>> this is "bbc world news." funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key, strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you?

>> and now "bbc world news." >> hello and welcome. >> inside homs, are rapporteur under fire in the besieged syrian city. >> you can hear a little bit of fire. >> unity for the palestinians, hamas and fatah agreed to share power. >> the hunt for dozens of people feared trapped in the rubble of a factory in pakistan. 50 years since he became the monarch, queen elizabeth.

>> we're broadcasting to viewers on pbs in america and around the world. welcome to "newsday." >> homs has suffered a sustained bombardment by government forces. the heaviest assault since the uprising began last year. the united states has closed the embassy in damascus. there are few international journalists inside syria. their report includes some distressing images. >> daybreak in homs, the artillery fire was just beginning. he steered magellan to safety.

-- gently to safety. and as part of the city, it is the worst they have in george. -- endured. god is great, he shouts in defiance. we are hearing impact every few seconds. in reply, you can also hear a little bit of fire. it is a few tiled gesture. -- if your child jester. eyewitnesses say a field clinic was hit. -- futile gesture. over several days of this, most of the casualties have been civilians. the houses do not have basements and there is nowhere to hide. where is the arab league? she shouts.

this woman's son is badly wounded. give us guns, she screams. we cannot defend ourselves. even in the midst of all of this, most hide their faces. they say there is no telling what the regime will do. >> the only thing they had to help them was the un. now the u.n. has abandoned us. it will help us now? >> some of the dead were armed. this man died attacking a government sniper yesterday. the regime says the violence is caused by the fighters of the syrian army. no, says the rebel commander.

everything we do is to defend our people. the regime cannot get to us, so it retaliates against civilians instead. they are certainly paying the price. the shroud is for a seven-year- old girl. their carefully write her name. -- they carefully write her name. like all the dead, she must be buried in darkness. daytime is too dangerous. there is no family, and little dignity. they have to. . even now, that they are attacked. there will be much more lonely burials. >> my colleague spoke to put and he gave for the latest on the

situation inside the city. >> people are pretty terrified, frankly. they have been hiding out in the stairwells of their homes. putting as much distance between them and the outside as possible. it indicates how much pressure they are under. there were 17 dead and they took them out to bury them at night. they dug one mass grave. even then, there were fired upon. it remains very dangerous. we counted hundreds of shells and mortar impacts today. it is not continuing at that rate, we are hearing the whistle of incoming explosions. >> is the bombardment -- is the opposition to syria's government strengthening war is a dissipating? >> that is a good question. this may have a galvanizing

effect on the opposition. this is an uprising almost a year old. it has seemed like a stalemate for a very long time. why is the government acting now? there are two views on that. the rebel fighters are growing in strength so much, the government felt they had to do this. only a few days ago, a general went over from the government side to be a free army. -- to the free army. the government is under a lot of pressure. >> weekend progress against two -- for two rival factions in the middle east. >> the two major political palestinian parties have agreed that fatah leader will head the interim government and the

west bank. the move came up with a warning from israel that it may close the door to any future peace talks. john dawson has more. >> the palestinian president and prime minister, too. after talks with hamas and chief, hosted by -- he agreed to lead a new unity government for both the west bank and gaza. >> we did not find this agreement for the mayor said of assignment. -- the mirror the sake of the signing. regardless of all the hurdles and problems. >> we are all serious about amending the old wounds and closing the chapter of division in order to achieve reconciliation. palestinians have been crying out for political reconciliation

for years. the divisions betweenfatah and moss has been a bitter and violent. a year after hamas won elections in 2006, a fierce fighting erupted with fatah being forced from gaza. abaas says he wants that to change. elections are to be held later this year. he is really a fallback choice as prime minister. the two sides fail to agree on any alternative names. there remain major differences in policy. not least, how to deal with israel. israel rejected the deal. >> hamas is a terror organization which strives to destroy the state of israel. i have said many times that the palestinian authority must decide between hamas and israel.

