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>> and now, "bbc world news. >> reports that the much-feared ground assault in the city of homs has begun. and fears that the humanitarian crisis could get worse, but is china changing its mind about it all? hello and welcome to gmt. i'm george with news and opinion. also in the program, a narrow win for mitt romney in the republican primary race for the candidate. and australian women forced to give up their children for adoption. it's midday in this area but in

homs, it's said the ground assault seems to have begun. activists say it could lead to a blood bath which is why humanitarian fears are rising to the top of international agendas. china now may be prepared to back the rest of the humanitarian initiative. >> they certainly seem to be feeling the pressure of being one of the few that vetoed

humanitarian intervention. the secretary general talked to the foreign minister of saudi arabia and much is said about the humanitarian situation, etc., etc. but the chinese don't want anything that smacks of intervention or forced regime change, anything like that. so if the west is looking at the humanitarian issue as a way of itself achieving corridors that would be imposed rather than accepted by the syrian government, i think the chinese, as well as the russians, would be against it. the west have long abandon the talk of anagreement.

i wish i were privy to satellite communication, because communication with activists in baba amr has been cut off for some time. and it was told to a press news agency there was a ground attack going on, and that the whole area of people would be "cleaned" within a matter of hours. now one expressed fear about one of my colleagues last night saying government forces were already within an hour of the press center which was hit last wednesday where marie colvin and her colleague were killed. and they expected the offense

would be over within a few hours. the government said it would press forward with an attack because it vowed to clear out all, what it called terrorists. but we'll have to wait and see. >> jim muir, thank you. >> thank you. >> let's take a look at some of the other headlines around the world. it appears egyptian authorities have arrested seif al-adel at the cairo airport. he was a major figure in osama bin laden's inner circle. joining me now with more on this story is our correspondent in cairo. jon, how important is this arrest? >> well, apparently, according to egyptian sources, he was temporarily in charge of al qaeda after osama bin laden's

death. of course now another is now, but he has been on the run since the 1980's. he joined egyptian islamic jihad and were fighting inside the country of egypt against the egyptian government. and then moved to al qaeda and fought mostly the west. at the moment, he was on his way to pakistan when he landed in cairo where it's reported the egyptian authorities had a tipoff or maybe just decided to give himself up. but now, according to authorities, they have him in custody. >> thank you. now, it's been a good night for presidential hopeful mitt romney. he claimed victory in michigan and arizona.

michigan was seen as vital for his campaign. mitt romney was born in the state and his father served as governor. here's our correspondent, mark mardell. >> despite the crowd's enthusiasm, he still hasn't won the right to face president obama in the autumn. but this was a hard fight in a state that should have been an easy win for romney. he was brought up in michigan where his father was a much-loved governor. >> we didn't win by a lot. but we won by enough, and that's all that counts. >> but rick santorum made a huge showing considering he was taken hardly seriously in the beginning. >> we did well in a place where we were told, we wouldn't do

well. all i have to say is, i love you back. >> there's a sense of relief from mitt romney supporters that he won this critical battle. but next week more states vote in what is known as super tuesday. >> joining us with more on this story is our guest. it wasn't a knockout blow here. >> no. but the bigger headline is santorum lost. this was the one chance santorum had to grab the headlines and the state and he failed at it. it will be interesting. i don't have a figure but i would like to take out the democrats that voted. not that want to vote in november, but to say i'm going to vote

for santorum just to play around and then ein november vote for president obama. >> but santorum is now down and out? >> well, there's more of a perception that he can't win. in the exit polls, he has people identifying themselves as strongly conservative and so santorum won in the exit polls, but when it came down to who could beat president obama in november, it was mitt romney. so as much as i commend them for that. that is not what the election will be about. we'll get side tracked into contraception and what he said about throwing up about kennedy

and such. >> it's clear he has a hard sort of -- >> i think he's actually in a very good position now, because you want someone who has conservative values. but as was said, he is conservative but let's not forget there was another with his language that was flip flopper. in the autumn, people are scared of another four years of barack obama. social conservatives have their reasons, but i think a lot of independents who may like the guy might say, hey, spending is out of control.

if there's a $6 gallon in a country crazy about driving that needs to drive here, i think mr. obama will be sunk. and leave that. thank you. tensions between iran and the west have reached historic heights. their nuclear program lies at the heart. the first major vote since 2009 presidential hard lines. it's one of big conflicts with the west. >> the west is suspicious. so let's work out what we know for sure. iran is part of the nuclear

treaty. it is under the international atomic safe guards. and it has developed and enriched your rain yum!. iran recently started to work in an underground bunker. this move worries western powers. but a number of american officials -- friends of iran as i assert that iran has not decided to with a -- to go ahead with developing nuclear weapons. in recent months israel

suggested it may have to carry out a strike against iran's nuclear facilities. and the decision to carry out an attack was said to be far away, though. and earlier this month, an attack at this time was said would not be prudent. however, they still want iran to answer questions about its intentions. they are being asked directly from the international community. and the agency calls for iran to cooperate fully. only one man in iran gets to decide how far the country will go. all decisions are made by the supreme leader, ayatollah, not mahmoud ahmadinejad. it's made the program a symbol

of national pride and defiance. it may be that only he knows for sure just if what is going on. >> the australian government is being called upon to apologize to women forced to give up their children for adoption. a committee has listened to many women saying they were restrained and drugged before they were asked to sign away their children in the 1970's and 1960's. our correspondent talks to us. >> after the second world war, they say tens of thousands of women, mostly unmarried, mostly young teenagers had their babies forceably removed.

