15/06/2011 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today. The Greek Prime Minister offers to

resign and make way for a national unity government. The Greek people

express their anger at more or austerity measures in order to pay

off these huge debt. It is not about me any more, it is

about our children. I do not see a bright future.

Syrian refugees in Turkey vent their anger against the Assad

regime, as the Syrian army prepares to enter another town in the north.

In search of Tripoli's disaffected, we hear he is rarely told stories

from opposition voices in the capital of Libya.

President Barack Obama calls for a ceasefire in Sudan as fighting

intensified amid claims of ethnic cleansing.

There are reports from serious colics, who would not make things

up, that they have been taking people from their homes and killing

them because they are to black. And, the fisherman's Friend now put

to music, D Shipping Forecast becomes an inspiration for a new

Hello. The Greek Prime Minister is between

a rock and a hard place. Greece has run out of money, it cannot borrow

any more unless it hikes up taxes and carries out more cuts, but the

Greek people have had enough of this unpalatable economic medicine.

They voiced their anger in a general strike and a huge street

protests as the parliament debated the new plan. State TV is reporting

that the ruling Socialist Party is now in talks with the opposition

Conservatives to form a national unity government.

The fighting that took place outside Parliament was the most

serious violence seen on the streets of Athens for over a year.

Evidence, if it was needed, that the Greek public cannot take any

more. The indignant movement, which had been holding a peaceful

demonstrations, stood back as the rioters did their work. Nearly

three weeks of continuous protests by the movement have had the

desired effect. According to government sources, the head has

offered to step down, but only on the condition that the new unity

government sticks to the plan put down by the EU. He had always

promised he had the strength to save Greece from economic collapse.

But it appears he was forced to Tell the President he had lost the

support of a rebellious element of his Socialist Party. Chris's

economy is in a parlous position. Its national debt is �300 billion.

It is supposed to be receiving �95 billion as part of a bail-out

package. But the political chaos has put the handouts in doubt. As

well as the hopes of the protesters. It is not about me any more, it is

about our children. I do not see a bright future. The indigo movement

has caught the imagination of the rest of the Greek mainland, and the

islands off. -- the islands. In this fish market, they try to keep

flies off the sea food. It is a metaphor for the Greek economy,

except it is in a more advanced state of decomposition. This

island's prosperity is dependent on visitors from Athens. On first

glimpse, the waterfront looks puzzling. But it is just a facade.

On the street behind, businesses have gone bust, and the full rent

signs are spreading. You will find FIFA it -- 15 different places that

are closing down. Business has been bad. In a backstreet bar,

grassroots activists are stoking up opposition to the government, and

the manner in which it is carrying out the demands of the EU and

International Monetary Fund. What we are trying to communicate is the

fact that we could bypass the parliamentary democracy, without

furnishing it, but creating assemblies that can overall

legislation. Some participants believe they should have become

more vocal a year ago, when Greece received the bail-out. Everybody is

fed up with the economic crisis and the way it has been handled

internationally, because of the solutions are oppressing the people,

and not helping development. How can we pay off debts without being

able to develop? The speed with which the Greek public is losing

confidence in the Prime Minister is exhilarating. For the first time in

years, his governing Socialist Party is lagging behind the

conservative opposition in the polls. The demonstrators may have

won a victory against the Government today, but whether it

benefits them and the longer remains to be seen.

-- in the long run. Joining the from Athens, the

political economist at the University of Athens, Yanis

Varoufakis. The Prime Minister George Papandreou had a lot of

support for his first or austerity plan. Why have people lost faith in

him now? Because it proved a catastrophic disaster. Every single

prediction, every single statement by the Finance Minister and the

Prime Minister was undermined within a few short days after it

was issued. You can for some of the people of the time... -- for what

some of the people... Now, the recession, the crisis, the

investment seizure has been added to a list at also contains a crisis

of political legitimacy. But he always says he did not have any

choice, these measures were imposed upon Greece by the IMF, by the EU,

who have bailed the Greeks out. one sense, a recognised the

conundrum in which he finds himself. He inherited an awful situation

from the previous government. Just when he was finding his feet in

government, the quit kit exploded. But having said that, a political

leader has to make important decisions and take risks. In

accepting 110 billion euro, on condition of austerity, that was a

major assault on reason. Thinking that these huge expensive loan

would solve an insolvency problem, as if it were a liquidity problem.

