this is bbc america, and now live from london, "bbc world news." hello, i'm geeta guru-murthy with "bbc world news." a new report says mh 17 was brought down by high energy objects that pierced the plane. rescue workers try to reach flood-hit areas of india and pakistan. hundreds of people have died. a man is killed in a shark attack in a popular tourist spot in australia. and south sudan on the brink of famine. the u.n. warns at least four million people, including thousands of children, are facing starvation.

hello. a report on the malaysian airlines flight mh17 disaster in eastern ukraine says it was probably caused by the aircraft being struck by multiple high-energy objects from the outside. the report by dutch officials says that there are no indications that the crash was due to any kind of technical fault with the plane. there was also no evidence of any emergency or pilot error. the report has found the wreckage on the ground suggests the plane broke up during the flight. all 298 people died in the crash in july. this report doesn't blame anyone directly. i asked our correspondent anna holligan about the significance

of the findings. >> this is significant because it's the first official account of what happened. we're told in this report, the flight broke up in the air probably as a result of structural damage caused by a large number of high energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from its side. the report goes on to say that the airplane was air-worthy when it took off from amsterdam on the 17th of july. there were no known technical problems, and it was manned by a qualified and experienced crew. the report that's been put together by the dutch safety authority here in the hague is not designed to attribute blame or criminal responsibility, but what it allows the investigators to do is to discount other possibilities. and all of this implies that the plane was indeed hit by a missile, which has been subject to all the speculation. but the criminal investigation is being conducted by the dutch prosecutors, and this report --

this first preliminary report is purely designed to look at the aviation circumstances surrounding the crash. >> and it appears as though shrapnel hit it and the plane basically split up midair. there was no warning to the crew at all, was there, or to any of its systems? >> reporter: exactly. and what's interesting is that these aviation inspectors haven't actually been able to access the crash site at any point because they've prioritized the forensic investigation and the process of recovering the bodies, and they were worried, the dutch government was worried if they sent in these aviation inspectors, that it could jeopardize that process. so what they're relying on are those technical aspects, the black box flight data recorder, and also the voice recorder. it says here a full listening of the communication among the crew members in the cockpit recorded on the cockpit recorder reveals no sign of any technical fault

or an emergency situation. but what's interesting too is that there's no report of any kind of big bang. it was an immediate breakup, and the flight data recorder registered no aircraft system warnings, and all of the aircraft engine parameters, which sounds rather technical, were consistent with normal operation. so this was an unexpected disaster, and it's one that, as you know, has cut deep inside this country. the majority of victims onboard were from here in the netherlands. 298 passengers onboard. and all of this, the forensic investigation, is still going on. 173 bodies have so far been identified and we'll be bringing you more from here in the hague throughout the morning. >> anna holligan there. although the report is careful not to blame anyone, there's speculation that pro-russian rebels in eastern ukraine shot the aircraft down. let's go live to moscow. our correspondent steve

rosenberg is there. steve, has there been any response from the government there to this report? >> well, there's been some reaction today. a few minutes ago, the deputy head of russia's air transport agency went on russian state television. he said -- he stressed this was only a preliminary report. he said there was much more work to be done before a full report could be issued. he said there needs to be examination of the crash site, of the wreckage. he said there needs to be a comprehensive study of forensic data, too, and he said without a comprehensive study of all these kind of things, it would be impossible to reach a conclusion about who was responsible for this crash. he also said a lot of time had been lost, and that some aspects of the crash will be difficult to actually piece together. >> okay. steve rosenberg there in moscow, thanks very much indeed. for more detail on the report, you can go to the website where we have a full breakdown, a background into what we know

already, and what these findings actually mean. bbc.com/news. well, the military in ukraine says there has been further fighting with pro-russia rebels in the east of the country. a spokesman for the defense ministry says four government troops have been killed since the cease-fire deal was signed with the rebels. in another statement, it is confirmed that some dissidents have been released, with the negotiation of the ongoing release of a further 500. the foreign minister sergei lavrov says the cease-fire is being held in general. he said he hoped talks between the government and pro-russian rebels would start shortly, but he added that russia was worried about heavy concentration of ukrainian troops in parts of eastern ukraine. well, of course, the whole question of sanctions is still

