10/08/2014 BBC Weekend News

An RAF plane has made the first British airdrop of

humanitarian aid in Northern Iraq, to help up to 150,000 civilians who

Overnight, the US military intensified its intervention, with

four fresh air strikes on Islamist militants belonging to Islamic

Washington said the strikes had destroyed military

vehicles, which had been firing on people from the Yazidi community

Britain's first airdrop to those who have fled the Sunni militant advance

in northern Iraq, and who are now exposed and desperate on a

mountainside. The Americans have also now carried out their third

airdrop. Britain says there will be a constant drumbeat of such

operations, but governments are also urgently looking at how to get these

people, mainly from Iraq's Yazidi people, of the mountain to safety.

Christians and other Iraqi menorah tees have fled the Midlands --

minorities have fled the Muslims. It is a terrible humanitarian

situation. There are people who have actually been forced out of their

homes but now they are so scared, they have even abandoned the places

where they have taken shelter. Only last week. There have been four more

US air strikes, the first directly targeting militants attacking those

on the mountainside but in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, France's Foreign

Minister has also been driving home the West's broader message, that

Iraq's divided opposition must bury their differences. TRANSLATION: It

is important that the moment that Iraq has a broad-based unity

government. All Iraqis must feel represented. Together they can lead

the battle against terrorism. Islamic state fighters, in their own

video, celebrate their latest successes, but the Iraqi government

is now saying the militants killed 500 Yazidi people, including women

and children, in their advance. In the northern city of a bill,

Christians and other minorities have flocked for refuge but their bill

itself is also under militant threat.

Israel says it will stay away from stalled talks on

a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, as long as Palestinian militants continue

Negotiations were due to continue in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Palestinian negotiators are threatening to walk away

from the talks today if Israel doesn't attend.

Our Middle East correspondent Kevin Connelly reports from Gaza

Israel's ground forces have left Gaza, but remain within striking

distance. Israel says its military operations will go on until the

rocket fire from Gaza stops. TRANSLATION: The operation will

continue until its objective, the restoration of quiet over a

protracted period, is achieved. It will take time and stamina Israel's

air strikes continue. This is the wreckage left by an overnight air

raid. This house one of the many thousands damaged or destroyed here.

Getting in the supplies to rebuild through Gaza's tightly controlled

borders is a key issue in cease-fire talks. For the building's owners, it

is more personal. TRANSLATION: They attacked two houses, mine and my

brother's house were destroyed. We worked all our life to build these

houses and in one minute they destroyed it. Every minute fighting

continues will make peace tougher to achieve. Diplomatically, this could

be a big day. Palestinian negotiators in Cairo say they will

walk away from the talks unless the Israeli team returns to Egypt.

Israel says it doesn't negotiate under rocket fire. A cease-fire

remains the immediate goal but the talks could yet unravel.

Voters in Turkey are going to the polls today in the country's first

Previously, the President was elected by parliament.

Let's speak to our Correspondent Mark Lowen is in Ankara for us.

This is an opportunity for a Prime Minister who has been in post so

long he can't stand again. Absolutely. Wanting to secure the

post of president and to enhance his powers. He is a very divisive

figure, though. He is as adored as he is hated, loved by his supporters

for transforming the economy here in Turkey, making at the 15th largest

economy in the world, hated by his critics for his perceived

authoritarianism and mixing religion and politics in a secular state. All

of this matters though because Turkey is a troubled country, it has

huge US military bases. It is the entry point for the West and for the

US into the Middle East. That is why whoever wins the day in the

selection, three candidates standing, will hold an important

geopolitical and regional position, and that is why this election will

be watched far beyond Turkey's borders.

Baroness Warsi, the former Conservative minister who

resigned over the government's stance on the Gaza conflict,

has said the Tories won't win the next election unless it does more

But one backbench Conservative has said the Baroness, who was

the first Muslim woman in the Cabinet, has "embarrassed herself"

For much of the last decade, Lady War C has been at David Cameron's

side, the first Muslim woman in the Cabinet, she co-chaired the

Conservatives and was seen by some as a symbol of how the party had

changed. Some of her colleagues are but she, she says, and she touches

on two raw nerves for the Tories and the pro Minister. She told the

Sunday Times: Baroness Warsi here in a party to

celebrate the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hinted the

primaries the would-be butter served by a more diverse bunch of people

working for him. The peer resigned last week, over

what she called the government's morally if the hands of all policy.

Critics say she has now gone too far. I think she is more of an

embarrassment to herself today that she has moved from her principled

resignation about an issue she believed strongly in the then start

criticising the government in other areas, which have not reflected in

her original resignation. Downing Street is not being drawn on all of

this, merely repeating the prime list was disappointed to see her

leave the government. Much of

the country is being lashed by the Our Correspondent Andy Moore is

in Peacehaven in West Sussex. What has it been like there? Welcome

to the breezy side in the peak holiday season. If it was in autumn,

it would not be remarkable. INAUDIBLE

The storm now heading north and east, it could be pretty nasty in

the North of England and Scotland tomorrow. Hundreds of volunteers are

on stand-by tomorrow. Hundreds of volunteers are

just in case and quite a few coastal alerts. Stay at home with a hot

chocolate, today, I think applies to everyone. We got a bit of that!

Sorry it was very difficult to hear what he was actually saying there, a

lot of the rain has moved up, it is moving up through the country now,

northwards from where Andy was. A nine-year-old boy

from Florida has been speaking about the moment he fought off a nine foot

long alligator with his bare hands. James Barnley Junior was swimming

in a lake near Orlando He's in hospital recovering from

his injuries which left him with 30 At first, I thought someone was just

playing with me, and I didn't know what happened. I reached down to go

grab it, and I felt its jaw, I felt its teeth. I didn't know what to do.

So I immediately reacted and hit a couple of times. So then it was

letting go a little, and then, finally, I had enough strength left

to pry its jaw open a little. Extraordinary story.

That's it. The next news on BBC One is at 6.35 pm, bye for now.

A very good afternoon, you have probably heard hurricane Bertha is

partly powering an area of low pressure that is bringing us for

many areas a wet and windy day. Whether you would normally expect to

see in autumn rather than the stage of summer. Having made a 4000 mile

trip across the Atlantic, here it is as it arrived earlier across our

shores. It looked like thunder clouds moving in across the British

Isles, that is pretty much what they are