i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: hurricane irma kills at least two people as it rips through the caribbean. it's now headed for puerto rico, where residents are bracing themselves for one of the atlantic's worst ever storms. hurricane irma kills at least two people as it rips through the caribbean. it's now headed for puerto rico, where residents are bracing themselves for one of the atlantic's worst ever storms. the full force of hurricane irma is still hours away and you can still feel its effects. myanmar‘s government rejects accusations that its armed forces are targeting rohingya muslims, as thousands continue to flee the violence. you can see what a dangerous voyage it has been for them. the boat is listing dangerously on its side. i'm alpa patel in london. also in the programme. we'll be putting memory master ya njaa wintersoul‘s powers of recollection to the test. and a daring bid forfreedom from the backseat of a police car. how this alleged shoplifter made her great escape. live from our studios in singapore

and london, you're watching bbc world news. it's newsday. good morning. it's 7am in singapore, midnight in london, and 7pm in the eastern caribbean, where several islands are reeling from the effects of one of the most powerful atlantic storms on record. hurricane irma, a force five storm system, brings with it gusts of up to 320 kilometres per hour, that's 200 miles per hour. the hurricane has already battered several of the leeward islands. the prime minister of antigua and barbyuda, said 90% of buildings on barbyuda have been demolished after the centre of irma smashed into the island. at least two people have died on saint martin and neighbouring french territory of st barts. the eye of the hurricane has passed over the british virgin islands, president trump has declared a state of emergency on the us virgin islands and puerto rico as the storm approaches. our correspondent, laura bicker, reports from the capital, san juan. this is what it sounds like to be

at the heart of one of the strongest storms recorded in the atlantic. the winds, like a jet engine, roared through the eastern caribbean. the category 5 hurricane ripped roofs off homes and devastated parts of the french territories of st barts and st martin. two people have lost their lives. translation: i want, firstly, to say a few words to express our profound compassion and solidarity to our fellow citizens who today were affected by hurricane irma on st martin and in st barts. these pilots flew into the eye of the storm, a unique view of the sheer scale of this hurricane and, at its core, are those catastrophic 185 mile an hour winds, and that is what they fear on the island of puerto rico. the aim is to try to save as much as possible.

neighbours are handing out wood boarding and supplies. this shop owner describes them as "angels". we're a strong island. you know, we've been through this before, so... you know, it's a lot of emotions going on, you know. the governor has been inspecting one of the shelters set up for the thousands who are expected to evacuate low—lying areas. we are hopeful that it'll skid off somewhere north—east of puerto rico, but we're prepared for the worst as well. we can't leave anything to chance, and our priority right now is to make sure that the people of puerto rico are safe. these families hope they will be safe here. the full force of hurricane irma is still several hours away and already you can see and feel its effect. the preparations have been made over the last few days and the governor says that could be the difference between lives lost and lives saved. in florida they're taking no chances, evacuations are already under way. the storm could hit

the sunshine state this weekend. president trump has declared a state of emergency, freeing up relief funding for florida and puerto rico. we have a lot to discuss, including the fact that there's a new and, seems to be, record—breaking hurricane heading ight toward florida and puerto rico, and other places. we'll see what happens. we'll know in a very short period of time, but it looks like it could be something that will be not good. believe me, not good. hurricane irma has proved to be a terrifying, unstoppable force. all those in her path can do is hunker down and hope. laura bicker, bbc news, puerto rico. joining us on the line is the prime minister of antigua. thank you for

joining us, gaston brown. you have looked at the damage caused. joining us, gaston brown. you have looked at the damage causedm joining us, gaston brown. you have looked at the damage caused. it is heart—wrenching. absolutely devastating. 90% of the properties have been damaged. homes, institutions, schools, hotels, the airport, the runway has been damaged. we cannot accommodate any kinds of flights, international, national, demands. telecommunications have been literally broken into. infrastructure has been damaged. it has been total carnage in the area. wind speeds of 200 miles per hour. the country was in the direct path

of hurricane irma. they have never seen anything like that before. it isa seen anything like that before. it is a devastating hurricane. absolutely terrible. you have been speaking to people. what have they told you? i would say that, obviously, when you look at the extent of the carnage, i think they are worried about immediate circumstances. they have hurricane jose to worry about as well to be if that comes, we may have to evacuate the west of barbuda. many of them are homeless. we are trying to make sure people can recover. what do you need to do in order to get these

