:00:00. > :00:00.This is BBC World News Today, with me, Philippa Thomas.
:00:00. > :00:08.With just two days to go before a vote on independence
:00:09. > :00:13.will last minute promises keep Scotland within the United Kingdom?
:00:14. > :00:15.The Yes campaign says the offer of more powers
:00:16. > :00:25.But Gordon Brown claims it's the only way to protect key services.
:00:26. > :00:33.Do you think we would ever stand by and allow the NHS to be privatised
:00:34. > :00:37.or cut in Scotland? Do you think we would ever allow the NHS not to have
:00:38. > :00:45.the powers in Scotland to protect itself? No! The only guarantee to
:00:46. > :00:49.protect the health service, create jobs, make sure we do not get Tory
:00:50. > :00:53.governments we did not vote for is to vote yes.
:00:54. > :00:55.The French government narrowly wins a confidence vote,
:00:56. > :00:58.but will that help it turn round the French economy?
:00:59. > :01:01.This extraordinary scene as Ukraine ratifies an historic deal
:01:02. > :01:14.to tighten ties with the European Union.
:01:15. > :01:18.With only two days to go to referendum day,
:01:19. > :01:21.both sides in the Scottish independence debate have seized
:01:22. > :01:25.on a pledge by Britain's three main parties to devolve more powers.
:01:26. > :01:29.Party leaders David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg say the
:01:30. > :01:34.United Kingdom, the Union, offers voters the best of both worlds.
:01:35. > :01:38.But the Yes to indepence campaign describes their pledge as an insult
:01:39. > :01:43.to voters, asking why it's taken so long to offer extra powers.
:01:44. > :01:46.And as James Cook reports, the future of a key
:01:47. > :01:56.government service, the NHS, has been central to today's campaigning.
:01:57. > :02:06.This campaign began more than two years ago. As Ed Miliband arrived in
:02:07. > :02:10.Edinburgh, you would not know it. Both sides are fired up, there is
:02:11. > :02:15.little sign of fatigue as they argue passionately about the future of
:02:16. > :02:19.this country. Today, those arguments focused on Scotland's's health
:02:20. > :02:23.service, the NHS is already run from Edinburgh, but this document
:02:24. > :02:28.suggests the Scottish Government may soon have to save more than ?400
:02:29. > :02:33.million from its budget. The Scottish Parliament has the powers
:02:34. > :02:35.to raise the amount of money spent on the National Health Service, or
:02:36. > :02:41.any other public service, if they are prepared to go to the sponge
:02:42. > :02:48.people and ask them to raise the revenue to do so. This nails the
:02:49. > :02:54.Scottish National Party line. As tempers fray and temperatures rise,
:02:55. > :02:58.SNP ministers are hitting back. They insist they are not planning to cut
:02:59. > :03:03.the NHS, and if money is tight, Westminster, which sets Scotland's
:03:04. > :03:07.overall budget, is to blame. We will fight to protect the health service.
:03:08. > :03:10.I know how hard it is to protect the budget of the health service when
:03:11. > :03:16.the overall budget is being cut. We did that, and we continue to do it.
:03:17. > :03:21.But when your budget is being cut by Westminster, that makes it harder
:03:22. > :03:26.and harder to do. And there is a wider argument. Both sides agreed
:03:27. > :03:30.that they want Scotland to have more control of its own affairs. They
:03:31. > :03:36.disagree about how much control and how it should happen. Today, the
:03:37. > :03:40.three UK party leaders published a pledge, going to introduce more
:03:41. > :03:44.powers if Scotland says Now. They see it will ensure the Scottish
:03:45. > :03:52.Parliament will be Parliament -- permanent. And that they will have
:03:53. > :03:56.the final say on NHS spending. We are voting for a stronger Scotland,
:03:57. > :04:01.a stronger Scottish Parliament with more powers so we can protect the
:04:02. > :04:04.NHS, we can protect education, services in Scotland. And at the
:04:05. > :04:10.same time, we avoid the risks that would come from independence. But
:04:11. > :04:15.campaigners for Independence Day the pledge is nonsense. They point out
:04:16. > :04:19.that the three party still do not agree on what extra powers should be
:04:20. > :04:27.devolved. Some on the Yes team wants to go much further. We live in a
:04:28. > :04:30.Scotland that is socially scarred! Tommy Sheridan has been to ring the
:04:31. > :04:35.country calling for a radical new Scotland. So popular is his
:04:36. > :04:43.message, he sometimes is to speak outside to those who cannot get into
:04:44. > :04:47.the hall. We will not yet be a socialist country, just a free
:04:48. > :04:49.country after September. But the declaration is quite clear. It will
:04:50. > :04:55.be a more progressive, more fear country. Public ownership of gas,
:04:56. > :05:01.electricity, oil and the railways. We will be listened to a lot of
:05:02. > :05:04.more. Scotland's future has been hanging in the balance for a long
:05:05. > :05:08.time. But very soon, Scotland decides.
