:00:12. > :00:21.The authorities in France say the man suspected of shooting seven
:00:21. > :00:27.people is dead after his apartment was stormed. TRANSLATION: Mohammed
:00:27. > :00:31.Merah jumped through tfr window with one weapon in his hand, while
:00:32. > :00:34.still shooting. He was found dead on the ground. Two police were
:00:34. > :00:42.wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the suspect during the
:00:42. > :00:50.operation. This is the scene live outside the suspect's home in
:00:50. > :00:52.Toulouse. Welcome to BBC World News. A general strike in Portugal
:00:52. > :00:58.against the country's harsh austerity measures, as the head of
:00:58. > :01:08.the European Bank says the worst is over. Is China's economy in a
:01:08. > :01:21.
:01:21. > :01:23.slowdown as factory output shrinks for the fifth month in a row? The
:01:23. > :01:29.French Interior Minister has confirmed that Mohammed Merah -
:01:29. > :01:31.suspected of killing seven people - has himself been shot dead. The
:01:31. > :01:39.gunman apparently died after throwing himself from a window
:01:39. > :01:42.during a standoff with police. It followed a dramatic period of
:01:42. > :01:52.gunfire and explosions as special forces tried to enter the apartment
:01:52. > :01:57.
:01:57. > :02:06.in Toulouse. This is the scene live in Toulouse. We have heard from the
:02:06. > :02:10.interior minister. Mohammed Merah died, he admitted to police and
:02:10. > :02:17.journalists shooting dead three children and their teacher at a
:02:17. > :02:24.Jewish skoorblgs as well as three soldiers. -- Jewish school. This is
:02:24. > :02:28.the man who has admitted to seven murders. Mohammed Merah, filmed by
:02:28. > :02:34.friends joy riding in 2010, long before he became the focus of one
:02:34. > :02:39.of the biggest man hunts France has ever seen. This morning he was
:02:39. > :02:44.himself shot dead after police stormed theed bying where he was
:02:44. > :02:51.holed up. TRANSLATION: At the time we decided to inspect the bathroom,
:02:51. > :02:56.that is when the killer came out of bathroom. He was shooting violently,
:02:56. > :03:03.the shots were frequent and severe. And even people who are used to
:03:03. > :03:08.such things, they said they have never seen such to rosti. The
:03:09. > :03:14.policeman tried to -- such ferocity. The policeman tried to defend
:03:14. > :03:21.himself, but at the end, Mohammed Merah jumped through the window
:03:21. > :03:31.with one weapon in his hand, while still shooting. He was found dead
:03:31. > :03:31.
:03:31. > :03:35.on the ground Over night they tried to intimidate him with explosions
:03:35. > :03:39.reported to have taken out the door of his apartment and blown a mole
:03:39. > :03:45.in the wall. Today there were further explosions, grenades used
:03:45. > :03:49.as the police moved in. Ambulances and firefighters on hand. Two
:03:49. > :03:59.officers were injured by Mohammed Merah, who made good his vow to die
:03:59. > :04:01.
:04:01. > :04:06.with a gun in his hand. Christian Fraser has been covering the
:04:06. > :04:10.shootings for us A bloody ends and not without risk for the commandos
:04:10. > :04:15.storming the apartment. No, a dramatic and surprising end. We
:04:15. > :04:20.were expecting to have news he had killed himself in the early hour
:04:20. > :04:24.and then there was this long and sustained round of gun fire which
:04:24. > :04:29.caught us by surprise and perhaps the commandos inside the flat too,
:04:29. > :04:33.because two of them we hear have been injured. You heard some
:04:33. > :04:38.details from Claude Gueant. We knew from local television stations that
:04:38. > :04:42.they were moving into the flat. I understand they were putting the
:04:43. > :04:48.fibre optic cameras through each room, trying to locate Mohammed
:04:48. > :04:54.Merah. When suddenly he appeared at the bathroom door with his weapons.
:04:54. > :04:59.You can hear from ta round of gun fire it lasted maybe 15 or 20
:04:59. > :05:03.seconds. And as the inteer area minister said, he then jumped out
:05:03. > :05:08.of bathroom window, still with one weapon in his hand. The apartment
:05:08. > :05:18.was surround and they fired on him again and then he was found dead.
