hello, this is bbc news. spain's king and queen have attended a special mass in barcelona to honour those killed in the catalonia attacks. police say they've found more than 120 gas canisters in the house where they think suspects were building bombs for the attacks. iraqi forces begin a ground assault to recapture tal afar — one of the last cities held by the so—called islamic state. a british paramedic who was stabbed four times in the finland terror attack insists he's no hero. hassan zubier was attacked while trying to save a woman's life. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show. india, 70 years after independence. this emerging world power of more than a billion people is still changing. i'm on a journey to two extremes of this vast subcontinent.

crystal, ha rd crystals. white salt. can probably taste it. i began in gujarat, in the far west. this is genuinely incredible, i'm in heaven. pretty crowded. this week, i've travelled 2,000 miles over to the north—east. i'm on the banks of the mighty river brahmaputra, and about to go to a very spiritual place. it's one of india's lesser—known regions. we're really high up, and just to my right, the border with bangladesh. a part of the country which prides itself on its traditions. he makes it look so easy. it's incredibly difficult. but it's also looking forward and embracing progress. so now, i'm on my way to go and see assam's very own eco—warrior.

it is going to be an incredible adventure. india's north—east, a collection of eight states, almost cut off from the rest of this vast country but for a tiny strip of land. at partition, a large swathe of this region was sectioned off to become east pakistan, which later became bangladesh, leaving the indian area landlocked. it's geographically and culturally out on a limb. this is frontier country, little—known to tourists and other indians alike. they call it the land of cloud, that's because of the severe monsoon season. hilly, remote, the area so crisp and fresh, and the view,

simply spectacular. —— the air is so crisp and fresh. it's this cool climate that made the state of meghalaya and its capital, shillong, a popular retreat for the british during the colonial era. they dubbed it the scotland of the east. it's pretty crowded! what about the city today? there's only one way to find out. i take a bus into the city centre. so it's a modern industrial town these days, shillong. whoa, feel it!

i think those brakes may need a bit of work. so tell me, what do you think about shillong? this is your home city. what do you think about this place? the culture here is so different. you see the people here. it's not like the rest of india. here they are their own country. more than half of the population of meghalaya belong to the khasi tribe, and here at the british—built polo ground, a traditional british sport is thriving, but it sure ain't polo. every afternoon, hundreds of people gather from all around

to take part in a really interesting daily ritual. this is called teer, derived from the hindi word for arrow. a target is mounted and 50 archers have just two minutes to hit it as many times as possible. the significance of the sport dates back to the early 1800s, when khasi warriors defended their homeland not with guns and swords but with bows and arrows. i'm aiming forthe target, obviously. the small one. why is it going to

the ground like that? get out of the way, everyone. spectators get involved by taking bets on the number of arrows that hit the target. crucially, it's only the last two numbers of the total score that matter. they are all added up, and the last two digits will be the result. 695 arrows. meghalaya became one of the few states to legalise gambling in 1982. people here are very superstitious. they'll dream about their dead family. a dog, a cat.

and they'll try to make it into numbers. so i have 200 rupees of my hard—earned money here. i want to go and gamble, can you show me how to do it? let's go to one of these counters. i want to gamble on a lucky number. two digits, lucky number. i'm going to go for... 39. and i'm going to put 100 rupees on 39. and on my other bet i'm going to bet on... 77. can you fix it so i win! laughter. that depends upon your fortune. i had a dream last night, i had a dream... that a strange dog walked past me, and that dog had the number 39 on it. is that the kind of dreams we have? wish me luck.

