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fax welcome to newsday. >> our headlines this hour. syria paucities plan does not die after the worst bomb attacks in damascus. candidates take part in the first ever live tv debates. >> holding of british passport. fresh revelations about the undercover agent who foiled of bomb plot. >> the potential for a few flurries as the afternoon goes on. >> broadcasting to pbs viewers

in america and around the world, this is newsday. hello, and welcome. the united nations security council has condemned two suicide car bombings which left 55 people dead in the syrian capital damascus. the blast went off near a military intelligence building. our correspondent is in damascus. some of the images in her report are disturbing. >> just before 8:00, the first one went off. within minutes, more powerful explosions were captured in this emma richard video. they tore through a major highway south of the capital. this intelligence complex appears to have been one of the targets. many lives were lost.

.he anguish was roaw explosions caused damage across the area. >> i counted more than 20 vehicles across this highway. >> taxis, family vehicles, buses, all of the making their way into damascus early in the morning, not far from here. >> the crowd quickly gathered, and a guerrilla group. this man -- not a crowd quickly gathered and grew. >> this man blamed saudi arabia. the head of the monitoring mission came to see the scene for himself, and he pleaded for

this and violence to end. >> we need everyone to understand this is going to create more suffering for women, children, and the syrian people. >> hatred and mistrust runs so deep, both sides believe the worst of their enemy, the best of themselves, but somebody had the ability and will to do this. doctors are struggling to cope. at the hospital morgue, there was not enough space for the dead. what we saw was too gruesome to show. this man lost two of his cousins. this is so bad, carrying the

clothes. the 18-year-old survived the blast. he says, we came to the city to escape violence, and look what happened. god will not forgive the people who did this. every day brings new threats and fear that the worst is yet to commene. praxair who do you think was behind the suicide bombings -- >> who do you think was behind the suicide bombs in damascus? thank you very much for speaking with us. who do you think was behind the bomb attacks in damascus? prior to the syrian people -- >>

the syrian people charged the regime with these actions to justify their violence after persuading the world they are fighting terrorist slayings in syria. >> the government claims this was opposition activists behind the bombing. what do you say to that? >> [unintelligible] they claim that. >> we have been seeing very difficult scenes from homs. describe what the situation is like. >> we should wait for the rest of the day to see what is happening, and today is friday,

and i expect them to fight danger, and i expect to us the international community to take measures in syria, and to reject the active regime before the execution of your rec and parks and activist with the revolutionary council, thank you for giving us a description of what is like there. it has been reported the undercover agents to help and foiled a plot on an airline is of the british national.

it was a bomb hidden in under where he was supposed to have detonated flying to the u.s. there are concerns in washington. an inquiry has been launched. . >> we know nothing about eight and very few details about who was involved. he is apparently the holder of of british passport, some one of middle eastern origin, and there seems to be a good deal of frustration in the united states, but these details are of defense and earlyier secretary leon panetta explained how much damage to the details can do to the work of security services. >> i have to tell you those

kinds of leaks are very harmful to the efforts of the intelligence community of. we have to get individual but can work with us, and to be able to do that effectively, you have to be able to protect those people, and you have to protect the covert nature of this kind of work, and when these leaks take place, i cannot tell you how much they damage our ability to pursue a intelligence efforts, so i am in favor of a thorough investigation, and i a understand the director will do that. >> the officials are saying very little if any thing in terms of confirming or denying the substance of these leaks, but it will make it more difficult for them to plan operations like

this in the future, and we have seen this thing the same pattern as an attempted bombing in detroit in 2009, so as the defense secretary said, making public the details is not necessarily very helpful, so they will be keen to find out now the motivations. >> you have news of a big trading losses at jpmorgan. >> shares in america's largest bank have trailed sharply after it announced a trading loss in the last few weeks. j.p. morgan said it will lose $800 million in the next few months because of it. our business correspondent is in

new york, and she looks at how jpmorgan got it so wrong. >> it starts in what should have been a harmless operation. the job of those who were not there it to protect the bank against risks. if the company lends money to a unit it would be responsible for buying the insurance against that company going bust. that is how it should work, but they have blown up in the banks face, and it is predicted they will make a loss of $800 million, and bank executives say that could get even worse. the chief executive who ascribe these as self-inflicted mistakes, and he describes them as an egregious and not up to his standards.

mr. diamond has been a critic of rules to reduce risks at the stakes. -- at banks. he may find it hard to continue that argument. >> the former head of the arab league and the moderate islam as in egypt are two of the 13 candidates vying to be the country's first democratically elected president. >> this is how many egyptians started their weekend, not having fun, but lou to television screens, and watching the country's first-ever presidential debates the former first minister against a powerful leader of the moslem and brotherhood. they went head-to-head in a

style that is still new to the arab world. he promised stability and criticized recent demonstrations outside the defense ministry that led to a deadly clashes triggered >> i believe the president does his work in the framework of the program and the people witnesses. i do not believe egypt who would operate out of chaos. >> the other candidates defended the right to protest. >> i do not think if i were president during that time it would have even happen. it is a must to stress the right of people to demonstrations is one of the gains of the january 25 revolution. >> as they prepare to vote in two weeks' time, the egyptians were listening closely.

