this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 4: 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 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. 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 half an hour, the travel show looks at how tokyo is preparing to welcome disabled tourists for the 2020 paralympics. 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." 0thers 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 that 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 it 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. 0ur middle east correspondent, lina sinjab, is following developments in the region — from beirut. iran has a strong influence and presence in the region. certainly in iraq, in syria and here in lebanon, they have lots of allies and they have proxy shia 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 implications 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 interests and that includes the gulf and israel. we don't have any idea about what type of reaction the iranians will do or 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 interests 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 interests and economy as well, so more turmoil in the region will not be serving anyone‘s interests around the world. 0ur north america correspondent, jane 0'brien,

said there were mixed politcal views in the us on the killing of general suleimani. reaction is divided over whether or not president trump has in fact started a major conflict in the region with the action comedy targeted killing of qasem suleimani oi’ targeted killing of qasem suleimani or whether he has in his words stopped a 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 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 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. the uk's former foreign secretary jeremy 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 allies 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 europe didn't support. don't forget europe didn't support america when it launched the invasion of iraq in 2003, it is very wa ry 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 precedent from 2003 and i think this is what has got a lot of people worried here in the states is whether or not by his actions, president trump has pre—empted something that is outside his control, outside his consideration or whether it has in his words prevented another war. we simply at this point don't know. this is the scene in the central iraqi city of karbala, where pilgrims are gathering at the the holy shrine of imam hussain. what we saw earlier was thousands of people, still thousands on the streets carrying the coffins that included the body of the

iranian general qasem suleimani and also the iraqi militia commander. the body of qasem suleimani will be transferred to iran, to his hometown, to be buried and a number of days of mourning. 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. at least 23 people have died since september. from nowra, in 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 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 said they are responding to messages from the police and fire services. others are hosing their cabins, just to be prepared. people say they feel relatively safe but are anxious, they don't know what will happen next and that has been the challenge. these fires are so unpredictable and nobody knows where they will hit next and how hard that will be. kangaroo island is a popular holiday spot, not farfrom adelaide. about a quarter of the total

area has been destroyed. the island houses an important national park and is home to many unique wildlife species. sarah legge, professor of wildlife conservation at the australian national university in canberra, told us more. kangaroo island is one of australia's largest islands, it is the third largest after tasmania and melbourne. it is a wildlife paradise. some of the feral animals never reached kangaroo island. so the density of native species is very high and it has some endemic species and subspecies. these fires have affected the majority of the national park on the island so the western quarter, mostly burnt. a lot of the native wildlife on kangaroo island will be under a lot of pressure. the impact of these fires on the natural resources and wildlife is immense.

there are a couple of threatened species that have been brought to the brink as a consequence of this. there is a little, very small marsupial carnivore that lives on kangaroo island. what is happening here is quite symptomatic of what is happening right across the east and south east coast. it is a massive catastrophe. 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. the wet weather is forecast to continue until sunday — with the possibility of more extreme rains in the coming weeks. the met police have appealed for information, after a man was stabbed

to death in finsbury park, in north london, last night. the victim, who was 30, was on a motorcyle and is understood to have worked as a delivery rider for uber eats and deliveroo. police say he appeared to have been involved in an altercation with the driver of another vehicle. 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. 0ur political correspondent john 0wen 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'll want to present herself as somebody who can offer a fresh break from the current leadership, some new thinking. she will present herself as the new blood possibly labour needs to confront its current dilemma. she will also want to make very clear to the labour membership that she is somebody determined to ta ke that she is somebody determined to take the fight to the conservatives particularly in the north of england. lisa nandy is somebody who will be emphasising the need for labour to regain trust in those so—called labour heartlands, those areas, particularly in the north of england, where labour under perform 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

have been riven by division and they have been a difficult few years for every single activist, councillor and memberof the single activist, councillor and member of the party. i am someone who comes traditionally from the left of the party, i worked with child refugees and homeless teenagers before i came into parliament. i work for a member of parliament. i work for a member of parliament to the left of the party asa parliament to the left of the party as a house caseworker. i see our strength across the party, no one person has the monopoly on wisdom. 0ne slightly odd thing about the way this contest is operating so far is that the two people who are presumed to be out in front as the most likely candidates to succeed jeremy corbyn have not as yet formally declared their intention to stand but we do expect the shallow brexit secretary keir starmer in the shadow business secretary elon bailey, two people considered the front rather than us, to announce their candidacy is in the coming days. 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. more now on our top story — the death of iran's most powerful military leader, major—general qassem soleimani, who was killed by a us airstrike. the un secretary general, antonio guterres, has warned the world can't afford another war in the region — amid fears the latest government offensive, in the syrian province idlib, could lead to another humanitarian catastrophe. more than 235,000 people have been displaced in the past 3 weeks. the syrian regime has been advancing into the

province in stages, pushing up from the south in what appears to be an effort to capture strategic motorways. residents are fleeing north, to the border with turkey and other parts of northern syria. barbara plett usher reports. the bombs have been falling relentlessly. this is a particularly brutal offensive in syria's long war. regime forces backed by russia are pounding the last stronghold of the armed opposition. they insist they are targeting islamist extremists who lead the rebels but making no effort to spare civilians. striking homes, hospitals, markets, women, children. shouting. nine—year—old fatima survived

the bombing of her home. so did her 11—year—old sister who was also trapped in the rubble. rescue workers tried to free her leg but a secondary explosion sent them ducking for cover. eventually they pulled her to safety. the girls' mother died in the attack. a new tide of people has fled the government's advance, emptying towns and villages in southern idlib. many had already been uprooted by fighting in other parts of syria. for some this is the fifth even tenth time on the road. and it is the worst time of year, especially for those who haven't found refuge with relatives. camps near syria's border with turkey are overcrowded, already filled by those displaced from previous regime attacks on idlib. conditions were bad and will probably get worse. translation: we became homeless. we left with the clothes on our back. we can't do anything.

