this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: the united states denies it plans to withdraw troops from iraq despite a general‘s letter that appears to suggest it. huge crowds gather in iran to mourn general soleimani. his killing in an american drone strike has raised tensions to boiling point. more hot windy weather to come, as australia's prime minister promises more than $1 billion to fight the bushfires. an indonesian man declared the worst serial rapist in british criminal history has been jailed fora minimum of 30 years. spacex launches new mini—satellites as part of its plans to build a global internet system.

hello. the us defence secretary has denied that us troops are pulling out of iraq, despite a letter from an american general there suggesting a withdrawal. and the highest—ranking us soldier, the chairman of thejoint chiefs of staff, has called the letter a mistake. at the centre of tensions — the killing in an american drone strike of the top iranian commander, qasem souleimani in baghdad. his funeral has attracted huge crowds in tehran. gareth barlow reports. helicopters fly over baghdad as the united states insists its forces will remain in iraq. washington has been forced to deny that this draft letter written by a senior us army general suggests american troops are withdrawing from the country.

in it, the brigadeer general writes: iraqi mps have called on american troops to leave and us government officials acknowledge the letter is genuine, but it says it explains the us is moving troops out of the capital to provide protection elsewhere and isn't withdrawing. the defence secretary mark esper said the letter was inconsistent with us policy. with regard to the letter which i've read once, i can tell you the voracity

of the letter, i can tell you what i read. that letter is inconsistent with where we are right now. the clamour for clarity comes amid the fallout from america's killing of iran's top military commander as he visited the iraqi capital. qasem soleimani was the man on the ground in the middle east. tehran has vowed severe revenge for his death and has withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear accord. tensions are at historic highs and there is little clarity over what is going to happen next. this is the funeral procession honouring the general reaching the final stage. his body is being taken to his home town of kerman. you saw the coffin moving. live now to lebanon and our correspondent, lina sinjab, in beirut.

how is it all looking from there? basically, this is a time of mobilising support among the loyalists, the shia community in the region, and we are now seeing coffins, the body of general soleimani is reaching his home town for burial but this is also time to mark the huge number, influx of people, the flood of people that took to the streets over three days of funeral procession, taking place in his home country, just to show the world that what iran wants to show the world, how defined they are and the solidarity they have got behind them in condemning this is a summation and sending a strong message to the us that they will retaliate and respond. very significant iranian interest where you are in lebanon. iranian

retaliation for the american association by drone is to. what are you hearing about it. basically, the resista nce you hearing about it. basically, the resistance as you say, the resista nce resistance as you say, the resistance community or resistance groups, whether here in lebanon or hezbollah, the shia militias in iraqi. they are all vowing to stand by iran, even to take revenge on behalf of iran. they are also calling for all american troops and persons to be cleared from the region. we've seen the iraqi parliament voting and asking for the american troops to leave but also we've seen response from the united states saying that the cost will be high and they will make iraq pay for the billions of dollars it cost to build american bases in iraq. the threat is beyond. beyond just

american as. even allies in the region beyond. everyone we've talked to her on the street is on alert, thinking the war is coming again into the country, into the region. most of the troubles, recent troubles in the last decade, is caused by iran and soleimani himself is responsible, many see him responsible for the killing of hundreds of civilians in the region stop just hundreds of civilians in the region stopjust a quick hundreds of civilians in the region stop just a quick board, hundreds of civilians in the region stopjust a quick board, a decision by the trump administration to deny iran's foreign minister a visa to visit new york later this week. iran's foreign minister a visa to visit new york later this weeklj think this breach is an agreement

going back to 1947. how significant would you think it was? this is also contradicting and confusing by the us because on the one hand, president donald trump is saying is ready to reconsider negotiations on the nuclear deal, and that's putting his own words but at the same time, it will deny a visa to the us, to the united nations where it any talks on negotiations or efforts for deescalation will take place there so it's really hard to see where the us is pushing this as a pressure tool but of course,, the efforts of negotiations, france, germany and the uk, have announced they are willing to talk. uranium politicians to be in the house of the un to talk

