:00:00. > :00:00.This is BBC World News Today with me Philippa Thomas.
:00:07. > :00:08.A major escalation in the American-led war against
:00:09. > :00:12.Islamic State militants and against fighters linked to Al-Qaeda.
:00:13. > :00:20.The US leads Arab allies in air and missile strikes against Islamic
:00:21. > :00:30.State targets in Syria, at least 120 militant fighters have been killed.
:00:31. > :00:37.We are going to do what is necessary to take the fight to the terrorist
:00:38. > :00:39.group for the security of the country, the region and the entire
:00:40. > :00:43.Some of the 200 missing Nigerian school girls,
:00:44. > :00:46.A warning on climate change from the head of the United Nations.
:00:47. > :00:48.Ban Ki Moon tells world leaders in New York, this is
:00:49. > :00:52.Also coming up, grim testimony from survivors of
:00:53. > :00:56.They tell the BBC that smugglers chopped off the hands of migrants
:00:57. > :01:01.And Marilyn Monroe was always playing a role but now has a new
:01:02. > :01:22.President Obama says the support of Arab nations in air strikes
:01:23. > :01:26.on Islamic State targets in Syria, makes it clear to the world that
:01:27. > :01:32.It's reported that at least 70 IS militants
:01:33. > :01:35.and 50 other al-Qaeda-linked fighters were killed in the first
:01:36. > :01:43.The US confirms that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan,
:01:44. > :01:48.Bahrain and Qatar took part in or supported the strikes.
:01:49. > :01:50.Warplanes, drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles were used to hit
:01:51. > :01:55.targets in cities including Deir Al-Zour, Aleppo and Raqqa, where
:01:56. > :02:04.The Pentagon says it launched strikes from warships
:02:05. > :02:05.in international waters, hitting targets
:02:06. > :02:07.including training compounds, vehicles and storage sites.
:02:08. > :02:16.When President Obama said that there would be no safe havens
:02:17. > :02:19.for the Islamic State, this time he meant it.
:02:20. > :02:21.Overnight, the US might was unleashed on the
:02:22. > :02:25.Sunni extremist targets in Syria from these ship launched cruise
:02:26. > :02:33.missiles, to fighter aircraft, to drones, and, critically, the
:02:34. > :02:36.participation of the air forces of a number of other Arab countries.
:02:37. > :02:39.And in the clear light of day, the flattened buildings, the rubble,
:02:40. > :02:43.the twisted metal and chaos, the evidence of what had unfolded.
:02:44. > :02:46.And that coalition of Gulf states in Jordan was something that
:02:47. > :02:50.the president stressed when he spoke at the White House this morning.
:02:51. > :02:52.Last night on my orders, America's Armed Forces began strikes
:02:53. > :02:59.The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that
:03:00. > :03:05.Above all the people and the government in the Middle East are
:03:06. > :03:08.rejecting ISIL, standing up for the peace and security that the people
:03:09. > :03:14.And one other country with an interesting role in the
:03:15. > :03:19.The country's representative at the UN was given the heads up
:03:20. > :03:26.but officials here are keen to stress there was no negotiation.
:03:27. > :03:27.We did not seek the regime's permission.
:03:28. > :03:32.We did not discuss targets, they say.
:03:33. > :03:38.What is clear is that Syria did not stand in America's way.
:03:39. > :03:41.And that is because the Assad regime has come under sustained attack
:03:42. > :03:45.The Sunni extremists have taken vast swathes of land, so much
:03:46. > :03:51.so that the city of Raqqa has become the effective headquarters of IS.
:03:52. > :03:54.And their playground, too, by the look of it.
:03:55. > :03:57.That explains its targeting in the overnight air strikes.
:03:58. > :04:01.The raids coincided with Islamic State parading its British
:04:02. > :04:05.hostage, the freelance journalist, John Cantlie, reading under duress
:04:06. > :04:10.Senior US politicians seem content to call
:04:11. > :04:17.Awful, vile, a cancer, an insult to our values.
