a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: some of the cia's most sensitive hacking secrets are exposed on the internet. the agency's former boss tells us it is very damaging. it's made my country and my country's friends less safe. with malaysia still waiting to question north korean diplomats, and the diplomatic row getting worse, the un appeals for calm. saved from slavery, and worse, we meet some of the young yazidis who escaped from the extremist group the so—called islamic state, to find refuge in germany. and, in the first known attack of its kind in europe, poachers kill a rhino for its horn at a safari park near paris. hello.

wikileaks has published thousands more files which it says detail a wide range of hacking tools used by the cia. the documents, which we are not able to verify, appear to show how cyber weapons have been developed and used to break into computers, mobile phones, even smart tvs, to gather intelligence. the cia hasn't commented on the credibility of the leaked material, but some specialists are saying at this point it does appear legitimate. caroline davies reports. fresh embarrassment for the us security services today. wikileaks has published details of what it says shows the tools the cia use to hack their targets. wikileaks say using them would allow the agency to break into smart phones, communication apps and electronic devices, including smart tvs, which could be used to record conversations. wikileaks say its sources shared the details with it to prompt

a debate on whether the cia's hacking capabilities had exceeded its mandated powers. the leak hasn't been confirmed by the agency. they say they don't comment on intelligence documents‘ authenticity. this is the latest leak by the whistleblowing website to hit a us government department. for the past seven—plus years, they've published hundreds of thousands of classified files from the state department and the pentagon. but this is, in some ways, wikileaks‘ most daring release yet, because these documents come from the heart of america's top intelligence agency. the source of the leak isn't clear, but more than 800,000 people have top security clearance. the man who previously ran both the nsa and the cia said that, if this was a leak, the issue could be that the next—generation recruits have a different mindset. i don't mean to judge them at all, but this group of millennials and related groups simply have different understandings

of the words loyalty, and secrecy, and transparency, than certainly my generation did. that is people like edward snowden, who previously embarrassed the nsa when he leaked their secrets. snowden tweeted that he thought the leak was real. if it is, it raises questions about exactly how secure the central intelligence agency really is. earlier i spoke to jake williams. he used to be a hacker for the us government, hacking other governments and organisations to gain intelligence for the us. he now works at the security firm he founded, rendition infosec, and he has been reading through a number of the wikileaks documents. everything that we've read to date about the dumps so far seems to point to the fact that they're authentic. some of the conversations there are the types of conversations and documents that only somebody doing nationstate hacking would be interested in.

what is your biggest ta ke—away from them 7 has the cia done anything illegal, so far as you can tell? in the current dumps that we've seen, we've not seen anything that would necessarily be doing anything illegal, but one of the things we saw is the fact that there is a lot of research into actively bypassing security programmes, like antivirus and firewalls. in other news: the british government has suffered a second defeat in parliament over its legislation to trigger the process of britain leaving the european union. the upper house, the lords, voted by a majority of more than 100 for a legal commitment that parliament will have a meaningful vote on whatever deal britain negotiates. but, as our political editor explains, the amendment cannot block the bill to invoke article 50 of the lisbon treaty, the mechanism for leaving the eu. big picture, this is not going to delay brexit.

it's not going to stop it, certainly. because remember, theresa may still has three weeks to get this parliamentary wrangling out of the way before she meets her own self—imposed deadline of getting brexit started, at the end of march. the french presidential candidate francois fillon is facing fresh allegations over his financial conduct. a newspaper has accused him of failing to declare to the independent public standards office an interest—free loan from a businessman friend. mr fillon‘s lawyer told the paper the loan was repaid in full. at least four people have been killed in southern mississippi, where a freight train slammed into a bus at a railroad crossing. 35 passengers on the bus were taken to hospital. just a few escaped unharmed. witnesses say it looked as though the bus got stuck on the tracks. let's show you some pictures of an extraordinary fashion show in bangladesh, featuring survivors of acid attacks. the models had all been attacked by relatives or would—be partners. many are now shunned socially. the show was devised by the bangladeshi designer bibi russell, timed for the eve

of international women's day. 0ne survivor said it was the attackers who should hide their faces, not those who had been disfigured. the united states government has been working to reassure china that its deployment of a missile defence system in south korea is not a threat to beijing. china strongly opposes the deployment of the thaad system, and says it will take measures to defend its security. a spokesman for the us state department said the deployment was designed to prevent an attack from north korea. we've been very clear in our conversations with china that this is not meant to be a threat, and is not a threat, to them or any other power in the region. it is a defensive system, and it is in place, or will be in place, because of north korea's provocative behaviour.

