and i conditions into the night and morning chris because a light went into the east may be a touch of frost but often lets her cloud around through tomorrow, thick enough for the west for a few fleeting showers, much like today more persistent rain threading a northwest highlands, and a strengthening brees. which will keep temperatures up around eight to 12 celsius. a mild run of wins will continue as we go into next week and which is milder and milder. switching from southwest to a southerly wind. you shall were still around in the west, temperatures holding up though but by the end of the night it's a very wet weather pushing into the west of ireland and that will spread east for the day, reaching central and eastern parts of england until late on monday but will see some wet weather at times, same again on tuesday but i tuesday the winds are even stronger, destructive winds potentially to northern and west.

this is bbc news. i'm samantha simmonds. our top stories. as huge crowds take to the streets to bid farewell to iran's general soleimani, a call for a un investigation under international human rights law, it is very unlikely that the killing of mr suleimani was lawful. australia suffers one of the worst bushfire days of the season as temperatures nudge 50 degrees celsius and howling winds fan the flames. this is what the firefighters were dreading, because it fans these blazes, making them unstoppable, but it also spreads those embers, making the fire behaviour quite unpredictable. and china sacks its official in charge of relations with hong kong, six months

and in indonesia, thousands are unable to return to their homes after the worst flooding in a decade. hello and welcome to bbc news. the iraqi military has confirmed that several rockets have landed this in baghdad near the us embassy and at the balad airbase north of the capital. the base houses us forces and the baghdad attacks targeted the green zone and the neighbouring district of jadriya. no group has said it carried out the strikes, but iranian backed militias have mounted similar attacks recently. the news comes as tens of thousands of people have packed the streets of baghdad for the funeral of iran's general, qasem soleimani, and the others killed by a us drone strike. the body of general soleimani will be returned to iran for further funeral ceremonies.

iranian officials have promised "severe revenge" for his death. our middle east correspondent quentin sommerville reports. they came in their thousands to honour qasem soleimani and they called him a hero. to many more in iraq and beyond, he was the region's principal villain. familiar chants rang out, "death to america, death to israel". he served his iranian masters well. its regime has cast him as a proud shia martyr. in death, he has been elevated to the rank of lieutenant general. in iran there were more anti—western protests. president rouhani visited his family and again warned of harsh revenge for the assassination of the general. in iran there were more anti—western protests. he said, the americans are not aware of the big mistake they made. they will face the consequences of their crime, not only today, but also in the coming years.

president donald trump gave the assassination order. he is facing re—election. he was planning a very major attack and we got him. but already doubts are being cast over the reason for the strike and there are fears that the us will cast the middle east into another war. 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 i think if he is going to be effective, there needs to be a more consistent long—term approach. thousands of american soldiers are pouring into the region. other americans have been told to leave. britain and france is advising against travel to most of iraq. the funeral continued to karbala. after iraq, qassem soleimani's body will be flown to tehran and then to his hometown for burial. he did more thanjust serve iran overseas, he was iran overseas.

and in a rare honour, the country's supreme leader will preside over final prayers, mourning the death of his most influential general. quentin somerville, bbc news, beirut. president trump says the us has targeted 52 iranian assets that the us military will strike if iran strikes any americans or american asset. he warned on twitter that targets would be hit very fast and very hard. meanwhile the white house has informed congress, which is required 48 hours after putting us forces into armed conflict. our correspondentjane o'brien has the latest on the reaction in washington. the white house in the last few minutes has said that it will give formal notification of the drone strike to congress, which is required 48 hours after the president has authorised

any thing that could put american soldiers into harm's way, or lead to war. now, there will be a portion of that notification that is expected to detail some of the classified intelligence that led to decision to kill soleimani. it will also lay out the legal justification for that. here, the support for that action is pretty much split down party lines. republicans think it was warranted, it was a very good idea. democrats on the other hand say the president should have consulted them first and that they should have been asked to authorise this in advance. meanwhile, mike pompeo, the secretary of state, has been trying to shore up support overseas. he has been talking to his allies, us allies in the region, including the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu but he said he has been very disappointed with the lack of support from the europeans,

