31/08/2012 BBC World News

The oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, loses his multibillion dollar court

case against fellow Russian tycoon, Roman Ambramovich. Herman Van

Rompuy formally accepts the Republican Party's presidential

nomination and promises a new start for America.

It takes a special Government commission to tell us what nerk

needs. America needs jobs, lots of jobs -- America.

Yahoo hands over incriminating evidence. Welcome to BBC World News.

I'm Chris Rodgers. Also in the programme, grounded planes and

confused passengers as cabin crew strike at the German airline

Exiled Russian oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, has lost his billion

dollar legal battle with owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman

Ambramovich. Mr Berezovsky was suing Mr Ambramovich for $5 billion,

claiming he was blackmailed and intimidated out of his rightful

share in a Russian energy company in the 1990s. In the London

courtroom, the judge dismissed Mr Berezovsky's claim saying she found

him to be unimpressive and inherently unreliable as a witness.

I'm joined in the studio by our World Affairs Correspondent, Nick

Childs. This is a world most of us cannot comprehend, the money, the

figures and the characters involved in this case?

Absolutely. I mean, billions of dollars at stake in all of this and,

although the issues around the details of the case itself were

clearly contentious, the whole case did, if you like, give insight into

the murkiness of the world in the aftermath of the collapse of the

Soviet Union and communism, the carve up of the state institutions

in Russian which read, to some extent, like an international crime

thrill we are a bit of James Bond thrown in as well.

There were political influences and manoeuvering behind-the-scenes and

deals on yachts and in international five star hotels,

even a mysterious death in a mysterious helicopter crash. One in

some ways didn't envy the judge for having to pick her way through all

of this. In spite of that, she has essentially said that because of

all that murkiness prance, the burden of proof was on Mr

Berezovsky to make his case -- murkiness perhaps. The verdict was

damning for Mr Berezovsky wasn't it? Yes, she said at the heart of

this case were four contentious oral agreements that allegedly took

place between Mr Berezovsky and Mr Ambramovich over two companies, an

oil company and an almoney yum company. She said in that respect,

Mr Berezovsky, as you suggested, was an unemprisive and inherently

unreliable witness, the bottom line, she suggested was that he would

have said almost anything to make his case and support his case --

unimpressive. On the other hand, she found Mr Ambramovich truthful

and on the whole thoughtful in his answers. How Mr Berezovsky will

reply to that, given the damning nature of the verdict, is very much

open to question I think. Moscow correspondent, Daniel

Sandford, has been looking at the careers of the two men who emerged

from communism to become billionaires. Boris Berezovsky,

once one to have most influential men in Russia, used to private jets

and palaces in the south of France. And Roman Ambramovich, one of the

elite billionaires, the so-called oligarchs who made a huge fortune

in Russia in the chaotic '90s of communism collapsed. In the last

years of the Soviet Union, Roman Ambramovich was officially a

mechanic working at construction office 122 of this street. He was

already a budding entrepreneur, his specially, plastic toys.

His first factory still stands to this day in Moscow, thousands of

miles from the glamour of Chelsea Football Club. Meanwhile, Boris

Berezovsky was a mathematics and computer expert at this research

institute. But he was about to become a second hand car salesman.

A man of unlimited ambition, Boris Berezovsky soon owns the biggest

car dealership in Russia and crucially, he had the ear of the

President, Boris Yeltsin. When Roman Ambramovich wanted to buy a

huge slice of the country's oil wealth at a knockdown price,

Berezovsky was just the man to help him out.

This is how the minister in charge of the privatisation remembers

Berezovsky's role. TRANSLATION: A man approached me

who said he could facilitate the privatisation of a bill oil company.

Why would I turn him down? I helped him and I believed I helped the

state. Berezovsky's reward was payments of

$50 million a year or more, and he said there was dividends.

Ambramovich said they were just payments for political services.

Under Vladimir Putin, Berezovsky lost influence and fled the country.

He felt Ambramovich's final pay off of over $1 billion was not enough,

so he turned to the British courts asking for more.

US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has made perhaps the most important

spaech of his career, a key note speech in Florida. He promised to

cut Government spending while creating more jobs.

Steve Kingston has more. Show time for a businessman turned politician

promising to turn this country around.

