>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding for this presentation is made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers use their expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global network 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 america." >> this is "bbc world news of america". north korea will allow inspectors. is this what the west means? >> this is a modest first step in the right direction. >> troops move in. in the city of homs they clear the area of rebel fighters. to awhat can it mean daydream believer? ♪ >> he made a name for himself as the monkees lead singer.

we look back on the life of davy jones. welcome to our viewers on pbs and also around the globe. tonorth korea's decision suspend nuclear activities a huge breakthrough or a modest first step? months after kim jong-un took over from his father, they have announced that they will suspend the nuclear program in order for food aid. it would kickstart disarmament talks. there is a good deal of skepticism. >> on both sides of the pacific, at two of the world's most bitter adversaries confirm what has been rumored here for months. the u.s. and north korea had a

deal. >> north korea has agreed to implement a moratorium on long- range missile launches, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities including uranium enrichment activities. today's announcement indicates a modest first step in the right direction. >> in return, north korea can expect almost a quarter million tons of nutritional assistance. one more reminder that the world is transforming around us. not everybody is celebrating. many have been here before. the cooling tower at this nuclear site was destroyed. a symbol of success for multi lateral negotiations. the mood of the international corp. lasted not much longer than the tower itself.

north korea has carried out nuclear tests since then, shelled south caribbean island and unveiled a new nuclear base. will this agreement put all that in the past? in south korea, the government has been cautioned. it could create the right conditions to return to full nuclear talks. getting a broad agreement is the easy part. they have discussed bigger deals than this on the peninsula. the small print on this is still unclear. >> for more on the significance of the announcement, i spoke with david albright, who worked with the atomic energy agency. is this a modest step or a big breakthrough? >> it is a modest step, but it is important. it was long in the making. the death of kim jong il could

have derailed it. id was set on its way before his death. >> do you think the new leadership is dedicated to the negotiations of some sort? >> that is what it looks like. that is a big relief that that is the direction they want to go. the deal includes shutting down the at nuclear enrichment plant and allowing monitors back into the plant for the first time. this is the most important part of the deal. to get north korea to agree to shut down this nuclear enrichment plant. >> others have suggested the same thing. we have been here. we have had negotiations go further than this. >> is very difficult in a presidential alexian year. there are significant concessions which will draw significant concessions from

the north koreans. the hope is to get the negotiations going and to make some progress. i do not have big hopes that there will be huge progress. >> what are the steps that you are going to look for from pyongyang to make you think that it is different? >> they need to shut down the centrifuges at this and retirement plan. they spin down and stop. do they star revealing author sites? agencies are working overtime to find out where the secret sites are. that will be an early test in these negotiations. >> what is motivating the north koreans? is it just the food aid?

>> they want incentives. they want light water reactors. they would like that to come back alive but some point. it would be very hard for the west to bring that back in the short term. north korea clearly wants nuclear energy. from the short term, i know they would like to have a better relationship with the united states to counterbalance to china. they are not looking for the united states to compare withy role of china. i do not think they want to be totally dependent on china. they are looking beyond the status quo to do things that would allow themselves to have a better relationship with the united states. >> we will see a if they actually get followed. there are moves to end a row which has driven a wedge

between egypt and the united states. a travel ban has been lifted force said a sense that work for pro-democracy groups in egypt. they have been charged with receiving illegal foreign funding for their organization to stir up unrest. >> at 8 tie otic weekend, the egyptian authorities pressed the case that has caused the biggest rift with the west for years. democracy and human rights activists have been accused of receiving illegal funding from the united states. not in court but also charged are a number of americans. they have produced it -- been prevented from leaving egypt despite the protests of the u.s. government. i met one of the egyptians who has been charged. nancy runs the egyptian office

of freedom house. she insists that the case is political. >> it is to indicate the work of pro-democracy groups. this was not about international organizations. this is about egyptian civil society. >> after a police raid, her office is still sealed as a crime scene. freedom house and the of organization said that the charges against them are not true and absurd. the prosecution of these organizations has proved very popular inside egypt. that is why this issue is so difficult to resolve. outside sunday's court hearing, demonstrators called on them to take a tough line. they refuse to donate money saying that egypt no longer needs the aid that washington