ongoing. had an announcement yesterday, didn't we? >> expecting the eu sanctions to kick in in a few days. the question is what will moscow retaliate with. we'll explain. thanks very much. eu ambassadors in brussels, they have agreed a new package of sanctions against russia because of its continuing support for rebels in eastern ukraine. the outgoing european council president said the new sanctions would come into force in the next few days. they are expected certainly to deepen earlier penalties targeting russia's energy and arms sector. russia had tried to warn off further eu sanctions by hinting it would introduce a flight ban preventing some western airlines from flying over its air space. we know about 1,600 flights between europe and asia a week. if that happens, the biggest hit for european airlines would be for air france. we're going to have more coming up on "gmt" in just over an

hour's time. also, it is a big, big day for these guys. yep, for apple and apple fans, because the tech giant will announce its latest range of products. let's just take a look at some of the ideas being bandied around by tech experts. widely anticipated is the launch of its newest iphone, the iphone 6. it is expected to be larger than previous versions, potentially coming in two different screen sizes. 4.7 inches, and 5.5 inches. also, many experts expect apple to wow consumers by launching a completely new gadget. the speculation is, yep, it's going to be for something like this. an iwatch. it's been four years since apple's launched a new gadget. everybody asking does apple still have the magic? we'll wait and see. that's happening later on in the afternoon our time, u.s. morning time. follow me on twitter. you can get me @bbcaaron.

>> next week, please bring me one in. >> yes. sure, geeta, no problem. >> see you soon. rescue workers are struggling to reach thousands of people stranded by floods in india and pakistan. at least 400 people are thought to have died in severe flooding in the two countries. more than 200 of those in pakistan's punjar province. a big concern is a river flowing from across the border in india. >> reporter: we've had a firsthand taste of the amount of disruption this flooding has caused. this is the only road into the nearby towns that is still in any way passable. but as you can see, it's still a pretty tough journey. so we're now on one of the rescue boats that is trying to evacuate people from all these

outlying villages before the waters rise too high. this is a team from the local government and they've been hard at it for days. it is a farming area where they grow rice and sugar cane, but now it's been turned into one giant lake. the village has been cut off for days. women and children go first. the boats keep going out and finding more people who have been trapped by the rising waters. but this farmer tells me he's now facing ruin. i've never seen a flood like this, he says. we've lost our cattle and our crops and now we're standing on the road without anything. and this is what they're worried about, this vast surge of water that's been barreling downstreams. some of it coming from india. and where i am right now is in many ways the last line of defense against further flooding, this big barrage. but the levels of water are now

rising so fast, they're worried this could get overwhelmed as well. in the meantime, hundreds of people are leaving. they're taking their livestock with them, everything, all their valuables. it's becoming a mass exodus. >> andrew north there in punjab province. after more than eight months of fighting in south sudan, the country is now on the brink of famine. the u.n. says at least four million people are facing starvation after farmers missed the planting season. the rainy season has also destroyed roads in the country, making it difficult for aid agencies to deliver humanitarian assistance to those who need it. here is a report now from south sudan. >> reporter: this boy is fighting for his life. he's just 1 year old, but already facing complications caused by hunger. his mother walked for more than four hours to get him to this health center. two weeks of treatment have not helped him. he's getting weaker.

he's at this clinic with five other children suffering with severe malnutrition. but others in their village are not so lucky. >> translator: we don't have enough food, and because of the fighting, there is no road for traders to bring food into the village. there's so many other sick and mall -- malnourished children in the village. >> 50,000 children could die of malnutrition by the end of the year if they do not get help. many of the most vulnerable can't even reach the clinic. >> they carry the children to the center. >> reporter: aid agencies are in a rush against time to try to deliver medical food and supplies to those displaced by the fighting in south sudan, but

it is not an easy task. >> people have flooded into very remote access and have no access to any kind of support since the conflict broke out last december. >> reporter: to get to these people, aid agencies have been forced to hire expensive planes and helicopters. we accompanied one flight delivering aid in the north of the country. even from the air, what looks like dry land is actually swamps. water is everywhere. on the ground, roads are impassable, assessable only by four wheel drive cars, but in this conflict, it is the people in remote villages that are suffering the most. this village is home to about 3,000 people, mainly from the community who have been displaced by the ongoing fighting here in south sudan. the majority of them walk long distance in search of food and they cross just here to a river and collect this, which is dried water lily, and that is what the majority of them depend on to

survive. desperate families have fled to seek safety, and despite the looming famine, people here are trying to rebuild their lives, hoping for better days. bbc news, south sudan. stay with us here on bbc "world news." still to come, we'll talk to our correspondent in baghdad about how a new government for iraq is planning to tackle a threat from the i.s. militants. [ male announcer ] ours was the first modern airliner,

