22/10/2012 BBC World News

The Army in Lebanon says it will act decisively to restore order

after sectarian gun battles break out. An appeal not to expel Bo

Xilai is made by several hundred academics and senior Communist

Party members. The BBC investigates itself - the editor whose programme

dropped a report into alleged sexual abuse by a TV presenter

steps aside. Welcome to BBC World News.

Also in this programme - recession fears grow in Japan after exporters

have their worst September in 30 years. And going east - we have a

special report on why India is increasingly attracting talented

There have been clashes in many parts of Lebanon overnight,

following the funeral in Beirut of the country's former intelligence

chief who was killed in a car bomb attack last Friday. Anti-Government

protestors accuse the Government of not doing anything to present the

a-- revent the attack. In the last few minutes we've had reports of

gunfire exchanges. The Lebanese army said it will take decisive

action in areas of high tension. The heaviest clashes overnight were

in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, where at least three

people, including two children were reported to have been kill --

killed. In recent months, Tripoli in

particular has been the focus of pro-and anti-Syrian sentiment.

Evidence that the civil war in Syria is being played out on the

streets of Lebanon. As in the capital Beirut, protestors are

demanding the resignation of the Lebanese Prime Minister. They

accuse him of being unable to protect Lebanon from the violence

and interference perpetrated by the Syrian regime. Many accuse Syria of

being responsible for last Friday's car bomb attack, which killed

Lebanon's intelligence chief, Wissam al-Hassan. At his funeral

yesterday in Martyrs Square, thousands of opposition protestors

called for their own Government to resign and for Syria to end its

interference in internal Lebanese affairs. Lebanon's embattled Prime

Minister is supported by many western Governments who see him as

a stabilising figure. In a phone call, the US Secretary of State,

Hillary Clinton, promised American help into the car bomb

investigation. Such support made by the Government for a time for now.

If violence returns to the streets it is unlikely to survive.

Joining me from London is the BBC's Arabic correspondent.

Developments, obviously in the last hour or so with reports that the

Army say they want to take decisive measures. What are your reports

telling you about what is going on at the moment? There is a decision

just to control the situation in the streets of Lebanon. This was

obvious immediately after some demonstrator, angry demonstrators

tried to storm the Prime Minister's office yesterday. So, there is a

big decision that includes leaders to calm down the situation and to

keep it peaceful. It seems that the Lebanese army has now taken some

very strict measures, as you mentioned, in controlling the

streets and calling people to avoid transferring Lebanon into a

battlefield to settle regional scores, as they mentioned in their

communique minutes ago. So the situation now will remain fluid, as

we can see. Since there is a political decision to keep

everything under control, I think the situation will not go to, or

drive to more dangerous situations. At least for now. Sorry to

interrupt. Can you explain in simple terms just the pattern of

the sunny-Shia mix of communities within Lebanon and why it is

affected by what is going on in Syria? This is complicated. Lebanon

is concerned about what is happening in Lebanon. The Sunnis in

Lebanon and we all know the Prime Minister is a Sunni himself - they

are supporting the Free Syrian Army because they consider that the

Syrian regime or the President is behind the assassination of the

late Prime Minister, that was assassinated in the same way, in a

car bomb, in 2005. Since then, they accuse Syria of a series of

bombings and assassinations of some leaders who are anty Syrian in the

country. And -- anti-Syrian in the country. And those, part of them,

they are on the Iranian track, they are supporting the regime. We can

see high these two sets, they are now on two different banks and they

are in conflicting interests. many thanks indeed for joining us

there. My pleasure. Now Aaron is here. We have been talking about

Japan today because of dire numbers. The world's third largest economy.

Everything that Japan makes and ships overseas, that shipping for

the month of September kind of went off a cliff f you will. In fact,

Japanese exporters have suffered their worst September in 30 years.

