themselves through extortion and smuggling and are relying less on donations from wealthy benefactors, that's according to new bbc research. and macadamia gate. this south korean woman is forced to apologize for delaying a flight over a packet of nuts. hello. the head of the cia has defended his officers as patriots, whilst admitting some had used ha he called abhorrent tactics in the past. in an unprecedented news conference, john brennan said he couldn't prove the harsh treatment made the prisoners cooperate, but he defended the overall interrogation program for stopping attacks and saving lives. >> reporter: the cia's headquarters are situated just outside washington. away from the daily media and the capital. but they are wanting to know if the spy agency's director would describe as torture the harsh interrogation techniques used on suspects in the days after 9/11. >> in a limited number of cases, agency officers used interrogation techniques that had not been authorized, were abhorrent, and rightly should be repudiated by all. >> reporter: he said that after nec 9/11, the agency was under pressure to prevent future attacks and he could not be sure it was waterboarding and sleep deprivation that helped elicit information. >> after having reviewed the documents, there was useful intelligence, very useful, valuable intelligence that was obtained from individuals who had been at some point subject to ed to the eits. whether it could have been obtained without the eits is unknowable. >> reporter: all this took place under the previous administration of george w. bush. those who worked for him have rushed to the spy agency's defense. the debate about who is right and who is wrong goes on. there is a sense of fatigue. a former torture victim john mccain said it was time to consign the debate to the past. >> it is behind us and it's not allowed anymore, so i think that america understands that this was a wrong chapter in our history and now we need to move on. >> in the u.s., president obama has said he does not want to pursue recriminations for cia operatives who overstepped the mark, but after yesterday's frank admission of some failings on the part of the cia all those years ago, he also wants to ensure the agency's credibility can be restored. bbc news, washington. staying in the u.s., the house of representatives has narrowly passed a $1.1 trillion budget just hours before the government was due to shut down at midnight last night. the republican measure passed by 219 votes to 206, clearing the way for a final showdown if the senate. it's a two-year congress that's become notorious for gridlock. police in brazil have arrested a man who claims to have killed 42 people in the last decade in rio de janeiro. he was detained after allegedly stabbing a woman to death. he then confessed to killing another 37 women, three men, and a 2-year-old girl. bill hayden reports. >> reporter: the brazilian man arrested on suspicion of one murder, now confessing to more than 40 over ten years. >> translator: i'd kill, and then leave. i'd kill, stay there for a bit, and then leave. >> reporter: he was arrested in the rio suburb after allegedly stabbing a woman to death. his claim of being a serial killer surprised police and shocked brazilians. most of his alleged victims are thought to be women. experts describe the 26-year-old as a psychopath. he seemed to enjoy the attention. >> translator: i started robbing purses and things like that, little things. and as i got older, i started having different thoughts. from stealing, i started thinking about killing. by the time i was 17, i killed the first person. i felt the adrenaline. >> reporter: police say they are convinced by the detail in his confessions, which they're now checking against their records. in other news, twin bomb blast in nigeria killed at least 30 people. the explosions have been blamed on boko haram. last month alone, almost 800 people alone were killed during bomb and shooting attacks in nigeria. clinical trials of a potential ebola vaccine are being temporarily suspended in geneva after complaints of some painful side effects. they are fine and being monitored regularly. the trial will resume in the new year with up to 15 new volunteers. the oil slick in bangladesh is now 50 kilometers long. the area is home to the world's largest mangrove forest, which is listed as a you necessary co world heritage site. it could threaten a sanctuary for dolphins and ben gal tigers. we have been counting the cost of jihadist violence all over the world. yesterday on this program, we revealed that over 5,000 people were killed by jihadists just in the month of november. well, today, we look at how the organizations that engage in jihadism finance themselves. some facts there. with me is the bbc business correspondent theo leggett. you've been looking at this in more detail. just how sophisticated is the so-called islamic state in terms of financing itself? one question i have is who is buying all the oil and the charcoal? why do they not know where it's coming from? >> so take things in turn. yes, islamic state is extremely sophisticated. think of it as a business, a multi-billion-dollar global business, or international business. they've done this by using the money given to take over territory to acquire natural resources, and in many areas, it's acting almost as a state authority, levying taxes and bringing in money that way. so it has multiple sources of income, which makes it very hard to clamp down