:00:16. > :00:23.Sandy strikes the US - the storm kills 16, and a tidal surge washes
:00:23. > :00:31.through cities on the East Coast. Millions of people are without
:00:31. > :00:34.power. President Obama declares a major disaster in New York State.
:00:34. > :00:40.And the storm sparks fires as well as flooding - at least 50 homes in
:00:40. > :00:45.the borough of Queens are destroyed by flames. Welcome to BBC World
:00:45. > :00:55.News. Also in this programme: As the economic slowdown continues,
:00:55. > :01:07.
:01:07. > :01:10.financial heavyweights meet in People on the east coast of America
:01:10. > :01:15.are waking up to assess the damage after Superstorm Sandy swept across
:01:15. > :01:20.the region with hurricane-force winds. 16 people have been killed
:01:20. > :01:23.as a result of the storm and around six million are without power.
:01:23. > :01:28.President Obama has described the situation in New York State as a
:01:28. > :01:30.major disaster. In New York City, a fire has destroyed at least 50
:01:30. > :01:33.homes in Queens and a million residents have been evacuated.
:01:33. > :01:36.Three towns have been flooded in New Jersey after a flood levee
:01:36. > :01:41.broke. Emergencies have also been declared in Massachusetts,
:01:42. > :01:51.Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. An estimated fifty
:01:51. > :01:57.million people could be affected by the storm across the US. The city
:01:57. > :02:03.that never sleeps, plunged into darkness. A perfect storm of strong
:02:03. > :02:08.wind, high tides and a surge of sea water has paralysed lower Manhattan.
:02:08. > :02:12.Overnight, water was pouring into underground car parks. This picture
:02:12. > :02:19.shows the flooding of a subway station through the lift shaft. No
:02:19. > :02:23.one has seen anything like this before. What the hell is this?
:02:23. > :02:28.Water is not the only danger - a power station exploded on the
:02:28. > :02:35.eastern side of the city. Elsewhere fires broke out in terrifying
:02:35. > :02:39.scenes, like this one in the borough of Queens. 50 homes were
:02:39. > :02:48.destroyed as firefighters struggled to stem the blaze. They have to use
:02:48. > :02:51.boats to rescue people. There was a head wind blowing across. Three
:02:51. > :02:57.buildings have collapsed with numerous civilians trapped. We
:02:57. > :03:07.could not get any apparatus down due to the chest-high water. A many
:03:07. > :03:09.
:03:09. > :03:13.people were told to stay at home, stock up on candles and food.
:03:13. > :03:18.call 911 unless it is a real emergency, and don't drive. There
:03:19. > :03:24.are coast of New Jersey was the first of the eastern seaboard to
:03:24. > :03:30.feel the full force of the hurricane. It also brought heavy
:03:30. > :03:35.snow. Large sections of Atlantic Avenue in the heart of Atlantic
:03:36. > :03:39.City were starting to become submerged under water. Hit a still
:03:39. > :03:44.pitch-dark and too early to know the full extent of the damage.
:03:44. > :03:47.Further up the east coast, this was near Connecticut - falling trees
:03:47. > :03:54.have added to the dangers. Many have taken refuge in emergency
:03:54. > :04:00.shelters. The Red Cross is operating over 100 shelters all
:04:00. > :04:06.Longleat east-coast so prior to right now is making sure the
:04:06. > :04:10.shelter efforts are in a safe place. Millions are now without power no
:04:10. > :04:17.one can predict when the lights will come back on. Wall Street is
:04:17. > :04:20.to be closed for a second day. The cost to the economy is already
:04:20. > :04:24.estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.
