Britain's War In Afghanistan Comes To An End

By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent

Britain's war in Afghanistan is officially over.

In a symbolic ceremony at Camp Bastion, the Union Flag was lowered for the last time, marking the formal handover of power to Afghan Forces.

That simple act brought the 13-year war to an end for British forces - the longest conflict in modern times.

At a peak, 9,500 British military personnel were based in Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick.

Camp Bastion was the epicentre of operations. A further 136 smaller bases were dotted around Helmand Province in the south of the country.

Towns such as Musa Qala, Sangin and Nad Ali, were scenes of bloody fighting. They became infamous in Britain for the toll fighting took on British forces.

Video: Key Moments In The Conflict

In total, 453 British lives were lost fighting the Taliban. Thousands more were injured, many permanently.

The deadliest year was 2009, when 108 British troops were killed.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told Sky News: "Afghanistan is now a safer, most prosperous and democratic place than when we started.

"We've not eliminated the insurgency but what we have done, through the British troops' sacrifice, is given Afghanistan the best possible chance of a safer future by training a 300,000-strong Afghan army and security force."

Video: Fallon: Afghanistan Now Safer Place

Camp Bastion grew out of nothing to become a monstrous fortress in Helmand to accommodate ever-growing numbers of troops and the increasing demands of a vicious fight against the Taliban insurgency.

Early on the British Government sought to wipe out the illegal opium poppy trade, but that failed and the mission moved on.

An 11,500 ft runway was built allowing the largest transport planes to fly in at any time of the day or night. Bastion became the third busiest British airport after Heathrow and Gatwick.

The first rotations of troops deployed with sub-standard equipment, when the initial emphasis was on reconstruction.

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1. Gallery: A Timeline In Pictures

   October 7, 2001: US President George W Bush announces the US and Britain have started bombing Afghanistan

2. March 26, 2006: The first regular British troops of the Helmand Task Force unload their kit after arriving by helicopter to an American-run base in Lashkar Gah in Helmand

3. April 25, 2006: Defence Secretary John Reid announces Britain's GR7 Harriers would stay on in Afghanistan until at least 2007

4. January 2, 2008: Prince Harry sits with a group of Gurkha soldiers after firing a machine gun from the observation post on JTAC Hill, close to forward operating base Delhi, in Helmand Province

5. February 21, 2008: Prince Harry riding an abandoned motorcycle past his Spartan armoured vehicle, in the desert in Helmand

6. The Ministry of Defence announced in February 2008 that the then 23-year-old Prince, an officer in the Household Cavalry regiment, had spent the past 10 weeks secretly serving in Helmand

7. February 20, 2008: Prince Harry sitting below the turret of his Spartan armoured vehicle as he communicates with other units by radio

8. July 13, 2009: US Marine Sergeant Anthony Zabala runs to safety as an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explodes in Garmsir district of Helmand

9. 2009 saw the most IED attacks of the war so far, with 7,228 IED attacks killing 280 coalition soldiers

10. November 10, 2009: Friends and family react as hearses carrying the coffins of six dead soldiers pass mourners lining the High Street in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire

11. November 14, 2010: Prince William salutes the memorial to the British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, during a remembrance day ceremony at Camp Bastion

12. Capt Judith Gallagher with the Dragon Runner developed by Qinetiq which can remotely disarm IEDs and can be carried by a soldier in a back pack

13. July 20, 2010: Soldiers from Scots Guards during an operation at an Afghan National Police base on Punjab hill, Helmand

14. January 28, 2011: Mr Miliband arrives at Camp Bastion in Helmand for his first visit to Afghanistan

15. January 29, 2011: Labour leader Ed Miliband, shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander watch a landmine detection exercise at Camp Bastion

16. April 9, 2011: British troops, most of whom are new in theatre starting their tour, travel in a chinook helicopter to Lashkar Gah in Helmand

17. April 10, 2011: A Chinook makes a delivery at Patrol Base Attal in Helmand

18. July 20, 2011: Afghan elders wait for beginning of a handing over ceremony of control of security in the town of Lashkar Gah to the Afghan police and army

