12/08/2011 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today. At ban on short selling calms European

markets as a turbulent week comes to a close, but is it just short

lived relief? Protest and killings escalate in

Syria, the US Secretary of State says time is running out for its

leader. President Assad has lost the legitimacy to lead and it is

clear that Syria would be better off without him. Police in England

hit back at criticism of their response to this week's riots,

insisting that tactics that were to wear theirs.

When is a reptile not a reptile? Scientists discover a prehistoric

ocean giant may have given birth to live young.

And retake a look behind the scenes of their Marinsky Ballet Company,

celebrating 50 years since its Hello and welcome. It has been a

torrid, turbulent week on the financial markets. Today, after

days of falls and rises, there were signs of tentative recovery on the

European exchanges, after a temporary ban was introduced on an

aggressive form of speculation. The practice known as a short selling

allows traders to profit by gambling that up stock will fall.

The ban was enforced in France, Italy and Belgium comes after falls

in the prices of European banks. A Business correspondent is on the

Financial Week That Was. Monday on the markets and some

short lived optimism. For the first time, the European central bank was

buying European and Spanish bonds. It did not ease the minds of

investors on both sides of the Atlantic. North America's credit

was downgraded and politicians were squabbling over the deficit,

traders were pushing them buttons again. There were wild swings in

London with the FTSE 100 large ring up and down. It was mainly as

investors lost and regained confidence in banks. They index was

up again by the close. Events in Italy did not reassure the

country's lenders, the economy Minister went to the Rome

parliament and insisted on reforms. A leading ally of the Prime

Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said that such cuts were politically

motivated and implied they could bring down the government. The

French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, into jute -- interrupted his

holiday, his finance minister had to deny rumours about the Bank and

the future of the sovereign debt rating. Then, today, traders in

France, Italy, Spain and Belgium walk up to a new street a jacket, a

15 day ban on short selling. This was introduced by countries at a

most rest of a sovereign debt crisis. The message to European

leaders from the markets is that restricting how the trade does not

change the fundamental problem. Without more rescue funds behind it,

a single currency may be near the end of the line in its present form.

Joining me now is financial trader Simon Cawkwell, a veteran of

trading. Less temporary ban is supposed to give pause for breath

and to calm things down. Is the wisdom in that? I doubt it. Why?

The problems that are now being faced by the markets are or nothing

to do with short selling. What would you identify as the key

problems? It is the failure to organise the you properly -- EU

properly. These problems are now coming over to roost. The short

seller is really a convenient a villain. I can assure you, we short

sellers are sweet this and light! am sure you are! The case has been

made that short selling increases volatility, turbulence in the

markets and what is needed is stability. I do not think there is

any evidence that short selling increases volatility. It is just

that when things are moving quickly, people seek an explanation, unable

to devise their own answers, they try to vilify others. There could

be a case that if you're identifying the weakness of the

bank's by banning short selling, you increase the vulnerability.