and of course the big question is, what will iran do next and to that end a lot of major cities here in the us have been beefing up their security but they say that there is no specific threat that they are yet aware of. and we'll have more on the assasination of qasem soleimani a bit later on the programme — we'll hearfrom a un official calling for an international investigation into the attack. the premier of new south wales has warned that australia is in uncharted territory, as dozens of out of control bushfires continue to wreak havoc across the country. fire services in the state have warned residents in some areas that it is too late to leave. they have been advised to seek shelter, instead. overnight a 47—year—old man died in the state, bringing the death toll across the country to 24 since september. this all comes as the nation has experienced another day of extreme heat, with many parts reaching close to 50 celsius. the fires are so large that in some areas, they're

creating their own unpredictable and dangerous weather systems. the australian government has deployed 3000 military personnel to help evacuate families trapped in remote towns. shaimaa khalil reports. it promised to be a day of danger and these bushfires have lived up to every emergency warning. the hellish combination of high temperatures, strong winds and dry conditions have made some of these blazes too vast to control. in kangaroo island, a famous holiday destination, a couple died trying to escape the inferno. they were found near their car. in victoria, the blazes continued to rage in the east. evacuees from mallacoota were getting ready to board the navy ship taking them to safety. a moment of relief, after a harrowing few days stranded in the fire—ravaged town. our only option was to go down

to the foreshore and sit it out and at one stage we had 25 fire trucks with us. sorry. the prime minister, scott morrison, has said 3000 reserve troops will be deployed to help tackle the raging bush fires. the first time this has happened in australia's history. but this video he posted on twitter, showing the government's response, accompanied by upbeat music, drew angry criticism. many accusing him of using this catastrophe as a pr opportunity. this gusty wind is now picking up very strongly and it is bringing heavy smoke to southern new south wales, here on the coast. this is what the firefighters are dreading, because it fans these blazes, making them unstoppable, but it also spreads those embers, making the fire behaviour quite unpredictable. the howling winds and billowing smoke were enough of an alarm for people in this holiday park

in this coastal town. some were hosing their cabins. 0thers took to the beach to seek refuge. this woman did not take any chances. she gathered her family, her pets and her son's wheelchair and headed straight to the shore. ijust got a phone call from a friend, whose brother is a police officer and he said, get the hell out. we have just had the police come up our street and said that they expected it to impact our houses in the next 20 to 30 minutes. the authorities have warned that the situation is still volatile and could get worse. a foreboding and now a familiar message to the people in australia. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, on the southern coast of new south wales. in new south wales alone, authorities are dealing with a fireground which spans over 3.3 million hectares. nationwide, bushfires have destroyed almost 5.5 million hectares. to give you some context, that's almost double the size of belgium. let's get more now

from ben shepherd of the rural fire service. this morning will be definitely an opportunity reallyjust to take stock of what occurred with a very dramatic southerly change, which moved across these fire grounds late yesterday afternoon and into the evening. there is no doubt that we have lost some property. there is the potential also, we may have seen further lives lost, so today will be just doing the restock, working out also where we can start pulling some of these fires up. more favourable weather at least for the next few days, albeit it does remain very dry. but start, really, working out where we can actually start containing these fires because we've got a massive effort ahead of us. we are currently dealing with over 3.3 million hectares on these fire grounds alone at the moment, so there is a huge body of work that needs to be undertaken over the coming days and weeks. in terms of what lays ahead, do you hope, are you hopeful that the worst is behind you now? look, what we definitely need here in this state

