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>> 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." x as americans prepare to vote in the mid-term elections, the tipoff on the human bomb plot came from a former al qaeda remember -- member. france and britain are going to announce an unprecedented levels of military cooperation. wellcome. -- welcome. that and down the hatches. now, haiti prepares for a hurricane. and he was once russia's richest businessman. now, his lawyers say he faces

another long term in prison. campaigning is trying to close across the united states. elections will decide control of congress. democrats could lose control. the campaign for the senate is supposed to be tight. here is our added. >> inside the white house today, how is deploying his secret weapon. in a rather low budget internet advertisement -- >> people are getting fired up. >> the reelection. >> we have always pushed past the cynicism and kept moving

forward, and that is what we must do again today. >> most of the elections are taking place. 37 senate seats. republicans need to capture 10 to take control of the upper house. that could happen. and all of the seats in the house of representatives are up for election. the>> you can change the future.

you have to. >> sarah palin has been rallying. like obama, her name is not on any ballot paper, but she says she speaks for jena six pat. >> we, the little guy, the overtaxed, overregulated, overburdened, -- >> at a halloween party at the white house, the president was being rather jobless. his ability to hand out the duties may be curtailed after the election. -- hand out the goodies may be curtailed after the election. this shows just how far apart the party czar. bbc news, washington.

>> the polls are predicting a bad day for the dem>> republica, most polls suggesting they will pick up between 50 and 60 seats. that will put the victory as a similar scale of 1994, when bill clinton was president. over on the senate side, republicans need it 10 seats to take a majority in the senate. most pollsters predict they will get somewhere between six and eight, so falling short in the senate, getting the majority in the house. that would leave congress, of course, divided. >> steve, what would that result due to president obama's next few years in office? >> first of all, if you have congress still divided, with the senate still in democratic hands and the house in republican hands, president obama needs to seek out some kind of common ground.

the risk would be, particularly in light of the party's squabbling we have seen, certainly over the past year, the risk would be making america a grind to a halt. that is what happened to a time in 1994. it is interesting to see senior republicans trying to apply as voters go to the poll that that is not what they think is necessary. they will reach out and work together. the other thing that will happen, the starting gun will be fired for 2012, the presidential race, barack obama widely expected to run again, and if the republicans do well now, you can bet they will be lining up to challenge that. >> several european countries, some bombs on route from yen in -- from yemen. germany is banning direct flights from yemen, and the netherlands has suspended cargo

flights. meanwhile, there was the tipoff that led to the intersection of the bombs, and it came from a former al qaeda member. we have this report. >> the bomb plot, the latest near miss from al qaeda, has provoked an urgent security review. there were those on the cobra committee, and they converge to to figure at how to tighten security on air freight. >> we will review all aspects of their freight security and work with international partners to make sure that our defenses are as robust as possible. >> the home secretary also told parliament that a ban on unaccompanied it air freight also goes to somalia. there are also printer and toner cartridges. now, it needs to be better acquired.

since august, the system has been used on cargo leading the u.s., but not leading british ones. those securities firms are welcoming the review. >> to have the same for cargo screening is the most important thing we can do. we need to be looking at the appropriateness of that. >> intelligence is the other principal line of defense. it was a tipoff from this party informant that led intelligent agents to find these. he spent much of his recent years with these men, al qaeda in the peninsula. there was the anti-western worldview, familiar with their plan. his name was on the most wanted list. but two citgo, the authorities

apparently traded al qaeda secrets for an official pardon. seen here in trading, they have been fighting in robust terrorism campaign. not just shootouts and arrests but on intelligence gathering. >> what the saudis have done is a very effective job of suppressing al qaeda inside their own country, inside the kingdom, and they probably have more information than anyone else does on what al qaeda is doing, so they are critical. >> so, too, was the pakistan intelligence, helping to avert a bomb plot four years ago, when of the biggest mi5 surveillance operations in years -- one of the biggest. >> good technology and good intelligence. if you have both, and maximize the chances. if you are lacking in one or the

other, then the chances are it there is more opportunity. >> the yemeni security forces need intelligence and technology if they are to defeat al qaeda. the u.s. and britain are providing both, and this will be stepped up, but finding al qaeda among the population is now a race against time. bbc news. >> as the new air restrictions were being announced, the government of yemen announced it had its own exceptional cargo requirements. the bomb plot has deepened the desire in the international community. our middle east editor has this assessment. >> student capital residents. thank you, said one person.