it's a tense moment as the numbers are counted... 310, 320... and my dream turns out to be... a shaggy dog story. 77 was my number, 97 is the result. still, two of my lucky numbers, nine and seven. next, i head out of the city to the region's famed khasi hills and villages. incredible to think that despite landscapes like this, the north—east is one of the least visited areas of india. but things are slowly changing. we've been travelling out of shillong into the countryside towards the bangladesh border for about two hours. it has been pretty bumpy and rough

roads until suddenly, we have reached this bit and it is beautifully smooth road, would not look out of place in a major town. we are heading towards a village which has a really interesting reputation. the khasi hills are the only place in the world that you will find a bridge grown from the roots of the indian rubber tree. 0r ficus elastica. it started in the year 1840. this bridge was made for the villagers to cross over the river when they go back to their daily life. during that time there was no partition, no bangladesh, no pakistan, so we had that link. during monsoon, the khasi hills

are hit by record—breaking downpours, more than 20 feet of rain in a month. these are some of the wettest places on the planet. but people here have found an ingenious way to harness nature in order to prevent the village being cut off by floods. just tell me what they are doing right now. now they are tying them, to cross on both sides of the river, so that the roots of this tree will be woven along here. bamboo acts as a scaffolding, which helps connect routes from trees growing on opposite river banks. this is skilled and occasionally dangerous work. thanks to continuous repairs, bridges like this have stood firm for generations. and will probably remain for many more to come. so we leave meghalaya

and head to assam. passing through some of the 25,000 tea plantations that have made this region world—famous. we're on our way tojorhat, a few hundreds kilometres from india's border with china, and the jumping—off point for the next adventure. i'm on the banks of the mighty river brahmaputra, and about to go to a very spiritual place — the island of majuli, one of the biggest river islands in the world. now there's 150,000 people on that island, and only six ferries a day. each one is really crammed. just looking at the list of prices for all the different categories... passengers, 15 rupees, that's ok, that's reasonable.

then you go down, past the vehicles, and animals have today, buffalo has to pay a5. bull, cow, 30. and then the poor elephant has to fork out 907 rupees! perhaps fortunately, none of these creatures were travelling with us today. and incredibly, after a few last—minute panics, we are set to go. i climb onto the corrugated aluminium roof tojoin men who do this trip day in, day out. starting in tibet, the brahmaputra river is nearly 2,000 miles long, second only to the amazon, in the volume of water that rushes through it. interesting game of cards going on here, i think

they are playing whist. i'd like tojoin in. but it may be a private game. high stakes. we arrive at majuli and it is turmoil again trying to get off the boat. to avoid the queue, there is a sneaky way out, which involves climbing onto another boat and going down that way. you know what, i think i'm going to take that one. well, here we are, on land. doesn't look quite as spiritual as i imagined, but if you look away into the distance, it's just one big flat land of desert. let's see. the island is home to 22

monasteries, or satras, initially established in the 16th century by the assamese guru sankardeva. boys are instructed from a very young age in the religion that he preached, vaishnavism, an offshoot of hinduism. the monks are celibate and according to their beliefs they worship only one god, follow a vegetarian diet, and reject the caste system. and here, the doctrine includes this special art form. this form of classical dance is now

recognised by the authorities as a genre in its own right. many of these monks have been performed around the world. many of these monks have performed around the world. that was amazing. thank you very much indeed. i know you spend a lifetime learning the skills of this, but can i have a go, can i try? arms through here...? very good. thank you so much.

one, two, three, four. there are 64 positions in this classical dance and i'm having trouble with the first two. it's very difficult. one, two, three... without the grace, as well. no grace whatsoever. he makes it look so easy. and it's incredibly difficult. i'm going to leave it to the experts. sometimes you have to give up and let them carry on. an exquisite performance. but there's one problem, one very big problem, and that is,

that this island may simply not exist in just a few decades' time. hard to believe at the moment, but there is a genuine worry that majuli will be submerged and destroyed within 20 years. in the last 70 years it has shrunk in size by two thirds. and a majority of the original 65 monasteries have gone. every monsoon, the brahmaputra river swells, eroding the terrain around it. bit by bit, land is disappearing. but there is hope. so now, i'm on my way, in a tractor, to go and see a man whose life's mission has been to tackle

the flooding that has afflicted this island. he is jadav payeng, basically assam's very own eco—warrior. sadly, these areas that get completely deluged, when the monsoon hits, there is some water there, we have to cross... for the last 36 years, he has taken on an extraordinary challenge, to save this land from vanishing. and so, his lifelong calling began. jadav is known today as the forest man of india. he began planting trees so the roots would bind the soil, soak up excess water,

and prevent the land from being eroded by flooding. from a barren landscape, he has created a forest the size of new york's central park. and he feels this will be more effective in saving nearby majuli then following government flood prevention schemes. so we are now going to do the ritual that every guest that comes here is asked to do, which is to plant a tree. what kind of tree is this? i'm going to put this in here... it's good.

