north korea has announced plans to start dismantling its nuclear test site in less than two weeks, and says international experts and journalists will be invited to watch. president trump has thanked north korea and called it a very smart and gracious gesture. votes are being counted in iraq after the first general election since the government declared victory over the islamic state group. but the country's electoral commission is reporting a low turnout, with less than 45% of eligible voters casting their ballots. countryside campaigners are calling for action on what they say is an appalling lack of progress in improving mobile phone coverage in rural areas. they have been backed by more than 50 mp5, who have accused mobile operators of failing to put up new masts, despite help from government. jon donnison reports. these days, life without your mobile for many seems almost unimaginable. but, in some parts of rural britain, it remains a reality.

the communications regulator ofcom says only 57% of people living in premises in rural areas are able to make phone calls on all four mobile networks. that compares to 90% in urban areas. now, 50 rural mps have written to the secretary of state for digital culture, media and sport, matt hancock, calling for urgent action to change that. they want legally binding targets to force mobile operators to improve coverage. but the operators say they are investing millions of pounds in rural areas, but that planning applications for new mobile phone masts are often rejected by local people. the government says mobile phone coverage is improving, and that it has already changed planning laws to make it easier to put up new masts. it says the mobile companies now need to respond to those changes, and act fast to increase

coverage in rural areas. jon donnison, bbc news. liz saville—roberts, plaid cymru mp and vice chair of the all—party parliamentary group on rural business, who co—ordinated the mps‘ letter, told us why action was necessary. at present, what we have is this fallacy that competition is king, and that that will suit every region of the uk. that is not suiting rural areas. there ought to be a universal service obligation for all providers, and not just local monopolies. and what i and other mps are concerned is that the new — the roll—out of, say, the 700 megahertz we're expecting late in the day, 2020, that still is not going to cover 95% of areas of the uk. now, we're looking for a situation where ofcom should be responsible for making sure that there is universal coverage, and also so that we move away from the situation where the commercial confidentiality

of providers is more important than actually making sure that we have a proper coverage. now on bbc news: mexico's murder rate reached a record high last year, with close to 30,000 dying in drug—related violence. the coastal city of acapulco is particularly dangerous, in the grip of vicious turf wars between gangs seeking to control the drugs trade. in this special, and shocking, edition of our world, our presenter clive myrie follows a paramedic and a body collector in acapulco, and meets a senior member of a powerful drug syndicate. this programme 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 chimeo, 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. here is easy, you know? everybody knows where you can get it. 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? i was young, you know? we get some easy money. it's a dangerous business. all my friends are dead already. 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. 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. there's some contrasts in the weather with east to west across the country through the course of the weekend.

on saturday we did have some clear skies across parts of scotland, western parts of england, wales, and northern ireland. you can see on the satellite image. but this big clump of cloud that's been plaguing central and eastern areas has been bringing some rain. this was the scene in holyhead and anglesey. it will blue skies there on saturday afternoon. barely a cloud in the sky. contrast that to the rather grey colours in the sky above st leonards on sea in east sussex, where it was pretty drizzly with on and off rain through the day. now, on sunday we will continue to see that theme of an east—west split. but it will be brighter for some eastern areas. the best of the sunshine again will be further west. but it will be a better day for the south—east of england up towards the midlands compared to what we had on saturday. sunny spells, i think. bit of rain anywhere for the like of northumberland up towards aberdeenshire, and later in the day that rain will push up for the northern isles. any early showers should clear from the south—west quite quickly. most of us having a decent day. dry with some sunshine. lifting temperatures to around 18 degrees. just a bit cooler around the east coast, particularly eastern scotland

with outbreaks of rain. that rain should clear away from the east through sunday evening and overnight. the potential for more cloud and one or two showers to push through into east anglia and the south—east early on monday. for many of us, under those clear skies, it will be quite a fresh start to the day. a rather chilly start to the working week. things should be improving. the low pressure will be pushing into france. quite slow—moving here. high pressure across scandinavia, high pressure building in from the south—west. those areas of high pressure should lead to a fairly quiet week ahead. during monday, a chance that the front in the east could bring one or two showers to parts of lincolnshire down towards east sussex as well. cloud building in to northern ireland and western scotland later on. temperatures doing well. for the bulk of the country a sunny day and highs up to 21 celsius. tuesday, a largely fine and dry start to the day. more cloud with patchy rain for northern ireland and north—west scotland. for the rest of the country, it looks like another sunny day. fairly light winds and temperatures will be on the up. so highs up to around 23

in the south—east and 16—18 across parts of scotland and northern ireland. with pressure continuing to build through the week ahead it's looking mainly dry and in those spells of sunshine it should feel pleasantly warm. bye for now. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: anti—terror police investigate a knife attack in paris. one person is dead, four injured. so—called islamic state say they did it. suicide bombers attacked three churches in indonesia and at least two people have been killed. president trump thanks north korea after it says its nuclear test site will be dismantled in less than two weeks. favourites israel win this year's eurovision song contest, while britain's performance is disrupted by a protestor.