:00:00. > :00:00.This is BBC World News Today with me Karin Giannone.
:00:00. > :00:08.The role of American Special Forces in Iraq is to be expanded to help
:00:09. > :00:15.The US Defence Secretary says they'll work with Iraqi and Kurdish
:00:16. > :00:31.These special operators will over time and be able to conduct raids,
:00:32. > :00:37.free hostages, gather intelligence and capture Isil leaders.
:00:38. > :00:39.This Pacific island is a world away from Paris but it's
:00:40. > :00:46.Scientists debate the boundaries of manipulating our DNA
:00:47. > :00:50.which could treat or even cure inherited genetic conditions.
:00:51. > :00:53.And the rock pools that form a prehistoric path.
:00:54. > :00:59.We report from the dinosaur trail on Scotland's Isle of Skye.
:01:00. > :01:01.Each one of these circular indentations was
:01:02. > :01:06.Those are those trunk-legged, longnecked giants and they used to
:01:07. > :01:27.We start with the fight against so-called Islamic State and the US
:01:28. > :01:30.Defence Secretary has announced that America's role in direct combat in
:01:31. > :01:40.Special operations personnel will be sent to Syria to support local
:01:41. > :01:43.forces on the ground, and in Iraq, a special task force will be
:01:44. > :01:45.deployed to conduct raids and gather intelligence.
:01:46. > :01:48.Here in the UK, MPs from all parties are being urged by the government to
:01:49. > :01:50.back military action against Islamic State in Syria.
:01:51. > :01:52.They'll vote on the issue on Wednesday.
:01:53. > :01:55.More on that in a moment, but first, let's hear what US Defence Secretary
:01:56. > :02:01.Ash Carter told a congressional committee in Washington earlier.
:02:02. > :02:03.In full coordination with the government of Iraq we are deploying
:02:04. > :02:05.a specialised expeditionary targeting force to assist Iraqi
:02:06. > :02:10.and Kurdish Peshmerga forces to put even more pressure on Isil.
:02:11. > :02:16.These special operators will, over time, be able to conduct raids,
:02:17. > :02:23.free hostages, gather intelligence and capture Isil leaders.
:02:24. > :02:25.This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral
:02:26. > :02:32.That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence
:02:33. > :02:38.which generates more targets, more raids, more momentum.
:02:39. > :02:41.I spoke to Gary O'Donoghue in Washington about how surprising
:02:42. > :02:50.this announcement by the US Defence Secretary is.
:02:51. > :02:59.I think it is part of what they will call the intensification of the war
:03:00. > :03:03.against Islamic State. There has been pressure on the administration
:03:04. > :03:07.to do more and say what it is going to do and this ratcheting up of the
:03:08. > :03:14.involvement of special forces as part of that response. Ash Carter
:03:15. > :03:22.said they would conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and
:03:23. > :03:27.kill off ice leaders. Earlier in the year, they killed an Isis leader who
:03:28. > :03:33.ran oil operations for Isis in Syria. A few weeks ago they were
:03:34. > :03:37.involved in the releasing of some prisoners in northern Iraq. They
:03:38. > :03:43.were just meant to be advising in that one but they got involved in a
:03:44. > :03:49.firefight and one US special forces member died. This is an escalation
:03:50. > :03:52.of some things that are already doing and an acknowledgement that
:03:53. > :03:57.air strikes are not enough and they need people on the ground to
:03:58. > :04:02.organise and assist local forces and do some things of their own.
:04:03. > :04:07.Some Americans are worried and this is mission creep.
:04:08. > :04:14.There will be that concern. This is not a large deployment. The numbers
:04:15. > :04:22.in northern Syria, 50 special Ops members. Not large numbers of boots
:04:23. > :04:27.on the ground. They will be involved in some kind of combat role so some
:04:28. > :04:33.will see that as mission creep and some will see that as far too little
:04:34. > :04:40.as there are people who want much bigger numbers. The Obama
:04:41. > :04:45.administration is treading this line that it has promised not to put
:04:46. > :04:47.boots on the ground but it must respond to changing situation.
:04:48. > :04:50.Here in Britain, MPs are preparing to debate and later vote on
:04:51. > :04:52.UK air strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria.
:04:53. > :04:55.But could more air strikes make a difference in Syria?
