Browse content similar to 21/05/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Dozens of people have killed in a suicide bomb attack in the Yemeni | :00:09. | :00:19. | |
:00:19. | :00:20. | ||
capital, Sanaa. The pop legend - will remember the | :00:20. | :00:30. | |
:00:30. | :00:31. | ||
life of Robin -- Robin Gibb, who has died. | :00:31. | :00:37. | |
Welcome to BBC World News. To be learned so head for the | :00:37. | :00:47. | |
:00:47. | :01:02. | ||
markets, as leaders failed to come Dozens of people have killed in a | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
suicide bomb attack in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. One report puts the | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
death toll as high as 96. Here are the latest pictures from Sanaa | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
showing the military parade moments before the attack and then people | :01:12. | :01:20. | |
fleeing the scene after the explosion. Reports say a man in an | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
army uniform had set off his explosives as an army unit was | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
practicing for a parade. It's the first such attack in Sanaa since | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
the new president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi took power in February. | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
Earlier this month he ordered a major offensive against Islamist | :01:31. | :01:41. | |
:01:41. | :01:42. | ||
militant groups linked to Al Qaeda in the southern Yemen. Our security | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
correspondent says attacks of this type are usually confined to the | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
south of the country. It is unusual for something like | :01:49. | :01:55. | |
this to take place in the capital, Sanaa. There has been an ongoing | :01:55. | :02:04. | |
battle since Saturday, over 130 people killed and fighting between | :02:04. | :02:11. | |
the Yemeni government forces. It has been a pretty fierce offensive | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
going on, but what we have seen here in these pictures is the | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
aftermath of the single man dressed in military uniform, who detonated | :02:20. | :02:27. | |
his device, the suicide bomb, at a rehearsal for tomorrow's parade in | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
Sanaa. It is possible they got the date wrong, but it is far more | :02:32. | :02:38. | |
likely this was meant as a message to Yemen's rumours. Remember they | :02:38. | :02:43. | |
have had a change of government. The previous President stepped down | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
in February, his vice-president has now become President, and this will | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
be a message to him - we can get you at any time. Already over the | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
last few days, Al-Qaeda's replacement for Osama Bin Laden has | :02:58. | :03:08. | |
:03:08. | :03:25. | ||
said we consider him to be just as bad. | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
Robin Gibb - one of three brothers who formed the hugely-successful | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
Bee Gees pop group in the 1960s - has died aged 62. The Bee Gees | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
helped define the disco era with hits like Stayin' Alive, How Deep | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
Is Your Love and Night Fever. They sold more records than the Rolling | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
Stones, Abba or Elton John. Robin Gibb had fought colon and liver | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
cancer for several years. David Sillito looks back at his life. | :03:43. | :03:45. | |
With his plaintive quavering voice, this 17 year-old was an unlikely | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
star. But here he was, Robin Gibb, the frontman of what was to be one | :03:48. | :03:53. | |
of the biggest pop band's in history. Is it true you write your | :03:53. | :04:01. | |
own pieces? He had begun performing with his brothers when he was just | :04:01. | :04:09. | |
six. The family then settled in Australia. They have released more | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
than a dozen records before they returned to Britain and hit the | :04:13. | :04:20. | |
big-time. # You don't know what it is like. | :04:20. | :04:28. | |
However, increasingly it was his brother Barry who was in the | :04:28. | :04:35. | |
spotlight. Robin Gibb resented this and, despite the rumours, he left. | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
If I was to say that were true, I would be the premier of Russia. | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
band reformed but soon found itself out of favour. What changed things | :04:46. | :04:55. | |
:04:56. | :04:58. | ||
around was moving to America, and very moving up a register. When | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
Saturday Night Fever was at its peak, they were selling a million | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
albums a week. The eventual backlash meant that Bee Gees songs | :05:06. | :05:16. | |
:05:16. | :05:18. | ||
in the 80s were often sung by Kenny and Dolly, Diana Ross, Barbra | :05:18. | :05:26. | |
Streisand... We see ourselves as composers and artists second. You | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
can't have the second without the first and we have always enjoyed | :05:30. | :05:37. | |
writing for other people. A like the harmonies, the songwriting was | :05:37. | :05:43. | |
