08/08/2014 BBC News at Six

Islamist militants in Iraq, launching an air strike in the north

of the country. This is thought to be the moment American warplanes

struck in Iraq for the first time since 2011. President Obama said it

was time to act. When we have the unique capabilities to help avert a

massacre, I believe the United States of America cannot turn a

blind eye. We can act, carefully and responsibly, to prevent a potential

act of genocide. Aid is finally delivered to a community trapped by

the fighting. Britain says it will assist in air drops. We'll be

looking at what the action means for Iraq. Fighting resumes in Gaza after

a three-day ceasefire ends. A ten-year-old boy is killed.

The World Health Organisation declares the Ebola outbreak in West

Africa an international emergency. How much is too much for breast

cancer treatment? The NHS says no to a ?90,000 drug.

And sun, sea and sanctions - why more parents than ever are being

fined for taking their children out of school to go on holiday.

Bromley's waste mountain, how hundreds of thousands of pounds have

been spent fighting fires there. And guilty of terror charges, the

man who tried to flee the country on the Eurostar.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six. Almost three years

after withdrawing its troops from Iraq, the United States has carried

out military action against Islamist militants in the north of the

country. Just hours after President Obama authorised their use, the US

launched an airs trike targeting fighters from the Islamic State,

formerly known as ISIS, who now control large areas of Iraq and

Syria. The attack hit artillery used by the militants near Irbil. Earlier

this week, the Islamists took Qaraqosh, Iraq's biggest Christian

town. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people from the minority Yazidi

sect remain surrounded and trapped on Mount Sinjar, without food or

water. Today, the Government here said British forces would assist in

carrying out air drops as part of the humanitarian effort to the

Yazidi community. In a moment we'll get the latest from Washington, but

first here's our diplomatic correspondent, James Robbins. For

months the extremists of ISIS now calling themselves simply Islamic

State have been pumping out video as they seize more and more of Iraq,

threatening the break-up of the country. But now for the first time

the Islamists have come under direct American attack. The Pentagon says

two F/A-18 aircraft dropped laser-decided bombs on middles

shedding Kurdish forces. These are thought to be first pictures of an

American strike. America acted because this city of Irbil is under

threat. There are US personnel there, but President Obama keeps

stressing the limits of his action. To stop the events on Irbil I've

directed our military to take targeted strikes against ISIL

terrorist convoys should they move towards the city. But Washington is

also committed to helping religious minorities facing massacre by the

Islamists. These pictures of the Yazidi people fleeing for their

lives on to a barren mountain without food or water shocked the

world. Today, speaking from the mountain, one of their leaders

stressed their vulnerability. TRANSLATION: The clashes now is very

close from where I stand and now there is clashes among the final

line of resistance. They will kill all of us and we don't think we have

enough time. Now the first supplies have reached some of the Yazidi.

Iraqi authorities say these pictures, although impossible to ver

fireworks show a helicopter delivering aid. The Yazidi religion

is older than Christianity or Islam but is enough to make them targets

of the extremists who overran their town. When we face a situation like

we do on that mountain, with innocent people facing the prospect

of violence on a horrific scale, when we have a mandate to help, in

this case a request from the Iraqi Government, and when we have the

unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, I believe the United

States of America cannot turn a blind eye. Facing this crisis let's

look first at the plight of the Yazidi people, forced to flee their

homes and seek refuge here high up on the barren slopes of the

mountains above sin iar. Iar. Sinjar. They took the only road up

the mountain. We have reports that some essential supplies have

apparently been delivered from the air in an effort to keep them alive.

What if the Islamist extremists pursue them up the mountain? The

hope is is they will be spotted and attacked by American aircraft. The

other minority under threat by jihadists the Christian community.

Qaraqosh has already fallen. Among those Christians who do escape, some

have reached the Kurdish city of Irbil. As Christian refugees

streamed into Irbil, passing Kurdish forces defending the city, Iraq's

persecuted minority are urging the outside world to do more to protect

them. In Brussels some of the extended families of the Yazidi

trapped on the mountainside appealed for action to eend what they cool a

genocide. In London, an emergency meeting of Ministers authorised

British military involvement in relief missions to drop aid but not

in any sort of combat mission. Our focus is on assisting that

humanitarian mission and in using our military in support of the

Americans, in terms of refuelling and surveillance and no one pin

their mission and to add to it with food drops of our own. The focus of

aid drops will be the Yazidi on the mountain. Their desperate plight has

come to symbolise the wider threat to an entire region.

