08/07/2013 BBC World News

BBC World News. Our top stories: Officials in Egypt say at least 40

people have been killed at the army opened fire during a protest by

supporters of deposed President Morsi.

Air accident in the disabling that crashed at San Francisco airport was

approaching too slowly. -- air accident investigators.

It almost missed landing, but it crashed back. If he had lived, none

of us would be here to talk about Pope Francis decries the world's

indifference to African migrants during a visit to the island of

been widely tipped to become the next president of Egypt, Mohamed

ElBaradei, has condemned all violence following the deaths of at

least 40 protesters in Cairo this morning. The former nuclear

negotiator says Egypt is in dire need of reconciliation. The army

says it opened fire because terrorists were attempting to storm

a building. The Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, says its

supporters were fired on without warning, and it has called on

Egyptians to rise up against those who it says want to steal the

revolution. Jim Muir is in Cairo for us. Jim, as you would expect, very

differing accounts, lots of new lines coming in from Cairo in the

last few hours, what are the most important developments? Well, I

think the important thing really is the impact of all of this. Obviously

feelings are running very high, it was already a very polarised and

very bitter stand-off, but there were political efforts to try to

pull it together, to get agreement and consensus on an interim Prime

Minister, for example. You mentioned Mohamed ElBaradei there. But that

had already running to problems, and this will be an even bigger

problem. Practically, it has derailed those efforts to try to

find a political way forward out of this crisis. The country needs to

stabilise and try to get some economic progress, because it is in

a very dire state. Now, Mr Mallard Paradise itself has said that Egypt

is in the direst need of reconciliation, and he called for a

full investigation into the shootings. We are hearing that 40

people have been killed, there will be funerals, more passion, more

feelings rising, more bitterness and so on. And of course the Muslim

Brotherhood's political party has called for what it calls an

uprising, or at least it has called on people to rise up against efforts

by the military to steal, as they put it, the revolution from the

people. Feelings are running extremely high, and they have been

very much aggravated by what happened in the early hours of this

morning. Is this going to be seen as a direct call to violent protest?

No, I would say not, and ostensibly not, but that is not to say does not

going to happen. They say they are entirely peaceful in their

intentions, and there is some video you can see some of their young

supporters hurling firebombs. There are one or two bits of footage which

show people with guns, at least one or two people with guns mingling

with the protesting crowds of Morsi supporters. But they are not really

calling for an armed uprising, no. However, they warning it could come

to a Syrian style situation if things continue to get worse and if

there is no intervention by, I suppose, political parties, but

also, looking to the outside world to put pressure on the new powers

that be, to try to stop this slide towards what could become some kind

of Civil War. That is at least the warnings that are going out, but

they are not calling for an armed uprising, at least on the face of

it. What outside intervention could there be? We have seen the

Salafists saying they are pulling out of talks, struggling to find a

interim Prime Minister in this political vacuum. There is a

dangerous political vacuum, and this is why there is pressure building up

to do something about that. When the Muslim Brotherhood's party, Freedom

and Justice Party, called on the outside world, they may be thinking

of the Americans, who have leverage over the Egyptian military because

they have more than $1 billion pouring into the Egyptian military

every year, to try to use that. But as I say, there are lots of voices,

people like Mr ElBaradei, and so on, calling for a political solution,

saying that violence is not the way forward. So there will be a lot of

efforts going on behind the scenes to try to pull it back from the

brink, really, and try to find some formula to pull the Muslim

Brotherhood back into the political fold, framework, because at the

moment they may not be a majority in the country, but they have a lot of

support, and when blood is shed like this, obviously support tends to

grow, because people wield very strong outrage about the killing of

people in the streets of Cairo. Thanks very much, Jim Muir.

