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>> at shell, we believe the world needs a broader mix of energies. thats why were supplying cleaner-burning natural gas to generate electricity. and its also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol, a biofuel made from renewable sugar cane. >> a minute, mom! >> lets broaden the worlds energy mix. lets go. >> and now "bbc world news." >> you're watching "bbc world news." i'm tim live in athens where just two days to go before the crucial elections here, political parties are holding their final rallies. >> i'm david eades here in london. also coming up in this

bulletin, in egypt they accuse the military of a can you -- of a koup. and a birthday surprise for the u.s. army showing possibly the sweeter side of the military. >> hello, and welcome to a blisteringly hot athens where in six weeks the greeks are going to the polls again this sunday. final rallies were being held last night. led by the charismatic alexis, the 37-year-old who came in second in the major poll and has recently been looking as

just etching ahead in the polls leading to this sunday's election. when he first came to national prominence he was talking about ripping up the agreement. last night he said he wanted to renegotiate those and also said he would work with other political parties. as i said, political polling here ends on the fortnight before the poll. that puts the parties neck and neck. private polls suggest maybe new democracy is edging ahead. let's get this latest report by our correspondent. >> neck and neck and yet their ideas are polls apart. two leaders hoping their parties will clench first place on sunday in what's become a two-horserace. on one side, anthony, the leader of the center right his

party topps last month's election but with too few streets form a government. he favors bailouts and spending cuts but wants some demands lightened to easy the burden on the greek people. >> you cannot play poker or dice with greece. there's a path of responsibility atture clear about what you want. we say we want the euro and renegotiations of the bailout. there are others who are vague. >> but on the other, alex who heads the coalition to the left shot to a surprise second place last month and have been growing every since. vehemently opposed to the bailout, he wants to hold to cost cutting he believes can lead to success in the euro

zone. >> we believe the bailout is already in the past. it will enter into history on june 17 and the country will have the possibility on a european level to renegotiate the course. >> but the line from the e.u. is that the greece must keep its cuts to continue to receive funds and without the funds greece would be bankrupt and have to leave the euro. they believe germany won't let greece go but people are nervous if the country were to run out of money the banks would be the first hit and their savings would be the first hit. so as this reaches its

crishendo, they make the final push. the election next week is too close do call. the voice of this tired, angry nation will have implications far yoont europe's lead rers holding their breath. "bbc news," athens. >> in the last two hours angela merkle said germany can't find miracle solutions to this but the euro zone is preoccupied to what's happening in spain and italy let alone these elections in greece. let's go to our correspondent and get the latest. >> yes. to that message that strong message from the lady in the building behind me. germany's resources aren't limitless. there can't be any common shouldering of debt across the euro zone. no wagging her finger at greece, but you get the message

pretty well. we are, of course, on the friday before the monday. the friday before the end of the financial week before the start of a very different financial week. i've got with me a man at the heart of financing in germany. the head of the berlin stock market. what do you expect to do? what are the preparations that have already been made? >> well, basically the central banks are providing liquidity, because depending on what happens on sunday and remember, the eye of the storm as it may be called, will pass over us, and nobody knows what the result will be, and it's anticipated if things go well, there will be no need to get excited but if not, a lot of people start to wake up to that fact and start moving assets around and then you need liquidity. without it, it's like an engine without oil and the central

banks are providing that to make sure if anyone wants to move assets around, there will not be the situation where they get stuck. >> if you're smart, you prepare for the worst, and i don't want to scare monker. nevertheless, you always have to be prepared for the unlikely and you have to make sure your assets are safe. >> briefly, is that lady in there, might she buckle? might this game of bluff mean that she blinks? >> well, she has the most difficulty job one can have at this point in time. and i believe on one hand politics is about making compromise but on the other hand when you think of the other countries who will depend on the funds if she blinks now she will have to blink again and markets cannot be fooled.

markets will find out and we have to astroid situation where markets don't believe anymore so the community overall can handle the load, the shouldering. >> i should tell you, tim, all the papers this morning are full of a picture of angela merkle's fist when she was making that fist, and it's clenched as tight as you can get. is it determination? fear? maybe both. we simply don't know, tim. >> thank you very much steve. 80% of the greeks here believe they want to stay in the euro zone, and they believe they can. what is interesting is we were out last night, and everyone we spoke to. 15-20 people all said they were going to vote for series but believed they could stay in the euro zone but one couple who runs the threat of losing their apartment, they are struggling

to maintain the mortgage payment but they are saying if it came to leaving the euro zone, we think we'd rather have four years of uncertainty and then be able to build the economy again than 20-30 years of austerity under this bailout deal greece has agreed to at the moment. >> indeed a world of huge uncertainty at the moment. tim wilcox in athens. was it a coup or as egypt's righting of a fundamental wrong? the order to dissolve lower parliament. just as the presidential runoff which takes place this weekend. some opposition protesters think it was the part of the military. but the muslim brotherhood said he will accept the decision but added he was far from happy with it.