has threatened to withhold. others have made dark threats about what the human rights organizations were really up to. >> they have a hidden agenda for this country's interests. >> maybe with this court case egypt is reasserting its independence. maybe it is just the way of using fear of foreigners to detract for some -- from some very homemade problems. >> those anti-foreigner sentiment in its we did not see in tahrir square are now emerging. the much feared a ground offensive is believed to be underway. syrian officials said that government troops would cleanse the besieged district would of

rebel fighters. i spoke earlier with the senior fellow for the washington institute for policy. >> this language that is being used in syria of cleansing the rebels, we have heard that kind of language before by the serbians. what does that say is actually going to happen? >> if baekeland entire neighborhoods of the city that would suggest a new level of violence and crack down. they have cracked down on the opposition, but stayed away from the kind of violence that adopt the said that he was going to use and brought international intervention. stay away from gross violence. that would rally world public

opinion. he is playing with fire if he did that. >> turkey is a key player in this equation. increasingly, the west is saying this has to be a regional solution. >> it was what i was thinking before we went to turkey. turkey wants this to be a solution from within the region. perhaps turkey alone cannot change assad's behavior. humanitarian action would require turkey working with nato. in towns along turkey's border with syria. a lot of people think that assad's fall is imminent. contacts with people across the

border think that assad's regime will hang on longer than we think. >> that seems likely based on how he has hung on to power. >> i interacted with both syrians and people who interact with syrians. there is a sense that the opposition, to the extent that it is powerful, it is no match for assad's army because it lacks the sophisticated weaponry. assad still has some backing among christians. he has mastered cracking down without having genocide level massacres, which keeps the world public opinion at bay. mistake ofddafi's threatening genocide. he is keeping the opposition

fire from keeping the entire country. >> if you put a time frame on this, what do people enough to do so? >> it will probably happen within a year. this will probably be a long- term process. lots of people will be slaughtered. >> i wish we could come back with more optimistic news. in other news, the south african youth leader julius malema has bennett expelled from the african congress. a five-year suspension was imposed last year. that brought into repute. the pakistani government says that applies to normalize trade with india by the end of the year. they had restricted the goods that had -- could be imported. this is a shift between the two

nuclear arms neighbors. an italian cruise ship which had been drifting in the indian ocean without power will be there for several more hours. they have refused to help the tugboats, which could have sped up the commission. it was crippled by fire in its engine room. james murdoch, the man in charge of news international has quit his job. now based in new york, rupert murdoch's young assange is an executive with the parent company. he will now be concentrating on the television business. there is some flash photography here. >> it is a move full of symbolism. james murdoch's day-to-day involvement with his father's newspapers and did last year. it comes as a relief for him.

he does not have his father's passiond so that he gets out of the firestorm. hacking was a news of the world. while they kept asking questions, he was a forced to admit to mistakes, in one case with his father by his side. >> with the benefit of hindsight, we can look at all of these things. if i knew that what i knew now, we would have taken more action and move faster to get to the bottom of these allegations. >> he is not the first executive to go. rebecca brooks, the managing director quit last summer. since then, the scandal spread with allegations of corrupt payments to police and other officials asked by journalists on the "sun." that is a problem for the parent company in new york. >> i think the executives in new

york will not allow themselves to be tainted by the united kingdom. they are going to cooperate with the police the best they can. even if that means james murdock having to leave the company that is it. >> he decided on closure at " news of the world." when his father flew in, his -- james was nowhere to be seen. with the successful launch of the "sun" on sunday, news international is in a good place to build on its successes in the future. he has made lasting contributions. james will focus on the pay tv businesses including sky, where he remains chairman. >> he seems to be as successful

in television. he will concentrate on that. normal newspapers. somebody said to me that one murdoch running newspapers is enough. >> this looks like the latest attempt to put the murky past the british newspapers behind it. there could be in but -- investigation into corruption of the son. there is an mp inquiry into phone hacking. all could produce further embarrassment. >> still to come, riding to victory in michigan. mitt romney eeks out a win in his home state. will it be enough to silence critics? thousands of students have been marching across spain to protest cuts in a education funding.