It has emerged that the pilot of a passenger jet which crashed at San

Francisco airport was being trained in how to fly a Boeing 777. The

pilot was highly experienced, but he had less than 50 hours flying time

on a 777 and had never landed one at San Francisco before. 108 people

were injured and two died. The other bodies are investigating whether at

least one person was run over by an emergency vehicle. -- the

authorities. Peter Bowes reports. It is miraculous that 305 out of the

307 passengers and crewmembers on board this plane managed to escape

with their lives. Survivors of the crash have been reliving the moment

that the Boeing 777 crash landed and skidded to a standstill at San

Francisco airport. It was this belief, a bit of chaos, but I think

we managed to get everyone to calm down quickly and started getting

out, not pushing each other and stepping on each other. So it felt

like it went really fast. It was a pretty hard kind of landing. You

know, there was a load my eyes and the whole plane shook. Something

terrible had gone wrong. -- a loud noise. 19 people in hospital, six

critical. The two teenage girls who died were Chinese nationals.

According to education authorities in China, at least 70 students and

teachers were on the plane heading to summer camp in the US. Because of

the crash still is not known, but airline says it does not believe

there was a mechanical failure. -- the cause. TRANSLATION: We bought

this plane in March 2006, so we acknowledge there were no problems

with the plane or its engines. The three pilots of veterans with

experience of more than 10,000 flight hours.

Human error has not been ruled out. The pilots will be the focus of an

investigation by the American transport safety board. Officials

from the federal agency have been combing through the records. They

have also examined the black boxes. Preliminary findings from the flight

data recorder show that the aeroplane was travelling

significantly below its target speed as it was coming into land.

approach proceeds normally as they descend. There is no discussion of

any aircraft anomalies or concerns with the approach. A call from one

of the crewmembers to increase speed was made approximately seven seconds

prior to impact. And 1.5 seconds before impact, someone can be heard

on the cockpit voice recorder calling for the landing to be

aborted. Well, there has been another plane

crashed in the US, this time in Alaska. Police say an egg taxi

crashed at Soldotna airport, killing all ten people on board. It is

thought to have been taking off when the accident happened.

The death toll in a town in eastern Canada devastated by the explosion

of a runaway oil tanker train is expected to rise significantly

today. Fire crews are only now reaching the hardest hit areas more

than two days after the disaster. Five people are reportedly killed,

but 40 are still missing in the town of Lac-Megantic in the province of

Quebec. Matt Ruby reports. Smouldering debris, worrying

questions, how did the train, consisting of five locomotives and

more than 70 oil tanker wagons, break loose and plummet into the

lakeside town? Dozens of people are still missing as firefighters cool

the rubble, the first images of the scale of the tragedy emerging. Each

one of these tankers contained tens of thousands of litres of oil. The

devastation unleashed is plain to see. Buildings were incinerated, a

bustling community transformed into a wasteland. The Canadian Prime

Minister, Stephen Harper, came to see for himself the scale of the

destruction. You know, it looks like a war zone here. The... A large part

of the downtown has been destroyed, it is really just terrible. There

has been loss of life, as we all know, and there are still many

people missing. This was the moment the centre of Lac-Megantic

disappeared below a firewall. the blaze. Acrid smoke engulfed the

area. At least 30 buildings had been destroyed including a bar crowd with

customers. Eyewitnesses told of flowing rivers of fire. A church

stands out in defiance to the billowing smoke. Local people are

only now coming to terms with the catastrophe. Around 2000 people have

been evacuated for safety. The rail company says it is mystified, the

train was part 13 kilometres away with it breaks safely applied. More

questions for the investigators. In India, at least ten people have

been killed after a two story hotel collapsed in the southern city.

Police have said a further 15 people were injured when the building came

down. Rescue workers have been using diggers to pull out people who were

trapped under the debris. The reason for the collapse is not yet known

but local officials said it was quite an old building.

Stay with us on BBC World News, still to come: As Spain's economy

declines, so does the population, as Once it was the American dream, but

now it is the Chinese dream - the Chinese middle class is growing, but

in a society often based on having the right connections, it is easier

for some people do make it than others. Chief business correspondent

showroom here in Chengdu, gleaming motorbikes, they may look like

Chinese outlaws, but they are the Chuanbang motorcycle club. Talk

about the Chinese dream, these guys have achieved it, they are rich.

