's uncertainty about what happened. >> translator: the announcement told us we should stay still but the ship was already sinking and there were lots of students who did not get out of the ship. >> reporte >> translator: it was very tense. the ship was tilted more than 45 degrees, and it was very tense. >> reporter: at the high school where the students came from, anxious parents gathered for news. still coming to terms with what had happened. and desperate to clamber on buses organized by the authorities to take them to the rescue center. >> translator: i feel like my heart stopped. i can't describe the feeling with one word. i was too shocked. i can't even talk about it. >> reporter: and as the survivors recovered, the questions mounted about what caused the disaster. there were reports of heavy fog but the coast guard said visibility was good. the priority for now, however, the search for those still unaccounted for. nick childs, bbc news. >> let's go to min jong kim monitoring for the yonhap television station in seoul. >> reporter: hello. a passenger ship carrying 459 people of high school students off the coast of korea. security and public administration said three people were dead. two are high school students. and a 22-year-old female crew member was listed. 154 have been rescued. 292 are still missing. since high school students were on their four-day journey to jeju island. hours ago, korean coast guard military aircraft and helicopters and u.s. navy amphibious ships are on a joint rescue operation. the operation is still -- still ongoing. >> let me put this to you as we look at video of the -- the boat and the ship at the moment. there is no sign of damage at the front of the ship. so what caused this, do you think? >> reporter: well, there was -- there was a report a sailor was on vacation. the unqualified sailor was on the cockpit. but it wasn't -- it was -- it was not exact. >> is this a journey that this ship makes frequently from incheon? >> actually, the journey the jeju island operates on the flight usually. but i think it can be -- it can be -- it can be not usual journey. >> thank you for joining us. with those pictures from the rescue taking place before the ship sank. let's go to ukraine now where the situation in the mainly russian speaking east of the country is said to be close to civil war. president putin himself has given the warning to u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon. he demanded the u.n. condemn the actions. mr. putin also gave the same civil war warning to the german chancellor angela merkel in a phone call. well, reports from eastern ukraine say armed men have now entered the city council building here in the mining center of donetsk. which is said they now control. the tense standoff in kramatorsk which is there continues between ukrainian troops and armed pro-russian separatists. there are similar tensions in slovyansk. right across this predominantly russian speaking area. pro-russian troops continue to occupy government buildings. so what has happened in kramatorsk, for example? here's the airfield. the air base. this military airfield is you should ukrainian control after it was retaken from pro-russian separatists. the convoy of ukrainian armered vehicles has entered the city only to be blocked by locals. here are some of the latest images from the airfield and also around the city itself. let's get the latest from james reynolds. >> reporter: this is a very unusual situation here in kramatorsk. there are six ukrainian armored vehicles in a convoy. have a look over here. and they've been stopped. they can't move forward because just over there, you may be able to see a green box. that green box has been put here by local people. some of the people in this crowd to stop the convoy. and a very curious thing. if you come back to me here. is this. these soldiers here. i don't want to get too close to them. these ones in the camouflage uniforms have got those orange bands on them which show they are pro-russian soldiers. so essentially you've got these men here on one side. and they are now surrounding the ukrainian soldiers. have a look up here. these are ukrainian soldiers here. so you've got two rival sets of enforcement. we're probably going to start moving back now. because these -- they're getting down from there. the atmosphere has changed in the last ten minutes or so. it was quite curious to begin with. but now essentially these soldiers -- ukrainian soldiers who were happily on top of their armored personnel carriers have moved away from plain sight. effectively now they've been surrounded by pro-russian forces. >> james reynolds with the latest from eastern ukraine. other news at this hour. a controversial surveillance program targeting muslim communities has been abandoned by the new york police department. the program involved a special police unit. it sent plain clothes detectives to eavesdrop on conversations and monitor activities. police in calgary, canada, say a man has stabbed and killed five university students. they were celebrating the end of term. no motive has been established. the son of a long serving police officer has been charged p. police say it's