the valuer then said only about £200. £200. which is what i had to pay for it, and he offered me a little bit more than that for it, and i said, "no, i've always wanted to own it, and i'm not selling it." well, i think at auction i would estimate this picture at somewhere between £6,000 and 8,000. mm-hmm. and then i would, um-- see it-- once it was cleaned and restored and re-presented-- on a gallery wall-- at £9,000 or 10,000 at least. so, you actually have made a very good choice from your uncle there. yeah, i did. ( chuckles ) i'm glad, even more glad now. i don't know if i should put it back up on the wall. ( laughs ) oh, fantastic. it's incredible. when you look at a picture like this, you just really realize what an absolute icon of the 20th century elvis presley really was. i mean, this is him in his absolute prime. yes. his hair, clothes-- it's just everything about him. the young elvis was such a great-looking chap. he just shouts 20th century, and i still think today, hearts across the world flutter when they see him.

who took these photographs? i took them myself. i remember the name of the camera-- a vitomatic 2e. oh, my goodness. were you quite a photography fan? well, uh, yes and no, but, uh-- i'm glad they all came out. as i say, in those days-- well, it just goes to show, i mean, these are fantastic quality pictures. were you used to taking photographs of mega-stars at this point? no. i could well imagine. i hadn't met anybody famous at that point in my life. so, he was the first, and, well. yes. and the greatest, no doubt. so, how on earth did you get to meet one of the icons of the 20th century? well, i was doing my national service in the british army. we were stationed up near the dutch border in munchengladbach. and elvis was down in the american section, so, uh, we decided to go down there on the off-chance of seeing him, maybe, you know, at a distance. and sure enough, it worked out very well. so, do you remember the year, or the month, even, that this happened? yeah, he did, uh, 1958 to 1960.

i think it was in january and he was getting out in february, yeah. okay, so-- gosh, he must've been quite keen to get back home, i suppose. yeah. as were you, no doubt. and he had just met priscilla, so he was a very happy man. my goodness, yes. i'm sure he couldn't wait to get back. so, how many-- how many pictures do you have here? i think there's about 6 altogether, yeah. about 6 altogether in this large color format. i'm taking it that this-- i reckon that's you. is it? am i right? that's me when i was a young man and-- and i had hair, as well. and you've also got some autographs in the back. yes. so, you asked him to sign some pieces. these are fantastic, too. i mean, again-- that's a great shot. absolutely great shot. i think with these pieces here, they're obviously staged. there are a number of these out there, but obviously, not signed. i think you're going to be looking at £300 to 400 each for these pieces. all right. they'd be popular with any elvis collector or specialist or fan today, but i think the real interest is of course these pieces.

and i'm sure they have many happy memories and you're not going to, uh-- no. ( chuckles ) no, it's a-- it was a great moment in my life. i could well believe it, and not many people could have had that. i think, for these pieces, you're looking around £1,000, 1,500. they're just great photographs, and any elvis collector would just love owning those and sticking them up on their walls. and to be quite honest, seeing these today, i'm all shook up. yes. ( chuckles ) this is the sweetest little box. where did-- where did you find it? um, my father-in-law gave it to me. um, he acquired it in a-- in a charity shop. in a charity shop? yeah, himself. so, presumably, for very little money. very little. a few pounds. well, there's the date. martha hindel, simmonstone, 1770. so, this is creamware, which is a cream-colored earthenware, and it is made in 1770. now, the name martha hindel is a local name to lancashire.

this is made, uh-- this is from lancashire. and simmonstone is very near burnley. now, my friend eric knowles was born in burnley, and apparently he says simmonstone is the stock broker belt of burnley. so, whether it was in 1770, i don't know. what's even nicer-- not only is it completely flat on the bottom, the top unscrews. do you know how difficult it is to make a screw jar in pottery? can you imagine? somebody has taken the time to run this in to equally match that, i know. and still, after 200 and something years, it still closes shut perfectly. so, a few pound in a charity shop a few years back. today... £600, 800. wow. so, it was a good present. oh, yes. thanks very much. thank you. the photograph is my great-grandfather, tommy miller, and tommy was an assistant deck engineer on board the titanic. uh, the pennies are the two pennies that he gave to my grandfather

