but the comfort it provides is it's justimmeasurable.ece the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes, every day. so this season give something that means something. hello, and welcome to "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm stephen sackur. our top stories. britain feels the fallout from the cia torture report as it's revealed uk and u.s. intelligence officials were in close contact during the investigation of cia abuses. a british government denies allegations that it asked the americans to cover up uk complicity in the torture of terror suspects. the suffering of thousands on mount sinjar. we have an exclusive report from inside the yazidi communities

still besieged by islamic state fighters. >> translator: i want to go to school, but right now, i must learn how to use a gun to protect our land. and we meet the unhappy greek tiger being given a new life in california. thanks to the intervention of an animal lover. and aaron's here with all the business, including a look at the impact of a general strike in italy. >> yeah, stephen. the striker's motto means "this is not the right way." thousands of workers from transport and medical to teachers are taking to the streets across italy, protesting against this man, matteo renzi's new jobs act, which is supposed to make it easier for companies to hire and fire. a very warm welcome to

"gmt." it's 4:00 p.m. in kabul, and 7:00 a.m. in washington, where the u.s. senate report and claims of torture by the cia is still sending shock waves around the world. attention now turning to those countries which may have been involved or complicit in the alleged torture of terrorism suspects. the uk government has acknowledged that british and u.s. intelligence officials were in close contact as the report was being prepared. but they deny that any request was made to cover up british involvement in so-called extraordinary rendition, or torture. meanwhile, the head of the u.s. senate intelligence committee has rejected cia claims that the use of brutal techniques did yield information that saved american lives. dianne feinstein tweeted that critical intelligence obtained was unrelated to enhanced interrogation techniques. here is this report from washington. >> reporter: the cia's headquarters are situated just outside washington. away from the daily media fire

storm in the capital. but now journalists have been given a rare glimpse inside the spy agency, wanting to know what its director would describe as torture, the harsh interrogation techniques used after 9/11. >> officers used techniques that had not been authorized, were abhorrent, and rightly should be repudiated by all. >> reporter: he said that after 9/11, the agency was under pressure to prevent future attacks. and he could not be sure it was the actual interrogation techniques used, such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation, that helped elicit intelligence. >> what the agency's point has been consistently and my view is after having reviewed the documents is that there was useful intelligence, very useful, valuable intelligence that was obtained from individuals who had been at some point subjected to the eits.

whether that could have been obtained without the use of those eits is something, again, that is unknowable. >> reporter: all this took place under the previous administration of george w. bush. those who worked for him have rushed to the spy agency's defense. the debate about who is right and who is wrong rages on. but there is a sense of fatigue. a former torture victim from the vietnam war era john mccain said it was time to consign the debate to the past. >> it is behind us and it's not allowed anymore, so i think that america understands that this was a wrong chapter in our history and now we need to move on. >> reporter: in the u.s., president obama has said he does not want to pursue recriminations for cia operatives who overstepped the mark. but after yesterday's frank admission of some failings on the part of the cia all those years ago, he also wants to ensure the agency's credibility can be restored. bbc news, washington.

>> so let's dig a little deeper. how much influence did britain have over this report? information obtained by human rights group here in london reveals that since 2009, there were 24 meetings between british politicians and intelligence officials and members of the senate intelligence committee. that before the report was published. former british foreign secretary william hague has confirmed representations were made to the committee about uk material in the report, but he claims there was no attempt to influence the content. the chairman of the uk intelligence and security committee says the brutal techniques carried out by u.s. agents would be unacceptable here in britain. >> in the united states, they did get authority from the president for what they called extraordinary methods of interrogation, enhanced intergiginte

