this is bbc america. and now live from london, "bbc world news." >> hello, i'm geeta guru-murthy with "bbc world news." our top stories. a suicide bomber disguised as a student has killed at least 47 people at a secondary school in northeast nigeria. speaking at the asia pacific summit in beijing, president obama insists he wants china to do well, despite tensions between the world's two largest economies. >> the united states welcomes the rise of a prosperous, peaceful, and stable china. four months after malaysia airlines flight mh17 was brought down in ukraine, a memorial

service is to be held in the netherlands. and millions of dollars of prize money are handed out to top scientists at a glitzy awards ceremony in california. we hear more about the pioneering projects that won. hello. we start with a developing story in nigeria, where an explosion has ripped through a school in the northeastern state. police say at least 47 people were killed and almost 80 injured when a suicide bomber disguised as a student attacked the school in potiskum. our correspondent will ross is in lagos. what do we know so far, will?

>> reporter: the blom blast went off when all of the students were assembled before the lessons began. so obviously the intention was to kill and injure as many of the students as possible. there were scenes of absolute chaos at the school and obviously at the nearby hospital when parents heard about the news of the bombing and rushed there. but the doctors and other staff at that hospital struggled to save the lives of many of the injured who came in because they were in such a bad state, because initially, the numbers of killed students was far lower, but it's now, as you say, the police are saying 47 dead. more than 70 injured. so it's quite possible that that number will go up. but yet again, an attack on a school in the north of nigeria. and of course, the group boko haram has carried out many attacks before on schools, so although we may hear nothing from the group, people will suspect this is another attack by the jihadist group.

>> some schools in some parts of nigeria have been closed for a while. realistically, can security really be stepped up across schools where children are coming every day, and also, realistically, what can the government do that it is not doing in this? >> it's very difficult to know what they can do to protect the schools that are open. some, especially in neighboring borno state, have been shut for a long time. they're due to be reopening at the moment. but given the level of insecurity across the northeast, and bear in mind, boko haram now holds entire villages and towns, so they're not just carrying out these hit-and-run bomb attacks. they're actually holding territory. so people would say the priority for the government at the moment, for the military, should be to make sure that all of the territory is in the hands of the military, but for months, some of these towns have been held now by boko haram. so it seems highly unlikely that

they have the resources, that the military has the resources to send enough soldiers and other personnel to go and protect all the school, so i think once again the question will be asked, is it time to shut down all of the schools and relocate students? other people will say, you know, that plays into the hands of the jihadists who want to end the western style education in nigeria. the message they're sending out through attacks like this, or at least attacks in the past has been boys should only get a koranic education and girls should not go to school at all. >> will ross in lagos. many thanks. some breaking news now from israel, because a soldier has been reportedly stabbed in tel aviv. the soldier was near a train station when the attack happened. he's thought to be in a serious condition. police suspect there were nationalistic motives for the

attack and are treating it as a terror incident. details coming in on the afp news agency, that police believe this was a palestinian from the west bank who was responsible for this attack. in the northern west bank. i should stress that we cannot confirm this. emergency services again saying a man of about 20 was very seriously hurt and footage has apparently showed medics trying to revive the man. obviously very distressing incident. we're not sure of the details yet. we will get more as soon as we possibly can. let's move on, because president obama has announced that china and the u.s. will start granting visas to each other valid for up to ten years. speaking to business leaders at the asia pacific summit in beijing, he said it's in everyone's interest for china to do well economically because of the benefits of its success would be felt across the globe.

