funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank. >> union bank has put its global expertise to work for a wide range of companies. what can we do for you?

>> and now, "bbc world news." >> clashes in cities across libya 18 anti-government protesters and forces loyal to muammar gaddafi. nato secretary general tells the bbc they are watching events in libya closely but has no plans to intervene. security forces fired tear gas on hundreds of demonstrators after friday prayers. welcome to "bbc world news/" coming up later, in beijing they communist party conference gets under way amid fears of unrest could spread to china. they show must go on. the french fashion house unveils the final collection.

>> forces loyal to muammar gaddafi have been involved in clashes in a number of cities across the country. heavy artillery has been coming from the coastal city. our world affairs editor reports from outside the city. >> so far it has been an unequal contest. the enthusiasm and determination versus training and sophisticated weaponry. yet so far the enthusiasm has been holding up pretty well.

the rebels have captured the airfield outside the city. although they have been forced back a few hundred yards, and they certainly have not been defeated. but they have had to face artillery fire, both of them pretty accurate. all they have to fight back with is ak-47's and rocket launchers. there have been plenty of injuries and some deaths but it is not clear how many. today unlike last wednesday's battle, gaddafi's men had the advantage of fighting on their home ground. the day started with a heavy sandstorm. rebel commanders planned to use

them to beef up their forces and prepare for an attack. with conditions as as this it is not surprising there is no military activity of any kind today. it looks as though both sides wanted to lick their wounds after last wednesday's battle. that turned out to be completely wrong. the commanders brought up some of their properly trained soldiers to take over the front- line posts from the untrained volunteers. the trouble was the volunteers decided to head on down the road towards another city. that left the train soldiers no alternative but to gather their gear and back them up. no preparation and no buildup of reserves. these are volunteers and not trained soldiers.

they are all headed to the city 15 kilometers away from here. you can hear the sound of mortar fire. it was midafternoon and the battle lasted until dark. it will continue tomorrow by which time the rebels will have brought up several hundred more men. the odds will be a bit more favorable. >> the secretary general told the bbc it is preparing for old eventuality is in libya but has no plans to intervene. a decision to implement a new flies down would require a new -- no-fly zone or require a new agreement. >> the fact that the current resolution does not authorize the use of armed forces -- i do believe the introduction and

implementation of a no-fly zone would require a new u.n. security council resolution. i do believe if gaddafi and his regime massacre their own people, and the un will not stand idly by. >> friday prayers also ended in protests as thousands demanded government reform. smaller protests in the capital -- the government has promised thousands of new jobs and an increase in unemployment benefits. thousands have gathered in yemen calling for the resignation of the president. the rebels in the north claim on forces opened fire on them. thousands of people have attended the burial of the only christian government minister.

he was 42 and an outspoken critic of the blasphemy law. if fuel mass was held in the capital of islamabad. -- a funeral mass was held. the chinese premier and delivering his annual report. the premier's speech is the most important delivered by a chinese politician. he has identified tackling inflation as a top priority for his government. this rounding up of what people regarded as the chinese authorities -- was that the pre- emptive measure or was there a real concern that china may go the way of the middle east? >> i think there is concern about social unrest.

tackling inflation is the government's top priority. they know that is a key issue in china because if you have rising food prices it could read to social unrest. what the authorities here fear is that those issues will snowball into something bigger. if they do protest in beijing whenever they appear there has been anonymous online calls for protests here in beijing. they have not been well attended. it is hard to gauge how many protesters showed up but authorities have clamped down on them very hard. they used to be a waste to clamp down on protests. one is the security forces and

economic growth. many people have bought into this system. they believe their lives are getting better and continue to support the communist party. that is why the handling of the economy is so important. >> thanks very much. the china research director at the brookings institution joins us. thank you for your time. one of the big debates the people feel need to be addressed but will not be? >> the concern about inflation and high price property. these are the two major issues in people's minds. they are also on satisfied with the shrinking of the private sector and state monopolies.

these are all the serious issues. >> it was not that long ago at a nationals people congress that corruption was mentioned. the world sort of thought it was quite a revelation. do you expect anything like that to come out of this people's congress? >> not really. the premiere is just mentioning it. i think people are very cynical about the commitment from the leadership. the general feeling is corruption is out of control. it is important to mention this congress -- his speech has different numbers. he said in the next five years [unintelligible] it will create 45 million jobs and the organization rate will

increase from 46% to 52%. all these are major developments. >> do you think china can continue to have impressive growth rates while remaining a controlled economy? will it have to introduce greater liberalization? >> the government did not realize they need to continue promoting the private sector and not let me state dominates the economy. at the same time [unintelligible] the most important message from the speech is chinese leadership is determined to change the mood of economic

growth from export-led economy to consumption driven economy. then we get to see. they want increased social spending and want to make sure the people will get access to affordable housing. the reality is still difficult because the property bubble is [unintelligible] the government has difficulty to implement property tax. that is a serious dilemma they are facing. >> we appreciate your time. we will have more on libya and the latest. there was an explosion earlier on friday. at least 17 people were killed. our freelance journalist is there. we had been reported that it appeared quite calm, but things

have changed. >> this is a major escalation in the crisis. if this were true that this is an army truck -- there were earlier reports of an air strike. we hear it was an army truck explosion. this is the first time rebels have been targeted previously. it had only been taken out by accident, but this is a clear violation of the incident. >> how about fighting in the previous day's? one of our correspondence has been there. he was reporting traffic was flowing and people were quite content. they had this local committee counsel run from a courthouse. >> i arrived here late last

night. i have been here almost over 36 hours. i cannot say i have seen too many cars on the road. 90% of the shops never opened. many shopkeepers fear looters or they are too scared to open their shops. members just don't want to work. street is completely empty and i am living in downtown. i think the court house on friday afternoon was where they main action was. friday prayer, we had the military rally afterwards and the courthouse where the constitution is being drafted by the national liviu council. you only have to walk 5 meters away and it becomes a ghost town. shops are closed by 9:00.