the diplomatic crisis between north korea and malaysia shows no sign of letting up. inside the north korean embassy in kuala lumpur, according to police, are two suspects in the killing of the half—brother of north korea's leader at the city's main airport. there is widespread suspicion pyongyang was responsible. the two nations have banned each other‘s citizens from leaving their countries. the un has called for calm. the bbc‘s sharanjit leyl is outside the embassy in kuala lumpur, gauging reaction in the press and on the streets. well, i can tell you how malaysians are reacting, and it is furiously, just like their prime minister. this is the front pages of the newspapers today. as you can see, the star in malaysia, "trapped in pyongyang". there's of course a huge amount of interest in the story, here in malaysia. inside this paper you can see there is one staff member, a councillor, in fact, in the malaysian embassy

in pyongyang, saying, "don't worry, we are safe". so that's one paper. we've also got the new straits times paper, which has actually got on the front cover the prime minister calling a national security council meeting, an emergency council meeting, when he returned from jakarta yesterday, essentially saying the safety of malaysians are a priority. so they are working on trying to ensure the safety of the 11 known malaysians who are in north korea. the papers say that, of course, they can't vouch for any others who might be there on business or pleasure. finally we've got the sun, as well, which is saying that... "held hostage". so a lot of dramatic headlines. of course, we've also got a lot of reaction on social media. a lot of malaysians are furious. they're saying that preventing the free movement of their citizens in north korea is tantamount to war. a rhino has been shot dead by poachers at a zoo in france, in what is believed to be the first such incident in europe. keepers found vince,

a four—year—old white rhino, in his enclosure on tuesday morning. one of his horns had been hacked off with a chainsaw. 0ur paris correspondent lucy williamson reports. this is where poachers came looking for their latest kill, a safari park west of paris. their victim, this four—year—old rhino called vince. they shot him three times, before cutting off his horn with a chainsaw. park staff say the attackers broke through two fences and a wall to reach the rhinos. it is thought to be the first time poachers have targeted live animals in a european zoo. it's horrific that vince, our rhino, was shot. we've got this notion that here they're protected from poaching, and that poaching happens far away, in their natural habitat, and here they're safe. and poaching has come here now, so that's

extremely destabilising and shocking. tonight, there is extra security in place at the rhino enclosure behind me, where the two surviving animals are still being housed. this was a well—planned operation, with apparently detailed knowledge of the park, and it has put zoos across europe on alert. poaching has been growing in parts of africa. new tactics to stop it, like airlifting animals to safety, are now being tried. 0r sawing off the prized horn, to prevent them being targeted. fitting a monitor can track their movement, but the rewards of poaching are great, and as supply dwindles, prices and incentives rise. these criminals are looking for the weakest link, to get their hands on a rhino horn. and today it might be paris, tomorrow it might be a population of rhinos in sumatra, or indonesia, or a population of rhinos in kenya. it's about finding the weakest link, getting their hands on the product. and, as long as the incentives and the profits are high enough

to take the risks, they will go for those risks. like vince, the other young male at thoiry might one day be used for breeding. europe's zoos, designed to protect the species, are now themselves being targeted for the animals in their care. lucy williamson, bbc news, thoiry. a fresh wave of bomb threats against jewish community centres in several american states is raising concerns about anti—semitism and hate crimes. there have been almost a dozen bomb threats in six states, including new york. jewish schools in chicago had to be evacuated. federal officials have been investigating more than 120 threats dance january, and a spate of vandalism atjewish cemeteries. new york's mayor has vowed to find those responsible. this is a moment in time when forces

