21/09/2012 BBC World News

Demonstrations across Pakistan as anger over an American film

depicking the prophet Mohammed leads to further violence.

Scientists in the US hunt for ways to combat West Niall disease, as

the death toll threatens to be the worst on record.

Guilty of hate crimes, 16 Amish men are convicted for terrorising their

community. Welcome to BBC World News. Also

coming up: Who will prevail in Portugal as protests mount against

the Government's plans for further austerity measures?

What will Didier do next? The Ivory Coast football star talks to the

BBC about his switch from Chelsea Hello. Demonstrations are taking

place in Pakistan and across the world against a film made in the US

which is said to mock Islam. The Pakistan Government has backed

protests, but urged people to demonstrate peacefully. But some

violence has broken out. In Peshawar, a taxi-driver is reported

to have been killed when police fired to disperse protestors.

Violence has also flared in Islamabad. Here's Richard Galpin.

The Government had called for peaceful protests. But here in

Peshawar, in north-west Pakistan, they soon turned violent. These

demonstraters attacking a cinema in the city, setting it on fire.

They've already been casualties in clashes with the police, with one

person reported to have been killed. It was the Prime Minister and his

Government who had made Friday what they called a special day of love

for the prophet Mohammed. A chance for the entire nation to protest at

what they see as the blasphemous video. An attack on the prophet is

an attack on the core belief of 1.5 billion Muslims. Therefore, this is

something that is unacceptable. There had already been clashes in

the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, outside the United States Embassy.

Fearing even worse today, the American Government took the

unusual step of placing this advertisement on Pakistan

television, hoping it would defuse tensions.

The United States has been a nation that respects all faiths, we reject

all efforts to denigrate the religious belief of others.

But the protests are taking place across the country, with clashes

reported in some of the other main cities, including Rawalpindi, and

Karachi. People here in this conservative,

religious society are already hostile to the United States. Now

the Government itself has given them a national holiday to vent

their anger. Our correspondent Aleem Maqbool is

in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, and he gave this update. Well, an

hour ago I was telling that you inside the city things were very

quiet indeed. There was just one major demonstration near the Red

Mosque, very peaceful, though. But it was on the edges of the city

that we heard there were problems because essentially Islamabad has

been sealed today. We came to one of the main entrances to the city

from the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi, we had to move away

because people there were attacking cars, trying to get into the city

and the security forces were holding firm for a while, but now

people are streaming through, at least on foot and motorcycles.

They're managing to keep vehicles out. But people are all heading,

they say, towards the same diplomatic enclave, where the

foreign Embassies are, of course and the place where we had that

huge protest 24 hours ago. What is the thinking behind the

Government's decision to have this public holiday and effectively what

they're calling a day of love, a demonstration of love for the

prophet Mohammed? Well, my feeling is that it was to direct attention

and criticism away from them, and to say they were doing something

about what is a very emotive issue. They've done other things as well,

they've banned YouTube, for example, nobody can access the win site --

website because of that video circulating. It hasn't stopped

people criticising the tkpwofplt. - - the Government. They say they

should be allowed to protest however they like. People saying

they're willing to lay down their lives for the honour of the prophet.

Having said that, it does feel like these demonstrations are somehow

being generated, orchestrated to some extent by political groups,

religious parties. We have seen a lot of people going past us today

with political flags that they're carrying. So, whether people would

come out on the streets, if they were left to their own devices, I

don't know. The Government may yet regret that decision to give

everybody a day off. And protests against that anti-

Muslim film are continuing to take place in other parts of the world -

including the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, where police say over

2,000 people protested in front of the US embassy. Google has blocked

access to the clip in Malaysia, where Muslims make up 60% of the

population. Protests also today in Thailand

where, once again, the US Embassy in Bangkok is the focus of protests.

Nearly 1,000 people have gathered there - peacefully protesting about

that US-produced film. In Bangladesh, several thousand

people have protested in the capital, Dhaka. Security has been

tightened in the diplomatic quarter there.

