bbc world news, the headlines. north korea says it. dismantling its nuclear test site in less than two weeks. it says the international media will be invited to watch just three weeks before president trump and kimjong—un three weeks before president trump and kim jong—un meet three weeks before president trump and kimjong—un meet in singapore. iraq's first parliamentary elections since the country declared victory over so—called islamic state has been mostly peaceful. more than 2a million iraqis were registered to vote. french police sources say a man has stabbed several passers—by in central paris killing at least one and injuring several others. they say the knifeman has been dead by police. the attack happened in the pereira. a court in italy has overturned a ban preventing former prime minister silvio berlusconi from holding public office. —— the attack happened in the opera area. atiopm, martin attack happened in the opera area. at 10pm, martin crocks or will be here with a full round—up of the day's news. now on bbc news, mexico's murder rate reached a

record high last year with close to 30,000 is dying in drug—related violence. the coastal city of acapulco is particularly dangerous and in the grip of vicious turf wars between gangs seeking to control the drugs trade. clive myrie travels to acapulco in this programme, which contains violent and bloody scenes from the start. this is guerreiro, south—west mexico. mariela is a paramedic in a metropolis scorched by violence. and luis is a body collector in the most violent city in a violent land. we talked to some of those behind the violence, fuelled by drugs

and organised crime. translation: they murder each other, they killed innocent people. they decapitate innocent people. they hang innocent people. this is a story of ordinary people living and dying on mexico's front line. the story of a country at war with itself. it's around midnight at a convenience store in acapulco. so far, so ordinary. a child is playing on the floor.

suddenly, a man enters pursued by another, who wants to kill him. he's wrestled outside. then shot. imagine the terror of the shop workers, as the assassin tries to finish him off. but his pistol jams. reloaded, the gunman returns and shoots him again. he dies 30 minutes later. first on the scene is paramedic mariela, unable to save another victim of mexico's gang wars. mariela's worked acapulco's streets for almost a decade. herjob is to help save lives, but too often these days,

she's just counting bodies. she's on her way to another gangland hit. and at the wheel of the ambulance is her colleague and husband jorge. we follow behind. shot and dumped, the indignity of it all. and on hand, the military and police, but seemingly powerless to stop the carnage. this, another murder that shames mexico. last year, more mexicans were murdered in gang violence than in any year on record. close to 30,000. so far, 2018 is shaping up to be bloodier. luis flores works in acapulco's morgue. and what a job it is. a father of two and a trainee nurse, he comes to this hell every day.

you have to carefully pick your way through the litter of decaying corpses. we can see there are bodies all over here. the capacity is, what, 100 bodies? sadly, because of the violence we have experienced here, it's 320 or something here. so there are bodies on the floor. not refrigerated, of course. the capacity in the fridge, it's just overloaded. that's how difficult the situation is here for the authorities in acapulco. just noticed the tag here on one of the body bags. "nombre desconocido", which means it's unidentified. and at the bottom it says 13th of july, 2017. so that's when the body was found.

more than six months ago. no identification. nobody knows who it is, and nobody has come to claim it. most are young men, shot or stabbed. some beheaded and mutilated. the victims of turf wars between rival gangs, keen to display their depravity as a warning to others. how difficult is it dealing with the numbers of homicides here? and it's a job someone has to do, cleaning acapulco's streets, for which he gets paid little more than 500 us dollars a month. the gangs aren't afraid of anyone.

this man's body has been dumped in broad daylight. sometimes, the killers arejust teenagers, offered $50 to pull the trigger. but this man shows signs of being tortured. back at the morgue, luis helps the doctors trying to determine the cause of death. but is anyone in mexico seriously trying to determine how the country can escape this cycle of violence? foreigners used to flock to acapulco for tequila and sunshine. now it's mostly mexican tourists

that fill the hotels. army boots on the ground haven't reassured many americans, advised this city is as dangerous as syria or afghanistan. but mexico is a land of competing realities. and mariela and jorge, forjust under 500 us dollars a month, inhabit the world not far from the beach where lives are snuffed out on a whim. the pictures will help in the investigation, but will the killer ever be found? it's unlikely. this isjust one more unsolved gang murder. another tagged corpse

for the morgue. back at base, a bit of downtime. a little lunch. but often, being left alone with their thoughts is the worst time. the murders are getting more savage, more depraved. a taxi has been left abandoned in the middle of a busy highway. the driver has fled, but left behind in the car is a package. it's what, four o'clock, rush hour here in acapulco. pulled up here, and the authorities are investigating this taxi, they opened the boot and there in a cooler box was a head, a severed head. in fact, the lead investigator has just told me that it's in fact the skin of the scalp of the head, and not the skull inside. incredible. it's the third severed head we've come across in three days.

with every execution, each gang is sending a clear message — don't mess with us. it's been more than a decade since the government declared war on the drug cartels. high profile leaders have been killed or imprisoned, but their replacements now lead smaller splinter groups, ruthlessly fighting for control of the drugs market, as well as extortion and protection rackets. and it's when night falls that there's money to be made. i've got some coke, some ecstasies, some lsd. these drugs, you can get it from a cartel. this former dealer didn't want to be identified for good reason. a conspiracy of silence helps protect the gangs. break it and you could end up dead. so those drugs you showed me, they were for your personal use. but you used to be

a dealer, didn't you? what was that like? it's a dangerous business. really, all your friends are dead? they were killing them because they were independent dealers? so we've seen all these dead bodies, and we're wondering, what is it that these people have done to deserve to die like that? why do the cartels kill people? another severed head

is recovered from a crime scene. yet, just yards away, there are crowds of people. if they saw anything, they are not letting on. there are families here, there are kids. yet that headless body was dumped just over there, right next to them. but no one wants to talk to talk to us there. they are obviously too scared. it's 8pm, and luis has another grim collection to make. a man's been shot in the head. a mother's only son. it's believed the dead man may have refused to pay a criminal gang extortion money. his name was elvis mendoza. he was 25. now he's in luis's care. his name was elvis mendoza. he was 25.

