:00:00. > :00:00.This is BBC World News Today with me, Daniela Ritorto. Widespread
:00:07. > :00:08.international condemnation as an American journalist is beheaded by
:00:09. > :00:17.The murder of James Foley was shown in a video released by Islamic
:00:18. > :00:22.State. They say he was killed in retaliation for US airstrikes.
:00:23. > :00:26.They claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United
:00:27. > :00:29.States or the West. But the fact is that they terrorised their
:00:30. > :00:31.neighbours and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their
:00:32. > :00:41.After a week of calm, there are explosions again in Gaza and
:00:42. > :00:43.Southern Israel. Airstrikes and rocket attacks restart; talks
:00:44. > :00:52.Also coming up: living with the neighbours - A new study shows
:00:53. > :00:54.modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted ten times longer than
:00:55. > :01:01.The man regarded by many as the father of modern yoga,
:01:02. > :01:03.B.K.S Iyengar, has died at the age of 95.
:01:04. > :01:22.We'll find out how he popularised yoga in the West.
:01:23. > :01:24.Hello and welcome. International leaders have expressed their horror
:01:25. > :01:27.and disgust over the beheading of American journalist James Foley by
:01:28. > :01:29.Islamic State fighters. In the last hour, president Obama said he has
:01:30. > :01:32.spoken to the family offering his condolences - and described the
:01:33. > :01:39.killing as an act of violence that's shocked the conscience of the entire
:01:40. > :01:42.world. The killing was filmed and posted online by the militant group.
:01:43. > :01:46.It appears to have been carried out by a man with a British accent. He
:01:47. > :01:49.says the death is in retribution for recent US air strikes in Iraq. The
:01:50. > :01:57.40 year old photo-journalist had been missing since he was abducted
:01:58. > :02:00.in Syria two years ago. This report now is from our International
:02:01. > :02:02.Correspondent Ian Pannell in Washington. It does not show the
:02:03. > :02:29.full video, but you may find some images from it distressing.
:02:30. > :02:34.He eventually turned his lens to the crisis in Syria. A country that has
:02:35. > :02:39.taken the lives of more journalists than any. He was kidnapped by
:02:40. > :02:45.militants in the north of the country. Last night, the Islamic
:02:46. > :02:51.State released a horrific video appearing to show James Foley being
:02:52. > :02:56.beheaded. It is too graphic to show. But the killer appears to have a
:02:57. > :02:59.British accent. As a Government, you have been at the forefront of the
:03:00. > :03:05.aggression against the Islamic State. The film is addressed to
:03:06. > :03:11.President Obama, with a threat that a second American captive will be
:03:12. > :03:14.killed if US air strikes continue. America's bombing campaign against
:03:15. > :03:18.Islamic State fighters has halted their advance. Iraqi and Kurdish
:03:19. > :03:23.troops are taking back some territory. The group formerly known
:03:24. > :03:28.as ISIS, is still advancing across northern Syria. Now, American
:03:29. > :03:35.intelligence officials have just said they have verified this video.
:03:36. > :03:43.James Foley's life stands in stark contrast to his killers. They have
:03:44. > :03:51.rampaged across cities and villages, killing innocent, unarmed civilians
:03:52. > :03:55.and in cowardly acts of violence. James Foley, seen here working in a
:03:56. > :04:00.little, is one of tens of thousands of people to have died at the hands
:04:01. > :04:07.of militants, rebels and above all, Government forces. He was aware of
:04:08. > :04:12.the dangers of being held captive, having been held in Libya. No matter
:04:13. > :04:18.what ethic you think you have, you know, it is never a worth it. In a
:04:19. > :04:40.statement, his mother, said: friends of James Foley said they can
:04:41. > :04:44.only imagine what it must have been like for him. He was a lovely guy. A
:04:45. > :04:52.professional, he knew what he wanted. He was not a chance. He was
:04:53. > :04:56.very professional. James Foley went to Syria to draw the world's
:04:57. > :05:00.attention to a tragedy that has been largely ignored. President Obama
:05:01. > :05:04.tried to keep America out of this conflict. That no longer looks
:05:05. > :05:08.tenable, as US officials said fighter jets and drones have
:05:09. > :05:14.conducted more air strikes. In the words of a former deputy head of the
:05:15. > :05:15.CIA, this is the Islamic State's first attack against America. It
:05:16. > :05:20.will not be the last. Jim Foley's parents spoke to
:05:21. > :05:23.journalists at a press conference a short while ago and said they think
:05:24. > :05:34.of their son as a martyr. It is horrific. I mean, people can
:05:35. > :05:42.die in lots of different ways, but this way was the most horrific. It
:05:43. > :05:51.haunts me that he, how much pain he was in, and how cruel this method of
:05:52. > :06:00.execution is, as opposed to others. It testifies to his courage. He was
:06:01. > :06:01.courageous to the end. The parents of James Foley.
