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>> and now "bbc world news." >> was she killed by the people trying to rescue her? questions over the botched u.s. odds -- u.s. operation to save a british hostage in afghanistan. the first human trials based on the stem cells of embryos. inside the rescue of the trapped miners in chile, it could begin as early as tomorrow. welcome to "bbc world news." coming up later, taking a bite out of apple and all of the others. microsoft unveils its latest bid to dominate the mobile world. >> ♪ [singing] >> joan sutherland dies at age 83, we take a look back at her

life. hello. to the commander and leader of the nato forces in afghanistan, they have ordered an inquiry on the aid worker that was killed that they were sent to rescue. u.s. officials had brief that she was killed by her afghan captors. the british prime minister has now told her family that the cause of death may have been a grenade detonated by rescuers. our security correspondent has the report. >> was her death last friday preventable? initial claims that she was killed by her captors may be wrong. today david cameron took an awkward a phone call from the nato commander in afghanistan,

breaking the news to the public. >> general petraeus has told me that there is evidence that indicates that linda may not have died at the hands of her captors as originally believed. that evidence, and subsequent interviews with personnel involved, suggests that she could have died as a result of a grenade detonated by the task force during the assault. >> u.s. officers insist that they had no choice but to rescue her. but the operation's failure is clearly weighing on the prime minister. >> i have gone over it in my mind 100 times. i believe it was the right decision based on everything that we knew about her dreadful situation taken hostage. >> friday an elite team moved to the remote afghan hideout, where the doctors had hidden her. the province where she was held

is one of off it -- afghanistan's most rugged provinces. the u.s. military had been operating there for years. the decision to go ahead was taken by the british embassy. what led to this failed rescue attempt? she was taken hostage with her afghan colleagues on september 26. british and u.s. intelligence tractor down into the valley. because of fears that she might be moved over the border into pakistan, a rescue mission was authorized. on october 9 it was announced that her death in the mission was blamed on her captors. now there is a full-scale investigation headed by the u.s. major-general. looking at that aerial footage.

it must be hard to take for her family in the western island of scotland. do not know for certain how she died must be harder still. >> american scientists are reporting the most important step yet toward new medicines based on an embryonic stem cells. so far research has been restricted to the laboratory. trials on humans have now begun. it could mean revolutionary treatment for spinal injuries. >> it is one of the most widely anticipated medical trials in decades. these are stem cells derived from a single human embryo when it was smaller than a pinhead, grown into an endless supply of nerve cells. for the first time they have been injected into a spinal cord

patients. >> these every on nextel -- stem cells are the most potent that we have. if this therapy is successful we will go to manufacture at the scale that we need. >> i and many injuries there is a short circuit. a patient that is nearly paralyzed was injected with embryonic stem cells in the hope that they might start to recoup. in animal trials, paralyzed rats regained some movement. >> what goes on in this laboratory? >> last year i visited the laboratories and in california. the company involved is highly upbeat about the long-term potential for treating a host of diseases. >> what they do promise for a

heart attack, diabetes, you would go to the hospital and see the cells and you would go home with a repaired oregon. >> but no one should get carried away. the first six patients only received tiny amounts to test the safety. no one can be sure that therapy will work at all in humans. the patient groups and scientists are eagerly awaiting the results. >> the palestinian leader has rejected an offer from the israeli prime minister to freeze settlement building in return for recognizing israel as a jewish state. palestinians have long said that such a definition would discriminate against a non- jewish population. the police in hungary have arrested the boss at the aluminum plant from the news

last week and there's now fear of a freshly. around 85,000 mercedes-benz cars are being recalled over power steering problems. bill between june of 2009 and february of this year, the car could become difficult to control while parking. how about this? the newest art installation in london, 100 million fake sunflower seeds, each one handmade and hand-painted. the chinese artist had 1600 people working for 2.5 years to make them. visitors will be allowed to walk all over them. the british ambassador to north korea has told the bbc that food shortages in the country are causing chronic malnutrition. this after a weekend of celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of the ruling

workers' party. we have the report from the north korean capital. >> in a city where there is nothing much to do, even a flower show can draw a crowd. today was a holiday. this is where we found people enjoying it. it honored their leader and his father. even the flowers were named after them. >> [unintelligible] >> pyongyang, the country's showcase, there are still sites that shocked. women scrubbing the streets by hand, digging for roots in a public path. a hint that some do not have enough to eat. the news is blocked by the government official escorting us.

