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wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news." >> a 48-hour general strike begins -- flights grounded, shops and offices are shut, more anger in greece. thousands gathered in central athens to protest what the government struggles to reduce a huge deficit and prevent setting off the eurozone crisis. >> with our protests and all participating we will stop this bill from being voted in. this government must fall and all the parties that support these measures must fall with it. welcome to "gmt."

also in the program -- promises of big revenge, a deadly kurdish attacks on military bases. more than 40 years on, beach boys legend brian week -- wilson says he is finally releasing the album "smile." it is midday. in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington and 2:00 in the afternoon in greece where a 48- hour general strike has just begun. it is the biggest protest yet against government plans to impose more austerity measures designed to tackle the country's ever deepening debt problem. the greek parliament has already approved six austerity package is sent 2009. it has left the public facing serious economic hardship. these include ongoing tax increases alongside cuts in wages to try to bring the

country's deficit under control. other measures such as property taxes which has a fixed rate regardless of income has further angered the average taxpayer. chris morris had the very latest from athens. -- has the very latest from athens. [no audio] apologies to our viewers -- not the latest report from greece. we will bring it to you as soon as we can. but we are joined on the line from inside the greek parliament by a senior adviser to the finance minister. thank you very much for joining me today. how is the government being affected by this 48-hour strike that has just begun? >> it is a difficult one

because the whole public service is pretty much closed. the employees of industries are not going to work for two days. and as you are probably hearing in the background, people are reacting and screaming in the streets. >> obviously people are very, very angry at the austerity measures being opposed upon them. are you able as a government to offer any optimism, any end in sight for this economic hardship? >> the optimism, to be honest, is the fact that we are finally having a reform that was in the works for many, many years. the longer it takes to finally take it on and bite the bullet, the longer and harder it will be

and the more painful it will be. now is the time. we take the opportunity to change our whole economic model. >> what evidence is it that you are able to change your economic model for the better and convince not only your own people but the international community that greece will not drag down the whole eurozone? >> greece is not going to drag down the whole of the eurozone. if it is going to be dragged down by greece, it means greece is only response book or 2.7% of the gdp of the eurozone, then there is a problem the way bureau is managed -- euro is managed. the fact we are changing the economy with the program is the last 17 months, and we already see a high trends of increase of our exports and also a good

trend of an increase of our revenue. but yet again, it has been 16 or 17 months that we started these very far reforms and we have been in the structural program with the imf and the european union. >> senior advisor to the finance minister. thank you so much for being with us today. of course, we do have coverage from greece and we can now go to chris morris who is following events. >> good afternoon. teachers, doctors, lawyers, pharmacists -- you name it, they are all on strike today. the unions representing more than half the greek workforce asking members to come out on strike. in the last few minutes we heard the first sound of potential trouble -- either tear-gas or potentially stun grenades being fired i believe around the side of the parliament building. but most of the people we have spoken to are not here to cause

trouble, they are here because they are angry. a show of strength on the streets. but what difference will it make? unions representing half of the great work force are taking part in a 48-hour general strike -- a protest against yet more austerity measures about to be approved in parliament. >> with our protests, with all of us participating, we will stop this bill from being voted in. this government must fall and all the parties that support the measures must fall with it. >> this country is now in its third year of recession and with more spending cuts and tax rises to come, there is no end in sight. some say the medicine is killing the patient. everyone, from shopkeepers to air traffic controllers, has shut up shop. even greece's most famous monument is closed.

tourists are turned away disappointed. >> it is one of the great historic sites that you have known since you were a little kid when you were growing up. and to be here, it would be wonderful to go and see it but it is very disappointing. >> but the prime minister says greece is fighting for survival and striking workers are blackmailing the country. the government is also under pressure from abroad to speed up reform. the fear is that a great default could spread panic throughout the financial system. >> look at the fact that about 100,000 public service employees have left and not been replaced and only one year. they have cut salaries and pensions in a way that is extremely painful for many people who were not directly responsible. look at the fact that at the same time in only one year we hold the pension system in greece. >> little comfort for those who have seen their standard of living falling sharply with little hope of any respite to come.

more explosions in the last few seconds. the mood could turn ugly again. we have seen that before. but don't forget, all this is leading toward the eu summit at the weekend. i think the unions feel it is their last chance to make a big statement about the pain being felt by people here because of finance of decisions being taken elsewhere. >> thanks very much. of course, we are not going to be leaving this subject. later we are looking at a sticky problem for greek entrepreneur is, honey makers. time to take a look at some of the other stories making headlines. the capital of thailand on alert as the worst flood in decades and threatens the city. the army has been mobilized to divert floodwaters flying through the outskirts of the capital. the prime minister has called on

the country's political rivals to pull together to tackle the crisis. rachel harvey went to see why the government is now saying bangkok is not necessarily safe. >> travelling north from bangkok is getting more difficult all the time. patches of roads that were dry just days ago are awash. conditions are changing rapidly. but never, it seems, for the better. bangkok is now once more on alert. >> i think the government should make a quick decision, because this is the main gate way to bangkok. they must do it quickly. >> here in the center of bangkok it is completely dry. and just a few days ago the government said the capital would be scared. but now seven districts within city limits have been put on alert, and even here, they are now preparing for the worse. no one is taking any risk.

