21/08/2014 World News Today

United States launches more air strikes against Islamic State

militants in Iraq. They are carried out despite the execution of James

Foley. We hear from this American

doctor who survived Ebola. Today is miraculous, I am thrilled

to be alive, well and reunited with my family.

Evacuations and high alert for airlines as this Icelandic

The United States has launched more air strikes in northern Iraq,

despite threats by Islamic State fighters to kill a second American

It comes as more details emerge about the murder of photojournalist

James Foley after footage was released showing him being killed

The Pentagon says it attempted to rescue Foley and a number

of other hostages in a secret mission in Syria.

Meanwhile, the US Attorney General has opened a criminal investigation

And in the UK, security services are trying to identify

Militants demanded a ransom for him. -- for James Foley.

Frank Gardner's report on the murder investigation contains

Clues from a suspected killer, not much to go on, but every detail has

been studied from Islamic State's video of their murder of James

Foley. Jesus and reporter, who survived an earlier kidnapping in

Libya, he was held for nearly two years in Syria. Reports say his

captors demanded a massive ransom and later sent his parents and angry

e-mail, telling them he was about to be killed. This former French

hostage spent months with him, he got out because a ransom was

reportedly paid. Being American, it was probably more targeted by the

guard, eaten a bit more, probably. Many countries negotiate. I do not

know what, if it is money or prisoner exchange. Some countries,

like America, but also the UK, do not. The manhunt will be zeroing in

on the Syrian stronghold of Islamic State. These are weapons they

captured this summer from the Iraqi army. Most of their foreign hostages

are being held under jihadist control. Reports say they had three

British guards watching over them, who often beat them. There are

believed to be at least 20 others held, including this American

journalist. It is only a matter of time before MI5 or the FBI

identified the man who killed James Foley. Pinpointing where he is now

we'll be harder, and ringing the suspect out of the country that is

already torn apart by war and with similar because it is taking place

every day will be almost impossible. The area where most foreign hostages

are believed to be held has become a magnet for British jihadist. It is

very likely we will discover his identity in the next days. We have a

lot more means of finding out who that guy is reduced to have, 20 or

30 years ago. Maybe 80% of the foreign fighters are involved in

social media, they have Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, they

give away a lot of clues in terms of height,

give away a lot of clues in terms of voice. Last month, America sent in

commandos like these in a failed attempt to free it captured in

Syria. Those who are held remain a massive propaganda tool in the

jihadists' armoury. Well, despite threats by

Islamic State to murder another American hostage, there were another

six US air strikes today. Iraqi forces are also understood to

have attacked the jihadists in Anbar province, and they're battling

Islamic fighters in Tikrit. Our correspondent Jeremy Cooke sent

this report from the front line It is time to fight back. The Iraqi

army in full retreat just weeks ago, now taking on the Islamic State

with maximum firepower. These special forces near Tikrit, facing

fanatical fighters, but victory will not come easy. Outside, the front

fanatical fighters, but victory will line is hardening. Here,

Kurdish - motor, who fought the enemy to a standstill. Look down the

barrel, across the river, 50 metres over the bridge, the black flag of

the Islamic State. Everything it stands for as well. The staggering

thing is how close the front lines. We have seen movement just over on

the other side. These fighters say they are determined to protect their

people, protect their homes. Several attacks have already been repelled.

Their commander says his troops are ready to give their blood and

lives. But they need help. ready to give their blood and

asking the international community and European countries for weapons,

he says. Our enemy has sophisticated and European countries for weapons,

weapons. Hours are good, but we need better. There is no panic here, the

people have faith in their fighting men, who defend the city. The

governor told me he remains confident that the Islamic State

will be defeated. It is a dangerous enemy. Not only the enemy of Iraq or

Syria, it is the enemy that can go anywhere in this world. It may be a

global issue, but for now, the future of the Islamic State will be

determined on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq.

Richard Barrett is a former head of counter terrorism at MI6 in the UK

and a former coordinator of the UN's Al-Qaida-Taliban Monitoring Team.

