raised charges against the self- defense laws in florida. what is beyond doubt is that a key part of this -- the defense was the state's so-called stand your ground laws. we will be discussing that with an american legal expert in a moment. has president obama made this move in the wake of the acquittal? ,> the cry of the protesters these scenes are being cut played out across america in the big cities, including san francisco, los angeles, and new york. they are all unhappy at the outcome of one of america's most high-profile cases. >> if a black guy had murdered him, would he have been

acquitted? hell, no. appalled that something like this is happening in the united states of america. >> neighborhood watchmen, george zimmerman, was acquitted of murdering trayvon martin. he says he shot a black teenager in self-defense and the jury found him not guilty. president obama called martin's death a tragedy for america but he called for, reflection. although the protests have been mainly peaceful, feelings are still running high, especially in florida's black churches. if you sit still and do nothing, you have chosen on the evil side. get up from where you are, we need to get up and you something about it. >> for some, reflection would be

particularly hard after this television interview. >> how do you think he feels about guns? >> i think that he feels that truly in his heart if he did not have that weapon he would not be here. >> you think he would carry a gun again if he could? >> yes. >> george zimmerman is now a free man, but his name is not likely to fade from headlines soon. the justice department is looking into civil criminal charges. he may also face a lawsuit from the trayvon martin family. now fromg me washington, an abc news correspondent following the story all night. thank you for joining me. we heard a very impassioned sermon. do you think that this will build into protests?

>> it is hard to say, from what we have seen so far it seems that many people have very strong feelings about this. these protests have continued to happen across the u.s., the one in new york city grew to about 1000, 2000 people. it seems like something people are very passionate about and we will have to wait and see if it continues to grow. >> clearly, enough for the president himself to intervene? >> of course, the president has commented on this and it is a subject that has captured the imagination of the nation. the president likely felt he needed to comment, as he did not protests arose originally. we will have to continue to watch the situation to see what happens from here. >> thank you very much. thank you.

fred roe -- fred white. thank you for being with us. if you listen to that report from naomi, you would think that this is what people were saying, that this is about race, pure and simple. is that right? >> the racial aspects of very important. trayvon martin was targeted by mr. zimmerman because he was a young black man with a could be in florida. -- hoodie in florida. police,erman called the they told him to stay away, but he basically did a citizen they tussled on the ground, and today we are mourning the loss of trayvon martin. >> but the court has ruled. >> in the american system of law we defer to the jury trial, they are sacrosanct in america.

what i find interesting reading many of the british papers and following much of the british coverage has been that they have not really focused on what i consider to be the more troubling issue, the stand your ground legislation. >> only in florida? >> no, 16 different states in the united states, many of them in the south, have passed this law. in many ways it changes as it passes through the influence of private interest groups in florida. >> what does the law say? >> when i was in law school, and for hundreds of years of british and american jurisprudence, the system for self-defense was that to invoke self-defense, you had to have no way out, that if you were under attack, if you could get away safely you had an obligation to retreat before you could use deadly force. stand around puts that on its

head and turned america into a wild west society. even though the statute says you have to have a reasonable justification for using violence, if you are attacked or claim you are attacked and subjectively felt under threat, as mr. zimmerman claimed, even though he was the initial pursuer, if you claim you are under threat you can shoot someone and then when arrested say -- i have the right to stand my ground. clear that this lot needs looking at. what can the federal government do about it? >> the justice department does have certain remedies. they can claim civil rights violation. >> that would be to bring race to the fore? >> i think you cannot dismiss race because of the nature of what happened. i think that what the president

and the protesters and do, as a tribute to this loss life, 17, he had not even lived, he was just coming from -- coming with some candy and a soft drink. you do not expect to die if you go out of your house for a soft drink. the president can appeal to the nation, the legislators, throwing off the yoke of special this was special interest legislation -- saying that if your child goes trick retreating and bangs on the wrong door, someone could claim that their life is in danger and shoot that child. >> you are going to be accused of travelodge -- trivializing this. >> i do not mean to,ut i will say this, a more possible thing is a fender bender on the highway. we have all had them. words are exchanged every day. hundreds, thousands.

