28/07/2011 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me, Zeinab Badawi. The US debt

deadlock rattles America and the global markets. Default looms as a

Republican plan goes to a vote. The maid who claims the former IMF

boss Dominque Strauss Kahn raped her says she and her daughter have

been left traumatised. What happens to me, I don't want that to happen

to it any other woman. This was too much for me. It's too much for me

and my daughter. New revelations in the UK phone

hacking scandal - police tell the mother of murdered eight-year-old

Sarah Payne that she was a target. China's Premier promises to

severely punish anyone responsible for the country's fatal rail crash.

And the great classical music of the East comes to the hallowed

concert hall of the West. We talk Hello and welcome. Political

brinkmanship is still creating economic paralysis in the United

States as the country tries to deal with its massive debt crisis.

Global markets have reacted to the uncertainty as European stocks fell

for the fourth straight session following their Asian counterparts.

A Republican proposal forehead deficit-cutting plan is on the

table, but as Andrew North reports from Washington, bipartisan talks

are coming nail-bitingly close to the all go second deadline.

Fears of an American and defaulter rippling worldwide. Japan that

lends millions to the US sought stocks plunging again. In Congress,

the battle goes on. Republican hardliners say they will back plans

for a short-term increase in the debt limit insisting Americans are

on their side. They want to see the President's plan. If he can do

better, show as you plan! If the Senate can do better, pass a Bill!

We are the only ones that have passed a bill to resolve this debt

crisis issue. We will pass the second one today. The reason this

has been difficult is because we're taking Democrat ideas in this deal.

The White House has already rejected the Republican plan saying

it would postpone the inevitable. Our objection is to any proposal

that puts us through this three- ring circus again. In any short

period of time, because it has already had a significant impact on

the economy, and it will Army have even more and more severe negative

impact on the economy. It is a small sign of progress that the, --

that Republican hardliners are getting behind the programme. But

there needs to be compromise between Republicans and Democrats

and that is a long way off. There are signs that this is undermining

confidence and the US recovery is still anaemic. Many economists

believe that whatever happens, the American credit rating will end up

being downgraded. Joining us from Washington to talk

about this, Michael Tomasky, special correspondent for Newsweek

and the Daily Beast. Barack Obama, has he got any options other than

to accept what Republicans put on the table? I think he has some

options, without getting too deep into the weeds of the technical

details, there is something that a section of the United States

constitution, that some people think that they can use that to

raise the debt limit unilaterally. As far as legislator options go,

there are rent money at all. Whether this Republican Bill is

passed or not is obviously the question everyone is looking in

Washington today, but as your correspondent said, the question of

finding an agreement or marrying a Republican and Democratic built

from the Senate is very up in the air. Raising the debt ceiling,

apparently, President in the past, President Reagan, for instance, he

asked for the debt ceiling to be raised eight times, so why is it so

difficult for Barack Obama? simple question, President Reagan,

it is 18 times! The debt ceiling has been raised many times since

President Reagan. The difference this time is that the Republicans

are attaching conditions, which has never happened before. This time,

the Republican said we will not do with unless you accept these

draconian cuts to domestic spending budgets. No party has ever done

that to a President before, so that is why we have this situation.

are both sides, Republicans and Democrats, basically playing

politics with the country's finances and economics? I think it

is the Republicans that they are playing a lot more politics with

the finances and economics because as I just said, no party has ever

done this to a President before and, the opposition party has always

aroused when they had to raise the debt ceiling, but it has always

been raised. This is the first time this has happened. It is a very

strange situation and Barack Obama has not really Aggie did very well

before the American people. -- has not really argued it very well. The

fact that no Congress has attach conditions like this before, I am

sure that very few American people know about this. How do the

Americans look at this, you say that the Republicans are holding

things up, will they blame the Republicans or say that Barack

Obama, this happened on your watch and we do not like this

uncertainty? Most Pauls will say that more people blame the

Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats have dropped their

insistence that revenues be included in any compromise package

and they are accepting cuts, which was to Republican position from the

start. Not massive majorities, but a majority stake that they want

this to happen and they think that the approach of Barack Obama that

would include revenues, although that is hype about go now, would

have been a better approach and more people blame the Republicans.