—— the iranian politicians. it's ha rd to —— the iranian politicians. it's hard to see how denying a visa is going to help the situation. we ta ke we take you back to these pick is here, from south—eastern iran. this is the general‘s home town of kerman. the funeral position reaching its final stage. it will be buried in the coming hours. and as we said, there were enormous crowds into a we said, there were enormous crowds intoa run we said, there were enormous crowds into a run and when the coffin moved to the holy kerman. thanks shia city of qom. with australia still battling bushfires and more hot windy weather to come, prime minister scott morrison has promised more than a billion dollars to aid recovery. he has been heavily criticised for his response to the disaster. last week, he had to cut short a visit to the town of cobargo when angry local people shouted abuse at him. the bbc‘s clive myrie is there and has been speaking

to a volunteer who has been trying to tame the fires. since a huge fireball ripped through this town back on new year's eve, there has been very little outside help that has come to the people here. there are local food shortages, people have to get stuff in, water problems is one and there is no power. look at the south behind me. completely destroyed by that fireball. an irony of ironies. right over there it is extra to the local fire station. but it is the random nature of the damage that is frankly bizarre. look at this house here, completely untouched. you wouldn't think anything had happened, and yet right next door the neighbour parliament house, two houses in fact completely destroyed. well, while the government has received a lot of witticisms for its handling of the crisis, the firefighters, the men and women who have been tackling these blazes, they have received universal praise. we have been to talk to one of them, a volunteer firefighter who put his life on the line. some of these fires arejust too big now. all we can do is just keep protecting homes as best we can,

keep protecting life as best we can without losing our own lives at the same time. i've been keeping my gear here with me... tristan lees has been a volunteer firefighter for more than two decades. so, yeah, these are it. . .jacket, pants. this has seen a lot of service this bushfire season? this has. self—sacrifice runs in the family. his late father, as well as mother and brother, also served. the current crisis, the sternest test. terrible. in 21 years i've been in, i've never seen it this bad. it'sjust phenomenal. yeah, i don't know what else to call it, to be quite honest. and there's a guilt... ooh, there it goes. ..for not always being able to help when needed. he has a dayjob that pays the bills. what are you going to do? lose your own home, lose your family, because you can't pay for anything? you can't pay your bills? or go to work and then sit at work feeling guilty because you're not out helping the rest

of your firefighters? it tears you apart, because you want to be in two places, but you can't. ah, yes. you remember seeing that one? yes, i do remember seeing that one. yes, ‘cause that truck actually got destroyed. the video we watched captures the horror of trying to tame a wild fire. put your blanket up. the men are trapped in their cab. all survived. but this hot season, volunteer firemen have died and the fires still burn. it's gut—wrenching. it rips you apart knowing there's two good people gone, they've left family and friends behind. it's... and it makes you fear even more, because you know what you're going into. it's like they said — people, they call us crazy, it's true. everyone runs away from it, we're the ones who run into it. and we don't do it for the love of it, we do it because no—one else will.

that is a remarkable band of volunteer firefighters. talking to one of the residents here a few minutes ago. they said, while are not getting any outside help, they will stay here, they will rebuild for their children to live in. let's get some of the day's other news. forces loyal to libyan warlord, general khalifa haftar, are saying they've taken control of the city of sirte, which had been held by the internationally—recognised government, backed by the united nations. they're trying to capture the capital, tripoli, and oust the government. turkey's parliament has voted to send troops to libya, starting sunday, to support the government. the government in tokyo is saying it may request the extradition of former nissan boss carlos ghosn, who skipped bail injapan. he fled to his childhood home of lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" japanese justice system. he was awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct. donald trump's former national security adviser, john bolton, has declared