the worst mass murder in the city's history. aaron joins me for china. the fact that china is still expanding, but not nearly as much as we expected. >> probably as planned, though, by beijing. let me explain. good to see you, nik. china has recorded it slowest growth in the last 18 months as the country, beijing, basically, is trying to rebalance its economy by encouraging much more domestic consumption. the latest numbers china grew at 7.4%. the expected number was around 7%. chinese leaders say the old economic model based on investment and export has basically run out of steam. the prime minister has said he'll tolerate slower growth while he pushes through these major economic reforms. we're going to be talking about china certainly coming up on "gmt" with an expert and talk about where is china going and what sort of numbers can we expect. question is how much will beijing -- is beijing compared to lose in terms of growth for these rebound. that's what we're going to keep our eyes on. also the world's second biggest retailer, yeah, right here. tesco. it announced today a disappointing performance for the past year. profits are down. in fact, profits have been down for the second year in a row. tesco's profit fell 6% to $5.5 billion. the store is seeing falling sales. its lowest share of the market in around nine years. and yet the supermarket, i have to say, is still by far the most popular store in the uk with almost 30% of that market share. tesco also had to write down the value of its business in china. sign a deal with a local partner over there. let me dig into my pocket here. useful or a blight on society? certainly the environment. let me tell you, the eu is trying to get to grips with plastic bags which are rarely recycled and certainly can be the -- when you think about it, the worst form of litter on places like beaches. certainly at sea as well. the english parliament is voting on a plan to slash the use of plastic bags across the eu by 80%. every year europeans use nearly 100 billion plastic bags. these little suckers. a number that is only expected to rise in the coming years. here's the problem. almost 90% of these plastic bags are used only once. and only 6.5% of plastic bags are recycled. that's another big problem. the majority, yep, they end up in the ground. they're plastic. they'll be there for thousands of years. while some countries in europe have started addressing the problem, the eu wants more to be done. we're going to talk more on this little humble plastic bag, the evil sucker, as i call it, coming up on "gmt." follow me on twitter. tweet me. i'll tweet you back. find me @bbcaaron. on average, 200 bags a year. but the danes and the fins, just four bags each per year. >> for you, one bag a year. take your back with you. >> what are you trying to say, mr. gowing? >> stay with us here on bbc world news. still to come, slight improvement in what remains of one of the most difficult countries for journalists without danger and risk of being targeted. ♪ find yourself. in an accomodation... where you get to do... whatever it is that you love to do! booking.com booking.yeah! you're with bbc world news. with me, nik gowing. i have the latest headlines for you. at least three people reported dead, 290 still unaccounted for after this passenger ship sank off the coast of south korea. there were more than 450 people on board. president putin says ukraine is on the brink of a civil war as kiev government forces go on the move in response to the up surge of pro-russian protests in the east. to nigeria where security forces are searching for 100 teenage girls. they've been abducted by suspected islamist militants of the boki haram group in the northeastern state of borno. the girls were traveling in a large truck. a nigerian center told the bbc it's been found abandoned. it's thought the girls are forced to trek through a forest. the abductions come a day after 71 people were killed at two explosions at a bus station in the capital abuja. also blamed on boki haram. the bbc with the latest from the capital, abuja. >> reporter: just to add to the information you were giving we know the girls were taken away in a number of vehicles, several trucks and one bus, we're told. yes, one vehicle was found. it's possible that the girls were then forced to go on foot. but others would have been taken away in the vehicles. we are still working on the assumption there are more than 100 girls missing. the senator who represents that area of the northeast -- of northeast nigeria, even though he hasn't been there for a long time because it's very dangerous, he told the bbc that there are civilian teams going out into the forest to look for the girls and also the air force has been deployed as well as the military troops on the ground. but it is a very, very difficult mission. because we understand the girls have been taken by these suspected islamist militants into the forested areas. the sambisa forest is a massive swath of forest across borno state. it's very easy for the militants to hide there. any previous efforts by the military to attack the bases of the islamist militants have yielded very few results. they occasionally tell