:04:24. > :04:32.Ben Thompson is in our New York office, in fact he stayed there
:04:32. > :04:36.overnight. I asked him if things were looking up. We are at 33rd
:04:36. > :04:42.Street, halfway up Manhattan, but I have just been outside and if you
:04:42. > :04:48.look downtown towards lower Manhattan large parts of the city
:04:48. > :04:53.are in total darkness. It seems that the power that is done in
:04:53. > :04:58.blocks and grids has gone off to around 30th Street so large part of
:04:58. > :05:02.the city in total darkness and that is because water got into the power
:05:02. > :05:08.stations. We saw sparks and explosions really lighting up the
:05:08. > :05:14.skyline of Manhattan for all the wrong reasons. That was as water
:05:14. > :05:16.got into the power generation facilities, and we have also heard
:05:16. > :05:21.that transport infrastructure is bearing the brunt of this. Seven of
:05:21. > :05:26.the tunnels that connect Manhattan to Brooklyn on the subway are
:05:26. > :05:31.submerged, and many of the roads surrounding lower Manhattan are
:05:31. > :05:36.also under water. A short while ago we had some pictures from Times
:05:36. > :05:41.Square with the neon light shining bright, even some taxes motoring
:05:41. > :05:46.around. I presume the message none the less - we have the pictures
:05:46. > :05:53.again here - I presume the message is just don't go out unless you
:05:53. > :05:58.absolutely have to? Yes, Times Square again is maybe 10 blocks
:05:58. > :06:03.north of where we are so it seems like the problems are in this lower
:06:03. > :06:08.to midtown area at the lower end of Manhattan. The message from the
:06:08. > :06:12.mayor once again was to not venture outside. They need to keep the
:06:12. > :06:17.streets clear for emergency vehicles to get to the people that
:06:17. > :06:21.really need help because power is off in various places. A lot of the
:06:21. > :06:24.cities in residential areas is underwater so people are
:06:24. > :06:29.effectively trapped in their buildings without power. They say
:06:29. > :06:34.don't venture out to look at the state of devastation of your
:06:34. > :06:39.neighbourhood - stay inside and stay tuned into your radio or
:06:39. > :06:49.television. The emergency services need to assess the scope of the
:06:49. > :06:52.
:06:52. > :06:59.damage. Joining me now from north Virginia is addressed helping with
:06:59. > :07:05.the clean-up. What ideally would you like to be able to do today?
:07:05. > :07:10.Ideally we would like to be able to identify some of the hardest-hit
:07:10. > :07:15.areas and mobilise our team here from Virginia to get to those areas.
:07:15. > :07:23.We don't expect to be responding - fortunately we passed with little
:07:23. > :07:30.incident here. We want to go to the hardest-hit area, and our team goes
:07:30. > :07:34.to areas where trees have fallen on rooms, waterproofing rooms so rain
:07:34. > :07:38.can't get in. This morning we will be looking for the hardest-hit
:07:38. > :07:44.areas and seeing how we can get there. They message coming from
:07:44. > :07:50.further up the coast is don't go out, stay Ian, look after
:07:50. > :07:54.yourselves, be careful. Do different rules apply for you?
:07:54. > :07:59.Operation Blessing co-ordinate closely with local officials and we
:07:59. > :08:04.have credentials allowing us to move in and out of restricted zones
:08:04. > :08:10.so we have access to the areas that need our help most. You have seen
:08:10. > :08:15.the pictures, David, they are in some cases quite extraordinary. How
:08:15. > :08:21.have you taken this in? It is shocking to see what has happened
:08:21. > :08:25.to the north of us, especially in New York and New Jersey. We are
:08:26. > :08:34.used to seeing this type of destruction across the US. We get
:08:34. > :08:38.hit by hurricanes every year and this response of the time. We are
:08:38. > :08:48.used to going out on clean-up operations on that is what we will
:08:48. > :08:49.
:08:49. > :08:54.be starting today. Thank you. Now a slightly different
:08:54. > :08:58.perspective on the same story. Absolutely - the cost. It is
:08:58. > :09:06.difficult to estimate insurance losses but groups are already doing
:09:06. > :09:13.this. Insurance claim losses come very between five-$10 billion. The
:09:13. > :09:16.economic cost could go up to $20 billion. The problem is when you
:09:17. > :09:21.have two days, Furlan unprecedented, when you have the New York stock
:09:21. > :09:25.market closed you get financial pressures starting to build,
:09:26. > :09:34.starting to mount. People have to do transactions, trade has to be
:09:34. > :09:38.done. We heard the figure of two does closure not happening since
:09:38. > :09:42.1988, a gain due to adverse weather. We know that banks' trading
:09:42. > :09:47.officers will be losing revenue over these two days, that more
:09:47. > :09:51.mount into the tens of millions of dollars, but also the cancellation.