before he sailed on titanic, and he pressed them into his hand and said, "don't spend those until i see you again." and of course, he didn't see him again, because he didn't survive the titanic. my grandfather went on to become a playwright and an author, so he wrote a lot about how he felt about his father's death, and about getting these two pennies, which is how we know so much about his story. they must have meant so much to him. well, yes, uh-huh. that's-- you know, he kept them, he passed them on to my father, who then passed them on to me, and, you know, although they're of no value to anybody else, to our family they're absolutely priceless. of course, of course. the value of these to your family is enormous. yeah. oh, yeah. and he was on the titanic going to new york-- what, hoping to start a new life? it was indeed, yes. his wife had died about 3 months earlier, so he had 2 little boys to look after, and he thought, "well, how am i going to do this?" he did actually work here in arlington well before he signed on with the white star line, but he thought he would try and make a new life for himself. he would go to new york, get a bit of money behind him, and then send for the boys.

but, of course-- he was never able to. no, that didn't happen. and they were left with relatives who really could have done without them, you know. times were tough. definitely, yes. uh-huh. what does it mean to you, having these two pennies? well, it's just such-- it's a great thing to have, this personal connection to the titanic. i mean, everybody here in belfast knows the story of titanic, and we're immensely proud of it as a feat of engineering, but just to have that little personal thing that connects you directly to it is lovely. well, it's a great setting to look at these. thank you so much for bringing them. it's a pleasure.

where on earth do you keep it? she stays on the mantelpiece in my mother's front room, and has been there forever. for-- for all my life. all your life? yes. and before then? she was a gift from a friend of my great aunt's, who lived in england. let me just tell you right away, if this girl could speak to you, she'd speak to you in german. mm-hmm. but she's not german. yes. which, i have to say, is because she's austrian. uh, this is almost certainly a bronze that dates to around about 1900 to 1915. yes. uh, but let's have a look at her, because she cut something of a fine figure. is that fair to say? you could say that. i want to pan down these wonderful sort of diaphanous drapes. looks like she's dancing the sort of dance of the 7 veils, doesn't she? great sense of movement. a great sense of movement. and then down to this pedestal, and all this colored decoration--

all laid on-- on a base, and i always look at the bases, 'cause you can always tell the quality of a bronze by its base. it's very heavy. yeah. and the two go well together. yes. the term given to these is austrian cold-painted bronzes, okay. now, i've looked high and low for a signature on this... yes. and i can't find one. now, there's a name i'm looking for. and i know it's by him. i know it's by him. oh. and the name i'm looking for is actually bergman. and yet, it's not. i'm full of contradictions, aren't i? you are, yes. because the name i'm looking for is actually "namgreb", which is "bergman" backwards. oh. because mr. bergman did a whole series of all different types of cold painted bronzes, including animals and birds... yes. but he's best-known for these sort of slightly risque bronzes which he signed his name backwards-- i think just in case his mother found him out. oh, i see.

because you know and i know... there's a surprise. that this girl reveals an awful lot more when you give a slight twist. that's right. she's not-- this is not the dance of the 7 veils. no. it's the dance of just about 1 veil. yes. and i assume your mother actually displays it like so. yes, yes. especially when the vicar comes 'round for tea. oh, absolutely. ( laughs ) well, this type of bronze, at the moment, is quite keenly contested. the russians are relatively new to this market, and they've been pushing the price of bronze and ivory figures, but also figures of very sort of leggy ladies, for a start. yes. and i don't doubt for one minute that your lady, given the opportunity at auction, would probably fetch between £1,500 and 2,000. my goodness. so, she's an expensive girl. yes. i feel immensely proud to be standing here in the planning office of harland and wolff,

and, to some extent, bringing back some of the original plans that were made for titanic and all the other vessels that came from this historic yard. are these the originals? yes, they absolutely are original drawings, and the, uh, the drawing on top here would've actually been drawn in this very office. so, we're back at the very birthplace of titanic. and the plan below, what's that one? that's the original design plan for titanic and her sister ship olympic. it's the very first conception drawing of these very famous ships. titanic, of course, the most famous ship in history. to give us an idea, you kindly brought us along a list of some of the other vessels that were being built about the same sort of period. yes, uh, this is a yard list. in the shipyard, every ship was given its own number, starting from the very beginning-- number 1. yeah. we've got number 401, which is titanic. 400, olympic.

