and i'm quite pleased, actually, that i had that call from faye last year, when she asked me would i come and participate in research? because it must help the future. they will then recommend new ways to identify and look after the hundreds of thousands who suffer. richard westcott, bbc news. 20 critically endangered ‘royal turtles‘ have been released into a remote stretch of a cambodian river, with chants from buddhist monks and ceremonial flowers to send them on their way. royal turtles were feared wiped out by 2001 through poaching for their meat, and sand mining which destroyed their egg—laying ground, before nests were found and a conservation plan began. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. some very wet and windy weather in

places. but that area of low pressure is now sliding out into the north sea. it is weakening so winds will ease as we go through to night and a lot of the rain will ease as well across southern scotland, northern england, wales and the midlands. still some showers clipping into eastern areas, temperatures above freezing but there may be frost in northern ireland. tomorrow, a quiet start to the day. the winds will ease through the day. the winds will ease through the day. the winds will ease through the day. one or two showers clipping into parts of eastern england and a system bringing extra cloud and patchy rain for northern ireland and the south—west, but elsewhere, good spells of sunshine and it will feel warmer, i2 spells of sunshine and it will feel warmer, 12 to 16 degrees and mainly fine for the start of the week. temperatures higher as well, just the chance of some rain in the west.

hello, this is bbc news with martine croxall. the headlines: sri lankan security forces have detained the wife and child of the man believed to be the mastermind behind the wave of bomb attacks on easter sunday. the home office is being investigated after they revoked the visas of 30,000 foreign students over claims they cheated in an english language exam. the labour party is to change its european election manifesto leaflets, saying it may support another referendum on any brexit deal. we would prefer to have a general election, but failing that, if we get that agreement, we're prepared to consider to put it to a confirmatory vote. but that is a decision the national executives of the party will make on tuesday. cosmetic clinics offering quick fixes with treatments such as botox are accused of fuelling a mental health epidemic. now on bbc news, with toxic water in the southern iraqi city of basra causing tens of thousands of people

to fall sick last summer, martin patience investigates iraq's environmental catastrophe. last summer, a city fell sick. the streets of basra erupted in anger. the cause? the city's water supply, a toxic cocktail that is poisoning the people. this is a cancer. if we don't fix this, the cancer will spread. we are on a journey from the mountains of northern iraq to the southern marshes to investigate the country's environmental catastrophe. and understand how the city of basra has become the country's drain, the centre of the crisis,

where all the filth ends up. a little over 15 years ago, none of this existed. the marshes had been drained, but in 2003 they were brought back to life. the threats now are very different. pollution, a lack of water, as well as climate change. if people keep dumping raw sewage, poisons, toxins... of course it is catastrophic. ourjourney to trace the roots of this crisis begins in the mountains of northern iraq. a lunar landscape that brings to life the rest of the country. the rainfall from here feeds iraq's two great rivers the tigris and euphrates.

they gave rise to mesopotamia, the land between the rivers, home to one of the earliest civilisations. now, modern day iraq. the water here is at its most pristine. untouched, you can drink it straight the streams. but almost as soon as it runs off the mountains, it becomes contaminated. this is the rubbish dump for sulaymaniya, one of the biggest cities in northern iraq. and everything gets dumped here. this is just one of the most extraordinary things i've ever seen. it's a mountain of rubbish. it looks like part of the landscape, and that's the point. all of this is leaching into the river, the problem may start here, but the consequences of it are really

being felt downstream. our guide, nabil, grew up here. he once worked as a forklift driver overseas, but the beauty of iraq brought him home. now he's an environmental activist, dedicated to cleaning up the country's waterways. he says iraqis need to wake up to the nightmare they've created. this is a cancer. if we don't fix this, this cancer will spread, obviously, you can see this is a sliding down and going towards our life, which is our drinking water. it's going to affect ourfood, our children, our fish, are creatures, insects, birds, everything. the cancer will spread. so we need to kill this cancer off, basically. if i was to fall into that, would i survive? no, you would be lucky.

this is the deadliest liquid, it's pure litter, and we've been dumping oil for the last ten years, of course, the garbage gets into the oil, and the litter, plus sulphur, asphalt, heavy metals, everything is in there. pure poison. yes, pure contamination. pure poison. but it's notjust the quality of iraq's water, it's quantity too. dozens of dams have been built across the region, iraq depends on its neighbours for 70% of its supply. but now only gets half the water it once did. the dukan lake, a massive reservoir, contains iraq's most precious resource, but in a breathtaking boat ride, nabil shows me how it's being squandered.