:09:51. > :09:56.We are in the middle of the season when the companies say how they
:09:57. > :10:02.have been performing, a lot of cancellations on those. Burger King
:10:02. > :10:05.as an example. Earlier I spoke to the director of Control Risks, he
:10:05. > :10:11.was explaining some of the strategies businesses are putting
:10:11. > :10:16.in place to cope. Those big organisations, particularly in New
:10:16. > :10:22.York I guess, have plans in order to cope with the range of possible
:10:22. > :10:27.disasters and severe disruptions to their business. The US itself as a
:10:27. > :10:30.whole lives in the spectre of Hurricane Katrina and the criticism,
:10:31. > :10:36.both political and from a business point of view, that was levelled
:10:36. > :10:41.against organisations for their ill prepared nurse, a lot has been done
:10:41. > :10:48.to make the government more resilient, the public sector more
:10:48. > :10:50.resilient, and 9/11 for New York, the trauma of 9/11 really made it
:10:50. > :10:54.imperative for New York-based organisation is to have plans in
:10:54. > :10:59.place so that something like this, which is highly unusual but we did
:10:59. > :11:03.know what was coming, they should be able to cope as best as possible.
:11:03. > :11:08.I guess also for companies it is about taking practical measures.
:11:08. > :11:13.Some reports have suggested some New York-based companies are using
:11:13. > :11:17.London operations to keep the wheels going, staff at home doing
:11:17. > :11:22.paperwork that they say they would normally not have the time to do.
:11:22. > :11:26.Exactly because what has happened in the last few years is this
:11:26. > :11:30.nature of modern communications makes it much easier for people to
:11:30. > :11:37.do their jobs without coming every day to a fixed central location.
:11:37. > :11:39.The other aspect is we are talking about a lot of major international
:11:40. > :11:44.organisations and national organisations within the United
:11:45. > :11:50.States, they have got to have plans so that if the New York facilities
:11:50. > :11:54.closed for whatever reason they can pick that up elsewhere in the US or
:11:54. > :11:59.internationally. We saw with the earthquake in Fokker she met in
:11:59. > :12:09.Japan and the flooding in Thailand couple of years ago, just how
:12:09. > :12:17.
:12:17. > :12:22.taught international supply chains are.
:12:22. > :12:27.UBS, one of Europe's biggest banks, has confirmed it is axing 10,000
:12:27. > :12:32.jobs in its investment banking division. 2500 lay-offs will be in
:12:32. > :12:36.Switzerland, the rest are hitting London and New York. It made a loss
:12:37. > :12:41.of around $2.3 billion for the third quarter, compared to a
:12:41. > :12:51.billion-dollar profit the year before. The chief executive said it
:12:51. > :12:55.was a difficult decision. TRANSLATION: The whole bank must
:12:55. > :13:03.become more efficient to enable us to generate means to reinvest into
:13:03. > :13:06.our own business. We will reinvest 1.5 billion over the next five
:13:06. > :13:11.years in order to finance our growth.
:13:11. > :13:19.The news in Japan, the Bank of Japan has announced its latest set
:13:19. > :13:25.to boost the world's third largest economy. $139 billion will be
:13:25. > :13:29.pumped into the system from Tokyo. Essentially, this is printing more
:13:29. > :13:34.money, and it will be buying assets with that money. It has also said
:13:34. > :13:37.it will keep interest rates close to zero, effectively a zero
:13:37. > :13:42.interest rate. The reason the Bank of Japan is doing this is because
:13:42. > :13:46.in the last couple mums the economic outlook has turned bleak
:13:46. > :13:52.and it looks like Japan's economy is heading back into recession. In
:13:52. > :13:56.September Japan reported the worst trade figures in more than 30 years
:13:56. > :14:01.with 10% fall in exports in one month. Factory output in September
:14:01. > :14:06.fell by more than 4%. Japan's economy is being hit from three
:14:06. > :14:11.sides at once - firstly from the eurozone crisis meaning people are
:14:11. > :14:14.not buying Japanese products, secondly the high yen, making
:14:14. > :14:18.Japanese products expensive overseas, and thirdly most recently
:14:18. > :14:23.from the political crisis with China meaning people in China have
:14:23. > :14:28.suddenly stopped buying Japanese products. The Bank of Japan feels
:14:28. > :14:32.it has no alternative but to flood the market with cheap money in the
:14:32. > :14:35.hope of boosting domestic consumption here at home. The
:14:35. > :14:39.trouble is this so-called quantitative easing has been tried
:14:40. > :14:45.many times in Japan and economists say it simply doesn't work.
:14:45. > :14:51.latest figures from Spain show it is certainly stuck in recession.
:14:51. > :14:55.Economic growth shrank by 0.3% in the three months until September,
:14:55. > :15:05.the fifth consecutive contraction. Inflation figures show the cost of
:15:05. > :15:13.
:15:13. > :15:18.living is getting more expensive $:/STARTFEED. Thank you for a
:15:18. > :15:28.watching BBC World News, still to come: It is dawn coming over the
:15:28. > :15:29.