interrogati interrogation. that is a euphemism for torture. that is now acknowledged and admitted. it happened in the united states. it is unlawful if anything was suggested of that kind in the united kingdom. >> with me right now is steven gray, the man who broke the story about cia rendition flights some years ago. you know this story pretty well. what you've learned from the cia and what we now know about the contacts between uk and u.s. intelligence, does that lead you to believe that there are things about british involvement that have been hidden? >> well, yes, there are plenty of things about british involvement or knowledge of this program that have been hidden. but they would be done automatically. it doesn't require lobbying by britain. those are the rules that the cia will self-censor, the white house will self-censor references to british intelligence, in the same way as we saw here, courts and other

bodies censoring information about what they knew about what the u.s. was doing. the really surprising thing is that we have a government and politicians in parliament here who said categorically they condemned both the use of torture, but any involvement with it. the surprising thing is they haven't asked the united states to publish as much as possible about britain's role. because there needs to be common agreement across the atlantic to reveal these kind of secrets. >> but to be clear about it, we've just heard sir malcolm rifkind there saying point-blank, look, we don't do these sorts of things. we don't torture. we would never torture. do you buy that? >> i don't think there's any evidence that's emerged that british intelligence services have been involved in torture. but they did know about what was going on. and that has emerged. the intelligence and security committee here is a committee that essentially on trial, they didn't expose many things that

were subsequently found to have happened. for example, british involvement in the rendition of two libyan dissidents to colonel gadhafi's libya. they're now redoing their report, but we have yet to see that this is a committee that's really capable of holding the intelligence services to account. >> let me ask you a wider question, which does come out of the debate that's been raging in washington over the last 48 hours. do you believe from your contacts in the intelligence community, and particularly looking at the u.s., that officials today no longer believe that this terrible phrase they used enhanced interrogation tech neeniquetech they no longer believe those techniques work. or are there some who do believe that torture does work, does extract extra information? >> well, if you remember, i started writing about these things more than ten years ago, and we still haven't heard all the answers. there's plenty that hasn't been

revealed. they haven't had an inquiry into the rendition of people to places other than the cia's interrogation, places like egypt and morocco. >> you mean not the so-called black sites that the cia was running, but other places, too. >> far worse things. but far worse places that happened in electric shock treatment, that sort of thing in places like morocco. but plenty of people within the cia who were speaking to people like me who absolutely rejected these techniques. what we have here is a story of a small number of people who hired some people who were trained in resisting torture, the sort of north korean torture and veietnamese torture. they hired these outside contractors to run a program, which many people in the cia found to be absolutely abhorrent, and yes, they have found that torture does make people talk. but what the report lays bare and what most people in the cia believe is that you can get this information in other ways.

that the torture wasn't the necessary factor that made these people talk. >> we have to leave it there, but stephen grey, thank you for joining us on "gmt" today. in other news now, the u.s. house of representatives has narrowly passed a $1.1 trillion federal spending bill, just hours before the midnight deadline was due to expire. the republican measure was passed by 219 votes to 206 after a day of arm twisting by the white house to try and persuade democrats to support the budget. the spending package will fund most federal operations until september of next year. russian central bank is thought to have again intervened to shore up the value of the ruble. the currency dropped to a new low before recovering. traders say the bank may have spent seven hundred million to stop the ruble falling below 58 to the u.s. dollar. and royalty from around the world have attended the funeral

of belgiubelgium's former queen died last week aged 86. she'll be buried next to her husband on the royal estate. the couple had no children, and after his death, the crown passed to his brother. now, let's go to iraq. you may remember some months ago when so-called islamic state fighters launched a major offensive in northern iraq. we heard a lot about the minority sect, the yazidis. they were targeted by the jihadi militants. it's thought that hundreds were killed and thousands of women and children were kidnapped. well, four months later, many yazidi villagers are still trapped on mount sinjar. the bbc has this exclusive report.

