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>> and now, "bbc world news." >> a 68-year-old beaten as he tried to stamp out a fire during riots in west london has died. four euro zone span short selling. relief on the markets as u.s. and asian shares rise, but trading remains volatile. >> it is 11:00 a.m. in singapore. >> we are broadcasting to viewers on pbs in america and around the world.

>> london's riots have claimed another victim. an elderly man who took on rioters as they were trying to set a fire was critically injured and in the last few hours, he has died in hospital. detectives say it was a brutal incident and a senseless killing of innocent man. give us the background to this tragic case. >> this is the case of a 68- year-old man who tried to take on the rioters. they started a fire and he tried to put it out. some of the rioters attacked him. he sustained serious head injuries and was hospitalized. he was put on a life-support machine. he died just before midnight on

thursday. police have informed his next of kin. they have launched a couple murder investigation. >> the police have released some details about the man they want to talk to. >> they are appealing to the local community for any information. they have released two cctv images of a man they believe was involved in the assault. this man was involved in much of the rioting on that night. they say he was hanging around with another -- with a number of riders and looters as well. >> they have released images of desperate we will have another look at them now. cctv 'll see that the images highlight the suspect, the man the police want to speak

with. he was hanging around with other members of the riots that night. he appears to be wearing sunglasses, a jersey. they say he was a very powerfully built, a strong man in appearance. they suspect this man was involved in the assault of the man. bay state anyone in the community who knows this man, who recognizes him, please come board and give them information that will help solve the crime. >> it took a while for the man to be identified. all of his possessions were stolen. >> that is right. lying on the ground of being helped by police. he was then hospitalized. tragically, the wound to his head was so significant, even

though they put him on a life- support machine, dad did not work. he died just before midnight on thursday. >> thank you very much. in an emergency recall parliament, they have been debating. police would be able to force people to remove face masks. there was criticism of the police response when the violence first broke out. >> a smash-and-grab raid in south london. today, it was the police doing it. they and their political masters want the message to go out that the streets of britain are back under control. >> the for the law-abiding people who play by the rules, i

say, the fight that has begun. we will protect you. a few of federline pleaded and property damage, -- if you have had your property and livelihood damage, we will compensate you. >> apac house of commons spoke during this special emergency session. almost as if the country was at war. >> whatever we disagree on, week by week, month by month, today at the house of commons, we stand shoulder to shoulder united against the vandalism and violence we have seen on our streets. there can be no excuses, no justification. this behavior has disgusted us all and it cannot be allowed to stand. >> the bravery of individual police officers caught up in the violence was praised on all

sides. there was widespread criticism about their tactics and the numbers on the streets. >> what became increasingly clear was that there was simply far too few police deployed onto our streets and the tactics they were using were not working. police chiefs have been frank with me about why this happened. initially, they treated the situation too much as a public order issued rather than one of crime. >> the prime minister said that in future, adding gains would be a national priority. police powers to remove face masks would be extended. the week britain would rather forget began on saturday. >> 45 people have lost their homes, burned to the ground, running out of their homes

carrying their children. their cry is, where were the police? >> the prime minister said 16,000 police officers would be kept on the streets of london tonight. one by one, officers are identifying those they believe should be brought to justice. politicians united to condemn the violence. they divided on the future of the police. >> since the outbreak of rioting in london, there have been questions about the way the police reacted. the president's of the association of chief police officers said, it was shown to be significant. >> we were facing an unprecedented situation. there were truly unique circumstances. what the service did was learn and respond with incredible speed. we went from 6000 officers and

london to the most officers deployed ever, 16,000 the following night. the violence moved to different locations. the force responded that if assembly. the officers put a huge effort and to protecting communities and lives. >> let's get some of the day's other news. there has been some new developments in the financial markets. >> that is right. a couple of countries, france, italy, spain, belgium, they have all band short selling. that falls short gains in bank stocks recently. the french banks have been the worst affected by the volatility. joining me now is our next guest

to talk more about that. short-selling is the act of trying to benefit from price wars. the focus is on financial stocks. do you think this will help stem some of the volatility? >> it does appear like the last row of the dice. things are getting out of hand. when it is well directed, as this is, to a specific financial spock -- stocks, this sort of measure does work. especially at times like this when you sometimes have irrational selling. >> some analysts have suggested that it does not work. it seemed to suggest that there is something fundamentally wrong with the market. >> in the u.s. case, close to