:15:29. > :15:35.States where they are beginning to assess the damage from Sandy. Voter
:15:35. > :15:39.fraud is one of the issues worrying the authorities in the US ahead of
:15:39. > :15:49.the presidential election. There are new bills to deal with it. Have
:15:49. > :15:49.
:15:49. > :17:37.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 107 seconds
:17:37. > :17:41.A tiny number at the end. A major airport in northern Japan has been
:17:41. > :17:49.closed after what is thought to be an unexploded Second World War bomb,
:17:49. > :17:52.which was discovered. It was an American one. All 92 domestic and
:17:52. > :18:02.international flights scheduled through the course of Tuesday have
:18:02. > :18:08.
:18:08. > :18:13.been cancelled. More on that story on the website. This is BBC World
:18:13. > :18:20.News, these are the headlines: At least 16 people have been killed in
:18:20. > :18:24.the US and Canada as tropical storm Sandy sweeps in land. Some 50 homes
:18:24. > :18:30.engulfed in flames in the New York suburb of queens. Millions of
:18:30. > :18:35.people are without power or transport. We will stay with Sandy
:18:35. > :18:38.because it has been wreaking damage across the eastern United States
:18:39. > :18:44.and a busy's Tahman Bradley has been following developments in
:18:44. > :18:50.Ocean City in Maryland. Sandy was the monster we feared.
:18:50. > :18:55.The rain has let up, but New York's city was devastated. Sandy made
:18:55. > :19:01.landfall last night in southern New Jersey and Atlantic City was almost
:19:01. > :19:07.wiped out. That city is waking up this morning under water. There is
:19:07. > :19:11.flooding in lower Manhattan. A hospital was evacuated. Hundreds of
:19:11. > :19:18.patents, including small children, had to be rushed out. President
:19:18. > :19:23.Obama called New York a disaster area. We also heard a flood levee
:19:23. > :19:28.breached in New Jersey outside New York. The Stock Exchange is going
:19:28. > :19:34.to be closed for a second, straight day. There are almost 5 million
:19:34. > :19:39.people in the United States without power this morning. There are eight
:19:39. > :19:44.states that will be experiencing snowfall. This was a monster storm,
:19:44. > :19:49.a big system. People are still worried about flooding.
:19:49. > :19:53.It is interesting the way you talk about New York State. Do the people
:19:53. > :20:01.of Mary Langfield perhaps in some small way they have got away with
:20:01. > :20:05.it? I would not say that because right now people have not gone out
:20:05. > :20:10.to survey the damage. We well know the impact in the days to come.
:20:10. > :20:14.There was a lot of flooding and there are a lot of people trap. And
:20:14. > :20:18.number of people took refuge in shelters and left their homes, but
:20:18. > :20:24.we will have to see how devastating this was after the storm blows
:20:24. > :20:31.through. At least six people are reported to have been killed in a
:20:31. > :20:36.raid by the Syrian air force. The strike hit a town 300 kilometres
:20:36. > :20:41.north of Damascus. Yesterday there were more than 60 air strikes
:20:41. > :20:46.across the country. There has been fresh fighting between the two
:20:46. > :20:50.sides close to the Turkish border. Our correspondent joins us from
:20:50. > :20:57.Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon. It feels like it goes from bad to
:20:57. > :21:02.worse. That is exactly the phrase the special UN and Arab League
:21:02. > :21:09.envoy used yesterday in Moscow. He said it is bad, and it is getting
:21:09. > :21:14.worse. What we are focusing on at the moment is the strike on a town
:21:14. > :21:20.on the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo in the north, a
:21:20. > :21:28.very strategic town. Now it has been heavily bombarded by war
:21:28. > :21:30.planes. There is some very distressing video on the internet
:21:31. > :21:35.showing a newly demolished building with people scrabbling to pull dead
:21:36. > :21:40.children out of the building. Later it shows the bodies of six people
:21:40. > :21:44.laid out, presumably on the mosque floor, five of them children.