an interplay between the three brothers. | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
# I see the story. Sensitive teetotal vegetarian, | :05:47. | :05:57. | |
Robin Gibb's solo career never took off in the same way. His place in | :05:57. | :06:03. | |
pop history is with his brothers as one of pop's most successful | :06:03. | :06:13. | |
songwriting teams. At least three people have died | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
climbing Mount Everest over the weekend and there are reports that | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
the number of fatalities could be even higher. Lets get more details | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
now from the BBC's Joanna Jolly, who was our correspondent in | :06:21. | :06:28. | |
Kathmandu until recently. What more can you tell us? We know the | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
nationalities of the three people - a German, South Korean and Nepalese | :06:32. | :06:38. | |
woman. We also know a Chinese man and his guide are also missing, and | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
there could be more people missing. They were climbing at the beginning | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
of the summit season, and this is when the weather is good enough to | :06:46. | :06:52. | |
reach the top. Around 150 did make it to the summit by the end of | :06:52. | :06:57. | |
Saturday, but then the wind picked up, the weather became worse, and | :06:57. | :07:03. | |
it is believed these three climbers died because they became exhausted | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
and suffered altitude sickness. worries more people could have lost | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
their lives? Yes, it is popular to climb Mount Everest at this time of | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
year, and some netball these guides say they worry that climbers are so | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
focused to get to the summit they don't have the energy to get down | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
again. They're all so long queues to get to the summit so sometimes | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
climb has run out of oxygen, exposed for longer than they | :07:33. | :07:42. | |
thought, making them susceptible to exhaustion. So, reports 6 or 7 | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
people could have been killed in the last few days? Yes, we are | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
still getting reports from the base camp to find out how many people | :07:50. | :07:57. | |
have been missing but the conditions are extremely dangerous, | :07:57. | :08:04. | |
especially for amateur climbers. Now the business news, and the | :08:04. | :08:09. | |
markets are a bit more stable this week. Yes, we have slight rises on | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
the equity market but not particularly convincing. For | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
Investors are looking for a fix to the eurozone debt crisis after G8 | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
leaders failed to come up with concrete plans over the weekend. | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
Later today, German and French finance ministers meet in Berlin | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
for talks. And in Greece, the flight of money from the country | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
gains momentum. Greeks are taking savings out of their banks because | :08:26. | :08:36. | |
:08:36. | :08:38. | ||
they fear for the future. Georg Grodzki is head of Credit Research | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
at Legal and General. He explained why one solution to the crisis | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
would be the creation of so-called eurozone bonds would be met with | :08:46. | :08:55. | |
opposition from Germany. They will favour supply side measures, such | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
as market flexibility. France will press on with an abolition of the | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
strict austerity policies which they think Germany is imposing on | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
Europe. Between demand and supply there is quite a difference so they | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
will have to employee some ghost writers to come up with a | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
compromise. There seems to be somewhere cool room emerging in | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
Germany because the German Finance Minister spoke to the press over | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
the weekend saying we are open to look at all sorts of ideas as long | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
as it doesn't increase debt. Do you think eurozone bombs is a good way | :09:32. | :09:42. | |
:09:42. | :09:43. | ||
of resolving the speculation in the market? -- eurozone bonds. For many | :09:43. | :09:49. | |
they seem an easy way out, but it basically means borrowing your | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
neighbour's credit card to fund euros spending spree. They only | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
make sense if you haven't really common fiscal policy, if you | :09:59. | :10:05. | |
basically give up your sovereignty. Otherwise countries can go on | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
spending as much as they like and make other countries responsible | :10:09. | :10:15. | |
for paying the dead, so it is difficult to see them working | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
