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>> rarely goes smoothly as planned. different members want different things. france wants to pull its combat

troops out of aufs sooner than they would like. putting france's new leader on a collision course with the rest. and most are keen to play it down. >> it's disappointing the french have chosen to take their combat troops out by the end of this year but very reassuring that they agreed that they would have a continued presence, a continued involvement in the mission. >> other reshurenses were given by president obama to president karzai of afghanistan. even as nato troops begin to leave. some nato members are proving slow to split the bill, to pay for afghan forces in the future. but there are hopes that will be agreed on here today. >> by 2013 we expect the afghan forces to be taking the lead for security right across the country. as they step forward, our focus will shift from come bass to support, but we will remain combat ready. >> what won't be agreed though is a deal with the neighboring pakistan on reopening its

borders to nato convoys despite the pakistani leaders rather nebulous presence here. the aim is to reassure afghanistan that nato remains committed even after the combat troops have left, while reassuring voters in the left that soon their forces will be home. not soon enough though for the demonstrators outside the summit. expressing their frustration for the war that's lasted more than a decade and costs thousands of lives, and billions of dollars. while other spending is being cut back. >> joining me from paris is our correspondent christian frazier. christian, francois hollande, the new guy on the block already making his presence felt at this summit isn't he? >> he is, but he's made what would be considered here in france a popular decision, george. 80% according to a recent poll in favor of a withdrawal before the end of 2012. so he really is living up to a

commitment that he made during the election campaign. although, he has tempered it some what, probably for technical as well as diplomatic reasons. he's talking about a force being left in afghanistan to protect french equipment, and also a unit to train police and army officers. nonetheless it is being painted by the u.m.p. party, the party of the ex president as a betrayal of the coalition. we came together, we should leave together was the statement from former defense minister today. so it will antagonize some within the coalition. you heard the british defensemen talking about the disappointment but the role will change. i'm not sure it's all together different from what sarkozy was promising either because he was talking about a withdrawal in 2013 as well. >> but from france's -- but from francois hollande's point of view, the growth in europe, the compromises he might have to make there, i guess this is something that he can deliver

and deliver rather quickly? >> yes, there is a background to this george. the french have been pushing for some time, not just francois hollande, but the party of nicholas sarkozy for improvement in government and afghanistan. there is a history in the province where the french troops were based. they had a former governor there who was believed to be in can hoots with the insurgents and extorting money from the local population. under considerable pressure from the french and the coalition, he was sacked. there was a report last year by the international crisis troop who said nowhere was there a better example between the necksyuss between the troops and the corruption of afghani forces within the province. that was supported by the french rather than disputed. i think in chicago, on sunday and today, that they will talk about more aid for afghanistan. they are certainly going to pin

down the government in kabul, to tackle corruption. it will only come with certain ideas that things improve. i think they were leading europe on trying to step up on governments, and i think they've put karzai, saying there's no points in pour billion of dollars in afghanistan and training thousands of police and soldiers if the senior officers that are looking after those forces are believed by their own people to be corrupt. >> christian, thanks very much. thank you. let's take a look at other stories making headlines around the world today. at least 60 people have been killed today in a suicide bombing in the yemen capitol of sanaa. the attacker, who was in military uniform targeted soldiers practicing for a parade. it's the first such attack in the capitol since the new president took power in february. al qaeda say they did it. the bbc security correspondent frank gardner gave us more

details. >> he was dressed as a soldier, he had an explosive belt on under his uniform. he detonated without any warning. it's not clear whether he walked up or was part of the parade but it was a rehearsal for tomorrow's unification day parade. and the latest death toll, according to officials is 63 dead, one unconfirmed report is putting it at 96 dead with 300 wounded. even if it's 63 dead is a staggering high total for one single suicide bomber this is very unusual for yemen. in sanaa. yemen, despite plenty of violence hasn't had any suicide bombings in the way iraq and now syria are experiencing. so this is a significant step up in the violence there. almost certainly it's got the hand of al qaeda behind it. they vow to topple the government which they say is a puppet of the west. the yemen government is under a lot of pressure from the

americans to crushal kide in the south and there's been a fears fighting with over 200 people killed as government forces try to uproot al qaeda from the southern deserts and cities. >> our security correspondent frank gardner there. at least two people have been killed and 18 injured in clashes overnight in the lebanese capitol bay route. between -- following the shooting dead sunday on two anti-chics. the violence is the first in bay route since it began in march of last year. from bay route, jim muir reports. >> the morning after the night before, this area just on the southern edge of brute, in a deadly urban battle as two sunni groups divided over syria fought it out.

