we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. hat can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news" america." >> this is "bbc world news" america." reporting from washington. security forces take aim at the former president's supporters in egypt. we're there on the scene. at least 17 have been killed in a day of clashes. >> unless they can channel all of this into political action and not into street protests, it's a recipe for more violence. >> syria's brutal civil war. tonight the man known as the cannibal rebel speaks to the bbc about why he did it. and scanning the skies for alien life.

british telescopes join the quest to answer the eternal question, is anything out there? welcome to our viewers on public television in america and around the globe. tonight there are running clashes in egypt and just two days after the army seized control, soldiers have opened fire on supporters of the former government in cairo. at least three people were killed in that incident and 17 overall. a military spokesman claimed soldiers fired only blank rounds but our middle east editor, jeremy bowen witnessed the killing of one man. he sent this report, which you may find distressing. >> throughout the morning, thousands of supporters of president morsi and the muslim brother hood converged on the

squares and mosque they've nominated for what they call the friday of rejection. to start with there was some black humor. in the streets around the mosque where the brother hood has been staging a sit-in for the last two weeks. tense of thousands were there. -- tens of thousands were there. the prayers were long and impassioned, calling for got to help them through their ordeal. these are deeply religious people. over a generation since it was founded in 1928, the muslim brotherhood has built loyalty to providing the closest support of egypt to a welfare state. legal help and religious guidance. when the prayers ended, the

slogan started. [chanting] >> they believe that by removing a president a year after he won an election around the world, the egyptian democracy has stolen their newfound democracy. >> where? where? >> one of the brotherhood's senior leaders spelt out their position. ballot against the boxes and against the people's will. illions will will stay here to block the coup and bring back the elected president. >> across cairo and in other

major cities, the army deployed to be ready for the merges the muslim brotherhood had promised. the troops are supported by millions of egyptians who wanted the president and the muslim brotherhood out, who denied that this was a military coup, who say the army is restoring their revolution. perhaps 2,000 supporters of president morsi marched to a military compound, the officers club of the presidential guard. soldiers were waiting, but for trouble. many in the crowd believe that this is where the army is holding president morsi. an officer warned them not to cross the road in front of the bails. he told them they were free to demonstrate.

but the crowd got bigger and more angry. marshals from the muslim brotherhood couldn't hold them ack. seconds after they spilled into the road, soldiers started shooting live bullets into the air. less than a minute later, i saw army gun girls load and firing nto a crowd. -- gun barrels load and firing into a crowd. a man was killed instantly. other protesters tried first aid to save a wounded man. he said they've attacked our brothers. this is forbidden, not accepted by god. they've attacked our brothers and killed them. the army fired tear gas and

shotguns into the crowd. the bbc team was in a group that was hit by shotgun pellets. there are powerful forces arrayed against each other. on one hand, the muslim brother hood with deem roots in the communities. on the other, the army seized control of the country and wants to hold it. unless they can channel all of this into political action and not street protests, it's a recipe for more violence. the violence continued after dark. running battles spread to one of the bridges over the nile in cairo that lead to tahrir square, the center of protests against president morsi. the dreams of a better life that so many had after the overflow of the old mubarek regime faded away long ago. now what matters is stopping the nightmare getting worse.

>> for more on the volatile situation in egypt, i spoke a brief time ago with a visiting egyptian professor at the national defense university. kareem, you are a career diplomat under president mubarek. how dangerously polarized is egypt tonight? >> well, i think that the starting point, i think, is to comprehend the magnitude of what we've seen in egypt. i mean, the latest crisis, of course, was trigered by a protest movement that has been building up over the course of the last year and what we've seen on the streets of cairo starting from june 30 and over the course of the next few days was that over 20 million egyptians have taken to the streets against president morsi. that, i think, by all accounts has truly been an historic milestone. we may be looking at the largest political demonstration in recent history. >> but even so has the army

