:00:09. > :00:17.A massacre in Syria leaves up to 200 people dead, the UN says it's
:00:17. > :00:22.trying to get observers into the village.
:00:22. > :00:26.We will seek verification of facts. If and when there is a credible
:00:26. > :00:30.ceasefire. A train hits a truck carrying farm
:00:30. > :00:33.workers in South Africa, killing at least 19.
:00:33. > :00:37.Political tensions ease in Thailand as a court rules the Government is
:00:37. > :00:42.not threatening the monarchy. Welcome to BBC World News. I'm
:00:42. > :00:45.David Eades. Also in this programme:
:00:45. > :00:49.What implications for the global economy as China reports its
:00:49. > :00:51.slowest growth in more than three years?
:00:51. > :01:01.And more expected about the disastrous trading strategy at JP
:01:01. > :01:11.
:01:11. > :01:17.Morgan Chase that cost the bank at Thank you very much for being with
:01:17. > :01:21.The head of the UN mission in Syria says his team trying to reach the
:01:21. > :01:26.site of what could be one of the worst massacres the country has
:01:26. > :01:36.seen begins the uprising began in March last year. 200 people may
:01:36. > :01:39.
:01:39. > :01:45.have been killed. It is in the farming village of Tremseh. Kofi
:01:45. > :01:54.Annan says he is shocked by the killings. Opposition activists
:01:54. > :01:59.claim that militiamen conducted the massacre after after Tremseh was
:01:59. > :02:05.bombarded. The head of the UN observers mission held a news
:02:05. > :02:11.conference to speak about the massacre.
:02:11. > :02:15.The observers still based in the different provinces have the view
:02:15. > :02:25.of surrounding areas and are engaging with the parties on the
:02:25. > :02:28.
:02:28. > :02:38.ground. We can verify continuous fighting
:02:38. > :02:39.
:02:39. > :02:49.yesterday. In the area of Tremseh. This
:02:49. > :02:50.
:02:50. > :02:56.involved indirect fire as well as helicopters.
:02:56. > :03:06.We stand ready to go in and seek verification of facts if and when
:03:06. > :03:09.
:03:09. > :03:13.when there is a credible ceasefire. A representative has been speaking
:03:14. > :03:23.to eyewitnesses. Over 160 citizens, up to 200
:03:24. > :03:25.
:03:25. > :03:34.citizens were killed yesterday in the town, Tremseh. What we have
:03:34. > :03:43.been informed yesterday early in the morning, Syrian regular army
:03:43. > :03:48.started shelling the area. There was after that clashes between
:03:48. > :03:58.armed groups and the Syrian regular army. In the middle of the day,
:03:58. > :04:02.
:04:02. > :04:12.they stormed the city and started killing the people with guns and
:04:12. > :04:13.
:04:13. > :04:19.some of them have been slaughtered. They have been seen also, 30 bodies,
:04:20. > :04:27.totally, completely burned in the city. Also some of them have been
:04:27. > :04:31.killed with knives and there is too many bodies.
:04:32. > :04:37.It is clear there are still confusion as to who has done the
:04:37. > :04:42.killing here and Jim Muir our correspondent, said in terms of
:04:42. > :04:48.pictures, we have just seen a handful of the bodies of young men.
:04:48. > :04:53.Is there anymore that convinces you or gives awe clear picture as as to
:04:53. > :05:03.who has done what? It is very clear for us that this
:05:03. > :05:03.
:05:03. > :05:07.massacre has been made by the militia and the regular army and
:05:07. > :05:10.intelligence people. And what makes it that clear? You
:05:10. > :05:16.said there were clashes between the two sides.
:05:16. > :05:26.There is also - there was clashes and also between the people who
:05:26. > :05:28.
:05:28. > :05:34.have been killed, members of the Syrian army defending the city and
:05:34. > :05:41.trying to protect their civilians in the city. The most people who
:05:41. > :05:51.have been killed are civilians from the city and there is also members
:05:51. > :05:52.
:05:52. > :05:55.of the armed groups. They were protecting the people of the city.
:05:55. > :06:05.To South Africa now where officials say 19 people have been killed
:06:05. > :06:08.after a train hit a truck carrying farm workers at a railway crossing.
:06:08. > :06:13.The crash took place in the eastern province of Mpumalanga. Details are
:06:13. > :06:15.still coming in. One report says at least 24 other people were injured.
