05/09/2011 GMT with George Alagiah

The battle for one of Colonel Gaddafi's last strongholds

continues, as negotiations between the two opposing sides seem to have

broken down. Forces of the transitional council

say they are in good spirits as they prepare to storm the desert

Hello, welcome. Also coming up, the famine is

spreading in Somalia. The United Nations warns that three-quarters

of a million people could start to death in the next few months.

Are you trying to accuse me of being...?

And, the Bollywood blockbuster they tried to ban. How a film about

India's caste system continues to court controversy.

It is lunchtime in London, early morning in Washington and 1:30pm in

Libya, where leaders of the NTC, the National Transitional Council,

or speaking in confident tones about the battle for Bani Walid.

The head of the NTC has told the BBC that two of Colonel Gaddafi's

sons have been blocking the surrender of the town. He says

negotiations are still continuing, but he gave a deadline of one week

for those negotiations to end. Bani Walid is 200 kilometres south-east

of Tripoli, one of the last pounds to be held by forces loyal to

Colonel Gaddafi. Its capture is a major test of the NTC's ability to

defeat the remaining supporters of Gearing up for the final push on

Bani Walid, these rebel fighters gathered their strength and

thoughts on the outskirts of one of the last strong chords of pro

Colonel Gaddafi forces. -- strongholds. Mood among the rebels

is buoyant. The time for talking to, both sides seem to agree, is over

for now. Negotiations have collapsed. The rebel leaders

believe they have the forces to take the town quickly. We are a

mixed people, coming from Benghazi, Tripoli, everywhere, from Libya.

According to the rebels, the negotiations never really got going.

If and when they go in, what will be resistance be like? As events

unfold, foreign governments are having to answer awkward questions.

China has acknowledged that Chinese arms manufacturers hold talks as

recently as July with representatives of Colonel

Gaddafi's government. There was a United Nations arms ban in base --

in place. TRANSLATION: The Colonel Gaddafi government said personnel

to China without the knowledge of the Chinese government. The Chinese

companies did not sign contracts, nor did they export military items

to Libya. Some of the Colonel Gaddafi government's dot secrets of

emerging, as well as the cosiness of its relationships with the West

before the rebellion. Documents suggest that Britain's end of --

MI6 co-operated with the CIA in delivering a suspected militants

into the hands of the Colonel Gaddafi forces, including the man

who is now the rebel leader in charge of security in Tripoli. As

the rebel fighters made their final preparations, among the continuing

uncertainties, the whereabouts of Colonel Gaddafi and his sons, still

Let's get the latest now. How far can you assess how the balance of

power might be shifting when it comes to Bani Walid? It really

looks as though the anti- Colonel Gaddafi forces, the rebels, are

bending over backwards to really avoid a full-on assault on Bani

Walid. They have waited several days already, they could have gone

in a few days ago, they have been negotiating with the tribal elders,

and with the Colonel Gaddafi loyalists, trying to get the

Colonel Gaddafi hardliners to surrender, to lay down their

weapons. They have demanded assurances about how they would be

treated if they surrendered. The negotiations appear to have broken

down last night, though some sort of negotiations are still continue

wind. Part of the problem has been that two of Colonel Gaddafi's sons

have been in the town, and they were pretty hard line, and they

have left. They were putting up resistance, encouraging hardliners

to continue the Resistance, and supplying them with weapons. We are

being held quite a long way from the town, 70 kilometres or so, at

the rebel checkpoint. Heading that way, Bani Walid. It is where some

of the rebel fighters set off a couple of hours ago, with some

heavy weaponry, they were shooting into the air euphorically, to

reinforce the troops that they have already got massed around the town.

