welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: confusion surrounds the death of kimjung—nam — was the half—brother of the north korean leader poisoned by assassins? damage limitation at the white house as officials admit president trump knew there was a problem with michael flynn weeks before his resignation. a special report from the central african republic as rival militias drive the country towards anarchy and the un warns of a potential genocide. going home — over 200,000 people, evacuated from the area around america's tallest dam are told it's now safe to return to their houses. hello. the estranged half—brother of the north korean leader has been

killed — apparently assassinated — in malaysia. kimjung nam was at kuala lumpur airport, about to catch a flight to macao. on his way to hospital, as he was dying, he told police he was grabbed from behind and had liquid splashed in his face. some south korean media outlets are saying he was poisoned, and the authorities in seoul say he was murdered. rupert wingfield—hayes has the story. this is kim jong—nam, whose body is thought to be the one now lying in a malaysian morgue. 0fficials there say he died after being sprayed in the face with something at kuala lumpur airport this morning. south korean media immediately claimed north korean agents had assassinated kim on the orders of his own younger brother, kim jong—un. north korea's young dictator has been tightening his grip on power, ruthlessly purging potential opponents. what's so sensitive?

last year i saw for myself how strange north korea can be. i was detained and expelled for insulting the kim leadership. much more telling is what he did to his own uncle, seen here on the left. jang sung—taek was hauled away from a party meeting, accused of treachery, and executed. has he now also eliminated his brother? kim jong—nam was once his father's favourite, being groomed to one day take over as north korea's supreme leader. but his downfall began here in tokyo, when he was caught sneaking into japan on a fake passport. these pictures of his humiliating deportation from japan are said to have deeply angered his father, north korea's late dictator kim jong—il. his place at his father's side was taken instead by his younger brother kim jong—un. kim jong—nam then went

into exile in macau. in interviews, he repeatedly said he had no interest in power. so why kill him? kimjong—nam, although he had been quiet and lying low for a while, not low enough it seems, had gone off—message badly before. he'd said some stuff about not believing in hereditary succession. and maybe, in this kind of a system, like medieval europe, any other possible claimant to the kingship could potentially be a threat. in the 21st century, fratricide is normally confined to history books. yet again, north korea is showing it is not a normal country. rupert wingfield hayes, bbc news, tokyo. the white house has rejected suggestions that donald trump's presidency is in turmoil after the resignation of his national security adviser michael flynn less than a month into the new administration. general flynn had admitted misleading colleagues over his contact with

russian diplomats, which took place before mr trump took office. 0ur north america editor jon sopel reports. they were oh—so—close, politically inseparable. but after just three weeks as national security adviser, michael flynn has gone, in a stunning fall from grace, after a day of chaos and confusion at the white house. the camera—loving president suddenly becoming camera—shy when asked about his future. do you have full confidence in him? but today, the president's spokesman came out all guns blazing. the former "close friend" had lost the president's trust. we got to a point, not based on a legal issue, but based on a trust issue, where the level of trust between the president and general flynn had eroded to the point where he felt he had to make a change. the president was very concerned that general flynn had misled the vice president, and others. the republican leadership, always uncomfortable about the unorthodox general, were relieved to see him go. you cannot have a national

security adviser misleading the vice president, and others. so i think the president was right to ask for his resignation, and i believe it was the right thing to do. this all goes back to action taken over the christmas period by the former president, barack 0bama, to impose sanctions against russia over its interference in the us election. on 29 december, michael flynn speaks to the russian ambassador, in the first of a series of calls. on 15 january, vice president mike pence denies that sanctions were discussed. what i can confirm, having spoken to him about it, is that those conversations, that happened to occur around the time that the united states took action to expel diplomats, had nothing whatsoever to do with those sanctions. but, in late january, the former acting attorney—general warned the white house it might have been misled by general flynn's account. no action was taken. but then, on 9 february, the washington post revealed that flynn did discuss sanctions, and it was then that pressure grew. and democrats are not going to let the matter go.

