21/05/2012 BBC World News


21/05/2012

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Dozens of people have killed in a suicide bomb attack in the Yemeni

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capital, Sanaa. The pop legend - will remember the

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life of Robin -- Robin Gibb, who has died.

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Welcome to BBC World News. To be learned so head for the

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markets, as leaders failed to come Dozens of people have killed in a

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suicide bomb attack in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. One report puts the

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death toll as high as 96. Here are the latest pictures from Sanaa

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showing the military parade moments before the attack and then people

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fleeing the scene after the explosion. Reports say a man in an

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army uniform had set off his explosives as an army unit was

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practicing for a parade. It's the first such attack in Sanaa since

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the new president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi took power in February.

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Earlier this month he ordered a major offensive against Islamist

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militant groups linked to Al Qaeda in the southern Yemen. Our security

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correspondent says attacks of this type are usually confined to the

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south of the country. It is unusual for something like

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this to take place in the capital, Sanaa. There has been an ongoing

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battle since Saturday, over 130 people killed and fighting between

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the Yemeni government forces. It has been a pretty fierce offensive

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going on, but what we have seen here in these pictures is the

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aftermath of the single man dressed in military uniform, who detonated

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his device, the suicide bomb, at a rehearsal for tomorrow's parade in

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Sanaa. It is possible they got the date wrong, but it is far more

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likely this was meant as a message to Yemen's rumours. Remember they

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have had a change of government. The previous President stepped down

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in February, his vice-president has now become President, and this will

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be a message to him - we can get you at any time. Already over the

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last few days, Al-Qaeda's replacement for Osama Bin Laden has

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said we consider him to be just as bad.

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Robin Gibb - one of three brothers who formed the hugely-successful

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Bee Gees pop group in the 1960s - has died aged 62. The Bee Gees

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helped define the disco era with hits like Stayin' Alive, How Deep

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Is Your Love and Night Fever. They sold more records than the Rolling

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Stones, Abba or Elton John. Robin Gibb had fought colon and liver

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cancer for several years. David Sillito looks back at his life.

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With his plaintive quavering voice, this 17 year-old was an unlikely

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star. But here he was, Robin Gibb, the frontman of what was to be one

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of the biggest pop band's in history. Is it true you write your

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own pieces? He had begun performing with his brothers when he was just

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six. The family then settled in Australia. They have released more

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than a dozen records before they returned to Britain and hit the

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big-time. # You don't know what it is like.

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However, increasingly it was his brother Barry who was in the

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spotlight. Robin Gibb resented this and, despite the rumours, he left.

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If I was to say that were true, I would be the premier of Russia.

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band reformed but soon found itself out of favour. What changed things

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around was moving to America, and very moving up a register. When

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Saturday Night Fever was at its peak, they were selling a million

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albums a week. The eventual backlash meant that Bee Gees songs

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in the 80s were often sung by Kenny and Dolly, Diana Ross, Barbra

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Streisand... We see ourselves as composers and artists second. You

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can't have the second without the first and we have always enjoyed

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writing for other people. A like the harmonies, the songwriting was

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an interplay between the three brothers.

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# I see the story. Sensitive teetotal vegetarian,

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Robin Gibb's solo career never took off in the same way. His place in

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pop history is with his brothers as one of pop's most successful

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songwriting teams. At least three people have died

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climbing Mount Everest over the weekend and there are reports that

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the number of fatalities could be even higher. Lets get more details

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now from the BBC's Joanna Jolly, who was our correspondent in

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Kathmandu until recently. What more can you tell us? We know the

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nationalities of the three people - a German, South Korean and Nepalese

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woman. We also know a Chinese man and his guide are also missing, and

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there could be more people missing. They were climbing at the beginning

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of the summit season, and this is when the weather is good enough to

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reach the top. Around 150 did make it to the summit by the end of

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Saturday, but then the wind picked up, the weather became worse, and

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it is believed these three climbers died because they became exhausted