Let's speak to David Willis, who's at the White House and, in a moment,

to Jon Brain who's at RAF Brize Norton. David, this is the US back

in action in Iraq. What sense do you get of what sort of campaign this is

going to be? The White House is stressing a limited response, no

boots on the ground. This will be targeted air strikes designed to

protect American interests on the ground in Iraq. One defining feature

of this administration has been the fact that the man with the most

powerful military at his disposal has been the man most reluctant to

use it. Remember he pulled back from mounting air strikes on Syria

following the use of chemical weapons there. This time he's been

left with little option, but this is a well-trained and well-armed Army.

He is up against the potential of mission creep here, American then

back in Iraq. But the question tonight is for how long. Jon, at RAF

Brize Norton, what can you tell us about Britain's involvement in the

relief effort? Well, this is where Britain's contribution to that

relief effort will be leafing from. We understand this weekend military

transport planes will be taking off from here loaded up with ?2 million

worth of emergency supplies for the people trapped on the mountains in

Sinjar. That will include things like clean water, tents and

tarpaulin for shelter and sop ar lighting. As well as that the

Government is fast-tracking another ?5.5 million of funding to charities

already on the ground and to the International Red Cross. In addition

there'll be assistance to the Americans in terms of refuelling and

surveillance, but it is again being stressed that no military

involvement will be contributed to by the British. Thank you.

A ten-year-old boy has been killed in Gaza shortly after a three-day

ceasefire ended this morning, and in the last hour three more people have

been killed in the south of Gaza. Peace talks between the Palestinians

and Israelis ended without agreement and Israel has said it will not

negotiate while the rocket fire continues. From Gaza, our Middle

East correspondent James Reynolds reports. Ten-year-old Ibrahim was

killed this morning. Hit by an Israeli air strike outside a mosque.

He'd been playing with his friends. He went to pray at the mosque. They

struck him and blew his head apart. Gaza's Shifa hospital may be the

safest place in this strip of land. These families who have lost their

homes have camped out in the hospital's grounds. Kamal sleeps

here with his wife and they are seven children.

TRANSLATION: There are so many dead bodies in my neighbourhood I decided

to take my family and come here. Shoppers at Gaza's market have taken

their chances to go and gets supplies.

TRANSLATION: If there are rockets falling we'll have to stay at home.

We won't be able to work any more. Here Mutya shops for the 27 members

of his immediate family. stop destroying this country. If you

come to my home and see my home, my home was four floors, but now it is

on the land. The ceasefire's been broken, so people here are having to

go back to living day by day. They'll have to buy as much as they

can right now, because they don't know what will happen tomorrow. The

immediate future of the people of Gaza may be decided through further

truce talks in Egypt. Before then, they have to prepare for anything.

Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet is joining

us from Jerusalem. Egypt is calling on both sides to return to talks.

What chance is there of that? It is widely believed that both sides

would like a return to talks. Certainly the people of Gaza would

like negotiations to start. But the Israeli delegation returned back to

Israel today, they would have done anyway for the start of the Jewish

Sabbath, but there is no plans for them to return. They will not

negotiate under fire. Even when it comes to resuming the talks, if and

when they do, and we believe at some point they'll go back to the

negotiating table, Israel will not accede to the demands of the

Palestinians. They are asking for a lifting of the seen, ever Gazan

wants and-a-half but Hamas wants a sea port and Israel will not accede

to that. And how free will the movement of people and food be in

and out of the Gaza Strip. Right now the two sides are very far apart.

Thank you. The Disasters Emergency Committee

has launched an appeal for those affected by the Gaza conflict. The

broadcast will be shown by the BBC and other TV networks this evening.

There's more information at www.dec.org.uk.

A drug that can extend the lives of some women with an advanced form of

breast cancer has been rejected for use on the NHS in England because

it's too expensive. The National Institute for Health and Care

Excellence says a course of Kadcyla costs ?90,000, making it impossible

to recommend it for widespread use. Here's our health editor, Hugh Pym.

It is a sensitive debate, which new drugs can the NHS in England afford?

The regulator NICE has to decide. This time it is the breast cancer

drug Kadcyla, a combination of Herceptin and chemotherapy medicine.

Hayley from Derby is taking the drug. Under previous gruelling

treatment her hair fell out and she was told she had only months to

live. But on this drug she is more stable and it has given her extra

time. I can have an extra six months with my children. That's priceless.

