this is bbc world news today. i'm samantha simmonds. our top stories: destruction in the philippines — at least m are killed after this year's strongest typhoon batters the north of the country. more weather warnings in the us — the military assess the damage as storm florence wreaks havoc on north and south carolina. the pope visits sicily and urges mafia mobsters to abandon a life of crime and violence. and the american space agency launches a laser into orbit to measure the condition of earth's ice sheets. hello and welcome to world news today. at least 1a people have now died in a massive storm which has brought destruction to the north of the philippines. typhoon mangkhut ripped through the main island of luzon, tearing off roofs, felling trees and triggering more than a0 landslides. it's the strongest typhoon to hit

the country this year. five million people were in its path, and thousands were evacuated. details of the destruction are still coming in because communications with remote areas are still down. the storm is now moving west towards china, where people have been stocking up on supplies. howard johnson sent this report. mangkhut has been called by meteorologists the strongest typhoon in the world so far this year. and now the reality of the utter devastation it has caused is becoming obvious. extreme flash flooding. the fragility of human existence laid bare. the road to cagayan province was littered with destruction. electricity posts ripped from the ground, street lamps bent in two, and this man's house torn to shreds. he showed me where the roof had been pulled back like a tin of sardines. fighting back the tears, he told me how he had spent

the night in an evacuation centre worrying about the fate of his home. when we arrived in cagayan province, we saw a line of people queueing for fuel to power their generators. how did you feel? scared. we were so scared. some trees broken and some electric posts were falling down. all the windows are broken. the whole night. the whole night, no sleep. the scene here repeated across this vast region. in cities, debris scattered across the ground. electricity cables dangling dangerously. people wading their belongings through floodwaters. two rescue workers were killed in one of many landslides and a third person drowned in six—metre—high storm surges. we paid a visit to the provincial government headquarters

in the capital, tuguegarao. the grand old american colonial era building has certainly seen better days. outside, a team of search and rescue workers — clearly it had been a long night. our evacuees total about 15,000, scattered in more than 500 evacuation centres. we have not really released them yet because of the kind of wind we have. the typhoon is now on its way to southern china and vietnam. it's expected to pass near hong kong tomorrow. the magnitude of the devastation left behind here in the philippines still is not known, and more heavy rain is on its way. howard johnson, bbc news, tuguegarao. well, to another devastating weather system — this one on the east coast of america, where one of the most savage storms of the hurricane season is causing catastrophic flooding in north and south carolina.

the governor of north carolina has confirmed at least five people have been killed. chris buckler reports from wilmington in north carolina. large parts of north carolina's coastline now lie underwater as the rain continues to fall. florence is no longer a hurricane but this is still a dangerous storm, and as water levels have risen, people have had to be rescued from their homes. it's obvious as you drive through this area how much damage has been done here. pavements were forced to give way as trees were uprooted in the high winds. many roads remain blocked. and powerlines lie across streets. many people are expected to be without electricity for days, if not weeks. more people now face imminent threat than when the storm was just offshore. i cannot overstate it. floodwaters are rising and if you are not watching for them, you are risking your life. repairing all of this destruction

is only slowly beginning in the town of wilmington. some families will never recover from this deadly storm. among those to be killed were a mother and her baby. they were in their home sheltering from the hurricane when a tree crashed through their roof. we have had so many trees downed — and you can see them in our neighbourhood and down the street, trees barely missing houses, huge trees. you know, when you see something like this, you're just really, really lucky. it is awful it has happened to someone, because so many people chose to stay. the effects of florence are still being felt and there has been a stark warning that as long as the rain falls, there is the danger of further catastrophic flash flooding. chris buckler, bbc news. pope francis has appealed to the italian mafia to abandon a life of crime and violence.

he was on a visit to sicily to pay homage to a parish priest who was murdered by the mafia 25 years ago. courtney bembridge has more. on his way to the sicilian capital with a clear message, pope francis chose palermo's port, a centre of mafia activity, to send it. translation: today, we need men and women of love — not men and women of honour, of service — not overpowering. we need men and women to walk together, not to chase power. the catholic church has had a chequered history of relations with the mafia in southern italy, but the pope says people can't believe in god and belong to the mafia at the same time. a mafioso does not live as a christian because he blasphemes with his life in the name of god. the event was held to mark 25 years since parish priest giuseppe puglisi

was shot dead on his doorstep by the italian mafia. it was his 56th birthday, and reportedly he said to the gunman, "i've been expecting you." the priest was known for being outspoken against injustices. with little support from the church hierarchy in sicily, he preached against the mafia and worked with young people to keep them away from the group. translation: we hope that something will change, bit by bit. there are many youths who are arriving here at the social centre that are beginning to realise that life is not only about violence and degradation. he ignored their threats and banned mafia members from leading religious processions. in the months before his murder the mafia planted several car bombs throughout italy, killing at least ten people. it was part of a bloody offensive against the state and anyone who threatened the group's existence, which also claimed the lives of two magistrates. puglisi was shot in the neck at point—blank range. two mafia hitmen, salvatore grigoli

