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>> and now, "bbc world news." >> hello and welcome. >> the headlines. closing in on the lipian -- libyan capital, rebel forces say they're cutting off key lines to gaddafi. in syria, thousands of palestinian refugees flee their camps as the government crackdown continues. >> no more cameras, the judge ruled. the trial of hosni mubarak will not be televised. waging war on gang culture. britain's prime minister promises to mend a broken society in the wake of last week's riots. it is 9:00 a.m. here in singapore. >> it's 2:00 a.m. here in london, broadcasting to viewers on pbs in america and around the world.

>> colonel gaddafi has called on his supporters to free libya from traitors and nato. his broadcast appeal was made over a telephone line from an undisclosed location. but even as he spoke, rebel forces advanced into two towns that controlled the access to tripoli and a town 30 miles west of the capital and to the south. if the coastal town falls, rebels will control the main supply route from where matthew price reports. >> tripoli is starting to feel like a city under siege. the power cuts are taking their toll. this family brought out the candles and then their certificates. weapons training provided by the government to loyal men and women. >> i'm ready to take up a gun, ready to defend my country and

muammar gaddafi what has done so much good for us. >> outside gaddafi's agents were on alert. as we left we and our government minders were stopped, they took our libyan permits as arms loyalists checked every vehicle. this checkpoint that we've been stopped at is manned by local people and we're told that there are similar checkpoints across tripoli during the night at the moment. it's clearly not normal. it's there because of the war. and it is a sign of the tensions in the libyan capital right now. this has only increased the tensions. 30 miles to the west rebel forces are celebrating an advance on za whicha. the opposition feels the momentum is finally firmly with them. but how much they hold and how long they can hold it for is unclear.

libyan state television showed crowds cheering as colonel gaddafi addressed them. in audio only on a crackley telephone line. he called on his supporters to prepare for the fight, cleanse the country, he said. the blood of martyrs will fuel the battle. out in the desslat housing estates of eastern tripoli, though, the mood was different. they were worried about our cameras so we blurred the pictures. this man told me gaddafi must go. and now listen to this man's anger. >> we hate gaddafi here. >> everyone? >> everyone. >> it's hard to gauge how many agree. the rebels are now closer to tripoli than ever. the army we assume will fight back. this war may have entered a decisive phase.

>> for more on this i'm joined on the line by a resident of zawia who doesn't want us to give his name but he can tell us what's happening now. thank you very much for joining us. just tell us about the rebel advances in your city. >> well, the rebels are mostly spread all over the city. and they control more than the city. and the gaddafi forces are still in the northeast side of the city. where there's the main hospital and there were no, you know, face to face battles but only there were using missiles, they fired almost seven or eight missiles and they had fizzled over the city and right now there's nato airplanes flying all over the sky and they're

bombing just a few seconds ago, there was like two bombs. and, yeah, and that's mostly what happened. >> is there a sense that the rebels have got a strong hold on zawia or -- we are hearing reports that colonel gaddafi's forces have launched a bombardment to try to retake the town. you see signs of that? >> sorry, i couldn't hear that. >> colonel gaddafi's forces -- are colonel gaddafi's forces trying to regain the city? >> yeah. that's what they're trying to do but they're not doing it face to face. they're just firing missiles from far, far away. mostly to the east of the city. and the line between the mountain and the city. that's the end of the line where most of the rebels are staying. >> are the residents there, are you sensing that there is now a

change happening? >> right now, no, no, i can't say that. just we control most of the city. the rebels control most of the city. and there are no gaddafi forces inside. in most of the city, they're just firing the missiles from far away. that's all. >> we appreciate you joining us. thank you very much for that. the resident there in the town of zawia in western libya. now in syria, thousands of palestinian refugees have been forced to flee their camp after it came under heavy fire from government forces bombarding the city. a u.n. spokesman told the bbc that at least four palestinians have been killed. the b.b.c. reports. >> syria's main port city, army tanks deployed to quell protests. u.n. says gun boats are even

firing from the sea. but with a target this time that has caused even more outrage. a palestinian refugee camp where between 5,000 and 10,000 people have fled according to a u.n. spokesman. >> they are painting an extremely disturbing picture of what is happening in the refugee camp. we have reports that more than half of the camp, the camp is home to 10,000 palestinian refugees, more than half of them have fled, some were told to leave by the syrians, others simply fled. we have no idea where these people are, we have no idea how many of them are wounded, are dying, are elderly, are women, are children. syria denies the use of gun boats saying only that it's troops have been fighting -- its troops have been fighting a ground bat well gunmen in the city. -- battle with gunmen in the city. protests also continue elsewhere. these pictures are believed to be from dara.

