13/08/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me, Daniela Ritorto.

The US says it's considering options to save thousands of people trapped

by Islamic militants on a mountain in Northern Iraq.

The options could include creating a safe corridor

and airlifting thousands of the stranded Yazidi people.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron says the UK will join

We will continue to play a role to help these people but we need a plan

to get these people off that mountain.

Three days of national mourning is declared

in Brazil after presidential candidate Eduardo Campos dies in a

The dangers of the Alps - six French climbers die after bad weather

And several people are injured after a train derails in

You know how to whistle, don't you, is the -- Steve?

Remembering one of Hollywood's leading ladies - Lauren Bacall has

Hello and welcome - the international mission to rescue

tens of thousands of minority Yazidis trapped

The United States has sent 130 military advisers

The White House insists the marines and special operations

forces will not be engaged in combat, but hasn't ruled out their

France has announced it will supply arms to Kurdish forces

While Britain has Chinook helicopters on standby for

additional humanitarian aid drops, with possible plans to use the

Everyday the scale of the humanitarian crisis and of

individual suffering for those fleeing the extremists in northern

Iraq becomes more apparent. It has been a frightening and painful

escape for those able to get away from the fighters of the Islamic

State. There has been more relief from the air, a third wave of

British airdrops of clean water and shelter kits for those exposed to

the searing heat on Mount Sinjar. David Cameron is now back in Downing

Street after his holiday, weighing up how far to go,

Street after his holiday, weighing up how far to stepping up Britain's

military involvement in Iraq. The first thing to do is to deal

with this desperate humanitarian situation, people exposed, starving,

dying of thirst on this mountainside, getting them to

safety. It is Iraqi to the forces like these

Britain and the US insist must remain the front line, trying to

push back the extremists of the Islamic State. France is in our

offering to arm them directly. Written says it will help them

deliver but not supply wet -- weaponry. -- Britain. David Cameron

stresses it is not a military intervention but a humanitarian one,

something the Prime Minister says does not demanded the recall of

Parliament. Tens of thousands fleeing the

militants have arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan with little food and

shelter. This is now their home,

by a parched roadside half an hour's drive from the Syrian

Yazidi men, women and children, all in one room

For the survivors of Mount Sinjar, this is the next step

No private space, no sanitation and no clean water to wash in.

Most of the food and water has come from local well-wishers.

This boy is the youngest refugee here.

He was ten days old when his mother carried him

His father says other newborns were slaughtered by Islamist fighters.

He survived for seven days and nights on Mount Sinjar.

His mother says he is sickly now and needs medical help.

The young women here escaped the worst fate.

Other teenage girls were taken to prison -

the fear is, to be sold into slavery.

As they have done for thousands of years, the Yazidi are helping

each other survive, but it is hard to explain to the youngest here why

they have been singled out for slaughter or why they will never

see their home again, or their family.

She is almost blind and was lost in the chaos when her

She has no idea if her family are alive.

The kindness of strangers helped her survive.

The man next to her carried her down from the mountain top to safety.

There are now 35,000 refugees from the Yazidi minority who have

flooded into northern Iraq in recent days and weeks.

They are adding to the numbers already here

and the province has now grown to 400,000 refugees.

Northern Iraq as a whole has almost a million

displaced people fleeing fighting in Syria and other parts of Iraq.

Most of them are living in places like this.

Many survivors still have not found shelter.

This family had to stop just outside a local town to

They are cooled with a hosepipe by the local police.

This woman still has milk for her baby.

Many other women don't, too hungry or traumatised to nourish a child.

The question is how much longer those on the mountain can wait.

With me is Hamid Alkifaey, a former Iraqi Government spokesman, writer,

journalist and friend of Haider al-Abadi who's been nominated as

Thank you for coming in. We were just watching Caroline's report,

tragic pictures of the desperation of people in the north of your

country. The world does seem to be stepping up, are they doing enough?

