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>> and now, "bbc world news." >> hello and welcome. in singapore. >> in london, the headlines. an inquiry after documents alleging to show complicity in the illegal transfer of paris suspects are discovered. the opposition in libya says it's extended a deadline for pro qaddafi forces controlling the town of bani walid to surrender. >> president obama tests out his plans for fixing the world's biggest economy and calls on his political rivals to help him. firefighters in the u.s. state of texas struggle to contain a huge wildfire that's already destroyed hundreds of homes. it is 9:00 a.m. here in singapore. >> it is 2:00 a.m. here in london. broadcasting to viewers on pbs in america and around the world, welcome.

welcome. we begin this hour with breaking news coming to us from the reuters news agency. we understand that a man claims to have strapped a bomb to himself outside a court building in sydney. it's understood the man is holding a young girl believed to be his 11-year-old daughter. i think we can get the very latest with our correspondent in sydney, duncan kennedy. what more can you tell us? >> we know that police, fire and ambulance crews are at the scene of this incident, the courthouse being about a 40-minute drive west of central sydney. a spokesman for the court has confirmed there is what he called a hostage situation at the courthouse. and local media are reporting that a man has strapped some kind of device to himself, possibly a bomb, and that he is holding his 11-year-old daughter. the police haven't confirmed

these facts yet, so they're coming from various other sources. the police have set up a command center at the scene and closed surrounding roads so some kind of incident is going on there. whether it's actually connected to the courthouse or not, or just taking place there, we don't know. but some kind of incident going on there with reports the man has a device, a bomb, even, strapped to himself and is holding his 11-year-old daughter. >> and you said the area surrounding that court building has been cordoned off by police. >> they are taking precautions on this. the surrounding streets are being sealed off in case there is an actual event going on here, a real device, as such. of course, they've had the experience last month, a very similar incident. you'll remember in the beginning of august, the sydney teenager, madeline proffer, had a device strapped to her neck for 10

hours. police thought it was a serious device, it had wires coming out of it. there was a note saying it plastic explosives and it took 10 hours before the police were satisfied in that case the device was not explosive and they freed it from her neck. now, in that case, a 50-year-old sydney man, paul peters, was arrested in the united states, and is awaiting extradition back to australia. whether we're in some kind of copycat territory with today's situation, we don't know. it's very early stages in this but there appear to be similarities at least in the modis oprandi in what's going on. police are saying at the moment all they're doing is sealing off the area and the reports that there is a device strapped to the man and he is holding his daughter are coming from local media. >> we understand this building could well be the family court building in the west of the city. is that what you're hearing, as

well? >> yes, exactly that, which tends to suggest that possibly the man was there on business and it's not just a building where coincidentally this incident is taking place. whether there's a connection with an actual court hearing going on today or has been going on, we don't know, whether there is a custody issue, we don't know yet. what appears to be happening is that there is some kind of incident there. the court themselves saying it's a hostage situation so it does appear to be serious. we don't know if the building itself has been evacuated in any way. all we know is that the police have sealed off the surrounding streets so one imagines they would want to get staff and lawyers and other defendants and those jurors and figures who might be in the court building outside as quickly as possible. one imagines that operation is going on whilst negotiations begin on this, if that is at all possible. in the case of the madeline pouva case, there was nobody to negotiate with. it was the police and madeline trying to work out a way of

getting the device off her neck. in that case, they were suspicious that it was a live device for 10 hours before they were satisfied that it was fake. we don't know how long today's incident is going on but clearly by way of the fact that they're sealing off the area, they're taking it seriously. >> duncan kennedy, our correspondent in sydney. we will keep you updated with that story as soon as we have more information on that. now an inquiry to examine allegations that the british intelligence services were complicit in the illegal transfer of terror suspects to libya while colonel qaddafi was in power. documents which have surfaced in tripoli suggest security services traded information in return for intelligence extracted from detainees. the bbc's middle east editor reports. >> libya was an important ally

for britain and america after colonel qaddafi agreed to give up weapons of mass destruction in 2003, but the documents found in tripoli suggest that in their eagerness to get his help in fighting the war on terror, mi6 and the c.i.a. were embarrassingly close to the colonel and his regime. the british embassy in tripoli was looted in may by a regime it felt betrayed that it had been the center of an unlikely friendship so this place became a bridgehead and land of opportunity. libya was good for business and security. all that changed quickly and by the time ara -- regime mob came to attack the building, the businessmen, diplomats and spies were long gone. abandon latebati confirmed that britain spies were here working

with the regime until the revolution. >> were mi6 still here in january and february of this year? >> yes. >> and what were they doing? >> well, they are not in charge. >> commercial flight from kuala lumpur to london. >> the military commander of tripoli is at the center of the row about the documents now kept at his h.q. the allegation is that mi6 joined the c.i.a. in illegally returning him to tripoli when he was a suspected al qaeda ally. the key documents seen by the bbc is a memo from mi6 dated march 18, 2004, and headed, "for the urgent personal attention of moussa kusa." he ran libya's police state. in it, mi6 is eager to claim a

key role in the extradition, saying, "it's the least we could do for libya." the document is signed "m." m was mark allen, head of counter terrorism at mi6. now he's with b.p. which won a huge contract with libya in 2007. how important was mark allen in relations between libya and britain? >> he was very important as a counterpart to mr. kusa and as with the b.p. >> he was involved in all sides of this diagram. >> yes, yes. >> what's he like? i don't know him. >> what do you expect?

