this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 3: huge crowds join funeral processions in iraq, for iran's top military commander killed by a us drone strike. president trump says it was to stop a war not start one. suleimani as been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilise the middle east for the last 20 years. what the united states did yesterday should have been done long ago. here, the foreign office hardens its travel warnings to britons for both iran and iraq. fears that high winds and temperatures will push australia's bushfires towards heavily populated areas — thousands of reserve troops are deployed. the fires that have raged in south—eastern australia will be affected by these winds, they will be fanned by this, making a dangerous situation even more perilous.

labour backbenchers lisa nandy and jess phillips join the contest to become the party's next leader. sir rod stewart is charged by police, after allegedly punching a security guard in the chest in florida on new year's eve. and in this week's click, the team takes a look at facial recognition technology, the future of space travel, and super—fast sports cars. that's in half an hour. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. thousands of people have gathered on the streets of baghdad for the funeral procession, of iran's most powerful military leader who was killed by a us drone strike. president trump said

he ordered the attack on general qasem suleimani, to stop a war, not start one. the foreign office has warned against all travel to iraq and all but essential travel to iran. charlotte gallagher reports. a funeral procession for qasem suleimani in baghdad. a man despised by many, but a martyr to others. crowds shout, "death to america," and, "america is the enemy of god." others waved flags belonging to militia groups backed by iran. the military commander was killed in a us air strike on thursday in the iraqi capital. suleimani was one of the most powerful men in iran, arguably second only to the supreme leader. he helped prop up the syrian regime, fought the islamic state group and effectively led militia groups in iraq. the iranian president visits suleimani's family, a sign of the general‘s status in the

country. he tells them the americans made a mistake, a strategic mistake. they will see more difficult days are awaiting them. suleimani's body will be taken back to iran for the funeral and days of mourning. officials will want to show the world how much he mattered, it's expected the supreme leader will lead the funeral prayers. he was planning a very major attack and we got him. the man who ordered the air strike, president trump, was cheered by supporters last night. the us hasn't released any details about what qasem suleimani was allegedly planning. the foreign secretary, dominic raab, and his predecessor are urging restraint, but haven't criticised mr trump's actions. i don't believe for a moment that he does want a war and i am sure he has calculated what the response is likely to be. but if he is going to be effective, there needs to be a

more consistent, long—term approach. iran has sworn revenge but is yet to act. anything that increases the chance of a direct confrontation between the us and iran is what many fear. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. our middle east correspondent lina sinjab is following developments in the region from beirut. iran hasa iran has a strong influence and presence in the region. certainly in iraq, syria and lebanon, they have lots of allies and they have militia fighters that are taking orders from them, certainly the case with hezbolla here in lebanon. as much as they have followers and supporters in the region who are mourning the killing of qasem suleimani, who was very influential and orchestrated the operations in the regions, others see this as qasem suleimani

and iran responsible for destabilising the region and responsible for the death of hundreds, especially inside syria and iraq. there are different views on the killing of qasem suleimani in the region, there are lots of speculations but a lot of concerns as well. we have had warnings from iran, a commander based in the southern province has hinted that possible targets currently lie within the strait of hormuz. what sort of applications does that have? it is not only this, there were lots of speculations about targets all over the region against american interests but not only american interest, american allies's interest and that includes israel. we don't have any idea about what type of reaction the iranians will do when they are going to do it. we know from following the foreign policy of iran that they think a lot

and prepare a lot to take the right action at the right time. that will serve their strategic interests and at this moment, with this big blow to the iranian security by targeting the second top leader in the country, they are definitely planning on hitting hard. just to finish off, we are talking a lot about the region itself, but why does what is happening in the middle east now matter globally? this is a region that has been in turmoil for decades and it affected the whole world in different ways because different countries have different interest in the region. but certainly for the americans who have thousands of troops based in the region, where you have also the oil, the largest oil reserves in the region, it is certainly affecting the world's interest and economy as well, so more turmoil in the region will not be serving anyone's interests around

the world. this is the scene in the central iraqi city of karbala, where pilgrims are gathering at the the holy shrine of imam hussain. there has been a huge crowd, some of the crowd have been waving placards, saying no, no, america, but eventually the funerals will take place and the body of general qasem suleimani will make its way to his hometown in iran. live to washington — and our north america correspondent jane o'brien. jane, emotions are really climbing and building up in iraq and iran. just talk us through the reaction in the states. reaction

is divided over whether or not president trump has in fact started a major conflict in the region with the action, with the targeted killing of qasem suleimani oi’ targeted killing of qasem suleimani or whether he has in his words stopped a warfrom or whether he has in his words stopped a war from starting. congress is very concerned that we still don't know what the intelligence was that prompted this strike. and there is also concerned that congress should have been informed and possibly asked to authorise the strike, because certainly iran and many other observers believe that it is an act of warand observers believe that it is an act of war and only congress has the authority to declare war on another country. so there is a lot of concern about the events leading up to this, but also what happens next. is the administration prepared for any retaliation by iran and again we don't know what that might be or where it will happen. and what is the long—term

