:00:00. > :00:08.This is BBC World News Today, with me Dan?iela Ritorto.
:00:09. > :00:15.Fighting in the Middle East intensifies - Hamas demands revenge
:00:16. > :00:18.after Israeli airstrikes on their forces, while Israel warns
:00:19. > :00:35.it is preparing to escalate operations on the border with Gaza.
:00:36. > :00:46.And the man leading the race to become a scanner stand's vice
:00:47. > :00:54.president. And Pope Francis begs forgiveness from the victims of
:00:55. > :00:56.child abuse in the church. Brazil get set to play Germany in the first
:00:57. > :01:05.semifinal of the World Cup tomorrow. Unrest continues in the Gaza Strip,
:01:06. > :01:12.with Hamas warning that Israel will pay after eight Palestinian
:01:13. > :01:15.militants were killed overnight. Israel launched airstrikes
:01:16. > :01:17.after a wave of rocket fire Five Hamas fighters died in a tunnel
:01:18. > :01:28.near Rafah in the south of Gaza. Israel says explosives they had
:01:29. > :01:31.planted blew up as they inspected Tensions have been heightened
:01:32. > :01:36.since three Israeli teenagers were murdered near the West Bank city
:01:37. > :01:40.of Hebron. Soon after that a Palestinian
:01:41. > :01:44.teenager was killed near East Jerusalem, in what is widely
:01:45. > :01:46.seen as a revenge attack. The BBC's James Reynolds has
:01:47. > :02:02.the latest. Overnight Israel's your force struck
:02:03. > :02:10.targets in Gaza. A piece of land ruled by her masts. Israel says that
:02:11. > :02:13.it went after rocket launcher sites and warehouses. This afternoon and
:02:14. > :02:23.armed men killed in the strikes were buried. This was the deadliest night
:02:24. > :02:30.in Gaza since 2012. This morning a rocket fired by her masts landed in
:02:31. > :02:43.the Israeli village here, next to Gazza. Armas has -- how Mass has
:02:44. > :02:47.fired several of its rockets. What may more is the atmosphere here
:02:48. > :02:50.injuries will and nearby areas. Palestinians who live under Israeli
:02:51. > :02:59.rule have protested and have fought against the police. This morning the
:03:00. > :03:04.chief Palestinian negotiator to diplomats to see this village. It is
:03:05. > :03:12.surrounded by Jewish settlements built on land the Palestinians want
:03:13. > :03:18.for a state. What we are witnessing is a systematic approach by the
:03:19. > :03:24.Israeli government to throw us into the path of Watchet and violence and
:03:25. > :03:33.key loss -- chaos which we have seen in 2012. Israel's Justice Minister
:03:34. > :03:39.has led stocks with representatives of the Arab minority. Sick and tired
:03:40. > :03:44.of this on both sides. We need be more responsible. This is what I am
:03:45. > :03:57.trying to do in Israel and I expect the same message to be sent in
:03:58. > :04:04.Palestine. The army says that it is preparing for a possible escalation.
:04:05. > :04:05.Preliminary results from Afghanistan's Presidential
:04:06. > :04:10.election run-off show Ashraf Ghani has a big lead.
:04:11. > :04:13.The former World Bank official took 56% of the ballots.
:04:14. > :04:18.His rival, Abdullah Abdullah, has claimed the voting was rigged.
:04:19. > :04:20.A final result won't be declared until the Election Commission
:04:21. > :04:25.That's due to happen by July the 22nd.
:04:26. > :04:28.The eventual winner is to take over from Hamid Karzai,
:04:29. > :04:40.who has been president since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
:04:41. > :04:42.Professor Michael Semple is a former EU special representative
:04:43. > :04:49.He spent more than two decades living in the country.