:06:02. > :06:04.British intelligence services are working to identify the man seen
:06:05. > :06:06.beheading James Foley in the video. The masked militant has a British
:06:07. > :06:09.accent. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, described the murder as
:06:10. > :06:11.'shocking and depraved'. Our Political Correspondent Ben Wright
:06:12. > :06:24.The crisis in Iraq has come closer to home. The beheading of an
:06:25. > :06:28.American by a man believed to be British brought the Prime Minister
:06:29. > :06:31.back to Downing Street. He shortened his holiday to lead the
:06:32. > :06:35.Government's response. Ministers and officials from across Whitehall met
:06:36. > :06:39.in number ten. In the last few minutes, David Cameron gave his
:06:40. > :06:44.reaction. It is an act of murder. Murder without any justification. We
:06:45. > :06:48.have not identified the individual responsible on the video. But from
:06:49. > :06:53.what we have seen it looks increasingly likely that it is a
:06:54. > :06:58.British citizen. What we must do is redouble all our efforts to stop
:06:59. > :07:01.people going and take away passports of those contemplating travel, to
:07:02. > :07:05.arrest and prosecute those who take part in this extremism and
:07:06. > :07:11.violence. To take extremist material of the internet and do everything we
:07:12. > :07:18.can to keep our people say. We are brothers from Bangladesh, Cambodia,
:07:19. > :07:21.Australia, UK... British jihadists in Syria. The Government says around
:07:22. > :07:26.400 British citizens have left the UK to fight for Islamic State. One
:07:27. > :07:32.counter extremist think tank says the Government must do more. It is
:07:33. > :07:35.increasing. We know that a significant number of British
:07:36. > :07:39.Muslims are fighting in the region. The Government has no strategy to
:07:40. > :07:43.combat nonviolent extremism and to prevent it from becoming violent in
:07:44. > :07:46.the first place. The murder confirms what the security services and
:07:47. > :07:52.ministers have known for many months. The conflicts in Syria and
:07:53. > :07:56.Iraq are magnets to some radicalised British Muslims. The questions now
:07:57. > :08:00.begin. Did intelligence services know about this man? How can the
:08:01. > :08:05.flow of British jihadists be stopped? What can Britain do to
:08:06. > :08:10.tackle Islamic state forces in Iraq? There is work that needs to be done
:08:11. > :08:13.with communities across the UK to support families and parents in
:08:14. > :08:19.trying to stop the recruitment of youngsters, first of all to a
:08:20. > :08:24.radical ideology here in the UK, or indeed travelling to be trained by
:08:25. > :08:28.ISIS or other jihadis forces in the region. In Iraq, RAF planes are
:08:29. > :08:31.being used in surveillance of Islamic state forces. The UK's
:08:32. > :08:38.transporting arms from other countries to Kurdish fighters, known
:08:39. > :08:43.as the Peshmerga. The UK might decide to carry out air strikes on
:08:44. > :08:46.Islamic State forces. The United States already is. The Government
:08:47. > :08:51.has ruled out putting British troops on the ground in Iraq. UK soldiers
:08:52. > :08:55.might help train the country's army. One of the problems in the
:08:56. > :09:00.Syria and Iraq crises is that these are words of the soul of modern
:09:01. > :09:05.Islamic Middle East. Nothing the Government can say can counteract
:09:06. > :09:09.that. A lot of young jihadists see this as their sacred duty. While the
:09:10. > :09:12.Government rattles with the problem of British Edison 's travelling
:09:13. > :09:16.abroad to fight with Islamic State, it is concerned about their return.
