BBC News with Jerry Smit.
The American singer, guitarist and songwriter Lou Reed has died at the age of 71. His agent said he died at home in Long Island of complications from a recent liver transplant. In a career spanning nearly five decades, Lou Reed had a huge influence from the shape of rock music. Born in New York, he was a founder of the seminal 1960s band of Velvet Underground. Anthony Burch looks back on his life. “It was once said that the Velvet Underground had very few fans at the time, but everyone who ever heard them went on to start a group of their own.
Lou Reed's songs read the heart of their music, he saw himself as a musician working in a tradition of early Rock and Roll. Lou Reed's melodies were spare but lyrical. Working with world's musician John Cale as protégés of Andy Warhol, he invented a new song for rock one which merits simple memorable tunes with the most challenging of avant-garde music. His songs drew on the grieved street life of New York and delt with subjects such as drug abuse, extremes of sexual experience and despair. Lou Reed who died today.”
Syria has submitted a declaration of its chemical weapons and its plans to destroy them meeting the first key deadline of a program for their total elimination. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons which is overseeing the process said the documents were handed over on Thursday. Here's Paul Wood. “Syria has now told the international inspectors exactly how it intends to destroy the more than 1,000 tons of sarin, VX, chlorine and other chemical agents said to have in its possession. Around 60 international inspectors have already visited some 19 of the 23 chemical sites declared by the regime. Very little has been said publicly, but so far the inspectors do seem satisfied. The regime is cooperating.”