Andy, Tommy Harmony motorbikes you have. At the moment I have got

four, and I have got another one on the way. All right, tell the truth,

you are rich, you have made it, this is the Chinese dream. Chinese dream,

yes. Can I get a ride?No problem! OK, now I am going to find out what

these guys, the guys who have made it, where they go and hang out. All

right, I am off in search of the good life. And I am holding on

tight. These guys, they mostly speak English, they have the right

connections, they come from the right families. Looking at all these

people around here, a lot of people would love to have what you have,

they are taking pictures of your bike. Do you think that they could

achieve that? Sure, definitely. I always believe that you appreciate

what you have and work hard for something you desire. The thing,

though, that some people may find that because they have the luck, or

they are from the country side, it is harder for them? Well, to be

fair, it is, it is, because of education and also the background,

the connections. But still, now China is a great potential market,

it is very open to the world, and everybody has got a fair chance. It

is just that we are all starting at a different start line. Thank you

very much, Andy, great bike, great company, banks for taking me on the

back. My pleasure. This is BBC World News, I am Geeta

Guru-Murthy, our main story: The Egyptian health ministry says 42

people have been killed at the security forces opened fire during a

protest by supporters of the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi.

Live to Cairo now, because the Muslim Brotherhood are giving a

press conference, the group specifically are called the Brand

For Supporting Legitimacy. Let's TRANSLATION: I would like to show

you some live bullets, the police of the free people of the army, they

did not use them. These are our Egyptian sons, they would direct

man, the people of Egypt are honourable people. TRANSLATION: This

revolution belongs to the free people of the Egyptian army.

They would not use it against Egyptians. You know what the other

army did to them? They killed them. They considered us criminals. We are

used to seeing this in Syria. But the militia want to bring back

military rule in Egypt, but the free men refused to shoot people, and

this is their live ammunition. You can compare the ammunition that was

used against the ordinary people of Egypt. They did not want to shoot

their Egyptian brothers. These are the slaves who have shot their

brothers and killed them while they were praying. They were not doing

anything, just praying, train to their Lord to save them from the

bullets. TRANSLATION: May the martyrs rest in peace, . I wanted to

show the whole world what the militia have done to the people. His

blood is sustaining this camera. The Egyptian people cannot believe the

lies of the militia. He was trying to convey the truth.

We are going to live that press conference there. That was the Front

for Supporting Legitimacy, part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of the

leadership are still being detained, but there are number of

different factions within the Brotherhood who have been

communicated. They are saying down with Al-Sisi, the head of the Army,

saying Al-Sisi is a criminal, pointing to a camera and bullets

which they say were fired by the army and people were doing nothing,

just praying. One of our other correspondence in Cairo has also

said that there are fears that Egypt is on the brink of a devastating

civil conflict, with heavy loss of life already and more violent

inevitable. All hope of political dialogue is evaporating.

We move now to the Pope. Bob Francis is making his first official trip

outside Rome today. The Pope has commemorated African migrants who

have drowned at sea, tried to reach Europe. On a visit to the Italian

island of Lampedusa, you boarded a coastguard boat and sailed out from

the harbour, accompanied by dozens of other craft. The Pope through a

wreath of yellow and white flowers, the colours of the Vatican, into the

sea and prayed in silence. I spoke to our Rome correspondent and asked

him why the Pope chose Lampedusa is the place for his first official

trip outside Rome as Pope. It is a quick trip. He will be back in Rome

by lunchtime. He wanted to show solidarity with the Africans who for

years have been trying to cross the editor Roni and to reach the shores

of Europe and start a new life here. Without documents, they often

end up in an Italian reception centre in conditions of extreme

misery. The Pope feels that this is a story which has been neglected not

only by the church, but by the media, and he is happy that the

media are present data show the extent to which the people of

Lampedusa have had to adapt to this influx of Africans who have in

arriving for years. Many of them have drowned along the way.