five months of rebellion and repression with fresh condemn nation today from jordan that's urged syria to listen to reason and particularly strong from turkey. saying that military operations against civilians must end immediately and unconditionally. >> now, the former egyptian president has been back in court, a second day in court for him. >> that's right. there were protests outside the court and it was chaos inside. it was a second appearance of egyptian president hosni mubarak and once again the 83-year-old was brought into court on a stretcher and kept behind bars with his sons. they all stand trial for the killing of protesters in february. the judge adjourned the hearing for three weeks and ruled that future proceedings will not be televised. our middle east editor reports.

>> the trial is what used to be calling the mubarak police academy on the edge of cairo. and the police were expecting trouble. so were mubarak opponents who brought their own rocks. the former president supporters were on the other side of the police lines. we don't want mubarak humiliated, she says. that humiliates all egyptians. he was wheeled in, old and ill. this has been compulsive tv across the arab world. one of his sons, once a prince of the regime, now in prison whites, tried to spoil their fun. the judge is struggling to bring order to judicial chaos, more than 100 unruly, noisy lawyers and hosni mubarak's two sons still trying to shield his bed from the cameras. they are identified themselves -- they identified themselves, the sons denies corruption charges, mubarak denies killing

protesters. >> mubarak every day kill us, every day kill us. mubarak every day kill us. now we want to kill mubarak. >> and then the riots started. the egyptian police waited in, but that couldn't stop the pro and antimubarak people trading rocks and fists. a lot of hatred was stored up in the mubarak years. this is the big test for the new egypt. dealing with a mubarak legacy is going to shape the society that emerges in this country and at the moment egyptians are divided and very uncertain about the way things should go.

the police have widely disliked here because for decades they were the regime's enforces. it will anger many egyptians to see them using their old skills on antimubarak protesters again. >> all the police are criminal lings -- criminals. >> after today cameras will be banned from the courtroom, seemingly to stop lawyers showing off, though some egyptians will smell a coverup. the trial though is still a solid achievement for ejiment's revolutionaries, a distraction in an unhappy, fretful country. >> an australian man has been arrested in the united states in connection with an take on a woman in sydney which left her with a fake bomb strapped to her body. the man was arrested in lieuville, kentucky, by the f.b.i. and australian police. the state police said they would be asking the u.s. authorities to extradite the man back to australia. >> during the course of the

last two or three days the police and from new south whales and the f.b.i. have been working toward an arrest and at 5:30 this morning sydney time he was take noon custody as a result of a search warrant that kentucky. that man is in custody and will appear in an american court later today and we will be seeking his ex that diction back to australia -- extradition back to australia. >> and you're watching youth day on the bbc. live from singapore and london. still to come on the program, back from the campaign trail, president obama's battle bus takes the road for a swing through the midwest. >> and snow storms wreak havoc in new zealand as the country's north island experiences some of the coldest weather in decades. some of the largest wind turbines in the world are being

installed in northwest england. they now have a dozen wind farms offshore, all part of the government's strive for green energy. it's a huge engineering challenge as our science correspondent reports. >> in belfast, in the ship yard where they built the titanic, another giant project. this one meant to help revolutionize how we get our power. the task right now, to maneuver these massive wind turbines. carefully and slowly and load them onto a ship. most wind farms are built on land, these turbines will be stuck out at sea. the hope is they'll be -- there will be fewer objections. this is just one blade of one of the largest wind turbines in the world. it's made of fiberglass and when you get this close you get a sense of the incredible engineering challenge involved in building these things. this is the next one to be lifted.

