more that we can do. >> specifically, can you lay that out more what is being done by the u.s. at the moment? >> we are talking with the girls about what type of needs they have and what we might be able to do. we have extensive work both in training and equipping and also in building law enforcement capacity and doing what we can to encourage development approaches and to round out the approach with development and other tools so that there is a mix of security tools as well reaching out to a disaffected population and make sustainable games. >> three weeks since the girls have disappeared. has the nigearian government done enough to find them? >> i think we want to keep working with them to find out what more can be done. >> have they done enough? >> i think for the government as they are dealing with it, it is incredibly troublesome. we have been learning more by the day. but we have great information

on exactly what is going on, and i think there is a lot more to do. >> if the girls have been taken across the boarder or been sold already as they have said or forced into marriages, what is your hunch? do you think we will get them back? >> we are all very worried about their fate. i think we need to do all that we can. this is a tough situation and crisis indeed. we need to see what else can we be doing. >> thanks. >> thank you so much. >> government forces in south sudan are forced to retreat after fighting an intense battle trying to take the town back from rebels. the town is important and changed hands several times. the u.s. secretary of state visited south sudan last week and he is pressing for peace talks.

>> we heard the battle from a bunker on the united nations base. the smoke. the explosion and intensity. but the sound told the whole . having countered them we saw far fewer coming back. >> after a couple of hours of intense fighting the government troops are now retreating. it seems they have not taken the town at all. then the rebels emerged from the bush. they won independence after decades fighting a gorilla war. tactics and military is now using on itself. fire across the united nations ase.

when the battle stopped there were bodies in the road. most of the 25,000 people in the camp were fine. but this 4-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet. another child lost. with the government still fighting, many more may die nless the civil war can end. >> senseless slaughter in south sudan. in ukraine there has been heavy fighting where government troops are trying to wrestle control from pro russian militants. four soldiers have been killed and 30 more injured. but there have been casualties among pro russian gunmen. here is the report. >> the wailing of sirens. we stopped as a desserted barricaded bridge.

the rebels here had vanished. this is the hole punched by an army shell. we heard sniper fire. unseen government scanning the road ahead. it has been a morning of heavy fighting. helicopter attacking rebel positions. on the ground a rush to deploy defenders as pro russian forces try to stop the armies advance. both sides sustained casualties. this man, a badly wounded rebel. others accused of being rebels captured and taken away for interrogation. we drove there during a pause in the fighting. entering the city the first checkpoints. this is the bridge into the city center, a car and a

cyclist. we are now driving in the center and for the past half-hour or so it is quieter here. but fighting can break out again at any minute. in the lull, a few people emerge. some to find food. otherses to see who now controls it. but the place the 125,000 people felt desolate. there is a stolen police car carrying the wounded. what is not clear once you come here it is who is winning. the army said it took a large part of the town. as we drove around we found armed men on checkpoints. they are very, very nervous. they are willing to shoot at anything. as we discovered from behind the sand bags an angry shout. we stopped filming. shots were fired. it showed the extreme tension.

the killing is deepening division. 10 miles away in another town we saw the funeral of a 20-year-old nurse. she just got her job. the whole life has been preparing for that. her anguished values say she was killed at a military checkpoint. among the rebels here the fear that they might be next to be ttacked. >> on the ground not territory and not of events. bbc news. >> images coming out do look increasingly like a full-fledged world. two boats have capsized off of a greek island leaving at least 22 dead and seven others missing and dozens more have een rescued.

>> after a two-week break the ial of oscar pistorius has resumed he denied the charges saying he shot her in a panic. the court has been hearing from eighbors who were first on the scene. > a two-week break and pistorius is back in court, charged with murdering his

girlfriend, reeva. her mother staring across the courtroom at the man who admits he killed her daughter. the neighbor who arrived first on the scene with his daughter to find pistorius on these stairs carrying his girlfriend's body. >> young man walking down the stairs with a young woman in his arms. my daughter asked him quickly to put her down on the floor. he did. he was screaming. he was crying. he was praying. the expression on his face. an expregs of sorrow. an expregs of pain. i saw the truth there that morning. i saw it. >> the implication being that the athlete was telling the truth about shooting his girlfriend by accident.