overreached itself by supporting an elected president? >> i think in terms of the army's motivations, i think the military was extremely reluctant to take this step. they did not want the developments to reach a crisis point. i think time and again they sought to defuse the political situation by urging president morsi to reconcile with the broad majority of egyptians who feel that he had cheated them of their revolution in 2011 and as the army and the protesters recognize those efforts had failed. >> so is that at the roots of the turmoil? has that dashed expectations? >> i think most egyptians feel their revolution has gone astray. the aspirations for a more inclusive government, for a more pluralistic political order were not realized over the last year

and hence we've seen this groundswell of opposition take root in the streets, not only of cairo, but those 20 million egyptians have been protesting nationwide, both in cairo and in the other provinces throughout the country. >> how can the divide now be healed? what's the best way forward? >> not only, as the military has mentioned but the wrong coalition that were represented in the trees -- streets of cairo. the campaign that launched the recent waves of protests, the opposition movements that joined those protests, one theme they have emphasized is the need for national reconciliation. >> what does that mean? >> that means that the door is wide open for the political justice army, the political arm of the muslim brother hood to come to the table and join the negotiations for the transitional phase.

>> but why should anyone have any faith in elections after what's happened? >> if we go back to the election of president morsi. he was elected by a theiro margin of 00,000 votes. roughly 1.3% of the vote that was in the last presidential elections. i think, as president obama said, elections do not mean democracy. democracy ultimately rests on it will of the governed and i think as we've seen over the last few days, the current government has lost it will and consent of the government. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> in other news, the diplomatic row over the whereabouts of edward snowden has taken another twist in bolivia, leftest supporters rallied in a show of support for president evo morales. evidence was that mr. guroden

was -- snowden was on the plane earlier in week when it was denied european access. to be his predecessors declared saints by pope francis. the vatican recently credited john paul ii with the performance of a miracle, a development that clears his path to sainthood. the syrian rebel fighter who provoked outrage and horror when pictures emerged of him eating body parts of a boston soldier has told the bbc he had to do it so terrify and humiliate his enis -- enemies. he's the leader of a group of swivelians who stand accused of killing. a warning, this report contains very disturbing images and

content. >> sierra has been a brutal and brutalizing conflict. the rebels have been fighting like this for two years. desperate, often one-sided battle. one of the very first men to take up arms has earned a terrible notoriety. abu sakar is known as the cannibal rebel. not a far fetchled claim. he stands over a fallen enemy slicing into the body. we will eat your hearts and your livers, he declares. ritual bite. a this was a depraveled act against men's law, against god's law. are you sorry that you did it?

i didn't want to do this. i had to, he says. we have to terrify the enemy, humiliate them, just as they do to us. then they won't dare to be herever sbu-sakar is after months of this he wanted to fit back. like many in rebel-held areas, he'd lost people. what if they took your father and mother away and slaughtered your brothers and uncle and aunt? all this happened to me. they slaughtered my neighbors. he's talking about the jabar massacre. abu sakar says he's fighting the man who did this.

akar has been accused of shelling in lebanon. he has this warning -- if we don't get help, he says, a no-fly zone, heavy weapons, we will do worse. you've seen nothing yet. how should we interpret what we just heard? this could be an example of a man who was mentally disturbed all along or it could be that the war made him this way. it's impossible to tell. worrying is the things he's done and why hasn't he been arrested? the top general says he condemns asks u sakar did but he -- >> why do our friends in the west focus on this when thousands are dying?

we are a revolution, not a structured army. if we were we would have saka.ed abu t he defines his own battalion. is the west asking me to fight him too? t vladimir putin says abu is apse -- sakar reveals the real character. these are people who open up their bodies and eat their intestines in front of the public and their cameras. are these the people you want to supply with weapons? abu sakar says he's ready to stand trial, but only if president assad does too. eanwhile, syria's descent into madness continues.