:06:15. > :06:18.Earlier, I spoke to our correspondent in Johannesburg,
:06:18. > :06:22.Milton Nkosi, who gave me the latest. It is not clear what
:06:22. > :06:28.happened and what caused the this accident, but local reports seem to
:06:28. > :06:32.suggest that a truck full of farm workers may have gone on a railway
:06:32. > :06:38.level crossing without checking properly. That's when a goods train
:06:38. > :06:40.hit the truck and that's where you have at least 19 dead. That's what
:06:40. > :06:45.the paramedics on the ground are saying.
:06:45. > :06:51.Right, obviously, we wait for more details to come in. Presumably
:06:51. > :06:56.these level crossings are many in number and unmanned?
:06:56. > :07:02.Very much so. South Africa has a wide and probably the best road
:07:02. > :07:06.road network on the African Continent, but on an annual basis
:07:06. > :07:09.over 10,000 fatalities from road accidents alone so there is
:07:09. > :07:13.certainly a problem with the driving and probably the road
:07:13. > :07:19.markings, but in this case, given that we don't know the exact
:07:19. > :07:24.details, it appears that the truck driver may not have looked properly
:07:24. > :07:31.before crossing the railway line. Good news for the governing party
:07:31. > :07:33.of Thailand. I has been told that its plans to change the
:07:33. > :07:35.constitution do not threaten the monarchy and the party itself does
:07:35. > :07:38.not have to disband. The Constitutional Court dismissed
:07:38. > :07:46.petitions against the proposed changes but it did say there would
:07:46. > :07:54.have to be a referendum on the changes it is putting forward.
:07:54. > :07:59.Jonah Fisher is outside the court in Bangkok.
:07:59. > :08:03.Many people are breathing a sigh of relief, the decision taken has
:08:03. > :08:07.averted a political crisis and potentially serious disturbances on
:08:07. > :08:12.the streets here. People were out in force in anticipation of the
:08:12. > :08:16.court verdict. Many of them seem to have now dispersed. The key
:08:16. > :08:21.question which the court had to address was whether plans to
:08:21. > :08:26.redraft the constitution amounted to a threat to the Thai monarchy
:08:26. > :08:29.and the position of the Thai king within the Thai political system
:08:29. > :08:34.and the eight judges ruled that they had seen no evidence that
:08:34. > :08:39.there was a threat to the Thai king and the Thai monarchy as part of
:08:39. > :08:46.the constitutional changes. It wasn't all in favour of the
:08:46. > :08:52.governing party. The court ruled they couldn't draft a new
:08:52. > :08:55.constitution through Parliament. The court ruled there had to be a
:08:55. > :08:59.referendum first. Then things could move forward and they could begin
:08:59. > :09:08.drafting it. If they want to amend the previous one, that's an option
:09:08. > :09:15.open to them on a piecemeal basis. The constitution court has reigned
:09:15. > :09:18.them in on other matters. But to what extent were they
:09:18. > :09:25.looking to effect the -- affect the role of the monarchy in its
:09:25. > :09:30.proposals? Well, the thing which many people
:09:30. > :09:34.found ludicrous about this whole thing, they made it clear from the
:09:34. > :09:39.start that they had no plans to change the role of the monarchy in
:09:39. > :09:43.the Thai political political system. This was something which was
:09:43. > :09:48.suggested by their opponents in Parliament. This was the reason
:09:48. > :09:51.behind them proposing change to the constitution. They made it clear at
:09:51. > :09:57.the hearings that they had no interest in changing the position
:09:57. > :10:00.of the Thai monarchy within the political system here and it
:10:00. > :10:04.appears that the constitutional court took them at their word and
:10:04. > :10:10.that's why they ruled in their favour and ruled they would not
:10:10. > :10:13.have to disband and their senior members would not face the
:10:13. > :10:18.punishment which opponents would like.
:10:18. > :10:23.The Olympics are two weeks away. London 2012 starts in a fortnight.
:10:23. > :10:29.The Olympic torch is getting closer. Here is one very lucky and happy
:10:29. > :10:36.young man who is parading the torch on that long relay into London. He
:10:36. > :10:45.is in the county of Dorset in the West Country at the moment. He is
:10:45. > :10:50.heading towards the town of Swanage. He is beginning his, what is a 300
:10:50. > :10:53.meter, trot taking in the crowds there in South-west England as the
:10:54. > :10:58.torch wends its way. I would say slowly, it is slowly while they are
:10:58. > :11:03.running with it, but the torch does disappear into the bus from time to
:11:03. > :11:11.time as they nip from village to village and town to town. Two weeks
:11:11. > :11:18.to go and London 2012 will be upon We will have more about the
:11:18. > :11:27.Olympics later in this bulletin. Let's Catch up on the business news.
:11:27. > :11:31.A lot of focus on news coming from China.
:11:31. > :11:38.He used to say that about America, when it sneezes we catch a cold.