and gaspa re spatuzza, were among six men charged over the murder. large crowds attended puglisi's funeral. why did the mafia kill him? i don't know. maybe because he wanted to destroy the mafia, and he could do it. puglisi was beatified in 2013, the last step before sainthood in the church. courtney bembridge, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news... a former british soldier has been sentenced to seven years in prison in turkey, according to his family. 25—year old joe robinson was arrested there last year and charged with terrorism offences. he's been accused of being a member of the kurdish ypg, whom the turkish authorities regard as terrorists. his family maintains he was in syria helping civilians. nigeria's finance minister has resigned over allegations of forgery. kemi adeosun stepped down over

accusations that she used a forged certificate to avoid nigeria's mandatory one—year youth service scheme. ms adeosun is a dual british and nigerian citizen and lived in the uk until she was 34. tens of thousands of ethiopians have welcomed back a former rebel group, the oromo liberation front. the group had spent more than three decades fighting a separatist insurgency on behalf of the country's largest ethnic group, the oromo. they've been allowed to return as part of a new wave of political reforms in the country. the us space agency, nasa, has successfully launched a satellite designed to measure changes in the world's ice sheets and provide precise information on how they are being eroded by global warming. the billion dollar project will put a satellite almost directly over the north and south poles and from there it will fire a laser at sea and land ice to take measurements. professor helen? fricker?from the scripps institution of oceanography, she's a key icesat

scientist who was at today's launch and joins me now live. and. welcome, professor, thanks for being with us on bbc news —— live from california. can you explain how it is going to work. icesat-2 is a laser mission, sending a laserfrom space above the earth's service and it will be bouncing off the surface of the earth, all around its orbit. the primary mission, objective, is actually to map the land ice and the sea ice, the north pole and the south pole. from that we are going to get hopefully a very good estimate quite quickly of how much ice is being lost from the land ice and also the changes in the sea ice. what they want to do with this information once you have it?

we can use the information to estimate, well, how much ice has been lost from around the edges of theice been lost from around the edges of the ice sheets, and therefore how much has melted and gone into the oceans. when it gets into the ocean, you can look at it like a glass of water, if you have an ice cube sitting on the glass of water, as you melt it you will not raise the sea level but you add extra ice into the glass, it will raise the level of water in the glass, so it is a good analogy for understanding how land ice adds to the volume of our world's oceans. what we see is that ice is being lost and sea level is rising, and icesat—2 will help them understand how quickly that is happening so we can make accurate models and projections for the future. will it make causal link between global warming and ice los? harder question. that is something we will look into. what we do do,

because we have a long time series, going back to the early 90s, starting with the european space agency satellites, we now have a long record and from that we can look at that time scales on which things are changing, we can actually look at the signatures and try to work out which processes are responsible for the loss. summers from the atmosphere, some from the oceans, and other processes as well. we can really understand how the system is responded —— someone is from the atmosphere. there have been other projects to measure ice gloss over the years. what makes this one different? that's right. -- ice loss. yes, there is one currently orbiting at the moment which we use the data from, really great instrument. icesat, from 2003 until 2009, from nasa, a laser instead of radar, bouncing off the top, rather

than penetrating into the service —— radar rather than a laser. the difference between that and icesat—2 is that we now the beam into six, three pairs and therefore we can get a very good mapping, spatial mapping, of the surface, and at the same day we can work out what the slope of the service is and we can use that to better... to get more accurate height measurements. professor helen? fricker, absolutely fascinating to speak to you. thanks very much for explaining more to us about icesat—2, and good luck with it. you are very welcome. thank you. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: all the latest sports news, as liverpool rubber stamp their premier league credentials with a victory against spurs. this is bbc world news today. i'm samantha simmonds. the latest headlines... typhoon mangkhut has killed 14 people as it rips through the philippines‘ main island of luzon. it's now heading west towards china.

