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>> another deadly day in the iraqi capital. a wave of bomb explosions across baghdad, killing more than 40 people and injuring hundreds of others. britain and france joined forces on defense concerning spending cuts, achieving what diplomacy could not. >> this is a treaty based on pragmatism, not just sentiment. i would like to thank nicolas for taking these old and important steps. parcel bombs?sent congtrol of the -- control of the senate may change as americans cast their ballots in midterm elections.

hello and welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. there have been 12 explosions across baghdad. most of them in she ia districts. 40 people are believed to have been killed. 320 have been wounded. the number of local dead could be much higher. i spoke to our correspondent and he said the last two days have been dark ones for iraq. >> we had that horrendous situation close to hear where the conversation is taken hostage and these security forces liberated it from the gunmen. there were killed. it is -- has been extraordinary. we have this rash of explosions across baghdad. a dozen bombs going off, mainly

car bombs in a shiite areas. killing and harming as many as as many people was possible. a pretty grim night here. >> it would seem that by targeting shiite neighborhoods, this is an attempt to ignite another sectarian civil war in iraq. are they likely to succeed in doing this? >> i think that the moment. that is one of the goals. also to undermine security and make the government be shaky and make security look not very credible. with two such powerful high- profile incidents in two days, people are starting to feel jittery. one has to keep repeating that the global violence is lower than it was three or four years ago.

around 10 percent of what it was. the general floor is as much as it was. >> friends, neighbors, -- the relationship between france and britain is complex which is why there has been mixed reactions to the signing of new treaties on defense and nuclear cooperation between the countries. the british prime minister said it would make both countries safer. >> marching forward together. british and french forces for the next 50 years. that was the plan unveiled today by a new coalition between the men who call each other david and nicolas. they signed two 50-year trudy's pledging their armed forces to

work together and cooperation on nuclear defense. >> this is not about a european army. this is not about sharing our nuclear deterrence. britain and france are and will always remain sovereign nations, able to deploy our armed forces independently and in our national interests when we choose to do so. >> david cameron stressed what this bill is not. his guest praised his courage and vision. >> it is an unprecedented decision and shows all level of trust and confidence in the cold in history. >> this is what they agreed to today. to form a joint expeditionary or rapid reaction force. british and french troops will train together and could be deployed together under a single commander if both parents agree. british and french nuclear scientists will work together to share the cost of the safety test they carry out. both countries will the terror

-- maintain deterrence. one will always be at sea. it welcomed -- retain control over where -- whether their ship is deployed. >> imagine a situation of britain faces a crisis and they call and say can we use your a aircraft carrier? >> we would jointly commit if we agreed. the idea of having a task force that trains and works together is an excellent idea. in so many parts of the world, we're working together. >> do you imagine our friends could face a crisis so great that it would require them to send out an aircraft carrier and that would not affect france? what i did you have a france? >> the coalition sees france's a friend.

welcome news to labor but not so on welcome -- welcome. >> we cannot have fusion with a country that has different objectives on the world stage. >> we need a guarantee that the decisions to deploy a british forces and military assets are 100% for the british government and not for the french government. >> who would have thought it? yards away from trafalgar square in waterloo station, they have signed treaties which state that for the next 50 years, their forces are likely to battle together. david cameron says today was the part -- the start for this new relationship. >> today's historic agreement between france and britain comes after a centuries of conflict on the battlefield.

the agreement offered hope of closer ties between the nations and it paved the way for today's new chapter in military cooperation. >> some of the fiercest battles were fought in the 14th and 15th centuries. between the hundred years' war. this is a potent signal of english pride and french pain on the battlefield. in the early 19th century, he contemplated an invasion of britain. those ambitions were eventually toward one france left a battle. the last 100 years tell a vastly different story. today's street these have some

of their roots in the agreement won a series of agreements marked a new beginning between the two nations. british and french soldiers fought together in the first and second world wars. in 1956, paris and london launched an ill-fated operation in egypt after the suez canal was nationalized. the british prime minister tony blair and the french president formalized armed forces corp. in 1998 when they signed the military pact with limited practical effect. today, french and british soldiers fight together as part of the nato cooperation -- coalition. from conflict to military cooperation, a trajectory that

most leaders on both sides however visionary might have found hard to predict. >> earlier i spoke to the defense correspondent for the evening standard. i ask him what makes this accord different from previous bilateral deals. >> this time, it is very different. for all the grandstanding and political editors talking, this has got to be put together at the bottom. it is from the bottom up. it is about practical training be prepared to fight together when they need to and sharing assets. there are lot of anglo-french weapons systems out there and it is making them work. where are the only to who capable.re cabl let's make it work together. i think the president and the prime minister have been

