10/11/2011 GMT with George Alagiah

A serious warning from the European Commission - economic growth in the

eurozone is at a standstill. With growth in Germany forecast to slow

down, the commission says it is time for action. The recovery in

the European Union has now come to a standstill. There is a risk of I

knew recession unless action is taken.... -- there is a risk of

another recession. Welcome to GMT. Also in the

programme: Dozens still trapped as Turkey's earthquake zone is hit by

a massive aftershock. Nine people were killed.

A hidden world of Afghanistan's women - we have a special report on

whether life has got any better ten years on from the fall of the

Taliban. In Brussels, the European Union's

economy commissioner has just thrown a verbal grenade into what

is already a pretty explosive economic crisis. Olli Rehn says

that growth in the EU has stalled and there is a risk of another

recession. The numbers support it. The latest forecasts in Germany

predict growth of less than 1%. Add to that the crisis in Italy and

that in Greece, and you can see where it is coming from.

As the eurozone is enveloped by a storm of uncertainty, there is

intense debate about the way forward. Will Italy's Prime

Minister stepped down as promised? And how much longer will it take

greased to form a new government? The IMF is seeking clarity.

Political clarity. It is much needed in Greece, in Italy. There

is clearly some rumours, expectations, trepidation. No-one

really understands always going to come out as the leader and when.

And I think that confusion is particularly conducive to

volatility. In Greece there are more talks

under way to end the power vacuum. Lucas Papademos was seen arriving

this morning. He looks likely to avoid -- to replace George

Papandreou was Prime Minister. But time is short.

In Italy people have been left guessing what they are politicians

will do to resolve the crisis. There have been efforts to calm the

money markets after borrowing costs rose to levels that most of you as

unsustainable. Elsewhere in Europe there is a mood of anxiety about

what is happening in Italy. current state is a clear and

present danger to the eurozone, and the moment of truth is fast

approaching. If the leaders of the eurozone want to save their

currency then they, together with the institutions of the eurozone,

must act now. In Brussels the latest forecast, delivered by the

European Union's monetary affairs chief, is one of gloom. This

forecast is, in fact, the last wake-up call. The recovery in the

European Union has now come to a standstill. There is a risk of

another recession unless determined action is taken. There is fresh

talk of that two-speed Europe and changes to treaties. But there are

no detailed plans and the President of the European Commission says

that a split of the European Union simply will not work.

Our correspondent is in Athens, where Grace's president is expected

to make an announcement about the government, we think, in the next

few minutes or so. Mark, I wonder if there is any indication of what

this indication might be? It really is just a matter of time

before the signals come from the president's office. I am just being

told that we are getting an announcement. An announcement has

just come as we have been on air. It says that Lucas Papademos is now

the new Prime Minister of Greece. That has come in the last 30

seconds. He was the front runner, we thought it was all but certain,

then there were several spanners in the works. He seems to have

negotiated behind the scenes to stay in office for longer. He also

seems to have accepted that the current finance ministers should

stay in place. This country will now begin anew interim national

unity government with one priority, and that is to vote through the

latest bail-out package for Greece so that it can receive its next

vital instalment of a bail-out loan. Without that money, bankruptcy and

default could spread shock waves through the eurozone.

Lucas Papademos has a technocratic background. How much confidence

will there be that he can deal with all the infighting that goes on in

Athens? Well, he has one distinct advantage and it is this - he will

be leading a national unity government, a government that

brings together the different political factions that have

paralysed this country for the last few days during these coalition

talks. That is a began vantage to have over George Papandreou. The

other advantages that he is not George Papandreou. -- that is a big

advantage. He will have the confidence of Europe's leaders.

Against him is the fact that he is a banker and bankers are not

exactly the most popular of professionals here at the moment.

He will have a tough task. A bail- out package will require of him to

push through more austerity measures. We saw how the reached

boiling point here with demonstrations on the streets of

Athens. We will expect more of that under his premiership. Thank you.

Just a reminder that, in the last couple of minutes, we have heard

that Lucas Papademos is to head a new Greek government. That has come

from the president's office in Athens.

I am joined by a journalist from the Economist. We are watching the

news on rattling as it happens. What is your reaction to that? He

is a technocrat, a former banker, now taking charge of events in

Greece. I think the first in to say -- the first in to save it has

taken an in orders at -- an enormous amount of time for Greece

to form a unity government in this crisis, even though it seemed

obvious who the replacement would be for George Papandreou. With so

much pressure on Greece and an offer of new finance, they have not

been able to get it together. you accept that that is true but

now, going forward, they appear to have agreed to a government of

national unity and, therefore, it should looked different going on.

think it is a positive sign. It remains to be seen if he is able to

do the difficult things that need to be done in Greece are to put the

economy back on a sure footing and keep Greece in the euro. Until we

see signs of that, people will continue to worry. I wish him well.

