BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
America has said military strikes on the Islamic State extremists marked the beginning of a sustainable and persistent campaign against the Islamic State jihadists. Last night, five Arab nations were involved with the United States in waves of attacks on IS positions in Syria. President Obama said the Islamic militants would be denied a safe heaven anywhere. Ali McBull reports from Washington.
The Pentagon described the airstrikes in Syria as very successful, saying they targeted militant training centers, commander control facilities and storage hubs. Unverified reports from a Syrian rights group says at least 120 militants were killed, both from Islamic State and an al-Qaeda affiliate, but also said there've been some civilian deaths. President Obama has been keen to stress it's not America's fight alone, and Arab States actively carried out some of the airstrikes in Syria. When asked how long this campaign could last, one American official said 'we should be thinking in terms of years.'
The United Nations Refugee Agency says it's preparing for the arrival of several hundred thousands Syrian refugees in Turkey as the Islamic State militants are advancing on the border town of Kubani. Imogen Foulkes has more.
Dozens of villages across Syria's Kurdish north are already deserted. Now Islamic State has approaching the major border town of Kabani, population 400,000. The UN is preparing for all of those people to flee into Turkey. Amid widespread reports of serious violations including the deliberate killing of women and children, no one wants to risk waiting for Islamic States to arrive. Syria's refugees already number a more than three million, now that could rise by another half a million.
President Obama has warned that the climate has changed faster than efforts have been made to address the problem. Speaking at a UN summit, he said the United States acknowledged its part in causing climate change and promised to do more to reduce carbon emissions. He said he had agreed with a Chinese vice premier that the two biggest polluters have the responsibility to lead the fight.
The Vatican says it has arrested a former papal ambassador on suspicion of child abuse. It said Josef Wesolowski is under house arrest inside the Vatican City. Here is David Willey.
The senior Vatican diplomat who was recalled to Rome last year was formerly charged by the Vatican's chief prosecutor with the sex abuse of children in the Dominican Republic between 2008 and 2013. It's the first time that such a senior predator has been arrested inside the Vatican. A Vatican spokesman said that for health reasons he is not being held in the Vatican's police cell but he has been granted a house arrest. He is expected to be tried late this year by a Vatican tribunal.