and the numbers run from 394 up to 410. uh, so it gives a sense of the ships that were being built around the time that olympic and titanic were being built. and what date was the keel laid for titanic? that would've been march 1909. so, this year is going to be its centenary. absolutely, yes. this is the centenary year of the laying of the keel of titanic. and then the launching was...? the launch was on the 31st of may, 1911. and so, with-- that was a very big and important day. the launch day is always important for a ship, because that's the point where the transition is made from the land to the sea. it was a major event. tickets were sold and there were people watching from all kinds of vantage points inside and outside the yard. she left belfast on the 2nd of april, 1912, went to south hampton, and then sailed from south hampton on her maiden voyage on the 10th of april, 1912. and here's a postcard. yes. this is a very special postcard.

it shows olympic, and titanic, and, uh-- well, it's a white star postcard, but the really interesting thing-- shall i pass it to you? yeah. the really interesting thing is the message on the back, because this card was posted from titanic in queenstown in ireland, by cobh. right. and it just says, "dear bill... "just a line to let you know we are all right up till now, and are having a jolly time." i mean, how evocative is that? yes, mr. phillips-- uh-- was lost, but his daughter alice, to whom he refers in the card, did survive. fantastic. and... they left ireland, headed across the atlantic, and then, that fateful night, what sort of time? oh, it was the-- sunday, 14th of april, 20 minutes to midnight, the ship struck the iceberg. it sank about 2 hours and 20 minutes later. you have a copy of the marconigram.

and, uh, maybe you'd like to read this out, because i think-- again, it's-- and the time of it. this was a message received on board olympic, titanic's sister ship, which was eastbound at the time titanic was westbound. and this is a message from titanic to olympic. "11 p.m. new york time, titanic sending out signals of distress. answered his calls." so, they're making the point of record. "titanic replies and give me his position. "41-46 north, 50-14 west, and says, 'we have struck an iceberg.' our distance from titanic, 505 miles." amazing. and that's been kept. it's been kept together with other marconigrams in the museum collections. well, you've just mentioned the museum, and i think that is the joyous thing-- that all these things have been preserved and are on exhibition at the ulster folk and transport museum,

so, uh, they are for everybody to see. but, i always think about prices, and these will never come up for sale. they're almost impossible to value. i mean, both these plans-- they are literally one-offs. you'll never see another. no. um, and irreplaceable. i mean, i would've thought if you ever saw them at auction, you'd be talking about £30,000 or 40,000 each, without a doubt. true titanic memorabilia fetches mega amounts of money. uh, the list of the various ships-- you know, it's just a page taken from the order book or whatever, and probably in itself worth... ooh... £8,000 to 10,000. um, the postcards-- they do turn up. um, and i think i remember this one, and at its time was probably one of the most expensive postcards in the world. um, again, at auction we're talking about £6,000 to 10,000. the invitation, probably about £1,000 to £1,500. and... i don't know. the marconigram-- again, it's a one-off.

probably another £10,000 to 15,000. so, we're talking about £100,000 worth of memorabilia. it's a joy to see it. i don't often wear the white gloves, but with such historic documents-- it's been a great privilege to talk to you about them, and actually have them here today. thank you so much for bringing them in. well, thank you. all i know about it is my husband brought it to me when i was 50-- not that very long ago-- no, quite. ( laughs ) last month. carry on. i did not like it, first off. why not? ruby is my birthstone, and i would've-- i just, at the time, wanted a big hunk of a ring, right? so, when i got that, i said, "great, well, if i keep that, i'll just chunk it into rings." what-- so, literally chop it up into component parts like a swiss roll? make rings out of it. into lumps... and then make something completely different out of it. yeah. all right. when was it made? well, it's screaming art deco. absolute art deco. yeah.

and the geometric design, which is extraordinary, really-- it's like a 3-d effect. right. now, what's it made of? rubies, you're right. and diamonds. the mounting of it, see, is bi-color. you've got white and yellow. i think this is yellow gold and probably platinum. very good. the strap is called a brazilian pattern strap. would that have been the original strap? good question. good question. i'm not sure, and on the back of the tongue-- here, on this part, the clasp, it's got "14k." oh. which is an american stamp. right. and i'm not entirely sure whether this is the original bracelet or whether another one may have been put on. it's difficult. it's difficult to tell. now, when you get rubies-- and sapphires, for that matter-- in the 1930s, sometimes they used to use gems that were man-made.

