>> this is "bbc world news." funding for this presentation is 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 work hard to know your business, offering specialized solutions and capital to help you meet your growth objectives. we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations.

what can we do for you? >> and now bbc world news. >> lebanon stairs into the abyss. fears that last friday's bombing will be the start of a new time of sectarian violence. clashes on monday morning. lebanese remember a civil war and fear history will repeat itself. hello and welcome to gmt. i'm george alagiah with a world of news and opinion. from supporterst of vote bo xilai disposes --

exposes a rift that in the communist party. and daniel craig is back as james bond. it's midday in london, 2:00 in the afternoon in beirut, where the lebanese army says it is determined to restore order across the country. it follows clashes in parts of the capital and the northern part of tripoli in the wake of last week's assassination of the country post-intelligencer. the great fear is that the in syria is about to engulf 11 on. 11 on remembers a 15-year civil war. now this report from beirut. >> the heaviest clashes overnight or in the northern city of tripoli. at least three people including two children reported killed. disturbances between anti-

government protesters and security forces. in recent months, tripoli has been the focus of pro-syrian and anti-syrian sentiment. civil war is being played out on the streets of lebanon on. as in the capital beirut, protesters are demanding the resignation of the lebanese prime minister najib mikati. they accuse him of being unable to protect lebanon from the violence perpetrated by the syrian regime. many in lebanon accuse syria of being responsible for last friday's car bomb attack which killed a lebanese intelligence chief wissam al-hassan. his funeral, thousands of opposition protesters called for their own government to resign banned for syria to end its interference in internal lebanese affairs. lebanon on's embattled prime minister is supported by many western governments who see him as a stabilizing figure.

the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton promised american help into the car bomb investigation. such support may by the government times for now, but it's not likely to survive with violence in the streets. >> let's take a look at some other stories making headlines. the cuban revolutionary leader fidel castro has appeared to refute rumors that he's on his deathbed. photographs of the former leader appear in state media holding a copy of friday's newspaper. he said he was releasing a photograph to show how dishonest the rumors were. he says that he feels fit. the british high commissioner in india, the british government suspended ties with a person allegedly complicitous in riots

which killed thousands of people. in south africa, the inquiry into the shooting a 34-by police has resumed. the violence took place at a strike at the plant in the mind in august at the marikana mine. it was adjourned to allow family members and victims to attend the funeral. the lance armstrong doping scandal, the governing body of the cycling world is announcing whether they will appeal the u.s. anti-doping agency decision against lance armstrong, to give him a lifetime ban and stripped him of his tour de france titles. the anti-doping agency released a thousand page report outlining what they call the most sophisticated doping program sport has ever seen. has called for armstrong to

be stripped of his seven tour de france titles. last week, lance armstrong lost three of his main sponsors. nike as well as anheuser-busch and another sponsor cutting ties with him. hasre just hearing that he been stripped of those titles. the president of the international cycling association, let's hear what he says. >> to make sure this never happens again. i can then open the floor to questions. >> a complete file with the press release. >> while we listened to the press conference happening in geneva, with me i have a cycling journalist who has been following this story.

richard, what is your reaction? let me give you the latest. lance armstrong has been stripped of its seven tour de france titles and banned for life after the international cycling union said on monday that it ratified the u.s. open agency decision. did it have any choice in this? >> they had no choice. until now, there'll always been questions about what the result would be, but they could appeal to the court of arbitration. but it seems they have accepted them. we just heard there president saying it will never happen again. >> the whole world waiting for the anti-doping agency to come

up with its decision. >> a lot of the details in the report were sharking, the skill and sophistication of the doping program run by armstrong and his teammates was incredible. there had been suspicions about armstrong for years. witnesses have come forward to claim they witnessed him doping or that they knew of his doping. usaf rejected all those suggestions that armstrong had been doping. >> most of our viewers probably would not have picked up the comment that he said, that it will never happen again. but does their need to be an investigation now into the wocycling world's governing body? >> i asked it it might get involved sandman's structural changes at and a change of

leadership and they said it would be reluctant to do that. . uci past due-- i think uci has to accept responsibility. they were complicity and his doping. that's what the report says. they will have to provide some good answers to those serious to go now? is there any sort of appeal or anything left? >> he has nowhere to go. the world anti-doping agency will rubber-stamp the report. so that will be a formality. armstrong will be formally stripped of his titles. it's hard to know where he goes from here, whether he issues a public apology. if he does, he will be liable to huge legal cases. he will have to repay sponsors, prize money, insurance claims,

and so on. it's a very difficult position for him. i'm not sure what he does now. >> thanks very much. still to come, james bond is back this week in skyfall. he opts for a beer instead of the shaken, not stirred. authorities in jordan said they had foiled a major terror plot at shopping centers, residential areas and more. >> a wake-up call for the jordanian government. troubles in neighboring syria are spilling into the heart of amman, jordan.

>> there are 11 terrorists all of a jordanian nationality. pictures were displayed on jordan tv and are available on news agencies along with their full names. >> they told reporters the group had been in and out of syria this year smuggling arms into the country. >> the weapons used include explosives, mortars, and rifles. we have distributed a news report including target locations. >> atv reported plans to assassinate western diplomats, target residential areas, and a bomb shopping centers in the capital, resulting in the deaths of thousands. this latest plot is the most serious threats since the lockout is suicide bombings of 2005 that targeted luxury hotels in the capital, killing dozens. jordan is a key u.s. ally with close ties with western intelligence and has often been the target of islamist militants.

this alleged plot was foiled by the intelligence department. as the syrian conflict rages next door and deputies continue to arrive, how much more difficult will it be for countries like jordan to contain the destabilizing effects rippling from neighboring to neighboring-- regions. >> there's more on that story on our web site at and the ongoing crisis. in china, 300 academics and former communist party officials have urged the country's parliament, not to expel the disgraced politicians bo xilai. he has already been expelled from the communist party accused of abuse of power and corruption. he faces a criminal investigation stemming from the murder of a british citizen neil heywood last year. his supporters say the move to

expel him is legally questionable and politically motivated. now we can cross live to martin patients in beijing. who are these people? how important are they and that they put out this open letter? >> most of them are a faction in chinese politics which does not have a huge amount of influence. their policy pronouncements are often ignored by chinese state media. why did the they support bo xilai at? because of his policies helping out poor people, housing, and trying to narrow the gap between rich and poor. they saw him as their standard bearer in many ways, marketing back in some ways to their socialist goals of chairman mao. i don't think this will have much impact. most people here expect bo xilai

will be expelled from the parliament in the coming days. that paves the way for criminal charges to be filed against him. his immunity from prosecution will be stripped at that stage. >> we will leave it there. thank you for that update. this is gmt from bbc world news. i'm george alagiah. the headlines. the army in lebanon says it is determined to restore order after the streets sustained fire with gunmen on the streets of beirut. the chinese parliament has decided -- has to decide whether to dispel bo xilai after a letter of support for him from a group. the editor of news night is stepping aside while an investigation is carried out into the program's handling of a controversial report on the tv and radio personality jimmy savile.

a bbc statement said an editor had given an inaccurate and incomplete explanation of his decision to drop the report which alleged that jimmy savile had sexually abused children. i am joined in the studio by our correspondent. david, for the benefit of our viewers around the world, who is this man jimmy savile and why is this causing so much confusion? >> he had much influence as a media figure. he was pretty much the first dj in britain and was the birth of pop music and a friend to the stars. he raised tens of millions of pounds for charity and have special access to charities and children's homes and was seen as a great hero. then suddenly we find out what he had been doing over the last 50 years, allegations that he abused more than 200. news nightside did have a good idea of what was going on, had

an investigation under way. this was in december last year. the investigation was stopped and that is what this is all about. >> another reason why the bbc is involved, is allegations some of the abuse might have happened on bbc promises. >> the argument is within news newsnight. people are angry about the. reasons the the reason given was that there was no proof of institutional failure. they're looking at an investigation the police had done in 2007 and they said the prosecution had failed. ait appears there's a correction being made about statements that for in the blog by the editor. he had said that there was no evidence that the children's home or the bbc should've known about this.

