08/08/2014 World News Today

The US said it targeted militants from the Islamic State group

near the Kurdish-held city of Irbil - just hours after President Obama

The World Health Organisation says West Africa can not manage the Ebola

outbreak alone - and declares an international public

A ten-year old boy is killed in Gaza,

as Israel and Palestinian militants resume cross-border attacks.

Together again - an Indonesian girl feared killed in the 2004 tsunami

Almost three years after withdrawing its troops from Iraq, the United

States has carried out military action against Islamist militants

Just hours after President Obama authorised their use -

the US launched an airstrike targeting fighters

from the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, who now control large

The attack hit artillery used by the militants near Irbil.

Earlier this week, the Islamists took Qaraqosh,

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

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

Now for the first time, the Islamists have come under

The Pentagon says two FA18 aircraft dropped laser-guided bombs on

These are thought to be first pictures of the American strike.

America acted because this city of Irbil is now under threat.

There are US personnel there but President Obama is stressing

To stop the advance on Irbil, I directed

the military to target strikes against ISIS terrorist convoys

But Washington is also committed to helping religious minorities

These pictures of the Yazidi people fleeing for their lives

on to a barren mountain without food or water shocked the world.

And today, speaking from the mountain, one of their leaders

The clash is now very close to where I stand.

There are now clashes on the final line of resistance.

They will kill all of us and we do not think we have enough time.

Now the first supplies have reached some of the Yazidi.

Iraqi authorities say these pictures, impossible to verify,

The Yazidi religion is older than Christianity or Islam and that is

enough to make them targets of the extremists who overrun their town.

When we face a situation like we do on that mountain with

innocent people facing the prospect of violence on horrific scale,

and we have a mandate to help - in this case a request from the Iraqi

government - and when we have the unique capabilities to help

overcome a massacre, then I believe the USA cannot turn a blind eye.

Let's look at the plight of the Yazidi people,

forced to flee their homes and seek refuge on the barren slopes

As this map shows, they took what?s really the only

road up the mountains and we now have reports that some essential

supplies including food and water have been delivered from the air

But what if the extremists try to pursue them up the mountain?

The hope must be that they can be spotted and attacked by American

The other religious minority under threat is the Christian community.

Their major centre, Qaraqosh, has fallen.

Among those who escaped, some have reached Irbil.

As Christian refugees streamed into Irbil, passing Kurdish forces,

Iraq's persecuted minorities are urging the outside world to do more

In Brussels, some of the extended families of the Yazidi

trapped on the mountainside appealed to action to end the genocide.

In London, an emergency meeting of ministers is authorised.

Military involvement in relief missions is to drop aid,

Our focus is on assisting the humanitarian

mission and using our military in support of the Americans in terms

of refuelling, surveillance and underpinning their mission, and to

add to it with food drops of our own.

The focus of aid drops will be the Yazidi, still out on the mountain.

Their desperate plight has come to symbolise the wider threat to

The BBC's David Willis is at the White House.

We saw that Obama was adamant that this will not be a prolonged attack.

Is anyone buying that? I have come from a briefing and the president 's

spokesman was asked about the end date and how long this action will

continue. He said there was no specific end date and it will be

driven by the security situation on the ground. He added that military

involvements, over a prolonged period, was not on the table at the

moment for top that said, of course, these fighters are known to be well

armed, well equipped and well trained. They are capable of going

for the long haul as far as this conflict is concerned and this

raises the possibility of mission creep, if you like. The President's

spokesman has said he is adamant that this will not involve boots on

the ground. America is back in Iraq but for how long? America wants to

suggest that this is in need of a political resolution in Iraq. Yes.

It is a situation that requires solving by the Iraqis themselves.

That means getting our representative in place who is

representative of all of the abuse. They see the Iraqi Prime Minister as

the chief culprit for the deteriorating security situation in

Iraq. Nobody is making the secret that they would rather he left.