the resignation of michael flynn was brought about, not by discovering the falsehood, but by the fact that the falsehood became public. and that ought to be deeply disturbing to everyone. michael flynn was a spear—carrier for donald trump during the election, making hillary clinton's honesty a central point of attack. we do not need a reckless president who believes she is above the law. but now it is michael flynn who on a question of trust has been found wanting, and finds himself very much alone. michael mcfaul is a professor at stanford university and was us ambassador to russia and special assistant to president 0bama during his administration. he'sjoins me now from stanford. your political outlook is no doubt very much opposed to the trump administration? looking at politics, this is a big hit for an administration to take early on? losing a national security adviser? can it be recovered from, unless it goes further into the

administration? further up the administration? further up the administration? yes, i mean, this is administration? yes, i mean, this is a bad start for the administration. whether you are a democrat or a republican, there is wide consensus that if you have to fire one of the most important people to you in terms of formulating foreign policy just three weeks in, that is a blow to president trump. having said that, they can recover and certainly i think senior administration officials from other agencies are hopeful that president trump will replace general flynn with somebody that they trust and can work with. in the beginning of what i predict will be a long slog about trying to figure out exactly what more will happen during the election period... the new york times has posted a major article where they can confirm, their sources confirm,

anonymous sources, that senior people in the donald trump campaign had people in the donald trump campaign ha d co nta cts people in the donald trump campaign had contacts with russian intelligence officers during the 2016 election. that suggests we will be talking about this for many days and weeks to come. you are a diplomat and note the act that stops private citizens engaging in diplomacy, but donald trump is saying that relations with russia could hardly have been worse and that they had to do something. so what? this is not a debate about policy. it is not a debate about what the russian policy is. this is a loss of confidence that general flynn had among elected officials. first and foremost, as sean spicer said in explaining this, when he misled the vice president and had the vice president go out on national television and deny that mr flynn had talked about sanctions, he

lost the faith of the vice president. he had to go. whether you area president. he had to go. whether you are a democrat or a republican, that still remains. what do you think russia wants out of this and what are they getting out of it already? i think the initial reaction, that i have seen in the press today, and from government officials is that they have lost somebody that they thought was going to be a close partner for them thought was going to be a close partnerfor them in general thought was going to be a close partner for them in general flynn. we had in the hearings leading up to the appointments of various secretaries and ambassadors, much more confrontational approaches towards russia. very consistent with the 0bama administration's policy. flynn was considered a great hope in terms of lifting sanctions, recognising... recognising and perhaps acknowledging crimea being pa rt perhaps acknowledging crimea being part of russia. i think all of those hopes of a big change in policy have

dimmed asa hopes of a big change in policy have dimmed as a result of today. thank you very much for talking to us. thank you for having me. the us office of government ethics has called on the white house to investigate a senior presidential adviser for publicly endorsing the product line of mr trump's daughter, ivanka. kellyanne conway urged people to buy ivanka trump branded products in a tv interview last week. a statement from the ethics office — which is bi—partisan — says there is strong reason to believe that violated standards of conduct for government officials. the retailer nordstrom had just dropped the ivanka trump brand. this isjust, it is a this is just, it is a wonderful wine, iam this is just, it is a wonderful wine, i am going to give a free commercial here. go and buy it today everybody, you can buy it online. 0ur washington correspondent had this to say on possible indications. say on possible indicationsm say on possible indications. it is difficult to think of a more audacious advertising for the president's daughter's monarchs.

this followed the announcement that the nordstrom department chain was dropping her products from its stores, because of falling sales. it prompted donald trump to take to twitter to condemn the move. then we had kellyanne conway going on to fox news to say, go and buy these products. the office of government ethics has now taken on the matter. they are urging disciplinary action against kellyanne conway and they are asking the trump administration to consider this whole issue, and to give it two weeks to decide what action they are going to take in terms of discipline. kellyanne conway is a special adviser to donald trump. she referred to the bowling green massacre, something which didn't exist. she also came out yesterday afternoon to say that michael flynn, the former security

adviser, enjoyed the full support of president trump, only for him to resign a few hours later —— bowling green. the white house has said that kellyanne conway has been counselled about her comments regarding developer trump's products, we will wait to see whether any punishment is headed out to her —— ivanka trump's. let's round—up some of the other main stories: the united nations has warned of a serious escalation in the conflict in the east of ukraine. an official said since january the distance between government and rebel forces had narrowed to hundreds of metres, and in some places it's almost face to face. venezuela's president, nicolas maduro, has demanded that the united states apologise and withdraw sanctions imposed on his deputy, tareck el aissami. the us accuses mr el aissami of drug trafficking. in his first reaction to monday's blacklisting, mr el aissami described washington's action as an imperialist aggression and denies all the allegations. india hopes to set a new space record later, by launching 104 satellites into space

