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rebels. >> when -- stands ready to go in and seek verification of facts. if and when there is a credible cease-fire. >> hello and welcome to gmt with me. also coming up in this program, at least 19 killed in south africa after a train hit a truck carrying farm workers at a rail way crossing. we have the latest. and here in the u.k., unauthorized aircraft could be subject to lethal force as part of the olympic security. it's midday here in london. 7:00 a.m. in washington and 2:00 p.m. in syria where the government and rebels are accusing each other of one of

the worst massacres of the conflict so far. opposition supporters say government forces carried out heavy bombardment in an area situated in a province and claim up to 200 people have been killed. we should warn you, there are some graphic images in this report. >> among the very few images so far, to document what activists may say is the biggest massacre yet. this posted on the internet showed the body of 16 young men lined up on the floor rand they call them martyrs of the massacre. this wounded survivor was apparently injured by shell fire. so far there have been none of the images of the wounded and dead women and children of the earlier massacres. especially the one two months ago. but they did clearly come under

attack with government forces with civilians fleeing in panic. >> there are big numbers of tanks and armored vehicles. and this village about 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon. >> the syrian state media also reported many deaths in the same place but blamed what it called armed terrorists, rebel terrorists for the killing saying they wanted to influence the world. the u.s. have been crowneded because there's no cease-fire to monitor but they are trying to negotiate so they can investigate what happened. >> when they -- we stand ready to go in and seek verification of fact if and when there is a credible cease-fire. >> from the u.n. security

council, the mandatory dates expire next week. in advance of a resolution on what to do with them and how to revive kofi annan's peace plan. the russians said they will veto a western-drawn resolution that would involve sanctions if syria fails to follow with the plain. -- follow with the plan. they are going to try to reconcile differences and find a way forward. the russians say he should be spending more effort to bring dialogue with the regime but as the carnage and violence go on, the opposition is more and more insistn't that president assad and his inner circle must go before any talks. the regime rejects that, and so far it can count on russian support. jim, "bbc news," beirut. >> now let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today. typhoon jets and surface-to-air

missiles are all to be deployed to defend the air space over london for the olympic games. restrictions on air travel are being nut place and passenger flights are not affected. with more details on this, our correspondent, nick is at the airport in northwest london. nick, tell us more about these restrictions. >> yes. well, i think this is a final information offensive by the authorities, if you like, with these restrictions coming in at midnight local time tonight. basically a prohibited zone over the main olympic park and much of london and a restricted zone over pretty much a large chunk of southeast england. there are one or two other zones where there are olympic venues as well. but those for the months and then smaller ones for the

paraolympics after that. they are insisting the scheduled airlines are not going to be affected by this but pretty much everything else is. private pilots are all informed on what these restrictions are and adhere to them. they can fly in some areas but have to fulfill a whole range of criteria and roles to do that, and the hope is with the information campaign they have done writing to every pilot in britain and sending out 60,000 leaf lets for example, that people will abide by that and there won't be any incidents. but the helicopter behind me is just one part of what the military is putting in place. pretty much all the jig saw pieces are in place to monitor and if necessary police and in the worst-case scenario, enforce the security of the air

space around southeast britain. >> and they are not ruling out the use of lethal force. >> no. it's not being ruled out, but the military authorities, the commander of all the forces here. and it's a laird set of forces, ground-based. ground-based missiles. the helicopter behind me is actually meant to carry airborne snipers in the event that they have to be used. and at the end of the runway, four typhoon fighter aircraft are also on standby. but the military is insisting there's a whole range of things they have to go through even if that is stray pilot came into the restricted area before that kind of force would be used. if that was low-fly aircraft there would even be signs hung

out of the helicopters. if lethal force did have to be used, it would have to be used at the highest level of government. >> thank you very much indeed for telling us about those restrictions on the british air space that are due to be enforced. the u.k. has experienced its wettest june on record and heavy rain is also affecting other parts of the world. houston, texas was hit by storms overnight which caused massive flooding. now the cypress creek has flooded out and many resident have been suffering from power outages. there are reports 12 cent meters of rain fell in the metropolitan areas. this is in sharp contrast from last year.