now, they are rubies, but sometimes they were using synthetic rubies. you would need to look at each one individually to establish precisely which ones were and which ones weren't, but there are several here. the diamonds are real, then? diamonds are real. the diamonds are pucker. they're 100% correct. i think that if you were selling this today, it would probably achieve in auction £1,500 to 2,000. what did i tell you? ( laughs ) if you were to replace it and buy it in a shop, a retail price, for insurance purposes-- well, even though some of the rubies are synthetic, you're looking at the best part of £3,500, 4,000. right. do you know what your husband paid for it, then? yeah, he paid about £2,000. right, so if he paid £2,000, he paid a very fair-- too much? not at all. he paid a very fair price for it. i think your husband did very well. i think he bought you something in great taste with great aplomb,

if you don't mind me saying so. ( chuckles ) congratulations. thank you very, very much. thank you. so, what can you tell me about this fire screen? um, it was my great uncle's. it was in his attic. whenever he died, we just took everything out of the house, and, um, this is one of the pieces that i found in the house. um... and how did he get hold of it? he was a rag and bone man, so-- oh, was he? he was, yeah. so, he would've been driving along in his horse and cart, shouting out, "any old iron!" or, "rag and bones!" and somebody would've probably thrown this at him, and said, "you can take that old thing away." yeah. and, presumably, he got it for next to nothing. yeah. well, the age is interesting, because if we start at the base... mm-hmm. we can see that it's made of rosewood, and it's beautifully carved. you've got the floral and leaf decoration... yeah. on the short cabriole legs, going down to the claw feet, so it's a very well-carved piece of english rosewood, dating, i would suspect, from about 1850, 1860. oh, wow. so, the middle of the 19th century.

mm-hmm. and very nice quality. fire screens had come into fashion before that, and originally their purpose was to protect people, particularly ladies, from the fire, because they wore a lot of makeup in those days and they didn't want their makeup to run, so the fire screen was a good way of protecting them. later on, they became more decorative items to have in the drawing room, and this was, i suspect, one of those. i see. um, but if we look at the actual screen itself, it's very interesting, because it's got 4 armoriers. and i think they are much earlier than the base. i think the armoriers date from probably the late 17th century. oh, wow, so, about 1680. so, you got the combination of the two-- the mid to late 19th-century rosewood base, and the 17th-century armorier on top. oh, wow. but it works very well together. as far as the values go, fire screens are sought after. they're not desperately collected, but people do like to have them in their drawing rooms as decorative pieces. what i think makes this one interesting is the juxtapositioning

of the 19th-century base and the 17th-century top. so, if this came up at auction, i would expect it to fetch in the region of £500 to 700. wow. yeah. so, not bad for a rag and bone man. yeah, yeah. ( laughs ) now, i suppose a silly question that's been said many, many times is "do you believe in fairies?" but of course, if we go back a long time in history, people did believe in fairies, they felt that there was a... another type of life out there. and i have always been familiar with a very famous group of fairy photographs taken in the 19-- in 1920... uh-huh. called the cottingley fairies. and when i saw that you'd brought these in, i was fascinated, because anybody who's interested in, you know, the history of our times, knows these images. i've seen that picture reproduced so many times. i've seen that one reproduced.

you know, each one i look at and i think, "gosh", you know? "yes, i know these." they're extraordinary visions of how we believed in fairies at a certain time. but... how do you have these? the little girl that took the last-- she took one of the first series of photographs in 1917-- was my mother. and she took-- so, hang on a minute. so, your mother was what? frances... griffiths. frances griffiths, yes. so, these-- the story is that these two children, one age 16, one age 10, believed there were fairies in the bottom of their garden. and, in order to convince their father, they took a camera and they took photographs. that's right. and that was in july and august 1917. and those two photographs, as i understand it, were those two. is that right? that's right, yes. so, which is your mother? this is my mother here. that's your mother. so, elsie was what, her cousin, or...? her first cousin, yes. their mothers were sisters.

