this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: extensive search and rescue operations are under way after two powerful earthquakes hit southern turkey and northern syria. almost 3000 people have been killed in turkey and thousands of buildings have collapsed. more than m00 more people died in northern syria. the first quake was felt as far away as lebanon and cyprus. president biden insists relations between washington and beijing haven't been weakened by the shooting down of a suspected chinese spy balloon. and scarred but defiant — sir salman rushdie talks about the brutal attack he suffered on stage last year.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. world leaders have offered help with rescue operations following two huge earthquakes which have devastated parts of southern turkey and northern syria. at least 4,300 people are known to have died. rescuers are racing to save those trapped beneath the rubble. the first earthquake struck in the early hours of monday morning while people were asleep. the epicentre was near the turkish city of gaziantep, which is near the border with syria and measured a magnitude of 7.8. the second earthquake measured 7.5 magnitude and hit 130 kilometres, about 80 miles to the north of the first. millions of people across turkey, syria, lebanon, cyprus and israel felt the earthquake.

freezing temperatures and the closure of airports make getting aid into the area more challenging. years of civil war and political isolation present obstacles to helping syria. 0ur middle east correspondent anna foster is in turkey, and is travelling towards the epicentre of the earthquake, close to the border with syria. she has sent this report. running for their lives. shaken to their foundations, whole buildings fell. and across southern turkey, peace became panic. people helped where they could. this was a series of powerful earthquakes, notjust one. they were only around 20 kilometres under the surface, and shallow quakes cause the most damage. in towns and cities across a huge area, the rescue efforts began. with diggers and sniffer dogs, teams of people began to dig frantically in search of survivors. for decades, turkey has been bracing

itself for a huge quake. tonight everyone is a rescuer, and they all want to find a survivor. it's a painful wait for news. translation: there are people still trapped under rubble. - i have a friend living in this apartment. his children were rescued from the top floor, but only his daughter broke an arm. we'll see what happened to those living on the ground floors. may god give us a speedy recovery. translation: i was sleeping when my wife suddenly - woke me up. the quake was very severe, very scary. it took almost two minutes until the shaking stopped. 0utside turkey, the world stands ready to help. offers to send specialist equipment and teams of experts have been coming in all day. translation: we have received several offers of international - aid for our country. offers of assistance from 45 countries, including nato and the european union,

have reached us. in the city of adana, help arrived quickly. alongside the emergency services, young men fit enough to move the rubble stepped in. you can really see the size of the effort that's going on here on top of this pile of rubble. rescuers are using their bare hands and you can see them throwing down blocks and trying to search desperately for survivors. this used to be a12—storey apartment building just like the one behind it, and so far they've only found three survivors. for families with missing relatives, the wait for news is agony. translation: we all heard | the sound of the earthquake. she has her sister down there under the rubble. translation: it's eight people under there. - three of them are children — my uncle and his wife, their son and their daughter, and three children. translation: there are my sister and her three children underthe building. i also her husband, her- mother and father—in—law are there too.

turkey has dealt with natural disasters before. few are on this scale. as night falls, cities like 0smaniye are without power, in darkness. the few lights there are have been sent to searches that offer the best chance of hope. it's still too early to know the real extent of the destruction here. finding those who are trapped beneath collapsed buildings will take days, if not weeks. the death toll is already many hundreds. the numbers of injured stands in the thousands. it's bitterly cold and the rain keeps falling. the aftermath of this quake is testing rescuers to their limits. anna foster, bbc news, 0smaniye. that's bbc news, 0smaniye. the picture in turkey.

across the border in northern syria, hundreds more people have been killed and thousands are trapped and injured in what is one of the poorest regions of the world. it's been cut off from the international community after years of conflict between the syrian president bassar al ashad's forces and rebel fighters, making rescue efforts even harder. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet, who has reported extensively from syria, has this report. a syrian village which vanished in minutes... ..besnia. its people are all that's left standing — those who survived. so many didn't, all along this area, next to turkey. still now many families are under the rubble. 0ur teams are trying to save them. it is very difficult task for us. we need help, we need the international community to do something. families shaken from their sleep just after 4am by a powerful earthquake whose epicentre is just across the border.

