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." >> power and politics in the most secretive nation on earth, north korea. following in his father's

footsteps, what else is on the plan? ponte and ceremony in pyongyang, how his north korean television marking the occasion? welcome to "gmt." also in the program, the israeli military blockade, this time is peaceful. you are looking at the candidate they could become the first woman to run brazil. it is midday in london, 8:00 in the evening in pyongyang. the workers' party has held its biggest gathering in 30 years. the last time that they did

that, kim jong il was anointed successor to his father. it seems history is about to be repeated with the ailing dictator preparing the way for his son to take control of the most secret nation on earth. his son was just made a four- star general, that much we know. anything else that you can tell us about this young man? >> we know very little about him at all. he attended an international school in switzerland, classmates say that he was a fan of the american nba basketball league. other than that we know very little. he is thought to be around 27 years old. perhaps not the most impressive

person to take over the running of one of the bombers -- one of the world's most authoritarian countries. >> how are people reacting in south korea? of >> huge reaction. north korea is one of the world's most totalitarian governments. people are used to predicting its demise. here for the first time in a long time we potentially have a sense of the moment that change, a subtle shift. it might not look like a coronation, but definitely a sense that something is going on and people are very interested. >> thank you, john. joining the in the studios is john hamm, international studio analyst. there is no question that something important is

happening. >> definitely. it is clear that this is the first step in anointing him as the successor. >> i asked john just now, what do we know about kim jong-un? >> we do not know much. we do know from the sushi chefs of the family a few anecdotes that he might be more like his father then we would like. apparently during a basketball game between him and his brother, he lost so he dressed down the players for an hour afterwards, pointing up their mistakes. >> he has been made a four-star general. that much has been conferred. what does that say about where power resides in north korea? >> clearly the power resides with the the military.

in addition, his aunt was also promoted. i will leave that she and her husband on the national defense commission will behave as overseers as he takes power. i do not think that he will take power for the next five or 10 years, as long as his father's health holds out they will keep him in a grooming position. >> you are painting and interesting, complicated picture that is a melding of the dynasty with the military. >> i think that one of the things that we saw when kim jong il our was two ways of assimilation. the first was the inheritance from his own father, if my

father is a god, therefore i am. and the korean worker became displaced as the leading institution in the country by the military. >> what does it offer for the rest of the world? opportunity in any way? >> i hesitate to think so. we saw a bit of this when kim jong ill became a leader, there was a sense that he might be a reformer. it is too early to tell. i think there are no opportunities yet. the most recent thing that i saw is that they are initiating talks with the families. as far as i can tell that has been a way to engineer more cash from the self -- from the south, showing their vulnerability at

the moment. >> thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. brazil is counting down to the presidential election this weekend. the front runner last night told thousands of reporters that she represented continuity. we have this report from last night's rally. >> she held her last rally in heavy rain, but it failed to dampen the enthusiasm of her supporters. >> we are closing this campaign. we have been working 24 hours per day. >> the latest polls show her

poise for a first-round win in next week's vote. she has lost ground as fresh corruption charges emerged against the government, but the charisma seem to be shooing away the attacks from the opposition. rally many times. >> in this government we have managed to bring 28 million people out of poverty. twice the population of chile. >> the strategy seems to be working. what we have now is the same kind of excitement and expectation. one reason is that this time no

one is, or expecting major changes. >> the main opposition candidate has aha position himself as the best person to move against her, but now he is faced with an inability to take it to the second round. this green party candidate is expected to win voters by proposing a third way, but it seems likely she will finish in a distant third place. with that the booming economies of brazil, continuity has been a strong issue, but the next government will have challenges to overcome if they're going to remain on their path to prosperity and reduce social

inequality. >> there is confusion about the fate of the iranian woman who was stoned to death. news agencies are running conflicting reports about her sentence. her lawyers say that she is innocent of all charges. for more detail we will speak to john in cairo. even more confusing, there are murder charges as well? >> indeed. i think that the confusion reflects the confusion of the iranian government behind the scenes. they have been very upset by the national outrage over this case. basically in recent days and weeks they have tried to move the focus away from the adultery charge to an accusation that she