strategy for that. where it will happen. and what is the long-term strategy for that. the uk's former foreign secretaryjeremy hunt did say that it would be best to work side of the us but he also made the point that a lot of people, a lot of the aloes were not involved in this. what reaction has there been to that? are they looking for support from allies, western allies? certainly the secretary of state mike pompeo embarked on a flurry of diplomatic calls and messaging in the last 2a hours. he has spoken to allies in the region, european partners and he says he is disappointed by the european lack of support. don't forget that europe didn't support america when it launched the invasion of iraq in 2003, it is very wary of any unilateral action by the us, so perhaps that support, lack of support is not surprising. but mike

pompeo i think and the administration generally clearly is prepared to do what it wants without support. that again has precedents from 2003 and this is what has a lot of people worried here in the state, is whether or not by his actions, president trump has pre—empted something that is outside his control, outside his consideration oi’ control, outside his consideration or whether it has in his words prevented another war. we simply at this point don't know. iraq's parliament is sitting tomorrow and there is talk of a request that us troops leave the country. this is quite a risk for donald trump because he is entering an election year. i don't think troops leaving iraq is going to alter his election chances because most of his supporters don't want troops in the middle east and donald trump himself is not an interventionist, hejust withdrew troops from northern syria and there was a lot of criticism over that. i think withdrawing troops isn't going to be the issue

for him. the issue is whether or not iran's retaliation even it comes affects the us economy. that is where he is basing his election hopes and if anything is done to destabilise that, that could spell trouble but i think troops in themselves, there is a lot of feeling that america shouldn't be anywhere near the middle east anyway so anywhere near the middle east anyway soi anywhere near the middle east anyway so i don't think that in itself is going to hurt his election chances. australia is deploying 3,000 defence force reservists to help the nation tackle the worsening bushfire crisis. dozens of fires are now burning across several states, and strong winds and very hot temperatures are intensifying the danger, with fears the fires could spread to more densely populated areas over the weekend. least 23 people have died since september. from nowra, new south wales, phil mercer reports. australia feels like a country on a war footing. as the bushfire crisis intensifies,

thousands of military reservists are being deployed as well as transport aircraft and more helicopters. the navy has already been evacuating hundreds of people stranded in the town of mallacoota in victoria. we couldn't go west, we couldn't go east, we couldn't go anywhere so our only option was to go down to the foreshore and sit it out. this country has been ravaged by drought and now fire. water is drying up and the government seems to be doing very little about it. more lives have been lost. the latest fatalities came on kangaroo island in south australia, where two people were trapped in a car overrun by flames. dozens of homes are thought to have been destroyed. temperatures have soared above a0 degrees and gale force winds have fanned the flames. wild conditions have made a dangerous day even worse,

turning the sky an ominous shade of red. the wind change has just come in and this hill near nowra, in new south wales, has been transformed by a southerly wind change. we can feel the dust and the ash that has been whipped up by these very strong winds and this is what the authorities have been so very worried about. it's the wind that is the real enemy to the firefighting effort. today we have had very high temperatures and now we're having this ferocious wind. the dust is being whipped up from the land and the fires that have raged in south—eastern australia will be affected by these winds, they will be fanned by this, making a dangerous situation even more perilous. hundreds of fires continue to rage across south—eastern australia. a senior member of the new south

wales state government has compared the fires to an atomic bomb. phil mercer, bbc news, nowra, new south wales. the fires are burning over a wide area along australia's eastern seaboard. another of our correspondents, shaimaa khalil, is in ulladulla, another of the areas under threat. the winds picked up quite strongly here in the town of ulladulla, bringing this huge plume of smoke over and you can actually feel some ash in the air as well. people in this holiday park have abandoned their cabins and have come to the beach to seek refuge. some have told me they are also responding to messages from the police and from the fire services. others are still hosing their cabins and trees around them just to be prepared. people tell me they feel relatively safe here but they're still quite anxious, they don't know what will happen next and that has really been the challenge. these fires are just so unpredictable and nobody knows where they will hit

next and how hard that's going to be. the headlines on bbc news: huge crowds join funeral processions in iraq, for iran's top military commander killed by a us drone strike. president trump says it was to stop a war not start one. fears that high winds and temperatures will push australia's bushfires towards heavily populated areas — thousands of reserve troops are deployed. labour backbenchers lisa nandy and jess phillips join the contest to become the party's next leader. the ao—year—old substitute aaron wilbraham the ao—year—old substitute aaron wilbra ham scores a the ao—year—old substitute aaron wilbraham scores a late equaliser to earn a replay in the third round of the fa cup. tom eaves scores a hat—trick for hull as they avoid an upset with a 3- hull as they avoid an upset with a 3— to win to book their place in the fourth round.

