>> 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. shell. 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." >> another critical test of berlusconi's hold on government, as italy's parliament prepares for a vote of confidence. holding back the flood is the challenge in thailand as the capital bangkok feels the monsoon waters edging ever closer. scaling back the emergency operation on kenya's border with somalia after two women aid workers are abducted. welcome to "bbc world news." i'm david eades. also coming up in the program -- another notch down the credit ratings list for spain, and demonstrators are determined to make their feelings plain. also, treating a king like a president. america's tribute to a civil rights leader.

>> hello. 53 and counting, that's the extraordinary number of confidence votes silvio berlusconi has had to contend with in the last three years of his government. yet each time it seems the position of the prime minister becomes just a little more vulnerable. after losing a budgetary vote earlier in the week, mr. berlusconi will learn today if he can carry on or must step down and prepare for fresh elections. here's daniel griffiths. >> the message is loud and clear. italy's opposition angry about the government's handling of the economic crisis. we are on the eve of the sorlte revolt, as demonstrators are showing. before there is any violence, someone needs to show a sense of responsibility. the government must give up

power or silvio berlusconi needs to leave politics or be made to leave by his supporters. because he will never leave of his own accord. this is who they blame, prime minister silvio berlusconi. today he faces a crucial confidence vote in parliament. analysts say it will be close, although many expect him to win. on thursday, mr. berlusconi claimed defeat would be a disaster for italy. >> to those who ask us to take a step back, we reply in this manner -- we will never bow to this request, not because we want to safeguard our power, but because there is no alternative government, and early elections would not be a solution to the problems we have. >> even if silvio berlusconi wins today, the deepening economic crisis and fears of scandals have weakened him. many italians are bet willing on a general election early next year. daniel griffith, bbc news.

>> or correspondent, david willey, is in rome and he explains the fabblingtors that play into this confidence vote. >> it depends on rather complicated arrhythmia tech and last-minute deals in the chamber. i think there are various deputies belonging to mr. berlusconi's own party who had second thoughts about whether or not they're going to support him this time. there's even a government minister who's reported to be uncertain about whether they're going to vote in favor of the government. it's going to be very narrow, whatever the result. clearly mr. berlusconi is hanging on to power at the moment, i would say by the skin of his teeth. >> david willey there. let's go to thailand, where efforts are continuing to stop the floods there from reaching the capital, bangkok. the army has been widening canals to help divert floodwaters arriving from the north. the thai prime minister, yingluck shinawatra, moves to assure people the capital would

escape flooding. there are still fears heavy rain forecast for the weekend could put bangkok at risk. around 300 people have already died in floods elsewhere in the country. our correspondent, rachel harvey, is north of bangkok, and i asked her about the risk of the capital getting the floods. >> i think the best bet is that it will probably get into the outskirts. in fact, it has reached some of the outskirts already. the focus is whether it gets into the commercial heart. we're just across the border, if you like, into the neighboring province, just to the northwest. and what you can see behind me, with that gridlocked traffic, that is the main highway heading north. you can see the state of it. the reason is, just behind me, over that bridge that you might be able to see, the road is completely flooded. there's a village around that area, and people have told us the water is waist high. we went to have a look, and everyone's using boats, wading around. still a few people in their houses, reluctant to leave. but this is right by the main

chao phraya river, which runs through the heart of bangkok, through the historic old town, and it is already beginning to burst its banks on the outskirts of town here. so, the worry is, how well can they hold back the floodwaters as the runoff builds up? it depends on how much more rain we've got. at the moment, it's sunny here, but it has been raining in the center of the city. >> well, that's just the question i was about to ask, what the forecast is. in fact, months of this now. >> yes, three months and counting. forecasters say we can expect another few weeks of pretty severe weather. the forecasts for the weekend are more storms, more rain. there was a big thunderstorm last night in the center of bangkok. it does keep coming. there's no early end to this, no early respite. >> rachel harvey. in sudan, fresh allegations have emerged of atrocities in the border region. since south sudan gained independence earlier in the

year, people in the mountains have been reporting attacks by the sudanese police. witnesses giving evidence to an american human rights group who spoke of abductions and killings right next to a u.n. peacekeepers base. car tomb denies the allegations laid against it. a verdict due to be delivered in the trial of a bbc journalist. he was charged with association with the banned islamist group. the reporter was detained by the tajikistan authorities in june. he was later released on bail. he denies all the charges. at least 28 people have died after a plane crashed in a remote part of papua new guinea. the p.n.g. passenger aircraft is reported to have crashed in bad weather while flying from lae to a resort. officials say two pilots are among the four survivors. miriam is here now with news of