Clearly it is too late. They should have done this a long time ago. The

examiner could -- Islamic extremists took over Mosul in June and for two

and a half months people have been killed, people have been in the

baking sun, and nobody has turned up. The Western world seems to be on

holiday. It is too little too late but a lot needs to be done right now

and urgently because people are dying right now. It was the Iraqi

government's responsibility to look after these people. Yes, but it was

bigger than what Iraq could deliver. The government needs the help of the

international community because it is an international problem. ISIS

come from all over the world, even Britain. It is a criminal

organisation, a criminal gang, and it needs to be dealt with by the

international community, Britain and the US. As we watch riches of those

militants, it feels as though as that happens Baghdad is squabbling

over political positions. ? We watch pictures. Elections in April were

inconclusive so we had so many factions, election lists, so there

needs to be a coalition government, as has been the case over the last

two elections. The incumbent prime minister, Mr Maliki, thinks he is

the person to be nominated to form the government. The government

nominated Mr Albert that -- Haider al-Abadi. If he does become the

prime minister, what will he do differently? He is a different kind

of person, he is highly educated, he knows what a democracy is like and

how to run things. He has experience in government, he has been head of

the financial and economic committee in the Iraqi parliament. He is

acceptable and highly respected by all Iraqi political groups and his

nomination has been worked on by the US, Turkey, many other countries,

and I wish him luck. Thanks for coming in to the BBC.

The UN says the number of people killed in rebel-held areas

in eastern Ukraine has nearly doubled in the last two weeks.

The Red Cross says thousands of people are without access to

But Ukraine's Interior Minister insists that

a Russian aid convoy will NOT be allowed to enter his country.

The trucks left Moscow bound for rebel-controlled Luhansk on Tuesday.

At least some of the trucks are currently waiting in Voronezh

until a final decision is made as to when or under what conditions

For the latest update I am joined by the BBC's David Stern in Kiev.

Are these trucks going to be let in? That is the big question right now,

among a number of questions. What are on the trucks, in what direction

are they headed, because it is not clear what their final destination

is, and we have been getting various statements from Russian officials

about the number of trucks, but the ultimate question is what will

happen when they reach the border. It makes a big difference where they

reach the border. If it is a point that Ukraine controls, Ukraine will

insist that they can inspect the trucks and that the cargo is

off-loaded and loaded onto other vehicles. If it is through an area

that the rebels control the Ukrainians say this could be viewed

as a hostile act. The question is what will happen and what will be

the reaction by Moscow. Lots of questions there. We will keep an eye

on the situation. Brazilian presidential candidate

Eduardo Campos, a contender to in October elections,

has died after the jet he was travelling in crashed in bad weather

in the south of the country. The private plane was flying from Rio de

Janeiro to the city of Guaruja, near Santos in Sao Paulo state. Reports

say it was forced to abort its landing because of bad weather and

then lost contact with air traffic control. It then plunged into

several houses, sending a plume of smoke into the air. President Dilma

Rousseff has cancelled all campaign activities for three days after

receiving news of his death. Julia Carneiro joins us now on the

line from Rio. I expect it is a nation in mourning

and in shock. Exactly, yesterday everybody was seeing Mr Campos on

television, he was doing an interview for the prime-time news

programme here, being questioned about his aspirations and plans as

eventual president of Brazil, and now this news. President Rousseff

has declared three days of national mourning. She issued a statement

saying he was a big and important political leader and politicians

across the country are expressing their regret on social media. Mr

Campos was a prominent political figure in Brazil, he had twice been

governor of a state in the North East. He had been a strong ally of

the workers party of President Rousseff and the former president

Lula. He changed side and decided to run for presidency himself, joining

forces with the former environment minister, so now he was the third

candidate with the most intentions to vote according to recent polls.

10% of voters had the intention of voting on him and there is lots of

speculation about what will happen in the elections in a month and a

half after his death. Unusually bad weather at

the height of tourism season in the Six climbers have died on Mont Blanc

in France, after they went missing on Western Europe's highest mountain

in the midst of a blizzard. Meanwhile,

a Swiss train has derailed after a landslide near St Moritz.

Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva. The French climbers are believed to

have been experienced and they had a guide. It is thought they turned

back from the summit of Mont Blanc when bad weather closed in. They

tried to reach an Alpine shelter, but never got there. French rescue

workers say they fell 250 metres. Their deaths are the latest in what

has been a very bad season on Europe's highest mountain. In July,

six climbers were killed, and two more at the start of this month.