england take three wickets in the afternoon session of the second test against south africa. they trail england's first in total by 269. i will be back with more on those stories at around 530. the death toll in the worst flooding to hit indonesia's capital jakarta in over a decade has risen to 53, according to the kyodo news agency. indonesian authorities say over 170,000 people are taking refuge in shelters, and the wet weather is forecast to continue until sunday with the possibility of more extreme rains in the coming weeks. the met police have launched their first murder investigation of the year — after a man was stabbed to death in north london, on friday evening. the victim, in his 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene. no arrests have been made and inquiries

continue. two prominent labour backbenchers have joined the contest to become the party's next leader. the wigan mp, lisa nandy, and jess phillips, who represents birmingham yardley, both said they wanted to restore trust in labour and win back voters in its traditional strongholds. this takes the total contenders to four, with others expected in the next few days. our political correspondent john owen told me a little earlier how the two backbenchers may set out their campaigns. in terms of the pitch is that we are expecting from these candidates, jess phillips is somebody who has been something of a critic ofjeremy corbyn but has a reputation as an independent minded campaigning mp. she will want to present herself as someone she will want to present herself as someone who can offer a fresh break from the current leadership, some new thinking. she will present herself as the new blood that possibly labour needs to confront

its current dilemma. she will also wa nt to its current dilemma. she will also want to make very clear to the labour membership that she is someone labour membership that she is someone determined to take the fight to the conservatives particularly in the north of england. lisa nandy is someone the north of england. lisa nandy is someone who will emphasise the need for labour to regain trust in those so—called labour heartlands, those areas particularly in the north of england where labour underperformed quite dramatically at the recent election, resulting in a lot of conservative gains. she also emphasised the need for reconciliation inside the party. speaking on the bbc earlier today, she spoke about the need for unity. in the last few years, we have been riven by division and they have been difficult for every single activist, member, councillor and member of parliament in the party. i am someone parliament in the party. i am someone who parliament in the party. i am someone who comes parliament in the party. i am someone who comes traditionally from the left of the party, i work with child refugees and homeless teenagers before i came into parliament. i worked for a member of parliament. i worked for a member of parliament on the left of the party

as his house in case worker, but i see the strength in all of our traditions across the party. no one person has the monopoly on wisdom. one slightly odd thing about the way this contest is operating so far is that the two people presumed to be out in front is the most likely candidates to succeed jeremy corbyn have not as yet formally declared their intention to stand. we do expect the shadow brexit secretary keir starmer and the shadow business secretary elon bailey, two people considered the frontrunners, to announce their candidacy is in the coming days. police in florida have charged sir rod stewart with battery after he was accused of punching a security guard on new year's eve. the rock star is reported to have been trying to get into a private event, at a hotel in palm beach, when the incident happened. the government's being urged to take urgent steps to tackle the rising threat of the synthetic opioid, fentanyl which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin. a new report says the number

of fentanyl—linked deaths in the uk rose from 8 in 2008 to 135 in 2017. let's speak now to jamie coleman. he's professor of clinical pharmacology and medical education at the university of birmingham and also chair of the governments opioid expert working group. first off, what is fentanyl and what is it used for? than to know is a morphine —like drug, a synthetic opioid. it is much more potent than morphine which means it is stronger, 50 to 100 times as strong, and we use fentanyl for pain relief and for anaesthesia for example in the health service. who is most at risk? there numbers in the deaths we were looking at, was that because of prescribed fentanyl or illegally acquired fentanyl?

the report suggest that actually fentanyl is getting in and being used illicitly mainly through the illicit channels and being cut with heroin and because of its potency, it is potentially opioid abusers that might be subject to heroin that has been cut with fentanyl and because of its potency, therefore the risk of its potency, therefore the risk of overdose through respiratory depression, eventually, is much greater than with heroin alone. but this is getting in through the illicit market rather than prescription drug diversion. when you say illicit market, what you mean by that? as heroin would get m, mean by that? as heroin would get in, there are some ability to get through very convoluted online supply but also where heroin is coming into the country through illicit channels is that actually fencing is there as

well. although it can be made and certainly in north america where the problem is much greater, there is a problem where there are people making synthetic opioids such as fentanyl in illicit factories to sort of sell on to the black market. because it is 50 times stronger, when it is made illicitly in these drug labs, it is very difficult to control. how do we stop this? what steps need to be taken? there has been a great awareness about opioid use over the last few years. we know certainly in north america and the usa there is this opioid crisis and we want to try and prevent the uk getting into that same situation. the committee i am sharing has been looking mainly at the regulatory framework within prescription opioid use, to try and make sure that is tightly controlled. trying to make sure that health care professionals are very well educated in the use