in the dead of night, rescue workers known as white helmets race to help, pulling this young girl from the rubble. this is work they know well. idlib, the last rebel—held enclave, has lived for years with ferocious bombardment by war planes of the syrian military or its russian ally. the few hospitals which still operate here have hardly any resources or staff. now they're overwhelmed. we received hundreds of casualties. really, we need urgent help for the area, especially we are talking about medical help. these patients were already living on the edge, in a war zone, displaced time and again for more than a decade. now, they have been knocked down again. translation: we were sleeping peacefully. -

at liam, we felt a huge earthquake. i woke up my wife and my children and we ran towards the exit door. we opened it, and suddenly all the building collapsed. nature doesn't take sides. areas like hama, under syrian government control, were also hit. they're also worn down by war. here, it's the syrian arab red crescent working with bare hands and also with diggers. translation: everyone will carry on their duties| as needed. we ask for mercy for the victims and speedy recovery for the injured. it is our fate. syria's plight has been thrust into the eyes of the world again. today, it's fighting a different kind of battle. the international community has failed syria for many years. this is an opportunity to try and put that right. this is a moment, i think, to put principles over

politics, to really look at ways they can show solidarity with those on the ground and make sure that syrians, who have been going through over a decade of crisis now, do get the support they so desperately need. long—suffering syrians have felt forgotten by the world. reaching people across this broken country will be hard, but this disaster may make the world care again. lyse doucet, bbc news. i've been speaking to hardin lang, who works at refugees international. syria has faced over a decor code of civil war. i began by asking him how sanctions and political instability affect the situation on the ground. an excellent question. the situation in syria and in north—west syria is acute and chronic, for the last 10 years of conflict has destroyed a great deal of the infrastructure, punished the civilian population.

in north west syria, you have 4 million people already in need of humanitarian assistance, millions displaced from other parts of the country living very close to the line. the only aid that gets into north—west syria comes across the border with the un mechanism, to supply assistance through one border crossing at this stage, those 4 million people already were being massively under resourced. the un appeal was less than 50% in terms of its funding for this year, and those populations are the ones that will be hit the hardest. there are areas controlled by the syrian government that have been extremely hard, probably greater capacity there to respond and the syrian government has a history of brutality, withholding humanitarian assistance but they do have capacity and there are un agencies there to support north—west syria. it is up to organisations like white helmets and civil society groups is the last line of defence in responding to the crisis. one of the issues of getting

supplies into syria are sanctions placed on president basher al—assad, will they remain in place? is there a way of circumventing them? the sanctions do present challenges in the northwest area most of the humanitarian assistance required under the exemptions in place allow humanitarian assistance to get in. same is true in most of syria, when you're looking at early recovery efforts, it's the kind of activities that need to respond, it's more grey, more complicated situation and that's the place where there will be questions about what can be done. more challenging than the sanctions will be the damage to the infrastructure, right now only one or two major roads that aid can travel on to get to north—west syria and those roads have been heavily damaged by the earthquake, the situation will be very challenging indeed. we are talking about people who have

lost their homes, schools and hospitals. syria is a country in which many are already internally displaced, living in tents and refugee camps how does that complicate things? massively, you have a population that is tremendously vulnerable, if you think about what has to happen you need search and rescue and medical assistance to survivors, right now there is very little medical assistance in north—west syria, many hospitals have collapsed and others are under resourced, then have to change people displaced by the crisis and have already millions of people displaced and it is the middle of winter. you are dealing with a perfect storm of a complex crisis with very little capacity to respond, the crucial thing now is getting assistance into the hands of local organisations local civil society, that really are at the coalface of this disaster, question is how the fast can we prove access and open it up to get aid to those who need it.

turkey is situated on or near several fault lines and it is one of the world's most active earthquake zones. many are deadly — one of the worst on record that took place in 1999, killed more than 17,000 people. here's our science editor, rebecca morelle. this is the most powerful earthquake to have hit the region in almost a century. the epicentre was here in the south of turkey close to the city of gaziantep, near the syrian border. it is one of the world's most seismically active region and the reason for that is because turkey sits where three tectonic plates come together. the arabian plate pushes upwards into the eurasian plate, that forces the anatolian plate west, moving about two centimetres every year. where the plates grind past each, other fault lines are created. the north anatolian fault has been where major earthquakes

have happened over the last century, the east anatolian fault — where this struck — has been much less active, and tension has been building up along it until today when it was released in a huge earthquake. what made this particularly deadly is that it struck at a shallow depth. just 11 miles beneath the surface. this is magnitude 7, nearly magnitude 8. this was a big one. this is an earthquake such as we don't get more than about 20—odd every year somewhere in the world, so this was big, and it was also quite shallow. if the rupture is closer to the surface, you get greater shaking of the ground surface than an earthquake of the same energy that happens at a greater depth. so it is a particularly nasty one. this region's all too familiar with these natural disasters. one of the most destructive happened in 1999, in the west of turkey. the magnitude 7.6 earthquake caused monumental damage, and around 18,000 deaths. but this earthquake is even more powerful. the full scale of the devastation is yet to be

determined, but many buildings have been reduced to piles of rubble. turkey does have seismic codes for their buildings, strict codes because of being such an earthquake prone country. the problem is, i mean, old buildings weren't designed with those. newer buildings, sometimes there might be corners cut in some occasions. sometimes it's just that the ground responds in a different way. more earthquakes triggered by the first are now the main concern. this shows dozens that have happened along the fault lines. here is the first earthquake measuring 7.8. an after—shock ten minutes later recorded at 6.7 magnitude. several hours after, this one to the north measured a huge 7.5. almost as powerful as the first. and this is making a desperate situation even more challenging.