he is willing to testify at the president's impeachment trial in the senate — if he is summoned by a subpoena. he has previously followed white house directives not to co—operate with the inquiry, which is led by the democrats. john bolton would be the most senior former trump adviser to testify. britain's most prolific rapist has been sentenced to life in prison. ray—nard sin—aaga was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting 48 different men at his apartment in manchester over more than a decade. when police discovered that he also videoed his attacks, they found evidence of many more victims. this report byjudith moritz contains material you may find disturbing. this is reynhard sinaga as he wanted the world to see him. his social media account's full of grinning photos of a student having fun. but sinaga has many faces, and behind the mask lies the truth — a depraved monster, said by prosecutors to be one of the most prolific rapists in the world. the total number of offences

that we've prosecuted is almost 160, over 48 victims. as far as thejudicial process, probably anywhere in the world is concerned, he's probably the most prolific rapist that's come through the courts. in the world? i would say in the world. certainly in the british courts. night after night, sinaga would leave his manchester flat to go and find victims. he took advantage of living in the city centre, amongst the nightclubs and bars, and he made the streets outside them his hunting ground. sinaga would often wait for drunk men to come stumbling out of this nightclub, and then entice them around the corner to his flat, which is just next door. he'd offer them somewhere to have a drink or phone a taxi. on one occasion, it took him just 60 seconds to pick up a victim. nearly 200 mostly heterosexual men made thisjourney, disappearing inside sinaga's apartment block. then they'd be offered drinks spiked with a drug like ghb, and that was the last they'd remember. unconscious, the men were raped on this grubby mattress on the floor. when they woke up, they had no memory of what had happened. sinaga would text his friends, boasting of sexual conquests. they thought he was joking when he quoted song lyrics

about using a secret potion of which "one drop should be enough". but in fact, the drug wore off early on one man who woke up whilst being raped. he fought back. and when the police were called, they seized sinaga's phone. they couldn't believe what they saw on it. the rapist had filmed each of his attacks. they found hundreds of hours of video. this is an absolutely unprecedented case. looking at that amount of evidence is challenging in itself. that's equivalent to 1,500 dvd films. we believe there's over 190 victims that have been involved with sinaga, with reynhard sinaga, and 70 of them are still to be identified approximately. the men who were traced were given support at this centre in manchester, help to cope with the trauma of being told they were the victims of rapes they can't remember. reynhard sinaga has shown no remorse. the judge remarked that he seemed to be enjoying being

he came to the uk from indonesia on a student visa and is said to have applied for permanent residency. but his victims have said they hope he never leaves prison and rots in hell. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the latest must—have gadgets currently on show at the ces in las vegas. the japanese 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 are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying

to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. welcome back. good to have you with us. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: the united states has denied it plans to withdraw troops from iraq despite a general‘s letter that appears to suggest it. huge crowds have gathered in iran to mourn general soleimani. his killing in an american drone strike has raised tensions to boiling point. harvey weinstein has gone on trial in new york charged with rape and sexual assault more than two years after allegations against him were made public.

the trial relates to just two women, but 80 women have accused the former hollywood producer of sexual misconduct. he denies all charges. our north america correspondent nick bryant reports. it's awards season in hollywood. in the world he used to dominate, he'd be wearing a tuxedo and strutting the red carpet. but the swagger is long gone. he walks now with the help of a frame. harvey weinstein cut a feeble figure as he arrived for his trial in new york. just watching him enter a courthouse provided a moment of catharsis for some of his female accusers. the women who spoke out, the women who sparked a global movement, the women who won't get their day in court because the law places time limits on when past allegations can be prosecuted. dear harvey, no matter what lies you tell yourself, you did this. today, ladyjustice is staring down

a super predator — you. you thought you could terrorise me and others into silence. you were wrong. we rose from your ashes. time's up on sexual harassment in all workplaces. time's up on blaming survivors. time's up on empty apologies without consequences. and time's up on the pervasive culture of silence. the movie mogul has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. but tonight, he was indicted on new six crimes charges in los angeles involving a further two women. mr weinstein again has the right to a fair trial, and we're going to continue to press on and remind everyone that, in this great country, you are innocent until proven guilty. this feels much more momentous than the trial ofjust one man. it's a culminating moment in the global #metoo movement.