we have no money, no heating, we have nothing. across the border, turkey used to be a refuge for syria's homeless but says it can't afford to take any more. abdul arrived in istanbul more than three years ago. he works for an opposition radio station broadcasting into rebel held areas. his family was among those who fled the intensive bombing. they have found a safe place for now in northern syria. when do you think you will see yourfamily again? never? not for at least ten years, he says. there certainly won't be a quick end to the misery, because the syrian regime has vowed not to stop until it retakes the entire rebel province.

china has sacked the head of its hong kong liaison office, wang zhimin, after almost seven 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 from shanxi province in the north. 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 eight in 2008 to 135 in 2017. earlier i spoke to jamie coleman. he's professor of clinical pharmacology and medical education at the university of birmingham and also chair of the governments 0pioid expert working group.

the report suggest that actually fencing is getting in and being used illicitly mainly i think through the illicitly mainly i think through the illicit channels and being cut with heroin and because of its potency is that potentially opioid abusers might be subject to heroin that is being cut with fentanyl and because of its potency therefore the risk of overdose through respiratory depression and eventually comber is much greater than with heroin alone. but that is i think getting through the illicit market rather than prescription drug diversion. what do you mean by illicit market? as heroine would get in, there are some convoluted online supplies but also where heroin is coming into the country through illicit channels is that actually fencing know is there as well. although it can

be made and certainly in north america where the problem is much greater, there is a problem is much greater, there is a problem where there are people making synthetic opioids such as fe nta nyl in making synthetic opioids such as fenta nyl in illicit making synthetic opioids such as fentanyl in illicit factories to sort of cell onto the black market. because it is 50 times stronger, if it is made illicitly, it is very difficult to control. how do we stop this? 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 that same situation. the committee that i am chairing has been looking mainly at the regulatory framework within prescription opioid use, to try and make sure that is as tightly controlled as it can be. for example, trying to make sure health ca re example, trying to make sure health care professionals are very well educated in the use of

opioids and fe nta nyl is 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, have become addicted to it? are there resources there in the nhs? we have noticed at a national level is that sometimes one of the reasons people do go from prescription drug used to misuses perhaps there isn't that support mechanism there or they don't know where to go. it is about making sure the resources that are available to patients are much better advertised, that health care practitioners and may be carers and patients's families are aware about the signs of potential opioid abuse and that we try to put people into the channels, to try and get people off drugs because actually of course one of the reasons that

people take drugs is because they are very dependent and the people get withdrawal very quickly. that needs to be managed. i'm sure there is more that can be done on the nhs but there is a lot there already and we need to make people much more aware of that. 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. a portrait of the queen and her threeheirs 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 4 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 — 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. so we had a tour in the fire engine which he loved and was saying nee—naw for the rest of the day then. nee-naw. now time for the weather. we have had a lot of dry weather today but some shine have varied. the best of it really has been found across eastern areas. this is how

it looked early on in felixstowe but further west, that was the scene, grey, gloomy conditions here. you can see on the earlier satellite image, a lot of cloud across the west. some breaks across eastern scotla nd west. some breaks across eastern scotland and eastern england and as we go through tonight, you will hold on to some breaks in the cloud for these eastern areas which will allow it to get chilly. this feed of cloud from the atlantic producing the odd spot of rain, slightly heavier rain across the far north of scotland, turning bruce d. temperature is between four and 9 degrees. where we see there is breaks, quite close to freezing. tomorrow, again a lot of cloud around but that will break up a little bit through eastern and southern parts. north—west england may see the odd spot of drizzle, particularly parts of cumbria. similar for particularly parts of cumbria. similarfor northern particularly parts of cumbria. similar for northern ireland western scotland. but eastern scotland not doing too badly for some sunshine. a windy day tomorrow, while the

one as well, particularly across the northern half, 10—i2d. the high pressure that has been with us will retreat into monday to allow the system in. that will bring outbreaks of heavy rain moving eastward through the day. that way and unlikely to get to the south—east until after dark and behind that, western ireland, scotland are seeing something drier. highs of nine — ii degrees, quite windy on monday but when they are still on tuesday as this area of low pressure passes to the north—west. a lot of white lines squeezing together, we are likely to see severe gales across northern areas. 0utbreaks see severe gales across northern areas. 0utbrea ks of see severe gales across northern areas. outbreaks of heavy rain here as well. not as wet or windy the further south and east you look but are the wind gusts. when across parts of scotland, 60—70 mph or more also to the eastern side of the pennines. but look how mild it it will be. 12

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