>> the united states welcomes the rise of a prosperous, peaceful, and stable china. i want to repeat that. [ applause ] i want to repeat that. we welcome the rise of a prosperous, peaceful, and stable china. in fact, over recent decades, the united states has worked to help integrate china into the global economy. not only because it's in china's best interests, but because it's in america's best interests and the world's best interests. we want china to do well. [ applause ] >> president obama in an address in beijing. just in the last couple of hours. on the edge of that apec summit, there was also a first step to improving badly strained

relations between china and japan. the japanese prime minister held talks for the first time with china's president xi jinping. it's the first time that xi had he -- the two had held a meeting. it has raised concerns over a military confrontation between the two countries. meanwhile, vladimir putin has told the apec summit he's hopeful that speculation against the ruble will soon stop and that there is no fundamental economic reason for the currency's slide. ruble has slumped nearly 30% against the dollar this year due to concern over the ukraine crisis and plunging oil prices. moscow is looking to asia to help reduce its reliance on western markets. but as these world leaders gather, human rights leader are calling for the issue of human rights in china to be raised. dozens of people have been detained in china for supporting pro-democracy protests in hong kong. our beijing correspondent tried to visit the home of one

activist. >> china is quite happy to talk about the factories that it's closed down. the cars that it's pulled off the roads. but we're trying to come to the home of one of the dissidents. according to human rights groups, dozens of dissidents have been locked up in the past few weeks. that was after they showed support for the demonstrations in hong kong. but as you can see here, we're surrounded by two men -- excuse me, who are you, sir? they're not letting us film. why are we not allowed to film here? >> please show your passport, okay? >> reporter: this is as close as we can get. the police have kicked us out of the compound. and you can see them standing at the window. human rights groups are urging america to raise this issue at the apec summit. there's currently two nobel peace prize winners in china. one is president obama. the other is the jailed chinese dissident, and the question is whether the president ask about

the prisoner here and risk upsetting his host. >> martin patience there. of course, apec -- aaron, why does this matter? why should we care? these summits do matter, don't they? >> matters, indeed. apec, 40% of all global trade goes through those apec countries, so whatever happens at this summit is important or could have an impact on all of us, no matter where you live. at that apec summit, finance ministers are meeting to discuss the prospect of a regional free trade agreement. this is just one of many trade deals in the pipeline, including the big one, ttip agreement, which is between europe and the united states, and china. of course, china very keen to encourage greater cooperation between fellow asian nations. already, we have seen some side deals. many of them, in fact, that have been struck right there. the chinese president xi jinping and the russian president vladimir putin, they signed a memorandum of understanding on the so-called western gas route.

basically that would see natural gas delivered to china via a new pipeline from western siberia. china and south korea have effectively reached a free trade agreement that could be signed as early as today. it does seem like there's a momentous scramble to sign these trade agreements. we're going to keep across the apec summit for you here on "bbc world news." important changes to the french welfare system will be debated today in the upper chamber of parliament. that is the senate. in the hope of restoring some order to the country's chronically indebted finances, the socialist government wants to end universal family payments. in other words, if the bill goes through, the better off, the richer will receive a lower level of child benefit than the poor. it is a key principle of the welfare state that really is at issue. we'll have more on that throughout the day. how about this? it's been 49 years since the

last television cigarette advert, but later today, the first e-cigarette advert will be on british television. some people are concerned that it will encourage people, in particular young people, to take up smoking. it shows people talking about how e-cigarettes helped them kick the habit. we're going to have more on this on "gmt" coming up in just over an hour's time. follow me on twitter, tweet me, i'll tweet you right back. you can get me @bbcaaron. >> i'm quite shocked by that, i have to say. >> are you? >> yes. how much evidence do we have that they're safe? that is the question i would ask. thank you very much indeed. stay with us here on "bbc world news." much more to come. he is known as the god of cricket. i was lucky enough to see him a few days ago. tendulkar speaks to us about his remarkable life in the game. take an idea

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this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy with the latest headlines for you. nigerian police say a suicide bomber disguised as a student has attacked a secondary school in northeast nigeria, killing at least 47 people. speaking at the asia pacific summit in beijing, president obama has said the u.s. welcomes the rise of a peaceful and prosperous china. four months after a malaysia airlines plane carrying 298 people were shut down over rebel-held territory in eastern ukraine, a national memorial service takes place today in the netherlands. there's frustration amongst the families of those who died about delays in repatrioting the bodies. >> reporter: dutch investigators still haven't been able to access this crash side, but robbie has been there. he's searching for his cousin