With me now is an expert on US foreign policy and the

Middle East Majid Rafizadeh - he's an American political scientist

The fact that once again the USA is engaged militarily in Iraq, does

that mean US foreign policy has failed? What you are seeing here is

the remarkable advancement of the Islamic States,

the remarkable advancement of the towns in northern Iraq, particularly

in Mo is all -- Mosul, and this has proposed strategic and political

threats to the USA. I think, back to your question, the United States has

definitely failed to diplomatically push the government to allow some

kind of power-sharing government, an inclusive government, and to remove

the corruption and authoritarianism in the states, and that is the in

delaying -- the underlying reason. The United States was meant to leave

behind a strong army in Iraq, and it is obvious they cannot cope with the

ISIS extremists. That is correct. This will not put an end to the

civil war or the sectarian war, or the atrocity we are witnessing. The

military intervention from the United States is going to lead,

probably, to another Civil War. The USA is sides with the government,

and they are giving the Islamic State the tall to fight against what

they would call American imperialism. There was some support

for the insurgents in Iraq, and what is important is really finding a

political solution in Baghdad and is getting a power-sharing government

there. Widening this out, Islamic State fighters are fighting against

Assad in Syria. We are in a complicated scenario here. Exactly.

What is interesting is that you can see the emergence of the realignment

of interest, Iran, Saudi Arabia, these countries are considered to be

rivals. They have created a lot of adversity in the region. The one

thing that the USA could have done was to be a facilitator or

arbitrator between these countries in the Middle East who are trying to

take a collective action against ISIS. You are correct, I think the

remarkable advancement they had is a milestone in the movement, which was

started after the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003. OK, I figure we will

be speaking to you again, but for the time being, thank you very much

for sharing your thoughts. We will continue to monitor that situation

for you. Let's move on. "An extraordinary event" and an

international health emergency - that's what the World Health

Organisation are calling The agency also predicts that

the outbreak is likely to go on for months and things are likely to

get worse before they better. Almost 1000 people have already

died as a result of the disease. Our Health Correspondent Feargus

Walsh reports. How do you defend the world

against ebola? It is starts with more help for

West Africa. The worst affected

communities lack the basics. Adequate protective clothing,

trained medical staff The World Health Organisation says

only international support will This is an infectious disease

which can be contained. This is something

which can be stopped. This depends

on identifying everybody who has an Ebola infection,

and making sure they receive the right treatment and making sure

we stop the chain of transmission. Ebola is a viral infection

which originates in animals, It spreads between humans through

direct contact with blood The virus has an incubation period

of up to 21 days More than half

of those infected have died. Pneumonia kills 3,000 children a day

- more than Ebola has in 40 years. The number of people who have died

so far in this Ebola outbreak are dwarfed by those who died from

Tuberculous every day for example. The numbers are small

but the potential for an outbreak like this to go out of control

and to spread, and the numbers to The threat to countries

like Britain remain low. Even if Ebola did come here via

a sick air passenger, health authorities are confident

they can contain it with isolation The WHO has not called

for travel bans but is urging greater health surveillance

at airports in West Africa. In Liberia, soldiers are patrolling

roadblocks, limiting travel It all adds to the fear

among communities wondering It's been a day of renewed violence

in Gaza today after a three-day Israel is again attacking Gaza,

blaming Hamas for firing rockets And Israel has now pulled out

of talks in Cairo, saying it won't James Reynolds reports from

Gaza City. apart. The 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. This man sleeps

here with his wife and their seven children. There are so many dead

bodies in my neighbourhood, so I decided to take my family and come

here. Shoppers at the market have taken their chance to go and get

supplies. If there are rockets falling, we will have to stay at

home. We would be able to work any more. Here, this man shops for the

27 members of his immediate family. Stop this war, if you come and see

my home, my home was for flaws, but now it is on the land. The

cease-fire has been broken, so people here are going back to living

day by day. They 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, I have to prepare for anything.

With me now is Ed Husain from the American think tank

The conflict has two end and we have seen previous situations where after

three or four weeks, matters come to ahead and there is a short term

cessation of violence, but in the medium to long-term, they will come

again and again to this violence until the Israelis realise they

cannot contain 2 million people in this open-air prison in Gaza, and

when Hamas realise they cannot secure long-term peace by rocketing

innocent civilians in Israel. Unless both sides come to a recognition

that the current mindset leads them to mutual destruction, there would

be an end to this awful violence. You are talking about a complete

rethink of what Hamas is all about. Yes, we often make the mistake of

seeing Hamas as simply a terrorist organisation, but it is larger than

that. I have had the good and bad fortune of meeting their people in

various countries and they run a huge operation, from hospitals to

orphanages, they care for the widows of their fighters. Israel is at the

helm of pushing this image of Hamas as being only a terrorist

organisation. In this country, one of the benefits the Irish peace

process has offered globally is that yes, Sinn Fein had a terrorist flank

that was the IRA, but there was also the political wing with which the

Irish and British governments cut a deal.