800 financial stocks were included in the u.s. short selling band. it appeared not to have worked very well because it's the crisis got a lot worse. this has come at a more opportune time. i think this will be a little more effective. the fundamentals are not quite as bad. there are some fundamentals that are unknown. the extent of exposure to the sovereign bond of italy, spain, greece, portugal. there are some unknowns, but a lot of the other information has been made available. i think this targeted at short selling ban will be fairly

effective. in asia, at 19 -- some of it did work. >> we saw korea do exactly the same thing. a short-term measure. how do you address the long-term structural issues? >> the structural issue needs to be addressed by policymakers, by bank management. this sort of ban is short-term impact stemming the panic and the market. i think to that extent, it is something that should work. >> we believe it there. thank you very much. the italian prime -- the italian finance minister told parliament that state companies privatized. the measures will be part of a program to satisfy the european central bank.

opposition politicians are saying there is not enough detail about how it will achieve what it needs to you. >> it is not clear what they will do. apparently, they will make the decree today. that is the last news. even the amount of the austerity needed is not clear. >> let's have a quick look at the markets. it has been a very volatile week for the financial markets. here in asia, stocks are making gains. we are seeing strength in a number of the markets that are open. the nikkei has scaled back from its earlier gains. in the u.s. overnight, we saw quite a good day. wall street was bouncing back. the dow gaining nearly 4%. the nasdaq rising even higher. the safe havens, gold and the

swiss franc were sold off. we are live from singapore and london. and agents didn't rob small he was hurt and helpless speaks for the first time. paying tribute to the serious thought. we looked at the chinese halloween. >> a roadside bomb has killed five nato troops in southern afghanistan. it comes a day after the alliance said it killed the taliban insurgents responsible for shooting down a helicopter. >> there is a fight going on out there. this is not the first helicopter of force that has been hit.

a lot of work is involved. the human loss is tremendous. it was a pretty hard thing to watch. it is not going to affect the course of the campaign. we were back in business with our afghan partners the very next night. that is where we were going to stay. >> the taliban seem to be shifting their position when it comes to some kind of political engagement. is that your perception? >> i think it is an indication that the surge is working. the increased military activity against the taliban have definitely made them pay a very heavy price. i would have it as my assessment that that is likely to push them

toward a negotiated arrangement with the afghan government. the second point i would make is that you cannot kill your way out of an insurgency. not in iraq, not in afghanistan. there's got to be a political settlement at the end of the day. >> you have your conditions. they have their conditions. one of their conditions is that you have to leave. is that a possibility? >> i do not think that is the way it is going to work. we all agreed in lisbon. >> a man who was beaten as he tried to stamp out a fire during riots in london monday night has died. he was 68 and was attacked during disturbances.

france, italy, spain, and belgian ban on short-selling. let's get more on our top story. the prime minister says ahold of britain has been shocked by the riots. especially by a malaysian student being mugged by writers pretending to help him. the victim speaks out for the first time. >> when he watches this video of themselves being mugged, he says it does not seem real. there is no disputing that instead of being helped, they helped themselves to the content of his back. today, the 20-year-old student spoke of this ordeal after undergoing surgery. >> the doctors put some metal inside. so far, it is good.