-- that is hypothetical now. 35 % of the country really hates Barack

Obama said they will blame him. Michael, what happens, the August

second deadline is approaching and they will have to do something

pretty soon. Yes, pretty soon, probably by Saturday, Sunday at the

latest before the Asian markets open Sunday afternoon. I am a

little under 50 % that there will be a deal by August second. The

question that it will come down to really at the end of the day his,

how many Republicans in the House of Representatives, I think the

Senate will be fine, I think in the Senate, they do a little bit more

compromising there. I think they will come to some kind of terms in

the Senate. The question is, how many Republicans in the House of

Representatives will be willing, at the end of the day, to take the

economy down because of their hatred with Barack Obama being that

intense. They want to cast a vote against him, will they really do

that to put the economy at risk? I know that we would like to see no,

they will not do that, but clearly some of them will do that, and how

many of them at the end of the data as well not quite be able to do it?

That is what it comes down to it and we do not know the answer.

Thank you. The woman that accused the former

head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss- Khan of trying to rape her said

that she and her daughter had been left traumatised by the situation.

Nafissatou Diallo told supporters in a public statement that she

cries every day. She said she wanted to address the world to

clear up the rumours that was spread about her. People call you

bad names. People say bad things about you, because they don't know

you. You have to remember, this man, he is a powerful man. Everybody

knows that, but for you, only the people that you were quips or

neighbour as were the people back home that know you, but those

people say good things about you. - - only the people you were quits or

neighbours. My daughter says, be strong for me, I promise I will be

strong for you and every other woman in the world. What happens to

me, I do not want that to happen to any other woman. Because this is

just too much for me. It is too much for me and my daughter.

That was Nafissatou Diallo, the woman accusing Dominique Strauss-

Khan of rape. This case is a very hot topic in France and we can now

speak to the French political commentator from France, and very

much appealing to people to believe her story because there were

questions raised about her credibility. What impact does this

kind of statement have on Dominic Strauss-Khan? He doesn't look good.

You have got a close guard around him, a fellow socialists that say

he was framed and has nothing to do with it and it was a set-up. But

more and more, the impact that even if the case cannot be brought to

trial, he still has lost complete credibility as somebody suitable to

have any public role in the country. So he may as well kiss goodbye to

any hopes of reviving his career in public life in France, possibly

even standing in the presidential elections next year? It is

unachievable. He is not cleared, first late. His hearing keeps being

delayed, presumably because the New York District Attorney's Office

does not know what to make of this woman. Can you imagine, even if he

is cleared in America, of which presidential person would meet this

man. The best you can say in his defence is that it was consensual

paid sex. It does not work out. was talked about a possible

Socialist Party candidate, he is a very popular socialist in France,

has there been any fall-out for the social standing because of this in

France? I think, yes, Abby has people bend over backwards not to

criticise him. -- because people bend over backwards. They say this

was a not serious, it was just hanky-panky with the hired help.

They had been very silent about the rights of the victim, and that is

not just that this is alleged attempted rape, there is a class

issue, a race issue, it looks incredibly and feeling. The more

they clubbed together, the less credible they look. It is damaging

to the Socialist them, who benefits? Nicolas Sarkozy benefits

immensely and friend number of reasons, he was very careful not to

comment on the case and to be aloof. His poll numbers have gone up by

six points and it's not over. It was really a gift to Nicolas

Sarkozy. Thank you. There have been further revelations

in the UK phone hacking scandal. Police have told Sara Payne his

daughter Sarah was murdered by a paedophile 11 years ago that she

was on a list of people whose phones they had been hacked. Her

name appears in notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, the investigator at

employed by the News of the World newspaper.

