close to the last known location of a submarine which went missing off the coast of patagonia. the blast was detected around the time the submarine, with 44 crew on board, sent its last signal last week. myanmar and bangladesh have signed an agreement to return hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims who fled a recent army crackdown. a statement from the bangladesh foreign ministry said displaced people could begin to return within two months. and emmerson mnangagwa is to be sworn in as zimbabwe's president, following the dramatic departure of robert mugabe after 37 years of authoritarian rule. the former vice—president — who returned from exile on wednesday — will be inaugurated at harare‘s stadium. flood warnings remain in place in

the north of england. almost five centimetres of rain fell in 2a hours in parts of lancashire and cumbria. after hours of heavy rain, the river galgate near lancaster finally burst its banks last night, causing chaos and misery. people had realised flooding was imminent and try to get their belongings to safety. itjust came in faster and faster and faster, and it came to a point where we were bucketing it out, bailing it out, we had pumps going. it came to the point where it was bucket against river and the river won and it's now like this. i've lifted as much as i can from the ground floor, but there's bikes down there, my cooker‘s gone, my boiler, my washing machine, my dishwasher, everything. this morning the water had receded and left a familiar scene of salvage and disposal. the water wasn't in for long but it doesn't have to be. a few minutes is enough to destroy and ruin. no warning. the warning was the people

on the street going "ahhhh!" "we need some help!" or the road was just coming up and the water was gushing everywhere. further north in cumbria are the rain caused more problems in eight county familiar with flooding. they'd prepared for the worst here with emergency services sent to help. there was trouble for travellers too. the west coast main line was flooded north of preston, leading to long delays and that dreaded alternative, the rail replacement bus service. north wales was hit as well. many roads in anglesey were flooded, leaving people unable to get to where they wanted to. pretty bad, believe me, yeah. the river was flowing down this side of the road instead of down where the river was, i've never seen anything like it in the 70 years i've been living in llangefni. unbelievable, never seen anything like it in my life. i've been brought up here. it wasjust, well, shocking. once again the vulnerability of parts of north—west england and wales to heavy rain

has been highlighted. is this the start of another long, wet winter? danny savage, bbc news, lancashire. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show. this week, japan's prettiest railways... there is a push for the last carriage, maybe it has the best views. chomping your way through the big apple. we just eat crazy things for the sake of eating crazy things. the things we eat are actually really really delicious. and road testing apps for keeping you mobile. this service actually gives you a bit of a lie in. result! this is the tadami line in centraljapan.

it's regarded as one of the country's most beautiful train routes, and hugs the tadami river as it makes its way from fukushima to niigata prefectures. and it's especially beautiful in japan's autumn colours. the train stations along the tadami line are so unassuming and quaint, this doesn't even look like a train station, it looks more like a post office to me. people come here for the view and it attracts a particular crowd. it's popular chiefly with older people, a handful of railway enthusiast and of course, at this time of year, leaf peepers. there is a bit of a push for the last carriage,

maybe it has the best views. today is unusually busy. normally only around 35 people a day come here for the eight daily departures. it is a serene trip through some of the country's lesser—known backwaters. but there is a problem. this is tadami station, and everyone has to get off now, because the next six stations are the ones that have been damaged in the floods. that made fukushima's name globally infamous. butjust two months later mother nature struck again. heavy storms caused flooding which made a long stretch of the track here unusable. a handful of stations were shut and to this day remain abandoned. this is one of the six disused stations and this sign here says "beware of the bears."

locals don't much use the service that is remaining. it's less useful now that you can't travel uninterrupted from one side to the other. but it does still occupy a special place in some people's hearts. wow, look at this view. the colours are amazing. there is quite a view from up here, no matter what season it is. and it is not one that kenko hoshi is alone in enjoying. in thailand we don't have any autumn. i come for the autumn, leaves change colour. i thought this train moving is a very perfect shot. how did you feel in 2011 when the floods destroyed part of the tadami line? the operator, jr east,