:05:18. > :05:22.Two police officers injured and two injured at the start of siege. B --
:05:22. > :05:26.but the squad use have had a fearsome reputation?
:05:26. > :05:33.particularly in France. They have highly trained policemen who are
:05:33. > :05:37.used to kind -- this kind of siege. They took the decision to withdraw,
:05:37. > :05:41.because he had fired at them through door. The whole purpose of
:05:41. > :05:45.the operation was to limit as best they could any further injuries or
:05:45. > :05:49.death to police officers. The question mark will be as to why
:05:49. > :05:57.they decided to go in when they did. We know that negotiations had been
:05:57. > :06:02.broken off for six hours. And so I imagine that we will maybe hear his
:06:02. > :06:10.from the president, but it is possible they thought he was dead.
:06:10. > :06:13.They put in a number of flash grenades to try and wear him down,
:06:13. > :06:17.negotiations through the mobile phone that they had exchanged with
:06:17. > :06:21.him was broken off. So there was a reason to think that, particularly
:06:21. > :06:28.since we had heard some muffled gun fire in the early hours, that maybe
:06:28. > :06:32.he had taken his own life. But a dramatic end as he suddenly
:06:32. > :06:38.appeared at the bathroom door and both sides opened fire. Tell us
:06:38. > :06:43.about the negotiating, and why that had broken down. But at some stage
:06:43. > :06:48.his family were called on to speak to him? Yes they had said from the
:06:48. > :06:56.off this was a man who was defiant to the end, he was stub important
:06:56. > :07:01.and revelling in his -- stubborn and rafling in this. He rang a
:07:01. > :07:07.television station to brag about what he dob. So that is not an easy
:07:07. > :07:11.person to negotiate with. They wanted to take him alive. So they
:07:12. > :07:17.brought his mother to the scene. I understand from one police source
:07:17. > :07:20.that she said he never listens to me any way. So that proved. She
:07:20. > :07:23.didn't serve any purpose and through the day the deadlines he
:07:23. > :07:31.had set. He said he would come out in the afternoon and he said he
:07:31. > :07:36.would come out at dark. The deadlines came and went and he was
:07:36. > :07:41.Toyeing - toying with the police. They switched off the electricity
:07:41. > :07:45.around the apartment block and turned off the water and the gas.
:07:45. > :07:50.And they turned off data communications. And they were
:07:50. > :07:55.making it as hard as they could for him. To try and force him out. But
:07:55. > :08:01.in the end he was intent on trying to take some more police officers
:08:01. > :08:05.with him and came out with all his weapons blazing. This of course
:08:05. > :08:09.coinciding with a French presidential election campaign,
:08:09. > :08:13.just four and a half weeks away. What sorts of impact do people
:08:13. > :08:18.think this will have on that election, or have all the
:08:18. > :08:23.candidates been united in their response to this? They have been
:08:23. > :08:28.united in their response to Jewish and Muslim communities. We have
:08:28. > :08:32.seen Nicolas Sarkozy and the socialist front runner attending
:08:32. > :08:38.services together and that sort of thing. And talking about the need
:08:38. > :08:42.for unity and a sense of common purpose in the country. The most
:08:42. > :08:50.interesting thing is the battle on the right. Thiss important, because
:08:50. > :08:53.the battle between the far right and the UNP, the leading party, is
:08:53. > :08:58.the one that may decide the election. If Nicolas Sarkozy can
:08:58. > :09:03.take votes from Jean-Marie Le Pen, he has a better chance of catching
:09:03. > :09:09.his rival. It remains to be seen whether he improves his standing on
:09:09. > :09:12.right or whether people think that in fact it was not a good operation
:09:12. > :09:17.and they should have stopped a known fundamentalist and the police
:09:17. > :09:22.were injured on two attempts on the apartment block. It was not a
:09:22. > :09:28.particularly successful operation. The answer will be in the polls and
:09:28. > :09:32.the next poll we get we will see whether he gets a bump or you.