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self-proclaimed prime minister of the ukrainian rebel donetsk people's republic, he has repeated the pro-russia separatist claim that they never had any air defense means capable of shooting down a commercial jet. it is important to say that that report does not attribute blame. that might come with a criminal investigation that's also going on. but the russian interfax news agency is quoting him as saying i can only say one thing, we simply do not have the kind of hardware that could have downed a commercial boeing, including that malaysian plane. of course, it is the pro-russian rebels that have been blamed for downing the plane. after much haggling, the iraqi parliament has approved a new inclusive government led by the prime minister haider al abadi. jobs for ministers have been assigned under a power showing deal between the shia majority,

the sunnis and the kurds. a credible government is considered crucial to the struggle against the jihadists of the group islamic state. let's speak now to our correspondent who is live in baghdad following events for us. can you just tell us a bit more about the makeup of the government and whether it is thought that the sunni involvement in particular is going to be anywhere near enough to change the state of play in the fight against i.s.? >> reporter: hello, geeta. the government is led by shiite politician haider al abadi, but there was significant representation for iraq's other two communities, the kurds and the sunnis. of course, the major challenge iraq is facing now is the radical sunni group, the islamic state, which now in fact controls large areas, primarily in the sunni heartland in western and northern iraq.

the conventional wisdom, of course, is give more ministerial pause to sunni politicians and security and stability will come. not necessarily a new approach is required if this government is to succeed in defeeding i.s. there was something that the new prime minister talked about that might be even more crucial than the names of the sunni politicians or other politicians of this government, which is the centralization. talked about the idea of forming national guard that will report directly to the governors of the region, so in the sunni areas, that's crucial. it means that this is an initiative to form as sunni forces to fight al qaeda, of course with the help of the central government and possibly the american and western powers. >> and what is the reaction of that idea by the sunni group, if

there's been any? >> reporter: not yet. we have to wait and see. this is now an idea, and it will need to develop. there is so much mistrust between the communities in iraq and we are yet to see how much influence the senior sunni politicians who are now in this government, how much influence do they have on their own community. the issue between the sunni minority in iraq and the shia-led government was very serious. you know, it was actually the main reason, or the rifts and divisions between the sunnis and the government, left the islamic state actually a few months ago when they exploited the grievances of the sunni community and then made their advances. >> okay, lots of questions, but no time left, unfortunately. thanks very much indeed. now, a man has died following a shark attach off the

beach in australia's byron bay. officials say the man was bitten on his leg at a popular tourist spot in new south wales. andy moore reports. >> reporter: byron bay, an idyllic location, but for some time, at least, its waters will be off-limits to swimmers. the dead man was seen floating in the water close to the shoreline, and was dragged to shore by another beach goer. police say it was an extraordinary act of bravery. a rescue helicopter spotted what appeared to be a great white shark in the area shortly after the attack. >> he sustained some severe injuries to his right leg. we're still waiting to have that checked. his family are being notified. unfortunately, his wife was on the beach at the time. >> reporter: shark attacks are still relatively rare off australian waters, but they are becoming more common. off australia's west coast,

large sharks have been baited and killed after seven fatal attacks in three years. it's a move that has attracted widespread protest, like this one on a beach in perth. demonstrators said beach goers needed to coexist with wildlife, not kill it. the byron bay attack is still being investigated and the authorities will be considering their response. andy moore, bbc news. prosecutors in canada have dropped assault charges against singer justin bieber. the case results to an alleged assault last december in toronto when bieber was picked up from a nightclub. claims that he hit the driver several times in the back of the head, but he denied any assault. he still faces charges for a separate incident after an alleged altercation in ontario last month. now, we're launching a new

project called "bbc pop-up." a team of our journalists will be exploring the united states, setting up a mobile bureau for a month in six very different regions of the country. they hit the road and here is their journey so far. >> so we're currently in brooklyn, in new york city. we're about to find stories in the u.s. >> we want to tell the stories of people in these communities, but just to a global audience. >> let's hit the road. >> welcome to "bbc pop-up." >> there are a ton of us in america, each with our own story to tell. but when you think about it, most of the news seems to come from the same old places. but most of the 320 million americans don't even live there, and when journalists do visit these locations, they're the ones typically choosing the

