17/07/2012 BBC World News

One of the world's biggest banks, HSBC, in the spotlight for allowing

money laundering. We look at France's role in a future

Afghanistan, as a local soldier is sentenced to death for killing five

French troops. American regulators approve the

first drug shown to help reduce the risk of HIV infection.

Welcome to BBC World News. Also in this programme.

A warm welcome far above the Earth, as the Soyuz spacecraft docks at

the International Space Station. Getting in the mood for the Games,

thousands gather to see the Olympic torch on its tour of south-east

England. One of the world's biggest banks,

HSBC, has been accused of allowing Mexican drugs money to be laundered.

A probe by the US Senate says huge sums of the cash almost certainly

passed through the bank, as well as suspicious funds from Syria, the

Cayman Islands, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The bank's senior

executives are due to appear before a US Senate committee later today.

HSBC says it expects to be held accountable for what went wrong.

The BBC's Juliana Liu has been speaking to the bank in Hong Kong.

She told us more about the Senate report.

For the report which was actually released surprisingly ahead of an

Actual hearing that will take place in Washington on Tuesday morning,

accuses the Bank of allowing illegal funds, but Rangers from

drugs money from Mexican cartels, two possible terrorist financing,

in countries like Saudi Arabia and Syria, to go through HSBC's

financial networks around the world. HSBC has put a day statement saying

they will formally apologise at the hearing on Tuesday. That is when

the senior executives will be testifying before US lawmakers.

is it clear whether this is likely to be confined to HSBC?

Is it possible other banks could be involved? What do the banks do to

check the sources of these transactions?

At the moment, it appears HSBC is the only bank being investigated.

The sub committee investigated for one year, going through one million

documents, speaking to people including US officials, officials

at HSBC. It appears the investigation is just targeting

that one company. This is one of the biggest banks in the world,

founded more than 100 years ago in Hong Kong and Shanghai. A global

bank these days. What her understand it is the HSBC Private

Bank which deals directly with private clients has strict controls

over money. If a private banker suspects his client has given him a

suitcase of money, there are strict controls on whether he can accept

that money, in fact he cannot. It appears this investigation is not

specific to that part of the bank but the bank as a whole. A Time for

the business news. Shares in HSBC are higher in Hong

Kong, but why? I am slightly surprised. As the news has come up,

we have seen very little movement in the share price. And some people

speculating there could be fines of millions or billions of dollars.

They admit they have got it wrong and a pudding in processes to

correct it. It looks incredibly naive, their mistakes, classing

Mexico as a low-risk company -- country. It seems we are in a

moment were, another day, another bank is in trouble. Here, we have

Barclays Bank, over the LIBOR fixing scandal. This is another

blow to the global banking industry. It is. Three years ago, with the

failure of Lehman Brothers, in financial terms that was much

bigger. But three years down the line, these are the scandals doing

so much damage to the reputations they tried to build back over the

last few years. Clearly, public opinion is still against bankers.

Investors are shying away again. As HSBC has been blamed for laundering

controls being lax. What of the controls in place for moving money

around? All kinds of controls to make sure

people don't put of numbers into their accounts or move money in

Otway's. As long as there is consistency and ordinary

transactions. But they didn't have the systems in place. HSBC

processes one trillion US dollars every day. 110 million customers.

200,000 employees. The chances of this happening to her bank this

size are fairly high. The US Senate report concludes the

US back regulator failed to properly monitor HSBC. Hook is

overall responsible for this? The bank or the regulator? Everyone is

partially guilty. All parties involved are not want this to

happen. There is no way white HSBC would allow this to happen if they

knew. Neither would the regulator. We will find solutions. This should

never have happened in the first place. We have seen it stories over

banking issues and the big boss usually ends up going. The man who

was in charge of this bank for the past decade, no longer, is Lord

Stephen Green, now a member of Parliament. A man who is very vocal

on banking ethics, quoted as saying, bankers need a moral compass. This

has got to be embarrassing to him. If he knew this was going on, he

would have stopped this immediately. He has been the moral foundation of

the financial services industry for 20 years. His -- he is probably the

most distraught over this situation. Your response, this adds further

problems for the banking industry. Another blow to its reputation?

is, and we will see more of this because the banking structures in

bouts are not good enough. They need to know what is going on in

every part of the banks. That is what has to change.

Thank you for joining us. Internet giant, Yahoo, reports

earnings later today. The numbers are likely to be overshadowed by

the news that Marissa Mayer, one of the top executives at Google, will

be the next chief executive of Yahoo. She's also announced on

twitter that's she's pregnant, due in October. Michelle Fleury reports

from New York. She was the 20th employee for

Google, its first female engineer, credited with the look and feel of

some of its most popular products. Now she can add aTo her CV, chief

executive. In a statement, she But she faces an uphill battle re-

establishing it as an internet leader. It has struggled to turn

his huge presence on the internet into revenue. One area it is behind

in his mobile internet. A glaring hole his mobile. Can they be

successful? A lot of money can be wasted in chasing bad products. She

is a product person, they will develop new products, to re- engage

customers. But it is going to be in my view a risky proposition.