>> you're watching "bbc world news" america." still to come, could video game technology help children with chronic pain? we look at how doctors are trying to treat a painful illness. in the united states, news that more people will be popular spot is coney island.

ben bernanke suggests the reserve bank could start withdrawing its support since the economy has improveled. so what's going on? >> we are up and down and kind of spinning around. jonathan core pena says the end of cheap money is sending financial markets into a tailspin. >> we've gotten back on our feet again and the concrete is pretty solid underneath us but moving forward without the government help, some are apprehensive of that. >> cheap money printed by the u.s. central bank has helped the u.s. economy but also made government bonds less profitable to own. so getting the exit right is important, not just for the economy but also to avoid a nasty financial shock, and in this, communication is crucial. >> not only is the fed using communication to try to convey to markets what new policy tools

they have, they're trying to use communication itself as a tool, trying to market expectations. >> this friday, not everyone ill get a break. >> pain is something that everyone experiences but imagine if it was severe and constant with nobody knowing the cause. doctors in the u.s. are struggling to understand the disease that affects children. the syndrome is triggered by a minor injury that severely disrupts the nervous system. doctors here in washington are now using video game technology to help symptoms. >> i never thought i'd actually see one. >> a trip to the national history museum is a treat for 10-year-old kimberley but just to get through the day she's had

to increase her normal dose of powerful narcotic painkillers. >> all the medicine she's on normally will not will given to children but only to adults. she only gets them in extreme emergency sis. if i did not give her tramadol for 20 hours, she'd not be able to move. >> kimberley has a disorder of the nervous system that doctors are just beginning to understand. part of her treatment involve stimulating her senses in the homes of changing the way her brain registers pain. >> i guess they stimulate your mood. >> the symptom started after kimberley broke her toe. the injury hear or -- healed by the pain remains and now affects her body. >> it hurts but like a million

times worse. like a broken bone or a broken just popped out of my skin. it's like i've been teased for it and bullied for it and i've been told that i'm right but i'm not. >> doctors confirm that kimberley's illness is ream. >> absolutely no question. this is a dysfunction of the nervous system. we're not sure if that is something genetic that's been turned on. we're not sure if an illness precip tates it followed by a tiny injury that sets it off. what i want you to do is watch the game and use -- >> this interactive video game is part of kimberley's physical therapy. the national children's medical center is the only facility in the country that uses game

technology to measure and treat caron i think -- chronic pain. >> when i first came here i was in a wheelchair and now that i've gotten better, i can use the bigger screen. >> this 11-year-old developed the illness after banging her knee. >> you can't do anything, like you're hopeless and you don't want to do anything that you're used to doing. you don't want to do your daily routine. you just don't want to. >> treatment here has helped enormously but there's still no cure. >> no one wants to see their child in pain and you can't do anything about it. you can't take it away and no one can tell you how to fix it. i think that's the worst part. >> after a long day, kimberley's medication is wearing off. >> what's wrong? >> my feet hurt. >> what's your pain level?

>> make it 70. >> we'll find a place for you to sit down. >> at the moment she can only manage her illness but it's hoped that technology can one day tell her brain that her body no longer hurts. >> now to the u.k.. for the first time astronomers are scanning the universe for signs of alien life. scientists monitoring transmissions from black holes say the data may include extra forest yul signals. our science correspondent has more. >> the night sky is littered with stars. we now know around many of them are planets, some probably capable of supporting life. astronomers in the u.s. have been scanning the skies for

radio signals from advanced civilizations for nearly 100 years. now britain has begun its own search. >> it's the most powerful radio telescope in the u.k. and it's connected up to six others across the country. they're gathering up vast amounts of information from across the universe. astrom mists want to find out if amongst all that data is a gnal from advanced civilization in a faraway world. the team here are monitoring signals from stars and planets and black holes. somewhere in there may be a presentation from another world. >> it's impossible to say how likely we are to detect a signal that we doesn't know exist. could be the chances are very low. but i'm sure if we detected that it would be the most im--

incredible thing we've ever done. >> for decades humility has speculated about the contact with alien planets. some say that public money shouldn't be used but those involved in the project disagree. >> you can imagine a daughter asking her father, are there other people on stars? he could say well, there could be but we decided not to spend the money. >> many here believe that there's only a small chance of receiving a signal from aliens from outer space. but if we do, we'll know for sure that humanity is not alone in the universe. >> but if the aliens are trying to reach us are their intentions

friendly? that brings today's show to a close. find much more on all today's news. have a great weekend. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in. working to nurture new ventures

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