You can't put a figure on to a young mum of 33 to your children, you

can't put a figure on somebody's life. It's criminal. Hayley could

get Kadcyla through the Government's cancer drugs fund, which is due to

close in 2016, but the regulator NICE has decided it shouldn't be

available on the NHS. NICE usually approves drugs costing up to ?30,000

in a calculation reflecting the patient's length and quality of

life. For cancer drugs it has a maximum rate of ?60,000. Kadcyla

costs ?90,000 per parity and NICE has said that's too much. It can

command a premium price, but even with that extra flexibility the

price that the manufacturer wants to charge the NHS puts it well beyond

anything that we could have supported. But Roche argue the drug

is prescribened in many other European health services and it says

it did offer to cut something off the price. Some people will feel

?90,000 is a lot of money for a drug. Why can't you drop the price

further? We feel it reflects the value it brings to patients. 15

years of clinical trials went into developing Kadcyla and 30 years of

research into the technology that makes Kadcyla unique. As new drugs

come on stream there'll be more difficult decisions to be taken. The

debate about what can be afforded to give a patient a longer life won't

go away. The trial of the South African

athlete, Oscar Pistorius, has ended, with the judge announcing she'll

deliver her verdict on 11th September. The prosecution said Mr

Pistorius had deliberately shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, after

an argument last year. But in his closing remarks, the defence

barrister said while Oscar Pistorius had fired the shots, he had thought

there was an intruder in the house and he should therefore face a

charge of culpable homicide, not murder.

The world health organisation has said a co-ordinated international

response is needed to combat Ebola, as it declared the outbreak in the

West Africa and international emergency. 961 people have died from

the disease this year. The outbreak started in Guinea, and has spread to

live beery, Cesaro Le?n, and most recently Nigeria. -- spread the load

beery, Sierra Leone and most recently Nigeria.

How do you defend the world against Ebola. It starts with more help for

West Africa, the worst affected communities lack the basics,

adequate detective clothing, trained medical staff and laboratory

facilities. The world health organisation says only international

support will bring the outbreak under control. This is an infectious

disease which can be contained. It is not mysterious. This is something

which can be stopped. This depends on identifying everybody who has an

Ebola infection, and making sure that they receive the right

treatment, and making sure that we stop the chain of transmission.

Ebola is a viral infection, which originates in animals such as bats

and chimpanzees. It spreads through humans through direct contact with

blood and other bodily periods. It has an incubation period of up to 21

days, and more than half of those infected have died. Fortunately,

Ebola is not very contagious. Pneumonia and airborne infection

kills 3000 children a day more than Ebola has in 40 years, is do other

diseases. Rio de Janeiro the number of people who have died so far in

this epidemic or perhaps ever from Ebola the number of people who have

died are smaller than the number of people who die from the break

everyday, so the numbers are small but the potential for an outbreak

like this to go out of control and the spread, and for the numbers to

ramp up is truly frightening. The threat to countries like Britain

remains low, even if Ebola did come here via a sick air passenger,

health officials are confident they could contain it, using isolation

facilities like these. The WHO has not called for travel bans but is

urging the greater health surveillance at airports in West

Africa. In Liberia, soldiers are patrolling roadblocks limiting

travel from the worst infected areas. It all adds to the fear among

communities wondering when will the epidemic" of the time is just after

a quarter past six. The top story this evening:

America carries out an air strike on militants in Iraq, as President

Obama says he fears a genocide of Christians and minorities.

And still to come, The Rhythm of the Ancient Marriner,

Sir Neville prepares to conduct the Proms at the age of 90.

Later on BBC London, one way to beat the housing crisis, how these homes

were built after six families clipped together in Stoke Newington.

We look ahead to a weekend of road racing, in what is being called the

world's biggest festival of cycling. New BBC research has found there's

been a sharp rise in the number of fines issued to parents

for term-time absences. The increase follows new government

regulations, which now prevent head teachers in England from granting

holidays for special circumstances. 64,000 fines were issued to parents

during the last school year. That's a 70% rise

on the previous year. Each fine can total up to ?120 per

child, and around three quarters of local

authorities responded to the BBC, some of the fines related to

truancy or repeated poor attendance, but most were about holidays.

Here's Alex Forsyth. The classrooms are closed, books

stacked, pencils put away neatly. Families have flocked to the seaside

but some parents have already been on holiday, taking their judgement

out of school during term time. Thousands have been fined for

unauthorised absence, because new rules mean headteachers can only

grant leave in exceptional circumstances. But this couple who

run a busy tearoom in Devon say closing during peak season would

damage their business, so they took their teenage daughter out of school

for a family holiday, and were fined. For what they say was an

enriching trip to Thailand. It is an experience in itself. 97% attendance

for that year, and they still say you can't take her out for five

days. I mean, it is one week, is it going to make that much difference

to a child's education? More than 200,000 parents have signed a

petition objecting to the new rules, which only apply in England. One

complaint is the cost of travel in the school holidays, so how do

prices compare? Research showed earlier this year you could have

booked a week-long family to Benidorm in mid-July for ?1250 but

just two weeks later in the school holidays it would have cost almost

?2000. That is almost 60% more. Many families have been away during the

school holidays save the extra cost is a burden, but some parents see it

as a price worth paying for their child's education. It is very

expensive, but I do understand the other on the view, working in a

school, that children do lose out on their education. These days, they

get six weeks off and we just pay for it unfortunately. It is

important that you stay in school so you can learn more and get a better

job. Departing from the curriculum even for a short time can according

to teachers make a difference. I don't think parents appreciate how

much learning is missed, and how much learning is disrupted, when a

child returns from holiday, they have missed out to do a certain

written calculation in maths, the teaching assistant is then diverted

to that child to do catch up work and I don't think that is fair. The

government says teachers can set the dates to ease holiday demand at peak

times, and fewer children are missing lessons as a result of its

reforms, even if some parents think fines are unfair.