This should be the best time of year to enjoy the Alps, but not this

summer. Instead, heavy rain, strong winds, and even snow storms at high

altitude are creating very dangerous conditions in the mountains. And the

dangers caused by the weather are being seen across the Alps, in

Switzerland as well. Torrential rain caused a landslide onto the railway

line close to the resort of Saint Moritz. A train is derailed, three

carriages leaving the tracks, one plunging down into a ravine.

Passengers who escaped had a terrifying experience. TRANSLATION:

We were scared and shocked. They told us to go to the rear of the

train, and then to the front, but eventually, we were told to walk

through the tunnel. After a massive rescue operation,

Swiss police say six people were seriously hurt, five with minor

injuries. But the fact no one was killed constitutes a minor miracle.

A 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza is in its third day and due to end

The two sides are meeting in Cairo, but so far, there's been no

In Gaza, six people were killed as experts

Amongst the dead were Simone Camilli,

a journalist with the Associated Press and a Palestinian translator.

We can speak now to Yuval Steinitz, Israel's Minister of Intelligence.

Thank you very much for joining us here. What is going to happen in

three hours? Well, the real answer is, we don't

know. We are ready to extend the cease-fire, officially or

unofficially. We already say that quiet will be answered by quiet. But

with such terrorist organisations as Hamas, from the same family as ISIS

in Iraq or Al-Qaeda, or Boko Haram, we prepare ourselves for everything.

All possibilities and developments. But you won't attack first team

approach no. We already said we are ready for any

truce. We didn't want this round of violence in the first place. We

accepted all the seven cease-fire proposals by the Egyptians and the

UN. All of them were violated by Hamas. At least this one was so far

capped by both sides. Let's wait and see. We have no interest in any kind

of violation of the cease-fire. We are ready to extend it. Maybe more

time is needed in order to arrange or to reach some understanding, some

arrangements, and we are ready for a truce or a cease-fire, but of

course, we have two also be ready for the possibility that Hamas will

resume mortars or rocket attacks on our citizens, and then, of course,

we will have to defend ourselves, as before.

You say you will have to defend yourselves as before, but if Hamas

is a terrorist organisation like you say, the same as ISIS and Boko

Haram, isn't it Israel's responsibility as the state to take

a responsibility here to quieten things down, not to retaliate?

You know, this is funny. First, it is funny that you ask me if Hamas is

a terrorist organisation. Let me tell you, you wouldn't ask such

questions about Al-Qaeda or ISIS. ISIS is working in Iraq and Syria,

Al-Qaeda worldwide. Why is Hamas different? It is the same ideology.

A terrorist ideology. And by the way, Hamas is recognised as a

terrorist organisation not just by Israel, but by the United States,

Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom. So, first, I suggest

you call it the right name, a terrorist organisation who in the

past, when it was possible, sent hundreds of suicide bombers into

Israel and killed 1000 Israelis civilians in the second intifada.

Now, it is impossible to send suicide bombers from Gaza into

Israel, so instead, it is launching rockets in Gaza into Israel. But it

is a terrorist organisation, and this fact is recognised not just by

Israel, but also by Europe and America and all the civilised world.

OK, but how is this going to end? How will this conflict and in your

eyes? You'll agree you ask me? Yes. You

have to ask them. They started the conflict. They violated seven

previous cease-fires. Unfortunately, this one, the eighth cease-fire, has

been capped by both eyes. -- fortunately. The very fact you have

a terrorist organisation armed with thousands of rockets in Gaza, which

was supposed to be totally demilitarised, let me remind you,

according to the Oslo agreement, there is clear Palestinian a

commitment that Gaza and the West Bank will be totally demilitarised,

what may. So the very fact that instead, there are thousands of

Iranian rockets in Gaza and thousands of them already being

launched into Israel, this is a very sad fact. We have to protect

ourselves, as sooner or later, Gaza should be demilitarised again for

the benefit of both Israelis and the people of Gaza. Thank you very much

upcoming on. Many thanks.

She was one of the last survivors of Hollywood's studio age.

Lauren Bacall has died at the age of 89 in New York.

She was known for her smouldering looks, husky voice,

and her partnership - on and off screen - with Humphrey Bogart.

