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america." reporting from washington, i'm katty kay. a new arafat poisoned, report says polonium could have caused his death. accused of smoking crack will hear from the people of toronto. and president kennedy was assassinated half a century ago, but he is still the subject of books, films, and documentaries. as the anniversary approaches, get ready for more of them. welcome to our viewers on public television in america and also around the globe. former palestinian leader yasser arafat was poison in 2004 with radioactive polonium. that is, according to his wife,

who made the claim after the result of a forensic test. a reuters news agency that it was a political assassination. i spoke to our correspondent in ramallah a short, go. --yasser arafat possum or yasser arafat's widow said it was murder. the report has been called unreliable. which is it? arehe scientists themselves extremely cautious about their findings. they're coming out only saying that they moderately support a colony him poisoning as the .ause of yasser arafat's death his remains were exhumed last year here in ramallah. and it was up to 20 times higher than expected levels of polonium

210. what made it very clear that after eight years in the ground, the samples were not as good as they would have wanted. really, they cannot be conclusive. >> how sensitive is this to the region? time when theya are trying to get he's talks restarted. there are indications that they may have put some fresh momentum into them. the circumstances of yasser arafat's death during the uprising were very mysterious. israel has consistently denied any involvement in his death and they have come out with further statements from the foreign ministry this evening saying

that the results of the tests were not reliable science. a bomb attack in damascus has claimed the lives of at least seven people and injured dozens. and another attack has killed eight people. our chief international correspondent is in damascus. her report contains distressing images. a warning. this crowded stair was struck. the railway station was quickly cleared of debris, but the damage continues. violence is now reaching the center of the capital. this man helps carry the bodies away. did they do to deserve this, he asks. enough blood. enough killing.

>> nearly three years into this war, there is not an area that is not affected. continues onate the political track, what does the future hold? the ancient citadel of damascus has survived invasions, earthquakes, and fires. this past weekend, it took its first direct hit in this war. no one claimed responsibility for this mortar either. >> it is not the opposition or the regime. we cannot remake the history. >> the theory is, if the war does not stop, it will get worse. >> [indiscernible] worry of theso the most moderate opposition groups, now at least 20 -- now at least

allowed to open an office here. they are not calling on president assad to go and they want to be part of the geneva talks. >> unless we can talk, there will be no results from these meetings. rare interview, the president senior advisor tobin the government is ready for talks, but without preconditions. advisorresident senior told me the government is ready for talks, but without preconditions. >> it must be through elections or ballot box. >> to make peace there have to be compromises in order to share power. i think that is for the people to discuss and to decide. i don't think the issue is about power now. i think the issue is about saving the people and the country. that is the utmost priority.

these days, damascus residents want to get home before dark. no matter what side you are on politically, most people just want this war to end. ad they realize it could be very long way off. >> the fighting continues in syria. yesterday, he admitted to smoking crack cocaine, but today it was back to business for toronto's mayor. he was greeted by angry protesters when he arrived, but after defying calls to resign, he held meetings inside city hall and even blew the media a kiss. >> the big story continues to be -- >> the talk of the town and the entire country. canadian politics rarely registers internationally. 's admission of

smoking crack cocaine has changed all that. this man used to work for the mayor and helped run his election campaign, -- this woman used to work for the mayor and helped run his election campaign, but is now calling on him to quit. >> thousands of toronto and -- of those in trenton oh are telling him to keep going, keep fighting. also it contributing to it is that he's quite stubborn. >> outside city hall, protesters lined up, calling on him to quit. he had been seen as a popular mayor. but his latest confession may have changed that. >> i am a resident and i'm proud of the city. he's not making me very proud today. >> [indiscernible]

>> mayor ford says he's not going anywhere. he admitted his drug use in a press conference on tuesday. ,> i sincerely, sincerely sincerely apologize. >> a call from critics calling on him to go seems to be chucking him more support by the day. and many at city hall are urging him to resign now. the mayor of toronto cannot be ousted unless he has been convicted of a crime. and he has not, as of yet. the only way he can go is if you decide to himself. for now, that does not look likely. >> for more on the drama that is a city out in canada, hall reporter for the toronto star was up there a short time ago. >> do you think the mayor can possibly stay in office after all of this? >> yes, the city council has no

way to remove the mayor. there is no impeachment policy. the premier can remove him, but is unlikely to do that for political reasons. right now, city council members are looking for a way to strip his office of power. does this affect the other residents of toronto? >> the toronto star, where i work, has been reporting on this mayor for about a year, year and a half. earlier this year, we reported on this -- well, it is not alleged any more, crack video. drinking, being removed from a military ball -- there were signs of this before. but when the police chief announced they had obtained the rack video, things changed. but this was not totally out of the blue. yearsr the last couple of he has been accused of sexual harassment, texting and driving, giving a woman the finger, and now the drinking and the crack.