Finally, in the Middle East, the city of Basra in south-eastern Iraq

has seen fairly large-scale protests. Thousands have taken to

the streets to demonstrate, and to burn the US and Israeli flags. So

far, this has also been a largely peaceful gathering. Let's move on

to the business world. Jamie is here with news of what's going to

happen to EMI. Finally we know, actually. It's

been a tortured ten years for EMI. It's been through a number of

different owners, had an agonising time. European Competition

regulators have cleared a big deal in the music industry. Universal

has been given the go ahead to buy EMI's recorded music business for

$1.9 billion. However, Universal will have to sell important parts

of EMI, including the Parlaphone record label which is home to

Coldplay and Pink Floyd. Let's go to Theo Leggett our business

reporter. How much of that is problem, selling off these, or were

they expecting to have to get rid of those in order to meet

conditions of the regulators? was expected that there would have

be significant sell-offs in order to get this deal through. The

European Commission made that quite plain when it published the first

evaluation of the merger. But it is very significant that EMI recording

is going to have to be sold. That owns Parlaphone. Home to Coldplay,

to Kylie Minogue. That's a very serious investment. There are other

music labels, such as Mute and Chrysalis. Taking that together you

have to ask whether this is actually a deal Universal will want

to push through, whether it's been asked to do too much and how badly

it still wants to take over EMI? It's been a decade of agonising

times for EMI, it's gone from pillar to post. Some people may be

surprised the sellers are Citigroup. Can you give us background. It was

set newspaper the 1930s, but the past few years have been chequered.

Back in 2006 eEMI tried to take control of Warner Music. It failed.

Off the back of that a private equity business came in, they took

control of the business. They wanted to turn a profit. In the end,

they ended up paying what they considered to be too much. As a

result, Citigroup stepped in last year. Took control of the business

and now wants to pass it on. Obviously, Citigroup doesn't want

to be in the music business for the long-term. It seems to have pulled

off a reasonable deal here. Now, Universal, most people probably

know the name from movies, possibly. But what is Universal? It's a giant

music group. It's part of the media empire, it has a finger in pretty

much every pie, publishing, also new artists and owning record

labels, by taking on EMI Recording as well, by taking on EMI, it will

increase that breath. EMI, it's not the whole of EMI, because they've

sold sold off the publishing business? EMI still remains one of

the big UK businesses and it's a desirable target but as I said

before, if Universal wants to take control of that business, it is

going to have to give up one of the Crown jewels, that is Parlaphone

and the question is how badly does want to do that?

Portugal's government is under growing pressure to back down on

its latest austerity plans, after some of the largest protests ever

seen in the country. The coalition government wants to raise workers'

contributions to social security to 18% from 11%. That has sparked the

biggest public protest since the government received its bailout

last year. Today's Portugal's second biggest union said it wants

a complete revision of the tax hike. Later on Friday, Portugal's

President will hold a meeting of political leaders to discuss the

situation. Jane Foley is the senior Fore x strategist at Rabobank. She

explained the economic background to these protests. To date, they've

suffered really very well, but of course given the really dire

concessionary conditions, given some people say this rise in the

pay roll tax is equivalent of one month's salary for some people,

then it is going to be a very, very tough ride for the Government to

take this all the way through. there room for it to actually relax

things like the social security levy which it's trying to impose

and still meet with the conditions which it has to have in order to

receive its bail out? That's the golden question. Many people will

be saying, is there room for maybe spending cuts somewhere else,

instead of these tax rises? You can understand the reason for this

particular change. The EU have said - it's part of the bail out,

Portugal has to to loosen up its labour market, make it more

attractive for companies to hire people, to increase jobs in the

country and so they want to reduce the tax burden on employers. The

Government wants to shift that directly on to the employees and

because people are already suffering that's what's become

difficult to bear. There is potential room for renegotiation as

to where that burden should really fall.

Japan Airlines is slashing services to China, after thousands of

passengers cancelled flights. After a temporary period the two daily

flights between Tokyo and Beijing will be cut to one. Three flights

between Tokyo and Shanghai will be cut to two. 6,000 trips have been

cancelled since tension flared up between the two nations over

islands. A vow brewing over what would be

China's biggest foreign takeover. Shareholders of Canadian oil and

gas producer Nexen have approved a takeover by China National Offshore

Oil Company but opposition is growing in Canada to the deal. The

leader of Canada's biggest opposition party said he was

concerned about the sale. Apple's iPhone 5 hits stores around the

world on Friday. Some are predicting sales of up to ten

million over the weekend. Already criticism of skwrap al's -- skwrap

al's -- Apple's own pre-installed map software is threatening to to

overshadow it, inaccuracies and misplaced towns and cities have

provoked anger from users. That's the business news.