>> reporter: a dangerous and desperate mission to reach thousands trapped by so-called islamic state. a lifeline for yazidis, forced to flee months of fighting. these helicopters are the first, the only way they can escape and receive supplies. a mad scramble for safety. this man and his family, from a lack of water and food, have fled again and again as i.s. attack village after village. separated from her family, nadia cradles a 10-day-old baby. she's worried about her daughter's future. those who have stayed behind form a rag tag army of old men and farmers. fear is everywhere.

islamic state's positions are less than a mile away. after living in these lands for several centuries, this is the first time yazidis have had to take up arms to protect their families. this is a gentle and shy 14-year-old. his life has changed completely. >> translator: i want to go to school, but right now, i must learn how to use a gun to protect our land. >> reporter: we spent a night in the camp as villagers told us what happened to them. this man and his family help others, but then their home was also attacked. now she says she is still afraid.

>> translator: they were right behind us. the bullets were passing us like rain. >> reporter: she fled carrying her little sister. they lost everything. and have been living off what little aid they get. their grandmother says she cries every day. >> translator: we are scared. we have no food. it's the same as being in prison. >> reporter: freezing overnight temperatures gave way to a damp and cold morning. as winter approaches, the situation will only get worse. and for the displaced, little chance of a return to tear village. bbc news, sinjar. do stay with us on "bbc world news." because still to come, after a grisly discovery in

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a powerful storm with heavy rain and high winds has been making its way south along the west coast of the united states. tens of thousands of homes are now without power and flights have been disrupted as well. the national weather service warned that it could be the most significant storm in ten years. there are warnings of flash floods and high winds. ben bland has the latest. >> reporter: this is not how californians normally get around town, but this is not normal californian weather. some were making the most of it. others counting the cost. heavy rain and high winds at one

point left more than 200,000 people without power. some were willing to get their feet wet to help others. >> i've got some friends with some business in town. i'm just going to walk around and see if anyone needs help clearing water out or squeegeeing their floors and trying to save any damage. >> reporter: disruption has been widespread. roads blocked. cars stranded. and shops shut. but what's caused the extreme conditions? >> what we find happening at the moment is what's known as the pineapple express. it's a warm, moist band of air which moves from hawaii up towards california, almost like a conveyer belt. it's pushed upwards and creates the heavy rainfall, strong winds and storm-like conditions that we've seen over the past week or so. now, there's more to come through friday. possibly into saturday. but after that, it should ease down. >> reporter: hard to believe, but this state is still officially in drought. weather experts say many more months of rain are needed. many had been hoping for it.

but perhaps not quite like this. ben bland, bbc news. in sierra leone, a team from the world health organization say that they have discovered dozens of bodies in a remote area of the country. it's thought they all died from ebola. the discovery raises fears that there are still parts of the country where the outbreak has gone largely unreported. winnie is from the world health organization. she's just returned from kono and joins us from the national ebola response center in the capital of sierra leone freetown. i'm going to warn you that the link isn't terribly reliable, but winnie, tell me first of all about kono, because it seems that is the location where bodies have been discovered, and it seems there is this disturbing prospect that a scale of ebola outbreak there that we didn't even know about. so what have you seen? >> it's an area we've actually been watching. all of the districts are on our radar. we have surveillance officers

out there. and in discussion with the ministry of health, we've really been keeping an eye on things. so this is a remote area. it borders with guinea. it's near the previous hot spot areas. and so they've had sort of a regular trend of maybe 20, 30 cases a month, and then all of a sudden at the end of november, it started to shoot up. and so we thought well, we better get out there, send up some reinforcements and see what's going on. when we got there, that's when we found that the burial team buried 87 bodies in ten days. there were people at the hospital that they hadn't even had the opportunity to bury yet because they were concerned with trying to get the people who were already sick out to hospitals, which took a four-hour balance ride in really difficult conditions all the way to the red cross hospital. so now since we've gotten back, we're sending resources, everybody's been coming together to make sure that this area gets the attention it needs and the resources it needs to do the two things that we know will stop an