We have a real indication of how high the stakes are today. Olli

Rehn, the European economy commissioner, used the word

recession. I am not surprised by that. The numbers could be really

bad next year. Shehzad Tanweer worries. There is a short-term

worry about market panic, the break-up of the euro, what happens

to Italy and so on. Then a more medium term panic around the fact

that, in order to keep countries like Greece in the euro, they are

going to have to implement some tough austerity packages. Where is

the growth going to come from if countries on the periphery of the

eurozone are tighten their public finances? You mentioned Italy. We

have kind of, we hope, sorted out Greece with a new government. There

is still a political crisis in Italy. Greece is a relatively small

problem. It accounts for about 2% of the eurozone's GDP. Italy is

another thing altogether. It is a huge economy. Its sovereign debt

market is the third largest in the world, after America and Japan.

There is no big bank in the world that does not have major exposure

to Italy. When people start to panic about Italy, as in the last

few days, we are all worse off. Let us take a look at some of the

other stories making headlines around the world. At least nine

people have been killed and up to 100 more are believed to be trapped

in rubble after an earthquake hit eastern Turkey, causing buildings

to collapse. The earthquake struck the city of Van. Survivors are

being found but many more are still trapped. Just over two weeks ago an

earthquake hit the same region, killing more than 600 people.

Joining me from Istanbul is our correspondent the stop Jonathan,

what can you tell us on the latest on the rescue mission? They are

still drilling holes into the hotel that collapsed. They still not know

many -- how many people are inside. Some have managed to send messages

out by a mobile phone. They think the current number is around 37 who

were staying there. But it is a busy hotel and have a lot of people

working and having meetings there when it collapsed. They have been

pulling out one or two people every hour. A total of 27 people have

been rescued so far, including a two Japanese workers who came to

help with the earthquake last month. Tragically, one of those workers, a

doctor, died from his injuries after he was rescued this morning.

His colleague is safe and suffering minor injuries in hospital.

Thank you very much. The Israeli Supreme Court has

upheld the rape conviction of the country's former president, Moshe

Katsav. He is expected to begin serving his prison sentence next

week. He was found of raping an assistant while he was a cabin

isn't -- a Cabinet minister. The South African National con --

the South African National Congress has fired its Youth League leader,

Julius Malema. A coal mine accident in south-west

China has killed at least 20 workers and left more than 20

others trapped. It was caused by I gas leak. Hundreds of rescuers are

trying to free the trapped workers. It is the latest in a string of

back should -- accidents in China's Mining Industry.

In Britain, the executive chairman of News International, James

Murdoch, has accused two former executives at the News of the World

of misleading MPs over who knew what about for hacking at the paper.

This is his second appearance at a parliamentary committee after

discrepancies in the evidence he gave over the summer.

Still to come: As violence continues in Syria, we hear from a

resident of the embattled city of Osh. -- Homs.

We have just heard about the new Prime Minister being announced in

Greece. Turning to Italy, the Italians have a bond auction today,

haven't they? What will that tell us? The crunch to it was what kind

of interest rates the Italian government have to pay. On one year

bonds be paid over 6%. Last month they paid 3.5% interest rate on

that. That gives you a flavour. This is because investors are

losing confidence in Italy's ability to attack it -- tackle its

debt. One former bond trader told me that things are going to get

even tougher, particularly on ten- year bonds. At the level we're

talking about, it is seven to 8%. The cost is two euros for every 5

euros of revenue that you receive. You are paying 40% adjusted your

borrowing cost of all your income. The worst part is, if we are

looking at Italian growth of 0.5% in the next year or so, the

question is: Where is the money going to come from? That is the

issue. A lot of people are speculating that the European

Central Bank will have to do more. It has been buying bonds but many

people say that is not enough. The Germans do not want that because

they say it will increase inflation. Part of the way out of the crisis

is what these countries can do to get their books in order -

austerity packages. Portugal has a vote on its austerity package.

is right. The parliament is debating it for next year. Portugal

has already had a bail-out, but really the measures that people are

having to stomach are very difficult and our correspondent

The cuts are very deep. For example, the most controversial measure has

been the removal of holiday and Christmas pay for most public

sector employees and for many state pensioners. That is a one-seventh

cut in annual income. That was deeper than some had expected. Many

tax rises. Other spending cuts which will affect pretty much

everyone here. That is an example of how bad things have got for some

of how bad things have got for some people in Portugal. I want to show

you the market reaction, not only to the European zone difficulties,

but other issues out there in the markets. You can see the FTSE is up

by 30 points. Asian markets, a good deal weaker. That is before the

D this is GMT from BBC world news. The headlines: Lucas Papademos is

named as Greece's new Prime Minister. He will head a coalition

Government until early elections in February. A dire warn from the

European Commission - economic growth in the eurozone is at a

standstill and urgent action is needed.

South Korea is holding its National College entrance exam this Friday.

The pressure for academic success is fierce. Many young Koreans find

when they graduate there are not enough jobs to go around. They are

now urging them to opt for vocational training instead. There

are not many excuses for arriving late to Korea's National College

entrance exam. This is the one day of the year when the Government

changes flight schedules and even holds up the morning rush hour to

give students the best possible chance. University is seen as

crucial here. 80% of school leavers now go on to higher education.