She emerged as a star of the silver screen in the 1940s in

the film To Have And Have Not, when she played Bogart's leading lady.

David Sillito looks back at her life and career.

Rarely has an actress made such an impact with her first appearance.

She was 19, unknown, and playing opposite a screen legend, Humphrey

Bogart. But this sultry blonde became an instant star, tough, wise

beyond her years, but with an air of vulnerability, although masked by a

voice that one critic said it sounded as if it had been smoked in

thanks. The couple fell in love off-screen as well, and Lauren

Bacall married Humphrey Bogart, 25 years her senior, in 1945. If my

father should hear this! They had 11 happy years together before

Bogart's death from cancer. In the years after, she was briefly engaged

to Frank Sinatra, then married for eight years to Jason Robards. But

professionally, she said she struggled to escape the shadow of

Bogart. That is, until a stage musical, Applause, revive her career

and brought more films such as Murder On The Orient Express. What

is the matter with him? But she knew she would be most remembered for her

first film, and one cinema's most famous lines.

You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve?

You just put your lips together and...

Wasn't she sensational? I love that scene.

With me is the film critic and admirer of Lauren Bacall,

I just love that scene. Cannot watch it enough. She was 19 when she did

that. No 19-year-old could do that now. Most 19-year-olds now, they

look like children, but she looks the same now as she did at 19. She

had the poise, the grace, it is one of the great screen debuts. But

amazing that that is the first time anyone had seen her. Bogart fell in

love with her, we fell in love with her, and I fell in love with movies

because of femme fatales like that. She was seductive, hard, dangerous,

but she also get this kind of water with her. The reason she is an icon

of the old studio system is because they did not make them like that any

more. She instructed this image and carried it with her until this

morning. So I there is this kind of... We shall not look upon her

like again will stop we don't respect celebrities in the same way.

We take pictures of them coming out of yoga and carrying shopping bags.

You never saw Lauren Bacall carrying shopping in the supermarket.

So maybe part of her appeal was that she was of a different era, and

maybe it is not the actresses these days, maybe it is not their fault

that we do not see them in such a scene? What you think?

I do think celebrity culture has led to everyone being a celebrity, so

you can't differentiate between the truly great and the knot. Lauren

Bacall in the big sleep, Key Largo, How To Marry A Millionaire, not that

many pictures she made. You can reel them off. I loved her turn in Murder

On The Orient Express, but it is that kind of connection that she

had, how she was always talking. She was brilliant on talk shows. She

would spill secrets on Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin, Frank

Sinatra and Humphrey Bogart. Just those words, anyone connected to

that era, it is precious. I think that is why we her life. When they

are gone, we just feel a little less connected to that Iraq, and it has

kind of drifted off into the silver screen.

All I keep thinking is, the phrase old school. She reminds me of the

old school. You have interesting story about that.

I was in Venice seeing a film she had done with Nicole Kidman called

Birth, and a journalist next to me said, it must be amazing in a film

to have two screen legends in a film. Lauren Bacall just went to

nickel Pitman, she's not a legend! She's not old enough to be a legend!

She is a beginner! Nicholl Kidman was like, OK! Lauren Bacall knew how

to be a legend. She hated the word, funnily enough. I think there was

some false modesty in their, because she grew into the part of legend and

carried it with her. It is kind of an irony that all the headlines as a

Hollywood legend, and she went to the grave saying, I hate that word,

don't use that word. You could not use it in their presence, and that

was partly because she used and macro they used it lightly

sometimes, and she bought a lot of work into being a legend. Your

favourite memory? That memory of the story with Nicole Kidman will stick

with me. On-screen, today, I have been enjoying that scene you just

played, and it is the sexiest line in cinema. Jason, thank you very

much, sharing your memories of Lauren Bacall.

It is a bittersweet day, but it is nice to watch all those old movie

clips back. Thank you all for watching. , the

weather. Hello. Our weather patterns will

stay pretty unsettled over the next 24 hours. We have had quite a few

showers around today, which will continue overnight, particularly in

Northern Ireland, as this conclusion continues to push southwards and

eastwards. This will provide the real focus of the heavy showers

through tomorrow, particularly early in the morning across