action against the militants. china backs hong kong's embattled chief executive as police there warn of serious consequences if protesters try to occupy government buildings. and on the anniversary of gandhi's birthday, the indian prime minister gets everyone on to the streets to clean up the country. hello. there is a new warning that ebola is spreading across sierra leone in west africa at a terrifying rate. the charity save the children says there aren't enough beds in the country to deal with an estimated five new cases an hour. there have been 7,178 confirmed cases of the virus with sierra leone, liberia and guinea suffering the most, and the first case has been diagnosed in the united states. it is the world's worst outbreak of the virus, killing 3,338 people since march. the world health organization predicts as many as 20,000 people could be infected by november. while the united states center for disease control and prevention has this appalling estimate of 1.4 million people potentially infected by january next year. the staggering warning comes as an international conference starts here in london, as the bbc reports. >> reporter: a terrifying disease, spreading says save the children at a terrifying rate. this clinic is being built for the charity to help tackle ebola in sierra leone. but with five new cases of the disease in the country every hour, even when this facility is ready, local health services will struggle to cope. >> the situation for ebola in sierra leone is critically serious. the challenges that the people of sierra leone are facing are unimaginable to many people outside of this region. >> reporter: across west africa, there have been more than 7,000 confirmed cases of ebola. more than 3,300 people have died, making it the world's worst outbreak of the virus. today, experts and politicians are meeting in london to discuss a global response to the crisis. >> some estimates say that by january of next year, there could be 1.4 million cases, so we're seeing the numbers of people infected doubling roughly once every two weeks or so. so that's a massive increase in the numbers of people affected by ebola, which is why we have to get it under control as fast as we can. >> reporter: today's conference comes as parliamentary watchdog claims cuts in british aid may have compromised the fight against ebola. the government says the allegation is out-of-date because of new aid commitments. meanwhile, doctors in texas are treating america's first ebola patient, who is thought to have come into contact with children. they're now being closely monitored by health officials. these are worrying times across the globe. >> if you want more on the ebola virus, just go to our website, you should find more detailed reports there from our correspondents, plus analysis from our health experts in some of the worst affected areas. bbc.com/news. there's been heavy fighting between islamic state militants and kurdish fighters around the town of kobane in syria, near a the border with turkey. thousands of people are trying to flee the violence. it comes as turkey's parliament is getting ready to debate whether to join the u.s.-led coalition against islamic state. our correspondent paul adams is overlooking the town of kobane on the turkey-syria border. paul? >> reporter: yeah, here we are right on the border. that's very windy, dusty day. and just over my shoulder here, as you can see in the distance, that is the town of kobane. that is the focus of all this attention. that is the town. the enclave that has been under siege for more than two weeks now. now, it seems pretty quiet, i have to say, in the town itself. no evidence that we saw yesterday of mortars landing in the town, but we've been out and about this morning in surrounding areas, and we can see evidence of black flags flying in some parts of the border, over in that direction, suggesting that isis fighters are pretty close to the town of kobane. we've seen some more very distant signs of fighting. but here is a report that we compiled last night, and this was the situation we've found on the border yesterday morning. air strikes near kobane, large explosions southeast of the besieged town, but impossible to know what's being hit. a brief moment of relief for desperate kurds trapped along the turkish border. happy someone is hitting back, but fearing it's not enough to halt the isis advance. they brought their cars and their livestock. more arriving all the time. but the turkish troops won't let them cross here. they're frustrated and angry. we're trapped on all four sides, he says. isis is behind us, the turkish army in front. where can we go? and all the while, the shelling of kobane goes on. we watch as a single mortar fires round after round into the town. at the one open crossing point to the west of kobane, refugees continue to stream across, carrying what they can. there are tears here and exhaustion, and vivid accounts of scorched earth tactics by the militants. isis is cutting down our olive and nut trees, he says, and the harvest is coming soon. if we ever make it back, there will be nothing there anymore. two weeks after the siege of kobane began and people are still arriving here all the time at the one open border crossing. the turkish authorities are doing their best to manage the flow, but there's a burning suspicion among kurds on both sides of the border that turkey seems unwilling to intervene to stop this. may even be happy that the kurds are on the run. at nearby farmhouse, kurdish volunteers have gathered from all over turkey to watch events across the border, expressing