the chances are that they're real people are long gone. paid sermons by radical clerics are in open sale, but al qaeda on the arabian peninsula is basically in the remote regions of yemen, far away, controlled by tribes, and not by the central government. a yemeni government official was in london today. >> we are fighting this, and we are doing the best that we can do. we are doing more than our share. >> light is very hard for most people in yemen. unemployed, and great, young men are obvious recruits for al qaeda bj unemployed, angry, young men are obis records for al qaeda. -- more obvious recruits for al

qaeda. along with their camera shy western advisers -- the word from the west, the yemeni president, is we will work harder to improve people's lives. >> corruption, unemployment, these are the things that will bring them down. these are the things that we need to pay attention to. >> what about al qaeda? >> that will not work overnight. >> the problem for long term strategy is that it takes awhile to figure out whether or not it is working or not. analysts are thinking very hard at the moment about what they will be doing now if al qaeda in the arabian peninsula had brought down an aircraft over the weekend. their problem is there are no good alternatives to what they're doing at the moment, and

what they're doing it at this moment may not work. bbc news. >> the british prime minister david cameron and the president of france, nicolas sarkozy, were at a summit meeting in london, and they talked abut nuclear warhead testing. both countries say the agreements will not start a new era -- will start a new era. >> this is france, bastille day, a celebration of its armed forces. this is britain, its streets lined with soldiers returning from the front lines. two nations with great military traditions. now, the sons and daughters are on the verge of forming a

military partnership unlike anything they have tried before. and tomorrow, the british and french will sign a new treaty which will go before parliament in the usual way. partnership, yes, giving away sovereignty, no. >> so what is being looked at? aircraft carriers. both countries in the future will have just one. the carriers could be used for joint operations. then there are plans for a rapid reaction force, both nations fighting alongside each other, perhaps with british forces under french command. and both countries is the potential for savings in sharing nuclear testing facilities. and ministers have also spoken of refueling each other's planes. in the past, british and french

troops have fought side by side, but there is, of course, another history. i am standing in front of napoleon's tomb. there is some unease about forming such a close military partnership, but there is still an understanding. >> it is quite clear. it is a long process that has been going on since the end of the cold war. >> david cameron and president sarkozy are likely to insist each country retains its independence, but it is already being asked whether the changes might compromise britain's freedom to deploy it when it wanted to. >> people will ask the question if there is another iraq war, in which we are engaged but the french are not, whether the french chef part ownership of

what is supplied to us. >> some will see this in partnership as hard-headed and realistic. in a time of austerity. others will question whether we are relying too much on the french for national interest. bbc news. >> this is bbc news. still ahead on the program, the pope condemns the siege on the roman catholic church in baghdad which ended in over 50 deaths. the first female president of brazil has promised to fight for gender equality. she dedicated her election victory on sunday to the women of brazil and said she wanted the parents to be able to say, "yes, a woman can." we have this report from sao paulo. >> they have their first woman president. the workers' party candidate

gained 56% of the vote, well ahead of a competitor, in sunday's runoff election. three years ago, no one could have even imagine to this, not even if she herself. born in 1947, she is the daughter of a wealthy immigrant and a brazilian teacher. she was a school girl when brazil fell under dictatorship in 1964 and later became part of a group resisting the deep tender ship -- resisting the dictatorship, for which she was arrested and tortured. a career civil servant, she became energy minister when lula da silva came to power. they brought down a key government figures, and he made

her his chief of staff. march 2010, she launched her campaign for the presidency as the worker party's candidate. with the blessing of him and they're waiting approval behind her, her chances of success despite a lackluster campaign. >> it certainly will not be an easy act to follow. bbc news, apollo. -- xcel apollo. -- sao paulo. >> with the midterm elections in the u.s., will it be a change that people did not want to see? and security has been toughened up in several european countries, following the discovery of two. the pope has condemned the siege