It is pretty much surrounded, and there is a hope that anti- Colonel

Gaddafi people in Bani Walid will rise up and take out or expel the

last of the Colonel Gaddafi loyalists. Do we know how well

armed the pro Colonel Gaddafi forces are still in Bani Walid?

do not think there are that many of them or that they are that well

armed, though the Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi did armed them with about

80 high-velocity rifles before he left. The worry is that they are

spread out amongst the civilian population, and there could be real

bloodshed if and when the rebels to What about Colonel Gaddafi? His

whereabouts are still not known, though he is believed to be in

Libya. Eric Maddocks was credited with masterminding the capture of

Saddam Hussein, and he has described his experiences in Iraq

in a book. What it would you give anybody who is keen to find Colonel

Gaddafi? -- what advice? Do you think he is still in Libya? The key

to finding it Saddam Hussein was identify and his social networks,

through building the link diagrams, and through his networks, he was

running an insurgency in the area, and he had to survive, so he needed

food, shelter, he needed to be harboured. From that, he used a two

specific individuals. One of the keys to capturing him was that we

have to find his social networks through these two hoppers, his

bodyguards, and not necessarily through his past regime. Saddam

Hussein was found in Dr Crick, which is where his tried originally

hailed from, in a remote farmhouse. Looking at the parallels with

Colonel Gaddafi, what would you say? As the Department of Defense

representative, I cannot speculate on the location of Colonel Gaddafi.

For Saddam Hussein, he hit amongst the people that needed in the most.

-- he hid. There is speculation he travel too severe, he was in

Baghdad, he could hide amongst millions of people, but he was in a

small town, of 20,000 people, that needed him the most. But the

difference is that there were foreign bids on the ground in Iraq,

highly experienced, specially trained forces, trying to track

down Saddam Hussein, and that is not the case in Libya. Is there the

experience to find Colonel Gaddafi? The key to success for finding

Saddam Hussein is that you do have experienced Special forces that can

go in, because you are doing a manhunt. If you're not careful, you

will create a lot of corrupt or damage. As you hunt for one man,

you will create a massive insurgency. The team that I was

within Iraq, we spent four months tracking down Saddam Hussein, we

did not fire a single bullet, and that leaves a minimal foot print,

which does not stir up the population. Often, you can get

information from people who are not even aware they are giving you

information. Is that right? That is exactly right, one of the keys to

finding Saddam Hussein, he was the most wanted man in the world, the

most powerful military in the world was looking for him, you would

assume he would go into hiding and he would be roughing it, but he

needed to eat one type of fish every day. Once we identified that

sort of profile, we then found a fish pond that had been created

since the war that had begun, we started tracking the fishermen, and

from doing that, it led us on to eventually capturing Saddam Hussein.

It is the small brittle profiles of their high-value target that can

Egypt's former president is back in court in Cairo. Four police

officers of the first witnesses due to be questioned in the trial.

Hosni Mubarak has been charged with ordering the killing of hundreds of

demonstrators during protests against the government. He could

face the death penalty if he is Police struggled to contain a sea

of protest outside the courtroom as the trial of the deposed President

was about to resume. The authorities were trying to prevent

a repetition of the scuffles that erupted when Hosni Mubarak's trial

opened a month ago. It seemed like a losing battle. Just about

everyone here, it appeared, had some grievance. This woman claimed

that there were people from the secret services, cronies and slaves

of America. Passions were a strong on the other side of the political

divide. Hosni Mubarak is a criminal, this man claims, repeating it to

emphasise his seat. -- his view. This man was angry because he said

he was not being allowed to go inside the court to watch the

proceedings, even though he had authority from the Interior

Ministry. The ailing 83-year-old was brought to justice -- to court

in an ambulance, on a stretcher. Last month, the Egyptians could see

live television coverage of him in a cage in the court. The judge has

now banned such coverage, because he felt it added to the charged

atmosphere. Hosni Mubarak denies ordering the killing of the

protesters. Today the court was to hear from police officers who were

working in the operations room at the time. Outside, this woman says

there was no way the former President could have killed the

martyrs, as was being alleged. Otherwise, she said, he would have

killed all of the Egyptian people. What was the point of only killing

800? So soon after the removal of a leader who held sway over his

country for so long, the scenes at the court in Cairo are a reminder

of the emotions unleashed by Hosni Still to come, two students from

two different backgrounds, and a question dividing India. This

positive discrimination still have a place in modern society?