>> at the heart of this, we believe we are the most trusted news organization in the world. there's this explanation for what happened on this program. the allegation that somehow this trust organization is handled the whole thing and perhaps even that there was some sort of cover-up. that's essentially the allegation being made. >> this is a figure who was essential to bbc over 40 years. now he appears to be a serial pedophile over a 40 years and that the bbc, one of its main programs knew about this in december last year and did not broadcast that. it does not look good however you look at it. it has been front-page news for three weeks as the world pours over who knew what and when and why. at the moment there's been an unraveling of people's stories they came up with of gradually being picked apart.

it is a crisis at the bbc. a veteran correspondent said it the worst crisis in the last 50 years. >> we will continue following that. thanks very much. time for business news with aaron. where do we start? japanese exports have collapsed. >> globally. all the stuff that japan makes and then shipped overseas, the month of september, that went off a cliff. japanese exporters suffered their worst september in 13 years, a staggering number. if you break it down, it's a big problem. japan has been hit by a double whammy. you have a strained relationship between china and japan, of course, the chinese are still boy madding chinese-made goods.

-- still boycotting chinese- made goods. and the issue with european trade. >> no one can deny, depending on the european situation, and the micro-figures are strong, but there's a sign there could be a slowdown in the u.s. economy from an earnings point of view. so we could have a possible negative downturn if especially with where china is going right tonow. >> yahoo!, we will hear from the new ceo. >> the company was once synonymous with internet searching and has a big battle. when we go online answered the

internet, 57% of searches are through google. bafta competition yahoo! faces -- that is the competition yahoo! faces. marissa mayer, the first time she's going public with her plans to turn around yahoo!. >> investors will be looking for what are the kind of more long-term goals she has in store? does she want the company to focus on search or things like? like we don't have an answer right now. investors need more guidance about what the company is and what direction it's headed. >> so we will bring back to you when she speaks. thanks very much. i want to return to our top story. clashes in a non following the assassination of the country's security chief last week. let's go to our correspondent. david joins us now from beirut.

we're at the beginning -- at the beginning of this program i said that the country was staring into the abyss. do you think that was fair to say? >> it is a little spot. -- strong. but it is at a crossroads. things have been relatively calm. lines of not fault been exposed. with the civil war going on in syria, but the civil war is in danger of coming to this country. it's already here in many ways if you go to the northern city of tripoli pro-syrian and anti-syrian factions fighting. that the real fear whole thing could unravel. the latest patent from the army

being so strong is because anti- government protesters have gone on to the streets demanding the resignation of the prime minister over what they say is his inability to deal with the crisis. it's a crossroads rather than an abyss. there are allegations syria wa behind the assassination. -- that syria was behind the assassination. but there are faults on both sides. >> they are doing investigations looking at whether the lebanese shi movement hezbollah is going to syria. and the free syrian army getting over the border. the two countries poses history history iscountries'

so intertwined. i don't think we are yet talking about a return to civil war and the huge cross-country fighting is on the 1980's, but there are real concerns that there could be more violence in lebanon after four years of relative calm. >> thank you. with its world premiere a day away, the new james bond movie has fans up in arms over their hero's choice of drink. he's more known for his vodka martini. this time 007 is seen drinking beer. fans say that by entering a lucrative product placement to deal with a beer company that the film producers are ruining the character's suave it ditched. now this report from new york. >> product placement in which companies pay millions to

weather merchandise displayed in films is a tradition in james bond movies. but bringing heineken into the mix just is not right, say some fans. for them, the aston martin cars are fine, but not near. >> he's not supposed to drink beer. he's supposed to have a dog bearing -- have an expensive champagne. cracks between the action, does drink his trademark a vodka martini. the presence of the beer in the film is subtle, but the producers got a big bucks from heineken. a third of the $150 million budget came from different product placement deals, as reported. >> it is a necessity.

people make such a big deal out of it. it is unfortunate, but we get movies made. that's all that matters. movie made and everybody wins. >> it is a necessary evil? >> i think it is, in a way. it's not like it is something new. it's been happening the last 50 years. i don't see it as such a big deal. >> but some directors to see product placement as a big deal, because the impact it can have on us if it controls filmmaking. >> befriended person who gives the product placement money will be on the set giving instructions -- the friendly person.

>> the film that has been getting strong advance reviews is just as much a commercial marketing machine as ever. bond probably outdoes most other fictional movie heroes when it comes to selling products. bbc news, new york. >> to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the film series we would like to hear about your favorite bond moment. send a video of your recreating that scene or statement you most associate with a james bond films. go to bbc.com to have your say. a reminder of our top stories. clashes that erupted today in the streets of beirut in reaction to the killing of a senior security officer last friday in a car bomb attack. this brings us to the end of this bit.

stay with bbc news. we have plenty more to come. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation is 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 their expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our 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.