they say they deserve an apology for the awful way they were treated. stories of women being coerced and drugged and being told they were shameful and all kinds of horror stories that have taken place in these hospitals and institutions over a period of 20, 30, and even 40 years. >> still to come on g.m.t., it was one of the most fears predators. now it's revealed tyrannosaurus rex had a bite to match. >> time now for a look at the main stories in some newspapers around the world.

"the guardian" leads with the rescue of paul conroy from the city of homs. the paper says several syrian activists were killed during the rescue. the times london and "the tribune" says the candidates for the upcoming elections are -- is telling their story. >> this is "g.m.t.," for "bbc

world news" i'm george. the ground assault on the syrian city of homs has begun and it's feared that humanitarian problems will get worse. and mitt romney pulled off a double win in michigan and arizona primaries. time now for the business news and let's start with the banking. >> 530 billion euros was taken, as it were, lent to 800 banks. only about 500 banks last time. and a little bit less in terms of the values of the loan. basically you could have

whatever you wanted and it's very cheap money. 1% and buy an -- a bond. so it's a way of building up the bank's balance sheet and supporting the bond markets. >> in the banking system, it's more money that can be lent. more banks have access to the funds and they have asked for more money. it means the stigma attached to this is not so high. banks are happy to take the money and invest it and make the profit they can make on it, which is a positive sign, but on the other hand, it also means the european banks are still very dependn't on the --

are very dependant on the liquidity. >> cheap money. they can make a lot of cash out of it. >> what about india? their growth rate at 16.1%. we would be jumping up. >> no. because it's come down. the problem is if you have an expanneding population this size, huge numbers of people coming on to the workforce every year, you've got to have an economy growing at that rate. 7%, 8%, 9%. one of the suppressants has been high interest rates. but they need high interest rates to combat inflation.

shilpa kannan is our correspondent in india and she talks about the failure of the government. >> it's also the government's lack of reform policy. they have called it a policy paralysis where they think the government is not being active on economic reform. so now they are asking about it. >> it's not an easy task. >> thank you. now a senior american military commander has said food aid to north korea has been linked to political conditions. the conditions being discussed include access to the nuclear program.

>> and the costa allegra that had been drifting is said to be set to arrive in the seychelles islands today. >> and arrests carried out in argentina, colombia and spain for hackers. >> now serbia is one step closer to becoming a candidate to join the european union. it seems recognition of years of democratic reform and the capture of some high-profile war crime suspects. however minority rights has pushed the final decision into the hands of lead inertia brussels over the next few days. >> thank you for being here

with us on "g.m.t." what do you make over this last objection from romania? >> it certainly surprised a lot of people, but we're taking it very, very seriously and working with our partners in resolving this issue. but the foreign ministers of the european union made this recommendation, and we very much hope that european prime ministers on thursday and friday will make the important decision as to the status of the candidates. >> i think some people will be surprised to hear you, the foreign minister of a sovereign state to say you're going to take such a strong position on this. >> i really think this has to

do with misunderstandings, and confusion. romania is our next door neighbor and good friend of serbia. i'm sure all these misunderstandings are going to be resolved. the joivent committee we're having and continue to have in the future, this is not an issue that gets enough attention. >> one or two issues that i'm sure we're going to resolve and these misunderstandings are going to become a matter of the past. >> ok. well, let's look forward to your membership, then, indeed, if that's what happens.

are you not worried about your country, the way things are going in the euro zone now, for example. that you're going to be handing over your budgets and in a kind of thing? >> of course it's a big debate inside the european union and about what is the future of europe? what will be the institutional landscape. but for the time being serbia is conducting retorts that will bring us on line from -- conducting reports that will bring us online. >> we thank you for your time. now, if there was ever any doubt that tyrannosaurus rex was the most fearsome creature that roamed the earth, new

research showed the jaws of t-rex could crush with the weight of an elephant. our reporter sent this story. >> it was one of earth's most pove -- feared dinosaurs. >> thanks to models like this one at manchester museum, researchers have been able to sim late -- to sim yoo late t-rex's -- to simulate t-rex's bite. >> the first step was to digitize t-rex's skull. >> they produced this model and

controlled the muscles that controlled t-rex's jaw. >> it senses the teeth and tells us what the bite force would be. the max was 20-30 newtons which is similar to the weight of an elephant sitting on top of you. >> it helps us understand how these giants evolved to rule the earth for so many years. >> well, let me give you a reminder of our top stories so far on "g.m.t." there are reports in syria that a ground assault is under way. an unnamed syrian official has confirmed the attack has started and that government forces would, as he put it, "cleanse" the area.

thank you for watching "g.m.t." more to come. >> 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 presented by kcet los presented by kcet los angeles.