on, and that's something that we see with the other sophisticated jihadist groups as well, so for example the taliban in afghanistan, or al shabab. as for where this material goes, it's a bit like laundering money. the whole point of the process is to take an illicit material, pass it through a network of middle men, and pass it off as a legitimate product. for that reason, we don't know who's buying it. because it's passed through the hands of middle men. >> in such large quantities, we know geographically where i.s. is, for example. why haven't they been able to track down who is buying the oil off them and giving them the cash? >> because the people doing it have the expertise to disguise the trades that they're doing. you sell this oil at a discount. so islamic state will not be getting the global oil price, which is around $60 a barrel at the moment. they'll be getting substantially less. and that oil will then be sold on and sold on and sold on. at each stage, the criminal parties involved will be taking a cut and eventually it will appear on the market and it will be diluted, and therefore very difficult to track down. it is interesting to note, though, the fall in the oil price may have done islamic state's finances arguably as much damage as air strikes, because their revenues will have been falling as well. >> it is incredible really to see the scale and the sophistication of these groups now. can they be fought? what can be done? >> it's a catch 22 situation. you can get these groups when they first start up. because at that stage, they tend to be reliant on a few wealthy backers. and those wealthy backers can be targeted by individual sanctions, for example. the problem is, once they reach a critical mass, once they've acquired territory, once they've set up their extortion rings and so on, it becomes very difficult to clamp down on them. you chop one head off and there are plenty of others. you get rid of one source of income, they have lots of others. the only real hope is that the sheer cost of operating territory, and some of these groups do control a lot of territory. they have to from provide services. they act in the role of a government and that becomes very difficult because people expect something in response to the money that they're giving and it's expensive. >> theo, lots more questions, but no more time, unfortunately. thanks very much indeed. stay with us here on "bbc world news." much more to come here. we meet the 85 amazonian artist who fears for the future of his tribe. i don't know! i never met the guy! whaaaaa! he does exist! they do exist! uhm... santa? ♪ wellllll... ♪ earlyfit ♪ latefit ♪ risefit ♪ fallfit ♪ ballfit ♪ wallfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ rowfit ♪ throwfit ♪ slowfit ♪ olliefit ♪ oopsfit ♪ otisfit ♪ thiswayfit ♪ thatwayfit ♪ daddyfit ♪ pappyfit ♪ datefit ♪ weightfit ♪ goalfit ♪ gooooooalfit ♪ stepfit ♪ stairfit ♪ smartfit ♪ heartfit ♪ spinfit ♪ bikefit ♪ hikefit ♪ yikesfit ♪ wheeeeefit ♪ wowfit ♪ whoafit ♪ findyourfit ♪ it's all fitbit zapped it, right to our house. and that's how they got it here. so, santa has a transporter? for the big stuff ... and it's a teleporter. cool. the magic of the season is here, at the lexus december to remember sales event. this is the pursuit of perfection. this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy. our top story today, the director of the cia has defended the agency's use of brutal interrogation techniques in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the united states. here in britain, the prime minister's office has confirmed that british intelligence agencies spoke to their american kou counterparts before the report. here with me is gordon carrera. torture deeply controversial in itself, but just to go over the british angle, what have we learned today that we didn't know? >> well, the prime minister's office said yesterday that there had been contact between britain and the u.s. over this torture report. now, british officials today are suggesting that that's not the case. that the discussions were about making sure that nothing to do with britain's national security was revealed, if you like, about investigations in the publication of that report, rather than actually trying to remove anything about british complicity in those actions. there has been a lot of controversy, a lot of questions about what britain knew about american tactics, about whether they had passed questions, about whether they had even passed prisoners in some cases. there isn't anything about that in the final u.s. senate report. that's led to questions, well, was it removed? what britain seems to be saying is nothing was removed about that issue of complicity. but they've asked a lot of questions here in britain and there's still an investigation of british, parliamentary, rather than the u.s. senate investigation into those questions, which we are still waiting for, and which is expected at some point next year to try and answer that question, what did britain do and what did it know. >> and this is, of course, referring back to the previous government. just to go back to the cia report, it was extraordinary watching that news conference, wasn't it? how damaging has this been to the cia and the way it operates? what in the report has surprised you? >> i think there's lots of issues about damage. there's damage within u.s. public opinion, in terms of support for politicians. there might also be some damage internationally, because