welcome to bbc news, i'm lisa—marie misztak. our top stories... one week on — the death toll from the earthquakes in turkey and syria reaches 37,000, and that number is expected to double. everything we had was here. even my children are crying now, they are saying, "mum, everything is gone." "0ur childhood is gone." we'll report from a hospital in southern turkey where staff are overwhelmed by the scale of the tragedy. the us defends its decision to shoot down unidentified flying objects. washington and beijing accuse each other of aerial espionage. we were able to determine that china has a high altitude balloon programme for intelligence collection that is connected to peoples' liberation army.

iam i am homosexual and iam homosexual and i no i am homosexual and i no longer want to hide myself. and the czech starjakubjankto becomes the first international player in men's football to come out as gay. hello and welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. seven days after the devastating earthquakes hit, turkish rescue workers say some survivors are still being pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings. but the number of confirmed deaths has now risen above 37,000 and it's feared the final total could be much higher. united nations officials say the relief effort is now being focused on caring for the homeless. 0ur chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, is close to the epicentre of the earthquake in southern turkey.

0nce just an ordinary street, until last monday. 4:17am, everything shook, the strongest earthquake in a century. smashing life as they knew it... ..into pieces. almost nothing left. almost. here, waiting on garden chairs in front row seats, a street turned into a cemetery. their loved ones buried somewhere in this rubble. the scenes are absolutely breathtaking, but it's also

what we can't convey. it's the dust and the stench, the stench of death, so many bodies buried under the rubble. translation: right now, | they are pulling a body out. it might be my brother, or it might be someone else. they are pulling the body out and we will identify it. fouad waits for the bodies of everyone in his family who lived here, a0 people in all. did you ever fear that you'd see a day like this? one week on, the body bags keep coming out, each time killing a family's prayer their loved one was still alive.

the un's top aid official praised this rescue effort. more than 100 countries sent to help. but there is concern over what's yet to come. the greatest fear now is when that awful day comes when we learn how many people really died. the speculation, as you know, is frightening. and just to think that under those mountains of rubble there could be these many, many people who are now dead. so many are asking, "did so many have to die?" turkey's president erdogan says they couldn't prepare for a calamity like this. but this woman insists her sister could have been saved. translation: only one politician came here - and showed his face. where are the rest? i've been here since the first day. i dug people out with my bare hands. builders are being blamed too.

some structures collapsed and others didn't. translation: our faith says this life is a test. _ we believe there are lessons here for everyone. god willing, we will be stronger after this. one week on, the hope of finding anyone alive here has all but faded. and yet so many we meet not just hope, they believe their loved ones are still alive somewhere under this rubble. present erdogan is promising everyone a new home within a year. that's optimistic. it is the memory of everyone and everything that was here that will live on in those who survived. now is a time to grieve. but as this rescue turns to relief, there will also be a reckoning for this wrecking of so many lives.

lyse doucet, bbc news, kahramanmaras. over the border in syria, the country's president, bashar al—assad, has agreed to two new corridors to allow aid from the united nations into his country from turkey. the move follows an emergency meeting between the un and the syrian government to discuss ways to boost aid to the country, already devastated by years of civil war. 0ur correspondent laura bicker reports from antakya close to the syrian border. there is a moment of disbelief at seeing light. and then comes the smile. the joy of knowing he is free after 50 hours in crushing concrete. god is great, the crowd chants as they celebrate saving three—year—old karam in idlib last week. his father shielded him from the rubble but there are so few

rescuers on the ground in syria and both felt helpless as his mother and sister fell silent, and died next to them. translation: after a while my wife stopped talking. i was kneeling over my son and the rubble was up to my legs. it was all taking too long. the focus is now on keeping the living alive. survivors have little choice but to find whatever shelter they can within the fallen buildings. translation: we now live on the streets. - we stay there and when we feel we are falling asleep we get in a car that we covered. that is where we sleep. aid is being promised, but not fully delivered. after leaving turkey, the united nations aid chief, martin griffiths toured aleppo in syria and said help is coming.