what is this place called? it's bride and groom's gorge, so this is a very famous place. people, they come here for a visit, a selfie, and then they go back. so this is a selfie spot? yes, yes. because it's so beautiful? but then, you see this. itjust makes you very sad. yes, this is sulaymaniya, this is what we drink. this is our drinking water. and people, they don't see it. it took us ten minutes, you know, a speedboat. people don't see this place. they think oh, you know, we have the lake, the reservoir, it's beautiful, clean. but within a few minutes, you know, if you go to the dead—end you'll see the reality. we are finally free from the sludge. not 100%, we have some more.

there's more up ahead. sadly. the beating heart of the country is the capital, baghdad. it's the next stop on ourjourney. for almost a0 years, iraq has been consumed by war. it's the only thing it's planned for. but baghdad is rapidly growing, its population is expected to swell to 10 million people. this is just lovely, wandering through one of the most famous streets in baghdad, and to think that a decade ago, this would simply have been unimaginable. the security situation was so out of control, but it's a sign, i suppose, of how much this country has changed.

the city's infrastructure was built decades ago, and it can no longer cope. so baghdad dumps all of its raw sewage into the river, flushing the problem downstream. but nature is no longer so forgiving. how high did this river used to be? is the level the same as it was in the past? no, no, it's not the same level. you can see the edge over there. it used to be that high. so covering those weeds? way up there? yes, exactly. and now there's just less water. much less. and it never gets that high any more. what does this river mean to you? i think this river is the main source of life, because, you know, civilisation started here. one of the biggest civilisations

of humans started here. so it's something... something meaningful for me here. it's very precious? it's very precious. well, this is the historic city of baghdad, home to more than 8 million people. and the lifeblood of this city is the tigris river, but as you move down it, the more polluted the tigris becomes, and it's almost as if iraq is poisoning itself. it's nearly 500 kilometres from baghdad to the city of basra, it's home to the country's main port, and once fertile farmland. but now, it's hard to find freshwater here. and the rising salinity of the water is having a crippling effect on the city.

this was basra last summer, when the city erupted in anger. protesters were furious about corruption, unemployment, and poisoned water. the authorities cracked down hard. more than a dozen demonstrators were killed. basra was a broken city. this wounded protester cursed the city's a leaders, as the scum of the earth. a city once known as the venice of the east, had become a vision of hell. its canal, a symbol of corruption and dysfunction. the sweltering summer heat turning

this into a toxic stew. tens of thousands were rushed to the city's hospitals, suffering from stomach cramps and serious diarrhoea. doctors and nurses were overwhelmed. the city had never seen a health crisis on this scale. it was basra's slums that were most hurt. people here live in toxic filth, and have limited access to clean drinking water. i meet rima, a housewife, she shows me the family's water source. where is the water? rima's ten children all fell sick. several of them spent two weeks in hospital.

basra should be a wealthy city. it sits on top of most of iraq's oil, it's also where the country's two great rivers converge. the big problem last summer is there simply wasn't enough water coming down the river. that is incredibly important to flush the system,

because what you have is the river fighting the sea. the sea is pushing in the opposite direction. it faces resistance from the river, last summer it was the sea that won the battle, and the water became incredibly salty. that's a real problem, because this is the main water source for the city of basra. and if that wasn't bad enough, basra dumps all its raw sewage into the river. it was sitting here, stagnating, in the summer heat. i went to meetjamal al—adili who has responsibility for the country's water resources. we have run tests. a lot of tests. there are some traces of metals, which should not be in the water. but i don't think it is just that.

it is a mixture of sewage water, sea water, and a scarcity of pure water, all this makes the water not suitable for human consumption. if people keep dumping raw sewage, poisons, toxins... of course, it is catastrophic. the increase of the population, means the increase of sewage. this will destroy everything. it will destroy everything? of course. of course, it will destroy the quality of water we have to drink. and to supply everything they need. the government says it is investing in water treatment projects, to prevent a repeat of last summer's a crisis. but iraq can't do it on its own. and that's because most of its water comes from neighbouring

countries, including iran. what's really interesting is we've been meeting a lot of officials, and they've been incredibly open and informative, but as soon as we mention the word iran, they suddenly clam up. they don't want to go there, they don't want to talk about that issue. and i think that's a sign of how much iranian influence there is in the city. but several of those officials told us that iran is the source of some of the pollution that goes into the river behind me. last summer was a glimpse of how a state can shatter when it fails to provide even the most basic of services. the governor's office in basra was set on fire by protesters. this is a city plagued by corruption and sh‘ia militias. one of the protest leaders says

that's killing basra. what do you want from the government?