our correspondent is in cairo with what the court found to be unconstitutional. >> simply they say what was wrong was the way the mix of proportion representation and the post the way the divide of the election was held and particularly the backing of political parties. they can't believe they were meant to be reserve for independents and not political parties. that's the simple bit. the difficult bit is the implication of that. the courts have said the head of the court has certainly said parliament should be dissolved. nobody has actually dissolved parliament yet and it's not sure anyone has the power to do that and for that matter it's not even clear the court has the power to do that. >> and meanwhile the presidential election itself, the runoff, that can go ahead. >> the presidential election

can go ahead. there was a ruling that said it was unconstitutional to ban him from the election as a former official. >> pictures of demonstrators on thursday, john, what do you sense is the mood as a result of people digesting this information, this detail? do you think there's a bit of a wait and seyfert weekend and the electoral vote now? >> yes. i think exactly so. we have not heard crucially, of course major, major demonstrations by for example the muslim brotherhood, i'm not convinced it will be a huge demonstration, because they said something interesting. that i said this could set back all the games -- the gains towards resolution. but the point is it hasn't yet because the military hasn't yet said it's going to dissolve

parliament and were they to do that, then i think we would look towards confrontation. >> and the bernese opposition leader that's been visitting the swiss parliament before traveling to oslo before accepting a nobel peace prize awarded in 1971, the suu kyi said. >> and a swift action thought to be after a photo of the woman lying next to her baby's corpse was posted on the internet, we've cut the picture down because the image is too hard to show, the woman was made to undergo the abortion of her 7-month-old if he us the

because she -- 7-month-old fetus because she couldn't afford the fine for china's strict rule of only having one child. >> central banks around the world are standing almost in battle station mode, and we heard from central tpwhangse japan and switzerland all ready to put in place whatever it's going to take. if the outcome of the greek elections causes further market turmoil, we'll see that on monday morning when the markets open and react to whatever the outcome is from greece. so basically what they are saying is they would be prepared to pump further liquidity into further markets

to shore up any of the spillage that would stem from the euro crisis. mario draggy has said that since december and february, we've already pumped in and made available close to a trillion in euro and if we have to do it again, we may very well have to do it again. so it's watching closely all that, that will stem from greece. >> it's funny looking at the u.k. they say what a great position you're in looking outside. it felt with all the potential that safe haven feel depends entirely on whether over here there's enough to get spending and borrowing going. >> depends on where you're standing, doesn't it, davidded? the bank announced last night with the approval of the government to pump into the banks about close to $125 fwl on the pro adviseo, if you will, that they will give it to

banks in chief loans as long as those banks promise to pass it along to to households and businesses. we've already had quantitative easing to the tune of 5,000 pounds and we'll have a lot more on the world business report. >> you're watching "bbc world news." with me, david dave. still to come, why humans are not the only casualties as fighting breaks out in a vast congo nature preserve. >> the president of argentina made a passionate appeal to the united nations for them to talk about the future of the falls ken islands and say it could be part of its territory. our correspondent has this report. >> and with the islands, we are

asking the united states to put our case forward. >> stealing themselves for a visit by the argentine president. >> it is unprecedented for a head of state to attend a committee meeting like this. but it was asked to be held on this anniversaryry date. so although the war of britain may have been ended. cristina fernandez was on friendly territory here. the u.n. supports her demand for the sovereignty. >> we're not asking for much. we're just asking to talk. we're not asking to be told we're right. just to talk. the islanders do want to talk about other things, too. they complain argentina has been bullying them and have the right to their own. >> when it comes to the

sovereignty of the faulk ennis islands there will be absolutely no negotiations. [applause] >> this is not some game of global monopoly with nations passing a territory between them. it is about the islanders determining their own future. >> but by personally taking her diplomatic campaign, she has signaled she is unlikely to back down. at the united nations in new york. >> you're watching "bbc world news." with me, david eades, and these are the headlines. >> the final day of campaigning in greece before sunday's parliamentary elections and at stake, the country's future in the euro zone. and the presidential runoff this weekend. there's turmoil after a court ruled last year's parliamentary