ebola epidemic. that is to bury the dead safely, and to get people who are sick out of the community and into treatment centers where they can get care. sadly, in this area, people were reaching care too late. after five or six days. and they hadn't been doing the one thing that they can do at home to keep their strength up so that they have a better chance of survival, which is to drink ors, to drink this rehydration solution. it's just salt and sugar and some minerals in water, but it really can keep you healthy and strong and build up your system so that you can fight ebola and survive. >> it does raise a very serious question, though. if you suddenly find this sort of surge in the scale of the outbreak in a place like kono, could there be other remote locations in sierra leone that you guys haven't reached yet, where similarly the ebola outbreak is running out of control? >> you know, it isn't out of control yet. it was a spike in cases and we

need to get on it right away and get out there with news centers to isolate the people. what kept this one hidden from us is they were out of vehicles. they were either broken, they didn't work, the terrain is very difficult. it's one of those extremely remote areas. so now with the vehicles going in, the surveillance officers will be able to get up and do their detective work and find out where are the other cases? one of the good things about this area is we can still trace from person to person to person how the infection started and where they're going. and in those cases, we can really control the ebola outbreak. we've done it before in an area where we saw a similar bubble of cases. we got right on it. we put community centers way out in remote areas where we were able to isolate the sick, and now there's hardly any cases each week there. so it can work. >> well, we'll end with that optimistic message. winnie, thank you for joining us from freetown, sierra leone. a british animal lover who

raised thousands of pounds to rescue a tiger from a bankrupt greek zoo has flown the animal halfway around the world to a sanctuary in california. the tiger needs veterinary care and the zoo couldn't look after him. earlier this year, another tiger in the same zoo died of neglect. andrew bomford has this report. >> reporter: favos the tiger is a big boy. 41 stone in weight, eats 35 chickens a week. he's been here in central greece since he was rescued from a circus 13 years ago. but now, he needs rescuing all over again. his sister died of neglect at this zoo, and 15-year-old favos needs specialist care, which he's just not getting here. that's why david barnes raised 13,000 pounds to move him to a sanctuary in america. >> it's more daily care and making sure the place is clean, and he's got proper bedding.

you know, for warmth. especially in the winter here where temperatures are sub-zero, and especially when he's a bit on the thin side. he's got the arthritis. it's probably not the best climate in the winter here for him. >> reporter: like everywhere in greece, since the financial crisis, this zoo has no money. other animals here are also suffering. after this mission, david wants to rescue them, too. >> this is not how you look after animals. >> we're not feeling happy that animals are suffering, but we're happy that fa vorvevos is goingy to the united states where the place is better, he's going to have friends and he's going to live the rest of his life in peace, i think, and better conditions. >> reporter: favos here doesn't know it, but he's about to become a flying tiger. seven thousand miles, a 45-hour trip from here in greece to san diego, california, with an overnight stop in london. so, how do you move a tiger weighing three times a grown man

halfway around the world? with difficulty, it turns out. there's no way favos is going to walk into that specially built crate. a vet's on hand to tranquilize him. he's drugged and dragged before being woken again. then loaded on to a truck for the long drive to athens. dawn breaks over the mountains. favos, which means sun god, has a flight to catch. the first six hours of his long journey are almost done. at athens airport, there's great excitement. even here, where cargo is shipped all over the world, it's really unusual to fly a live tiger. no one here can remember anything happening like this before. so this is it for favos.

he's about to leave greece forever. for david here, this is the culmination of a year of hard work. he's certainly hoping favos has a better future. bbc news, athens airport. we'll be back very soon. good luck to favos with his american dream. keep watching.

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this is "bbc world news." i'm stephen sackur. we follow the money to reveal how jihadist militants are financing their fighting with increasingly sophisticated criminal enterprise. now groups like islamic state smuggle oil, run protection rackets, and take hostages to fund their fighters. and what hollywood big shots really think about the actors and directors they work with.

hackers give us a glimpse of the back biting inside sony pictures. aaron's here with all the business and talk. you're going to be looking at the longest running film in the world. >> stephen, here it is! yes, an indian film celebrating its 1,000th week on screen. that is every single day for more than 14 years. it also helped to propel this man to stardom. he is the second-richest actor in the world. we're going to take a look at this $4 billion industry that is known as bollywood. a very warm welcome back to "gmt." in the latest in our special series of reports on jihadist violence, we're looking at the money trail. how the my and the groups finance themselves.