:21:44. > :21:48.Civilians are caught up in what is increasingly becoming a very
:21:48. > :21:52.vicious military struggle between the opposition and the Government
:21:52. > :21:56.with both apparently believing they can win and pulling out all the
:21:56. > :22:02.stops and showing no sign of heeding calls for a halt to the
:22:02. > :22:07.violence and they start to talks. Was this particular attack of
:22:07. > :22:13.particular strategic significance or just one more or in an ongoing,
:22:13. > :22:19.bloody conflict? It is both, but it is a strategic target. It is a town
:22:19. > :22:24.which straddles and controls the major strategic highway linking the
:22:24. > :22:29.country's two big cities. If you do not control that, you find it very
:22:30. > :22:33.difficult to move on the ground between the two cities. We always
:22:33. > :22:38.said until those cities got caught up in the conflict, the Government
:22:38. > :22:41.would not be in danger. But they are both very much caught up and
:22:41. > :22:47.they are providing the bulk of the casualties and that is why it is
:22:47. > :22:52.such a strategic place to control. The former Serbian army chief
:22:52. > :22:55.Momcilo Perisic is appealing his conviction for crimes against
:22:55. > :22:59.humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
:22:59. > :23:03.Yugoslavia in the Hague. He was the chief of staff in the Yugoslav army.
:23:03. > :23:09.He was found guilty of aiding and abetting the shelling of the
:23:09. > :23:14.Bosnian capital Sarajevo. He maintains he was not aware of all
:23:15. > :23:17.responsible for any atrocities. The heads of five major
:23:17. > :23:21.international financial organisations are gathering with
:23:21. > :23:26.the German Chancellor in Berlin. They will be voicing their concerns
:23:26. > :23:31.about the continuing world economic slowdown. They include the leaders
:23:31. > :23:36.of the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the IMF. In
:23:36. > :23:41.Germany unemployment figures have just been released along with the
:23:41. > :23:46.Labour Organisation statistics due out in a few hours' time. Plenty of
:23:46. > :23:49.information at their fingertips. Steve Evans is in Berlin and told
:23:49. > :23:56.me the German Chancellor was not likely to welcome the message of
:23:56. > :24:00.less austerity being argued for by the leaders. These are the five big
:24:00. > :24:06.umbrella organisations to do with economics. The message coming from
:24:06. > :24:11.them is that you have to think about the pace of deficit-reduction,
:24:11. > :24:18.the pace of austerity, in the light of the circumstances on the ground.
:24:18. > :24:22.The message from the IMF is that if you go too fast with deficit
:24:22. > :24:28.reduction, then you may make the economy that you are addressing
:24:28. > :24:33.even worse and worse than the situation you are trying to cure.
:24:33. > :24:38.The obvious point is Greece where the argument is that by enforcing
:24:38. > :24:44.strict rules you make the patient more ill. That message will come
:24:44. > :24:47.across loud and clear. These five people at the top of these
:24:47. > :24:52.organisations met President Francois as Holland 24 hours ago
:24:52. > :24:57.and made the same case. They were pushing at an open door, he agreed
:24:57. > :25:01.with them. When they meet Angela Merkel it will not be an open door.
:25:01. > :25:05.I'm sure they will be very polite and there will be a lot of
:25:05. > :25:10.listening, but at the end of it all there is no sign of much movement
:25:10. > :25:14.from the German Government. I do not suppose it helps Angela Merkel
:25:14. > :25:20.when we look at the employment figures come out today. Not enough
:25:20. > :25:24.to make her shift, but not comfortable. No, because the
:25:24. > :25:31.argument becomes very real if your own economy is slowing down. All
:25:31. > :25:36.the indications are is that the German economy is slowing down. The
:25:36. > :25:41.rate of unemployment remains the same, but the number is going up a
:25:41. > :25:46.little bit. In other words, the mute and is in the wrong direction.
:25:46. > :25:49.Maybe that will make her think the economy needs a stimulus. Members
:25:49. > :25:54.of the Iranian National Symphony Orchestra say it has been disbanded
:25:54. > :25:58.because of a lack of funds. The musicians have not been paid for
:25:58. > :26:02.three months and it is not cause -- it is not clear if the problems
:26:02. > :26:07.have been caused by Western sanctions or the disapproval of
:26:07. > :26:11.clerics. Afghanistan is hosting its first
:26:11. > :26:14.ever professional boxing bout in the capital Kabul. Millions of
:26:14. > :26:24.Afghans are expected to watch the fight between the middleweight
:26:24. > :26:30.champions. The contest is called fight for peace and will be
:26:30. > :26:34.broadcast live. Let me recap on the main story. 16 people have been
:26:34. > :26:40.killed as a result of Superstorm Sandy which has struck the east
:26:40. > :26:45.coast of America. Around 6 million are up without power. This is the
:26:45. > :26:51.borough of Queens in New York. 50 homes caught fire, they have been
:26:51. > :26:55.destroyed. A quick look at New Jersey. This is where Sandy came in