China's new president Xi Jinping made fighting corruption one of his

top priorities, and now that ledge is beginning to yield results. The

country's former Railways Minister, Liu Zhijun, has been given a

suspended death sentence after being convicted of robbery and abuse of

power. China's state news agency says he took more than $10 million

in bribes over two decades. He was once one of the most powerful

men in China, but now he is a prisoner of the state. Liu Zhijun

was hailed as a father of china's high-speed rail network. Seen as a

symbol of the country's dazzling development, the project is now

mired in corruption. The former Railways Minister was found guilty

of taking millions of dollars of bribes. He received payments in

return for giving associates lucrative contracts. China's

high-speed rail network is the longest in the world. Built at

breakneck speed, it cost billions of dollars. But two years ago, a deadly

crash triggered a public outcry. 40 people were killed after two trains

collided. The public accused authorities of a cover-up. They also

blame corruption for compromising safety. Since taking power,

president Xi Jinping has vowed to crack down on corrupt officials. He

has warned that corruption threatens the Communist Party's whip on

power. The former Railways Minister has now received a suspended death

sentence. The president will hope that sentence sends a signal, but it

may do little to reassure a deeply sceptical public.

A coroner in Singapore has ruled that an American engineer who was

found hanged in his apartment last year committed suicide. Shane Todd

had been working for Singapore's Institute of microelectronics. His

family believe he was murdered because of his work, which had both

civilian and military implications. The verdict of suicide in this court

was, as Shane Todd's parents predicted, a foregone conclusion.

They had sought to show that their son had not killed himself, but died

due to foul play. I could show you more. The literature on his neck.

They allege that he was killed due to a project he did here at the

Singapore Institute of Microelectronics, a claim the firm

denies. The case took a dramatic turn when his parents walked out of

the inquest in its second week, saying they no longer had confidence

in the system. During the inquest, their key witness, a medical

Examiner from the US, revised his position that Shane Todd could have

strangled to death. It also emerged that Mr Todd suffered from

depression and was described as being under stress in the weeks

leading up to his death. The coroner's verdict concluded that

Shane Todd kill himself due to a deep sense of failure which was

magnified by his depression, and that he committed suicide by hanging

himself. The story took on political guy mentions. Singapore has

categorically denied the allegations made by the Todd family. We had an

FBI report presented. Experts from the US came to testify on what they

thought was the cause of death. The family was able to call the

witnesses they wanted. The entire trial process was opened to the

public and the international media. Even though the Todd family were not

present at the courthouse, their legal team were. They say, we are

disappointed but not surprised by the coroner's verdict of suicide. We

had great expectations because we were told there would be an open

finding. There had been expectations that the Singaporean police force

would be mentioned in their handling of the body. The Todd family accuse

them of failing to preserve evidence and assuming he had killed himself

when they investigated his death. A coroner's inquest looking into cases

of unnatural death is a routine process in Singapore, but the case

of Shane Todd was anything but routine. It reached the highest

levels of US and Singapore government. Even though the verdict

today cannot be appealed, the Todd family have indicated that they will

continue to seek answers behind their son's death.

Was ill has requested clarification from the US government about reports

that American intelligence agencies monitored millions of e-mails and

phone calls from Brazilian citizens and companies. The allegations were

based on documents elected by the fugitive intelligence analyst Edward

Snowden. Torrential rains have caused flooding in China.

Water rose to three metres above normal in some places. Firefighters

used boats to rescue trapped people. A tribal king in South Africa says

he is removing the grandson of Nelson Mandela from his post as

chief. He is doing the expelled from his duties because of a family feud

over the burial of three of Nelson Mandela's children. Staff at Taipei

Zoo have been celebrating the birth of a baby panda.

Yuan Yuan delivered the cover safely on Saturday night. She and her

partner Tuan Tuan were given to Taiwan as a gift by China five years

ago, and the authorities in China have said they are happy that the

sofar unnamed female baby cub to remain in Taiwan. It is likely to be

shown to the public in three months time will stop it is of course

incredibly difficult to breed pandas in captivity, so it is fantastic

news that there has been a successful pairing. We look forward

to finding out the name of the baby. Our top story: In Egypt, the Muslim

Brotherhood have called on people to rise up against those who want to

steal their revolution, following the deaths of at least 40 people

outside a military building in Cairo. Their funerals will begin

later this today will stop I must apologise for one brief shot that

was slightly upsetting to people who might have seen it during the press