solidarity with their syrian cousins. and watching the turkish military, too. since the 1980s, tens of thousands have died in turkey's own war with the kurds. it's left deep scars. >> it is very sad that no country, especially a country like turkey that has a big population of kurdish population, that they don't help them. >> reporter: there's no shortage of turkish guns pointing across the border, but even if turkey's parliament says yes to military intervention, few expect to see it soon. and so the anxious vigil continues. >> paul, can i just ask you, turkey is having this debate today. it is likely that it is going to get involved. do we really know in what way? and obviously we've seen this criticism of how they've manned the border and whether there's been overt or covert support to jihadis. how is this going to now play out? what is turkey's role going to be now? >> reporter: it's really difficult to say. on paper, at least, the measure being debated by parliament sounds pretty bold. it gives the turkish military the right to conduct operations over turkey's borders, presumably in iraq and syria. it also would provide for coalition forces to use turkish facilities, turkish bases to conduct their operations. now, i think most people expect that we will not see turkey mounting cross-border operations. for example, intervening to stop the siege of kobane behind me. but that it is more likely that they would certainly throw their doors open to more coalition activity based from turkish bases. i think over time, we might see turkey taking a slightly more robust approach, but no one expects to see that immediately. i think it is worth emphasizing here, turkey has a different set of priorities, if you like, from other members of the coalition. it is deeply worried about the situation along its border. it is worried about the possibility that any direct action against isis could result in a backlash in turkey. it also believes frankly that the most important priority is still getting rid of syria's president, president assad, and it's also, of course, worried about the huge numbers of refugees that have arrived over its frontiers over the past three years. so it has its own very specific perspective on the conflict in syria, and that is why we are seeing the government treading what remains a very, very delicate balance between standing aside and getting involved. >> just also, paul, if i can ask you, i know you've covered so many crises over the years. when you look at this one, does it feel as though the fight against islamic state is going fast enough? because obviously we're still hearing terrible stories from people on the ground. >> reporter: look, for the people here, for the kurds both in kobane and their turkish cousins, if you like, watching in rather a desperate state of mind from across the border, nothing can be enough. they do not see any evidence that the isis advance on this enclave has been halted. they have seen air strikes, the ones you see at the beginning of my report. but the situation, for example, overnight, include some reports suggesting that isis had ensent some of it heavy arm in itself. some colleagues of ours said just a short time ago, just a few kilometers in that direction, they saw armored vehicles, isis armored vehicles moving about freely. so as far as the perspective from this very small place is concerned, no, it's not enough. but this is only a very small part of a much bigger conflict. and i think, you know, it is hard to know at the moment whether isis feels challenged or merely encouraged to push on. >> okay, paul. thanks very much. good to talk to you, as always. see you soon. hong kong police are warning of serious consequences if pro-democracy campaigners try to occupy government buildings. student leaders have threatened to step up their protest against the chief executive c.y. leung, unless he resigned in six hours time. mr. leung has chinese government backing. the numbers are dwindling, but the rallies continue to paralyze parts of hong kong on this day of a national holiday. china's foreign minister is warning them not to interfere. wang yi made the comments after john kerry called for chinese authorities to show restraint. benny wi is a hong kong resident who doesn't sympathize with the protesters. he joins me now via web cam. thanks very much for joining us. >> yes, thank you. >> can you just tell me what do you think of these protests and what their tactics are doing? >> well, i think right at the beginning of that campaign, the strategy is incorrect. they could always occupy the urban areas. >> okay. and in terms of why you don't think that there is a need for this democratic vote, what's your point on that? >> well, no matter what sort of democracy, the majority of the hong kong people, we don't mind, actually. we don't mind. around 60%, we don't mind. we want democracy, but we want democracy with peace. democracy with peace. >> what are you worried about -- are you worried about instability? >> yes, that's right. >> what do you think is going to happen? >> well, i don't know. the two sides have to compromise. they have to stop this action. otherwise, they are being selfish. they are hijacking the people of hong kong as hostage. unfair to all of us. >> do you think if the protesters carry on that the police in hong kong are able to cope with the situation? >> well, i'm not sure. but this campaign -- to other districts. apart from urban areas, they have been spread out to some areas and new territories. >> but you think the army might have to be brought in, do you? >> i don't know. i