is against the law to tell an untruth. That is about a bank or

any stock market. Anybody who lies runs to risks, one is you might be

prosecuted, and the other problem he would face is that you would

probably lose money on the position. Short selling is a vicious game if

you are so stupid as to just invent arguments. You're talking to us

about your views of politicians, not up to the complexities of the

market, do you think there is a problem with the political class

not getting it? I think there is little doubt that the EU has been

developed for decades as an allusion. I am sure the motives of

those who developed the illusion where beyond reproach. I am afraid

their methods, many of them extremely underhand, are now

officially seen for what they are. What, as a financial insider, would

be your advice if you were to give them your best advice on making the

Euro-zone more efficient? I would be rather more modest about the

reasonable aspirations for the Euro-zone, and I would also make

clear, when it my position to do so, that the time has come for people

to be rather more sensible, more practical, less high-flown. Just

dealing with basic matters economic cliff. That is the political task

and it is going to take a long time, that is only way these matters will

be resolved in the longer term. am sorry we have got to keep his

brief, thank you for coming in. A US Secretary of State, Hillary

Clinton, has are urged other countries to get on the right side

of history as she put it, by cutting ties with the government of

Syria. Demonstrations against President Assad took part in many

parts of the country following Friday prayers. Security forces are

alleged to have killed 10 people. Despite a five months in the firing

line, the Serie up -- Syrians still pour onto the streets demanding vet

regime must go. This appears to be from today. Live a fire can be

heard. Report of protests across the country. Other snatched

pictures show plainclothes security forces killing civilians. This has

prompted the United States to step up the pressure to increase

sanctions against President Assad. Washington is tiptoeing around the

question should it caught directly on President Assad to go? So far it

has short just sort of that. The United States is are urging India,

China and Russia to stop arms and other sales to Serie up and are

urging Europe to stop buying their energy. We are just those countries

still buying Syrian oil and gas, those countries still sending

President Assad weapons, those countries whose political and end

up -- economic support give him, but in his brutality to get on the

right -- right side of history. President Assad has a lot -- lost

the legitimacy to lead and it is clear its area would be better off

without him. The European view is that refusing to by Syrian oil and

gas would hit ordinary Syrians are harder than the regime. Some

supporters of Syrian opposition seek tougher sanctions other way

forward. Perhaps if the EU gets on board, with the sanctions, that

might concentrate the mind of President Assad to stop killing

people and perhaps a reach some kind of settlement. For now at the

Syrian regime it shows no sign of changing course. It is still

relying on force against largely peaceful protest and judging

violence to be the only way to hold on to power.

Let us look at some of the day's other news. Hundreds of thousands

of demonstrators have been out on the street in many cities in Yemen.

Tens of thousands rallied in the capital Sanaa, calling for

Presdient Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. Supporters of the

President called out for a counter- demonstration. Anti-government

protests he plays and other cities. Presdient Ali Abdullah Saleh has

been in Saudi Arabia since June when he was wounded in an attack.

A quarter and then Netherlands has sent his 25 Sonali price at --

Priory is to jail. The men were arrested in 2010 by a Dutch navy

patrol in the Gulf of Aden. They had been involved in the hijacking

of a South African yacht of the Tanzanian crop -- yacht -- coast.

A state owned company in China says it is recalling all high-speed

trains for safety check. This follows a collision area the month

in which 40 people were killed. The Chinese government has ordered a

temporary halt to the approval of new highs to beat we were projects.

The father President of the Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, has failed to

secure her release. She is on trial for an abuse of power. She was

arrested last week after she disrupted court.

Thousands of Rangers and volunteers and Sri Lankan are carrying out the

first at Phil senses of its dwindling wild elephant population.

Sri Lankan has closed dollars National Party to his for the

three-day senses and has sent thousands of wildlife workers,

farmers and villagers to more than 1000 locations across the country

to count their elephants. Police officers have hit back at

suggestions that it was their intervention of politicians that

proved decisive in their handling of the riots and looting around

England earlier this week. After criticism of their tactics, senior

officers today is said they had faced a unique situation and that

they alone had been responsible for a shift to more robust policing.

1,600 people have been arrested so far, half of those having appeared

in court already. Our Home Editor looks at the political and police

response to the right. A week after the riots began, there

has been a public row as they seek who was to blame. Their acting head

of Scotland Yard made a remark about the criticism of their police.

I think after any event of this, people always make common... It is

clear that many senior officers are furious at suggestions that police

only got their act together when politicians bang the table. Let us

be clear on one thing, there is a vital distinction between policing

and politician -- politics. The police will make their decisions,

we must be held to account. Yesterday, government ministers

accused police of putting too few officers on the street, being too

slow to respond and too timid in dealing with the looters. Today,

the Home Secretary had nothing but praise for the police response.

What I except was that the people who got the rights under control

with a policemen and women who were out there on the front line,

dealing with the riots as they were happening. The troubling site of

law and order this week means that for politicians and police alike,

the stakes in this affair remain very high. The politics of the

riots has shifted from condemnation and measures to restore public

order and confidence to broader questions about our culture,

society and our values. The leaders of the three main political parties

in England were all talking about learning the lessons of the riots

today. In the early hours of Monday, police in Brixton were pursuing

looters, today Labour's leader found himself pursued by his

supporters. These people have nothing to lose! They have no

social mobility. We need the Labour Party... The criticism is that

politicians have been too quick to condemn and too slow to try to

understand. Take care. Are the social reasons for this? Of course.