okay, so, they came back with the camera and said, "we can prove there are fairies." and these were accepted at the time, weren't they? so, when the first photographs were taken in 1917, they were really only shown to the family, weren't they? they were only intended for family consumption. just to get frances out of trouble, 'cause she was always falling on her back and getting wet. yeah, so it was about saying, "there really are fairies that've delayed me in my walks in the garden." but then they were included in lectures in theosophical societies, they began to be published, conan doyle became involved, and by 1920, it had become a big story, hadn't it? the world had actually woken up to the fact that there were fairies, and more important, there were fairy photographs. and is that why he-- conan doyle-- gave the girls a camera? yes, that's right. he heard from edward gardner, who was in a theosophical society, about the photographs-- about the first two photographs-- and then sir arthur conan doyle gave one camera to elsie and one camera to frances.

and sent them off to do it again, in effect. yes, with lots of plates. actually, we thought that was missing until about 10 years ago. we thought it'd been thrown out, or my grandmother had thrown it out. and i was going through the safe about 10 years ago and i found an old brown envelope, and i looked inside the envelope and i saw that, and i brought the camera to my mom and asked was that granny's camera? so-- so, its survival is pure chance. it is, really, yeah. it was obviously meant to be. and did the photographs reappear at the same time? it was just the last couple of years we discovered them. in fact, two we only discovered two days ago, before the antiques roadshow. really? yes, 'cause we were looking for stuff-- 'cause, i mean, these are the most important pieces, because these have come directly from that camera. today, looking at these, it's very hard to believe why anybody believed it. you grew up with your mother frances. did she ever talk about it? no, she was very ashamed of it. she was ashamed of the deception. so, they-- through her life, she knew this had happened, but she said nothing. no. until the 1980s.

the 1980s, yes. she discovered then that elsie had told her son when they lived in india that they were-- that she had faked the photographs. right. and so, when i told my mother that-- when i told frances that, then that-- she felt free, then, to be able to talk about it. so, did you grow up knowing the story? i did, yes, and i believed that the photographs were real at that stage. you did. until it was revealed-- until she actually said they weren't real. yes, there in the '80s. okay. but she never spoke to me about it. i think we've got to look at why people believed, because, in those days, the camera couldn't lie. the camera was a scientific instrument, and so if you produced a photograph of a fairy, it had to be right, because it was a photograph. we are now much more cynical. we expect to be deceived. our minds are open to the possibilities of deceit. and so things have changed completely, and by the 1980s, when she was talking about it, the world was ready to accept that this was a fake. whereas, until that point,

many people still believed that because it was a photograph, it had to be real. and this was in a place called cottingley, in yorkshire, wasn't it? in bradford. yes, just outside bradford. is that it? that-- that photograph was taken about 5 years ago by myself. you took that. yes. so, did you go to look for fairies in the dell? i did. did you see any? no. i wish. ( all laugh ) so, you tried hard to repeat the experiment. i did. i mean, it shows. it looks, actually, a perfect place for fairies, doesn't it? it does. it's very peaceful. it's lovely. what the photographs actually were doesn't really matter. what do you think? were they cut-outs, or...? those were cut-outs, yes, but this wasn't. this last one-- frances said that's genuine. so, to her death, she said that was a genuine-- she said genuine, 'cause what happened was elsie cut out the others, and they put hat pins in them and stuck them on grasses and on trees. in 1920, with conan doyle's cameras, they took 2 more which elsie had prepared. but then, it took such a short time to take the photographs, that aunt polly said, "you have to go and try and get some more,

because these men have gone to a lot of expense and trouble." so, they had to go back again. so, they didn't go in the glen, they went above the glen-- there's a field above the glen where there's a reservoir, and they're sitting there talking, and then my mother saw-- this was three years later, my mother saw-- um, she saw f-- things beginning to appear in the grass, like misty, misty objects, and without thinking-- she had the camera on her knee-- without thinking, she took out the camera-- that one there-- and she pulled out the lens, and judged it to be 3 feet away, and she snapped it, and when that negative went back to london, they couldn't see what was on it, but they strengthened thimages, and from that negative, they're able to bring out 5 fairy figures. so-- she said that's genuine. so, to her death, she said this is a real fairy photograph. that it's genuine. what do you think? do you think it is? i do, yes. and you do? well, i'm not gonna argue, so, we might be looking at the only known photograph of real fairies. yes. the others are a fake. this is the real thing. these were different, these were different. those are solid images. these you can actually see through.