stay with us on bbc news. still to come: in his own words — sir salman rushdie gives his first interview since he was stabbed on stage last year. there's mr mandela, mr nelson mandela, a free man taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader, ayatollah khomeini, has said he's passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked - to church to give thanks for the ousting - of their former president baby doc duvalier. - because of his considerable value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure box in the stud farm's central block. shergar was driven away in a horse box the thieves

had brought with them. there stepped down from the plane a figure in mourning, elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories, head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: extensive search and rescue operations are under way after two powerful earthquakes hit southern turkey and northern syria killing at least 4300 people. the first quake measured 7.8 in magnitude and was felt as far away as lebanon and cyprus. the un secretary general has called for an international response. president biden has insisted that relations between washington and beijing have not been weakened by the shooting down of a suspected chinese spy balloon at the weekend.

a spokesperson for the chinese government claimed the aircraft was for civilian use and had drifted off course. it described the us response as an overreaction and a serious violation of international law. earlier, i spoke to our north america correspondent david willis. the white house is keen not to let this latest incident exacerbate still further the tensions between these two nations. president biden was asked by reporters at the white house about the balloon felling at the weekend and he said that it was necessary, but he brushed off suggestions that this would further weaken relations between the us and china. last week, of course, us secretary of state antony blinken abruptly cancelled a planned visit to beijing, that was a meeting that many thought — or a visit that many hoped would basically strengthen relations that had been at the worst for many years — some have described it indeed as a new kind of cold war. but the white house also made the point that that meeting was postponed,

but hasn't been cancelled altogether. it seems that both sides might be looking for some sort of window to draw a line under this balloon incident and for mr blinken to proceed with his meeting with xijinping and others at some stage in the future. of course, much of that will be up to china. and, david, what more have we been learning about the balloon? well, we heard over the weekend that as many as four previous chinese surveillance balloons had been spotted over the united states, three of them during the trump administration. but today, a pentagon official admitted that they had not been spotted in real time, it was only subsequently that the four previous balloons had been identified as such and he called that an "awareness gap".

so how, then, did the pentagon subsequently become aware of the fact that they were surveillance balloons? well, it appears that what happens is that some of those sightings were classified as so—called unexplained phenomena — in other words ufos — and were classified and looked at as such by officials at the pentagon. now they know very well indeed what chinese surveillance balloons look like, and there will be looking out for them in the future. it was revealed over the weekend, also, by the pentagon, that these chinese surveillance balloons have been used to monitor developments in countries across five separate continents. here in the uk, the head

of a prestigious private school in england has been found dead along with her husband and seven—year—old daughter. they were discovered in the grounds of epsom college in surrey in the south—east of england. 45—year—old emma pattison, who is the first woman to have led the school, was found with her husband george and their daughter lettie in the early hours of monday morning. police say they are confident there was no third party involvement. here's our special correspondent lucy manning. the school that she led, where she inspired, has police cars, detectives, and a major crime investigation. emma pattison was the first female head of award—winning epsom college in surrey. she was an example of female leadership, a woman at the top of her career. but yesterday morning, her body — and that of her seven—year—old daughter lettie and her husband — were found. i am absolutely loving my time here so far. in an interview with pupils just two months ago, emma pattison spoke about how much she was enjoying her new role as head. it's been wonderful.

in terms of transition, it has been a really big change for my family. so, we've obviously moved house, we've bought a dog. i have got a newjob, my husband's got a newjob, which wasn't meant to happen but did, and my daughter has started a new school, so there has been a lot of change for us as a family. the school said it was in a state of utter shock and disbelief, and that mrs pattison, as she was known to her pupils here, had enriched the lives of so many throughout her career. her former school, croydon high, where she was also head, described her as a passionate, energetic and inspiring leader, and a dedicated teacher. hello, my name is emma pattison... in the videos from croydon high school, her passion is obvious. 0ur mantra is every girl, every day. her body and that of her child and husband found at a house in epsom college's grounds — blue tarpaulin now in front of it. the head teacher's house in the centre, the school's indoor

rifle range behind it. police have described what's happened as an isolated incident. that means they aren't looking for anyone else. they will give more details soon. the flag flies at half mast. how to help the hundreds of pupils here understand what happened and how they lost their head teacher in the most terrible way? lucy manning, bbc news. elsewhere in the uk, the partner of nicola bulley, who disappeared over ten days ago, has thanked a private underwater search team who have joined the effort to find the as—year—old. she was last seen in st michael's on wyre in lancashire. police believe nicola bulley could have fallen into the river while she was walking her dog. she set off along this stretch of the river on january 27 and was seen by several people before and after 9am.