elections were illegitimate. >> coming up in sports today in half an hour's time there's no luck of the irish as torres dumps ireland out of euro 2012. and after a win -- and tiger gets off to a roaring start at the u.s. open in san francisco. >> police in japan have caught the last remaining suspect obtained deadly nerve gas attack back in 1995 which killed 13 people, japanese people are saying the man aum shinrikyo was arrested in a cafe in tokyo. we report. >> in police custody, after 17 years on the run, tack hashy here wearing glasses was one of japan's most wanted men, the

last fugitive at large expected in the gas attack on the tokyo subaway. warning russia -- in morning rush hour in 1995 and commuters began to fall ill. nerve gas had been released across the transport system by members of a doomsday cult. 3 people were killed and thousands more were hurt. but takihashi evaded the arrest that followed and disappeared. but then two weeks ago a break through, a new photograph showing how the years had changed him. the police arrested another cult member who told them takihashi was working for a construction company and released pictures of him buying a bag to go on the run and

getting his money out and was spotted in an internet cafe and reported to police. >> there's been more violence in syria with clashes and bombardments reported in many parts of the country. activists say at least 70 people were killed, many in town ships near damascus as u.n. monitors reach the town of halfa reported as they put it, a stench of death hanging over the town. the russian foreign minister has denied suggestions that moscow's been speaking to other countries about what might happen in syria should president assad be ousted. there's renewed fighting in the middle of one of the largest nature preserves. congo are trying to capture a mutenist general so he can be brought to court. >> at the edge of the forest.

>> emanuel dema road has one of the toughest jobs in konga. as chief warden of the national park, he must keep this vast area of pristine forest. it's home to the mountain gorillas and the center of the latest rebellion. >> that's where they have been fighting for the last two weeks. >> but these konga soldiers, the hunt is on for one of their own. bosco, a mutenist general and former war lord wanted by the criminal courts for recruiting child soldiers. douma is 17 years old. we've changed his name to protect his identity, he and four friends were on their way home from school one day in april when they were captured by a group of armed men. >> they taught us how to shoot and gave us lots of boxes of ammunition and made us carry

boxes of clothes. >> douma managed to escape but doesn't know what happened to his friends. human rights watch and the united nations say that the rebels are getting support from row wanda and their forces are stretched. since the fighting started in april, around 100,000 people have sought shelter in refugee camps. >> lots of the people here say they saw fighting with their own eyes and ran away when the mute insist soldiers came into their villages and started shooting people here are no stranger to conflict. >> this is the -- from canada. >> at the national park they are no strangers to national -- either. but they are used to catching

poachers. the men are now faced with other dangers filling the vacuum. >> a lot of new arms groups forming and new alliances forming and moving into areas where they weren't previously present, and so on. so that is a major concern. >> the volcano that looms over the provincial capital could erupt at any moment. but the biggest threat here is not nature but man. less than a decade comingo was at the center of a regional conflict that left over 5 million dead. old wars are easily re kindled. >> china is preparinging to send its first female astronaut into orbit as part of its plans to have a manned space station. the mother of one will be among the three-person team aboard

the space craft which is to launch on saturday. two of the astronauts will live and work alongside and a third will stay in the caps assume in case of unexpected emergencies. the mission is due last 10 days. across the border into canada it may not seem like such a big deal but it can be, especially when it's along a wire above niagara falls. the tightrope walker has been given special permission to step out on the to the wire. he will be challenged by high winds and mist coming up from the water. >> it's just mind games that i have to overcome. i'm placing myself over the falls as i do this stuff. i'm picturing the mist and looking done 200 feet to the water. >> put yourself in his shoes. he's getting ready to walk over the brink of the niagara falls traversing a 1,500 foot wire

over a waterfall. but the cables over water there's no way of anchoring it to stop it from swinging. during the training fire engines have sprayed him with water and the machines have blown 15 miles per hour winds at him. >> we're playing with mother nature, and mother nature has a mind of its own. >> the scale is not lost on these tourists. >> i think with all this wind i don't see how he can keep his balance. >> he is the 7th generation of the flying wall enders, a family of acrobats and has six guinness world records. he has never before used a safety net but they would avoid the risk of him falling to his death live on national television. he agreed to wear a harness but

said he will stay calm by talking to god. >> a quick birthday cake celebration moment for you. the united states army is celebrating its 237th birthday and that is the sort of cake they got for it. a 5,000 cupcakes stuck to the frame of a model tank all sorts of different flavors and tastes. it's different. bbc.com/news for more on the wonderful birthday cake. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, union bank, and shell. >> at shell, we believe the world needs a broader mix of energies. thats why were supplying cleaner-burning natural gas to generate electricity.

and its also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol, a biofuel made from renewable sugar cane. >> a minute, mom! >> lets broaden the worlds energy mix. lets go. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los presented by kcet, los angeles.