:11:38. > :11:48.But when China sneezes, we catch a cold!
:11:48. > :11:49.
:11:50. > :11:52.Figures showed the pace of economic growth slowed down to 7.6%.
:11:53. > :11:55.In the previous quarter, growth was running at 8.1%. The Government has
:11:55. > :11:58.been trying to revive the economy by lowering interest rates and
:11:58. > :12:03.lifting spending. Economists says China is now making all the right
:12:03. > :12:08.moves to turn things round. Government Was slow on the uptake
:12:08. > :12:11.to the fact, but over the last couple of weeks, we have seen a
:12:11. > :12:14.Government more aware of the need to stimulate the economy. They
:12:14. > :12:19.dropped interest rates twice in the space of a month and we are seeing
:12:19. > :12:23.more and more projects being approved through the State Planning
:12:23. > :12:27.Agency and fiscal spending improvement and that should
:12:27. > :12:32.underwrite the improvement that we are expecting to see towards the
:12:32. > :12:35.end of the year. That was Alistair Thornton.
:12:35. > :12:38.Italian three-year borrowing costs have fallen below 5% on Friday at a
:12:38. > :12:48.bond auction, a decent result considering the rating agency
:12:48. > :12:48.
:12:48. > :12:51.Moody's downgraded its credit rating by two notches yesterday.
:12:51. > :12:54.Laurence Boone is European Economist at Bank of America
:12:54. > :12:57.Merrill Lynch. She says Italy is in a better financial position then
:12:57. > :13:00.some of the other debt striken countries in Europe. When you look
:13:00. > :13:04.at Italy's economy, it is different from Spain. They haven't done a lot
:13:04. > :13:12.of reforms. They don't have the same banking issues as Spain has,
:13:12. > :13:22.but they have an issue in terms of credibility and politics and the
:13:22. > :13:26.
:13:26. > :13:30.protection, the guardian is the Prime Minister and this weakness,
:13:30. > :13:33.this sensability is putting pressure on the bond market.
:13:33. > :13:40.Exactly how many billions of dollars did JP Morgan lose when
:13:40. > :13:43.trades went bad earlier this year? �2 billion or or $9 billion?
:13:43. > :13:47.Investors will be hoping for an answer to that question when the
:13:47. > :13:49.bank releases results for the three months to the end of June. The
:13:49. > :13:52.losses, which the bank initially estimated at $2 billion, have
:13:52. > :14:02.triggered a federal investigation. From New York, Michelle Fleury has
:14:02. > :14:02.
:14:02. > :14:09.Jamie diamond, the chief executive, is getting used to being in the hot
:14:09. > :14:13.seat. Are you too big to fail? we believe that a bank should be
:14:13. > :14:18.possible to go bankrupt. This Friday, the bank's shareholders
:14:18. > :14:21.will be asking the questions, keen to know just how much America's
:14:21. > :14:26.biggest bank lost on bad derivatives trades. Whatever the
:14:26. > :14:33.figure, the damage has been done. The size of the loss is not the
:14:34. > :14:38.issue. It issued is, why did they miss the last in the first place?
:14:38. > :14:46.And it raises the bigger question of, are these banks too big to
:14:46. > :14:50.manage, regulate and control, but also, too big to understand? There
:14:50. > :14:54.is one key difference in this particular case. JP Morgan is going
:14:54. > :14:59.after the pay of the group where the losses occurred, starting with
:14:59. > :15:04.the former head of the CEO Investment Office, who worked here.
:15:04. > :15:09.This makes it the first major banks since the financial crisis to
:15:09. > :15:13.penalise its staff in this way. claw backs are clearly more
:15:13. > :15:17.symbolic, designed to send a message to the market, which has
:15:17. > :15:22.been troubled by the fact that a few individuals can cause such a
:15:22. > :15:26.precipitous market collapsed in the value of JP Morgan. So, I think
:15:26. > :15:32.this is saying to the market, we will penalise people who do bad
:15:32. > :15:39.things. This Friday the 13th, JP Morgan's horror show is unlikely to
:15:39. > :15:45.end, with regulators investigating other potential wrong steps by the
:15:45. > :15:49.bank. Two of Hong Kong's richest businessmen have been charged with
:15:49. > :15:54.breaking anti-bribery laws. Thomas and Raymond Kwok are among five
:15:54. > :15:58.people charged. Prosecutors say they bribed officials to gain
:15:59. > :16:05.information about land sales. Our correspondent Juliana Liu explained
:16:05. > :16:12.why the case was so high profile. These two brothers represent Asia's
:16:12. > :16:19.most valuable property firm, the second biggest in the world, just
:16:19. > :16:22.behind a US shopping mall operator. So, these two men, they are really
:16:22. > :16:26.at the top of the political and business elite in Hong Kong. A lot
:16:26. > :16:30.of people here are still shocked that these two men would be brought
:16:30. > :16:35.to account to face a judge, because this is something which would have
:16:35. > :16:42.been unthinkable just a few years ago. This is a massive company, its
:16:42. > :16:49.shares have fallen by about 14% since this case came to light.