is rain and lots of it. we need hundreds and hundreds of millimetres of rain, just to try and correct the deficit and take the sting out of this fire season and try and actually make the landscape healthy again, in the fact that it won't hold fire. until that time, we are going to have to keep working on these fires to try and back burn against them, try and bring them under control. at this stage, the bureau isn't forecasting any meaningful rain possibly until even late february. so we have got a hell of a lot of work to do across all these fire grounds before they are really safe. and until such time we actually get that rain, we've got the risk of these fires flaring, jumping past containment lines and threatening further homes. so a huge body of work over the coming days and weeks, until that time we see some meaningful rain. and how are the fire service coping with resources, but also people like yourselves emotionally? this is a job you kind of cannot go to sleep, you can't rest, you

can't stop? it's not only taxing on firefighters, it's also taxing on the community. some of these communities have now been living with fire around them for months on end. so it is incredibly hard. but what we do see in the worst of times is those communities coming together, neighbours helping neighbours, firefighters continuing to throw their hands up to go and assist. we are extraordinarily fortunate here in the rural fire service, that we've got those 70,000 volunteers that continue to roll out to help their local communities and try to tell them to take a stand, or take a rest while there is the risk to the community is really, really hard to do. so until that time, we do get that rain we are going to be on edge a little bit. we are going to continue to see fire spread through this landscape and it's such a huge area now that we are dealing with. let 5 get some of the day 5 other news.

china has sacked the official in charge of relations with hong kong, six months after large—scale anti—beijing protests began in the territory. rumours had been circulating about wang zhimin‘s departure in recent weeks, amid reports that china was dissatisfied with his office's handling of the crisis. mr wang has been replaced by luo huining, formerly communist party leader in the northern province of shaanxi. 14 people have been killed in burkina faso after a bus was hit by a roadside bomb. local media say most of the victims were children. several people are critically injured. the incident took place near toeni in the north—western sourou province on the border with mali. 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. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come:

it used to be an agricultural powerhouse in africa — but two years of drought have left zambia on the verge of famine. nice people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief. after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang calling it a day. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow despite protests and riots from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa. france recognises that it faces an ecological crisis from an oil spill.

authorities had assured these areas that from the burke and sankey would head out to sea. it didn't. the worlds tallest skyscraper opens today, in dubai, easily outstripping its nearest rivals. this is bbc world news, our main story this hour. huge crowds take to the streets in iraq to bid farewell to iran's general soleimani. a top un official has called for an independent investigation into the legality of the us air strike that killed him. more now on that story — the us hasjustified the killing of qaseem soleimani as an act of self—defence with the pentagon saying that it was aimed at deterring "future iranian attack plans". the speaker of the house of representatives has released a statement saying that it pumps urgent questions about the timing,

manner and justification urgent questions about the timing, manner and justification of urgent questions about the timing, manner and justification of the administration's decision to engage in hostilities against iran. dr agnes callamard is the un special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. she gave me her assessment of soliemani's assasination. under international human rights law, it is very unlikely that the killing of mr soleimani was lawful. indeed, the killing of the people around him are, for sure, unlawful. but the key question that i think we need to assess right now is, first of all, whether the united states acted in self—defence. and second, whether we are in the middle of an international armed conflict between iran and the us. in terms of the notion of self—defence, the us so far has argued it was acting, that it had acted against an imminent attack. it has not provided any kind

of details or evidence, so it is difficult to determine whether indeed there was an imminent armed attack against the us and whether the killing of general soleimani was a proportionate response to this imminent attack. so, at this point, me, in particular as an expert, looking at the issue, and i think others, as long as we don't have further information, we cannot make a proper assessment. if the us were found to have violated international law, what do you think should happen next? look, i think it is essential that the question of the lawfulness of the action by the united states, but also of the actions by iran in the weeks that preceded the killing, all of those should be the object of an international investigation. so for me,

the first step is for the un secretary general, orfor the iraq government to demand that an international investigation be put in place to determine the lawfulness of the killing and of other actions. we need to base policy developments within a legal framework. we need to reaffirm, to reassert the primacy of international law and international governance in the way forward. it is also very important for the un not to make itself irrelevant at the moment. it must be playing a central role. in my view, the un secretary—general should be far more bolder than he seems to have been and he should call upon and use article 99 of the un charter to trigger some kind of institutional response to the crisis.