19. July 27, 2011: Cpl Ryan Wordsworth of X-Ray Company, 45 Commando Royal Marines, brushes his teeth at Patrol Base Kalang in Afghanistan

20. November 14, 2011: A soldier from the Alpha (Grenadier) company, the 3rd Battalion Royal regiment for Scotland meets a young child on a patrol in Nad e-Ali

21. March 22, 2012: Sergeant Jon Van Zyl of the Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment stands in front of two Mastiff vehicles and beneath Venus and Jupiter in the clear Helmand desert sky

22. December 18, 2012: The Princess Royal talks to Lieutenant Colonel Ben Wrench, Major Angus Watson and Sergeant Gardner in Camp Tombstone during her visit to Camp Bastion

23. January 21, 2013: Prince Harry does a pre-flight check of his Apache helicopter after starting his 12 hour VHR (very high ready-ness) shift

24. Harry scrambles to his Apache

25. April 2, 2013: Petty Officers inspect a Chinook airframe for small arms fire damage as part of the ongoing battlefield maintenance and repair on Camp Bastion

26. October 5, 2013: Soldiers approach a Chinook aircraft in the Nahr-e Saraj district, Helmand

27. October 11, 2013: An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier from 3 Brigade 209 Kandak looks through his rifle scope as he is trained on marksmanship skills at ANA Camp Shorabak, Helmand

28. December 23, 2013: Private Zina Saunders, a dog handler, gives Hazel Christmas presents which were sent by the handler's friends and family in the UK

29. December 23, 2013: Soldiers based at Patrol Base Lash Durai, Afghanistan get into the festive spirit

30. October 3, 2014: David Cameron addresses British troops at Camp Bastion in Helmand for the final time before troops wind down their mission in Afghanistan

Very quickly they found themselves in close-quarter fights. New technology had to hurried through to protect against the Taliban's maturing tactics, principally roadside IEDs.

A shortage of helicopters to move troops, equipment and supplies, was finally addressed after considerable public and media pressure on the government and senior military chiefs.

The hospital in Bastion became a world leader in trauma medicine, attracting and training the brightest surgeons and nurses from the military and NHS.

If a casualty made it to the hospital within an hour of being wounded on the battlefield they had an incredible 98% chance of survival.

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1. Gallery: Life In Camp Bastion

   Soldiers from 2nd Royal Tank Regiment relax in transit accommodation as they prepare to leave Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan after a gruelling six month tour

2. British troops cross themselves during prayer as they stand at ease on the parade square at Camp 501, Camp Bastion

3. The coffin containing the body of British Army soldier L/cpl Paul "Sandy" Sandford is carried by his fellow soldiers during his repatriation ceremony

4. Troops from various regiments including Sandford's, the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment held a repatriation ceremony for the British soldier killed in action on 6 June, 2007

5. British soldiers play a game of Scrabble as they watch the live broadcast of the Royal wedding

6. Soldiers wait to talk to then Chancellor Gordon Brown, with a cross in the foreground - part of a monument in the memory of fallen comrades

7. Merlin Pilot Wing Commander Nigel Colman Officer Commanding 78 Squadron sits at the back of a Merlin at Camp Bastion

8. Troops observe the minute's silence at Camp Bastion during a special Armistice Day Parade on the 93rd anniversary of the end of the First World War

9. Lieutenant Chris Millen, serving with 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, relaxes in his bedspace in transit accommodation as he prepares leave Camp Bastion

10. Capt Robbie Robertson (left) and Capt Olly Denning spar at Camp Bastion

11. Troops from 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards with a Scimitar tank

12. Trooper Ben Rakestrow (right), 21, from Egypt squadron, 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, sits on his rather colourful bedspread with friends in transit accommodation at Camp Bastion

13. Royal Military Police (RMP) as they clear their vehicle and its shelter of snow following a rare snow shower

14. British soldier Jamie Anderson lifts weights as he passes time at Camp Bastion

15. A British soldier controls the ball during a football match as comrades (background), and an Afghan National Army soldier, right, look on during a football training session at Camp Bastion

Although combat operations are now over, British involvement in Afghanistan will continue for a number of years.

