>> "bbc world news" is presented by kcet, los angeles. funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank. >> union bank has put its global expertise to work for a wide range of companies. what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news."

>> the skies above europe are opened for business after nearly a week of no flights, heathrow is up to nearly 80% of capacity, bringing some thousands of passengers. arguments raged over whether it was a really necessary to close so much airspace. the pope promises action over the child abuse scandal that has rocked the catholic church. welcome to "pc world news" broadcast from pbs and around the globe. coming up, remembering the man who took the olympics from a nearly bankrupt seek to spectacle buys at the age of 89. china mourns the nearly 2000 killed in last week's earthquake.

quacks' the skies above europe are returning to business as usual. they're expected to be back to 100% on thursday. nearly 100,000 flights had been canceled in the past six days, so it may be weeks before the backlog of stranded passengers is clear. officials gave clearance for flights to resume in british aerospace under intense pressure from the air travel industry. britain's transport minister said they were overly cautious. >> heathrow airport, the world's biggest hub for international travelers, is coming back to life. long-haul flights were the first to take off. the first to arrive was a flight from vancouver. >> it's lovely to be back. a huge relief. >> we are all relieved.

>> as more flights arrived, there were mixed tales. some praising travel companies and others angry at the days of frustration and uncertainty. for one family, the opening of airspace happened just in time. >> [unintelligible] it's fantastic. >> but this couple stuck in taiwan missed their big day back home. luckily, the manager of the hotel where they were staying took pity on them and organized impromptu service. the guests included other stranded europeans. >> it was the best. we're not stuck in this country, but we were sent here to be married. this is a really amazing day.

thank you to you all. >> nearly all of europe's airspace is open. but it could take weeks to clear the backlog of passengers. now come the recriminations. the head of the organization representing the airline industry has attacked the way the european government handled the crisis. >> this crisis was much worse in the mention then what happened on september 11th. reopening the airspace in the u.k. was a big step, but the situation continues to be an embarrassment. why? because they were late in making decisions. >> europe has a big leadership in stepping up to this process. >> the icelandic volcano is still pouring out ash, but less than before. it is giving time for airlines

to count the costs of nearly 100,000 canceled flights. the argument about who pays for all his just only begun to erupt. >> so why did it take six days for air traffic officials to decide it was safe to fly? there were signs the icelandic irruption was scaling down, but in the past 24 hours, the was intense pressure from airlines for the procedures to deal with the clout of volcanic ash. >> only yesterday, heathrow and other airports were paralyzed. today, there suddenly back to life. how did the safety rules on the volcanic ash changed so far? at 10:00 this to the morning, at the department transport in london, aviation officials met the airlines. they were studying the findings of british research flights -- six missions to investigate the plenum.

the question was is it safe to fly? >> safety has to be of absolute paramount importance. you do not just jump to a decision. it needs to be examined them looked at. there s been detailed discussions between the airlines and manufacturers that have been moved looking at this. >> just after a 11:00 in the morning, british airways flight left for london in the morning. 25 other planes took to the air as well. ever since they flew a test flight last weekend, they have been pushing for the rules to be relaxed. the plane had no problems with ash, it said. what happens next is revealed in the radar plot of the atlantic region. the red zone marks the plume of ash. each got showed that the plane and how they avoided. that is standard international procedure. but yesterday, with the plane's open to land in britain and the latest it -- the latest research into the risk, new procedures were being drafted. at about 7:00 aviation officials

met the airlines again, but not for long. the transport secretary soon emerge trade flights would be allowed where there was not much ash. but why hadn't they did this sooner? today, he conceded the response could have been faster. >> is safe to say we were too cautious, but in the face of the irruption that took place in the middle of last week, the safety regulators had to deal with the issue of tolerable levels of-which were compatible with the safe operation. >> at about 10 minutes before 10:00 last night, the first plane landed. there is still ash in the air and some european airplane -- some european aerospace is still closed. but for the moment, the paralysis is over. >> our correspondent is in iceland and explains but the activity of the volcano is like now. >> the russian is still ongoing

in the distance behind me. it -- the corruption is still ongoing in the distance behind me. it is spectacular. the dust cloud is drifting across the horizon, but conditions have calmed down a great deal. it is mostly steam and less- rising into the air. the ash that is rising we are told is settling closer to the volcano itself. we drove down when the volcano and you still get a dust cloud chicken picked up in the distance. but the visibility is much better that it has been in previous days. you can still feel the best catching your throat and it is a little bit unpleasant. the vulcanologists and meteorologist have been flying over this site again today, working out exactly what is happening at the crater at top of the volcano. they say it has calmed down

considerably. there is maglev there and they say there are no guarantees -- there is magma there and they say there are no guarantees. if -- they say the chances of the russian is tapering off, but it could still keep erupting for days, weeks or even months. >> the french government has announced it will put a draft law before parliament next month banning the wearing of a full face is like a veil in public. nikolas sarkozy said last year such garments oppressed women and are not welcome in france. thailand's "red shirts" protests have been strengthening their base, and closing their and camera was sharpened bamboo poles in response to warnings from the army that deadly force may be used against them. the demonstrators, who want new elections, have ruled out negotiating with the government. south korea says it has uncovered a plot to assassinate

