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>> more violence in syria as arab league observers arrive to monitor attempts to end the blood shed. protests look to continue in india where thousands want an end to corruption. ew flood warning in the philippines. welcome to bbc world news. also in the program, in good speurlgts after his hospital treatment britain's prince phillip is home. how to make money in hollywood. find a hit and work it for all it is worth. >> in the last hour it has been reported a team of arab league observers has arrived in a syrian city to see if the violent crackdown has halted.

greta only 24 hours ago at least 20 were killed there in heavy shelling. the crackdown has lasted some nine months. thousands have been killed and there is little if any sign that it is coming to a close. what is it like there at the moment? i can speak to an eyewitness. omar, thanks for joining us. can you give us a sense of what it is like there now? >> while the arab league are arriving the army continues to she shell, especially between the bridges. >> i'm sorry it is a little difficult hearing you. observers have come to homs, in the course of the last few hours have you seen

any change? there is nothing differe different. the regime tried to hide -- you can hear the gunfire shot now. and he tried to hide his security force and soldiers with new ideas for police. >> right. is it any use to you to the people of homs there are now arab league observers in your city to have a look at what the military are doing? until now we just feel like they

arri arrive, but we don't know if that is true or not. >> tell me, omar, if you can, what are conditions like for living in homs now? what are the conditions? >> in the city. >> yeah, yeah. to live here in homs you are the shahid because there is always gunfire, always a round of shelling. can on't know if you survive and make it. yesterday in my house, definitely they shelled my house. luckily i survived and luckily my family was not in the house.

>> we will leave it there. take care. speaking to us on bbc world news. i'm joined also by jim muir who is following it from brit. one issue we have is verifying pretty much anything that is going on in syria and talk of shelling of houses is one of those areas. seen the pictures. what is your assessment? >> well, certainly i think there is little doubt that the syrian army has been using mortars and tanks because the kind of damage that you can't fake that we saw in kwrub images -- youtube images showed debris, people lying dead in pals of blood hit by shrapnel or the explosives.f the but what we don't know is what degree of resistance the people are putting up or the

opposition. the syrian army wouldn't been beginninged in attacking places keeping away from them because they become no-go areas. that is the kind of puzzle for us. we can see to some extent what the syrian army is doing, but what we don't know is what degree of provocation or attacks on them there is but certainly there are military funerals pretty much every day. >> yes, difficult for us to work. what about the observers from the arab league? it won't be easy for them, is it? >> no, it will be very difficult unless they maintain a permanent presence there because as soon as they turn their backs revert to how they were. lready one or two of the activist groups are putting out detailed scenarios of what the authorities have done with these tanks. they have named schools and other places where they have

hidden taefrpbgs away on the -- tanks away on the university some they say are just five minutes drive to get back. the kind of thing the observers will find difficult to keep tabs, like a cat and mouse game unless they can be convinced the authorities are fully going long with the plan which is halting violence and taking all military out of these and release all prisoners. >> jim, for now thanks very much. other stories for you, the prime minister of guinea business saw has described an attack in the capital as an attempted coup. he said many arrests have been made in relation to the attack. among those detained was the navy chief of staff. a rebel general who tried to seize control of the army was arrested last week. sentence of two swedish journalists to 11 years for helping and promoting the

outlawed ogaden national liberation front rebel group. martini schibbye was arrested with a photograph, johan persson, in ethiopia's ogaden region in july after entering from somalia. police in mexico arrested one of the alleged leaders of the country as most powerful drug cartel. philipp cabrera was captured and of being in charge of security of the biologicalary head of one -- billionaire cartel and wanted for a series of murders and kidnappings. we have the latest business news now. the financial fallout from japan's earthquake and all that followed. >> that's right. if you remember it affected japan's g.d.p. and on the corporate front it is a company called the tokyo electric power

company and it operated the fukushima nuclear plant. the japanese trade minister has reportedly said you have to accept a massive injection of public funds. what we are talking about is a de facto nationalization. the figures involved are quite eye opening because it was said they may have to project as much as 13 billion. and a government bailout of 8.8 billion dollars helping them to compensate victims of the crisis and this is going to be ongoing. it is a huge situation and it is predictable that the state will have to take it over. >> can we find any degree of upbeat news in other parts of the world, the u.s.? >> they are back in business today. we will look at the kay shiller index the house price index. it is expected to show in october prices fell by 3.2%. that doesn't sound good but it

represents a decrease. you have very cheap mortgages. you have unemployment falling and 8.6%. if we see that decrease in price that is not bad in the run-up to november. >> if they can secure mortgages and get a job. >> thank you very much for that. now, once again the issue of corruption in india is set to take center stage as parliament considers a bill to set up a corruption ombudsman. it was drafted after a campaigner went on a hunger strike in august. three-day art another fast today saying the proposed legislation is not tough enough. they expect hundreds of thoufrss to demonstrate. andrew north is in de de.