the problem that we have working here is that it is so difficult to get a real understanding of what is going on in this secretive space. the company by the government at all time, it makes it impossible to talk to ordinary people. even when we give the minders the slip, most people are still uncomfortable talking to us. a few of them are more brave, happy to pose for pictures. nothing more. the british ambassador says that what you see in the capital is only half of the story. >> the city must be separated from the rest of the country, it is a showpiece where people live quite well in comparative terms. but outside most of the industries are not working. i would not say that there are people dying of starvation, but there's no doubt on the chronic

malnutrition. people lived a tough life here. >> the cult of personality ha oa well. it has helped them to keep control. life in this city appears unbearable for many. what is happening outside is impossible to know. >> in a slightly different universe we are looking at the race for the funkiest smart phone. microsoft has responded to the android and there is a range of handsets using the windows 7 operating system, rebuilt to be more user friendly. along with an unexpected human secret weapon. >> still on more than 90% of desktop computers, microsoft and its dominance. now all of the action and

innovation has moved to mobile phones and there is a different story. microsoft might dominate the desktop but when it comes to smart phones, it is really no where. from the iphone to the android, paving the way through the market. the window mobile phone operating system has caught the scent of the market. >> we wanted the windows found to be delightful. >> here is their latest attempt to stake a claim. their chief executive unveiled windows phone 7, promising that if this were a new idea, it would delight the users. the new system looks simpler and more attractive than its predecessors. but there is a huge amount at stake, as one senior executive admitted. >> this is extremely important to us. the future of the internet is increasingly mobile and we want

to be a serious player. >> rivals are so far ahead of them in the stakes, microsoft needs to prove that it has something special. at the launch of and, stephen fry, previously a huge fan of apple and detractor of microsoft, he turned out to praise the windows phone. >> my first thought was that it was fun to play with. i know that it is childish, but is that not what we define many things by in our lives? >> microsoft is getting big manufacturers to build launch phones for its new system. but its rival will not stand still. they are about to get even more intense. >> stay with us, if you can. still to come, this is russia's

latest secret weapon. is it simply a load of hot air? we will reveal all. first, a greek police officer has been given life in prison for the murder of a schoolboy in athens two years ago. the incident prompted widespread rioting and civil unrest. it was the worst in greece for decades. from athens, we have this report. >> the verdict close as one of the darkest chapters in the history of greece. the murder in 2008 ignited the worst social unrest in 40 years, riots that lasted for three weeks. courts closed in on the maximum sentence. it was described by the victim's family as a monster.

the rebellious district of athens is where the shooting happened. the family of the schoolboy has welcomed the conviction. during the trial, the defense painted the teenager as a troublemaker. the family believes his memory has now been restored. the verdict is a relief for the socialist administration, which is trying to keep on rest to a minimum as it aims stringent managers at the country's financial meltdown. the anger and resentment of young people, which contributed to the riots of 2008, is still beneath the surface. it is also a protest over a low wages and that employment prospects. since the austerity measures were introduced, the minimum wage has gone down further and unemployment has got worse. the frustration of the youth of greece remain a powder keg that

the authorities ignore at their peril. >> the latest headlines for you this hour, the british aid worker, linda norgrove, may have accidentally been killed by the special forces that were attempting to rescue her. the world's first official file to use of embryonic stem cells for clinical treatment has begun in the u.s.. in chile the first test has been carried out of a narrow capsule to rescue the 33 miners who have been trapped underground for the past two months. the mining minister said that the test went well and that it was lowered 600 meters, slightly above where the miners are without encountering any problems. matt frye is there for us. how are things looking?