>> at times, it seemed the recession would have no end. valencia's streets are getting ready for protests. they call it the valencia spring. today was more of a carnival atmosphere. a march in contrast to last week. the police went in heavy-handed. it only led to larger demonstrations. valencia has a sizable debt. education is not affected by future government cuts. haveegions's schools already experienced a shortage. they are owed 60,000 euros by the government. until recently, they had not paid their running costs for last year. >> they all have one thing in

common. there were reports that the people blanket because the school was saving on heating bills. the parents became the cleaners because the cleaners were not properly paid. this was to put pressure on the local governments. they lent the school 9000 euros when times were tough last year. it meant that nearly all public institutions are short of money. wiping out the region's debt will take years. cutting education is a controversial subject. >> hear that big sigh of relief?

that was the collective sound from mitt romney's campaign. is it enough? our editor has just returned from detroit. i started by asking, do we have a candidate yet? >> i do not think that we do. most people think it will be met romney. this eeked out victory in a state he should have one so easily. he was born there and his father was a much loved governor. people do not love him. they had not decided who they were going for. you go for mitt with your head, not your heart. he cannot finalize it. talking to the "detroit free press"-endorsed him begrudgingly. he has swung so far to the

right, that we -- he is not the mitt romney we have like four years and years. >> this is not the parliamentary leadership where leaders are chosen behind closed doors. is this helping the republican party having all of these 30 linen's? >> i do not think it is. some will say that all publicity is good publicity. it takes the microphone away from barack obama, at least talking about republican policy. something they said to me that is a really good point is that compared to last time around, there was a bitter contest between obama and hillary clinton. they did not like each other. their supporters passionately loved them. that is not the case now. a lot do not like what they're seeing. >> on your point moving too far to the right, olympia snowe is

saying that she is finding the partisanship too difficult to deal with. there is the thing that the republican party has shifted from not being center right, but for being a far right party. >> this was tremendously important. it said something that will destroy us an awful lot of people that are interested in politics in this country. what we have always seemed in republican races, like with the right. between the rights and the moderates. it is a rush to the right to policies that are not going to appeal to independents. i am not saying they are incorrect. the more you go to an extreme, the more difficult is for the middle of the road people to say that is what i believe in. by appealing to their base, they may put off people in the general election.

>> speaking to be there. he was known as the heartthrob's singer that helped propel the monkees to musical success. the british-born davy jones died last night. his band had many musical hits including "daydream believer." to many, it was their tv show. >> ♪ we are the monkees >> he was the clean-cut lead singer for the band put together for a tv show. his talents and appeal contributed to the group 's chart success on both sides of the atlantic. >> there they are. everything to make the fans go wild. >> created to emulate the beatles, sometimes they enjoyed almost as much fan histeria.

>> i am the heartthrob, no hair on his body kind of guy bang. >> he was born in manchester in 1945. he was a child actor. >> that is more like it. cox ♪ that i saw her face ♪ >> it was singing with the monkees that made him a star. they were regarded by many as the first mfg. group. he said it was not justified. >> like anything, you make arrangements to do stuff. whether you are a dj, or a singer or in an office, you are interviewed for the job. >> much of his peers and has endured. davy jones will be remembered as

one of the few as british pop singers to achieve that stardom not just here, but in america, too. >> who did not love davy jones? that brings today'show to a close. you can get updates on -- at any time on our website. she shuffles around the globe try to tackle the world's economic problems. >> you can wake up every day to a new crisis. you arrive it work thinking how can i fix this? >> thank you. we will see you later. >> you can see that whole interview on the world news america. thanks for watching. have a great evening.

>> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers use their expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global network to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations.

what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was ceented by kcet los angeles.