daisy. so far, all the forensics have found is a piece of her hipbone. >> i had a perception that i could just walk around and find her. because in your dreams, you see her lying there in the field. >> reporter: daisy was all fun and adventure with her boyfriend bryce. >> they were bonnie and clyde together. they did everything together. she was very sweet. she was an angel. really. >> reporter: many like robbie are angry about the speed of the dutch government's response. this was the weekend when more bodies were flown home. 196 dutch victims came from all over the netherlands. it said here that everyone knew someone or knows someone who knew someone onboard. don on the left lost his younger brother eric on the right. don sold 50,000 of these white wristbands for charity and to unite the nation in sympathy and solidarity. >> we had a life before 17th of

july and we have this life to deal with it. it was my little brother. >> reporter: there were 80 children on the plane. 17-year-old elsa was hans' only child. >> every time i go to the grave, i think it's a beautiful graveyard, but this grave shouldn't have been here. sometimes i even think that she will walk in here. yeah. everyone thinks of his child because that's the future of your life. and that's gone now. it's incredible that i will never see her smile. >> reporter: many western countries have accused pro-russian separatists of downing the flight with a surface to air missile. the russians say their satellite images show a ukrainian jet in

the vicinity at the time. as the netherlands comes together for memorial day, all of the relatives are acutely aware the longer the wreckage lies scattered in fields in eastern ukraine, the less chance there is of ever finding the truth. anna holligan, bbc news. >> the downing of mh17 is widely believed to be carried out by russian-backed rebels. now a report says there have been 40 separate incursions by russian ships and sub marines alone, including one incident when one almost collided with a scandinavian airlines flight from copenhagen. let's get more. jonathan marcus is here. first of all, on that plane that wasn't transmitting its position, that is a real worry. >> it's a real worry. these aren't just military games that are being played.

this has real risk of loss of life. >> as we've seen. >> in this particular case, a passenger jet was climbing out of koppcopenhagen airport, narr missed a russian reconnaissance airport, that didn't have its transponder on, its electronic tag that brsts its position. so you can see there a very clear possibility of loss of innocent life. and of course, the flying very close to western car ships, very close to western aircraft and so on, all of these incidents bring the possible of an escalation in tensions and a very real danger of accident. >> russia denies anything to do with mh17 and it denies that it is being inflammatory in this way. what is the purpose of what we're seeing from both sides? >> it's not denying that it's actually mounting these aircraft, these flights. they can be seen -- the aircraft can be seen on ray dr and so on. essentially what's going on i think is a playing out of the

ripples of tension that have really stemmed from the more fundamental disagreements over what's gone on in ukraine. clearly the west believe strongly that russia has intervened at various times, put its troops into ukraine. all has helped separatist rebels there with equipment and so on. in response to that, nato stepped up ties with kiev. it's stepped up exercises amongst the nato members in central and eastern europe. those exercises now have become a much more regular pattern. it's stepped up air patrols in the baltics. the baltics no doubt an air force of their own. that in turn has annoyed the russians. so the russians are once again mounting all of the kinds of military activities that they used to do in the cold war, the sort of flights testing out nato air defenses, flying into nato air space unannounced. >> and a submarine, which was,

you know, question mark russian. >> the mystery submarine in sweden. >> do we have any idea? >> the swedes, it's very clear they thought something was there. i don't think they found anything in the end, but sweden was warning that they were prepared if necessary to use force to bring it to the surface. so yet again another indication. to be fair, the european leadership network, the think tank based in london which has produced this report, they're saying in a sense that all sides must calm down. on the one hand, they believe more aggressive behavior on the part of the russians that is behind this, but equally a much stronger willingness of nato countries to face them down. so the tensions are there. they want to see better military to military communication to try and allay suspicions, to try to reduce tensions and they want the russians in particular to look again at what they're up to and to really think it is worth the risks involved. >> just briefly, is the western policy broadly containment of

the existing changes in position from a russian viewpoint, and is there a real worry about expansion? of territory from russian people, or not. >> i'm not sure that anybody really believes that russia is going to invade a nato country, the baltics or whatever. but the fact remains that the baltic republics, who are members of nato now, are very concerned. poland, which has been driving this a lot. another nato member is very concerned about what's going on in russia. and what we've already seen in ukraine. so there are genuine concerns among key nato countries, and nato is responding to those concerns. that's why this stepped up pattern of exercises and efforts to reassure countries like poland in the baltics have been going forward. >> jonathan marcus, thank you very much. in other news today, in spain there's been an overwhelming vote in favor of independence for catalonia in a nonbinding symbolic referendum.