us they succeeded in hitting them on their bases. then we hear later on they sprung up somewhere else and establish add new base. the islamist militants know the terrain very well. and any effort to try and rescue the girls will carry with it a great deal of danger. because it may well put the girls in even more -- even greater risk. >> the girls abducted, two big exploess in the capital abuja, 71 people dead. it's assumed boki haram are behind this. what impact is this making across nigeria, this level of coordination? >> reporter: well, the bomb blast on the outskirts of abuja, there's been no investigation whatsoever that's concluded that it was boki haram. it was the president goodluck jonathan who immediately went to the scene and said it was boki haram. there's been no investigation. that's not unusual in nigeria. that particular attack has caused a lot of fear because this capital city has been without any major attack for a couple of years. once again, this story of the -- the news of the abducted girls, it's caused, you know, extraordinary amounts of people are talking about it across nigeria. but because it's so far away, it doesn't affect them as much. people can't relate to the plight of the girls and the parents with their children missing. but it's still a very remote area of the country. people across the rest of nigeria still feel relatively safe. they don't feel this islamist insurgency is going to affect them. but the islamist militants in video messages have made it clear that they want to extend their area of operation. and, frankly, there are swaths of northeast nigeria where clearly they're moving at will. moving large convoys of vehicles. nobody can understand really why the military, this massive military force that nigeria has, why it has not been able to stop the islamist militants from roaming so freely across large parts of northeast nigeria. >> will ross speaking to me from abuja. syria has joined the list o countries where the murder of a journalist is most likely to go unpunished. that's according to the committee to protect journalists. it's just released impunity index. a risk that shows countries where journalists are most at risk. with 100 deaths in the last decade and not a single conviction iraq is at the top of the list. it's been there since the index started in 2008. 96% of the victims are local reporters. the majority covering politics, corruption and war in their own countries. the crimes are prosecuted in less than 5% of the cases. for years pakistan has been considered one of the most dangerous countries for the press. but according to the report, there has been a modest improvement. recently six people were convicted for the killing of a television journalist. but for many from the news media, the risks remain in honest. pakistan ranks tenth on the impunity index. >> reporter: these children are going to school. but they were taught a lesson that wasn't learned there. they are the children of a journalist from pakistan's war zone. abducted and killed. they watched their mother die shortly after in a grenade attack on their home. this is only one example of what can happen to a journalist looking for the truth in pakistan's tribal area. the taliban make the narrative murky. the killers were never named. the case is closed. and the little son learned to tie his own shoe laces. >> translator: journalists are like a sandwich between military and militancy. everyone wants us to report on their regime. the last three years i have personally buried five of my friends. >> reporter: prime minister sharif pledged to do more to protect journalists. the attacks continue. they admit there's a problem in implementing his promise. >> translator: it's journalists who are in the firing line. they face danger on a day-to-day basis. unfortunately i have not received a reassuring response from either the security personnel or the provinces. >> reporter: meanwhile, expert news anchor rumi looks at the last broadcast of the show. he wonders, was it a localization of banned militants out lets or his outspoken views that led six armed men to target him in the crowded metropolis of lahore? his driver died in the attack. investigations are ongoing. >> i am now in a dilemma. whether speaking up, whether continuing with my work is worth it. because i do have a family. i do have the desire to live. i do not want to be a martyr. there are enough martyrs in pakistan. >> reporter: there is worry that the pressure of coercion and violence has already diluted the objective standards of reporting. depriving the right of the majority to be informed about the realities of their own society. bbc news, lahore. >> remember those days. remember life before smartphones. it's quite a struggle. for cubans, even accessing the internet at home is an extravagance enjoyed by only a privileged few. cuban officials strictly regulate the flow of information. but now they say they are working to open up access to the worldwide web. the bbc's sarah ransford has this insight from havana. >> reporter: cuba is slowly playing catchup with the modern world. it's just six years since people here were permitted to own mobile phones. now they've been