:04:56. > :04:58.Prime Minister David Cameron says military action is just one part of
:04:59. > :05:01.Our Diplomatic Correspondent James Robbins looks at the nature
:05:02. > :05:24.The RAF Tornados are poised. From Cyprus, they have been striking Isis
:05:25. > :05:32.in Iraq and if the word comes from the Prime Minister, they are ready
:05:33. > :05:41.to strike in Syria. The government says Britain can be made safer and
:05:42. > :05:46.Isis weaker. It strikes alone cannot defeat Isil but they can degrade
:05:47. > :05:50.them. They can prevent them spreading further in Syria and
:05:51. > :05:57.relieve the pressure on opposition forces which are being attacked by
:05:58. > :06:07.Isil. The government believes those anti-Assad moderate forces could be
:06:08. > :06:13.boosted. They want to prove they are fully on board for a war with Isis
:06:14. > :06:19.until it is finished and this is the first step in escalating the British
:06:20. > :06:29.involvement in that war. What is not being voted on this week is what the
:06:30. > :06:43.next steps will be. Who is currently bombing Isis targets? Leading the
:06:44. > :06:49.coalition are the US and France with Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. It
:06:50. > :06:54.makes Russia's campaign a problem. They have a different agenda,
:06:55. > :06:58.supporting President Assad. Moscow and Washington are still at long
:06:59. > :07:07.raids and again today President Obama urged Moscow to follow in
:07:08. > :07:14.line. I am confident we are on the winning side of this and ultimately
:07:15. > :07:20.Russia will see the threat that Isil poses to its country is the most
:07:21. > :07:25.significant and they must align themselves with those of us who are
:07:26. > :07:31.fighting Isil. The coalition claims real damage to Isis headquarters and
:07:32. > :07:36.killing many of their leaders although there are fears civilians
:07:37. > :07:42.have been hit by air strikes. This will only be brought to a conclusion
:07:43. > :07:49.by boots on the ground but the issue is whose feet are in them and what
:07:50. > :07:56.is the degree of leadership? Can British tornadoes launch a far more
:07:57. > :07:59.coherent strategy for Syria? It depends on settling political
:08:00. > :08:04.divides, including the future for President Assad, if any.
:08:05. > :08:07.Let's turn to the climate talks in Paris now and, after the upbeat
:08:08. > :08:09.mood of yesterday, many world leaders are beginning to head home,
:08:10. > :08:12.leaving the tough negotiations for a deal to reduce carbon emissions
:08:13. > :08:15.Before he left the conference, President Obama met with leaders
:08:16. > :08:17.from island nations hit hard by rising sea levels,
:08:18. > :08:32.I think we are going to solve it. The issue is just going to be the
:08:33. > :08:42.pace and how much damage is done before we are able to fully apply
:08:43. > :08:57.the brakes. In some ways, it is a keen to the problem of terrorism and
:08:58. > :09:07.Isil. In the media... Immediate aftermath of a terrible attack like
:09:08. > :09:13.in Paris it is natural for people to despair but look at Paris, you
:09:14. > :09:14.cannot tear down Paris cause of the demented actions a handful of
:09:15. > :09:16.individuals. One of those places on the front
:09:17. > :09:19.line of climate change is the tiny South Pacific island nation of
:09:20. > :09:21.Vanuatu from where our correspondent Matthew Price has been
:09:22. > :09:25.looking at how important setting carbon emission targets are to the
:09:26. > :09:36.islanders. If you look at the seashore behind
:09:37. > :09:41.me, I am at the heart of the capital city, the most vulnerable one in the
:09:42. > :09:49.world to big events such as the huge cyclone which hit these islands in
:09:50. > :09:54.March. It is hard to realise what a difference in targets, the sort of
:09:55. > :10:00.targets they're talking about in Paris in terms of 1.5 degrees,
:10:01. > :10:06.warming of 2 degrees, three degrees, it is hard to understand what those
:10:07. > :10:11.means. But in these islands and other vulnerable low-lying areas,
:10:12. > :10:14.they believe those numbers are crucial and they will make the
:10:15. > :10:21.crucial difference between places like this surviving or having to
:10:22. > :10:28.have huge funds injected in them in order to adapt.
:10:29. > :10:32.How were were people of the talks going on in Paris and how much faith
:10:33. > :10:38.do they have that something will emerge to benefit them in future?
:10:39. > :10:47.One thing somebody close to the talks from the UN perspective said
:10:48. > :10:53.to me in recent days was that the proceeds there to have been a real
:10:54. > :10:57.change in mood. These sort of low-lying countries, in which around
:10:58. > :11:05.the world hundreds of millions of people could be affected by climate
:11:06. > :11:08.change, they are no longer saying they're going to be victims of
:11:09. > :11:12.climate change and what are the rest of the world going to do about it?