and nearly 20 people died after a record amount of rain and thousands of people have been evacuated in those areas and more heavy rain is expected. and in many parts of china, they have been hit by direct rain causing flooding and property damage across the country. thousands of passengers have been left stranded. and roads blocked by landslides. let's return to our top story. the reports that one of the possible worst massacres since the uprising began in syria began months ago. there are reports of 200 people killed in a farm village in hamah province. both the government and opposition blame one another. a syrian activist based in ha ma. from your point of view, can you tell us what's snapped we

have reports of heavy bombardment. >> i tell you today. today people who stayed in their village get the news that people are going to attack their village. that's why people from an opposition village helped the women and children to get out of the village. that's why we have some of them right now with us. we have had very horrible stories of what happened yesterday. 100 of the people that were killed yesterday could be documented, and they were buried today in the morning. we have heard very horrible news of what happened yesterday. for example, one man named abad. an older man. he was executed. in front of his wife.

after that, his corpse was burned. the small village has got only two doctors. one of them is -- the other -- they were targeted by mortar shells. the kind of advanced mortars which could target their houses. they were inside their houses. they were targeted and they were killed, because they could be used by the village to cure people wounded in the battle. one of the horrible stories we have heard today is that people today could enter the house which was burned. they found that the two corpses of the people of that house, they were burned inside. actually what happened is something similar to what happened in -- people were burned alive in their houses. and i want to say that 100 people are buried right now,

and the great number of people also killed are in the fields and rivers, and people are trying to get them out and to bury them. >> i have to say our reporter jim mature said it's difficult to get to the facts of who has been killed and how many and who is behind these killings. united nations is trying to get to the site. so we have the government on the one hand blaming it on the work of the terrorists and people like you saying it's the work of the pro government forces. so it's still not clear what's going on, is it? >> i am -- the words is not willing to see the truth of what's happening in syria. actually, all people know that the free syrian army has not get -- they don't have armored vehicles. i say to you, i am resident and

live close to the area. a big number of tanks and artillery were used in the shelling. actually people who also tried to flee, they were targeted by helicopters. i have seen helicopters by my own eyes. why the world doesn't want to believe us? the people of this village are simple people. their only fault is that they have some sons defected from the army. terrorists don't have jets or tanks. the regime is committing this massacres against the syrian people in order to intimidate people to stop the revolution. but this will not stop. with every new massacre and every more killing, we get more

dormede fight this regime until the last bullet. >> reports where up to 200 people are believed to have been killed. >> now south africa police say 19 people were killed after a train hit a truck carrying farm workers at a railaway crossing. details are still coming in. one report says at least 24 other people were injured. joining us now from johannsburg is the bbc's milten. can you tell us more about this? any update on the casualty figures? >> yes. indeed, the death toll still stands at 19 as far as we know. the local police spokesman said that the scene is gruesome where the accident has taken

place following this truck crashing at the railway crossing. the truck may not have been the train while he was crossing the railway. he was carrying farm workers going to a local farm to pick fruit. that's when the accident happened. apparently on impack the train carried the truck for about 200 meters. the police spokesman said that bodies are strewn across the scene, and some of them are decapitated. >> and is this kind of incident in this part of south africa at this railway crossing, is this something that's happened before? >> not at this railway crossing. but about two years ago there was another incident near cape town where a school bus driver crossed a level crossing and many children died.

the driver was sentenced to a long prison sentence, because of that accident. in this case, the truck driver has been taken to hospital, and his condition is still unknown. >> so they are carrying out an investigation to definitively work out what caused this crash? but you say the initial suggestions point to driver error? >> yes. no confirmation of that. but it does sound like the truck was going over the railway crossing when it was hit by a train carrying coal to the niche part of the capital. >> ok, thank you for the update on that crash where 19 people have been killed. more to come here on gmt. figures from j.p. morgan. now with just two weeks to go until the olympics opening

ceremonies, it's suggested 2/3 of the people don't believe the games will benefit the area. only 1/3 of them said they had become more excited about the games during the course of this year. our correspondent has more on this story. >> millennium stadium. it might be 160 miles from the london stadium. but this is where the first event of the olympics will take place. women's football. two days before the opening ceremonies. suzie is here to pick up her uniform to work as a volunteer. >> to be involved in something so huge and so old. >> but with two weeks to go, how much excitement is there outside this stadium right across the u.k.? "bbc news" commissioned a survey to get the opinions of 2,000 people. only 36% of them said they were

more excited about the games now than they were at the start of the year. despite the huge crowds that turned out to see the olympic flame, including here. 58% of people we asked said the torch relay had not made them anymore interested in the olympics. >> i couldn't tell you what day it starts. i honestly couldn't. >> and although proudly displaying its rings, across the u.k., 67% of people thought the games would not benefit their local area. but there were some positives for the organizers. 55% felt the olympics would be good value and just over half that the games would not be a waste of taxpayer money. john, "bbc news."