but the un has defined new routes over the border if it is to meet the mounting needs of millions. this hospital in northern syria, filmed by bbc arabic has had to carry out multiple amputations on children with very little equipment. more than 3.5 million syrians came to turkey to escape the horrors of war and they hoped this would be a safe home. and although this camp is getting some help from the uk charity, refugees, key supplies are still short. after a decade of trying to lift themselves out of grinding poverty, these families are having to start again. it is a daily struggle, she tells me. if i am working, we are eating. if not, we are dependent on the charity of random people. life has become expensive and the dignity of those who have had to leave their homes has been

affected and our people have been decimated. as dusk brings freezing temperatures, these families can only hope that dawn will bring them the strength to build them their lives again. laura bicker, bbc news on the turkey syria border. the united states has admitted it still doesn't know the origin or purpose of the three aerial objects it shot down in recent days. officials say the objects posed a threat to commercial flights and were brought down in the interest of safety. following a wave of speculation on social media and elsewhere, the white house said there was no evidence of alien or extra—terrestrial life being involved. national security spokesperson john kirby says that an earlier device — a balloon shot down off south carolina nine days ago — was part of a chinese high altitude programme for intelligence gathering. we were able to determine that china has a high altitude balloon programme for intelligence collection

that is connected to the people's liberation army. it was operating during the previous administration but they did not detect it. we detected it. we tracked it. and we have been carefully studying it to learn as much again. we know that these prc surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners. mark montgomery is a senior director at the foundation for defence of democracies, and a former us navy rear admiral. he previously served on the us national security council, serving as director for transnational threats. thank for transnational threats. you forjoining us. we just thank you forjoining us. we just heard john kirby saying china allegedly has a high altitude balloon programme for intelligence collection but

what more is known about this programme?— what more is known about this roaramme? ~ . ~' ,, , programme? well, thank you very much for having _ programme? well, thank you very much for having me, _ programme? well, thank you very much for having me, lisa - programme? well, thank you very much for having me, lisa marie, l much for having me, lisa marie, and admirable kirby is right, the chinese do have a comprehensive surveillance programme that includes satellites, listening stations, and balloons, both high altitude balloons and some that are not in the stratosphere, as we have seen over the last few days. and i think what we have seen is that they fairly brazenly operated these around the world, as we have gone back and look through radar data, we have been able to re—examine things and we have an understanding that they have probably flown over a0 plus countries across almost every continent and they have done this in a way that violates their territorial integrity of almost every country involved. now, you have mentioned there you have gone back over some data and there is potential they could have been around a0 of these objects but why is it just a case of finding more

stuff now? has it always been there? ~ , stuff now? has it always been there? 3, ,, . ., stuff now? has it always been there? 3, , ., there? my suspicion is that these balloons _ there? my suspicion is that these balloons have - there? my suspicion is that these balloons have been l there? my suspicion is that l these balloons have been up there? my suspicion is that - these balloons have been up for a number, first, they have been flying for decades but in this very specific programme, four orfive years. this has very specific programme, four or five years. this has exposed a weakness in ours and some of our allies and partners ability to do comprehensive, you know, air picture surveillance, understanding all the different types of objects that are out there operating at different speeds. we tend to align our systems so they are looking for things moving greater than a miles an hourand things moving greater than a miles an hour and these balloons are in the jet stream going less than that so they are low cross section radar devices and going at a low speed, our radar systems and other systems were not optimised for detection but we are now doing that optimisation

and have not more clarity, so i don't think balloons are —— there are more balloons this month this week but i think more balloons are being detected. more balloons are being detected-— more balloons are being detected. some might be surprised _ detected. some might be surprised as _ detected. some might be surprised as their - detected. some might be surprised as their big - detected. some might be i surprised as their big powers such as china and so on have all this myself like technology, why the need of balloons? why would these objects be used instead? fix, objects be used instead? couple of reasons for that. and there is reason to believe that your satellites are good enough, we, the united states and our allies and partners, tend to allow their satellites predominantly for our collection. i think the chinese have been experimenting with different digital collection, electro— optical devices, different listening devices, and they probably are, ironically, creating some kind of meteorological data so they have a better understanding of how weapon systems perform different outages as such, so i think there is a litany of issues that you can collect

from. i think when we get the readout from what was on the first balloon, the larger balloon that was shutdown off the coast of south carolina, i think we are going to get a pretty good indication of what type of sensors were on board that chinese balloon and that will tell us a lot about their programme. will tell us a lot about their programme-— will tell us a lot about their rouramme. ~ ., programme. mark montgomerie, thank ou programme. mark montgomerie, thank you for— programme. mark montgomerie, thank you for your _ programme. mark montgomerie, thank you for your insights. - thank you for your insights. thank you. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... we hearfrom campaigners fighting to protect the northern irish water supply threatened by a huge illegal waste site nearby. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan the last soviet troops were finally coming home. the withdrawal completed in good order but the army defeated in the task it was sent to perform. malcolm has been murdered. that has a terrible effect for the morale of the people. i'm terrified of the reprecussions in the streets. one wonders who is next.

