>> "bbc world news" is presented by kcet, los angeles. funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank. >> union bank has put its global expertise to work for a wide range of companies.

what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news." >> over two months underground. 33 miners are about to start their ascent to the surface. this is the scene. these are the three men who will be lifted from the mind first. the operation is due to start in an hour's time. another day of protests across france. heelsvernment dealdigs in its and vows not to back down. welcome to "bbc news". later, the number of chinese super rich jumps in a year. we take a hazardous walk around the commonwealth games' village.

snakes have become unwelcome guests. after 68 days below ground, the first of the 33 trapped chilean miners should soon be out. they have survived below ground twice as long as anyone else. >> the men are preparing for the ascent. the president arrived an hour and a half ago. all the trials and testing have taken place. one of these 33 men will be on the surface this evening. extraordinary news for the relatives who camped out here for the past couple of months. they were told these men might not be out until christmas. the authorities said they would

be out by midnight. at least one could be out within the next few hours. latest now on all the day's activities. >> emerging from the depths. on its final test run. german cable, massive technology all in place for what has become a truly global event. in the crowded desert here, a frenzy of anticipation. what will the miners make of it and what about their families? smartening up this afternoon for a long awaited meeting. some children cannot wait to get back to school. others in west over hurry. wondering why kind of husband

will emerge underground. he seems to of changed a lot down there, she said. he is more humble now. let's hope it lasts. >> at the entrance to the tunnel, the final preparations. for now, it is going like clockwork. we have hundreds of different procedures. we have the best people there. smart, prepared, and capable. >> the world thought there were dead for 17 days. for 51 days, they have been kept alive by the narrowest of umbilical cords. with a few hours away from the climax of this extraordinary rescue drama. the first should emerge here after nightfall.

>> this is how it should go. after medical checkup, the first will be strapped into the phoenix escape council. -- capsule. 15 minutes later, he will reach the surface. he will be taken straight to a triage area where a doctor and nurses will assess his condition. after that, it is on to a field hospital. if he is well enough, he will be reunited here with no more than three relatives. all they, helicopters have been rehearsing the next stage. a quick flight out of the desert to the main hospital. most of the men are said to be in surprisingly good health. one is diabetic and others are struggling with high blood pressure and stress. they will need some time to readjust. will they be given that? in town and across the country,

preparations for a serious homecoming party. >> chilean television is reporting they know the names of the first three out. the first one is florencio avalos, the official cameramen. sepulveda has been talking in describing what life is underground. the only non-chilean. he is oblivion and we hear president evo morales will be flying here and taking him back on the presidential jet if doctors give him the ok. >> many thanks for that and we will be back there in the hours preceding. the mining minister held a press conference and explained details of the rescue.

>> the speed of the wind could be controlled -- we have programmed the speed of 1 meter per hour. -- per second. which would give us a total time of between 10 or 15 minutes from the bottom to the top. to go down, the situation is different. you go down by gravity. you're not pulling the cage. it would be a slow left. it will take fought -- 25 minutes more less for the capsule to go down. 25 to 30 minutes. they are pretty calm, they are working in their own things, preparing the moving and they are helping us with the platform that needs to be built. they're working with the communications people, trying

to -- giving us some lines to established tv, video image and communication to the point of where they will land. they are being very busy. >> [no audi[inaudible] >> any rescue process has arrest. accident could happen. we could have mistakes in the process. we have to prevent these things. we have trained and taken into consideration all this that could affect this rescue. we hope nothing will happen. we feel that we are well- prepared and we will see the result of all these preparations in a couple of days. we have hundreds of different contingencies. we have established different procedures to do it. if something different happens, we have the best people, they

are smart and prepared and capable to face any contingency. i think -- there is no need to start guessing what could go wrong. that has been part of our group during the last days, thinking of anything that could happen and try to prevent it. you never know what could go wrong. >> the mining minister there. we will go back as the evening goes on and discover how the rescue is going out. as we transmit this is the scene at the mine had in chile. the miners have been trapped since august 5. tons of rock fell. even with all the preparations that have been made, it is quite unprecedented and dangerous. there is a long way to go.