of hate are being unleashed, and it is exceedingly unsettling to people who are the victims of that hate, who are the victims of that hate, who have that hate directed against them. we don't take this lightly at all. we understand history, and any member of the jewish community all. we understand history, and any member of thejewish community who feels that his threat are not only unsettling but too reminiscent of the past, they have every right to feel that, and we understand that. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: in the land of the car, politicians are planning big spending to improve public transport. will it work? first, the plates slid gently off the restaurant tables. then suddenly the tables, the chairs and people crashed sideways and downwards and it was a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched onto her side. the hydrogen bomb on a remote pacific atoll. the americans had successfully tested a weapon whose explosive

force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i had heard the news earlier and so my heart went bang and bang. the constitutional rights of these marchers have their rights as citizens of the united states and they should be protected even in the right to test them out so they don't get their heads broken and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy, i know you don't want to say too much about it, but does it worry you it's going to boil up when you get to the stage? well, it worries me, yeah. i hope everything will be all right at the end of the day. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the website wikileaks has released what it says are thousands of secret cia documents containing details of a wide range of hacking methods used by the us agency. the un has called for calm between malaysia and north korea, after the two countries banned each other‘s citizens

from leaving their countries, in a row over the assassination of kimjong—nam. there is once again a pitched battle over health in washington. repealing and replacing 0bamacare, the affordable care act, was a key republican election pledge and a new bill is now on the table. but it's not just democrats who are opposed. some conservative republicans argue it doesn't go far enough, they're calling it 0bamacare lite. rajini vaidyanathan has been looking at the new plan. iam also i am also calling on this congress to repeal and replace 0bamacare. so what does the replacement for 0bamacare look like? some things have stayed the same. you're still entitled to coverage if you have a pre—existing medical condition, and you can stay on your parents‘ insurance up until the age of 26. there's also no limit on how much

insurers will pay out for medical bills over a person's lifetime. but here are some of the key changes. it's no longer compulsory to sign up for health insurance, so individuals and businesses won't get find any more if they don't take out a health insurance policy. instead if they let their plan laps they could face surcharges of up to 30% from their injuries. government subsidies to healthcare are out, tax credits instead a re healthcare are out, tax credits instead are in. and this time they're based on your age rather than your income. but the expansion of medicaid, the government funded programme which shocks people on low incomes or with disabilities, will be stopped. and women's healthcare clinics like planned parenthood will no longer receive government funding, unless they agree to stop performing abortions, likewise if you've got a health policy which covers abortions, you won't get a tax credit. so, some of the core components of 0bamacare will aim in this replacement, but the government

role in subsidising health policy which covers abortions, you won't get a tax credit. so, some of the core components of 0bamacare will aim in this replacement, but the government role in subsidising healthcare has been stripped down. we still don't know how this new plan will affect access to healthcare or its cost. as fighters from the extremist group, the so—called islamic state, are gradually driven from their strongholds in iraq, the scale of their atrocities is being revealed against one group in particular. the yazidi people are ethnic kurds, and they are the victims of genocide, according to the un. but some have managed to escape and seek sanctuary in germany. naomi grimley went to meet them. a secret location in south—west germany. it's a place of exile. 80 yazidi women and children now live here. they were violently persecuted by so—called islamic state, and chased out of northern iraq. these two boys were captured by the extremists and sent to a military training camp, aged just 1a and 16. this is their story.

translation: the training was about weapons. we learnt how to load and fire a weapon. we were training to be soldiers. we would do exercises, crawling under barbed wire, things like that. translation: to learn how to fire a gun on human beings, they took us to big graves where they had the dead bodies of muslim traitors, spies of the regime, or those who took drugs. they said we had to fire on the bodies, to get used to it. translation: if we didn't do what we were told, or broke the rules, they would beat us with a stick. everything had to be like they wanted. i had to pretend to be a muslim to survive. translation: their books were just like magic. they quickly changed your mind, and made you into one of them. i bet, notjust me, even a man's mind would have changed. after a year, a smuggler helped them escape the camp.

translation: by god i knew it was dangerous, but there was nothing left to be afraid of. we had seen death with our own eyes. we saw how they killed. when you lose everything, you have nothing left. we had nothing to lose. this is mainly a community of women and children, most of the men are missing, presumed dead. the women were originally brought to germany for trauma counselling after the mass rapes under islamic state. baden—wurttemberg in south—west germany has welcomed more than 1,000 yazidis in two years and the man who runs the project says several towns volunteered to give them shelter. of course, it's hard. of course, they have bad dreams. of course, they are struggling. but they can start, like, you know, just start a new future. get into school, get an education, dream about falling in love, and all the things that are so normal. all that may take time.

but, at least for now, this refuge is far away from those religious zealots who are trying to wipe them out. naomi grimley, bbc news, south—west germany. on wednesday, the international lawyer acting for the yazidis will address the united nations in new york and call for a formal investigation into allegations that the so—called islamic state has committed genocide. amal clooney has been telling fiona bruce why she's representing the yazidis and why their cause is so important. you're calling for so—called islamic state to be held to account for genocide, why is that so important to you? i've been to refuges in germany, like the one that you showed in your piece, and i've interviewed former child soldiers and young girls who were raped and enslaved by isis. it's been the most harrowing testimony i've ever heard. we know that it's genocide,

the un has said so. in other words, isis is trying to destroy them as a group and we are allowing it to happen without actually calling isis to account. so what do you think can be done practically to bring islamic state to justice? well, the first step that should be taken is for evidence to be collected on the ground because we know that it's disappearing. so there are mass graves that are being discovered. just a few days ago, in mosul, a huge mass grave, that's thought to have 4,000 bodies in it, was discovered. and there's other types of evidence as well. isis is actually a big bureaucracy, believe it or not, and they're leaving behind documents. you know, you need to collect dna, you need to collect phone records and none of that is being done at the moment. you're going to the un this week, what are you going to be saying there? i'm addressing the un on the issue of accountability and saying something needs to be done. so why do you think they're not doing it? this is exactly the question that i'll be posing to member states. you know, i'm going to ask them —

are the crimes not serious enough for you to investigate? well, that can't be it because it's genocide. you know, do you think that there's no evidence for you to collect? that's not right either, there are mass graves whose locations are known, you can start there and there's plenty of other evidence to collect. the fact that you are now not just a human rights lawyer, but you are known — obviously because of your marriage to one of hollywood's biggest stars — i mean, does that help in terms of giving you a bigger platform and getting more people to listen to you? i mean, there's lots of my work that takes place behind closed doors, that is not ever seen. i think if there are more people who now understand what's happening about the yazidis and isis and if there can be some action that results from that, that can help those clients, then i think it's a really good thing to give that case the extra publicity that it may get. but, you know, if you don't have a good case and you don't have a good message, then shining a light on it is not going to get you very far.

rush hour is often a way of life for those of us who live near city centers, but los angeles is in class of its own. with perhaps the worst traffic in the world during peak hours, politicians are planning big spending to improve public transport and reduce pollution. as part of our continuing series on efforts to clean the air, the bbc‘s james cook has this report. the city of angels is bedevilled by traffic. every year, commuters here spend more than 100 hours going nowhere in rush—hour jams. as bad as this looks right now, with every hour, it's gonan get a little bit worse. economists reckon it costs la near $10 billion annually. but now technology is fighting back. right now we're looking at the road network in los angeles. the red here signifies... this company uses live data from 300 million cars around the world to point drivers in the right direction. and increasingly, the information it gathers in this control room is used to shape policy too.

instead of building an entirely new highway, maybe it's targeted investments, targeted spending in bottlenecks, targeted spending on solutions like smarter parking, or intelligent traffic signals. with the data will we collect, you know, public officials can customise what has the maximum bang for the buck in their cities. all of which sounds a long way from this. la's love affair with the car is the stuff of legend. but the freewheeling lifestyle had a deadly result. from the 1950s to the ‘70s, smog choked this city, causing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths. the outlook now is much brighter. modern—day california has some of the toughest emissions standards in the world, and smog has been vastly reduced. but there's still work to do.