allowed e-mail on them. so some queued for seven hours to sign up for the service and make their phones a little smarter. many say they want e-mail to stay in touch with family living abroad. >> translator: it's also because we want to progress and know more. have the same as the rest of the world. >> reporter: yet cuban phones are still not hooked up to the internet. this is one of the least connected countries in the western hemisphere. the queue of the phone office here, one of cuba's newest access centers. people here can get online. there's a new service, around 300 of these places opened across the country in the past year. it's expensive. $4.50 to get online for one hour. if you're a state worker here in cuba, that's one week's salary. but people are finding funds. he saves up to come here because like the vast majority of cubans, he's not allowed the internet at home. so this is a big opening. though the price is a problem. he says he'd like to read the news and download books while he's online, but it's expensive. so he sticks to the most urgent thing. that's e-mail. communist cuba has always kept tight control over information. but without access to the internet, the revolution risks being left way behind economically. officials insist that access for all is coming. though they won't say when. >> translator: it's about investment. every service costs money. and we need to create the infrastructure for a quality product. but politically, the will is there. of course it is. >> reporter: meantime, cubans have been finding their way around the restrictions. there's no wi-fi. no internet cafes here. but there is a booming black market. loading fast driving. you can get everything this way. from films to all the monthly magazines. almost like surfing the web. and sometimes you even get the real thing. these people have discovered a wi-fi network left open by mistake. they're frantically logging on to it. it's slow, this man tells me. but it is something. and it's free. the main thing, to make the most of the connection before it's discovered and disappears. bbc news, havana. coming up, the latest from south korea on the ferry accident. stay with me. >> if you've been watching the forecast -- with so much noise about health care, i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile, not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still gonna give me a heart attack. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. still running in the morning? 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(announcer) love a car that lasts. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. oh tthe perfect retreat for our family of four shore there are shells to be found and pools to be splashed there are waffles and laughs and bedtimes to be dashed the fun is there waiting, don't you dare fret there's no need to ask, "are we there yet?" be a weekender and make your family-friendly escape at hotels like hampton and embassy suites. book now at hiltonweekends.com with three dead, nearly 300 still missing. relieved survivors speak of their escape. some say there was a blocked passageway stopping their friends. president putin tells the u.n. and germany, ukraine is on the brink of civil war as government forces are seen in one eastern town. nigerian security forces search for 100 teenage girls who've been abducted from their school in the northeastern state of borno. britain's prince william, his wife kate and baby george are in sydney as part of the australian leg of their regional tour. hello, everyone. this is what's left above water of a ferry which capsized off the south korean coast. here is the bow of the ship. there were 476 passengers and crew onboard. many of them high school students. they were told to jump overboard as it started sinking. it's not yet known what happened to the ferry which was sailing from incheon near seoul right down to jeju island in the south. that's where it got into difficulties. that's where it capsized. 295 people are still missing. three bodies have now been recovered. that's according to the coast guard. one of them was a student. another one a member of the crew. the u.s. navy has sent a ship to join the rescue operation down there. let's go live to the island of jindo where survivors have been taken ashore. you can see the first stage of the rescue operation. on the horizon there in the distance, but in the dark. and the u.s. has sent a ship there. but this is now very much a south korean operation. let's get the latest from nick childs. >> reporter: an image of disaster. an upturned bow juts out of the sea. all that's still visible of the capsized ferry. and an urgent question. how many people may still be trapped in the submerged hull. this was the ferry already listing at a crazy angle and sinking as rescuers in helicopters and boats gathered desperately trying to pluck people from the foundering vessel. there's little time. this, one of the lucky ones. a woman is hoisted to safety. but in all there were nearly 500 people aboard when disaster struck. most of them were high school students. more traumatized survivors gratefully reached dry land and the helping hands of emergency medical