with stand yr ground laws, even the person who caused the accident, if they felt that the person came after them aggressively? claimed they felt threatened and pulled out a gun? he could then invoke a stand your ground defense. that is why i believe the stand your ground what is so pernicious and turned america into a outlaw society. the greatest thing america can do right now is fight the lobbyists for these laws. >> thank you very much. >> thank you for having me on the program. >> in other news, 5700 people are still missing after the floods that ravaged northern india last month. the most severely affected areas have them presumed dead. some 600 people have already been confirmed dead. the spirit -- the spanish prime minister has new calls for his

resignation. a newspaper has published text messages allegedly linking him to someone at the center of a secret pavement scandal, in custody awaiting trial for tax fraud, but both men say they have done nothing wrong. senior politicians are under pressure to resign after the first black cabinet minister was compared to an iranian tanker. he made the comments about the integration minister at a rally on saturday. the member of the anti-immigrant northern league party has apologized. phil mickelson found his form at the right time just a few days before the open. he won the scottish open, beating the south african great in a playoff.

the open begins on thursday. chinese officials have released new details of bribery allegations against the biggest drug maker in britain, glaxo smithkline. four have been detained in a port -- as part of a probe into the pharmaceutical giant. the company reportedly transferred $489 million to more than 700 travel agencies in china. glaxo smithkline said they found no evidence of corruption and that they are cooperating with authorities. our correspondent, martin, is in beijing for a snell. i just mentioned $489 million. huge numbers. what are we to make of this? >> sadly, this is a huge

scandal. as you say, about half of a billion dollars is involved. the numbers are truly staggering. is all according to authorities. they say that these allegations go back several years. officials, four of which have been detained, the travel companies have been used as fronts in many ways for bribes that were given to officials. in the last few minutes we will have atatement from glaxo smithkline in terms of the allegations, who said they are deeply disappointed by these allegations of fraudulent behavior and that the company has a zero tolerance for behavior of this nature and that they share the desire of the chinese authority to root out corruption.

i go on, it says in this statement that these allegations are shameful and that they regret what has occurred. that statement just came out in the last few minutes. the pharmaceutical company is stressing that they will work with the chinese authorities over the serious allegations. >> how much attention is this case getting in china? fairly high profile? >> i think it is in many ways. the most high-profile case since executivesel -- tinto were jailed for taking bribes. authorities in the state media have been saying they need to clean up the drug industry in china. adding price controls on pharmaceuticals.

the president has made tackling corruption a symbol of his government since he took up part later this year -- earlier this year. >> think you're a much, art and. much, martin.ery country'sthe independence from pakistan came at the result of millions of deaths. opposeder who independence has been accused of war crimes dating back to 1971. the government was accused of a political vendetta and strike action has been called in protest. former leader now convicted of the charges against him, sentenced to 90 years in jail. the allegations against him and

his fellow defendants stem from the country's bloody war of independence, four decades ago. the process has stirred up new political divisions now. bangladesh was originally part of pakistan. civil war broke out when east pakistan demanded autonomy and independence. he opposed the breakup. supporters set up militias. india intervened on behalf of east pakistan. bangladesh was born on the 16th of december, 1971. exact numbers killed? not clear. bangladesh says it is 3 million. independent researchers say the numb was like 500,000. the court handing out the convictions is itself controversial. there is anger over some of the previous verdicts of the

tribunal. overs have died in clashes recent months. there are fears of more attention now in the verdict against a man still seen as the figurehead of the party. the country's continuing divisions, these crowds are still attempting to hold them in account for the events of four decades ago. ,> our bangladesh correspondent thank you. fears of protests in the result of this case, this guilty verdict? well, there was a general , ande announced earlier there has been sporadic violence reported from various parts of the country.

there are now counter protests in response to this verdict to say that this verdict is not enough for the atrocities committed during the 1971 war. there are reports of several deaths in different parts of the country that have not been able to be verified independently. starting in january of this year, if these previous protests can be believed, we can expect more. >> think you're a much. my apologies, that was not a terribly good blind. stay with us, still to come, is climate change on the back burner? where wouldgies, the person go other than california? >> to france and the investigation into last week's train derailment in which six

people died and two were injured. the president says it is too soon to say whether bad up keep on the railway was to blame. the train slammed into a station aatform 20 minutes into journey. >> clearing the wreckage of our rail disaster, people want to know what caused this train to derail. the french president accepted the they needed better maintenance but had no clear answers. >> it is too soon to say. three to befor opened. another three carried out by the judicial authorities. from what i know already, it is an equipment failure.