He's now Senior Vice President of the Soufan private security

Group, and joins me via webcam from near New Yor

Ultimately, did you think it will be possible to capture and identify the

killers of James Foley? I do think it will be possible to identify

them, yes. Not only will previous hostages have something to say, and

his boys could be found on social media, -- his voice -- but there is

also a whole community that he came from, people he was dealing with,

and there will be many of them, if not all of them, who will be

horrified by this video and would be willing to help the authorities

track him down. I am relatively confident he will be identified. As

for catching him, that is another matter. But there is a long time

ahead, and nobody will forget about this. Ultimately, this act opens up

a Pandora's box of political problems when it comes to what one

does when one has already identified the killing, whoever has killed

James Foley, what the US and UK forces then do. Indeed. He is likely

to stay in Syria or Iraq for the foreseeable future, but let's hope

that those countries settle down and there is more stability. But even

before that, there will be a lot of local people, local tribesmen, who

are also horrified at what the Islamic State are doing against

their own people as well as against James Foley. They will also be

willing to identify who the killers are or where they are. And help

British and American justice, if we can call it that, to get hold of

them, even if they do so for financial reason, that will still be

a good result. Barack Obama has already said the US will not scale

back its military actions, they have already launched more air strikes in

northern Iraq, that the issue of remaining hostages is still a large

issue. It is a very large issue, and that is why they have hostages. It

is a business, a money making, but as you said earlier, with British

and American hostages held, they know they will not get money, so

they use them for other purposes, and with James Foley, it was to

terrorise people, to re-emphasise their brutality, and perhaps put

pressure on the American and British and other governments not to take

action against them. There is no way the American government will be

blackmailed, so the additional and strikes are hardly surprising. What

to do think of the indications of this act on the wider political

thinking towards the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria? It confirms what

they are. They may have claimed they were just trying to create a new

state that would look after people in a better way than current leaders

in the middle east, and that is no longer tenable, that argument, we

see what they are, they are the same as Al-Qaeda and other international

terrorist groups. They have an agenda which tends entirely on them

imposing their own will on people and enforcing their rules, come what

may, even to the extent of killing people.

Bank of America has agreed to pay almost $17 billion in a settlement

with the US Department of Justice over questionable mortgages.

It's the largest sum to be paid as a result of the fallout

Why is this fine so big? If you asked the Justice Department, they

would say, consider how many millions of Americans were affected

by these mortgage backed securities and how many billions of dollars

were lost during the financial crisis. You look at how there are

still millions of Americans who are still trying to recover from what

happened in the financial crisis, if you take that into consideration,

the $17 billion does not seem so large. But it is one of the largest

fines we have ever seen, on a single US corporation, and it trumps the

fines we have seen in the past for these kinds of things, on the part

of JP Morgan, $13 billion, or Citigroup, $7 billion. This had to

do with these mortgage-backed securities, the financial

instruments that were lumped in with the faulty mortgages and sold to

investors as if they were safe. We know now that that led to the

financial crisis, and ever since then, the US Department of Justice

and the Barack Obama administration has been trying to call many of

these banks into question and to seek justice in terms of what their

role was in the financial crisis. The size of this fine, will it come

as a shock to the Bank of America? They helped -- how have they

reacted? There are a key things with this. We have known that this fine

has been coming for many weeks. The actual sum has also been bandied

about, at one point we were hearing 13 billion, then the 17 billion was

around, so it did not come as a total shock to investors that they

were going to be lumped with this kind of fine. As it is with every

other bank when they are facing these charges, on the park of Bank

of America, they are really happy to be able to put it behind them and

continue on with business, knowing that almost everything related to

the financial crisis has now finally been dealt with.

Now a look at some of the day's other news.

Hamas has announced that three of its senior military commanders

have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

Israel said the men were key to militant

Thousands have joined the funeral processions of the three commanders.

At least 50 people have been killed in Gaza since

A forensic inquiry by India's premier laboratory has concluded

that two girls found hanging from a tree in May were not

sexually assaulted, contrary to the findings of an earlier post-mortem.