plans to restore the entire line by 2021. but in the meantime, in an attempt to get more young japanese using the line, these comedians the operator, jr east, plans to restore the entire line by 2021. but in the meantime, in an attempt to get more young japanese using the line, these comedians are hosting tours of it. you'll notice a very different crowd from the passengers

i was with earlier. this time, it's exclusively young women, most of whom would probably never have come here in the past. each comedian, including this palm reader, takes turn entertaining each group of passengers, so everyone gets their money's worth. the tadami experience also takes in local temples, and the kaneyama well where you can drink the naturally occurring sparkling water. i expected to see a lot of old people on a bus tour like this, but i was really surprised to see so many young people. i think it's a really clever

marketing tool to get these comedians on board. this looks like a lot of fun. and if you're planning a visit soon, here is the travel show guide of things to see and do in japan this winter. the sapporo snow festival is arguably japan's most famous winter spectacular. around 2 million people had the northern city every year to see the 200 snow and ice sculptures carved there. entrance is free and the next one starts on 5 february. japan is a very popular ski destination and many people tend to head for niseko, which is thought to receive more snowfall than any other resort in the world — or nagano, which hosted the winter olympics back in 1998. a good alternative though is zao in the tohoku region, famous for a snowscape dominated by trees blasted sideways by the siberian snow.

one of the more memorable trips on the travel show was to see the snow monkeys, atjigokudani in nagano prefecture. a troupe of wild macaques come to the hot springs to bathe. it happens all year round — partly because they're fed by the park wardens. but we think it's best to come in january and february for that extra winter wonderland experience. if it's wildlife you're after, then shiretoko on the northern island of hokkaido is well worth thinking about. it is the country's most untouched national park, and the place to go and see the mating rituals of the red crowned cranes. you can combine it with a careful walk along the drift ice or a ride out on one of the icebreaker ships there. and winter is also a really beautiful time to head for the buddhist monasteries at mt koya, south of the second city of osaka, for some meditative calm.

stay overnight with the monks, eat what they eat, and set your alarm for morning prayers. we are told the absolute peace that comes with snow in the mountains is a magical experience. next this week, we're off to south—west china to meet the man responsible for one inspirational building project in the mountains of guizhou. still to come here on the travel show: lucy's here with the best tech for getting still to come here on the travel show: lucy's here with the best tech for getting you around town fast. this is simply a case of following the arrow and making your way safely to your destination. and we pull on our eating trousers for one of new york's more eclectic foodie tours. we just eat crazy things for the sake of eating crazy things. the things that we eat are actually really really delicious. the travel show, your essential guide wherever you're headed.

you may have noticed in recent years ride—hailing apps replacing the traditional arm in the air. taxi! and it's easy to see why. in just a couple of taps, your pre—booked cab turns up at your feet. uber is the market leader in most of the world but some have raised concerns about its working practices and the service has faced suspensions and even outright bans in a few places. so, what's the alternative? here's our guide to the best of the rest. first, a brand new app. it's called gett together. it mainly serves the uk currently in london and manchester and it's a black cab ride—sharing service on routes they say are underserved by public transport. so i'm standing at the start of one of the prefixed routes, it is a pretty familiar and easy—to—use interface, so with one quick click, the cab should be along

in around five minutes. fares start at about £2 and you'll be sharing with other passengers, which is fine when they're as nice as lucy here. this service gives you a bit of a lie in? exactly, yeah. result. in london, the service is limited to just four routes but there are plans to roll it out to other areas across the city. i like the fact you can hop on and off at any point on the route and the fact that the cabs use bus lanes which means you don't have to sit in traffic. your taxi options differ, though, depending on what part of the world you are in. andrew here has been looking through the options for us. so what are some of the best apps that i should be downloading? it really depends on where you live. 0k. and so, if you are in the states, you probably would be using lyft. it's been a bit of the underdog in the uber battle, but it is making good ground. here we have manhattan, we've got fifth avenue. you can choose the different types of car you want and so, depending on and the amount of people you have or you want go luxe, or if you have a kid