They're household names, and now they're heading

for the House of the Lords. A number

of well-known faces are among 22 new peers announced by Downing Street.

The list includes the former Marks and Spencer boss, Sir Stuart Rose,

and the businesswoman, Karren Brady, who'll both sit on the Tory benches,

plus the former Eastenders actor, Michael Cashman, a Labour supporter.

Our Political Correspondent Vicki Young joins us from Westminster now.

There are some well-known faces on that list, but there is controversy

as well. Yes, the usual mix of political insiders and the more

famous, like Karen Brady, vice chairman of West town football club

and someone well-known to millions of fans of the apprentice, but a

fixture on this list in recent years has been those who among other

things have donated money to political parties of all colours.

Michael Farmer has given the Tories almost ?6 million over the years. A

spokesman said that he deserved his peerage for his extensive charity

work. One omission, there are no UKIP appears, but one big talking

point, there are now around 800 peers. They complain there is not

enough room for them to sit down over there, let alone have any

decent office space. Young joins us from Westminster now.

A British businessman has been sentenced to two and a half years

in jail for illegally obtaining Chinese citizens' records.

Peter Humphrey, and his American wife,

had been working in Shanghai for the British pharmaceutical giant,

GlaxoSmithKline, investigating internal allegations of bribery.

The court said Mr Humphrey will be deported back to Britain.

Final collection times at up to 50,000 post boxes are to be

brought forward to three o'clock. The plans, which are being

introduced as part of efficiency savings, will involve delivery staff

picking up the mail during their rounds. Royal Mail has promised to

provide 2,000 new boxes, particularly in rural parts of

Scotland and Northern Ireland. When Sir Neville Marriner takes to

the stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London this weekend,

he will become the oldest conductor ever to lead a Prom.

90-year-old Sir Neville began his musical career as a violinist,

before founding his own orchestra and then picking up a baton.

Our Arts Editor, Will Gompertz, went along to rehearsal to meet one

of the most recorded conductors of all time.

A casually dressed Sir Neville Mariner in the rehearsal room.

Practising with his orchestra for Sunday's Proms performance of Henry

V. The 90-year-old conductor could have retired years ago but explains

why he has no intention of doing so. It is reasonably addictive. First of

all that you are able to express yourself musically, so freely, and

you don't have to practice an instrument. So it all goes on in

your head and your heart. I am sure most people at the end of your

working life would wish to have something like that. I would

certainly feel pretty strange without that opportunity now.

Neville Marriner made his Proms debut here in London's Royal Albert

Hall back in 1963, playing violin with the London Symphony Orchestra.

He returned couple of years later again playing the violin, but this

time also directing his own chaebol struck, the Academy of St Martin in

the. Then in 1970 he took to the Proms podium for the first time as a

fully fledged conductor. Since when, he has never looked back.

Here he is conducting in 1974, younger, certainly, but... But I

have seen some of my early things and I think how incredibly tolerant

the players were to put up with that sort of ridiculous clumsy gestures,

and inarticulate. Why do you think they're so few female conductors in

charge of the major orchestras? I have a feeling there is a certain

audience resistance. There is something strange about the female

figure of a conductor that, musically speaking, they are so

gifted. The actor John hurt will join the orchestra on Sunday to

speak Shakespeare's words. Sir Neville will conduct before moving

onto next concert, in a career that sees his work diary already planned

ahead for the next two We will start with this hurricane

sequence that shows hurricane Bertha, it has the United kingdom

written all over it. Quite a Bertha, it has the United kingdom

rain, reports of flooding in some eastern parts of England. They will

go away ever eastwards through the next few hours. Major towns it is

holding up into double figures. It should be a better day into

tomorrow, the Northern Isles might be wet and windy but for the bulk of

the mainland, bright and breezy, good sunny spells. Maybe a few sharp

showers cropping up in Northern Ireland to the afternoon, where we

will find the temperature than 20 degrees in Belfast between those

showers. The top temperature in the quarter, -- the south eastern

corner, 23. Birth is still approaching, and we will begin to

feel the first impact of that early in the morning in the south-west of

the UK on Sunday. -- hurricane Bertha. Most of England and

eventually eastern Scotland will see heavy rain. It begins to dry up in

the south but at the same time those strong, gusty winds developing.

Through Sunday and inch or two inches of rain, gales are possible

around