07/12/2011 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Kirsty Lang. Syria's President

gives his first interview to the Western media. A defiant Bashar al-

Assad tells American anchor, Barbara Walters, "I did not give

orders to kill." Egypt swears in a new cabinet under Kamal al-Ganzouri,

a former premier under Mubarak, so how different is to the last one?

Retail U-turn in India, as plans to allow firms like Tesco and Walmart

to buy out its supermarket chains are shelved. Also coming up in the

programme: a fair comment or a convenient smokescreen? We look at

President Sarkozy's claim that laissez faire economics and Anglo-

Saxon capitalism are to blame for much of Europe's current crisis.

And America marks 70 years since the event that brought it into

World War II, the Japanese attack Welcome. For nine months, the

Syrians have been protesting against their Government. For

thousands of them have died in that time. President Bashar al-Assad

said there was no command from him to kill or use brutality. In a rare

interview with Barbara Walters, the unelected President of Syria

claimed he was extremely popular with his people and he blamed the

violence on criminals, religious extremists and terrorists

sympathetic to Al-Qaeda. With astonishing bravery, Syrian

and the armed protesters have come out day after day to face machine

guns, snipers and armoured vehicles. The cost so far, at least 4000 dead.

In his interview with ABC, President Assad denied killing his

own citizens. We don't kill our appeal -- people, no Government in

the world kills his people alas it is led by a crazy person. -- and

last. It is impossible for anyone in this state to give orders to

kill. We saw a different picture in a week of travelling inside Syria.

Inner-city here, she catalogues her losses. Her son were shot dead at a

protest then her grandson was killed by a sniper while out

getting bread. A few days after speaking to us, she too was shot

dead in the street. But demonstrators are sick of such

denial and started off with a simple call for reform. Now they

want the President to go. A UN report accuses him of hanging on

using mass arrests, torture, sexual assault of protesters and killing

some 300 children. This will send - - they will send us the documents

and evidence. We cannot say yes. Who says that United Nations is a

credible institution? You do not think they are credible? Know. It

is a game we play. The Syrian Government calls these men

terrorists. They say they have taken up arms after months of

killings by the regime. President Assad seems to accept there has

been excessive force by his police and Trevor's best says these were

individual acts not policy. This will be scorned by the

demonstrators and Syrian is -- serious moving from a crackdown to

something that resembles a civil war.

A short time ago, Barbara Walters joined my colleague who asked her

for her impressions of President Assad. It is very surreal. It is

disconnected. You have this calm, collected man who was an opera for

Moller must, a doctor, telling you he was not responsible for the

crackdown. -- up for mycologist. There were no ground rules, he

answered every question. The whole thing is a disconnect. You are in

Damascus which was pretty calm but I found I could go anywhere. One

hour away, people were being killed. You are talking to the present he

was saying that you don't -- he didn't ordered the crackdown. He

wants to see the proof that he ordered people to die. I am

confused by what he says and what is going on in his country. Do you

think that he believed what he was saying? There is no way of mind

knowing whether he believes what he is saying but he is saying that he

didn't ordered the crackdown, that is the Government and we are going

to prosecute these people who did these bad things. He is the

Government and he is a dictator. He says we are not a democracy but I

am not a dictator. He doesn't want a DAI and St, he isn't training his

eight-year old son to take over. For -- a dynasty. It is so hard to

understand why he doesn't admit what is going on in his country and

take responsibility or apologise for it. He doesn't do any of those.

Could he have been pursuing this line of deny ability with his eye

on the future? With some international criminal process that

he might see before him in the future? I did feel he feels this

way. He says the middle, which is not the extremists, they support

him. If the middle did not support him, he would step down. You talk

about his being isolated by these countries around him. Syria is the

hub of it all. He says it doesn't matter what they say, what matters

is what happens in Syria. I don't care about public opinion. This is

not a crazy talking manner the wake Gaddafi is. He says the sanctions

his people more industrious. You don't have the feeling that he

feels they are going to come and put him in jail.

Now to another country at the heart of the Arab Spring, a new cabinet

has been sworn in in two -- in Egypt,. The military ruler said the

Prime Minister has been given new powers. This comes on the eve of

the official results of the first round of Egypt's parliamentary

elections in which the Muslim Brotherhood is claiming a majority.