:05:09. > :05:10.Among the many international observers now in Scotland is
:05:11. > :05:11.a delegation from Canada's Parti Quebecois,
:05:12. > :05:14.including Alexandre Cloutier, a leading member of Quebec's
:05:15. > :05:21.provincial parliament, and of course an advocate of independence.
:05:22. > :05:31.Welcome to World News Today. Do you think the SNP has learned anything
:05:32. > :05:36.from your experience in Quebec customer I am sure they are aware of
:05:37. > :05:41.what we have been doing in the past. I am sure they are able to make the
:05:42. > :05:44.difference necessary. It is two different situations, but we are a
:05:45. > :05:51.democratic country under Democratic party. We have tried to do
:05:52. > :05:57.independence in Canada respectfully of all laws and the International
:05:58. > :06:01.Charter of rights, but Scottish people have their own great
:06:02. > :06:06.experience now. What do you make of what you are seeing? Over 40 of you
:06:07. > :06:14.either from Quebec to watch over campaigns are going. We are very
:06:15. > :06:19.excited to be here, we wanted to learn from the Scottish experience.
:06:20. > :06:23.The Yes campaign has been doing amazing work. It is quite
:06:24. > :06:29.unbelievable the progress they have made doing the last 24 months. I
:06:30. > :06:34.remember when I was a student here in 2004, the movement was not so
:06:35. > :06:38.organised. It is quite unbelievable the progress. We wanted to
:06:39. > :06:45.understand better who were supporting the Yes movement. What do
:06:46. > :06:51.you think can said be to voters who still have not made up their minds?
:06:52. > :06:57.Those who are worried about economic certainty or even economic recession
:06:58. > :07:00.following a vote for independence? I do not have any advice to give to
:07:01. > :07:06.people here. I am only here to learn from the experience. There is no
:07:07. > :07:11.doubt from me that a small country can do very well, we have a great
:07:12. > :07:14.example in northern Europe where you have very rich, small countries
:07:15. > :07:20.doing very well. I totally understand the argument when you
:07:21. > :07:25.say, why should you not only yourself, and do things for your
:07:26. > :07:34.people? How big a story is this back on? It is very big. All eyes are
:07:35. > :07:39.being turned here. I have been doing so many interviews, people are
:07:40. > :07:45.looking towards what is going to happen here. Not many people
:07:46. > :07:51.believed it was possible, and now, obviously, anything can happen. We
:07:52. > :07:55.will find out in a couple of days. Thank you very much.
:07:56. > :07:57.France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls has narrowly won a confidence vote
:07:58. > :08:00.in his reshuffled cabinet amid record low poll ratings for the
:08:01. > :08:03.It follows anger on the left of his Socialist Party
:08:04. > :08:06.at the government's plan to drive through austerity policies.
:08:07. > :08:09.But although 31 Socialist Party deputies were reported to have
:08:10. > :08:16.abstained, Mr Valls still won with 269 votes to 244.
:08:17. > :08:19.In an uncompromising speech earlier, Valls said he would not be swayed
:08:20. > :08:27.from his plans to save 50 billion euros over the next three years.