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and suffered altitude sickness. worries more people could have lost

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their lives? Yes, it is popular to climb Mount Everest at this time of

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year, and some netball these guides say they worry that climbers are so

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focused to get to the summit they don't have the energy to get down

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again. They're all so long queues to get to the summit so sometimes

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climb has run out of oxygen, exposed for longer than they

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thought, making them susceptible to exhaustion. So, reports 6 or 7

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people could have been killed in the last few days? Yes, we are

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still getting reports from the base camp to find out how many people

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have been missing but the conditions are extremely dangerous,

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especially for amateur climbers. Now the business news, and the

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markets are a bit more stable this week. Yes, we have slight rises on

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the equity market but not particularly convincing. For

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Investors are looking for a fix to the eurozone debt crisis after G8

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leaders failed to come up with concrete plans over the weekend.

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Later today, German and French finance ministers meet in Berlin

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for talks. And in Greece, the flight of money from the country

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gains momentum. Greeks are taking savings out of their banks because

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they fear for the future. Georg Grodzki is head of Credit Research

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at Legal and General. He explained why one solution to the crisis

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would be the creation of so-called eurozone bonds would be met with

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opposition from Germany. They will favour supply side measures, such

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as market flexibility. France will press on with an abolition of the

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strict austerity policies which they think Germany is imposing on

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Europe. Between demand and supply there is quite a difference so they

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will have to employee some ghost writers to come up with a

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compromise. There seems to be somewhere cool room emerging in

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Germany because the German Finance Minister spoke to the press over

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the weekend saying we are open to look at all sorts of ideas as long

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as it doesn't increase debt. Do you think eurozone bombs is a good way

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of resolving the speculation in the market? -- eurozone bonds. For many

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they seem an easy way out, but it basically means borrowing your

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neighbour's credit card to fund euros spending spree. They only

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make sense if you haven't really common fiscal policy, if you

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basically give up your sovereignty. Otherwise countries can go on

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spending as much as they like and make other countries responsible

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for paying the dead, so it is difficult to see them working

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without increasing indebtedness and that is the problem Germany wants

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to avoid. Struggling Internet company Yahoo

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is to sell half of its stake in Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba

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for about $7.1 billion. Yahoo bought the 40% stake back in 2005

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for $1 billion. The deal moves China's Alibaba closer to a public

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listing. The BBC's Juliani Liu told me earlier just how big Alibaba is.

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It has a lot of subsidiaries, I would say probably the most famous

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in China is very similar to eBay, but according to some analysts in

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terms of total transactions it has already exceeded eBay about two

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years ago so it is gigantic. That is only one of its units, it also

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has one in which stores can set up online shops to sell directly to

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consumers. I'd just met the Western gentle man who wants to open that

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up to the rest of the world. He wants western companies to sell

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directly to Chinese, especially in some categories like organic food

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service is an absolute monster. China's Dalian Wanda Group is

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stepping into the US entertainment market. It is buying America's AMC

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Entertainment - the world's largest operator of IMAX screens - for $2.6

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billion. AMC operates 346 cinemas in the US and Canada. The deal

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makes Wanda the biggest theatre operator in the US by revenue. It

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is not a name well known outside of China, can you tell us something

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about it? It is one of China's biggest property conglomerate, and

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although it is only a small part of a very diverse set of interests, it

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currently owns some 80 cinemas here. As you say, if this deal is

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approved, it will add more than 300 cinemas, mostly in America and

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Canada, and that will make it the biggest cinema theatre operator in

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the world. The really interesting thing is to ask why, and why now?

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All of the audience growth at the moment is in China. American

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audiences are flat mining or declining. I think a lot of people

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will be wondering quite why a Chinese company sees this as such

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an attractive deal to be signing at the moment. Is it going to be an

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active investor? Is it going to be sharing technology? We are told

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that for the audiences in the States and in Canada they won't

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notice any difference, there will be no change in terms of the

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decisions being made on what films are shown. I think despite that,

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you may get some commentators raising the possibility that this

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is in some way an extension of Chinese soft power. I don't know

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how much credibility to give to that kind of thing, but in terms of

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its bosses, they are talking about pretty much only the bottom line.