robin wright is a contributing writer to the new yorker magazine, and the author of several books about iran. in her article for the new yorker she described the assassination of general soleimani as tantamount to an act of war. she told me why. if the iranians had attacked or killed the head of the central command which oversees us military operations in the middle east and south asia, the united states would have interpreted it as an act of war and so we need to understand this prism from the perspective of international law and the rules of engagement and warfare. i think there are a lot of questions in washington, particularly, in congress about exactly what precipitated this attack. and also, under what authority the trump administration carried out this assassination. this has a lot to play out, both in the international community and the united states, when it comes to the specifics.

the us has provided very little background on the intelligence, the months of intelligence apparently, that led to the decision to take this very high risk action. there have been some rocket attacks aimed at coalition troops, but haven't harmed any, near bases in baghdad and in balad. in the past few minutes we've heard from president trump, again with another warning to iran, which you have probably seen on twitter, saying that they have targeted 52 iranians sites that it would strike if iran attacks any american or any us asset in response to the us drone strike that killed mr soleimani. what do you anticipate happening next? we are all waiting with baited breath to see what iran's response might be? you are an expert in this area with a great deal of analytical thought into how iran has responded in the past. what do you anticipate could happen next?

well, the number 52 relates to the 52 american hostages that were taken after the embassy were seized in tehran in 1979 and they were held for 444 days. the thing that worries me a great deal is the rhetorical warfare that is played out since this action, and both sides staking claim and making claims about what will happen next. the danger is that this plays out, not overjust days, but weeks, months and there is an escalating cycle. in the past ten days, we have seen, with lightning speed, the two sides ramping up since the death of one contractor. when you think about where we are today, the danger is that we engage in a conflict that is dangerous to western interests, american interests, global interests. notjust in iraq war against iran, but across the middle east and potentially beyond. at least 60 people are now known to have died in indonesia, following heavy rains that started on new years eve. the extreme weather caused

landslides and flash flooding around the capital, jakarta and neighbouring regions. rich preston has this report: the new year rains were some of the worst in nearly a decade. tens of thousands in jakarta worst in nearly a decade. tens of thousands injakarta were worst in nearly a decade. tens of thousands in jakarta were forced from their homes and still are not able to return. roads and bridges we re able to return. roads and bridges were wiped out. locals were forced to use boats and makeshift rafts to get between houses and villages. 0fficials get between houses and villages. officials say more than 10,000 health workers have been deployed. medicines and pacific kits have been distributed amid concerns over a surge in waterborne diseases. many have already sought treatment in makeshift clinics. landslides have made some villages inaccessible. emergency supplies had to be dropped in by air. jakarta regularly floods during the rainy season. but this

week's leading is the worst since 2013, and there are fears that more rain may be yet to come. the government says it. cloud seeding, spraying chemicals from planes to planes to try to prompt rainfall before approaching clowns reach the most populous areas, in the hope of preventing further damage or loss of life. temperatures in parts of southern africa are expected to rise by twice the global average as a result of climate change, and the un is calling for urgent action. in zambia, more than 2 million people are now in need of food aid — as our africa correspondent andrew harding reports. in the fertile hills of zambia, an unfamiliar crisis. unger has arrived here. millions now struggling to feed themselves. in once prosperous communities, women are foraging for wild routes. it is not enough to live on and the signs of

malnutrition are everywhere. when did you last eat? me, almost two days without getting food. there is nowhere to get food. the immediate cause is a crippling two year drought, prompting the lives of local and international aid and warnings. the scales look lie, that some parts of zambia are a step away from famine. but the bigger picture here is even more alarming. there are signs that this is now one of drought, that climate change, climate chaos is to blame, and the rains can no longer be trusted. climate chaos is to blame, and the rains can no longer be trustedm used to start in october, now we see it starting in mid december. this family decide to try planting corn, hoping that more rain will come, but the oxen are as tired as poorly as the oxen are as tired as poorly as the humans. many in this