teams. many jumped to or plunged into cold waters as the ship heeled over. some spoke of uncertainty about what had happened. >> translator: the announcement told us that we should stay still. but the ship was already sinking. and there were lots of students who did not get out of the ship. >> translator: it was very tense. the ship was tilted more than 45 degrees. and it was very tense. >> reporter: at the high school where the students came from, anxious parents gathered for news. still coming to terms with what had happened. and desperate to clamber on buses organized by the authorities to take them to the rescue center. >> translator: i feel like my heart stopped. i can't describe the feeling with one word. i was too shocked. i can't even talk about it. >> reporter: and as the survivors recovered, the questions mounted about what caused the disaster. there were roreports of heavy f but the coast guard said the visibility was good. the priority now, however, the search for those still unaccounted for. nick childs, bbc news. what information is coming through from the island of jindo there. monitoring from the yonhap television station in seoul. >> a passenger ship -- security and public administration that three people were dead. two are high school students. and a 22-year-old female crew member was listed. 154 have been rescued. and 292 are still missing. since high school students were on their four-day journey to jeju island. from hours ago, korean coast guard military aircraft and helicopter and u.s. navy amphibious ships are on a joint rescue operation. the operation is still -- still ongoing. >> let me put this to you as we look at video of the boat and the ship at the moment. there is no sign of damage at the front of the ship. so what caused this, do you think? >> there was a report a sailor was on the vacation. and the unqualified sailor was on the -- on the cockpit. but it wasn't -- anything is -- anything is reveal ed on the cause of the damage. >> the latest from south korea. let's move on to ukraine where the situation in the mainly russian speaking east of the country is said to be close to civil war. that from president putin who's given the warning to the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon. he demanded that the u.n. condemn the action. president putin also gave the civil war warning to the german chancellor, angela merkel. reports from eastern ukraine say armed men have entered the city council building here in the mining center of donetsk which it's reported they now control. the tense standoff in kramatorsk there between ukrainian troops and armed pro-russian separatists. there are similar tensions in slovyansk and in up to ten towns and cities across the east of the country pr pro-russian groups continue to occupy some government buildings. what's happened in kramatorsk. the military airfield is under ukrainian control. that's after it was retaken from re-russian separatists. a convy of ukrainian armored vehicles has also entered the city only to be blocked by locals. the bbc's james reynolds is there in kramatorsk. >> reporter: this is a very unusual situation in kramatorsk. there are six ukrainian armored vehicles in a convoy. have a look at this here. and they've been stopped. they can't move forward because just over there, you may be able to see a green bus. that green bus has been put here by local people. some of the people in this crowd to stop the convoy. and a very curious thing. come back to me here. is this. these soldiers here. i don't want to get too close to them. these ones in the camouflage uniforms have got those orange bands on them that show they are pro-russian soldiers. you've got these men here on one side. and they are now surrounding the ukrainian soldiers. have a look up here. these are ukrainian soldiers here. so you've got two rival sets of armed forces. we're probably going to start moving back now. because these soldiers are getting down from their own personnel carriers. the atmosphere has changed in the last ten minutes or so. it was quite curious to begin with. but now essentially these soldiers, ukrainian soldiers who were happily on top of their armored personnel carerers have moved away from plain sight. effectively, now, they've been surrounded by pro-russian forces and blocked on either side. >> there that microcosm of trying to identify which forces are in which vehicles. meanwhile more military vehicles have been seen moving towards kramatorsk from the west. the bbc's olga evshena from the russian service has been monitoring. >> we are in the field in kramatorsk. we see a huge advantage of military vehicles moving towards the town from the west. we see on top of the tanks there are soldiers. with automatic guns. there is also military patrol over there who's preventing locals from chasing the tanks. who are those people? what orders do they have? what are they going to do? it's still unclear. >> let's go to the mining center of donetsk. that's where the city council building has now been taken over by an armed group reported to be pro-russian. the bbc's david stern is there. i asked him what's happening. >> reporter: well, it's not particularly pro-russian