stories. well, not this time. "bbc pop-up" is packing up and heading west to ask americans what stories they want us to tell about their hometown. >> that could have been really bad. >> road accident in our new car. >> so, why colorado? many of the big debates about the future of america are happening right here. the legalization of marijuana, abortion, education. we've chosen boulder specifically because it's a liberal dart. hippies came here in the 1960s. we're here, too, of course, and will be for the whole of september. boulder is a progressive paradise. the edge of the rockies. but that doesn't mean there's no trouble in paradise. it's got income inequality, homelessness, a lack of

diversity, and we'll tell you more as we get going. we want to talk to you a bit about what stories we want. >> how people have died. >> here, it's such a nonissue. >> you can't build into the open space. it was a very intentional creation. >> we hosted our first ever town hall meeting, which was fantastic. we heard brilliant stories in the region. on one of those was that it is the one-year anniversary of the floods in this region, and so i think we need to act accordingly and follow that one up. but stay tuned. more is coming. >> yes, more from matt and benjamin in colorado throughout the day here on bbc world news. find out more about their pop-up project on the website, and you can read the team's blog as well from behind the scenes, all their fun on the road.

let me just remind you of our top story. that report on mh17 saying the plane that went down in ukrainian rebel territory seems to have broken up midair as a result of large number of small explosive objects. and the rebel group there have said they never had the defense means capable of shooting down a plane. (vo) ours is a world of passengers. the red-eyes. (daughter) i'm really tired. (vo) the transfers. well, that's kid number three. (vo) the co-pilots.

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our top stories, brought down by high energy objects that pierced the plane. investigators released the first official report into the malaysian airlines mh17 crash. rescue workers try to reach flood-hit areas of india and pakistan. hundreds of people have been killed. a man has died in a shark attack in a popular tourist spot in australia. and concern over a potential flash point in the south kind

sea. we have a special report from the spratly islands. >> it's been transformed into a giant construction site, and this is where the philippine government thinks china may be building its south china sea air base. hello, and welcome. a report on the malaysia airlines flight mh17 disaster in eastern ukraine says it was probably caused by the aircraft being struck by multiple high energy objects from the outside. the report by dutch officials says there are no indications that the crash was due to any kind of technical fault, and there was no evidence of any emergency or pilot error. the report has found that the

pattern of the wreckage on the ground suggests the plane broke up during the flight. of course, all 298 people died in the crash in july. this report doesn't blame anyone directly. meanwhile, a top rebel commander in ukraine has reiterated the separatist claim that they never had the air defense capability to shoot down a commercial jet. anna holligan reports. >> reporter: mh17, it's one of the biggest air disasters in dutch history. under normal circumstances, an aviation investigation would start at the scene of the crash, but these investigators weren't allowed to access the site. the dutch government was afraid their presence might jeopardize the forensic team's efforts to recover the passengers' bodies. the evidence used to compile today's report includes the black box flight data recorder, satellite images, information from air traffic control, and photos from the scene. this is the headquarters of the dutch safety board, which has

been leading this international investigation. experts from the uk, the u.s., germany, russia, ukraine, malaysia, and australia have all been collaborating on this case. this is not the final report. that's due out sometime next year. but the preliminary report is significant because it's the first official account of what actually happened. so far, more than 220 coffins have been returned to the netherlands, with an unknown number of bodies inside. to date, 193 people have been identified. from the moment the first bodies were repatrioted, the dutch authorities have sought to restore the honor and dignity that was stolen from the families. one of the main purposes of this preliminary aviation report is to give the relatives conclusive answers to some of their many questions about how this disaster happened and why. anna holligan, bbc news in the

hague. >> the military in ukraine says there's been more fighting with pro-russia rebels in the east of the country. a spokesman for the defense ministry said four government troops have been killed since the cease-fire deal was signed with rebels. in another statement, the government in kiev confirmed that 648 prisoners who were held by rebel forces have been released. the negotiations ongoing to secure the release of a further 500. sergei lavrov said the cease-fire is being observed in general. he said he hoped talks between the ukrainian government and the pro-russian rebels would start shortly, but he added that russia was worried about a heavy concentration of ukrainian troops in parts of eastern ukraine. now, rescue workers are struggling to reach thousands of people stranded by floods in india and pakistan. 400 people are thought to have died in severe flooding in both countries. many of them in pakistan's punjab province.

