18/09/2016 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today, broadcasting in the UK

Officials in New York say last night's explosion in Manhattan

However no evidence of a link to international groups

This is a very serious incident, it's going to take a lot of careful

investigation to get to the facts, to get to the truth.

Emergency talks at the UN after America expresses regret

for an airstrike in Syria which Russia says killed

Russia's prime minister says his United Russia party has won

the country's parliamentary election.

President Putin says the party won because people trusted it.

TRANSLATION: Based on these exit polls, we can say our people have

faith in the party even though we cannot deliver all we want to

achieve. And after a summer of unprecedented

sporting action, Rio prepares to say goodbye to the Paralympic

Games. Officials in New York

say an explosion in Manhattan last night,

which injured 29 people, But they've said there's no evidence

of a link with international groups Security has been heightened

in the city - an extra 1,000 police officers

are being deployed at bus stations, The blast took place in a district

of Chelsea. Everybody has been released from hospital.

These are the sort of scenes that New Yorkers have dreaded for years.

The frightened aftermath of an explosion in the heart of Manhattan.

This was the moment the bomb went off.

A fireball that came within an incredibly loud bang.

It had just gone 8.30pm, the middle of a Saturday night.

The aim clearly was to maximise casualties.

It was like close and people were running for their lives.

I turned around and saw smoke shooting up over the tops

of the buildings and frankly began running.

The blast ripped through Chelsea, a fashionable neighbourhood

where the bars and restaurants are always crammed at the weekend.

The police released a photo of a mangled container,

the possible source of the explosion.

Into the New York night rushed the emergency services

Dozens were injured, though none sustained

As forensic teams started to comb the streets for clues,

reports came through a second device had been found a few streets away.

We're just approaching 1am and the police have just issued

an emergency alert saying there was a suspicious package

They are telling people to stay away from their windows.

This is what they found - a pressure cooker with wires

Similar to the home-made bombs left at the finish line of

The device was taken away by the bomb unit in

a specially-designed trailer so that robots could examine it.

The New York authorities are saying that at this stage,

there is no evidence of a connection with international terrorism

but the investigation is still in an early phase.

We know there was a bombing but we have a lot more work to do

to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this.

Was it a political motivation, a personal motivation?

An extra thousand police officers are now protecting this city,

a high visibility presence at tourist sites like Times Square.

September is always a time of heightened security

Only last week, New York remembered the most traumatic

day in its history - 9/11 - this week, world

leaders gather here for the United Nations General Assembly.

Well, a knife attack in Minnesota, has now been claimed

A news agency linked to the group, says the attacker responsible

was a "soldier of the Islamic State".

The attacker stabbed at least eight people at a mall,

before he was killed by an off-duty police officer.

Police say the suspect made at least one reference to Allah

17 Indian soldiers have been killed in the most deadly militant attack

in years in the Indian-administered Kashmir.

All four of the attackers were killed.

Carrying guns and grenades they stormed a base in Uri,

close to the Line of Control with Pakistan in a pre-dawn ambush.

Indian Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh reacted by calling Pakistan

It is the deadliest attack on security forces

It comes as violent protests against Indian rule

in the disputed region continue, with a strict curfew imposed.

More than 80 people, nearly all anti-government protesters,

have died in more than two months of violence.

Let's go to Washington now and speak to Lisa Curits,

a Senior research fellow at the Heritage foundation, ad has

What is your assessment of this attack and how it will affect

relations between India and Pakistan? Tensions were already very

high between India and Pakistan because of these protests which had

been occurring in Kashmir over the last two month and had resulted in

80 civilians being killed. But there's attack today, as you said

was a major attack. It has brought the region to a crisis point. We

have seen a lot of calls on Prime Minister Modi for some kind of

retaliation against Pakistan. But in the past, India has shown a lot of

restraint, take the 2008 Mumbai attacks, when over 170 people were

killed in those attacks, but the Indian government reacted with

restraint. But the government will have to look at escalating the

situation and whether India would be walking into a Pakistani trap. We

know the Pakistanis want to elevate the Kashmir situation, and this is

how they do it, by provoking some kind of military crisis. Is it fair

to say there has been a failure of a long term strategy in Kashmir? If

you are talking about the civil protests that have been going on

over the last two month in Kashmir, the Indians need to use a lighter

touch. They need to stop using these pellet guns, which have resulted in

a lot of injuries to the Kashmiri people. But we have to separate the

symbol protests that have been having, which is an issue for the

Indian government to deal with. The fact this attack was likely carried

out by Pakistan -based terrorists, so that means there has to be

something done to convince Pakistan to crack down on terrorists that

continue to operate on its soil. That is where the US role comes into

play. The US must do more than simply called for dialogue between

India and Pakistan. The US has to call on Pakistan to crack down on

terrorist that reside on the inside of the border. It also must get both

sides, Indian and Pakistani leaders to tone down the rhetoric. Right

now, we see the UN General Assembly is going on and Prime Minister

Sharif is probably going to make a speech there this week. It is

important he not escalate the situation more by using this

rhetoric on Kashmir. The same with India. India must refrain from the

rhetoric on Baluchistan, which it has recently started to raise. Human

rights atrocities on Pakistan. It needs to cool the rhetoric and that

should help defuse the situation. Lisa Curtis, thank you very much.