listening, june struggled with emotions. >> you will remember the aggressive prosecutor, his withering cross-examination of oscar pistorius and other defense witnesses. today he was more gentle and struggled to make any real impact. >> this is the route they took to pistorius' house. she described finding the athlete begging his girlfriend to stay alive. >> he is praying to god the whole time. he was begging. he kept on beating me to stay with him and to not leave him. >> at one point she fail -- feared the athlete might commit suicide. >> when i was standing there i heard him say to the paramedics. i thought he was going to go nd possibly shoot himself. please. just bring her back quickly. >> the defense now plans to

call ballistic and acoustic experts and to finish by the end of next week. >> you are watching bbc world news america. still to come on tonight's program. in just over a month the world cup kicks off in this stadium. the fans are certainly ready. for the fans, that might be a stretch. could a shot of young blood reverse the effects of aging. experiments done with mice are suggesting just that. scientists found older mice performed better mentally when they were injected with blood plasma from younger mice. >> the human brain a marvel and a mystery. we still do not understand how it works or how it ages. but perhaps we might, just might find a way to repair it.

separate research on america's east and west coast involving mice and blood transfusions. what they did was relatively simple. researchers injecting blood plasma. blood with all of the cells removed from younger mice to older mice and displayed stronger reactions in a part of the brain. the animals seemed to perform better physically and mentally. it deals with learning and memory, one of the first parts of the brain to be damaged by diseases like alzheimer's. look at this computer simulation of blood vessels in the brain of a younger mouse. now from a older mouse. this is an older mouse injected with blood from a younger animal. the cells appear to have partially recovered. >> there are molecules responding to this blood. it is like a switch.

like an on switch. you administer young blood and it turns on these molecules and that rejuvenates a lot of the learning and memory abilities. >> these are early days and no clinical trials have been carried out on humans but the research provides possibilities and opportunities. oldest among us relying on the youngest. ne generation helping another. >> with just over a month to go before the start of the world cup in brazil, the stadium due to hold the opening match is still not ready. fifa's top executive gave the sobering assessment that it would not be completed until the very last minute. it does seem to be part of a pattern. now this report. >> roads going nowhere. unfinished stands.

an awful lot of construction work still to do. half of brazil's 12 world cup stadiums missed the deadline to be ready. at one point fifa said that brazil needed a kick in the back side as relations between the governing body of world football and the game's spiritual home was tested. there have been a total of seven deaths at world cup stadiums including where england played their opening game. >> it is not a good plan to try to limit the right to host major sporting events in the world to a small group of rich countries. that does not reflect the reality of the world anymore in the 21st century. >> there is a different message coming from the streets. >> the world cup and the money being spent on it is creating deep divisions.

most would consider themselves futbol fans but most are worried about the amount of money being spent on the tournament. there will not be a world cup. >> government determined the minority protests won't be allowed to disrupt the tournament. one reason for the public anger promised g line infrastructure projects. late or abandoned schemes across brazil part of what was a wider world cup visions. >> it was a wasted opportunity to really materially improve the lives of people in cities. so we have not used the world cup as an opportunity to do that. >> the scale of what remained is clear inside the opening stadium. construction workers test the pitch as their colleagues work around the clock on the unfinished stands. the mission accomplished banner

is premature. as usual here it will go down to the wire. >> after a long, cold winter, spring finally arrived here in the united states. the fresh blooms are a welcomed sight. she grew up surrounded by his works, often drawing inspiration from them. she moved from paris to new york and she spoke about her own artistic arrangements. >> the text tour and colors.

i know they are going to die. but they are still going to ive so much joy to me. into a visual story. i am very fortunate to have wonderful artists working with me. i actually do not call our place a store but it is a workshop. it is a workshop. it is a studio. and that is what i would like to share. mark is my grandfather. he was always very fortunate me. he was my model. what attracted him to painting a wer by kays is to tell

story of ascension. a spiritual story about being in contact with whatever it is. it became a very good tool for him to be spiritual. hen i make a flower by way for a particular client i might do something that does not look at all like any of those my grandfather ever painted. but the necessity or the need hat i have to tell a story ithin that building is probably what i learned from my randfather's painting. i grew up with the notion that giving someone flowers made

them happy. it made him so happy. actually the reason why i wanted to start working with flowers is to be able to give flowers. >> beautiful. the flowers and the paintings. from all of us here at bbc world news america, thanks for watching. i will see you back here omorrow.

>> you own up and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the place it is needed most but i know you will find it when you know where to look. >> at union bank our relationship managers use their expertise to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global network to work. for a wagering of companies from small businesses to major corporations. hat can we do for you? >> bbc world news was presented by

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: protesters in nigeria

raised their voices in outrage over the fate of more than 200 girls abducted from their school three weeks ago, as the militant leader behind the kidnapping vowed to sell the girls as brides. good evening, i'm gwen ifill. judy woodruff is away. also ahead, the supreme court upholds the right to start local government meetings with prayer. plus, we kick off a weeklong series on the modern family, "parenting now," with a look at how roles are changing. >> we don't only feel like we