[unintelligible] they have written a very vague agreement. apart from nuclear safety. soldiers andng the officials and planners and thinkers who have been working on this for a long time, about two years. >> does that mean the british soldiers will have to learn french? >> i think that is right. we might be surprised to find how many people do speak french and there has been outrageous stuff on the bbc. the numbers of french corpsmen who speak excellent english. this is where the coverage has been rubbish about the 1990's. there was one spectacular success where the british and french took the burden on their shoulders in a rather ghastly set up, they took the most

casualties and they kept the thing going. it was an artillery unit with a british artillery to protect them. it brought the siege to an end. >> given that success, why so much antagonism? >> you are asking me why? i see the french and british working well together. as there with any other unit. what you are hearing is the village chatter. i wish you had given the coverage of the french. "le monde" give this serious study. the french and the brits are determined to make this work.

>> let's take a look at some of the day's other news. he is prepared to die in jail, he said. he was smoking -- speaking at the end of a second trial in which he faces new charges of embezzlement and money- laundering which could keep him in prison until 2017. he said the charges are politically motivated. her employees raise the alarm and it was confirmed it was an explosive device. athe candidate is from the opposition party.

the governoment recently campaigned against discrimination. it has fallen under $2 billion in profit. the new chief is setting aside new -- cash to continue the cleanup and those compensation claims. next, the latest on the bomb plot. after the earthquake and the cholera outbreak, another potential disaster for haiti. a tropical storm could turn towards it by the end of the week, threatening thousands living in camps.

>> january's earthquake in haiti left more than 1 million people homeless. survivors forced to live in crowded makeshift camps ever since. they're struggling to stand up to the force of the hurricane. the u.s. national hurricane center is predicting tropical storm thomas will turn toward haiti by the end of the week and intensify in strength. their claims the government is doing little in the way of protection. >> we learned about the storm by word of mouth. we're living here under tents. >> as a category one hurricane over the weekend, thomas bettered the caribbean, ripping apart homes and knocking down trees and power lines. it is the last thing he needs right now, still recovering from

the earthquake and trying to stem an outbreak of cholera. >> we know that haiti is extremely vulnerable. even heavy rain can make a lot of damage. this is a great concern for the red cross. >> un agencies and aid workers are rushing in emergency supplies to the survivor camps and coastal areas, including shelter materials. the un has said that haiti has agreed to the u.s. [unintelligible] everyone is hoping thomas will weekend and spare haiti. a fragile country which is battling against the power of nature. >> this is "world news" from the bbc. a series of bomb explosions

have killed and injured. the treaties will strengthen defense and corporation. more parcel bombs have been discovered after a number of devices were intercepted. small bombs were discovered outside the swiss sent russian embassies. here is our athens correspondent with details. >> the second circuit -- consecutive day, officers were chasing all over athens after booby trapped parcels. the first one went off to the swiss embassy. their security staff was -- discovered metal and there was an explosive flash as the parcel was being examined. no one was hurt. the second explosion happened at the russian embassy. the bomb squad were on their way

to new -- neutralize the device when it blew up. a bomb was destroyed in a controlled and are -- explosion. similar devices were sent to the german and bulgarian embassies. the police intercepted a parcel addressed to the french president, nicolas sarkozy. the bombers claimed the bombs were --[unintelligible] they were taken to court to be question. they are believed to be part of a group whose intention was to foment revolution. one expert described this coroneted campaign against diplomatic targets as a training exercise by young people who were testing their military capability. he said the operation was comparatively and professional. they had been unable to avoid

