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>> they were unhurt. but, to the ambassador's horror, they face aid much bigger problem. he'd sent his nonessential staff to a different compound to be stephen a. but the protesters had gone after them as well. >> one had pressed a safe against the iron door, put a bed against the safe and braced himself there. but they came for him as well the you could imagine what it's like. he kept them out for about 45 minutes, but in the end the door was broken around him and there was nothing he could do. >> eventually he got out. the protesters looted and stole hard drives. the ambassador's photos show

they also went to work an a few emblems of the british empire. in the morning, all british employees left iran with a firm belief as to who was responsible >> iran is not the sort of country where a group congress regaits and attacks a foreign embassy. that sort of activity is only done with the acquiescence and support of the state. >> this morning, the diplomats from iran packed up and left. iran called the decision to close the embassy a hasty one and promised that when the diplomats get back to tehran they'll be treated as heroes. >> the united states says pakistan is refusing to take part in an investigation into a nato air strike that killed 24

people near the border. rm they say the coordinates given to them were wrong. in retaliation, pakistan has shut down all the routes the u.s. used -- uses to send foot, fuel and supplies in to troops. and accusations in moscow against a group in front of this sunday's elections. stock markets recorded some of their biggest weekly gains for nearly three years, reflecting hopes of further action to deal well. euro zone crisis. frankfurt's main index closed up for the week. the german chancellor, angela merkel, has warned it will take

years to resolve the situation. >> at this critical time, here is the european central bank celebrating the 10th anniversary of the instruction -- truex -- intro dux of the euro bank know. >> the euro. our money. >> in the german parliament today, angela merkel was looking for a plan that would save the single currency. her ambitious idea is for the countries to be bound more closely together, with tough rules to prevent governments overspending. >> anybody who just a few months ago would have said that we were introducing very serious steps, for a fiscal union, would have been considered crazy. >> she said, however, that fixing the crisis was a process that would take years. at the heart shall the lateful -- of the latest plan by angela

merkel is what is called a fiscal union with tighter control over tax and spending. there were be sanctions against countries that broke the rules, with offenders possibly being taken to the european court of justice. national budgets could even be vetoed. >> of course this is hard to swallow for any sovereign country, however, the situation is such that countries cannot really bargain for much. they need whatever it on the table to work because otherwise the consequences will be dire. >> in angela merkel's view, these plans will require changes to the u.n. treaties. in the past, haggling over such treaties took years. what is unclear is whether these latest proposals to alter the treaties will be limited or substantial.

treaty changed pose a big dilemma for britain. today the prime minister was in paris visiting president sarkozy, who is also backing treaty change. david cameron neither wants nor does he see the need to change the treaties much the british position is to wait until it is clear what the final proposal will be. >> if there is treaty change, i will make sure we further protect and enhance britain's interests but i'm many absolutely convinced the bottom line for me is always what is in the interests of the u.k.? >> his dilemma is that a major treaty change would require british support, and many of his back-benchers would see that as an opportunity to get power back from brussels. >> we have to say, look, you pro 30esed the renegotiation of the european treaties. we're not going to accept the

renegotiation on your terms. >> so the european central bank may be celebrating 10 years of euro notes and coins. what the financial markets will want to know is how long it will take for these latest plans to have impact. the number of people out of work in the united states has fallen to its lowest level in two and a half years. the level was 8.6% last month, down from 9% in october. critics say the fall is due to companies taking on holiday staff and that january's numbers will be more realistic. still, 13 million americans remain unemployed. >> islamist from the muslim brotherhood are thought to be ahead in the egyptian vote. the turnout was more than 60%, as daniel griffith reports. >> protesters are still camped out in cairo's tahrir square.

it's their demonstration that helped bring about these historic elections. early on friday they got to hear the first handful of results. so far the most important figure appears to be the turnout. >> the total number of registered voters in these areas is 13,614,525. the turnout is 62%, and this is the highest percentage witnessed by egypt in an election since the pharoahs until now. even the forgeries of past elections did not reach such a percentage. millions went to the polls in egypt's first election since the toppling of president mubarak. but early results are unclear. islamists associated with the muslim brotherhood are thought to be leading, but only four candidates have won seats out rite. all the others face runoff

elections next week, and this is only the first stage in a long and complex process. in total there are three rounds of voting over three months. the full and final outcome probably won't be known until next year. dan griffiths, bbc news. >> still to come, the world's best-known naturalist has weighed in to the war of words on global warming. the british government has won an important ruling on the way pensions are calculated for millions of public sector workers. trade unions had argued that a decision about which measure of inflation was used was unlawful. this week between one and two million public sector workers went on strike over changes to their pensions, but today unions lost a key legal battle over how pensions will be increased for years to come. pensions are up-rated annually

to take advantage of the price of a rise -- rising price of a basket of goods. in april the government switched to the c.p.i., the consumer prices indelk, which is says it a mar accurate reflection of the inflation we all feel. but the c.p.i. tends to be low, to phil kendall and millions of other public sect orr employees now face a cut in what they will receive. >> the c.p.i. measure is sort of like a percentage point on average lower than the i.p.i. so i probably won't notice it next year, but it's the same amount every year that my mention is going to be eroded and eroded and eroded and that just doesn't seem jufment? takey teacher who retires on 10,000 pounds a year. over 20 years she'll receive 40,000 pounds less. but that's an enormous saves to