:09:17. > :09:18.-- British citizens. With me is Peter Neumann . He's
:09:19. > :09:21.Professor of Security Studies at King's College London where he's
:09:22. > :09:33.Director of the International Centre Thank you for coming in. This is a
:09:34. > :09:37.nightmare scenario for British security forces. We can tell that
:09:38. > :09:40.from David Cameron's cutting short his holiday and convening an
:09:41. > :09:48.emergency meeting of the Cabinet. It has been taken very seriously, this
:09:49. > :09:51.British element. Yes. We believe that 400 or 500 British citizens
:09:52. > :09:56.have gone to Syria over the past few years and there is concern that they
:09:57. > :10:05.are doing bad things in Syria and Iraq but that the May return and
:10:06. > :10:09.subsequently become involved in terrorism in the UK. Let's talk
:10:10. > :10:13.about the choice, if you think it is that, of a British accented man,
:10:14. > :10:18.some would go as far as to say it was a deliberate choice to have him
:10:19. > :10:24.on the video, delivering this message. My personal theory is that
:10:25. > :10:33.they... The most important thing was to have a man speak to the American
:10:34. > :10:38.public. There are not that many foreign American fighters inside
:10:39. > :10:42.Iraq. Probably in the location with the hostage was being held, the only
:10:43. > :10:46.English big around was a British person. It could have been an
:10:47. > :10:50.Australian. There are a number of them over there. Being ported things
:10:51. > :10:56.to have the message delivered in an English accent so that news media
:10:57. > :11:02.across America would pick it up. You have studied radicalisation. What is
:11:03. > :11:07.it about ISIS that is attracting these young men? Particularly from
:11:08. > :11:12.Western Europe and Australia. Not so much the United States. What is
:11:13. > :11:17.attracting them to go there? There are a couple of things going on.
:11:18. > :11:20.There is the thing about adventure and Brotherhood and potentially
:11:21. > :11:24.becoming a hero. That is attractive, especially to younger men. There is
:11:25. > :11:30.also the more serious message, the idea of genocide. Bashar al-Assad is
:11:31. > :11:34.killing your brothers and sisters and you must come and defend them.
:11:35. > :11:39.There's also this exciting and positive prospect of building a
:11:40. > :11:42.caliphate, being involved in something really historical.
:11:43. > :11:48.Something that people in 1000 years will still be talking about. That is
:11:49. > :11:54.very attractive to some people. I want to pick up your point that
:11:55. > :11:59.there are fewer American Muslim men going over there. Why is that? There
:12:00. > :12:04.is a mundane fact that it is more difficult to travel to Syria via
:12:05. > :12:08.Turkey from America. Also, for a number of years we have observed
:12:09. > :12:14.that very few Muslim Americans have become involved in violent
:12:15. > :12:21.extremism. Many argue that American Muslims are better and do better in
:12:22. > :12:25.American society. That it does not quite exist in the same way in
:12:26. > :12:30.Europe. Perhaps that makes them less susceptible to the message of
:12:31. > :12:43.extremists. A fascinating insight. Thank you very much for coming in.
:12:44. > :12:48.Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country's operation is not over in
:12:49. > :12:51.Gaza. This comes after renewed violence on both sides. At least 20
:12:52. > :12:56.Palestinians have died in the last 24 hours. That is according to local
:12:57. > :12:59.officials. Hamas says the wife and child of its most senior military
:13:00. > :13:06.commander is among the dead. The commander himself is still alive.
:13:07. > :13:10.A huge turnout for the funeral of the wife and infant son of the top
:13:11. > :13:12.Hamas military leader. Many carried the green flags of his Islamist
:13:13. > :13:20.group. This was a show of support and defiance. Earlier, medics
:13:21. > :13:25.directed bulldozers, as Hamas policemen kept watch at the site of
:13:26. > :13:30.Israel's deadly attack. This pile of dusty rubble is all that is left of
:13:31. > :13:33.a house where relatives of the head of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed
:13:34. > :13:36.Deif, used to live. It was hit by Israeli airstrikes overnight. Hamas
:13:37. > :13:38.says this was an assassination attempt. Today, Palestinian
:13:39. > :13:40.militants fired rockets into southern Israel. The Iron Dome
:13:41. > :13:52.defence system was back in action. But still, some properties were
:13:53. > :14:02.damaged. Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it hits doesn't
:14:03. > :14:05.offsite is across Gaza used to launch and store missiles.