Poor old Japan being hit by a double whammy. You have the Chinese,

the strained Chinese-Japanese relationship at the moment. The

Chinese not taking on Japan neez goods. You have Europe and the

European debt crisis. Europeans are basically buying less stuff. They

are suffering both ways? That saw a 21% drop to stuff they ship to

Europe. It could mean the stalling of economic growth in Japan,

possibly even a return to a recession. I just spoke to a

Japanese expert. He actually said going forward the outlook could get

worse. Let's have a listen to this. It could get worse. The number we

saw today only depicts half a month's worth of this dispute over

the island. So there'll be a something to see from September for

now. Consumer business from Japan to China is only 13%. Now, most of

it is business to business. If we see the inventory of China now, now

this is the biggest reason, rather than boycotting, of why the economy

has stalled, if we look at this adjustment going forward even the B

to B business will stag mate. if you combine all that, what does

it mean for the overall economy? I have been reading that Japan's

growth will stall, but possibly go back into recession? Depending on

the European situation - and there is a sign, although the figures are

strong, there is a sign from the earnings point of view. Yes, we

could have a possible negative downturn, especially with the way

China is going right now. OK, we will keep across those numbers. BP

is continuing talks to sell its part of the lucrative Russian part.

The deal could be worth $25 billion. Reports say BP could end up with a

stake in Rosneft of up to 20%. The joint venure, known as TNK-BP.

Nick McGregor is from Redmayne Bentley and I asked him if a new

partnership is a gamble or is it a brilliant long-term investment?

Potentially for BP this could be the anchor for their future

direction. This could be the future strategy being able to access one

of the largest producing areas of the world with Kremlin backing. On

the other hand, it is a huge risk. Doing business in Russia is never

easy. The cem -- the Kremlin is not an easy bed-fellow. It has to be

signed off by Putin? Absolutely. Rosneft is a majority owned by the

Russian state. At the end of the day, the final say on whether this

will go ahead will rest with Putin. I was trying to balance it out and

see who gets what out of this. You mentioned BP, they had a 20% stake

in Rosneft, they perhaps would have some access, given the Kremlin

approval, I guess, but to the vast oilfields. Rosneft wants BP for

what - engineering skills, expertise? For Rosneft there is a

lot of upside in this. BP can bring engineering expertise, management

expertise. It does know how to work the resources efficiently and do it

well. The other thing BP will bring is capital. Potentially as a co-

investor in some of the new projects Rosneft want to bring on

stream. BP is selling this stake in TNK-BP. The oligarchs are selling

and Rosneft is buying them out. They don't have the cash to buy out

both. A shareholding agreement allows Rosneft to take out both

sides of TNK-BP, with something in the order of $50 billion in one hit.

That announcement is supposed to be signed off by Putin today. When we

hear it, we will bring it to you. Other stories making the headlines

- one company which will be closely watched today is Yahoo. It reports

third-quarter results. It is expected the new chief executive,

Marissa Meyer, will reveal more about her plans than just how to

turn around the company's misfortunes. It will be the first

time investors have heard details from her since she was appointed

three months ago. Europe's biggest maker of consumer goods, Phillips,

has reported healthy third-quarter profits. Net profit doubled to 170

million euro. Despite that performance, the chief executive

warned of stiff head winds. And Electrolux, the maker of washing

machines, fridges and more - it reported a 19% increase in profits

to $150 million. Sales increased in North America and Latin America.

They slumped, you guessed it, they slumped in Europe. Plenty more

throughout the day. In China more than 300 academics and former

Communist Party officials have urged the Government not to dispel

Bo Xilai. He has been expelled from the Communist Party. He faces a

criminal investigation stemming from the murder of a British

businessman last year. Earlier, I spoke to our correspondent in

Beijing, Martin Patience, and asked for more details about the people

behind the latest move. There are very strong supporters of Bo Xilai.

This appeared on a website, which has been blocked in China. What

they basically called for was that Bo Xilai should not be kicked out

of Parliament. Why is it significant? It opens the way for

criminal charges to be laid against him. I think most people in China

think the criminal charges will come. His wife and his former

police chief have both been imprisoned over this case involving

the murder of a British businessman. What this open letter does reveal

is the kind of deep rifts that still exist within the Communist

Party over the handling of Bo Xilai. The party wants to present an image

of unity. What this letter demonstrates is that Bo Xilai, in

China, still commends a fair amount of support. Martin Patience in

Beijing. Now to a development in a story which is dominating the

headlines here in the UK - the BBC's investigation into its own

handling into a report of sexual abuse allegations against the late

presenter Jimmy Savile. The report was dropped by the Newsnight

programme and the BBC has been reviewing how that decision was

reached N the last few minutes, the editor of Newsnight has said he is

stepping aside from his job with mediate effect while that

investigation goes on. A BBC statement has said that Mr Rippon

gave an inaccurate and incomplete explanation of his decision to drop

the report which alleged that Jimmy Savile had sexually abused children.

