30/10/2012 BBC World News


30/10/2012

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Sandy strikes the US - the storm kills 16, and a tidal surge washes

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through cities on the East Coast. Millions of people are without

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power. President Obama declares a major disaster in New York State.

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And the storm sparks fires as well as flooding - at least 50 homes in

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the borough of Queens are destroyed by flames. Welcome to BBC World

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News. Also in this programme: As the economic slowdown continues,

:00:45.:00:55.
:00:55.:01:07.

financial heavyweights meet in People on the east coast of America

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are waking up to assess the damage after Superstorm Sandy swept across

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the region with hurricane-force winds. 16 people have been killed

:01:15.:01:20.

as a result of the storm and around six million are without power.

:01:20.:01:23.

President Obama has described the situation in New York State as a

:01:23.:01:28.

major disaster. In New York City, a fire has destroyed at least 50

:01:28.:01:30.

homes in Queens and a million residents have been evacuated.

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Three towns have been flooded in New Jersey after a flood levee

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broke. Emergencies have also been declared in Massachusetts,

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Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. An estimated fifty

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million people could be affected by the storm across the US. The city

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that never sleeps, plunged into darkness. A perfect storm of strong

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wind, high tides and a surge of sea water has paralysed lower Manhattan.

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Overnight, water was pouring into underground car parks. This picture

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shows the flooding of a subway station through the lift shaft. No

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one has seen anything like this before. What the hell is this?

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Water is not the only danger - a power station exploded on the

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eastern side of the city. Elsewhere fires broke out in terrifying

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scenes, like this one in the borough of Queens. 50 homes were

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destroyed as firefighters struggled to stem the blaze. They have to use

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boats to rescue people. There was a head wind blowing across. Three

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buildings have collapsed with numerous civilians trapped. We

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could not get any apparatus down due to the chest-high water. A many

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people were told to stay at home, stock up on candles and food.

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call 911 unless it is a real emergency, and don't drive. There

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are coast of New Jersey was the first of the eastern seaboard to

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feel the full force of the hurricane. It also brought heavy

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snow. Large sections of Atlantic Avenue in the heart of Atlantic

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City were starting to become submerged under water. Hit a still

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pitch-dark and too early to know the full extent of the damage.

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Further up the east coast, this was near Connecticut - falling trees

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have added to the dangers. Many have taken refuge in emergency

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shelters. The Red Cross is operating over 100 shelters all

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Longleat east-coast so prior to right now is making sure the

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shelter efforts are in a safe place. Millions are now without power no

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one can predict when the lights will come back on. Wall Street is

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to be closed for a second day. The cost to the economy is already

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estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.

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Ben Thompson is in our New York office, in fact he stayed there

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overnight. I asked him if things were looking up. We are at 33rd

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Street, halfway up Manhattan, but I have just been outside and if you

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look downtown towards lower Manhattan large parts of the city

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are in total darkness. It seems that the power that is done in

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blocks and grids has gone off to around 30th Street so large part of

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the city in total darkness and that is because water got into the power

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stations. We saw sparks and explosions really lighting up the

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skyline of Manhattan for all the wrong reasons. That was as water

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got into the power generation facilities, and we have also heard

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that transport infrastructure is bearing the brunt of this. Seven of

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the tunnels that connect Manhattan to Brooklyn on the subway are

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submerged, and many of the roads surrounding lower Manhattan are

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also under water. A short while ago we had some pictures from Times

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Square with the neon light shining bright, even some taxes motoring

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around. I presume the message none the less - we have the pictures

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again here - I presume the message is just don't go out unless you

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absolutely have to? Yes, Times Square again is maybe 10 blocks

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north of where we are so it seems like the problems are in this lower

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to midtown area at the lower end of Manhattan. The message from the

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mayor once again was to not venture outside. They need to keep the

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streets clear for emergency vehicles to get to the people that

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really need help because power is off in various places. A lot of the

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cities in residential areas is underwater so people are

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effectively trapped in their buildings without power. They say

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don't venture out to look at the state of devastation of your

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neighbourhood - stay inside and stay tuned into your radio or

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television. The emergency services need to assess the scope of the

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damage. Joining me now from north Virginia is addressed helping with

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the clean-up. What ideally would you like to be able to do today?

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Ideally we would like to be able to identify some of the hardest-hit

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areas and mobilise our team here from Virginia to get to those areas.