research commission has found that groups such as islamic state and somalia's al shabab are increasingly funding themselves through extortion, smuggling and the sale of natural resources. rather than reliance on wealthy benefactors. another key source of income is ransom money. as paul adams reports. >> reporter: when hostages are freed and returned to their countries and families, the relief and the joy are palpable. by there are always questions, how did this happen? and did money change hands? when the kidnappers are jihadi terrorist groups, the paying of ransoms is illegal. when g8 members met in northern ireland last year, they agreed unanimously not to do it. and yet, many do. >> it's clear that ransoms continue to be paid to al qaeda groups and individuals in breach of u.n. sanctions, and this isn't small change. we're talking about millions of dollars every year flowing to

listed al qaeda groups. >> reporter: the u.n. says it's a growing problem. it says around $120 million in ransom payments were made to terrorist groups between 2004 and 2012. in the last year alone, the group known as islamic state made as much as $45 million. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula received $20 million between 2011 and 2013, and al qaeda in the islamic magreb made $75 million from ransoms over the past four years. >> kidnapping, extortion, to try and keep their funds coming in. >> reporter: for those who handle kidnap and ransom cases all over the world, the ban on paying money to some kidnappers is a challenge to a well-established model. >> if we look at the overall crime throughout the world, the majority are sorted out by ransoms, negotiated settlements rather than the full amount. but where that has taken off the table. if we were confronted with a case against prescribed

terrorist organization, the first, most important piece of advice that we'd give our client is they needed to declare that to the authorities in their home nation as soon as possible. >> reporter: all the main players in the kidnap and ransom industry, including risk consultants and insurance companies, many of them based in london, say they already abide by the rules. but the british government says there are loopholes and it wants to close them. >> to put an end to uncertainty about insurance and reinsurance payments for kidnap and ransom, and to help prevent an important element of terrorist financing, the bill will amend existing law, to make sure uk-based insurance firms do not provide cover for the payment of terrorist ransoms. >> reporter: kidnap insurance is a sensitive business. the companies we contacted did not want to be interviewed. but in a statement, one of the biggest specialist insurers said its policies already exclude reimbursement for any illegally paid ransoms, including payments made to prescribed or terrorist organizations. but the company's head of

special risks sounded a warning. incidents involving prescribed organizations, he said, may now be even more complex and difficult to manage. within the past week, two hostages, luke somers and pierre korkie have been killed in a failed rescue bid. a third, a frenchman finally freed after three years in captivity. when dealing with terrorists, do you negotiate, pay, or fight to get your citizens back? there are no easy answers. paul adams, bbc news. >> with me here in the "gmt" studio is tom keating, the director of the center for financial crime and security studies at the royal united services institute in london. tom, you were very involved in putting together this report on where jihadis' money comes from. let's start with ransom money then move on. how big a proportion is it of the revenues coming into a group like al shabab or islamic state? >> i think for these groups it's a relatively small proportion. if you do the pie chart, it would be a small slice. but it's obviously very

high-profile, particularly because these kidnaps were often used for publicity gain as welch it's important to remember that it's not just international aid workers, journalists, international community being kidnapped. kidnapped is used as a way of extorting money from local people, from local officials, maybe just a few thousand dollars, but it's a major fundraising tool in that regard as well. >> interesting you focus on the rich local people. there's a much broader point here, it seems to me. your message from analyzing the finances of these groups is that they are increasingly finding ways to generate revenues internally, inside the territories they control in which they operate, rather than relying on external benefactors to send the money in to them. >> absolutely. so these groups, like a corporation, start with seat funding. you see that, where there were calls to finance groups from overseas. but as these groups develop, their goal is to become self-sustaining. again, like a corporation.