With millions watching Mitt Romney at home, he gave the speech of his

life. Many Americans have given up on this President, but they have

never thought about giving up. Not on themselves, not on each other

and not on America. What is needed in our country today is not

complicated or profound. It doesn't take a special Government

commission to tell us what America needs. What America needs is jobs,

lots of jobs. As ever, he looked the part. But this was really about

a challenge of finding his voice, articulating why he believes

America needs a change of direction. I wish President Obama succeeded

because I want America to succeed. But his promise gave way to

disappointment and division. Now there is a moment when we can stand

up and say, I'm an American, we deserve better, my family and

children deserves better, my country deserves better. At times

it got deeply personal, as this normally reserved man opened up

about faith and family. Every day, dad gave mum a rose

which he put on her bedside table. That's how she found out what

happened on the day my father died. She went looking for him because

that morning there was no rose. My mom and dad were true partners.

Then the closing arguments, that Barack Obama's bowed to America's

foes, added trillions to the debt, failed the middle class.

My promise is to help you and your family. That future is our destiny.

That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children

deserve it. Our nation depends on it. The peace and freedom of the

world require it and with your help, we will deliver it. Let us begin

that future for America tonight. rousing reception for a man who

remember took a long time to seal this nomination, Conservatives were

wary of Mitt Romney, but what we see is a party coming together here,

energised and believing it could win.

Jamie joins me now with the day's business news. The big story of the

day is the problems being caused by the Lufthansa cabin crew strike?

It's affecting a lot of people around the world trying to get on

to flights because more than 150 have been cancelled at Germany's

busiest airport, Frankfurt. It's following this strike by cabin crew.

The union is asking for a 5% pay rise after three years of no pay

rises at all. The company is offering 3.5%. Klaus Walther says

the company's offer is a fair one. We think we have a valid offer on

the bargaining table. We have offered 3.5%, as you announced. We

have offered a guarantee that there will be no firing during the next

tariff contract and that there also will be no foreign personnel

introduced into our cabin staff. So we know our flight attendants are

one of the best worldwide and they get better played as comparable

attendants in Europe elsewhere. We offered them an increase of their

payment after three years of zero, but we do not understand that they

go on strike and that the customers are affected by that.

Klaus Walther of Lufthansa. It's been a sluggish quarter for India's

economy. It grew at a a rate of 5.5% in the April to June quarter,

a little better than economists expected but well down on last

year's growth rate. It's not the double digit growth that policy-

makers say is needed to create sufficient jobs for the millions of

young workers who're entering the labour force on a daily basis.

BBC's Suzy Lamplugh is at our Mumbai bureau. What's gone wrong

with the Indian economy -- Yogita Limaye? The numbers are slightly

better than what most expected, but does that mean that manufacturing,

that's been one of the main problems for India's economy, is

turning a corner and getting back on the high growth path. If you

look at the figures released today, you can see that although there's a

marginal improvement, it still remains to be stalling. This sector

is facing problems like rising costs of import materials, higher

wages of labour and overall, there's a policy of uncertainty

from the Government side that's rendering the companies incapable

of planning to the long-term, of planning for the future. Even as we

look at the data released today, we need to be cautious. Recently, the

Government revised growth figures from two years ago, so there are

now even questions being raised about how reliable or accurately

these numbers reflect the state of India's economy.

What about lowering interest rates? Would that help growth or are we

stuck with the problem of inflation on the other side of the equation?

That's rite. There's been a lot of pressure on the Central Bank of

India to cut lending rates because many say this would stimulate

growth. Of course, the Central Bank has said it's not just cutting

interest rates or lending rates that will help, there need to be

policy changes. To give you an example of what's happened in India

is that the Government has been trying to bring in direct foreign

investment in retail and aviation, for example. As far as retail was

concerned, they brought in the policy and then had to backtrack.

So they've not been able to build a political consensus at the central

level and that's been one of the main impediments to the growth of

India's economy. Yogita, thank you very much.

Elsewhere in business, there was a sharp slide in activity at Japanese

factories in July. Industrial production fell 1.2% from June

there. Japanese firms are suffering from a global slowdown in demand

and the effects of a strong yen which makes it harder for them to

compete overseas. Unemployment in the euro remain at a record high

11.3%. Figures for July show rates did not budge from June. Official

figures from Italy showed that its rate was little changed from 10% in

July. Profits have jumped at Danish toy maker Lego. It made almost $340

million dollars. It's sold twice as many sets of Lego aimed at girls as

expected. Whatever next! Lego for girls. I can hardly believe it.

The thought of it, that's wrong! Let's turn attention to a

developing story in south irn Spain where huge wildfires have forced

thousands to flee their homes. Throughout the night, flames burnt

out of control across an area in the Costa del Sol region. Driven by

strong winds, the flames are said to be advancing rapidly. Hundreds

of firefighters and a dozen aircraft are battling the blaze

near the tourist resort Marbella. Let's get more on this now. Joining

me from Madrid is the BBC's Tom Burridge. Goes without saying that

the area affected is important to Spain's economy and important to

holiday-makers? It is. I think it's important to

say though that these fires, although they've affected a large

area and they are near an important tourist area, they haven't affected

that coastline, the Costa del Sol, which is so popular for many

tourists across Europe. It's inland from there, an area of around 1,000

hectares, that 5,000 people at least have been evacuated from

their homes, many of them ending up in local sports centres, other now

evacuation centres. As you say, the fire spread very quickly, starting

late last night. This morning, it's still not under control. The

Spanish authorities though will be hoping that the fact that the wind

has dropped, so the weather conditions are better for the

firefighters, they can begin to at least stabilise the forest fire.

It's been a bad summer for Spain and forest fires, hasn't it?

It has. People might have seen the forest fires in the canary Islands,

lots of people evacuated from there. It was one of the driest winters in

Spain in decades and that's why the fire season here in Spain's been

particularly bad. Huge forest fires are nothing new. They're quite

common up in the north-east in Catalonia and down in the south

because it's just so dry. Because it was a particularly dry winter,

the forest fire season, if you like, has been particularly bad and

firefighters in this case, in this very southern region near the city

of Malaga and Marbella still don't have this one under control.

well resourced and prepared are The country is used to fighting the

such -- type of fires. We have seen images on television of planes and

helicopters going in to fight the fires. They have all the equipment

necessary but because the conditions have been so dry and

because if you have the high wind with that, these fires can be

spread very quickly indeed. The authorities are not ruling out that

this fire could have been started deliberately but it is the early

stages and they are investigating the cause of this type of fire.

Thank you.'s you are watching BBC World News. Still to come:

Continued coverage of the Paralympic Games in London, we will

be speaking to Israel's strongest hope for a medal.

More than 50 people have been rescued after a boat packed with

migrants sank off the coast of India the easier on Wednesday. 150

people were thought to have been on board. Duncan Kennedy reports from

Sydney. When news came through of the

latest losses at sea, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard was in the

Cook Islands discussing asylum- seekers. It is a regional problem.

Most of them want to come to Australia. The rescue operation

could not find them at first. When they were discovered, it was too

late for most. Australia's home affairs minister said finding these

vessels is extremely hard. It is very hard to find people who are in

distress on a little wooden boat anywhere between Christmas Island

and the coast of Indonesia. Indonesian say they want to stop

the boat but once they reach open waters, they do not have the

resources to do so. TRANSLATION: Whether we like it or not, whether

we are ready or not, our capabilities are limited. We cannot

conduct extensive searches because our capability is just as it is.

300 asylum-seekers have drowned in the past three months trying to

reach Australian soil before the government here changes its

immigration policy. A policy the government hopes will beat the

people smugglers. From next month, instead of using Christmas Island

to the north-west, they will move to another island in the North East.

The government does not apologise. It wants to make life difficult to

deter the boats. But the government's opponents think

Ireland swapping is not enough. my messages fit Julia Gillard needs

to do more. Do you need to put in place the full sweep of the Howard

government measures. If you want to get the boat stopped. Many people

think it is inhumane to send people to faraway islands.

Mexico's highest electoral court has confirmed the victory of

Enrique Pena Nieto in July's presidential election. His main

opponent, Anders Lopez Obrador, accused him of buying votes and

breaking rules on campaign spending. But the judges ruled that there was

no convincing evidence and said the result should stand.

Can you are with BBC World News. A reminder of our headlines: The

Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has lost his court battle in London

with the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman

Abramovich. Mitt Romney set out his vision for

the United States as he accepts the Republican Party presidential

nomination. A Chinese dissident who was

convicted of subversion with the help of evidence from the internet

firm Yahoo has been released from jail. Wang Xiaoning was released

early on Friday morning after spending ten years behind bars in

Beijing. Yahoo drew widespread criticism for linking him with

writing. The company later apologised. Martin Patience

explained the significance it had on the internet company.

