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>> and now "bbc world news." >> hello and welcome to newsday. i am in singapore. >> and i am in london. police clashed with protesters in spain ahead of government plans to cut spending. maverick politician george galloway claims 8 victory in the u.k. by-elections. >> arab leaders meeting in baghdad to assess the un-backed police plan. and the battle for democracy in burma. a shift in power. it is 9:00 in the morning in singapore. >> and it is 2:00 in the morning in london. broadcasting to yours in america and around the world, this is newsday.

hello and welcome. spanish police have fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd during demonstrations backing a general strike. on friday, but reforms will be announced, adding to cuts that have already squeezed public services. spain is in its second recession and has the highest level of unemployment in the eu. >> the cry, and joined the general strike. spanish unions are angry over plants making it easy to hire and fire workers. protesters burned bins to block roads. in barcelona, rioters threw rocks at banks and started firing. -- and started fires.

the police responded with rubber bullets. hundreds of thousands joined the demonstration in madrid tonight. spain is the country causing most concern in the eurozone. the eu insists it much -- it must cut its deficit. but the economy is shrinking. >> with unemployment going up from 24%, at the same time, we have back to implement spending cuts. >> here are the problems. there is still a hangover from the housing crash. on average, about 140 evictions every day. protesters regularly try to stop them. she lost her home this week. house prices are still falling, deepening concerns about the debt held by a spanish banks. then there is unemployment. eduardo and maria are brother and sister, both out of work. unemployment is at 24% and

rising. >> in my last interview, there were about 40-50 candidates trying to get the job. >> a further problem is the debt of the region. valencia has the highest debt, a region struggling with the legacy of having backed prestigious projects. they splashed out on a dazzling city of arts and sciences. the only problem, that is still around 600 million euros. the cost? 150 million euros of public money. there was no demand. those who support the government say there is no alternative to austerity. >> if this is not taken, austerity is to put all of us at home. >> the crowds on the streets --

there will be a budget tomorrow which the government will -- the government says will be very austere. the fear is that this country is being lulled into a downward spiral. >> counting is continuing for the by-election in england. the winning candidate will replace the outgoing mp, who resigned due to poor health. let's go over their lives now. all eyes on the respect party candidate, george galloway. >> he is on the floor, spending much of his evening surrounded by his supporters. they are all wearing beaming smiles, all pretty jubilant. the contrast with labor is very striking when it comes to demeanor. labor activists and labour's candidate walking around ashen-

faced, staring at the floor, staring at their phones, avoiding eye contact. it gives you a sense of the scale of the upset expected. george galloway arrived just past midnight and walked triumphantly as he walked into the sports center. not that he won or was confident of winning, but he had won. that was the basis of his confidence, looking at the ballots being taken out of the boxes and going through their initial checks. the latest estimate is we'll get an official results within 15-20 minutes. predicting the outcome of by- elections is very easy to get wrong. it looks like we are getting close to an official result. >> if george galloway does win, he will have -- he will overturn

a labor majority of 6000 votes. that is not a bad feet. >> absolutely. way down the order when i came to how they perform here after the u.k. general election almost two years ago in the summer or early spring of 2010. the former labor mp decided he would step down due to ill health. the expectation was a local activist would run for them. then it emerged that george galloway, further respect mp, former labor mp, would fight the seat for respect. he is a boisterous, energetic campaigner. he brought those characteristics to this campaign. that sense of presence and personality, and campaigning about withdrawing british troops from iraq immediately, has resonated here. >> we will be watching those

results. it to stay with bbc news day for that. in other news, demand for petrol has soared after the government advised motorists to stock up in case of a strike. prices are 80% higher than usual. a historic summit has been held in baghdad. tell us more, rico. >> that is right. the first arab league meeting held in iraq since the fall of some hussein has focused on the crisis in syria. fewer than half of the arab league leaders travel to baghdad. >> cost a fortune in cash, a huge military effort to stage this summit. the first in iraq for 20 years. thousands of police on the

streets of baghdad. there has also been a day long curfew. relations with some of its neighbors are still tense. it was not a surprise that many sunni states stayed away. others were worried about the precarious security situation. the main topic on the agenda is the crisis in syria. delegates formally supported a un plan to end fighting. >> the syrian government has written to the joint special envoy, accepting his six-point plan, which was endorsed by the united nations security council. the world is waiting for commitments to be translated into action. >> even as they spoke and footage emerged -- even as they