-- does positive discrimination? I have been joined by Our Business

Correspondent. What news do you bring? American banks in trouble?

Banks around the world, they are very nervous at the moment. They

are preparing to defend themselves. Late on Friday night, American

authorities filed a lawsuit against 17 banks around the world, claiming

that the banks must lead lenders about the quality of the mortgages

they were selling during the housing bubble in 2008, and earlier.

The American authorities are representing the two big mortgage

giants who went bust. They had to get bailed out to the tune of $150

billion. We have got the Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, RBS,

Barclays, but the question, who was responsible for approving and then

purchasing these products? These companies were responsible

for purchasing that these ought lemons, these so-called mortgage

products, but they then increased the market value of them and pushed

them to the upside and make them more appealing to themselves. When

they went bust, they were left holding a lot of these overvalued

Ure, people are getting nervous there about that second bail out?

Absolutely. $109 billion. That was agreed this year but Finland is

causing hiccups. They are demanding collateral for Greece. They are

going we will give you some money but you have to put up something

against it. The bigger problem you have Austria, Luxembourg, the

Netherlands, Slovenia, all asking for the same. They say we want some

collateral as well, and all of this could be fatal for Greece.

Greece has to post collateral I think it makes it more likely that

Greece will default, so it is almost as if it triggers a self-

fulfilling prophesy, because the money it would have available to

pay down, to pay down debt will be in this special purpose vehicle.

know the Finnish Finance Minister is meeting the euro President to

discuss this and Finance Ministers from the eurozone meeting tomorrow,

just to try and get through this next saga. A quick look at the

markets. On the markets. Take a look. They are down there. Very

worried about the lack of US jobs. No jobs created in August in the US

and problems in China. That is it for now. Thank you. All you need to

know on the main stories on the business today. Do remember, if you

want to get in touch with us, best You are watching GMT from BBC World

news. The headlines. The battle for one of Colonel Gaddafi's last

strongholds may have already started, as talks between the two

opposing sides appear to have broken down. And violent scuffles

outside court in Cairo as Hosni Mubarak arrives for his trial. Now,

more on our top story, Libya. It has Americaned that representatives

of Colonel Gaddafi visited the Chinese capital Beijing in July,

trying to buy arms. This information is coming from the

Chinese foreign ministry who were quick to add no contracts were

signed and no weapons were shipped to them. Let us get more from our

Beijing correspondent. This is going to be a fairly serious

development, what are the Chinese saying? Well, it is. It is a very

serious development. What we now know from the Chinese Government

themselves, is that right in the sort of dying weeks of the Gaddafi

regime, China was hosting representatives here from the

Gaddafi Government, although the Chinese Government says it has no

knowledge of them, but those, it has admit m -- admitted that

Gaddafi representatives came here seeking weapons and they had

meetings with three Chinese state controlled arms manufacturers. This

admission has been forced out of China, because the end of last week,

documents were unearthed in Tripoli, which indicated that these, these

talks had taken place, they were unearthed by a newspaper from

Canada which said that $200 million worth of arms deals were discussed,

including rocket launchers. Missile, possibly ground-to-air missiles and

the three Chinese companies offered to sell their entire stockpiles.

What is significant about this is that a UN arms embargo was in place

at the time which China signed up to. China is now saying those

meetings did take place, those representatives were here but the

Chinese Government says it knew nothing about them. No deals were

signed. No arms were exported and it has added today, that it views

this seriously and will follow this up. That may not be enough for the

new officials in the new regime, incoming regime in Libya. Thank you

very much for that. Now, the United Nations has said that famine has

spread into one more region of Somalia. A total of three-quarters

of a million people are at risk of death in the next four months if

there is no add watt response. The UN says the numbers dying in

Somalia's region has passed the threshold to be defined as a famine,

and it warns the situation will only get worse in the coming months.