people back on their feet and living their normal lives again? we have estimated the damage to be about 60 million us dollars if you include physical infrastructure. that is an enormous amount of resources. but it will clearly ta ke enormous amount of resources. but it will clearly take some time to restore infrastructure and homes and lives and normalcy. antigua on the other hand fared well. the wind got up other hand fared well. the wind got up to 130 miles per hour but damage was limited. antigua is where all of

the ember structure is located, hotels and so on. we are resilient. it is unfortunate this has happened. sadly, we know that two people have been killed. do you have any information about them 7 been killed. do you have any information about them? my understanding is it was a toddler, a 2—year—old child, hurt while moving. it is unfortunate. i think the people in barbuda were lucky to not have more deaths when you look at the destruction. we have never seen

anything like this. you say you have not seen anything like this, but this part of the world is indeed use the hurricanes. —— used to. did catch authorities offguard? no. we don't know what the damage would have been if we were not ready. if you look at the sheer wind speed of the hurricane, there is no way to avoid damage. many individuals recognise it would have been catastrophic. but we are utilising every effort to try to bring relief to the people of barbuda. at the same time, we are hopeful. we are

resilient people. gaston brown, we are grateful for your time. resilient people. gaston brown, we are gratefulfor your time. the prime minister of antigua and barbuda. and now for some other stories. un human rights investigators say the syrian air force did carry out a chemical weapons attack, on a rebel held town in april. at least 83 people died when a bomb filled with the nerve agent, sarin, was dropped on khan sheikhoun in idlib, a report says. the syrian regime insists the incident was faked and denies using chemical weapons. pope francis is in the colombian capital, bogota, on the first papal visit to the country in three decades. his five—day trip is a plea for lasting peace after the signing of an accord ended half a century of conflict between the government and fa rc rebels. during the flight, pope francis also appealed for an end to the political and economic crisis in neighbouring venezuela.

a court in moscow has ruled that a policy used by the russian airline aeroflot, to link flight attendants' pay, to their dress size, is illegal. two stewardesses, brought the case, after their wages fell because they were deemed too big. aeroflot had argued that limited space on planes, meant larger staff were not suitable. let's go to peru, where this volcano has been spewing clouds of smoke and debris. it's called the saban—kiya volcano and it stands nearly six thousand metres up in the andes mountains. its name means "tongue of fire" and this eruption isn't exactly unusual for this part of the world, the volcano has been erupting for more than 500 years. the government in myanmar has rejected accusations that the armed forces are conducting a campaign of indiscriminate violence against rohingya muslims. so far, more than 100 and a0 thousand rohingyas have fled into neighbouring bangladesh. bangladesh has accussed myanmar of laying landmines along their border to stop people returning to their villages,

an allegation denied by officials in myanmar. the united nations says it expects the number of rohingya refugees seeking safety in bangladesh to more than double. 0ur correspondent, sanjoy majumder, sent this report from the border. these are myanmar‘s boat people dazed, confused after an exhausting trip over the choppy bay of bengal. stepping on shore with their possessions, whatever they could grab in a hasty escape. this boat carrying rohingya refugees has just arrived on the south—eastern coast of bangladesh. you can see what a dangerous voyage it has been for them, the boat is lifting dangerously on its side. but it's the only way they could have made their way here. they've been frightened, running for their lives. 0n the beach they collapse in a heap, many of them severely

dehydrated and sea sick after an eight—hour voyage. some can scarcely believe they're alive, others let their loved ones know they made it. a brother and sister united after days, separated after their village was attacked, unsure if they would ever seen each again. but some, like dilbar, continue to relive the horror of a village being attacked? translation: it has taken us 20 days to come here. 0ur village was attacked by the army and buddhist mobs. they burned our house and my aunt was killed. her grandson was shot, his injured arm now encased

in homemade splint. translation: we hit in the mountains for 12 days from where we could hear the sound of bombing, of rockets being fired. people were being slaughtered by the army and buddhist mobs. it's hard to independently verifying what's happening inside myannmar, access is severely restricted. but this unverified video, shot by one of the escaping rohingyas, appears to show thousands of others waiting to leave, fleeing what they allege are targeted killings. and many of those who do make it across to bangladesh bare the scars of violence. this teenager shows us what he says are gunshot wounds. when my village was attacked i tried to run, he says. the soldiers fired indiscriminately. many people died. they are sometimes described as the world's most persecuted minority, driven from their homes, the rohingyas now have to find a way to rebuild their lives. sanjoy majumder, bbc news, bangladesh.