intelligent, you know. >> tripoli has a new start without colonel qaddafi. during the time he was the west's friends could still sing britain and america, a last revenge on countries that became his worst enemies. >> on the ground in libya, forces of the national transitional council are sounding increasingly confident about taking control of the bally walid, one of the final strongholds of qaddafi's forces. our correspondent, ben brown, is near the town on the road with n.t.c. forces. >> for now, at least rebels are not fighting, but singing their songs of victory and liberation. even so, they know they cannot yet claim that all of libya is free, not until they've dealt with the final few pockets of qaddafi resistance like bani walid. one rebel fighter told me he

fears sooner or later there will have to be a battle for this town. >> what are you waiting for exactly? >> somebody inside will give a center if we can enter inside or not, waiting our time. because we have many team, you know. >> are you ready to fight? >> of course, we're ready. all of them want in. >> are there many qaddafi people in bani walid? >> sure, sure. not all of this escaped. there are some people inside now. >> negotiations are continuing but some of the rebels here fear to be losing patience, saying the humanitarian situation in the town is deteriorating rapidly with food and water running out. so, the rebels have moved closer to bani walid. their morale is sky high. they easily outnumber and outgun the qaddafi loyalists and are ready for full-scale assault on bani walid the moment the order comes through. but for now, at least, the rebel

leadership of the national transitional council seem desperate to avoid a blood bath. >> ben brown reporting there. now, european stock markets have dropped sharply with banks feeling the brunt of the losses. shares in paris, frankfurt and london fell as concerns grew about high government debt among some members of the euro zone. the current slide in markets began on thursday in new york in response to mounting evidence of the slowdown in the global economy. european commission president barosa was quick to deny the charge of recession. >> we don't face recession in europe. as forecast by european commission, it shows there will be growth. modest growth, it's true, and even across the european union, but, in fact, growth. that's our analysis. >> watching the markets opening in japan, we're about an hour or so into trading. how are they doing? >> well, the losses are indeed

cascading from europe to asia, japan is currently in negative territory right now by about 1.2%, extending yesterday's losses of 2%. south korea down by about .75%. australia lowest at about 1.4% today because of basically one word that is affecting investor sentiment and that is "recession." investors are jittery over fears the u.s. economy will contract the fear. the u.s. jobs base on friday spooks global markets. economic worries in europe and the united states are supporting oil prices lower 2% with brent crude at $109 per barrel. the markets weren't open on wall street, it's labor day there and the holiday averting a sharp fall for the dow jones

industrials. president obama chose the hard-hit city of detroit to deliver his message on jobs, the key issue which may decide whether he keeps his job or not come next november. obama is planning to pump more money into the u.s. economy. >> president obama is about to unveil a new plan which some people are calling a new stimulus plan which would bring about many more infrastructure jobs, more repairing of roads and bridges across the country, tax relief, mortgage relief, things which would pump money back into the economy. that was the message he was giving us a bit of a preview about today when he gave that speech in detroit. let's listen to a little bit of that now. >> a lot of folks have been looking for work for a long time here in detroit and across michigan and all across the midwest and all across the country. we've got a lot more work to do to recover fully from this

recession. i'm not satisfied just to get back to where we were before the recession. we've got to fully restore the middle class in america. >> so what the president's actually talking about there is a new plan funded by congress, by the central, american government, pumping more money into the economy and getting more people back to work, effect., in will mr. obama be able to get that past congress and its furiously hostile republicans, we wait to see. many think it's unlikely. this battle shaping up looks like quite a vivid test of the effectiveness of president obama's presidency and his ability to actually make a the u.s. economy. >> that was adam brooks in washington. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come, rescuers continue

their search for victims in western japan. >> and cubans pay tribute to the late defense minister. now, an independent inquiry which will examine allegations the british security services were complicit in the illegal transfer of terror suspects to libya whilst colonel qaddafi was in power, will be carried out by a judge who is already involved in another case involving libya. >> david cameron said the accusations against them were significant and should be investigated but also reminded m.p.'s that in 2003, just two years after 9/11, there were terror groups in libya allied to al qaeda. our securityes services and intelligence services are trying to work for

the good of the country to keep us safe. britain should never be complicit in torture or extraordinary rendition. >> secretary at the time, said the allegations were serious. >> given the serious nature of these allegations, it is entirely right they should be examined in every detail. >> the task of going through these secret documents found in tripoli over the weekend will fall to an existing inquiry led by gibson, already looking at allegations that terror suspects have been mistreated abroad. >> rendition is the unlawful kidnapping of people, carrying them across borders and putting them into jurisdictions where it is known they'll be mistreated. the british government also condemns that which is why it would be so serious if it turned out that agencies answerable to british government had been engaging in that sort of behavior. >> david cameron says that allegations of rendition and torture must be condemned and