Should you not discuss this? we're not just talking about

criminality. We have got to restore disorder and make clear we will

never do excuse what happened. Excusing is not the same as

explaining. We have now got to try and explain what happened.

Tuesday, police station in Nottingham was firebombed. Today,

the Lib Dem leader paid a visit and suggested it pose important

questions. We have got to ask ourselves why an 11-year-old girl

or young teenagers feel that they have got so little stake in their

own neighbourhood and community, so little sense of belonging, that

they go around trashing it. central Manchester was the scene of

widespread looting on Tuesday night. Tonight the Prime Minister was in

the city to meet emergency services before appearing on the BBC. David

Cameron was asked whether will there was a different city greedy

looters and greedy bankers and People who cheat in banking should

be punished. MPs who cheat on their expenses should be punished. There

are MPs who are in prison and rightly so. Responsibility is the

most important word in politics. It cannot be used as an excuse.

huge extra police presence will remain this weekend. No one would

dare suggest that this crisis is over. The questions are just

beginning. The police watchdog for England and

whales, the Independent Police Complaints Commission has admitted

tonight it may have misled journalists into believing the man

who shot dead by police last Thursday night fired shots at

police. Mark Duggan, who was 29, or shot by officers in Tottenham in

north London. His death sparked the initial riots.

The Prime Minister is looking at Los Angeles, among other places,

for lessons in how to tackle gang culture. The city reinvented its

approach to policing following the riots then nearly 20 years ago.

Alex Leithead has been to South Central Los Angeles to find out how

police tactics have changed -- Alastair Leithead.

A regular afternoon police patrol in gangland, South Central Los

Angeles. This one, no safety, just pull the trigger, something happens.

If I am dead on the ground, feel free to defend yourself. There is

still a lot of tension and violence here, but it is much calmer than it

was nearly 20 years ago when the rioting began at this crossroads

and spread across the city. The fires burned for six days. There

were battles with police, looting and arson. It was sparked by race

after the white police officers who beat a young black man, Rodney King,

were convicted of brutality. But in the chaos, gangs, criminals and

opportunists from all ethnic groups and backgrounds joined in. This man

was a gang member. He regrets what he did but blames the bigger issues.

You have to address down-the-line systematic causes of people's

frustration, where three at his lack of employment, police abuse,

lack of a dip -- adequate healthcare, educational facilities.

This is me in the riots. On the other side of the lines in 1992 was

Commander Andrew Smith. The Los Angeles police made a lot of

changes after the riots. We have made a lot of changes where we work

hand-in-hand with the community. We develop partnerships with everybody

who will work with us from religious organisations to any

member of the public who wants to solve problems. The former LAPD

chief, Bill Bratton, was credited with sorting it out, cutting crime

to an historic low. David Cameron has a keen interest in US law

enforcement and has Met Police in Los Angeles. He is now billing --

bringing Bill Bratton to London as an adviser. Police in Los Angeles

have learnt a lot since the riots almost 20 years ago but there are

still a lot of crime, high unemployment and anger among young

people. The police warned a spark could set it off here again, as it

could in many big cities around the world.