a dozen wind farms have now sprung up offshore, the latest near barrow for the power company cost half a billion pounds. each turbine towering over the ocean, taller even than big ben, each blade stretches for 60 meters, that's longer than the entire wing span of a boeing 747. and very difficult to build. >> if the wind picks up your operations can be delayed and particularly when you work in offshore, the sea conditions can really impact the time it takes the vessel to get from one place to another. >> two more turbines are readied for the journey to sea. offshore wind is the most expensive form of power, the government plans could cost more than 100 billion pounds, a massive, controversial investment now getting under way.

>> i'm in singapore. >> and i'm in london. the headlines four this hour. libyan rebel forces have advanced into two towns that control access to the capital tripoli. >> thousands of palestinian refugees have fled their camps in syria as government forces continue bombarding the port. >> a 16-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of richard bose who was attacked during riots in west london. the 68-year-old pensioner died after being assaulted while he was trying to put out a fire. the british prime minister has announced a detailed review of government policy in the wake of last week's riots in england. he called for stronger discipline in homes and schools, help for the most troubled families and a war on gang culture. the opposition labor party accused the prime minister of offering up superphysical

answers. -- superficial answers. >> new footage tonight of the moment when is a swarm of local youngsters broke into a convenience store. this was close to the stage a week ago. the owner was a much-loved community man but that didn't stop them. today friends and volunteers were trying to put the shop back together again. in this impoverished neighborhood, people still gave what they could. where were the police, one woman asked? >> i think if the police was carrying guns then people would have for mere, they wouldn't have -- more fear, they wouldn't have done so much. >> they shouldn't put them in prison, they should put them, get chains on their legs an let them rebuild back the neighborhood. >> the prime minister speaking in his constituency today promised more no-nonsense policing, tougher sentencing and a sweeping review of policies on schools, welfare and parenting. >> do we have the determination

to confront the slow motion moral collapse that has taken place in part of our country these past few generations? irresponsibility, selfishness, behaving as if your choices have no consequences. children without fathers, schools without discipline, reward without effort. crime without punishment. rights without responsibilities. communities without control. >> with the government also saying it would consider evicting and cutting the benefits of rioters, the opposition leader returned to his inner city london school today to accuse the p.m. of playing to the newspapers. >> of course the public says we want quick action. but our new policy today, kneejerking, not thought through, they won't solve the problem. >> at the youth club there was also anxiety at the idea of cutting the welfare of rioters and their families. what these children need is rescue, not abandonment, they said. >> it might be that we're

running special programs for them, it might mean that we work really hard. >> there's not a lot of sympathy for them. the public doesn't want to spend money on these people. >> yeah. they don't. i wouldn't want to give up on them. >> this is a community cowering behind bars and grills no one here was prepared to talk publicly. they said they're too frightened of reprisals. who runs this estate, i asked? the whispered reply came, the gangs. type the name of the hackney estate into youtube and dozens of gangster rap videos pop up. filmed on here. today david ram ron said it was time government -- cameron said it was time government confronted just this. >> a concerted all-out war on gangs and gang culture. this isn't some side issue, it is a major criminal disease that has infected streets and estates across our country.

stamping out these gangs should be a new national priority. >> this evening scotland yard issued these pictures of a gang of looters being pursued by police as the thieves are chased down the street in east london, what's now identified as a green sit ron careers into two officers. one can be seen slumped on the ground. both were lucky not to sustain serious injury and the incident is now being treated as attempted murder. it's seven days since hackney turned on itself. for all the party jives, there does seem to be a broad consensus, these pictures are a metaphor for something rot been britain. from the -- rotten about britain. from the richest and poorest, there is greed, selfishness and immorality. >> the buildup to the u.s. presidential campaign is gathering pace. president obama is on the road in the midwest but already his republican rivals have been

staking out their positions in iowa. our north american editor reports. >> it can be a pond rouse business when the president goes on campaign. his bus tour through the rural parts of three states is his first in office, but no cheerfully painted battle bus for him. this monster looks more like a vehicle headed for a real battle. there are cheers here but many now blame him for the poor economic recovery. he said it's the fault of republicans in congress blocking his ideas. >> let's rebuild america, we could be rebuilding roads and bridges. and schools. and parks all across america. right now. >> the president is in real trouble. his re-election by no means a certainty. obama's approval rating, 68%, when he took office, slipped below 40% for the first time. his trouble is the economy. unemployment was around 7% when he became president, it's now more than 9%.

