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small businesses to mainl corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news." >> welcome to "newsday" on the bbc. i'm in singapore. >> i'm in london. the headlines this hour. president obama calls for instant action on his plan to boost the u.s. economy. >> so let's meet the moment. let's get to work. and let's show the world once again why the united states of america remains the greatest nation on earth. thank you very much. god bless you. >> officials say seeking suspects linked to a credible terrorism threat. and the official reaction to the killing of an iraqi civilian by british soldiers eight years ago. it's 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, this is "newsday."

>> hello, and welcome. president barack obama has given a rare address to a joint session of the u.s. congress to lay out plans for a new jobs package. mr. obama said it was an urgent time for the u.s. with an economic crisis that had left millions out of work. he said an american jobs act would help construction workers, teachers, and the long-term unemployed. mr. obama called on congress to pass the measure immediately, saying the question now was whether politicians could stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy. president obama spelled out the action he was intending to take. >> i am sending this congress a plan that you should pass right away. it's called the american jobs act. there should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation.

everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both democrats and republicans. including many who sit here tonight. and everything in this bill will be paid for, everything. [applause] the purpose of the american jobs act is simple. to put more people back to work those who are working. it will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for long-term unemployed. it will provide -- [applause] it will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working american and every small business. [applause] it will provide a jolt to an

economy that is stalled and give companies confidence that if they invest and if they hire, there will be customers for their products and services. you should pass this jobs plan right away. [applause] >> while the president also said he was willing to work with his republican opponents, but he wouldn't compromise on certain key principles. >> but what we can't do, what i will not do is let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that americans have counted on for decades. i reject the idea that we need to ask people to choose between their jobs and their safety. i reject the argument that says for the economy to grow, we have

to roll back protections that ban hidden fees by credit card companies, rules that keep our kids from being exposed to mercury, or laws that prevent the health insurance agencies from short-changing patients. i reject the idea that we have to strip away collecting bargaining rights to compete in a global economy. [applause] we shouldn't be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards. america should be in a race to the top, and i believe we can win that race. >> the president stressed that time was of the essence. >> i know there's been a lot of skepticism about whether the politics of the moment will allow us to pass this job's plan or any jobs plan. already we're seeing the same

old press releases and tweets flying back and forth. or any of the media's proclaimed that it's impossible to bridge our differences. maybe some of you have decided that those differences are so great that we can only resolve them at the ballot box. but know this -- the next election is 14 months away. and the people who sent us here, the people who hired us to work for them, they don't have the luxury of waiting 14 months. [applause] >> some of them are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck, even day-to-day. they need help, and they need it

now. >> let's get some analysis on president obama's speech. we can talk to professor peter mauricey from the robert h. school of business at the university of maryland and he joins us now from washington. what do you make of president obama's speech? do you think it was a political speech or this isn't about politics, this is about real people who need his help right away? >> americans are smarter than the president thinks. he proposings to more or less extend tax breaks for certain people that have been in existence and make them a little better and he's going to pay for them by raising taxes on other people. hardly going to create jobs like that if you rob peter to pay paul. at the same time, he's asking americans to oppose measures and

measures they've become disenchanted with. he said i'm going to go to every corner of the country. he's basically saying i'm beginning my re-election campaign and we're going to fight this over what kind of country we're going to have. >> he's really calling out to republicans he wants to work together when he's talking about the small businesses tax cut, he's saying the republicans proposed this, they now should pass this. they can work together. don't you think? >> well, there's a few things in there republicans would like to do. everybody wants to spend more money on roads and bridges. politicians of all stripes like doing that because construction companies make generous contributions to local politicians, and congressmen are local politicians. and everybody wants to do that. the question is how do you pay for it? the president was making it clear. he engaged in some rather

disingenuous purposeful confusion of the issues. he's talking about a lot of money. he basically is going to give them money from the federal government, more of it than he has the past few months. these aren't things republicans can necessarily easily support. what he's trying to do is phrase his position for the campaign and with the republicans right now divided, the only candidate that's come up with a credible program that he can stand on and run on and govern on is mitt romney. that puts him in a pretty good position, because he's going to be debating with a chorus and a disorganized chorus. >> they were very much arguing about jobs in their presidential debate.

>> well, if i tell you i'm going to cure your head cold by jumping off a bridge, i don't have to go along with it. you don't have to go along with it. these are measures that have not succeeded in the past. we've just had a massive amount of infrastructure spending with the stimulus. we've just had payroll tax cuts with the follow-up to the stimulus. giving businesses additional tax cuts to hire when their basic problem isn't money to hire people. they've got cash. it's that there's not enough demand. there are things in there they're going to want to do. >> it's very good to talk to you. let's get an opposing view from howard rosen from the peterson institute of international economics. thanks for joining us. do you think these measures can succeed?