The BBC's John line is in Cairo. How different is this to the last

Government? -- Jon Leyne. previous Government resigned after

huge protests in Tahrir Square. The army promised a Government of

national starvation and they have produced a similar Government to

the previous one that is still dominated by people from the

previous regime, dominated by half the members of the Cabinet. There

is a new interior minister but he is a general, somebody who was a

figure from the previous regime. It looks very similar. I think a lot

of people think this will not be about real change until after the

election has been named. Tonight, we have had the resort's of the

first round. -- results. We did have the precise details because

they didn't have percentages but it seemed as if a coalition, led by

the Muslim Brotherhood, has 48%. The more extreme assist -- the more

extremist have the rest. They have only done a third of the seats so

far. This Cabinet is an interim Cabinet. What point will an elected

Cabinet be able to take over? to be precise, the interim

Government is appointed by the military and he has then appointed

a Cabinet. It appears the information we are getting, the

military are taking an enormous role in this and are still running

the day-to-day affairs despite the fact that they are dedicating more

power. We have to go through this long electoral process that doesn't

and until March. There has to be a constitutional committee,

presidential elections and then the new president, when he is appointed

will be appointing a new Government. It is a long process and will take

many months, if not years. Meanwhile on the ground in Libya,

the revolution may be over but militias still brought large parts

of the capital city. Many of the armed groups were part of the force

that helped to bring down Vivette - - Gaddafi but an upsurge in

fighting between them has alarmed authorities who are demanding be

laid down their arms and go home. -- they laid down.

Life in Tripoli has been returning to normal in recent weeks. There is

a dark cloud over this city, the continued presence of armed men in

a country with no proper police force or army to keep things secure.

Its militiamen still control the streets, sometimes settling their

differences by force. TRANSLATION: I pro-Gaddafi's forces

had re-entered Tripoli the other night there were so much shooting.

We are suffering. Before everything was OK. Now, everything is upside

down. The Government says it will integrate 50,000 former rebels into

the new security forces and tried to provide jobs or further

education for tens of thousands of others. That is the plan but it

would be easy. TRANSLATION: I want them to go back home, even the ones

from Tripoli. They are like children. You give them a toy and

it is hard to take it back from them. At this hospital, doctors are

on strike after armed militia men dread doubt its administrator in a

dispute over patient's treatment. It is not the first time medics who

have been threatened. Now the sick and the injured will have to be

transferred elsewhere. This is the emergency room in the country's

most trawl -- trauma hospital. They say they won't work until they have

Government protection. The intensive care unit is full of

patients injured not in the liberation of Tripoli but in the

violence that has come in its wake. The sole doctor is still at work

when we visited. All the cases here are from gunshot. Don't leave Libya

like this. Reining in the gunmen responsible is perhaps the biggest

channel -- challenge facing the Libyan Government. It is critical

here that they succeed, say people here.

In the other news, the maximum could Mrs cities foiling an

international plot to smuggle one of Colonel Gaddafi's sons and

Mexico. At the height of the Libyan up rising September, his officials

uncovered the plan for the some, Saadi, and of the Sun to come in.

He is under house arrest in idea. 40% of cancers could be prevented

by making simple lifetime -- lifestyle changing. Smoking,

alcohol and nutrition or play a part. For many was eating a lack of

fruit and vegetables and for women, was overweight playing a

significant role. The armed forces of Sudan and

newly-independent South Trabant -- South Sudan have clashed. Sudan

says its troops were in control of the gel area which both sounds -- -

- Jau area which both say it is theirs.

The Italian police say they have captured the Dida of one of the

country's most powerful mafia groups -- captured the most

powerful mafia group. He was found hiding in an underground boat --

bunker near his home town of Naples. The former Israeli president has

been -- began a seven-year jail sentence for rape. He was convicted

of two counts of sexual harassment. Foreign supermarket chains won't be

allowed into India. The government has suspended its plans to allow

global giants such as Walmart and Tesco to enter the lucrative Indian

retail market, valued at $450 billion. The decision announced

last month was opposed by small traders, opposition parties and

even some members of the governing coalition on grounds that it would

4th after days of disruption and deadlock, the embarrassing retreat.

51 % of retail trading is suspended and talk a consensus -- Until at

consensus has taken place. The plan to let the big supermarket giants

in has been opposed by those who believe it will not help small

businesses. They employ some 20 million people. The fear is that if

Wal-Mart and Tesco set up shop, they will be squeezed out.

experience the world over it shows that when at large retailers come

into the market, initially to keep away the small operators, they do

keep their prices low. But subsequently, having wiped out the

market of the small operators, the large retells tend to increase

their prices. The price competitiveness does not exist when

you become a single operator. the move has dismayed Indian

business leaders, who see it as regressive. The big retail chains

were expected to herald a consumer revolution, offering more for less

and reducing wastage and improving infrastructure. With India's

economy reeling from inflation and slowing growth, it could be an

opportunity missed. The government may argue that you have to respect

public opinion, but this has come as a major setback, especially for

the Prime Minister, who is now seen as leading an administration that

is in political paralysis. It means that no reform is likely to be

announced at some time, which is bad news for India.

America's Treasury Chief says he's encouraged by what he's been

hearing on his European trip. On day two of a whirlwind visit

Timothy Geithner met the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and

Finance Minister Francois Baroin to discuss ways to solve the

eurozone's debt crisis. European leaders start a key summit on

Friday. Mr Geithner said he had faith that Europe's leaders could

find a way out of the crisis. We have a strong and productive

relationship. A lot of confidence in what the President of France and

what the minister are doing, working with Germany to bring a --

build a stronger Europe. This is not just to put in place economic

reforms across Europe, but he tried to build a stronger Architecture

for a fiscal union. Now, throughout this eurozone crisis, many French

commentators have been pointing the finger at Anglo-Saxon capitalism.

