24/06/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me, Philippa Thomas.

John Kerry says there is no military solution in Iraq - the US Secretary

of State tells Iraqi leaders there has to be a unity government.

On the ground, Isis-led fighters are repelled by

the Iraqi army west of Baghdad but continue their advance elsewhere.

Prime Minister David Cameron apologises for employing as his

communications chief Andy Coulson - today found guilty of conspiring to

hack mobile phones while editing Britain's best selling newspaper.

President Putin talks peace on Ukraine, calling for a longer

ceasefire, but reports are coming in of a Ukrainian army helicopter shot

And we'll have all the latest World Cup news from Rio.

I will be live from Rio de Janeiro bringing you the World Cup today.

Iraq's biggest oil refinery is the subject of intense struggle between

The Sunni militant group Isis says they've taken it.

But the Iraqi airforce is also reported to have launched

The refinery has been under siege for ten days with militants

The rebels say they're allowing local tribes to oversee

the complex which supplies a third of Iraq's refined fuel.

The Isis-led fighters have been strengthening their positions -

after taking over key border crossings with Syria

and Jordan - tightening their grip on the north and west of Iraq.

And that's the focus of crisis talks between the US Secretary of

State John Kerry and Kurdish leaders in the city of Irbil today.

including the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani.

Mr Kerry has promised 'intense support for Iraqi security forces'

But as Fergal Keane reports from Irbil,

the government's challenge might in fact be on a far bigger scale.

In the shadow of its ancient citadel,

And it was here that we met with Sunni fighters who travelled to

They very rarely talk to Western media

Baghdad will soon fall, they told me.

It is a matter of time, less than one month.

Now they are asking young Shia to fight against us, but we will

be there very soon and Baghdad will fall under the revolution.

And they say that Prime Minister Malachy will be

Sharia law says the killer must be killed.

The fighters are from Sunni tribes, spurred on to radicalism

by a government crackdown in their hometown of Falluja.

One reason they may have decided to talk to us is a drawing resentment

A feeling that the Sunni revolution has been taken over.

I want to say to America and the world that this is not

We ask the EU and America to support the Sunni people.

The Iraqi army is still striking at insurgents

Latest reports suggest the country's biggest oil refinery

Now America is pressing for a new Iraqi government,

Without an adequate transformative decision

by the leaders of Iraq, anything that the US for others or allies do

to try to fight back is going to be limited, if not impossible.

John Kerry was speaking here in Irbil where Iraq's ethnic groups

coexist peacefully under the Kurdish majority.

It is a dream, but only that, of what

Iraq is a complex catastrophe and the idea that there will be one

outright winner to control the whole country is a fallacy.

What we've heard from the Sunni fighters suggests

a growing resentment of their Isis allies, so even if the insurgents

win it could only be the first phase in a much longer war.

With me is Harlan Ullman, senior adviser at the international affairs

He was the principal author of the military strategy of

"shock and awe" employed during the opening stages of US action

Wellcome. What can John Kerry achieved in Iraq? He can be an

instrument to try to resolve some of the various factions. He is talking

to the currency were very important because they will continue to

understand their opposed Isis militants, so having them onside is

important. The interesting issue is that we talk about the militants. It

is a mixture of TNT and nitroglycerin. Various groups get

together because they oppose the Sunni governments. They are army

people who were thrown out and present the government. And there

are also the tribal Sunni who want revenge against the governments. You

have this horrible mixture which is not coherence. At some stage they

will turn against the really radical jihadists.

This push towards Baghdad does not make sense to me.

You think they've gone as far as they can get?

I'm not sure. But they have been able to do with a small number of

troops is to rally the Sunni who are opposed to the administration. It is

a mass grouping of people. Lawrence of Arabia in 1947, 2% of men led the

98%. I think that is a good formula. 2% of the insurgents are then

rallying the Sunni and then that becomes the issue. It becomes an

seeding -- exceedingly difficult for the government to deal with this

because it is a people's revolution, more than just jihadis trying to

take over and establish new rule. What about the currents? If one of

the reasons that John Kerry is talking to the Kurdish people to

say, hold on and have Iraq as a state, as an entity? We have to rely

on the international community. Talking to the Saudis, talking to

the Israelis, and even the Russians, as difficult as that may

sound. This is connected to Syria. Iran, he was opposed to Isis and

militants, who are favouring basher al-Assad in Syria. Secretary John

Kerry is very sophisticated, very knowledgeable and the United States

could not have a better man in the job.