as anti-government group. it's a group which is based in the second largest city in ukraine, the eastern city. they have taken over the first two floors of the city administration building. the mayor's building. and they are demanding that the -- the regions in the east be allowed to hold a referendum about extensive autonomy or possibly independence. it should be said that they are there, they are well armed and they're wearing masks. but people are allowed to come in and out of the building at will. there's more of an occupation than i guess you could say a seizure. >> i can see it's a beautiful day. spring is there, david. what about those political tensions behind the scenes in that critical part of the ukrainian industrial base, in the east of the country? >> reporter: nik, i have to say, it's not only behind the scenes. it's out here in donetsk. just a few moments ago a military jet flew over the center of the city where we are right now. and it seems to be making a few -- making passes. we've also been hearing, of course, about the very tense and explosive situation in the east from our reporters there. but we've also been receiving reports from western journalists, from western agencies, that they've seen armored carriers, armored military vehicles, that are now flying the russian flag. it's not clear exactly but they think that this is, in fact, ukrainian troops that have gone over to the russian side. difficult to say exactly what the situation is. but there are numerous reports that there is at least one group of armored vehicles that are flying the russian flag. >> what about the warning from president putin in moscow to the united nations and germany that ukraine is now on the brink of civil war? you live there. what's your view? >> reporter: well, we've heard this from the russians before. also i should say, i've heard it from a lot of people here. there's the hope that it won't happen, but there's the recognition that this is, indeed, a very explosive situation and there are divisions. the divisions in ukrainian society that if pressure is brought on them, it could erupt into something worse. it should be said that the western governments say that this situation is being created artificially by russia. that if russia is warning of civil war, it is, in fact, russia that is bringing ukraine to the point of civil war. of course, moscow denies that they have any involvement in the eastern part of the country right now. >> david stern in donetsk. to the trial of paralympian oscar pistorius. it's entered its 23rd day in south africa. the 27-year-old denies murdering his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp. he says he mistook her for an intruder. pistorius spent five days under intense cross-examination. he was visibly upset as defense witness forensic expert roger dixon challenged the prosecution's evidence about reeva steenkamp's movements as she was shot. the bbc is in pretoria. i asked about developments so far in court today. >> reporter: well, mr. dixon is still continuing with that testimony, talking specifically about those bullet holes and the trajectories. and also the marks that were made on the door by that cricket bat. that continues. also, more importantly, the judge has also started today's proceedings by giving the performance asked by the state for a -- until the 5th of may to the 17th. but she has also urged the council to take with them the court records with them when they go on holiday to go through them. she says that time cannot be wasted. in terms of how far it has been going. she says the court's time cannot be wasted any longer. >> what about the evidence from the forensic expert? >> reporter: well, the forensic expert is trying to basically undo the damage that has been done by the -- the state, the state's case. so what we've heard is also what he's basically challenging the information that we've heard from the state ballistic expert about the number of shots that hit reeva steenkamp and how they may have done that and how they ricocheted. >> outside the court in pretoria. you're with bbc world news. with me, nik gowing. prince william and the duchess of cambridge arrive in sydney. they start a tour with prince george. you are feeling powerful with a 4-cylinder engine. [ male announcer ] open your eyes... to the 6-cylinder, 8-speed lexus gs. with more standard horsepower than any of its german competitors. this is a wake-up call. ♪ funny, there was no mention of hail in the weather report. go & smell the roses! you're with bbc world news with me, nik gowing. i have the latest headline. at least three people are reported dead, 290 remain unaccounted for. that's after this passenger ferry sank off the coast of south korea. there were more than 450 people on board. president putin says ukraine is on the brink of civil war as kiev government forces go on the move in response to the upsurge of pro-russian protests in the east. to nigeria where security forces are searching for 100 teenage girls. they've been abducted by suspected islamic militants of the boko haram group in the northeastern state of borno. the girls were traveling in a large truck. nigerian centers told the bbc it's