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>> welcome to "bbc world news." i'm lise ducet outside a polling station in cairo. three hours into voting day, there are still long queues of egyptians who want to cast their ballots. it's the first truly open presidential election. >> welcome to "bbc world news" in london. i'm geeta guru-murthy. also coming up -- fresh talks, a group of six world powers meet in baghdad to discuss tehran's controversial nuclear program. and the inventor of the television remote control, eugene polley, dies, age 96. >> 15 months after the overthrow of hosni mubarak,

egyptians have started voting ever in their first free presidential elections. the next two days, around 50 million people are expected to cast their vote to elect a new leader. let's take you now live to cairo. you can see the lines of voters outside one polling booth. there will be two days of voting. if there isn't a clear winner immediately, a runoff election will then be held. 12 candidates are now standing. let's go live to cairo and my league, lyse doudect. >> welcome tie gloriously sunny day in cairo and a truly historic day as well, the first truly open presidential election in this country's history. for the first time ever, egyptians are going to the polls, and there's no clear idea about who will win this contest. let's just take a look at the queues that have been forming here since polls opened early this morning. they have a separate one for

men and women. these men have been forming for hours. how's the election, good, great? in problems? no problem, no problem, no problem. this is the patience. you ask egyptians, are you tired of waiting? they say we've been waiting for 30 years to cast our ballots. that's the length of time that hosni mubarak act was actually the president of egypt. let's just take a look now. over on this side, people are going into the front door of this girl's school. you may just see the veils and unveiled women on the other side. that's where they're queueing. there's some belief here and some soldiers here guarding it. at one moment the women went up to them and said, enough, let us in to vote, and voting they are. more than 60 million egyptians are registered, eight million egyptians abroad have already voted. let's take a look at some of the choices in this report from

our world affairs correspondent, mark doyle. >> early indications are that the turnout will be very healthy in this historic free poll. voters qu eueed patiently here in alexandria and across the country. >> i'm here to elect for the first time a president of the republic, a president that will be good and righteous and make this country wake up. >> all the different people are standing together. the committees have separate lines, and god willing, all is going to go well. >> we want the person who's most qualified to make the country great again and revithes it so that it is the best in the world. >> there will be two days of voting in this first round with a runoff next month if there's no outright winner. one of the front-runners in the presidential race is the former head of the regional arab league, amr moussa. >> my message to egyptians, this is a great day, a big day, a decisive day, and i hope that

they will select correctly. they will elect the president that can really lead egypt in this crisis. >> and despite the enthusiasm created by the election, the crisis is profound. there will be huge political challenges for whoever wins. no one knows yet what the powers of the elected president will be. the role of the strong military establishment is expected to remain crucial. but today is a day for the voters, at least now they're deciding who tackles those challenges. mark doyle, bbc news. >> and yes, you can't emphasize enough just what a task the new president will face. still no new constitution which outlines the president's powers, and this is this country is facing massive challenges, particularly when it comes to the economy. but today is a day for egyptians to play their part to

ensure they get the best choice. let's get an assessment of how it's going. we're joined by someone called the april 6 movement, set up in 2008, fighting for democracy even before the protests of last year. is this what you were waiting to see? >> we are happy and people deserve more than this and struggled for many years for this day. it's a great day for the egyptian people, and we are the happiest people in egypt and all over the world to witness this day, and we get this day to the life of our mentor, who devoted the life to our country. >> yes, indeed, hundreds died in the protests last year, but let's look at today's voting. you're monitoring this mission. any irregularities as far as you can see? >> we have many irregularities.

we have more than 27 rooms, but it's been in egypt. we are monitoring everything. we have 1,000 members of our movement observing that election, and so we have that candidate. we are connecting with them. we have thousands and our member. >> you yourself, you visited several polling stations already. did you see anything that made you worry? >> yes. hundreds of mistakes have been made all over egypt. some were made for half an hour to an hour. some candidates in front of the