You would think it was the weekend coming up! You would, on that.

More than 130 people have died in the US have a result of West Niall

virus, it's -- west Nile virus. With no available vaccine,

Americans currently have little protection against it. Jane O'Brien

reports from Virginia. This swamp in Virginia is infested

with mosquito, capable of transmitting West Nile virus. There

are some 350 species of mosquito in the US, but not all of them are a

threat to people. Identifying the ones that are is

essential to treating virus hot spots, before the insects have time

to mature and start hunting for the blood they need to breed again.

These mosquito larvae are about seven days old and can remain under

water for several minutes before rising to the surface to breathe

through a tiny tube which you can see under the microscope, just

there. Even at this age, scientists can

tell whether or not it's capable of transmitting the west Nile virus

and this one here is a potential killer.

Mature mosquitoes are put into a solution and broken down. The

resulting liquid is tested for the virus, and if it's positive, people

nearby can be warned of the danger. But with no available vaccine,

human evolution may offer the best protection. Americans, just like

people in Africa and the Middle East, could eventually acquire

immunity through exposure. Over years, probably measured in decades,

that enough people will have been infected, either gotten sick and

recovered or not even gotten sick before, that they are then

relatively immune to the next season of mosquito biting them and

them getting sick. West Nile is one of the recent viruses to emerge in

the US as a result of global travel and climate change. Mosquito patrol

units across the country are preparing for others that may prove

Some of the ones on our radar - there's Rift Valley Fever. If the

virus came this way, there could be a potential, just like West Nile,

to spread throughout the country. Spraying virus hotspots keeps

mosquitoes under control, but that's only in public spaces. How

many billions more are thriving in water left standing in people's

gardens? A big worry in the US there.

You're watching BBC World News. Still to come:

Give us our money back - a report into London's Olympic Security says

the company responsible should be blacklisted for failing to fulfill

its contract. In the north of England, robbers

have stolen watches worth $1.6 million from a busy store in

Manchester in just a few minutes - in full view of shoppers. They

attacked the branch of Selfridges on Wednesday with an axe and

crowbars. Yesterday evening, as Selfridges was full of customers,

masked men stormed inside and committed an audacious daylight

robbery. Smashing cases with crowbars in less than two minutes,

more than 100 watches were stuffed into a holdall. More than �1

million worth of stock was gone in 80 seconds according to the owners.

The showroom offered the thieves rich pickings and now police say

that the jewellery taken is likely to be sold off in less luxurious

surroundings. We would encourage any member of the public who is

offered a high-end watch for a cut- down price to contact the police

and let them know where they have been offered it, whether it be in

the local pub, or in the local shop, just to give us a shout and we can

make the necessary enquiries to see if these are in fact the watches

that have been taken. When they had grabbed what they could, the men

swept back out of the shop to a waiting getaway car. It was later

found abandoned. Today, it was business as usual at the store,

apart from the empty cases. The watch department here is closed

today. The staff inside are clearing up and assessing the

damage. Some of the watches they sell retail for more than �20,000

each, so the police say the thieves were very particular about exactly

which time-pieces they took. As the shop was open and busy at the time

of the smash and grab raid, many saw what happened. Detectives want

anyone with information to get in touch.

France's Constitutional Court has rejected a request by animal rights

activists to impose a country-wide ban on bullfighting. It's a

protected local tradition in southern parts, including the

cities of Nimes and Arles, though it's prohibited elsewhere in France.

Thousands of workers are staging a wildcat strike at another South

African gold mine, as labour unrest spreads. The illegal strike is at

the Kopanang mine, run by AngloGold Ashanti. It comes as a stoppage by

workers at KDC, run by Gold Fields, goes into its 12th day. You are

watching BBC World News. The headlines: A day of demonstration

in Pakistan as the US uses a TV advert to try to calm anger over an

anti-Islamic film. An outbreak of West Nile disease in

the United States threatens to be the worst on record as scientists

hunt for a vaccine. London Metropolitan University is

mounting a legal challenge to suspend a ban on being able to

recruit overseas students. Last month the British Government took

away the university's right to sponsor non-EU students for UK

visas, saying it was not making proper checks. The university

denies this. The university lawyers are now

appearing at the High Court asking for the ban to be lifted. From

there we can now speak to Luisa Baldini.