:09:32. > :09:36.think you alongside the camera position that we're looking at now,
:09:36. > :09:41.where we can see firefighters and other teams taking off their
:09:41. > :09:45.helmets and a sense of relaxation there. Has the flat itself been
:09:45. > :09:48.cleared? Because there were fears that it may have been booby trapped.
:09:48. > :09:53.Yes that is right. There have been operations in the past in Europe
:09:53. > :09:57.that people were recall where police have gone into apartment and
:09:57. > :10:03.explosions have been set off. That is what they wanted to avoid. When
:10:03. > :10:07.I was here just after that gun fire, there was a lot of activity began.
:10:08. > :10:13.We saw a Gurney being taken out of back of the ambulance. One
:10:13. > :10:18.ambulance was moved around the corner towards the apartment block
:10:18. > :10:22.and we saw firefighter with fire extinguishers and there was a sense
:10:22. > :10:25.they were then centre stage in the operation to get the bliss out and
:10:25. > :10:32.to ensure that there was no -- police out and ensure there was no
:10:32. > :10:36.threat to neighbouring houses. I would imagine that they are now
:10:36. > :10:42.going through apartment to ensure there is nothing there, no booby
:10:42. > :10:46.traps and they will be looking for any clues, or suggestions that this
:10:46. > :10:51.was a wider operation than just one man. They have picked up his
:10:51. > :10:56.brother. His brother had weapons in the boot of his car. It is a group,
:10:56. > :11:00.an Al-Qaeda group with Jihadist and extreme views that he was connected
:11:01. > :11:04.to. And that is why they wanted to take him alive. They wanted the
:11:04. > :11:12.intelligence from him. They will be looking to see if there is anything
:11:12. > :11:20.there that can be useful. Thank you. Let's stay with the political
:11:20. > :11:25.aspect of think and go to Llew Schofield who is in Paris. -- Hugh.
:11:25. > :11:32.Nicolas Sarkozy will be making a statement shortly. What impact do
:11:32. > :11:35.you assess this is havingen on the presidential campaign? -- having on
:11:35. > :11:41.the presidential campaign? It will give Nicolas Sarkozy a lift.
:11:42. > :11:45.Whether it is a permanent lift that ill will -- that will carry him
:11:45. > :11:49.through to the election, but I will say there will be a lift in the
:11:49. > :11:53.polls for him when they start coming out over the weekend. I
:11:53. > :11:57.think people will say that he has behaved in a very presidential way
:11:57. > :12:01.and remember that Nicolas Sarkozy is a man who people didn't like,
:12:01. > :12:06.because they thought he wasn't presidential enough. He was too
:12:06. > :12:11.money other yen taited and not what they wanted in a president. --
:12:11. > :12:18.orientated. But he has behaved as they want a president to. At the
:12:18. > :12:22.funerals, he was there holding the hands of the muss him mother -
:12:22. > :12:26.Muslim mother of one of soldier victims. He talked about the
:12:26. > :12:31.children being the children of France. But the general point is
:12:31. > :12:36.when there is a law and order problem, it tends to be the rate
:12:37. > :12:40.that benefits. I would see a -- right that benefits. I would see a
:12:40. > :12:44.lift for him. The socialist candidate has acted with grace as
:12:44. > :12:48.well, but the man in charge, if he does it properly will get the
:12:48. > :12:54.bigger lift. Yet there do appear on the face of it to have been
:12:54. > :12:59.intelligence failure, this man was on the radar and managed to amass
:12:59. > :13:05.weapons and go on this killing spree. I don't think there will be
:13:05. > :13:09.any political fall out from that. It is always possible to criticise,
:13:09. > :13:13.most people will say this was an operation which, while it didn't
:13:13. > :13:17.have the ideal effect, in the sense they stop him in time and at the
:13:18. > :13:21.end didn't capture him alive. It was still an efficient operation,
:13:21. > :13:31.which ended in him being neutralised. I don't think there
:13:31. > :13:37.will be any political chap Tall to be -- capital to be had. We Theresa
:13:37. > :13:40.May say, why -- we may sit and say why didn't that happen? But to play
:13:40. > :13:45.that tune would be politically damaging to that person who made it.