Neighbouring countries Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti have been

affected by the severe lack of rain. Some 12 million people across the

region are said to badly need food aid. Our east Africa correspondent

is in Nairobi where the UN have been speaking, and Will, in what

way does the UN say this situation is getting worse? Well, it is

really painting a picture of generally southern Somalia, slowly

moving towards famine. We now have six regions in Somalia, where the

conditions the UN says are that of famine, and this region is the

latest. We are talking about a threshold that the UN puts in place,

this is a certain number of people dying, per 10,000. The malnutrition

rates going up and also just a severe lack of food available. And

this area, the region, is one of the bread baskets of Somalia, but

the recent harvest was so poor, officials say it was the worst

harvest in the last 17 years, so the situation, the UN saying, is

basically going to get worse. It is not a surprise, you might remember

back in June, July, they said there is a rye I -- crisis coming and it

will take several months until we get to the peak. But the UN is

saying well into next year, the humanitarian response will have to

be continuing, obviously the key question is how the get the food

into those areas where Al-Shabab is in control. Some aid agencys are

getting in there, but the big one, the UN World Food Programme is not,

and not enough people are getting the food in southern Somalia.

going to ask you more about that political instability, making it

harder for humanitarian assistance, I mean, does the UN have to go

through complicated negotiations to get it through? Is some getting

through? Well, the UN calls it discussions rather than

negotiations. They say it is happening at a low level. We know

that the World Food Programme is still officially banned by Al-

Shabab, but there are smaller organises, that have, for year,

been accessing areas controlled by Al-Shabab. They have built up

relationships. There seems to be a degree of trust, that movement of

the food is continuing, but as I say, it is not on the scale that is

needed, and if the World Food Programme were able to deliver food,

some people think that, you know, the heart of the crisis could be

torn out in a matter of days, if they were given that access,

because they have such a large operation, and the capability of

putting a lot of food in place. At the same time some organisations

are looking longer terms because the rains are due in a few weeks

time, and while that will bring some good news for the farmers,

there is also the fear of disease increasing with that rain. Thank

you for giving us an update on what the UN is saying about famine in

Somalia. Now the other major developments making the headline.

Now, many Governments round the world have long used positive

discrimination as a way of helping disadvantaged groups in their

society. And it can take many forms. It often has a degree of

controversy about it. In India, a recently released fip has caused

something of a stir because it deals with the issue of caste

reservations in the education With an all star cast headed by a

screen veteran it has been making headlines since its release because

of its subject matter. The film looks at India's century old caste

system. A social hierarchy which places people into different class

categories based on family back ground. It deals with the sensitive

issue of affirmtive action for lower castes. Are you trying to

accuse me of being a casteist? states tried to ban the film but

its director believes it is an issue that needs to be discussed.

49.5% of all higher education seats and Government jobs, are reserved

for certain class and caste of society. Which has created a lot of

turmoil, and you know new kind of pain, I mean the pain of the

society which has been sub Jew Kate gate -- subjugated and oppressed.

Affirmative action has been taken but that has created so much pain

in the rest of society. This system of quotas is known as reservation

in Hindi. It was row deuced to ensure everyone in India has access

to the same opportunities. These two are studying the same course

but even though she scored higher she struggled to get a place

because she is from a higher caste: I scored 81 in my exam. I think is

a pretty good score to get in college. I couldn't get in because

of the reservation. I mean, the people, I mean the students who

scored lower than me, the grade marks were really low, and they got

into and walked in the college, just because they were minorities.

He has benefit fromed from the quota, he says he has had it harder

because of his family's history and that is why he believes

reservations are needed. There is still not equal opportunities to

come up and explore the world, so there is a need of us being

reservation for us so we can come up and explore the opportunities.

This is one of the many statues of the doctor which can be found

across the country. He was the architect of India's constitution,

and helped introduce quotas or reservations, that was more than 60

years ago, so how relevant are they to today's India? Leading

commentator says the reservation system is likely to remain in India

for many years to come Reservations changed India dramatically, because

in a short space of time, what it has done is giving the lore -- low

e caste the opportunities. It is still relevant, because we still an

unequal society. Although caste isn't observed as much as it was

hundreds of years ago it is still part of Indian society. Supporters

say it provide a level playing field. Others say it is creating

inequalities of its own. And that report brings us to the end of this