Filling the top spot has been a headache for the company, it has

been through four chief executives in four years. Now the 5th is

taking over. For the company, this is a huge queue, it has struggled

to attract and retain top talent. For the new chief executive, the

job may be challenging but she joined a small group at the top

table in silicon Valley. Just clarify if she has five

children! US stocks are high, on the basis of

comments in China, and we will be hearing from the Federal Reserve

head. An Afghan soldier has been

sentenced to death for killing five French troops in January. It was

one of the worst in a wave of attacks earlier this year which

also injured several soldiers. It prompted President Sarkozy, then in

the height of an election campaign, to announce that French forces

would leave the country a year earlier than had been planned.

BBC's Bilal Sarwary has been following the case against he

afghan soldier in Kabul. Doctors found out that he did not

have any mental illness or history of mental problems. That would

contradict the others the BBC found out that he had been hospitalised,

he had threatened to burn down his house, fighting with his father.

What officials are refusing to comment on it this stage is whether

he had any links all ties with several of the insurgent groups. He

had gone to Pakistan, where he was missing, presumably being trained

in one of the training camps. But the Afghan Minister of Defence is

now saying he will have the right to appeal against this decision. We

understand at this stage his family has not been informed. The whole

question of trust within these security operations is key. We have

seen a number of these sorts of incidences, has anything been

learned from this particular case? If you speak to Afghan intelligence

officials under the Ministry of Defence, they will say they have

made huge improvements, arrests, better mechanisms to look out for

these soldiers, Taliban infiltrators. But they admit they

expect this problem to exist, because it is quite difficult for

them to keep an eye on all of these soldiers who go back to their homes.

Motor them live in areas where the Afghan government is either a weak

or does not exist -- most of them. They do admit the Taliban in some

areas have been successful in hiring Afghan National Army

soldiers and police soldiers, as infiltrators. But, in other cases,

Taliban fighters have also managed to get into the police and army, as

their fighters, and have carried out attacks. A large fire has

broken out in a skyscraper in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Hundreds

of people evacuated the building but no one was hurt. The 42-storey

tower block is a mix of apartments and offices. The authorities say an

initial inspection suggests it was caused by a problem with the air

conditioners. You are watching BBC World news.

The head of the security form -- security firm G4S faces a grilling

over his failure to provide enough staff.

And 30 Aston ups -- three more astronauts arrive at the

The campaign group says its worried in Newport will disturb their

sensitive breeding grounds. The Australian authorities insist that

risks to wildlife will be kept to a minimum. A former Moscow policeman

has been charged with involvement in the killing of the Russian

journalist almost six years ago. Investigators accused the man

offering her be days before she was shot dead in the hall of her

apartment building. At the time she was investigating human rights

abuses. An Egyptian court ruling expected today could dissolve the

task of rewriting the country's new constitution. The same court will

also hear a separate legal case demanding the dissolution of the

upper house of parliament. The decision is crucial for the future

of Egypt. This is part of the ongoing struggle for power. In

Mohamed Morsi and the military. The New Court ruling, we are not

totally sure if it happens today but that seems most likely, and it

seems most likely the verdict will be to dissolve the constitutional

assembly. Mohamed Morsi has been trying to pre-empt that. He

reformed the committee, changed the membership the other day to resolve

some of the objections. He's also issued a new decree himself about

the membership of the committee. He has also met with members of the

judiciary. In a way, to influence this debate. The feeling is he will

lose this legal battle and then, according to the letter of the law,

it seems the military may get some say in who writes this constitution.

That is pretty important to them because their critics would say

they want a constitution that is more friendly to their interests

and helps protect their powers and their substantial privileges within

President Obama and the First Lady have shared a very public kiss at a

USA Basketball exhibition game against Brazil in Washington. They

declined during the first half, when picked up by the Verizon

Center's so-called "Kiss Cam", the in-house video which flashes the

image of couples on a giant screen. But when the camera swung back

their way later in the game, goaded by his daughter Malia, Mr Obama put

his arm around his wife and they obliged, to the delight of the

A US probe discloses how lax controls that Europe's largest bank,

HSBC, left it vulnerable to being used to launder dirty money. An

Afghan soldier who killed five French soldiers in January has been

sentenced to death. Diplomatic efforts to try and end the

suffering in Syria are continuing today. The UN special envoy, Kofi

Annan, meets Rochette roz macro President Shawky. With Russia

signalling to veto any new UN Security Council resolution.

Fighting has broken out in Baghdad street, one of the main streets in

the centre of the capital. Violence began in the south on Saturday,

when at least 10 people were believed to have lost their lives.