school or election sites, and many other mistakes have been made to this. >> but still, do you think it's going to detract from what you're seeing? do you think it will tarnish the vote? >> yes, as i said before, it's the heaviest day for egypt, and all the mistakes have been made. we are so happy, we are so proud. >> mohammed kamel, thank you very much for joining us here on the bbc, as we continue ourselves to monitor, to report on these egyptian elections. there's very few monitoring missions this time. one of them is the carter center. former u.s. president jimmy carter came to this polling station. i asked him, is it a big day for democracy, and he said yes with a big smile, and said what he's seen so far was really good, but it's only just starting. long day ahead. more voting tomorrow. if there isn't one clear winner

in this round, egyptians will go to the polls again next month. stay with us throughout the day. but for now, back to you in london. >> lyse doucet in cairo, thanks very much. much more from lyse in the coming hours. voting is going on throughout the country, and outside the capital in the countryside, the votes are expected to be particularly crucial in deciding the future direction of egypt. the bbc's wyre davies is in alexandria. >> people people are very excited about these first free and fair presidential elections as this city, of course, played a pivotal role in the overthrow of hosni mubarak, and campaigning here has been fierce, open. there's a general sense of real political freedom here. but as i've been finding out over the last couple of days on the streets of alexandria, people have got things other than politics on their mind. alexandriaians are proud of their city.

with more than four million people, it's the second largest in egypt and is bursting with life, diversity, and history. many lives were lost here last year, and the voices handing change from alexandria were just as loud as those in the capital, cairo. but amid talk of whether egypt's new president might be an islamist, a liberal, or even a member of the former regime, there are arguably more pressing concerns. in a city that betrays the sign of decades of neglect. this is a huge country of 80 million people, but about 40% of them live in poverty, scraping by on just a few egyptian pounds a day. here in the slums of alexandria, the election isn't about religious dogma or politics, it's about who can put food on their tables and a

roof over their heads. the roof literally fell in on this dilapidated house a few days ago. five families lived here in squall or are no regular income. with a wonderfully dismissive gesture, naga says she didn't expect a new president to change anything. >> as long as we're living here in this situation, there is no hope. nothing will change. these are my only clothes and possessions. we need a righteous leader, not someone who just takes the money and runs. >> the presidential candidates and their supporters are full of promises. vowing that a democratic will soon be on the road to economic recovery. sectarian as well as economic worries have also come to the fore in this campaign. thousands of christians have left alexandria in recent years, and some in the

community say that minorities no longer feel safe here. >> there was no mention between this community. you know alexandria is a cosmopolitan, every party respects the others, greek party respect italian party, respect egyptian, all respect each other. not only religion, the parties respect each other in everything. but now it's completely changed. >> all egyptians care about who will be their next president, but the price of bread is a bigger issue in the urban sprawl. democracy alone won't bring 30 million people out of poverty. >> of course, these are the first round of presidential elections if none of the 13 candidates emerges with more than 50% of the vote. there will be a second round next month, but there's a genuine excitement here and across egypt. nobody's hearkening back to the

old days of mubarak. nobody really knows yet how the powers of government will divide this movement between the parliament and president, notwithstanding all of those problems, it is a key day for egypt and maybe years of trouble ahead, but nobody now wants to go back to the old days of its dictatorship. back to you. >> wyre davies from egypt. right back here, jamie. facebook shares, huge amounts of publicity, lots of people baltimore them, but they've gone down in value. >> there's talks going on about how they were issued, the i.p.o. now a massachusetts regulator has subpoenaed morgan stanley, which was the lead underwriter of the i.p.o. the question is whether there was enough clarity for investors, because their profit forecasts for the company were actually downgraded just in the period before the actual -- before the i.p.o. took place.

they cut the forecast. they actually increased the size of the share offering, and they priced those shares right at the top end of the range. they've been thinking, well, why did they do that when the forecast was coming down, and why weren't investors given enough information to make a sensible choice as to whether to buy these shares? there's another element, which has nothing to do with morgan stanley, but actually the nasdaq, because there was a computer glitch offered through the launch of the shares, which meant there was a delay. and as a result, investors are completely confused about what was going on, and that's been looked into by this security and exchange commission. there's no legal problem there, but on the other hand, the whole thing is a little bit of a mess really, and people are looking around to see who was responsible. >> tonight there's an informal -- >> i know it's going to be talked about today. and i think what you're seeing here is a polarization, and we've seen this happen over the last few weeks between the austerity camp, and yesterday, a lot of the newspapers in the

