i shot this footage nearly 30 years ago. i was a young reporter back then, hungry for stories. i had heard about a case of infanticide in katihar, close to my hometown, so i set off into the villages of bihar to see if it was true. were baby girls still being killed at birth? i began by talking to the women who delivered them — the midwives. what i found then still shocks me.

hakiya was the first of the midwives to speak plainly on camera. after hakiya spoke up, other midwives found the courage to tell their stories. in the �*90s, anila kumari ran an ngo that worked with the midwives.

encouraged by the training they had received, this small group of midwives saved at least five baby girls. medha was working in patna, documenting cases of infanticide. she helped send at least one of those babies to an adoption agency in pune. laughs nervously

we were on our way to meet monica. medha remembers that before she was adopted and called monica by her new parents, the baby had a different name — a name that began with kosi. the adoption agency would not let us look at the records, so we can never know for sure. but this girl's origins in patna, her approximate date of birth and the name kosi point to the same conclusion. in all probability, monica is one of the girls

rescued by anila and the midwives.

since the day i came home, it was never kept a secret. whatever they knew,

they have always told me. they did tell me i am from bihar but more than that, even they didn't know. i can say i was curious to know everything about my past. if i call these my roots, then, of course, i have to visit and see what exactly is the thing that made me. hello, monica. come, come, come, come, come please. hi! so nice of you to come. first time in bihar? chuckles

i had told siro that we could not be certain monica was one of the babies rescued by the midwives. but for siro,

this was a life she had saved. let herfeel 0k. she's fine.

i want to really thank you for exploring all this with me and being so brave. i don't take it for granted. thank you. this is a prominent river in this area. if you tell any bihari that you are from kosi region, that means you are from this area. kind of, you know... identity. ..identity, yeah —

a kind of identity. this "adopted girl" tag, is it still valid or is it completely irrelevant for you? so, for me, my parents are my parents and there's nothing as such called as adopted now in my life. but i would like to mention one thing — i really feel special for being adopted. my parents have given such a wonderful life to me. i don't think i would have got it otherwise.

that was the last time i would ever talk to siro on camera. together, we went to manihari, on the banks of the ganges.

this was a place siro had been hundreds of times. a place of solace. a place to say goodbye. a place of beginnings and endings. i had followed siro�*s story half my life. as a young journalist, i had wanted to understand. but i had come to feel i was scratching at a wound on siro�*s conscience. it was time to stop asking questions and to leave siro alone.

sorry. yeah, i mean, though that video is bringing tears in my eyes but still... my daughter is looking very pretty in that video! yes, yes. she is now ten months old. nowadays, she smiles, she laughs. she is very curious about everything. we have kept her name edha —

edha dwivedi. edha means �*happiness' and definitely, she is the happiness of our family. she is here. a few months earlier, i had stood at the place where this baby had been thrown away. another girl,

unnamed and unwanted. but seeing edha here, loved and cared for by this family, gave me hope that one day, we will come to cherish all our children. thank you very much again. absolutely. ema, thank you. thank you.

hello there. heavy rain has dominated weather headlines in recent days, and there's more wet weather to come. in fact, for some parts of southern england, we've already seen way above the average monthly rainfall totals. and in these three towns, we've actually had three times more rain than we should have in september. and with the next couple of days, we're likely to see another 50mm at least in some spots, a couple of inches, the darker blues denoting where the heaviest of the rain is likely to be. so, slightly quieter, drier story for scotland, but low pressure dominates, and these weather fronts will move their way steadily eastwards as we go through thursday. that front will grind to a halt, almost, across northern england and into northern ireland, accompanied by a brisk easterly wind, so really feeling quite miserable on those exposed east coasts. to the north of that, it's going to be dry with a few scattered showers.

to the south of that, however, some of those showers really could turn quite torrential. hail, thunder mixed in there. and, yes, it really will be quite significant. but there will be some sunny spells to go with it as well, and it could potentially still feel quite humid here — 18 or 19 degrees not out of the question. cool in the rain, ten or ii. and that cooler air continues to dominate in scotland. and that's because of a northerly wind, which will gradually push the rain away, but it will introduce this fresher feel for all of us on friday. so there will be some rain lingering across east anglia and south—east england for a time. that eases away during the afternoon. sunny spells and scattered showers continue for most, but because of the direction of the wind, those temperatures really quite subdued for this time of year — on the whole, generally between nine and 14 degrees. clear skies continue through the night. that is going to allow the potential for a frost to form, and so it will be a chilly start — low single

figures, perhaps below in more rural spots, worth bearing in mind. but that means as we head into the weekend, high pressure is going to build for a time and quieten things down. so not a bad weekend, particularly on the saturday. however, another area of low pressure will gradually move into the south—west as we go through sunday. so saturday, a better day. more heavy rain to come as we move through sunday and into monday.

live from washington, this is bbc news. the us, france and other key countries in the middle east call for an immediate ceasefire between israel and hezbollah, as tensions escalate. meanwhile, washington pledges more military aid to ukraine ahead of a meeting betweenjoe biden and volodymyr zelensky.

and kamala harris gives her first one—on—one interview, more two months after announcing her bid to be america's next president. hello, i'm caitriona perry. you're very welcome. in the past hour, ten countries and the european union have joined together calling on israel and hezbollah to agree to a 21—day ceasefire as the situation threatens to spiral out of control. here's what president biden told reporters as he returned here to washington.