the floods are described as the worst in the area for a half a century. >> reporter: i'm on an indian air force helicopter carrying relief supplies to the flood victims. we've just taken off, and are flying over the mountains towards the kashmir valley to one of the worst affected. you can see over here, we are carrying supplies of food packed inside these sacks, tomatoes, eggplant, onion, supplies of fruits and vegetables that are urgently needed by communities that have been cut off for days, and are desperate for help. we've now landed at the main air base here, and the supplies we brought with us have been unloaded. you can see over here that apart from the vegetables, there are also cartons of milk, and over here chickens that have been brought by other flights.

now, all of this is going to be loaded on to military trucks and then driven across to the villages in the mountains you can see there and beyond. ordinary levies would have come here by road from the main highway linking southern and northern kashmir, but that's been washed away, so there are no supplies getting through to the market. the only way you can get all of this to the communities that urgently need them is this way. >> he's there in india reporting on the flooding. lots of help urgently needed there. in other news, the charity is being completely overwhelmed with the number of ebola patients in liberia. nsf says they are having to turn desperate people away every day and describes the situation there as out of control. new figures from the united states suggest the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere hit a record level last year. concentration of greenhouse

gases rose at their fastest rate since 1984. a call for a new global treaty to tackle climate change. the international cricket council has suspended the pakistan off spinner from bowling in international matches after his bowling action was found to be illegal. tests showed that he was flexing his arm more than the laws allowed. he won't be allowed to bowl in international matches until he has been reassessed and cleared. now, after much haggling, the iraqi parliament has approved a new inclusive government led by the prime minister haider al abadi. jobs for ministers have been assigned under a power showing deal between the shia majority and the kurds. a credible government is considered crucial to the struggle against the jihadists of the group islamic state. jim muir is in erbil, told me more about the reaction to the announcement of this new inclusive government.

>> reporter: well, i would say all around there's kind of cautious relief, but nobody has any illusions about the task that lies ahead. yes, sunnis are involved. the kurds are also banned. both of those communities have pulled out of nuri al maliki's outgoing government, but that doesn't mean to say it's going to work. the kurds have already said if they don't get their demands met within three months, they will walk out. so the most important thing is the sunnis, and whether they are going to feel or be given reason to feel fully empowered. their regions will be given a degree of the not autonomy, at least control over their own security, finance, and so on. the kind of deevolution that's going to be needed to diffuse the very bad sectarian tepgss that are now raging on the ground, especially after the latest upheavals of the last three months. it's a very vicious situation and it's not a very solid

platform for launching a unified attempt to root out the islamic state from among the sunni commonty where is they've been able to establish themselves because of sunni grievances. so a huge amount of work has to be done, and just having some ministers in a cabinet in baghdad is only the beginning of a very long and uphill struggle. >> jim muir there in erbil. now more on our breaking news, of course, this morning on the report into the mh17 plane crash. we've had a statement from the prime minister of malaysia, as you'd expect. this is the first official report. it does strongly suggest that the plane was brought down in a missile attack. let's go to our correspondent in kuala lumpur. jennifer pak is there. just tell us more about what the prime minister has said. >> reporter: well, prime minister najib says that the report confirms what malaysian officials have been saying all along, that the plane did not enter into restricted air space, that the aircraft itself was fit

to fly, and that the crew had acted properly. in other words, the national carrier did nothing wrong. he also says, of course, that the reports suggest that this was a missile attack, but he did add caution, saying that further investigative work is needed. he has said before that malaysian officials, the investigative team need to go down there to collect physical evidence that could hold up in court. he has promised the family members of the victims on mh17 that they will get to the bottom of this and hold those accountable. in fact, there is a malaysian team already in ukraine trying to gain access to the crash site, to not only collect the remains, but to also collect evidence, and today we saw two more bodies being returned to malaysia, given full military honors. >> it's incredible that it's taken so long. very distressing for the families, of course. there has been criticism, of course, generally about the r t