more than 80% of those who took part backed the idea of the northeastern region breaking away from the rest of the country. the spanish government says the poll will have no effect. protesters from the southern mexican state of guerrero have marched on the capital of mexico city. they're demanding justice over the disappearance of students. it took them five days to walk there from iguala. suspects have confessed to murdering the students. some of the world's top scientists have won huge cash prizes at an awards show in silicon valley in california. the breakthrough prize is backed by technology moguls such as facebook's mark zuckerberg and google co-founder sergei bryn. >> reporter: an awards show in an air ship hangar. a futuristic setting for the second breakthrough prize, and

the red carpet treatment for some of the world's most successful scientists. a night for astro physicists and mathematicians to rub shoulders with some familiar faces. >> this is a night that celebrates people who work in a quieter, less public domain, and to publicly recognize that work is very important, to encourage people and inspire people to continue in their footsteps. >> reporter: this event is taking place in a nasa research center in the heart of silicon valley. but right now, it feels more like hollywood, a celebration designed to put the spotlight on some of the best minds on future thinkers from the world of science. the brain child of leading tech entrepreneurs, the $3 million prize is designed to inspire interest in the work of scientists. there were 12 individual or group winners. prizes for researchers who are trying to understand birth defects, cancer, and develop treatments for parkinson's

disease. one of the winners was part of a team that made new discoveries about the fate of the universe. >> what's wonderful this time is it gets spread among the entire research group that was able to work on this project and that's very unusual for a prize. it's very rare that you really recognize that science nowadays isn't the lone scientist going into a lab himself. it's really this very social activi activity. >> it's to inspire them and reward them for taking risks, but also it's to really send a message to the next generation that scientists and people who take risk in the field of science can also be superheroes and they can have huge financial rewards. >> reporter: superstar scientists. a new breed of celebrity, inspiring the inquiring minds of the future. peter bose, bbc news in silicon valley, california. talking of superheroes, there is only one name at the moment, and that is sachin tendulkar. he's doing a bit of a tour promoting a new book.

he is a god of cricket. i saw him speak a couple of days ago and he gave a little interview to the bbc. here's a quick taster. >> cricket is like a main course. the rest of the versions are starters and desserts. it is the main course and that's where it will always be. out of ten cricketers, if you ask asked, i wouldn't be surprised if eight said this cricket is at the top. then comes the rest. >> the full version of that interview with cricketing legend sachin tendulkar, just watch "global" on "bbc world news" today, 1500 gmt. now to someone else who knows a thing or two about impressive centuries decided to do something unusual for our 100th birthday. she opted to do a tandem sky dive. this was her third time taking the plunge. the doctor signed off the jump

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i'm geeta guru-murthy with "bbc world news." a suicide bomber disguised as a student has killed at least 47 peoples at a secondary school in northeast nigeria. speaking at the asia pacific summit in beijing, president obama insists he wants china to do well despite tensions between the world's two largest economies. >> the united states welcomes the rise of a prosperous, peaceful, and stable china. there's uncertainty over the fate of the leader of the

islamic state militant group abu bakr al baghdadi following a u.s. air strike. we hear from barcelona on why the spanish government is rejecting the outcome of the referend referendum. hello. we start with a developing story in nigeria, where an explosion has ripped through a school in the northeastern state of yobe. police say at least 47 people were killed and almost 80 injured when a suicide bomber disguised as a student attacked the school in potiskum. one witness told us it was an horrific scene with dead and injured children. our nigeria correspondent will ross is following the story.