Joining me from Damascus is a Dutch journalist. Can you tell us what

you know about the latest reports today of fighting in the centre of

the city? It is very difficult today. We can see from where we are

in downtown Damascus, the smoke rising up from the suburbs where a

lot of fighting has been going on for a couple of days. We can hear

explosions. That is something definitely knew today. They are

being deployed. There is heavy fighting in certain areas. But more

towards the outskirts and surrounding villages, where we see

a lot of smoke rising today. As we speak, I can hear another

helicopter flying over. Do you know, in this area of Baghdad street, can

you describe that area to us and how many people are likely to be

A lot of people... For example, you need a government minder as you go

People are leaving... Sorry to cut you off, that line is quite

difficult to follow. Health regulators in the US have approved

the first drug shown to help reduce the risk of HIV infection. Truvada

or is intended to be used by those at high risk, for example anyone

having sex with HIV positive partners. Studies suggest of the

drug can reduce the risk of contracting HIV by up to 75 %. Our

health correspondent told me earlier that the drug is aimed at

stopping the transmission of the virus itself. It helps reduce the

amount of something called a viral load. We already know that treating

people who've got HIV, it can reduce the amount of infection

travelling around in their body but it does it in different ways. Some

of them strip out the HIV infection. That, by giving it to the person

that hasn't got the infection already, seems to make it harder

for the infection to get a hold. there any risk attached to taking

this drug itself? There are side- effects. This drug in particular is

quite difficult to take. In the trials, a lot of the men who were

trying to take this drug didn't take it consistently. If you don't

take it consistently because of side-effects or you don't like

taking it, then the efficacy comes down to about 40 %. This is not

something that would be intended to roll-out widely across the

population, it's got to be quite so Pacific. Experts are clear that it

is still important to treat people with HIV. That is the real way to

prevent this disease spreading. Because if you give and the

retroviral drugs, the other types of drugs that are widely available,

you can reduce the risk of transmission right down to about 3%.

British Members of Parliament are due to question the chief-executive

of a private security firm, G4S, shortly, about its failure to

provide thousands of security staff that it promised for the Olympics.

The government has called up more than 3500 soldiers to cover the

shortfall. Joining me from central London is male me grimly. We've

heard already today about another incident in Surrey, where staff

were supposed to turn up and they simply didn't. This problem could

potentially grow, couldn't it? That's right, this story doesn't

seem to be going the way for G4S. Yesterday, the police in Manchester

have did to -- had to be drafted in after G4S failed to provide enough

security guards to guard a hotel where the Olympic athletes are

going to be staying. As you mention, his second sight seems to be having

problems in Surrey, where a big cycling event will be taking place

once the Olympics start. MPs will want to know why these problems did

not come to the surface earlier. Why were the politicians are only

really alerted two weeks out from the opening ceremony? Boris Johnson,

the mayor, saying London is doing pretty well and that things are

largely on track, the army and the police trying to cover for any

shortfalls. The opposition are saying the government should have

been monitoring much more closely what security arrangements were,

they just went across the detail. That's right. There's a bit of the

blame game coming on as to who was supposed to be monitoring the

contract between G4S and the Olympic organisers. Opposition

politicians believe that the Home Office should have been much more

across the detail of the shortfall and the scale of the shortfall

before we got to this position, where they were literally having to

send the troops in. The politicians, though, the minister themselves,

are saying it is important not to try and have too much of a witch

And now. They just want to get things on track as much as they can

in the next two days. Once the Games start, all these worries

about securities they hope will melt away. Is anyone fearful that

the security is compromised or is there still a lot of confidence for

people about that? They are adamant that the security isn't compromised.

And because they did have these troops on standby, they will get

quite a high level of security on the venues. It is things like

checking handbags that these groups will now be doing. These troops

have been in Afghanistan, so something like that isn't going to

pose too much of a problem for them. We are following the journey of the

Olympic torch. It is on the English south coast. It has been in

Brighton. Thousands gathered to watch the torch and send its on its

way through a tour of the surroundings. The Olympic torch

left Brighton this morning and, like everywhere else in Britain,

thousands of people turned up to catch a glimpse and cheer on their

local heroes. With me are some of those torch bearers.

Congratulations to you all. What do you call a gaggle of torch bearers?

A beacon? How was it this morning? Amazing, I can't tell you how I

feel. I just felt the love of the crowd, family and friends. Likewise.

I did the run yesterday Ian Hope Park and I've never seen so many

people in all my life. My family and friends were there, I still

can't believe it and don't want it to finish. Were you surprised how

many people showed up? I was, even though I'd been watching the amount

of people on the torch, any weight. It was astounding. It's been a real

celebration of community as well. It has. Where I come from in Greece,

there are people watching the BBC World News all the time to see

what's going on here. Why were you nominated? But things that I've

done around the community. Party because some of the things are in

the course of my work which, to me, it's a job and that's what I do.

More to the point, this represented people in our community to give far

more than I do and allow our community to function as it does.

Is that how you will feel? Definitely. I'm representing

Faversham. Hello, everybody! I've run today for Daniel and Adam. Love

to their family. And also for my family and all of my friends. It's

amazing. The people in Brighton - you are amazing! Are we looking