route. is that mentioned in the report? and what is the other response generally to today's publication? >> well, malaysian officials, as i said, have strongly said all along that they were cleared to fly over that air space. it is considered one of the highway traffic from asia to europe, and so they said all along that they were flying well above the recommended height, and that they were not in the wrong. it seems malaysians have generally accepted that. what they really do want is someone to be held accountable. we cannot forget that this country is not facing just this one air disaster, they're looking at another one, mh370, for which there was no conclusion, no evidence, and no new leads. so malaysians are very anxious to bring closure at the very least to one of these airline disasters and they're looking very much forward to the investigative team to find more, and as the prime minister says, to hold those accountable. >> just very briefly, we were reporting yesterday on the

missing flight that we still don't know where it crashed, the previous one earlier this year. what about malaysian airlines itself and what about people's confidence in flying? >> reporter: well, malaysian airlines has taken a beating from these two airline disasters. they did see a drop in passengers coming onboard. they are currently selling a lot of advertisements in the local media for cheaper airfare, and there is a movement, at least, among some malaysians, especially after mh17 being shot down, that they feel -- or that it crashed, that they feel they should support the national carrier. and right now, the government has taken it back to restructure it. but i have to remind you that the airline itself had been facing problems, financial problems long before these two airline disasters. it didn't mean necessarily that it cut into the quality of its flying or that it cut back on any of the safety features, but what it does mean is that the airline is looking at extensive

restructuring, of which they are looking at job cuts, which amount to about 30% of job cuts. >> okay. jennifer pak there in kuala lumpur. thanks a lot. yemeni soldiers have opened fire on protesters attempting to storm the cabinet building in the capital. late protesters have blocked the main road to sanna's airport. let's speak to the bbc's mya norman. this is a country that many people have been worried about for many, many years. but just bring us up to date on recent events and what's happened today. >> reporter: well, let me start with today. there have been clashes between protesters and government forces outside the capitol building. this all happened after the police opened fire on

protesters. as you mentioned, there are reports of several deaths and injured people. these protests have actually started a few weeks ago in the capital, when after they decided to stage these demonstrations, post the government decision to lift subsidies on fuel. and now they are demanding for the government -- the yemeni government to step down and revoke their decision to lift fuel subsidies. >> we've seen in the past u.s. involvement in yemen. how would you sum up the political stability situation there in yemen at the moment? >> yemen has been going through this transitional period ever since the 2011 revolution. and this transitional period has been backed by the gulf

corporation council, as well as the u.n. this resulted in a national dialogue, and the government was in protest of implementing these outcomes. now, the hoties are saying this government is actually not going forward in implementing what has been agreed in this national dialogue, and so you can see that there are political tensions between different factions here in yemen. >> we're just seeing some of the pictures that have been coming into us, of course, in the newsroom in the last day or so. in terms of these current protests and what's happened today, how worrying is it? >> reporter: well, no one knows really what's going to happen next, but this is a country that is heavily armed. most households here carry weapons and it's been a -- people say it's been a miracle that it hasn't actually escalated into a civil war after the first revolution.

there's a real sense of worry and concern that if this situation is not contained, then it could escalate into a wide scale conflict. >> okay, mai noman, good to talk to you. stay with us here on bbc news, much more to come. could you do this now? or let alone, when you're 88 years old? we meet the british choreographer who performed for troops in world war ii and is still teaching today. nie. miney. more adventures await in the seven-passenger lexus gx. see your lexus dealer. revolutionary by every standard.

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after all, you can't turn drebecause of it.anes men's rogaine® has definitely made a difference. this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy. the top stories. it appears that malaysian airlines mh17 was shot down over eastern ukraine. thousands of people are still stranded after floods have hit india and pakistan.

countries have wrangled over territory in the south china sea for generations, but a recent upsurge in tension has sparked concern that the area is becoming a serious flash point. the spratlys are an island chain situated in a key shipping resort. this is how the islands would be divided up between neighboring countries if a 200-mile global exclusion zone is applied. but china believes this red line which stretches hundreds of miles from its own coastline gives it control of the spratlys. the bbc traveled to the gaven reef in the spratlys where he found china has found a new way of pressing its territorial claim. >> reporter: on a fishing boat in the middle of the south china sea, i am on the hunt for the spratly islands. i want to find out whether

claims that china is building new territory out here are true. then on the horizon, what looks like land. an island where there shouldn't be one. on my gps, and this has the latest software on it, it says elevated house with a mark of a reef. it's very clear that this ahead is not a reef. it's an island. and that island was not there a few months ago. as we forge closer, the weather closes in. the new island disappears behind a shroud of rain. we plow on south, and the rain gradually clears. after four hours, we spot a vietnamese fishing boat. and then dead ahead, another island. this one even bigger, and it is a hive of activity. this place behind me here is called johnson south, and until a few months ago, it was a