inflation, china and india. >> two huge economies, very important figures. we've seen in chain ark the inflation rate is now dropping to 6.1% in september. it's still high, but it is lower, which shows the monetary policy we've seen from the chinese government is working. one caveat though, if you look at the figures in detail, food price inflation is very high, over 13%. of course, the chinese population, over half of them say they spend over half of what they earn on food. that's very important. india, though, is a bit different. we're going to see, i think, more moves on interest rates. we're going to see a rise in interest rates, i think quite soon, because the rates of inflation in india now stands at 9.7%. it's very high. the rate is slightly lower than the august figure, slightly lower, but still high, so we have seen interest rates in india rising several times. i think we'll see it one more time, just to cool down the rising inflation we've seen in

both countries. >> help us get a sense of why it's so difficult for the g-20 to come to any common ground on any policy to deal with the economic situation in the world at the moment. >> so much to look at, but i think the main focus will be, of course, the eurozone debt crisis. that's the key, what people are talking about through the whole weekend, i think, in particular in light of what happened yesterday, ratifying the bailout and also, of course, downgrading spain's debt. pleasant toy talk about in "world business report" shortly. >> i'm going to have to ask you how many notches down you can go. it's been long on going enough. the aid operation near the kenya-somalia border has been scaled back after the abduction of two women aid workers on thursday. all nonemergency activities have been suspended. the distribution of water, food, and medical services, though, is going on, as indeed it has to, really. police are still hunting for the gunman who took the spanish aid workers at a refugee camp.

the government has blamed the somali al-shabab militants for that attack. joining me is kevin. do we know where these two are now? >> police authorities in kenya are saying that the likelihood that, by now, the two ladies may have been taken over into somalia. one of the police spokesperson this morning has been monitoring the case up in northern kenya. >> but nothing heard from their captors or what any demands might be? >> no, no, there have been no reports of demands. it's important that al-shabab have denied that they have been involved, they have anything to do with the kidnapping that took place yesterday. so that just leaves the question wide open as to who's been involved, who's behind the kidnapping. >> right. i mean, it's becoming, at the

risk of sounding trite, a bit sore for the camp. is there a danger, do you think, that some of the services helping are going to say, this is not helping, we're pulling out? >> yes, more so at the border point between kenya and somalia . they had established a reception center, and that is one of the areas that now the united nations staff are saying they can't access, one, because of security, and also because of the heavy rains that seem to be pounding this area. so, they will scale back and proceed, so people who are in dire need for essential services at the point of entry into kenya will be denied essential services. >> kevin, thank you very much indeed for that. kathy is here now. news about david beckham. he's still the second highest paid footballer in the world, and, what -- >> he's 36. >> wrong side of 35, isn't he? >> ancient in football terms.

now it is perry, they were taken over in the summer, and that means that their finances have hugely been boosted. they've got leonardo as their sporting director. they've made a mention last month that they would be interested in signing david beckham. his contract with the l.a. galaxy finishes in december, and so he is being courted by a few different clubs at the moment. he's got to be fit, keeps himself trim, does an awful lot of training, more than he has to compared to a lot of other footballers. he trained last year, around january, february time in the break from the mls. he's also still got some thing where he wants to play for england or on the olympic 2012 team. he just wants to carry on his career at the age of 36. >> when he went to l.a. galaxy, it felt like it was a lifetime contract, almost. it was so long, and yet here he is still going and possibly moving back to europe. >> yes, i think a lot of people maybe think that decision was a bit too early to move away from

the premier league. he had fwone a.c. milan as well. but to go across to america, he sort of left his career in limbo a little bit by going over there too early to do that, but trying to boost the state of football, soccer in america instead and obviously for an awful lot of money as well. >> well, there's a boost in shirt sales and all around. >> forces in libya have regrouped for a new push to capture the town of sirte. buildings and infrastructure have been damaged, evidence of the fierce fight in recent weeks. the last remaining soldiers loyal to muammar gaddafi still holding out in the former leader's hometown. they are surrounded on all sides, though. the government forces controlling the center of the city. let's go over to sirte. wyre davies is there. you've reported on pretty much every building in sirte being