:14:06. > :14:09.Hardliners in the Israeli cabinet now want a wider operation against
:14:10. > :14:12.Hamas. We have to fight it. And it takes
:14:13. > :14:16.patience. You know, the Second World War went on for six years. We have
:14:17. > :14:18.to persevere. We have to beat this group of evil terrorists.
:14:19. > :14:28.About 2000 Israeli reserve soldiers who had been sent home are being
:14:29. > :14:32.recalled. All of this has thrown Egypt's efforts to broker a longer
:14:33. > :14:36.term ceasefire deal into jeopardy. The refusal of the Israelis to give
:14:37. > :14:45.the Palestinians their rights and freedom and open the borders and
:14:46. > :14:47.lift the siege and implement the past agreements, make the
:14:48. > :14:55.Palestinians continue to stand in front of the Israelis and resist and
:14:56. > :14:58.defend their people. In Gaza, tens of thousands have been
:14:59. > :15:02.left homeless after the recent fighting. Some are camping out in
:15:03. > :15:15.And they face greater uncertainty with the renewed violence.
:15:16. > :15:17.Now a look at some of the day's other news.
:15:18. > :15:19.There've been clashes between police and protesters
:15:20. > :15:25.The demonstrators were angry about their neighbourhood being
:15:26. > :15:28.quarantined due to the Ebola outbreak.
:15:29. > :15:30.Police fired tear gas and eyewitnesses say residents
:15:31. > :15:35.Heavy fighting continues to be reported in rebel-held areas
:15:36. > :15:38.of eastern Ukraine, with street clashes in both the two separatist
:15:39. > :15:43.More than 2,000 civilians and combatants have been killed
:15:44. > :15:45.since mid-April, when Ukraine's government sent troops to put
:15:46. > :15:52.It's reported that a Russian aid convoy into Eastern
:15:53. > :15:58.In Pakistan, thousands of opposition supporters have marched on
:15:59. > :16:03.parliament demanding the resignation of the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
:16:04. > :16:06.The two key opposition figures - Imran Khan and a cleric, Tahir
:16:07. > :16:15.ul-Qadri - accuse the government of vote-rigging and corruption.
:16:16. > :16:16.Iran's reformist President Hassan Rouhani has
:16:17. > :16:19.suffered a political set-back with a decision by parliament to impeach
:16:20. > :16:24.The Science Minister Reza Faraji-Dana - who is also in charge
:16:25. > :16:28.of the country's universities - angered conservatives by deciding to
:16:29. > :16:31.re-admit students expelled after the anti-government unrest in 2009.
:16:32. > :16:36.Critics say he also tolerated student publications that questioned
:16:37. > :16:39.Islamic teachings and promoted sedition and riots.
:16:40. > :16:45.With me is Amir Paivar from BBC Persian Television.
