24/05/2016 World News Today

The battle against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq -

In northern Syria a Kurdish led alliance begins to drive IS

militants from their stronghold in Rucker.

And in Iraq, the government's fight to re-take the city of Falluja

Behind the factory there, smoke coming up because of the battle

going on there as these forces moved in on Falluja from different

A judge in Pennsylvania rules that actor Bill Cosby should stand trial

And running dry at the pumps - striking French workers blockade oil

refineries with fuel supplies hit across the country.

The war is intensifying to drive the Islamic State group

from territory it holds in Iraq and Syria.

In a moment we'll hear from our correspondent who's

with the Iraqi army as it tries to recapture Falluja.

At the same time, in northern Syria, a Kurdish-led alliance has begun

an offensive to drive IS fighters from areas to the north of their

Islamic State fighters parading triumphantly through the Syrian city

of Raqqa two years ago. The city it made its headquarters and from where

it declared a caliphate including much of Iraq. But now the tables are

turning and the militant group are under intense pressure. On a social

media site today, this unverified video apparently showing the

build-up of Kurdish and Arab forces for a new offensive against Islamic

State, just north of Raqqa. But the ultimate goal of retaking the city

itself. These fighters are from a coalition called the Syrian

Democratic forces, backed by the United States. Just two days ago is

training continued they had a surprise visit. United States top

military commander in the Middle East was upbeat about their

capabilities. I think with the right approach and capabilities provided

against anybody can result in military success. That is what we

will attempt to do along with our partners. Russia, which still has

considerable firepower, available at places inside Syria, has said it is

also prepared to support this new offensive, offering to coordinate

air strikes with the United States. In both Syria and Iraq, Islamic

State is being pounded from the air and by ground forces. The militant

group under threat now of losing several of its most important

strongholds. And it's already started hitting back. This is the

aftermath of a series of bombings yesterday in Syria which had

remained largely unscathed by the Civil War. More than 100 people were

killed. But if Raqqa, EIS headquarters, does eventually fall

to coalition forces it would be a body blow, bringing an end to its

caliphate. Meanwhile the Iraqi army,

supported by Shia militia, is continuing its attack

to retake the city of Falluja The UN says it is concerned

about the fate of 50,000 Our correspondent Jim Muir has just

returned from the front line. Pounding away at the self-styled

Islamic State in Raqqa. -- in Falluja. Day two of this offensive

so heavy bombardment is being meted out as ground forces pushed out

towards the outskirts of the city. Still some distance away. The

front-line effort was the result of a huge mobilisation. Thousands of

army and police trips backed by Shia militias and Sunni tribal irregulars

all massed against the militants. We come from other cities like that in

the south, all over. We come to hear to kick them out. The Shia militias

who are playing a prominent back-up role are in jubilant mood after the

initial advances. One of their leaders was also upbeat.

TRANSLATION: It is going according to plan and we have made good

progress. In a few days we expect to have Falluja completely surrounded.

Then we will have a real problem, the presence of so many civilians in

the town using -- being used as human shields. We hope they can

escape. The front-line advance is seeing thousands of regular troops

and militia is all pushing towards the town being defended by at most a

few thousand militants. Also there are an estimated 30,000 civilians.

There is great concern for the civilians who are believed to be

tracked there but the next phase would be a major assault on the town

itself and that is where it would be bullied civilians if they cannot get

up with the most at risk. But the final assault on the actual city of

Volusia is some way off. The noose is tightening. It is not yet clear

how much of a fight the militants will put up. If they do fight to the

death there are fears that much of the city will be left. -- will not

be left. Offensives against IS in Iraq

and Syria may trigger fresh waves of refugees,

at a time when Europe The Greek authorities deployed

around 700 police on Tuesday to start clearing

a refugee camp at Idomeni. But the operation to move them

to government-run facilities has And many of the 8000 migrants stuck

at Idomeni in appalling conditions since Macedonia shut its border

in February left Soon after dawn, the operation began

to clear Greece's biggest This was the move that migrants had

been refusing to make for months. Hundreds of riot police circled

the site, but Greek officials say Most of those climbing on board

the buses are families who fled wars and poverty in Syria,

Iraq and Afghanistan. Now they are being taken

to new organised camps, There is heavy security

all around Idomeni. Journalists and the clowns

who usually entertain refugee children have been

stopped at this roadblock. Camp residents stayed here to be

close to the border with Macedonia, which is in the direction

of those mountains. But since March the crossing gate

and the route to northern Europe More than 50,000 people got stuck

in Greece earlier this Aid workers struggled

to help those at Idomeni. Generally from a psychological point

of view there is an increase there are people who've been staying

there for over two or three months. So there is also high insecurity,

because they are not fully aware of where they are going

and what will come for them Last year, more than

a million people entered But they didn't want to stay

in this country, which has Now many migrants will have to -

hoping that Brussels will make good on its promises to help

resettle refugees elsewhere. Yolande Knell near Idomeni

in northern Greece. To talk about this Dawn Chatty,

a professor from Oxford University whose specialism is refugees

and forced migration. Welcome. I want to talk about

Idomeni specifically in a moment but first of all, we began this

programme looking at two military operations going on in Iraq and

Syria. Whatever the outcome of those is there one thing we can be certain

about, that there will be more desperate people on the Move? Yes,

absolutely. Most of those who will reach Greece through Turkey have

been in the last year basically fleeing the armed conflicts, the

Russian air raids, the clashes between various military groups. And

so it is inevitably going to be a situation where we will see many,

many more directly fleeing the armed conflict. Turning to Idomeni and the

clearing of that camp, we hear many left voluntarily on foot to better

conditions, how do you view what we see being done by the Greek

authorities? Obviously the Greek authorities have several reasons for

trying to clear the camp as you know. It sits directly on a rail

line that is the main freight line between Greece and Macedonia, so the

country has lost about ?3 million every month. They have been unable

to use it because of the makeshift camp that was set up there. I am a

bit concerned. The reports are that at this point, people are leaving

voluntarily but it seems to me that there is a great deal of

intimidation. Many of the Syrians who have been interviewed and others

have said that they really don't want to be going backwards. Many are

waiting to find opportunities to be reunited with their families, many

of the women with children have husbands and sons already in Germany

and Sweden. They are fearful of being pushed back and also being put

in a situation where they are forced to claim asylum in Greece which of

course is what they are trying to avoid doing. Right, but if as asylum

to offer people a refuge from war, surely as a first point on this

journey at least, Greece offers them a safe place? I do agree with you

but I think actually that family reunification is almost more

important. They want to reach their husbands and their sons and they

want to be together. The idea that they must register in Greece is

something that's something certainly as far as the Syrians are concerned

does not make sense to them. How do you see the blow of migrants

developing over the summer months? Did we expect to see new wraps? What

will Europe do about it? Certainly the flow is playing slowed down

through the land corridor of the Balkans, but I think we will find

other routes are going to be opened up certainly by smugglers. Any

Syrians have said that their aim is to get their families in Germany and

other parts of Europe. They will find smugglers to move down there. I

think we will find new groups will be open. In the end we have to find

some kind of comments of plan of action which allows for some sort of

temporary protection within Europe and other parts of the world which

at the same time tries to find ways of finding a political settlement in

Syria. We have to look at this holistic way. It is just not a

matter of trying to block people from reaching their families or

safety. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Within the past hour, a judge in Pennsylvania has ordered

US entertainer Bill Cosby to stand trial on sexual assault charges.

The ruling came at a preliminary hearing to decide whether there

Our correspondent was in court. The judge has ordered that criminal

proceedings can progress. There will be a further hearing on July the

20th and that is when Bill Cosby will start these criminal

proceedings and face these criminal proceeding against three camps of

sexual misconduct. -- camps. As you mentioned this dates back

to 2004 and involves a woman called

Andrea Constand. She was a former employee

at Temple University. She alleges she went to Bill Cosby's

house for career advice where he gave her three unidentified blue

pills. She said those pills made her blurry at it. She said certainly

this was read out in the police statements here this morning. --

eyes. She felt frozen. She was unable to talk and she had to lie

down, she was in and out of it. She said that during that time she was

on the couch she was sexually assaulted. Bill Cosby in his

statement to the police which was also read out in court this morning

that any sexual conduct was consensual, but she agreed to it.