and you want a child seat, add your destination — and so, let's we want to go to macy's. then it brings up the total of what it will be, you request it, and then it arrives. if you are in europe, you will probably looking at mytaxi. it's available in, i think, about 50 cities in europe, in nine different countries. and it's a very similar interface. you say where you are — it can geolocate you, or you can put in a destination or the location that you are. you then order a taxi. it isn't the same sort of tailored service that you get with lyft or uber, but you get region—specific cars. so if you are in london and you want a black cab because you want to support the back cab community and, yeah, mixing with the new. for the next one, i have gone a bit strange, so... oh, yeah? yeah. how strange? pretty strange. and so, we've got pedal me. oh, wow! this is actually a ride—hailing app where you get driven on a bike. and so... asummerapp? asummerapp. you can see here that we have our

location here and your drop—off, and so you go "i want to go to buckingham palace", because why wouldn't you? and it comes up with — that's gonna you just less than £10, so it is actually pretty reasonable. not as expensive in as a tuk tuk in london. no, exactly! and so, it's a similar price to what an uber would be, and you get to have a bit of an experience. and just in case you don't fancy sitting in traffic all day, there's beeline. it isn't really classed as a satnav. instead, they call it a smart compass that attaches to the handlebars of any bike, even hire bikes like this, which it makes it handy for exploring big cities all over the world. put the destination in your phone and the app will relay the instructions to your beeline. it's incredibly straightforward. while some riders will strap a dedicated cycling computer or a smartphone to their handlebars, that can prove quite distracting. whereas with this, it simply is a case of following the arrow and making your way safely to your destination. finally this week, we're off to new york city and to drop in on a food club that aims to try out the most interesting dishes the town has to offer.

but you can forget the usual salt beef bagels or pastrami on rye — the gastronauts are looking for something a little special. new york is a food city. there are a lot of different kinds of foods to eat, from the tremendous ethnic diversity in new york. we are in flushing, which is new york's kind of major chinatown. it's really big, it's far away — about a ao—minute subway ride, but it's still inside the city. we're going down here, so this is the luxurious entrance to the golden mall. we descend into the stomach of flushing. i love coming here. whenever i'm in flushing, i try to stop by and at least have some lamb dumplings or some pig ears or some duck heads. my name is curtis calleo.

i am one of the founders of the gastronauts, which is a club for adventurous eaters here in new york. we started the club in 2005 and we started off in a tiny little malaysian—chinese place in manhattan chinatown. and it was six people. and we had pork intestines, and we had tripe, and it was a fantastic feast. and the next time we met, there were 12 people, and then the next dinner, there were 20 people, and then 30 and then 50 and then 100 and then itjust kind of kept going. so now we have i think somewhere around 2,500 members in new york city and 1,500 in los angeles and 1,000 in san francisco. the gastronauts is not a dinner club that is about eating out in fancy restaurants in manhattan. it is not the kind of club we are. we are interested in going to the more far—flung places throughout new york city, to the other boroughs, to the different ethnic sections, so, the club meets once a month and every month, we find a different restaurant or place to make us

an amazing usually four— or five—course feast that features the more challenging aspects of that particular cuisine. we have had lambs head in a cretan, greek restaurant, we have had baluts — which is a 16—day fertilised egg which the filipinos and the vietnamese love to eat. tomorrow, we are going to have sri lankan food in staten island and to get there, we are going to have to take a subway, a ferry, and a van to get to the restaurant. in sri lankan, we call it wambatu moju, but this is eggplant.

it's like a sweet and sour. sa njay is great. he has had at this restaurant for at least ten years, from what i can see. before that, he cooked in saudi arabia and in bahrain as a private chef to somebody very important. and he has travelled all over the world. the restaurants, they're usually extremely excited to see us because, you know, these are small, out—of—the—way places that don't see, you know, 30 people coming at once, you know. hi, my name is sanjay. welcome to randiwa. applause. thank you, thank you. so, before i start with the main course, i want to show you the baby goat today what i cook.