without increasing indebtedness and that is the problem Germany wants | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
to avoid. Struggling Internet company Yahoo | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
is to sell half of its stake in Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba | :10:25. | :10:35. | |
:10:35. | :10:37. | ||
for about $7.1 billion. Yahoo bought the 40% stake back in 2005 | :10:37. | :10:44. | |
for $1 billion. The deal moves China's Alibaba closer to a public | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
listing. The BBC's Juliani Liu told me earlier just how big Alibaba is. | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
It has a lot of subsidiaries, I would say probably the most famous | :10:54. | :11:01. | |
in China is very similar to eBay, but according to some analysts in | :11:01. | :11:06. | |
terms of total transactions it has already exceeded eBay about two | :11:06. | :11:12. | |
years ago so it is gigantic. That is only one of its units, it also | :11:12. | :11:17. | |
has one in which stores can set up online shops to sell directly to | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
consumers. I'd just met the Western gentle man who wants to open that | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
up to the rest of the world. He wants western companies to sell | :11:26. | :11:31. | |
directly to Chinese, especially in some categories like organic food | :11:31. | :11:39. | |
service is an absolute monster. China's Dalian Wanda Group is | :11:39. | :11:49. | |
stepping into the US entertainment market. It is buying America's AMC | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
Entertainment - the world's largest operator of IMAX screens - for $2.6 | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
billion. AMC operates 346 cinemas in the US and Canada. The deal | :11:55. | :12:04. | |
makes Wanda the biggest theatre operator in the US by revenue. It | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
is not a name well known outside of China, can you tell us something | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
about it? It is one of China's biggest property conglomerate, and | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
although it is only a small part of a very diverse set of interests, it | :12:19. | :12:25. | |
currently owns some 80 cinemas here. As you say, if this deal is | :12:25. | :12:30. | |
approved, it will add more than 300 cinemas, mostly in America and | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
Canada, and that will make it the biggest cinema theatre operator in | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
the world. The really interesting thing is to ask why, and why now? | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
All of the audience growth at the moment is in China. American | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
audiences are flat mining or declining. I think a lot of people | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
will be wondering quite why a Chinese company sees this as such | :12:55. | :13:02. | |
an attractive deal to be signing at the moment. Is it going to be an | :13:02. | :13:12. | |
:13:12. | :13:12. | ||
active investor? Is it going to be sharing technology? We are told | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
that for the audiences in the States and in Canada they won't | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
notice any difference, there will be no change in terms of the | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
decisions being made on what films are shown. I think despite that, | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
you may get some commentators raising the possibility that this | :13:27. | :13:32. | |
is in some way an extension of Chinese soft power. I don't know | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
how much credibility to give to that kind of thing, but in terms of | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
its bosses, they are talking about pretty much only the bottom line. | :13:43. | :13:48. | |
They say that once the debt issue is dealt with and the cinema chain | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
opens a significant amount of debt, part of this deal will be to pay | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
down some of that debt, they say that once that is done they see | :13:57. | :14:02. | |
this as a positive investment on figures show that AMC were | :14:02. | :14:11. | |
returning to profit this year. the markets, as I said earlier it | :14:11. | :14:21. | |
:14:21. | :14:25. | ||
There is a bit of a hiatus here, you can see these markets are | :14:25. | :14:30. | |
pretty much unchanged, waiting to see if any resolution comes out of | :14:30. | :14:40. | |
:14:40. | :14:54. | ||
We've got a bit more from Greece later, but thank you for now. | :14:54. | :14:56. | |
You're watching BBC World News. Coming up: | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
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 | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
northern Italy have spent the night in makeshift shelters. The tremor | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
killed at least six people and injured more than 50. A clean-up | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
operation is under way, but the fear of more aftershocks is still | :15:19. | :15:28. | |
strong in the region. Alan Johnston It struck with colossal force, | :15:28. | :15:33. | |
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 | :15:44. | :15:51. | |
a favour and swapped his shift with a colleague. And many others had a | :15:51. | :15:57. | |
terrifying, a narrow escape in the night. TRANSLATION: So I didn't | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