murdered her husband. when we heard today that she had been convicted of murder and will be hamming it to death rather than stone, there was another report saying that there was not a case and that the adultery charges had been confirmed and she was to be stoned to death after all, allegedly from the same prosecutor general. the latest word is from a foreign ministry spokesman, who said that no final verdict has been reached, although it was found that legal proceedings were not complete yet. who knows what her state of mind is as she hears these verdicts. >> you seem to suggest there's something bigger at play? >> i think it shows how difficult it is to get clear decisions and have divided the

iranian government is at the moment across the field. consider the nuclear program if it is so hard to make a decision about one person. >> israeli warships have intercepted jewish activists attempted to run through the blockade. and this is the scene where the yacht is expected to arrive sometime soon. let's speak to our gaza correspondent. john, by all accounts, when this ship was boarded, it all happened peacefully? >> absolutely. the 10 people on board said that they did not resist when the ship was intercepted and it seems that that is what happened. a relatively small boat, only about 10 meters long period of

what was unusual about this boat is that it contained the jewish activists protesting the blockade of gaza. there was an 82-year-old survivor of the holocaust and an israeli whose daughter was killed by a palestinian suicide bomber in the 1990's. that is the unusual nature of the latest attempt to break this blockade. >> we will leave it there. thank you very much for that. still to come, what is the pick of the crop? apple's facing competition from blackberries, rivaling the ipad. the new leader of british opposition will address the later -- labor party conference today, seeking to inspire a united party ahead of his elder

brother, david. >> smile though your heart is aching, that seems to be the model of david middleman. admits the disappointments he is urging the labor party to rally around his young brother. >> today i say, no more factions, no more split its common no more soap opera. one united labor party taking on one divided government. >> questions still remain about what he will do now for a living, but today the spotlight is back on edward it as his first big speech is coming. difficult though the fight with his brother has been, that might prove to be the easy part.

now he has to broaden the gap to embraces public. and with an opportunity for labor, the coalition government plans to outline huge public spending cuts. >> of a coalition government is a sailing into choppy waters. the task for labor could be to review all of that banks and distress. >> the labor party could see a bounce in the opinion polls before christmas. much of it will depend on whether he can pull off his first big speech as leader. bbc news, manchester. >> this is [no audio] -- this is "gmt."

headlines, kim jong il has been reappointed as the leader but there is speculation that his third and youngest son will be named as his successor. the boat carrying jewish activists attempting to bring aid to gaza has been halted by the blockade. now with business news an interesting findings. >> the results? governments across the world do not spend our taxes the way that we want them to. the poll found that people believe that on average, 52% of taxes are not used in ways that serve the interest and value of people in their country. but many people want their government to play a more active role in the economy with four out of five people saying that food should be subsidized by the state. 57% of people said that there should be more regulation.

57% it wanted more stimulation to the economy with only the support of just under half of those questioned. let's go to get more interesting findings and deed, andrew walker joins us. let's start with this interesting point, contradiction if you will, most saying that they are not happy with how taxes are spent, but the irony is that most wanted more government regulation, right? >> people do sometimes hold inconsistent views, which is not so much of a surprise, but i think there is a bit of aspiration in here, a belief that their money is not terribly well used, but also the governments could do something useful and i hope that they could start doing it more and more effectively in the future. >> what do you make of the only four countries that were opposed to regulation?