:04:18. > :04:21.But such petty insults don't really do much harm to
:04:22. > :04:26.the most powerful jihadist movement seen in recent history.
:04:27. > :04:31.But one notable absentee from this joint action against the jihadists
:04:32. > :04:37.David Cameron, who is in New York ahead of the UN General Assembly,
:04:38. > :04:41.has issued a statement saying that he supports the strikes, and will be
:04:42. > :04:46.discussing over the next couple of days what else the UK can do.
:04:47. > :04:47.But the Pentagon, which released these videos
:04:48. > :04:52.of the attacks, has for the moment the vital support it needs.
:04:53. > :05:14.The strikes marked a new chapter in the military action. What is its
:05:15. > :05:22.legal basis and how long could they continue? Our diplomatic
:05:23. > :05:28.correspondent has this analysis. A bombardment out of the blue. It is
:05:29. > :05:33.not to mask this bombing but the US air force with Arab allies. Critics
:05:34. > :05:36.will call at another US led military intervention in a foreign country
:05:37. > :05:42.without UN Security Council approval. But the fanatical
:05:43. > :05:45.followers of the so-called Islamic State use barbaric methods and they
:05:46. > :05:50.are seen as a threat that could envelop the whole region in chaos.
:05:51. > :06:01.I'm worried that today's strikes were not carried out by the Syrian
:06:02. > :06:06.government but the government was informed and the people helped. The
:06:07. > :06:11.strikes took place in areas no longer under the effective control
:06:12. > :06:16.of their government. These attacks are the strongest international
:06:17. > :06:22.responses -- response yet to the Islamic State network. Led by the US
:06:23. > :06:27.but also involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab
:06:28. > :06:32.Emirates. Most of them also taking an active military role. The aim was
:06:33. > :06:36.to degrade key areas in these shaded zones controlled and supported by
:06:37. > :06:40.the extremist 's. This strikes themselves were carried out by
:06:41. > :06:48.fighters, bombers, and one man drones, plus dozens of missiles and
:06:49. > :06:53.massive barrage is. They get a wide area, including Raqqa, and IS
:06:54. > :06:59.stronghold. Targets included training camps, and even a finance
:07:00. > :07:02.centre used by the extremists. It is thought IS disburse some of its
:07:03. > :07:07.fighters and weapons in anticipation of the attack. Ironically, the
:07:08. > :07:10.Syrian president could benefit from this turn of events. Only a year
:07:11. > :07:15.ago, his government was the potential target of US strikes but
:07:16. > :07:20.now the Americans are taking on some of his enemies for him. It is
:07:21. > :07:27.inevitable that air strikes against Isis will help the Assad regime,
:07:28. > :07:32.that is an unintended consequence. You have to do that sometimes. What
:07:33. > :07:36.of other unintended consequences? Curbs on the Turkish border say they
:07:37. > :07:41.are worried that IS fighters are coming their way to flee the air
:07:42. > :07:43.strikes. The refugee crisis that, already hundreds of thousands
:07:44. > :07:49.strong, could get worse. It was back in April that more than
:07:50. > :07:52.200 school girls from Chibok in Northern Nigeria were abducted
:07:53. > :07:54.by Boko Haram Islamists. It caused worldwide outrage and
:07:55. > :07:58.sparked a social media campaign. Well, in the past hour there's been
:07:59. > :08:00.a dramatic The Nigerian Defence Ministry has
:08:01. > :08:07.confirmed to the BBC that some of the girls are now in
:08:08. > :08:16.the custody of the Nigerian army. But he has now retracted that
:08:17. > :08:20.statement and said that although some girls are in the Army 's care,
:08:21. > :08:21.these are not the missing schoolgirl is that we were all thinking about.