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They say that once the debt issue is dealt with and the cinema chain

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opens a significant amount of debt, part of this deal will be to pay

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down some of that debt, they say that once that is done they see

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this as a positive investment on figures show that AMC were

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returning to profit this year. the markets, as I said earlier it

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There is a bit of a hiatus here, you can see these markets are

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pretty much unchanged, waiting to see if any resolution comes out of

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We've got a bit more from Greece later, but thank you for now.

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You're watching BBC World News. Coming up:

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The conlfict is long over, but Sierra Leone's search for diamonds

:14:59.:15:09.
:15:09.:15:09.

Thousands of people made homeless by a powerful earthquake in

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northern Italy have spent the night in makeshift shelters. The tremor

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killed at least six people and injured more than 50. A clean-up

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operation is under way, but the fear of more aftershocks is still

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strong in the region. Alan Johnston It struck with colossal force,

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punching holes and tearing gashes in solid walls all across this

:15:33.:15:40.

region. Some hold buildings were flattened, two night shift workers

:15:40.:15:44.

died in this factory. One of them was only there because he had done

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a favour and swapped his shift with a colleague. And many others had a

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terrifying, a narrow escape in the night. TRANSLATION: So I didn't

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have the strength to react, I was stuck, a where the house would

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collapse on May, but I could not react. The only thing I could do

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was cover my wife with my body. Often, older and weaker, historic

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buildings were hit hardest and as we film around this one, suddenly

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:16:25.:16:28.

All that is left of the tower dissolves into dust. In the moments

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just after that dramatic collapse, the police have moved everyone out

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of this square, but what happens here illustrates the problem this

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region has. Many of its ancient structures have been badly damaged.

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Aftershocks may bring others crashing down, too. To help deal

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with all of this, emergency workers from the length of Italy have been

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sent to the area. They are understandably wary. All through

:16:58.:17:01.

the day, they have had to endure those powerful, frightening

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aftershocks. French prosecutors have opened an

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investigation into accusations of rape against the disgraced former

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head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He

:17:12.:17:16.

denies the allegations linked to an incident in Washington in 2010.

:17:16.:17:19.

Prosecutors have already charged Mr Strauss-Kahn for involvement in a

:17:19.:17:23.

prostitution ring. He resigned as the IMF head following accusations

:17:23.:17:26.

he had sexually attacked a hotel maid in New York, although the

:17:26.:17:36.
:17:36.:17:37.

charges were eventually dropped. Much more on that and all of our

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:17:47.:17:49.

The headlines: At least 60 people have been killed

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by a suicide attack in the centre of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

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Tributes have been paid to the former Bee Gee, Robin Gibb, who has

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Tensions over the conflict in Syria has led to violence in neighbouring

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Lebanon. Several people were reported killed in street battles

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in the capital, Beirut. Lebanese security forces have now restored

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order in Sunni dominated neighbourhoods where supporters and

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opponents of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, clashed overnight.

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Our correspondent in Beirut, Jim Muir, told me more.

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There were some violent scenes during the night on the southern

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edge of Beirut. Basically between two Sunni groups. One small group

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which is basically pro-Syrian, close to Hezbollah, whose offices

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came under attack by the majority Sunni movement headed by the son of

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the former prime minister. There were at least two or three people

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killed and getting on for 20 wounded in those clashes, which

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tapered off after the leader of the small group slipped out of the area.

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The Lebanese army came in and it is now still tense, but traffic is

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moving normally. Other parts of the country where there had been roads

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blocked by people burning tyres in protest at the killing of these two

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sheikhs who were shot dead at an army checkpoint on Sunday, protests

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throughout Sunni areas over VAT, but tensions are being kept under

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control apparently by both political and religious leadership,

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which are calling strongly for people to remain calm and try to

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avoid further tensions. For some of the problems surrounding dealing

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with Syria have been based on how tensions could spread in the region.