>> the bomb blast went off when all of the students were assembled before the lessons began, so obviously the intention was to kill and injure as many of the students as possible, and there are scenes of absolute chaos at the school then, and obviously at the nearby hospital when parents heard about the news of the bombing and rushed there, but the doctors and other staff at that hospital struggled to save the lives of many of the injured who came in, because they were in such a bad state because initially, the numbers of killed students was far lower, but it's now, as you say, the police are saying 47 dead. more than 70 injured. so it's quite possible that that number will go up. but yet again, an attack on a school in the north of nigeria, and of course, the group boko haram has carried out many attacks before on schools, so although we may hear nothing from the group, people will suspect this is another attack by the jihadist group.

>> some schools in some parts of nigeria have been closed, of course, for a reallisticly, can security be stepped up in schools, and also realistically, what can the government do that it is not doing in this? >> reporter: it's very difficult to know what they can do to protect the schools that are open. some, especially in neighboring borno state, have been shut for a long time. they're due to be reopening at the moment. but given the level of insecurity across the northeast, and bear in mind, boko haram now holds entire villages and towns, so they're not just carrying out these hit-and-run bomb attacks, they're actually holding territory. so people would say the priority for the government at the moment for the military should be to make sure that all of the territory is in the hands of the military, but they -- for months, some of these towns have been held now by boko haram, so

it seems highly unlikely that they have the resources, that the military has the resources to send enough soldiers and other personnel to go and protect all the schools. so i think once again, the question will be asked, is it time to shut down all of the schools and relocate students. other people will say, you know, that plays into the hands of the jihadists who want to end the western style education in nigeria. the message they're sending out through attacks like this, or at least attacks in the past, has been boys should only get a koranic education, and girls should not go to school at all. some breaking news now. the last few minutes, israel's defense forces have confirmed that an israeli soldier was stabbed in an attack at a train station in the israeli city of tel aviv. the man was near a train station in hahagana street when the attack happened. police say the suspect is a palestinian from the occupied

west bank. they say the attack seems to be politically motivated. these pictures are just coming into us now. you can see the area clearly cordoned off. we hear that the man, age about 20, according to reuters reports, was critically wounded and taken to hospital. and police say they arrested a suspect at the scene. that is according to reuters news agency. but these pictures just coming in to us at the moment. now we're just going to move on to apec, because leaders of the 21 asia pacific economies are meeting in beijing for their annual summit today. japan and china leaders met for the first time after two years of tension over disputed islands. >> the united states welcomed the rise of a prosperous, peaceful, and stable china. i want to repeat that.

[ applause ] i want to repeat that. we welcome the rise of a prosperous, peaceful, and stable china. in fact, over recent decades, the united states has worked to help integrate china into the global economy. not only because it's in china's best interests, but because it's in america's best interests and the world's best interests. we want china to do well. [ applause ] >> president obama there. he also announced that visas will be extended between china and the u.s., valid for up to ten years for business people who are traveling, and as you saw, very positive about wanting china to do well economically because of the global benefits. a little earlier, i was joined by the u.s. ambassador to britain, matthew barzan.

i asked him if the u.s. should be a little bit more cautious in its approach to the chinese, given the country is expanding militarily and channllenging th u.s. in trade and economic terms. >> i think you heard president obama say that we as americans welcome china. and its rise, and it doing so peacefully and growing prosperity and stability. so that's what he's emphasizing on this trip there. >> president putin is also at this summit. is there any possibility of any kind of meeting? because obviously given what's happened in ukraine, things have been pretty tense between your country and russia. >> certainly very tentative. maybe we can talk about what's happening in ukraine later, but i think the schedule in china is incredibly packed because at the atech spec summit, there's a st visit. but often at those summits, there's a chance for world leaders on the margins of

various meetings to get together. there wasn't anything formal set, but those sorts of meetings often do happen. >> there's been a lot of concern that the relationship between washington and moscow has become so cold that, you know, getting any kind of diplomatic progress is getting more difficult. >> well, your choice of words there, we have serious concerns. and you saw some events over the weekend about what's happening in ukraine. and the violation of its territorial integrity and its sovereignty. so we have called upon russia to live up to the agreement it made in september, and we are concerned that that's not happening. and that's why we along with the uk and others imposed economic sanctions to have real costs and consequences for russia's actions there, and have engaged in hoping that they will deescalate that situation there. but the word you chose, and i think it's important that we don't frame this as some kind of new cold war, so i would -- i guess that's not what this is. and we saw over the weekend commemorations of 25 years after the berlin wall.

the last thing we want to see is more walls being built. we want the global community uniting around being more peaceful, more prosperous, more just. >> mr. gorbachev said that, the warning of a new cold war. is the u.s. position toward russia containment, or are you fearful of further expansion? >> i think we've been very fearful from the beginning starting last spring saying you just can't do this. we want a europe -- you know, as we commemorated 70 years after d-day, we worked very hard to rebuild europe after world war ii, and after the fall of the berlin wall, welcoming members of the former soviet union and russia to please join. let's build peace and prosperity together, and that's why we were so concerned when we saw such a blatant violation of it there. >> matthew barzan there, the u.s. ambassador to the uk. there is uncertainty over the fate of the leader of the islamic state militant group. the iraqi defense ministry says

abu bakr al baghdadi was wounded in an aair attack by the american-led coalition on friday night. but the u.s. military says it has no information to substantiate that. he has a $10 million bounty on his head. joining me now is the chairman of the contemporary middle east studies at the london school of economics. thanks very much for joining us. we obviously don't have confirmation, but how big a move would it be if the u.s. does manage to take out some of the i.s. leadership? would there simply be more people coming through to fill those seats, as they were? >> well, i mean, naturally, isis is a huge organization. and if you kill abu bakr al baghdadi, other people would step into the void. but here is the point. he's not just the top commander of isis. he is the new khali fad.

surely, if he had been killed, his life span has been just a few months. this is a top-down elitist movement. it has not nourished, basically leaders and ideas and theories. his second in command abu mohamed is basically a psychopath. this would be al baghdadi-plus, and more syrians and iraqis would turn against isis. so if the american attacks did indeed injure or kill al baghda baghdadi, this would be a shattering blow for isis. >> do you have any information yourself about whether these reports are credible? and also, what does the whole thing say about u.s. intelligence? because after the u.s. withdrew from iraq, a lot of people were saying, look, intelligence is absolutely diminished. >> you know, what's clear is that, in fact, the americans targeted an important meeting of top leaders of isis, and there

is credible evidence that several lieutenants have either been allegedly killed or injured, including al baghdadi. but the story tells us that the americans have developed good intelligence about isis, its patterns of life. what does the story tell us? it tells us that the isis surge has been blunted. the iraqi government and its allies have taken territories from isis. the story also must be read along the fact that isis has lost the battle for kobane. isis has invested tremendous capital. it has made kobane its last stand in syria. this tells us that isis is not invincible. it could be defeated. the next phase is very -- an offensive phase. the americans are sending more special advisers to iraq. iraqi sunni tribes are organizing against isis, a significant development, because of the massacres that isis has

committed against sunni tribes. on the one hand, it portrays itself as a supporter of sunnis. on the other hand, it kills hundreds, if not thousands of sunnis. so all in all, we might be witnessing really a turning point. not only in stopping isis, but hopefully rolling back isis in iraq and syria as well, even though this is a very long shot. it's a long, long battle. >> even if all that were to be the case, there can be no progress surely in the long term, until for example in syria moderate elements come to the fore. >> you're absolutely correct. even if the fight against isis in iraq is won, and this is very uncertain, very risky, we're talking about two, three years, not just one year, syria remains in all-out war. in fact, the capital of isis is in syria. the nerve center of isis is in syria. 2/3 of its fighters are in syria. it controls most of the oil and gas resources inside syria.

so without a diplomatic solution, without really basically empowering the syrian communities, both the opposition, the moderate opposition, the war goes on and that's why this is a long fight. but militarily alone, you cannot defeat isis. you need a bottom-up approach. basically co-opting local communities in both iraq and syria in order to begin the process of defeating the ideology, socially and culturally, this particular ideology must be defeated as opposed to just applying military means against isis. >> many thanks indeed for joining us. thank you. stay with us here on "bbc world news." much more to come. there are renewed calls for emergency support in the effort to attackle the ebola crisis in west africa. [car revving] [car revving] ♪