:08:28. > :08:30.Joining us from our Paris studio is Christine Ockrent,
:08:31. > :08:34.a leading French journalist and television presenter.
:08:35. > :08:42.Welcome to World News Today. He scraped through, but that does not
:08:43. > :08:49.necessarily make all socialists happy? Certainly not, but as you
:08:50. > :08:56.just said, Manuel Valls's challenge was not so much to convince
:08:57. > :09:02.opposition in parliament, but to convince his own people. Five months
:09:03. > :09:07.after being in office, he had again to ask for confidence, because he
:09:08. > :09:13.has been adamant about the need for reforms. You have to understand
:09:14. > :09:18.that, as opposed to the British Labour Party, which went through
:09:19. > :09:26.that sort of ideological revolution, many years back, French socialists
:09:27. > :09:32.are still, part of them, at least, very much against market capitalism.
:09:33. > :09:39.Against globalisation. And quite far away from economic reality, so
:09:40. > :09:47.Manuel Valls has had, since he has been, the courage and indeed the
:09:48. > :09:54.stamina to try and convince his political party, his opponents
:09:55. > :10:01.within the Socialist party, and also French public opinion. How much
:10:02. > :10:03.chance do you think he has of pushing through the economic reforms
:10:04. > :10:09.chance do you think he has of that he and Francois Hollande I
:10:10. > :10:15.really needed? -- say at really needed? Francois Hollande was
:10:16. > :10:20.elected on a series of false promises. Had he not made them, he
:10:21. > :10:25.probably would not have been elected. But the problem is that
:10:26. > :10:31.these have been two wasted years. Manuel Valls makes no mystery of the
:10:32. > :10:38.need to try and catch up. The problem with public opinion is, and
:10:39. > :10:42.I think it is true in all of our democracies, is that people ask for
:10:43. > :10:48.a very quick results. Of course, it does not happen overnight. The
:10:49. > :10:54.French economy is absolutely still, nothing happens. There is no
:10:55. > :11:04.growth. There is a risk of deflation within the Eurozone. All of the
:11:05. > :11:06.measures to try and get the business community to create jobs, assuming
:11:07. > :11:14.these measures ever work, it will not create 300,000 jobs in two
:11:15. > :11:19.weeks. The problem is really a race against time, as indeed the next
:11:20. > :11:28.presidential election being in 2017, the opposition, which has not
:11:29. > :11:34.put forward any proposal at all that makes any sense so far, in a way,
:11:35. > :11:39.the presidential campaign has started today in my view. When you
:11:40. > :11:45.listen carefully to what Manuel Valls has said. And thinking about
:11:46. > :11:49.that next campaign, how much of a threat to you think the opposition
:11:50. > :11:54.is? The Prime Minister has threatened that they are at the
:11:55. > :12:00.gates of power. I think it is true when you look at the latest opinion
:12:01. > :12:04.polls. They have indeed risen, and it showed in the European election
:12:05. > :12:07.is not that long ago. It is a threat, not only to the socialists
:12:08. > :12:13.in power, but also to the Conservatives. People say, after all
:12:14. > :12:20.these traditional politicians, what have they done for us except put us
:12:21. > :12:25.in this plight? Why not try something else? Even if the economic
:12:26. > :12:33.proposals are preposterous, people are tempted to say, the hell with
:12:34. > :12:37.you, the traditional elite way of doing things. Let's try something
:12:38. > :12:43.new. That is what is shown in the opinion polls. When it comes to the
:12:44. > :12:47.ballots, that maybe another story. It is indeed a threat. Good to speak
:12:48. > :12:50.to you. Thank you. American ground forces could be
:12:51. > :12:52.deployed against Islamic State militants if the current
:12:53. > :12:54.United States-led strategy fails. That's the view of top US General
:12:55. > :12:57.Martin Dempsey who's been speaking President Obama has insisted US
:12:58. > :13:01.ground troops would not have But General Dempsey says
:13:02. > :13:06.he'd make that recommendation if the international coalition
:13:07. > :13:21.against Islamic State My view at this point is that this
:13:22. > :13:26.coalition is the appropriate way forward. I believe that will prove
:13:27. > :13:30.true. But if it feels to be true, and if there are threats to the
:13:31. > :13:32.United States, I would go back to the President and make a
:13:33. > :13:36.recommendation that may include the use of US military ground forces.