now he's in luis's care. many of the thugs and killers responsible for much of the violence on these streets, they learned their ways in the drugs trade. an industry that's worth many billions, but makes life cheap. well, we went to talk to some of those in the drug cartels who are ultimately responsible for all this. just over 1000 miles away, up the pacific coast, we take a midnight drive to a safe house in the state of sinaloa. we were never told the exact location for our rendezvous. the cartel here is one of the most powerful in the world. and the man who's agreed to speak with us is a top lieutenant. he says it's the fracturing of the big cartels that has led to so much more violence. translation: for years things had been fine because we are unified.

there's only one cartel, the sinaloa cartel, and it's big. if you go to jalisco or guerreiro, the fight is between criminal groups, not cartels. it's because they are small groups. they murder each other, they kill innocent people, they decapitate innocent people, they hang innocent people. when we point out drugs ruin lives, he defends the business he's in, saying that no one forces people to become addicts. and he claims that many politicians work with the cartels. the government says corruption is rare and is determined to stamp it out. we kept the government cooperation. they cooperate with the cartel. i can guarantee you everything is fine here. drugs generates lots of money, and money makes people greedy. sinaloa is not going to have a situation like that, because we are already unified. we have arrangements, and everything is ok. but other places in the south will not change because they are not cartels.

they are criminal groups. back in acapulco, just five minutes from our hotel, we came across a site that for many now defines this country. more blood flowing through mexico's streets. and this, the first of three murder scenes we visited in eight hours. and there were others. mariela and jorge reflect on a bloody week. the memory of that very public killing will linger. especially for the tourists who saw what happened. and have the pictures to prove it. the sun sets on another grisly day,

with the gangs clocking up their 33rd victim in the 12 days we've been in acapulco. and that's what everybody wants. but ordinary people here are exhausted and overwhelmed. stuck in the middle of a war on drugs that mexico seems to be losing. hello there.

rain has threatened to spoil the weekend for some of us, but in our forecast for the next ten days, it's looking increasingly likely that there won't actually be an awful lot of rain. now, during saturday, we saw cloudy skies developing in many areas, but up towards the north—west, sunny skies held on. that's how it looked for a weather watcher on the isle of arran. and as we go through sunday, western areas once again are the best for sunshine. further east, across the extreme east of england and eastern scotland, here we will see cloud, some outbreaks of rain, although it will tend to dry up as the day goes on down towards the south—east. temperatures at this stage, nothing really to write home about. 13—17 degrees. during sunday night, this area of low cloud and these outbreaks of rain really will weaken. and if we take a look at the big pressure chart, you can see the way this weather front is just breaking apart, it has been squeezed out by not one,

but two areas of high pressure. one across scandinavia, and one down to the south—west. these are essentially going to join forces in the next few days to bring a lot of dry weather to the british isles. having said that, one weather front is likely to move across east anglia and the south—east on monday, bringing extra cloud and some showers. and we will see some cloud into northern ireland and western scotland as well. but in between, some sunnier skies and temperatures creeping up. 20 in edinburgh. 21 degrees in london. as we move out of monday and into tuesday, high—pressure still trying to build its way in across the country. this weather system up to the north—west is going to introduce more cloud across northern ireland and western scotland. and we will see a band of rain starting to ease as it works its way southwards and eastwards. not much left on it as it gets into eastern scotland and the far north of england. down towards the south—east in the sunshine, temperatures climbing all the way to 23 degrees. that sizzling weather front continues to slide its way south and eastwards on tuesday night and into wednesday.

behind it, high—pressure builds back in, but also behind the front, we introduce some cooler air. so, temperatures, after highs in the 20s for the early part of the week, are going to start to dip away around the middle of the week. this is wednesday, what's left of the weather front likely to drift across southern areas, just a band of cloud at this stage. behind it, the sun comes back out and we will see blue skies. temperatures a little bit down, in fact quite significantly down, 12—16 degrees at best. thursday at the moment looks like a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine. perhaps a chilly breeze close to these north sea coasts. some patchy cloud at times, but it should be dry and those temperatures, well, still on the low side i suppose at 12—17 degrees, but that may not last. as we head into next weekend, this is where the jet stream is expected to be. the jet stream — the winds high up in the atmosphere steering weather systems around the world — and it looks like it will be running away to the north of the british isles, taking all of the rain—bearing weather systems with it. that will allow us to keep

high—pressure in charge. and the positioning of this area of high pressure will determine just how warm things will be. it looks most likely the high will be sitting there across scandinavia and that will allow us to bring in a feed of relatively warm easterly winds from the near continent. so, as we go on into next weekend, it looks like for the most part it will remain dry with some spells of sunshine, and it will feel warm in the sunshine. there is the chance of a little bit of rain in the north—west as those weather systems run past, but for most of us, the week ahead does look largely dry. this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall. the headlines: one person has died and five others wounded — after a knife attack in central paris — the attacker has been shot dead. votes are being counted in iraq after the first parliamentary elections since the government declared victory over the so—called islamic state group. one of britain's most notorious serial killers, dennis nilsen, who was serving a life sentence in full sutton prison, nearyork, has died.

tens of thousands of people march through central london, demanding better pay and improved job security. a man has stormed the stage while the uk's entry, surie, was performing at the eurovision song contest.