A few hundred will be based at the Qargha Officer Training Academy outside Kabul.

It has been nicknamed "Sandhurst in the Sand" and is Britain's contribution to Operation Resolute Support, the name for the training and advisory mission to Afghan forces.

Special Forces operations will also continue in the country for the foreseeable future. 

When asked if British troops could return in a combat role, Lord Dannatt, the former Chief of The General Staff, told Sky News: "You can't rule anything in, you can't rule anything out. If my judgment of the Prime Minister's feeling on this is correct, I wouldn't see a situation in which British combat troops would go back in."

And questioned about the change seen in the once warring nation, the former Head of the Army, Gen Sir Mike Jackson, told the Murnaghan programme: "Is Afghanistan perfect? No, of course it isn't. Has it got a long way to go? I suspect it has. But I do think it is a better place." 

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Teen Isolated Over Ebola Fears In Australia

A woman who recently travelled from West Africa to Australia is in isolation and has been tested for possible Ebola.

The patient, whose nationality has not been revealed, had developed a fever and is now at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

The 18-year-old was one of nine family members who had flown from Guinea to Queensland 11 days ago.

Officials were notified a few days before that their arrival and they were met at the airport.

The nine were then put into home quarantine in Brisbane, where eight of them remain, while the 18-year-old is now in hospital being assessed.

Video: Liberia Gripped By Ebola Virus Fear

The patient, who was not a health worker, was coming to live in Australia permanently, say officials.

They said she did not have any known contact with anyone who was sick with Ebola in West Africa but came from an area that had a "reasonably large number of cases".

Queensland state chief health officer Jeannette Young said: "There is no risk to the community at all because she hasn't left the house or had any visitors in the time that she has been here in Brisbane."

The teenager has already had one test for Ebola and the results are expected in the coming hours.

Video: Suiting Up In An Ebola Hotspot

The patient will then have a second test in three days' time, Ms Young added, saying it was unlikely she was suffering from Ebola.

She said Queensland health authorities were monitoring four families from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the vast majority of Ebola cases have occurred.

The number of Ebola infections has passed the 10,000 mark and the death toll is almost 5,000 worldwide, mainly in the three West African nations.

There have been no confirmed Ebola cases in Australia.

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Brazil To Elect President Amid Corruption Claim

By Karine Mayer, South America News Editor

Nearly 143 million people are expected to go to the polls in Brazil's presidential election run-off today.

The conservative elite are threatening to kick the left out of power after 12 years.

Voters will choose between incumbent Dilma Rousseff of the Workers Party and Social Democratic Party rival Aecio Neves.

The latest polls give Ms Neves a slight lead.

The challenges for whoever wins will be to fight inflation which is creeping up and boost the economy that has slowed down in the last couple of years.

Ms Rousseff, 66, is a former Marxist guerrilla who fought military dictatorship and was imprisoned and tortured in the 1970s.

Her 54-year-old opponent, from an aristocratic family, has been trying to shed his playboy reputation.

More than 35,000 troops have been deployed

Mr Neves is the grandson of the first president who was elected democratically in 1985 but who died before he could take office.

As the last presidential debate started on Friday, a right-wing news magazine, Veja, published a corruption claim on its front page.

Between a picture of Ms Rousseff and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (popularly known as Lula) were the words "they knew everything."

A former executive at Petrobras testified he had accepted bribes on behalf of the energy firm to give lucrative contracts to dozens of construction companies.

And he claimed he handed over some of the cash to Lula and Ms Rousseff's Worker's party (PT) and close allies.

Ms Rousseff has been trying to appeal to the business supporters of Mr Neves, and he in turn has promised to keep the welfare plan (bolsa familia) which helps nearly three million low income families.

All Brazilians aged between 18-70 have to vote, and in the fifth largest country in the world all polling stations have 'electronic urns'.

Some urns have a long road to travel.