:16:46. > :16:54.The on. Now this has been the lead story. In this minister and what has
:16:55. > :16:58.he done? -- thank you for coming in. Was one of the most reformist
:16:59. > :17:04.members of the President's Cabinet will stop and linear reformist is
:17:05. > :17:07.relative. You take him back 15 years and put him in the former
:17:08. > :17:13.President's Cabinet, the same statement would not apply. All he
:17:14. > :17:17.did, as you referred to, was to admit students that had been
:17:18. > :17:22.expelled from university, readmit assessors forced into retirement
:17:23. > :17:27.under President Ahmadinejad. But also, what triggered this
:17:28. > :17:31.impeachment was that his ministry started investigations into a list
:17:32. > :17:38.of 3000 PHD and postgraduate students, who allegedly had received
:17:39. > :17:45.state scholarships to study overseas without going through the process of
:17:46. > :17:49.selection. As it happens, the MPs who initiated the impeachment had
:17:50. > :17:55.some relatives and family members on that list. So is there a little bit
:17:56. > :17:59.more internal political intrigue going on here than just a straight
:18:00. > :18:07.fight between conservatives and reformists? You're right. We should
:18:08. > :18:14.look at it on a macro level. This is the last episode in a series,
:18:15. > :18:19.whereby those loyal to Ahmadinejad are clearly picking up a fight
:18:20. > :18:27.against President Rouhani. This started with campaigns against
:18:28. > :18:31.journalists, foreign or domestic, and now they are pointing the finger
:18:32. > :18:40.at the key minister for President Rouhani. This is a fight against the
:18:41. > :18:43.president. And he is a -- in a difficult situation. He has branded
:18:44. > :18:47.himself as a moderate but if he does nothing he will lose popularity with
:18:48. > :18:55.voters, and if he does something, this will go back to the same fight
:18:56. > :18:58.we had under previous presidents, and that is not what President
:18:59. > :19:02.Rouhani once. Wonder if this impeachment could have happened
:19:03. > :19:10.without a nod and a wink from the Ayatollah? Definitely not. Every
:19:11. > :19:14.other analyst we have been talking to today, they have said it could
:19:15. > :19:21.not have happened without a nod from the supreme leader, and he has
:19:22. > :19:27.himself been criticising the higher education ministry's record in the
:19:28. > :19:31.past year. He is the man who has the last word on everything in that
:19:32. > :19:35.country. As always, fascinating to talk about Iriney in politics. --
:19:36. > :19:38.Iranians. A new study suggests that modern
:19:39. > :19:41.humans and Neanderthals co-existed in Europe ten times longer than
:19:42. > :19:42.previously thought. It was thought Neanderthals died out
:19:43. > :19:45.around 500 years But it turns out that
:19:46. > :19:48.the two species lived alongside each other in Europe for up to 5,000
:19:49. > :19:51.years and even interbred. Our Science correspondent
:19:52. > :20:03.Pallab Ghosh reports. Tens of thousands of years ago,
:20:04. > :20:08.Europe was home to an ancient species of humans. The Neanderthals.
:20:09. > :20:13.They are now extinct. Researchers have gathered there remains to find
:20:14. > :20:17.out why they died out. Some scientists believe that our species
:20:18. > :20:20.hunted them out of existence. But a new, more accurate dating of
:20:21. > :20:25.hundreds of samples, published in the journal, Nature, has changed
:20:26. > :20:32.their view. The research tells us that modern humans arrived in Europe
:20:33. > :20:37.thousands of years earlier than people had previously thought.
:20:38. > :20:41.45,000 years ago. That is when we first met the Neanderthals. It was
:20:42. > :20:46.thought that they died out soon after, around 5000 years after we
:20:47. > :20:52.first arrived, and it turned out that our species quits listed for
:20:53. > :21:00.much longer, around 5000 years. And in that time, our numbers increased
:21:01. > :21:04.bugbears gradually faded away. -- our species coexisted. Until 40,000
:21:05. > :21:12.years ago, they disappeared completely. We have discovered a --
:21:13. > :21:15.that we can rule out a rapid extension at the hands of our
:21:16. > :21:21.species. Instead, these populations lived almost side-by-side for almost
:21:22. > :21:26.5000 years, giving the possibility for the exchange of ideas and
:21:27. > :21:30.culture between the populations. So why did the Neanderthals eventually
:21:31. > :21:33.die out? They are hunting the same animals and collecting the same
:21:34. > :21:38.resources, wanting to live in the best caves. There will be economic
:21:39. > :21:42.competition. We walked the earth with Neanderthals for thousands of
:21:43. > :21:47.years, but in the end, they could not compete with our kind and they
:21:48. > :21:52.were finished off by a harsh cold spell 40,000 years ago.