investigated but equally, his officials accept that when fighting terrorism, sometimes britain has to deal with regimes that do not share its values. it's not clear when the inquiry will start. >> i'm in singapore. >> in london, the headlines this hour, an inquiry in britain to examine alleged links between british intelligence since colonel qaddafi's security services in libya. has set out obama his plans for fixing the world's biggest economy and called on his political rivals to help him. >> firefighters in the u.s. state of texas are struggling to contain a huge wildfire that has

already destroyed 300 homes. officials say it's moving so quickly, it can't be tackled from the ground and aircraft are being scrambled to drop water on to it. dozens of wildfires are burning in texas with its worst drought in half a century. >> 60 wildfires are raging across texas but this one is vast and burning out of control. 26 kilometers across spreading through tinder dry ground in an area suffering its worst drought in 50 years. tackling it from the air is the only option. it's moving too quickly and ferociously to be fought on the ground. >> we've committed absolutely we have in this state and not just on this fire. we have hundreds of fires burning across the state where we're losing homes after homes. we currently have over 1,000 firefighters in the state of texas working these fires. >> 300 homes have been destroyed and thousands of people evacuated from their homes.

a tropical storm too fast far away to provide desperately needed rain, but close enough to create high winds, which were spreading the flames. >> there's a fire department or volunteer fire department truck coming through on the loud speaker telling everyone to evacuate. kept getting louder each time. >> i was at work, got a phone call to come home and get my stuff because they were evacuating. >> we've had something like this in our past but this is much worse, larger scale, and we're really asking for the community to work with us. >> a 20-year-old woman and her baby were killed after being trapped in their mobile home. national guard helicopters and tankers dropping fire retardant powder to try to stop the fire from spreading but it's still andletely uncontained continues to spread. >> rescue workers in japan have spent another day trying to

reach people stranded after typhoon ripped through the west of the country on saturday. the typhoon has been downgraded to a tropical storm but has caused at least there are deaths. several thousand people are cut off in japanese villages. ms. masmoto, thank you for joining us. how serious is the damage caused by the typhoon and what is the latest on the casualty figure? >> according to the fire department, there are 34 people died and still 55 people missing and there are about 3,000 people in evacuation centers. >> why has it taken so many days for rescuers to reach and help the victims? >> there are some village on the

mountainside still not passable by road and only the search and rescue efforts done by helicopters and on sunday there were evacuation instruction order allotted to more than 83,000 people but actually only 6,000 people evacuated and a lot of this case, like people live in the mountainside and small villages with the elderly population. the elderly people are worried about evacuating in heavy rain or people did not take their warnings seriously so those who were late to evacuate have affected. >> currently we're seeing extraordinary pictures of the damage caused by the typhoon. but in your view, are japanese authorities adequately equipped and typhoons and to rescue victims?

>> this typhoon is the largest ever since 2004 and japan's been known as the most highest system to have monitoring or alarm system but what happened is the residents, the individuals, according to their experience, did not take the alarm seriously and decided not to evacuate and the continuous heavy rain caused lots of rain on top of the mountain and that makes the river flow suddenly, so even it's not raining at your place, but the river could rise up so suddenly so that's one of the cause people were late to evacuate and so far the fire department and self defense forces are having effort to rescue the people and as far as

red cross, we have enough supplies and stocks and headquarters are helping the prefecture. >> we'll have to leave it there. thank you so much for joining us. she is from the japanese red cross in japan. and now, thousands of cubans have marked the death of a senior political figure. >> that's right, rico. cubans paid tribute to the late defense minister, julio casas, who died over the weekend of a heart attack. he was a close associate of president raul castro and one of the island's vice presidents. his death is bound to a new focus on the fragility of the country's aging leadership. >> general casas was one of the original revolutionary fighters. his death was marked with full military honors. the day, thousands of cubans of all ages filed past his portrait in the lobby at the ministry of defense.

outside, the lines stretched as far as the eye could see. julio casas ragero was a trained accountant who gave up his job in the late 1950's and headed to the mountains to join fidel castro's army fighting to overthrow the dictator battista. general casas was 75 years old, one of the younger leaders here in cuba, and his death has brought into focus the fact that there is no clear plan for a transition to a younger generation of leaders. president raul castro is 80 years old and so is his number two. fidel castro, who no longer holds an official position, is 85. he's not been seen in public since this appearance at the

communist party congress in april. congress did elect a number of younger members on to a central committee of the communist party with the military and provincial party bosses figuring strongly. that's where many expect cuba's future leaders to come from. after this generation, there are many more ready to continue fighting for the revolution, this man told me. the revolution continues, this woman said, the old led by example, will be no problem, the changeover is assured, but without a clear of line of succession, any future transition may not be as smooth as when raul castro took over from his brother, fidel. bbc news, havana. >> thanks for watching "newsday." >> plenty more to come. stay with us.

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