other countries did cooperate with the cia. now, they're not named in the report, but everyone knows that there are places like thailand, poland, lithuania, which are thought to have housed some of those secret prisons, and the fact that details of it, even if the names are not in in are in the senate report, has led to quite a lot of anger from those countries and concern about their secrets being outed, which they thought were going to remain secret. so there may be some fallout there. i think whether it causes huge, for instance, anger in other parts of the world, i think in lots of places they already thought and knew the cia did this already. i think that's one of the points about the report. we knew the cia waterboarded already. so it didn't really change that overall perspective. what we got was a lot more detail about it. and some of that detail in itself was quite shocking. there are still some questions unanswered by the report. was it used, waterboarding, for instance, more than we thought, and in other sites. but still i think what we got was a huge accumulation of detail, which has changed i think the public and the international perception of the cia in many ways. >> gordon, many thanks indeed. thanks. china's state media has declared that the pro-democracy movement in hong kong has been defeated. traffic has been moving through the heart of the city for the first time in more than two months, after police cleared the camp and made nearly 250 arrests. the movement's leaders insist they will continue to demand greater for hong kong. i asked our correspondent martin patient how this looks. >> a note of defiance in the chinese state media. they've been celebrating what they regard as the end of these protests. that followed the clearout by police yesterday of the main protest site in the heart of hong kong. they also stated that it was a defeat, serving as a warning to what it called hostile forces from destabilizing the city. chinese state media has said all along that these protests, the trouble was being stirred up from overseas. that, of course, was denied by countries like america and britain. but i think there is a feeling in beijing that it handled these protests well, allowed the protests to dwindle before the police moved in. there was no international condemnation. the protests didn't spread. and as far as beijing, well, beijing would like this to be the end of the issue. >> is that how it seems to be from the point of view of the protesters in hong kong? obviously they did seem to be losing some public support, didn't they? because of the disruption. >> i think what we did see was we saw the protest ramped up a couple months ago. i was there. it was extraordinary. tens of thousands of people in the streets. the numbers did dwindle. there was strong support for the protests. their calls for greater democracy. the protests had been triggered after beijing said it would vet all the candidates for hong kong's elections in 2017. the protests on the streets are over for now, but when you speak to demonstrators, they'll say they may have lost the battle, but their fight for greater political rights will go on. and what these demonstrations did reveal is that there's a large chunk, a large chunk of the population in hong kong that will simply defy beijing's wishes and china's rulers will be worried about that going on going into the future. >> martin patience there. aaron is right here looking at italy. >> a big strike again indeed. italy is bracing itself for a general strike today. it's been organized by -- that's for the next story. in opposition for labor reforms, which have been laid out by the prime minister, matteo renzi. services, schools, all shut across italy today. trade unions want to stop the government reforming the country's labor laws, which they say protect workers from being sacked by unscrupulous firms. but mr. renzi has made the reforms the centerpiece of his plan to lift italy out of years of economic stagnation. so we're going to keep across that general strike. now, let's talk. there you go. let's talk bollywood. the indian film industry is worth some $4 billion and counting, but today we are focusing on one film in particular, because it has earned its place in the bollywood hall of fame for being the world's longest running movie. the film is called -- hang on. >> they've abbreviated it on screen. >> have they really? i tell you what, it sell britted its 1,000th week on screen. it's been playing every day since it opened on october 25th, 1995. apparently it's made something like $20 million. and you have not seen it. >> no, i haven't. i went to see paddington and that was delightful. >> follow me on twitter @bbcaaron. i'm going to go. take it over. >> sea you soon. thank you. now we go to south korea because an airline executive has made a very public apology. she had caused a flight to be delayed because she was unhappy with the way she was served some nuts. stephen evans in seoul has the details. >> cho heun gave an amazingly abject apology for her tantrum on the flight where she objected very strongly in first class to the fact that the nuts came not in a bowl or a plate, but in a bag, and she had -- she's the eldest daughter of the chairman. she had the plane turned back and the steward, the offending steward put off. today she apologized. she came in in a long black coat, her head about, very white-faced and spoke so softly that you couldn't actually hear what she said with the noise of the