so i'm gonna bring it around to everybody, 0k? one of the biggest misconceptions about the gastronauts is that we just eat crazy things for the sake of eating crazy things. it isn't true. the things that we eat are actually really, really delicious. that's chicken liver, that is gizzard kabob, and that is lamb black curry on beef. this is unsurpassed. excellent. the gastronauts is a food club, but it's also a social club. we are really a mixed bunch. there's journalists, there's lawyers, there's a few policemen, there are architects, there are construction workers. it is a very diverse group. cheers. people have relationships — there's a gastronauts marriage, there's a gastronauts baby. someone has a tattoo of the gastronauts on their forearm. so people, it has become a fixture in people's lives. the gastronauts isn't really an eating clubs for people who want to eat in manhattan — it is a club for people

who want to explore the outer reaches of their city and what it has to offer. that's it for this week. coming up next week: rajan‘s in dubai for a special programme. he heads out deep into the desert to try his hand at traditional falconry, 2,000 feet in the air from a hot—air balloon. 2,500 years ago, the bedouin relied on the falcon the way you and i rely on the supermarket, you know? so the falcon was used to put food on the table. and that's why they have such a good stature. so traditionally, the way it worked — although it still happens today —

birds from europe and asia migrate over the middle east on the way to africa because on that migration was when the bedouin would trap the falcons from the wild and then just really use them for the winter months. at the end of winter, they would untie their birds and release them back to the wild. a really beautiful system. unique experience, and what a beautiful animal. don't forget, you canjoin us on the road by signing up to our social media feeds. but in the meantime, from all of us here in the fukushima prefecture injapan, it's goodbye. hello there.

no sign of the mild air returning anytime soon. it is going to stay cold to end the week into the weekend and the start of next week as well. now, overnight, there will be more cloud and rain across southern and south—eastern areas. so less cold to start friday here. whereas the northern half of the uk, lengthy clear spells so it will be cold and frosty but wintry showers will affect northern and western scotland, in particular. where we get the showers there will be some ice patches to greet us first thing on friday morning. probably the best of the sunshine across sheltered eastern parts of scotland. north and west, though, plenty of showers around. wintry in nature, with significant snow falling over the higher ground. a few showers for northern ireland. a few into north—west england as well. but east of the pennines and southwards, a largely dry start to friday morning, with some sunshine around. quite chilly too but across southern britain there will be

more cloud around. one or two showers so a little less cold here. temperatures around 7—8 degrees at about eight o'clock in the morning. that is how it is looking to start on friday. through the day, we lose the showers for many southern areas. actually a good portion of england and wales, a fine afternoon to come with lengthy sunny spells and sunshine becoming more wisdespread across the south—east. for much of scotland, particularly northern and western scotland, northern ireland, the far north—west of england, further wintry showers and it's going to be windy, particularly in the far north, with gales and severe gales. temperatures of only 3—10 across the south—east. that leads into a pretty chilly weekend. we'll see overnight frost as well. there will be further wintry showers, particularly on saturday in the north and the west. but emphasis will be on dry and bright and sunny weather. so this is saturday's picture there and a run of fairly strong, cold north—westerly winds. feeding showers into the north and the west of the uk,

again, wintry in nature. the best of the sunshine and the shelter will be across southern and central and eastern parts, staying dry all day. four celsius in glasgow potentially on saturday. 7—8 across the south—east. so you'll need to wrap up if you are heading out. there's our area of low pressure bringing those north north—westerly winds. but this ridge of high pressure promises to move in for sunday. what that will help do is kill off some of the showers. so we should see fewer showers on sunday. slightly lighter winds as well, though, will still be a fairfeature. one or two showers across northern and western areas. best of the sunshine again, across central, southern and eastern parts and again another cold day again on the cards. we have a weather system pushing in off the atlantic on sunday night that will sweep across the country to bring a spell of wet and pretty windy weather. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is gavin grey. our top stories: hopes dashed as an underwater explosion is detected close to the last known location of an argentine submarine which went

missing last week. hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslim refugees might be able to return home after a deal is signed by bangladesh and myanmar. zimbabwe prepares for the post—mugabe era, the incoming president, emmerson mnangagwa, is to be sworn in on friday. an exclusive look inside the saudi hotel where prominent figures continue to be held as part of a campaign against corruption. as far as detention centres go, this one is beyond compare. a luxury swimming pool, restaurants, and a gym.