:04:50. > :04:56.These allegations of fraud and vote rigging, do the surprise you? We are
:04:57. > :04:59.very consistent with the way that elections have played out over the
:05:00. > :05:05.past decade in Afghanistan, so it is not very surprising. Abdullah
:05:06. > :05:13.Abdullah was the frontrunner and now it looks like Ashraf Ghani has got
:05:14. > :05:20.the lead. That took me by surprise. It certainly took Abdullah Abdullah
:05:21. > :05:25.by surprise and that is why they are disputing the results. Whoever wins,
:05:26. > :05:30.do you think that they will accept and respect the result? That is what
:05:31. > :05:35.we are going to see playing out over the next to the -- the next two
:05:36. > :05:39.weeks. Whether there will be a political deal which will get both
:05:40. > :05:43.teams to accept the results. I know that the US and its allies will be
:05:44. > :05:46.very keen to see that and to give a certain amount of legitimacy to the
:05:47. > :05:52.person that takes over from President Karzai. In terms of
:05:53. > :05:57.inheriting the country from President Karzai, what sort of
:05:58. > :06:03.country I the inheriting? One of the most difficult jobs in the world.
:06:04. > :06:09.The economy has been highly dependent upon the wire. Money which
:06:10. > :06:14.has come in around the US troop presence. That is rapidly dwindling
:06:15. > :06:18.and 95% of security expenditure has been coming from the US. Now they
:06:19. > :06:23.have a very limited revenue base, they have to find some way of paying
:06:24. > :06:28.their own. All the while they are having to fight an insurgency which
:06:29. > :06:33.is very far from over. Security is very much at the forefront whenever
:06:34. > :06:36.we talk about Afghanistan, but I just wonder, for the average Afghan
:06:37. > :06:40.who is trying to get by, make a living, improve life in their
:06:41. > :06:50.family, what is either of these men offer them? I suspect that a lot of
:06:51. > :06:54.Afghans, perhaps even the majority, are a little bit indifferent about
:06:55. > :06:59.who takes over. They won the war to end, they want a chance to get on
:07:00. > :07:03.with their lives. -- they want the war to end. The worst outcome for
:07:04. > :07:07.most Afghans would be if this dragged on for a long time in a
:07:08. > :07:10.disputed results. That is why there will be a lot of pressure to patch
:07:11. > :07:14.up some kind of reconciliation between these two teams over the
:07:15. > :07:18.next two weeks. Is the Afghan electoral commission up to the job?
:07:19. > :07:25.They are certainly under tremendous pressure. We have seen the spectacle
:07:26. > :07:29.of the chief officer, the man charged with running the election,
:07:30. > :07:34.he was pressured to resign after the takes came out which supposedly
:07:35. > :07:39.world hen instructing people to rig. He fled the country, he has
:07:40. > :07:45.been brought back to the country. The gentleman who is the chairperson
:07:46. > :07:53.of the commission is not really a hands-on technocrat kind of person.
:07:54. > :07:57.He is a nice old man. That is why people are looking to political
:07:58. > :08:00.understanding these two teams, rather than just trusting on the
:08:01. > :08:05.process of what you call auditing the boats. Going through
:08:06. > :08:12.spreadsheets, trying to work out whether votes are genuine or not.