you can see the difference. you can see the grass behind and in front. and those are hair bells. they're so tiny, you know? so, those and the camera are the absolute original material. i think it's-- i'm just holding this camera, you know? ( laughs ) now, what we've got here is something that is extremely rare. i mean, this as a camera is worth £20 or 30. in pure camera terms, it's nothing-- nothing special at all. add that story, this is all gonna be £25,000, 30,000. who knows? out there, there are fanatical collectors. it's not the camera, it's the images. these are the key. and it's just extraordinary, as i say, to be in touch with this magic moment. actually, i'm beginning to believe it myself. ( laughs ) and i started by saying, "do i believe in fairies?" perhaps i do. ( both chuckle ) thank you. thank you. so, there's a question to reflect on as we end our day here in belfast-- do fairies really exist?

that was a magical find, wasn't it? and it only came to light because we brought our team here. it's the power of the roadshow, i guess. we'll be back in belfast for a second helping next week. until then, bye-bye. ♪

>> this is "bbc world news america." 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. >> union bank has put its financial strength to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you?

>> and now, "bbc world news america." >> this case "bbc world news america." renewed fears of sectarian conflict in iraq as a wave of bombings strike baghdad. nearly 70 people are killed and 200 injured. the pentagon issues its deepest regrets over an air strike last month that killed 24 pakistani soldiers. well this report do anything to ease the anger? running against the odds for won olympic hopeful training in gaza. we have the wrong headlines there.

apologies for that. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. it is difficult to a imagine the situation in syria getting much worse. thousands are believed to have died since the struggle for democratic change began. some feel the country is now on the brink of civil war. what happened today was unprecedented. more than 40 people were killed in what is believed to have been to suicide bombings and damascus. the opposition accused the government of staging the blast to try to influence a team of arab service. >> this was a devastating escalation of violence. here in damascus, scenes that evoke the terror of neighboring iraq. according to the government, to

suicide bombers drove cars into state intelligence buildings on the west side of the city. a vehicle mangled by the blast. all of this happened in an area that should be one of the most secure in the country. the dead and wounded were said to include security personnel and civilians. >> television broadcast images of the survivors as they recovered and hospital. >> i saw a black car and then an explosion. after that, i was taken to hospital. >> until today, damascus have largely avoided the kind of violence that affected most of the rest of syria. state television began live coverage. much of it is too gruesome to show. within 20 minutes of the blast,

the government was blaming al qaeda and linking it to the opposition, saying this was not the way to achieve democracy. opposition activists today said these were fabricated by the regime. with independent media severely restricted, it is not possible to investigate the claims and counterclaims. the arab league observers were taken to witnessed the aftermath. this evening, the united states urged them not to allow what has happened in damascus to win. their work of determining human rights abuses. this woman crying to guide is from a village in the north -- crying to god is from a village in the north. here in homs, rebel fighters

shoot down a government flack. -- flag. >> those were images coming out of damascus today. for it more on the attacks today, a state department spokesman is here with us. it was most likely to blame? >> as you noted, quickly, the government blamed al qaeda. that is in their interest to do that. it could be al qaeda. in one respect, if it is al qaeda, it is the simplest explanation. al qaeda has been largely sidelined this year. it would be a chance to get back in the game. more likely, it is 870 attack -- a suni attack.

the real concern is if it is suni directed violence, this is an ominous turn toward sectarianism. >> it would escalate things even further. >> what is remarkable first and foremost is for a brutal repressive government tells you that their group is not what it used to be. this tells you that the state is under stress. and the ability of the regime to control what is happening within its borders is now a question mark. >> do you expect this to be a start of the more dangerous phase? >> we will see how the government reacts to this. if they returned brutal violence with an escalation of their own, this could turn into something

very ugly, and potentially a civil war. >> we have another statement. -- what more than a shooting pieces of paper can united states do? >> the syrian regime is a dead man walking. it's still maintains control of security forces, so it can resist for some period of time. there could be further spasms of violence. syria is a different country than libya. in libya, there was a limited military intervention. that offer does not exist at present. you do not have a consensus within the region. the impending arab league observer mission is still very important. >> do you have faith? >> over time, in the case of libya, you still a crystallization of public opinion. quickly.

