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the >> this is "bbc world news america" reporting from washington. iran announces it has made new strides in its nuclear program, striking a defiant tone against sanctions from the west. fire sweeps through a prison in honduras, trapping inmates in their cells. more than 350 are killed. this is one of the most of the blazes in decades. get ready for some linsanity, from new york to taiwan, one basketball player is proving to be the top of the town. -- talk of the town. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and also around the

globe. as if tensions between tehran and the west were not high enough, today iran announced in grand fashion that it has made two major advances in its nuclear program. president mahmoud ahmadinejad watched as the research reactor was reportedly loaded for the first time with domestically made fuel rods. later, iran's nuclear agency said they had expanded the ability to enrich rhenium. both moves seem to make a mockery of recent sanctions. -- they have expanded the ability to enrich uranium. >> mama and a divisiomahmoud ahd occasionally enjoys playing the part of nuclear physicist. this was made without any help from the west. >> they restricted scientific

achievement for themselves, especially advanced science. they have used it to fight she manatee. science should be invested in people's well-being and to organize relations based on friendship and respect, and justice. >> the most important of the announcement on state tv may be the installation of 3000 new centrifuges for uranium enrichment. in itself, this is not proof that iran is pursuing nuclear weapons but it puts the country in a better position to do so if it chooses. >> if it is true that iran is introducing 3000 more centrifuges and they are more efficient, that is significant. that means that the time line for them being able to produce a nuclear weapon if it were to decide to do so is significantly shorter. >> exactly how much shorter is something that negotiators will try to work out.

the last time the world powers and iran sat down for nuclear talks was a year ago and they achieved nothing. but iran has told the west that they are ready to have another go. this is what makes things all the more urgent. only this week, israel accused iran of carrying out assassination attempts against israeli diplomats in india, georgia, and thailand. this is a charge denied by iran this furthers israel's own sense that iran must be stopped. >> in reaction to the announcement, the u.s. state apart and dismissed the news saying that it is not terribly impressive. for more on this back and forth, i spoke to a senior fellow at the u.s. institute of peace who has written extensively on iran. there is this back-and-forth going on, was this diplomatic

theatre? who was the audience? >> there was two different audiences. one was the domestic audience. part of this is about jump starting the iranian nationalism and a very important juncture. this is a way of saying that we will produce something, get out and vote for us. to the international community, which is with the real message was, it is a sense that we are presently. you cannot intimidated us-you cannot intimidate us. we will be defined. a lot of things that they have done our ted and we just for peaceful nuclear energy and fall. what is legal for iran under the nonproliferation treaty. >> there is an election coming up. this announcement that they are expanding their enrichment facility, where i think you have been. is that more concerning?

>> i have been in the research reactor. a lot of questions have remained from getting back to 2003 about what iran has been trying to do it because they have not complied with united nations weapons inspectors and a series of u.n. resolutions that the international community has passed. they are late in terms of these developments that they brag about. they have had to fess up to things that the international community found out that they were doing such as the underground facility. >> does that make you think that they are further along in the process than they let on about war that the sanctions are having no effect at all and they are forging ahead? maybe there is another country helping them secretly. >> the sanctions have hurt them seriously. there is a real fight in tehran after years of being able to skirt a lot of the issues,

whether it is international banking systems cutting off their central bank from dealings with the outside world. iran is really feeling the pinch. i think everyone believes whether it is the iranians or the six major powers, that there will be another round of diplomacy. this is not over by what happened today. >> there will be another round of diplomacy but this is all happening against the backdrop of bomb attacks against israeli targets around the world which were apparently in retaliation for the assassination of the iranian nuclear scientists. are we in the middle of a proxy war? if so, how explosive is this? >> that is a critical issue. the iranians feel that they are engaged in a war in the shadows. it is not is about the rhetoric that has typified the tensions between whether it is iran or israel or iran and the international community, but it is now playing out in the assassinations of its own

nuclear scientists. or, what iran might be doing in places like india, georgia, and thailand. >> we will be keeping a very keen eye on it. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> to syria, where bashar al- assad promised a date for the referendum on the new constitution. this was dismissed as laughable. meanwhile, the city of hama is the latest target. it is being shelled just as the opposition town of homs as for two weeks. >> a visible symbol of a country deep in crisis. this is not the first time that a pipeline has been hit but this fire will be hard to put out. as usual, the two sides blame another. activists said it was hit by government shellfire. state television said it was