Let's take a look at some other stories now.

Exit polls following city elections in the German capital,

Berlin, suggest that Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian

Democrats have lost ground to the right-wing anti-migrant

Mrs Merkel's popularity has waned since her decision last year

to allow more than a million migrants into the country.

The leader of France's far right party, the National Front,

says the British vote to leave the European Union has provided

Marine Le Pen told her supporters that next year's presidential

election presented a choice between preserving the sovereignty

and values of France, and opting for a country that was no

longer in the hands of the French, as she put it.

A boat accident in central Thailand has killed at least 13 people.

Around 100 passengers were travelling on a double-decker

boat on Thailand's Chao Phraya river when it crashed into a concrete

Several people are still missing, but rain and darkness are making it

difficult for rescue crews to carry out a search.

Our Correspondent Laura Trevelyan is in New York.

There was a press conference a few hours ago and the London mayor said

they don't know the motivation behind this attack but it wasn't

linked to international terrorism? We have heard from two New York

elected officials, first the governor, who announced they were

going to be 1000 extra police and National Guard officers on the

street at transit hubs across the city in the wake of this explosion.

He was speaking this morning, and he said at that point there didn't

appear to be any international terrorists linked to this explosion

in the Chelsea neighbourhood of Manhattan last night. Also, a second

unexploded device, a pressure cooker device was found a few blocks away.

And then the mayor who spoke after that, would only call this a

bombing. He didn't say it was a terrorist act, which is what the

governor said. The mayor said this was a bombing but that is about all

we know currently. We don't know the motivation, we don't know if it was

political or criminal. So many more questions than answers. We do know

the device that exploded, the one that didn't explode and also a pipe

bomb that went off in New Jersey on Saturday morning, but didn't injure

anyone, all of those devices are going to the FBI facilities in

Virginia where they are going to be examined. This afternoon in New

York, police are carrying on with their forensic evidence, combing

through the scene of that explosion in Chelsea as they try and find

clues. Of course, they are looking through surveillance video to see if

it will provide any evidence about who was behind this. Thank you very

much. The Russian prime minister,

Dmitry Medvedev, has said his United Russia party has won

the parliamentary election. Exit polls indicate that the party

is on course to win nearly 45% of the seats in the lower

house of parliament. The Russian president,

Vladimir Putin, said the party had TRANSLATION: The turnout has not

been the highest in Russia but it has been high enough

to say our people have demonstrated we have a civil society,

that wants to be in charge We know our people face

lots of problems, there are numerous People voted for the United Russia,

even when their lives are not easy. Based on these exit polls,

we can say people have faith in the party, even

when we are not able to deliver There is no one else in the country

able to deliver better than us. Let's go to Moscow to speak

to our correspondent Oleg Boldyrev. If confirmed, how significant is

this result for United Russia? United Russia is losing a chunk of

the vote, it still remains the largest party in the parliament. The

Russian voters going to bed will face exactly the same composition of

parties in the Parliament. Although the Communists seem to be coming

third and the Liberal Democratic party second. In essence, it is the

same Parliament which used to be there five years ago. And the hopes

of some liberals, the novelty, now their individual candidates were not

on the party list, but individually, those candidates will try and be in

the Parliament. Even though those hopes don't seem to be realised. How

do you foresee United Russia governing in this next term, given

what you are saying? For five years, the Parliament has been approving

pretty much everything the Kremlin was telling them to do. The

government is initiating most of the laws and is enjoying a good ride in

the Parliament. There is no reason to expect something will change.

Some analysts were saying that perhaps now times are more difficult

for Mr Putin, he needs a more robust Parliament, Parliament which will

reflect the level of discussion in the society. But this doesn't seem

to be happening. So far, the only deputy, the only MP which was

symbolising the liberal lobby in the last Parliament seems to be losing

to another United Russia candidate. Thank you very much.

Stay with us on BBC World News, still to come:

All the latest sports and their reaction as Watford beat Manchester

United for the first time in many years. 30 hours after the earthquake

that devastated Mexico City, rescuers don't know how many people

have died. There is people are alive and people not alive. We have just

got to help with what ever we've got. It looked as though they had

come to fight a war. But their mission is to bring peace to East

Timor and nowhere on earth needs it more badly. The government's case is

being forcefully presented. The justice minister has campaigned for

abolition having witnessed one have his clients being executed.

Elizabeth spent a lot of her time here.

This is BBC World News today. The latest headlines: A bomb that

exploded in New York City was an act of terrorism. The governor says

there is no link to international groups.

Assyrian warplane has been shot down during an operation against Islamic

State group. As tensions escalate between Russia and the US over a

ceasefire. Let's stay with that story.

The Syrian military says it's lost an aircraft in the east

of the country where it's fighting IS militants.