In the northern state of Para, in the Amazon, urns had a 30-hour boat trip down the Amazon River and were then guided by the local indigenous people to their village Waiwai.

Video: Neves Or Rousseff?

They are carefully guarded, with over 35,000 troops joining local police across the country.

Claudio Pereira, a Brazilian military police spokesperson, said: "This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, we will have 35,000 military police officers working for the election, guarding the ballot boxes, taking care of all the voting areas, 5,418 voting centres."

They will be focused in the poorer neighbourhoods and favelas or "communities" as they are known in Rio de Janeiro.

At the end of the last debate, each candidate addressed voters for a final time.

Ms Rousseff said: "I want a Brazil that wants to grow together."

Mr Neves said: "I represent a change of values and what you're looking for, no longer a political party."

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Merkel Set To Sink Cameron's EU Migrants Plan

Plans by David Cameron to get more control over how many EU migrants can enter the UK look set to be blocked by the leader of the German government Angela Merkel.

The German Chancellor said she is against changing one of the fundamental principles on which the European Union is built - freedom of movement.

British Prime Minister Mr Cameron has staked his political future on being able to renegotiate changes that will allow the UK greater control over its borders.

But Mrs Merkel has now signalled she will not support the move, which could make Mr Cameron's aim much more difficult to achieve.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, the German Chancellor said: "Germany will not tamper with the fundamental principles of free movement in the EU."

Video: PM Stands Firm On EU Surcharge

The British Prime Minister has previously indicated he will make reforms to the principle of freedom of movement for workers within the union a "red line".

He has promised that if he wins the next general election he will force through a number of changes to the way the EU works and then hold a referendum on Britain's membership.

He is thought to be preparing a manifesto pledge to bring in quotas for low-skilled migrants from the EU.

At present, it is a condition of the EU that member states must allow workers from other EU country to live or work there.

Before the last general election Mr Cameron promised to bring net annual immigration down to the "tens of thousands".

He has failed to get anywhere near the target, with many of those arriving annually coming from EU states to find work.

Mr Cameron has had a difficult few days, with European issues high on the agenda as he tries to fight off a UKIP challenge in the Rochester and Strood by-election.

Video: Britain Will Not Pay £1.7bn 'Bill'

On Friday he attended a Brussels summit only to be told he had to pay an extra £1.7bn into EU coffers.

Mr Cameron said he would not pay the bill by the 1 December deadline and warned that the row risked pushing the UK closer to the leaving.

The European Commission dismissed any objections, saying the figure was calculated by independent statisticians using a standard formula agreed by all member states.

That process depended on the relative economic performance of each state.

Mr Cameron's difficult few days, and those suffered by Labour leader Ed Miliband, appear to be reflected in the latest opinion polls.

A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times finds the Conservatives and Labour neck-and-neck on 33%, UKIP on 16% and the Lib Dems on 7%.

An Opinium survey for the Observer also puts the Tories and Labour on 33%, with UKIP on 18% and the Liberal Democrats on 6%.

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Egypt Declares Emergency After Sinai Attack

A three-month state of emergency has come into force in parts of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula after a car bomb attack killed more than 30 soldiers.

The bombing on Friday was carried out by a suspected jihadist who rammed a checkpoint with his explosives-packed vehicle, security officials said.

The attack, in an agricultural area northwest of El Arish, the main town in north Sinai, killed 33 soldiers and left over 25 injured, medics said.

State-run TV said clashes between troops and militants followed the bombing, without providing further details. 

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "I strongly condemn today's terrorist attack in North Sinai, which has led to such a tragic loss of life. 

Video: What Could Egypt Do About I.S.?

"We stand with the Egyptian government in their fight against terrorism. There can never be a justification for such actions."

The Egyptian presidency said the three-month emergency measures would include a daily curfew from 5pm to 7am.

The decision was also taken to close the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, the only route into the Palestinian territory not controlled by Israel.

Video: Egypt's 'Crime Against Humanity'

"The army and the police will take all necessary measures to tackle the dangers of terrorism and its financing, to preserve the security of the region... and protect the lives of citizens," the presidential decree said.