:13:45. > :13:52.Thank you. This is the scene after the ending of that siege. Two
:13:52. > :13:56.police officers injured in that raid. They went in with stun
:13:56. > :14:01.grenades and sent in video probes as well. Mohammed Merah, found in
:14:01. > :14:08.the bathroom, and as they stormed that, Mohammed Merah fired several
:14:08. > :14:13.shots, sus stained bursts of gun fire by Mohammed Merah and the
:14:13. > :14:17.police team. Mohammed Merah tried to escape by jumping through
:14:17. > :14:23.bathroom window, which had been blown out by commandos and then
:14:23. > :14:28.fell dead to the ground A bloody end to this siege, where Mohammed
:14:28. > :14:37.Merah admitted being behind the killing of seven people in Toulouse
:14:37. > :14:43.and the surrounding areas in the past week. You are watching BBC
:14:43. > :14:53.world news. Still to come a coup attempt in Mali as propertyer - o'
:14:53. > :14:54.
:14:54. > :14:59.plotter say they have over turned the president. A a former commander
:14:59. > :15:06.of the Turkish armed forces has gone on trial accused of trying to
:15:06. > :15:11.overthrow the Government. Our correspondent is in Istanbul.
:15:11. > :15:16.informations are have gone on for four years. 500 people are facing
:15:16. > :15:23.charges. It has got confusing and when you see somebody like this
:15:23. > :15:29.general, the supreme commander of the armed forces, faces charning
:15:29. > :15:39.charges that could put him in jiel for 20 year that brings home how
:15:39. > :15:40.
:15:40. > :15:45.much the military's fortunes have Like many of his supporters, he is
:15:45. > :15:50.saying, look at what they are charging me with. This is one of
:15:50. > :15:55.many cases that government prosecutors are pushing. They have
:15:55. > :15:59.uncovered 42 websites that they say were making propaganda against the
:15:59. > :16:05.current government while Ilker Basbug was commander of the armed
:16:05. > :16:10.forces, therefore as he carries responsibility. He said that he was
:16:10. > :16:13.the most powerful man in the country and had NATO's second
:16:13. > :16:20.largest armed forces in the country. If I wanted to overthrow the
:16:20. > :16:24.government, do you think I would have really use the Internet? There
:16:24. > :16:28.are also 250 serving more former military officers under indictment
:16:28. > :16:34.at the moment. People are saying that these indictments simply do
:16:34. > :16:38.not make sense. Many people in Turkey say that the military in
:16:38. > :16:43.Turkey was unaccountable for decades. Many people disappeared,
:16:43. > :16:49.and all sorts of ghastly things went on. The problem is that
:16:49. > :16:53.Turkey's judicial system is slow and cumbersome. All that time,
:16:53. > :16:57.Ilker Basbug, once the most powerful military man in the land,
:16:57. > :16:59.has to sit in prison. The controversy over what to do
:16:59. > :17:03.with Colonel Gaddafi's former right-hand man, Abdulluah al-
:17:03. > :17:06.Senussi, continues in Mauritania. The authorities there have denied
:17:06. > :17:13.making a commitment to hand him over to Libya. Mr Senussi was
:17:13. > :17:15.caught last weekend carrying a false passport. He has been
:17:15. > :17:18.indicted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, but
:17:18. > :17:27.the Libyan interim government want him back to stand trial on numerous
:17:27. > :17:31.charges of murder and human rights abuses.
:17:31. > :17:38.The headlines or online and on our website.
:17:38. > :17:43.This is BBC World News. The headlines: A Muslim militant wanted
:17:43. > :17:53.for killing seven people in France is dead. Police stormed his
:17:53. > :17:59.
:17:59. > :18:05.apartment. Two officers were wounded in the operation.
:18:05. > :18:11.Mario Draghi, the worst is over? Yes, he says the worst is over in
:18:11. > :18:15.terms of the Eurozone debt crisis, but he says there are problems. He
:18:15. > :18:20.points to things like inflation and the budget deficit, which she says
:18:20. > :18:25.looks better in the Eurozone than in the United States. On the same
:18:25. > :18:30.date that he says this, we get purchasing managers' index numbers
:18:30. > :18:34.and they are all pointing to the negative. These purchasing managers
:18:34. > :18:42.are the guys who sit at the top of the manufacturing or service
:18:42. > :18:46.sectors. If they are pessimistic, it feeds through down the chain.