cameras. there was an absolute army of cameras and the clicking was so loud that you couldn't hear her apology. but it transpired that she apologized for her behavior and she was going to apologize personally to the cabin crew, who she had turned on back last friday. now, beyond that, her father, the chairman of the company, also apologized. he said that he wanted to apologize as the chairman of the company, but also as a father, because clearly he had done something wrong. so this story which started out as a bit of a joke really, a bit of an end of bulletin story, if you like, a bit of a funny is now morphing into something much more serious, and it's causing quite a lot of introspection and debate about wealth and the behavior of the rich here in korea. >> watch your manners when you're flying. steve evans there in seoul for us. now, the palico tribe live in the amazon in and around the borders of brazil and french giana. this man is 85 years old and he fears his people's language and culture could die out within 20 years. >> translator: my mother named me after a hummingbird in the forest because she thought it was beautiful. and so she gave me this name. i am an artist of the palico of people. i didn't know i was an artist until the white man told me that i was. the first sculptures of i did were of animals. a jaguar, kaman, and a condor. and then i started making sculptures about the stars. the biggest star is known as the seven stars. it's the star that governs all stars. the story goes that his boat is capable of sheltering everyone. every star has a story. the young people aren't interested. they don't want to learn to become an artist. they are abandoning our indigenous culture. my knowledge has not been spread, and so these seeds have not been planted. the seed has stayed with me and will die with me. who knows if our own language will survive more than 20 years. are we going to abandon our own language? because if we do that, one day the indigenous will disappear from the map. when i die, who is going to teach the young? our language will disappear along with all that knowledge. >> tribal elder in the amazon. we are back in five minutes with a full look at all the top stories. 3rd and 3. 58 seconds on the clock, what am i thinking about? foreign markets. asian debt that recognizes the shift in the global economy. you know, the kind that capitalizes on diversity across the credit spectrum and gets exposure to frontier and emerging markets. if you convert 4-quarter p/e of the s&p 500, its yield is doing a lot better... if you've had to become your own investment expert, maybe it's time for bny mellon, a different kind of wealth manager ...and black swans are unpredictable. it's part of a hershey's bar. we break it. we bite it. we sneak it. we smoosh it. we savor it. we love it. hershey's is mine, yours, our chocolate. doctors have been prescribingdecade, this is "bbc world news." our top stories. the cia director defends his agency against charges of torture. but admits some interrogation techniques were abhorrent. >> our reviews indicate that the detention and interrogation program produced useful intelligence that helped the united states thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives. jihadist groups are funding themselves through extortion, smuggling, and ransom money for hostages. that's according to new bbc research. we'll hear about the tough decisions governments take to get their citizens back. china says hong kong's umbrella movement is finished, as traffic replaces protesters in one of hong kong's main streets. >> for the first time in two and a half months, this main intersection that runs in the heart of hong kong's financial district has reopened to traffic. and we'll speak to the researcher who says he's found proof that men really do act more stupidly than women. hello. abhorrent, but still perhaps useful and valuable. that was the verdict from the head of america's cia on the treatment of some terror suspects at the hands of his operatives. john brennan made the remarks in a rare news conference where he said that the policy of seizing suspected militants and then subjecting them to at times brutal interrogations had to be seen in the context of america's drive to stop terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attack on new york. here's a little of what he had to say. >> there is no way to know whether or not some information that was obtained from an individual who had been subjected at some point during his confinement could have been obtained through other means. it's an unknowable fact. so i think what the agency's point has been consistently, and what certainly my view is after having reviewed the documents, is that there was useful intelligence, very useful, valuable intelligence that was obtained from individuals who had been at some point subjected to the eits. whether that could have been obtained without the use of those eits is something, again, that is unknowable. >> john brennan there talking about eits. that stands for enhanced interrogation techniques. some critics have condemned it's an attempt to talk about torture by another name. it has been confirmed by the british prime minister's office that the british security services had spoken to their american counterparts and asked for redactions to the senate committee report on security grounds. malcolm riffken heads the agency. >> i had a conversation with the head of the intelligence agency and he stated quite categorically