this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: hundreds are killed in eastern ghouta as syrian government forces step up their bombardment. the un says the situation is "spiralling out of control". as florida shooting survivors push for changes to gun laws, president trump says he wants to ban bump stock devices. i signed a memorandum directing the attorney general to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine—guns. i'm sharanjit leyl in london. also on the programme: thailand's so—called "ba by factory" case. a court names a wealthy japanese man the legal parent of 13 children. and the new treatment bringing hope to children with a rare disorder that causes facial disfigurement. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news.

it's newsday. glad you could join us. it's 9am in singapore, 1am in london, and 2am in the morning in syria, where government forces have carried out some of the heaviest bombardments in recent years on a rebel—held area on the outskirts of damascus. activists say that in three days of airstrikes and artillery fire, more than 200 people in eastern gouta, including children, have been killed. this report by our middle east editorjeremy bowen contains some distressing images. this could be the beginning of the end of a rebellion in eastern ghouta that began in 2012. all the other smaller rebel—held enclaves around damascus have been starved and bombed into submission. explosion

screaming now, it looks to be eastern ghouta's turn as the regime pushes for decisive victory around the capital. sirens activists in eastern ghouta say this is as bad as it's been. you can hear the shout and crying of women and children through the windows of their homes and the missiles and mortars dropping on us like rain. there is nowhere to hide from this nightmare in eastern ghouta. a generation has been born into the war. dozens have been killed by it in the last few hours in eastern ghouta. over the years of siege, they've set up a network of underground hospitals. this girl, named in arabic "angel", escaped the worst, but will have to go back to the streets to get home.

and this is her area. explosions with a regime plane dropping what appears to be a barrel bomb, unguided — an indiscriminate killer. the syrian regime denies attacking civilians. it says it's trying to liberate eastern ghouta from terrorists. eastern ghouta is a sprawling mix of concrete suburbs and farmland, starting about nine miles east of damascus‘ city centre. the syrian rebels who've controlled it since 2012 include several islamist militias, including one with its roots in al-qaeda. eastern ghouta is surrounded by syrian government forces. before the war, it was just a short drive from the syrian presidential palace. officially, it's been designated a de—escalation zone,

that is an empty phrase. force decides what happens in syria. after seven years, syria's war isn't ending, but it's changing. president assad, with the help of russia and iran, is now secure, but syria is linked into a web of war and power politics, which guarantees more bloodshed. how many times in the last seven years have syrians dug through the rubble for survivors? there's talk of safe corridors out for civilians, but based on past form, the regime wants victory in eastern ghouta and the surrender of the rebels. jeremy bowen, bbc news. and staying with syria, pro—government forces have entered the country's northwestern afrin region to help kurdish militia battle a turkish assault. turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan described the convoy as being made up of "terrorists" acting independently.

translation: today, the regime terror group came to support terrorists and attempted to enter syria's afrin, but they were pushed back on the chilly fire. these kinds of terror organisations take a wrong steps with the decisions they take. —— artillery fire. they will pay a heavy price for these mistakes. also making news today: president donald trump has expressed his willingness to ban the mechanisms which allow a rifle to shoot in almost automatic bursts. the devices, known as bump stocks, were used by the gunman who shot dead 58 people in las vegas in october. this was his announcement. ijust, a few moments ago, i signed a memorandum directing the attorney general to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine—guns.

i expect that these critical regulations will be finalised very soon. us officials say north korean representatives pulled out of a secret meeting with vice president mike pence, less than two hours before it was due to take place in seoul. mr pence was supposed to meet the delegation from the north, including kim yo—jong — the sister of the north korean leader on the sidelines of the winter olympics. officials in washington say it was called off after mr pence condemned human rights abuses in the north. a lawyer and the son—in—law of one of russia's richest men has pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to federal investigators as part of us special counsel robert mueller‘s probe into alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. alex van der zwaan was charged earlier at a federal court hearing in washington. he will be sentenced in april.

mahmoud abbas, the palestinian president, has called for international peace talks on the middle east to take place by the middle of this year. he says palestinians are living in an unbearable situation and that a conference must lead to the acceptance of palestine as a full un member state. and now, an update on the problems at the kfc fast food chain. the company says disruption in the uk is expected to continue for the rest of the week, after a change of delivery supplier meant they ran out of chicken. just under half of the 900 british outlets are closed. these pictures are proving very popular online. queen elizabeth has attended her very first show at london fashion week. the queen sat in the front row of a show by up and coming designer richard quinn — next to a woman often referred to as fashion royalty, vogue magazine's anna wintour. the queen then awarded the inaugural