0ur air quality is nowhere near where it needs to be. it's still not healthy to breathe on, perhaps, 100 or more days every year. essentially, los angeles, and the greater surrounding area, still has the worst air quality in the united states. public transport is part of the answer. compared to other big cities, the la metro is quiet in rush—hour, but it is becoming more popular for the simple reason. because traffic is totally insane. traffic. too much traffic. the traffic‘s horrible. horrible. i would be sitting in traffic for like, hours instead, so i take the subway! the metro is in line for a shot in the arm. californians have voted to raise sales tax for a $120 billion splurge on infrastructure. a0 projects are promised over the next a0 years. some of those projects are major projects, like subways, and new light rail, and more buses. there is a strong chance that it will change the face of los angeles.

do you think the city could be transformed ? the city will be transformed. perhaps, but getting there will also mean cutting pollution from lorries and from industry. and in the end, persuading people that los angeles is more than just a great big freeway. james cook, bbc news, los angeles. a reminder of our top story.... wikileaks has published a thousands more files which it says detail a wide range of hacking tools being used by the cia. the documents, which we can't verify, appeared to show how cyber weapons have been developed and used to break into computers, mobile phones, cellphones, even smart tvs to gather intelligence. the cia hasn't commented on the credibility of the lea ked commented on the credibility of the leaked material but an analysts say at this point it looks legitimate. much more at any time on the bbc website.

hello there. good morning. tuesday was a decent day for the eastern side of the uk. we've seen more cloud, though, coming in from the west, and all our weather is coming in from off the atlantic at the moment, all this cloud spilling across the uk. it's driven by an area of low pressure that's running between iceland and scotland, with these weather fronts too. the rain across the northern half of the uk is running across fairly quickly, but to the south, things grind to a halt towards the end of the night. so after the rain across the northern half of the uk we get some showers rattling into the north—west of scotland early on in the morning, and again, there could be a bit of snow across the mountains. there'll be a strong wind, gales probably for northern scotland. by the morning, sunshine is out across northern ireland, and the cloud continuing to break up across northern england, brightening up quite nicely as that rain is out into the north sea. but across east anglia, southern england, perhaps the south midlands, mid and south wales, we've got more cloud. quite low cloud, quite mild. but there will be some rain in the air as well. it's never really going to clear

away for much of the day. rain on and off across mid and south wales, perhaps the midlands, east anglia, and southern england. much more sunshine, though, arriving across north wales, northern england, northern ireland, and it is quite windy here in scotland, again, across the north and there will still be a few of those sharp showers. temperatures will be that bit lower. highest temperatures probably in the south—east, where we have all that cloud and the threat of rain. still some rain around across southern parts of england and wales on wednesday evening. that rain eventually transfers southwards into the english channel. but to the north, we'll see the showers pepping up again across northern ireland and then into scotland, again, there could be some snow over the high hills. a drop in temperature later in the night perhaps in northern ireland, scotland, north—east england but nothing too cold out there. as we head into thursday, though, showers across scotland become fewer and lighter, largely confined to the north—east as the wind eases down. many places, thursday will be a dry day, some sunshine around. more cloud, though, towards the south and south—west, with that rain sitting through the channel, and it threatens to come back northwards again overnight and into friday on a fairly weak

weather front taking rain across the northern half of the uk primarily. and then behind that weather system, we're drawing in our air from a long way south. so this is really quite mild air, but it's going to be accompanied by a good deal of cloud. so little if any sunshine around on friday. but the uk at least, not much rain at all and temperatures as high as 13 or 1a degrees. now, as we head into the weekend it looks pretty unsettled, at least to start with. outbreaks of rain on saturday. quite a mild day as well. getting more showery on sunday, but then temperatures beginning to slip away later on. the headlines on bbc news: wikileaks has published thousands of files revealing what it says are secret hacking tools used by the cia. the documents, which we can't verify, give details of malware apparently used to hack into phones, computers, even smart tvs, to gather intelligence. the us government has been trying to reassure china that its deployment of a missile defence shield in south korea is not

a threat to beijing, but meant to prevent an attack from north korea. the chinese strongly oppose the thaad system, fearing its powerful radar can monitor far into chinese territory. a un official has called on north korea and malaysia to deal with their differences calmly. the two governments have banned each other‘s citizens from leaving their countries. malaysia wants to interview two north korean diplomats over the killing of their leader's half—brother at kuala lumpur airport. now on bbc news, hardtalk.