"bbc world news" is presented by kcet, los angeles.

funding for this presentation was made possible by freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, the newman's own foundation, and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. >> union bank has put its financial strength to work for a wide range of companies from corporations to small businesses. what can we do for you? >> and now, bbc world news. >> frees, freed from hard labor in north korea.

two american journalists grave. to their savior. >> when we walked through the doors we saw standing before us president bill clinton. >> he got what he wanted. but can he govern a divided nation? president ahmadinejad is sworn in. banged up for throwing stones. palestinian children say they've been abused in custody by israeli soldiers. very warm welcome to our watchers in pbs in america and around the globe. coming up later, an unlikely savior for the humble honeybee in the last place you might think of. and we take a look at president putin's holiday snaps.

>> hello to you. after the surprise, the tears, and the cheers, the speculation. just how well north korea's sudden release of the two american journalists at the behest of bill clinton influence american-north korean relations? pyongyang's nuclear program as before very high on the agenda. from washington, adam brooks. >> their plane touched down in the california dawn. the two journalists, laura ling and euna lee, who had just been rescued from the prospect of 12 years in a north korean labor camp, were reunited with their families. little hannah lee, who is 4, hadn't seen her mother since

the arrest on the chinese-north korean border in march. >> we were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors we saw standing before us president bill clinton. >> their rescuer said nothing. but it took weeks of tense secret diplomacy to arrange mr. clinton's extraordinary mission. >> the reunion that we've all seen on television i think is a source of happiness not only for the families but for the entire country. >> mr. clinton, we now know, spent more than three hours with kim jong il, the reclusive north korean leader. north korea says mr. clinton apologized for the journalists' conduct. the americans deny it.

so what did they talk about for all that time? was there any discussion of north korea's nuclear weapon program and its missiles? >> the young obama administration has been. preoccupied with north korea. this year the north koreans have tested a nuclear missile and lobbed missiles into the sea of japan. but now we seem to have a sudden and marked change in atmosphere. mr. kim, dogged by illness and political uncertainty, looked stronger and more in control of his country than he has for a while. the question now is whether this very human story about -- will translate into an opportunity to defuse north korea's nuclear ambitions and bring that country in from the cold. >> the journalists' return has also been welcomed by president clinton's wife, current

secretary of state hillary clinton. mrs. clinton is in kenya where she strongly criticize the government's failure to prosecute those responsible for the violence following the 2002 elections. and the wife of a taliban pakistani leader has reportedly been killed by a drone. a new trial has begun in moscow over the killing of a staunch critic of the administration and investigative journalist. the iraqi government has announced it will take down all the blast walls that separate baghdad's communities within 40 days. the walls sprung up at the height of the sectarian violence. many residents say the barriers have made the city unrecognizable by -- but safer.

>> after seven weeks of post election protest and upheaval, mahmoud ahmadinejad has been sworn in for a second term as iran's president. he told the parliament he -- it didn't matter if he received no congratulations from foreign countries. white house press secretary robert gibbs said he misspoke 24 hours ago when he described mr. ahmadinejad as ir -- iran's elected leader. >> after the turmoil of the last two months, at least a moment when mr. ahmadinejad could restore his dignity, pledging to serve iran for another four years. but look closely and you can see some empty seats. the ceremony in the iranian parliament was boycotted by some reformist m.p.'s and opposition leaders.

britain and some other foreign countries sent ambassadors but no messages of congratulations. that provoked a bitter riposte from mr. ahmadinejad. >> nobody in iran is waiting for your congratulations. the iranian nation does not give importance either to your frowns and threats or to your congratulations and smiles. >> but in many ways the president's problems are just beginning. he has two weeks to form a government which must be endorsed by the increasingly hostile parliament. the opposition now cluss rafsanjani and a number of former allies. and the west is ramping up the pressure on the nuclear issue. >> i would argue that ahmadinejad is the most divisive political figure in the 30-year history of the islamic republic and he has shown no interest in trying to

heal these political rifts. >> once again thousands of demonstrators defied a huge police and militia presence outside the parliament to stage a new protest. not big enough to unseat the government perhaps but enough to keep mr. ahmadinejad's new administration off balance. >> lots of police deployed there and never let any person stand in front of the parliament for make any demonstration or shouting or anything else. so despite today's show of unity, president ahmadinejad starts his new term with his election victory and increasingly the whole system of iranian government under serious question. >> more of the main news for you. the world health organization has new confirmed more than 1,000 deaths from h1n1 swine flu worldwide. on monday india confirmed its first death, a teenage girl in

the city of puna. that caused pan ig among people cuing -- que -- queuing outside the hospital. and a man who killed four people including himself ate women's exercise class in pennsylvania spoke about crimes on his web site. and a patient at an addiction center in india -- in china has been beaten to death by his counselors. a former military commander has told the bbc palestinian children are routinely mistreated while in custody.