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We don't expect to be responding - fortunately we passed with little

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incident here. We want to go to the hardest-hit area, and our team goes

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to areas where trees have fallen on rooms, waterproofing rooms so rain

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can't get in. This morning we will be looking for the hardest-hit

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areas and seeing how we can get there. They message coming from

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further up the coast is don't go out, stay Ian, look after

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yourselves, be careful. Do different rules apply for you?

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Operation Blessing co-ordinate closely with local officials and we

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have credentials allowing us to move in and out of restricted zones

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so we have access to the areas that need our help most. You have seen

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the pictures, David, they are in some cases quite extraordinary. How

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have you taken this in? It is shocking to see what has happened

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to the north of us, especially in New York and New Jersey. We are

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used to seeing this type of destruction across the US. We get

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hit by hurricanes every year and this response of the time. We are

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used to going out on clean-up operations on that is what we will

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:08:48.:08:49.

be starting today. Thank you. Now a slightly different

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perspective on the same story. Absolutely - the cost. It is

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difficult to estimate insurance losses but groups are already doing

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this. Insurance claim losses come very between five-$10 billion. The

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economic cost could go up to $20 billion. The problem is when you

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have two days, Furlan unprecedented, when you have the New York stock

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market closed you get financial pressures starting to build,

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starting to mount. People have to do transactions, trade has to be

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done. We heard the figure of two does closure not happening since

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1988, a gain due to adverse weather. We know that banks' trading

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officers will be losing revenue over these two days, that more

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mount into the tens of millions of dollars, but also the cancellation.

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We are in the middle of the season when the companies say how they

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have been performing, a lot of cancellations on those. Burger King

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as an example. Earlier I spoke to the director of Control Risks, he

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was explaining some of the strategies businesses are putting

:10:05.:10:11.

in place to cope. Those big organisations, particularly in New

:10:11.:10:16.

York I guess, have plans in order to cope with the range of possible

:10:16.:10:22.

disasters and severe disruptions to their business. The US itself as a

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whole lives in the spectre of Hurricane Katrina and the criticism,

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both political and from a business point of view, that was levelled

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against organisations for their ill prepared nurse, a lot has been done

:10:36.:10:41.

to make the government more resilient, the public sector more

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resilient, and 9/11 for New York, the trauma of 9/11 really made it

:10:48.:10:50.

imperative for New York-based organisation is to have plans in

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place so that something like this, which is highly unusual but we did

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know what was coming, they should be able to cope as best as possible.

:10:59.:11:03.

I guess also for companies it is about taking practical measures.

:11:03.:11:08.

Some reports have suggested some New York-based companies are using

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London operations to keep the wheels going, staff at home doing

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paperwork that they say they would normally not have the time to do.

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Exactly because what has happened in the last few years is this

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nature of modern communications makes it much easier for people to

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do their jobs without coming every day to a fixed central location.

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The other aspect is we are talking about a lot of major international

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organisations and national organisations within the United

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States, they have got to have plans so that if the New York facilities

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closed for whatever reason they can pick that up elsewhere in the US or

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internationally. We saw with the earthquake in Fokker she met in

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Japan and the flooding in Thailand couple of years ago, just how

:11:59.:12:09.
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taught international supply chains are.

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UBS, one of Europe's biggest banks, has confirmed it is axing 10,000

:12:22.:12:27.

jobs in its investment banking division. 2500 lay-offs will be in

:12:27.:12:32.

Switzerland, the rest are hitting London and New York. It made a loss

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of around $2.3 billion for the third quarter, compared to a

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billion-dollar profit the year before. The chief executive said it

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was a difficult decision. TRANSLATION: The whole bank must

:12:51.:12:55.

become more efficient to enable us to generate means to reinvest into

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our own business. We will reinvest 1.5 billion over the next five

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years in order to finance our growth.