the witching mechanism is under there. it will take at least 20 minutes or an hour to get each man of. 48 hours to get the mullah. a cargo plane has crashed in mountains close to the afghan capital. killing all eight on board. nato forces are saying the plane was not one of their aircraft. it would deliveries have been hampered since pakistan closed access in the wake of a botched airstrike. in the u.s., the judge has issued a world wide injunction stopping enforcement of the military's don't ask don't tell policy. that ends the military's 17- year-old ban on openly gay troops. the department of justice has 60 days to appeal the ruling. a new protective barrier is nearing completion in western hungary. it is designed to prevent any further spillage from the reservoir that leaked toxic sludge and devastated several

towns and villages. they are confident this emergency dam will hold. the head of fine arts for the egyptian government has been found guilty of negligence over the theft of a van gogh painting. it waone of 11 people that were sentenced to prison. hundreds of thousands of people are demonstrating in towns and cities across france in protest of changes to the state pension system. key elements have been passed by houses of parliament. students and schoolchildren are joining the workers on the streets. air services have been disrupted and stoppages of refineries which have forced of diesel prices. -- up diesel prices. >> one might expect the french to be tiring of this battle.

the numbers are -- this appears to be the biggest protest. on strike, the air-traffic controllers, postal workers and teachers. now joining them, students. the president insisted there was nothing more to give. in response, the union scale the protest. train drivers and workers in the energy sector have voted for open-ended action. rowling 24 hour strikes. >> we believe we have to put pressure to move this way forward. which are coming -- we are going every day doing action. the government must listen to as. >> the pressure will come from the energy sectors. workers at the oil refineries have been striking for two weeks. they were joined by colleagues.

they estimate it will take a week for fuel shortages to be felt at petrol stations around the country. this is a show of strength the unions were hoping for. can they carry the same level of support for rolling strike actions that will bring chaos around the country? when the bulk of this has been approved by both houses of parliament, it could well be difficult. last night the senate voted in favor of raising the age of which workers can retire with full pension from 65 to 67. president sarkozy said the population is getting older. france can no longer afford the pension system and has. he knows his job is on the line. he was elected to reform the french economy. if he blinks first under pressure, his credibility will be damaged. no sign of backing down. neither do the unions. they have the public support.

>> good to have you with us on "bbc news". the rescue in chile. the rescue of the first minor is imminent. m -- miner is in men. the second day of a five month in question to have 52 people died in the to train in bus bombings in london has been going ahead. >> day two shed more light on the confusion and chaos. this was the first explosion in a tunnel near olgate station. the garver could respond to the passengers. the public address system had

gone down. at edgware road, the ambulance arrived 24 minutes after the bomb went off. ambulance service had been given the wrong address. the force of the blast was such that one of the six passengers killed here was blown through the side of a carriage. his body was found on the track. the largest number of casualties were in the explosion between king's cross and russell square. 26 were murdered. the fire brigade was told it was an eastbound train. when the first passenger appeared, the alarm was raised. the central issue is whether it would have made a difference if those few minutes that we have identified had not been lost. the final bomb went off an hour

after the others on a bus in have burst out -- haverstock square. morning, the court was shown footage filmed a few hours after the explosion. it has been edited and respect for the bereaved family. -- out of respect for the bereaved family. latests give you the headlines. more than two months underground. 33 chilean miners may have spent their last night trap beneath the surface. as we transmit, this is the scene live where family, colleagues, and the world's media, world politicians and medics away their rescue. a journey 700 meters of a tiny

escaped capsule. how do you go about bringing them up? our correspondent has this explanation. >> after the wedding and the fears for those trapped underground, the last stage of the rescue is finally underway. of the three shops that engineered started [unintelligible] it is the middle one of these to safety.erir path o each is equipped with a biometric build the measure's final signs, part become a breeding, and temperature. it will help monitor distress levels. throughout the journey, they are in constant communication with rescue workers and its. each man has a specially made waterproof suits. they're wearing protective

sunglasses. there is also an oxygen supply to assist breathing. some of the strongest miners with technical skills were chosen to go first. if the capsule get stuck, there is a mechanism to detach the base and that would allow the minor to be lowered back down. there are significant risks. the path is not straight and the capsule will have to be checked to see if it is safe to go back down. even if there are no unforeseen problems, it could take two days until all the men are safely back above ground. health minister held a press conference in which he explained the state of health for the miners and the fine details of the operation. >> our miners are in pretty good shape. they keep calm and they are already prepared to this final

journey. trouble is going to take around 10-15 minutes. because of the lifting speed is 1 meter per second. the machine itself could speed up, 3 meters per second. if one of them experience is something wrong, we're going to speed up until the final [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> that is a device that was given to us from many different sources. we decided that is the right speed, that is the normal lives speed in any building.