:16:49. > :16:53.Cocoa prices fell by 5% in New York trading. It follows figures which
:16:53. > :16:59.showed that demand in Europe have fallen by 18% in the last quarter,
:16:59. > :17:07.the sharpest decline in more than 12 years. Let's have a look at the
:17:07. > :17:12.markets. The markets are up. The FTSE is looking pretty strong. The
:17:12. > :17:20.screen has gone blank. Anyway, the Asian markets are up a little as
:17:20. > :17:25.well. It happens, from time to time!
:17:25. > :17:30.Thanks for being with us. Still to come, we're going to be following
:17:30. > :17:35.this little lot. They call them the "Panda Pawns", and they are pretty
:17:36. > :17:39.good at chess. We will find out more. Also, hidden under bridges -
:17:39. > :17:47.what is to be done to tackle the problems of homelessness in the
:17:47. > :17:51.Olympic host city? When it comes to the world of
:17:51. > :17:55.marketing, Facebook "likes" are seen as pretty big business.
:17:55. > :17:59.Companies spend significant amounts on adverts to persuade social
:17:59. > :18:07.network users to click the "like" button on their pages. Is it worth
:18:07. > :18:12.it? From global celebrities to major companies, everyone wants to
:18:12. > :18:15.be liked on Facebook. Many businesses, big and small, are
:18:15. > :18:21.buying adverts to make that happen. But are they getting what they pay
:18:21. > :18:25.for? This man thinks not. He bought Facebook adverts for small
:18:25. > :18:28.businesses who wanted people to come to their pages, and it worked.
:18:28. > :18:34.But when his clients look at who exactly liked them, they were not
:18:34. > :18:38.happy. The individuals that were liking our pages, were not just
:18:38. > :18:44.like in 200 pages, we started to see that they were liking up to
:18:44. > :18:47.5,000 pages. We had 13-year-olds who were managers of global
:18:47. > :18:54.multinational companies, who said that they lived in the US, but in
:18:54. > :19:00.actual fact were placing "likes" from remote parts of Indonesia.
:19:00. > :19:03.set up my own, imaginary business, and bought an advert which was
:19:03. > :19:09.targeted at the US, the UK, and countries across the Middle East
:19:09. > :19:15.and Asia. Within days, 3,000 people like it, nearly all of them from
:19:15. > :19:20.various Asian countries. Among them, this one. My business was among
:19:20. > :19:24.3,000 or so that he liked. So, we found that in some parts of the
:19:24. > :19:29.world, people end up making pages like mine, albeit in a pretty
:19:29. > :19:33.random sort of way. In the short term it is good news for Facebook,
:19:33. > :19:36.which earns money from every click, but advertisers are beginning to
:19:36. > :19:41.ask some questions. Facebook did not want to be interviewed, but
:19:41. > :19:46.they told us that poorly targeted adverts like mine just did not work,
:19:46. > :19:49.and that fake profiles were not a significant programme. Some
:19:49. > :19:54.marketing firms say Facebook can deliver results, if it is used in
:19:54. > :19:58.the right way. We are all still experimenting. I have no doubt that
:19:58. > :20:02.some people will have horror stories. But in our experience, a
:20:02. > :20:06.lot of clients are seeing a lot of commercial benefit from Facebook as
:20:06. > :20:11.well. Investors have always worried about the future growth of Facebook.
:20:11. > :20:21.If people decide they do not like the advertising on which the future
:20:21. > :20:26.
:20:26. > :20:31.of the social network depends, that Our main headlines... The UN is
:20:31. > :20:36.trying to get observers to the village in central Syria where
:20:36. > :20:40.activist say more than 200 people have been killed. A train has had a
:20:40. > :20:46.truck carrying farm workers in South Africa - at least 19 people
:20:46. > :20:48.have been killed. Tributes have been paid to the nine
:20:48. > :20:57.climbers killed when they were engulfed by an avalanche in the
:20:57. > :21:01.French Alps. It all took place near Chamonix in the Mont Blanc region.