:18:46. > :18:51.All of the Eurozone points to the negative. Perhaps more worrying,
:18:51. > :18:56.Germany, at the core of the Eurozone, it is also seen its
:18:56. > :19:03.manufacturing shrank for the first time this year. The question is, is
:19:03. > :19:06.it over? That is one of the questions I asked the experts.
:19:06. > :19:14.think the worst is over in the sense that financial catastrophe
:19:14. > :19:19.has been averted by the second bail out of Greece. But that does not
:19:19. > :19:24.mean that the crisis is resolved. There is a lot of hard work to do.
:19:24. > :19:28.We are likely to see the euro slipped back into recession. We are
:19:28. > :19:38.in a better position than we were four months ago but that does not
:19:38. > :19:42.
:19:42. > :19:45.mean it is clear. A survey measuring manufacturing
:19:45. > :19:48.activity in China shows output shrinking for the fifth month in a
:19:48. > :19:54.row. The HSBC purchasing managers index fell to 48. 1. Any number
:19:54. > :19:56.below 50 indicates contraction. It's based on data compiled from
:19:56. > :19:59.monthly replies to questionnaires sent to purchasing executives in
:19:59. > :20:01.over 400 manufacturing companies of different sizes. The official
:20:01. > :20:03.figures are released next week. Patrick Chovanec is Associate
:20:03. > :20:06.Professor at Sing-Wa University's School of Economics and Management
:20:06. > :20:09.in Beijing. He says the numbers point to a much broader downturn
:20:09. > :20:13.than many people realise. A lot of people I side of China are focused
:20:13. > :20:17.on the negative impact of the Eurozone crisis, declining demand
:20:18. > :20:22.from Europe, and sluggish demand from the United States on Chinese
:20:22. > :20:28.exports. The numbers tell us that is part of the picture, but there
:20:28. > :20:31.is another part of the picture, a slowdown within China driven by
:20:31. > :20:37.domestic issues. There is a downturn in the property market
:20:37. > :20:42.which affect a lot of industries here. That affects steel and cement,
:20:42. > :20:47.furniture, other things that feed into that industry. There is also
:20:47. > :20:50.concern about mounting bad debt in the system and the impact that has
:20:50. > :20:53.on the ability to finance further growth.
:20:53. > :20:59.A Brazilian prosecutor has charged the oil giant Chevron with damaging
:20:59. > :21:01.the environment in connection with an oil spill in November. The
:21:01. > :21:06.drilling rig operator Transocean and 17 senior executives were also
:21:06. > :21:08.charged over the spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The
:21:08. > :21:10.prosecutor, Eduardo Santos de Oliveira, said the oil spill
:21:10. > :21:15.affected the marine ecosystem. Chevron and Transocean dispute the
:21:15. > :21:22.charges. The chief executive of McDonalds,
:21:22. > :21:25.Jim Skinner, is stepping down after almost eight years in the job. He's
:21:25. > :21:28.to be replaced by Dan Thompson, currently the chief operating
:21:28. > :21:31.officer, at the end of June. Under Mr Skinner's leadership the share
:21:31. > :21:35.price has more than tripled. And the American delivery company
:21:35. > :21:40.Fedex reports earnings later today. Profits are expected to rise thanks
:21:40. > :21:43.to a gradually improving economy and cost cuts. Analysts are keen to
:21:43. > :21:51.hear its plans for Europe after two of its rivals, UPS and TNT, agreed
:21:51. > :21:56.of its rivals, UPS and TNT, agreed a merger.
:21:56. > :22:01.Let's take a quick look at the markets.
:22:01. > :22:05.It has been the same old story this week. The steam is off the rally in
:22:05. > :22:10.the markets at the moment. There are lots of worries that Greece
:22:10. > :22:13.will not be able to meet the austerity measures. Portugal
:22:13. > :22:16.remains another focus by investors remains another focus by investors
:22:16. > :22:20.and the markets. That is the business news.