>> i think he really needed to explain to the american people in very real terms about what's really going on right now. we are facing a very difficult time in the united states. as you know, the europeans are also facing a difficult time. we've got some serious problems that we have to address. and this isn't just a political discussion. this isn't about his re-election. this is about future of u.s. economy and the world economy. and i thought i would have liked a little bit more about that. >> you're feeling the details should have come together. >> well, i think that the president has three challenges tonight. he knows the corporations are sitting on two trillion dollars to three trillion dollars worth

in profits. what we need to do is rebuild confidence in this economy so that people sitting on the profits start investing them again in the united states. why did he need to come and give the speech, tell them in a way he can rebuild his credibility. as you know, his popularity is quite low. i think he should put out a big picture bold agenda of what we need to do, not what's politically feasible. the measures that he's mentioning, they are the traditional measures. these measures really haven't produced the kind of recovery that we really need in the united states. >> he stressed that this isn't

about the election, 14 months away. this is about people needing help now. do you think that this is still rather political rather than motivated by the needs of the americans? >> or is there something different going on if the united states and the rest of the world? is this just a slow recovery or is something different happening now and therefore we need to have different responses? and again, that i feel has been left out of the discussion, and so it becomes just a question of how many tax cuts can we give, so i think that's really what was missing. so we break into where we were a

month ago, so we bring proposals, and americans say we can't afford it because we're running up all of this debt. so i don't know how we've broken out of that straitjacket yet. >> howard rosen from the peterson institute of international economics, very good to speak to you. julianna, you have the details of an outcome into the inquiry of an iraqi man at the hands of british troops. >> that's right. david cameron has described the killing of an iraqi civilian in british custody as truly shocking and appalling. an independent inquiry has found that he was beaten to death by british troops following a raid on a hotel where he worked in the southern city of ambassador ra, warning that this report has some distressing images. >> this 26-year-old had 93 separate injuries when he was battered to death in british custody.

this video was filmed the day before he was killed. it was an army major who instructed the soldiers guarding the detainees to use hoods and stretch positions, which were banned by the government. the footage shows a corporal shouting obscenities at the iraqis. >> my judgment is they constitute an appalling episode of serious, gratuitous violence on civilians, which resulted in the death of one man and injuries to others. they represented a very serious breech of discipline. >> these pictures show the wounds of detainees, one left with acute kidney failure. the inquiry found it was a violent assault that triggered his death. he'd been made physically vulnerable by hooding in extreme

heat. a corporate failure in the ministry of defense. it says stress positions and hoodie were unacceptable in any circumstances. it also found that many soldiers had assaulted the iraqis. even more had failed to intervene. a lack of moral counch. >> -- courage. >> it's clearly an appalling incident. it should not have happened. it should never be allowed to happen again and the british army, as it does, should uphold the highest standards. >> the inquiry found that major michael pope mobiles knew that detainees had been assaulted. he's accused of unacceptable failure. it said that if lieutenant craig rogers had acted when he first knew what was happening, the man would have survived. it found that the colonel ought to have known what was going on. and that corporal payne was a violent bully who tried to cover up what he had done. >> no doubt they are reading

that report right now and they will be considering the war crimes of torture and humane treatment and submitting people to grossly humiliating behavior. there's a number of people who have every reason to be very, very worried. >> back in the middle east, a family still grieving. >> his children are now orphaned. today the former soldier who tried to resuscitate their father expressed his remorse. >> it's on my mind. i've got to live with that for the rest of my life.

>> today's report into his death is a big step towards accountability, but the scandal over what happened to him has not yet been laid to rest. >> you're watching "newsday" on the bbc from singapore and london. still to come on the program, messages from 9/11. recordings of the moments before the twin towers were struck. the organization for economic cooperation and development has warned of a gloomy outlook for the world's leading economies and a possible return to recession. our correspondent stephanie looks into the story for us. >> the closer you examine the world economy, the worse it's starting to look. today, the oecd added to the gloom with a report that talked of the recovery coming to a halt

of world trade and a risk that enemployment will become entrenched. time for a plan b? you might think so. the oecd said countries with credible budget policies can and should respond to the slowdown, but apparently that doesn't mean the u.k. the chancellor today met with vice premier wang. he says it's not due to budget cuts. >> countries that pursue completely different policies to ours over the last year, the united states had a huge fiscal stimulus. they have not seen markedly more growth than we've seen in the u.k. >> george osbourne's decisions a year ago choked off our recovery in britain even before this latest crisis in the euro zone and in america, which means we are very, very badly exposed indeed now.