:08:22. > :08:36.Let's try to clear this up. Can you tell us what we know? Yes,
:08:37. > :08:41.well, the story broke on Twitter initially. Some independent Nigerian
:08:42. > :08:46.newspapers saying that they had information that some of the girls
:08:47. > :08:50.were now safe in a military barracks in another city. The BBC managed to
:08:51. > :08:58.get through to the spokesman for the Nigerian military, and he confirmed
:08:59. > :09:04.that some of those girls were now safe in the military barracks. We
:09:05. > :09:07.then reported that but within a few minutes, he called back to retract
:09:08. > :09:12.the statement. He said there were some girls that have now reached the
:09:13. > :09:18.barracks and they are safe, but he said categorically that they are not
:09:19. > :09:21.from the same group. And this seems to imply there are more girls,
:09:22. > :09:29.possibly, that have been taken by Boko Haram van we knew about -- than
:09:30. > :09:35.we knew about. We know that many more have been taken. The abduction
:09:36. > :09:40.of well over 200 schoolgirls, 219 of whom asked or missing, that hit the
:09:41. > :09:44.international headlines, but there have been many attacks over the past
:09:45. > :09:49.two or three years in which some people, including girls, have been
:09:50. > :09:54.abducted by Boko Haram, and I have interviewed some in the past, prior
:09:55. > :10:00.to this recent attack. There are more being held, and while the focus
:10:01. > :10:04.is on those girls, the attacks are continuing on different villages.
:10:05. > :10:08.And the abductions are continuing. So it is a terrible situation at the
:10:09. > :10:11.moment in the north-east. And although last week there was some
:10:12. > :10:15.good news from the Nigerian military, as they were saying they
:10:16. > :10:21.had some success against the Islamist extremist group close to
:10:22. > :10:23.the city of my degree, some towns are still in the hands of Boko
:10:24. > :10:30.Haram, and more people are being abducted each week. I know you will
:10:31. > :10:32.stay across the story for us, thank you for joining us live.
:10:33. > :10:35.Now a look at some of the day's other news.
:10:36. > :10:37.The World Health Organisation is warning there could be
:10:38. > :10:41.Ebola has already killed almost 3000 people across West Africa.
:10:42. > :10:44.A prominent academic from China's Uighur minority has been
:10:45. > :10:50.Ilham Tohti was a vocal critic of government policies in the troubled
:10:51. > :10:57.The Spanish government has withdrawn its controversial plans to limit
:10:58. > :11:00.The conservative Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, said the governing
:11:01. > :11:09.Popular Party had not been able to reach agreement on the proposals.
:11:10. > :11:11.Two Palestinian survivors of last week's refugee boat sinking have
:11:12. > :11:15.told the BBC they saw smugglers deliberately ram the boats, and
:11:16. > :11:19.then chop the hands off those who clung to the sides of the vessels.
:11:20. > :11:23.300 to 500 asylum seekers died in the incident off the coast of Malta.
:11:24. > :11:27.The Maltese Prime Minister says this is mass murder.
:11:28. > :11:35.This is a detention centre, not a dream destination.
:11:36. > :11:40.It's where those rescued from the sea off Malta can end up.
:11:41. > :11:42.And despite the trauma of an uncertain future,
:11:43. > :11:49.Thousands died in unsafe and overcrowded vessels.
:11:50. > :11:51.The BBC was allowed to meet three survivors in what has
:11:52. > :12:00.A crime the UN says that cannot go unpunished.
:12:01. > :12:04.Earlier this month, Ibrahim, Manon, and Muhammad paid smugglers
:12:05. > :12:07.They left Gaza, ordered a boat to Egypt and then, in
:12:08. > :12:15.the Mediterranean, they were ordered to switch to a smaller boat.
:12:16. > :12:18.When the captain refused to stop, Mamon tells me, the smugglers rammed
:12:19. > :12:27.Around 150 people below deck drowned straight away.
:12:28. > :12:32.When someone tried to cling to the smugglers boat, Mohammed says, they
:12:33. > :12:40.They also laughed as the boat went down.
