>> >> 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, the newman's own foundation, and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. ♪ ♪ >> could it become the worst flu pandemic ever? how countries around the world are dealing worldswine flu.

>> it surrounds the. -- you. >> ben bernanke says that the policies have helped to prop up the economy. how the conflict in the congo could be supplying parts for the phone in your pocket. welcome to bbc news. guerrillas made a good, former fighters bringing order to kurdistan. a woman desperately hunts for her valuable shoe.

the world health organization is now calling swine flu the fastest moving pandemic ever. the death toll stands at more than 700 worldwide. that is a jump of 60% from a few weeks ago. britain is a months the state's best prepared for the -- is amongst the country's best prepared for the pandemic. >> here in china, the authorities have taken tough measures to stop the spread of swine flu. they are not taking any chances health officials -- they are not taking chances. how officials screen people before they get off of the flight. if you are found wit vz swine flu, you are placed in quarantine.

these people have been spending weeks in confinement. shoots around you. >> in the past, china was criticized for spreading its sars virus to the rest of the world. it is worried that they will not be able to cope with the swine flu. in italy, they are doing things differently. >> in italy, the reaction has been much more subtle. there are no restrictions on tourism for medical examinations. italians are being advised to check before traveling to places like the u.k. there have been only 250 cases of swine flu here and no deaths. they are following the advice of the world health organization. >> we are very fast in

responding. >> italy expects the case is to rise in september when children go back to school. there's talk of delaying the start of term. the u.s. has a different reaction to the swine flu. >> the concern here in the u.s. is that the swine flu is continuing to spread even during the hot summer months. it has even hit here, swine flu invaded about 50 u.s. summer camps. this volunteer tested positive. >> i did not feel too bad. i was kind of tired. >> america havaccinates millions of people every fall. they are worried that the swine flu could combine with

another regular food and become deadly. >> president obama has been telling people to wash their hands. he says to be prepared. >> if you would like more context, check out the blog of our medical correspondent who brings together all of the information on swine flu and puts it into perspective. about 6000 people die in the uk alone every year from ordinary flu. it was a case of good news, bad news on capitol hill in washington. the chairmen of the u.s. central bank, ben bernanke, said that the economy should start picking up as the year progresses. he added the downside, unemployment is running at 9.5% of the work force and it would increase.

>> of the federal reserve has cut short-term interest rates to record lows and palms hundreds of millions of dollars into the banking system -- and pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into the banking system. giving his evidence to congress, ben bernanke says that the actions have helped to divert the collapse of the financial system. >> the u.s. economy contracted sharply in the fourth quarter of this year and the last quarter of this year. the pace of decline appears to have slowed significantly and there are signs of stabilization. the labor market is continuing to weaken. consumer price inflation remains subdued in the first six months of 2009. >> as economic recovery takes hold, there is a danger that the sheer amount of money in the banking system will cause inflation to take off.

mr. bernanke reassured congress that the fed has the necessary tools to implement the banking strategy. the federal reserve is under attack from some politicians in washington who believe that has become too powerful. they want to expand the power of the government to audit the fed's decisions. ben bernanke warned that these moves would be seen as an attack on the independence of the federal reserve and could lead to higher interest rates and inflation in the future. >> reports from iran say that there are fresh classes between police and opposition demonstrators. this video shows the latest confrontation between the two sides. we have not been able to verify this amateur video. eyewitnesses say that dozens of people have been arrested in one of the main squares. simultaneous attacks by the

taliban in two afghan cities have left five members of the security forces and five militants dead. they come amid a spike in violence ahead of elections on the 20th of august. spain's foreign minister has made the first visit to gibraltar since the area was captured by britain's three centuries ago. he met the british foreign minister. he said that longstanding claims at gibraltar was not on the agenda. there will be published details of conversations that are between the prime minister of italy and a prostitute. he has recently been dealing with a series of allegations. he says that he has never paid for sex. x that a standard feature of aids