surveillance. he believed they were preparing something more serious. >> after a long and at times poisonous election campaign, voters have gone to the polls and how they voted alter the balance of power. the democrats have had control of congress since president obama's victory two years ago. this will slam the brakes on president obama's power and could force the white house to rethink many of its policies, especially on the economy. >> on this chill autumn day, america is voting. we're in north of virginia. the district is on a knife edge. a democratic congressman may lose his seat to and republican challenger. that is a story told across the

country. republicans are staging a comeback. many voters told us their anxiety and frustration with the economy and with politics as a whole. >> things have not turned around as quickly as we anticipated two years ago. >> i am a conservative and i do not care for the way this administration is governing the country. >> we need to change what is going on downtown. that is what i was here to do. >> the early signs are americans are voting not for continuity but once again for a change. the story of this election may turn out to be that certain crucial parts of the electorate became disaffected with president obama and his party and drifted away. >> the only question being asked across america today is how bad will the results before the

democrats? the president released and internet video imploring people to get out and vote. >> you have got a chance to change your community and your country. all you have to do is vote. >> these elections are also verdict on his first two years in office. years of recession, unemployment, more political drama. if republicans take one or both houses of congress, barack obama will find it harder to govern for the next two years. boaters are in volatile moves, swinging between liberalism and conservatism with each election. we think it will be the democratic party that is the targets of their anger. >> the international air transport association which represents more than 200 airlines has warned against the risks of government over reacting to last week's bomb plot. officials are attending a conference and say the world

economy depends on air freight. >> the airline industry has been under. the difficulty of detection of the devices is making executives wreathing policy. airlines have been steadily improving security at airports. with the aim of getting passengers through faster without opening dams in security. bombs in cargo detected through intelligence and not machines is worrying the airline industry. >> one of the things we have to approve is absolutely, this technology. we cannot scan volumes of packages of a certain kind of volume. >> the people who run the industry are arguing that government should not toughen up regulations so tightly that air freight is severely slowed down.

>> we have to strike a delicate balance. the flow of global commerce is key to economic recovery. security cannot bring business to a standstill. >> there is a bleak field within the industry that a truly bad event has only been prevented because of look or a good intelligence by the security organizations or poor execution by the operatives. the bombers themselves. there is also a view in the industry that this book cannot hold. slightly cleverer devices and people would penetrate security. there is a race to keep ahead with some influential people in the industry will be lost -- believe will be lost. >> the middle east is heading for disaster if there is no peace between arabs and israelis. >> much as lebanon stop two

weeks ago for the visit of the iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad. this was a rally close to the israeli border. the other half was suspicious of a man who critics say were [unintelligible] prime minister was in the suspicious half. he said the middle east have changed for the worst and the absence of peace he said was fuelling iran and other anti- western forces. >> you consider hezbollah as a threat and iran as a threat and the three of those were not there in 1991. al qaeda was not there. if we had achieved peace in 1991, we would not be here today. >> do you consider iran to be a

danger in the middle east like your allies? >> iran has influence in the middle east. i think the danger lies in not really achieving a comprehensive peace. what has israel done with the initiative? leaving this peace talks going like they are going today, we're heading towards disaster. >> this bomb attack in beirut in 2005 forced him into a political career. it killed his father, the former prime minister, along with many others. a special tribunal established by the u.n. has been investigating what happened and it is expected to issue an indictment before the end of the year. >> the leader of hezbollah has reacted furiously to reports that members of his movement which is the most powerful military and political force in

lebanon, could be indicted for the killing. all lebanese should cut ties with the tribunal, he said. >> did you give 100% backing? >> yes. >> you're not cutting links with it as hezbollah demanded? >> no. >> it is not dangerous for lebanon or the stability of the country? >> i think much -- more dangerous is not to dialogue about the issues that are difficult. this is one of the difficult issues. >> he will not budge. today, has below warned that indicting its people would be like letting the fuse for an explosion. the time he is spending in london will not be addressed by. lebanon is full of talk of war. either in the region or domestically within the country. he has one of the hottest seats in mideast politics. the next six months will not be easy. >> that is all for the program. goodbye.

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