what we have now heard publicly that there were no requests to redact or to conceal anything in the report that referred to any allegations of united kingdom complicity in the treatment of detainees. that the only redactions that were being requested were with regard to operational matters, which were genuine national security issues. that's what he has said to us, of course, as part of our inquiry. we will look into that further to be absolutely satisfied. >> ben emerson is the u.n.'s special reporter on counterterrorism and human rights. he gave me his reaction to the report. >> the response to the report is unequivocal. we have called for the reopening by the department of justice and attorney general eric holder of criminal investigations. not just into the perpetrators themselves, but into those who organized and authorized the program, and those who gave it legal justification. >> it looks like that is not going to happen? >> well, the pressure will continue, and the requests will continue to be made. in 2009, eric holder gave what was in effect an immunity to cia officers for acts of torture. that's unlawful. it's in breach of the united states' obligations to the u.n. and we will continue to press for that to be reopened. >> what do you say to those people -- i mean, we've seen dick cheney and others defend the actions of the cia, saying that this report is nonsense and that they basically had to do whatever they could to secure public safety in the aftermath of what was a horrific crime. they were fearful of others. >> well, i listened with some skepticism to self-serving accounts by former politicians who were implicated in this process. greater attention i think should be paid to the position taken by john brennan, the director of the cia, which amounts in effect not to a defense of the program, but to a plea in mitigation. >> well, he does say that the detention interrogation program did produce useful intelligence that helped the u.s. thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives. >> actually, that's a selective quotation. he was absolutely unequivocal in his statement yesterday that there was no evidence whatsoever that any valuable or actionable intelligence was obtained as the result of torture or enhanced interrogation techniques. >> he said it was not concluded that it was the use of these eits that allowed us to get the useful information, but he says that in his view, that is unknowable. that is the case, isn't it? >> well, the position is absolutely clear as far as the feinstein report is concerned, which is that nothing emerged from that process which is of any value at all. >> but how is that report something that you can trust in given it is seen as being politically partisan in the united states. >> well, they had access to all the relevant information. let's just be clear. first of all, the question of whether actionable intelligence was derived is a red herring. torture is a crime, regardless of its purported justification and the fact that information may or may not have been obtained doesn't provide any lawful excuse whatsoever. >> you call it torture. they call it enhanced interrogation. >> the president of the united states calls it torture and made it absolutely clear three months into his first term of office that waterboarding is torture. that is the view of the international community. it is unequivocally correct, it is a clear violation of the torture convention. >> hasn't the international community actually flipped over the other side in wanting, understandably, to preserve liberal values? you are taking on an enemy that doesn't fight by these rules and therefore if you're going to safeguard the public across the world, perhaps international law has to change. not to condone torture, but to certainly, you know, allow for tougher techniques of interrogation. >> well, what we're talking about here is torture. we're talking about waterboarding. we're talking about hanging people by their arms for hours on end. we're talking about anal rape. that's what happened in these cases. there's no question but that it's torture. in terms of the impact around the world, let me tell you this. we received the security council's monitoring, which looks at security threats, received information yesterday indicating that jihadists associated with isis are encouraging the negotiation that detainees now held by isis should be subjected to the same methods of enhanced interrogation that the united states used. >> that's surely taking it -- sorry, but to say that isis is copying what the u.s. is doing. isis's methods are universally condemned as being utterly barbaric. >> absolutely. what i'm saying, what i'm saying is that there is a leadership responsibility on the united states to carry through its commitment and to prosecute those who committed this crime. >> but you have to allow the u.s. authorities to go about the job of safeguarding the public, faced with an unprecedented and new global threat on an enormous scale. >> of course. but they have to do so consistent with the international legal obligations. >> ben emmerson, the u.n. special reporter on counterterrorism and human rights. i just want to let you know that frank gardner has just said that downing street is insisting that none of the redactions that have been mentioned in the senate intelligence committee report on the cia relate to any allegations of uk involvement on the mistreatment of prisoners. they say that these are requests were made agency