>> among the victims, hundreds of students from the high school where he worked, they gathered outside the train station to lay flowers. vincent,e because of to pay tribute to him. we were shocked because we saw him every day. thisey suggested that plague may come loose and affect the switching system. six people dead, 200 injured, the pressure is on them to explain how this happened. can get much more on all the stories we are currently working on by going to the bbc news website and read the in depth analysis with video report from our journalists around the world. now, world oil supplies affect

everyone, everywhere, all the time. when you fill up at the pump and by your food, your dependence is on the price of oil and it depends on how much is available. until recently there were fears the global supplies were running out, but oil companies have been allowed to find huge new deposits in the united states. tosent our science editor the oil fields of california. the rhythm of pumps polling oil from the ground, the beating heart of every modern economy. california, but not as most know it. swept bareround is and an entire landscape stretches for miles, even over the extraction of oil to the rocks below. it keeps producing.

>> it is an incredible sight. this field has been producing for more than one century and whenever anyone thinks about it running dry, someone comes along and find more oil or comes up with a new way of getting at it. the result, there is more oil than previously thought. >> the owner of one of the oil fields here takes me to one of his sites. >> it has been pumping like this for 100 years. >> this is big oil country and fred has the stuff in his blood. his father and grandfather worked in the wells. he says that there is still a lot of oil. >> in this country? for another 100 years with present technology, natural gas. around the world there is a lot of oil to be found yet. >> oil once burst from the ground here.

decades the oil fields have kept adapting. means america no is on course, amazingly to produce as much oil as saudi arabia. international experts say that american oil fortunes have suddenly been transformed. >> the change has really occurred in a very short period of a couple of years. if you look of the forecasts of a couple of years ago, most people expected continuing decline in production and now it is a very different situation and outlook that happened very quickly. >> where does this leave alternative energy? this dense mass of wind turbines stands not far from the oilfields. a flood of oil could undermine moves to get away from fossil fuels. >> we need to win the battle against the this oil boom in california. we have to win in california,

where we pride ourselves in being a leader in responding to the climate crisis. if not in california, where can we? oil arenew reserves of being developed. it is becoming harder to get it out of the ground. if you have to dig deeper, it costs more, takes more energy, but the key thing? it is plenty left. the oil is not running out. oil willt sources of not be that easy to exploit, but the oil era dawned in these hills is far from over. faugh david, bbc news, california. fastestf the world's men are facing bands after failing drug tests. they both said they did not knowingly take banned substances.

nick davis reports from jamaica. >> he ran one of the quickest times this season. he failed tests for banned substances. this small caribbean nation has prided itself on being clean and drug-free. silvers at beijing and london, he also tested positive. they also had shocked news. over 100 meters this year, this test could see his preparation for world championships caught -- count for nothing after this result. >> sometimes in the second part of your career a hint of desperation comes in and you start looking for other things.

it is absolutely the wrong path to go down. >> unintentionally, they say they have taken banned substances. bbc news, kingston, jamaica. will take a short break. do not go away. ♪ >> make sense of international news -- at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for

over 30 years, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.

captioned by thenational captioning institute-- www.ncicap.org-- >> i am llewellyn king.the host of "white house chronicle," which is coming right up. today i have two special gues for you.they are amitai etzioni of university,shington

one of our premier public intellectuals.and we are joined by vali nasr, the dean of the school of advanced national studies at johns hopkins university, again a big force. they both have written books that are worth reading.amitai etzioni's is "hot spots: american foreign- policy in a post human rights spot of thethe hot moment is "the dispensable nation: american foreign policy in retreat," five vali nasr. but first i would like to do a shout out to our friends at the american guesthouse in washington. it is a delectable place to stay. comfortable beds, lovely rooms, old-fashioned furnishings, and really superb service.

guesthouse is a better title than bed-and-breakfast i stay there when i have to and we put our guests there because it is a very special address in washington and very central at 2005 columbia road.check it out on the web, american guesthouse in washington, or send them an e-mail at info@americanguesthouse.com.i will be back with our guests and i will be joined by linda gasparello. >> "white house chronicle" is produced in collaboration with whut, howard university now, your.and program. nationally syndicated columnist llewellyn king, and cohost linda gasparello.