>> he has a huge base of support and the only thing you can liken it to is sort of a tea party sort of culture in the suburban areas of toronto. is popular and conservative. he has that sort of every diet pill -- every-guy appeal. he has been the champion of the working class. people really like him. one, was a poll, a small taken that suggested his numbers took an uptick after this. people are very embarrassed. >> you had a front-row seat to the discovery of this video, which purportedly shows the mayor taking crack. what were the circumstances surrounding that? >> i, along with my colleague, kevin donovan

-- six months ago now, we were in a car with two guys, one of whom was described as a drug dealer. of video ofconds the mayor. he seemed to be smoking out of a crack pipe and also made racist and homophobic slurs. >> his excuse, curiously, seems to be that he was in a drunken stupor at the time. ofnow he has a big base political support, but at some point won't people say enough is enough? >> the rules don't apply to rob ford, and they never have. you mention a number of scandals he has had since he was elected mayor. before he was elected mayor, he had been arrested on domestic assault for beating his wife, but the charges were dropped. accused of been screening at a couple who live nearby. he had been convicted of having marijuana on him.

a slew of temper tantrums. people sort of knew what they were getting. they may not of out of crack, but they knew that a man of controversy was being elected. >> thank you. let's look at other news from around the world. a series of small blast outside a communist party headquarters in northern china has killed at least one and injured several others. no explanation has been given, but tensions in china are high after a car ran into a crowd at tiananmen square in beijing last week. the government called that a terrorist attack. public services in greece are being brought to a standstill by general strike as protesters continue to protest against austerity measures. courts and schools were also shut. than 30ve been more general strikes in greece since the start of 2010. pain is probably a

pretty good description of what it is like to have acid thrown in your face. it is how the artistic director of the russian ballet described his experience in january. he was in court in moscow today, where a top dancer is on trial for the assault. steve rosenberg has more. >> he had been badly burned and nearly blinded. the bolshoi ballet's artistic director nine months ago. someone had thrown sulfuric acid into his face. now he had the chance to confront his alleged assailants. cameras crash of tv outside the courtroom, you could tell the drama inside would be as gripping you had ever seen on the stage of the bolshoi. because among those on trial here is one of the ballet troupe's own dancers. he is accused of organizing the

attack. he is said to have felt seething resentment toward his boss. here in court, he described the accused as a talented dancer who he had promoted, but who had turned against him. he angrily rejected claims by the dancer that as artistic director he had taken bribes or had relations with some of the ballerina. the bolshoi has always been one of the jewels in russia's crown. this court case is a huge embarrassment and shines a spotlight on a murky backstage jealousy,ealously -- fierce rivalry, and revenge. but that comes as no surprise to those who know the bolshoi well. >> there is so much jealousy in all of the theaters. what we see now is a criminal

place. >> serge has had more than 20 operations to try to save his site. he spoke of the extrusion dating pain he felt after the attack. and he said he would never forgive those who had carried it out. >> you are watching bbc world news america. still to come on tonight's program, will 140 characters be a hit on wall street? as twitter is set to go public, we take a look at how the wildly popular company was hatched. for the first time in history, the olympic torch will be taken on a spacewalk. it comes as part of the lead up to the games in sochi. the claim will travel by plane, train, car, even reindeer sleigh during its four-month route.

>> and there it is, our first view of the rocket that will carry the olympic torch into space. it's even got its own winter la big branding -- winter olympics branding. the torch won't actually be burning in the rocket for obvious reasons. it would be much too dangerous and use up precious oxygen. it is not the first olympic torch to go into space. the russians want to go one better for the winter olympics, so it is the first winter la big torch to be taken for a spacewalk. two cosmonauts will take it out into the international space station on saturday. tether have a special attached to it to stop it from flying off into space. here is the rocket close up. a little bit further up, the

third stage of the rocket, and at the top end is the fourth stage. it will carry the cosmonauts and the limbic torch into space. torch into space. to spend is only going a few days in space before coming back down to earth. be taken torch will sochi, where it will be used to light the cauldron in the opening ceremony of february game. >> money, power, friendship and betrayal, all the ingredients of a thriller. but according to our next guest, it is actually the story of twitter. the social media site is expected to have its initial public offering on wall street