in the united states, storm florence is pounding the carolina coast with powerful winds and devastating rain. five people have been killed. let's stay with that story. nearly a million householders have no electricity in the carolinas. president trump may travel to the region next week. the governor of north carolina, roy cooper, updated reporters about storm florence. we face walls of water at our coast, along our rivers, across farmland, in our cities and in our towns. more people now face imminent threat than when the storm was just offshore. i cannot overstate it — floodwaters are rising, and if you aren't watching for them, you are risking your life. one of the worst affected places has been the city of new bern. let's to colleen roberts,

public information officer for the city of new bern. welcome and thanks for being with us on bbc world news. what is the situation like at the moment? just like the governor said, if you're not watching the waters, they do rise very quickly, giving you very little time to get out. we have seen oui’ little time to get out. we have seen our storm surge back off a little today. at the height of the storm it was 10.5 feet. it has receded to four feet today. finally, was 10.5 feet. it has receded to fourfeet today. finally, we have seen fourfeet today. finally, we have seen better weather. it hasn't been raining as much today. the sustained winds are down to about 19 mph and that translates into an opportunity for us did get out and continue those power restorations and begin that clean—up of debris. we had a high tide here about three hours ago, so we saw that storm surge increased a little, and that is exactly the sort of thing the north

carolina governor is talking about. we will still see those fluctuations in the river water. also, additional flooded communities upstream, that water over the next week or so will flow down and we will likely see our river crest with additional possibly dangerous storm surge. what kind of proportion of homes are being affected by the flooding? our preliminary datta just based on calls received for emergency service, we have plotted those on a map and come over 4000 homes —— preliminary data. that is homes destroyed or completely damaged, and again that is preliminary at this point. the same thing with businesses. we plotted those on a map and we have 300 businesses damaged or destroyed. we had a very popular downtown sort of lifestyle and winter wear company, that people loved, and the roof collapsed, under

the weight of rainwater. volunteers are out there as we speak, cleaning up are out there as we speak, cleaning up that debris that has spilled into the street. so we have significant damage to our downtown. new bern a quaint historic downtown, about ten square blocks, and it was significantly underwater during this storm, in ways most people have never seen since storm, in ways most people have never seen since they have been here. 0k, colleen roberts, we wish you well with the coming days and we hope conditions improve, and your attempt to restore power to all those who have lost it are successful. thank you. thank you. rwanda's president kagame, who's often been accused of suppressing dissent in the east african nation, has pardoned more than 2,000 prisoners, including a top opposition figure. victoire ingabire had been serving a 15—year jail term for threatening state security and "belittling" the 1994 genocide. our correspondent tomi oladipo reports from nairobi. an early and unexpected walk to freedom, as victoire ingabire

left prison in kigali. previously known as an outspoken critic of the rwandan government, she now says her pardon could be a sign of her country's political space opening up. translation: i have been in prison for eight years, but i have kept myself informed of the current state of the country. rwanda is growing and i am convinced that we can do much more by being united. i have no doubt that people may have differences and different points of view. it is the starting point to build our country in peace, having different points of view, without hindrance. miss ingabire returned to rwanda from her residence in the netherlands in 2010 to take part in presidential elections, but she was soon arrested and found guilty of multiple charges, including belittling rwanda's 1994 genocide. she denied the charges brought against her. among the other prisoners who were released early was kizito mihigo, a popular musician who had beenjailed for ten years for plotting to kill the president.

today, though, profuse with thanks for his freedom. translation: i know that the president is someone who has a heart. i asked for forgiveness, knowing he is someone who forgives. i knew he would have mercy. i know him personally. it's not like everything you hear. the government insists that the decision to free miss ingabire was not political but merely the president choosing to exercise his prerogative. some critics have welcomed the move, but added that the struggle for free speech and rights in rwanda should continue. tomi oladipo, bbc news. let's bring you up—to—date on all the sports news now withjeanette. thank you forjoining us with older sport. thank you forjoining us with all the sport. liverpool beat tottenham hotspur 2—1 at wembley

to make it 5 wins out of 5 in the english premier league. the first time they've done that since the 1990—91 season. jurgen klopp's men emerged impressively from their biggest test so far this season. georginio wijnaldum and roberto firmino on the scoresheet for the visitors while erik lamela pulled one back for spurs deep into stoppage time — but it was all too late. liverpool with the win. already in the first chance we had the chances. but let's stay positive, because it was positive. they were really, really good, and one of the most difficult places to come, against one of the best teams in football, and it is 100% like that. to come here, they like this, after the international break and all the stuff, so it all comes together, to perform it is, it's really... i don't take that for granted. it was just really good. liverpool and chelsea have both maintained their perfect starts to the season — eden hazard scored a hat—trick for chelsea as they beat cardiff 4—1. there were also victories for bournemouth and crystal palace. manchester city maintain their unbeaten start to the season with a 3—0 win over fulham, while arsenal won for the third time in a row against newcastle. manchester united beat watford 2—1 in the evening kick—off.