damaged. it's hard to believe there's anywhere left for gaddafi loyalists to hold out in. >> the fighting, again, is very intense this morning. we're very close to the front line now. you can hear a barrage of rockets going off behind me. they're pounding a few highrise buildings right in the center of town, just on the other side of this small park. that is the area that's been occupied now for quite a few days by gaddafi loyalists. these fighters, as you can see around me, are from the new government. they've really been unable to push really in the last 48 hours. they give and take. there's probably about a square kilometer of central sirte, which is being defended by pro-gaddafi fighters. there's a lot of rocket fire this morning, a lot of machine gunfire, rifle fire coming out. it's difficult to see when this is going to end, probably when they run out of munition or

food, because they've been holding this position the last couple of days. >> wyre, it's been an impossible call to say when sirte is finally going to come back to peace. once again, what do you reckon, a day, two days? >> a new media organizations were saying two days ago that the battle for sirte was over. it clearly isn't. this city is nowhere near normalcy. it's going up around me. any areas that have been liberated in the words of the new government, any of those areas are completely flattened. it's almost a scorched earth policy. we've got all this going on around us. there's no way that you can call the battle over here yet. i would give it maybe to the end of the weekend, but, you know, it could go even longer. it's almost pointless to speculate. >> wyre, thanks very much indeed, gaddafi's hometown being reduced to rubble. thanks very much for being with us. we've got a lot more still to

get through for you, including -- good to put litter in the bin, as this man is doing, but he is a cabinet minister, and the litter is parliamentary documents. what is going on there? we'll tell you more. just how many youngsters are being sexually exploited by gangs in england? thousands, clearly. experts have suggested the figure could be around 10,000 in all. yet, now there's a real fear the number could be considerably higher than that. our special affairs correspondent has more. >> for many of the children who end up being exploited, it starts with all the boys, then men showering them with attention and gifts. but it soon shifts to an abusive world, where they're passed or sold to others for

sex. emma was 12 when she was targeted. she says even though they were abusing her, she was so brainwashed, she thought her family was the problem. >> i didn't like my family. i hated them. to me, they were the people standing in my way of being with these men. and if they would just disappear, everything would be fine. >> new research shows it's a largely hidden problem. many agencies that monitor child protection locally don't collect data, and few areas have plans for dealing with a form of abuse that affects thousands of children. but setups like this one in sheffield, where police, social workers, and youth workers operate as a team make a difference. they raise awareness among children and parents and track down the abusers. >> the message that needs to be sent is actually now you can't get away with it. i think that's a really sort of powerful message that they need to hear. >> the quoor are you into

sexual exploitation in england will take two years. the government is due to publish its strategy for tackling the problem in november. >> fighter jets crashed during an exhibition of an air show. this is in central china. the pilot, there we go, he gets out safely, you'll be glad to know. >> let's get the headlines here on "bbc world news." silvio berlusconi is facing a vote of confidence as italy struggles with a political and economic crisis. efforts are continuing in thailand to prevent floodwater from reaching the capital, bangkok, after some of the worst flooding in decades. now, in spain, the economy has had its credit rating downgraded by another ratings agency, standard & poor's am it's amid signs that the euro

debt crisis is taking its toll on the country. the decision comes just as demonstrations are taking place over the impact of the crisis for spain. here's sarah rainsford. >> getting ready for a revolution. these are some of spain's indignants, planning their biggest protests yet. many are young, unemployed, and fear for the future. they say politicians are removed from the people, the banks have too much power, and they want to change. >> we don't believe the words. >> we are all over the world, so we have to find the same things, and we are united. we are united together. >> it all began here in spain, when tens of thousands took to the streets. this outpouring of frustration has inspired similar scenes from brussels to wall street ever since. in madrid, the rallies became a huge protest camp.