been found abandoned. it's being thought the girls are being forced to trek through a forest. the abductions come two days after 71 people were killed in an explosion at a bus station in abuja. >> reporter: we know the girls were taken away in a number of vehicles. several trucks and one bus, we're told. yes, one vehicle was found. it's possible that the girls were then forced to go on foot. but others would have been taken away in the vehicles. so we are still working on the assumption that there are more than 100 girls missing. the senator who represents that area of northeast nigeria, even though he hasn't been there for a long time because it's very dangerous, he told the bbc there are civilian teams going out into the forest to look for the girls and also the air force is being deployed as well as the military troops on the ground. but it is a very, very difficult mission because we understand the girls have been taken by these suspected islamist militants into the forested areas. the sambisa forest is a massive swath of forest across borno state. it's very easy for the militants to hide there. and any previous efforts by the military to attack the bases of the islamist militants have yielded very few results. they occasionally tell us they've succeeded in hitting them on their bases. but then we hear later on they've sprung up somewhere else and established a new base. so the islamist militants know this terrain very well. and any effort to try and rescue the girls will carry with it a great deal of danger. because it may well put the girls in even more -- at even greater risk. >> will ross in nigeria. 55 bodies have now been exhumed from a boys reform school in florida in the u.s. that's almost double the number of burials shown in the official record. this follows claims of abuse at the dozier school for boys which closed in 2011. researchers leading the operation revealed some of the findings. this report from the bbc's kate daley begins with the account of one former student. >> reporter: when they hit you, it sounded like a shotgun going off over the top of your head. i took 37 licks. my legs were shaking. he said, look at me, boy. and he was smiling. he was grinning. >> reporter: allen sexton is one of hundreds of men who say they were brutally punished while they were students at the dozier school for boys in marietta, florida. they were all taken here into the building known as the white house to receive their beating. citing economic reasons, the state shut down the school in 2011. the campus is now abandoned. the buildings are in disrepair. but stories of the abuse have led to an ambitious project to exhume the remains of boys who died while living at the dozier school. >> for one reason or another, they didn't ever go home again. >> reporter: erin kimmerle is a forensic anthropologist who worked in the mass graves at bosnia. now she's at dozier hoping to return the remains of these children to their families. >> all of the cases i've worked both locally here in florida and internationally, it's about human identification which is for families. i think that that's what is a common denominator. is that you have siblings, parents, you know, relatives asking for information, for their remains back. that's their right. it's a pretty basic right. >> reporter: over the school's 100-year history, records show that children died due to fire, flu, fights and accidents. but there's no record of who's buried where. 55 bodies have been exhumed from the cemetery. dogs and radar are being used to check other locations on the school's 1,400-acre campus. the goal now is to confirm the cause of death and identify the remains. on tuesday, kimmerle released a composite image of one of the boys buried in the cemetery. it was created using reassembled skull fragments. she also updated the list of relatives who have been contacted as part of the identification process. one of those is priscilla krowza whose brother died in a fight. >> he was stabbed many times. that has filtered down through the years. but the family evidently never received the body. in those days, 76 years ago, you didn't ask questions. a lot of intimidation. >> reporter: family members and former students hope they will provide answers about what happened here at the dozier school. some local residents say the truth about the cemetery is much less mysterious than it seems. >> the big misconceptions about the cemetery is that it was hidden or these are mystery graves. >> reporter: local historian dale cox says it wasn't uncommon for schools like dozier to have cemeteries and that digging up the bodies is disrespectful. >> the cemetery has been a known part of the community for over 100 years. most of the graves in the cemetery predate 1940. in fact, i think there were three from within the last 75 years. you know, it's sad that it's this lost hidden mystery cemetery out in the woods, but it was never hidden. it had a fence around it. it was maintained. and we know who was buried in it. >> reporter: but for kimmerle, it's not enough to know the names of the boys who were buried at dozier. she wants to put those names with the right remains. and ultimately send them home. kate