:08:13. > :08:16.The commission has put its hand up and said, we would far rather that
:08:17. > :08:19.someone helped broker report: Understanding between the two teams
:08:20. > :08:23.rather than just relying on us getting everybody to rely on audit
:08:24. > :08:27.results. Pope Francis has made
:08:28. > :08:29.an unprecedented apology to people who have been sexually abuse
:08:30. > :08:31.by Roman Catholic priests. He met a group of victims
:08:32. > :08:34.at the Vatican, where he begged for their forgiveness for not only
:08:35. > :08:37.what he described as grave crimes, but also for the failure
:08:38. > :08:40.of the Church to deal with them. He also promised action to
:08:41. > :08:42.ensure this was never repeated. Let?s talk to our Rome
:08:43. > :09:03.correspondent, Alan Johnston. What did the Pope have to say to
:09:04. > :09:07.these victims? This group of six victims, two from Britain, two from
:09:08. > :09:12.Ireland, two from Germany, were invited to stay at the Vatican
:09:13. > :09:16.guesthouse, which was also the home of the Pope. They attended Mass with
:09:17. > :09:19.him this morning and his private chapel and after that he met each of
:09:20. > :09:23.them individually for half an hour, a series of encounters that went on
:09:24. > :09:28.for some three others. But it was during mass, during his homily, when
:09:29. > :09:31.he delivered his message to his visitors and all those around the
:09:32. > :09:45.world who have suffered in the same way, he said that the church had two
:09:46. > :09:51.-- had to weep and to beg for forgiveness. He acknowledged that
:09:52. > :09:55.there is additional suffering because church members had not acted
:09:56. > :10:05.on information. At one point he made enormous personal reference to some
:10:06. > :10:13.kind of personal feeling. -- failing. He talked about a personal
:10:14. > :10:16.pain, he talked about complicity. He talked about abuse victims turning
:10:17. > :10:22.to alcohol addiction, even to suicide. And he appealed to those
:10:23. > :10:29.victims who had come to visit him to help him shape policy so that that's
:10:30. > :10:33.sort of thing no longer happened. The victims themselves have been
:10:34. > :10:38.speaking, I be satisfied, are they happy since this meeting? We have
:10:39. > :10:42.heard from one of those in the meetings, a British man who was
:10:43. > :10:46.abused by a priest when he was still at school. He was satisfied with the
:10:47. > :10:51.way that things had gone. He said he had a full chance to see everything
:10:52. > :10:54.that he wanted to say to the Pope. He said that the church did not only
:10:55. > :10:58.need to atone for what happened but they needed to make sure that there
:10:59. > :11:00.could be no more cover-ups, that there needed to be complete
:11:01. > :11:04.cooperation with the civil authorities. He said he felt that he
:11:05. > :11:13.could see the pain that the Pope fell on his face as this unfolded --
:11:14. > :11:16.felt. He said it had been a life changing experience, having missed
:11:17. > :11:23.chance to come to the Vatican and explain himself to the Pope himself.
:11:24. > :11:25.Let us have a look at some of the day's other stories.
:11:26. > :11:27.16 people have died and five others are receiving
:11:28. > :11:29.treatment for burns in Vietnam, after a military helicopter crashed
:11:30. > :11:33.State-run media are saying the Russian-made helicopter was
:11:34. > :11:35.on a parachute training mission when it came down in
:11:36. > :11:38.the early morning in the Thach That district, a sparsely populated rural
:11:39. > :11:42.No civilians were injured in the crash, which has been blamed
:11:43. > :11:49.The murder trial of the athlete Oscar Pistorius has resumed with the
:11:50. > :11:51.cross-examination of the defence's final witness. Mr Pistorius' lawyers
:11:52. > :11:53.have condemned the leaking of a video showing him re-enacting events
:11:54. > :11:56.of the night he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He
:11:57. > :12:02.insists he mistook her for an intruder.
:12:03. > :12:04.The Ukrainian Government says its forces have retaken two more
:12:05. > :12:08.They announced on Sunday they'd regained Sloviansk - which had been
:12:09. > :12:11.The rebels have re-grouped in other areas - including
:12:12. > :12:15.Ukraine has ordered a complete blockade of that city
:12:16. > :12:26.The former President of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, has died at
:12:27. > :12:34.He was also the last foreign minister
:12:35. > :12:37.of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, who called him a talented
:12:38. > :13:00.It is almost a month since ISIS began its advance. The country's
:13:01. > :13:07.security is now dependent on Shia militias whose ranks have swelled
:13:08. > :13:26.volunteers. It seems that one group in particular are holding fort.
:13:27. > :13:35.Drive 40 miles north of Baghdad and you will see the stronghold of Isis.