:12:41. > :12:43.This grim account of lives lost at sea has been backed up
:12:44. > :12:47.by the handful of other survivors now out in Greece and Italy.
:12:48. > :12:50.What they say happened has been judged to be credible by the
:12:51. > :12:54.United Nations and by the Maltese government.
:12:55. > :12:57.Day in, day out, year in, year out, the Maltese military is having to
:12:58. > :13:01.rescue migrants from the inhospitable sea.
:13:02. > :13:03.The government in Malta wants a Europe-wide
:13:04. > :13:08.response to people smuggling following this latest tragedy.
:13:09. > :13:11.That's something you wouldn't even imagine in a movie, let alone
:13:12. > :13:20.And this is murder at sea? It is.
:13:21. > :13:25.Back at the detention centre, where their freedom is on hold,
:13:26. > :13:28.those who cheated death at the hands of smugglers live with the
:13:29. > :13:34.horror of what they witnessed and are hoping for something better.
:13:35. > :14:05.Idyllic and alluring for holiday-makers,
:14:06. > :14:07.the Mediterranean Sea is proving increasingly treacherous
:14:08. > :14:13.There are more migrants, there are more deaths, there are no
:14:14. > :14:30.World leaders are being asked to make bold pledges to address climate
:14:31. > :14:32.change at a one day summit in New York.
:14:33. > :14:34.Opening the gathering of a hundred and twenty world
:14:35. > :14:37.leaders, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said climate change is
:14:38. > :14:41.The meeting is intended to build momentum for a new global treaty
:14:42. > :14:44.on reducing greenhouse gas emissions next year, although both
:14:45. > :14:52.Here's our science editor David Shukman.
:14:53. > :14:57.From the melting of the ice in the far north of the Arctic...
:14:58. > :15:05.To the rising sea level threatening low-lying countries like Bangladesh.
:15:06. > :15:09.To the fear of dust storms and droughts intensifying in the
:15:10. > :15:16.Climate change is described by the United Nations
:15:17. > :15:21.Climate change is a defining issue of our age.
:15:22. > :15:25.Today, the UN called a special summit on global warming.
:15:26. > :15:27.There's been deadlock in negotiations.
:15:28. > :15:31.Maybe some Hollywood stardust would help?
:15:32. > :15:36.I play fictitious characters often solving fictitious problems.
:15:37. > :15:40.I believe that mankind has looked at climate change in that same way.
:15:41. > :15:45.As if pretending that climate change wasn't real would
:15:46. > :15:52.The smallest islands say this is a matter of survival.
:15:53. > :15:57.But pleading for help hasn't really worked, so young mother from
:15:58. > :16:01.the Marshall Islands in the Pacific tried a poem to her baby poem.
:16:02. > :16:05.They say you, your daughter and your granddaughter, too,
:16:06. > :16:12.will wander rootless with only a passport to call home.
:16:13. > :16:14.Then her daughter was brought on stage.
:16:15. > :16:19.It's not often a baby gets a standing ovation at a UN summit.
:16:20. > :16:22.Getting anywhere on climate change has always been a struggle.
:16:23. > :16:26.The talking started back in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio.
:16:27. > :16:28.That year, emissions of carbon dioxide totalled
:16:29. > :16:42.By then, annual emissions were running at more than 32 billion
:16:43. > :16:47.tonnes and the treaty only covered a few dozen countries anyway.
:16:48. > :16:50.By the time of the Copenhagen summit five years ago, which tried and
:16:51. > :16:54.failed to reach a global agreement, emissions were more than 34 billion
:16:55. > :17:01.This year, they are set to climb to more than 40 billion tonnes with
:17:02. > :17:08.no sign yet of a cut which climate scientists say should happen soon.
:17:09. > :17:11.Carbon dioxide swirling above America, Europe and China.