John Kerry me know that Iran and Iraq have to be dealt with, but look

at Congress where Republican congressmen have said that in no

circumstances do we deal with Iraq. I would remind people that in 1972,

Richard Nixon went to China and I dare say if he was a Democrat, the

Republicans would have been up in arms.

Republicans have to take hold of themselves and take a breath.

Resolving that issue is far more important than resentment against

Iran because in 1979 they held hostages and because they support

Hezbollah and I ran my Israeli. These are bigger stakes. -- anti-in

Britain -- anti-Israeli. You are talking about the importance

of talking. You are of course very well known for formulating shock and

awe, the military strategy. Do you have any regrets about that US

emphasis on the military 's sustained regulation?

People are talking about shock and awe as a slogan, a sound and light

show. The shock and we developed is far away from the shock and awe that

was used in March 20 -- March 2003. Shock and awe was entirely

different. Starting from the outcome, what did you want to

achieve? Did you want to achieve a stable Iraq? That is where you

start, not just with the Iraqi army. We never used shock and awe, we used

to Desert Storm and then left. Thank you.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has apologised today

after his former director of communications, Andy Coulson,

was found guilty of conspiring to hack mobile phones.

The offences took place while he was editor of the News

of the World, once Britain's best-selling newspaper.

The phone hacking trial at London's Old Bailey heard 130 days of

evidence about allegations relating to hacking dating back 15 years.

Mr Coulson - who went on to become the Prime Minister's official

spokesman - was found guilty of conspiring to intercept voicemails.

The former News International chief executive, Rebekah Brook,

who was also Coulson's former lover, was cleared of 4 charges, including

hacking voicemails, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The court case resulted in Rupert Murdoch having to shut down News

of the World - after 168 years of publication The Prime Minister has

said he took "full responsibility for employing Andy Coulson".

David Cameron said he was "extremely sorry", and admitted it

A warning that there is flash photography in this report.

It started with the hacking of a murdered schoolgirl's phone. It

became a wider scandal about the power of the media, it's cosy

relations with senior politicians and it even close the News of the

World, which had been around for over 150 years. It has ended in a

differing fates for the two main characters. Rebekah Brookes, a

house, friend and body of an assortment of prime ministers,

walked free from court. Andy Coulson, her former colleague and

lover, was convicted of hacking, prompting an extraordinary apology

from a man who once employed him. I take full responsibility for

employing Andy Coulson. I did so on the basis of undertakings I was

given by him about phone hacking, as does turn out not to be the case. I

always said that if they does turn out not to be the case. I

always said that if turned out to be wrong I would make a full and frank

apology, and I do that today. I am extremely sorry that I employed him.

It was the wrong decision and I am very clear on that. You must have

had suspicions -- he must've had suspicions and yet he refused to

act. This taints David Cameron's governments because we now know that

he put his relationship with Rupert Murdoch ahead of doing the right

thing when it came to Andy Coulson. The damage to the British by

Minister is likely to be limited to short term embarrassment. It will be

soon be seen as old news. Rupert Murdoch offered his apologies when

the scandal first broke in 2011. He somehow feels less of a force here

in the UK badly once was. The whole hacking scandal has shaken Britain,

quite literally in the case of the old headquarters of the News of the

World. Damaging the reputation of tabloid journalists, newspaper

owners and politicians alike. The Ukrainian authorities say

a military helicopter has been shot down near the rebel-held eastern

city of Sloviansk, just a day after pro-Russian insurgents said

they had agreed to a ceasefire. The news came just hours

after the Russian president Vladimir Putin took

a step to reduce tensions - asking parliament to REVOKE the power it

had given the Russian military to intervene in Ukraine, the power that

was used to annexe Crimea. But he urged Kiev to hold

substantive talks with the rebels Cancelling the mandate to use troops

in Ukraine does not mean we. Paying attention to what is going on. It

will always defend the rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine and those

Ukrainians who have ethnic, cultural and linguistic connections to

Russia. We will be following events closely and we will react

accordingly. I hope that the use of force won't be necessary.