to agency, and are about protecting sources and other national security issues rather than to try to cover up any embarrassing revelations. there's a lot of coverage of that here in the uk today. more, of course, on our website. we'll be staying in the u.s. the house of representatives has narrowly passed a $1.1 trillion budget. just hours before the government was due to shut down at midnight last night. the republican measure passed by 219 votes to 206, clearing the way for a final showdown in the senate on the bill. it's the last major measure of a two-year congress that's become notorious for being gridlocked. let's turn to another aspect of militantcy now. we've been investigating how jihadi groups have been able to finance the themselves. it could be a group to raise funds and the success or failure of any military action. the five richest jihadist groups have an estimated net income of $2.6 billion a year. the group is the wealthiest with most of its money coming from oil, creating an income of around a million dollars every day. another key source, the uk is trying to close loopholes, which mean insurance companies could reimburse those who do. this from our correspondent paul adams. >> reporter: when hostages are freed and returned to their countries and their families, the relief and the joy are palpable. but there are always questions. how did this happen? and did money change hands? when the kidnappers are jihadi terrorist groups, the paying of ransoms is illegal. when g8 members met in northern ireland last year, they agreed unanimously not to do it. and yet, many do. >> it's clear that ransoms continue to be paid to al qaeda groups and individuals in breach of u.n. sanctions. and this isn't small change. we're talking about millions of dollars every year flowing the listed al qaeda groups. >> reporter: the u.n. says it's a growing problem. it says around $120 million in ransom payments were made to terrorist groups between 2004 and 2012. in the last year alone, the group known as islamic state made as much as $45 million. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula received $20 million between 2011 and 2013, and al qaeda in magreb made $75 million over the past four years. >> kidnapping, extortion to try and keep their funds coming in. >> reporter: for those who handle kidnap and ransom cases all over the world, the ban on paying money to some kidnappers is a challenge to a well-established model. >> if we look at the overall crime throughout the world, the majority are sorted out by ransoms and negotiated settlements rather than the full amount. but if we were confronted with a case against prescribed terrorist organization, the first and most important piece of advice that we'd give our client is they need to declare that to the authorities in their home nation as soon as possible. >> reporter: all the main players in the kidnap and ransom industry, including risk consultants and insurance companies, many of them based in london, say they already abide by the rules, but the british government says there are loopholes and it wants to close them. >> to put an end to uncertainty about insurance and reinsurance payments for kidnap and ransom and to help prevent an important element of terrorist financing. the bill will amend existing law, to make sure uk-based insurance firms do not provide cover for the payment of terrorist ransoms. >> kidnap insurance is a sensitive business. the companies we contacted did not want to be interviewed. but in a statement, one of the biggest insurers said its policies already exclude reimbursement for any illegally paid ransoms, including payments made to prescribed or terrorist organizations. but the company's head of special risks sounded a warning. incidents involving prescribed organizations, he said, may now be even more complex and difficult to manage. within the past week, two hostages, luke somers and pierre korkie have been killed in a failed rescued by. a third, a frenchman, finally freed after three years in captivity. when dealing with terrorists, do you negotiate, pay, or fight to get your citizens back? there are no easy answers. paul adams, bbc news. china's state media has declared that the pro democracy movement in hong kong has been defeated. traffic has been moving through the heart of the city for the first time in more than two months after police cleared the camp and made nearly 250 arrests. but the movement's leaders insist they will continue to demand greater democracy for hong kong. as babita sharma reports. >> reporter: life has resumed in hong kong. for the first time in two and a half months, this main intersection that runs in the heart of hong kong's financial district has reopened to traffic. looking at the scene here, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the umbrella revolution didn't take place. but take a closer look and you might just spot the odd discarded metal railing, a sign of the protest movement. and a closer look at this tiny sign that says so much. we will be back. that is the question on everybody's lips here today. what will become of political reforms in hong kong and what is the future of the pro democracy movement? >> babita sharma there in hong kong. officials in bangladesh say the oil slick created when a barge sank is now 50 kilometers long. local residents have been mobilized to collect the oil. the area is home to the world's largest mangrove forest. the authorities say the spill could threaten a sanctuary for