queen elizabeth the second award for british design to mr quinn. scientists have discovered the cause of a rare blood vessel disorder that can cause serious facial disfigurement and life—threatening bleeding in children. the research pinpoints the genes responsible for the condition and for the first time, identifies existing cancer drugs as a possible treatment. our medical correspondent fergus walsh has the story. ok, so we need to do the eggs... and we froth the eggs. 13—year—old nikki christou never knows when her face will start to bleed. she has a rare disorder which means that high—pressure blood in her arteries feeds directly into her veins. it causes swelling, facial disfigurement, and life—threatening bleeds from her nose, and even her tear ducts. it's very scary because you don't really know if it's going to stop, how much blood you're losing, and,

if it is really bad, then i can, you know, become very lightheaded and things like that. and so, i think when these bleeds happen, you just know that it's time for an ambulance. nikki has not let her condition, known as avm, hold her back. the winner ofjunior bake off is nikki. as well as winning junior bake off in 2016, she has also interviewed the prime minister for cbbc. so, what were you like as a teenager? oh, gosh! hi nikki. nikki has had hundreds of appointments at great ormond street hospital, and 30 operations... how are you doing? it's lovely to see you. you too. i'm just going to have a little feel of your face. ok. ..and is now part of ground—breaking research, which is led by her consultant. the team at ucl‘s institute of child health sequenced the dna of more than 150 children

with her condition, and found it could be triggered by fourfaulty genes. this is really an enormous step for us, having found the genetic cause of these in individual patients, we are now able to suggest treatments that could slow the growth, stop the growth, or perhaps even reverse the growth of this condition in the long—term. and those drug treatments come from an unlikely source. the gene mutations discovered in this lab, which are responsible for these faulty blood vessels, also play a key role in the growth of some cancers. now, the good news is there are several cancer drugs which inhibit these faulty genes, which can now be repurposed to treat nikki's condition.

this is your right eye and this is the avm. nicki is one of two patients taking the targeted cancer drugs and today she's finding out the results of the new scans. it looks good and exciting that after six months, it seems to be holding the growth. that is really good, isn't it? yeah, that's so good. thank you. yeah, thanks. it will be at least one year before doctors know for sure whether the cancer drugs that nicki is taking are working. but the discovery of the faulty genes has given hope to patients with this debilitating condition. fergus walsh, bbc news. now, for some people, surrogacy is the only way to become a parent. for some surrogate mothers, it's their livelihood. and in many cases, it's a trans—national issue. now, a thai court has awarded a japanese man full paternity rights for 13 babies that he fathered through commercial surrogacy. his lawyers said he simply wanted a large family. the so—called "baby factory" scandal, though, led to the thai government banning commercial

surrogacy for foreigners. but what about laws elsewhere in asia? a little earlier, i posed that question to marcus dearle, a family law partner at haley ho and blp private wealth in hong kong. they are, um, stringent or, in other cases, completely non—existent. the laws in hong kong, for example, are very stringent indeed, very draconian. in fact, in many parts of asia, surrogacy law is being driven underground. surrogacy is — commercial surrogacy is not allowed in hong kong, and as a result, it has been driven underground, and it — it makes it very difficult for the courts to get involved at all in surrogacy. and it's very, very important the courts do get involved to help regulate — to ensure that the children's interests are kept as a priority. right. now, we're using the term commercial surrogacy.

but can you explain that for our viewers? commerical surrogacy is where money is paid to a surrogate mother for the purposes of carrying a child for intended parents. there is some confusion about what that actually means. in some situations, say in england and hong kong, it's possible and legal to pay expenses to a surrogate mother, and perfectly fine. and the courts in england, for example, can authorise those payments. it gets very confusing in hong kong, for example, where it's actually illegal to pay any money at all to an agency for the purpose of finding a surrogate mother, and that causes major difficulties for people, because they don't actually realise that they are committing a criminal offence for making these payments. surrogacy law is fraught with numerous pitfalls. right. as you say, numerous pitfalls. so, how to get it right?

are their countries in asia that are doing the right thing? well, i mean, i think the — the — the jurisdiction with the advanced law in this area is in australia. i would say that is the — that is an area where the judges are very up to speed on surrogacy law, and particularly dealing with international cases. because that is what you need to have experience in — international cases. and that was marcus dearle from haley ho and blp private wealth, based in hong kong, speaking earlier to sharanjit leyl. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... we'll take a look at the winter olympic athletes competing under foreign flags. also on the programme... how virtual reality is being used to warn people about the very real dangers of bushfires in australia. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home.