What is the alternative? If I were to offer you a credit card with a

very high interest rate, to pay back your mortgage, because you are

finding it hard to meet your repayments, you would have been

foolish to accept it. Leaders do not break, they know how to say no

when it is fitting, and it was fitting last year for the Greek

Prime Minister to attend the EU summit and declare what the

situation was, presented to his colleagues in Europe and say, this

is the situation, I am afraid I would have to declare in a few days

or months, perhaps, that Greece is in default. But in that case, if

Greece had done that, would the EU, the IMF and the banks have said, we

are not helping you? If they wanted the Coretta Microsystems to

collapse, that is what they would have said. -- euro system to

collapse. That fear had a major fall in living standards after 2008,

and they stabilised the situation by creating internal devaluation.

Greece is integrated into the banking sector of Europe, and the

contagion that is common to happen if Christie faults, because there

is no way of avoiding it, the system was not designed to sustain

a great Shockwave like that, and it would be history, together with the

living standards of the average person.

Another town in northern Syria is bracing itself for an attack by

government troops. Thousands of people are leaving a Maaret al-

Namaan and its fears of a crackdown. But in nearby Jisr al-Shughour, the

government says things are getting back to normal after troops and

tanks moved in on Sunday, and it is calling on the people to come home.

He signed a fear of a northern Syria. Villagers have set up their

own checkpoints to help protect people fleeing from the regime's

guns. More and more are fleeing. These are Syrians waiting to cross

into the safety of neighbouring Turkey. It is already playing host

to over 8000 refugees, after the miniature crackdown on Jisr al-

Shughour. Amid fears that the town of Maaret al-Namaan is next. More

people on the mood. Based on evidence from refugees and from

human rights groups, the United Nations says at least 1100 people

have been killed over the past three months, and up to 10,000

jailed. International outrage at the actions of Bashar Al-Assad's

regime is growing. We just demanded freedom, this man says, just

freedom. He has killed half his people. Today, an envoy from the

President was in Turkey, which has become increasingly critical of the

Syrian regime. He insisted the refugees will not be in Turkey for

long. Our citizens are here for a short time, temporarily staying

here in Turkey, but soon they will return. We are prepared for them,

and they are returning now, actually. In Damascus, a grand

display of defiance. This is being billed as the world's biggest

Syrian flag. It was unfurled at an organised show of support for the

Government. State TV said it was a sign of the country rejecting

foreign interference, and of the country's cohesion. But elsewhere,

protests have continued. This placard asks if the flight is long

enough to make shrouds for the dead. Images from inside the country

offal to regard, filmed by the protesters. But the full story of

what they are protesting against, the actions of the regime's tanks

and troops, cannot be told, with the international media shoot-out.

-- shot at it. Pakistan says it has obtained several people suspected

of providing information on Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts to the

American intelligence agency the CIA. And on a spokesperson said

most of the alleged informants had been arrested in the garrison town

of Abbottabad, where Osama Bin Laden is said to have been hiding

for years before he was killed last month.

American reports said that the Central Intelligence Agency is

preparing to operate on drone aircraft over Yemen to target all

al-Qaeda suspects could. The Washington Post says the drones

would join at unmanned craft than by the American military.

British banks are being ordered to reorganise in an effort to avoid

the multi-billion dollar financial crisis of three years ago. The

Chancellor George Osborne is to announce later that banks should

structure their businesses so that accounts held by the public are

protected. He has also announced be nationalised Bank Northern Rock

will be tougher sale. In Libya, opposition activists in

Tripoli have told us that Colonel Gaddafi is more unpopular than ever.

But he is clinging on to power through intimidation and murder.

Foreign journalists work under strict government restrictions. Our

correspondent has met opposition members, who live in daily fear for

their lives. In a city penetrated by fear and

suspicion, this is the only way to find out what many Libyans are

really thinking. We have given our government minders the slip, but it

is still a nervous journey to a safe house in a Tripoli suburb. The

four young activists I need have also put at the regime's hands, in

one way or another. Friends have been killed, they are tired of the

corruption and nepotism, and they say pressure is mounting on Colonel

Gaddafi to go. Their words are spoken by actors. It is a fight, we

will fight, but not with empty hands. It is crazy to go out,

facing people with guns, and we know what intentions they have.

you think that Colonel Gaddafi will have to go? He is finished already.