:13:36. > :13:44.Now another group of militia have stepped in after the Iraqi army
:13:45. > :13:50.collapsed under ISIS attack. The League Of The Righteous. The men on
:13:51. > :13:56.this front line position said that ISIS fighters were only 300 yards
:13:57. > :14:01.away. This is where the war is being fought on hot, empty roads in the
:14:02. > :14:04.heart of Iraq. And what is going on here has repercussions, not just
:14:05. > :14:08.across this country but right across the Middle East. It is changing the
:14:09. > :14:15.political dynamic. It is deepening sectarian divides. And eventually it
:14:16. > :14:22.may well be felt a long way from here, in Europe, or in the United
:14:23. > :14:26.States. At the Field HQ their commanders say that they would
:14:27. > :14:33.protect any Iraqi against invaders but have warned local Sunnis that
:14:34. > :14:40.anyone helping ISIS will be killed. TRANSLATION: We have had phone calls
:14:41. > :14:45.from villagers offering to surrender in exchange for the safety. This
:14:46. > :14:51.shows how terrified the militants are of us. This is because of our
:14:52. > :14:55.expertise in urban and gorilla warfare and experience we gained
:14:56. > :14:59.fighting against the Americans and the British. These either one
:15:00. > :15:01.pictures, they say, of their men in action recently against ISIS. They
:15:02. > :15:08.also fought in Syria on the resume's side. The group's leader
:15:09. > :15:15.says Syria and Iran are in the same war. TRANSLATION: I think that
:15:16. > :15:19.sending our men to fight in Syria was the right decision. Al-Qaeda has
:15:20. > :15:25.had a lot of practice in street fighting. If our guys had not got
:15:26. > :15:32.the experience in Syria then ISIS could have taken Baghdad and we
:15:33. > :15:35.would not be sitting here now. At local checkpoints the police defer
:15:36. > :15:43.to the militias. Most people here are she -- Shia Muslims and believe
:15:44. > :15:58.that ISIS would kill them if they could. ISIS will attack anybody,
:15:59. > :16:02.policeman, army soldiers, civilians. The local population here has been
:16:03. > :16:07.mobilised, soldiers coming to pick up food from this mosque. A fighter
:16:08. > :16:12.from a smaller Shia militia had spent years in American prisons in
:16:13. > :16:24.Iraq for fighting the western occupation. TRANSLATION: We will
:16:25. > :16:30.win, God willing. ISIS has been established by a dirty hand. They
:16:31. > :16:38.took the food out to another position on the edge of town. It has
:16:39. > :16:44.become a hit and run guerrilla war. TRANSLATION: No one likes war,
:16:45. > :16:52.unfortunately Iraq was targeted by foreign conspiracy. I blame Saudi
:16:53. > :16:56.Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Back in Baghdad the paramilitary federal
:16:57. > :17:02.police handle much of the security. Guns dominate this country. Talk
:17:03. > :17:08.about a political deal today route the Shia ascendancy in the capital
:17:09. > :17:13.is getting nowhere. Iraq's ethnic fractures deepened by the day.
:17:14. > :17:17.He's a Consultant Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute
:17:18. > :17:19.here in London, he's a counter-insurgency expert
:17:20. > :17:25.and has worked as an advisor to the Iraqi government on security.
:17:26. > :17:33.Thank you very much for coming in. We heard Jeremy's report, Iraq's
:17:34. > :17:36.religious and ethnic fractures getting deeper, and they are armed
:17:37. > :17:41.to the back teeth as well. What is happening on the ground? As far as
:17:42. > :17:49.we can tell, the militias are being split into different areas, one
:17:50. > :17:54.militia is doing the road between Baghdad and another town. Another
:17:55. > :18:00.militia is looking after the road between Baghdad and another town. I
:18:01. > :18:08.am also picking up report that ethnic cleansing is going on. There
:18:09. > :18:16.is this fear of something called zero over. That is a fear that when
:18:17. > :18:24.ISIS coming to the new areas of Baghdad and so on, the Sunni Muslims
:18:25. > :18:29.will split into sleeper cells and start undermining the defences.