>> many palestinian children throw stones at some time or another, many to vent frustration alt the occupation of their homes on the west bank. the targets? israeli soldiers. israeli soldiers have come right to the barrier now to throw their gas cannisters. people all around us have just disappeared, run away from the spoke smoke. over there you can see the palestinian children are continuing to throw stones. when stones are thrown, a military raid often follows. usually late at night as you see in this footage we obtained. israeli soldiers come to palestinian villages in large numbers. even when detaining one young boy. british human rights activists witness the scene. >> how can you arrest a child? look at you. look at you! >> the arrests can be brutal.

mohammed had just turned 13 when he was detained, one of many young palestinians who say they were abused by the israeli 34789 >> they grabbed me from my home by the scruff of my neck, choking me. my mom was screaming. they beat me and kicked me all the way to the jeep. they cuffed my hands and legs, blindfolded me and left me there for 24 hours. >> detained palestinian children are taken to israeli army bases like this one, often for interrogation. a former commander in israel's army told me iltreatment is routine. his experiences haunt him, he says. >> nob is -- nobody is thinking about him as a kid. if someone is there cuffed and blindfolded he's probably done something really bad so it's ok

to slap him or kick him. >> palestinians are tried in israel's military courts. they didn't want us to film here, but israel says it acts correctly and has nothing to hide. >> even though it's just a stone or a molotov cocktail, they're a deadly weapon. almost every week we find a 14 or 15-year-old carrying an explosive belt. if we are defendeding ourselves and hope to punish the terrorists we have no choice but to find them, arrest them and hope they won't return to this. >> mohammed hasn't slept properly since the soldiers came. human rights groups are calling for an investigation into the abruce of -- abuse of rights. still to come, the ugly face of the recession. how loan sharks are preying on the poor in britain.

>> first, in south korea, dramatic scenes as police and security forces stormed a factory full of pro testimonying workers. staff have been fiercely resisting massive jock losses -- job losses at a car plant. the latest on the dispute just south of the capital, seoul. >> it began as a dispute over job cuts but has turned into a violent confrontation with potentially deadly consequences. police commandos descended from helicopters to try to take control of the building controlled by the striking workers at plant. the workers, thought to number around 500 total, have once again fought back. they are occupying the company's paint shop, a building packed with flammable

liquid and attempts to force them out by dropping tear gas from helicopters has so far been unsuccessful. the two month long dispute has pitched worker against worker at the small, debt-ridden car plant. they say they need to lay off a third of the total to keep the company alive. and those laid off are clashing with the striking workers, fearing it had force the company into liquidation. for the mome the strikers show no sign of giving um dozens have been injured. representatives of the striking workers are sticking to their demand that all jubs must be guaranteed and warning that any attempts to remove them from the paint shom could lead to

fatalities. >> "bbc world news." the latest headlines for you this hour. two american journalists freed by north korea after months of detention and return home to the emotional family reunion you might expect. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term of office. there were protests outside the parliament. >> here in britain two separate court cases have exposed the reality of life for some of the poorest families caught up in the recession. loan sharks have been charging up to 2.5,000%. >> those most in need present rich pickings for the loan sharks. this man ran a business based on intimidation, loaning small

amounts of money and demanding huge sums back. he charged up to 2,437% in interest and those who owed him lived in fear. one of his victims agreed to speak but was too scared to be identified. >> they were sending people around we didn't even know saying john had sent me around for his [beep] money and then he'd be coming past the house maybe six, sen times every day. i hid in me house because i was petrified. >> in order to file so-called customers, loan sharks need to be known and there say concern that many victims don't come forward. >> loan sharks get away with it because of their reputation, the disproportionate impact on the community and the fear and intimidation tactics they use. >> today another loan shark was sentenced for lending 500

pounds and demanding it back many, many times over, eventually forcing the family boll 8 is -- into 88,000 pounds of 2ke79 >> don't live how i've lived. i was ill seven areas of my life because of the stress. >> debby suffered two strokes because of the pressure from the loan sharks. argentina is one of the world's most celebrated footballing nations but it's had to postpone the start of its domestic season because so many clubs are in debt. >> in argentina, football is like a religion and it's players and coaches are treated like gods. but fans have been eagerly awaiting the start of the new season and now have been told they must wait. it was due to kick off in just more than a week but the

arguentine football association has postponed all their matches. seve -- seven of the big clubs are heavily in date -- debt and are estimated to owe the golf. $73.4 million combined total. the global recession hit the clubs hard in part because european clubs aren't spending so much money on talented argentinian players. the head of the organization is hoping to negotiate an increase for tv rights but it's proving more difficult than he had hoped and some say he's trying to put pressure on the television season to manage their finances better. but the fans are angry. they say afra is in part