the army moved in, the fighting died down. after giving anxious residents a taste of the old civil war days. >> this is a real war. we were sitting at home with our children, then we heard gunfire. we did not know who was shooting at whom. >> the overnight marks the first time they have exploded into violence in the lebanese capitol since the crisis in syria itself began in march last year. but the fighting was restricted to the two sunni groups. near by areas controlled by he's bola did not get involved. the flare up was triggered by the killing of two sunni clerics at a lebanese army checkpoint on sunday. tensions were already high in the north of the country. angry sunnis block the main roads in many areas with burning tires to protest the killing of the two sheiks. the government has promised a

vigorous inquirery into their death. in tripoli, the second largest si, there's also a protest strike. they have joined others where there or alawites. they are calling for restraint. everybody's aware that the country could be torn apart if its deep divisions are allowed to explode onto the streets. >> held in talks with party leaders ahead of europeans summit. gets underway for next month's election. the last round of elections triggered a political crisis and raised questions about whether the debt-ridden country will stay. let's go live to our growing town, but also one of the poorest areas in greece. my colleague tim wilcox is

there. tim, hello. >> george, hello. you join me from a very tranquil setting here at a lake. a city of some 110,000 people, whom 20,000 are undergraduates here at the university. about seven hours drive northwest of athens. the circumstances here are interesting. as you say, it is a poor area of greece. but a lot of people i've been speaking to today have given up even using any currency, let alone the euro. they're resorting to bartering, swapping, trading goods in return for things they need from fellow people who can provide the goods that they need. i spent an hour this morning, just about 20 miles outside up in the hills with a mayes farmer. this is what he had to say to me. throughout this entire greek -- you've seen mass demonstrations in the cities against the os teri measures, but what's it like in the country side?

we've driven to a university town surrounded by a lot of agriculture. this man here is a 67-year-old grandfather. he's been farming maize most of his life. he's seen his salary drop from about 4,000 euros a month, now just down to his pension. says he's not getting any money at all. how difficult, how has the situation changed for you in the past few months? what is life like now? >> four, five years ago things were better. now adays the sbation is very difficult. we can barely survive with the low pension. we sell the corn but expenses are more than the income. >> he also says because he's able to work on the land, at least he can feed himself. but he is concerned about his grandchildren, his two granddaughters. ha are your fears for them? >> i have two grandchildren. one of them is a children and she will graduate soon.

he will get her degree, but what will she do next? where is he going to work? here in the farm we can barely survive but we have a few sheep, chickens, things like that. >> all right, ok. well he's going to carry on now and go check out his fields and also his animals. thank you very much. he said they didn't really care if they stayed in the yearo zone or went back. the polls ahead of the june 17 general elections are putting the coalition of 11 left wing parties, some four or five percent ahead of the next party behind them, new democracy. if they do win, it could mean they've put together a coalition. basically they're saying they will not accept the measures. they want the money, they want a bailout but want it spent on growth and pay it back later on. >> the number of times you and i have sat in studios and talked about osterity.

you're getting first hand evidence of what osterity translates to on a kind of human level? >> well yes. in fact we arrived in athens yesterday, george. when you think that most people have seen salary cuts, if they have a job, maybe 35%, pensions have gone down a third as well. people are being asked to work longer. the stock market here has lost 80% of its value. the country is in deep recession. people are now genuinely going hungry. in one market in athens, a charity was setting up a food store, they were making soup, bean soup, with lemons and onions and garlic and things to feed only a hundred people. but that food only lasted 10 minutes. there were so many people who would come for that food and eat it, including middle class people who used to work in banks, used to have office jobs, but have now been forced out of their homes, having the electricity, the power being cut off. greece is in a seriously

difficult state. >> tim, thank you. and still to come on "g.m.t." sounds that define an era. we'll be looking back at the life and music of the bee gee's robin gibb. ♪ >> the chelsea flower show is now underway in west london. over 150,000 visitors are expected during the course of the week. this year the queen's diamond jubilee is a strong influence on the event. >> gushing. gagging. gliding. it's the life blood. but this is a drought zone, so this year it's all about being water wise. you can find all kinds of ways to water your garden. this bicycle is effectively a giant, and rather exhausting pump. pumping the water around the garden and irrigating the

plants. and this is a rain garden. they're popular in australia and designed to catch and conserve. look closely, the garden sloped inwards to form a natural valley. every gardener here told me they struggled with too much rain, little rain. >> we extract all water, so everything that is watered onside is from that special source. we have tanks in the great pavilion so they're using their water cans as opposed to hoses and that makes a difference. >> but long time british gardens are changing, they'll tell you here. already, designers like vickie are adapting to a new kind of climate. >> i think we're going to be using many more, not just -- >> no wonder a common theme runs through the show. the charity behind this garden

provide water and sanitation to third world countries. they estimate one in 10 people throughout the world don't have a cleans water supply. this is the 99th chelsea flower show, a chance to showoff the very best. a chance too to protect the element that keeps it all growing. >> this is "g.m.t. from "bbc world news." the headlines. nato leaders meet in chicago to plan for afghanistan's future internal disputes threaten to derail proceedings. tensions from the syrian crisis spread into neighboring lebanon where overnight street battles were in beirut. >> well, on the business news now with jamie, i didn't know just how big -- >> massive, massive. >> young had a stake in it.

