14/08/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Kasia Madeira.

The humanitarian situation in northern Iraq is still

in deep crisis according to the United Nations.

But President Barack Obama says US air strikes has broken the siege

of Mount Sinjar and alllow thousands of refugees to escape.

We broke the siege of Mount Sinjar and help vulnerable people to safety

and help to save innocent lives. Heavy shelling has hit

the rebel-held Ukrainian city of Donetsk, amid a continuing row over

a controversial Russian aid convoy. Police search musician Sir Cliff

Richard's home in connection with If you are enjoying your binge-watch

- stay with as we keep you hyper-connected with new additions

to the Oxford Online dictionary - definitions available later -

but will these new words last? Obama says the siege of the Yazidis

on Mount Sinjar has been broken. But that does not mean that

the humanitarian crisis in Iraq caused by the advance of Islamic

State militants has lessened. In fact, it has acquired

a new official urgency, with the United Nations declaring it to

be its highest level of emergency. It estimates that 1.2

million Iraqis have been It HAD thought tens

of thousands Yazidis were besieged on Mount Sinjar without food or

water after fleeing the nearby town But the US says a rescue mission

there is now unlikely to be needed, as there are fewer people than

thought still on the mountain. The US military conducted airdrops

every night over the last week, delivering 114,000 meals, and 35,000

gallons of water. They were joined in the effort by the UK and other

allies. The military was able to successfully strike targets around

the mountain which improved conditions for civilians to evacuate

the mountain safely. Our World Affairs Correspondent Paul

Wood has also been to Mount Sinjar This is the one road from

Mount Sinjar not controlled This harsh and barren terrain,

the only way of escape for tens A few are still making

their way out on foot. This family hid for days, silent and

terrified, before sneaking away. There were bodies in the streets

of the town of Sinjar, he says. A few people remain scattered

across the mountain. They have cobbled together a camp

with supplies dropped by the RAF. They have next to nothing but they

say they have no choice but to flee. One man tells me had had a gun put

to his head and was told to convert or die. Like everyone here, he says

he will never abandon his faith. Sheltered courtesy of the British

taxpayer, they are profoundly grateful for the aid they have

received by they are also desperate First they came for the Christians,

and then us, the Yazidis. They have struck all

of the minorities. If the international community does

not step in, The only soldiers confronting

Islamic State in this part of Iraq The US and Britain are

determined not to send troops. Even with US air support, there is

not much these armed Kurds can do. They are stuck here

along with those who fled. By one count, more than 100,000

terrified Yazidis fled over this mountain, many of them at risk

of dying from heat or thirst. The humanitarian catastrophe has

been averted The question remains,

how are these people and 1 million other displaced Iraqis going to get

home when the Islamic State controls Most of those Yazidis are now

in the Dohuk governate, where Kurdish officials say

the situation is critical - it's being overwhelmed by the arrival

of 300,000 displaced people. Our World Affairs correspondent

Caroline Wyatt has spent the day at a hospital where the doctors

have been treating Yazidi refugees. at a hospital where the doctors

Volunteer Kurdish medical teams have been risking

their lives to reach Mount Sinjar to These are

the images they brought back. Over the past few days,

the number still stranded there Many

of the most vulnerable survivors are still arriving in Iraqi Kurdistan

in urgent need of treatment. In one day alone, hospitals

treated up to 800 casualties. In the exodus, even

the old had to walk to survive. He told me he had to go on foot down

the mountain for over 50 kilometres. The real focus is on how to look

after the survivors and to treat the sick and injured from the mountains,

and how to prevent any outbreak of disease, thanks to the conditions

that many refugees are living in. The Yazidi families who made it to

safety remain Maybe in a few days we may

see some endemic diseases. We may have cholera

because the places where they live Existing refugee camps

are already full. The province is now home to 400,000

people fleeing Islamic State fighters,

doubling the population here. Support from outside is what they

need here and some of that was visible last night in the form of

another RAF airdrop of aid to Mount The centre of the rebel-held

Ukrainian city if Donetsk has come under heavy shelling,

leaving at least two people dead. The city has been surrounded for

several weeks by Ukrainian forces, Eyewitnesses say shells landed

on shopping centres and a university, as well as city-centre

buildings occupied by the rebels. The latest violence comes

as a Russian convoy, said by Moscow to be carrying aid,

makes its way towards a rebel-held The government in Kiev says

the convoy is a cover to send Our correspondent Steve Rosenberg

is travelling with the convoy. Those who saw it today

could only stop and stare. It is one

of the largest humanitarian convoys Nearly 300 lorries packed, Moscow

says, with aid for eastern Ukraine. All day it snaked its way to

southern Russia before stopping in But Ukraine is reluctant to let

the lorries in. It fears it may be a cover

for a Russian military operation. The border with Ukraine is just

a short drive away from here. If Russia decides to take this