:22:20. > :22:25.You looked awfully bored with those markets.
:22:25. > :22:29.I was fascinated by how you were able to switch from Asian to
:22:30. > :22:33.European markets seamlessly. Courts mutinous troops in Mali
:22:33. > :22:39.claim they have ended the rule of President Amadou Toumani Toure and
:22:39. > :22:43.suspended the constitution. They have also brought in a curfew. The
:22:43. > :22:48.announcement from the rebel troops came after international appeals
:22:48. > :22:52.for calm after an outbreak of violent unrest. A statement on the
:22:52. > :22:56.President's Twitter page denied there had been a coup attempt.
:22:57. > :23:02.These are the men who claim they are now in charge of Mali. There
:23:02. > :23:05.has been no word yet from the President's side. At half past four
:23:05. > :23:10.in the morning local time a group of renegade soldiers appeared on
:23:10. > :23:15.state television to announce they had ended the rule of President
:23:15. > :23:20.Amadou Toumani Toure. The soldiers say they have acted to end what
:23:20. > :23:25.they call an incompetent regime. They said it was unable to fight an
:23:25. > :23:30.ethnic rebellion in the north of the country. The following measures
:23:30. > :23:35.have been taking, the constitution is suspended, all the institutions
:23:35. > :23:40.of the Republic are dissolved, and an inclusive government will be
:23:40. > :23:47.created after consultations. this is the dramatic culmination of
:23:47. > :23:51.a chaotic 24 hours in the capital, Bamako. It started when angry
:23:51. > :23:56.soldiers took to the streets and began exchanging fire with forces
:23:56. > :24:01.guarding the presidential palace. We heard gunfire and people started
:24:01. > :24:06.to run. All this was going on and we had no idea what was happening.
:24:06. > :24:12.The rebels accused the government of failing to provide the weaponry
:24:12. > :24:17.needed to fight the ethnic Tuareg rebellion in the country's North.
:24:17. > :24:21.The last comments came from the president on Wednesday evening. He
:24:21. > :24:26.denied that there was a coup attempt. But the President had
:24:26. > :24:31.already agreed to stand down and an election was due in less than one
:24:31. > :24:37.month. The soldiers say they will hand power to a brand new
:24:37. > :24:42.democratically elected government, but they did not say how or when.
:24:42. > :24:48.You're watching BBC World News. Let's take you back to Toulouse, in
:24:48. > :24:57.the aftermath of the bloody end to the siege there. The gunman,
:24:57. > :25:01.Mohammed Merah, was shot dead. Two police commandos were wounded. The
:25:01. > :25:07.armed man had been holed up in the bathroom. He had not made contact
:25:07. > :25:11.with police for several hours but as they went in, he opened up with
:25:11. > :25:18.his weapons, and fell to the ground dead as he went through the
:25:18. > :25:22.bathroom window. Let's speak to a French journalist. For the most
:25:22. > :25:29.dramatic, bloody end to this. What more details are you picking up
:25:29. > :25:32.from what we heard from the Interior Minister? These
:25:32. > :25:42.circumstances of this a very traumatic shoot-out are not exactly
:25:42. > :25:45.
:25:45. > :25:55.clear. I side of the building, we could hear sustained bursts of
:25:55. > :25:58.
:25:59. > :26:05.gunfire for something like five minutes. -- outside. As you said,
:26:05. > :26:13.Mohammed Merah died while jumping out of the window and shooting. I
:26:13. > :26:21.think a total of around 300 shots were fired. Were you close by? Did
:26:21. > :26:25.you see this storming? I must confess, our colleagues were on the
:26:25. > :26:32.scene and they could see and hear a lot. But there were no reporters
:26:32. > :26:37.around to see exactly what happened. The secrecy of the whole operation
:26:37. > :26:45.was held very tightly, and it took a few minutes to get confirmation
:26:45. > :26:50.that Mohammed Merah had been killed., oh OK. We will leave it
:26:50. > :26:55.there. We are running out of time but we will stay with these live