village are cutting down their trees to make charcoal instead, to sell in town. the rains have changed says robin, so the rains have changed says robin, so instead people are chopping down trees to sell for cash and that will turn this place into a desert. the villagers will die. and so, for now, it is one meal a day for everyone. a bowl of thin porridge, carefully shared. better farming bowl of thin porridge, carefully shared. betterfarming techniques can help families like this to cope with the changing climate, but it is going to be a struggle. andrew harding, bbc news, zambia. a reminder of our top story. huge crowds have joined funeral processions in iraq, for iran's top military commander, killed by a us drone strike. crowds chanted "death to america" as the coffin travelled through iraqi cities.

you can reach me on twitter — i'm @samanthatvnews. thank you for watching. good morning. 0nce good morning. once again there will be some sunny breaks across parts of the country through today. but, for many, it will be a day like yesterday with the odd, fleet —— fleeting light shower in the west with a pre—starting to pick up, signs of something much windier into next week but with my twins into the morning, clearer skies across eastern areas could see a touch of frost. to the west, a fairly mild stop, but we will see some fleeting light showers in the west during the day with no persistent rain in the hebrides, spreading into the highlands, 0rkney and shetland introducing milder weather compared to yesterday with a breeze picking up to yesterday with a breeze picking up elsewhere. for the best of the brakes, east of wales, the midlands, and the north—east of mainland scotland. across the board, temperatures are around 8—12

degrees. some heavy rain to finish the day in the north of scotland. that clears away. 0ther the day in the north of scotland. that clears away. other than some showers in the west most should have a dry and mild night from sunday into monday. the return from any to work after the christmas break but look at what is waiting in the wings. the weather is set to turn very lively as we go into next week. an activejet very lively as we go into next week. an active jet stream flowing across the atlantic and each little dip in the atlantic and each little dip in the jet stream will see subsequent areas of low pressure develop. the first one spreads northwards across iceland as we go through into monday. spreading its weatherfront south and eastwards into the uk and ireland, and with it, strong to gale force winds. it will spreading through much of scotland and ireland during the day, into wales and west in england during the afternoon. across central and eastern england it should stay dry, sunshine at times and bright sunshine to finish ireland with temperatures of around ten celsius once more. heading into

monday night, a more potent area of low pressure arrives from the north. this one much larger as well, so the extent of the stronger winds will be greater. a windy day across the board. the best of any dry weather to the south and east of a few showers here and there but some heavy rain across the north and west of scotla nd heavy rain across the north and west of scotland and at times in northern ireland. we will see the strongest of the winds touching 80 mph in north—west scotland but the winds elsewhere could cause travel disruption and will bring in some exceptionally mild air, peaking at 16 celsius around the moray firth. 15 in northern ireland and the north wales too. it will not feel mild in the winds, though, and those wounds, could be pretty disruptive. stay tuned to the forecast. —— those winds.

this is bbc news, the headlines: huge crowds have joined funeral processions in iraq, for iran's top military commander, killed by a us drone strike. crowds chanted "death to america" as the coffin travelled through iraqi cities on its way back to iran. there are calls for the un to investigate the attack. the premier of new south wales warns that australia is in what she called, "unchartered territory" after the worst night of bushfires since they started two months ago. temperatures have nudged 50 degrees celcius in some parts with winds spreading the fire and making its path even more unpredictable. the death toll from the new year flooding in indonesia hasjumped to 60 with fears growing about the possibility of more torrential rain. tens of thousands in jakarta are still unable to return to their waterlogged homes after some of the worst flooding in years hit the enormous capital region. councils in england have urged the courts to impose biggerfines