>> the survey gives no details on what was behind it, but that does not stop us from speculating. united states, australia, there is this cultural thing about a relative fondness for the free market and suspicion of government intervention. very familiar thing. of course in the united states, the field work was done between june and september, a time when americans knew very well that there was more financial regulation on the way in the form of the new, big, financial overhaul that went through congress. perhaps there was that feeling in america that we are getting more regulation anyways and that is enough. >> what else stood out? were they optimistic or pessimistic in america? >> very much pessimistic.

for the survey as a whole there was a small lumber people that work optimistic and not pessimistic. developing countries showed markedly strong levels of confidence. the u.s. and other developed economies, the position was much weaker. in the u.s. even the u.k. was weaker. there was not a great deal of confidence in this survey about the u.s. over the next 12 months or five years. >> thank you for joining us, and drew. let's move on. the first six months was costly on record for the insurance firm, lloyd of london. the firm reported a 53% drop in earnings for the first six months of june, coming in at

900, $2 million, catastrophes such as earthquakes in chile and haiti, leading to a sharp increase in claims. tyco fuji has filed for bankruptcy protection. the film has struggled since its board ruling in 2006, declaring that it in and others in the sector had charged too much interest. the biggest consumer lender to fall so far on those regulations. also, a warning from the brazilian finance minister, an international currency war is under way, saying that competitive devaluation was effectively a new trade war. japan, south korea, taiwan, recently trying to cut the value of their currency. talking about a struggling, a good look from the two year highs, commodities are really

leading the charge lower. and raising its ugly head once again, basically in asia what they're looking at here in europe is a debt crisis that is increasing. german bonds, by linda borrowing costs, -- island borrowing costs, there is concern that europe will once again raised its head. >> thank you for that. now, the nearly 18 years that moscow has been run by eury lishkov, he has been sacked for apparently losing the trust of the president. he has been heavily criticized for his handling of a wildfire crisis over the summer and the appalling traffic conditions in the city. steve has the report.

>> he loves the limelight and the power. flamboyant, he was the mayor of moscow for 18 years. one decade ago he was so popular he was even picked to become president. today he is out of a job, arriving at city hall this morning to discover that he had been sacked. relations between the mayor and the russian president have been strained for weeks after a war of words that erupted on the airways. this month, state-controlled television has heaped criticism on him, accusing him of mismanaging the summertime crisis, destroying historic buildings, blaming him for the gridlock on the roads. there were also allegations of

corruption. the kremlin had gone on the offensive. yesterday the mayor said that he had no plans to step down. today the kremlin lost patience. there has been a mixed reaction from the people. if >> he has done many things for moscow. >> i think that many will be pleased that he is gone. the city was in a critical state with all of the corruption and traffic. >> he loved grand projects. from scratchy bill this cathedral. ahoy he pushed through construction of this western- style ring around the capital. perhaps his greatest achievement was the surviving so many years in the same job. >> the kremlin says that he had a choice, he could jump or be pushed.

when he refused to go quietly, he was sacked. by doing so, dimitri medvedev has asserted his authority and ended the career of one of the most powerful politicians in russia. >> a small piece of technology but a big business opportunity for manufacturers, after the success of the ipad, many manufacturing companies have jumped on the bandwagon. this one is called a playbook, aimed at the business end of the market. >> introducing the world's first professional tablet, the blackberry playbook. >> it might be building a bridge -- it might be being billed as the first of its kind but gadget geeks will notice that it is familiar, this is research in motion's challenge for the ipad.

apple sold 6 million units in its first six months. to sheila has also unveiled a look-alike. >> the blackberry playbook is absolutely enterprise ready. >> aimed at business users, also trying to road and the apple monopoly. and >> usefulness is cool to people. we have a low price point with the will cameras. wireless, blue tooth, connectivity 3 or blackberry device. -- connectivity through your blackberry device. >> unlike the ipad, the most popular software, flash, works on the device. will it generate the excitement that had apple fans in the

streets for hours with their new toys, that is another matter. >> that is almost it for this edition nova "gmt." -- for this edition of "gmt." kim jong il appears to be paving the way to hand over power to his son. more on that later. also, the mexican drug war comes to the big screen. violence that has become a daily reality for americans. that is all for this edition of "bbc world news." >> 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.

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