he has spoken at environmental summits all around the world, and his roll call of guests is equally international. i do know that everyone who plants a tree, when it grows, they put a plaque down with their name on it, and i'm going to have that privilege, fantastic, thank you. and so to my final day in assam, and a different kind of ritualistic celebration of nature. if there's one recurring theme throughout my trip in the north—east, it's the sense

of community, everywhere, really, and there's nothing better to illustrate that than this... a local village going down to the river to celebrate harvest. this community was started in 1939 by a young woman who came from the mountains in search of food. i believe she found that this place was better for her because it is coated in water, and civilisation needs water. she brought friends and family here, followed by a brother. the entire family of her own clan... all from that one woman? really fascinating, wow. this is a much—loved annual celebration and people of all ages gathered to mark it, using fishing methods that have been passed down the generations.

—— they gather to mark in. then you pull it towards you... pull the stick... and look! you can see this! it's full of fish, it's full of fish. this is today's catch... wow! that is pretty good. and this, you will cook, now? excellent. so my trek across india from border to border is almost over, and it's been a realjourney of discovery for me off the beaten track. this isn't india "on tap", instant gratification, which some people are accustomed to, but the rewards, if you make the effort, are immense. asnake?!

can they bite? yeah, it does. it bites. is it poisonous? no, not much. not much?! laughter. can i get out now? looks like temperatures will be on the rise in the coming days because the rise in the coming days because the system approaching the uk has embedded in it some warm tropical air. it is the remnants of the hurricane which has been whizzing across the atlantic. much more moisture in the air, hence more clout. ahead of it, good spells sunshine and northern england and scotla nd sunshine and northern england and scotland will have a improved day. cloud getting into south—west england already and wales, pushing its way northwards and eastwards

through the afternoon. this is how close through the afternoon. rain and cloud pushing across wales into north wales and into northern ireland as well. the cloud will increase a head of it. should be mainly dry of the country. a bit cooler further west with the cloud and rain which continues to go eastwards overnight affecting much of england and southern parts of wales and northern ireland as well. mr fogg associated with that. for more than england and scotland milder night and cooler. here is our band of rain tomorrow, draped across england and wales and northern ireland. it fizzles out over england and wales but continues into northern ireland and pushes it in north—west england and scotland. elsewhere, it becomes mainly dry. there will be cloud but in sunshine, temperatures getting up to about 23

celsius. that system is still with us on celsius. that system is still with us on tuesday. it is slow—moving and by tuesday the focus of the rain will be across parts of northern ireland, pushing into parts of scotla nd ireland, pushing into parts of scotland as well. the winds coming from the south, pushing warm, humid air into the country. always fresher for scotland and northern ireland. we could see further outbreaks of rain there. into wednesday, an east—west split. the system out to the west will provide further rain for more than ireland would be heavy, getting into scotla nd ireland would be heavy, getting into scotland as well. associated with this cold front and fresher conditioned behind it. ahead of it, we are still in the warm and humid air. so quite high temperatures. an u nsettled air. so quite high temperatures. an unsettled day for scotland. for the week, it will really be driest further south, wettest further north

and warmerfor a further south, wettest further north and warmer for a time. this is bbc news, the headlines at 2pm: spain's king and queen attend a special mass in barcelona to honour those killed in the catalonia attacks. police say they do not know the man suspected of driving the van used in the attack in las ramblas is ill in spain. the catalonian police say investigators have identified two people from remains found in a house which expired on wednesday night in alcanar. fraudsters aiming to scam people out their pension could soon face fines of up to £500,000, as the government moves to tighten restrictions on cold callers. iraqi forces have begun an offensive to retake tal afar, the last major city in the country to be held by so—called islamic state. 500 people are thought to be dead after floods across south asia.