it resembles a ghost town. there is no normality here since i arrived. >> thanks very much. this is bbc news. the fashion show opens in paris without his controversial former designer. a nasa rocket mission has failed twice. it took off from california and crashed back to earth. >> >> a perfect start for nasa's latest mission. >> how changes on earth's climate may affect our lives. >> but there is a problem. >> the flight was going well

until the time of separation. >> the nose cone fails to separate and iraq it falls back to earth. the flight staff don't know why the mission failed. >> tonight we are all pretty devastated but we will recover. the team will bounce back because they are all professionals. orbital science will bounce back. >> lift off. >> two years earlier the same thing happened. minutes into its launch its nose cone did not separate either. it crashed back to earth. at the time nasa said it would find out what went wrong before it flew any more missions. losing two observation satellites has been expensive

and embarrassing. the space agency will launch another investigation. this times it hopes it will get it right. >> queen elizabeth -- it will be the first trip by a british monarch since independence. the queen's grandfather was the last to make the trip 100 years ago. this is "bbc world news." clashes have been taking place in cities across libya. dozens of people are believed to have been killed. let's stay with libya. government protesters have been on the streets of the capital. more than 1000 people clashed with security forces.

amongst them was our middle east editor. >> it was hard to get to the main mosque because the regime forces have set up roadblocks. this man took us away from the mosque so he could speak freely. >> people are terrified. they are afraid of being killed and afraid of being arrested. >> it seems to me this is much harder for protesters man in egypt. >> the politics of gaddafi is i govern you or i kill you. people here are not protected by anybody. >> it felt tents. protesters were killed when they demonstrated last friday. this week dozens of people had been taken away at night by the

armed men. as soon as they finished praying they began to chant. they cannot forget people have been killed here. they did not want to be identified. >> everybody is angry. everyone in tripoli is against them. everyone here is ready to have a bullet in his chest. >> it was quite a small demonstration import and enough for the police to break it up. they moved in with teargas and rubber bullets. it had been a peaceful demonstration with no weapons. in this part of the area of the population has been losing its fear of a police state but the security forces are doing all they can. even so the regime has been

faced with a rebellious population. >> all the anger is not going to bring the government down. they will need more help inside the rear shame itself. >> it is not an equal fight. while his forces stay loyal he is containing his enemies. and he has friends here. this evening supporters marched in the center of tripoli. the atmosphere was relaxed. he may have lost eastern libya but families are secure enough

here to bring small children. the colonel is rallying his forces. he is pushing back hard. >> let's look at the middle east as a whole because the unrest comes after popular uprisings in egypt and tunisia. this is a professor of conflict at the university of notre dom. he joins us. do you think there is a danger for continuing stalemate in libya? neither anti-government forces nor gaddafi troops established a supremacy. gaddafi says he will live and die in libya. >> the way it has been going down this is not easy. this is not a tunisia or egypt.

the people have to bring a brutal dictator down. it will be brutal and long. if you look at the past few days the protesters have managed to take hold of major cities in the east and also they are managing to build some structure that can set the country in a revolution area -- revolutionary era. they are now drafting a constitution. many are joining the council. [unintelligible] who is a key official in the libyan regime has joined the protesters which is major

progress. >> we are looking at the wider picture. have we learned anything new in the past couple months about how peregrinations are governed? >> definitely. things have to change. the buzzword is a change. the arab leaders are facing two choices. they have to institute meaningful changes or they have to leave. some of them are not meeting easily and are clinging to power. others left like mubarak of egypt. we have unrest in other places like yemen and jordan. i think these countries show the social fabric is different.

bahrain, it will be difficult to measure regime change. we might see some kind of internal changes within the regime by way of [unintelligible] yemen is a different case as well. yemen is based in al qaeda. it is also governed by civil wars and tribal structure. yemen will plunge into a chaotic situation. maybe we will see another change within the regime. >> thanks for coming on to "bbc world news." the fashion house has unveiled its latest collection in paris but without its designer. he was sacked after making anti-

semitic remarks. the chief executive described the situation has painful. >> taking to the catwalk in paris, the latest collection from dio shows potential buyers from around the globe. this display was overshadowed by the up or -- uproar surrounding john. >> the fact that the name of dior has been linked to a designer is very painful for us. [applause] >> the british designer was fired after allegedly making anti-semitic remarks in paris last month. this was a separate incident in which she was shown telling two women i love hitler.

the french prosecutors say he will stand trial. at a paris fashion week there was a notable absence. no bow from john at the end of the show. instead a group of workers dressed in laboratory coats. >> i think it will be good. >> the show in paris was well attended. those going in paid tribute to the designer's work but john is a man stripped of his dior status, a man who could also be sent to prison if convicted. >> just a reminder of our main news. fierce fighting in several libyan cities. there is plenty more on bbc.com. to stay with us. you are watching "bbc world news."

>> hello and welcome. >> see the news unfold, get the top stories from around the globe and click-to-play video reports. go to bbc.com/news to experience the in-depth, expert reporting of "bbc world news" online. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank. >> union bank has put its global

financial strength to work for a wide range of companies. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles.