this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: the crisis of the rohingya muslims reaches catastrophic levels — the un warns the exodus is destabilising the entire region. i call on the myanmar authorities to suspend action and violence, uphold the rule of law. but as we've been finding out, in myanmar the crisis is seen rather differently. the perception here among many is that it's burmese buddhism that is under siege from militant islam. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: south korea sets up teams of new special forces as cross—border tensions rise — we'll ask a former colonel what message seoul is sending to pyongyang. and the demise of pakistan's dvd pirates — how the internet brought a billion dollar industry to its knees. live from studio in singapore and london —

this is bbc world news. it's newsday. good morning. it's 8am in singapore, 1:00 in london and 6am on the bangladeshi border, where nearly 400,000 rohingya muslims are now gathered in terrible conditions, driven from their homes in myanmar by the military. we have been reporting on their desperate situation for several weeks now as the numbers have gone up and up. mainly on foot, and taking as much as they can carry, the rohingya community talk of their homes being burnt, of landmines, of rapes, and shootings. the un has called on the authorities in myanmar,

a mainly buddhist country, to suspend their military action against the rohingya people. the un secretary general, antonio guterres says the situation is having a devastating effect on the whole region. grievances that have been left to fester for decades have now escalated beyond the borders of myanmar, destabilising the region. the humanitarian situation is catastrophic. last week there were 125,000 refugees who had fled to bangladesh. that number has now tripled to nearly 380,000. many are staying in makeshift settlements or in communities who are generously sharing what they have. but women and children are arriving hungry and malnourished. i call on the myanmar authorities to suspend military action, and the violence. uphold the rule of law and recognise the right of return of all those who had to leave the country. but not everyone sees the rohingya as victims.

our special correspondent, fergal keane, has been to myanmar‘s second—biggest city, mandalay, to assess the mood of the buddhist majority, and found they have a very different take on the situation. the sense of a buddhist country is powerfully felt in mandalay, so too are the echoes of current events. this collection was ostensibly for all refugees in rakhine state, but we heard the line repeated all over myanmar — muslims were being burned out by muslim terrorists. translation: they are not only destroying buddhist homes, but also muslim houses. i don't want all the terrorist groups. this is a war about the occupation of the territory. they are killing all the people they see and destroying all the houses they see. it was meant to be very different.

a year ago, the pro—democracy, pro—human rights party of aung san suu kyi became the government. but the country's de facto leader has refused to either condemn the security crackdown or call for military restraint. in mandalay her party's spokesman sees rakhine buddhists as the victims. what do you believe is happening in rakhine state? "i just want to say what my own view is," he told me. "i only see that rakhine ethnic people have been attacked." there's very little sympathy here for the persecuted minority in rakhine state and if aung san suu kyi was to say or do anything that was considered as showing solidarity with them, she would be politically exposed. that's something the military understands well, as it continues with its brutal crackdown. the perception here among many is that it's burmese buddhism that is under siege

from militant islam. these men belong to an organisation that's done much to stoke fear. the monks of ma ba tha, a hardline nationalist movement with much popular support. its leader, ashin wirathu, went to jailfor inciting hatred against muslims, but wasn't keen to speak to us when he appeared for breakfast at his monastery. bbc, can i ask you about the ethnic cleansing in rakhine state, please? but later i was granted an interview with eight of the movement's senior monks. the organisation was banned six months ago by aung san suu kyi's government. they refused to recognise the existence of the rohingya, referring to them as bengalis. so i wondered how this monk felt about her response to the rakhine crisis? that is not an endorsement

she will cherish. there are efforts being made here by some moderate buddhist clergy working with muslims to ease communal tensions, after attacks on muslims three years ago. the memory of that violence and the rohingya crisis has created pervasive unease. these muslims working with buddhist peacemakers,

are worried. translation: i trust the current government not to let the violence happen here. 0n the other hand, i do not trust the army. there is an immediate crisis in rakhine, but wider questions too, about the power of the military and the hardline clergy, about what kind of country this might become. fergal keane, bbc news, mandalay. also this hour: taiwan is bracing for more typhoon talim, bringing winds that could reach up to i70km/h. the typhoon is expected to gain power as it sweeps towards taiwan's northern cities. it could then strengthen into a super typhoon as it moves towards china's mainland, and then north—east towards japan on friday. a us senator for the state of florida has described it as inexcusable that eight residents at a nursing home died after air

conditioning was lost in the aftermath of hurricane irma. senator bill nelson said the deaths following sunday's storm could have been prevented. 115 other residents of the home were evacuated, a number of them in critical condition. police are conducting a criminal investigation into the deaths. at this time we have other patients in critical care. right now the building has been sealed off and we are conducting a criminal investigation inside. then we believe that this may be related to the loss of power in the storm but we are conducting a criminal investigation are not ruling out anything at this time. the white house is used to hosting high profile dinners but washington is buzzing about two people joining president trump tonight. the unlikely guests are none other than democratic leaders, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. president trump says he's prepared to work with them on tax reform, and will discuss the legislative agenda with them. alibaba founder and chief executive jack ma turned the company's 18th

birthday celebration into a thriller with a michaeljackson—inspired dance routine. he performed in front of 40,000 employees. after channelling his inner king of pop on stage, ma pulled off the mask and revealed he was behind the dance moves. thrilling dance moves! tensions between north korea and the south have reached boiling point, with south korea conducting its first live—fire exercise of its new long—range taurus missile in response to pyongyang's latest nuclear test. well, south korea is also planning to target north korea's leadership with a special forces brigade. the media has already dubbed it as a "decapitation unit". 0bviously its mission won't be to literally decapitate the north's leaders, so what is it hoping to achieve, and how? earlier i spoke to former

south korean army colonel professor hwee rhak park, in seoul, and asked him just how special is this forces brigade? as you know, the establishment of the brigade has three purposes. the first is to restrain the behaviour of kim jong—un by saying that he could be targeted any time. the second one would be to get rid of kim jong—un himself if we think it is necessary to avoid nuclear war. the third would be to deter any decision about making nuclear war by saying that if kim jong—un makes any decision, south korea will kill him no matter what. it is an important method for deterring nuclear war on the korean peninsula and we need to make certain that south korea is determined to do anything to prevent nuclear war. this rhetoric is quite unusual to publicly announce that south korea plans to

assassinate a head of state. would it be wiser not announce it? you may be right. however, the important thing is to not kill kim jong—un but to change his decision and behaviour. we believe if we threatened to kill him, he could not make a bad decision without risking his life. the important thing is that we need to deliver the message to kim jong—un that he can make a decision that he should be ready to take the consequences. you are a former south korean army colonel. do you know anything else about this elite squad? when will it be established and how large is it? 0ur minister of national defence told the national assembly that he would create this unit by the first of december this year.

2.5 months from now. however, the decision was made last year in 2016 by the former administration because we believe that it would be necessary to deter a war. 0ur minister of national defence said that it would be of the level of 1000 or 2000 personnel. however, the specific concept and operation will develop gradually. you are watching newsday live from singapore and london. we'll be speaking to the australian researcher who could help save thousands of babies — by developing a test which warns doctors when a foetus might be in danger.

also on the programme: the tortoise listed as extinct for 150 years comes out of its shell. 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! translation: the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it's 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 rico hizon in singapore. i'm babita sharma in london. our top stories. the un secretary general has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe, as more rohingya muslims flee the violence in myanmar. it's emerged that eight residents of a nursing home in miami died when power supplies were cut by storm system irma. us tennis star, serena williams, has posted the first photo of her daughter, alexis 0lympia 0hanian junior, on social media almost two weeks after her birth. the 23—time grand slam winner and her fiance welcomed their little girl on the first of september at a clinic in florida. that story is popular on bbc.com.