iraq sits on fabulous wealth. but basra hasn't seen any of it. nor have the arab marshes, a world heritage site, larger than many arab countries. we're off. we're just leaving the main town in the marshes, where heading out into central waters. i'm excited. i'm very, very excited. it's a place of shimmering beauty. it stretches for as far as the eye can see. the miracle in the desert, only made possible by the country's

two great rivers which flood this plane. it's little wonder then, that some believe this was the original garden of eden. well, this road was built in the 19905 by saddam hussein, when there was an uprising in the marshes, and he crushed that rebellion. in order to punish the people here, he drained all of the marshes. the people may have returned, but life remains tough there. families depend upon the marshes, but they have been three droughts in a decade. and last year, the wetlands shrunk to a quarter of their original size. there simply wasn't enough freshwater. and for the buffalo, that was a killer.

if they can't survive, then neither can the community. these animals provide milk, meat, and money. karim el bahr has been rearing buffalo all his life. last summer he lost 20 of his animals. without water, what's the future here? is there a future?

life is fragile here. and what happens to these wetlands will have consequences for the rest of iraq. jassim has dedicated his life to the marshes, he's the guardian of these waters.

a little over 15 years ago, none of this existed, the marshes had been drained. but in 2003 they were brought back to life. the threats now are very different. pollution, a lack of water, as well as climate change. the marshes have survived for millennia, but they may not last much longer. like iraq itself, they are facing their gravest threat yet. last summer was a warning to the country. that the rivers that created these extraordinary wetlands are under assault. and unless iraq gets to grips with its water crisis,

millions could be forced to move, and a way of life could be wiped out forever. good evening. temp to has made for a turbulent start to the weekend. we had winds of 82 mph in north—west wales. you can see this one of cloud here, the deep area of low pressure that has been pushing eastwards but as this clears away eastwards through tonight, it will also weaken significantly. things look calmer as we head through the second half of

the weekend. tonight the winds will continue to ease. there will be some showers but a good deal of dry weather starting to show its hand as well. the rain across parts of northern england, wales, southern scotla nd northern england, wales, southern scotland as well, that will continue to ease. some showers also clipping into eastern england. most places, temperatures holding out for 27 degrees. tomorrow morning starting off on degrees. tomorrow morning starting offona degrees. tomorrow morning starting off on a quiet note. it is a big morning of course in london, the marathon taking place. overhead there is likely to be a lot of cloud, the odd shower at times, equally some glimmers of brightness but for the participants, temperatures of 11 to 1a degrees. for the rest of the uk as we go through the day, a lot of dry weather and increasingly some sunshine. some in scotland, part of the midlands, with the south—east. showers clipping into east anglia

and kent. more cloud, a weather front trying to push in. still breezy for some of us but that continue to ease, not as windy as it has been and with more sunshine, temperatures higher, between 12 and 16 degrees. quite a complex weather pattern as we head into the week but high pressure will be in charge. quite a lot of fog as we start monday morning. frontal systems pushing in from the west but they won't make much progress. patchy rainfor won't make much progress. patchy rain for the south—west of england, west wales and northern ireland. any early fog were left unclear with a mix of sunny spells. the best of the sunshine in scotland with temperatures up to 18 or 19 degrees. a lot of dry weather to be had through the week ahead. the chance of some rain at times, particularly in the north and west.

this is bbc world news today. our top stories: th sri lanka bans two islamic groups linked to the easter sunday attacks — as security forces say six children were among more than a dozen people killed during a police raid. you can see the science of clashes and the damaged hair. the steel gate has been damaged, broken windows. the united nations says some of the villages hit by cyclone kenneth in northern mozambique have been entirely wiped out. the uk government is under investigation over its decision to cancel the visas of thousands of foreign students accused of cheating in english exams. and millions of orthodox christians celebrate easter‘s holy fire ceremony in services across the world.