>> after decades of failed talks with israel, the president has become increasingly frustrated with u.s. efforts to mediate a middle east peace deal. for now, peace between palestinians since his party. -- seems is priority. >> many people are feared trapped in the rubble of a factory in a pakistan city following a gas explosion. police said at least nine people are known to have died. >> it is an arduous task. pickler the complicated twisted metal and piles of concrete rubble. brick by brick, the rescue workers are doing just that. this was a that a jury -- the veterinary medicine factory. it was not properly registered, and therefore illegal.

the blast was can -- the blast was believed to be caused by a gas explosion. some trapped inside were said to be child laborers. only a small number have been pulled out alive. there may be more inside, but it is an anxious wait for relatives and friends. we tried to catch a glimpse of those carried away. this man says his brother in law came to the factory at 8:00 in the morning. since then, he has not been seen. it's got a around 60 people may have been inside when the building collapsed. the search for survivors is made harder because of the narrow streets surrounding the scene of the collapse. time is of the essence. >> if there are any wires or open spaces, we have some people alive, we should be able to get them out. as soon as the search is completed, they are bringing in

heavy machinery. >> the safety of pakistan's industry and its building have many times been called into question. this factory is said to a been shut down on a number of occasions. the authorities have painful questions to answer. such as why it it was allowed to reopen. >> the man accused of norway's worst mass killing has appeared on camera for the first time. he denies a criminal responsibility for killing 77 people in july and has been refusing to allow cameras into his court hearing. this report contains some flash photography. >> this is the first time he has been seen in front of a camera since last july. amid tight security, he appears in the court. he admits killing 77 people, but denies criminal responsibility. 69 of its victims were amongst

the hundreds of people gathered on the island for the annual labor party youth camp. he thinks their political party has failed norway. he has strong views against multi-cultural is of and immigration to europe. today, he demanded is freedom and told the court he deserves a medal of honor. his fifth hearing since his arrest was controversial shown live on norwegian television. many norwegians are furious that was allowed to happen. for others, there was relief finally seeing him. >> it was very important for him to see that he cannot hurt me anymore. he is not dangerous the way that he was on july 22. he was very arrogant, and that was hard for me.

i do not think he regrets what he has done. >> it was very important to me because i needed to get closure. he is never able to do anything like that again. >> i have a lot of mixed emotions inside me. i came out with a totally new image of him. he was turned into someone who is not dangerous. >> psychiatric tests have found him to be legally insane. if insanity is confirmed, he will be confined to a mental hospital. otherwise, the trial is scheduled for april 16. >> you are watching "newsday." we are live from singapore and london. honored killed at least 40 in the philippines. we will have the latest -- an earthquake killed at least 40 in the philippines. >> marking the diamond jubilee

of queen elizabeth. >> let's take a quick look at some of the newspapers. the wife of syria's president pranksters silent on the violence gripping the country. -- breaks her silence on the violence gripping the country. she offer support to were has been while claiming to be encouraging dialogue and comforting the bereaved. the paper says the rising sense of panic in the capital is killing a black market in currency trading. there is still hope for the deal increase despite the delays. europe's largest defense contractor is considering dropping the price of its

aircraft. >> this is "newsday." >> there has been a nother attack on the syrian army in the city of homs. 40 people are reported to had been killed. >> after months of the negotiations, the two men palestinian factions have agreed to a deal ahead of elections and the west bank. >> floods are continuing to affect large parts of eastern australia. thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in queensland. water levels are expected to be 50 meters higher than normal on tuesday.

it is the third major floods in the area and less than two years. joining me now is the chief superintendent. thank you so much for joining us. what is the latest on how many people have been stranded and have been evacuated from st. george? >> thank you very much. st. george is a town of about 3000 people. apparently, there is only about 200 people still in town. that includes emergency service workers. they're trying to maintain the critical and the structure. the water levels at the moment are round about it 13.8 meters. that is half a meter higher than the previous records. we're not expecting to go much over 14. it will be a long week. it will be with us until wednesday. there will be --