President Abdel Fattah al Sisi also claimed that external support had been given to the attackers.

"It is very important to know the motives behind this operation," he said.

Video: Middle East: Egypt

Militants also shot dead an officer and wounded two soldiers on Friday at another checkpoint south of El Arish, security officials said.

Jihadists in the peninsula have killed scores of police officers and soldiers since Islamist president Mohammed Morsi was overthrown.

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Pro-West Parliament Expected In Ukraine Vote

Ukrainians are heading to polling stations to elect a new parliament, with pro-Western legislators who want to strengthen ties with Europe expected to enter power.

However, 2.8 million voters are unable to cast a ballot, as the election is not being held in Crimea or in the warring eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Eight months after its former Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted from power, leadership looks set to fall into Petro Poroshenko's hands. But even though he has the biggest party, a coalition with other groups remains a likely option.

On Saturday night, Mr Poroshenko promised that the new parliament would be "reforming, not corrupt, pro-Ukrainian and pro-European, not pro-Soviet".

Some 2.8 million people in the east cannot vote, as fighting continues

There are fears that the election's outcome could result in the divide between the nation's Russian-speaking east and Ukrainian-speaking west becoming permanent.

Insurgent leaders in the areas where fighting continues are planning their own vote for 2 November, but the result will not be acknowledged by Kiev.

Video: Poroshenko Makes Election Day Visit

One elderly voter in Sunday's elections said she supported the smaller Freedom Party, because she wanted "radical steps in fighting separatism".

Tatyana Kryshko, 75, added: "I know things will be hard financially. I think that we won't live to see a rich and strong Ukraine, but that our children and grandchildren will."

Another told reporters: "We are overhauling the government because Ukraine and Ukrainians have made a European choice.

"Now we need a new parliament to make a European future. We have drawn a line under our Soviet past."

Video: 'Darth Vader' Stopped From Voting

Polls across the country close at 8pm local time (6pm UK time) on Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, a man dressed as Star Wars villain Darth Vader, who is the Internet Party of Ukraine's main candidate, has been stopped from voting because he refused to take off his mask.

He said: "I have a passport, I showed it to the members of the electoral commission.

"To cut it short, they once again did not let me vote. It is disappointing. But the fact that I didn't vote does not mean that the new Ukrainian empire will not be built."

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Afghan Fighting Was 'Fruitless And Expensive'

By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor

Two men, successive commanders of the Special Air Service, gave the same advice to their superiors.

One even drove the length of Helmand in an unarmoured Land Rover to seek out the truth.

The first to conduct the reconnaissance, in late 2005, met with tribal elders, drug khans and ordinary farmers, and reported back with these words: "There isn't an insurgency in Helmand - but we can give you one."

The next, who also toured the southern Afghan province where opium farmers quietly produced some 70% of the world's heroin base, came back more specific advice.

He told the Ministry of Defence the military estimate of a light brigade of about 3,000 men was only just adequate to secure a British presence in one town, Lashkagar.

"Anything beyond that risked sparking a conflict that we had no way to control," the former SAS commander said.

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1. Gallery: Life In Camp Bastion

   Soldiers from 2nd Royal Tank Regiment relax in transit accommodation as they prepare to leave Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan after a gruelling six month tour

2. British troops cross themselves during prayer as they stand at ease on the parade square at Camp 501, Camp Bastion

3. The coffin containing the body of British Army soldier L/cpl Paul "Sandy" Sandford is carried by his fellow soldiers during his repatriation ceremony

4. Troops from various regiments including Sandford's, the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment held a repatriation ceremony for the British soldier killed in action on 6 June, 2007

5. British soldiers play a game of Scrabble as they watch the live broadcast of the Royal wedding

6. Soldiers wait to talk to then Chancellor Gordon Brown, with a cross in the foreground - part of a monument in the memory of fallen comrades

7. Merlin Pilot Wing Commander Nigel Colman Officer Commanding 78 Squadron sits at the back of a Merlin at Camp Bastion

8. Troops observe the minute's silence at Camp Bastion during a special Armistice Day Parade on the 93rd anniversary of the end of the First World War