they be embraced as the solution it when they fire the rockets first

like today. Israelis say Hamas when they fire the rockets first

abandon violence and give up their arms, but in the UK, we found you

abandon violence and give up their often had to turn a blind eye to the

armed men and top to politicians, reaching a stage when

the politicians can force politicians, reaching a stage when

armed men to hand over their weapons. If we continue to ignore

the political wing of Hamas, then what happens if the armed wing of

Hamas have the strength they continue to have, because they are

the guys that are fighting and they are the guys who have the strength

to say they are fighting the resistance. So the psychological

terms of approaching this conflict means to change. -- needs to change.

Now a look at some of the day's other news.

The murder trial of Oscar Pistorius has ended.

The judge announced she would deliver her verdict on the 11th

In his closing remarks, his lawyer said Mr Pistorius should have faced

a charge of culpable homicide, not murder, over the shooting

An investigation's underway after nine surrogate babies were

They are believed to share the same Japanese father.

The recent case of an Australian couple alleged to have abandoned

a baby with Down's syndrome, has prompted efforts to overhaul

Malaysia Airlines is to be removed from the stock exchange,

taken over by the state and completely overhauled.

The disappearance of a passenger jet in March and the crash of another

airliner in Ukraine last month have added to the company's already

Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates have signed

a deal to form a government of national unity, four months

Dr Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani had both claimed

victory and accused the other of electoral fraud.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry,

who helped to broker the agreement in Kabul, called it an Afghan

Our correspondent in Kabul, David Loyn, says there's optimism

John Kerry, you'll remember, has been here before, and they said

similar things three or four weeks ago when he came to really broker

a deal at a time when it looked as though there may be a coup and

genuine armed violence breaking out because

But certainly the mood today was very different, very conciliatory.

Abdullah Abdullah said it is a win-win situation.

Ashraf Ghani said the time for competition was over,

the time for campaigning was over, now they needed to cooperate

together in order to build this government of national unity.

And John Kerry, who put the deal together,

said they have now agreed what he called the rules of the road.

On Sunday, Turkey will hold a presidential election.

It's the first time in the country's history that the position will be

chosen, not by parliament, but by the Turkish public.

Leading the race is the current Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip

Erdogan, a politician with Islamist roots who has divided Turks.

The star of Turkish politics continues to soar.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, aiming for glory in Sunday's presidential

His firebrand rhetoric hits out at Israel and foreign interests.

The rockstar politician pulls the crowds.

Three times Prime Minister, Erdogan dominates the campaign.

Islamist leaning, he's accused of mixing religion

But fans of all ages can't get enough.

He is working for Turkey, for everyone, for us, for women like me.

Before women couldn't work in universities or other places, but

This election has become a referendum about the man who's

His backers say he has transformed this country politically

His critics call him authoritarian and intolerant and say the cult

Istanbul's skyline tells of his success.

With massive infrastructure projects and EU candidate status, he says he

But huge protests last year against a construction project

Rage boiled over human rights and Erdogan's apparent autocracy.

Eight died, including a 14-year-old, Berkin Elvan.

His father says he went to buy bread,

Without Berkin, we don't even know if we're alive or dead.

The next target was an Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan baming his followers for leaks implicating the

Critics say he is using a smokescreen.

He is the victim and always, there are some certain enemies

Enemies, foreign and interior, who are under trying to undermine

Adored and hated in equal measure, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has polarised

His ambition is lofty, but can he take a divided Turkey with him?

A miraculous story now of a young girl seemingly back from the dead.

A mother and father in Indonesia say that they've been reunited with

their daughter ten years after she was swept in to the sea during

Finally back together again after 10 years apart, this is the moment

14-year-old Raudhatul Jannah and her family never thought would happen.

Her parents gave up hope of ever finding her alive

after she was swept from their home in West Aceh during the devastating

According to Indonesian media, she was found more than 100

kilometres away and raised by a family of fishermen.

A decade later, a family member spotted a girl in a village

walking home from school who bore a striking resemblance to lost girl.

Raudhatul's parents visited her in late June.

When I saw her, I knew she was the one and we also saw her photos from

A remarkable reunion for one little girl and her family,

One of Raudhatul's brothers, who disappeared when the tsunami

But for now from me and the rest of the team, goodbye.

Warnings are still in force. But things are settling