where i first met this man, full of enthusiasm, thought he could make a difference. five months on, he says the protest spirit lives on, but he tells me the politicians need another reminder of who they work for, and this time it's a global protest. >> we go to the streets where the people is, and they answer. >> here in spain, it hasn't changed. mass unemployment, recession, austerity. but this is today. the protest banners and tents have long gone, but this weekend the crowds will be become here and they're planning to fill this square. with a wave of spending cuts and austerity measures now sweeping europe, there's still plenty to be indignant about. >> that oil spill from a cargo ship off the new zealand coast could get considerably worse,

we understand, if all the oil left on board should seep into the sea. that's why experts are now trying to work out a way of getting the oil off themselves. duncan kennedy reports from sydney. >> the first close-up look at the disintegrating infrastructure, a world of torn metal, the sheer force of wave power twisting and splitting the hull of this 47,000-ton vessel. and here, over the side, the damage is even clearer. the small team of salvage workers who took these pictures spent five hours on board to assess the ship, but soon left because of the evident dangers. there's dangling containers still attached, with nearly 100 others already tipped overboard. and this is the damage seen from above, a great metallic tear puts the ship beyond saving. the sea swells have eased, slowing down the relentless pressure of destruction, and

buying time for the crews to pump out the remaining oil. the ship's owners for the first time publicly apologizing to the people of new zealand. >> we are deeply sorry for the situation that has arisen. it is our ship that went underground, and we apologize without hesitation for what has happened. >> what happens to the rena at sea will direct the course of events on the beaches. more oil spilt will mean more sludge on the sand and the wildlife. at least 500 birds have so far been killed, the same number rescued. the new zealand government has already warned the people of this coastline to prepare for weeks, possibly months of pollution. although marine experts say other spills are ultimately cleansed by nature itself, they also remind us that it will take time. duncan kennedy, bbc news, in sydney. >> news about the man who helped end racial segregation

in america, he is to be honored this weekend. president obama will inaugurate the martin luther king memorial at a ceremony in washington. it will take place on sunday. the monument itself is unique in that king is the only nonpresident to be afforded this honor. steve kingston has more. >> i've seen the promised land. i may not get there with you, but i want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. >> he changed a nation, and now martin luther king becomes the first african-american to take his place among the hallowed memorials of the washington mall. >> for the first time in our country's history, this great land that we call the mall is now diversified, looking like the country that we have a person of color gracing the mall, sitting between the lincoln and jever can memorials t. gets no better than that. >> we're going to walk nonviolently and peacefully.

>> preaching nonviolent protest, the charismatic baptist minister gave irresistible form to the civil rights struggle. this 30-foot slab of granite has been surprisingly controversial. there are some people who feel that it looks too severe, even totalitarian. others think this type of memorial should be reserved for former presidents. of course, what makes the debate all the more emotive is that the history is evoked and raw in the memory. in august 1963, king delivered his celebrated "i have a dream" speech on the steps of the lincoln memorial. five years later, he was dead, the assassination sparked days of riots. in washington, troops were deployed to u street, a black neighborhood consumed by rage. through the violence, one of the few businesses that remained open was ben's chili bowl. king himself snacked here, as have a who's who of black

americans in the four decades since. so, how far does the owner think america has come in realizing king's dream? >> i think we've come a long way. i mean, the kind of equality that he dreamed of, i'm not sure we're there yet. we still have a system, and that affects all people. i think that means there's a lot more work to do done. >> u street today is smarter, richer, whiter, gentry fakes has pushed some african-americans out. nationwide, the average wealth of white households is 20 times that of black homes. so, even as an african-american president prepares to is a absolute the standard-bearer with a ceremony on sunday, the dream of an equal, post-racial america is a work in progress. steve kingston, bbc news, washington. >> now, how about this? put your rubbish in the bin. that's a pretty good message even for politicians, you would think. but have a look at this. this is the front page of "the

daily mirror." what on earth is a tory minister doing dumping secret documents in a park bin? a senior member of the british government was photographed on numerous occasions putting parliamentary letters and emails and the like into a public bin. he was just junking these letters. some of them were to the intelligence and security committees, so that's why it's raised quite a ruckus. not a great message in recycling and government sustainability, either. but that's probably the least of his problems at the moment, because it does seem to be picking up a bit of a head of steam into what mr. letwin thought he was doing. more of that on the website. do have a look when you have a moment. just time to tell you about apple. you think you've heard enough at the moment, but look at this. this is the queue in sydney, similar scenes in tokyo, waiting for that new iphone 4s.

it's up for sale, and they're buying it. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. union bank. and shell. >> this is kim - about to feel one of his favorite sensations. at shell, were developing more efficient fuels in countries like malaysia that can help us get the most from our energy resources. lets use energy more efficiently. lets go.

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