:13:37. > :13:39.General Dempsey's comments come after the US carried out its first
:13:40. > :13:42.air strike against Islamic State under its new strategy and Kurdish
:13:43. > :13:45.troops on the ground are pushing towards Iraq's second city of Mosul.
:13:46. > :13:52.Our correspondent Jim Muir is with the Kurdish forces.
:13:53. > :13:58.Cutting through the skies of northern Iraq at dawn, American jets
:13:59. > :14:04.providing air cover for the latest offensive against IS positions.
:14:05. > :14:11.Below, Kurdish forces are preparing for action. American drones were
:14:12. > :14:23.also up there, this time both the end the jets were just watching. --
:14:24. > :14:32.both they and the jets. On the ground, the firepower was coming
:14:33. > :14:40.from the Kurds. This is the objective, a village on the plane
:14:41. > :14:44.leading to more so. -- Mosul. Kurdish ground forces had advanced
:14:45. > :14:49.beyond their old lines, preparing to move in the village after the
:14:50. > :14:56.bombardment. -- move in on the village. You can see clearly how it
:14:57. > :14:58.works, Americans in the sky providing reconnaissance and
:14:59. > :15:06.possibly are strikes, Kurdish forces on the ground bombarding with tanks
:15:07. > :15:12.and rockets and so on. Despite all that, the ground forces are
:15:13. > :15:20.preparing to move in, it is proving a very hard and costly job. Far-away
:15:21. > :15:25.on the other side of Mosul, Kurdish forces have been pressing for on
:15:26. > :15:39.another front. Pushing on further has been painfully slow.
:15:40. > :15:45.They leave many bombs behind, he said so we have to be very careful.
:15:46. > :15:53.It takes much information and planning to drive them out. Another
:15:54. > :15:58.victim, this Arab village, abandoned and partly demolished by the Kurds,
:15:59. > :16:07.retribution for collaborating with a ceramic state. -- Islamic State.
:16:08. > :16:12.This man's Sun has been detained, suspected of working with the
:16:13. > :16:17.militants. The other side of the coin, thousands of people driven out
:16:18. > :16:25.by the IS radicals, waiting for the day that may never come when they
:16:26. > :16:29.will be able to go home. Back on the front, the Kurds keep up the attack,
:16:30. > :16:33.but the progress they have made it illustrates just how hard it will be
:16:34. > :16:41.to eliminate the militants in the rest of the rock and Syria.
:16:42. > :16:44.It's been an historic day for Ukraine as the European
:16:45. > :16:45.parliament has ratified a controversial association
:16:46. > :16:47.agreement strengthening economic and political ties with the country.
:16:48. > :16:50.The agreement has also been ratified by the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev
:16:51. > :16:52.during a live video link-up between the two parliaments,
:16:53. > :16:57.although the free trade element of the deal won't be implemented
:16:58. > :17:02.In separate measures, Ukraine also granted limited
:17:03. > :17:06.autonomy to its eastern regions and an amnesty to fighters.
:17:07. > :17:10.But while today's development may be seen as a step forward by the
:17:11. > :17:13.government in Kiev, it was marred by disturbing scenes outside the
:17:14. > :17:18.Parliament afterwards as an angry mob grabbed economic development
:17:19. > :17:23.party deputy Vitaly Zhuravsky and manhandled him into a rubbish bin.
:17:24. > :17:28.Zhuravsky, once allied to former President Viktor Yanukovich,
:17:29. > :17:32.authored a bill in January severely tightening restrictions
:17:33. > :17:42.In the past, he authored a bill criminalising libel.
:17:43. > :17:45.As you can see, he was pushed over and held down in the dumpster,
:17:46. > :17:49.after which men poured water on him and threw his briefcase on top.