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this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy with the

latest headlines for you. nigerian police say a suicide bomber disguised as a student has attacked a secondary school in northeast nigeria, killing at least 47 peoples. speaking at the asia pacific summit in beijing, president obama has said the u.s. welcomes the rise of a peaceful and prosperous china. the u.n. is making renewed calls for support for its emergency appeal to tackle the ebola crisis in west africa. after a weak initial response, the international aid effort has accelerated in recent weeks. our world affairs correspondent reports. >> reporter: the ebola aid operation as it finally gathered the sort of momentum relief workers on the ground had been pleading for. alongside the massive funding needed, equally important, the aid given in kind from health care professionals to military assets. the majority of the funding for

an emergency like this still comes from governments in western capitals, but the spread of donors is also widening. the ten biggest donors to the ebola crisis at this stage are the u.s., the world bank, the uk, the european commission, private funders, individuals and organizations, canada, the african development bank, china, sweden, and france. the contrast is stark between the response to the ebola crisis and to the devastating aftermath of typhoon haiyan that swept across the philippines exactly a year ago. 87% of the funding for this sudden onset disaster was committed in the first two months. nearly 90% of the ebola funding just in the past two months, though the crisis began in march. with all disaster response, there's the issue of turning promises of funding into aid actually delivered on the front line. never more critical than now.

and experts tracking the ebola aid say that after the damaging failure to scale up the relief operation earlier on than the way it should have happened, it remains vital that the breadth of the crisis is grasped. >> obviously this is currently an extreme and acute health care crisis, but it is also an economic crisis, and it's also a food security crisis, and we need to be putting in place the responses to that. >> reporter: and some say the crisis has been made worse by failing to reduce the vulnerability of communities like these. >> we could have invested more in developing vaccines and medicines to prevent the spread of diseases like ebola, and there are many other neglected diseases. we could have done much more to invest in health systems. if you'd done that over the last few decades, we wouldn't be in the situation we are now of having to pass the hat around to collect money, to deal with an outbreak. >> reporter: no one is questioning the dedication and courage of those battling ebola.

but it does look set to force another rethink about humanitarian response. now, in spain, there's been a vote overwhelmingly in favor of independence for catalonia, in a nonbinding but symbolic referendum. the autonomous region in the country's northeast represents about 20% of spain's economy, and it already has its own parliament, police force, and control over education and health. there we go. that's the right region. more than 80% voted yes to catalonia becoming an independent state. more than two million residents took part, but an eligible 5.4 million people who could have voted. well, the leader artur mass held a nonbinding poll, a great success that should pave the way for a formal referendum. there's that leader. the vote went ahead after spain's constitutional court ruled against it.

the spanish government says the poll won't have any effect on spanish authorities and parties saying that because the ballot was organized by pro-independence groups, it can't legitimately reflect the wishes of the whole region. our correspondent in barcelona told me more about the vote. >> well, the turnout was just over two million, out of over five million who are eligible for this vote. normally, in a normal election, that would be seen as a relatively low turnout. but the fact that this was an unofficial vote without any kind of legal framework and with a disapproval of the central government meant that that has been seen in the wake of the referendum as quite a big turnout in relative terms. the regional government of artur mass staged this referendum as a sort of symbolic step towards what he hopes will be some kind of more binding referendum in the future.