the most senior defector from the communist north. he was a mentor to his leader, kim jong il. two suspected agents have been arrested in the south who posed as defectors. in northern ireland, the social democratic labor party has launched its election manifesto. in belfast, the leader says it would create more than 40,000 jobs over the next four years and broaden government. the party currently has three seats at westminster. amid the anguish, the anger, and any questions provoked by the sex abuse scandals involving catholic priest, the response from the church has generally been silence, occasional defensive comments from senior clerics have proved disastrous in public relations terms. very little seems to have been done to help the thousands of abuse or to prosecute the abusers. the pope's decision to speak today and his promise of action

may be highly significant. >> at his weekly general audience, pope benedict told pilgrims gathered in st. peter's square about his decision to meet eight victims of pedophile priest during his visit to all the last weekend. he promised action by the catholic church to protect children better in the future and priests likely to bless them and punish the guilty. >> after the mass, i wanted to meet some people were victims of abuse by members of the clergy. i shared with them their suffering and with the motion, i prayed with them, promising action on the part of the church. >> after the meeting, one of the victims was understandably emotional when he talked to reporters. >> we had a meeting with pope. we prayed together.

we had five or six minutes in private to talk. for me, it felt like ours. -- it felt like hours. >> five years into his pontificate, the scandals have raged. he celebrated his 83rd birthday offered by some of the cardinals electric -- who elected him. just before the election, he publicly deplored what he termed fills in the church. at the time, few commentators picked up on this, but now everyone knows what he meant. at the helm of the world wide 1.1 billion catholic community, he now has to navigate a new course. and overwhelmingly -- in

overwhelmingly catholic but tiny malta, the pope received an enthusiastic welcome from his flock. but elsewhere in the world, his seventh -- dissatisfaction has been expressed about the churches record in dealing with clerical sex scandals. catholics want to see what concrete steps the pope proposes to take beyond mere damage control. >> a team of german researchers is saying the pledges made it the copenhagen climate summit to contain greenhouse gas emissions are unlikely to tackle the problem. the team includes many countries are pledging lower rates of carbon cuts than they are already achieving. analysis suggests a likely result is a rise of global temperatures of three rather than 2 degrees celsius, which is likely to mean falling crop yields and serious damage to coral reefs. stay with us, if you can.

still to come -- nasa releases spectacular pictures of the sun's solar irruptions and helps us understand what it is doing to the earth. first, final results of the parliamentary assaults in sri lanka have been declared. they could only be called after violence subsided in two areas to weeks ago. the guided peoples freedom alliance has won by a landslide, upping its seats to 144. >> the coalition now has a them the majority with well over half the seats in parliament. the main opposition group has been reduced to almost a rump. part of the tamil-dominated north has fallen to a group of seen as a proxy for the defeated tamil tigers. while the party of the general,

the defeated and now imprisoned former presidential candidate, has seven seats, including the general himself as a newly elected mp. it is quite likely he will attend the oath taking and subsequent sessions of parliament, but he may have to return to detention between times, pending the outcome of his military trial. on charges he says are politically motivated. the president has done so well in these elections because he is seen as the band who stepped out tamil tiger separatist up violence. with the resounding victory a year ago. he is hugely popular, especially among the rural majority. he says he will make the country into the economic miracle of asia. he has huge powers now until at least 2016. one newspaper here says people here will be expecting him to face down things like fret --

press freedom and the accommodation of dissent. human-rights campaigners say there are blemishes in that regard. an international media group has just placed sri lanka fourth among countries where journalists are killed and governments failed to bring perpetrators to justice. >> the latest headlines for you on "bbc world news." europe's skies are returning to normal. rules on plans for the ash cloud have been relaxed. but the six-day closers left chaos inside and outside of europe. tens of thousands remained stranded and clearing the black -- during the -- clearing the backlog -- clearing the backlog could take weeks. the head of the olympics committee has died at the age of 89. he took over in 1980 and held it until 2001, when he retired he was the second-longest serving president. he took the olympic movement from your bankruptcy to a

multimillion-dollar commercial spectacle while attracting lucrative sponsorship and tv deals. >> he died in barcelona after being a bit that on sunday, suffering from heart trouble. he will be remembered as the man who shaped the modern olympic movement, the man who made the olympic rings one of the world's most marketable symbols. when he took over as president in 1980, the ioc was close to bankruptcy. city kids -- cities did not want or couldn't afford to host the olympics. contrast that with the year 2000 and the opening of the final games in charge in sydney. the olympics had changed beyond recognition, winning the rights to stage the games have become one of the world's most sought- after prize is. >> i am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best olympic

games ever. >> today, there were mourning the many changes to the organization beyond recognition. >> he was a great president. he left a strong legacy. he can definitely be credited with making the games the success story they are today. he could also be credited for changing the ioc, making it more representative, more trustworthy. >> but he will also be remembered as the man in charge at the time of the greatest crisis. even having to testify in congress during investigations into the salt lake city corruption scandal. a number of members were found guilty of accepting bribes. he himself was never a implicated, but the fact that happened on his watch was always going to damage his reputation. nobody would dispute is passion

for sports, active in the movement up until the end of his life. beijing in the cities that follow up much to the work of this man. >> flags have been flying at half mast across china as the country market day of mourning for victims of the earthquake. at least 2000 people are known to have died in the tremor that struck a remote tibetan prague -- remote tibetan province last week. >> in the ruins, a stop to remember the dead when the earthquake hit, tearing apart this remote community and killing hundreds. in the provincial capital, thousands stood in the freezing cold. car horns and sirens blared throughout the city and flags were lowered to half mast. china is in mourning. two years from the sichuan earthquakes and another day of national remembrance.