:17:12. > :17:14.Some countries, cities, and companies are cutting emissions
:17:15. > :17:34.But the UN wants a global deal next year although there is no
:17:35. > :17:36.The actress Emma Watson has been targeted online, with anonymous
:17:37. > :17:38."trolls" making threats to release nude photographs of her.
:17:39. > :17:41.The threats follow her address to the UN on gender equality,
:17:42. > :17:44.in which she called on men and boys to identify themselves as feminist.
:17:45. > :17:46.The former Harry Potter actress, who's now a Goodwill Ambassador
:17:47. > :17:49.for the UN, spoke about her own determination to be equal,
:17:50. > :18:12.Winning at choosing not to identify as feminists. Apparently I am among
:18:13. > :18:24.the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too
:18:25. > :18:33.aggressive, isolating and anti-men. Unattractive, even. Why has the word
:18:34. > :18:37.become such an uncomfortable one? So Emma Watson was talking
:18:38. > :18:39.about embracing feminism, A good time, we thought,
:18:40. > :18:43.to talk about Marilyn Monroe - one focus of a new book called
:18:44. > :18:46.Women In Dark Times from Jacqueline Rose, who is the new Professor
:18:47. > :19:02.of Gender Studies at Cambridge. Marilyn Monroe, reading some of your
:19:03. > :19:06.book about what she had written, she was so conscious of the path she had
:19:07. > :19:11.to play and anguished about the fact there was so much more to her own
:19:12. > :19:16.thoughts. One of the genius of Marilyn Monroe is the fact that so
:19:17. > :19:24.many parts were a send-up of what she was meant to be, a kind of clown
:19:25. > :19:29.who got compared to Charlie Chaplin in her day by being so witty and
:19:30. > :19:35.exposing what was wrong with the images she was supposed to be
:19:36. > :19:46.portraying. In a way she hated doing what was expected of her and she got
:19:47. > :19:52.control of Fox Studios, she got direct script control, so she was
:19:53. > :19:58.very feisty, but she was even more political than that. She was utterly
:19:59. > :20:04.transgressive, she slept with Jews, Communists, Montenegro's and other
:20:05. > :20:21.women, so she was way ahead of her time in that sense. -- Communists,
:20:22. > :20:26.black people. She phoned a club where Ellis -- where Ellis
:20:27. > :20:32.FitzGerald was not allowed to play and said if you have her on I will
:20:33. > :20:38.sit in the front row. She said in her diaries, actresses must have no
:20:39. > :20:42.mouth. She knew that absolutely but she was not really interested in the
:20:43. > :20:48.public she was supposed to be interested in. She said she was not
:20:49. > :20:53.looked after, cherished and love as a child, so that gave her an
:20:54. > :20:57.understanding of the poor, the week and be vulnerable, and the only
:20:58. > :21:04.people she wanted to perform for word the people in the trailers and
:21:05. > :21:13.working in the factories. -- were the people. She did seem so at home
:21:14. > :21:19.with the glittering lifestyle. She was a very contradictory woman, but
:21:20. > :21:25.that is an important point of feminism that we don't ask women to
:21:26. > :21:30.be perfect. She said in her journals, my body is my body, every
:21:31. > :21:34.part of it. She also knew that she internally suffered, but she was
:21:35. > :21:47.abominable, that she could not control everything. -- that she was
:21:48. > :21:50.vulnerable. I am not directly comparing Emma Watson and Marilyn
:21:51. > :21:56.Monroe but she is talking about feminism, Emma Watson, saying I
:21:57. > :22:02.don't want you to define my body, I don't want you to control me.
:22:03. > :22:07.Because she has made this address she is being threatened with nude
:22:08. > :22:15.photos being released, there is a backlash. There is, and in a sense
:22:16. > :22:21.nothing has changed, the link between female vulnerability and the
:22:22. > :22:25.need to behave a certain way, and the misogyny and rage that is
:22:26. > :22:31.released when you about that. There has been progress by women but the
:22:32. > :22:36.relationship between women's sexuality and their assertiveness
:22:37. > :22:39.and their right to speak out and the way that people, especially men,
:22:40. > :22:46.hate them if they do, we have not got to the heart of that yet.