:17:50. > :17:52.First, David, why is there such anger
:17:53. > :18:11.It has been an historic day for the Ukrainians. There were two major
:18:12. > :18:16.pieces of legislation passed, first the ratification of this Treaty,
:18:17. > :18:22.also the granting of some form of autonomy or limited the tonic to the
:18:23. > :18:28.East, but there was also a vetting bill, and anti-corruption bill,
:18:29. > :18:31.which the crowd gathered around the parliament to demand, and this is
:18:32. > :18:37.where the emotions that we have seen, where they came from. They
:18:38. > :18:41.were very high. The crowd was demanding this bill to be passed,
:18:42. > :18:45.because this was one of the main demands of the revolution. It is not
:18:46. > :18:50.quite clear why the crowd through this one particular politician into
:18:51. > :18:55.the rubbish bin. There are different versions, but it does go to show
:18:56. > :18:59.that it was a very passionate scene out there. They were burning tires,
:19:00. > :19:05.and it shows that in addition to all these other things that were going
:19:06. > :19:11.on, the EU deal, the amnesty and autonomy, the reform and
:19:12. > :19:15.anti-corruption is very much a hot button topic here in Ukraine. We
:19:16. > :19:19.should also talk about what is happening with eastern Ukraine and
:19:20. > :19:22.an element of amnesty for fighters there and self-government, but tell
:19:23. > :19:30.us how significant you find that to be? It is difficult to say. This is
:19:31. > :19:35.a very controversial bill. There was a great outcry, people saying that
:19:36. > :19:38.this perhaps creates a frozen conflict in the east, and so it
:19:39. > :19:43.remains to be seen whether this was one step back or two steps forward,
:19:44. > :19:46.or just the opposite. It should be said that some of the rebels have
:19:47. > :19:55.rejected this deal, because they would rather remade within Ukraine
:19:56. > :20:01.with its limited autonomy. It is only for three years. The fighting
:20:02. > :20:05.continues, and there are great fears among Ukrainian officials that the
:20:06. > :20:09.cease-fire which is already very unstable may eventually break down,
:20:10. > :20:16.and this will all be able to point, and we will see major fighting in
:20:17. > :20:19.the East. Briefly, we can't talk about this without mentioning
:20:20. > :20:23.Russia, and I wonder whether the trade part of the deal was delayed
:20:24. > :20:31.partly because it would provoke Russia greatly. Well, this is one of
:20:32. > :20:36.the controversial points about the deal, is that it brings Russia to
:20:37. > :20:42.the table, and this concession of putting on hold part of the deal
:20:43. > :20:46.until the end of next year, this was seen as being from Russian pressure.
:20:47. > :20:50.Now, the other parts of the deal are being implemented, but the
:20:51. > :20:55.oppression -- the question is what does Russia want, and whether or not
:20:56. > :20:58.this could placate Moscow and contribute to peace in the East or
:20:59. > :21:02.whether we will see further fighting.
:21:03. > :21:04.Now a look at some of the day's other news.
:21:05. > :21:08.One person has been shot dead in a court building in the Danish
:21:09. > :21:11.Police say a suspect has been arrested
:21:12. > :21:14.The head of the City Court said it was probably
:21:15. > :21:19.A suicide bomb attack in the Afghan capital Kabul has killed three
:21:20. > :21:22.members of the NATO-led military forces and injured many others.
:21:23. > :21:25.Police say the explosion targeted an international convoy
:21:26. > :21:29.of soldiers along the airport road near the United States embassy.
:21:30. > :21:33.The Taliban said it carried out the attack.
:21:34. > :21:36.Filipino authorities say the country's most active volcano,
:21:37. > :21:47.Mount Mayon, is dangerously close to erupting again.
:21:48. > :21:49.Some 12,000 people living within an eight-kilometre radius
:21:50. > :21:52.of the crater have been ordered to leave their homes.