unemployment is rising. a change of course in britain has grown by the day. >> we are in the first crisis since world war ii. we do our job. it's not an easy job. >> the job is no easier in the u.s., where the head of the central bank tonight hinted that he was exploring new tools to help the economy. hours before the president unveiled his plan for jobs. stephanie philander, "bbc news." >> this is "newsday" on the bbc. >> the headlines this hour, president obama has challenged his opponents to back his plan to create more american jobs and then what he calls a political circus. >> the speech was heavy on urgency, but light on specifics. more details on plans to cut the

budget deficit will be revealed later in the month. as this weekend's anniversary of september 11 approaches, american news networks are reporting the u.s. officials are investigating what they described as credible, but so far unconfirmed information about a possible terrorism threat against the united states. a massive police security operation is already in place in new york. meanwhile, audiotapes of radio and telephone communications recorded on the morning of the attacks 10 years ago have been made public. the recordings, many of which have not been heard before, paints a dramatic picture of the confusion and horror as events unfolded. adam brooks reports. >> september 11, at 8:13 in the morning, air traffic controllers lose contact with american airlines flight 11 not far from new york. then a telephone call from the plane itself. it's betty long, an attendant. >> the cockpit is not entering.

somebody is stabbed in business class. >> shortly afterwards, this. >> nobody move. everything is ok. if you try to make any moves -- just stay quiet. >> the voice is mohammed atta. stunned air traffic controllers try to understand what's happening. >> we have a problem here. we have a hijacked aircraft headed towards new york. and we need you guys to scramble some f-16's or something up there to help us out. >> is this real world or exercise? >> this is not an exercise, not a test. >> the head of air traffic national control was on his first day in the job. >> i found myself standing in the middle of that floor, mostly trying to comprehend what the heck was going on. >> as events unfold in the control towers, bafflement and disbelief.

>> can you look out your window right now? can you see about 4,000 feet -- >> yeah, that's him. >> that's another situation. >> another one just hit the building. >> the building just started coming apart. >> at 10:30, order go out to shoot down hijacked aircraft. >> the commander has declared that we can shoot down aircraft that do not respond to our declaration. >> copy that. >> you read that from the vice president, right? >> there were none left to shoot down. >> adam brooks, "bbc world news," washington. >> it took just 73 minutes for those terror attacks on 9/11 to change the course of american history. those moments also changed the lives of thousands of families, as husbands, wives, sons, and daughters were killed. more than 3,000 children lost a parent. laura reports now on the children of 9/11.

>> the atwood children are back from their first day at school. this is no ordinary week for margaret, gerald, and robert and their mother barbara. on sunday, the children will mourn the death of their father, firefighter gerald atwood, who perished 10 years ago at ground zero trying to save others. >> i am proud because he sacrificed his life for other people, that he didn't even know and he cares so much about them. >> barbara was pregnant with robert when gerald was killed. the pregnancy helped her to deal with the grief. robert misses the father he never got to take him on school trips. >> what's it been like growing up without your father? >> all right, but it would be beyond better if he were here. >> barbara has devoted herself to bringing up the family, but she worries about what she and the children are missing without gerald.

>> taking the boys to scouts, just bringing that partner who is committed to being there for me, for the children has been huge. there isn't a day that i don't think about him. >> when al qaeda destroyed the twin towers, more than 60 fathers of unborn children were among those killed. the pain of growing up without a dad isn't confined to new york. the long shadow of 9/11 extends to britain, too. elizabeth turner's husband simon had flown from london to new york for a meeting on september 11. elizabeth was pregnant with william when simon was killed inside the world trade center. her grief is very different to william's mourning. >> william didn't know simon. he knows of him and knows of him as his dad. and so it's almost like his

grief is about the loss of not having a father. >> this is the memorial at ground zero. for 3,000 children who lost a parent now have somewhere to mourn the irreplaceable. >> you've been watching "newsday" from the bbc. i'm julianna in singapore. >> we've got time to bring you a reminder of our main news, that president obama has challenged his opponents to back his plan to create american jobs and to stop what he called the political circus. in a speech to a rare joint session of congress, the president promised more jobs for construction workers, teachers, veterans and the long-term unemployed along with some tax cuts. much more, of course, on that story on our website, but for now from long don, and from singapore, thanks for watching

bbc "newsday." >> 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.

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