of opioids and fenta nyl is well educated in the use of opioids and fentanyl is a particular example where we need to educate because often health care practitioners are not aware about how potent this drug is. is there help therefore people who are using fentanyl or have been addicted to it? are there resources there within the nhs?|j addicted to it? are there resources there within the nhs? i think the report notices and we have noted as well that at a national level, sometimes one of the reasons people do go from prescription drug use to misuse is because perhaps there isn't that support mechanism there or they don't know where to go, so it is about making sure the resources that are available to patients are much better advertise, that health care practitioners and may be carers and patients families are aware about the signs of potential opioid abuse and that we try and put people into the channels to try and get people off drugs. because actually of course one of the reasons people take drugs and

keep taking drugs is because they are very dependent and people get withdraw very quickly, so that needs to be managed. i'm sure there is more that can be done in the nhs but there is a lot there already and we need to make people much more aware of that. are there other drugs we should be worried about or you are worried about that are prescribed? we have been looking across the whole array of opioids so that includes codeine and we are opening a public consultation about whether coding, which is a weak derivative of morphine, should be available over the counter. it is still available compounded with paracetamol for example. there is a question about whether that should be available but really all the opioids as well as wider psychoactive drugs, such as antidepressants and pain relieving drugs called gabapentin ‘s and interrelated drugs, we are having a look at and the nhra, the medicines agency in the country are very keen

to try and make sure we provide the right regulatory framework to ensure that people are aware and that actually we cut off any potential problems with supply, excess supply for example through online pharmacies. and that through our legitimate access to opioids that we make sure people are very well educated, that they are aware that what drugs contain opioids, that they are where about the potential for addiction and dependence and that we try and make sure that we have appropriate access to opioids but we try to avoid any opioid crisis growing in the uk. china has sacked the head of its hong kong liaison office, wang zhimin, after almost 7 months of violent clashes between police and pro—democracy demonstrators. the liaison office has been criticised in mainland china, for misjudging the political situation in the territory. the replacement will be a former party secretary in shanxi

province in the north. the televison medium, derek acorah has died at the age of 69. he was best known for appearing on the show most haunted. his wife, gwen, said he'd been in intensive care following a brief illness. a portrait of the queen and her three heirs to the throne, has been released to mark the start of the new decade. the photograph, which was taken the week before christmas, shows the prince of wales, the duke of cambridge and prince george, standing alongside her majesty at buckingham palace. it is the second official portrait of the four generations of royals together. a two—year—old boy has been freed by firefighters, after getting his head stuck in a toilet seat. flynn edwards pulled the portable training seat over his head at his home in cornwall. fire crews managed to cut the seat off — before giving flynn a tour of

their engine. they came over, they were absolutely lovely, i couldn't thank them enough. they had a go at pulling it off and then eventually used some small tools to actually break it and then cut it off. and then you had a little tour in the fire engine, didn't you? he had a little tool which he loved and was saying nee—naw for the rest of the day. it made his day. nee—naw. time for the weather. today has brought a lot of dry weather but cloud amounts, they have varied. some eastern areas got to see quite a lot of sunshine, that is how it looked in felixstowe. further west, more cloud and tonight we will see more cloud and tonight we will see more of that cloud rolling in from the atlantic, bringing the odd spot of drizzle, slightly heavier rain in the far north of scotland. parts of eastern scotland, eastern england will hold onto some clear

breaks loa n will hold onto some clear breaks loan it to get quite chilly. tomorrow, if you expect cloudy skies, you will not go too far wrong. some spells of sunshine, particularly across eastern england. the thicker cloud towards the north—west producing the odd spot of drizzle, more persistent rain in north—west scotland but a milder day for many of us, quite windy as well. as we head into the start of the new week, brisk winds, particularly on tuesday. it will be wet but mild.

hello, this is bbc news with lu kwesa burak. the headlines... the foreign office warns against all non—essential travel to iran as president trump says he ordered the attack on iran's top military commander to stop a war, not start one. suleimani has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilise the middle east for the last 20 years. what the united

states did yesterday should have been done long ago. funeral processions are under way in baghdad for qassem soleimani and the others killed in the attack. huge dust storms have begun sweeping across parts of south eastern australia — where bushfires have caused thousands of people to flee their homes. temperature records have been broken in canberra and sydney —which experienced 48.9 celsius. labour backbenchers, lisa nandy and jess phillips join the contest to become the party's next leader. now on bbc news, it's time for click. this week, spotting a face, a ticket to space and a drag race. it can

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