:21:53. > :21:54.The volcano has erupted 50 times in the last 500 years,
:21:55. > :22:02.That's how UN agencies have today described the escalation
:22:03. > :22:05.of the ebola crisis in West Africa, which has already killed almost
:22:06. > :22:08.The stark warning comes as the US President Barack Obama prepares
:22:09. > :22:12.to announce a huge increase in his country's commitment to
:22:13. > :22:19.It's understood the United States will send 3000 troops to Liberia who
:22:20. > :22:23.will be responsible for training about 500 healthcare workers a week.
:22:24. > :22:29.And will build 17 medical facilities with at least 100 beds each.
:22:30. > :22:31.50,000 home health care kits will also be sent to households
:22:32. > :22:37.Joining me now from Monrovia in Liberia is Sarah Crowe
:22:38. > :22:51.Thank you for your time. I have seen some of the photographs that you
:22:52. > :22:56.have been putting online, really showing the situation. For example,
:22:57. > :23:00.taxis lined up outside the hospital there. Yes, it is a tragic situation
:23:01. > :23:06.and truly unprecedented. Everywhere you go, you are reminded that Apple
:23:07. > :23:20.is really here. -- a bowler is really here -- ebola is really here.
:23:21. > :23:24.We have been delivering 10,000 hygiene kits to households over the
:23:25. > :23:31.weekend, so there is a huge surge forward now, and Liberians are
:23:32. > :23:35.really... There is a real sense of trepidation, but also a sensible is
:23:36. > :23:41.all to get on with the job at hand, and not to be entirely paralysed by
:23:42. > :23:44.this kind of ebola psychosis. You are seeing a lot of those whose
:23:45. > :23:48.families have been devastated by this. One of the photographs you
:23:49. > :23:53.posted was of a little girl, and what is she doing with that mask on
:23:54. > :23:59.her face? Yes, that was quite striking. This was a centre that was
:24:00. > :24:04.once setup for children who were separated from their parents or lost
:24:05. > :24:11.a parent or a loved one during the war, and it was closed down in 2008.
:24:12. > :24:15.Now it has been reopened. Once it was for the victims of war, now it
:24:16. > :24:23.is for her smack survivors. She was one of the little girls there. --
:24:24. > :24:31.ebola survivors. Her parents have died, and we are now trying to trace
:24:32. > :24:40.the extended family and put them back together in the extended
:24:41. > :24:43.family. There is great stigma and great discrimination against those
:24:44. > :24:48.who have survived, but that little girl was putting a mask to her face
:24:49. > :24:52.because she said that was what she saw the doctor is doing all the
:24:53. > :24:57.time, so she had taken a little poster and put it up to her face
:24:58. > :25:04.just like a Doctor's mask, and she said that is how she felt she had to
:25:05. > :25:22.approach people now. So even children, throughout wherever I have
:25:23. > :25:28.done, are all aware of what they have to do, washing their hands with
:25:29. > :25:32.chlorine, you might have seen some of those pictures too, having their
:25:33. > :25:40.temperature taken, where ever they go. Of course, there are no schools
:25:41. > :25:47.and no health facilities operating as well as they should be, so our
:25:48. > :25:53.big fear is not only ebola but also the impact to children's health in
:25:54. > :25:55.general, that means deaths from measles, malaria, and other
:25:56. > :26:01.childhood diseases, because children are not being immunised as they
:26:02. > :26:04.should be right now. Just very briefly, you have given us a vivid
:26:05. > :26:09.picture there, are you not frightened for yourself as well?
:26:10. > :26:14.There is a sense of trepidation, but there are also has two B... We can't
:26:15. > :26:18.abandon Liberia, we can't walk away from this awful virus, so we have
:26:19. > :26:25.two bogeys on the job at hand and really get on with supporting
:26:26. > :26:30.communities, supporting households, and re-building the structure here,
:26:31. > :26:34.because it is devastating and it is truly unprecedented, and it really
:26:35. > :26:38.is the sense of them writing the first draft of the history of this
:26:39. > :26:42.disease. There is the need to continue to push forward and focus
:26:43. > :26:50.on what needs to be done right now. Thank you.
:26:51. > :27:11.Temperatures will climb tomorrow morning. But we are also expecting
:27:12. > :27:12.extensive cloud