this is in slow motion. it could get to the point where there is further intervention, but we're not there yet. >> thank you very much. among the countries taking a leading role in pushing for change in syria has been turkey. relations between the two have soured. syrian troops had shot at turkish vehicles. the free-trade agreement has been abolished. our correspondent has been after the area to assess the fallout. >> turkey closed its economic success to many things. among them, this factory. much of it goes to the middle east. the only convenient route is a press syria. that has become more expensive and dangerous. >> we export a lot of our

products through syria. and now we are having problems. >> and now resides takes us to the frontier with syria. it is uncharacteristically quiet these days. you can imagine what this border crossing was like just a few months ago. it was lined up as far as you could see carrying goods from turkey over to syria. the ghostly emptiness you see today is a vivid illustration of how bad relations have become. we saw just a few serious drivers heading back with empty trucks. the free-trade agreement between the two countries has been torn up. a heavy fee has been imposed on cargo traveling through syria.

the business community is reeling. the high-end mall was once a magnet for syrian shoppers. suddenly, it is very empty on fridays. for visiting ministers, at there are some hard questions over their policy toward syria. these provincial underpin norris -- they did not get much assurance from this minister. >> there is no real obstacle to trade with syria. our bilateral trade is continuing. i trust the people to be patient. >> how do you feel your government has handled the situation? >> have they been helpful? >> not really. if you have a problem with your neighbors, you try to fix it.

it is not good. >> it has come to symbolize the new wealth of modern turkey. it does have other middle eastern markets. but success in syria was the real pride of this city. without that market, there may be leaner times ahead. >> thousands of egyptians have attended a rally in cairo to voice their anger at the use of violent tactics against protesters. at least 17 people have been killed in the past week in clashes between troops and demonstrators. images of women being stripped and beaten have provoked particular anger. queen elizabeth's husband, the duke of edinburgh, has been taken to hospital for tests after suffering chest pains. prince philip, 90, went to

cambridge for precautionary checks. the royal family is spending christmas at the country retreat. he disputes the outcome and today he tried to hold a swearing-in ceremony. he was the people's poet to will guide this country in the struggle against communism. vaclav havel was a playwright and dissident who led the overthrow of communism in the former czechoslovakia in 1989. he died on sunday and today world leaders and thousands of citizens gathered for a state funeral. the pope praised his visionary leadership.

>> they drape his coffin and a slab of the country led of dictatorship. he was the reluctant politician. now the unwanted light falls on his widow. immense moral stature brought leaders to prague today. the french head of state, two british prime ministers, to u.s. secretaries of state, and a former president. at noon, the sound of sirens and the church bells across the nation. >> the former u.s. secretary of

state, madeleine albright, said he was a unique man who confronted the people with the truth. his intelligence spoke to all. vaclav havel was a playwright to emerge in the 1980's as a leader of a group of young dissidents determined to confront the communist authorities. he led hundreds of thousands in protest until the communist regime collapsed. he made the journey from prison cells to the presidency in a matter of weeks. his guiding belief was that the truth would always triumph over a lie. he was determined to live a life of truth even if it meant going to prison. the people of this country have stopped to remember and paid tribute to the transforming the fact that principle had on their lives.

what is his legacy? 22 years ago, this was the country that puts poets and playwrights and priests in prison. vaclav havel embodied by the values of the democratic european mainstream. today, and a free and democratic people paid their homage. >> you are watching "bbc world news america." from wall street to the euro zone, it has been a bruising year. a series of powerful earthquake has hit this city in christ church in new zealand 10 months after a quake killed 180 people. this time, there were no deaths,

but the latest tremors have shattered the nerves of people. >> the power of the quake rattled the entire city of christchurch. including the supermarket. it sent christmas shoppers into a chaotic scramble for the exit. these people have lived through the last earthquake 10 months ago and knew what it was capable of. >> there were people running to try to get out. it was pretty chaotic. >> pretty violent. >> at a local television station, staff cowered under their desks, fearful of collapsing ceilings. another part of the city, the ferocity of the event was captured in the smallest objects. buildings shook for several

seconds forcing people to race to the relative safety of open streets. both major shocks registered well over magnitude 5. >> we are devastated that this has happened at the time of the year, right before christmas. >> in the aftermath, the city and surrounding areas are subject to landslides and flooding. >> [inaudible] >> this latest set of earthquakes will prove deeply disturbing to the people of the city will have come to believe their worst fortune lay behind them. >> today, the u.s. congress finally passed an extension of the payroll tax cuts, which have

been bickering down to the wire. across the atlantic, the euro zone crisis has been dominated by street fights and government have fallen. if you are watching this in mumbai or shanghai, you are probably having a different year. in his new book, neil ferguson lays out a compelling case of how the west lost their edge. thank you for being with us. are we done for? >> not necessarily. this is not a case of the reversible -- irreversible inevitable decline. but we have to get our act together. i think it is part due to do with cost of doing things worse.