explosions. as the airlift got under way there was no let—up in the erruption itself. lava streams from a vent in the sea to the east of the island, away for the time being. it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded the next generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they called it mir — russian for peace. this is bbc news — the latest headlines... one week on after the devastating earthquake hit turkey and syria, 37,000 are known to have been killed. the un warns the number is expected to double.

the scale of the disaster in turkey has placed unprecedented pressure on the country's healthcare system which is now relying on assistance from the international community. our correspondent, nick beake, reports from the south east of the country close to the epicentre, where hospital staff are under huge strain. in the heart of a devastated city... ..we meet little arras. he is five. he was pulled from the rubble with hypothermia, after 105 hours. his older brother, older sister and his dad were all killed in the earthquake. his grandfather, mehmet, says he will now treat arras like his own son. translation: he is an honest boy. he has a strong personality. he is not spoilt, he is sincere.

the rescuers and the doctors did so well to save him and, by god's grace, they gave him back to us alive. arras's mum survived and is being treated in another hospital but this is one of so many families torn apart. translation: we are burning inside, just. like everyone else. i don't need to tell you about the pain of losing three of my family. for the medics at the heart of all of this it has been an exhausting and traumatic week. it is very bad. and too much of the childs have lost their parents. so i don't know, it's very hard. yeah. it's too hard for me. arras was saved in this intensive care unit,

set up by doctors from israel, one of so many countries who sent teams to help the tens of thousands of injured. some of the patients we have seen today are now starting on the really long road to recovery, but for all of them, there are also the mental scars. there is the personal trauma but also the collective national trauma, too. and an international effort to support turkey is gaining momentum. doctors and nurses from the uk are now setting up a field hospital in turkoglu, where the town's hospital is no longer safe for patients. we are working with the turkish doctors and nurses that are here, set up their own tent and they are seeing patients but they are quite overwhelmed because after all the trauma you then have all the people who have their usual chronic illnesses, they are falling off their bikes still or they are doing things,

they are still becoming unwell. and it is both young and old in desperate need. now and in the days and weeks to come. nick beake, bbc news, in southern turkey. cylcone gabrielle has battered new zealand, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power. a state of emergency has now been declared in five regions on the country's north island. richard galpin reports. cyclone gabrielle has battered much of the north island, including the most popular city of auckland. the authorities say tens of thousands of people have lost power. fearing the worst, many here have been going to the shops to stockpile food and water, leaving the shelves empty. we are seeing the impact of the cyclone across the top of the north island.

as at 1.30 today, around a6,000 customers have lost their power. as a result, a major operation is now under way to ensure people are safe. civil defence centres and shelters have been set up across the top of the north island, and are ready to use in case people have to evacuate. i can't stress enough that please have a plan to leave your home if you see water levels rising around you, or if you are worried about land stability around your property. don't wait to be told to leave. this cyclone, which is now expected to get more powerful, comes just a couple of weeks after very heavy rainfall also hit the island. the weather pattern in this region is becoming increasingly worrying for all those affected. richard galpin, bbc news. it's being described as one of the worst environmental crimes in uk history — for years, an estimated million tonnes of household waste

was secretly put into landfill at a site in northern ireland near londonderry, despite councils sending it to be recycled. now campaigners are fighting to protect derry�*s water supply from being damaged by toxic chemicals. our ireland correspondent emma vardy reports. in the 19905 and 20005, criminal gangs, in the guise of a reputable waste disposal company, were bringing household recycling here. but instead of being recycled, it was put into landfill. what we have got is one of the biggest illegal landfills in europe. it covers the scale of about a6 football pitches. in 2013, the mobuoy site near derry was shut down. now, a decade on, two men are due to be sentenced for illegal dumping. i've lived here about 40 years. i was horrified that this had been allowed to happen because i believed that my public services were looking after my environment and looking after my water

and looking after me and that is why i was paying my taxes. now a radio a podcast has featured the tape of a lorry driver who, on his deathbed, tried to blow the whistle. that was going on for month| after month, year after year. and it claims that belfast�*s officials knew of a possible crime taking place here more than a decade before it was shut down. we have to look at the serious, systemic failures of both our planning and environmental regulators because for years now our regulatory authorities turned a blind eye. the waste on this site is currently being contained to stop it polluting the local river but it is not a permanent solution and people who live nearby are still waiting to hear what is actually going to be done about this long—term. particularly as the city's water supply is extracted just downstream. the environment agency says it has stopped 561 illegal waste sites in the uk last year and the perpetrators are often involved in other

crimes, like drug dealing. the former minister who helped deal with the aftermath at mobuoy says it is still too easy for the crime to be repeated. it is an extremely lucrative industry and wherever there is huge money to be made, you will find crime. the waste industry was, in my opinion, infiltrated by organised crime here in the north of ireland as it has been elsewhere across the world. it is difficult to believe that that tap could just be turned off overnight. the department of infrastructure in northern ireland says they have strengthened their environmental checks and train more officers to deal with this type of problem, and that if they detect an effect on tap waterfor people in derry, they will stop using the water supply near the dump. emma vardy, bbc news, derry. the czech footballer jakubjankto has become the first international player in the men's game to come out as gay.