9. Lieutenant Chris Millen, serving with 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, relaxes in his bedspace in transit accommodation as he prepares leave Camp Bastion

10. Capt Robbie Robertson (left) and Capt Olly Denning spar at Camp Bastion

11. Troops from 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards with a Scimitar tank

12. Trooper Ben Rakestrow (right), 21, from Egypt squadron, 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, sits on his rather colourful bedspread with friends in transit accommodation at Camp Bastion

13. Royal Military Police (RMP) as they clear their vehicle and its shelter of snow following a rare snow shower

14. British soldier Jamie Anderson lifts weights as he passes time at Camp Bastion

15. A British soldier controls the ball during a football match as comrades (background), and an Afghan National Army soldier, right, look on during a football training session at Camp Bastion

Smarting from the failure to secure Basra in southern Iraq, senior British officers appeared to both SAS bosses as anxious to recover the forces reputation but blind to the potential costs and the resources kicking the Helmand hornet's nest would need.

It was kicked in 2006. Within weeks of their deployment in Helmand many in 16th Air Assault Brigade were fighting in Forward Operating Bases for their lives.

In Musa Qala, Now Zad, Sangin and along a chain of 'platoon houses', units came close to being overrun and massacred.

Besieged for weeks that stretched into months, they ran perilously close to running out of food, water and ammunition.

The landscape beyond their walls was torn and smashed by wave upon wave of airstrikes against insurgents.

Video: Key Moments In The Conflict

This set the pattern for the next three years.

Tough infantry fighting gave ample opportunity for winning medals and the testing of British fighting spirit. It did nothing for the lives of Helmandis but bring violence.

The troops loved it. The media, myself among them, loved it too. But it was, in the end, entirely fruitless, expensive, bloody and the result of military hubris.

Too few troops were sent, too lightly armed, without sufficient helicopters to do the job.

Proof of this is that by 2010 the province was so angry that about 40,000 troops, 30,000 of them American, were fighting across Helmand and peace was brought to none of it.

Video: Fallon: Afghanistan Now Safer Place

As NATO forces have been withdrawn large chunks of the province have already slipped away from limited government control. Musa Qala and Now Zad have gone, Afghan troops are hanging on to a small base in Sangin.

And the drug khans are enjoying an unprecedented boom. Opium revenues are up by a third this year to $3bn.

Now the Union flag has been lowered, and the last troops pulled out of Camp Bastion, Helmand is to be left to the Afghans to deal with.

NATO's boot is being pulled out of the nest. Let's hope the hornets go back to it.

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Ukraine Election: Breaking Links To The Past

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tweeted a photo of himself flying over an unspecified part of the Donbas region early on election morning.

Wearing his army uniform and sitting next to a machine gunner, he stared meaningfully out from his military helicopter.

The image was clearly meant to show a president taking command of the security situation in the east, resolute and leading from the front.  

The reality is that he is not in control of large parts of the east of his country, and in much of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions the president can't even touch down.

There will be no vote in rebel-held constituencies today.

Video: Poroshenko Makes Election Day Visit

The president has been criticised by some in Ukraine for not taking a strong enough line - for effectively ceding parts of the east to the separatists, and ultimately to Russian pressure.

Seven volunteer battalion commanders are standing for election themselves, urging a more direct, confrontational approach.

A resounding victory for Mr Poroshenko's bloc would be an endorsement, of sorts, of his handling of the crisis thus far - and his insistence that there can be no military solution to the conflict.

This election matters for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it's about breaking the links to the past - clearing out the politicians associated with ousted President Viktor Yanukovich and his now defunct 'Party of the Regions'.

Video: Voters Head To The Polls In Ukraine

The protesters on the Maidan last winter wanted a new politics in Ukraine - an end to the old order, and the old, corrupt way of doing business. 

They want to see evidence of genuine change, not just the same old faces in parliament again.

This election is also about securing legitimacy for the future.