I am with our correspondent here. You have the full statement here.

What the statement says is that in three, actually detailed, but

particular respects, the reason that Peter Rippon gave for not

proceeding with the investigation, the reasons he spelled out on a

blog on the BBC's website, those explanations were, as you say,

incomplete and the BBC has explained in three particular cases

what was wrong. They are very detailed. What the BBC is not doing,

however, is at the moment challenging Peter Rippon's

assertion, which is he did not go ahead with the story because he

felt it didn't stack up. Clearly, once you start, as an organisation

admitting, that in certain respects you were wrong in what you

previously said, then journalists and others will say, were you wrong

in other respects? It is an awkward position that senior staff were

saying things which were not correct. Other bosses have been

talked about in the press in the last few weeks, including the boss

of the BBC, the new director general, George Entwistle? In his

previous job, as head of television, he was told that Newsnight was

investigating Jimmy Savile. He did not ask for any details at all. He

did have scheduled in his Christmas schedules some tribute programmes

to Jimmy Savile. What many are saying is why did he not think he

should pull them if there was an investigation going on? Why didn't

he ask more questions? Was he falling down in the job then? This

will go to Parliament tomorrow, to talk to a committee of MPs who have

asked to see him. He volunteered to go. That is one of the questions

they will want to ask him - why didn't he do more, if you like, do

more due diligence in his previous job? The Prime Minister's spokesman

has been asked about this today. Downing Street, they say this is a

matter for the BBC. The BBC set up two internal inquiries, one into

the background and what Jimmy Savile got into at the BBC. Downing

Street says it is up to the BBC to complete those inquiries.

Worryingly for Mr Entwistle, the Downing Street spokesman declined

to respond directly to questions about whether he had confidence in

the Director-General of the BBC. So, George Entwistle has some, he has

to recover some position here. He You're watching BBC World News.

Still to come: Going East. We have a special

report on why India is increasingly attracting talented young people.

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will face each other today

in the last presidential debate which will focus on foreign policy.

The president and his Republican rival will share the stage at Lynn

University in Boca Raton. A short break over the weekend for Mitt

Romney during intense preparations for the last presidential debate.

He is already in Florida. After his last campaign event on Friday,

Barack Obama left for the presidential retreat of Camp David.

