13/08/2016 World News Today

Free to walk away - the civilians of Manbij in northern

Syria celebrate as so-called Islamic State is forced out of the town.

I'm live at the Olympics with the news of the ban of the only track

and field competitor from Russia. A state of emergency in the US state

of Louisiana as heavy rains cause what's been described

as "unprecedented" flooding. He was the actor inside one

of the world most famous Hundreds of residents

of the northern Syrian town of Manbij who were used as human

shields by Islamic State There have been scenes of joy

and relief as they celebrated The Syrian Democratic Forces,

a broad alliance of fighters who are backed by the US,

captured Manbij on Friday of Manbij, celebrations at the end

of Islamic State rule. She praised the Kurdish

and Arab forces. She says, may God salute you,

you are heroes. All around in the ruins of Manbij

there was huge relief. For many months, the militants laid

down rules on every aspect of life. Now the beards that were compulsory

could come off. Some women even burned the veils

they have been compelled to wear. And stories of the harsh realities

of IS rule began to emerge. This man said the militants

cut his hand off after accusing him This roundabout is where executions

were carried out. Severed heads used to be left

hanging here for days. The Kurdish and Arab fighters

began their offensive more They had help from US

Special Forces on the ground, and help from the American-led

coalition in air. There were weeks of

fierce street fighting. Manbij was hugely important,

it straddles a crucial supply route The loss of Manbij for IS is

a major blow. Now the people of this battered

place have a chance to rebuild With me now is Fawaz Gerges,

Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics

and author of ISIS A History. Firstly, how big of

a blow does the loss There is a wager context of the

Civil War. It is a major setback for them. They are bleeding, they are

losing. This is not the first city they have lost. The idea is the

American coalition organised the local forces. It is a caution made

up of cards and other fighters. The idea is to squeeze them and

tightened the noose. To a select them and call for the kill. This is

the beginning of the end. Most of the reports talk about the city

about ending their access to the world, it is not true. They have two

major cities on the order. They are as important. The fake goes on. It

is a long, complex fate. The fault of the city represent a major

setback because it as an operational centre for them to send -- plan and

carry out attacks on Turkey and elsewhere. Is it possible to beat

them because they just move on to another area. Even if you could win

against them, you have people fighting against President Assad.

You are asking to important questions. One of the lessons we

have learned is that this is not a house of glass that is collapsing

overnight. It has taken Arab fighters 78 days to take over the

city, more than 600 American air strikes. The American basically

carried out 700 air strikes. The question is, yes, you captured the

city at what cost? Not to mention hundreds of fighters have been held

and hundreds of civilians and the fight goes on. The second question,

you need a bigger, more complex fate within Syria between the Assad

regime and the previous coalition forces. This is costly and long,

more than five years, 300,000 killed and on and on. We believe that the

head of Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been killed in the

drawn straight. How much of the -- difference will that make? This is

not the first time that a leader of Isis has been killed. Every time he

Americans say that this will disrupt their operations and the operations

continue. More than the killing, the internal fighting with in

Afghanistan between Isis and the Caliban and Al-Qaeda, this internal

fate would do more damage to them than the American killing. Thank you

for your time. Let's get all the latest

results from Rio on Day 8 Let's start with this banning of the

last Russian to be competing in athletics. Tell us about that.

As we know there has been so much discussion of the doping bans here

and Russia, or the track and field team had a blanket ban because of

the allegations that there was a state sponsored doping scheme in the

country. One of the athletes had managed to be cleared but after more

evidence that there was a new report with more evidence against her, she

has been suspended as well. Says that she will appeal. She has

now been suspended. I am speaking to you from the Olympic Stadium where

we have seen all the big names of the track and field and earlier

today, the highlight was the first appearance of using bolt. -- Usain

Bolt. She had his first sheet and he managed a time of ten point 07

seconds. -- 10.07 seconds. Are doing here

believes that was not his best to go at it and we will see his best

performance today when the medal is up for grabs. She will be here to

get his third gold in the Olympics. There has been lots of action here,

a bit further away from the Olympic Stadium. The day started off as hot

and sunny day. We had some very remarkable races. Lots of drama. A

very dramatic finish with New Zealand and cutaway shirt

distributing -- disputing that they came in at exactly the same time and

the results had to be called by examining the photo of the initial

line. The women's eight got silver, the

first time they had an Olympic medal. That was celebrated as well.