Ukraine's economy is in a parlous state. GDP is expected to fall by up to 10% for the year. Russia cut off gas supplies in a dispute over unpaid bills in June, and there is a long cold winter ahead.

Difficult times and unpopular decisions lie ahead - the new government will need to show it has a genuine democratic mandate to push them through.

Video: 'Darth Vader' Stopped From Voting

There will be no voting in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March, or in the separatist-controlled constituencies of the east - the rebels will hold their own elections there next month.

But where the polls do open in areas of the south and the east - turnout will be the key - whether voters there feel they have anyone who represents them, that their voices can be heard. 

After a year of revolution, conflict, and deep division, the new government needs to be able to show that it is a national government for all of Ukraine, not just for Kiev and the regions in the west.

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Woman Killed As Massive Wave Hits Road

A woman has drowned in Bulgaria after a massive wave from a river hit the road she was travelling on.

It came as parts of the country were lashed by heavy rain, strong winds and snow.

The severe weather led to some roads and houses being flooded in cities including Varna, Burgas and Haskovo.

Water dams were emptied as a precaution after water reached the maximum limit.

People living nearby were ordered to leave their homes.

In Turnovo and Gabrovo, the heavy snow disrupted traffic and caused car crashes, as roads became slippery.

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US Ebola Nurse Slams Quarantine Process

An American nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa has criticised quarantine rules that are keeping her isolated in a US hospital despite testing negative.

Doctors Without Borders worker Kaci Hickox returned to the US from Sierra Leone on Friday and was taken to a New Jersey hospital.

She has tested free of the deadly virus, but was told she will be unable to leave quarantine for another 21 days when the disease's incubation period ends.

Writing in The Dallas Morning News, Ms Hickox said: "This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me.

"I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa.

Video: '10,000 Ebola Orphans By Christmas'

"I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganisation, fear and, most frightening, quarantine."

She said that upon telling a border official she had just arrived back, she was immediately ushered into a private room before having questions "barked" at her.

She said she was made to wait hours with little to eat.

"I... thought of many colleagues who will return home to America and face the same ordeal. Will they be made to feel like criminals and prisoners?" Ms Hickox said.

"The US must treat returning health care workers with dignity and humanity."

Video: Ebola Response: Science Not Fear

Three states - New York, New Jersey and Illinois - introduced the mandatory 21-day quarantine period for anyone who has been involved in treating victims in West Africa.

Other states, including Virginia and Georgia, are also considering whether to impose the same regime.

On Sunday, a top US health official warned that quarantines for medical personnel returning from Ebola-stricken countries could have unintended consequences.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said quarantines could discourage qualified doctors and medics from volunteering in West Africa.

"The best way to protect us is to stop the epidemic in Africa, and we need those health care workers so we do not want to put them in a position where it makes it very, very uncomfortable for them to even volunteer to go," Dr Fauci said in one of a series of US network interviews.

Video: New York Fears After New Ebola case

"If we don't have our people volunteering to go over there, then you're going to have other countries that are not going to do it and then the epidemic will continue to roar."

The number of Ebola cases worldwide has now exceeded 10,000, with nearly 5,000 deaths, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation.

The US quarantines followed the positive diagnosis of 33-year-old Craig Spencer, who fell ill days after returning to his New York City home from treating Ebola patients in Guinea.

The Doctors Without Borders worker was able to travel on the subway and go bowling before he showed the classic symptoms of the virus and had to go to hospital.

Dr Spencer, who is being held at the Bellevue Hospital in New York, was described by officials overnight on Saturday as "entering the next phase of his illness".

Video: Cured Texas Ebola Nurse 'Blessed'

A health service statement said: "The patient is awake and communicating. In addition to the required supportive therapy, we initiated antiviral therapy within hours of admission. We also administered plasma therapy yesterday."

President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday to be guided by the facts about Ebola and "not fear".

Meanwhile, in Sierra Leone, a team from the British Army has started training residents in how to use protective equipment to reduce the spread of the disease.

Many of the locals who have volunteered to help fight the virus have no medical background.

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