Five men are being held on suspicion of involvement but are due to be

Marina Silva, the internationally-acclaimed

environmental campaigner, has been chosen by Brazil's Socialist Party

She replaces Eduardo Campos, who was killed last week in a plane crash.

Ms Silva is seen as a leading challenger to President Dilma

Ireland's former Prime Minister, Albert Reynolds, has died.

Mr Reynolds helped to shape the peace process in

Northern Ireland, pushing for the IRA ceasefire with his British

He served as prime minister between 1992 and 1994.

South Africa has said it is banning all travellers from Guinea,

Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering the country,

apart from its own citizens - over fears of the Ebola virus spreading.

The news comes as two American aid workers who were

infected with the virus in Africa have been discharged from an Atlanta

hospital where they were treated with experimental drugs.

One of them - Dr. Kent Brantly - had this to say.

Liberia, the use of an experimental drug and the expertise and resources

life -the direct answer to thousands and thousands of prayers.

I am incredibly thankful to all those who were involved in my care,

from the first day of my illness all the way up to today,

With me is the BBC's health reporter, Smitha Mundasad.

Extraordinary to see him looking so well. What happened today?

The American aid workers were flown to this hospital earlier this month.

They received top-notch care of there. We did not get many details

but we know they had access to intensive care therapy and access to

an experimental drug. They have made a very good recovery. A remarkable

recovery, the doctors say. Now they are looking to see whether other

people could recover like this. They want to learn some lessons from

this. They admit that the health facilities in the US are very

different to the ones in West Africa.

Indeed, and he refers to that experimental, untested drugs. We

still know that more than 50% of individuals infected will die. The

death toll currently stands at over 1000. What makes this outbreak

different to previous ones? This is a different strain so some

outbreaks have had rates of up to 90% of people dying who were

infected. This strain is more concerning because actually it has

moved from rural areas into urban areas so more people are affected.

Or people are dying. Let's go back to your initial point

about what happens in America is sometimes different to what happens

in West Africa, where the majority of victims... The World Health

Organisation has said that supplies are exhausted.

We're not sure if this drug actually works. The doctors in the American

Hospital were careful to say it was more likely to be the standard

facilities in this hospital that really helps them. These were the

two first people to receive this drug and, scientifically, it is hard

to prove when just two people are receiving a drug that it does work.

There have been reports that Liberian doctors who have received

the drug are improving, but there are other reports that a Spanish

priest who also receive the drug sadly died. It is very difficult to

say that the drug actually has any positive effect.

IQ. The Pakistani opposition leader

Imran Khan says he is pulling out of talks with the government until

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigns. The two sides began discussions last

night, after thousands of opposition supporters occupied a high-security

zone in front of parliament. Our correspondent Shahzeb Jillani

has been out among those protestors. These protesters are continuing to

occupy this main road in front This place is called

the Constitution Avenue. It's now more than a week since this

anti-government campaign began. Thousands of these activists, many

of them women, have been camping They say they will not move

until the government resigns. For the government,

the demand for the prime Minister's Earlier today, in the building

behind me, the parliament also passed a unanimous resolution,

supported by opposition parties, that demands by these protesters for

the dismissal of the government and the dissolution of the

National Assembly are unconstitutional. The Pakistani army

has urged all parties to exercise restraint and try to resolve this

turmoil through dialogue. It's not entirely clear how

this confrontation will end. Both Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri

are saying they want the government to resign, something

the government and the parliament Ukrainian border guards are reported

to have begun checks on 270 trucks in a Russian aid convoy heading

for the rebel-held east of Ukraine. It's not clear if any trucks

have crossed into Ukraine. Earlier, the International Red Cross

issued specific instructions to They were told that the trucks must

drive through a Ukrainian controlled border post and then directly to the

delivery point without stopping. Each vehicle must have a Red Cross

escort at all Now a look at some That quintessential American export

- the McDonald's restaurant - is Several have been closed in Moscow

for alleged health infringements. It comes at a time

of deteriorating diplomatic relations between Washington and

Moscow, as our Moscow Correspondent, This is Pushkin Square

in the heart of Moscow. Every time I come here I remember

the date, nearly 25 years ago, when Russia's first McDonald's

opened its doors in the USSR. I was studying in Moscow

at the time and I came The crowds that day were

absolutely incredible. The queue went all

the way round Pushkin Square. It took me three hours to get

inside and be served, such was the level of excitement

here that American burgers had burst through the Iron Curtain

and were being served up in Moscow. They have ordered three of

Moscow's McDonald's restaurants to be temporarily closed,

citing sanitary violations. There will be more checks

at more McDonald's across Russia. Centrestage now are Russian

products, after Moscow banned imports of meat,

dairy, fruit and vegetables It's the Kremlin's response

to Western sanctions. But are Muscovites really

bothered about the burgers? Personally,

I prefer beetroot soup and Russian This is 99 percent politics,

she tells me. Russia is looking

for ways to hit back at the West. We did find someone at McDonald's

today, this cow mascot for a Russian Part of Iceland has been evacuated

amid growing fears that the country's Bardarbunga volcano

could be about to erupt. In the past 24 hours,

there's been around 1,000 This graphic from the

Icelandic Met Office marks each one of those earthquakes -

you can see just how deep they are. The volcano is inside a national

park that's popular with tourists. The warning's raised fears that

there could be a repeat of Professor Dougal Jerram is

a volcanologist from the University He joins me from our newsroom

in Birmingham. Thanks for joining us on the

programme. How serious is the situation?

Currently the Icelandic authorities have a cold orange and there is only

one more level which is an eruption imminent. -- code orange. As magma

works its way up through the crust, it can shake the ground and cause

minor earthquakes. That is what the graphic shows, the vision of those

earthquakes. They are also monitoring the ground, seeing

whether the ground is rising with GPS, as magma comes in and swells

the ground. They are quite concerned that an eruption is on its way.

Any idea whether this could be as serious as the ash cloud situation

that we had back in 2010? There are a number of possible

scenarios. This volcano, in fact the whole area is one of the largest

organic systems on the islands. In the past, it has had seismic tremors

like these which have stopped. There is that possibility, but given the

amount of earthquakes it is likely that there is some activity going to

happen. There is a large ice cap which this volcano lies underneath.

Sometimes, when it erupts, it does not actually breached the top of the

ice cap, it just melt a lot of ice beneath, but that can be quite

treacherous to any of the villagers that the potential place your ad

watch would cover. How soon after the volcano erupts

will you be able to tell how serious the situation will be?

In order to come up with a situation like two dozen ten, where

Eyjafjallajokull corrupted, Derrida was actually a magma which had been

stored in the shallow crust for some period of time and had gathered up a

lot of gases and so actually that material was much more explosive

than we would normally expect these types labour. Ultimately, when it's

at rotting we will get a feel for how explosive the volcano is. --

types of live art. First of all, it will not be ice underneath but we

would be concerned if it breach the service. Their own minds, we also

need the as cloud to go high up into the atmosphere and also we need the

win is to be on the right direction to take that ash over Europe. There

are number of different elements that need to come into place to make

a similar situation that we had in 2010.

Volcanoes have been ranting and I flagged for centuries. We only seem

to really be affected by Nan in recent years. Why is that?

If you spoke to the average Icelander, they would take a

different view. They have been affected in the past by many of

these glacial floods where the volcanoes erupted under the ice, the

water melts, builds up and catastrophically floods the

landscape. They have suffered a loss of sheep through poisonous gases

from volcanoes. It has affected humans. It is only recently that we

have our easyJet and Ryanair... I'm afraid we will have to leave it

Hello. At bit of a mixed bag of weather for the next few days.

Feeling fairly autumnal for some areas. Tomorrow, not a bad day with

spells of sunshine and a few showers. Many places will stay dry.

We are seeing this weather front seeking its way south rebirthing

night