of a roman catholic church in baghdad, which ended in the death of 52 worshipers. gunmen stormed into the church during mass on sunday evening, demanding the release of jailed al qaeda militants. here is our baghdad correspondent, jim muir. >> the carnage took place in the church of our lady the celebration on sunday night. some of the survivors describe how the gunmen opened fire on everything, on the altar, the symbol of their faith. this was the result. and, of course, on the hostages, too. they were heard it and held as security forces prepared for the assault. -- they were herded. some of the gunmen blew themselves up, killing and hurting several of the questions. this man's house was heavily damaged by the car bomb the gunman set off. he blames the iraqi government

and the americans. >> i blame the government. the world must know, here is the government we have, one that america brought to us. thank you, bush. thank you, obama. thank you, america. >> the government is sensitive to criticism. it sent troops to close down the tv station, which the gunmen controlled from inside the church to publish their demands and their willingness to negotiate. it went off of the air, though it later resumed from cairo. as the many dead are buried, and those who are wounded are treated, many in the question community are struggling to come to terms with the worst disaster to have fallen upon them in recent times. in 2003, there were around 1 million christians in the country. that is roughly 5% of the whole population. under the saddam hussein regime,

christiansen had freedom of worship, as of now, but because of an upsurge of attacks in 2003 and other forms of harassment, the cristian numbers interact have fallen dramatically. since 2003, their numbers the believed to have dropped from around 1,000,002 perhaps only 600,000 because of immigration. the fear now is that this latest outbreak may speed up this hemorrhage. bbc news, jim muir. >> a tropical storm could turn towards the country of haiti. aid workers are scrambling to try to protect workers in and around the capital of port-au- prince. >> the january earthquake in haiti let more than 1 million

people homeless. survivors forced to live in crowded, makeshift camps. they will struggle to stand up to the force of the hurricane. the u.s. national hurricane center is predicting a tropical storm tomas turn towards them by the end of the week and intensified in strength. there are claims the government is doing little. >> we learned about the storm by word of mouth, and there could be big damages. we are living in and under intense. there is no official who has come to tell us. >> as a category one hurricane over the weekend, tomas knocked down trees and homes and power lines. it is the last thing haiti needs right now, still recovering from the earthquake and trying to withstand the recent outbreak of

cholera. >> it is extremely vulnerable. even heavy rain can make a lot of damage here in haiti. this is a great concern for the red cross right now. >> u.n. agencies and eight workers are rushing in emergency supplies, including shelter materials. the united nations says haiti has also agreed for the u.s. to send an amphibious assault ship. they are hoping that tomas spare the country that is constantly battling against nature. bbc news. >> a commission has described the turnout in sunday's presidential election. the head of united nations mission said it was the highest seen in africa. it was aimed at reuniting the

nation after eight years of division. five armed men have stolen a military aircraft from an army base in honduras. they broke into the base. three security guards were attacked as they made their way into the hangar, where they managed to fly away. a senior lawyer representing the man who was once the wealthiest businessman in russia has said he has been sentenced to another long period in prison. the second trial is expected to end on tuesday. the former head of the oil company has already spent seven years in prison for tax evasion. >> russia's most famous prisoner. a former multi billionaire who has already spent time in a siberian jail. now, he is facing a second

sentence of up to 15 years of charges of embezzlement. throughout this second trial, he and his business partners have been kept isolated inside this glass cage. they accused of stealing more than 2 billion barrels of oil, the equivalent of their entire output of their companies. defense lawyers say the charges are politically motivated and ridiculous. >> although it was not the burden of the defense, they were summarizing this. it showed the absurdity of them in beslan and all of this oil, laundering the proceeds. it did not happen. >> and yet, everyone against them attending the trial and

expects a guilty verdict. because the government seems afraid of letting this once powerful man walk free. there is a huge amount at stake in this trial, which is now coming to a conclusion here. first and foremost, it is the credibility of the russian judicial system, which president medvedev has promised to reform to make sure it is free of all political interference. bbc news, moscow. >> some breaking sports news now, and the san francisco giants have won the baseball world series. they beat the texas rangers a 3- 1 at the civic center, clinching the best of seven series. this is the first time the giants have won the championship since moving out there 50 years ago. now, are made headlines before we go. in national elections, they will

decide control of congress and most of the states. that is bbc news. thanks for watching. >> hello and welcome. >> see the news unfold, get the top stories from around the globe and click to play video reports. go to bbc.com/news to experience the in-depth, expert reporting of "bbc world news" online. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank.

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