>> mr. dawson, when do you expect the residents to return to their homes? >> we are putting in place a number of plans for that. initially, we were hoping to look at tomorrow. the reports are that the highway, which is the main arterial road t, is capped at te moment with water running across the road. we are taking local advice and that could be up for another 24 or 48 hours. a lot of that is work in progress. we are doing a lot of work with the council. a lot of the council has been outstanding in putting in place a number of steps. >> what lessons have you learned from last year's disastrous

flood that you are now implementing in your disaster preparedness program? >> one of the things we're looking at, how that is done in the outreach to reach out to those in isolated areas. in regards to -- pets as well. the protection of the critical infrastructure around power, phones. there has been a lot of work done in that space to secure what is the rest of the fabric of society. >> the chief superintendent, thank you so much. police on strike and a brazilian estate have clashed with soldiers sent to remove them from the state assembly. brazilian television pictures showed the armed forces firing rubber bullets and charging

demonstrators as the troops tried to enter the building. they have been surrounded in an effort to force out several thousand police officers and their families. the murder rate has more than doubled and the state capital since police stopped work on tuesday to demand better pay. officials of the philippines a more than 40 people have been killed by a powerful earthquake that shook a central province on monday morning. it is thought that 29 people were killed in one village by a landslide triggered by the quake. the 6.7 magnitude earthquake. our correspondent joins us with the latest on the situation. >> we have been told that at least 40 people have died. especially -- it seems to be the place for most people lost their lives. officials said we really do not know, there may be more dead in more remote areas.

there are many remote areas on the island. the priority is to try to get to these places as soon as possible. >> the damage seems to be quite serious. there are reports of rescuers are still digging through the rubble. without the help of any heavy equipment? >> absolutely. they have asked for heavy equipment, but the roads and bridges are down. in the equipment is in the wrong place and they cannot get it. communication is down. that is one of the main priorities because they do not even know where the places are to coordinate and to prioritize their efforts. >> indeed. natural disaster preparedness should be a priority of the government. critics say the national government is not prepared. over the past few months, we

have seen the philippines been hit by natural disasters. particularly the one -- the heavy flooding were you had 1000 people died. -- where you had 1000 people died. >> the philippines are often hit with disasters of this type. the government has said it is going to prioritize it better. it is trying to cope with these sorts of disasters better. even in this situation, they do not know accurate figures for anything like damage in some remote areas. there is no heavy lifting equipment in the area. there is nothing that is going to stop the illegal logging, which is often what triggers the landslide in these disasters and contributes to the death toll. >> there have been a lot of support from the private sector in terms of helping out with

food, clothes, medicine. it seems like there have been raided the response of the government has been slow. -- it seems like the response of the government has been slow. >> there is a lot of help locally. i saw many local people trying to help. the government is trying to help as well, but the general feeling is that it is a little too little and a little bit too late. >> 60 years since queen elizabeth ascended the throne. >> events will be held all over the world to mark the queen's diamond jubilee. on monday, she took a quiet visit to the east of england. our correspondent has more. >> it is what she has been doing for 60 years, constant and understated.

today is a school where the children were offering their thanks for 60 years on the throne. from buckingham palace to a new photographic and a message. in a special year, the queen said, i dedicate myself anew to your service. i hope we will be reminded of the power of togetherness and the strength of family, friendship, and good neighborliness. that sentence embraces many of the themes of the queen's reign of service and dedication. she carried forward after the death of her father. elizabeth was then 25. she was in kenya when she heard that she was now queen. she and her husband returned to london to be matched by the prime minister winston churchill. it was a huge up people. -- up evil. >> this was her destiny.

her private secretary said she grasped her destiny with both hands. and she did. >> what are the characteristics of this person whose image is so familiar, but his personality remains largely hidden? >> she is a very strong person. she has a lot of common sense and great wisdom. " those qualities, said her friends, have sustained her. >> all these big occasions, weddings and that sort of thing, she was genuinely comforted by the enormous affection. she has earned it. >> what of the future for a monarch who will be 86-year?

there is certainty about one thing. >> in my mind, her majesty will remain sovereign as long as she lives. i do not think there is any question. even if she was unable to perform her duties, she is still the queen and will be. until she dies. >> elizabeth, queen for 60 years, and does committed as ever to continue a lifetime of service -- and is as committed as ever to continue a lifetime of service. >> you have been watching "newsday." >> the syrian city of homs has endured the worst day of attacks since the uprising began a year ago. the united states has closed the embassy in damascus. thank you for watching "newsday."

>> make sense of international news. 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. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key, strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you?

>> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles.