the western half of the city is the last stronghold of so—called islamic state in iraq. the first target appears to be mosul‘s airport. president trump says his comments appearing to link sweden to countries afflicted by terrorism were based on a fox news report. the swedish embassy had asked for an explanation into his comments on saturday. and this video is trending on bbc.com. the annual naked man festival has been taking place at a temple in okayama city. men scramble for sacred sticks thrown into the crowd in darkness and the winners who find the sticks are considered lucky men. that's all from me now, stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news it's time for reporters. hello, and welcome to reporters.

i'm david eades, and from here in the world's newsroom, we send out correspondents to bring you the very best stories from across the globe. in this week's programme: sliding back towards anarchy. fergal keane reports from the central african republic where only the un are keeping the peace. 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. 21st—century fratricide. rupert wingfield hayes investigates the killing of the half brother of the north korean leader, allegedly by agents of the regime. the cold war at its very coldest. jonathan beale reports from nato‘s most northerly border, norway's arctic circle, as the alliance steps up its defences against russia. it is a pretty inhospitable place, but every day, all year round, the norwegian army is patrolling this border.

also, tensions in the straits of taiwan as china flexes its muscle against what it sees as its breakaway state. carrie gracie reports on beijing's attempts to stop taiwan going it alone. to let taiwan float off towards independence — well, that, to beijing, would be unthinkable. the war against fake news. amol rajan reports from germany, the first country to use the law to try to stop false reporting. with elections coming up, there's a growing determination to take action against fake news. and capturing the secrets of the galaxy. palla ba ghosh reports on a project to link 12 telescopes around the world to take pictures of a black hole. the united nations says it's willing to use further force against militias in the central african republic to prevent country from sliding into anarchy.

thousands of un peacekeepers have been deployed there amidst fears of genocide. rival christian and muslim militias began fighting in car more than three years ago. thousands of civilians have sought shelter at the fragile un red line around the town of bambari. well, fergal keane has been there, and found only the un keeping the two warring sides apart. 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. 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.

translation: leave here? i don't think so. 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. veronique'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. one 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 bakara, all the people ran away. it wasn't hard to find ali darassa. he and his bodyguards live directly opposite the un ho. you portray yourself as a protector of the people, but there is another view of you, and that is that you are 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 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 message is 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 human 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. in the 21st—century, fratricide is normally confined to the history books, but this week's news of the killing to the history books, but this week's news of the killing of kimjong—nam, the half—brother of north korea's leader, is writing a new chapter in the strange history of this secretive state. he was apparently poisoned at kuala lumpur airport in malaysia, waiting for a flight, and there is widespread speculation that north korean agents

were responsible. now, kimjong—nam had been critical of his half brother's regime, and he had left north korea after being passed over for the leadership role. rupert wingfield hayes, who was detained in north korea just last year, has been investigating his death. this is kim jong—nam, whose body is thought to be the one now lying in a malaysian morgue. officials there said he died after being sprayed in the face with something at kuala lumpur airport. 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. 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 said some stuff about not believing in hereditary succession. and maybe, in this kind of a system — think 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, in tokyo. right, we're going to take you now to the most northerly border in nato's defences, to norway in the arctic circle. russia is building up its forces in the region. that is causing concern for the us, which has called its conduct there aggressive. hundreds of american marines had been deployed there in just the last few weeks. washington's also sending thousands of troops to poland and the baltics as part of a new nato deployment.

jonathan beale reports from the arctic on a new cold war tension. winter in the arctic circle, and the days are at last getting longer. but the climate's still unforgiving. the norwegian border guard have to go out in all kinds of weather, keeping an eye on their neighbour, russia. this is the nato alliance's most northerly border, and at times, it is a pretty inhospitable place. but every day, all year round, the norwegian army is patrolling the border. i don't think we can say that there is a lot of increased activity. they have had a high activity here in the north all along. they are training well and preparing themselves, as we are doing on our side. russia's flexing its military muscle in the high north, staking its claim on a region that is thought to have more oil and gas reserves than saudi arabia.

but the new us defence secretary has called russia's moves in the arctic aggressive. it's not reached the levels of the old cold war, but the temperature is dropping. further south, us marines are now being trained by the british, learning how to survive and fight in the arctic. for many, it's their first time on skis. what i'm going to go through now is another method of moving, called double—poling. but this training is serious and has now become a regular rotation, a persistent presence of us forces in norway, a key nato ally. it's always important to have a military presence and a cooperative agreement with our nato allies. and then, when russia says this is unhelpful, this is causing tension, what do you say? i say that we continue to support the nato strategic alliance, and we allow the politicians to work

through what they have to work through. tensions and competition between east and west are nothing new for the people of norway, but like the rest of europe, they're getting mixed messages from the new us administration — the defence secretary, james mattis, who is talking tough on russia, but a president who appears to want closer ties. i'm more afraid of donald trump than putin. when you look at vladimir putin and donald trump, which of those two worries you more? both. how could you possibly pickjust one? i'm actually more worried about trump than putin, because putin is like a control maniac, but trump is uncontrollable maniac. for norway's border guards, it's still business as usual, but these are also increasingly uncertain times, when no one knows

what tomorrow will bring. jonathan beale, bbc news, in the arctic circle. now, from new tensions between america and russia to us relations with china. "one china, one government" is now president trump's official position. he had previously threatened to re—examine that policy but then agreed to honour it in a phone call to his chinese counterpart, xijin ping, last week. one china relates to the status of the island of taiwan, which does have its own government but which beijing sees as a breakaway province. carrie gracie has been to the taiwanese capital, taipei, to see whether people still have an appetite for independence. people in taiwan have more freedom of expression than people in china. after 70 years of governing itself, this noisy democracy has a mind of its own. taiwan even has political satire.

in this animation studio, they are notjust mocking their own president, but mr xi and mr trump as well. i mean, we have 1800 missiles pointed our way, but at the same time, you know, in taiwan, we have absolute freedom to do anything we want, so you know, i think satire is definitely one of the good things that we need to push, because it helps taiwan get its name out there. beijing doesn't do satire. it's threatened to retake taiwan by force. and it sailed its aircraft carrier past the island last month to show that it means business. for beijing, this, the island of taiwan, is the last piece in a jigsaw. it's the piece they say will finally reunite a nation broken up and humiliated by colonial powers two centuries ago. to let taiwan float off towards independence, or even worse, to let it become part of an american—led alliance

against china in these waters, well that, to beijing, would be unthinkable. the taiwanese navy is no match for china's. it's the american fleet which protects taiwan. back in december, it looked as if donald trump would go further. he took a call from the taiwanese president and hinted at recognition for taiwan. now, president trump has backed down. in his phone call with president xijin ping, he returned to the so—called one—china policy that beijing insists on, and many taiwanese reluctantly accept the status quo. translation: ideally, i'd choose independence, but in the real world, independence is impossible.

it would mean war with china. messages of peace for the year ahead that taipei's lantern festival, but their future is fragile, caught between an unpredictable america and an implacable china. their hopes and fears are low priority to both. carrie gracie, bbc news, taipei. now, how much of what we read online do we really believe? well, the rise of so—called fake news has made us question social media more than ever, and germany could be the first country in the european union to use the law to try to stop the rise of fake news. there's a growing demand for legislation to fine facebook if it refuses to take down a false story. and facebook, in turn, has appointed its own external fact checkers. well, our media editor, amol rajan, has been to germany, and reports on the fight against so—called fake news.

saint reinold's church in the german city of dortmund has been standing since the mid—13th century. after raucous celebrations in the square outside the church on new year's eve, the american website breitbart suggested it had been attacked by a iooo—strong mob. the website claimed islamists chanted allahu akbar — god is great — and waving al-qaeda flags. but it never happened. there was no islamist attack. the story was fake news. and the vicar mentioned in the breitbart article, which is still online, fears the consequences. i was astonished because it was a lie. the reinoldi church was not burn down. there was no allahu akbar cryings, and no flags from islamic state. this woman works with refugees in a community centre

on the outskirts of dortmund. she believes fake news makes her job harder. i think it is not easy to work for refugees at the moment, because we have elections in germany, they try to find everything about bad news, in order to use this fortheir opinion, and in order to change the political direction in germany. saint reinoldi in dortmund has become a powerful symbol of the international reach of fake news. the false story about this church has helped to harden the political mood here. and with elections coming up, there's a growing determination to take action against fake news. here in berlin, one party in the ruling coalition wants facebook held to account. we want to force facebook to build a permanent contact agency where the law enforcement can

reach them 2a hours, for the whole week. second point is, we will define periods, and in that period they have to react against fake news. and the third thing is that they have to pay a high fine if they do not react against fake news. these are independent fact checkers now used by facebook, the first outside of america. refugees get the driving licence for zero, for no money. they get it as a present. this is ridiculous. if they discover fake news, they mark them as false and send a signal to german—speaking users of the social media platform. a lot of this fake news is only focused to bring hate to our communities, and when this hate comes to an election point, and people made up their mind on election day on the basis of hate and lies, then it's a big threat to our society.

anas mohd amani knows what that feels like. he fled syria and came to germany in 2015 as a refugee. when the german chancellor visited the hostel he was in, he took a selfie. this is the selfie you took. soon it went viral. together with the claim that he was a terrorist. more fake news. and now he's suing facebook. translation: it made me feel very bad. i even cried. i'm a good person. i've found work, i go to school here. then i found out people were seeing me as a terrorist. these are lies. many germans fear that false stories online could stoke the rise of extremist parties. fake news seems unlikely to disappear any time soon, and what's happening here could help determine the future of democracy in europe. amol rajan, bbc news, berlin. now, how do you capture an image of a black hole? not easy.

they can be as tiny as an atom or heavier than i million suns. and they are normally millions of light years away, anyway. they are also invisible, a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can't get out. well, despite all that, researchers in the us have managed to link 12 of the world's radio telescopes to try to take pictures of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. pallab ghosh has been to see what they've found. this is our galaxy, the milky way, a swirl of stars and planets, including our own earth. at its centre, it has a heart of darkness, a supermassive black hole. it's an object with immense gravity that pulls in everything around it. it's so strong that it even sucks in light. in a few weeks' time, researchers here will try and take a picture of it. so, there's a tonne of excitement around getting this picture. we are all really looking forward

to getting the data in april and making that first picture, and not only because it's just going to be super cool to take the first picture of a black hole and see what it looks like, the immediate environment around a black hole, for the first time, but also, we can use it to verify that these theories of general relativity are true. so, how are scientists down here on earth going to see the black hole that is so far away? no single telescope is powerful enough, so 12 of them, all around the world, will be linked together, and the images they collect will be fed into a computer in boston. now, our galaxy is a vast spiral, with the earth here on one of the arms. and the black hole is right at the centre, 153,000 million million miles away. it's four and a half million times the mass of our sun. no one has ever seen it, but scientists think it looks something like this. and very soon, they'll find

out if they're right. it's a mind—boggling amount of data, stored on dozens of hard drives, flown in from telescopes all across the world. it will take the team here months to go through all the information. it's a massive quantity of data, and we have to record onto many hard drives at a time. so, this is a module that contains very large hard drives, and this module holds about as much data as 100 laptops, and we have to record on multiple of these modules just at anyone telescope. and we have numerous telescopes in the array that are all recording simultaneously, so in total we collect enough data to fill around 10,000 laptops. the project is the brainchild of professor shep doleman. he's waited 20 years for this moment. black holes have been mysteries forever. it's been almost the holy grail for astronomers to be able to image and probe the area right around the point of no return,

the event horizon of the black hole. what we're going to learn is how black holes feed and swallow some of it and grow in size. the scientists here may have their first image by christmas. and it'll help them discover how galaxies are created, and what the centre of our own milky way is really like. pallab ghosh, bbc news, boston. and, on that dark matter, that's it from reporters for this week. from me, david eades, bye for now. hello there, good morning. 12 or 13 degrees quite widely on sunday. the north—east of scotland reached 1a degrees, air has come in from the middle of the atlantic and will continue to do so although we will see temperatures

drop away from the north as we get to the latter part of the week. a lot of cloud out there. overnight tonight it will spill its way in from the west. some of the cloud will be quite low across western areas and there will be at lease some rain to be had in the far north and west first thing in the morning. nine or 10 degrees, fairly typical for most major towns and cities. those sort of temperatures we should see in the daytime at this time of year. a grey start for many. the weather front is not particularly intense in terms of rainfall but there is wetter weather to be had and windy conditions in the far north—west. in the far south—west there will be low cloud, hill fog quite extensive and coastal fog as well but it is a mild start to the day. dry for the most part, the odd spot of drizzle under this low cloud our west. not so much cloud for east anglia and lincolnshire but down towards the south—east around the coast it is a grey but mild start to the day. few breaks in the cloud

for the north—east of england but most places are starting off rather grey. not much rain until you get to get to the north—west of northern ireland and the west of scotland as well. cloudy and breezy as well. some parts of eastern scotland getting away with a dry start to the day but it will be a blustery start on the eastern side of scotland and the north—east of england for a time through the morning. winds gusting to around 50 miles an hour, bear that in mind if you are travelling up and down the pennines, for example. into the afternoon we will see some reasonable temperatures in the south—east given a few cloud breaks. up to 16 degrees, may be higher in a couple of places, not quite as warm as it was on sunday in scotland. into the evening, showers in the north of scotland in the area of rain affecting some parts of wales in southern england. in between it is largely dry and not overly chilly but we are into single figures. dawn on tuesday, there may even be a touch of frost in northern scotland. not so further south, another mild night, nine or ten degrees. another grey start to the day on tuesday for wales and southern counties of england.

low cloud and patchy rain through the morning. wetter weather getting into western scotland and northern ireland through the afternoon. temperatures through the afternoon will be well into double figures for many of us. through wednesday and thursday temperatures just dropping back into single figures across the northern parts of the uk. still hanging on to double figures further south with a fair bit of cloud and rain at times. still less mild by the end of this week. some places doing quite well but still quite windy later this week. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: iraqi government forces advance on the western half of the city of mosul. we have a report from the frontline. to the village, which is their main target. i —— they are about to call in some artillery strikes. sweden requests an explanation, after president trump apparently invents an immigration—related security incident there. i'm babita sharma in london. the parents of the indonesian women linked to the killing of the brother

of north korea's leader tell the bbc she has been set up, and is innocent. and angelina jolie speaks to us exclusively about her new film in cambodiam and hoping to help a new generation understand