responsible for the mess. although the national season has been put on hold, argentinian teams will still be able to compete. in the wider cup of south america. and the friendly game between moscow and russia will also go ahead next week. the producers of one of the world's most expensive essential oils are struggling too. almost half the supply of rose oil comes from one valley in bulgaria the >> early evening and deep in the bulgarian countryside they're getting ready to distill the day's lavender harvest, packing tightly into vats and then forcing steam through. the scent of lavender is overpowering. a few weeks earlier it wasn't lavender but roses they were harvesting in a traditional

business that goes back more than a century. here in the lee of these mountains say perfect microclimate for growing roses and the fields stretch for miles. the oil distilled from these flowers is valuable. at its peak it sold for $206 a kilo but not this year. the price has fallen and the growers are calling it a crisis. the recession means fewer travelers passing through duty-free shops like this where the bulk of the u.s. perfumes are sold. it's bad for the farmers, worse for these people. the pickers are some of bulgaria's poorest citizens, from the roma areas of turkey. many haven't been paid. some of the other farmers don't pay. they haven't paid half what people are owed even for the

rose picking. the workers are still waiting. but not him. he pays like clockwork. soon as you finish the job you get paid. >> on this farm the first distillery was built in 1909 much the founders' descendants got their property back in the 1990's after the collapse of communism but the crisis is threatening the company's future. >> this is a very specific, traditional business. it's not, even if you have money, it's not enough to run it properly. this is not a gas station. you have to give all your energy, all your love and attention to the rose in order to produce a quality pruck. >> if things are bad for phillip and his family, they're even worse here at the decaying premises of what used to be the state monopoly. now it's virtually stopped

producing rose oil altogether. >> if the price of rose oil doesn't go up, how long can you survive? >> we cannot survive. we will sell it. >> bulgaria's rose and lavender distill eries operate now in a free market but that doesn't mean they can always find a market at a decent price for what they produce. >> and these -- and bees, essential to plants and humans are also in decline. now people in urban areas are being encouraged to put hivings on their balconies, rooftops and back gardens. >> inside our bee hivings something is going wrong. british bees in trouble. for years researchers have been trying to help them. now a possible answer has emerged. from somewhere really unexpected -- right in the middle of a city.

this is a new kind of plafment beehive and its designer thinks our urban nation should keep bees on rooftops and balconies. you've got 60,000 bees up here and a school right neil: door. is it safe? >> yeah, absolutely. the bees themselves are quite docile and friendly, interested just in maintaining their honey stores. they're not interested in people. >> out in the fields this new urban initiative is welcomed because bees are so useful to our food supply in ways people not -- may not realize. >> it's said the honeybee is responsible for one in three of every mouth fuls we eat. imagine a pizza without the influence of the bee. you wouldn't -- wobble wouldn't be looking at any tomatoes on it or og lives. >> will bee keeping catch on?

aristotle praised their virtue. preerm -- former prime minister lloyd george kept them. but what about in cities? usually there say picture of the countryside promoting where the honey came from but this was gathered within three miles of the urban setting. so the big test -- how does the city honey taste? very unusual. quite distinctive and actually very good. so from a country garden to the skies of our cities, bees could be heading for a comeback. >> finally, russia's prime minister has been showing off his physique again. prime minister putin doesn't do logging like france's president but he does do the wild outdoors. somehow though he just keeps forgetting his shirt as james

rodgers reports. >> a holiday in siberia, in case you didn't get the message, is a holiday for a hard man. vladimir putin will be 57 in october in a country where male life expectancy is less than 60. he looks in better physical shape than many much younger russian men. his media team wants to make sure that fact, like mr. putin's chest, doesn't remain hident. he's tough and he's generous, shown giving a present to one of the local people. it's important for the prime minister whose main task is to steer russia through the current economic crisis and serves as a reminder he's no less active since he stopped being president and he's in good stape -- shape to go back to the job if that's the way it turns out. photographs of a bare-chested mr. putin riding a horse through mountain scenery may of course bring back memories of a

recent hollywood film about gay cowboys. >> i'm not sure the cowboy style is very popular in russia but the macho style, yes, definitely. russian women love to see their men quite macho, in power, controlling. >> in russia they reinforce mr. putin's image as a many -- man many mean spire to be and a man many meanwhile, spire to be be. >> in case your holiday isn't as sunny as mr. putin's you may want to book a flight with lufthansa because the german airline is offering holiday makers compensation if their holiday is a wakeout. $29 for every rainy day. thanks for businessweek -- being with us 78s >> funding for this presentation was made possible by freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, the newman's own foundation, and the john d. and

catherine t. macarthur 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?