not only politically, but economically, too. it is not irreversible, but we have to act. >> is there a sense that there is a limit of government's ability to act? however much money you put into it, one trillion dollars put into a stimulus package that only had a small effect on the margins. the government is limited. >> if you think back 500 years ago, it was not a government that caused the rise to happen. my book takes the long view and tries to explain what made the west forge ahead of the rest over half a millennium. it was not the application of fiscal policy. these measures have become such a part of our lives, 20th- century inventions, and in

fairness today's politicians, they have done a better job in dealing with them than their predecessors back in 1931, 1932. you got to remember that the real drivers were not governments. the drivers work innovators in the private sector, scientific innovators. those people the buildup the institutions were the bedrock of our democracy. institutions like the system of politics, the rule of law. unfortunately, the debate to date in the west is all about how much more government can do to solve my problems rather than what i can do to solve my own problems. >> i am struck by greece and italy, he lets out a form of a change of government that has been enforced -- you ever had a change of government that has been enforced by a outside

powers. what is your interpretation? >> it is rather nice for my point of view that this crisis has had at its epicenter the ancient capital of western civilization. we have seen the slow and painful birth of a federal europe. that means that country's lose sovereignty -- countries lose sovereignty. your national legislature is denied power. we are in a very interesting transitional stage. not very many people are prepared to talk openly about it. what is happening is that the kind of painful process that produced the united states of america, the states have to surrender their fiscal

sovereignty. that is the real interpretation of what has happened in the past year in europe. >> let's finish off with the people to pay the majority of the taxes. the wealth gap in the states is larger than it has been for 30 years. what does this bode for next year for ordinary taxpayers? >> indians, the ordinary american household -- in the end, the ordinary american household is a sort of fiction. the famous one% at the top -- there is a huge question that is going to be asked in 2012. to the politics of class make a comeback -- do the politics of class make a comeback with president obama plan that car? or do we see the beginnings of a new politics for generations matter more?

a huge gap being run off -- run up on both sides of the atlantic. >> i am very sorry to interrupt, thank you very much for being with us. to a south that is synonymous with the holiday season, cash registers. here in the u.s., the traditional pipe organ may be under threat. the financial crisis has slowed new production and many churches can not afford to maintain the instruments that they have. some are bracing to save the instruments from hitting the scrap heap. ♪ >> for centuries, the church has chosen the pipe organ as the instrument of worship. but now, more earthly forces are threatening it.

this is one of hundreds of organs destined for the scrap heap. although this church in new york is installing a new instrument, many others cannot afford a replacement or the cost of maintenance. john bishop has made it his life's mission to save them. >> part of what we are doing is salvaging some of the original ordinance, knowing that we will be able to reduce them in other instruments. these are a couple of the wooden base pipes of this organ. they're close to 100 years old. >> do they still work? >> fayed to still work. -- they do still work. >> organs can take years to build. each one represents a unique piece of america's religious history. church is trying to attract younger congregations find other

forms of music can be more appealing. >> there is a movement in the american church which is generally called contemporary were shot. instead of using a pipe organ and the traditional music that many of us are used to, rock bands or country banned or jazz bands or used for the worship. >> dwindling congregations on another front. elsewhere, the need for pipe organs is strong. they had hoped to rescue around 2000 or against, to find -- organs, to find new homes for them all around the world. ♪ he is a nationally acclaimed musicians and the organist at new york streets of the resurrection. when the church needed a new and struck -- instrument, and john

bishop was able to find a 100- year-old replacement. >> bemis if i make is only going to be as good as the instrument -- the music i make is only going to be this good as the instrument. >> hundreds of other organ still need homes. here, at least, is a match made in heaven. >> that brings today's show to a close. for all of our viewers that will be celebrating this holiday weekend, happy christmas. next week, your bulletins will be coming from london with the same up-to-date coverage of world events. thank you very much for watching.

>> 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. >> union bank offers unique insight and expertise in a range of industries.

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