He is damaging the country as much as he can, but he is finished.

the early days of the uprising, anti-government protests in Tripoli

were brutally crushed. But people are beginning to find their voices

again. At this recent funeral in the capital, the rebel flag is

raised in open defiance. On this video, which is impossible to

verify, government soldiers stand over dying rebels after recent

fighting in the capital. You dogs, they say, this is revenge. Colonel

Gaddafi's opponents know that Tripoli is still a dangerous place.

I think it is going to be bloody, because he is not going to give up

easy at all. Will we see more How does that make you feel? I am

scared. But I am willing to sacrifice my life for this. You are

willing to do for this? Yes, without hesitation. This is how the

regime portrays things. Fanatical they may be many faces are familiar,

and are fewer in number. Ten weeks of NATO bombing hasn't ousted the

Colonel. From what we have seen, his fortress capital is solid no

longer. President Obama has called on the leaders of northern and

southern Sudan to stop escalating violence in border regions. In a

month's time the oil rich south of Sudan is due to become independent

from the north after decades of Civil War. South Kordofan will

remain under the jurisdiction of the north but some 60,000 people

have been displaced. The US President says both sides must use

talks taking place to secure the peace that their people wanted.

leaders of Sudan and south Sudan must live up to their

Meanwhile the Vice-President of Sudan has been speaking to BBC

Arabic television. He said immediate action is needed to stop

the violence. In southern Kordofan we would want to see there is

ceasefire and the presence of the UN, UN forces is also felt by the

people, so that we don't get to a situation where there would be

genocide, ethnic cleansing and situation of Rwanda where you had

witness in the 1990s. We want to avoid this happening, particularly

in southern Kordofan. I have been speaking to Baroness Caroline Cox,

former Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords in Britain who is involved

in an aid charity down in Sudan. I asked what she had been hearing

from her contacts on the ground. Two main things to high light, the

first is the intensity of the fighting against the peoples of

southern Kordofan, they have been suggested to Aero bombardment. The

shelling and bombing of civilian targets and attacked by helicopter

gunship, chasing people like animals, trying to run away, so

there is the Aero bombardment, the military offensives and then there

is the taking from house to house of people and killing them in cold

blood, some of them in front of UN soldiers or peacekeeping troops who

are there to protect the people. Can I get this straight. This is

troops from the north. Attacking people who support

independence of the south? Yes, attacking the people who they

believe support the independence of the south but worry liing, reports

from serious colleagues out there who would not make things up, that

in some cases they have been taking people from their homes and killing

them because "They are too black." The people are a African people

with a long tradition of African culture and there seems to be an

element of ethnic cleansing as well as military terrorism. That is a

strong phrase to use. Yes. It is coming from several different

sources and all of them reliable. That is worrying. When I was in the

mountains last time, the people there are partners who are mountain

people, Christian an Muslim, they were worried that one of the

results of their coming under the control of Khartoum would be a very

racist agenda, they would lose their African identity, so it does

seem as though that is one sad element of a bigger picture which

is the military offensive and the terrorising of the people of

southern Kordofan. So they feel in the run-up to independence for the

south, that the north is trying to clear people like them out of the

country and shove them over the border south? Very much so.

Estimates are up to 60,000 people who have had to flee one of the

main towns, and other owns and villages, many are hiding in caves.

It is rough terrain in the mountain, they suffered all this in the early

90s. 500,000 perished in that war. It's a rerun of the horror, hiding

in caves. You can't get water. If they are not in there it is rainy

season. A lot of the access routes have been cut off so the reports

coming in of people dying from humanitarian crisis as well as from

the military offensive. It is a real catastrophe. Do you fear that

independence of southern Sudan could be derailed by this fighting?

Well, that is a real fear, July 9th is when they are looking forward to

celebrating their independence but of course we have had the horrors

when that dis-- disputed area is being grabbed by northern forces

and captured. We have southern Kordofan, they are Blue Nile, that

might become vulnerable. All this seems to be a serious policy of

Khartoum perhaps to destabilise the region, and therefore by to

destabilise southern Sudan on the border and make that declaration of

independence precarious, think the sunners want their independence,

they will try to go for it but these are serious aspects in the

run up to that critical historic day. Briefly, President Obama has

called today for a ceasefire, do you think that will have any

effect? I hope it will. I have been asking the House of Lords this

afternoon when the British Government will raise at the UN

Security Council is need for much more effective UN action for those

peacekeepers to stop looking on, and to do something, to help

provide some peace, and the local people are asking desperately for a

no-fly zone to protect them from this constant aerial bombardment.