let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the straits times' front page is dominated by the swearing—in of singapore's eighth president on thursday. madam halimah yacob will make history by becoming the country's first woman president and only the second malay to hold the office. the south china morning post has a focus on the environment and a nationwide policy on the mainland to turn agricultural waste into biofuel for cars instead of burning it — and thereby reducing smog. but some experts have doubts about how environmentally—friendly it may be. the japan times reports on the unveiling of iphone x — apple's most expensive phone ever — priced at $1000 in cupertino,

california. an interesting aspect of the model is apple's "animoji" feature, which lets people give emoji their voice and expressions. it's one of the most devastating outcomes in any pregnancy: a baby growing inside its mother that suddenly dies. now an australian researcher has had a major breakthrough in understanding more about stillbirth, and is developing a test which could alert obstetricians when a baby is in grave danger. i asked professor roger smith what he's found. the key idea is that stillbirths, or the death of the baby during pregnancy, is often due to ageing of the placenta, the organ on which the baby depends to get its oxygen, glucose, and other nutrients during the pregnancy. we begin by noting that

the likelihood of the baby dying increased as pregnancy advanced, going up especially after 39, 40, 41 weeks. and the mathematical definition of the ageing is actually that the likelihood of death increases with time. so these two things matched, and made us think that we should look at the placenta for signs of ageing. when we did that, we certainly found dramatic evidence of ageing in the last weeks of pregnancy. so with this link now established, through your research, is there a possibility, now, that your findings will be able to prevent stillbirths from happening? certainly. the placenta releases material into the mother's blood. and we hope, therefore, to be to pick up signs of the ageing of the placenta tissue in the mother's blood,

which will allow the obstetricians to intervene to deliver the baby by caesarean section, for instance, before it dies. and how is that carried out? forgive me, but in layman's terms, are we talking about carrying out blood tests throughout the early stages of pregnancy? not the early stages, but more likely the later stages would be the key times. the other important aspect of this work, even now, is to reassure the mums who have experienced a stillbirth that it wasn't their fault, it's due to ageing of the placenta, something that they would not have had any possibility of controlling. dvd piracy in pakistan has been a multi—million dollar business over the past few decades. most international film distributors don't operate in the country — and so shops openly selling bootleg versions are widely tolerated. but as our pakistan correspondent

secunder kermani found out — the piracy industry in the country seems to be dying out — and it's not because of any crackdown by the police — but because of competition from the internet. dozens of pirated dvds are being packaged up for sale. it may technically be illegal but it is big business in pakistan. at least, it used to be. dvd piracy is dying out. the rainbow centre in karachi, once called itself the biggest dvd market in asia. shops were filled with pirated films. now, however, most sell clothes or mobile phones. translation: hundreds of thousands of people used to be employed by this industry. it has been going on since the days of videocassettes now

however people watch films on the internet. no-one comes here to buy them any more. until around 2005 are used to be whole factories in karachi making tens of millions of pirated copies each year to sell and to export abroad. when the government decided to crack down on them, production moved to smaller shops like this one where they burn dvds on these powers and also print their sleeves. but now we've been here they say they are only making about half the number of dvds that they used to because there simply is not the demand any longer. muhamed has worked in the industry for 17 yea rs. has worked in the industry for 17 years. he even has his own brand label on the dw. he says he will be closing down in a few months. translation: previously, you used to get a dollarfor a dvd. now you do not even get half of that. i spent my entire life in this business. now

i have think what to do instead. 0nce closed, some of the businesses here have never reopened. the price of shops in the centre has dropped massively. after decades of huge profits, the piracy industry in pakistan looks to be on its last legs. a breed of giant tortoise hidden away so well, it's been on the extinction list for 150 years, is making a triumphant comeback — albeit slowly. an island in the galapagos was named in honour of the floreana tortoise after it was supposedly wiped out. but now dozens of descendants are building their strength to reclaim their home. virginia langeberg reports. nothing happens too quickly in the daughter ‘s world. but this is a comeback worth the wait. the florea na daughters, comeback worth the wait. the floreana daughters, once thought wiped out, has been on the extinction list for one half

centuries. now with careful conservation species has been brought back from the dead. translation: today, we are announcing to the world very good news. we have managed to recover a species that was once thought to be extinct and listed as such for the last 150 years. the species became an extinct from its home island of florea na an extinct from its home island of floreana during an extinct from its home island of florea na during the an extinct from its home island of floreana during the mid 19th century after hunting an exploitation from the first settlers. some floreana we re the first settlers. some floreana were dropped on other islands, breeding with other daughters of. now the original species is slowly and steadily staging its return. a breeding programme at the galapagos national park has yielded dozens of florea na your bread national park has yielded dozens of floreana your bread fortresses, with hopes of thousands more in the coming years. translation: we will recover this floreana coming years. translation: we will recover this florea na species coming years. translation: we will recover this floreana species with a programme of reproduction in captivity, using experience that the galapagos national park has already

used for 5000 other daughters is reintroduced into the habitat. this is the first time we will do the same thing but with a species that was considered to be extinct. this is the gift that we give to humanity. they will be given time to grow into their shells within the national park and then it is hoped within five years the floreana will be released back into the wild to reclaim their island. but there is no rush. now, there are elections going on in a city in canada — and there's one candidate who'll be tough to beat. especially since his social media videos are showing everyone, what a good boy he is. take a look. finn, tell me about your campaign. woof! how did this all come about?