no extra risk of nausea, dizziness, vomiting for the miners. >> if they have a panic attack, what is the procedure? >> we have prepared for that. we have prepared them for that contingency. the right answer is to try to speed up. the hospital requirements are completely finished. we're ready to receive any miners beginning at 8:00. therefore, we feel that we are all very prepared for this final step of the operation. >> china is probably home to the largest number of billionaires in the world. surpassing the u.s., according to this year's annual ritualist

as compiled by a research institute. their report ranks and describes trends and hints at the country's economic future. >> it is the world's second- largest economy. china is believed to have the fastest growing wealthy population in the world. the report wants to attract more or leased anyone in china with a personal wealth of more than $1 billion -- 1 billion rmb. tax evasion is much larger than document. >> we know of 189. it could easily double that again. probably 400 or 500 billionaires today. which might make them the biggest number of billionaires anywhere in the world. >> shooting to the top of this year's list is [unintelligible]

who has an estimated personal future of $12 billion. he is the founder of the largest soft drinks maker and made his future catering for china's thirst for drinks. that taps into an important theme. many of those who have done well have done so by catering to china's growing domestic demand. that also makes her china's richest woman. she made her fortune wh with a newspaper. >> you will have 300 million people from the countryside. creating an opportunity.

>> a son perhaps the government's efforts to cool off the housing market may be having some effect. -- a sign that perhaps the government's efforts to cool off the housing market may be having some effect. >> the singapore billionaire has offered to buy liverpool football club for $507 million. he has to wait for the conclusion of the club's high court case to decide who has the right to sell it. they have accepted a bid from new england sports ventures. fans think the singaporean offer provides immediate funds to buy new players. the owners are trying to stop the board selling the club to the american company. competitors at the commonwealth games are facing a variety of challenges since arriving two

weeks ago. food, water, and accommodations. some face a deadly snakes in their rooms. no one has been bitten. probably because of one indian wildlife rescue team. >> a spectacled cobra, common in india. rarely have sex got so much attention at a major sporting event. -- have snakes got so much attention at a major sporting event. now the their accommodation is the offices in delhi. it was a smooth operation. there would and we would respond. we would be out in 10 or 15 minutes.

>> this will snake is the latest to be found. -- wolf snake is the latest to be found. it is not poisonous but can buy it. within minutes of being captured, this tiny animal was making a bid had -- big headlines across india. after their short stay, the snakes trouble in their animal ambulance to the outskirts of the city. -- travel in their ambulance to the oscar to the city. the snakes are released into the wild. some prefer the trees. speed and r off its biat others take their time.

the release 15 snakes into the sanctuary. it has -- is the nearest place to central dili where snakes would like to live. you have this dry ground with plenty of trees and there is water. it is a snake's perfect home. when the commonwealth games started, the story was about rooms not fit for humans. these snakes moved in and they are back where they belong. >> a reminder of the headlines. let's take you back to the scene at the san jose mine. the first of the 33 miners should be out of there. that is the whinging mechanism. winching -hat is the mechanism. there is excitement and nurses'

building there. thanks for being with us. >> hello and welcome. >> see the news unfold, get the top stories from around the globe and click to play video reports. go to bbc.com/news to experience the in-depth, expert reporting of "bbc world news" online. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank.

>> union bank has put its global financial strength to work for a wide range of companies. what can we do for you? ♪ >> there is one stage that is the met and carnegie hall. >> o, that this too, too solid flesh -- >> it is the kennedy center. >> check, one, two. >> and a club in austin. >> it is closer than any seat in the house, no matter where you call home. >> the top of the world, and i'm there, i'm home. >> pbs -- the great american stage that fits in every living room. your support of pbs brings the arts home. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.