move from seed investors to internal cash flow generation. so using tax extortion, taking advantage of whatever business there is locally, be it charcoal, be it oil, opium smuggling, these are all things which allow these groups to have much better control over their financing. >> how sophisticated? how clever are they at managing these businesses? >> we underestimate the capability. financial management is at the heart of many of these groups. they would not survive if they were not sophisticated financial managers as well as strategic planners, and if you look at documents that are captured by, for example, the american military in iraq after the invasion of 2003, they reveal corporate style financial operations. >> this is hot money we're talking about. it's money they desperately need, but a lot of people would like to stop them using it. so where do they bank it? where do they store it? and how complicit are banks in the rest of the world? >> organizations like al shabab, like islamic state, they have a form of finance ministry, which controls that money, which stores it -- islamic state has taken control of the banks. it has a banking infrastructure

that it can at least use to store its money. they have no interest in sending money overseas. they don't need to deal with the international banking system. and so they're very self-contained in the way that they can manage their funds. >> it's worrying, because they've now got self-sustaining operation, you're suggesting. >> absolutely. there is -- of course, we can drop bombs on their oil refineries, but the fact of the matter is the self-sustaining setup means that the best weapon we have is patience. >> tom keating, thank you so much for giving us those insights. thanks for joining us on "gmt." there's more on our website, including a new kind of interactive video detailing how islamic state gets its funding. there are points at which you can click on the screen to get more information. there are maps, there's background. it's all at bbc.com/news. now, it's business. that means it's aaron. and aaron, i think you're starting with that big strike in italy. >> big strike, indeed. lots of italians not happy. let me explain why. thanks, stephen. hello there. italy is in the midst of of a

huge general strike today, with public transport, medical services and schools shut all across the country. it has been organizes by unions in opposition to labor reforms made by prime minister matteo renzi. trade unions want to stop the government reforming the country's labor laws which they say protect workers being sacked by unscrupulous firms. but the prime minister has made the reforms certainly the centerpiece of his plan to lift italy out of years of economic stagnation. let's go straight over to rome, and james reynolds is there. james, great to see you, mate. let's start with this. you've been out on the streets. i want to get a sense of just how disruptive is this strike today. >> when you are away from the center of town, the answer is it hasn't brought life to a standstill. restaurants are still open. cafes are open. and many people are going to work, including two municipal workers i saw mowing the lawn in the central square where the strike was taking place.

but i did go and see the main strike. there were tens of thousands of marchers walking and marching up and down the main avenue near the coliseum. they say it's simple. the protections for italian workers are just fine as they are. and they don't need to be changed. but of course, the prime minister says that's not true. for italy to compete with other countries, notably germany, it's got to do something about its labor laws, which protect workers from being fired. >> yeah, that's interesting. because of course, the public or the workers will say they are fine as they are, but there are a lot of things not working in italy in terms of its economy. a lot needs to be done. many outsiders will say this is absolutely crucial that they get this through and get it going. >> those include the international monetary fund, the german chancellor and the european union. they all pretty much say that if italy wants to start growing

again, it has got to make its labor force more flexible and more competitive. people have got to have the ability here to move jobs, to not worry about if they lose a job, to not worry about getting another one. matteo renzi believes he has to try to get this jobs act implemented. he points out that the gdp has dipped in the last year or so. in the decade after 2010, only two countries' economies performed worse than italy's, haiti's and zimbabwe's. >> wow. short and sweet from you. appreciate it. thanks for the update. james reynolds live from rome there. let's switch gears altogether. let's talk about bollywood, because the indian film industry is worth some $4 billion and counting. but today, we're focusing on one film in particular, because it's earned its place in the bollywood hall of fame for being the world's longest running movie. the film is called -- i probably

messed that up. this film has been playing every single day since it opened on october 25th, 1995, running in mumbai. that's more than 14 years, making an estimated over $20 million. we're going to go live to one of our bbc asian network correspondents shortly. but here's a little taste of the film. >> okay, let's talk to our entertainment reporter. actually just promoted into a correspondent for our bbc asian network. great to have you. we saw a little snippet of it. i've got to say, what is it about that film that's given it this longevity? >> aaron, when this film came out in 1995, it had everything.