It was a public relations disaster for the company back in 2002. This

dissident went on trial and 2003 and he has just got out earlier

this morning. We spoke to Wang Xiaoning's wife. She told us he was

in good health and fine spirits but she said in regard to his release

that he was not allowed to give media interviews. Four we are here,

they did apologise. They did pay compensation to the family.

According to executives from Yahoo, when a testified before the US

Congress on this issue, they said that they needed to handover or

evidence in regard to Chinese laws. This case, and there was another

case concerning Yahoo when something similar happened, drew a

huge amount of criticism and raised all sorts of questions as to where

they internet companies should co- operate, some would say collaborate,

with regimes or governments which suppress freedom of expression.

it likely we will hear anything about his experiences while in jail

for ten years? We spoke to his wife. She would not comment on his ten

years in prison. As I said before, he is not being allowed to give

media interviews. This is traditionally what happens. The

Chinese authorities have let him out of prison but they do not want

publicity surrounding this case. The reason for that is they do not

like the idea is this man expressed. This man, using his Yahoo e-mail

account, are distributed essays calling for democracy in China and

an end to Communist Party rule in the country or one-party rule.

A five-year inquiry into the CIA's interrogation into suspected

militants has close to that charges. The review, following the line 11

attacks, looked at how the agency treated 100 prisoners. It also

included an investigation into two detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Julian Assange, founder of the website WikiLeaks says he expects

to remain in Ecuador's embassy in London for another six to 12 months.

Mr Assange lost his fight against extradition to Sweden was granted

asylum by Ecuador earlier this month. He said the most likely

scenario is Swedish prosecutors will drop the case against him.

Global food prices went up by 10 % in July. The World Bank said a US

heat wave and drought in parts of eastern Europe were partly to blame

for the rising costs. The price of key staples like corn, wheat and

soybean saw the most dramatic increases.

De Angola now where voting has begun in the country's general

election. It is only the second general election since the end of

their 20 seven-year civil war. The biggest opposition party, you need

to, has called for the poll to be delayed, saying authorities have

done nothing to address concerns about the voters' roll and possible

rigging. Our reporter said there have been problems with people

trying to vote. People thought they were registered

to vote at places near their home. When they got there they were told

they were not on the list. It will be hard for them to find out where

to vote so they may not bother. There are also issues in the rural

provinces where people have been told to vote several hundred

kilometres from where they live so they will not be able to. Those are

the issues. There are also concerns about the party delegates who were

here to observe the process. Many of them could not get accredited.

Angola has become a big player on the African continent, they will be

keen to show they can run their own political affairs? Absolutely.

Angola has a very high expectation of itself. He wants to be a big

player. It is the Continent's third largest economy. The 2008 election

was successful because it did not end in any violence, although many

feared that it would because in 1992, contested election led to a

phase of civil war. This time around there is more pressure

because they have done it before. The opposition said the government

is trying to rig the vote. Electoral commission is denying

that. It is hard to know what will happen at the end of the day.

Israel failed to win a medal at the London Olympics so the country is

hoping the paralympians will return with more to show for their efforts.

The rower Moran Samuel has had a victory already this year, winning

the Gavirate Adaptive Regatta in Italy. Jon Donnison reports on one

of the strongest hopes for the Games.

Moran Samuel find the light in the darkest of places. Training here in

Tel Aviv, the single sculler is approaching London as she has every

challenge in her life, with nothing but a quiet determination. Six

years ago, she was a promising young basketball player and coach,

but her life changed unimaginably one morning in 2006. Shortly after

waking up, she suffered a spinal stroke. Within two hours she was

paralysed. She has not walked since. But from the start, she was

reaching for the positives. I felt that I could go through it. I felt

that I have some calling him the world. It does not matter how I

will accomplished my girls, but I will do it, whether it is in a

wheelchair or on crutches. -- accomplished in my goals. The 35-

year-old is among a team representing Israel. For Moran,

sport has not just been a distraction for her disability, it

has enabled her to overcome it. am rowing, playing basketball, I am

strong, in good fit Les, more than the average person. I think it gave

me the opportunity to make peace with my body again. A Israel's

Olympic team had a dismal games this year. For the first time since

1988, the country came away with no medals at all. Israel has a much

better record at the Paralympics. If Moran Samuel has anything to do