We have seen a lot of grabbing competitions elsewhere, with the

tennis round is underway as well and right now there is the gripping much

going on. Whoever wins this match will have to face Andy Murray. She

made it to the final earlier today so she has at least a cold or a

silver in his pocket. I think it is also interesting to mention that it

is not just about who is winning. Some of the highlights from today

here in the Olympic Stadium, there was a remarkable moment when when

the Ethiopian athlete lost her shoe in the middle of the 3000 metres

steeplechase. She just kept going. She threw away her shoes and socks

and she was cheered by the clouds. She did not manage to qualify and

call ahead in the race, but it was one of the memorable moments that

will mark the games. And now a look at the medals

table on day 8 so far. The United States is still

in the lead with 21 golds. China is in second place still,

and Great Britain is in third, Hundreds of people have been rescued

in the US state of Louisiana where at least two people have died

in severe floods The governor has declared a state

of emergency as authorities there Chris Fawkes from the BBC

Weather Centre gave us more details. It is staggering. It is the far

south of the United States and the state of the -- Louisiana has been

worst hit. We can see some astonishing pictures, actually, of

the flood waters near covering fields and we have seen some pretty

big floods attacking some of the roads. It is no surprise that." On

the comedy had the wettest August day on record. That has led to these

plodding pictures that we had just been seeing. Essentially, if we look

at the satellite picture, an area of low pressure has moved away from

Florida towards Louisiana and it has become slow-moving and centred

across that state itself. The only real difference to this and a

tropical storm is that the winds are not very strong, but make no mistake

about it, the amount of moisture is very similar to a tropical storm and

it is just not moving. Seven people including a young child

have been injured in Switzerland, when a man attacked passengers

on a train. A 27-year-old Swiss national

is said to have started a fire on board using flammable

liquid, before stabbing The incident occurred near Salez

in the canton of Snt Gallen. There's no indication yet

as to a motive for the attack. Sweden's youngest-ever government

minister has resigned after being caught driving over

the alcoholic limit. 29-year-old Aida

Hadzialic was minister for higher education

and was the country's first Muslim In an emotional statement,

she described the incident as "the greatest mistake

of my life". Thousands of Venezuelans have been

crossing into neighbouring CoLOMbia to buy supplies after the border

was officially re-opened. Venezuela had closed the frontier

a year ago citing security reasons. The country is experiencing a severe

economic crisis and suffers shortages of many basic

foods and medicines. The Venezuelan president

Maduro said he wanted a 'new beginning in economic

and commercial relations' Our correspondent Natalio Cosoy

in Colombia has been monitoring After both presidents decided that

they would open the border for pedestrians, on this first day, it

has been open for about seven hours and already the authorities are

saying that some 30,000 people have crossed from Dennis Wheeler into

Colombia, mainly through the five places on the border that have been

opened. They have mainly commented: the to buy basic food, race, flour,

oil and medicines. These are the sort of things that are really hard

to find currently. Leicester City

begin their defence Free to walk away, the civilians

of Manbij in northern Syria celebrate as so-called Islamic State

is forced out of the town. The governing body for world

athletics bans the only Russian track and field athlete

at the Rio Olympics, The father and first husband

of a British woman who was killed in Pakistan have appeared

in court in shackles. They were arrested on suspicion

of murdering Samia Shaid, a beautician from Northern England,

who was found strangled in a village Her second husband has

described her death Shaimaa Khalil has more from

Islamabad. Shackled, with their faces covered,

Samia's father, Choudhry Shahid, and her ex-husband,

Mohammed Shakeel, were they kept their identities

hidden for safety. Police say Samia died

of asphyxiation. Her ex-husband, who is also her

cousin, is the prime suspect. Her father is now being probed

as an accessory to her murder. The media were not allowed in,

but the hearing did not last long. Shakeel and Shahid were brought to

the this court room, and the hearing could not have lasted

more than two minutes, The judge remanded them in custody

for four days while the Samia was married to her

cousin in Pakistan. She then travelled to the UK,

filed for divorce, and got married to her second husband,

Mukhtar Kazam, in Leeds, Mukhtar claims that her family

killed her for marrying The police say they have not yet

determined the motive. In July, Samia travelled to Pandori,

a small village in Punjab, Samia also visited one

of her friends when she She did not want to be filmed

or for her name to be mentioned. What was Samia like

the last time you saw her? As Samia's father and ex-husband

left court, investigations continue. Police have denied reports that

Mohammed Shakeel has confessed. Both men will be questioned over

the next four days before The poisonous relationship

between Russia and Ukraine First Russia accused

Ukraine of a plotting in Afghanistan and Pakistan has

been killed a US drone. BBC's Tom Burridge sent this report

from southern Ukraine. Russia are accusing Ukraine of what

they see was a terrorist attack one week ago. Ukraine said the whole

study was made up. The border, the Ukraine border guard are in charge

of this area. The military is on high alert. We have seen evidence as

we have come down from Kiev. Russia has announced that it has moved

servers missile systems in to claim you. There has been other evidence

that Russia has been shifting military hardware onto the peninsula

and the resort of speculation about this increase in tension.

Leicester City have been beaten in the first game of the new season.

Norway -- the Norwegian player give them a first-half lead before

Leicester plot level with a penalty. They were smarter than us. They

scored on the corner and we lost the ball. Our strength is when we play

as a team. After we conceded the second call, they played very well.

It is always a difficult situation for football players but at the end

of the day, they are professional football players playing in probably

the best the leak is there. They have earned the right to be in this

week and I think they enjoyed it themselves today. I think they have

enjoyed themselves and the acid test is when you get a result.

Pep Guardiola made a winning start as Manchester City manager

Sergio Aguero gave them the lead at home to Sunderland before

Jermain Defoe equalised it then took an 87th minute own goal

from debutant Paddy McNair to give City a 2-1 victory.

Elsewhere on the first day of the Premier League,

We dominated and we needed to be quicker and the last part of the

field but of course we have to improve and we're not going to leave

bar that. I think today we deserved to win.

Elsewhere on the first day of the Premier League,

promoted Burnley lost 1-nil. at home to Swansea.

Leroy Fer with the winner FA Cup runners-up Crystal Palace

Everton and Tottenham drew 1-1 Middlesbrough led for almost

an hour but could only draw with Stoke City,

The visitors had Ben Watson sent off.

The actor who played the robot R2-D2 in the Star Wars films has

died at the age of 81 after a long illness.

Kenny Baker, who was 1.2 metres tall, played the character

in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi,

as well as the three Star Wars prequels from 1999 to 2005.

His nephew worked after him for the last years of his life. We really

discussed Star Wars but when he did discuss it, it kept him going. She

loved to go to conventions and meet everybody and it gave them that

extra lease on life. It was a genuine love, and I really mean

that, without going over the top, that the fans have for him and his

character, because he was the one who brought him alive. The film with

Terry Gilliam was one of his favourites because you could see him

as an actor as a force to inside the robot. Obviously, the robot is the

iconic one, but he wasn't 20 films all over. -- he was an 20 films.

Signs of joy and relief as many celebrated their freedom in the

streets. From me and the rest

of the team, goodbye.