america has always had a a.a.a. rating from standard & poor's but because of wrangling in washington it's been down graded to a.a.-plus status. the republican ad is being equipped to attack the tour. >> the taxpayer funded dead end tour. minnesota, 19,000 manufacturing and 19,000 construction jobs have been lost. >> the republican race to take on obama has sharpened. the texas governor rick perry is fiercely socially conservative but will focus more on his record of creating jobs in his home state. >> we need to be focused on jobs in this country. we need to be focused on getting our economy working again. and i got a track record on doing that. >> congresswoman michelle backman, another evangelical christian, with strong economic and social conservative, she and perry will be fighting each other for the same right wing supporters. mitt romney is still the republican candidate to beat,

but many conservatives don't warm to him. >> the contest to win the white house still has a long way to go. but on the republican side, at least for the moment it looks like a three-horse race. but senior party figures are worried. they think the income bensy is debatable because of the economy but none of the three available are up to it. >> some pretty unusual weather hitting new zealand at the moment. >> that's right. particularly in the northern part of the country which is experiencing some of the coldest weather in decades and snowstorms in the capital are the biggest for almost 50 years and the blizzard disrupted services across the north island, some flights have been canceled and major roads closed. for more, i'm joined from the bpc weather center by one -- bbc weather center by one of our forecasters. snow faling in parts of new

zealand that hasn't seen snow in decades. >> it is indeed a once in a lifetime event for some. we will never see a storm of that extent again across the whole of new zealand. once every 50 years perhaps we see something like this. it's also the images there in the report, exceptional and particularly from the north. the south iron in particular, more likely to see some snow but for the north, some people, very different scenes but we've also incurred a lot of disruptions. some pretty wide ranging impacts and we're not done yet. that's the most important message to bring here. take a look at what this storm has meant for new zealand. as you said, one of the big of the storms we've seen in 50 years. certainly in tons of the extent to the country -- in terms of the extent of the country it's affected and people haven't seen snowfall here since 1930's. it is a once in a lifetime event. disruption pretty wide ranging though. severe weather warnings still in place for a large portion of the country and it's not just the snow causing problems but a bitter southerly wind so that

really is taking the edge off the temperature, making it feel bitingly cold and blowing that snow around, blizzard conditions, a lot of snow on the power lines, strong winds, power lines coming down in some areas. the roads and the airport in the south is pretty much ground to a halt. so, how do we end up here? well, it takes a couple of facters to give as you big snow storm, a big area of low pressure and we've seen one of those at the surface as three areas of low pressure combined into one. and also a pocket of cold air which is what we've had trapped by the jet stream, this pocket here in this upside down horseshoe that is still honging on in there now. low pressure has run in with that cold air that we have produced. instead of what would normally be heavy winter rainfall is very significant snow and the outlook as we move into the middle part of this week, still has the low pressure close by, still the cold air as well. so tuesday nice i think -- night i think a difficult one. as we go through wednesday, some very lively showers behind.

reports of some big claps of thunder along with those snow showers in the last 24 hours. better news for the end of the week. high pressure builds, the southerly wind will start to ease. it shouldn't feel as cold and i don't think we're going to see any more falling snow but with clear skies question protect some pretty severe frost. >> thank you so much for that update. and you've been watching "news day" from the bbc. >> just a reminder of our main news this hour. libyan rebels say they have control of most of the key town of zawia but residents say colonel gaddafi's forces have launched a bombardment to try to retake it. we'll have plenty more on that to cufment you've been watching "news day." thank you very much for watching. we'll be back with you both soon. stay with us.

>> 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