dolphins and the habitat for the royal bengal tigers. stay with us here on msnbc msnbc. reckless, foolish, and too keen to make an impression. just part of the male idiot theory which claims women really are smarter than men. we'll explain why. it is official, we gave the people what they wanted. the nation's strongest lte signal. this is a big deal! soak it in! just let it wash over you like a warm bath. and you want to get an mba. but going back to school is hard. because you work. now capella university offers a revolutionary new way to get your degree. it's called flexpath, and it's the most direct path, leveraging what you've learned on the job and focusing on what you need to know. so you can get a degree at your pace and graduate at the speed of you. flexpath from capella university. learn about all of our programs at capella.edu. the director of the cia has again defended the agency's use of brutal interrogation techniques in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the united states. jihadist groups are funding themselves through extortion, smuggling and ransom money for hostages. that's according to new bbc research. now, a journalist who has been detained in iran for more than four months has been formally charged. "the washington post" reporter jason resign was detained in july along with his iranian-born wife, who is also a journalist. it's not clear what he's been charged with. western news organizations, including the bbc, have difficulty operating in iran, often facing detention and surveillance. with me now is his brother. thanks for joining us. when was he picked up and what happened? >> he was picked up on july 22nd at his home. they came to his house. they took his wife and himself away. they ransacked his house, took computers, phones, those types of thing. >> and what reasons were given, if any? >> there were no reasons given at all. for the first 30 days, we department know where they were and it took seven days before they even admitted that they had them in custody. >> and he's been very unwell? >> yeah, his health has been getting much worse. he has had chronic problems with high blood pressure. but he's had several infections that have been untreated, for over a month sometimes and we know that his mental condition is deteriorating as well. >> do you know where he is being held and what the conditions are? >> we know he's being held in evan prison in northern teheran. he's in solitary confinement and has been since he went there, 142 days ago. and, you know, it's not a pleasant place. >> his wife was picked up, but she was released. is she able to see him? what contact have you been able to have with him? >> yes, so she's able to see him typically once or twice a week. they have short visits. she can go there. and, you know, she's told us about certain things about his physical condition and they're able to talk and communicate. >> some people say look, he was working for "the washington post," he was born in the states. >> correct. >> israeli security risk. a spy. all that sort of thing. people are bound to ask these questions, aren't they? >> yeah, it happens. but i think if you look at the work that he's done over the years, he's really been a very fair journalist. he was focused on the social aspects of iran and how to let people know about the culture of iran. and didn't focus as much on politics. >> you're an iranian family. >> that's correct, my father was iranian. >> what help have you had diplomatically on this and what will happen now that he's been charged? >> we've had a little bit of help from the state department. they've been in touch and they've been working with iranians because the negotiations that are going on. we've also had a lot of support from "the washington post," jason's employer. >> what do you think is going to happen now? obviously it must be very, very difficult not able to speak to him yourself. >> yeah, it is. last week he was charged officially, but we don't know with what. and the next step will be them setting a trial date. which at that point, they're claiming that he'll have access to a lawyer. >> and you don't have any idea what charges he's facing? >> no, i don't. >> how much of a stress and a toll has this taken on your family? >> it's been very difficult. i think if you look at myself, i've had to put a lot of my life on hold. my mom's been very stressed, and other folks as well. the folks in iran are also having a lot of issues. it's just taking a very heavy toll on everybody. >> many thanks indeed, and of course, there are more details on our website if you want to find out more. italy's two biggest union groups are staging a general strike. marchers have taken to the streets in 50 of italy's largest cities in a protest against class reform labor laws. the government says the changes are needed to boost the country's economy. two of the most powerful figures in hollywood have apologized for making jokes about president obama's race in the latest e-mails to be leaked following a massive hacking attack. the sony boss and the oscar-winning producer scott ruden both said they regretted the insensitive remarks about president obama and also about angelina jolie. angelina jolie was referred to as a minimally talented spoiled brat. she's a camp event and a celebrity and that's all. and another e-mail exchange, amy pascal discussed what she said to talk to the president obama about at an upcoming fundraiser. should i ask him if he liked django, referring to quentin