:22:47. > :22:50.Earlier we spoke about the women abducted in Nigeria and we know that
:22:51. > :22:55.some of those may have been sold on as slaves, we know that this is
:22:56. > :23:03.still happening today, keeping women down. We have rarely seen a period
:23:04. > :23:08.where violence against women is so brazen, from FGM to rape during
:23:09. > :23:22.wartime, Jimmy Savile, women are read more -- are more at risk from
:23:23. > :23:28.domestic abuse than war, disease, cancer combined. We are seeing what
:23:29. > :23:34.hatred of women can do and we need a feminism that goes to the heart of
:23:35. > :23:37.that and tries to understand that. Marilyn Monroe was amazing because
:23:38. > :23:44.America off-loaded on her the demand to be perfect, she had to be the
:23:45. > :23:53.perfect ambassador of new American capitalism, she had to ferry it
:23:54. > :23:58.across Europe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and in many ways she was a
:23:59. > :24:07.very unhappy woman. It is as if she is giving UAW message, look at what
:24:08. > :24:17.a nightmare America is giving me and I have to live it. -- a double
:24:18. > :24:21.message. The UN refugee agency says that
:24:22. > :24:29.Turkey urgently needs help to deal with the Syrian refugees who have
:24:30. > :24:36.crossed the border fleeing from the danger of ISIS. Today we have more
:24:37. > :24:40.from the border. Age is no barrier when the
:24:41. > :24:48.desperation to flee is so strong. More arrived today, Syrian escaping
:24:49. > :24:53.the trauma of the ISIS advance. The youngest were terrified by the
:24:54. > :25:01.experience. Turkey is a safe haven under strain, struggling with over
:25:02. > :25:05.130,000 refugees since last Friday. Most border crossings have been
:25:06. > :25:12.closed as Turkey tries to stem the flow. Those who fled welcomed news
:25:13. > :25:18.of the air strikes on ISIS, hoping it could at some point allow them to
:25:19. > :25:22.return home. The Americans must bomb, he tells me, because ISIS are
:25:23. > :25:27.killing us. This man was a teacher, he has been here since the weekend
:25:28. > :25:34.and he says the military action is a rare piece of good news. I feel
:25:35. > :25:42.happy, I want to say I am grateful and joyful to America and her
:25:43. > :25:51.partners. I am so happy. Could the US and its Ali is -- its allies by
:25:52. > :25:55.the lightning advance of ISIS towards Turkey? The militants are
:25:56. > :25:57.dangerously close to the border and with waves of people coming every
:25:58. > :26:01.day perhaps that gave with waves of people coming every
:26:02. > :26:08.final push to strike. Humanitarian agencies have set up agencies to --
:26:09. > :26:17.clinics to deal with the crisis. Many here suffer from dehydration,
:26:18. > :26:20.and some have entered the world as refugees. TRANSLATION: Nobody
:26:21. > :26:25.expected the war in Syria to last more than three years. Nobody
:26:26. > :26:29.expected that more than 300,000 refugees would come. Yesterday we
:26:30. > :26:36.had two doctors here, now we have six. Meanwhile the political
:26:37. > :26:38.had two doctors here, now we have continues, a stand-off between
:26:39. > :26:40.had two doctors here, now we have and Kurds, people
:26:41. > :26:44.had two doctors here, now we have year Civil War. The refugee
:26:45. > :26:48.had two doctors here, now we have brought the test -- hostility back
:26:49. > :26:54.to the surface. Can the military action they wanted halt the march of
:26:55. > :27:03.the Islamic State? That is all from World News Today
:27:04. > :27:10.macro. The fairly settled weather looks set
:27:11. > :27:13.to continue for the next few days. Tomorrow there will be rain in the
:27:14. > :27:14.forecast, especially in the southeastern