treatment in africa has than having little benefit. scientists in you gotta have concluded that expensive tests have only a marginal effect on survival rates. -- scientists in uganda have concluded that expensive tests have only a marginal effect. >> doctors say that this research should help villagers. a week after this woman gave birth, she walks 60 kilometers to get medicine to prevent her and her baby from getting sick with aids. >> it takes me two days to get here. i do this because i want to be healthy. i want to be able to look after my children. >> with no treatment available near her village, this would be a regular journey to avoid the fate of her husband who died

from aids. there is still no cure but drugs can stop aids from developing. the difficulty in rural africa is that normal aids treatment also requires patience to do regular laboratory blood tests to test for side effects and make sure that the medicines are working. in doing these tests in africa is challenging. it requires sophisticated laboratories usually only found in big cities and a long way from the villages where most people live. now the results of africa's largest ever hiv/aids clinical trial shows that these three teen chess have very little benefit for patience -- these routine tests have very little benefit for patients. they found some tests had only a small benefit but others had none at all.

doctors say that they will make it more cheap and simple to get treatments in village clinics across africa rather than making people travel to laboratories. >> we are providing good support. we are able to provide treatment for many more people close to where they lived. >> in which case, christine may soon no longer have to make this long walk home. she called her baby "child born after his father's death." the only hope for some people is to get the medicine to their village which would now be much easier. >> helping the people of africa to help themselves was the theme of president obama as recent

visit. -- president obama's recent visit. the misuse of african assets is now the focus of a report by an campaign group which says that violence in the democratic republic of congo is fuelled by companies to buy minerals there without checking their origins. >> when president obama visited africa, he went to ghana, an example of relative success. he said that it was time that african leaders stopped blaming the outside world. president obama's father was from kenya and kenya had high hopes they would be honored with a visit. the government there is riddled with corruption and the port sink further into misery. nigeria has been blessed with a large oil well.

this has become an area of corruption and conflict. the limbs from sierra leone civil war are just the most visible scars of the conflict fueled by competition into the country's diamond profit. of the mineral that is not mind it is sold on to make -- the mineral that is if mined is sold to companies to make mobile phone parts. global witness says that there and they leave many civilians devastated in their wake. western companies through intermediaries. >> these companies are not doing

enough to see where these minerals are coming from. we are not saying they are doing anything illegal. they are not doing the necessary due diligence to make sure that they are not purchasing minerals that have come from warring parties. >> one of the companies featured in the report is the world's fifth largest producer of tin. they are owned by a british metals giant. they have recently enhanced their due diligence program to make the supply chain more transparent. the resource curse is man-made which means that it can be cured. there are also the challenges of nature and disease. whatever the cause of poverty, the net result is that 22 million children in africa. children every day. -- in africa go hungry every day.

>> as special reports on cctv in britain. now to japan where the prime minister has been apologizing to his party's supporters for a series of local election disputes. >> he is3j putting on a brave face but even some in taro aso's party believe that he is leading them to a historic defeat. the prime minister has called an election. he apologized for past mistakes and called for more time. >> if the inappropriate comments made people less able to trust the government, i am deeply sorry. >> the cabinet ministers have objected to the election which could have been delayed until

october. critics in the prime minister's party have called for him to be ousted. the rebellion failed to get off of the ground before mr. aso could pass. >> i have received a document from the prime minister. it says "i hereby dissolved parliament under the japanese constitution. >> it is this man who hopes to be the next prime minister. the democratic party of japan is well ahead in the opinion polls. a political fund raising scandal has already claimed one opposition leader this year, this man. he was sitting at his successor's side. taro aso will be hoping that the democratic party of japan stumbles' again. if that balance of power changes, this will be a huge

change for japan. but there has only been one other government in more than half a century. >> this is bbc world news. swine flu has claimed at least 700 lives. the world health organization says that it is spreading so fast that there's no point counting cases. ben bernanke says that the economy is improving but unemployment will rise further. a former guerrilla force in kurdistan fought against saddam hussein but now they are taking care of security in kurdistan ahead of elections later this month. our report is from northern iraq for we have witnessed the changing role of the guerrilla