have the strength to react, I was stuck, a where the house would | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
collapse on May, but I could not react. The only thing I could do | :16:04. | :16:10. | |
was cover my wife with my body. Often, older and weaker, historic | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
buildings were hit hardest and as we film around this one, suddenly | :16:15. | :16:25. | |
:16:25. | :16:28. | ||
All that is left of the tower dissolves into dust. In the moments | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
just after that dramatic collapse, the police have moved everyone out | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
of this square, but what happens here illustrates the problem this | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
region has. Many of its ancient structures have been badly damaged. | :16:40. | :16:45. | |
Aftershocks may bring others crashing down, too. To help deal | :16:45. | :16:49. | |
with all of this, emergency workers from the length of Italy have been | :16:50. | :16:58. | |
sent to the area. They are understandably wary. All through | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
the day, they have had to endure those powerful, frightening | :17:01. | :17:06. | |
aftershocks. French prosecutors have opened an | :17:06. | :17:08. | |
investigation into accusations of rape against the disgraced former | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
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 | :17:37. | :17:47. | |
:17:47. | :17:49. | ||
The headlines: At least 60 people have been killed | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
by a suicide attack in the centre of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. | :17:53. | :17:56. | |
Tributes have been paid to the former Bee Gee, Robin Gibb, who has | :17:56. | :18:04. | |
Tensions over the conflict in Syria has led to violence in neighbouring | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
Lebanon. Several people were reported killed in street battles | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
in the capital, Beirut. Lebanese security forces have now restored | :18:12. | :18:14. | |
order in Sunni dominated neighbourhoods where supporters and | :18:14. | :18:16. | |
opponents of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, clashed overnight. | :18:16. | :18:26. | |
:18:26. | :18:27. | ||
Our correspondent in Beirut, Jim Muir, told me more. | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
There were some violent scenes during the night on the southern | :18:30. | :18:36. | |
edge of Beirut. Basically between two Sunni groups. One small group | :18:36. | :18:40. | |
which is basically pro-Syrian, close to Hezbollah, whose offices | :18:40. | :18:46. | |
came under attack by the majority Sunni movement headed by the son of | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
the former prime minister. There were at least two or three people | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
killed and getting on for 20 wounded in those clashes, which | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
tapered off after the leader of the small group slipped out of the area. | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
The Lebanese army came in and it is now still tense, but traffic is | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
moving normally. Other parts of the country where there had been roads | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
blocked by people burning tyres in protest at the killing of these two | :19:12. | :19:19. | |
sheikhs who were shot dead at an army checkpoint on Sunday, protests | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
throughout Sunni areas over VAT, but tensions are being kept under | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
control apparently by both political and religious leadership, | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
which are calling strongly for people to remain calm and try to | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
avoid further tensions. For some of the problems surrounding dealing | :19:34. | :19:40. | |
with Syria have been based on how tensions could spread in the region. | :19:40. | :19:46. | |
What do the weekend's events tell us? Well, it shows just how tense | :19:46. | :19:49. | |
and have divided it is in Lebanon. You basically have the strongest | :19:49. | :19:54. | |
power in the land, Hezbollah, and its allies, basically supporting | :19:54. | :20:00. | |
the Syrian regime, and the Sunnis are siding with the uprising, which | :20:00. | :20:04. | |
is largely Sunni based and being accused by the Syrians and others | :20:04. | :20:09. | |
of being -- smuggling arms across the border to the rebels. A real | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
tinderbox situation, but because everybody is so aware of how the | :20:13. | :20:20. | |
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 | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
party leader has called for discipline and restraint, self- | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
control, and there's an investigation going on very | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
actively into how those two Sunni clerics were killed by the Lebanese | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
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, | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
is Ioannina, a growing town but also one of the poorest areas in | :21:05. | :21:07. | |
Greece. Tim Willcox has been gauging the mood there. | :21:07. | :21:09. | |
Throughout this entire Greek crisis, we've seen mass demonstrations in | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
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. |