Joining me from Moscow is Dimitry Babich, political analyst

I wanted your opinion on what President Putin had to say. How

significant is this? It just shows one more time that Russia is not

going to occupy eastern Ukraine, these two regions. Sloviansk and

.net. Which are part of this insurgency and obviously at least a

big part of the population there once these regions to become

independent of Ukraine. Russia sympathises with this people and

understand they don't want to live under the new government in Kiev but

Russia is not going to go as far as deploying troops there. And yet we

have heard today from the self-declared Prime Minister in the

Donestk People's Republic saying that he thinks that President

Putin's words do not apply to his republic. He said he is still

appealing to the Russian republic to sending peacekeepers. It is not so

easy for the separatists to stand down. That is true. Unfortunately,

despite the announced cease-fire from the government side in Ukraine,

you heard that the helicopter was shot down near Sloviansk. It was

obviously not an attack by the separatists, there was another fight

going on near the scene. This helicopter brought some

paratroopers, that is what the authorities in Sloviansk say. And it

was shot down by the separatist fighters. The fighting continues.

President Putin reiterated it during his trip to Vienna today and

certainly it would be much better if Russia helped militarily. Even if

Russia does not, it is quite clear already that hundreds of people in

the east of Ukraine where killed by the Ukrainian troops, millions of

people herd the Ukrainian planes bombing there are cities or towns

nearby. So I am afraid the scars of this war are going to last for a

very long time. Civil wars are very painful and the scars the safety of

the nation much deeper than with foreign countries. Is a key positive

move that any new Ukrainian president has talked about giving

the East Timor autonomy? -- is it a positive move. Yes. He stopped short

of saying they will be able to elect their own governors without

influence from Kiev. He said Kiev would recommend head of the

elections in the next and that is not going to reassure a lot of

people. -- the elections in Donestk. There was a positive this

signal yesterday when there was the first negotiation between the

president and officials from the republics. The former president of

Ukraine acted as a representative of Kiev in this negotiation is all that

is a very important first step. Talks have begun. Thank you for your

time. Egypt's President Abdul Fattah

al-Sisi has said he won't intervene to cut or quash the jail sentences

given to Al-Jazeera journalists Today, BBC journalists were joined

by colleagues from other news organisations in a one-minute

protest outside this building, Similar protests have been

staged around the world. Peter Greste, an Australian reporter

who used to work for the BBC, and Cairo bureau chief Mohammed Fahmy

each received seven year jail terms. Producer Baher Mohammed was

sentenced to ten years. They had all denied the charges

of spreading false news, and aiding Expressing outrage in silence.

Outside New Broadcasting House, journalists from the BBC and other

news organisations united in protest. The ECB hajj prison

sentences on the al-Jazeera team as a fundamental attack on freedom of

speech. Many of the journalists here identify closely with the jailed

men. Some know them personally. Others feel they could easily be in

the same predicament. -- they feel the prison sentences. There were

silent protest as well in Islamabad and other BBC offices around the

road from Johannesburg to Baghdad. In Australia, Peter regressed's

family are still reeling from the verdict. I know Peter has been very

strong. Sorry. -- Bela Horizonte. -- Bela Horizonte. Journalism is not a

crime, it is as simple as that. This man, our son, Peter, is an

award-winning journalist. He is not a criminal. -- Peter Greste. Even

after the international outcry, the Egyptian president is refusing to

intervene. I called the Justice Minister and told him in one

sentence that I would not interfere in the judicial matters because the

Egyptian judiciary is independent and solid. We should not harm or

pass comment on the state institutions. If we are serious

about building state institutions, we have to respect judiciary

rulings. I'm not condemning them. Saw no immediate pardon for Peter

Greste and other journalists. The feast at least seven years in jail

while there are legal teams scramble to launch an appeal.

We brought you the news yesterday of the release of Sudanese woman

Meriam Ibrahim, who had been sentenced to death for converting

Well in an extraordinary development it's been reported that

the 27-year-old mother has been detained whilst trying to leave

With me is James Copnall, author and former BBC Sudan correspondent.