convoy across that border without the permission of Kiev,

then the Ukrainian government will We asked to see what was in

the lorries so they opened one up. No secret weapons shipments here,

just sleeping bags. One of the drivers told me that

Russia was trying to help Ukrainians and that it was the West who was

the aggressor. America, he says,

wants to grab Ukraine for itself. Today, Ukraine dispatched

a rival humanitarian convoy to The Red Cross is warning that

the humanitarian situation Thousands are lacking water

and medicine, and with no sign In Donetsk,

they were sifting through the rubble I don't have anywhere

else to run to. Ukraine accuses Russia

of starting this war. That is why when Russia says it

wants to help by distributing aid, Joining me now from St Helier in

Jersey is Sir Andrew Wood, former Do you trust President Putin when he

says this is purely humanitarian? I think he has lost trust by lying

about other things. This is a group of 280 lorries, military lorries,

painted white, they have stopped at military bases along the way and

they are clearly following an order to prevaricate about what is in the

lorries. I am not surprised that Ukraine is suspicious. Our

correspondent got access into one of the lorries, and there were just

sleeping bags there. I am sorry? One of the lorries, which are

correspondent saw inside, only had sleeping bags. Surely we can have

some kind of trust in this? Why would they not cooperate properly

with the Red Cross in explaining what was in the lorries? Why did

they stop at the bases and why are they military lorries? All I am

saying is that Ukraine has every reason to be distrustful of the way

the Russians have turned to humanitarian aid, as opposed to

military aides and military personnel. If this convoy crosses at

a point that is controlled by pro-Russian separatists, what can

Ukraine do? They originally said they would cross further to the

north in Ukrainian held territory. They must have a reason for not

doing that and the obvious supposition is sat they are

concealing something. A Trojan horse? I did not hear. I apologise,

the line is not good. You believe that this is a Trojan horse? How

damaging is this for Russia's reputation? Russia's reputation has

been severely damaged by what it has done so far. The fact that the

president and authorities have continuously misled everybody.

President Putin said he would cooperate instantly and fully into

the investigation of the destruction of the Malaysian aircraft. No such

thing happened. The rebel separatists made absolutely sure

that no investigation was possible. I do not see any reason to see that

they have changed their general attitude. We saw President Putin had

been to Crimea. Does that mean Ukraine will never get Crimea back?

In a paradoxical way, there is some reason to be relatively short that

the president is just manoeuvring rather than making a definite

decision. He said that Crimea is now Russian, and this is his desire and

fate. -- its desire and fate. He did not go on to say that eastern

Ukraine is also part of the proper Russian sphere. He did not describe

it as new Russia. So, maybe, but there has been so much manoeuvring

and so much changing, that it is quite hard to know what it is that

he wants, and easy to suspect that he is not sure what he can get. We

have to leave it there. Thank you for joining us.

The British singer Sir Cliff Richard has had his home in Berkshire

searched by South Yorkshire Police, in connection with an allegation

of sexual assault involving a boy who was under 16 at the time.

The allegation, which Sir Cliff strongly denies, was made recently

The BBC understands the alleged sexual assault is said to have taken

place at an event by the Christian evangelist Billy Graham at Bramall

Our correspondent David Sillito reports.

A small convoy of unmarked police cars arrived quietly this morning at

this complex of apartments. From the air, we saw

this complex of apartments. From the penthouse flat. Inside,

this complex of apartments. From the the search. The trigger for this: An

allegation that he the search. The trigger for this: An

16. It was at a rally in 1985. Today I can confirm that South Yorkshire

Police have gained entry to a property. Officers are currently

searching the property, a search warrant was granted after the

receipt of an allegation relating to a sexual nature. The allegation

relates to a young boy under the age of 16 years. The owner of the

property is not present. Sir Cliff Richard, one of Britain's most

successful and popular performers. A committed Christian. There was a

hint of rock and roll rebellion, but since then he

hint of rock and roll rebellion, but clean cut family friendly music. He

is clean cut family friendly music. He

Wimbledon. She has clean cut family friendly music. He

recently pledging his recordings. It is going back to grass roots, the

album is full of iconic rock is going back to grass roots, the

roll songs. He released a statement today.

. It is understood about Sir Cliff is in Portugal at the moment,

. It is understood about Sir Cliff however there was no sight of him at

this address. Meanwhile, back at his Berkshire home, we watched as the

police began to leave the apartment. This venture is a joint operation

between South Yorkshire Police and Thames Valley Police, as you can

see, the first of the vehicles are leaving. They have been in there for

more than five hours, we have already seen items taken from the

flat packed up in already seen items taken from the

taken away for examination. It is just a search full stop never rest,

no charge, one allegation that he has strenuously denied.