Perhaps it seems this astonishing affair no longer had the capacity

to shock. But the allegation this evening is that the bereaved mother

worked alongside the News of the World, alongside its former editor,

was all a long one of its victims. Sara Payne's charity was contacted

last night to be told the details were in the notebooks of phone

hacker, Glenn Mulcaire. In a statement it said, she is

absolutely devastated by this news. We are all deeply disappointed and

we are just working to get her through it. The Last Night of the

News of the World. Its last edition. Sara Payne had previously been told

she was not attacking victim. She agreed to write an article for the

final issue. She described the tabloid as a force for good and an

old friend. Rebecca Brookes, former editor of the News of the World,

describes Sara Payne as her dear friend. The two people were

together to campaign for Sarah's Law, the public right to know where

paedophiles are living. The newspaper gave Sara Payne a mobile

phone. The Guardian claims it is this phone that was illegally

accessed. Tonight, Rebecca but said these allegations are abhorrent and

particularly upsetting. The idea that any body and the newspaper

knew that Sara Payne or the newspaper team was targeted by

Glenn Mulcaire is unthinkable. this is true, it is rank hypocrisy,

complete and utter hypocrisy. It makes you despair of modern

journalism. 11 years after the murder of her daughter, Sara

Payne's name is added to the long lists of potential hacking victims

and this investigation is far from over.

The Chinese government is facing a public backlash over the way it

dealt with a high-speed train crash in Zheijang Province that killed 39

people. Officials say the accident was caused by design flaws in

signalling equipment, but allegations of corruption and lack

of transparency have fuelled the public and there. In an effort to

calm the situation, the Prime Minister has visited the crash site

near Wenzhou and we have this He is the soft paternal face of the

Communist Party, and in times of a crisis like this one, the premiere

is called upon to sued the nation's nerves. At the crash site he paid

his respects. But he was also No matter if it is a mechanical

fault, a management problem or, indeed, a manufacturing issue, we

For the two were high-speed trains collided on Saturday night. The

authorities say the crash was caused by a signal failure. This

train crash not only called into question the future of China's

high-speed rail network, it also created a deep sense of mistrust

between the authorities and the people. A seething public anger has

been building here over a lack of answers. It has been inflamed by

allegations of corruption, which are likely to have compromised the

safety of the network. This lady is looking answers. Her husband was

Officials from the railway will Ministry shrug off responsibility.

They kept blaming the accident on a lightning strike. What we are

waiting for is a clear explanation of what happened. China is spending

hundreds of billions of dollars on its high-speed rail network. But

critics say it has been built too fast, which is compromising safety.

What started as a project that generated huge national pride has

Now a look at some of the day's other news. The police in Norway

say they're ending their search for bodies on Utoya island. But senior

officers couldn't confirm that all those missing had been found.

Anders Behring Breivik has admitted to shooting 68 people there, and

killing eight in a bombing in Oslo. Prosecutors say he'll be

interrogated again on Friday. The trial of the ousted Egyptian

president, Hosni Mubarak will start next week in Cairo. Mr Mubarak is

alleged to have been involved in the killing of protesters, during

the country's revolution earlier in the year. He will stand trial along

with his sons and his former interior minister.

Here in Britain, a group of former soldiers who took part in nuclear

tests almost 60 years ago has been granted permission by the Supreme

Court to appeal for damages. More than 1,000 former servicemen blame

their involvement in nuclear weapons testing in Australia in the

1950s for years of ill-health and birth defects in their children.

The UK's Ministry of Defence denies negligence.

More than half a million people who fled the post-election violence in

Ivory Coast earlier this year are still too afraid to return home,

according to the campaign group Amnesty International. In a report

the organisation says that militias loyal to the new President Alassane

Ouattara have not been disbanded and continue intimidating

supporters of ex-President Laurent Major Hollywood studios have won a

significant legal battle against online piracy. The High Court in

London has ruled that the UK internet-provider BT should cut off

customers' access to a website accused of "flagrant" copyright

infringement. Our Technology Correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones,

I have received... For for the movie industry it was a courtroom

drama which ended in a victory in its battle against online piracy.

If you want to get hold of a film like the King's speech, you can pay

for a DVD or download it for nothing from the internet. This

site based in the Seychelles has has links to more than 70 copies of

that film alone, along with all kinds of others music, movies and

games. But British Telecom has been told it must of its internet

customers from getting access to the side. It has been out since May.

