st news from france and also from around the world. our headlines this afternoon. francois hollande holds a crisis meeting after the beheading of the french hostage, herve gourdel. it was described as cruel and cowardly by the president. french fighter jets strike targets inside iraq for the second time after strikes in syria killed 14 jihadists and

five civilians. they are targeting oil refineries in east of the country. sierra leone widens its efforts in the fight against ebola. one point 2 million people are quarantined as the death toll from the epidemic nears 3000 according to the world health organization -- 1.2 million people are quarantined as the death toll from the epidemic nears 3000 according to the world health organization. french flags are to fly at half mast on friday, saturday, and sunday, according to a french government spokesman, france morning the hostage who was beheaded in algeria by the group that had been holding him since sunday. herve gourdel was the 55-year-old father of two, from nice killed in a manner that was cruel and cowardly,

according to the french president, who spoke to the united nations yesterday just after the group holding him released video on the internet making clear that he had been decapitated. even now, the french president this -- is chairing a special security meeting at the palace to discuss france's response to the assassination of mr. gourdel . for more, we can speak to our reporter covering the meeting for us. this is -- the assassination of herve gourdel is profoundly shocking to the french. this meeting is about how france's government intends to respond. what have they been telling you? >> the main topic today in this meeting is to talk about how to protect french citizens both inside friends and mainly abroad insensitive countries. francois hollande is in this meeting right now as we speak with the prime minister, manuel

valls, the defense minister, the chief of staff of the french army, and all the intelligence agencies to try and protect the french citizens who are operating abroad. yesterday, lauren fabius -- laurent fabius said it was important that french citizens living abroad did not start panicking in the face of this violent attack. it is important to remember that the french public is not used to seeing hostages like this being executed in these kinds of cases. indeed, it has been a huge shock here in france. there is a movement for national unity. it is a sign of national unity that flies will be -- flags will be flying at half mast the next three days. >> there has been some suggestion that france might consider widening its air campaign within the coalition beyond iraq and towards syria. is there any word whether that

might be under consideration today? >> the french minister -- defense minister said yesterday during a press conference there was a question that france might start bombing islamic state organization targets inside syria, but we are being told here there will be no decision todya.ay. we were told by a spokesperson that france did not want to help the assad regime by bombing targets inside syria. so basically, the french stance has not changed. we are not expecting a decision today. for the time being, the fighter who are operating over iraq are still carrying out missions. there were bombings this morning. >> we will continue to follow the news from the meeting over the course of the day. french fighter jets have struck targets in iraq for the second time today. the strikes are the first since

french jets first bombed the country september 19th when paris joined the u.s.-led coalition against islamic state groups. oil refineries have been targeted in syria during a third night of airstrikes. american saudi, and united arab emirates aircraft carried out the attacks. 14 fighters were killed and five civilians. the targets were the oil refineries. united states say they bring in about $2 million per day in revenue for the group. >> fresh air strikes in syria aimed at cutting off the major source of financing for the islamic state organization. wednesday's air raid targeted a dozen small oil refineries under extremist control. saudi arabia, the united arab emirates bahrain, qatar, and

jordan have taken part or assisted in the area campaign over syria since tuesday. at the un's general assembly, the u.s. president called on the entire world to join the fight. >> the only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. the united states of america will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death. today i asked the world to join in this effort. >> more than 50 countries have committed to -- to military, humanitarian, or financial support. france began bombing targets in iraq last friday. britain received a formal request from baird -- from baghdad for airstrikes. the u.s. central command says so far it has conducted together with partner nations, more than two dozen airstrikes in syria since monday night. in iraq, around 200 air raids

have been carried out before this. >> kurdish forces in syria say that they have managed to push back fighters from the islamic state group the town that had been at the heart of bombing by the coalition earlier this week. it had been circled by islamic fighters for the last few days. kurdish fighters managed to push them back. another aspect of the fight against the islamic state group is the attempt by western governments to stem the flow of fighters joining -- of young jihadists seeking to join the ranks of those fighting in syria and iraq. they aimed to improve intelligence cooperation between states. barack obama has been clear there are to be no returns to human rights violations in the war on terror.