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What do the weekend's events tell us? Well, it shows just how tense

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and have divided it is in Lebanon. You basically have the strongest

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power in the land, Hezbollah, and its allies, basically supporting

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the Syrian regime, and the Sunnis are siding with the uprising, which

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is largely Sunni based and being accused by the Syrians and others

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of being -- smuggling arms across the border to the rebels. A real

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tinderbox situation, but because everybody is so aware of how the

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country could be done apart -- torn apart, there are strong pressures

:20:20.:20:30.

to prevent a clash. Hezbollah has kept well out of it. The smaller

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party leader has called for discipline and restraint, self-

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control, and there's an investigation going on very

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actively into how those two Sunni clerics were killed by the Lebanese

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army at that checkpoint. The threat posed by Greece leaving

:20:46.:20:49.

the euro will be high on the agenda when the economic bloc's leaders

:20:49.:20:52.

meet in Brussels later this week. The growing consensus from leaders

:20:52.:20:56.

is that they want Greece to stay with the euro, but Greek voters go

:20:56.:20:59.

to the polls next month and parties opposed to Greece's bail out are

:20:59.:21:02.

surging in popularity. Well, north- west of Athens, in the countryside,

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is Ioannina, a growing town but also one of the poorest areas in

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Greece. Tim Willcox has been gauging the mood there.

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Throughout this entire Greek crisis, we've seen mass demonstrations in

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the cities against the austerity measures, but what is the situation

:21:11.:21:13.

like in the countryside? We've given about five hours north-west

:21:13.:21:18.

of Athens to Ioannina. This man is a 67-year-old grandfather who has

:21:18.:21:23.

been farming may use most of his life. He has seen his salary drop

:21:23.:21:32.

from about 4,000 euros a month to just his pension. How difficult to

:21:32.:21:39.

has the situation been in the last few months? TRANSLATION: For five

:21:39.:21:44.

years ago, things were better. Nowadays the situation is very

:21:44.:21:48.

difficult, we can barely survive with a lower pension, around 400 to

:21:48.:21:54.

500 euros. We sell the corn, but expenses are more than the income.

:21:54.:21:58.

He also says that because he's able to work on the land, at least he

:21:58.:22:02.

can feed himself, but he's concerned about his two

:22:02.:22:08.

granddaughters. What are your fears for them? TRANSLATION: I have two

:22:08.:22:11.

grandchildren, one of them is that student and she will graduate soon.

:22:11.:22:16.

But what will she do next? Where will she work? In the farm we can

:22:16.:22:23.

barely survive, but we have sheep, chickens, things like that. He is

:22:23.:22:33.
:22:33.:22:36.

going to carry on and checkout his fields and his animals. Thank you.

:22:36.:22:39.

NATO'S Secretary General says there will be "no rush for the exits" by

:22:39.:22:41.

the countries who have troops deployed in Afghanistan. The

:22:41.:22:44.

alliance is meeting in Chicago to discuss Afghanistan's future after

:22:44.:22:50.

the last Western combat troops leave in 2014. Against a dramatic

:22:50.:22:53.

backdrop, a memorial to those who gave their lives in combat, NATO

:22:53.:22:58.

leaders gathered for the traditional family photo. A

:22:58.:23:02.

souvenir of Chicago 2012. But like any family gathering, things rarely

:23:02.:23:08.

goes smoothly as planned. France wants to pull its combat troops out

:23:08.:23:14.

of Afghanistan sooner than later -- NATO would like, putting France's

:23:14.:23:18.

new leader on a collision course with the rest. It is disappointing

:23:18.:23:22.

that the French have chosen to take their combat troops out by the end

:23:22.:23:26.

of this year, but very reassuring that they've agreed they will have

:23:26.:23:31.