That Momentum Pictures, the makers of the film, they say it was a

success and they were celebrating. They say piracy is not at

victimless crime. Without the money we make from legitimate users, we

cannot make films. If you allow piracy to get out of control you

could end up in a situation where the money isn't there and the films

are not getting made and people cannot see them. Nobody argued in

court that it wasn't giving access to all sorts of Paris's material,

but it was a question of whose job it was just a bit -- pirated

material. The judge has ruled that BT must block access to the website.

But internet freedom campaigners say it could send us down a

dangerous road. The concern is that consumers' freedom to roam where

they like on the Web will now be curtailed. Our concerns about

website blocking are that it is pointless and dangerous. It won't

work stopping serious infringement. It is dangerous because there are

risks of over blocking and degradation and slowing down of the

service. The owners in the Seychelles say they are confident

they can get around any blocking measures and critics of the ruling

today say that for every site that is blocked, another will pop up.

But movie-makers say without protection from pirates a whole

One of the great classical music singers of the East has been

performing on one of the great classical stages of the West. Aruna

Sairam is widely regarded as the leading South Indian female

vocalist of her generation, and for a long time she's tried to create a

bigger following for Carnatic music. Well, now she has the chance to

perform at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London. She

spoke to us during a break in her It takes years and years and years

to learn this music. Maybe 15 of a great apprenticeship with your guru,

which could make you a debut to aren't musician in a concert hall.

That is the kind of training you The artist can choose within the

virtuoso music available to her to either concentrate on dealing to --

on the intellectual heart of it all the emotional part of a, or the

emotional part of it, all the rude sea and folksy elements, or do all

of it in one concert, which is what I do. I do the intellectual stuff

and on the emotions and at the end of my concert I'd do something that

represents the folk elements from which this has evolved into way

more sophisticated music. -- a more One is constantly learning. The

number of pieces you have to learn, by the time I met my guru, from my

mother I had learned nearly 150 pieces. By the time I was 10 years

old. And then my guru taught me more than that over the next 15

years. And even now, in every concert, I am trying to learn

something new, compose something new or reinterpret something that

is called into my own way of doing it, so it is constant. -- something

If I look at my own limited experience of one of lifetime so

far as an artist, more than when I began today, I am performing at the

Carnegie Hall, New York, Paris, and in their Royal Albert Hall, that is

enough proof that people are happy to experience new kinds of music,

even in the classical idiom. It is just like food. More than earlier,

people have taste for different kinds of food. We go to have an

Italian, or a tie or Indian restaurant. I now think it is time

for people to listen to music in the same spirit. I am very happy

That was Aruna Sairam, with her Car and attic music. She apparently

went down a storm at the Royal Albert Hall. A reminder of our main

news: The House of Representatives is debating a revised Republican

party plan to raise the government's borrowing limit and

cut spending. Democrats and Republicans disagree on how to do

this and without agreement by next Tuesday, the US government could

run out of cash. Hours before a key vote in Congress on the American

debt crisis, leaders of the country's biggest banks have called

on President Obama and lawmakers to An open letter from financial

institutions, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman

Sachs, says the consequences of failure could be very grave. The

hotel maid who's accused the former chief of the International Monetary

Fund of sexually assaulting her in New York says that she and her

daughter have been left traumatised. At a news conference organised by

her supporters, the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, said she had

been called many bad names and cried every day. That is all from

If you were lucky enough to have sunshine today, it felt very nice

indeed with temperatures in the mid- twenties. There is more of the

same tomorrow with patchy cloud, sunny spells and maybe a greater

chance of some cloud in the south, which is courtesy of this weather

system pushing into England and Wales as we head into Friday, and

not bring in much in the way of wet-weather. But a lot of cloud,

and the remnants of a weather front where we could see outbreaks of

rain developing at times. Across the band of rain, it will be cool

and cloudy. To the south of the weather front there will be risks

of showers developing as we go to fight -- Friday afternoon. They

could be on the heavy side as we go through the afternoon, and as a

result not as much sunshine and temperatures down a little, into

the low twenties at best. Across Wales, a cloudy day, and slowly in

northern areas the skies will brighten as we head through the

afternoon. As the Northern Ireland, patchy cloud, sunny spells, a high

of 17 maybe 18 degrees. That will feel pretty nice. Across Scotland,

a good deal of sunshine around in the far north and up towards the