The Foreign Ministry has told the BBC she will be released soon. Do we

think she is free? Not yet. That is what the Foreign Ministry appears to

be saying. There is a lot of confusion. That comes from the

competing elements within the Sudanese ruling elite. You have the

military and security. The national security team to have reacted in a

lay-by area resting Meriam Ibrahim and her family members that have

surprised the Sudanese government. One senior politician did not know

she had been arrested. Or what she had been arrested for. The Foreign

Ministry is saying she will be released soon but we have to see

what the national security are going to do. There is pressure from her

own family, from her brother. Yes. Her brother brought the charges

against her. That is what the Sudanese officials keep stressing

when they want to defend the rule of sedan in all of this because they

think sedan has been unfairly criticised. The judiciary has done

its bit. A lot of people will be sceptical about that. There is

pressure and competing pressures on that Sudanese government also.

Religious conservatives who would have been in favour of the original

sentence against Meriam Ibrahim and will not be happy about the fact

that she was released. There is pressure within society, there is

different pressures within the Sudanese ruling elite. It is a

contributed situation. If they thinking that she will try to leave

the country? Perhaps then is a US citizen? That's right. They were at

the airport when they were released. There is some suspicion that

national security objected to the documents they were travelling with

and that has to be confirmed. Certainly the intention seems to be

for the family to get out of sedan after they are released and that is

being thwarted by this dramatic rearrest. How closely had this been

followed within sedan itself? There has been interest, because this is

the great debate within Sudanese society, how do you want the country

governed? A strict interpretation of Islamic law, something that human

rights campaigners and women's activists have been against? It is a

broad debate in Sudanese society and is being followed closely.

Time to update you on the football World Cup, and two of today's much

anticipated matches are over - but there's still more to come.

Italy have been knocked out of the tournament after a controversial

incident involving Luis Suarez. Let's go to Peter Okwoche in Rio -

what news? Thank you. It was a game that both

sides needed to win if they were going to progress to the round of

16. In the end, Uruguay triumphed. 1-0 with a goal scored late in the

second half. Two major incidents and that game. A red card for an Italian

defender earlier in the second half meant they played most of the second

half with ten men. There was this alleged biting incident I Luis

Suarez on the shoulder of another player. After that, Uruguay quickly

went to the other end and scored their goal from a corner. The player

who had been bitten try to show the bite marks to the referee who waved

him away. But you remember that two seasons ago, Luis Suarez served an

eight-week ban in the Premier League for biting Chelsea's divan of it. --

Ivanovic. FIFA might want to look at this. The referee did not see it and

waved their Italian player away. The family want to look at it

retrospectively and if they define Luis guilty, he makes be in a spot

of trouble. There has been another match of course involving the

England team. Some more to come as well? That's right. It has been a

woeful World Cup so far for England. It had ended for them. We thought

they might restore some of their prey to the West may be a good

performance against Costa Rica. That game ended in a drawer, it meant

Costa Rica progress as winners of that group and England just confirm

their flight back home. Later tonight, two more games, Ivory Coast

will be bidding to qualify or the red of 16 for the first time in

their history, they require a victory against Greece. If Greece

win the game, they will progress to the next round. In the other match,

it is Colombia versus Japan. Colombia have already won that

group. Just briefly, we are getting down to the final 16. Now we are so

far into the tournament itself, you think the key thing problems are

over? That Brazil is coming out of this pretty well? You would have to

say that. At the beginning of this tournament, we kept on saying that

the authorities were hoping that once the football started, there

would be no more protests. We have seen a couple of protest. Today

there was a small protest before the Brazil game, but I think the

authority so far will be happy with the way the World Cup is going at

the moment and they will hope it continues that way. Caregiver

bringing us up to date. For more on the World Cup, you can

join the conversation on Twitter You can also talk to me

about this or any other Iraq's biggest oil refinery is the

subject of intense struggle between the Iraqi military and rebel forces.

The Sunni militant group said it had taken it but the Iraqi air force is

also reported to have been in action.

across some parts of England. Tomorrow, a slightly fresher feel to

the day will stop quite cloudy but with continuing sunny