sporting and entertainment events were suspended for the day. >> because we are all chinese, we care about our fellow countrymen. we cannot be there to help them. the only thing we can do is use this kind of event to let them know we still feel for them. >> missing from the commemoration in this deeply buddhist part of china was the dalai lama, the tibetan spiritual leader. he had offered to break a 50- year exile to return to comfort the tibetan people who revere him. beijing views him as a separatist and ignored the request. china's leaders marked their own ceremonies. for a country in his effort, this is a moment of silence, said -- a moment of silence, said the president. it was time for the communist party to rally its people to its message of one china, strong and unified in the face of adversity.

>> ukraine and russia have agreed to extend russia's please on the black sea fleet. in exchange, russia will supply its neighbor with cheaper gas. the president signed the deal during the first visit by russian head of state in at least two years, a strong sign of warming relationship. rescuers in the southern united states are searching for a dozen workers missing since an explosion and fire on an american offshore oil rig. the accident on a drilling platform about 65 kilometers off the coast of louisiana left at least seven injured. an investigation is underway. thailand has seized nearly 1.5 tons of elephant tusks worth more than $2 million hidden in a crate labeled as computer printers. customs officials confiscated tusks at the main airport in bangkok. there were acting on a tip from

qatar. would you get when you put together high energy teenagers, aerosol cans, and empty walls in blighted neighborhoods? in washington d.c., the answer is art. professional murals painted on the city's most rundown real- estate. ♪ >> color, energy, imagination, images of, some larger-than- life, some of the intricate detail. ♪ >> is all part of a mural d.c., a publicly funded program doing its bit to confront hit-and-run graffiti artists and change the face of the city. this is one of five artists who spent last summer working on this wall while training 65

local children in the art of aerosol paint. the aim is to use what it calls crowd-sourced work to create enthusiasm about art in public places. public art is also a way to pay tribute. take this street of georgia ave. down the way from howard university, a historically black college. >> seeing this year, to me, it is basically like an organic visual narrative of the history of not only washington dc, but the characters it pays homage to like benjamin banneker, langston hughes, duke ellington, marvin gaye, the list goes on and on. >> one local hip-hop d.j. watched the mural being painted while he worked on his latest album in his studio near by. >> it's like music -- it paints

a picture and it also tells a story and gives a lot of us history. so do the murals that beautify our wonderful city, washington dc. >> so far, there are murals them 20 sites, the liberal elite -- literally located in areas with illegal graffiti. the idea is to show what else can be done. ♪ >> nasa has published some astounding new pictures of the sun taken with a powerful telescope on board a new solar observatory. scientists hope these shots -- we're talking about a resolution 10 times better than high- definition television -- will give a far better understanding of how our star works and its impact on the earth. >> the sun as you have never seen before. this is no animation, it's a

real picture. hear, explosively forming a loop. here is a small solar flare, just at the top of your screen. all around it, the atmosphere gently bubbles and evaporate into space. here is another view. this picture shows a sunspot the size of the earth. here is the activity around it. these are the first pictures from the instruments on nasa's solar dynamics observatory. >> when you see the whole sun as you have seen today, it is showing connections we have never seen before. even hard-core solar physicists are struck with all. >> the spacecraft will decide this the best view of the sun ever had. it has four cameras, each studying its atmosphere whereby later. as well as steading the details,

it can zoom out and, for the first time, see processes on fold across the entire sun. these pictures of thrilled scientists across the world. >> its like lifting the veil on the sun's atmosphere. you can see the sun through phenomenal detail and study the atmosphere in wonderful detail. it alleges to look into the fine scales up -- fine scale structure of the atmosphere and you can begin to address and how it influences us on earth. >> it should help scientists learn how the sun works and how it affects life on earth. >> struck with all seems about right. you can find those pictures and all today's story on our website. you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. you can see what we're working on on our facebook page.

thank you for being with us. >> hello and welcome. >> see the news unfold. get the top stories from around the globe and click to play video reports. go to bbc.com/news to experience the in-depth, expert reporting of "bbc world news" online. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank. >> union bank has put its global expertise to work for a wide range of companies.

what can we do for you? >> there is one stage that is the met and carnegie hall. >> o, that this too, too solid flesh -- >> it is the kennedy center. >> check, one, two. >> and a club in austin. [woman vocalizing] >> it is closer than any seat in the house, no matter where you call home. >> the top of the world, and i'm there, i'm home. >> pbs -- the great american stage that fits in every living room. your support of pbs brings the arts home. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.