he has been thinking about it for a long time. finn is an actor and it has taken a break from his film career to see if can give us some help. what are some of the traits that finn can bring to the role? as an australian cattle dog, he is a tireless worker. he doesn't know when to stop. he will work day and night to get things done. what is he been up to on the campaign trail? he has been certainly helping and meeting as many people as he can. he has been tried to get his message across. potholes and snow—clearing are big issues for him. he is an avid walker. but speaking to as many people as he can. how is the response been so far? the response has been phenomenal. we put it together quickly, the campaign — at the last minute, and the response has been fantastic. we cannot thank everyone enough. you have been watching newsday.

stay with us. and before we go, let's take a look at this picture. an adoring fan doing what, i guess, many can only dream of — squeezing the face of us actor, george clooney, at the toronto international film festival in canada. the unlikely pair met on the red carpet while the actor was promoting his latest film, suburbicon, at the festival. she says she does not remember planning to grab his chin, but it just happened in the moment. hi there. the weather's going to stay unsettled and showery for the next few days. certainly cooler for the weekend, as well. the area of low pressure

with the first named storm of the autumn season working across to europe. that's aileen. bring some very strong winds to north poland, lithuania, and estonia, with gusts reaching 70 kilometres per hour early in the morning. a blustery started the day for us, with showers around. if you are heading out early, temperatures will be about 9—10 degrees celsius. across the far south of england, especially towards the south coast, sunshine for a time. but there's a strip of cloud coming down across the midlands, east anglia, and across wales, too, that will have heavy showers in it, and that's going to be pushing southwards as the morning goes by. so the sunshine in the south will not last long. to the north, for scotland and northern ireland, there will be some sunshine to start the day. still, though, with that blustery wind making it feel cool around the coast. still only 9 degrees, but factoring in the strength of wind, it will feel a little chilly. as we go through the rest

of the day, that band of cloud and showers pushes south across england before clearing. then the sunshine comes out across england and wales, that sunshine triggering one or two heavy showers. some of the showers will turn thundery. when the showers come along, they'll really drop the temperatures for a time. it'll be quite a cool day, in any case, across the north—west, with temperatures of 13 degrees or so in glasgow. showers in the north of scotland could merge to form a lengthy spell of rain for a time. through the night—time, the band of showers will push south and across northern england and across wales, as well, still tied in with this week when a front that is pushing its way southwards. going through friday, this will push the showers southwards across the midlands, east anglia, and into southern counties of england. along that line, there'll a lot of cloud, and some heavier showers. the sunshine comes out across the north across scotland, northern england and northern island. northern england and northern ireland. another cold day, though, across northern parts for this time of year.

just 12 celsius. factoring in the wind, it will feel that bit cooler. that low is sending northerly winds across the uk. this area of low pressure will continue to feed in showers. the majority of the showers will be across central and eastern parts of england. elsewhere, particularly through the weekend, the weather could become drier and brighter across the north—west of the uk. the winds continue to ease. we will have some cool weather, perhaps some overnight frost across sheltered parts of scotland this weekend. and that's your weather. i'm babita sharma, with bbc world news. our top story: the un secretary general has called on myanmar to end the military violence which has forced hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims to flee. antonio guterres said the situation in the refugee camps in bangladesh was a humanitarian catastrophe, with women and children arriving hungry and malnourished. police in florida are investigating the deaths of eight residents at a care home in florida, which lost power when it was hit by hurricane irma. 115 other residents were evacuated, a number in critical condition.

china's richest man, jack ma has gone viral. he was impressing his staff by performing a series of michael jackson dance moves only revealing his identity at the end. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: the prime minister says there will be greater flexibility