He stayed out of you, getting ready for round three. Foreign policy

issues rarely swayed voters but there has been renewed interest in

how and what America is doing around the globe. Barack Obama's

foreign policy record was one of the strength so far but he has been

harshly criticised for how he handled the aftermath of the attack

last month against the American consulate. The ambassador was

killed along with three others. Republicans have accused Barack

Obama of initially trying to downplay the role of the attack of

a radical militants linked to Al- Qaeda in an effort to protect his

image as the man who got Osama bin Laden. The suggestion that anybody

in my team, the Secretary of State, UN ambassadors, anybody on my team,

would play politics or mislead when we have lost four of our own,

governor, is offensive. On some issues like Iran and Syria, Mitt

Romney has not spelt out what you would do differently except to be

tougher. Over the weekend, reports emerged of the White House was open

to negotiations with Iran but there were no talks planned. Mitt Romney

refused to say whether he was open to such talks. He will want to

portray Barack Obama as weak. The debate will be a showdown between

two candidates with very different world views that the economy is

still what matters most. They will head straight back on to the

campaign trail and travel to key battleground states, the race is

now in a dead heat, the Barack Obama campaign is trying to sound

confident. Everybody always knew it was going to come down to a few

states and I think that is where we are today and why every vote counts

in these key battleground states. With two weeks to go until election

day, this race is looking This is BBC World News. The

headlines: The army in Lebanon says it's

determined to restore order after its troops exchanged fire with

gunmen on the streets of Beirut. China's parliament has been asked

not to expel the disgraced politician, Bo Xilai, in a letter

signed by hundreds of academics and The former Cuban leader, Fidel

Castro, has appeared in public for the first time in several months,

refuting persistent rumours that he was gravely ill. A Venezuelan

politician who met Castro in Havana showed photos of the meeting to

reporters. Social media sites have been abuzz with claims of Castro's

imminent demise. The 86-year-old revolutionary leader has also

published an article, saying that, far from being ill, he doesn't even

remember what a headache feels like. New evidence supports suggestions

that an outbreak of cholera in Haiti which began two years ago

probably did come from toilets and cesspits at a UN base housing

Nepali peacekeepers. Research shows the cholera strain which has killed

more than 7,000 people in Haiti is an exact match to the strain found

in Nepal. A leading media freedom

organisation has accused Turkey of carrying out an offensive to

silence journalists. In a new report, the Committee to Protect

Journalists says the Turkish state is the world's leading jailer of

journalists. 70% of the imprisoned journalists are Kurdish. A major

operation a stop to minutes' activists from releasing balloons

carrying propaganda leaflets into North Korea. The activists included

defectors from the north which threatened to retaliate if the

launch went ahead. Just hours before the ceremony to

release the balloons was to take place, hundreds of a South Korean

police officers are set up a roadblock, on the border with the

North. North Korea said on Friday it would stage an attack on the

launch site if it went ahead. The police intervention provoked an

angry response from organisers. TRANSLATION: At our aim is to send

letters containing truth and facts to our 20 million North Korean

brothers. Why does the President of South Korea stop us? Neither side

had said that they ordered the event to be cancelled. The police

have said they decided to step in to keep public order. Nevertheless,

the South Korean military went into a heightened state of alert and

hundreds of residents near the border were advised to evacuate.

Balloon the marchers from South Korea into sent a propaganda

leaflets to the north, and its frequent. Hundreds of thousands are

bundled into plastic bags are sent into the country, but this time,

Reports from Gaza say one person has been killed in an Israeli air

strike in the north of the territory. The Israeli military

confirmed its planes attacked targets in the north of Gaza. Four

people were also injured. Israel said it was responding after a

rocket hit southern Israel. As India's growth continues to

outpace many Western economies, it's become a magnet for

entrepreneurs and artists alike with many arriving every day to

seek their fortune. BBC Online is beginning an eight week look at the

people who are seeking the Indian dream. Here's Rajini Vaidyanathan

to introduce it. From the late 1940s onwards, millions of Indians

left this country seeking a better life abroad. In countries like the

UK and USA. They continue to do so but now we're also seeing another

trend. This time, in reverse. The children of those who left are now

moving to India. In search of a cultural connection. And a better

life. This man moved from LA. Hollywood do Bollywood. The Indian

team to me is unparalleled opportunity now. I don't think you

can be part of a bigger growth story than India right now in the

part of the world. What has made it easy to move here is the

introduction of a lifelong visa. It isn't just on offer to former

Indian citizens but also the children and grandchildren of

people born here. Since it was introduced seven years ago, more

than one million people have taken advantage of it. British Indian DJs

like this is an example. He moved from London. Two years ago, after

club bookings dried up and England. For me, its stability. I'm enjoying

my life. I've got a nice, stable relationship, getting married next

year, and I can see my future right here now. And everything it is

accessible with his lifetime visa. It's almost like having two or

nationality. It's not just people of Indian origin chasing the Indian

dream. India is attracting top entrepreneurial talent from across

the world. Valerie used to work in America. But now heads up her own

mobile phone venture. India certainly is not for the faint of

heart. Most people realise within a month whether they are going to

stick it out for years a or lease by the end of the year. For me, the

opportunity is so big and the excitement about the challenge of

building a business here and building a business around his

opportunities is really what drives me. Moving to India isn't without

frustrations and challenges. It's a poor infrastructure and bad traffic,

a but the inordinate amount of bureaucracy and corruption also

falls up but many people born abroad are choosing to seek a new

life and make home here. It's a trend which is predicted to rise.

We'll be bringing you more stories on the Indian Dream over the next

eight weeks. You can find out much more about the series on the BBC

website. And you can join the conversion on Twitter. Follow the

bbcindiandream hashtag. For more than 50 years, James Bond

has always drank vodka martinis. Shaken, not stirred. But in the new

007 movie Skyfall, which has its world premiere tomorrow, actor

Daniel Craig controversially swaps the traditional sophisticated

tipple for a bottle of beer. It's a move that's come under fire from

some fans and critics. It's a necessity. People make such a big

deal out of it. It is unfortunate but we get the movies made and

that's all that matters. We get the movie made and so what? Everybody

wins. Daniel Craig, of course, the movie producers outlining his film

a tomorrow. He looks pretty smooth to me. Much more at the website.