if friday night's weigh—in was anything to go by, the rematch between gennady golovokin and canelo alvarez should be quite a fiery affair. the pair fought to a draw last year, and this bout for golovokin's wba and wbc middleweight titles, in las vegas, has been billed as the fight of the year. here's the former heavyweight world champion royjones. for him to win, he has to sit there, in the fight, but make it last longer. then pick up late late last time. forjeanette to win, he picked that up and then start winning —— for triple g to win. you can't pick up for triple g to win. you can't pick upfor in for triple g to win. you can't pick up for in around ten that.|j for triple g to win. you can't pick up for in around ten that. i have 5p left on my wages. who should i put

it on? i don't know, i draw! -- £5 left. mercedes driver lewis hamilton produced one of the best laps of his career to take pole position for the singapore grand prix. his title rival sebastian vettel was third behind red bull's max verstappen. nick parrott reports. the marina bay street circuit is the most challenging track of the year according to lewis hamilton. monaco on steroids is how he described it. this is supposed to be mercedes with their buggy race and up until the final session of qualifying there was little to suggest that would change with ferrari and red bull vying for the top spot on the grid. but then, as has happened so often in his career, hamilton dug deep to reach levels are those could only dream of. the world champion improving his best lap of the weekend by more than a second. commentator: prydie epic lap from lewis. the others couldn't get close, max verstappen the best of the rest but almost a third of a second off the brit. sebastian

vettel was more than half a second behind in third and unless his luck changes soon, it could spell the end of his hopes of catching hamilton. nick parrott, bbc news. britain's simon yates has all but assured himself victory in the vuelta a espana by finishing third in saturday's 20th and penultimate stage. the michelton—scott rider survived an arduous final mountain stage and will take a lead of one minute 46 seconds into sunday's final processional stage to madrid. yates is set to complete an unprecedented clean sweep of this year's grand tours by british riders after chris froome's giro d'italia win and geraint thomas's victory at the tour de france. that's all the sport for now. thank you. we'll see you a little bit later. australia's queensland government is offering a $70,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest of the person responsible for contaminating strawberries with sewing needles. health officials are urging people to cut open all fresh strawberries after a man was taken to hospital with stomach pains after eating a strawberry with a needle hidden in it.

in another case, a nine—year—old bit into a contaminated fruit but didn't swallow it, thankfully. six brands of strawberries across new south wales, queensland and victoria have been affected. just before we go... a reminder of our top story. the authorities in the philippines says some fourteen people have been killed by typhoon mangkhut, which tore into the country's main island, luzon. it brought violent winds, torrential rain and landslides. five million people were in its path, and thousands were evacuated. the storm is now heading for southern china. that's it for me. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @samanthatvnews. hello. things turn increasingly

windy for many of us, that has already begun in scotland and northern ireland. some rain, some of which will be heavy, extending down, and further south and east, mainly dry, an extra variable cloud and clear spells. these are the average wind speeds over night but costs will be higher, perhaps touching 40-50 will be higher, perhaps touching 40—50 over irish sea coast and in the western isles of scotland. mild for most of us, dropping to between 11 and 14 celsius. this is sunday. an area of high pressure to the south of the uk. to the and —— north and west, low pressure. into this area of high pressure, any rain will tend to do is lie but the damp start across parts of scotland, northern england, the midlands and wales. notice how through the afternoon and there is this band of cloud with the odd patch of light rain across the midlands, wales and north—east england. north and south of that band, some spells of sunshine, but quite breezy for all of us though not as strong as the winds were

overnight, but still gusty for the western isles of scotland. patchy rain at times. while we have the sunshine, 17 and 23, warmest for is angry and south—east england. keeping an eye on this low pressure because it is the remnants of what was hurricane helene, by this stage is not a hurricane. and some warm tropical air, then you can see temperatures across east anglia said east anglia getting up to 2425. monday, for most of us merely tried to daylight hours. a favourite of cloud through wales, central and southern england but sunshine in the afternoon. the bricks of rain in northern ireland, parts of scotland and north west england —— outbreaks of rain. these are the average speeds but the gusts will be strengthening through the day, and overnight monday into tuesday we could see them getting up to 70 mph in parts of scotland and northern ireland, but again some warmth in england and wales, but a very messy

u nsettled england and wales, but a very messy unsettled picture monday night and tuesday. see how those isobars are tightly packed together. some really strong winds for a time going into tuesday. through the early part of next week, some strong winds, very warm in the south and east. some rainfor warm in the south and east. some rain for the north and the west. this is bbc world news, the headlines: at least 14 people have been killed by typhoon mangkhut in the philippines, which struck the country's main island, luzon, today. the strongest typhoon so far this year, it ripped off roofs and knocked out electricity supplies. the governor of the us state of north carolina has warned that tropical storm florence is unloading epic amounts of rainfall, posing a greater risk of flooding than when it first made landfall. he warned of "walls of water" on the coast and inland. pope francis has made an impassioned anti—mafia speech in the sicilian capital, palermo. the pontiff urged mafia gangsters to stop thinking about themselves and their money. nasa, has launched a billion—dollar satellite into space, on a mission to provide more precise information on how the earth's

ice sheets are being eroded by global warming.