It said the aircraft's pilot was killed in the area

The jihadist group said the war plane was brought

But Syrian military officials say they've regained control of areas

they lost to IS fighters on Saturday after a US-led coalition airstrike

Russia has criticised that US-led air attack for jeopardising

The US has expressed regret for the unintentional

We have the political and media adviser to Bashar al-Assad. She

joined me earlier from Damascus and I started by asking her if she

accepts the US apology? It is not enough to express regret, especially

as events on the ground have shown that probably there is a kind of

coordination between the United States and IS terrorists against the

Syrian army. American planes were striking at our army for quite

awhile,. When IS occupied the hills where the Syrian army was, they

stopped shelling IS. There is a big question, how could this happen.

They could not be a mistake, we do not think so. It is terrifying to

think they are coordinating attacks with IS. It is an awful thought.

That is quite an allegation, United states says it has been coordinating

with Russia over its air strikes. What went wrong in this situation?

The United States only notified Russia it was going to conduct an

air strike. Russia did not know where, or against food. They did not

give Russia any details. Russia would never have agreed to striking

the Syrian Arab army. One question I ask, the United States, the

superpower, the greatest country in the world, makes mistakes in

targeting armies and...? It doesn't make sense to us. The other

explanation is there is one authority and they wanted to conduct

this and the other doesn't want to. There is a kind of problem and

ministering issues in the United States and that is why they are

finding it difficult to implement what they agree with the Russians

regarding Syria. Russia says this ceasefire is now in danger of

collapse. What is Syria's position on this? The Syrian position is that

we agreed to a truce, we agreed the cessation of hostilities. We agreed

to a reconciliation, we agreed to any step that would stop the

bloodshed of the Syrian people. But we are not the problem. The reports

from the UN said over ten terrorist groups refused the truce and refuse

to adhere to it. The problem is, there are other interested parties

who have an interest in prolonging this war against our people. We also

saw strong words exchanged between Samantha Power and literally

choking. This isn't helpful in terms of the humanitarian situation. Aid

is still not getting to the thousands of people who need it? The

humanitarian aid is reaching thousands of Syrian people

everywhere that is possible. In the Western media, they never mentioned

that every single day, convoys are going to all places, Al ACPO, all

places, where we can reach without any problems. Now the Russians and

the United States in coordination with the Syrian army are trying to

make sure this assistance will reach Aleppo or Eastern Aleppo without

being targeted. But if you allow me one second, the aim of all

coordination among international targets, not only be to make

humanitarian assistance to reach people, but to put an end to this

war on Syria. Syrian people want to grow their crops, want to plough

their lands, want to go to their factories. And they never, ever

needed help from anybody when peace and security was secured for them in

Syria. That was earlier from Damascus.

The Paralympic Games come to an end with the closing ceremony

A tribute to the Iranian cyclist who died is expected

to mark part of the event, before the Paralympic flame

is extinguished and the flag handed over to Tokyo,

After eleven days of incredible sporting achievement it's China

who sit atop of the medal table with a total of 239 medals.

Great Britain are second with 147 medals, 64 of them gold.

Ukraine third, improving on their fourth placed finish

Nico Rosberg has now overtaken Britain's Lewis Hamilton at the top

of the Formula One drivers' championship after winning

the Singapore Grand Prix for the first time.

Hamilton could only manage third place and saw his two point lead

in the title race become an eight point deficit to his

It has been an awesome weekend in Singapore. Yesterday with the pole

lap, and today with a great start. I had a great car in the race. Daniel

tried to get one past me with the pit stop, but we knew it was going

to be tight in the end, but it worked out.

It has been a miserable week the Jose Mourinho. Watford got a

deserved win and their first over Manchester United in 30 years. The

setback followed a derby defeat by Manchester City and the Europa

League last to Feyenoord in the week. It is the first time Jersey

finish Jose Mourinho lost three games in a row since he was in

charge of Porto. I cannot control their mistakes. Against Manchester

City is the result, not the mistakes of the penalty and the red card.

Today, the story of the game will be the results and not the ridiculous

situation of their first goal. The holders Great Britain are out

of this years Davis Cup. Their semi final tie with Argentina

went down to a deciding singles rubber after World number two

Andy Murray beat Guido Pella in straight sets to level the score

at 2-all But Leonardo Mayer fired Argentina into the final

with a victory over four Argentina, who have been finalists

four times in the past 10 years, will attempt to win their first

Davis Cup when they travel Croatia sealed their place

in the final after gaining an unassailable 3-1 lead over

France in Zadar. The Croatians led 2-1 overnight

and Marin Cilic's straight sets victory over Richard Gasquet

sealed their place in Let's stay with sport because it is

one of our top stories. The final sporting events at the Paralympic

games have taken place in Rio ahead of a closing ceremony which gets

underway in two hours. It will include a tribute to the Iranians

cyclist who died after crashing in the men's road race on Saturday.

That is it from me and the team here on BBC World News today. Goodbye for

now. Good evening. The month of September

so far has been a show stopper. Let's reflect on last week,

record-breaking heat,