>> this is gmt from "bbc world news" with me. these are the headlines. the united nations are trying to get a service to hamah where activists say 200 people have been killed. and a train hit a truck carrying farm workers in south africa, killing at least 19. now the chinese economy has been experiencing its sharpest slowdown since the global financial crisis in 2008. figures out on friday show the annual pace of economic growth slowed to 7.6% in the three months before june. in the previous quarter growth was running at 8%. but first the bbc's martin reports from the port where stock piles of coal have been building up. >> if you want a symbol of china's economics slowdown, this is it.

we're here in this area. china's biggest coal port. it's from here that coal is transported and shipped to power plants across the country in order to fuel china's economic boom. but now they say demand for coal is dropping and fast. the huge mounds you can see here have been growing ever higher in recent months. a clear indication that china's -- stock piles reached record levels last month with more than 800 tons of that here largely because chinese factories are cutting back in production because of a drop in demand for exports. and the last time this happened was back in 2008 when the global financial crisis were strong. >> we're on the road, one of the most famous shopping districts in all of hong kong,

and as you can see, this isn't a place for bargain hunters it's pure luxury all the way. over here we have dole chay and gabbana, the italian fashion house next to it. the american handbag maker coach and next to it, fennde. and now this area is particularly popular with mainland shoppers who come to hong kong in order to avoid paying the sky high luxury taxes at home. unlike the rest of china, this area is a free port and there's no tax. the influx explains why the dialect you hear here is usually mandarin rather than the local dialect of kaz any. but over the months we've seen a sharp economic slowdown meaning even this road has seen a very slow summer. in fact retail sales growth in

all of hong kong has slumped to its lowest levels since the 2008 financial crisis. chinese shoppers have fewer shopping power and that is a real problem for cities like hong kong and the neighboring city of mack cow. both of which rely very much on mainland visitors for their economic growth. >> our correspondent in hong kong. let's get more on this and other business news with jamie robinson who has joined me here in the studio. i have to say, the shopping looked quite eager there. nevertheless, there is a slowdown in china. >> the pace of growth is slowing down. you've got two pictures there. heaps of coal piling up. yes. i mean, there's definitely this slowing of growth in china. 7.6%. but in china, you need that kind of growth. because it's simply the number

of people coming into the workforce. you've got to keep that sort of speed. according to the government, that is. the government is estimating growth of 7.5%. they are investing heavily. money is going into the economy. they are doing all the things they ought to do. they say, and a number of the economists agree with them that business should pick up throughout the rest of the year. that lowering of interest rates easing the monetary poi, whether it worked. alister thornton, with i.h.s. global insight, he is optimistic saying the government has got the plan right. >> the government was slow on the up take, but over the last couple of weeks, we've seen the government more cognizant of the need to stimulate the economy. they have dropped the interest rate twice in the space of one month, and we're seeing more

and more investment projects being approved through the state planning agency and that should really underwrite what we expect to see at the end of the year. >> and of course we are always looking to see what happens with the chinese economy. because that does affect the rest of the economies. and we have figures from j.p. morgan. doesn't look good? >> the big question was how much they had lost on these derivative trades? they originally brought about $2 billion. even so, simply can't -- >> it is a huge amount. however, they still came in with a profit. so not exactly an impoverished bank. however, there are bigger questions to be asked, the way in which the company, the bank is run. and what's interesting here is

jamie dimon who is the chief executive is meeting with the shareholders today in about a half an hour's time. and what's going to go on there when they ask what knew what? and when? and where? and they will be asking a lot of nasty questions about why and the bigger question of how the company was run. >> the issue is why was there a loss in the fist place? and aren't these banks too big to regulate and fail but also too big to understand? >> it's not so much as he said exactly how much was lost. because the bank can afford it in many ways. but it's this whole culture of how the bank was run and they are also going to be instituting this idea of a claw back. this is taking money back from people who were responsible for the losses.

it's something that's been introduced. no bank has done it yet, and j.p. morgan may be the first one to do it. the first person in the frame is in charge of the c.i.o. the part in charge of running these trades. she's now left but left very soon after this was all discovered, and it will be partner to see if some of her -- >> our top story.