in a single mission. these pictures are from the indian space research organisation that launched eight satellites with one rocket in september last year. russia currently holds the record with 39 satellites sent into space in a single mission. stay with us, still to come: all aboard for a train ride not seen in england for almost 50 years. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home. the withdrawal, completed in good order but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm has been murdered. that has a terrible effect on the morale of the people. i'm terrified of the repercussions in the streets. one wonders who is next. explosions as the airlift got under way, there was no let—up

in the eruption itself. lava streams from a vent low in the crater flow down to the sea on the east of the island away from the town for the time being, but it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new—generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they've called it mir, russian for ‘peace'. this is bbc news. i'm mike embley. the latest headlines: confusion surrounds the death of kim jong—nam who was the half—brother of the north korean leader. was he poisoned by assassins? a postmortem is due to be held to establish the cause of death. damage limitation at the white house: officials admit president trump knew his national security adviser general michael flynn had misled colleagues, weeks before he was forced to resign. the united nations says it's willing

to use further force against militia in the central african republic to prevent the country sliding back into anarchy. thousands of un peacekeepers have been deployed amid fears of genocide. rival christian and muslim militias began fighting in the car more than three years ago. 0ne fragile un red line is around the town of bambari, where thousands of civilians have sought shelter. from there our special correspondent fergal keane reports. out in the countryside, the un has already fired the first shots to ward off an assault on bambari, but the town itself is divided between rival militias. muslims live in the centre of town, the christians on the other bank, civilians protected by soldiers of the united nations. 23 years after i watched the un fail to stop a genocide in rwanda, i've come to bambari where the blue helmets try to avert tragedy in central africa. every burned building here speaks of lives erased when the country descended into sectarian

massacre in 2013. civilians slaughtered, hundreds of thousands displaced into camps. now, amid fears of renewed violence, there's no hope of going home. "leave here, i don't think so", this man tells us. "here we're protected by the united nations." civilians are facing renewed terror from warlords. these are christians, but it's not as simple as just a battle of religions. numerous warlords fight for power and wealth. vernonique's husband was murdered, leaving her to care forfive children. madeleine lost her husband and three of herfive children. translation: they were killing people. they killed two on a motorcycle.

they were going from killing to killing. it created a panic. some people even lost their children as they were running. 0ne name kept cropping up here, a muslim warlord they blame for the most recent attacks. what about ali darassa? translation: his name creates fear and terror. even now, here, when he sent his men to bacula, all the people ran away. it wasn't hard to find ali darassa, he and his bodyguards live directly opposite the un h0. guns are supposed to be banned here, but try telling that to these men. the un is unwilling so far to provoke a conflict over this.

the fighters are muslims from the ethnic minority, whom ali darassa claims to protect. you portray yourself as the protector of the people, but there is another view of you and that is that you're a ruthless killer? translation: all is clear. everything that happens is reported by people. if i was a ruthless killer, people could not live peacefully near me. the un escorted us back across town to meet ali darassa's enemy, the leader of a christian militia also accused of atrocities. meet general gaetan and his deputy, who calls himself general tarzan. the fighters hid their guns while we were there, but general gaetan was blunt about his own role.

are you a warlord? translation: yes. i have thousands of men, ready to protect the population. the self—styled protectors thrive because the central government is weak. there are too few peacekeepers and troops are of mixed quality. it's a familiar story of peacekeeping in the modern age. but tensions around bambari are now so dangerous the un mission's top officials are flying in. diane corner is a veteran british diplomat, now trying to ensure this country doesn't slide into chaos again. the warlords are summoned. first, ali darassa. and then gaetan, who waits in a room next door for his enemy to leave. in this prefabricated office, the international community

struggles to make peace. diane corner tells them the un is willing to fight. i'm giving very clear messages that we are going to do everything to prevent a battle in bambari, that we are reinforcing our positions, that the un is impartial, we're not taking sides with either one group or the other, and that we expect them to respect the civilian population. in the protected zone, the old life of the lost villages shows signs of revival. a father studies, planning for a future beyond all of this. but the calm depends on the un continuing to enforce its red lines north of here. over the years, i've seen the failings of un missions, sometimes catastrophically, for example, in rwanda. and yet, standing now on the bridge at bambari,

between the christian and muslim districts, it's clear to me that without a united nations presence there would be slaughter here. fergal keane, bbc news, bambari. parts of california hit by recent storms, including the areas around the damaged 0roville dam, are to receive federal disaster assistance, approved by president trump. authorities have now declared it safe. more than 200,000 people can return to their homes after they were evacuated on sunday over fears that a spillway could give way and cause catastrophic flooding. emergency crews used giant sandbags and boulders to repair the damage. they were able to lower the water level enough so that the emergency spill waves were no longer in use.