the early signs are is that he is not able to muster the same crowds as he did back in august that got this whole campaign going. time around he's holding his public three-day fast in memorand mumbai. one reason is concern about his led to moving it from here where it is cold to warmer mumbai. there so far the crowds have been in the thousands, perhaps 6,000 or 7,000 we were hearing from people there, a lot less than they were hoping. that may be some comfort to the government, but it is also under because there is a debate going on right now in the and the rliament opposition have seized on this issue and are making life quite difficult for it. the question is on the other hand whether he can concept the

pressure up but what kind of bill is passed and in is a lot of suspicion the government will try to get something through that is not as tough as many were hoping. >> clearly one to watch, andrew, thanks. two prominent south koreans have met north korea's incoming leader. they are paying respects to the former leader who died earlier in the month. >> the first inter-korean meeting of the new era. a former south korean first lady and north korea's next leader, a man young enough to be her grand son. it was an odd moment, neither perhaps entire sure of the hierarchy. south korea banned most of the citizens to visit the north but these two specially authorized visits by the former first lady and head of a conglomerate was

seen as a compromise. both have strong ties to the north. a summit was held here a decade ago and this is one of the biggest investors in the communest state and both have received north korean delegations in the past at family funerals. the two women met the titular head of state. they said they are purely personal and no government representatives are accompanying them. but a spokeswoman said she hoped the visit would help improve relations between the two countries. when north korea's first ruler died 17 years ago south korea offered no sympathy and banned any condolence visit to the north. relations then took a nosedive. ow it seems seoul is trying to tread a fine line between the tough policy and the chance to

reset relations with his communist neighbor. you are watching bbc world news. thanks for being with us. till it come we heard from juliet about the financial cost of the tsunami in japan and we will have an assessment of the handling of the accident itself. >> the richest countries in the are not doing enough to respond to large scale disasters so says andrew mitchell the international development secretary of one of the countries the u.k. he has warned that the number of earthquakes and humanitarian disasters is likely to rise next year and wealthier nations must pay their share toward the emergency relief fund. >> last year 263 million people's lives were pwhroeuted by -- blighted by floods,

familiar,other natural catastrophes and war. the drought in the horn of africa left millions fighting for survival. government says with the scale of such disasters only likely to increase in the coming year the world remains un prepar prepared. without giving names it accused some rich western nations of not doing in you have to fund the united nations emergency response system designed to speed up relief in crisis zones with one central fund. many countries still choose to give much aid bilaterally. pledges the international system was seen as slow to respond putting lives at risk. the main point here is that if you actually put money into a fund in advance of what are going to be more predictable emergencies around the world such as floods and earthquakes, you can actually save a lot of lives by being able to respond

very quickly as a result. britain has pledged to contribute 20 million pounds to the u.n. emergency fund in 2012 but the fund still face as shortfall of 45 million pounds. the government warned that future funding depends on an improved response to such crises. >> you are watching bbc world news. the headlines, the main contingent of arab league observers is in syria to monitor attempts to ends the violence. protests look set to continue in india as thousands demand an end to corruption. just days after a storm killed almost 1,500 people in the weather forecasters have issued another flood warning for the country and it is feared thunderstorms across the southern island of mindanao monday could lead to flash floods.

the number of people known to have died last year could rise further. the coast guard says it is still recovering bodies from the sea. richard gordon is chairman of the red cross in the philippines. he said the focus now is on finding long-term solutions for evacuees. >> the biggest threat right now is we are having deadlines. the season is about to open up after the christmas break and we would have to move all the evacuees to new areas and the red krcross is preparing by sending 1,000 beds over there. i think the government is preparing. i don't know if they are preparing fast enough to find land that is available to build transition homes. >> it is not just in the philippines where there are problems. we have pictures from australia where a freight train was swept off a bridge and it is in the midst of flooding. that was caused by a cyclone in northern australia. the driver and co-driver were rescued. they were trapped in the train

quite a while but they were flown to a hospital in catherine near darwin. officials say they are investigating media reports that hazardous chemicals that possibly escaped from the train. they were transporting iron ore and the train with 20 carriages came off the tracks as it tried to cross the bridge. considerable damage there to be dealt with. a bit of brighter news the duke of edinburgh has left hospital after he had treatment on a blocked coronary artery. he is 90. spent four days in hospital in all and the reporter is outside the royal residence where the prince is heading, not there yet but presumably will get a warm welcome. >> yes, i think it can't be much longer before he comes down this from what we can