spoke, footage emerged of mortar shells smashing into homes in homs. the video appeal to arab neighbors for help. these images show protesters coming under fire. they say the regime is not interested in dialogue until its opponents have been routed. if anything, the situation in syria is getting worse. 9000 people have been killed, but the army continues its offensive. as the delegates in baghdad departed, and other lavish, if inconclusive, barely summit, a gaullist the situation in syria would take a long time to resolve. there is still a huge security presence on the streets of baghdad. it costs a small fortune to stage this summit. iraq has declared the whole

thing a big success. even though there has been little, if any, progress on syria. >> for more on the arab league summit, i am joined by michael hudson. thank you for joining us. a serious situation in syria. it is currently ongoing. not a lot of interest from the arab league summit with just half of the leaders in attendance in baghdad. >> it is not that they are not interested in the problem of syria, but there are a lot of problems with iraq itself. the regime now has concentrated power in himself and most of these leaders who are sunni feel like he is treating the suny community badly and is too much under the influence of iran. he is not an honest broker of their opinion and they're making

their point by not sending their top leaders. >> a lot of regional gamesmanship taking place right now in this terribly the summit. what about -- in this arab league summit. the developments in syria have gone from bad to worse. what other proposals can they come up with to try to solve the situation? >> the un has endorsed a kofi annan's plan. president assad has also endorsed the plan, but he has not done anything to implement it. it only deals with stopping the violence and not any of the political issues. the issue that it does not address, that is most important, is calling for bashar on assad to step down. the opposition does not like it very much. there are many people in the opposition who think the whole annan plan is playing into the hands of the syrian regime

because it gives them more time to continue to carry out very brutal violence against the syrian protestors. >> how you think this will all play out? the violence continues. president assad is still in power. >> there is no easy answer to this. i think it is one to go on for a long time. even though it appears that the forces of president assad are breaking much of the organized resistance, that resistance is still very deep and it is spreading to other parts of syria. they may break it in one sense, but they are never really going to put it out. in the meantime, serious offers. some of the neighboring powers that do not want to see a strong syria anyway, like israel, may be perfectly happy to see the regime and the country remain in a steady but broken state.

>> michael hudson from the national university of singapore, a middle east expert. thank you for your insight. >> you are watching tuesday from the bbc. still to come, the french gunmen mohammed bharrat is buried in the toulouse. >> and after a difficult year, makers of the blackberry are quick to focus on business customers. now let's take a look at what is making the french -- the front pages of the international newspapers. gulf news highlights the first arab league summit in baghdad in nearly two decades. kofi annan's 6-point plan. and now and arresting photographs in the new york times. it shows a police officer at the

barcelona stock exchange during a general strike. and the britain independent warns the government has slipped back into recession. not to fear. the daily telegraph says the european union is preparing to extend part of what it calls a big bazooka bailout fund to boost its firepower to more than $300 billion. >> this is newsday. i am in singapore. >> and i am in london. police have clashed with protesters in spain i head of government plans to slash spending. >> the maverick politician george galloway has claimed a victory in a u.k. by-election, beating labor.

the french gunman who killed seven people in the city of toulouse has been buried in a cemetery near the city. just what should happen to his body? there was an intervention by president sarkozy for the burial to go ahead. >> in the muslim quarter of a quiet cemetery, the gunmen responsible for france's worst terrorist attack in years was buried. all around 20 men, mostly friends from the housing states where he grew up, arrive for his funeral, hiding their faces from the media. it was the end of a samba in which no one seemed willing to accept his body. his father, who left france when he was young, wanted merah buried here. but there were security concerns.

>> their request for france to transfer the body to a algeria has been issued. they received the request but were unwilling for natural reasons of security and threat to public order. >> with the last few weeks still very raw in the minds of the town's residents, following the murder of three jewish school children, a rabbi, and police officers, merah was shot after a standoff. there was little enthusiasm for him to be buried here. >> i do not want him there. my husband is over there. he should not be buried here. >> it took the intervention of president sarkozy to force the local mayor to allow the ceremony. with his father is threatening to sue the french state after his death and against the backdrop -- the backdrop of the french presidential campaign in which all sides are attempting to make political capital from

the tragedy, it will not be the last time national politics intervene in the tragic event. >> in burma, 45 seats in five elections across the country. the results will not affect the balance of power, but it is the first time that the main opposition parties leader stands as a candidate. of the 45 seats being contested, 37 are in the lower house of parliament. six in the upper house and 2 in regional assembly. some seats are not elected and reserved for the military. with the union-bank solidarity party holding the majority. the one a landslide victory in the previous multi-party election in 1990. the result was ignored by the then military government.