have no idea. >> okay. benny hui, thanks very much for joining us and giving us your time today. thank you. >> yeah, thank you. let's return to the ebola crisis, in particular the situation in sierra leone. let's go to freetown. the numbers that we saw coming out of save the children are really staggering. what i want to know is we've heard these warnings now for several weeks. why is there a delay between the call for more help and actually what is happening in sierra leone? >> well, it's because basically the authorities are struggling to try to contain the disease. there are new hot spots emerging almost every day. the epicenter of the disease was in the east of sierra leone. those areas which have been in quarantine for eight weeks now or so, have been returning very low infection numbers. now, it spread to the north, some very huge mining companies there. and in the capital freetown. yesterday's figures showed that freetown had the highest new infection numbers. there are areas here that are really densely populated. you go to the market areas, you see people roaming about as if there is nothing like ebola, in the sense that it touches others, despite warnings from the authorities to keep from touching each other. so it's a bit difficult to contain it. but also, there are no treatment centers in the north of the country. so if people fall sick there, they have to be transported to the capital, or to the east of the country. even those holding centers where patients are kept until their test results show that they have the disease, they are not really congenial for people to go there as sick people. the response is tough, which is why the government here hopes that the british intervention and the cuban doctors are expected here today, about 160 of them, should be able to turn the tide. the london conference, also people hope should be able to raise badly-needed funds for this intervention to respond to the rising numbers of new infection rates here. >> but the charity doctors without borders is saying it doesn't matter how many promises that are made, that the lag is absolutely dreadful. we don't need hundreds of new doctors and nurses and beds throughout all these countries, you need thousands and immediately. i mean, is that possible? is that likely? >> well, it's very tough. so far the only indications we've got in sierra leone about foreign medics coming in, those indications are from cuba and the united kingdom. we understand that's hundreds of volunteer nurses have stepped forward in tcu, but they have to be better before they have sent in here. so foreign medical intervention is badly needed. the government here has said so. the ngos have said so. msf australia turned down cash donation to them by the australian government, preferring instead boots on the ground. they said they want medics sent to sierra leone. there are only two clinicians at an ebola clinic that has 40 or 50 patients to respond to and that is about the largest government run treatment center. so they need a lot of these medics to be on the ground but nobody knows when they will come in, and the 160 that are coming this afternoon from cuba should be a big relief. but just a temporary relief. a lot more are needed. >> just briefly, we were just seeing pictures there from dallas, texas. there's a case from liberia that has now been the first in the u.s. what is the procedure for people who are leaving sierra leone and other countries in terms of checking whether they might have the virus, even if they haven't shown any symptoms? >> well, the airport is really equipped. i've been there several times in recent times. i was there last week. it's well-equipped. the body temperature test outside. there's a big camera inside the airport, which every passenger is required to go through, and if the body temperature reads beyond the limits, they are taken outside and there is a holding facility there where they are treated and tested. so if they are proof positive, they are not allowed to board the flights. so far, nobody has been pulled out of the cue, but that is the procedure and people say it's really well-run. >> thanks for joining us there in sierra leone. if you want to get more, you can go to our website, more reports from our correspondents in all the affected regions. bbc.com/news. stay with us here on "bbc world news." more to come. the head of the u.s. secret service resigns after a series of security forces. the latest in which a man armed with a knife got into the white house. two boyfriends. three jobs. you're like "nothing can replace brad!" then liberty mutual calls. and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. listen up, thunder dragons, it's time to get a hotel. hey, razor. check this out. we can save big with priceline express deals. hey you know what man, these guys aint no dragons. they're cool. these deals are legit. yeah, we're cool. she's cool. we're cool. priceline express deals really are legit. thousands of people book them everyday. now it's your turn. to download the priceline app text the word deals to 68277 and start saving today. look - saving you money makes us happy. this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy with the latest headlines for you. as an international conference on the ebola epidemic in west africa meets in london, a leading charity warns new cases are outstripping hospital beds. and islamic state fighters intensify their attack on the syrian border town of kobane. if you heard some excitement at the corner of the studio, it was aaron and his playmate. >> did you hear that? >> i think so. there were two little boys playing in the studio. >> two big boys. trying to rattle my hair just before i go on air. i'm going to talk about hong kong. thanks, geeta. thanks for telling everybody. as protesters continue to block -- as you've been seeing those hong kong streets. the local stock market there is still closed for that national holiday. but before traders took a rest, it was financial retail and tourism related stocks that bore the brunt of that investor selloff. so coming up on "gmt" just after 12:30 uk time, we'll take a closer look at the relationship between china and hong kong and whether, in fact, china's economic and financial ties to hong kong are actually becoming a thing of the past. stay tuned for that one. okay, was it the first case of ebola virus in north america, or global political tensions, or economic weakness in europe, or the fear that u.s. interest rates will soon rise? well, depends on which traders you ask. all of them seemed to agree on one thing yesterday. sell! get rid of those stocks. u.s. shares fell sharply on thursday in a market atmosphere that one investor actually described as terrible. the dow jones industrial average tumbled more than 238 points. that's 1.4% down to end at this, 16,804. there were also similar big falls. on the s&p 500 and nasdaq indices. u.s. stock markets had been booming of late amid a cheap money from the federal reserve. now that erro r is coming to an end. we'll keep our eyes on the market for you. we'll also be in france where the global car industry is gathered for big one, the paris motor show. more than a million people passing through the doors. it has, though, needless to say, been a very tough few days for europe's car industry in its home market. although there are signs of recovery. one company which hasn't been struggling in the least says believe it or not, rolls-royce, it achieved record sales last year amid booming demand from asia's new rich with another record year set for this one. today, rolls is unveiling a new line of custom made cars, for those people who think that the old regular models are not exclusive enough. they can cost up to half a million dollars. we're going to be hearing from the big boss of rolls-royce. also, the boss of lamborghini. there you go. we've got them all. that's it with the business, geeta. would you like one? didn't even bring me a present. >> it's an outrage. thank you very much. the director of the u.s. secret service julia pierson has resigned after a man with a knife managed to breach security at the white house. the incident happened last week when an iraq war veteran sprinted past the guards at the building. no one was hurt, but ms. pierson said the responsibility ultimately was hers. now, millions of indians are picking up their buckets and brooms in a nationwide campaign to clean streets and public spaces, because the prime minister narendra modi has personally laumpnched his five-year india drive. he's pledged to build toilets first, temples later, during his may election campaign. speaking to residents at a campaign event, he urged everyone to do their bit to help. it all comes on the day of the anniversary of gandhi's birthday, and he, of course, championed hygiene. cleanliness is next to godliness. and the prime minister narendra modi is asking everyone to get out there for two hours a week and clean up the streets, saying by 2019, india could finally be a much cleaner country. it is much-needed. we will see whether that campaign actually works. much more, of course, on the website and everything, and i am back in about five minutes. so do join me then. i'm geeta guru-murthy. you're watching "bbc world news." 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>> we're at the very early stages of developing a vaccine against ebola. we have just started, thanks to a consortium including the world trust. the department of international development. a first-time in human clinical trial, which is taking place in the u.s. and also at the university of oxford here in the uk. this trial will test that the vaccine is safe, that there are no adverse events. it will also determine whether it creates an immune response or not. we will have the data from that trial towards the end of this year, and we hope to be in a position to -- if that data looks good, to start a phase two trial involving health care workers in the affected countries early next year. >> what about any potential treatment? is that something you're working on as well or not? >> well, we're not working on a treatment per se. there are a number of approaches being pursued, taking a look at antibodies, taking a look at plasma-related treatments and various anti-virals as a number of initiatives ongoing. it is an area that gsk is focusing on at the moment. all our efforts are going on developing this vaccine, which we hope can protect people from this disease in the future. >> are you worried about this process being speeded through? i know i've been speaking to people in the last few weeks about the fact that side effects are normally attested for over a period of time, but it's a toss-up from the risks from ebola itself and the risk from the vaccine. >> it's a very good point. this is a unique response to a unique situation. the risk-benefit equation relating to ebola vaccine is very different to what we see when we're developing vaccines generally. you have to remember that when we are testing a vaccine, we're not giving a treatment to somebody who may be close to dying anyway. we're actually vaccinating healthy volunteers who have no risk of the disease at all, but we have volunteered to help us with this trial. so we are taking all precautions necessary. we're working with all our partners to make sure there is no safety aspect to that. and really there's no compromise on quality. what we're doing to speed up the process is doing many aspects of the development process in parallel that we would normally do in series. so there's some costs associated for us, but not for the people involved in the trials. >> john pender, many thanks indeed. for more on the ebola virus, you can head to our website bbc.com/news. or bbc.co.uk if you're here in the uk. lots of reports and analysis from health experts in some of the worst affected areas. in the last few minutes, the hong kong government has told pro-democracy demonstrators to disperse peacefully as soon as possible. it comes hours ahead of a deadline announced by student leaders for the chief executive c.y. leung to resign. they're threatening to occupy government buildings if he fails to do so. mr. leung has chinese government backing. these are the live shots coming into us now from the city center. rallies continuing to paralyze parts of hong kong on this day too of a national holiday. although it is a little bit quieter today, certainly compared with yesterday, so far. china's foreign minister is warning the international community not to mettddle in affairs. on the line now is harold lee, a hong kong resident and a protester. harold lee, what do you think should happen if the deadline passes and the chief executive has not resigned? it looks very unlikely that he would do so. >> i think the residents of hong kong will need to continue our protests. because we need to make it clear to the government that we're not just going to roll over. they've made no good faith experts towards dialogue or compromise whatsoever, not in the past few months nor in the past few days for of the protest. >> do you have an appetite for going into government buildings and occupying them? >> i think that needs to be very carefully decided. i think there needs to be no violence whatsoever. if there is a peaceful escalation that will achieve a result, that's what we need. the tactics may be debatable, but it's very clear that the hong kong public agrees that the goals are desirable for everybody. >> i don't know whether you have been down there at the moment, but there are reports at the moment of scuffles between some protesters and police after officers were seen bringing riot gear and rubber bullets into the government headquarters. how worried are you now about this escalating and the possibility of violence? would that keep you off the streets? >> i think there is increasing nervousness, as you see in the hong kongers, they've turned out in greater numbers. and it's really important to remember that this is emblematic of the government's response. instead of compromise, all they've done is increase police presence, spread out tear gas and rubber bullets and that is exactly why we need universal suffrage so we have a government that's responsive to the people. >> okay. we will have to leave it there. howard li, thank you for joining us. i'm joined now in the studio by the bbc's china service. one line coming in also here is that some dozens of boxes, others marked flammable have been seen being brought into this area. what do we know, what does this all mean? >> because the deadline for the call for the chief executive to step down is fast approaching, about five hours from now. i think the police are preparing for the worst to come. but obviously they say we are going to use appropriate forces, which would be different from the previous, saying using the minimum force. but so far, the protest -- i can see on the surface fewer people, maybe deception in a way. i think underneath that, the tension is building because no one knows what will happen if the students who stormed the government building. so i think the police is moving the equipment, the riot gear, and even maybe apparently rubber bullets. they are preparing something worse than they expect. >> what is your information about whether the students will actually go into buildings? i know certainly one person the bbc interviewed out there said they thought that was actually not the right way forward. >> yeah. i think it is divisive. even within the camp of the protesters, some say we need to protest without going to the premises of the government buildings. >> because china has said do not do anything that is illegal, which they would be constitu constituted -- >> exactly. the government saying you are staging these protest as illegal activity so far, which they have maintained from the beginning. obviously even among the protesters, some say we need to take firm actions to push the central government to accept our request. this is not the right way to go ahead. >> martin li, famed democrat was telling me earlier this week, that his only worry about this very peaceful protest is whether there's any government people planted in to cause trouble. has there been any evidence of that? >> obviously there are conspiracy theories, but if you continue to protest peacefully, you're not sure. but if you escalate the protests, obviously that will cause lots of contention, not only among the protesters, but also a big challenge to the beijing government to see how they will deal with the situation on the ground. so far, they very much rely on the police in hong kong, and that's why they voice their support to c.y. leung saying we are supporting you, we are satisfied with your work so far and we will stick with you. >> yeah. it doesn't help anyone, does it, for things to get more difficult. thanks very much. stay with us here on "bbc world news." still to come, as thousands of mobile phones light up those hong kong protests, the fire chat app is helping them bypass internet censorship. (door bell rings) trick or treat! mmm! thank you! this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy with the latest headlines for you. an international conference on the ebola epidemic meets here in london, new cases are outstripping hospital beds. hong kong police warn of serious consequences if protesters try to occupy government buildings after china backs hong kong's embattled chief executive. there's been heavy fighting between islamic state militants and kurdish fighters around the town of kobane and syria near the border with turkey. thousands of people have been trying to flee the violence and aid agencies say they've been overwhelmed by the numbers of people who have been displaced. that's left many refugees to fall back on help from family, friends, or complete strangers. our correspondent has been to search on the border between turkey and syria. >> reporter: this 14-year-old boy sits in a turkish village just three kilometers away from kobane on the syrian border. he's watching mortar shells fall on the home he left eight days ago. >> translator: i am looking at my country. they destroyed our houses. i am looking at my home. they bombed our village. they killed the older ones. i see that they are bombing us. i see our houses are destroyed. >> reporter: this man has opened the doors of his small house to nearly 50 kurdish people. they have fled from islamic state organization attacks. some of them are relatives who live just across the border. >> translator: we are sleeping in this house. where can we go? we are ten families. we take refuge in god. we take refuge in this house. there is no place to go. >> reporter: many of them have left relatives behind. >> translator: yes, they are my son's daughters. he stayed there. these are his children. he had four children. now their father died. they're orphans. we came here. we got out of our houses and came here. they killed our relatives. we took our children's hands and came here. we gathered here. we are lost here. what can we do? >> translator: i've never seen these people eat properly. they eat too little. some of them are only eating a bite of what we have that day. some of them are only drinking a glass of tea. that's all. then they go out and wander around and cry. >> reporter: for now, they wait. but the memory of what happened is still fresh. >> translator: we were sitting. first we heard the shelling, and then the bullets. we escaped and came to these fields. our life is hard. >> turkey's parliament is getting ready to debate whether to join the u.s.-led coalition against iz, the motion would also allow foreign troops to use turkish territory for the operation. this is a huge shift, isn't it, for turkey? >> compared to turkey's stance in regard to islamic state and the coalition fighting it, yes, we can consider that a huge shift. this shift started to take place after the president made a visit to new york and his correspondents over there, the pressure most probably he had faced in order get turkey involved in this coalition against islamic state. so we are seeing a shift. today, the parliament will be discussing the motion, and most probably because there is support of one opposition party, most probably the most will pass, and then turkey will consider its option now that it will have secured the parliamentary mandate to either send troops across the border or allow its air space or bases within the country to be used by foreign troops. >> obviously opinion in the country is going to be very divided, but can you just give us a flavor of what the feeling is about getting involved in this now? >> well, the majority in the country realize the fact that there needs to be something done against islamic state and what's happening across the border. especially, of course, considering the burden of the refugees. which is like in the last two weeks more than 160,000 have passed across the border into turkey and more than a million are living in turkey. so people recognize that fact. but on the other side, there are concerns. the main opposition party actually says it talks about these concerns, about sending troops across the border. there is not very much appetite for that. the turkish government had actually previously worded their -- they want to establish a security zone and a no-fly zone across the border, but the pro-kurdish population in turkey don't want that to happen because they think such an action will actually harm the resistance in kobane against the islamic state. so we can say the opinion is pretty much divided when it comes to sending troops across the border or securing a security zone in the border area. >> okay, selin, thanks very much. nice to see you. the commander of international forces in afghanistan has told the bbc he doesn't think militants from the islamic state have extended their operations to the country. general john campbell says he's seen no credible evidence to support the claim, despite persistent rumors of beheadings. our kabul correspondent david loyn has this. >> reporter: the taliban have recently been engaged in their most intensive attacks since they fell from power in 2001, and there have been persistent rumors that some are copying the tactics of the islamic state, if not actually joining the organization. but the top u.s. general here and the head of the afghan army both say they do not believe i.s. is in afghanistan. >> i have not seen any credible military reports of i.s. coming to afghanistan, and we continue to look for that as we should based on what i.s. is doing while throughout the world, but again, in afghanistan, i have not seen it. >> i have the same belief, but i cannot say that they are not trying to interfere or conduct some activities. but there will be, i'm sure, a lot of differences, contradictions between the various groups, the taliban or whatever, and isis. so they will not be easily successful. >> reporter: the signing of the security deal with international forces by president ghani's government has been a morale boost for afghan troops, according to general campbell. >> the last couple of years, the afghan security forces, many have felt like they've had handcuffs on them. some of these policies were dictated by the previous administration. and there was not any love lost for the international community in some places. i think the immediate difference you saw when president ghani took over, he's owning the afghan security forces and i think that will be a great difference in the psyche of the afghan security forces, when they know they have a president that will embrace them, and that is a little bit different than what you saw the last couple of years under president karzai. >> the general warned the war will not be over soon. >> the war will continue for a long time. you cannot get there with afghanistan isolated, just with afghanistan. so afghanistan is now an international issue. part of the problem, part of the solution. >> reporter: the security deals mean that training programs like this british-run officer's academy can go on. as afghan forces lead the fight with the taliban for themselves. let's return to events in hong kong, where a feature of the pro-democracy demonstrations has been the use of social media as a communication tool. one app has become especially popular. it's called fire chat. our correspondent allie moore has been out and about to find out more. >> reporter: we all know what happens when you've got a lot of people in a relatively small space, all on their mobile devices. access becomes really difficult. that's not to mention some of the rumors about the government potentially interfering with communications in the early days of these protests. while a number of demonstrators have found a way around it. it's an app called fire chat used by this group of people, including angel. angel, hi. tell me how fire chat works. >> so essentially, fire chat is a chatting application which allows people to chat for up to 200 feet without internet and just using bluetooth. >> why don't you just get up and talk to the person? >> because fire chat is more than that. what happens when you have many, many people in a crowd is that it's really impactful to have to get up and talk to people on the other side of the road. so what happens with fire chat is up to 200 feet, people can send messages to one another. it goes from the back of the road all the way to the front of the road. >> so it goes to one person to, the next person to, the next person. >> so important information about where the first aid stops are and where the material stops for is all transferred on our phones without internet. >> it really became popular at the beginning of these protests because there were concerns about what might happen to access to the network. >> there were two concerns. firstly, because there were too many people and we couldn't get on to the network. and secondly, concerns that the government was going to try and block our internet to stop the protests. >> so this is still widely used in the protests? >> this is one of our most important tools. and it's also one of the most downloaded apps on the app store right now. >> angel is just one example of how tech savvy the young people of hong kong are. they're growing up with freedoms not known on the mainland. and they're not easily shot down. allie moore, bbc news, hong kong. just time before we go to bring you some astonishing new pictures of the moon. scientists have been studying images from nasa's mission and they've noticed a huge rectangular feature measuring more than two and a half thousand kilometers across. the landmark lies just below the surface and it's been revealed by measuring the subtle differences in the moon's gravitational field. apparently the findings suggest that a network of ancient valleys was buried by volcanic activity on moon and that was all about three billion years ago. so those pictures from nasa. more, of course, on our website. if you want measuring i'm on twitter. do get in touch with me. i am back tomorrow. we'll see you then. thanks for watching and have a good day. e, faster than d-con. what will we do with all of these dead mice? tomcat presents dead mouse theatre. hey, ulfrik! hey, agnar! what's up with you? funny you ask. i'm actually here to pillage your town. [ villagers screaming ] but we went to summer camp together. summer camp is over. ♪ [ male announcer ] tomcat. [ cat meows ] [ male announcer ] engineered to kill. hello. you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm lucy hockings. five new cases of ebola are diagnosed every hour in sierra leone, and the country is not coping. a conference on how to tackle the disease is under way in london. we'll be asking why it's taking so long for help to get to those who need it most. pro-democracy demonstrators remain on the streets of hong kong. in the last hour, we're getting reports of scuffles between

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