sabotaged by terrorists. >> this run close to parts of homs which has been bombarded for many days. this is not only the central city that is affected. the government confessed five soldiers were killed in this town in the aleppo province. many similar incidences are reported from parts of the country including damascus where security forces stormed houses and detain suspected activists. against that trend in the background, president assad has ordered a popular referendum on the new draft constitution that was finished on sunday. this would end the monopoly of the willie party and allow any president to be reelected only once. -- this would end the monopoly of the ruling party. >> yes, we certainly believe that the new constitution which will end one-party rule and

syria is a step forward. we certainly believe that introducing the pluralistic basis of a new political system in syria is a welcome idea. >> but, the syrian opposition and its outside supporters are unlikely to be convinced. they regarded the reform process as cosmetic and the radical. they want to see a security council resolution that calls on president assad just to go. with humanitarian conditions worsening all the time, the french are trying to get agreement at the u.n. no outside countries are ready to step in to protect such corridors against the regime's will. >> a humanitarian corridor to allow aid groups to reach those places where massacres have taken place needs to be done by the security council. >> the western powers and other opposition supporters will be holding a friends of syria

meeting in tunisia just before the referendum takes place in sunni itself into with the country in turmoil, not a hard to see how such a big operation could be organized and carried out credibly on the ground in such conditions. >> in france tonight, president nicolas sarkozy made the announcement everyone was waiting for saying that he will stand for reelection this april and pledging that a strong france would protect people from global economic turmoil. he is currently running behind his main rival in the opinion polls and he has a disapproval rating of 68%. the second term may be an uphill climb. this report does contain flash photography. >> nicolas sarkozy, impulsive, hyperactive. a president bubbly with ambition. facing an immense challenge if he is to win a second term.

tonight, he chose a tv program to announce his bid for reelection. his pitch to the french people was that he was a tough realists in a time of unprecedented crisis. >> can you imagine a captain leave and his boat in the heart of the storm saying i am tired, i am quitting? >> no candidate has been so far behind in the polls so close to election and won and many of those who voted for him last time are disillusioned. >> it is shot him to see him in a luxury boat. -- thit is shocking to see him in a luxury boat. >> i am ok with his view of the economy. regarding the society, he is trading division.

>> the president has called himself an outsider, a leader that would modernize the french economy, make it more like that of britain and the united states. the reforms have turned out to be modest. yes, pensions reform, but the economy stalled, businesses close, and employment rose, and france lost its treasured credit rating. then, there was image. he married a super model but the french people sought a leader with a thought enjoyed too much the lifestyle of the rich and famous. >> he looked too flashy. some people say it was too vulgar. >> for the moment, the socialist candidate is significantly ahead in the polls and the president faces a strong challenge from

the far right. president sarkozy has acknowledged in 10 weeks, he could be out of power. >> you are watching "bbc world news america," still to come -- taking a turn behind the camera. we sit down with angelina jolie to discuss her directorial debut. she is stirring some controversy. a quarter of the world's children are undernourished and hundreds are dying of hunger every hour. those of the figures from the aid agency, save the children. they say that things are getting worse. >> in the spotlight now with a new hunger emergency if 8 is not rapidly stepped up, this region in south africa. children with severe on attrition are being treated in

niger, one of the countries hit by a deadly combination of drought, crop pests, and soaring food prices. it is the record food prices of the past year that this new report focuses on. they have compounded the chronic problem of child malnutrition and forecast terrible consequences if there's not more concerned action. >> we have made massive progress to combat child mortality because of demonization but that will stall unless we deal with this problem of malnutrition. if we don't, 2.6 million children will die every year. >> in bangladesh, one of the countries where save the children carried out the survey, food prices have gone up 50%. for many, they are now and affordable. this woman says that whenever she gets is never enough to feed her children properly. lessons to help mothers make

meals that are as the dishes as possible. millions of parents have cut back on food for their families. the risk is that many more children will end up with physical and mental stunting. children have also been dropping out of school to work to pay for food. the agency is proposing a world hunger stomach -- summit when leaders are in london for the olympics. >> when i mentioned the name angelina jolie, you would think of her work in front of the camera. now, she is making her directorial debut with a controversial topic. "in the land of blood and honey" is set against the backdrop of the bosnian war. alan little, who covered the war

for the bbc, met angelina jolie for the premier and he has been exploring why the film has been so divisive. >> for 40 months, these streets were besieged and bombarded. the memory is rock and ever present. 20 years on, sarajevo once its story told. it has found an unlikely new champion. -- sarajevo wants its story told. the demand for tickets was enormous, said they moved the screening to an olympic stadium. this is not an easy film. this depicts in bleak and chilling details of the removal of non serbs. at its heart, there is a doomed love story across the ethnic divide. many left feeling that bosnia's story had been told at last in unsparing honesty.