:11:13. > :11:20.They are active now in a bottom-up approach. The people in these places
:11:21. > :11:24.feel that they are at the moral heart of these negotiations. We saw
:11:25. > :11:29.that in the way that the Association of Ireland states went to Paris at
:11:30. > :11:36.the beginning of the week and said 2 degrees warming of the world's
:11:37. > :11:42.atmosphere is no good, we need it to be 1.5. They went in with their
:11:43. > :11:43.fists swinging at the beginning of negotiations to try to influence
:11:44. > :11:48.them. For more on this our Science
:11:49. > :12:01.Correspondent, Rebecca Morelle is at What happens next?
:12:02. > :12:05.It will be a tough two weeks of negotiations. Yesterday, we had all
:12:06. > :12:11.the world leaders here laying out broad ambitions. This is what we
:12:12. > :12:17.want to do to save the planet. Obama said this could be a turning point.
:12:18. > :12:23.The leaders are gone now and the hard work begins. Each country is
:12:24. > :12:27.setting out its stall. They hope to produce a document by the end of the
:12:28. > :12:32.week and this will form the basis of a legal agreement. Countries are
:12:33. > :12:39.saying, OK, we won't have this kind of thing to be in the -- we would
:12:40. > :12:44.like this kind of thing to be in the document and not this kind of thing.
:12:45. > :12:50.There will be some trade to get what they want, and some sticking points.
:12:51. > :12:56.This push for a more ambitious target of 1.5 degrees being the
:12:57. > :13:04.threshold of the planet can take, to be honest, having spoken to most
:13:05. > :13:08.people here, they think 2 degrees Celsius is gone to be hard enough to
:13:09. > :13:19.achieve already so whether the smaller island states, and I was
:13:20. > :13:23.talking to a representative from our least developed country, I'm not
:13:24. > :13:28.sure they will get that. But they are trying to as possible. Quite a
:13:29. > :13:33.lot of debate over the next two weeks and lots to thrash out before
:13:34. > :13:34.we see if there is a deal at the end of it.
:13:35. > :13:37.Now a look at some of the day's other news.
:13:38. > :13:40.A bomb has exploded near a metro station in the Turkish
:13:41. > :13:43.A local mayor said five people were injured.
:13:44. > :13:45.The explosion happened on a highway overpass at the height
:13:46. > :13:52.A jury has been shown CCTV images of a gang who stole
:13:53. > :13:55.around ?14 million worth of jewellery from a safety deposit
:13:56. > :14:00.vault in London's Hatton Garden over the Easter weekend.
:14:01. > :14:03.They were caught on one of the few working cameras covering
:14:04. > :14:13.the building, carrying the stolen jewellery away in wheelie bins.
:14:14. > :14:19.Cuba has reinstated restrictions on doctors leaving the island to work
:14:20. > :14:27.in the USA and other countries. It is said the health services have
:14:28. > :14:29.been severely affected by the great number of people moving abroad since
:14:30. > :14:32.travel restrictions eased two years ago.
:14:33. > :14:34.Hundreds of Moroccans, Algerians and Pakistanis continue to
:14:35. > :14:36.protest at the border between Greece and Macedonia.
:14:37. > :14:39.They're demanding to be allowed to carry on into northern Europe
:14:40. > :14:40.after Macedonian authorities began to filter migrants based
:14:41. > :14:43.Our Europe Correspondent Chris Morris has this update
:14:44. > :14:57.This is the Greek Macedonian border and the people you can see here are
:14:58. > :15:03.from Syria and they have just been allowed to cross the board. At the
:15:04. > :15:05.moment, only people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are being allowed
:15:06. > :15:11.through by the Macedonian authorities. You can see this fence,
:15:12. > :15:16.built in the last few days, one of numerous fences which are starting
:15:17. > :15:21.to be built across the Balkans to try to stem this flow of migrants.
:15:22. > :15:26.On this side of the fence, still in, all these people are from other
:15:27. > :15:35.countries, Iran, Pakistan, Morocco, Somalia. They are not being allowed
:15:36. > :15:41.across the border at the moment. It stretches right back along the
:15:42. > :15:45.railway here, two or 3000 people who have been stuck here for days. There
:15:46. > :15:51.was mounting frustration and anger, storms have been thrown at police, a
:15:52. > :15:58.big security presence on the Macedonian side, and aid agencies
:15:59. > :16:02.are worried that thousands more people are thought to be travelling
:16:03. > :16:06.up through Greece from the Greek islands to the border will soon be
:16:07. > :16:08.stranded here as winter begins to set in.