>> foreign fighters have blocked -- flocked in unprecedented numbers to join the islamic state organization. there is a resolution to make it easier to keep track of the jihadist movements. >> this resolution will strengthen cooperation between nations, including sharing more information about the travel and activities of foreign terrorist fighters. >> obama also stressed these efforts would respect human rights and the rule of law. >>the number of foreign combatants has almost doubled since the start of the year. most of the foreign fighters are from muslim countries, but there are significant numbers from the west, too, with france, the u.k. germany the u.s., and belgian having the most citizens fighting. turkey has been accused of not doing enough to stop jihadistss crossing into syria. recep tayyip erdogan says that turkey needs more help. >> show the spirit of

cooperation as well. >> a lack of cooperation was on display earlier this week when a mix up between turkish and french authorities cards french -- caused french police to turn up at the wrong airport to apprehend returning jihadists. >> at least 2,917 people have now died from the ebola outbreak according to the latest world health organization figures. cases have been declared in five west african countries. the spread of the virus appears to have stabilized in guinea, where the outbreak began, but it continues to grow in countries like sierra leone and liberia. earlier today, sierra leone announced it was widening its fight against the virus. it has quarantined a further 1.2 million people. nigeria's president goodluck jonathan has said that his

country is now free from the ebola virus, something that has yet to be confirmed by the world health organization. here he is speaking to the united nations general assembly yesterday. >> nigeria was able to respond effectively to control this threat of the disease. the situation in liberia and sierra leone requests sustainable, collective, global action to contain. through the concerted effort of our health care professionals the world health organization, and our international partners we have been able to contain the ebola virus disease and we can confidently say that nigeria is today ebola free. >> police in getting arrested -- in guinea arrested 27 suspects over the murder of an ebola education team that was attacked.

they went missing after their delegation came under attack during an outreach. eight bodies have been recovered from a septic tank nearby. a rescue effort is underway off the coast of cyprus in the mediterranean to try and save hundreds of migrants stranded on a small boat off the coast. a crew ship has been instructed to change course and to pick up the estimated 300 -- a cruise ship has been instructed to change course and to pick up the estimated 300 men, women, and children on the boat. pilots unions in france are speaking to air france in talks aimed at ending a strike now in its 11th day. the walkout has grounded more than half of the airline flights during that period. there is a call for an urgent and to strike -- urgent end to the strike. air france is scrapping the

controversial plan to create a european-wide low-cost carrier the plan that was at the heart of the beginning of the pilots' strike. >> bowing to the pressure of pilots in an effort to resume normal flight operations and end a strike which has now entered its 11th day. air france has proposed bringing its european expansion plans to a halt. on wednesday the company announced it was immediately withdrawing its proposal to open hubs across european cities. the company says it will continue to develop transavia in france are the company's chief executive has called on pilots to get back to work. >> with the withdrawal of the transavia project, there is no need to strike. no fear of outsourcing remains. >> the government has been eager to see the strikes which cost up to 20 million euros a day end.

public opinion has been quick to slide against the pilots, many of them accusing them of placing the company's future in jeopardy. the meeting was held with the wednesday -- with the unions on wednesday evening. while they are pleased that the plans for transavia have been scrapped their other demands -- >> petro poroshenko is outlining plans to allow the former soviet republic to allow the -- to follow the application -- the country's president said, for the first time in many months, no deaths or wounds have been reported in the east of the country in the last 24 hours leading to hope that the cease-fire had "finally begun working." in hong kong, the blockade of the city's financial district continues. activists have urged protesters to bring food, goggles, and sleeping bags, an indication of

their willingness to continue the protest. the leader of the movements said the timing for the long threatened sitting would be announced -- long-threatened sit-in would be announced over the weekend. we spoke to a student. >> we are protesting the decision by the chinese government to rule out a fully democratic election in hong knon -- kong. the candidates for the elections are starting to be screened out by the chinese government. that is not what we see as a genuine and real democracy. that's not what we want. that's why we are trying to protest and trying to come out to tell the chinese and hong kong government that we will not accept such kind of screen-out or fake democracy in hong kong. >> the latest from hong kong

student protests set to continue. the international community is taking a threat seriously this week. the international coalition began strikes from across the border in iraq and syria. >> this is a major turning point in the war against the islamic state group. a lot of media in france have been focusing on the fact that this is a war that we -- this is a war. we have to call it what it is. tensions in the ukraine, tensions in asia -- and they wonder are we going towards a third world war question mark there is a lot of debate -- they wonder, are we going towards a third world war? there is a lot of debate. is this a lucid scenario? is this collective panic? one thing's for sure, civilians are the biggest victims of violence -- whether it is

terrorist or state violence. >> also this week, they have focused on french politics and the return of nicholas sarkozy. >> at last, he has finally admitted he is coming back to french politics. this happened last weekend. he finally announced he was making this much anticipated political comeback. his announcement was met with mixed reactions here and abroad. in the foreign press, "the times" in britain says that nicolas sarkozy neglected a lot of key reforms during his five years as president but "second time will be the charm." a very different story for a capital on paper -- a catalan paper, who said his interview was a lot of pr and very few ideas. they call sarkozy a " manipulative narcissist."

they think it is "so french" t hat he would be making this kind of come back and likened him to napoleon. >> others are trying to focus on the obstacles that president france or hollande me face along the way -- president francois hollande may face along the way. >> there is an in-depth report into sarkozy's treasure chest. sarkozy has promised a low-cost campaign. "le nouvel" says he wants to get rid of a reputation he has for cozy inept to rich supporters. >> and that being -- cozying up to rich supporters. >> and for being profligate. >> there are always people who are going to donate money to him. as you say, it remains to be seen how much his supporters will actually be ready to give him, because they already had to bail out the opposition party after the previous presidential

campaign where there was a little bit of overspending. >> 12going to end with some lighter stories. >> all this bad news in the press these days. escapism -- there is a solution for those finding this aggravating. "how to heal your body with your soul." it's a very serious article and interviews, doctors who talk about the power of the mind and emotion. they all agree a healthy mind leads to a healthy body or you might prefer some real escapism, in which case you can always rely on -- they are focusing on princes -- the princess of monaco. you can live like yours they threw her life -- live vicariously through her life. >> we're going to look now at

the day's sports headlines. >> french champions paris st. germain finally got back to winning ways on wednesday registering their first away win in the season. two brazilians with those goals. lille lost in nice. monaco won in montpellier. atletico madrid extended their unbeaten start after overcoming almeria. barcelona remain top despite being hold to just a hold. the 59-year-old takes over from the coach who stepped down a fortnight ago after a poor run of results. after guiding grace to the world cup last 16 in brazil, santos -- guiding tgreece to the world cup

last 16 in brazil, santos is happy. >> i'm very happy i was chosen. it is an honor to serve my country. i'm feeling a lot of emotion. i've dreamt about this many times. through this dream, i'm ready to give everything for my country and for portuguese football. >> portugal endured a miserable world cup this summer before crashing out in the group stages. they lost 1-0 in their opening qualifier for 2016. santos clearly has plenty of work to do. in cycling, bradley wiggins has clinched his first world title with a thrilling time trial victory at the world championships. the 34-year-old beat the three-time champion, martin, by 26.32 sec -- 26.23 seconds on

the hilly course. time is running out for the ryder cup captains to pick their pairings for friday. watson, who captained the last u.s. team which won the ryder cup in europe in 1993, is asked if he can relate to the new generation, despite being 40 years older. >> indeed. they know i've played in the ryder cup. they understand i've been a captain. they know that i know what they're doing. they have a respect for me and i have a respect for them. we are on the same page. it's not a question. we are needling each other out there. it is kind of fun. we are golfers and we are professional golfers. it doesn't matter how old or how young you are. it takes a while for you to spread your wings when you are a young professional. we've got some seasoned -- i think we've got some very

seasoned rookies out there. >> world number one ray mcilroy will be hoping to lead the charge for europe. he was asked whether the americans -- rory mcilroy will be hoping to lead the charge for europe. >> probably pulled her -- pro bably poulter. yeah. i know watson has been talking about targeting us, too. at the same time, it is only 1/6 of the team. there are 10 other world-class players he's got to worry about as well. they are just as capable of putting once on the board for europe. they can try and target us all they want, but there are guys alongside us that can do just as good a job. >> friday's morning session will consist of a series of four-ball matches before around of foursomes in the afternoon. tennis 0---

the appointment of the new captain of spain's davis cup team has caused something of a stir, taking over from former world number one carlos moya. a number of prominent figures in spanish tennis have questioned whether a woman is capable of coaching men. she has tried to calm the debate. >> i'm not here to create a sexist debate, but to compete again in the davis cup and bring the salad bowl back to spain. the only thing i can say is that i'm here to work hard. i'm very excited and ready to win the davis cup. >> spain's biggest tennis star rafael nadal reacted to the news after his uncle and coach toni nadal suggested the appointment could affect the dressing room. >> the nomination is strange. i don't know her and i don't have anything against her. usually being nominated as a

davis cup captain was a gift after a great career. there are many players who have had a fantastic career and have not saved -- served as coach. she will have to prove she is the right woman for the job.

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