That's causing a problem. This boy is taking a different

route. At 17 he has decided he wants to be a chef. Rather than

cramming for the university entrance exam, he is learning

practical skills at a vocational high school. Today's lesson, read

bean noodles. My mum and my dad, they didn't want

me to go to this school. In our culture, in Korea, man was not

supposed to cook in the kitchen. I really want it. People around me,

they told me, you shouldn't do that, you know. That's one of the reasons

why I choose culinary because I didn't want to be like normal

students. The Government wants more students to think like Woonmo.

The dilemma for South Korea is with 80% of its students going to

university there are not enough top jobs to go around. Many of the gad

watts end up unemployed -- graduates end up unemployed. The

President has been promoting a new scheme to give those with work

experience the same benefits and status as those with degrees.

This is what he's up against - parents who will do almost anything

to get their child into university. At Seoul's main Buddhist temple the

price of your off spring's success is 100 bows a day, every day since

July. TRANSLATION: I am here for my granddaughter. The Government is

wrong to discourage people from learning. I would have liked to

have gone to university myself. It was not possible in my day. Ju-sung

Eun is old enough to remember the days before democracy. For her and

many others here, fear for ending up on the wrong side of a two-tier

system still runs deep. The Arab League is preparing for a meeting

on Saturday when they will consider what they say is Syria's failure to

implement a peace plan agreed last week. They are split over the key

issues. On Wednesday, opposition leaders who favour dialogue were

pelted with eggs as they tried to hold talks with the Arab League at

its headquarters in Cairo. They had to turn back. The Syrian National

Council, mainly led by opposition leaders outside the country wants

no dialogue, just regime change. Well, the Syrian uprising was

inspired by the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. Protests began

in March, with raltlys calling for freedom in Deraa. -- rallies

calling for freedom in Deraa. Several people were killed when

forces opened fire. The protests and violence spread to many towns

and cities. The central city of Homs emerged as what activists call

"the capital of the revolution." The UN says there have now been at

least 3,500 hundreds in the country. Here in the studio I am joined by

Helen Abdul Dayem, a former resident of Homs, who lived there

until her family was caught up in the revolution. I say caught up in

the revolution. In fact it was your son who was shot. Yes, he was shot.

Actually, as a family, in general, we were very active in the

revolution. My son went out on the first demonstration. Specifically

after children were tortured. There was a demonstration that came out

on the road to Hama. We considered these boys very brave to even dare

to do that. It's very iron-fisted regime in Syria and you dare not.

should say your son is back here in Britain and he's fine. He's fine.

Presumably you're still in touch with people in Homs, are you?

What are you hearing? Absolutely unbelievable stories. Empty houses

are now being taken over. Smashed. Troops are moving into empty houses

now. Snipers on the roof top. I have friends who are trying to get

out now, a particular friend of mine actually has tickets to leave

the country and cannot even get out of the area where we lived in,

because it's very close to where the snipers are on the roof. She

cannot even leave her house. there any sign, do you think, that

these - I have just talked about the Arab League in discussions - is

there any sign this is a regime willing to listen to anybody? Is it

in the end going to have to be the phase many people are using -

revolution? "I Think it is a revolution. It has been a

revolution for a long time. would call it a revolution? I would

from a long time ago. These are the bravest people I have ever seen,

daring to go p against this regime, who are ruthless, heartless,

vicious, torturing children. Raping women. It just doesn't stop. They

will fall. I believe we've got, from Homs, a physician, a dock who

has been witnessing the unrest. For -- a doctor who has been witnessing

the unrest. For his safety we will just call him Dr Abdullah. What can

you tell from the patients you see and the kind of injuries you are

dealing with? So, can I start from what happened today? Today, more

than 50 tanks are surrounding the hospital right now. They are

preventing all the medical supplies to come into the hospital. We just

got a phone call from there that someone dying from his collar. He

died because they would not let blood get into the hospital. I am

so sorry, but we have to leave it now Dr Abdullah and of course here

in the studio, Helen Abdul Dayem. Thank you too for your time. Thank

you very much. Now, the European Union has blocked

the release of a documentary on Afghan women in jail for what are

called moral crimes. The EU said it decided to withdraw the film, which

it commissioned because of very real concerns for the women who are

portrayed in the film. Human rights workers say it is important to lift

the lid on Afghan judicial practises.

A glimpse inside a hidden world. Badam Bagh, a women's prison. Many

have been jailed for so-called moral crimes, like running away

from forced marriages or violent husbands.

This woman is here because she was raped. When she reported the attack

She remains a prisoner behind these walls. She dared to tell her story

in a documentary. The European Union has decided not to release it.

They say it fears for the safety of those who were filmed. Human rights

workers say many of the woman in jails like this are guilty of

nothing. They were victims of violence, abused first by their

husbands or relatives and then by the judicial system itself.

Some are now serving long sentences, thanks to corrupt judges and police.

Human rights workers want their stories to be told.

I think it's very important that people understand that there are

these extraordinary horrific stories happening now, ten years

after the Taliban Government, ten years after what was supposed to be

a new dawn for Afghan women. many, that new dawn has not come.