:16:09. > :16:11.The US President has called on Turkey and Russia to move
:16:12. > :16:13.beyond their diplomatic spat and focus on the threat
:16:14. > :16:17.On Monday, President Putin said Turkey had shot down a Russian
:16:18. > :16:21.warplane on the Syrian border to protect oil supplies from the IS.
:16:22. > :16:24.Barack Obama met the Turkish President on the sidelines of the
:16:25. > :16:29.He said an international coalition can defeat IS, but added that Russia
:16:30. > :16:37.should rethink its support for Syria's president Bashar al-Assad.
:16:38. > :16:39.I spoke to Dr Igor Sutyagin and asked him
:16:40. > :16:41.if he thought Vladimir Putin genuinely believes his accusation
:16:42. > :16:44.that Turkey shot down the Russian warplane near the border with Syria
:16:45. > :16:54.in order to protect its oil trade with the Islamic State group.
:16:55. > :17:01.No-mac, I don't think that the Russian president thinks so.
:17:02. > :17:05.Especially keeping in mind that his own military perfectly now that the
:17:06. > :17:13.main flow of oil from the Islamic State controlled part of Syria goes
:17:14. > :17:16.to Iraq, which was supported by Russian General staff repeatedly
:17:17. > :17:21.between the 15th and 19th of November. Two weeks ago, Russian
:17:22. > :17:26.leadership knew that oil flows to Iraq, not to Turkey. Why do you
:17:27. > :17:33.believe President Putin is coming out with this? It is a string of
:17:34. > :17:44.angry allegations at Turkey and its alleged collusion with Isis.
:17:45. > :17:50.Revenge? It is necessary to humiliate somebody who humiliated
:17:51. > :17:56.the president. It seems to be the attempt to put lots of deaths on his
:17:57. > :18:01.head and accuse him of something. Otherwise it is very difficult to
:18:02. > :18:07.explain why that happened to a domestic audience. How risky is it
:18:08. > :18:10.for Russia to keep up this kind of rhetoric, given the situation
:18:11. > :18:16.regarding Islamic State? But also such close economic and business
:18:17. > :18:22.ties with Turkey, with them importing oil and gas from Russia.
:18:23. > :18:26.Russian sanctions against Turkey, which have been announced, are very
:18:27. > :18:36.carefully tailored. It was specifically designed to hit Turkey
:18:37. > :18:39.and not Russia. The surplus in trade with Turkey is approximately $25
:18:40. > :18:49.billion, which Russia gets from Turkey. That is over the amount of
:18:50. > :18:57.money being paid to Turkey. Overall, trade is approximately 44 billion
:18:58. > :18:58.last year and just 7.5 billion were Russian imports from Turkey and the
:18:59. > :19:05.rest was Russian exports. An investigation into the crash
:19:06. > :19:08.of an Air Asia plane en route from Indonesia to Singapore,
:19:09. > :19:11.a year ago, has found that it was caused by the pilots' inadequate
:19:12. > :19:13.response to a technical fault. All 162 people
:19:14. > :19:16.on board the Airbus A-320 were killed after the captain attempted
:19:17. > :19:18.to resolve the fault Gene editing -
:19:19. > :19:25.the ability to manipulate our DNA - is set to transform
:19:26. > :19:27.our knowledge of human biology. It offers the hope that inherited
:19:28. > :19:32.genetic conditions could be treated, Scientists from all over
:19:33. > :19:35.the world have gathered in Washington to discuss the potential
:19:36. > :19:38.of gene editing and whether limits From there,
:19:39. > :19:41.our Medical Correspondent Fergus Just a day old with a lifetime
:19:42. > :19:51.of opportunity ahead. This baby has been born
:19:52. > :19:53.into a world set to be transformed The ability to precisely
:19:54. > :20:02.manipulate our DNA. How we grow and develop is shaped
:20:03. > :20:05.by DNA which sits in the nucleus It's an instruction manual
:20:06. > :20:12.for how our bodies work. Written in a chemical code
:20:13. > :20:16.of just four letters. Key sections are called genes,
:20:17. > :20:19.a spelling mistake can trigger disease,
:20:20. > :20:22.but now scientists have discovered a cheap and easy way to correct
:20:23. > :20:28.such errors by editing the code. Think of gene editing
:20:29. > :20:31.as a molecular sat-nav. It scans the DNA,
:20:32. > :20:35.searching for the error. Then it uses molecular scissors to
:20:36. > :20:39.snip through both strands which switches off the faulty gene, or it
:20:40. > :20:44.can repair the code by inserting These techniques raise
:20:45. > :20:50.the prospect of treating, even curing, some genetic diseases,
:20:51. > :20:54.and it's not science fiction. Last month, we heard about