President Barack Obama has called for peace and calm on the streets

of Ferguson, Missouri, after four nights of violence that followed

the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by police there.

The President urged all sides to take a step back,

and called for a transparent enquiry into the shooting last Saturday.

When something like this happens, the local authorities, including

the police, have the responsibility to be open and transparent

about how they are investigating it, and how they are protecting people

There is never an excuse for violence against police or for

those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting.

There is also no excuse for police to use excessive force

Or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising

Here in the United States of America, police should not be

bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs

and report to the American people about what they see on the ground.

We all need to hold ourselves to a high standard.

BBC's Aleem Maqbool is in Ferguson, Missouri for us with the latest.

Aleem, the President has noted the criticisms over the way the

He did say that a couple of days as well. The last 204I was haven't been

calm. Most protests have been like this. There have been occasions

where looting has taken place, vandals came in last night as police

tried to move people off the streets of Ferguson. There was

confrontation, tear gas was fired. These people here by the side of the

road, there are two main slogans. The first is hands up, don't shoot,

that refers to what happened to Michael Brown, who was shot dead by

police on Saturday morning. The police say he was involved in a

scuffle, eyewitnesses say he approached them with his hand up.

The other slogan is very telling, no justice no peace. They will

continue, they say, until they see justice not in this case but in

society as a whole. Tell us a little bit about how the community is

broken up? When they say they want justice, it is about a full

investigation into what happened to 18-year-old Michael Brown and

punishment for the police officer who shot him. The other things they

are talking about is the fact that while they are in a predominantly

black community here in Ferguson, two thirds of the community is

African American, they have very low representation in the government

here, there are very few black police officers. They want that to

change, they say they are being harassed and feel like second-class

citizens. It has opened up an issue which is very uncomfortable, not

just here, but in many parts of America. For the time being, thank

you very much. A new, extended ceasefire is holding

in Gaza after both sides briefly breached it

soon after it began early Thursday. Israeli

and Palestinian negotiators are expected to resume talks on Monday

after consulting on the terms. They are seeking agreement

on a lasting truce in Gaza Kenya's national airline will

continue to fly to west African nations hit by the Ebola virus,

despite the World Health Organisation's warning that the East

African nation is "at high risk." British Airways has already

suspended some services. More than a thousand people

have now died in four countries. The Uruguay captain Luis Suarez has

lost his appeal against a four-month game ban after biting an Italian

defender during the World Cup. But the Court of Arbitration

for Sport in Switzerland has given him permission to train with

his new club, Barcelona. If you've no idea what any of that

means then, like me, you need to check with Oxford Dictionaries,

who today added all of these words It's not the

Oxford English Dictionary, but an online offering, run by Oxford

University Press, that focuses on current English and includes

the modern meanings of words. Let's take a quick look at some

of the new words or phrases that First, Amazeballs, meaning very

impressive, enjoyable, It means

to make an ostensibly modest or self-deprecating statement, whose

actual purpose is to draw attention Second screen has been added, it's

a mobile device used while watching And YOLO, which is simply

an acronym for You only live once. Joining me from New York is

Katherine Connor Martin. She's an editor with

Oxford University Press. Thank you for joining us, these

words, they won't reach the final version, the printed version will

they? They may someday, it is quite possible. Right now, both the

historical dictionary and the online dictionary are publishing words

there first. It is faster to get information out that way and it is

the way that most readers want to get to the information we have.

These words added now may well be added in a year or two. Some of

these words I can understand, whinge watch, we watch a lot of box sets.

Hate watch as well, where you complain about it on twitter. Craig

for crazy is another one. Shortening our characteristics of words, there

is also abbreviations of adorable. There is also bullying. What about

Amazeballs, but increases what you have to say. I think it is the same

number of syllables, but the use of balls is a funny way to enhance the

meaning of the word. It is easily recognisable because it has that

beginning part from amazing. Informal speech uses the techniques

of neologism, creating new words to make language more fun and

expressive. I imagine some people are cringing listening to these new

words. I am sure that is true, I must say that when we did the

research on Amazeballs and found it qualify for inclusion, we looked at

each other and thought it was get a response. We don't advocate that

people use these words, but we just ready how people use these words. If

new words are rising and we think that our readership will encounter

them, we add them to the dictionary. How do they qualified them? We need

to see that they are being used a lot in a broad array of sources. If

something is just on twitter, we probably wouldn't do it. But if

something has achieved a certain amount of frequency, when we think

our readers will encounter it in their daily lives, then. My

favourite is bro hug, while mine is listicle.

Well that's all from the programme. Next the weather. But for now from

me and the rest of the team goodbye.

Hello again, today's thunderstorms caused flooding and hail. The

weather has been influenced by