the withdrawal completed in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm was murdered. that has a terrible effect on the morality of the people. i'm terrified of the repercussions in the streets. one wonders who is next. as the airlift got under way, there was no let—up in the eruption itself. lava streams from a vent low in the crater flow down to the sea on the east of the island, away from the town for the time being, but it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they've called it mir, the russian for peace. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm sharanjit leyl in london. our top stories: more than 200 people are now known to have been killed in the past two days as the syrian government continues to bombard the rebel enclave of eastern ghouta. and president donald trump has expressed his willingness to ban bump stocks, the mechanisms which allow a rifle to shoot in almost automatic bursts. let's take a look now at some front pages from around the world. we'll start with the internationaljapan times, which leads with the story of a us fighter jet which caught fire and had to dump its fuel tanks into a lake in northern japan. the japanese defence minister said no—one was hurt but the huge tanks landed just 400 metres from a fishing boat. singapore's straits times focuses on planned historic tax rises.

it quotes singapore's finance minister, who say‘s it was a difficult decision but one that was needed to help singapore raise revenues. and the china daily says chinese authorities will send a cultural relics expert to the us to fix a terracotta warrior that that that that had its thumb stolen while on display at a philadelphia museum. the expert, who specialises in restoring relics which are more than 2,000 years old, says it will take three to five months to fix. now, if you're like me, you've been tuning in to all the action at the winter olympics. well, did you know that out of around 3,000 athletes, 178 are competing for a country they weren't born in? host nation south korea is using the most non—native athletes. it naturalised 18 in the run—up to 2018, most of them in the men's ice hockey team, who were originally

from the us and canada. and it's actually the us and canada that have lost most athletes to other countries at these winter olympics. 37 american—born athletes are competing under different flags. so, which sports feature the most non—native athletes? ice hockey is indeed there, as is figure skating, but it's alpine skiing that tops the list. earlier i spoke with michael heine, head of the international centre for olympic studies, and asked him if these athletes make the switch because there isn't space for them in their own country's teams. it stands to reason that quite a few of them switch countries for just that reason, that they don't anticipate being able to qualify for the olympics, and therefore take a longer term view of trying to compete for another country, because we shouldn't forget that the olympics of course has the biggest stage for

the presentation of these sports and for the presentation of athletes, so it has a huge motivational impact for any athlete to try and make it to the biggest stage in world sports. so, micahel, byjoining another country, what is their mindset? are they competing for themselves or are they competing for their country? i think it is maybe all two, or maybe i should say all three. all olympic athletes are always competing for themselves, otherwise they wouldn't be able to sustain the olympic and ascetic labours they have to produce for years and years to stay at the top of their game. they probably also, of course, participate for their new countries for strategic reasons, but also maybe for emotional or cultural reasons, so you can't really separates these things out. on the flip side, it also gives some countries like nigeria, eritrea and kosovo the opportunity to have their first appearance

in the winter games. exactly, and that's one of the beauties of the olympics, this enabling of friendly competition across borders, or at least through fairly relaxed borders and national barriers, in this sense. on the other hand, of course, we also have to keep in mind that the nigerian women's bobsled team that you mentioned actually consists of athletes who were all born in the united states. so they are of nigerian origin in a way but not personally born although i wouldn't like to suggest all non—native olympic athletes are like this, some just want to be there. meet elizabeth swaney from the us, representing hungary through her grandparents. she made it to the winter olympics with a spectacularly mediocre performance, slipping through a loophole in international qualifying. when she took to the halfpipe in freestyle skiing in pyeongchang on monday, she got through the same way she'd done in competitions

before — she managed to not fall off her skis. meandering from one side of the pipe to the other, with no tricks en route and displaying skills many amateurs could lay down without much training, she came a glorious last, but did at least achieve her dream of becoming an olympian. it was easily the most original performance of the games so far. she made it by relentlessly showing up at international competitions, so accumulating enough points to qualify. finally i have found a way to make it to the winter gardens in beijing in 2022, alpine skiing or figure skating —— winter downs.|j in 2022, alpine skiing or figure skating -- winter downs. i think figure skating, i could see you in states and a spangly outfits. it would be brilliant. virtual reality is being used

to warn people in australia about the dangers of bushfires. a simulation showing what happens if you don't leave your property is being trialled in the state of victoria, which suffered the country's worst—ever fires in 2009, known as black saturday. our correspondent, hywel griffith, went to see the impact the vr is having. as the embers land and the panic sets in, this is what it feels like to be in a bushfire. it may be virtual but this video shows the real consequences of not leaving early and making the wrong choice. that was scary! shaking. it was so bad. pretty scary? yeah. did it make you think you were actually facing a fire? yeah, i could feel it and everything. the video is being toured around the state of victoria, which, nine years ago, experienced australia's worst ever bushfires, killing 173 people.