>> everyone will know what has happened. there are hundreds of stories like this. >> each year during this war, i feel this movie very deep. >> angelina jolie you wrote the script herself. she had been nervous about how bosnians would react. >> would they feel comfortable with this? would they be upset? i don't know. i was terrified. when they stood up, i wanted to cry. >> the divisions that were imposed when made. go to the serb part of the country and you enter a parallel universe. angelina jolie is not welcome here. >> serbs have never denied that crimes were committed by individuals, not by the whole nation. >> she rejects the charge that

the film was not balanced. the war was not balanced. >> people who say that it was 50/50, i don't understand that. they're looking for a balance that did not exist. they don't want to see these atrocities or to be reminded of these atrocities. some people want to deny that it even happened. >> outside the stadium, there is a starkly poignant place. 20 years ago, it was a plain field. in 1992, it became a cemetery. the cemetery itself was exposed to shell and sniper fire from the hills around so families would come and bury their dead quickly, say a prayer, then hurry off to find safety. by the time the war ended, this game was -- this cemetery was

full. this reveals a country still divided, and reconcile the to its own painful past. -- unreconciled to its own painful past. >> in honduras, with an 350 prisoners were killed when a huge fire swept through a jail on tuesday night. the prison is in comayagua which is about 80 kilometers north of the capital. for the latest, i can speak to will grant who is joining us from comayagua. what is the scene like there now? >> this has been a scene of great morning in this small town. the sun is beginning to set over the prison. there are still family members waiting around for more

information, although that they feel that it is not more forthcoming. one woman lost two of her cousins in the blaze. a third cousin that was inside the prison managed to survive. she is from this part of the world. there were many other people who had family members in that prison who are currently completely without information. >> you are talking about information, we are reading reports that some other relatives tried to storm the gates of the prison to recover the remains. not his grief but anchor there as well. >> i think that is absolutely right. -- not just grief but anger as well. >> they said that they cannot rule out that the fire had been started deliberately. due to the overcrowding, the

decrepit prison system. the problem is that people feel that they are not being told the true story. >> is the death toll expected to rise? we are hearing more than 300 that have died. are the hospitals full? are they able to cope? are we expected more to die? >> the hospitals are full but the problem has to do with the bodies and the charred remains. the more it is overflowing with bodies -- the morgue is overflowing with bodies but it cannot cope with any more bodies being brought to them. certainly, the people in this

small community here are feeling the grief and very profoundly. >> thank you very much for joining us. now, to an amazing story of success on the court's been to two weeks ago, jeremy lin was a relatively unknown basketball player sitting on the bench for the new york knicks. now, you cannot see a newspaper without seeing his in it all over the newspaper. he might have been born and bred in the u.s., but that has not stopped his ancestral home from taiwan from embracing him like a son. >> linsanity in action. jeremy lin doing what he does best, scoring the winning points in a crucial game.

an estimated 3 million people in taiwan watch every game. the news channel cannot get enough of him. his parents were born in taiwan. although he was born and bred in america, he can speak mandarin and he has visited taiwan to coach young players. the taiwan these consider him a local son. even his relatives have to come a media it together is even talk of his of his home town making him an honorary citizens. -- even his relatives have become a media hit. there is even talk of his hometown making him an honor larry psittacine. one of only a handful of asian players to have made it to the nba, he has become an inspiration to youngsters such as these taiwan these college students. >> we feel very proud. perhaps we will have more opportunities to play in the nba.

>> jeremy lin's success has prompted taiwan a society to rethink their emphasis about education above everything else and encouraging people to follow their passions. the man himself is keen to keep his feet firmly on the ground. >> this is a lot right now that i'm getting used to it a little more and on this is spending as much time with my family. they are constantly giving advice and keeping the ground in helping you with this whole transition. >> jeremy lin is not only popular because ofmovement, he f tremendous pride. officials from the taiwanese basketball association said that his popularity is linked to the sense of national identity. they want a sense of nationality

and not just the province of china. >> when jeremy competes, taiwanese fans in courage other taiwanese to go to the game. this is very helpful for our overall image. it lets everyone know that jeremy lynde and taiwan are linked. -- jeremy lin and taiwan are linked. >> this has brought inspire youngsters and all the taiwan to believe that the small islands can achieve anything that sets its mind to. >> that brings the show to a close. remember, you can get updates on our website. to find out what we are working on, make sure to check out our facebook page. from all of us here at "bbc world news america," thank you for watching. we will see you back here

tomorrow. >> 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 work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of

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