Yes, London Metropolitan University say the report was highly flawed

and that it was wrong. That's why they are challenging it here at the

High Court. The US Border Agency says it made the right decision and

will contest any legal action. Well, in court this morning we heard from

London Metropolitan University's lawyer. He said that there are five

core areas which the US Border Agency has analysed incorrectly.

They are very detailed legal points-based on case law. So I

won't repeat them to you. He says, "This is a terrible situation for

London Metropolitan University." He hoped to show the judge "a pattern

of events that is consistent with the desire to improve "- he said

the university tried to improve their monitoring of the students -

"with new systems that they were due to put in." He said the UK

Border Agency were due to go back to the university in October to

check the situation, but then he said, "Bang, they produced this

damning report." I'm joined by a spokes person from the National

Union of Students. What is your case going to be? We decided to

intervene as an independent third party. We are best placed to

represent the rights of students and ensure they are met. This has

been a terrible case for over 2,500 international students who don't

know where they will be studying in a week's time. Very unsettling time

for them when they have spent a lot of money? Absolutely. Also on their

flights here, on accommodation, and so on. This has been incredibly

unsettling and unfair. If the university is unsuccessful here,

what happens to those students? Students have to find somewhere to

study. The clock is ticking. We are telling students to call the London

Metropolitan University Helpline and go for Through Clearing House.

Otherwise they will receive a letter which gives them 60 days to

leave the country. Our aim is to ensure that students are able to

stay at London Metropolitan University to study or find

somewhere else. We don't know if we will get a decision today. What is

the best case scenario at the moment? The best case is that

students are able to continue their studies at London Metropolitan

University. There are a significant number of students who are on

courses that have less than six months left. To force them to go

somewhere else to study is totally unfair. The best case scenario

would be for students to stay at London Metropolitan University.

Thank you very much. Well, as I was saying there, we don't yet know

whether there will be a decision today, or it could be next week.

Thank you. 16 members of a breakaway group

from the Amish community in the US state of Ohio have been convicted

of hate crimes. In a series of attacks they forcibly cut the

beards and hair of fellow Amish. This is a self-styled bishop and

leader of the breakaway Amish group who have been found guilty of hate

crimes. Violence is rare in the Amish community. Last year, he

ordered 15 of his followers to cut the beards and hair off nine of his

own people because they dared to criticise his religious teachings.

He was described in court as a Svengali-like character who was

very controlling. He allegedly forced members to sleep for days at

a time in a chicken coop and had sex with some of the married women.

The Amish believe that The Bible instructs women to grow their hair

long and men to grow beards after marriage as a sign of religious

devotion. Cutting it off is a huge violation in the community. These

were no mere haircuts. These were violent attacks that let the

victims in this -- that left the victims in this case so shaken and

scared that they felt compelled to call on local law enforcement for

their own protection even though they do not typically do so.

Lawyers say their leader wanted the nine victims to return to a more

conservative Amish lifestyle. The group will be sentenced next year.

Didier Drogba only went to China last summer but his future there

has been questioned already. The former Chelsea man's time there has

been blighted by a financial row among shareholders. Drogba has been

speaking to the BBC's John Sudworth. He said he is happy right where he

is. I'm here. I just arrived two month ago. I'm really happy here. I

am really happy here. I have no reason to leave. I don't want to

leave. I'm going to stay here as long as I can. And win some

trophies with my team and make our fans very happy. So it is difficult

at the moment, but I know that there's hope. And I believe.

they paying you? Of course they are! The other thing we have read

about this year is problems behind- the-scenes, the coach leaving, has

it felt chaotic? No. It's what happened in a normal club. Like it

happened at Chelsea, like it happens in Manchester City, like

everywhere - that is football. That is part of the game. A manager

comes. If he doesn't get results, they change. It's the same thing.

Football is universal. It is the same thing that happens everywhere.

So if you had to put money on it now, how long do you see your

future here? My contract. My contract, two-and-a-half years, and

maybe more. Maybe more. I hope more. I'm really happy here. I miss the