However he does admit that she doesn't say yes but he says, she

didn't say no. Certainly her story is that there was no consent. This

will be the basis of this criminal trial. And certainly it is the only

criminal proceedings against Bill Cosby. There are a further 66 women

have come forward since these allegations arose. All with similar

stories and we are expecting several press conferences to follow the

judge's announcement today. Gloria Allred is a lawyer

for a number of other women who've made similar allegations

against the television star. Under Pennsylvania's prior bad acts,

legal doctrine, potentially other accusers could be called to testify

at trial. Whether they will be called, that is subpoenaed to

testify at trial, is a decision that will be made by law enforcement, the

district attorney and the court. Around a fifth of France's petrol

stations have run dry, or are close to doing so,

after oil workers went on strike Protesters blocked depots

on the Mediterranean coast In France protesters as much as part

as workplace culture is the 35 hour week. And today workers at the all

refineries that the French industry stood firm in support of both those

tradition is. -- oil refineries. Seven of the country's eight

refineries have so far been affected by protests. And already at petrol

stations across the country, there were queues for whatever fuel

remained in the pumps. TRANSLATION: The protesters are being pathetic.

It is not normal. They are holding as hostage. TRANSLATION: I support

the protest because the labour reform will change the way we work.

It is something of a French tradition to go on strike. Even the

police told us that the search for petrol was tying up their patrol

time. Petrol stations that are still open are quickly running through

supplies. Staff here told us they were completely out of diesel and

they had about an hours worth of petrol left. Beyond that they are

relying on fresh supplies from the refineries, of which are now facing

strike action. Despite the lag in refuelling the Government says there

are enough reserves to avoid a crisis and that it is not backing

down. TRANSLATION: We will not accept and we cannot accept that

organisations, clearly a minority, blockade sees refineries and

obstruct a number of field deep rose, so, of course, we will

continue our actions. This is not the first protest over the

Government's controversial economic reforms but it is the toughest so

far. And with union leaders threatening to expand the strikes,

what started as a real election gamble for the president has just

become a nationwide game of chicken. Joining me from Paris

now is Sophie Pedder. She is the France bureau chief

for The Economist. Could we start with some background?

Explain brands's famously complex labour laws? What is the president

trying to change? Francois Hollande has said he is not seeking to

re-election next year unless he brings down unemployment and one of

the things that deters employers from creating permanent jobs is the

fact it is so difficult when you have got people on the workforce on

the payroll to fire them if you are faced of economic difficulty. The

purpose of this legislation is to try and make it easier for firms to

shed workers and therefore to encourage them to recruit more. But

it has not seen like that. This is the difficulty. Although it is in

fact a piece of legislation designed to help young people get into the

workforce, it is pretty much seen as an attempt to sort of, you know,

make it easier to get rid of workers was they are in jobs and that is the

huge communication difficulty that the Government has had with this.

These protests have been growing for some time now but has this reached a

new level with the effect on fuel supplies over France really pretty

much everyone feeling the impact? Yes. Obviously the pictures are

dramatic and once the petrol shortages come into place that has

been affecting everybody, but the otter paradox of this whole

situation I think is that a lot of young people who are shot out of the

job market don't see this as a piece of legislation that will actually be

beneficial to that, these are people stuck in short-term jobs often on

contract that do not last more than a month, they are the people who

could benefit from the sort of legislation that the Government is

trying to pass. But public opinion, the dramatic pictures on the streets

does make it look as though this is a piece of legislation that is

against people in work rather than designed to help them. How do you

see this panning out? We have the Euro 2016 turn it coming up in a few

days. Could it get much worse? -- tournament. There are huge security

concerns in France and it is not just about the strikes and protests,

also terrorism. France was struck twice yearly -- twice last year and

there is huge concern. A big effort on the part of the Government to try

and put in place a really secure as possible protocol for the Euro 2016.