chinese controlled submerged reef. now as you can see, it's been transformed into a giant construction site. and this is where the philippine government thinks china may be building its south china sea air base. these aerial photos show what this place looked like a year ago, and then in february, and finally march this year. millions of tons of material have been pumped into the reef to create new land. our filipino captain is shocked by what we've seen. we used to come here all the time to fish, he tells me. now with all this construction, i think it won't be long until we can't come here anymore. as if on cue, the chinese start firing flares into the sky, warning us it's time to leave. china claims the entire south china sea, including all the

spratly islands. beneath this vast claim may lie billions of tons of oil and gas. early next morning, a new silhouette appears on the his or her rison. a rusting world war ii hulk stuck atop another reef. this ancient rust bucket is the philippine navy ship sierra madre. onboard, a tiny garrison of ten philippine marines, all that stands in the way of another chinese takeover. just beyond the reef, two chinese chips roam up and down. the coast of the philippines is about 120 nautical miles in that direction. the coast of china, on the other hand, is 800 miles in that direction. but those two chinese ships sitting just off the reef behind me are here to enforce beijing's claim that this submerged reef

is actually chinese territory. for the last year, the chinese ships have been blockading the sierra madre, trying to stop fresh supplies and wearing down the marines' morale. our families are far away, he says, so it's a big sacrifice. food is limited and it's difficult to avoid boredom and sadness. while these philippine marines live in peril of falling through their own rusting deck, beijing's ambition to turn this sea into a chinese lake moves onward almost unopposed. bbc news in the spratly islands. a man has died after being attacked by a shark in australia. the 50-year-old man was bitten while swimming off a beach in byron bay, the most easterly poin on the australian mainland. beaches in the area have been closed for 24 hours and people

are being warned to stay out of the water. could you do the splits when you're 88 years old? here's someone who can. a renowned british choreographer was just 17 when she was sent to perform for troops fighting for germany in the second world war. we went to find out the secret to her enduring success. >> go, martin. good. >> reporter: up, down. up again. change this. do that. the lady with restless energy is dame jillian lynn. she is recreating a ballet from her youth, a ballet about working class life in glasgow. this is quite a raunchy little sequence. 17 years on from when it first

appeared. >> there. that's me. >> reporter: on the end? >> on the end. >> reporter: and here she is aged 17. jillian lynn performing back in 1944. these people you were playing for, they'd probably never seen ballet before. >> i'd think most of them had not. and i'm quite sure there's quite a bit of swearing about oh, is that all we've got to see? and then they became fans. >> reporter: the question on my mind, though, was how at 88 does she keep so active? the answer is dame gillian's morning routine. >> you notice i get down in a very funny way. that's because of the metal hips. >> reporter: you have two metal hips? >> yeah, i have two metal hips and this foot has got two huge

nails through it because it's fused, because it gave up after -- i think i had 35 sprains on it. you know, you have to keep these legs limber. you have to keep your crotch open. and you don't give up. and, you know, if you wake up and think i'm too tired to do it today, that's the beginning of the end, especially for an older person. >> reporter: are you going to retire? >> no. no. i dare not. i'd go -- like that if i retired. no, i don't. >> reporter: so now you know. to create something like this at 88, you need to start the day the dame gillian way. >> sadly, that is never going to happen in our household. she looks absolutely amazing. with that, we're just going to leave you with a story about justin bieber, because prosecutors in canada have

dropped assault charges against the singer justin bieber. the case relates to an alleged assault last december in toronto when bieber was picked up from a nightclub in a limousine. police were investigating claims the singer hit the driver in the back of the head. bieber denied any assault and prosecutors say the charges have been dropped because there no reasonable prospect of conviction. that's it from me. thanks for watching. see you soon. are the largest targets in the world, for every hacker, crook and nuisance in the world. but systems policed by hp's cyber security team

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hello. you're watching "gmt" on bbc news. our top stories. the first report is released into the crash of malaysian airlines flight mh17 over eastern ukraine. investigators say the plane broke up in midair after being hit by what it calls a large number of high velocity objects. we'll be asking, does that mean the plane was shot down by a missile? also ahead, a new inclusive government is signed off in iraq as president obama seeks congressional approval to step up t f