a government. >> i'm told there are some size of relief here at the treasury when the result of this case finally came. the government was always pretty confident it would win, and in a statement it says it welcomes the high court's decision. >> john moylan reporting. there is more on that story, of course, on the bbc web site. >> this is bbc news and these are the headlines. the unup human rights council has condemned syria's bloody repression of protesters -- protesters. diplomats in -- have arrived back in iran after their expulsion by the british government. the government has given up

trying to reach the wayward probe. it veered off course shortly after taking off. russia has now launched 16 probes to the red planet. unfortunately, every one of them has failed. . staying with science, the world-famous naturalist david attenborough has waded into the debate on climate change. >> the antarctic continent is smothered by the world's greatest ice sheet. >> they're the remotest, coldest parts of the planet, the polar regions. after 23i78ing there over a number of years, a giant of natural history broadcasting, david attenborough, is convinced that they're changing dramatically. >> this penguin is the most solitary nesting of all

penguins and like the polar bear up in the north their dives -- liveds are dependent on the sea ice. >> his big concern is the effect of rising temperatures. here a huge iceberg breaks way from greenland. this does happen naturally, but the melting could accelerate if the arctic and part of antarctica continue to worm up. >> it's not like that -- >> when i met him for an interview, he explained that it was the speed of change that was the most striking and worrying. >> this exchange extremely swift. this change is happening within our lifetime and we've seen it happening and that is in geological terms, in biological and ecological terms, that's hugely swift. so to adapt, you can adepth to slow change. quick change is much more difficult. >> one of the great features of the antarctic coast, the wilkins ice shelf, is seen

break up. the film crew filmed huge figure skatingures -- huge fissures running throw it. >> it's not beyond possibility that warming will actually cause sea level rises which could threaten the center of london. >> is there a risk of course be sounding a little too alarmist about this? >> um, i try not to. the fact is that we know these changes are happening. the evidence for that is incon tro the terrible -- incouldn't ro robertible dd incontrovertible and if they go on will have stroichic effects for human beings. >> and his passion for wild life goes on. his favorite polar dreature is surprising. >> i think a caterpillar, a

caterpillar that lives for 14 years and is frozen solid -- frozen solid to its core 14 times, which tames 14 years to accumulate enough food to allow it to go into a moth. that's amazing. >> but what about the future? well, scientists can't be sure about the rate of melting, but we do know that distant regions that once seemed irrelevant feel much closer to us now. david shugman, bbc news. >> let's get more on our top story, the u.n.'s human rights vote on syria. joining me from detroit in much, khalid, what -- do you agree with navi pillay of the united nations that syria is now in a state of civil war? >> i actually do not the the syrian national council, we

were very disappointed to hear her use such statements. a civil war indicates that there are two parties who are equal to each other who are fighting. this is not the case in syria the you have a government that has been massacring, killing innocent civilians for the past nine months. so i was disappointed to hear that, tall -- actually >> do you think the free syrian army should be engaging in conflict with assad's troops? or should they listen to the syrian national council and as they had previously agreed just stick to using violence to protect civilians? >> at this point we are asking the free syrian army to stick to protecting civilians whenever there are peaceful demonstrators going out. there are some expectations that the free syrian army would stick to protecting those protesters. we don't want them to take an aggressive route. >> syria has been suspended

from the arab league. now this vote in the united nations human rights council. what more needs to be done diplomatically to make sure the bloodshed ends? >> you know, i think there is going to be a long road ahead of us. if you think about it, the arab league second, and up had the votes in the the general assembly last week. it was positive. we had the russia and chinese governments abstain. but with the vote that happened today with the u.n. human rights council, we have russia and china yet again coming and voting against it so i think there is still a battle that's taking place at the u.n. level. we need to win the russians and chinese on our side to really completely put the noose around the current syrian regime. >> ok. so let's imagine if it's at all possible that russia and china or not side and the united

nations security council refers members to have -- of the regime to the international criminal court. how important would that be? >> i think more -- for the most extent, we all understand that a moral victory. unfortunately at the time, protesters are looking for some of those moral victories to tell them that the world at least is with you. i think it will be a positive step. we understand it doesn't mean the end of the regime but it will send a signal to lots of the silent supporters in syria who still are not sure if they want to switch sides or stick with assad. i think that will take every bit of legitimacy from the assad regime and you will have more army defections and more of the elite class that are sort of middle of the road and did not come out. i think you will find more of those guys coming ouse against the assad regime. >> thank you for joining us

from michigan. now, a new rembrandt painting has been discovered. scientists in new york are use ing high tech. >> discovering an old master with the help of some very modern technology. art critics have often claimed that this isn't really a rembrandt and that it might have been the work of one of his students. these special x-ray machines can detect and reveal exactly what is hidden behind the old man with the beard. scientists say this unmistakable outline prove it's the work of the master. >> this painting was discovered recently and attributed to reck brandt by the leading expert partly based on the x-ray image of this painting because below the surface of this paintion is actually an unfinished self-portrait of rembrandt.

many of rembrandt's paintings have been reused. he usually recycled the panels or canvases and painted on top of existing compositions. that's also the case in this painting. >> it's often tricky to establish the authenticity of a rembrandt. partially because he used to encourage his entourage to copy his work. sometimes he would touch utch what they had done and sell it as his own. now thanks to this new technology, at the -- we know that this one is the real thing. it's owned by a private collector. it will go on show next spinning sshpring for the first time. >> and in case you're interested, rembrandt lived 1606 to 1659. just the kind of news ux find on the bbc web site. thanks so much for watching.

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