they chose not to burn as bait in the last general polls in 2010. the nominally civilian government has been in power for one year and at the early rehearsal for general elections in 2015. i am joined by the director of the burma project asia initiative. she is based in new york. you were banned from entering burma up until two weeks ago. your first visit in two decades. what was the experience like? >> it was great. it has not changed that much, thank goodness. i recognized a lot of places. everybody was very open. i even went to the capital twice. >> after having not been there for 20 years, what are your thoughts about the forthcoming elections? do you think that there will be credible?

the thing that the government will have fair, honest elections. >> they have no choice. there are over 150 observers watching. a lot of people have cell phones, blogs, and they tell every small thing that happens before the news gets out. i am very confident. >> the thing that if it is in the credible, the sanctions imposed by the west will be lifted eventually? >> yes, eventually. i think europe is thinking of lifting their sanctions. they are not really effective anyways. it is the american sanctions. there are lots and i think it will start being rolled back slowly. but not just because they had won election. >> after the polls, what should be the initiatives that could be put in place by the burmese government that would be able to achieve a full-fledged democracy

going forward? >> they are doing the right thing. it is a huge thing to have a unified currency. there's got to fix the financial system. they have got to have some regulation and oversight. when they get some of those in place, it will be a genuine transition. i think america should -- they are supposed to start full diplomatic relations. i think they should get an ambassador out there sometime soon. >> what are the risks of going forward, economically, politically, socially? >> economically, it is so bad that there is nowhere to go but up. it is a risk, but it probably will not get worse. politically, not everyone wants to transition this fast. there is some room for a backlash and anti-reformers getting more entrenched and

impeding the reform. that is probably the biggest thing. there is always the threat of a coup. constitutionally, you could do a coup. >> what are your thoughts on the human rights situation? >> is still not good at all. in the ethics area, still a lot of human rights abuses not being reported. all of the news is being sucked up. >> thank you for joining us. >> new video footage has emerged of the man accused of killing an unarmed teenager in florida. some say the police surveillance pictures raise questions about his claim that martin attack him. mr. zimmerman says he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense, which is legal in florida and many u.s. states. >> george zimmerman on the night of the killing, wearing a red fleece jacket witnesses described.

he told police that trayvon martin punched him and slammed his head on nutbrown. others point to a lack of blood as evidence he was on her. george zimmerman was not arrested. but he was handcuffed and questioned by the police. martin's death has sparked debate and protests across the united states. the hoodie sweater he was wearing has been a call for justice which has reached the nation's capital. >> racial profiling has got to stop. just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum. >> from politicians to celebrities, many of whom have been voicing their opinions on the case on twitter. spike lee has apologized for posting what he thought was george zimmerman's address.

martin's family have called these pictures a smoking gun and evidence of a conspiracy against their son. they prove a little about what happened. as the investigation continues, the parents of the 17-year-old and others are impatient. >> the struggling makers of blackberry are giving up on consumer markets. there is public acceptance that they have failed to compete against flashy competitors like the iphone. research in motion quarterly results well below expectations. the chief executive is resigning. they plan to focus on their core business. as our new york business correspondent points out, it is not even clear that that strategy will work. >> after disappointing results, the maker of blackberry, research in motion, says it wants to go back to its roots and focus on business customers. that is where the firm made its

name when it first started providing smartphones with secure e-mail and a small keyboard to type on. the problem is, since they first came onto the market, a lot has changed. stiff competition from the likes of apple and android smartphones. we have seen that this has cost the company dearly in their latest set of earnings. a net loss of $125 million and the departure of several high- profile executives, including one of the co-founders. moving forward, the company is trying to regain some of its glory from the past. the question is, will it be able to? when it comes to its business area, it has suffered a couple of embarrassing service failures in the past few years there were very public and caused a lot of damage. we are starting to see a lot of other smartphone makers beginning to encroach on blackberry's traditional area of

expertise, serving the business customer. it will be interesting to see whether the new chief executive can indeed turn this company around. investors will have limited patience because the come -- the share price has fallen more than 60% in the past year. >> the decline of blackberry can only benefit the iphone. not all good news for apple. a new report commissioned by apple has found that staff at some of the factories making its products in china are working illegal overtime. it has long been the focus of complaint about working practices. apple and foxconn have promised a review of conditions. what would you do if he won $540 million in the lottery? lottery fever has taken over in the u.s. americans rushing to buy a ticket for america's biggest jackpot. it will be drawn on friday and has been growing since late january. good luck if you have a ticket.

thank you for watching bbc news day. >> 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. >> 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.