good many are unsure of who to support. this has been a high risk for the candidates with every remark they make being closely scrutinized. >> the polls have closed in algeria's parliamentary election. dozens have taken part, but it was marked by a low turnout. voting booths were kept open for an extra hour in a last-ditch attempt to get people to vote. the national liberation front is expected to emerge strongly after the president passed laws banning demonstrations in public protests. still to come on the program, afghan troops but no afghan boots. it falls in the path to securing the future, and why addiction to painkillers has reached a record level in the u.s.

let's take a look at stories making headlines around the world. i huge car bomb explosion in damascus killed dozens and left kofi annan paucities plan hanging by a thread. efforts to prop up stakes are doomed -- banks are doomed. merkel does not want to give in to hollande. this puts her on a collision course with the new french president. fears over a so-called hard landing of china's economy. export and import growth slowed in april, and a second world war and british fighter plane found in excellent condition in the depths desert. the pilot apparently it executed

a perfect crash landing only to die trying to get help. >> our headlines this hour, the worst bomb attacks in damascus since cirio's of rising -- since syria's uprising. >> the egyptian candidates have taken part in the country's first ever live tv debates. handing over the crucial business of buying everything from guns and boots for afghanistan's new army. there was a decision to cancel the contract for making boots, given by the americans. >> afghan boots on the ground

searching for taliban roadside bombs. as nato's back, the afghan army is taking over the lead. it is a huge show of. western forces have handed over the business of a clipping thousands of new decrees -- new recruits, but at a factory that was making the boots there is confusion. the defense ministry has canceled the contract the americans gave them. >> we were given a chance, and we showed them afghanistan can make quality products. >> what you think this says that contracts have been taken away? what do you think this says for the future of afghanistan? you can see only 38 are left.

good >> this is how the factory looked just months ago when they were making hundreds of pairs a day. this is how it looks today, a ghost factory, but arguably, this is a sign of the government standing on its own feet to save money before international funding dries up, but afghanistan has few large factories like this, and with few other jobs around, some workers might even join the taliban. >> without jobs, maybe they are going there. >> of the afghan defense ministry they say they want to home.uying them at

>> of two different companies provide the same piece of equipment, we will give the contract to the afghan company, even if quality is slightly lower. >> the factory is keeping things taking for now, but as nato and pulls out of afghanistan, there are uncertain times ahead. >> prescription painkiller abuses the fastest-growing drug addiction in the u.s. americans consume 80% of the world's ho. painkillers. prescription painkillers are easily available. >> he reflect on all he lost through his addiction to

prescription painkillers. his marriage ended, and his business collapsed, his craving for pills increase. >> in the morning i would need to feelkocets normal, because if i did not have them i would not be able to get up in the morning triggered >> he spends $1,500 a week buying from dealers. good >> the rock bottom was when i found myself realizing i had no money, no one was going to lend me any money, and what do i do? i do not know if i saw it on tv. i heard how easy it was to rob a bank, so i did it. >> so many americans are addicted to painkillers that communities are feeling the affects.

they have started to rob pharmacies triggered strikes are no longer carry these drugs -- now they have started to run pharmacies. >> i no longer carry these drugs. >> the fundamental problem is that doctors prescribe to many pain killers. >> i think the epidemic is very clear. i think people are being over medicated. we have the highest use in the entire world. i would like to know when we became the most painful they should in the entire world. we have become a society of wusses. >> on use of painkillers create a ready supply of bills -- unused painkillers create a ready supply of pills.

>> it is a nationwide problem, but it has become an epidemic in suburbia because more people are becoming addicted to these pain medicines. >> it stopped the cravings, because i have not had any cravings. >> he has been himself from the medication. he is rebuilding his life. >> china's measures to combat inflation are beginning to take hold. consumer prices rose by 3.4% in april from a year ago. this marks the third straight month inflation has remained below target of 4%, and this may give final more impetus to loosen credit restrictions, and we are joined by martin in

beijing. it does appear the chinese are breathing a sigh of relief, because they have taken the idea of beating inflation very seriously. there is a lot of idea of public unrest. >> we saw inflation last year was 6%. that is generally in line with expectations. food prices are much higher. i spoke to one man, and he reckons food prices have risen by 10% or 20% in the last year. in china there is a lot of poverty. millions of households depend upon $1 a day or $2 a day, and if they are spending their money to put food on the table, they will think their lives are no longer improving. could i think there still will

be a lot of concern. >> it does seem to imply that the tough measures to battle rising prices seems to be working. you think they might lay off some of these restrictions they have put in place to fight inflation and potentially loosen policy? >> at is what economists are saying. they will give the authorities more room. they are saying they want to stimulate domestic consumption, but china is the largest exporter in the world, and i think they will continue as to what is going on in europe. >> we will leave it there. the prince of wales turned into prince of gales when he tried

his hand at a bit of weather forecasting. the prince and his wife were visiting the bbc studio when they were given a chance to predict the weather. >> it is an unsettled picture when we head into the beginning of the week. this afternoon it will be cold, wet, and windy across scotland. >> the forecast is familiar. the forecaster is less familiar, but prince charles could not resist trying his hand. >> there will be snow for the higher ground of the highlands and aberdeen shire. who the hell wrote this script? a cold day everywhere with those eight degrees celsius and a brisk wind. thank god it is not a bank

holiday. >> have you feel he didn't -- how do you feel he did? >> he watches it every night. he did relatively good. but would his wife be any good? with a little preparation, she had a go. >> the rain will be the heaviest over the border and throughout edinburgh.e --, denv >> soon the couple breeze off, particularly well prepared for the scottish weather. >> even the president could not make it sunday. -- sunny. thank you very much for

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