u.k. told you about how the u.k. is turning towards a growth-oriented program. and i think about what is going to be absolutely the highlight there about how are you going to get growth going, this other issue to look out for is the issue of the euro bond. this is a collective bond issued by everybody within the euro. the germans don't want it, a lot of other people do. >> absolutely. thanks very much indeed, jamie. you're watching "bbc world news." still to come -- taking time to spin the records. prince charles turns his hand to a spot of d.j.'ing. it will soon be time to let the shortlist of cities to host the 2020 olympics. international olympic committee is in quebec today to discuss which city will make the cuts. one of the contenders is tokyo, which hosted the games last in 1964. our correspondent, roland buerk, look at japan's hopes for another chance to put on the games.

>> tokyo lost out to re toe host the 2016 games -- lost out to rio to host the 2016 games, but the city is trying again for 2020. even a large, expanse of land vacant and ready for the construction of new stadiums to take place. the site is spectacular, next to tokyo bay, with a view of the skyline across the water and mount fuji in the distance. tokyo certainly has the money. this is the most populist urban area in the world, and the city's economy was only recently overtaken by the entire country of india. with a bullet train and subways and expressways, the infrastructure is in place, and the olympic committee might feel that after last year's earthquake and tsunami, awarding tokyo the olympics would be a good way of helping japan to recover. but what might help is this city has hosted the games before, in 1964. and about the winter olympics in 2018 due to take place in

south korea, awarding the 2020 games to tokyo would mean two consecutive olympics taking place in the same part of the world. >> roland buerk. here's an unusual question. what if you want to expand a railway, but a 120-year-old building information way, what do you do? if any of you answered move the entire building, then congratulations, that is exactly what's happening to this old factory in the swiss city of zurich. it's been pushed very slowly around 60 meters to the west. engineers have lifted the factory from its foundation on to a track and moving around three to five meters an hour. the journey will take two days. >> this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy. our main headline today -- polls have opened in egypt, the first ever prepresidential elections. >> hello. coming up in half an hour on sport -- spain's all-time

leading scorer is out of the euro. he'll miss the tournament through injury. after firing his sides to champions league glory, the outgoing city striker will carry the olympic flame later. and the royal performance from the l.a. kings, as they took their place in the stanley cup finals for the first time in almost 20 years. that's all coming up. >> representatives from six world powers and iran are meeting for talks today. the meeting is being held in bag dat as iran's request. they hope iran will agree to stop enriching uranium any further. the discussions followed international atomic energy agency's announcement that tehran has tentatively agreed to allow the agency to resume investigating its nuclear program. i'm joined from baghdad by the bbc's tehran correspondent, james reynolds. what signals have we had so far >> we haven't had much so far,

because the delegation only arrived a short time ago at the guest house behind me here inor zone, now known as the international zone. we expect them to sit down pretty shortly and have a two or three-hour opening session. it's at that point that we'll find out whether or not the delegations are going to get into detail. we've been at several rounds of talks before, and most recent round, they said, well, we'll address the details the next round. this is now the next round here in baghdad. we're about to find out if they're going to talk specifics. >> we shouldn't underestimate the whole question and the global tensions around iran. just what is at stake here? >> huge amount. essentially being slightly hyper bolick. the future of the middle east, the way countries in the middle east will choose to arm themselves, the way they choose to relate to iran, the way iran will choose to relate to its neighbors and the middle east. those are some of the issues at stake. perhaps on a more practical

level, it's the price of oil. that affects everyone around the world in industrial society. >> and how big was the breakthrough seemed to be yesterday? >> good question. too soon to tell. it was a tentative agreement, and we've seen many tentative agreements in recent years reached with iran, which never were actually implemented. if it is signed, if it is implemented, i think it is important, because it would allow the international atomic energy agency access to sites, people, scientists, documents, the kind of thing they haven't done before. part of the west's problem with iran is it says that iran is hiding too many things. if iran stopped hiding things, then i think that would be an important move. >> james reynolds for now in baghdad, thanks very much. five aid workers, including two women, have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in northeastern afghanistan. they were making their way from central city and were abducted.