in a video posted on twitter, he said he no longer wanted to hide himself and hoped his coming out would encourage others. players from around the world have expressed their support. the bbc�*s tim allman has the story. hi, i'mjakubjankto. i'm like everybody else. i have my strengths. i have my weaknesses. he's been playing professional football for nearly ten years. in that time, he suffered plenty of defeats. he celebrated his share of victories. now, jakubjankto is taking on a whole new challenge off the pitch. i'm homosexual, and i no longer want to hide myself. the czech international, who plays for sparta prague, says he wants to encourage others. not easy in a sport where homophobia has long been an issue. but as soon as he made his announcement, other players gave him their backing. translation: | think - everyone is free and i have

no problem with that. i have no prejudice. and all forms of discrimination, homophobia, racism need to be reduced in all areas. i think everyone should feel free and be able to do what they want to do. there's something personal that i need to share with everyone. i'm a footballer and i'm gay. jakub is not the only top flight footballer to come out. last october, josh cavallo, who plays for the australian team adelaide united, did the same. one by one, these young men hope to change minds and change the game they love. they are amongst the first, but they're unlikely to be the last. tim altman, bbc news. a reminder of our top story, one week after the devastating earthquake hit turkey and syria, 37,000 are known to have

been killed. the un say the number is expected to double. that's all on the programme, thank you forjoining us. hello. a valentine's day of wardrobe dilemmas on the way for some of you. frosty in places, a foggy start, but by the afternoon spring—like warmth, 16, 17 degrees possible in northwest wales, well above the eight degree average for this stage in the month, but not quite as warm as our warmest valentine's day recorded in 1998. so why the warmth? well, we're on the western side of this massive area of high pressure, keeping things dry across much of europe because on the western side, we've got a southerly wind developing. but before that really gets going, most notably in western areas where temperatures above freezing, elsewhere, a frosty start to the day, minus four, minus five in one or two spots, and some dense patches of fog, particularly across central, eastern, and southern parts of england and southeast wales. that fog could actually develop a bit through the morning rush hour, for some lingering until we get to lunchtime. but a lot of sunshine to come for many.

a bit more cloud in western wales, north west england, the odd splash of rain. always cloudier though, western scotland, northern ireland, with more of a breeze here, again some rain or drizzle at times. still a lot of dry weather and bright weather but look at the temperatures, 13 degrees moray firth, 15, 16 north devon, up to 16 and 17 northwest wales. but it's across western areas, particularly northern ireland, scotland, watch for the sunset in the evening. southerly winds ahead of this weather front will bring some saharan dust to the skies. as i said, northern ireland and western scotland could be treated to the best of the sunset. but it will be replaced by rain as we go through the night, rain spreading its way and dropping some of that dust onto the cars for the morning. it's not going to reach eastern areas so we'll stay clear here. still a chance of frost, but not as cold as the night we have at the moment. and that's because there'll be more of a breeze. not as much fog around, but a bright start, sunny start in eastern areas. western areas starts cloudy, outbreaks of rain, outbreaks of rain fizzle as it pushes eastwards across england into the midlands, central southern england by the end of the afternoon. east anglia and the southeast will stay dry and clear into the evening.

mild here, 13, 1a degrees, a little bit fresh elsewhere. but then as we go into thursday, a murky and actually wet start for many across england and wales, not seen that for a while. that rain, though, will clear through. still lots of cloud around, the odd bit of brightness — dry, brightest the further north you are. and again, temperatures still above where we should be for this stage in february. but there's more rain gathering to northern ireland later on and that's this area of low pressure which will bring rain across the north, but increasingly strong winds. so through thursday night into friday, one thing to watch out for is potentially strong to gale force winds for many. see you soon.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the head of the united nations humanitarian affairs has told a security council meeting that the syrian president, bashar al—assad, has agreed to open two more border crossings to allow in aid from turkey. martin griffiths told the council these borders would remain open for three months. the united states has admitted it still doesn't know the origin or purpose of the three aerial objects it shot down in recent days. following a wave of speculation on social media and elsewhere, the white house said there was no evidence of alien or extra—terrestrial life being involved. the czech starjakubjankto has become the first international player in men's football to come out as gay.