They say it was not overspending, but a lack of regulation which

triggered the banking crash. Is that their comments, or a

convenient smokescreen. Our correspondent reports from Paris.

The French President has held the view for some time that finance and

unruly globalisation should be policed. Last week he was read --

returning to a familiar theme. The root of the Sir Bruce Forsyth's

problems began with laissez faire politics. He means Anglo-Saxon

economics. Mr Sarkozy has always been willing to challenge economic

growth. France has deep suspicions of financial markets. One element

of the financial markets that has come in for criticism is the credit

rating agency. Whilst it is tempting to see it as a them-and-us

mentality, it is not only be Anglo- Saxon model that is being blamed.

Where ever you look across the Continent, blame is being

apportioned in all directions. I am joined from Paris by Pierre

Haski, a French journalist and co- founder of the internet newspaper

Rue 89. I was talking to a French banker the other day and he said

that he felt that the ratings agencies were inherently anti-

European and they were staffed by Anglo-Saxons. Is that a view widely

held in France? A yes, it is. You have to admit that Anglo-Saxon

capitalism is not popular in France and that his wife you have -- that

is why you have President Sarkozy been on the side of the criticism

of Anglo-Saxon capitalism. Remember, he is fighting for his own re-

election in just over six months time and he has to make people

forget that he was once in favour of introducing Anglo-Saxon roles in

France. That is right. In the last election it was very much, we have

to go down that road, from Sarkozy. Not only that, he had been making

his first opening trips to Washington and London and

forgetting about Berlin and now Germany is now the saviour of the

eurozone and President Sarkozy wants to be seen as Germany's best

friend. He wants everyone to forget he got it wrong initially, at least

in terms of where France is now standing. He in London we have a

lot of French bankers and financiers and it is the same in

Wall Street and there are major French banks. The French

participate in this global financial system as well. Yes, but

that is French schizophrenia that has been going on for a long time.

France is a player in the global system and is probably the best

critic of the global system. Some French companies have become big

multinational corporations, whether in banking or oil and at the same

time, France is probably the only Western country where you hear so

much criticism of globalisation. But that is something that the

French are intellectually playing with in that part of the system and

no-one is too hysterical about it. So at this is an expression, if you

like, or of French nationalism, a convenient scapegoat, rather than a

serious debate about different economic systems? Obviously we are

in the mill of the crisis, so the French want to keep hope of

maintaining their quite peculiar social system and the only way of

doing it is finding someone responsible for the crisis and the

easy target is Anglo-Saxon capitalism. To be honest, as a

Frenchman, there is some truth in it. It is a widely accepted view in

France. Thank you. Now, December 7th, 1941. It is a

date steered into American history. Ceremonies have been held in Hawaii

to mark the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The

Japanese assault killed more than 2,000 Americans and destroyed the

US Pacific Fleet. It also drew the country into World War II. Seven

decades later, veterans who were there that day pause to remember

the historic event. In Pearl Harbour today, they

gathered - the survivors of a surprise assault from the skies

that would transfer the Second World War. 7th December, 1941 - a

date that will live in infamy. words of President Franklin

Roosevelt, capturing the shock and fury of a nation under attack.

Unconfirmed reports are that almost every ship has been hit.

Japanese bombers struck at first light. 2,500 people were killed.

This shows what Pearl Harbor look like five minutes before the war

started. When the attack began, at this man was on board a ship

reading a comic. At first we thought there was a fire on the

ship and then soon discovered there were planes flying around with the

Japanese flag painting on -- painted on the side. As with 9/11

at six decades later, Pearl Harbor shattered America's sense of

impregnability. Here, too, the US would quickly be clear war and like

9/11, there were consequences on the home front. Japanese Americans

were branded enemy aliens. Among stem this man who represents Hawaii

in the Senate. All is insanity. those who survived, the very

youngest up in their early 80s. A short time ago there was a final

moment of silence for those they knew and last in a remote place

where history turned. A quick reminder of our top news

story - the Syrian President has denied he ordered and 80 protesters

-- anti-government protesters to be attacked. He said he did not feel

guilty about the violence, but he was sorry for the lives that had

been lost. That's it for now. It has been a win seats -- a windy

day to day and it is set to get worse. The Met Office had issued a

red warning and we are expecting disruption across the country. It

is due to this low pressure moving in off the Atlantic. We begin the

day with sleet, rain and some snow across Scotland. It is a windy day

for every where -- for everyone. There will be patchy rain in the

south-west and it will be milder. Behind the front, it is turning

colder. Cold and blustery in Northern Ireland. There will be

wintery showers and strong winds. For Scotland, rain, sleet and snow,