Now, it could be a milestone in dinosaur research. Scientists in

the United States have revealed fossil evidence of a pregnant

plesiosaur which they say proves that the extinct reptile gave birth

to live young, rather than laying eggs. Joining me from Los Angeles

his opponent apologist, one of the researchers who made the plesiosaur

discovery. How excited are you? very excited. It is a truly amazing

fossil. You do not get many chances in Your Career to work on fossils

we try this important scientifically and which are as

beautiful. I understand it was found in a basement. It was sitting

waiting to be excavated, as there were. There are a lot of stories

about fossils like this. I think the public has an idea that we go

out, we get the fossils, take them to the lab. But that is only the

beginning of a long process of preparing the bones, taking them

out, preserving them and getting them ready for display and

scientific study. There was not a lot of impetus to prepare this

fossil and get it ready for a steady until somebody at the museum

decided the future of this fossil was in a new exhibit. This was a

couple of years ago. Just briefly give us an idea about why this

matters for our wider understanding and white is a breakthrough for

you? We have never had a pregnant plesiosaur before. We have known

about them for about 200 years. There has been a great mystery

about how they gave birth, where three it was on land. Finally, we

have an answer to this mystery in the form of this fossil. It solves

a 200 year mystery. How often does this happen? Is it a once in a year

or a once in a decade Discovery, the kind of discovery you have just

made? This discovery is a one in 200 year discovery. We have been

looking at dinosaur fossils and also plesiosaur fossils and I have

seen many Plessey's of fossils and we have never seen a pregnant one

until now. Is the first one. This fossil is unique. That is the core

of its scientific relevance. There is only one of these in the entire

world and this is the only one in Los Angeles. Ute say it it gave

birth to a single offspring, rather than a litter, as it were, are

there any parallels with the whales? Scientifically, that was

the thing which drove the science paper. Lots of other reptiles in

the age of dinosaurs, gave birth to live young, but the Plessey a sore

seems to have done it differently. They gave birth to one large

offspring instead of several. They are more similar to mammals than

the other reptiles. Thank you very much and congratulations. Thank you.

For many, they are the finest ballet company in the world and now

the Marinsky company from St Petersburg is celebrating its 50th

anniversary of performing at London's Covent Garden. Anastasia

Uspensky from the BBC Russian Service was given access to

rehearsals and she went backstage where she met prima ballerinas from

across the generations. Stravinsky's Firebird, one of the

great works in the repertoire of the Marinsky Ballet. This season,

Covent Garden is sold out, just as it was for the Russian company 50

years ago. But for the Marinsky itself under KGB scrutiny, they

were very different days. TRANSLATION: It was a very

difficult year. Rudolf Nureyev sought asylum in Paris. It was

shocking for everyone. Many changes were made. Other people danced his

parts. New people were urgently brought in. A tough negotiations to

bring the Marinsky Ballet, then the Kirov, to London, was the work of

impresarios Lilian Hochhauser and her husband. They had already

brought over Russian musical stars like Shostakovich. The public was

completely wild. Crowds were so in love with them and they still are

today, as you can see what is going on 50 years later. They saw dancing,

the lyricism of the like that they had never seen before. It was

simply wonderful. Russian ballet and Marinsky in particular, has

been amazingly popular in the West since the Diaghilev Seasons more

than 100 years ago. TRANSLATION: We have to stick to our unique style

which the Marinsky is famous for. The style is pier, classical

choreography. Today, no one dances better than the Marinsky.

special beauty of the Marinsky on stage but backstage can tell a

tougher tail. These ballet shoes are very tough on your feet and the

tutus can be very scratchy on the skin. Performer with the Russian

Ballet comes at a price. Viktoria Tereshkina is the start of today's

Marinsky in the Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade. TRANSLATION: It was

always my dream. I have danced the whole ballet repertoire but not

this particular dance. And now finally, the beauty of this

choreography is that I do not dance on my toes. Nothing hurts. So many

changes in the past 50 years. Leningrad is now St Petersburg once

again, Kirov is once again Marinsky. Only the success of Russian ballet

Beautiful. Let's remind you of our main news: At the end of a volatile

week on a global stock exchanges, shares in Europe have ended the day

higher, making up much of the loss since Monday. But shares remain

well below their high of last month. European Bank shares halted their

slide after regulators in France, Italy, Belgium and Spain

temporarily banned some short selling, that is a practice that

allows traders to profit by gambling that the stock price will

fall. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has urged other

countries to get on the right side of history by cutting ties with the

government of Syria. That is all from our programme.

Thank you for joining us. For now, Hello, a slow improvement in the

weather through the weekend. It gets better -- wetter before it

gets better. A good deal of cloud tomorrow. This is the area of low

pressure pursue more weather fronts across the UK. Once they're gone

into early Saturday, not many remaining. Plenty of dry weather to

come. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon for Saturday, we start across

north-east England where there will be some breaks in the cloud for the

afternoon. There will be some bursts of sunshine from time to

time. It will be a breezy day. Less humid than it has been across

southern areas. Still blustery for the sailors at Cowes. Some breaks

in the cloud in the south-west and Some light drizzle in north-west