police said they'd been visiting a health clinic when the road was destroyed by floods. a search operation is underway in the region, which is more known for having groups of criminal gunmen and snudges. saudi arabia has pledged $3.25 billion in aid to neighboring yemen. the opening of a yemen meeting in the capital riyadh, eight aid agencies say yes, ma'am suspect now on the brink of a catastrophic food crisis with almost half the population malnourished. seven international ate agencies have called for the world to focus its attention on helping the yemeni people rather than just stopping the threat from al qaeda. our world affairs correspondent is in the studio. we've just had this terrible blast with 90 insurgents killed. when people hear this, they are going to think of al qaeda. how likely is it that people are going to want to give aid? >> there's been a resist adonating because yemen has

been portrayed as a failing state, a place of great insecurity, a source of trouble from al qaeda. but what they're arguing, and they're coming together, all seven of them, to push the message, actually the humanitarian crisis is really so urgent that if you don't stop that, you're never going to get a grip on the security situation. >> and can you actually separate the donation of aid satisfactorily so that you're also not giving money into the wrong hands? >> well, i think the point about the aid, a lot of aid is going to yemen, but it's going to military aid. there's the fight against al qaeda in the south. what the aid agency is arguing is 10 million people are suffering from hunger. they get up every morning and they're hungry. a lot of the people are living in areas quite near the capital. these people are just grinding on, getting more and more poor day by day. husbands are having to go off and go fishing, instead of farming. people are really separate. they don't have enough food or water. you really can't build a

country and you can't have trust in the government. i mean, the whole point of all this military aid in a way is to prop up the government in order to crush insurgency and al qaeda. if you can't get confidence in the government, unless people can see some sort of results from the government, otherwise they'll simply go into the hands of insurgents. >> and this is a catastrophic food crisis. has this not up slowly, or why have we got to this level now? >> yemen's been poor for a long time, but the problems of fighting in the north, now fighting in the south, has created more displaced people who can't work, can't be productive, can't go back to their homes because of land mines and so on. you've had oil pipelines being broken. they're talking about yemen becoming an oil importing country in 2016, yet it should be a producing country. there's all kinds of problems. >> are the aid agencies wanting individuals or looking for big government donations? >> i'm sure individuals would be great, but they want the big government donations. we just had this announcement just now from riyadh of the

$3.25 billion. i spoke to a member of oxfam in yemen, what does this mean, are you happy now? because the shortfall is about a quarter of a billion, so this would be great. they said, well, yes, we're very happy, that is a good sign. but there was $5.6 billion promised by countries back in 2006, and actually most of that money hasn't come through yet. so, in terms of the urgency of the needs of the people, it's all very well saying we'll give this money to development projects, but how long is it going to take? people have now reached the point called the hunger gap, from may until the autumn, when food has run out. they're unable to grow anymore, there's very little water. what agencies are saying you don't need to supply lots of food, but just even cash. small cash handouts enable people to buy food in the market. although it is food there, it's too expensive for people to afford. >> thanks very much indeed. the inventor of the tv remote

control, eugene polley, has died at the age of 96. mr. polley died of natural causes in a chicago hospital. he developed the flashmatic in 19955. it appointed a beam of light at the television, and miraculously it seemed the set was able to turn on and off and change the channels. great for all you couch potatoes. he received an emmy for his invention in 1997. we've seen him recently presenting the weather, but now prince charles has turned his hand to a spot of d.j.'ing. he took the decks in toronto, part of his four-day trip to see canada for the diamond jubilee. linda hardy has more. >> the princes of wales for one day only has d.j. charles. after this coaching and at times believed looking prince, he seemed to have gotten into

his groove. at this community project, teaching skills to disadvantaged youngsters, his royal highness joked that the days of disco are long gone. but his new-found skills certainly won him a few new music fans around the world. linda hardy, bbc news. >> the whole of america and the whole of the philippines will be tuned in to the grand finale of this season's "american idol." guitarist phillip phillips is being talked about as the front-runner, but jessica sanchez, whose mother is from the philippines, can couch on that whole country's support. here's a taste of the power of her talents. >> ♪ don't you dare walk away from me, no i have nothing nothing nothing if i don't have you ♪

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>> and now "bbc world news." >> in the past couple of decades, internet use has spread across the planet, invading every aspect of life. in countries like south korea,