reliving the experience can be pretty confronting. unbelievable how realistic it actually seemed. yeah, it was pretty crazy. yeah, and brang back a lot of memories, too. just especially driving along the road, the last scene, and the tree falling down, that sort of thing. there was a lot of that going on. it's actually quite realistic, how quick things happen, and it actually does give you a bit of a sense of what you need to do and how quick, how things change without you realising it. last year saw australia's driest winter on record, which means the risks of bushfire this year are particularly high. totalfire bans are put in place on very hot days but even then it's hard to persuade everyone that they need to be prepared. this fire near melbourne last month showed just how quickly the flames can be carried by the wind. dozens of homes were evacuated, helicopters brought in to try and stop it spreading. even for experienced firefighters, the conditions can be challenging. when you walk outside,

you can actually feel the moisture getting sucked out of your eyeballs. garry cook has been fighting bushfires for more than three decades but no two are the same. they‘ re always unpredictable. they can actually change wind direction just by the intensity of the fire, so you get this massive uplift of heat. massive convection columns curling the air up at the top can generate their own lightning. so major wildfires, major bushfires, very scary situation. by by letting people feel some of that fear, it's hoped more will heed the warnings to leave early, not wait for things to get out of control. hywel griffith, bbc news. you've been watching newsday. i'm rico hizon in singapore. stay with us. we'll see how alibaba,

the world's largest online commerce company, is reshaping a city with artificial intelligence. and before we go, let's take a look at these pictures from harbin province in china of what's known as a sun dog. the optical illusion is created by the sunlight being refracted through tiny snow crystals, which have formed in the shape of hexagons. it means that the suns on the two sides are virtual images of the real one in the middle. but it doesn't last too long and it's guaranteed to disappear once the sun sets. that's all for now. stay with bbc world news. thanks forjoining me. time we updated you on the weather prospects for the whole of the british isles over the next few days or so.

fairly slow change, i would have thought, over the next few days, simply because we are developing an area of high pressure which has rather strangled the old weather front which provided quite a veil of cloud sometimes through eastern parts of the british isles through tuesday, but with the development of the high pressure close by to the british isles, that as i say has the effect of killing off the front. a veil of cloud, not much more than that. maybe the odd drib and drab of rain, but essentially it's a dry pattern, and increasingly we will be talking about high pressure linked to the one over scandinavia as we go through the weekend and into next week. the veil of cloud doing its stuff to keep temperatures above freezing across england and wales for the most part. scotland and ireland, a different kettle of fish, someone's going to get to “11 or —5. so here we are on the new day. a little bit of mist and fog around, particularly in scotland and northern ireland, but that will soon pop away. essentially it's a dry day. maybe the odd spot of rain passing by, maybe a shower coming in on a north—easterly breeze

towards kent and essex. those temperatures, not too bad when you compare them to what's to come, and i'll show you those in just a second. here is thursday. just the first signs of us wanting to pick up something a little bit sort of continental in origin. certainly that wind coming in from a pretty cool continent at the moment, and you will feel the like of that in norwich, for example, four degrees only, and generally across the british isles, despite the fact there's a lot of sunshine around, variable amounts of cloud, temperatures just beginning to tick away from where we were at the start of the week. so as we move towards the tail end of the week, things beginning to settle down. notice temperatures around the five, six, seven degree mark or so. the forecast in edinburgh rather caught my eye. that's the second big fixture of saturday when we get on to the next round of the six nations rugby. i don't think the weather will get in the way in dublin or indeed in edinburgh. as i say, once we get towards the weekend, our high pressure begins to become amalgamated with a big area of high

pressure over scandinavia. now, that's really quite important, because, if you follow the isobars around the eastern and southern flanks, then we begin to look away, up towards siberia, for the source of the air that comes towards us as we start the new week, and that's really quite crucial. we haven't seen that sort of setup for quite a while, but there's no doubt about it. next week, yes, there will be some sunshine, there will be some chilly nights around. a bitter wind in from the east and the chance of snow as temperatures tumble. i'm sharanjit leyl. our top story... the bombardment by the syrian government of the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta continues, prompting the un to warn of the risk of a second aleppo. activists say more than 200 people have been killed since sunday. six hospitals have been hit — making it even harder to treat the wounded. as survivors of last week's florida school shooting continue to demand changes to gun laws,

president trump says he's willing to ban so—called bump stocks, which turn rifles into rapid—fire weapons. and this video's trending on bbc.com. queen elizabeth has attended her very first show at london fashion week. she sat in the front row of a show by designer richard quinn, next to the woman often referred to as fashion royalty, vogue magazine's anna wintour. that's all from me now. stay with us on bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: oxfam is investigating 26 allegations of sexual misconduct,