Baroness Caroline Cox. Now, economies in Asia have seen

dramatic changes over the past 30 year, and that change is affecting

power relationships in the region and beyond. If NATO is a western

security alliance, how are countrys in the east getting together to

form similar ties. Rayhan Demytrie reports from Kazakhstan which is

playing host to the Shanghai Co- operation Organisation. Police in

full dress. Keeping tight security across the city for the Presidents

of China, Russia and central Asian republics. Their countries are

members of the Shanghai Co- operation Organisation. A regional

security alliance, which Iran, Pakistan and India are also keen to

join. Military drills are at the core of this grouping. A fight

against what it calls three evils, terrorism, extremism and separatism

is the declared goal. For China that means a close focus on what it

sees as activism in its western region and handing over suspects is

part of the deal. Central Asia home to a large ethnic community. But

this activist says Kazakhstan extradited a man who fled China

after riots there. Through its ties says this activist, China is now

putting pressure on them across central Asia After all... I was

supposed to attend the Congress in the States but was stopped at the

airport. The authorities prevented me leaving the country. Unlike in

western alliances human rights is not a priority for the members. Its

non-westernness makes it a point of interest for Iran while other

states believe it has the potential to play a greater role in regional

stability. As you know the Americans have announced a

timetable to withdraw, then we will knee some other organisation to

step in, that could be the SEO. Shanghai Co-operation Organisation

is not yet the NATO of the east but with so many countries keen to join,

some analysts believe it could one day change the global balance of

power. BBC Radio 4's shipping forecast is intended to a to be a

vital res for for crews to prepare for bad weather on the high seas

but among non-nautical devotees it has a great following. It is a

hypnotic mantra that can send do you sleep. Our correspondent has

been finding out how it has become the inspiration for a new piece of

music. Fair Isle, Faeroes. South- east Iceland. Shaning. Rockall.

Become north-easterly five. Cromarty, variable four, occasional

rain, moderate or good. The shipping forecast, a daily reminder

of the hazards round this windswept island but to some it is also

poetry. It is rhythm. It is strange words, words depicting amazing

spectacular places. I think our imagination jumps over the words

and visualises some of those places. Fair Isle. Faeroes. And now it is

the inspiration for this new musical work by the composer

Cecilia McDowall, who like many others find the forecast both

beautiful, and baffling. Lundy. Fastnet and Irish Sea. There is

great beauty in the rhythm. Very poe tick, but there is also this

baffling thing I don't understand it. And of course, now falling

sometimes good, all these thing, I know they mean something to

somebody but even though they don't mean anything to me, I enjoy them.

High Biscay slow-moving with little change. Indeed for most of us the

shipping forecast is when we hear it on the radio, a bit of a mystery.

Five to seven in the south-east later. Those words, the reassuring

almost poetry of it out here mean rather more. And for Alan Gick the

skipper of the Alice, a Thames stale -- sailing barge, it is

better than any high tech gadgetry I listen to it at sea. I listen to

it less on shore, because obviously you have got computerised

technology to give you the stuff, but it gives a kind of reassuring

view that people are still doing the same thing, and still collating

the weather and telling you about it. Somehow the electronic stuff is,

doesn't have the same meaning. Dogger. So why it is for Port

mouth's festival choir poetry, the shipping forecast out here means

rather more. A quick reminder of the main news tonight. Greece is

faith facing a deepening political as well as economic crisis, reports

that the Prime Minister George Papandreou has offered to step down

after a day of violent protests over a planned austerity programme.

Hello, we have had a different feel to the weather. It has been

dominated by the cloud and showers. The showers return tomorrow where

they will be more widespread heavy and we are looking at thunderstorms

at times. We are losing the weak weather front but the low continues

to dominate as we look through Thursday's forecast. It will be

driving in showers which will get going as we head through the

afternoon, with only occasional glim others brightness at times. As

we look towards the afternoon for cast, 17 degrees on the face of it

doesn't feel too bad but of course if you get caught in the wet

weather et it will feel colder. You can see plenty of showers, round

the coast it may be a better chance of seeing drier weather at times.

The showers will be blown inland. Cardiff's temperatures 16, given

some afternoon sunshine, round about 18 in Manchester. For

Northern Ireland, we have a fair amount of cloud again, showers here,

most of them out to the north and west. Belfast seeing some decent

spells of dry weather. A lot of cloud in a good part of Scotland as

well. Through the Grampians again, another favoured spot for seeing