>> we're selling half of it back actually. it's going to be making $7 billion out of it, having bought it originally for one billion. going to have to pay quite a bit of tax but will make a lot of money out of it. jack morris is the guy who did this deal, he's the guy who found it. but, the interesting aspect of it is its probably going to have to make another share offering sometime to pay off some debt in the next few months, perhaps a bit longer. where the money's going to come from, could come from some of those earlier investors in facebook because they made a killing on the facebook flotation, they sold off their shares. the thought is the money is now going to be going east wards, possibly into companies like this. but to give you an idea of what it is like, our correspondent in hong kong, this is how she described it. >> it's got lots, probably the

most famous in at least china, it's very similar to ebay but according to some analysts in terms of total transactions it's already exceeded ebay. about two years ago. so it is absolutely gigantic. that's only one of its uses. >> she also talked about how they are trying to get western customers to tap-in to things like other ways of accessing the chinese market. >> let's turn to airlines, airlines have been struggling with fuel prices and the economic down turn. but whineo, they've posted a nice profit. >> two things here, one is the profits and the aircrafts it's buying. it may well be going for a chinese aircraft. but he's a very canny negotiater

and probably using it to play it off of each other. on the profits, this is what he said. >> gold is the one thing we're not worried about. a lot of flag carrier airlines -- we've seen them close, another is expanding rapidly. but they'll rise by another $300 million kid and i'm not certain particularly next winter the fares will rise to pay for that bill which would be them getting a better deal. but profits may fall a little bit. >> going to be a tough time for them. >> the former sri lanka arm leader has been been released. our correspondent has more.

>> waiting -- they're about to go beserk. sometimes in a very dangerous manner as he is released from the hospital interior. he was then whisked away. back to the central jail, where he's been lang wishing for a couple of years. he'll have to wait there while certain -- again his conviction on a number of counts. one aide said he may actually not walk free from the prison until sometime early on tuesday. we just don't know. of course the big question is whether he will then try to plunge back into politics. many see him as the most plausible challenger to the president in this murky political theme. and of course there are human rights issues, issues of alleged war crimes that have been leveled against the government.

there's no reason why those should not be leveled against him. he was of course the man that led the army when it won against the tiger rebels exactly three years ago. thousands of civilians are alleged to have died. the government denies committing war crimes. >> now, robin gibb, one of three brothers who formed the hugely successful bee gee's pop group in the 1960's has died at age 62. their disco hits defined an era with falsetto harmies, including "staying alive," "how deep is your love" and of course "night fever." here's a look back at his life. >> ♪ i'm going back to >> with his plaintive, quavering voice, this 17-year-old was an unlikely star. but here her was, robin gibb,

the front man of what was to be one of the biggest bands in hop history. >> that's the thing. now is it true that you write your own peaces barry? >> he's begun forming with his brother at just 6. the family moved to manchester before settling there australia. they released more than a dozen records before they returned to britain, and hit the big time. >> ♪ you don't know what it's like ♪ >> however, increasingly it was brother barry who was in the spotlight. robin resented being shunted in the background, and despite the denials, he left. >> robin, we heard rumors the group is splitting up. >> if i were to say that were true. >> it didn't last long, the band reformed but soon found itself

out of favor. what changed things around was moving to america, and barry moving up a register. ♪ >> when "saturday night fever" was at its peak, it was selling a million albums a week. the conventional backlash meant that bee gee's songs of the 1980's were more often sung by kenny and dolly. diana ross. barbara streisand. >> we see ourselves as composers, and artists second. we can't have the second without the first. and we've also enjoyed writing for other people. ♪ >> like the harmonies, the song writing was an interplay between the three brothers. >> ♪ i've seen the story ♪

>> robin gibb's solo career never took off in the same way. >> ♪ because we're living in a world breaking us down ♪ >> his place in pop history is with his brothers, as one of pop's most successful song writing teams. >> now, a reminder of our top story on "g.m.t.." president obama and his nato allies have gathered for a summit aimed at charting an orderly end game in afghanistan. troop withdrawals dominate the agenda with a hand over expected to be completed by 2014. the new french president francois hollande has departed from the script with his decision to pull his troops out this year. that's just about it for the moment. plenty more to come on "bbc world news." so do stay with us.

>> hello there, tropical storm alberto is pushing north into the western atlantic. across eastern parts of canada, a warm day on monday. 28 degrees in you beck. fairly sharp showers stretching across the tennessee valley too, but much of florida a dry day. a scattering of lighter showers, plenty of sunshine in between. for antigua, we'll see a brisk easterly wind blowing. one or two light showers across northern parts of brazil but keep those drought conditions in the northeast. showers not really going to help here much. dry on monday, 25 degrees but we could see some sharp showers bubbling up through the day. very windy.

>> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank our relationship managers use our expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put ore extended global network to work for a wide range of companies. from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> bbc world news was presented by kcet los angeles.