tens of thousands of people have already been forced to leave their flooded homes. this university gymnasium is now an emergency shelter. i have been here since october 8, she says, with nowhere else to go. but they are taking good care of us. family pets have been rescued, too. this is the scale of the problem thailand faces. central provinces are swamped and the water level stubbornly refuses to go down. the army has been working around the clock. the trenches keep getting deeper. the sandbag walls keep getting higher. but the water keeps getting closer. rachel harvey, bbc news, bangkok. >> the foreign ministry in paris said the french woman kidnapped and taken to somalia earlier this month has died. marie dedieu was a severely disabled woman who was captured by gunmen at a resort in kenya.

the ministry has no details of the exact time and cause of death but they did say she probably died because the kidnappers refused to give her the medications the french provided. one of this year's nobel peace prize winners are arrive in new york calling for action from the u.n. she wants to see the end of violence oppression of government protest in her native country yemen. they are demanding president saleh be tried for war crimes. some of the hundreds of palestinian prisoners released by israel have been arriving and destinations throughout the middle east, including turkey and jordan. some will not be allowed to return to gaza or the west bank because israel considers them too dangerous. israel released almost 500 prisoners in exchange for an israeli soldier in gilad shalit. republican presidential candidates held a briefing televised debate in las vegas. the clashes became rather heated

between front runner mitt romney and texas gov. rick perry, especially over immigration. another call leader, pizza business magnate herman cain also bore the brunt of his riva ls' criticism of his controversial tax plan. still to come -- >> ♪ i get around ♪ >> brian wilson is releasing a new album after 45 years. a vaccine against one of the world's biggest killers of children, malaria, has moved a step closer to success. it resulted from a major clinic shows it cuts the chances of catching the disease by half. >> this is a common sight in

many african hospitals. row upon row of children laid low by malaria. an effective vaccine would transform the life chances of millions. nine-month-old pamela from kenya is one of those to receive the experimental vaccine being tried in several african countries. malaria is a global threat. about 3 billion people in the areas that are colored red are at risk of infection. but most of the nearly 1 million deaths a year are in africa. nearly 6000 children under two work involved in the trial. results showed the vaccine cut malaria cases by about half but the effectiveness might have waned after one year. >> over the next couple of years we will get a very clear view of what is happening. is it waning or people are acquiring natural community? do we need a booster? >> the lead of this bill gates

was given billions for vaccines -- is a lamp purchase -- philanthropist bill gates has given billions for vaccine. >> it is promising, the very fact that the vaccine works, it gives as data about how to build a better vaccines and it gives us a tool combined with the miskito killing and all the different interventions that will help us bring the number of deaths down quite a bit. >> bed nets and insecticides will remain vital. the vaccine is no magic bullet. but even the jab that was 50% effective could save a huge number of lives in the years to come. >> you are watching "gmt" from bbc world news. greece is seeing its biggest protest yet against government plans to impose yet more austerity measures designed to tackle the country's ever

deepening debt problems. bangkok is on alert as the worst floods in decades once again threatened the city. one-third of thailand is now affected. we can go back to the situation in greece. sally is here. we are looking at the heart of these strikes and how they are affecting the austerity measures. >> the problem with greece is there is essentially a very, very deep recession going on. greece is having essentially its third year of recession. so, its debt is forecast to be something like $357 billion. it is around 162% of gdp. there are some people who fear that actually greece could never repay its debts. in order to get money from the international monetary fund and eurozone, greece has to put in more austerity measures.

of course, the ordinary people are the ones who have taken to the streets. they say how much more can we dare? we can't take anymore of this pain. they are caught between a rock and a hard place. >> nigel cassidy has been looking at how greek businesses are coping with the situation. how do you think they can look forward now? with any optimism? >> the problem with greece is it does not have enough businesses in terms of what it actually produces, exports. with the strike in athens and other parts of the country, greece's future as part of the eurozone looks uncertain but how would it reacts to the return of the draw,? >> owned by the same family for more than 70 years. it is the top brand at home. this honey is the kind of export greece needs more of. the company makes to a little.