:18:30. > :18:35.Based on that, they are trying to drive people out. Which is not very
:18:36. > :18:40.helpful situation. The people we saw in the report, these are the same
:18:41. > :18:47.men who used to fight and kill and maim US and British forces during
:18:48. > :18:53.the occupation. That's right. All they know being tolerated because
:18:54. > :19:01.they are fighting ISIS? Indeed. They were tolerated when the forces were
:19:02. > :19:12.there in August of 2004. There was major conflict between them and the
:19:13. > :19:15.coalition forces. They have always had a bit of animosity against the
:19:16. > :19:28.West. But now there is a bigger enemy. In terms of the Iraqi army,
:19:29. > :19:33.Shia militias are acting as a defector Iraqi army, would that be
:19:34. > :19:40.fair to say? They are doing the job the Iraqi army should have done.
:19:41. > :19:46.Many soldiers have deserted, particularly in the North. He's
:19:47. > :19:51.militias are now coming into play. Who is the loyalty to with these
:19:52. > :19:56.militias? The loyalty is to the head of the militia. That is what makes
:19:57. > :20:03.them very strong, that strong bond of loyalty to their commander. It
:20:04. > :20:10.depends on who the commander... Who the commanders loyal to? One of them
:20:11. > :20:17.is very much loyal to the idea of Iraq as an entity. And the Shia
:20:18. > :20:25.identity you logically. -- feel logically. The commanders are
:20:26. > :20:30.working towards getting rid of this threat which threatens them as a
:20:31. > :20:49.country. That is what is galvanising them. We need to leave it there.
:20:50. > :20:53.Thank you very much. Hamas has claimed responsibility for firing a
:20:54. > :20:57.barrage of rockets fired at Israel. The claim came shortly after the
:20:58. > :21:00.Israeli military confirmed that several rockets were fired across
:21:01. > :21:05.the border without seeing how many had actually struck the Israeli
:21:06. > :21:07.territory. Hamas seems to have claimed responsibility for firing
:21:08. > :21:09.rockets into southern Israel. Here in the UK, the Home Secretary
:21:10. > :21:12.has announced an independent inquiry into how allegations of widespread
:21:13. > :21:15.child sex abuse were handled by the government and other public
:21:16. > :21:25.bodies in the 1980s and 1990s. They will also be an investigation
:21:26. > :21:37.into the handling of child abuse by seat -- senior politicians. How will
:21:38. > :21:44.these new investigations operate? I want to apologise on behalf of the
:21:45. > :21:46.government... Last month, the Health Secretary published what he called
:21:47. > :21:52.an overarching public enquiry into Jimmy Savile's sex crimes inside the
:21:53. > :21:56.NHS. A second enquiry into the lessons that can be learned in the
:21:57. > :21:58.health service is already underway. The BBC has commissioned to Mac
:21:59. > :22:04.enquiries into the activities of Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall. Those
:22:05. > :22:09.independent reports are considering the lessons to be learned. As for
:22:10. > :22:13.allegations of possible child sex abuse involving senior politicians,
:22:14. > :22:24.there are investigations at the Home Office. Will this overarching
:22:25. > :22:27.enquiry be a political figleaf? There are a number of cases that
:22:28. > :22:31.need to be investigated, it is right to do this. The main reason it is
:22:32. > :22:35.right is because it is right for the victims. People need to know the
:22:36. > :22:42.truth. The enquiry panel is expected to draw the work of investigations
:22:43. > :22:44.into alleged cover-ups of abuse at children's homes in Northern
:22:45. > :22:50.Ireland, Wales and the Channel Islands. At schools, and at the
:22:51. > :22:57.police response to gangs grooming young girls in a number of towns
:22:58. > :23:01.across the country. This former policeman who investigated
:23:02. > :23:05.allegations against Cyril Smith says his evidence was taken away from
:23:06. > :23:10.them. That was it, we never heard anything, so anything, heard
:23:11. > :23:17.anything about the file, it simply disappeared. The man whose
:23:18. > :23:21.allegations inspired the police enquiry into an alleged paedophile
:23:22. > :23:26.ring involving senior politicians today told the BBC he believes there
:23:27. > :23:33.was a cover-up in Westminster. The Lords, the Commons, all
:23:34. > :23:35.institutions, they will be a small percentage of paedophiles and a
:23:36. > :23:42.slightly larger percentage of people who have known about it but felt in
:23:43. > :23:44.terms of their own self and self-preservation and her politic or
:23:45. > :23:54.party reasons it has been safer to cover it up.