you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: memory master, yanjaa wintersoul, was in the studio and we put her powers of recollection to the test. freedom itself was attacked this morning, and freedom will be defended. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible. bishop tutu now becomes spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans, here — of the blacks in soweto township, as well as the whites, in their rich suburbs. we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice, enough of blood and tears — enough! the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage.

it is an exodus of up to 60,000 people, caused by the uneven pace of political change in eastern europe. iam free! this is newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. i'm alpa patel in london. our top stories. hurricane irma is causing chaos across the caribbean. there's been widespread damage. it is now threatening the us territory of puerto rico. bangladesh accuses myanmar of planting landmines along the border, as thousands of rohingya muslims flee across it. myanmar denies the accusation. and now look at these pictures

which are proving quite a hit on the bbc news website. they show a rather unusual attempt by an irish man to catch a bat which has flown into his kitchen. it was filmed in the home of derry fleming in county kerry by his son, tadge. you can see derry chasing the bat around with a small towel, rather unsuccessfully at first. he then switches to a bigger towel, though that doesn't seem to help much either. but you'll be pleased to know the bat was eventually captured, and released back into the wild, unharmed. brexit leaks are the big story for the guardian in the uk. it says the eu is to risk heightening tensions with britain with tough positions including forcing the uk to sort the irish border issue and demanding continued protection special foods like parma ham and spanish cava. the business front page of the china daily reports

the country's aviation industry's to buy more than 7,000 new planes in the next twenty years. it says it's well above the global average — helped by china's growing middle class and relaxed visa policies around the world. the new york times features the home returning home the man that restored the house of late american civil rights activist rosa parks wants it to go back to the us. ryan mendoza took it to berlin to preserve it — he's now offering it to museums across the states. and this story is sparking discussions online it isa it is a video of an alleged shoplifter staging a daring escape after being arrested. the woman on the ground was arrested

by officers after they were called out to a possible shoplifting at a beauty parlour. 0nce suitably restrained she was placed in the backseat a police car. but it seems she was not terribly happy about this turn of events. somehow she managed to slip out of her handcuffs. then, after a quick look around to see if anyone was watching, she slid into the front of the car. all of this coming as something of a surprise to the officers who, at the time, were examining her bad. vass began a car chase that lasted over 20 minutes and at times reached 100 mph. you can see the fugitive vehicle avoiding a stinger as it sped along the highway. police eventually

forced off the road. she lost control of the vehicle. she was back in custody, apparently unhurt, but now facing various charges including aggravated assault and unauthorised use of a vehicle. local police are now fitting new security measures to all their cars. it's an issue that affects businesses big and small — are women fairly represented amongst a company's top decision—makers? in malaysia, prime minister najib razak has said he wants to see more women on boards of directors at publicly listed companies and those that fall short will be named and shamed. junie foo, co—founder of boardagenderjoins me now. your group was set up to try and create awareness of the situation. do you think political pressure like this can actually result in change?

i think it will result in change because it helps to accelerate the awareness. in singapore the or awareness. in singapore the or awareness is increasing but the importance of having women on board. but we are moving too slowed. and asia wide, if you look at the statistics, we know that countries like norway and germany lead in terms of having women on boards. but what can asia do to try to change some of these culturally ingrained practices to promote more women in positions? unless we go the extreme way of setting quotas, many people are not agreeable to having quotas in asia. if we take a natural process it will take more time. do you think the issue with the prime minister of malaysia suggesting he will name and shame people, that does sound extreme, but does that work? will that get company sitting

up work? will that get company sitting up and taking notice?” work? will that get company sitting up and taking notice? i think so. i think full our group, we were advocating aspirational targets. perhaps it is easier because you are working towards a goal instead of dictating, say, 30% and that is it. aspirational targets help you as a e form of renewal, rather thanjust replacing one man with another man. u nfortu nately, replacing one man with another man. unfortunately, that is we have time for today. thank you so much for coming in and talking about very important issue. i don't know if you ever forget where you left your keys, or struggle to recall the names of people you've known for years, but our memories can have a habit of playing tricks on us. one person who never has such problems is yanjaa wintersoul. she's a world memory champion and we've been putting her powers of recall to the test. we will give you a0 seconds to

memorise this image which i will hand over to you now. you can see the same image on the screen behind her. in the meantime, i will tell you about this woman. she is 20 yea rs you about this woman. she is 20 years old, has lived in stock long, mongolia, is an kenyan and dashmac in the meantime, i'm going to tell you a little about yanjaa. yanjaa's 23 and has lived in stockholm, mongolia, tokyo and kenya. she's recently been a star of the show sweden's got talent, and her amazing memory feats include learning all 328 pages and more than a,800 items in an ikea catalogue. two years ago she broke the world record for recalling names and faces by memorizing an astounding 187 names in just 15 minutes at the hong kong 0pen memory championship. she has about five more seconds to look at the photo. hand it back to me. thank you very much. after looking at the photo, of the duke and duchess of cambridge arriving in poland injuly.