make out. he left papworth hospital looking in pretty good form, gave a hearty wave to the cameras waiting for him and thanked staff on the way out described his excellent treatment. he will be anxious to get back to his family here where he missed quite a lot yesterday being the highlight of his christmas every career doing the boxing day shoot. but clearly he has had to be in careful care. all the reports we have been getting have shown that he has responded very well from his treatment and of course we will be looking forward to spending the rest of this period with his family. >> they are a stoic bunch the family. not having many visitors. >> not many yesterday but they out on that shoot which i'm sure he will be bitterly

disappointed at missing but some events are not in his control. has been anxious to get out of hospital and get back here. but obviously he had to listen to what the doctors had to say. but this morning they have given him the ok to come out of hospital some 55 miles down the road and back to sandringham where we expect him in the next if you minutes. >> confused and inadequate is the assessment of japan's handling of the nuclear accident at fukushima in march. the conclusion was reached by a panel set up to assess the authority's response to the disaster. it said the operators and regulators failed to anticipate such an accident, grossly underestimated the risk of a tsunami and impact it would have. >> the nuclear crisis more than nine months ago, the fukushima plant in meltdown. its cooling system knocked out by a tsunami. it is stabilized now but the

incident was badly mishandled according to an independent report commissioned by the japanese government. the interim report said the government left whole towns unnecessarily exposed to radiation by not passing on what it knew. tens of thousands were evacuated but the warnings could have come much sooner. it criticized authorities for seriously underestimating the threat posed by a tsunami. the wave destroyed four reactors and set off the worst nuclear reactor in 25 years. as the crisis unfolded, workers at the company operating the plant were called heroes for risking radiation to save their country. now it says they were not trained to handle emergencies like the power shut down caused when backup generators were destroyed and misunderstood many of the problems that arose in the cooling system.

tep tepco's report said there is no way it could have prepared. the authors interviewed hundreds of people including government officials and workers and said the approach damaged public trust in the relief efforts. >> the head of the report's investigative panel said when those in charge said the tsunami was beyond what they conceived it was a denial of responsibility. that attitude he said may have led to the lack of precautions that had been taken. the report won't recommend a move away from nuclear power but it will be full of lessons when 23 is released the middle of next year. >> there was a time when the word "the end" meant that at the cinema. this year it means don't worry there will be a sequel. hollywood released a record 28 sequels it year. our entertainment reporter

investigates why the film industry put its faith in franchises. >> there were no strangers at the box office in 2011. in fact some were all too familiar and the eighth and final harry potter was the biggest. but they were all sequels. apart from this one and that was the start of a franchise, too. and the year is not over yet. the fourth "mission impossible" debuts this week. >> i'm on the computer. >> that seems to be a huge move toward recognition. the people that control the movie industry seem to think that people have to have heard of the tphrfilm before they hav seen it so that is why sequels and prequels and movies based on

board game. >> this is the fifth pirates of the caribbean. fourth in the twilight starter and the third dark night in 2012. there have only been two hangovers and the pirates franchise alone has made at least $4 billion so it is not hollywood that is feeling the pinch. >> at the risk, that had with the it do situation because we don't go to the cinema like we used to or maybe we want to choose something we are going to like rather than take a risk. >> the industry is polarized between blockbusters and once cheap enough to get made. this one was 4 million pounds. >> that middle ground is the films suffering most.

the 25, 30, 35 million dollar range. so you still have a lot of films around that low budget area and sort of big franchises. >> yet the lack of other films is driving up the quality of the blockbuster. two made x men first class a critical and commercial hit. >> and daniel craig signed up for the girl with the dragon tattoo trusting that it would lack the usual mix of hollywood gloss. >> what is the point of taking such a good book and story line with very adult subject matter and sanitize it. that would have been a waste of time. so, i was very excited about the prospect of doing this and making this as big a market as possible but very openly saying it is an adult film. >> next year prepare not only

for the dark knight but men in black three returns after a decade. >> crazy, right? >> perhaps the secret is there is so much investment in is hard to say goodbye. go soft and gooey. we have two young tiger cubs already getting the v.i.p. treatment at a zoo in china. they have been given their own custom built warm house to keep them safe this winter. there they are. the keeper says without it their can suffer so they get special heating. they have an air conditioning. that is a humidifier and keep it at a steady 15 degrees celsius. they seem pretty content. they better be because we understand next year they will be strong enough to fend for themselves in the chilly conditions of their enclosure. lovely pictures. more on the website. bbc.com/news as there is on all

our main stories. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by frequently fannie mae -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. the newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> you are no longer in the 30's. only outsider can finds the double agent. >> all i want from you is one code name. >> it will take a master spy. to catch a spy. >> what the hell are you doing up here? >> things are not always what they same.

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