>> how do you feel about those people who did what they did? >> i feel sorry for them. it was released sad. there were children. it was very sad. >> does that shock you? >> the boy was in primary school, i think. it was quite shocking. >> after fleeing from the u.k., he has told his mother he plans on staying here to finish his studies. >> i spoke to were yesterday. she was really worried. she wants me to come back home. >> after his ordeal, and after having to undergo surgery yesterday, he has shown an incredible amount of bravery coming to talk to us today. i asked him how he was so positive. he just laughed and said, i

don't know. his ordeal has been watched by millions on the internet. >> many people have compared the riots in england with those in los angeles in 1992. earlier, i spoke with an organization that redeveloped the city after the riots there. he said the issue is leading up to the recent events have to do with social disaffection. >> idec is about jobs -- i bet it is about jobs and been disaffected. i did not want your viewers to think that i am condoning this. i did not condone a tear in los angeles. when you really look at these neighborhoods and see where people -- see how people -- your situation in london, you have

severe cuts already. we have not yet gone through. that is going to be interesting to see how the american public deals with tremendous cuts to all the basic services. we may be calling you to get some ideas about how we should deal with it. one thing i think your prime minister -- both your mayor and prime minister were on vacation. it seems like this situation always happens when they are out of town. after you get this thing and control, what you want to do is lower the rhetoric. they should be tossed and people should be prosecuted. -- be tough and peoples to be prosecuted. but this did not just happen because people had twitter

accounts. that is what people are saying. that they could do it, and they did it. there are a lot more root causes that the citizens of london will have to deal with. i notice in 1994, there was a lot of poverty and a lot of people that were not part of the main society. it speaks to some of these similar issues that we have here in los angeles today. >> he is from an organization rebuild los angeles, which helped to rebuild the city after the riots there in 1902. -- 1992. the american secretary of state has called for other countries to join u.s. sanctions against syria in the face of escalating violence. opposition activists in syria said security forces killed at least 12 civilians on thursday.

the authorities continued their efforts to stop protests against bashar al-assad's rule. >> the battle for syria is being fought street by street. these pictures show clashes in one town. this is the real reality of syria's uprising. the army is now in control and -- in hama. there appears to be little doubt about who is in charge. the syrian army carried out in a week-long operation. look around the city, bert out cars, blackened buildings, wreckage strewn across the street. all signs of the army operation. international sanctions and pressure to have appeared to have little impact on the president.

the administration is preparing to call publicly for the president to step down. the obama administration wants people to do more. >> what we really need to do is to sanction the oil and gas industry and we want to see europe take more steps in that direction. we want to see china take steps with us. we want to see india. >> president bashar al-assad remains in power. it appears that he still has the support of the army. the protest and the violence, the killings and the funerals, continue. months after the uprising began, no one really knows how this conflict will end. >> you've quite an intriguing

story. the chinese are celebrating the hundred ghost festival. what is that? >> it is the hungry ghost festival. it is to try to appear -- a list to try to appease the spirits of the data walk among us. -- dead but welcome on the spirit >> it is the chinese version of halloween. the festival is a time to pay tribute to spirits' got to be roaming the earth. they are being entertained in style. special seats with special money are reserved for them because no one wants and greed ghosts -- angry ghosts making trouble. >> i do not think they will be

disappointed. the elaborate ritual goes on all month and because of the money involved, there are when dictators -- very are leading indicators for the economy. >> if the economy is good, people did more money. if the economy is bad, people bit less. last year, it was pretty good. i think this year will be good as well. >> it is, indeed. the temple behind the auction raised 12,000 u.s. dollars to keep the festival going. ♪ it is not as the organizers benefiting from the strong economy.

he entertains both the living and the dead. he has a packed schedule. >> the industry is booming. >> contests are a special feature of the celebration. the idea is to give carte ghostly visitors a triple sendoff before they are forced back to the underworld. the thinking goes, the happier they are, the more they will do to ensure harmony and financial success on earth. ♪ >> a quick reminder of our main news. a man who was beaten when he confronted riders in london has died of this injuries in the hospital. thank you very much for watching.

>> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own 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.