:20:55. > :21:00.one-year-old Layla whose leukaemia was fixed by doctors in London who
:21:01. > :21:07.gave her gene edited immune cells. The technology could eventually
:21:08. > :21:11.be used to treat scores of A faulty gene means her
:21:12. > :21:17.skin constantly blisters. It is incredibly painful
:21:18. > :21:22.and can prove fatal. This technology holds
:21:23. > :21:28.the unimaginable dream of a cure. We really do have a hope that we can
:21:29. > :21:32.specifically correct Sahana's cells The breakthrough prize is awarded to
:21:33. > :21:42.Emmanuelle Charpentier and The scientists who invented
:21:43. > :21:50.a cheap and rapid new gene editing system, just three years ago,
:21:51. > :21:52.have already been showered with awards and labs across the world are
:21:53. > :21:54.using their technology. So what is the potential
:21:55. > :22:01.of gene editing? In the future,
:22:02. > :22:04.we hope that this will be a technology that can actually be
:22:05. > :22:07.used not only to understand disease, So not only understand
:22:08. > :22:11.the information in a cell, If we see a mutation that causes
:22:12. > :22:16.disease, we have now That could help patients with a
:22:17. > :22:25.whole range of genetic conditions. Their faulty cells could be removed,
:22:26. > :22:28.treated in the lab, and then healthy If gene editing was done
:22:29. > :22:40.in embryos then any DNA changes The hot issue
:22:41. > :22:45.at this meeting is whether scientists should even be allowed to
:22:46. > :22:48.do research to modify the genes of embryos or is it a step too far
:22:49. > :22:55.that might lead to designer humans? They are giants that once roamed
:22:56. > :23:02.the planet. Now more than 100 rare footprints
:23:03. > :23:06.left by huge plant-eating dinosaurs Researchers at Edinburgh University
:23:07. > :23:11.discovered the tracks, which were made by sauropods more
:23:12. > :23:17.than 170 million years ago. Our science reporter Victoria Gill
:23:18. > :23:22.has been to Skye. It's a landscape that legend
:23:23. > :23:25.has it was shaped by giants. And
:23:26. > :23:27.while there are many myths inspired by the drama of this island,
:23:28. > :23:31.its coast has been hiding evidence A huge dinosaur
:23:32. > :23:38.and I guess it would have compacted It was on this bay that
:23:39. > :23:42.palaeontologist at the end of a day's fossil hunting noticed
:23:43. > :23:45.an unusual pattern in the rocks. As the light hit it
:23:46. > :23:48.at the right angle, it just kind of clicked that something was odd
:23:49. > :23:50.about these things. And we'd seen things like this
:23:51. > :23:54.before because we study dinosaurs. So we realised that these
:23:55. > :23:57.were dinosaur footprints. What looks like four rock pools
:23:58. > :24:00.in front of me are actually So each one
:24:01. > :24:06.of these circular indentations was Those are those trunk legged,
:24:07. > :24:11.longnecked giants and they used to What researchers stumbled
:24:12. > :24:17.on here is the most extensive A trackway of more than 100
:24:18. > :24:22.footprints left behind by some These are a record of real dinosaurs
:24:23. > :24:29.living and moving around right here. And so we can tell a lot
:24:30. > :24:32.about how big they were, about how they moved, about what
:24:33. > :24:35.environments they lived in. At the museum in Staffin,
:24:36. > :24:43.just a few miles from the site, Dougie Ross has curated a collection
:24:44. > :24:47.of Skye's Jurassic treasures. He's been exploring and fossil
:24:48. > :24:50.hunting here most of his life. But even he didn't expect
:24:51. > :24:53.a discovery of this scale. At most I expected them to find
:24:54. > :24:57.a few fragmentary bits So when they first announced that I
:24:58. > :25:02.thought, oh, It's the pattern
:25:03. > :25:12.of prints that allows experts to But
:25:13. > :25:20.a few ancient feet have even formed The experts are now calling this
:25:21. > :25:24.Scotland's Dinosaur Island and as they continue to race
:25:25. > :25:26.the tides to work here, they expect its rocks to reveal more
:25:27. > :25:29.of their prehistoric secrets. Victoria Gill,
:25:30. > :25:35.BBC News, on the Isle of Skye. And you can find out more
:25:36. > :25:38.about the Isle of Skye's Jurassic secrets in a special multimedia
:25:39. > :25:41.feature on the BBC Earth website. In direct combat in Syria and Iraq
:25:42. > :25:55.will be escalated. If you want to get in touch with me,
:25:56. > :26:00.or some of my colleagues, you can