Nothing is ever 100% sure and I think there will be a lot of concern

in France and probably outside in the run-up to the genome. Sophie,

thanks very much. Now a look at some of

the day's other news. Tens of thousands of people have

been attending an anti-austerity Riot police used water

cannon at protesters The demonstration was called

to protest against the centre-right government's social and economic

policies, which trade unions say cut deep into the foundations

of Belgium's welfare state. In Iran, an 89-year-old

hardline conservative, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati,

has been chosen as chairman The clerical body appoints Iran's

supreme leader and it has the power to remove him

and supervise his activities. The senior cleric is one of the few

hardliners on the panel to have secured re-election

in elections in February. It shows the power of the panel

despite a recent nuclear deal. The International Olympic Committee

says samples from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing which have been

re-tested, show positive results It is warning that more than 30

athletes could be barred from this French police and finance officials

have raided the offices of the Internet giant

Google in Paris. They're investigating claims

that the American company has Hugh Schofield joins

us now from Paris. Tell us about what happened. A big

raid by all accounts. It started at 5am and we are told that at some

point there were 100 police and tax officials and experts in computing

and so on searching through the Google headquarters in central Paris

led by five examining magistrates, they were seen ringing out various

boxes which will have been carted off to the headquarters of the tax

police, that bit of the justice system here. All part of an

investigation which was launched a year ago now after a complete,

finance ministry, alleging that Google has been engaged in tax fraud

and basically in evading its taxes, to the point we are told, this is

not official on the ministry, 1.6 billion euros. The context of this

ongoing problem is that Google has a lot of countries who are beginning

to come down and get it very angry about how they see Google has

minimised tax liabilities by all sorts of complex shuffling around of

responsibilities and headquarters but the long and short of it is that

France believes that Google makes an awful lot of money in France as a

result of French transactions, the bulk of which are processed through

Ireland, the headquarters of Google in Europe and the French thinks that

is wrong and that it a lot more should be taxed in France. Have we

heard any response from Google? Know and we don't ever I don't think

because they tend to have this blanket statement which comes out on

the record which is that Google abides by the tax regimes of

whatever country it is operating in. Which is no doubt true to a point.

The French though believe that it is illegally, or maybe illegally, using

tax conventions between France and Ireland and so on to avoid the

larger sums which it says it has an ethical and possibly legal duty to

pay. Thank you very much. Five days after the loss

of the EgyptAir plane over the Mediterranean,

one Egyptian official says the investigation now points to some

kind of explosion on board. That is being denied by other senior

investigators. There are also conflicting reports

about whether or not the Airbus A320 swerved before it plunged

into the sea killing Aircraft and ships from a number

of different countries are still scouring the Mediterranean

looking for the wreckage of the EgyptAir plane,

for any debris and anything athat could help investigators

to understand what happened. And so far there seems little that

has been established Some news agency reports have quoted

an unnamed senior Egyptian forensic official who says that the small

size of human remains that have been recovered suggests that the logical

explanation is that the aircraft However, that has been denied

by Egypt's head of forensics and the Ministry of Justice said

it was too early to identify The aircraft, and Airbus A320 came

down last Thursday on an overnight With 66 passengers and crew

on board. One of the few pieces of hard

evidence is a set of data sent automatically to base including

messages that smoke had been detected in a toilet

and in the avionics bay below the cockpit, which

contains the aircraft's Greek authorities claimed the plane

swerved sharply before crashing, turning first 90 degrees

to the left, then 360 degrees to the right,

before losing altitude. But the head of Egyptian air

navigation services has said his officials did not record

any form of swerving and that while they were able to watch

the plane on radar for a minute before it disappeared, they were not

able to communicate with it. The Greeks may have seen it turning,

but the tracking systems are not clearly defined to track aircraft

in some form of emergency descent, if it is broken up or if it is in

a very tight spiral dive. So once again it is interesting

information, but it does not really tell us anything at this stage

until we get the wreckage back. And with so much still unclear,

the key to establishing exactly what did bring the aircraft down

will be the recovery of the voice and data recorders,

if they can be found. Let's remind you of one of the

developing stories. A judge in Pennsylvania that the actor Bill

Cosby should stand trial on sexual assault charges. More on all our

stories on the BBC website. If you want to get in touch with us on