every ingredient needed to make the perfect bollywood film. you had romance, you had comedy, music, song, dance, and even a bit of action in one three-hour film. so the audience instandpoitly f like they were getting good value for money. it also brought to light family values and holding on to your roots, for indians who had migrated away from the sub helicopt continent. not just indians. they could all relate to the story. >> it also helped to propel the two main stars. i think you were telling me earlier, he's the second-richest actor in the world. unbelievable. in general, bollywood churns out a lot of movies. in general, are they profitable? >> yeah, absolutely. now more so than ever. bollywood is producing its finest quality of films, and also the most highest grossing films of all time so far. i was talking to you earlier about this club, this new sort

of group of films that has emerged. being about 10 million pounds. i'm not sure what that is in dollars. but those films are a class to be the best. so producers from hollywood are looking at bollywood to invest their money there and produce films there as well. >> and that's interesting you say that. we know hollywood is looking at bollywood and even moving into bollywood. these bollywood films aren't just for indians, as you mentioned. this has become a global industry. >> absolutely. and now india really wants to put their films on the same platform as hollywood as well. until now, they hadn't really been an official company that looks at how much money exactly these films are making, but now this film releasing next week, which also stars another bollywood superstar is the first film to use rentrak, an organization that monitors the exact amount of money being taken at every box office. so i think they really are putting their films on a world

platform for more and more people to consume. >> did you love it? >> i've seen it plenty of times. >> i'm sure you have. >> you need to watch it as well. >> okay, good on you. thank you. let me tell you this. governments across the globe, they are grappling with the challenge of providing affordable housing for their ever-expanding populations. in the netherlands, many believe the solution lies not on land, but on water. yeah. in the last of our series on affordable housing, anna holligan reports from the netherlands. take a look. it's really fascinating. >> reporter: a third of the netherlands lies below sea level. the dutch have spent decades developing new ways to incorporate this excess water into their style of living.

iberg lies just a few kilometers outside amsterdam city center. it's the first time that floating homes have been built on this scale. iberg represents the relatively affordable expansion of amsterdam. one of europe's fastest growing cities. the houses are built on concrete tanks and attached to poles in the water the stop them from floating away. each one of these properties costs around half that of an equivalent home in central amsterdam. >> in most major cities, half of even more of the value of the home is the land. so when you have the water or the land more or less for free, in the end, it becomes cheaper. >> reporter: and the production methods save time and money, too. >> we used to build custom built floating homes. and this is the first real project for floating homes that

means repetition. so in a factory, when you have repetition, it means efficiency. >> reporter: the netherlands isn't the only country that's being forced to respond to the rising tides. other flood prone cities, like lagos, mumbai are deriving insights from these dutch designs. anna holligan, bbc news on the water. >> you got it, right? there you go. sorry, dutch friends. follow me on twitter. i'll tweet you right back. you can get me @bbcaaron. i think that was smart. i'd have one. >> yeah, i'm a little disappointed in you today. all that bollywood, you were really getting into the spirit. i thought you were going to give us a song and dance number, and you didn't. >> not today, stephen. >> very, very disappointing, aaron. do stay with us on "bbc world news." still to come, we are going to meet the 85-year-old amazonian artist who fears for future of his tribe. ow!

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you're watching "gmt" with me, stephen sackur. the top stories this hour, the british government denies allegations that it asked the americans to cover up uk complicity in the torture of terror suspects. jihadist groups are funding themselves through extortion and smuggling and they're relying less on donations from wealthy benefactors. that according to new bbc research. a team of dutch scientists are developing palm-sized drones that can fit in your pocket. the bbc's dougal shore has been to find out what they can be used for.