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The news in Japan, the Bank of Japan has announced its latest set

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to boost the world's third largest economy. $139 billion will be

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pumped into the system from Tokyo. Essentially, this is printing more

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money, and it will be buying assets with that money. It has also said

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it will keep interest rates close to zero, effectively a zero

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interest rate. The reason the Bank of Japan is doing this is because

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in the last couple mums the economic outlook has turned bleak

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and it looks like Japan's economy is heading back into recession. In

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September Japan reported the worst trade figures in more than 30 years

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with 10% fall in exports in one month. Factory output in September

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fell by more than 4%. Japan's economy is being hit from three

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sides at once - firstly from the eurozone crisis meaning people are

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not buying Japanese products, secondly the high yen, making

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Japanese products expensive overseas, and thirdly most recently

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from the political crisis with China meaning people in China have

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suddenly stopped buying Japanese products. The Bank of Japan feels

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it has no alternative but to flood the market with cheap money in the

:14:28.:14:32.

hope of boosting domestic consumption here at home. The

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trouble is this so-called quantitative easing has been tried

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many times in Japan and economists say it simply doesn't work.

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latest figures from Spain show it is certainly stuck in recession.

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Economic growth shrank by 0.3% in the three months until September,

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the fifth consecutive contraction. Inflation figures show the cost of

:14:55.:15:05.
:15:05.:15:13.

living is getting more expensive $:/STARTFEED. Thank you for a

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watching BBC World News, still to come: It is dawn coming over the

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:15:28.:15:29.

States where they are beginning to assess the damage from Sandy. Voter

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fraud is one of the issues worrying the authorities in the US ahead of

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the presidential election. There are new bills to deal with it. Have

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:15:49.:15:49.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 107 seconds

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A tiny number at the end. A major airport in northern Japan has been

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closed after what is thought to be an unexploded Second World War bomb,

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which was discovered. It was an American one. All 92 domestic and

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international flights scheduled through the course of Tuesday have

:17:52.:18:02.
:18:02.:18:08.

been cancelled. More on that story on the website. This is BBC World

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News, these are the headlines: At least 16 people have been killed in

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the US and Canada as tropical storm Sandy sweeps in land. Some 50 homes

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engulfed in flames in the New York suburb of queens. Millions of

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people are without power or transport. We will stay with Sandy

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because it has been wreaking damage across the eastern United States

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and a busy's Tahman Bradley has been following developments in

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Ocean City in Maryland. Sandy was the monster we feared.

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The rain has let up, but New York's city was devastated. Sandy made

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landfall last night in southern New Jersey and Atlantic City was almost

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wiped out. That city is waking up this morning under water. There is

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flooding in lower Manhattan. A hospital was evacuated. Hundreds of

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patents, including small children, had to be rushed out. President

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Obama called New York a disaster area. We also heard a flood levee

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breached in New Jersey outside New York. The Stock Exchange is going

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to be closed for a second, straight day. There are almost 5 million

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people in the United States without power this morning. There are eight

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states that will be experiencing snowfall. This was a monster storm,

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a big system. People are still worried about flooding.

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It is interesting the way you talk about New York State. Do the people

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of Mary Langfield perhaps in some small way they have got away with

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it? I would not say that because right now people have not gone out

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to survey the damage. We well know the impact in the days to come.

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There was a lot of flooding and there are a lot of people trap. And

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number of people took refuge in shelters and left their homes, but

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we will have to see how devastating this was after the storm blows

:20:18.:20:24.

through. At least six people are reported to have been killed in a

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raid by the Syrian air force. The strike hit a town 300 kilometres

:20:31.:20:36.

north of Damascus. Yesterday there were more than 60 air strikes

:20:36.:20:41.

across the country. There has been fresh fighting between the two

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sides close to the Turkish border. Our correspondent joins us from

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Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon. It feels like it goes from bad to

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worse. That is exactly the phrase the special UN and Arab League

:20:57.:21:02.

envoy used yesterday in Moscow. He said it is bad, and it is getting

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worse. What we are focusing on at the moment is the strike on a town

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on the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo in the north, a

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very strategic town. Now it has been heavily bombarded by war

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planes. There is some very distressing video on the internet

:21:28.:21:30.

showing a newly demolished building with people scrabbling to pull dead

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children out of the building. Later it shows the bodies of six people

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laid out, presumably on the mosque floor, five of them children.