and he says that the two million people turnout in the streets to vote shows that there is a huge amount of support for independence. >> has there been any breakdown, though, of the spread of those who actually turned out to vote in because some saying that those who would have voted no were less likely to go and cast a vote in this. >> well, that's the issue. because we have this 80% figure of those who voted in favor of independence. that is not a faithful reflection of how catalans feel. most polls in recent months have shown it's about 50% who are actually in favor. what happened was that many or most of those who would have voted against independence stayed away from the polls yesterday because it was an illegal referendum. it didn't have this legal framework, so they simply didn't vote. so it's a victory on the one hand for the catalans'

government, but it's not a faithful reflection of how they feel. in other news today, a private jet has crashed in the bahamas, killing all nine people onboard. the accident happened as it was coming in to land at the airport. one report said it hit a construction crane. a local newspaper is reporting that a well-known church leader was among the casualties. a court in hong kong has ordered psychiatric tests to be carried out on a british man charged with murdering two indonesian women. he was arrested after police found the bodies of the victims in his apartment last weekend. his case has been adjourned for two weeks. the short list for the bbc african footballer of the year has been revealed. the winner will be decided by fans of african football who have two weeks to vote for their choice. previous winners include yaya toure. i spoke to piers edwards to find out who's nominated this time. >> the voting opened about two hours ago. it's a five-man short list.

pierre emmerich is the first man on the list. there were two ivorians, jovino and yaya toure. >> how do people vote? >> they can either vote by text. it's a bit of a long number, but hopefully details will be coming up on the screen. >> voting has just opened. >> voting has indeed just opened. the easiest way is to go to the website bbc.com/africanfootball. you can find all the details there, when it comes to making your choice, it's a simple one click on the man you want. >> and how are people voting? what are they going for? personality? number of goals? performance on the pitch? what is it? >> we asked for different things. i should say the short list is determined by asking sports journalists in each country in africa to come up with their man and we assembled the five-man short list from there. then what we want is obviously

their skills and ability, but also fair play and stuff comes into it as well. so it's the really package really. it was a world cup year as well this year, so four of the players have been at the world cup. only one of them hasn't. and it's just about silverware effective effectively. he kept 21 clean sheets last season, which was more than any other top flight goalkeeper across the five top leagues of europe. so that might be impressive for some people. other people might think yaya toure winning the premier league with manchester city was more impressive. who knows? it's up to them. >> and when do we find out? >> the 1st of december when the award will be handed over to the winner, which will be streamed live. >> and in a purely unbiassed bbc fashion, how big a thing has this become? we get to talk about it. but people out there, the viewers, what do they make of

it? >> it's huge and it gets bigger every year. last year, 2013, was the biggest in terms of the number of votes that we had. it started in 1992, something called the bbc african sports star of the year award. the internet wasn't quite what it was then. so it's got bigger and bigger over time. a hero in our house is sachin tendulkar. he's been in london promoting his book. i saw him talking about it last week. he was fantastic and he gave the bbc an interview. here's a little taster. >> test cricket is like a main course. the rest of the versions are starters and desserts. test cricket is the main course and that's where it will always be. all out of ten cricketers, if you asked, i wouldn't be surprised if eight said that test is at the top. >> we have got much more of that interview with the cricketing legend sachin tendulkar global today on "bbc world news" at

1500 gmt. there's more on the website, too. i'm geeta guru-murthy. we are on twitter. to get in touch. my brother was interviewing sachin tendulkar as i was cueing up to meet him myself and i didn't realize. i was absolutely gutted. tune in and we'll be back tomorrow. bye-bye. but going back to school is hard. because you work. now capella university offers a revolutionary new way to get your degree. it's called flexpath, and it's the most direct path, leveraging what you've learned on the job and focusing on what you need to know. so you can get a degree at your pace and graduate at the speed of you. flexpath from capella university. learn about all of our programs at capella.edu. you pay your auto insurance premium every month on the dot. you're like the poster child for paying on time. and then one day you tap the bumper of a station wagon. no big deal... until your insurance company jacks up your rates.

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to connect with customersolkit mausing all the best marketing tools--like online promotions and email newsletters. so you can help your small business, do more business. try it free at constantcontact.com. hello. you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm david eades. our top stories, an act of utter brutality. dozens of students killed at school by a suicide bomber in nigeria. nobody lays claim to the attack, but fingers point at the islamist group boko haram. time to commemorate 298 lives lost. a ceremony is getting under way in the netherlands to remember the victims of flight mh17, shot down over ukraine four months ago.