:21:01. > :21:04.A press conference has been taking place with the mayor of the town,
:21:04. > :21:10.the British ambassador to France and the head of police, who
:21:10. > :21:13.confirmed that 14 people are still injured, one seriously. The police
:21:13. > :21:17.commander, Jean-Baptiste Estachy, said they were alerted initially by
:21:17. > :21:21.an injured climber, and that they had arrived at the scene to find
:21:21. > :21:26.three people dead already. He said the investigation was ongoing.
:21:26. > :21:36.TRANSLATION: The avalanche was caused by heavy snow, which was
:21:36. > :21:36.
:21:36. > :21:44.made worse by a strong winds. This is the risk of a mountain which has
:21:44. > :21:51.been covered by snow. The risk is known. We knew that the climbers
:21:51. > :21:58.tried to traverse the mountain initially, and it is difficult to
:21:58. > :22:06.foresee such an avalanche. The guides know the danger, they know
:22:06. > :22:16.the route. And they know the risks of avalanche, especially during
:22:16. > :22:16.
:22:16. > :22:19.July and August. Time now to introduce you to Public School 124
:22:19. > :22:24.in Chinatown in New York. The pupils there are getting quite a
:22:24. > :22:27.reputation for their ability at chess. They are between six and 11
:22:27. > :22:31.years old, yet they have been winning against much older players.
:22:31. > :22:37.Franz Strasser has been following the group, known as the "Panda
:22:37. > :22:46.Pawns", to the US National Championships in Tennessee. We are
:22:46. > :22:50.located in the heart of Chinatown. We have very strong, competitive
:22:51. > :22:57.students, who are backed by strong, competitive parents, who really
:22:57. > :23:01.believe that chess is good for them. And they try to get them started
:23:01. > :23:11.early, in second grade, third grade, getting them into after-school
:23:11. > :23:12.
:23:12. > :23:16.programmes, and also on Saturday, when you get competitions. If you
:23:16. > :23:26.walk through the hallways, you will see that all the trophies are not
:23:26. > :23:57.
:23:57. > :24:00.sports related, but they are all I started this 30 years ago, and to
:24:00. > :24:07.have a thousand rating for a kid was remarkable, it was unheard of,
:24:07. > :24:17.they were the stars. In real life, it helps you, so you can think
:24:17. > :24:21.
:24:21. > :24:25.As you well know, the Olympic Games are about to start, and a group of
:24:25. > :24:28.homeless charities has now had to admit that its target to end rough
:24:28. > :24:32.sleeping in the British capital by the time the Olympics start, two
:24:32. > :24:37.weeks from today, simply cannot be met. With the recession in
:24:37. > :24:40.particular, the number of homeless people is on the rise, also with
:24:40. > :24:45.more and more Eastern Europeans finding themselves out of work and
:24:45. > :24:50.on the streets. But new efforts are under way to deal with the problem.
:24:50. > :24:56.Under one of London's more iconic bridges, there is a persistent
:24:56. > :25:01.problem. Tucked up in sleeping bags are five homeless men, most of them
:25:01. > :25:11.from Eastern Europe. They include this man, who did not want his face
:25:11. > :25:13.
:25:13. > :25:17.to be shown. I lost my job. I am waiting for and appointment with
:25:17. > :25:20.Housing Options. On this morning, it is down to this outreach worker
:25:20. > :25:24.and her partner to establish what can be done to help them.
:25:24. > :25:28.majority of people we have met here this morning are from Eastern
:25:28. > :25:31.European countries. Mostly they know that what we're going to be
:25:31. > :25:35.able to offer them is just a reconnection to their home area.
:25:35. > :25:39.There is a reticence about going back, they are here with an
:25:39. > :25:46.intention of working, and their insistence on trying to find work,
:25:46. > :25:50.but we know it is difficult. London is no longer a cardboard city. The
:25:50. > :25:56.proportion of new rough sleepers proportion of new rough sleepers
:25:56. > :26:03.being helped off the streets has risen in recent years. But so, too,
:26:03. > :26:08.has the total number of rough sleepers. When London earned bid to
:26:08. > :26:11.host the Olympics this year, it provided an incentive to end rough
:26:11. > :26:15.sleeping once and for all. But now, with the numbers of new rough
:26:15. > :26:17.sleepers rising, and the Games just weeks away, many organisations are
:26:17. > :26:22.weeks away, many organisations are having to ask whether the target
:26:22. > :26:27.can be met at all. I fear that the Olympics could lead
:26:27. > :26:31.to an increase in terms of numbers on the street, and certainly people
:26:31. > :26:33.coming onto the street in order to beg, that kind of thing, there will
:26:34. > :26:37.be a big additional population coming through the city, so it
:26:37. > :26:44.could take a while to reduce numbers after the Olympics.