daley, bbc news, marietta, florida. >> that tragedy there. for many of us, remembering live before smartphones is a struggle. but for cubans, even accessing the internet at home is an extravagance enjoyed by only a privileged few. cuban officials strictly regulate the flow of information. but now they say they are working to open up access to the worldwide web. the bbc's sarah rainsford has this insight from havana. >> reporter: cuba is slowly playing catchup with the modern world. it's just six years since people here were permitted to own mobile phones. now they've been allowed e-mail on them. some queued for seven hours to sign up for the service and make their phones a little smarter. many say they want e-mail to stay in touch with family living abroad. >> translator: phone calls. but it's also because we want to progress more and have the same as the rest of the world. >> reporter: yet cuban phones are still not hooked up to the internet. this is one of the least connected countries in the western hemisphere. i just went through the queue. the phone office here is one of the cuba's new public internet access centers. this is what people here in cuba can now actually get online. it's a new service. there's around 300 of these places that have opened across the country in the past year but it's expensive. it's $4.50 to get online for one hour. if you're a state worker here in cuba, that's one week's salary. but people are finding funds somehow. he says he stays up to stay here because like the vast majority of cubans, he's not allowed the internet at home. so this is a big opening. though the price is a problem. he says he'd like to read the news and download books while he's online, but it's expensive. so he sticks to the most urgent thing, and that's e-mail. communist cuba has always kept tight control over information. but without access to the internet, the revolution risks being left way behind economically. officials insist that access for all is coming. though they won't say when. >> translator: it's about investment. every service costs money. and we need to create the infrastructure for a quality product. but politically, the will is there. of course it is. >> reporter: meantime, cubans have been finding their way around the restrictions. there's no wi-fi, no internet cafes here. but there is a booming black market in loading flash drives. you can get everything this way. from the latest films to all the monthly magazines. almost like surfing the web. and sometimes you even get the real thing. these people have discovered a wi-fi network left open by mistake. and they're frantically logging on to it. it's slow, this man tells me. but it is something. and it's free. the main thing, to make the most of the connection before it's discovered and disappears. sarah rainsford, bbc news, havana. finally britain's prince william and his wife the duchess of cambridge are now in australia for the second leg of their tour. the family was greeted in sydney with prince george by the prime minister tony abbott. the royals are on a ten-day visit to australia. they've just been visiting new zealand. from sydney, the bbc's john d donnison. >> reporter: they were whisked from the airport into the center town to the harbor and iconic sydney opera house. there were large crowds waiting to greet them. many bearing gifts for prince george. prince george we saw him at the airport but he didn't go to the opera house. but certainly as you'd expect with people turning out to welcome them, they were pretty enthusiastic. not all australians feel that way. certainly the people we saw today are pretty keen loyalists. >> john donnison there. to the west, three people are known to have died in this ferry disaster off the coast. 295 people are missing. 470 were onboard. the ship has now virtually sunk. a u.s. navy ship is on the way to help with search and rescue. at the moment, large numbers of people are there on the island of jindo waiting for news of what's happened to their loved ones on that ferry. stay with us here on bbc. annoying little twerp that doesn't even come from here. that fang-faced wimp, gervais, should keep his big mouth to himself and stay unfunny in his own stupid country. loser. uncle ricky? yeah? what does all this mean? it means i'm doing something right. oh. do you want to hear more? do i?! ricky is a pig nosed troll. [ both laugh ] that's great. ♪ rejoice... for you have entered the promised land of accomodation. ♪ booking.com booking.yeah! then a little time to kick back. earn double hilton honors points with the 2x points package and be one step closer to a weekend break. doubletree by hilton. where the little things mean everything. hello, everyone. you're watching "gmt" on bbc world news. i'm lucy hawkings. our top story, disaster at sea in south korea. 300 people, many of them school children, are missing after a ferry capsizes and sinks. 150 people so far have been rescued. >> translator: the announcement told us that we should stay still. but the ship was already sinking and there were lots of students who did not get out of the ship. pro-russian separatists take over ukrainian -- in the east of the country as the prime