exporting raw materials rather than finished products, like this one that has a premium price. the country gets honey from 2003 beekeepers -- 2,000 greek beekeepers. the second generation of families that runs this place say they live life under a week and wobbly drachma and do not want that again. >> we always have problems with the drachma. but currency went down. we have many problems. dealing with packaging, and this was higher cost. we want to be in the euro because it is a stable currency. and we want to live in a stable

currency. >> the bosses are enraged by any suggestion that the greeks are lazy. they say private companies work hard, not least to pay for the civil servants, and they are fed up with laws and red tape. >> in order to send our product from athens to an island, we may pay more than sending it to italy. this didn't help us to become more competitive. we needed the free-market. if we are in the free-market, greek companies can make miracles. >> the message from a private business is clear enough -- they have become stronger sense of greece adopted the euro and it wants to keep selling on quality, not price. >> of course, the european leaders are meeting in brussels on sunday. hopefully they will sort it out. >> they needed seven days to save the world. >> not far off.

>> sally, always a pleasure. other news -- turkey's president has threatened revenge after a major attack on turkish troops by kurdish rebels. the military -- at least 26 -- 26 circus -- 26 turkish soldiers were killed. jonathan, the president described the revenge for these deadly attacks as being very big. these are worrying words. >> they are from a man who is usually pretty moderate. it is in response to that sheer scale. they believe the official death toll is 24 -- it may go up. the heaviest loss the turkish army has suffered since 1993, in a single incident. it is a blow to that. it is a conscript army. everybody in turkey feels it when a soldier gets killed. emotions always get fired up.

the president to some degree was responding to that. and the prime minister who is usually the most aggressive in his comments was a little bit milder in his response. he has condemned it very strongly, but also one of the people of turkey that resolving this 27-year-old conflict is going to take a lot of time, it will be a long process, and he asked for the help and solidarity of all the parties involved. this is something he has been pushing for over the last three or four years. ultimately some kind of political solution. of but in the current emotional climate in response to these deaths, the turkish army is going into hot pursuit mode with lots of aircraft and helicopters. operations around the iraqi border. and we believe some land forces inside iraq pursuing the kurdish militants. >> thank you very much for bringing us up to date.

the big story in england -- this is over a travelers camp in essex and police are trying to clear parts of the site. this is the largest in the u.k. these are irish travelers being evicted and day -- there have been angry confrontations throughout the day. this eviction comes after a long-running legal battle. we can get the latest with mark who is at the barricades. just describe what is going on today. >> it started pretty early this morning, at first light, when the police went through -- not the front barricade of the farm but the other side over a fence in a field in the far eastern perimeter. they went in pretty quickly, although they did meet some resistance as they did. some stones, some bottles, gas canisters as well. and the police, quite

controversially, used hazers at that point -- tasers at that point because they felt threatened. they have been working through the site. and they started to remove some of the structures from the farm and police continued efforts to get the remaining protesters out of the site. some of them are still perched on the scaffold behind me, quite high in the air, so the police are proceeding with a fair degree of caution to get them down as safely as possible. >> i imagine this will be a lengthy affair and you will be covering this over the next hours. thank you very much. with hits such as "california girls" fans of the beach boys thought they heard it all. they would be pleased to know that the album "smile," described as the group's

masterpiece is being released 45-years later. of the material was recorded back in the 1960's -- all the material was recorded back in the 1960's. our reporter met the legendary brian wilson. ♪ ♪ i get around >> they were america's biggest van at its peak. clean-cut wholesome music written by brian wilson. in 1969 he began to create the album "smile," a new sound that under new and lead -- new influence. "good vibrations", "heroes and villains," and other stranger recordings. "mrs. o'leary's cow" and this

interlude where brian falls into a plant -- a piano. brian falls into a piano. crazy stuff going on. >> the drugs got us going, you know? >> do you regret what happened in the mid-1960s? >> in some ways i do, yes. like i say, we overdid the drugs. to deeply into the drugs and it took us so into the music that we could not finish it because we were so stoned. we were going like "let's make this tape, dude" or hold on for -- or "hold on for a few minutes." >> 456 -- 45 years later, the effects have not entirely worn off and while we have heard songs from the lost album, he even recorded a version of " smaller" in 2004 but most of

what was recorded in the 1960's stayed in the vaults. >> we did not think it was time for it to come out. we thought we were too far ahead of our time, it was to advance and to much for people to understand, so we put it on the shelf. >> do you have good feelings or mixed feelings when you hear that music again? >> when i hear the music i have good feelings because i say to myself, how in the heck did we create that music? i say, i don't know. but we did. >> drugs, mental illness, it broke brian wilson but all these years later he is using now to hear the happy side of "smile." and accept what his lyricist says -- it is a teenage

god. nies to goy to >> that is all for us for the moment. please, stay with us. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. union bank. and shell. >> this is kim - about to feel one of his favorite sensations. efficient fuels in countries like malaysia that can help us get the most from our energy resources. let's use energy more efficiently. let's go.