>> we're always droning on about drones, and they look the same, the ones that you and i might be able to pipe but i bet you haven't seen one like this before. it's a pocket-sized drone. how have you made this and why? >> we do research on very small drones. we made our electronics to make it completely autonomous. this is the smallest autonomous drone. >> why are you flying it with a remote control now? >> we are now in a building. there's no gps connection indoor. when we are flying outdoor, i can let it fly from my smart phone. >> if i touch it now, will the auto pilot kick in? >> yeah. so you can see that it's contracting your input. >> and this has a camera on it? can you fly it around a bit so we can see the kind of views? >> yeah, so we can see in the room. that's happening. >> this is quite lightweight,

but we know for the bigger drones, there's strict regulations about where you can fly them because of people's safety. how safe is this? >> so the goal is to make them safe, so if this falls on top of your hit or hits an obstacle, it doesn't matter, because they are very lightweight. they only weigh 20 grandmothers. we try to make them even safer than this size so they are getting safe and can be used inside city environment. >> how do you imagine people using these? >> in 2008 in our university faculty building was burning. i saw that, i took a drone and launched it in the air and we got immediately some images from above, and we could clearly see where the fire was spreading. in the beginning when a smart phone was launched, nobody needed a smart phone. why would i need a smart phone in five years? and now everybody can not live

without their smart phone because they want to check facebook constantly. the same will happen with these kind of drones. gathering data, getting information. that's basically why you need these kind of drones. the palicoa tribe live in the amazon. their population is estimated to be fewer than 2,000. wet is an artist who makes wooden sculptures, inspired by the tribe's belief in the stars and constellations. he's 85. he fears his people's language could die out within 20 years. let's hear more. >> translator: my name is wet. my mother named me after a

hummingbird in the forest because she thought it was beautiful. and so she gave me this name. i am an artist of the palicoa people. i didn't know i was an artist until the white man told me that i was. first sculptures i did were of animals. a jaguar, cayman and a condor. and then i started making sculptures about the stars. the biggest star is known as the seven stars. it's the star that governs all stars. the story goes that his boat is capable of sheltering everyone. every star has a story.

the young people aren't interested. they don't want to learn to become an artist. they are abandoning our indigenous culture. my knowledge has not been spread, so these seeds have not been planted. the seed has stayed with me and will die with me. who knows if our own language will survive more than 20 years. are we going to abandon our own language? because if we do that, one day the indigenous will disappear from the map. when i die, who is beginning go teach the young? our language will disappear along with all that knowledge. >> let's hope that language does not disappear. that's pretty much it from this friday edition of "gmt." it's my job now to welcome lucy on to the floor. she's presenting "impact."

>> stephen, thank you so much. the join me in a few minutes time. i'm going to be looking at the illegal payment of ransoms to al qaeda affiliated groups. we have an exclusive interview today on "impact" with the stepmother of luke somers. he was killed in a botched u.s. military operation six days ago. it is believed that ransoms should be paid and she'll be joining us on a few minutes time on "impact." ♪ wallfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ rowfit ♪ throwfit ♪ slowfit ♪ olliefit ♪ oopsfit ♪ otisfit ♪ thiswayfit ♪ thatwayfit ♪ daddyfit ♪ pappyfit ♪ datefit ♪ weightfit ♪ goalfit ♪ gooooooalfit ♪ stepfit ♪ stairfit ♪ smartfit ♪ heartfit ♪ spinfit ♪ bikefit ♪ hikefit ♪ yikesfit ♪ wheeeeefit ♪ wowfit ♪ whoafit ♪ findyourfit ♪ it's all fitbit

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my time is running out. kovarian: you understand what this is, don't you? melody pond, the woman who kills the doctor. how do you know who i am?! i made you what you are. [ tearfully ] one last trip, eh? whatever happens now, you do not interfere. [ blast ] the doctor: a robot worked by tiny people. access personal records: the doctor. records available. who wants me dead? the silence. the silence is not a species, it is a religious order or movement. their core belief is that silence will fall when the question is asked. what question?