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Civilians are caught up in what is increasingly becoming a very

:21:44.:21:48.

vicious military struggle between the opposition and the Government

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with both apparently believing they can win and pulling out all the

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stops and showing no sign of heeding calls for a halt to the

:21:56.:22:02.

violence and they start to talks. Was this particular attack of

:22:02.:22:07.

particular strategic significance or just one more or in an ongoing,

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bloody conflict? It is both, but it is a strategic target. It is a town

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which straddles and controls the major strategic highway linking the

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country's two big cities. If you do not control that, you find it very

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difficult to move on the ground between the two cities. We always

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said until those cities got caught up in the conflict, the Government

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would not be in danger. But they are both very much caught up and

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they are providing the bulk of the casualties and that is why it is

:22:41.:22:47.

such a strategic place to control. The former Serbian army chief

:22:47.:22:52.

Momcilo Perisic is appealing his conviction for crimes against

:22:52.:22:55.

humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former

:22:55.:22:59.

Yugoslavia in the Hague. He was the chief of staff in the Yugoslav army.

:22:59.:23:03.

He was found guilty of aiding and abetting the shelling of the

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Bosnian capital Sarajevo. He maintains he was not aware of all

:23:09.:23:14.

responsible for any atrocities. The heads of five major

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international financial organisations are gathering with

:23:17.:23:21.

the German Chancellor in Berlin. They will be voicing their concerns

:23:21.:23:26.

about the continuing world economic slowdown. They include the leaders

:23:26.:23:31.

of the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the IMF. In

:23:31.:23:36.

Germany unemployment figures have just been released along with the

:23:36.:23:41.

Labour Organisation statistics due out in a few hours' time. Plenty of

:23:41.:23:46.

information at their fingertips. Steve Evans is in Berlin and told

:23:46.:23:49.

me the German Chancellor was not likely to welcome the message of

:23:49.:23:56.

less austerity being argued for by the leaders. These are the five big

:23:56.:24:00.

umbrella organisations to do with economics. The message coming from

:24:00.:24:06.

them is that you have to think about the pace of deficit-reduction,

:24:06.:24:11.

the pace of austerity, in the light of the circumstances on the ground.

:24:11.:24:18.

The message from the IMF is that if you go too fast with deficit

:24:18.:24:22.

reduction, then you may make the economy that you are addressing

:24:22.:24:28.

even worse and worse than the situation you are trying to cure.

:24:28.:24:33.

The obvious point is Greece where the argument is that by enforcing

:24:33.:24:38.

strict rules you make the patient more ill. That message will come

:24:38.:24:44.

across loud and clear. These five people at the top of these

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organisations met President Francois as Holland 24 hours ago

:24:47.:24:52.

and made the same case. They were pushing at an open door, he agreed

:24:52.:24:57.

with them. When they meet Angela Merkel it will not be an open door.

:24:57.:25:01.

I'm sure they will be very polite and there will be a lot of

:25:01.:25:05.

listening, but at the end of it all there is no sign of much movement

:25:05.:25:10.

from the German Government. I do not suppose it helps Angela Merkel

:25:10.:25:14.

when we look at the employment figures come out today. Not enough

:25:14.:25:20.

to make her shift, but not comfortable. No, because the

:25:20.:25:24.

argument becomes very real if your own economy is slowing down. All

:25:24.:25:31.

the indications are is that the German economy is slowing down. The

:25:31.:25:36.

rate of unemployment remains the same, but the number is going up a

:25:36.:25:41.

little bit. In other words, the mute and is in the wrong direction.

:25:41.:25:46.

Maybe that will make her think the economy needs a stimulus. Members

:25:46.:25:49.

of the Iranian National Symphony Orchestra say it has been disbanded

:25:49.:25:54.

because of a lack of funds. The musicians have not been paid for

:25:54.:25:58.

three months and it is not cause -- it is not clear if the problems

:25:58.:26:02.

have been caused by Western sanctions or the disapproval of

:26:02.:26:07.

clerics. Afghanistan is hosting its first

:26:07.:26:11.

ever professional boxing bout in the capital Kabul. Millions of

:26:11.:26:14.

Afghans are expected to watch the fight between the middleweight

:26:14.:26:24.

champions. The contest is called fight for peace and will be

:26:24.:26:30.

broadcast live. Let me recap on the main story. 16 people have been

:26:30.:26:34.

killed as a result of Superstorm Sandy which has struck the east

:26:34.:26:40.

coast of America. Around 6 million are up without power. This is the

:26:40.:26:45.

borough of Queens in New York. 50 homes caught fire, they have been

:26:45.:26:51.

destroyed. A quick look at New Jersey. This is where Sandy came in

:26:51.:26:55.

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