a milestone event that will be watched by women and men all across the world. nick bryant, bbc news, new york. let's ta ke let's take you back to south—eastern iran. this is where the funeral procession general soleimani reaching its final stage. his body has just arrived in the city and he will be buried here in the coming hours. all this is part of the fallout from the american drone assassination of the general. us defence secretary has had to troops pulling out of iraq despite a letter suggesting a withdrawal. in the past hour, the trump administration has denied a foreign visa to visit new york. the us company spacex has launched another 60 mini satellites into orbit, part of its plans to build a giant constellation of thousands of spacecraft that will form a global

broadband internet system. the satellites were launched on a falcon 9 rocket from cape canaveral in florida. eric berger, senior space editor for online magazine ars technica, spoke to me at the start of the launch. it start of the launch. is pretty impressive. there are 60 satellites packed on top of that rocket, and in about an hour's time they are going to be deployed and then we will have a basis of an internet constellation in space later this year. it is just it isjust going up now, of course. we should stay with that for a moment, that brings the total number of satellites, part of its starlink network to just under 180 but the company says that figure could one day total 42,000. resulting of course in much more crowded skies. i think there are concerns, aren't there, this could in many ways threaten our view of the cosmos, not improve it? there are several concerns, to be sure, mike. one is that astronomers looking up the night sky see these trains

of satellites, they launch in batches of 60 and they go along in the sky one after the other, and that does disrupt the sky at certain points when you have these powerful telescopes looking up. another concern is that as you put more satellites in space, you have more chance of collision, which is another big concern. and the communication we are talking about could surely be done just as well from the ground? well, some of it could, but private companies have found it to be the case in a lot of places around the world to not wire up broadband, certainly there are a lot of places in the world where you can't get high—speed internet access and if you get a global network like this from space, theoretically you could get coverage from anywhere in the world and at high speed and no latency. without being too much of a promo for spacex, give us an idea of how far ahead they are here? way ahead in fact of the competitors. they are the second company to get satellites into space that can provide internet. oneweb was first, it launches six sattelites last year, but now this is the third launch

that spacex has done, and obviously they are putting more satellites up at a time, they are putting up 60 at a time, and the other big advantage is they have got this falcon 9 rocket which we're just launching now, and they are the only company in the world where that rocket comes back and lands and then a few months later they can fly it again. all in all, do you welcome it or are you tending more towards your concerns? i am actually an astronomer by training, so it is a little bit disturbing to me to think about polluting the night sky like this, but i think this is the price of progress. if it is not spacex doing this, it is going to bejeff bezos and amazon, it's going to be oneweb, there are also several other companies that are trying to do it. so, this is going to happen. the question is — can we make it happen with the least amount of disruption in the night sky and safety of space situational awareness. from a non—expert point of view, i'm sure a lot of people are going to look at that figure, 42,000 that they expect to have up there eventually, and think there must be a big danger of collisions. how much does that matter? well, that is a big danger. the good news about this

is that the satellites are going to be in low orbit, so over time, they will all eventually fall back to the earth, so they are not going to put up 42,000 at a time most likely, and over time, satellites will fall back into earth's atmosphere and burn up. it's not like they're putting them up there and they are going to stay for thousands and thousands of years. how much tech can you take? thousands of new products are being launched and demoed at the giant ces expo in las vegas this week. everything from artificial intelligence, 5g, 8k, surveillance tech and robotics are set to be among this year's buzzwords. we start with the latest in tv tech. lara lewington from the bbc‘s click programme has more. the edges on this tv are so thin, it's been described as almost bevelless. in fact, 99% of what you are looking at there is just screen. so, these tvs are due to be released in a few months time. i know there hasn't been oppressed but on them yet, but no doubt it is going to be pretty high. why would people be so desperate to have a tv with a bevel so small?