>> funny that you should mention that capsule, it went down 610 meters to where the miners are. thaw the mining -- the mining minister said that they did jump on board with a grin on their face, ready to take them up. logistically they are almost ready, but it wanted medics to go down, talk to the minors first, looking at who would go first and who would go last. applications here in the camp, which is an extraordinary place with this amazing human drama unfolding, probably by tomorrow, midnight, once the president has come back once again, we can expect the first miners to

arrive. >> it may be completely unfair, but there has been cynical speculation over the jockeying for position about who comes up last, because whoever is down there last will likely hold a world record. >> there is a bit of that. to be honest, when they first started talking about a pecking order, there was kind of an understanding that the man in charge of the shift, the shift leader, would be the last person to come up. i gather that that will still be the case. but there has been some jockeying. not just for coming up, but also what happens when they are back here on planet earth. that has taken place amongst the families, i am told, who are being -- beginning to disagree with each other over the interviews and the money that will inevitably come down this

mountain and engulf these miners. they, themselves, i am told, are in agreement, having decided, apparently, that they will do everything together, write the book together. to be honest, that is hardly surprising. there's politics involved here and we are talking about 33 different families. >> for the moment, thank you very much. paul crotty said that she had the voice of a century. -- paverotti said that she had the voice of a century. many would agree. after a career of over 60 years, she died at the age of 83. we have a look back at her life. >> joan sutherland in the role that made her an international

star when she first sang it in 1959. a 19 minute standing ovation. she had grown up in sydney, where her mother encouraged her to sing. different from what she eventually became. >> sitting around a piano, singing duets. i was not actually trained by my mother. but she was a great singer herself. i cannot remember when i did not listen to her sing. >> it was her husband and manager that challenged her to sing the lighter and higher bowls.

soon she was appearing in all the world's top of houses in some of the most popular 18th- century and 19th century operas. >> i had great help from richard. i never would have made the standard of anyone even asking me without him. >> after one performance in venice, the italians and dubbed her stupendous and the name stuck. she could sing 54 leading roles in multiple operas. unusual for a diva, she was modest and likable. >> how are you? >> the opposite of a spoiled

prima donna. >> she was more of a comedian, she had such a wonderful sense of humor. she was always laughing at everything, it was so funny. >> her final public performance. >> china has canceled a meeting with the norwegian fishing ministry just days after the nobel peace prize was awarded to a chinese dissident. sentenced to 11 years in prison last year for inciting subversion, there are unconfirmed reports that his wife is under house arrest. our correspondent is in beijing. >> is not clear, exactly, what is happening.

what we do know is that his wife's phone is turned off. we also know that journalists have entered the home, surrounded by about two dozen policemen. we spoke to a brother of the jailed dissident earlier. he said that the wife had visited him in prison on saturday. now, that prison is about 300 miles northeast of beijing. the husband and wife are said to have a meeting and it is not clear what he said, although according to one account she dedicated this nobel peace prize to all of those people that died during the cnn and square protest in 1989 when thousands, perhaps, were killed. >> the new queen elizabeth cruise line has been officially named by none other than queen

elizabeth. it has been 72 years since her mother launched the first. >> may god bless her and all who sail in her. [applause] >> the military is being invented in deceiving enemies and saving money at the same time. inflatable weapons look easier -- look like normal ones, easier to transport, they can all be blown up in a positive sense. steven rosenberg has another look. >> the russian army has always been proud of its hardware. but modern warfare is not just about firepower, it is about fooling the enemy. which is why the russians have developed this strategic weapon. not only is it easy to assemble

and quick to deploy, you do not need any ammunition. just air. presenting the inflatable russian tank, proved that the russians have decided to blow up their own forces. they are also inflating rocket launchers as well. like this one. a cross between a ballistic missile and a bouncing castle. decoys are coded in special materials that trick systems into thinking they are real. in fact, they are so lifelike, they have even got their own side fooled. >> on one military exercise a russian air force general put our inflatable rocket launcher up as real, ordering us to launch the rocket. he refused to believe that it was a dummy because intelligence reports indicated that it was loaded and ready to fire. >> what a black tie and

firepower, it makes up for in flexibility. the best thing, possibly, is the price tag, 100 times cheaper than the real thing. >> the inflatable armed forces are stitched together outside of moscow by an army of seamstresses. producing dummies with the military feels much more patriotic. yemen is selling a missile launcher. >> i am proud to be making entire tanks and rocket launchers for the army. >> there is just one problem all of those heavy weapons can turn very quickly into light of arc -- light artillery. >> you can find much more of that online, bbc.com.

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