tell us some of the details of the photograph. they have a colour scheme of blue and red going on so the father has a nice red tie, the daughter has a red shoes, sandals with white socks sticking out. and a red dotted patterned cute dress. the son has the same colour scheme as his father with the cute shirt and blue pants and blue shorts. and then there are a row of guards in the background. to the right there are also people in the background having the time of their lives laughing at something. how about kate's necklace? 0h, details... you had a few seconds to look at and it is, you did give us a detailed explanation. tell us how you did it. what are some of the tricks for boosting your memory? i tried to make it personal, imagine that i am part of this family and imagine that if i am part of the family i am helping them to choose their outfits and as long

as you make factual knowledge about the world personal, it is easy to remember. so what do you tell people who want to improve their memory? some people wake up and not even know what they are the weak it is. some people wake up and not even know what day of the week it is. what sort of advice? sleep a lot. sleeping consolidates short—term memory into long—term memory. a rich social life is important. some studies show that being isolated is more dangerous to your brain health than other types of dangerous substances. not even exercising, you can just go walking for half an hour a week. there you go. a lot of sleep is the key to a good memory. good morning. there is wind and rain in the forecast for the british isles over the next few days but nothing like the wet and windy weather that is being wrought

in the caribbean by hurricane irma. this huge lumbering store system with the eyes showing up clearly an hour earlier satellite picture. during the day ahead the storm will move away from puerto rico, just clipping the north of the dominican republic and haiti and moving towards the eastern side of cuba late in the day. back home we have our own area of low pressure, a far less potent one, obviously. isobars beginning to squeeze together, slowing, but the wind will be picking up as the day goes on. we will also see some outbreaks of rain. central and eastern areas particularly, it could be a fairly dry and bright start but further north and west, cloud will thicken and outbreaks of rain slide across northern ireland, scotland and northern england with increasingly blustery winds. at four o'clock in the afternoon, a lot of cloud for the likes of belfast, temperatures around 16 degrees. the rain turning heavier across western areas of scotland, even some outbreaks of rain

across eastern scotland and temperatures in aberdeen just 13 degrees. that rain stretching across northern england from newcastle to manchester and down into the midlands. we will see cloud and showers into the afternoon. similar weather for wales, cloudy weather with showery rain at times. 17 degrees in cardiff. a grey afternoon in prospect in the south—west of england. here cloud thickens up with a couple of showers into the afternoon. as we go on through the night we will see bands of rain progressing erratically southwards and eastwards, getting stuck across southern areas by the end of the night. temperatures dropped to 10 degrees in aberdeen and 15 in plymouth. during friday this band of rain will get stuck across southern areas and some rain could be quite heavy. there will be blustery wind around as well but the further north and west you are, the better the chance of seeing some sunshine albeit with some very thundery downpours mixed in. as we go into the

weekend, things look decidedly unsettled and dare i say autumnal. cool windy weather with some rain at times. the rain on saturday coming in the form of showers. some of these could be heavy, fairly breezy, the wind not coming from a warm direction at all so the temperature just just 16—18 degrees. a bright start on sunday towards the south—east, heavy rain pushing in from the north—west and late in the day western areas particularly will turn very windy indeed. i'm alpa patel with bbc news. the top story. one of the atlantic's biggest ever storms is battering the caribbean, hurricane irma. several people have died. it is headed now for puerto rico. with winds reaching up to almost 300 kilometres per hour, the hurricane has caused flooding and inflicted severe damage to buildings and power supplies. myanmar‘s government has rejected accusations that its armed forces

are targeting rohingya muslims. and this video is trending on bbc.com. the social media site, facebook, says it has discovered a russian—funded campaign to promote divisive social and political messages during last year's us presidential election campaign. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: one person has died in a crash at caernarfon airport in north wales. witnesses say they saw an explosion as a light plane came in to land.