a continued presence, the continued involvement in the mission. Other

:23:31.:23:34.

reassurances were given by President Obama de President Karzai

:23:35.:23:40.

of Afghanistan, even as NATO troops begin to leave. Some members are

:23:40.:23:45.

proving slow to split the bill. But there are hopes that will be agreed

:23:45.:23:49.

on here today. But almost certainly won't be is a deal with the

:23:49.:23:53.

neighbours, Pakistan, on opening its borders to NATO convoys despite

:23:54.:23:58.

the Pakistani President being here. Outside the summit, demonstrators

:23:58.:24:01.

expressed their frustration with the war that has lasted more than a

:24:01.:24:05.

decade. It has cost billions while other spending has been cut back.

:24:05.:24:10.

It was a mostly peaceful protest that turned violent later. But from

:24:10.:24:15.

behind a tight security inside the summit, a message in return. For

:24:15.:24:19.

the West at least, the fighting and dying is coming to an end. In

:24:19.:24:24.

Chicago, NATO leaders are in pragmatic mood, by the time the

:24:24.:24:27.

summit ends they want to map out the relationship with Afghanistan

:24:27.:24:33.

after 24 team and ensure enough funding for the Afghan forces say

:24:33.:24:36.

they will have some credibility, but fast enough to satisfy the

:24:36.:24:46.
:24:46.:24:46.

voters back home. The opposition candidate in Serbia,

:24:46.:24:48.

Tomislav Nikolic, has unexpectedly won the Serbian presidential

:24:48.:24:51.

election. A former nationalist best known for his hard line on Kosovo

:24:51.:24:53.

remaining part of Serbia, Mr Nikolic nevertheless stressed in

:24:53.:24:56.

his campaign that he wanted his country to pursue membership of the

:24:56.:24:58.

European Union. Tom Esslemont reports.

:24:58.:25:02.

Victory but not in the way many had predicted. The populist Tomislav

:25:02.:25:07.

Nikolic celebrates. He had lost his last two attempts to unseat this

:25:07.:25:11.

man, Boris Tadic, Serbia's former President, who had been popular in

:25:11.:25:16.

the West for starting negotiations on future European Union membership.

:25:16.:25:20.

But Mr Nikolic capitalised on the hard economic times that have

:25:20.:25:25.

forced many Serbs into joblessness. Even at once putting himself on

:25:25.:25:29.

hunger strike to trigger early elections. And on winning them he

:25:29.:25:37.

felt to be President of all Serbians. TRANSLATION: I won the

:25:37.:25:39.

President -- Presidential election thanks to the votes of the people

:25:39.:25:42.

thanks to the votes of the people of Serbia. A but what about his

:25:42.:25:47.

background? He was once a hardline nationalist. He was also at one

:25:47.:25:52.

stage allied with the nationalist firebrand Slobodan Milosevic in

:25:52.:25:55.

whose government he then served during the Kosovo war. Underpass

:25:55.:25:58.

during the Kosovo war. Underpass job at a cemetery gave him the

:25:58.:26:02.

nickname the undertaker. But these are images Mr Nikolic wants to

:26:02.:26:07.

shrug off. He has tempered his right-wing views, breaking up his

:26:07.:26:12.

old radical Party's allegiances with alleged war criminals. As he

:26:12.:26:18.

did so, his groundswell of support group. Now he says he is committed

:26:18.:26:24.

to a future in the EU. But there are doubts in Brussels that he will

:26:24.:26:28.

make any of the desired concessions on the divisive issue of Kosovo.

:26:28.:26:33.

Many EU members see the territory as independent. To Serbs, it is

:26:33.:26:40.

theirs. Mr Nikolic has a history of looking east towards Russia. He now

:26:40.:26:43.

has to convince his critics he is prepared to look west and that he

:26:43.:26:52.

will not allow Serbia to slide back into its dark past.

:26:52.:26:56.

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