the acclaimed british novelist sir salman rushdie has spoken for the first time about being stabbed last year. in an interview with the new yorker he said he was lucky and had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. the bbc�*s tim allman reports. battered, scarred, defiant — sir salman rushdie has had to endure more than most. the blacked out lens of his spectacles covering up an eye that can no longer see. but in his first interview since he was attacked, he's trying to be optimistic. you know, i've been better — but considering what happened, i'm not so bad. the big injuries are healed, essentially. the amount of injuries, it was more probable that i would not survive. what happened was a brutal assault as he waited to make a speech at an event in new york state. a man stormed the stage and stabbed the author multiple

times before he was subdued. sir salman spent six weeks in hospital and admits he suffered nightmares and more. there is such a thing as ptsd. one of the things it is is that i have been finding it very, very difficult to write. i sit there to write and nothing happens. i'm not out of that forest yet. a new novel, written before he was attacked, will shortly be published — the aptly titled victory city. despite it all, his will to tell stories goes on. tim allman, bbc news. sir salman rushdie was speaking to the new yorker radio hour. before we go, a reminder of our top story. world leaders have offered to help with rescue operations following two huge earthquakes that have devastated parts of southern turkey and northern syria. at least 4300 people are now known to have died. rescuers are racing to trap those trapped

under the rubble. there is more on our website and the bbc news app. i am on twitter. @richpreston. thank you for watching. hello there. there's a lot of dry weather in store this week across the country, particularly so for england and wales, because high pressure will be dominating the scene, particularly towards the south. lower pressure always trying to flirt with the north of the uk, and at times, it will bring some stronger winds and rain, mainly to scotland. but even here, it will turn drier by the end of the week. now, through tuesday, it's a north—south divide — more cloud in the north, one or two spots of rain, some sunshine for the north and west of scotland. england and wales starting off cold and frosty, some mist and fog patches. 0therwise, plenty of sunshine. temperatures generally ranging from around 6 to 9 celsius. now, as we move through tuesday night, similar story, with southern areas turning cold and frosty under clear skies with mist and fog patches.

a bit more of a breeze, a bit more cloud across scotland and northern ireland, so not quite as cold here as what it'll be further south. so for wednesday morning, it's going to be another cold one to start with across the south. mist and fog could be stubborn to clear in places, but i think eventually it will. plenty of sunshine in the south. a bit more cloud, one or two showers across scotland and northern ireland, the winds starting to pick up here. and by the evening, into the first part of the night, it'll turn very windy, in fact, with winds expected to reach in excess of 70mph in the northwest of scotland. so, the met office have a yellow warning in force for this wind. a band of rain will spread across the country too with the strong winds. barely anything on it when it reaches the south, but we're all into a chillier air mass for thursday. that band of cloud will eventually clear from the south. there could be quite a lot of sunshine, in fact, across england and wales, but further north, certainly for scotland, it's going to be a breezy day with sunshine and wintry showers. temperatures here 3 to 7 degrees, as opposed to 8 and maybe 9 further south, but a chilly feel when you factor in the wind.

but the cold air doesn't last. as we move through friday and certainly into the weekend, we start to see the milder air returning from the west. and high pressure always nearby, so it's going to be largely dry on friday. plenty of sunshine after a cold start for england and wales, further cloud for scotland and northern ireland, one 01’ two showers. but by this point, we will start to see the milder air moving in, so double figures for most. and it stays mild into the weekend as well. with high pressure still nearby, it's going to stay largely dry with sunny spells around. a bit of patchy cloud, but it'll feel milder.

this is bbc news. the headlines: rescue workers in southern turkey and northern syria are working through the night to find survivors of two powerful earthquakes which are now known to have killed at least 4,300 people. many people are spending the night in the open after their houses were destroyed. in turkey alone, nearly 5,000 buildings have been flattened. medical resources are being stretched on both sides of the border. hospitals have little or no power. a un official in syria says the roads used for humanitarian assistance have been damaged, making it hard to send relief. president biden has insisted that relations between washington and beijing have not been weakened by the shooting down of a suspected chinese spy balloon at the weekend. a spokesperson for the chinese government claimed the aircraft was purely for civilian use and had simply drifted off course.