taking into account the current level of risk, the predicted strength of the next round of whether and the capacity of the lake to accommodate increased inflow associated with those storms, we have concluded that it is safe to reduce the immediate evacuation order currently in place to an evacuation warning. this allows evacuated residents to return to their home and for businesses in the area to resume operations. the dam can handle a storm expected over the coming days, experts said. officials defended their decision to evacuate residents who were at one point told they were in imminent danger. but people have been warned there is potential for more evacuation orders if the situation changes. going back to what many see as a more romantic time. certainly

smokier and dirtier. the sights and sounds of the steam train were once familiar on britain's railways. today steam power returned to england as a regular service for the first time in nearly half a century. danny savage takes us on a trip. 0n the settle to carlisle line today, the sights and sounds of yesteryear returned. it is a long time since the mid—morning service from skipton attracted this sort of attention. which coach are you in? b. but then, this was the first timetabled steam train in england for nearly half a century. tickets and passes there, please. standard fares and discounts applied. you would normally pay a hefty premium for a steam trip, but not here, not this week. oh, it's great. i thought i'd fetch my wife for valentine's day. so it was cheaper than a bunch of roses. so what do you make of the valentine's present? yeah, a really good one. liking it, enjoying it, so thank you. 0n the footplates, the crew were working hard. tonnes of coal were shovelled, as the train went back and forth between skipton and appleby.

and this isn't just about a trip on a steam train. for lots of people, it is a ride through the yorkshire dales' countryside as well, and crossing the ribblehead viaduct. talking to some customers on the train that had travelled from essex, norfolk, you know, just for the whole sort of romance of this. i think, you know, valentine's day, the settle and carlisle railway, on a stream train, i mean, how better does it get? so could we see more timetabled steam trains, after today's public response? it's something we could do once a year, maybe twice a year. you know, it would fit in cornwall, in anglia, in scotland, say. yeah, we could take it round the country. this may be the start of something special on britain's railways, 49 years after mainline steam officially ended. danny savage, bbc news, cumbria. dubai hopes to have a passenger

drone up and flying byjuly. a model has been unveiled at the world government summit. it uses two propellers that can carry a passenger weighing up to 100 kilos, plus a small suitcase. buckled into a race car style seat, a passenger can select a destination on a touchscreen pad. the drone is battery operated and can fly for half an hour in a range of up to 50 kilometres. the top speed is about 160 kilometres per hour, about 100 mph. briefly, the main use. south korea has confirmed reports that kim jong—nam, the half brother of kim jong—un, was murdered in malaysia. they say he was attacked at kuala lumpur international airport while on his way to macau, where he has been exiled for more than a decade. it is claimed as liquid was splashed on to his face at the airport. that's it for now. —— a liquid.

hello, there. a bit of rain in the forecast for wednesday. it starts off cloudy, grey, misty and murky. some sunshine in northern scotland, for northern ireland. rain in the south—west will be heavy and will continue northwards and eastwards through the day. some heavy bursts in the midlands and the south. we have good spells of sunshine across northern scotland. generally speaking it is quite mild, about 9— 11. the wednesday night the wet weather clears away and turns drier for england and wales. mist and fog sta rts england and wales. mist and fog starts on thursday morning. to the north, the low pressure will bring some blustery showers and windy conditions to northern ireland and scotland. some sunshine. 9— 10 degrees, 10— 12 across england and wales. friday morning starts with

dense fog in places, but that will shift to allow some brighter weather for friday afternoon. now in panorama, an undercover investigation reveals life behind bars in britain's prison system. tonight, i am undercover in one of our crisis hit prisons. i see some prisoners out of it on drugs. prison officers say they've lost control. but inmates run the jail. the threat of violence is co nsta nt. security compromised. and prison

officers struck down, exposed to drug fumes. i ask, what will it take to turn our prisons around? her majesty's prison, northumberland is one of the biggest in the country. i've just started working here as a prison custody officer. hello. nu to november two request

permission to move from house block nine to house block eight. it's my first week and already i'm responsible for escorting 70 prisoners. ijust follow the crowd of prisoners and unlock the gates for them. there are more than 1300 men behind bars here. anything from driving offences to violent crime and drug smuggling. the demands are endless. my standard shift is ten hours. straight out of training, i do nine days in a row. it appears chaotic to me.

these two prisoners are drunk at mealtime and aren't trying to hide it. some are high on drugs. others are struggling to cope.