consumers have been asking us for bigger and bigger tvs, and that's what we've been offering, and now we are removing that black bevel around the tv so the image goes all the way up to the very edge, giving you an amazing, immersive experience. but is there not a bit of a risk that with the tvs having less protection of the edges, that people could bump into them and cause some damage? most people hang their tvs on the wall, and if they don't do it, they put it on one of our stands and they are quite well protected. but if you are struggling to understand why anybody would actually care that the frame is a little bit smaller, then at least this one has something very different about it. this tv not only works horizontally like a normal tv, but also, vertically. take a look at this. it can mirror a smartphone and that doesn't need to be a samsung device, it is also compatible with apple. the idea is that some people are consuming so much content online on social media, they may actually want it to be represented on the screens they use

in their homes. still think it's better the old way. that is it. thank you for watching. hello. we've got multiple areas of low pressure to deal with across the uk in the coming days. monday's rain has cleared away, but waiting in the wings is our next system pushing in from off the atlantic, this one likely to bring some disruption across parts of scotland and northern england, given the strength of the wind and also some heavy rain. that's only part of the story, though, because we are also pulling up some very mild air. temperatures quite widely in the mid—teens, maybe even higher to the east of higher ground. but it's the strength of the wind that we're concerned about through tuesday. severe gales across scotland and northern england, we have a met office yellow warning in place, some disruption is possible. and with the wind also comes some heavy rain, particularly across scotland, likely to linger through much of the day. easing from northern ireland through the afternoon, some of that rain getting into northern england, north wales, maybe into south—west

england through the afternoon. further south and east things stay mainly dry if rather cloudy. a few brighter skies through the eastern side of england through the morning. but some very windy conditions through tuesday, particularly across scotland, gusts 60—70mph, maybe 75 for some northern and western coasts, but very mild particularly to the east of higher ground. strong and gusty winds across northern england and north wales too, 30—40mph gusts across much of central southern england and into wales, the strongest winds really are across northern england and scotland, but likely to bring some disruption. as we go through tuesday evening, we keep those strong winds across scotland, starting to ease further south, we have got a band of cloud and rain just sliding its way southwards across england and wales, that rain becoming increasingly patchy. but wintry showers starting to develop across scotland and quite a range in temperature come first thing wednesday morning. very mild across central southern england and wales, but turning much colder further north. there's still some strong winds across scotland as we go into wednesday, keeping an eye on this system here, pushing some rain into

south—west england later in the day on wednesday. but most of us will see some sunshine around on wednesday. legacy of cloud clearing from southern england through wednesday morning, wintry showers piling into scotland, and then through wednesday afternoon we start to see cloud and rain starting to nudge into wales and south—west england. still in some fairly mild air across central southern england and into wales, double figures here, but much colder further north again with those wintry showers across scotland. thursday is a very messy day, most of us will see some spells of rain, still some wintry showers across scotland. that will ease away and briefly on friday, this ridge of high pressure building, bringing quieter, drier days. so for the end of the week, further rain, particularly on thursday, the winds easing, then drier and colder on friday.

nine this is bbc news, the headlines: the us government has denied that american troops will be pulled out of iraq, as demanded by iraq's parliament and suggested in a letter from an american general there, just made public. the pentagon says the letter is a mistake. tensions have been raised by the assassination, in an american drone strike, of the iranian general, qasim soleimani. the funeral procession honouring general soleimani is reaching its final stage, as his body is taken to his hometown of kerman in south—eastern iran, where he will be buried in the coming hours. earlier, the coffin moved from tehran to the shia holy city of qom. with australia still battling bushfires and more hot windy weather to come, prime minister scott morrison has promised more than $1 billion to aid recovery. he has been heavily criticised for his response to the disaster.