force. >> they used to be rebels but today, they are one of the most organized forces in iraq. the name of their organization means "those who face death." they learned to fight against saddam hussein's army in the mountains. >> the soldiers used to be guerrilla fighters. they came down from the mountains and now they wear the iraqi army uniform. >> since the no-fly zone was traded by the u.s. and britain in 1991, this force has been protecting the kurdish region and they are an important part of the iraqi security forces. in a kurdish city, you have to pass through checkpoints. this colonel used to be a rebel and he spent most of his youth fighting in the mountains. today, he is one of the tactical commanders.

he claims that he is part of the federal army an. >> i consider myself a soldier of the iraqi federal army but we have a dream to become an independent nation. >> in the recent months, the iraqi army deployed in the italian to cook -- deployed forces to kirkuk, >> this was a political move to put pressure on us. >> 100,000 troops are loyal to the kurdistan regional government. this is a force to protect iraqi federalism. this is seen as an obstacle to

the iraqi federal government agenda. >> the ukraine has received backing for membership of nato by joe biden. he said that they have a right to decide their own foreign policy and they should be free to choose their own allies. russia has strongly opposed the ukrainian membership. it is a key country fork- transport europe. hillary clinton says that washington is concerned about the cooperation between north korea and burma. this could pose a direct threat to the neighbors of burma and destabilize the region. a spanish newspaper says that the image of a fallen soldier was taken 50 kilometers away from the front line.

it is a famous image that is now being called a fake. in britain, we are the target of more surveillance cameras than anywhere else in the world even the latest official figure is a million less than previously thought. has it helped? >> britain is said to be the most watched nation on earth. new cameras are added everywhere. in one of the most remote communities, people are being watched. in shetland, they have installed 14 new cameras turning it into one of the most watched towns in britain.

another of these malls and stores in britain bought more cameras and the san francisco police department. 8 british cities have more cct v's than the authorities in paris. many have more than boston, sydney, johannesburg combined. the numbers we have indicate that they have not let up over the years. and one thing was interesting. several years ago, researchers counted all of the cameras on these two streets. they concluded that there was 4.2 million cameras in operation across the country. this company tracks the actual sales and he has shown us what his research has shown.

>> we look at how this has been growing and this goes right back to when the first sentences were put in. we then factored in some replacement rates. working through the numbers, we arrived the number which is about 3.2 million. >> there might be 1 million fewer cameras in the country than previously thought. all of these cameras watching all of these people but are they actually effecteive? >> unless there is a systematic way of governing this, a systematic identification progress, this will not be very effective. they should use the money for the train if people to make sure

that whatever we capture is effectively used. >> cctv's have helped to solve some of britain's biggest crimes in recent years. they are not the answer to every crime. >> here is a modern cinderella story for you about a british woman who went to extraordinary lengths to track down her shoe. she spent a night out and found that one of her design issues had fallen out of her handbag. she has been retracing her steps fresh on the heels of the missing footwear. >> forlorn, sad and lonely, this issue is missing its make. -- this shoe is missing its mate. >> it is a real fashionable

shoe. >> the cost over 350 pounds. she had only war them once. >> i was very happy to get them. >> she retraces her fateful journey. she had changed her beloved shoes for a cheap comfortable pair while leaving a comedy club. >> when i got home, i discovered that i only had the one. >> i can understand where she is coming from. women love shoes. i am a shoe person. >> cctv pictures help them make

some progress. >> there i am. >> it narrows down the search. >> she is hot on the trail of the identity of the taxi driver. she says she will look for as long as it takes. >> finally, monkey business at a safari park in the northwest of england has led to the tourist attraction bringing in its own crowd control. they are trying to prevent the baboon's tearing apart a rooftop luggage. people could only watch as the crowd of monkeys tore apart the luggage and took off with the contents. >> funding for this presentation

was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, the newman's own foundation, and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and the union bank. >> union bank has put their financial strength to work for a large range of companies. what can we do for you?