:23:55. > :23:55.Any of us who fly will want to take a look at this story.
:23:56. > :23:59.you're looking forward to getting off the plane, stretching your feet.
:24:00. > :24:02.When, unknown to you but definitely in view of the pilot,
:24:03. > :24:04.a plane is on the runway ahead of you.
:24:05. > :24:06.Thankfully the Argentinean Airbus pulled back up into the sky
:24:07. > :24:11.as a Russian airliner rolled across the runway in front of it.
:24:12. > :24:14.The near miss took place at a Barcelona airport
:24:15. > :24:18.as the pilot avoided what could have been a catastrophic disaster.
:24:19. > :24:28.None of the passengers were hurt and an investigation is taking place.
:24:29. > :24:31.To the World Cup and Brazil continues preparations
:24:32. > :24:33.for the World Cup semi-final against Germany.
:24:34. > :24:37.The team will be without key player, Neymar, after his tournament
:24:38. > :24:42.ended in injury in the quarter final win over Colombia.
:24:43. > :24:47.about who will replace him in Belo Horizonte.
:24:48. > :24:54.Let's go to Peter Okwoche in Rio de Janeiro.
:24:55. > :25:03.Peter, in terms of that terrible injury that Neymar sustained,
:25:04. > :25:07.fractured vertebra, FIFA has made a decision on what is going to happen
:25:08. > :25:12.to the Colombian player who inflicted it. That's right. FIFA
:25:13. > :25:19.have said they are not going to take any action against the Colombian
:25:20. > :25:24.defender over the incident. They said that he had witnessed the
:25:25. > :25:34.incident, so there is no way they can take any active action against
:25:35. > :25:37.the defender. Viewers might remember that Neymar was injured in the small
:25:38. > :25:42.of the back during the quarterfinal win over Colombia. Neymar has been
:25:43. > :25:48.ruled out of the World Cup completely. The biggest star in this
:25:49. > :25:52.Brazilian squad. That incident caused a lot of pain and
:25:53. > :25:58.consternation here because they felt, they feel rather, but without
:25:59. > :26:04.Neymar it might be difficult for their team to go all the way. FIFA
:26:05. > :26:06.have said that they cannot take the stature and popularity of the player
:26:07. > :26:15.into consideration when they are dealing with these incidents. FIFA
:26:16. > :26:21.also rejected Brazil's request that the ban on the ago Silver be lifted.
:26:22. > :26:27.He earned two yellow cards. He is suspended for the semifinal against
:26:28. > :26:34.Germany tomorrow. FIFA said there is no legal basis for them to rescind
:26:35. > :26:39.that yellow card. I am going to put you on the spot. Our Brazil going to
:26:40. > :26:45.win? Against Germany, it will be tough. I like the way the Germans
:26:46. > :26:51.have been playing so far. They were not as good against Algeria are
:26:52. > :26:55.friends, but I think the Germans... We have got to leave it there. That
:26:56. > :27:02.is all from the programme we will see you on Wednesday.
:27:03. > :27:06.Monday turned out to be a wet day, especially across Wales and into the
:27:07. > :27:07.south west of England. Tomorrow offers the prospect of sunny