tomorrow and already people are asking if it can avoid facebook copy rollout. gosh facebook's bumpy rollout. -- facebook's bumpy rollout. let's start with the news of the week and twitter's ipo. do you think the companies in a position to avoid the facebook fiasco? >> i think they learned a lot from the facebook fiasco. everyone expected it to be worth double. people were saying it was worth $50 billion and they went out at $100 billion. with twitter, it was the exact -- the exact opposite. people are saying it is worth $20 billion and they are out at $11 billion. is a tremendous amount of interest in the stock. they have pushed it up a few dollars here and there, but not in a great way. >> i have to say, what is really fascinating about your book are the personalities.

it is an extraordinary story of these four people who came together initially as friends to create a company. and what happened to them? >> it was for guys who all came from very distinct backgrounds. they were from lower income families, had grown up in small farms and little cities across america. they came to san francisco and to silicon valley in search of what we call the modern day gold rush, to start a -- to build a startup or something like that. and to make some money and maybe actually be a little bit famous. they built this podcasting company called rodeo, that they expected to reinvent radio and overnight, apple came out with something very similar and destroy the company. out of that was this thing called twitter that hatched. it was a peer accident, but would also -- the genesis of the company was this idea to be able to connect with your friends.

>> it is ironic that they created something that allows you to connect better with your friend, but actually ended up destroying their friendship. >> yes, exactly. what happened was, they put this the second it and started, things essentially started to fall apart. one by one, all of the founders eventually pushed each other out of the company until none of them actually worked there on a day-to-day basis anymore. was the name twitter discovered? >> it comes from one of the forgotten founders. his name is noah graff. you will not really hear about him in the press because he was pushed out very early. they were playing around with these different ideas and the concept was that you would update your status on a mobile device to let people know what you were doing and also pay attention to theirs. no i did not like the name and did not think it was very human. he went home and had his phone with him and he kept getting text messages and he turned the phone off.

it vibrated. he thought that would be a good name and then that led him to the word twitch and that went from there until they arrived at twitter. the 50th anniversary of john f. kennedy's assassination is coming. tonight, the controversy on 1991 hollywood film jfk will be really released in american cinemas -- will be re-released in american cinemas. books,ave been magazines, even exhibitions looking at the events surrounding kennedy's untimely death. some 20 or so special television programs on john f. kennedy will air this month. all branches of the media have been energized. there have been anniversaries of jfk exhibitions. then there is the rerelease of

the film jfk. the director is using anniversary to reassert his view that kennedy was not killed by a lone assassin amalie harvey oswald, as the investigator -- by a lone assassin, lee harvey also all, as the investigation found. >> kennedy was killed by government forces. it was certainly a professional job, his assassination. oliver americans share stone's view. a recent poll found 59% believe it was a conspiracy. the lack of information over who killed the president is fueling the fascination. >> 50 years later and people are still coming out with new information about the autopsy, a new greek creation -- a new greek creation. >> for them it is not just the rum of the tragedy, but the glamour of the first lady that is pulling them in.

>> he was an attractive man and his wife was very attractive. that is marketable. if you had a different president that was known for good politics, but did not have the same look, i don't think this friend they would have to occurred -- this friend he would have occurred. -- this frenzy would have occurred. >> bringing to the public a wealth of images and words that pertain to jfk and his assassination. it is the public being brought anything that is new? some of the big players are reluctant to offer anything fresh as far as anyone who might be involved in the conspiracy to kill jfk. >> i will not name names. film,ion is raised in the but i'm not going to go there. it is a headlining grabbing sensation. i don't believe for one second it was lee harvey also all. >> oliver stone went after many of the questions. money is being made off of the

jfk tragedy. intense promotion of the jfk assassination programming and paraphernalia will continue right up to the anniversary on november 22. after it is all over, whether americans will have any greater certainty about their 35th president and how he came to die remains an open question. bbc news, new york. on november 22, there will be blanket coverage, i am sure, of that anniversary. that brings today's broadcast to a close. can look for constant updates on our 20 four hour news network. if you look for the local listing, you can find our channel number there. thank you so much for watching. tune in tomorrow. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits

to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, union bank, and united healthcare. >> my customers can shop around, see who does good work and compare costs. it can also work that way with health care. with united healthcare, i get information on quality ratings of doctors, treatment options, and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me and my guys make informed decisions. i don't like guesses with my business and definitely not with our health. >> that's health in numbers. united healthcare. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries.

what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.