:21:53. > :21:55.Fantastic pictures. The man considered the father
:21:56. > :21:58.of modern yoga has died in India. He's described as a visionary,
:21:59. > :22:02.the man who made yoga accessible to beginners through his books,
:22:03. > :22:04.popularising it in the west. He practiced yoga for eight decades
:22:05. > :22:08.and could still do a headstand for more than half-an-hour until last
:22:09. > :22:12.year, when he became seriously ill. He once showed off his skills
:22:13. > :22:25.for the BBC. Why did you start yoga? I was not in
:22:26. > :22:31.good health. I was suffering from tuberculosis and it was no medicine
:22:32. > :22:39.in those days. How many years have you been doing it? 50 years. I
:22:40. > :22:44.believe and yoga is meant to be a therapy of mind and body. What do
:22:45. > :22:52.you get out of doing this? You can see that all the parts of the body,
:22:53. > :23:00.the muscles and joints, all of the nerves, 96,000 kilometres of blood
:23:01. > :23:03.vessels, they are all exercised by these movements.
:23:04. > :23:06.Isabel Jones Fielding is an Iyengar yoga teacher and joins me
:23:07. > :23:17.Thank you very much for being there. I'm wondering about your thoughts
:23:18. > :23:22.today. I know you have been taught by him and his daughter and
:23:23. > :23:30.granddaughter. We are deeply sad. It is a great loss. Particularly for
:23:31. > :23:35.the family, because he was a charismatic individual, and a
:23:36. > :23:39.father, a grandparent as well as a teacher and Guru. I
:23:40. > :23:40.father, a grandparent as well as a focus today on his legacy. So I am
:23:41. > :23:45.thinking about what it is that focus today on his legacy. So I am
:23:46. > :23:51.has given me and all the thousands and thousands of students across the
:23:52. > :23:57.world. Let's talk about that legacy. It is hard to think today, with yoga
:23:58. > :24:04.everywhere and anywhere, that it was once not like this. It once was seen
:24:05. > :24:10.as very much a fringe activity. Yes. One of the things that BKS Iyengar
:24:11. > :24:18.has done is the broad yoga to the West in 1950, and enabled people,
:24:19. > :24:25.old or young, disabled or athletes, to access the system. -- he brought
:24:26. > :24:32.yoga to the West. Through a transparent method, of very high
:24:33. > :24:38.quality. It is very clear through his writings and the teaching. He
:24:39. > :24:43.was also a bit of a trailblazer in terms of teaching women. And again,
:24:44. > :24:48.that is something that might be surprising. When I'd go to my class,
:24:49. > :24:57.it is 80% women, and yoga was once just taught to men. It is hard to
:24:58. > :25:03.imagine. I would never have done yoga had it not been for Iyengar.
:25:04. > :25:09.And you can imagine, in those early days, how difficult it was to do
:25:10. > :25:17.things that were against your position and class. Iyengar was a
:25:18. > :25:24.Brahmin, and he started to teach untouchables. He received quite a
:25:25. > :25:34.lot of prejudice for teaching women and untouchables. I'll wander, and
:25:35. > :25:43.there would like your thoughts, has it become a little too exercised? --
:25:44. > :25:48.I wonder, and I would like your thoughts. Is it still a process of
:25:49. > :25:53.discipline and spirituality as well? Yes. They think sometimes people who
:25:54. > :25:59.start at the beginning they approach it from an exercise perspective, and
:26:00. > :26:05.then it creeps up on you. This system is highly complex and
:26:06. > :26:13.detailed. You might find yourself focusing on your little toe, or even
:26:14. > :26:17.the shoulder blade, and how it might move, and this kind of focus that
:26:18. > :26:21.you bring to your practice is kind of like a meditation in action. So
:26:22. > :26:25.the level of precision and understanding in the body that is
:26:26. > :26:31.Iyengar has brought us, and the depth and quality of that, it takes
:26:32. > :26:36.our minds away from the daily shopping list, let's say, and takes
:26:37. > :26:42.us into our bodies. And when we are there, we are in the moment. I will
:26:43. > :26:47.leave it there, exactly, in the moment. Thank you for speaking to
:26:48. > :26:57.us. My thanks to Iyengar for my yoga practice. That is all from us today.
:26:58. > :27:02.Good evening. The coldest weather tonight will be across the southern
:27:03. > :27:07.part of the UK. There is more cloud coming down from the north overnight
:27:08. > :27:09.through tomorrow. That will bring quite a few showers.