tarantino's movie. they have now profusely apologized after the e-mails were leaked. amy pascal said, i accept full responsible for what i wrote and apologize to everyone who was offended. scott ruden accepted that his comments were insensitive and made a series of remarks that were meant only to be funny, but in the cold light of day they are in fact thoughtless and insensitive and not funny at all, he said. to avoid litigation, no link between that story and this one, but here is a talking point for you. are men just late bit more stupid than women? that's the rather provocative suggestion from research published in the british medical journal. the team looked at bizarre deaths or injuries as reported to the darwin awards website, which keeps records of stupid deaths. and nine times more men than women were involved. they include a construction worker who was crushed to death after knocking down all of the building's support columns while still inside it. or the group of drinkers who decided to play russian roulette with a landmine instead of a pistol when it all went off. they all died. or the militant killed by his own letter bomb when he opened it after-returned to him because he hasn't put sufficient postage on it. so why are men apparently so much more likely to do this sort of thing than women? let's hear from one of the researchers, andy gray, a consultant at the royal victoria infirmary in the newcastle of england. tell us why you think this has been happening. >> i think it's -- i think we see commonly that males are more likely to injure themselves under unusual and perhaps self-inflicted circumstances. and that's been fairly well-documented. but this was just a bit of fun. the british medical journal articles would cheer everybody up at christmas. >> are you going to be accused of bad taste for a start as well as sexism? >> well, no, i don't think so. i'm sure females will see this as perhaps an obvious statement, and just thought we'd have a look at it. it may be genetically we're just up against it, but there's obviously social and other factors. alcohol may play a part, and also trying to show off to peers and girlfriends. >> most of my female friends will say when you leave a man to look after a child, they're not careful. they are a bit reckless. and you see that all the time. is that just part of normal male testosterone genetic makeup? is that what this is about? >> possibly. it's interesting, we work at a major trauma center. there is a serious note to this as well. we see a lot of young males that do injure themselves. but increasingly older people, as people become more active in their 50s and 60s, they still want to ride motor bikes and that kind of thing. we've actually looked at this demographically. the really serious injuries that we see are a much older population than we expected. so perhaps the guy in his 50s and 60s that crashes his motorbike. i'm in my 40s, a keen cyclist. it's another way to potentially injure yourself. it's the new golf, so to speak. >> but what do you think, seriously, medically is the explanation here then? >> i think we're more likely to take risks. we're involved in activities that are risky, and certainly -- >> and what makes you more likely to take those risks? >> we looked at 400 cases and 90% of them were males. so the statistics speak for themselves. i think alcohol undoubtedly plays a part here. there's different levels of drunkenness where you become attractive, where you become able to dance, and then you become invisible, and finally you become bulletproof. so i have only limited experience of that myself, obviously. >> but is that sort of male cockiness and aggression, is that what makes men take these risks? >> i'm sure testosterone is the main cause, absolutely. >> i thought so. many thanks indeed. lovely to see you. thanks very much indeed. we leave you with this. a sneaky catch seems to have found a way around the rising f food prices in russia. he made his way into the window display of a fish shop to nibble his way through a feast of squid, sea bass, and pike, causing more than a thousand dollars in damages. it was all caught on video by passersby. i bet that was indeed a male cat. we are back on monday. have a lovely weekend. thanks for joining us. ow! so you think santa will like these... red and green m&m's? i don't know! i never met the guy! whaaaaa! he does exist! they do exist! uhm... santa? ♪ wellllll... ♪ earlyfit ♪ latefit ♪ risefit ♪ fallfit ♪ ballfit ♪ wallfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ rowfit ♪ throwfit ♪ slowfit ♪ olliefit ♪ oopsfit ♪ otisfit ♪ thiswayfit ♪ thatwayfit ♪ daddyfit ♪ pappyfit ♪ datefit ♪ weightfit ♪ goalfit ♪ gooooooalfit ♪ stepfit ♪ stairfit ♪ smartfit ♪ heartfit ♪ spinfit ♪ bikefit ♪ hikefit ♪ yikesfit ♪ wheeeeefit ♪ wowfit ♪ whoafit ♪ findyourfit ♪ it's all fitbit but the comfort it provides is it's justimmeasurable.ece the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes, every day. so this season give something that means something. hello, and welcome to "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm stephen sackur. our top stories. britain feels the fallout from the cia torture report as it's revealed uk and u.s. intelligence officials were in close contact during the investigation of cia abuses. a british government denies allegations that it asked the americans to cover up uk complicity in the torture of terror suspects. the suffering of thousands on mount sinjar. we have an exclusive report from in